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Friday, March 28, 2008

[mukto-mona] Re: newsweek cover story: When Barry Became Barack

"I have never been able to listen to an Obama speech. His speeches
typify, even glorify, flavor of the moment."

-Dear Audrey, without ever listening (not sure if you read them
though) to a speech, how would you even know what merits or demerits
it might have?

Also, what you have said w.r.t. Obama's speech (sugarcoated purely
for political purpose- which I would not deny completely), would you
think same of other historical speeches such as MLK's "I have a
dream", or Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg sppech--to name only a few?

Regards,
Jahed


--- In mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com, "Dr Audrey Manning " wrote:
>
> WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/47410
>
> There is quite a bit of information in the article, When Barry
Became
> Barack, about Barack Obama and one is tempted to read between the
> lines. It is extremely difficult to make political evaluations
> without a certain amount of personal bias coloring the landscape.
> But another word about why I am wary of Obama:
>
> One of the things which I can't abide is carefully crafted speeches,
> designed to reel in the fish. I find speeches objectionable because
> I have written them and they all had the same aim in mind... to
grab
> supporters. At political conventions a popular phase is, "I am going
> to wait for the speeches (before making up my mind). Speeches
coupled
> with charisma are sure winners... John Kennedy, Pierre Trudeau,
Billy
> Graham, Jeremiah Wright, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Smith, Jim Jones and
> the list goes on.
>
> Anyone can write a good speech. One needs only to look to the flavor
> of the moment. And guess what? The hardline politicians don't know
it
> but the flavor of the moment is togetherness, conflict resolution
and
> love your neighbor. Even people who have no idea what the words mean
> nor have any intention of implementing them love the words of the
> moment. For that simple reason, I have never been able to listen to
> an Obama speech. His speeches typify, even glorify, flavor of the
> moment.
>
> The article (When Barry became Barack) is different from the
speeches
> in that it is a composite of Barack Obama's Black and White life,
> with a bird's eye view of the way others observed him play out the
> role. They (and they live up by the lodge) say that people who
suffer
> humiliation, perceived or otherwise, in their formative years, go
on
> to humiliate others in their adult years. Humiliation takes many
> forms... from family abuse to workplace abuse to institutional abuse
> to political abuse, victims get their own back! That potential plus
> the ability to draw people together for whatever cause is what
should
> be kept in the forefront, no matter how the politics play out. The
> wife of Barack Obama and the Pastor of Barack Obama don't like
> Whites. To tell the truth, they have every reason not to like them
> but that's not the point.
>
> It certainly looks as if Obama might win the nomination. What
happens
> after could be anything. That win might set the stage for McCain to
> become President. A split in the Democratic Party would almost
> certainly ensure a Republican win. Are politicians mature enough to
> think about the good of the country? Of course not! Look no further
> than the history of the Liberal Party in Canada, if you want proof.
> The American media have already started to push McCain out in front.
>
> But aside from all that Obama is he or isn't he stuff, Bush appears
> to be hell bent on invading Iran before he leaves office. Why do I
> think this? Well, first of all he turned his attention to the
Israeli/
> Palestine affair for the first time in his presidency. Then Cheney
> went to Israel and paid superficial lip service to Palestine while
> saying that Israel has the right to defend itself. While this is
> happening, there is a stepped up attack on the Militias in Iraq.
Iran
> is supposedly responsible for arming the Militias in Iraq and Hamas
> in Palestine. Then Admiral William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in
> the Middle East recently publicly criticized the Bush
> Administration's Iran policy and resigned his command. At that time
> the Bush administration said Fallon did not resign for that reason
> but the administration did not rule out an attack on Iran.
>
> Put all this together and ask what are they trying to do? Will
Israel
> attack Iran? My take is, if the Americans can't start it because of
> political restraints, Israel can.
>
> Let's hope all this is the rant of a woman who doesn't know what she
> is talking about. This is one time that I hope I am dead wrong in
> what I am thinking. But if I am right, it is another reason for the
> Americans to stick with the Republicans and that is sad indeed.
>
> Happy thoughts!
> Audrey
>

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[mukto-mona] Repeal Enemy Property Act

Global Oikyo Parishad's Appeal To General Moeen: Please sign the
petition. Thanks.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/EnemyProperty/

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Re: [mukto-mona] Re: Transcript of Obama's speech in Philadelphia - Presenting Farida Majid as the latest Obama sycophant

Between Clinton and Obama we have one person who lies about her visit to Bosnia, and the other who lies about his birth. They both are megalomaniacs, and don't mind a little journey away from truth.  Does Ms. Farida Majid matter here?

On 3/28/08, Ahmed" <"Jahed> wrote:

WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/47399

What gave you the impression that I'm a "supporter" of Ms Farida Majid?

J.A.


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Re: [mukto-mona] Re: Fwd: 'Pakistanis were misled into thinking that Bangladeshis were Hindus’

WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/47389

Even counting the refugees, the Govt. of Pakistan counted the Hindus out and
considered them Indians.


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RE: [mukto-mona] Taslima-Other view

"Though she hails from a middle class Somali family, Hirsi Ali has made a career out of picturing her society as a "moral and intellectual wasteland that is traditional Islam." Similarly, self-publicist Taslima travels with the baggage sticker of Bangladesh being a country where she is persecuted by Islamic fundamentalists and where all her books are banned."
I wonder if it was really a motive to make a career or it was an inspiration that grew out of her intimate examination of her own society. How do we judge Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar? Did he really want to make a career out of picturing her society as a moral and intellectual wasteland? I will welcome any rebel even if that rebel is praised by vested interest groups that are well known as people's enemies. Moreover, I will not make my judgment based on rumors and speculations.
 
-SC

"Farida Majid "@yahoo.com wrote:
There are many in India who have expressed anger over the treatment of Taslima by the CPI (M) Govt. of West Bengal and for appeasing to the small group of Muslim fanatics. Most of the loudest of those have been the Hindutwavadi oriented people. But there is yet another view -- one from Bangladesh from where the Taslima incident originated, when and how it blew out, and with what consequences. Please read the attached piece for a fuller account. Thanks. Farida Majid

What would Taslima Nasrin or Ayaan Hirsi Ali do without the aid Islamists, the Sangh Parivar of India and the Islamophobes of the West provide for their livelihood and their various International awards and monetary grants? Though she hails from a middle class Somali family, Hirsi Ali has made a career out of picturing her society as a "moral and intellectual wasteland that is traditional Islam." Similarly, self-publicist Taslima travels with the baggage sticker of Bangladesh being a country where she is persecuted by Islamic fundamentalists and where all her books are banned.
 
       Ever since 1993 I have written many times (which have been on record in published works) against banning books by Taslima in Bangladesh. Book banning is a reprehensible practice on the part of a state that has a modicum of democratic pretension. Having caved in to every single whimsical and politically motivated demand of the Islamists, all the Govt. spin about Bangladesh being a "moderate" Muslim country seems to be a cruel joke!
 
        To be able to speak one's mind is his/her citizen's rights issue.  And I would uphold these rights by all means. Whether or not we make the purely hypothetical assumption that Taslima has a mind is another issue altogether.

         The stupid, culturally ignorant things she said about the Qur'an, (such as, it needing corrections, as though ills of the society like abuse of women will disappear with the removal of Qur'anic verses that Taslima had read in bad Bangla translations) have been largely ignored by the intelligentsia at first. Even after the serious death threats from the Islamist thugs the public supported her freedom of speech. Sensible people from all walks of life stood by Taslima while disagreeing with her comments on Islam. She has never had the decency to thank them publicly, then or ever, the ingrate that she is. All she mumbles about is how she is against fundamentalism and superstition.

Salman Rushdie had the intelligence to point out that the dozen or so demonstrators in Mumbai that showed up to protest his visit in January, 2008, did not represent Indian Muslims. Despite the brouhaha, The Satanic Verses is really a pro-Indian Muslim novel. Muslim intellectuals from various parts of the world, especially those from the subcontinent, who had actually READ the English language novel, supported Rushdie during those awful days following the Iranian 'fatwa'. Some of these Muslim writers should be applauded for their moral courage, because they supported Rushdie at the risk of their own lives in their respective countries. I have a long article praising the Rushdie novel published in a book called Law and Literature Perspectives (1996).
 
             It makes me cringe whenever Taslima's name is taken in the same breath with Rushdie's. A prominent Bangladeshi Islamist ideologue has, in fact, written that Taslima is OK, meaning she does not pose a threat to the progress of the long term goal of the Muslim ummah of the Wahhabis taking over Bangladesh. She does not give a fig whether they do or not. Serious Islamists detest Rushdie intensely. He is a cultured person, one of the greatest novelists of our times in any language, and a bit too knowledgeable about Islam. He even studied Islamic history at Cambridge University. Also, it is people like Farida Majid who are pesky and problematic, clamoring against, and deconstructing the dirty politics of 'hijabization' of Muslim women. I have no hope of gathering prestigious awards from anti-Islamic fanatics in the West though, unless I can devise some dumb things to say against the Prophet and hurl uncivilized insults at Islam.

          Mike Ghouse, a progressive Indian Muslim activist residing in Texas, U.S.A., referred to a similar reaction in India when right wing Hindu groups kept taunting about the silence of moderate Muslims supporting Taslima::
 
     "I know several Muslims who want to leave her alone, but she is a tool
      for the other extremists to play with. Neither side is honest about 
       their care and concern for her".

Among "other extremists" are the boorish, culturally insensitive self-proclaimed Deshi secularists whose only 'liberal' credentials are displayed through their blatant Islam-bashing. Counted among these are the Hindu fundamentalists from Bangladesh who regularly showed up at street rallies in New York City on behalf of BJP/ Sangh Parivar waving placards proclaiming atrocities against the Hindus in Bangladesh. It is rumored that in 1992 Taslima was met personally by Lal Krishna Advani, the BJP leader, and was paid handsomely to write her book Lajja, a waif of a novellette depicting repression of Hindus in Bangladesh. Circumstantial evidences are mounting up in support of such a rumor.
 
            In 1992-93, in the aftermath of the Babri masjid debacle, I was deeply involved in anti-communalism and anti-fundamentalism activities along with my Indian friends in New York City. Through a potent, popular 'andolon' under the leadership of the late Mrs Jahanara Imam, the mother of a martyred young freedom-fighter of 1971, we raised the demand for trial of the war criminals of 1971 in Bangladesh. There was overwhelming response from the general masses, and the Jamaati honchos and former Paki collaborators were cornered in popular opinion and refreshed recollections of 1971.
 
The Jamaati political hoodlums picked up her silly remarks in 1993 and started a riot in Sylhet that quickly spread countrywide. A few members of the public were inadvertently dragged in the melee, but members of religious schools and respectable Alems of Bangladesh did not take part in these political unrests. It was the weak-kneed Govt. that balked under the political pressure of the Islamists, and poor Taslima was whisked out of the country by the Swedish Embassy.
 
             The Taslima incident was just the spark the Islamists needed then to re-ignite their fundamentalist fire.  The main actors and directors of these public theatricals were the War Criminals of 1971. The nation has not been able to put the genie back into the bottle from that day to this.  No, I will never forgive Taslima for her self indulgence in self-propaganda at the cost of the well-being of a polity. It is patently obvious that she is no more a feminist than the Jamaatis are followers of the true spirit of Islam.

The Islamists of Bangladesh have become politically bolder than they were in 1993, thanks to Taslima's intervention in the path of their trial. Today, in an atmosphere of renewed public demand to try the War Criminals of 1971, they could conceivably let go a chance to stage another theatrical demanding Taslima's public hanging. And, from the unceremonious departure from India, it looks like Taslima's usefulness to Narendra Modi of Gujarat and his political allies, as an instigator of persecution of Muslim minority in India, may have run out. This is a good time to exorcise the curse of Taslima on the House of Bangladesh.

Only one small action is needed. This action is small and inexpensive compared to the initiation of trial of the War Criminals at a Special Tribunal. Both actions can only be taken by the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Lift the official ban off Taslima's books! And do it NOW, and do it without a fanfare.

©2008, Farida Majid
 

               
 
                 


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Re: [mukto-mona] Re: Transcript of Obama's speech in Philadelphia

"I was a socialist when I was in Bangladesh; I was a Democrat when I was a student in USA. I became republican when I started working."
 
1. That's really a great confession by Dr. Jiten Roy! Do we see a pattern in this opportunistic transformation? Although he seems to have given all the credit for this grand metamorphosis to his knowledge, wisdom and experience (a prophetic gesture indeed), a critical analysis of the statement proves otherwise. To me it appears that as he grew more and more secure (financially and in every other way), he started caring less and less about his fellow people and at the same time started caring more and more about his own narrow interests. I wonder what political belief this transformation process will lead him to when he will retire.
 
2. We already know that he switched from Democratic Party to Republican Party because of his absolute trust in the Savage Principle according to which the liberals suffer from mental disorder. But it is not clear why he believes that socialism and communism are synonymous. Communism means one party rule and rule by the communist party. On the other hand, in a democratic multi-party system the ruling party or coalition may have socialist leaning.      
 
----SC    

"Dr Jiten Roy "@yahoo.com wrote:
WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/47403

Thanks you for your response, Dr. Jafor Ullah.

The following are my responses:

1. I mentioned his middle name just to be free and fair. Nothing wrong to mention his full name. People should know.

2. Nobody will not go to the congregation for 20 years - if they do not like sermons by their Pastors. That particular sermon did not come out of the blue. That is the trade mark of that church. One can easily figure out his family views on American society from whatever so far came out of his wife's statements. These type of sentiments are discussed in the family. They are not just personal opinions only.

3. I was a socialist when I was in Bangladesh; I was a Democrat when I was a student in USA. I became republican when I started working. I can see the difference. This country is successful because of capitalism, not because of socialism, which have failed everywhere, including China and Russia. I can accept change.


Jiten Roy



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[ALOCHONA] Climate change threatens plant diversity in Bangladesh


Forests cover one third of the earth's surface and estimation is that more than two thirds of all available terrestrial species are found in the forests. Bangladesh also supports a wealth of plant diversity and is located in
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
transition of two mega-biodiversity hot spots of Indo-Malayan region. The country has been endowed with rich plant diversity because of its fertile alluvial land, warm and humid climate. More than 5,700 angiosperm species and several sub-species are available in Bangladesh. The diverse agro-ecological (30 agro-ecological zones) regions or the 12 Bio-ecological zones of the country have sustained rich genetic resources of crop plants, which are unique to this country. The forest of Bangladesh covers approximately 2.60 million ha which is about 17.62 percent of the land area of the country. Of these, the hills consist of moist tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, which extend from northeast to southeast of the country. The forests are generally uneven-aged and multistoried with the valuable tropical species of Dipterocarpus turbinatus, D. alatus, D. costatus, Swintonia floribunda, Aphanamaxis polystachya, Artocarpus chaplasha, Tetrameles nudiflora, Duabanga grandifolia and Pterygota alata. The understorey is a tangle of shrubs, creepers, climbers, ferns and orchids. The species were adapted to the different ecosystems after a long successional process.

Though the native plant species of the country have been enriched with new species and varieties introduced from abroad, but the invasive plants are becoming a major threat to natural ecosystems and their species. The impacts of alien invasive species are immense, insidious and usually irrecoverable. The scope and cost of alien invasions is global and enormous, in both ecological and economic terms. But, unfortunately in Bangladesh introduction of alien invasive species of flora were deliberate primarily in order to increase productivity to support the needs of a huge population. The deliberate preferences of fast growing high yielding cultivars eroded some of the native species and the genetic resources abruptly. We have scarce information about the alien species in Bangladesh and their impacts on the ecosystem and the species.

More than 300 exotic species are supposed to either wildly growing or cultivated as an economic crop in Bangladesh. Some of the invasive plants are so well established that have become noxious weeds of forests and wastelands (Chromolaena odoratum, Mikania cordata, Lantana camara etc.). Some are considered as noxious weeds of cultivated fields also (Alternanthera, Scoparia and Heliotropium spp.). Some troublesome weeds are also found in water land, e.g. Eichhornia crassipes, Pistia stratiotes. The British mostly contributed to the introduction of some economically important forest plants form almost all the continents, e.g. Tectona grandis, Paraserianthes falcataria, Albizia saman, Xylia dolabriformis, and Swietenia macrophylla. In the 20th century this trend continued to be the same, and some Australian species (Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Acacia mangium, and Acacia auriculiformis) are getting preferences in the plantation programs. Of these, the Acacia auriculiformis is dominating in all the plantation programmes and growing well in all sorts of degraded lands.

Global climate change is now a reality and the change is mainly happening due to global warming. Global warming is an issue of much concern for both the developing and developed countries. The atmospheric concentration of some gases, mainly carbon-di-oxide has increased and it forms a layer that traps the heat of the terrestrial radiation. Consequently, the earth temperature is gradually increasing and projection is that the global temperature will increase by 1.5 -- 2.8 degree Celsius by the middle of this century. The IPCC calculation projected that if carbon-di-oxide is doubled in the atmosphere, the mean temperature of the earth will increase by 1.5 -- 4.50C. The IPCC also forecast that global temperature would rise by 0.20 -- 0.500C in each decade during 21st century with a consequent rise of sea level by 3--10 cm. Temperature rise will result in melting ice and consequently the sea level will rise up to 70 cm! The detailed glacial record in Greenland and Antarctica indicates that the global climate has changed remarkably within the last couple of decades.

Global climate change has an adverse effect on sea level rise, increase in force and frequency of floods, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, drought, rainfall, intrusion of salinity, soil erosion, and loss of biodiversity and total degradation of the environment. Moreover, the incidence and extent of malaria, dengue and some other vector borne diseases are expected to increase with global warming. The effects of sea level rise and flooding of the low lying coastal areas threatens the shelters, resources and livelihoods of several million people in the world. Similarly, a huge population (about 30 million) of Bangladesh living along or very close to the coastal area will suffer severely. Reduction of fresh water flow and salinity increase in the Sundarbans has already resulted in top dying of Sundri trees and gradual changes of the forest composition. If the situation keeps on prevailing or worsens, then Sundri, the climax species of the Sundarbans may be replaced by some other species.

Temperature increase by one degree significantly lowers the production of wheat and potato of the country. Adverse environmental changes will also affect the production of the major crop rice significantly. Evidence exists that climate change is seemingly changing the existing forest covers significantly. Small changes in temperature and precipitation significantly affects forest growth; even an increase of one degree in temperature can modify the functioning and composition of forests. Forest dwelling large animals and 9 percent of all known tree species are already at some risks of extinction. Climate change also threatens the forests by pests and fires, making them more vulnerable to invasive species. Deforestation and land clearing activities emit about 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon per year into the atmosphere. Hence, conservation of forests offer important opportunities to protect biodiversity and slow climate change.

In Bangladesh, due to population pressure, deforestation and changes of land use pattern, many species of both flora and fauna have became extinct and many more species are categorized as threatened or endangered considering their existence in wild or cultivated form. In addition, Bangladesh will face serious consequences of biodiversity loss from the global climate change. Considering the present situation and future need, Bangladesh must address the problem of extinction of her native plant resources and immediately needs collection, conservation and management programme for future vulnerable catastrophic climates. Scientists, policy makers, administrators, civil society and public representatives including political leaders could play a vital role to save the diverse plant resources from extinction. Regional and international cooperation with countries have much to gain from partnership in research and development programme devoted to the conservation and use of plant resources.

Dr. Mohammed Kamal Hossain is Professor, Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong. E-mail: hossainmk2001@...
 


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[mukto-mona] "Kill three million of them,"said President Yahya Khan at the Feb.conference1971

Pakistani General Niazi signing the instrument of surrender at Dhaka Race Course

 

"Kill three million of them," said President Yahya Khan at the February conference, "and the rest will eat out of our hands." []

I am a child of genocide. Bangladeshis of my generation who have survived the slaughter of 1971 owe our lives and our freedom to those who resisted and the three million who were murdered for speaking the wrong language or for belonging to the wrong religion.

This is the story of the birth of a nation and the death of millions. This is the story of a nation and a people coming to the aid of another. This is also the story of American hubris and American compassion.

Thirty-five years ago today, on December 16, 1971, the Pakistan Army unconditionally surrendered to the Indian Army at the Dhaka Race Course in Bangladesh. With the stroke of a pen, Bangladesh was born.

In 1971, Bangladesh, then called East Pakistan, was part of a geographical monstrosity created by the British in 1947. Pakistan, as created by the British, consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan, separated by the vast expanse of the Indian land mass in the middle. East and West Pakistan spoke different languages and were culturally distinct. East Pakistan accounted for the majority of Pakistan's population, yet it was economically exploited and politically marginalized by West Pakistan. Bengalis, the people of East Pakistan, were also persecuted for speaking their native language and for being either Muslims who had converted from Hinduism or for being Hindus. Pakistan, translated as "The Land of the Pure", was intolerant of Bengalis because they were not 'pure" Muslims.

The tension between East and West Pakistan began to boil over in 1970 after West Pakistan's minimal response to the devastation wreaked by the cyclone of 1970 in East Pakistan. Nearly half a million Bengalis died as a result of the cyclone and the indifferent response by the Pakistani government. In the midst of the tension, the Pakistani military rulers decided to hold the first democratic elections in Pakistan's history. The Awami League, representing Bengalis in East Pakistan, won the majority of seats in the National Assembly. However, the military leadership of West Pakistan refused to allow the Awami League to form a government.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7, 1971The siege of East Pakistan by the Pakistani Army had begun. War was now inevitable. On March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the Awami League, gave a speech at the Dhaka Race Course that mobilized the Bengali nation for resistance. He began the speech with a call to arms:

The struggle this time is for emancipation! The struggle this time is for independence!

On March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight to "eliminate" the Awami League and its supporters in East Pakistan. The goal was to "crush" the will of the Bengalis. The killing began shortly after 10 p.m. In the first 48 hours the orgy of killing had ravaged Dhaka city. The Hindu population of Dhaka took the brunt of the slaughter. Dhaka University was targeted and Hindu students were gunned down. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and the rest of the Awami League leadership went into hiding. The genocide had just begun:

On February 22, 1971 the generals in West Pakistan took a decision to crush the Awami League and its supporters. It was recognized from the first that a campaign of genocide would be necessary to eradicate the threat: "Kill three million of them," said President Yahya Khan at the February conference, "and the rest will eat out of our hands." (Robert Payne, Massacre [1972], p. 50.) On March 25 the genocide was launched. The university in Dacca was attacked and students exterminated in their hundreds. Death squads roamed the streets of Dacca, killing some 7,000 people in a single night. It was only the beginning. "Within a week, half the population of Dacca had fled, and at least 30,000 people had been killed. Chittagong, too, had lost half its population. All over East Pakistan people were taking flight, and it was estimated that in April some thirty million people [!] were wandering helplessly across East Pakistan to escape the grasp of the military." (Payne, Massacre, p. 48.) Ten million refugees fled to India, overwhelming that country's resources and spurring the eventual Indian military intervention. (The population of Bangladesh/East Pakistan at the outbreak of the genocide was about 75 million.)

The will of the Bengali people was not broken on the night of March 25, 1971. On the contrary, while Dhaka burned so burned the illusion of a united Pakistan.

At 7:45 pm on March 27, 1971 Major Ziaur Rahman, leader of a rebel army unit in East Pakistan, broadcast Bangladesh's independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. With the following words, the armed resistance to the Pakistan army began:

This is Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendro [Free Bangla Radio]. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken command as the temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our Motherland. By the grace of Allah, victory is ours. Joy Bangla.

Major Zia's broadcast from a small radio station in Chittagong, Bangladesh was picked up by a Japanese ship in the Bay of Bengal. It was later rebroadcast by Radio Australia and the BBC.

As the Pakistani military crackdown in East Pakistan began, the United States, under President Richard Nixon and his future Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, chose to side with the military rulers of Pakistan in a policy that came to be known as "The Tilt". Richard Nixon chose to turn a blind eye to the genocide in Bangladesh and ordered the United States government to covertly support the Pakistani crackdown with arms and intelligence in defiance of the United States Congress. Nixon's position was succinctly captured in a handwritten note that stated: "To all hands. Don't squeeze Yahya at this time - RMN."

Archer BloodThe U.S. consulate in Dhaka, however, laid bare the atrocities that Nixon chose to pay for and support. Consul General Archer Blood would become a Bangladeshi hero in defiance of his government. On March 28, 1971, Blood sent a telegram to the Secretary of State entitled "Selective Genocide":

1. Here in Dacca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak Military. Evidence continues to mount that the MLA authorities have list of Awami League supporters whom they are systematically eliminating by seeking them out in their homes and shooting them down

2. Among those marked for extinction in addition to the A.L. hierarchy are student leaders and university faculty. In this second category we have reports that Fazlur Rahman head of the philosophy department and a Hindu, M. Abedin, head of the department of history, have been killed. Razzak of the political science department is rumored dead. Also on the list are the bulk of MNA's elect and number of MPA's.

3. Moreover, with the support of the Pak[istani] Military. non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people's quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus. The streets of Dacca are aflood with hindus and others seeking to get out of Dacca. Many bengalis have sought refuge in homes of Americans, most of whom are extending shelter.

5. Full horror of Pak military atrocities will come to light sooner of later. I, therefore, question continued advisability of present USG [U.S. government] posture of pretending to believe GOP [government of Pakistan] false assertions and denying, for understood reasons, that this office is communicating detailed account of events in East Pakistan. We should be expressing our shock, at least privately to GOP, at this wave of terror directed against their own countrymen by Pak military. I, of course, would have to be identified as source of information and presumably GOP would ask me to leave. I do not believe safety of American community would be threatened as a consequence, but our communication capability would be compromised.

On March 29, 1971 the American Ambassador to India, Kenneth Keating, sent a telegram to the Secretary of State with similar concerns:

Am deeply shocked at massacre by Pakistani military in east Pakistan, appalled at possibility these atrocities are being committed with American equipment, and greatly concerned at United States vulnerability to damaging allegations of association with reign of military terror. I believe USG: (A) should promptly, publicly and prominently deplore this brutality, (B) should privately lay it on line with GOP and so advise GOI [government of India], and (C) should announce unilateral abrogation of one-time exception military supply agreement, and suspension of all military deliveries under 1967 restrictive policy (spare parts, ammo, non-lethal, etc.). It most important these actions be taken now, prior to inevitable and imminent emergence of horrible truths and prior to communist initiatives to exploit situation. This is time when principles make best politics.

The Nixon administration, however, did not heed Ambassador Keating's advice or warning. The United States continued to support Pakistan until the very end.

On March 30, 1971 Blood sent another telegram noting the killing of students and faculty at Dhaka University:

American serving with FAO in East Pakistan visited Congen March 30 to report on tour of Dacca University March 27. Was told weapons students had at Iqbal Hall served only to infuriate army. Students either shot down in rooms or mowed down when they came out of building in groups. Saw tightly packed pile of approximately twenty five corpses. Was told this was last batch of bodies remaining, others having been disposed of by army. While there, empty army truck arrived to remove bodies. Major atrocity recounted to him took place at Kokeya Girls' Hall, where building set ablaze and girls machine-gunned as they fled building. (USIS local who lives nearby confirms girls gunned down.) Girls had no weapons, forty killed. Attacks aimed at eliminating female student leadership, since army apparently told girl student activists resided there. Estimated 1,000 persons, mostly students, but including faculty members resident in dorms, killed. He claimed university contacts who conducted him on tour had been noted for their reliability for information in past. Told all university files burned by army in what appeared be purposeful move.

On March 31, 1971 Blood sent a telegram summing up the goal of the Pakistan military:

1. We are still hard put to estimate number of casualties that have occurred and are continuing to occur as result of military crackdown. The most conservative estimate of number of students killed in university is 500 and has ranged as high as 1,000. Police sources indicate that from 600-800 East Pakistani police were killed in Dacca during the really hard fighting on night of the 25th. The number of casualties in the old city where army troops burned Hindu and Bengali areas and shot occupants as they came tumbling out is also difficult to estimate. Most observers put these casualties in the range of 2,000 to 4,000. At this juncture, then, we would estimate that perhaps as many as 4,000 to 6,000 people thus far have lost their lives as a result of military action. We have no information of military casualties but we gather some occurred during encounter with police who were well dug in at police lines.

2. It seems clear that the whole objective of the West Pak army apparently was and is to hit hard and terrorize population into submission. All evidence suggests they have been fairly successful.

Finally on April 6, 1971 Archer Blood sent a telegram known as the "Blood Telegram". It was signed by 29 American government officials and strongly dissented from the American government policy toward Pakistan. The telegram was entitled "Dissent from U.S. Policy Toward East Pakistan":

 1. Aware of the task force proposals on "openess', in the foreign service, and with the conviction that U.S. policy related to recent developments in East Pakistan serves neither our moral interests broadly defined nor our national interests narrowly defined, numorous officers of Amcongen Dacca, USAID Dacca and USIS Dacca consider it their duty to register strong dissent with fundamental aspects of this policy. Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pak dominated government and to lessen likely and derservedly negative international public relations impact against them. Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy, ironically at a time when the USSR sent President Yahya a message defending democracy, comdemning arrest of leader of democratically elected majority party (incidentally pro-West) and calling for end to repressive measures and bloodshed. In our most recent policy paper for Pakistan, our interests in Pakistan were defined as primarily humanitarian, rather than strategic. But we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the overworked term genocide is applicable, is purely internal matter of a soverign state. Private Americans have expressed disgust. We, as professional public servants express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected in order to salvage our nation's position as a moral leader of the free world.

I believe the most likely eventual outcome of the struggle underway in East Pakistan is a Bengali victory and the consequent establishment of an independent Bangla Desh. At the moment we possess the good will of the Awami League. We would be foolish to forfeit this asset by pursuing a rigid policy of one-sided support to the likely loser. [Emphasis added by me.]

For his dissent from Richard Nixon's and Henry Kissinger's policy, Archer Blood was recalled to Washington. To millions of Bengalis Archer Blood remains a hero. He died September 3, 2004 at his home in Fort Collins, Colorado. Joe Gallaway, himself an American treasure, paid tribute to Archer Blood as an American Hero.

Genocide in BangladeshThe Pakistani military atrocities spread across all of East Pakistan after the initial assault on Dhaka. Bengalis fled the country in millions to escape the killings. A guerilla army formed under the leadership of rebel military officers and organized student activists. This guerilla army, known as the Mukti Juddha in Bengali, fought a war of attrition with the Pakistani army until December, 1971. The Pakistani army was constantly harassed by the Bangladeshi resistance. In response the Pakistani army slaughtered more Bengalis. Bangladesh received substantial miltary, diplomatic and moral support from India during the war. India sheltered and housed over 10 million Bangladeshi refugees and successfully lobbied at the United Nations against the Pakistani and American alliance. On December 3, 1971 India formally joined the war on behalf of Bangladesh. In less than two weeks the Indian army overran the isolated and demoralized Pakistani army.

The Pakistan army, on the verge of defeat, was determined to wipe out Bengali culture in one final act of barbarism. On December 14, 1971, the Pakistan army unleased the paramilitary units al-Badr and al-Shams to exterminate Bengali intellectuals. The goal was to find and kill Bengali political thinkers, educators, scientists, poets, doctors, lawyers, journalists and other intellectuals. The al-Badr and al-Shams fanned out with lists of names to find and execute the core of the Bengali intellectuals. The intellectuals were arrested and taken to Rayerbazar, a marshy area in Dhaka city. There, they were gunned down with their eyes blindfolded and their hands tied behind their backs. Over 1000 dead intellectuals were slaughtered in Dhaka city alone on the night of December 14.

On December 16, 1971 the Pakistani army in Bangladesh formally surrendered. At the cost of three million dead the nation of Bangladesh was born. It was the most concentrated act of genocide of the Twentieth Century. Thirty-five years after the birth of the nation, many have forgotten the sacrifices of those who are no longer with us. But for those of us who survived, for our parents who kept us safe through the months of terror, there is no erasing the horrors of 1971.

We, the children of genocide, on this day remember our fallen. Those who died are remembered in silent black and white pictures hanging on practically every Bangladeshi's home. The pictures are usually of someone young, a boy or a girl, a brother or a sister, who was killed in a ditch, or maybe in their home, whose body was either found floating in a river or a pond, or who simply "disappeared". We, the children of genocide, understand the true nature of war. There is no glory in it - only inhumanity and death. Only loved ones not with us, only images of terror as army boots kick down your door in the middle of the night, only the warmth of a mother's arms as planes come in for another strafing run.

I am scarred by the legacy of 1971. I despise war. I cannot understand why anyone would launch a war of choice. Those who have never suffered war cannot fathom its evils. My wish for the reader who has not suffered war is that war is never visited upon you. In 1971 the people of Bangladesh fought to survive, we fought the extermination of our society. They slaughtered millions of us yet they did not prevail. The end of the war was a forgone conclusion at the very beginning. Having launched the war, Pakistan was condemned to lose it. Yet, they killed three million before they finally accepted defeat. Why?

So, today I say "Joi Bangla". The phrase means "Victory for Bangla". Ours was a victory over extermination. Never forget.

http://www.docstrangelove.com/2006/12/16/joi-bangla/

Pl.read:www.hazarikaonline.com

 

 

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               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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[ALOCHONA] FFs fought valiantly to free Bangladesh in '71 war : Ex-Indian General JFR Jacob tells newsmen

 
 
Lt Gen (retd) JFR Jacob shows his book "Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation" to the press at the Indian High Commission in the capital yesterday. Photo: STAR
Former chief of the Indian army's eastern command Lt Gen (retd) JFR Jacob yesterday said it was the freedom fighters' gallantry that liberated Bangladesh from Pakistan occupation.

He said the full credit goes to them. They have done the real job and their acts of valour won the nation independence.

The man who is credited with making Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, the then commander of Pakistan army's eastern command, surrender in public on December 16, 1971, said the freedom fighters including the soldiers of the East Bengal Regiment had emerged as "terror for the Pakistani troops".

Now leading an 11-member delegation of Indian war veterans on a visit to Bangladesh at the invitation of Chief of Army Staff Gen Moeen U Ahmed, he was talking to newsmen at the Indian high commission in Dhaka. He expressed gratitude for having them in the Independence Day celebrations.

Looking back to the days in the lead-up to December 16, 1971, he spoke about his negotiations with Niazi on the instrument of surrender and the Pakistani general's threat of revenge and submitting another person's revolver as his own.

He also related how his country became involved in Bangladesh's war of independence unofficially in early April, 1971.

Jack Jacob, who drafted the historic "instrument of surrender", enlisted in the army in 1941 when it was under British command, and retired in 1978.

Recounting how Niazi insisted on holding the surrender ceremony in his office, he said: "This man really behaved badly with Bangladesh people. Their army, as you know, what they did…I don't want to mention all that."

He continued: "I wanted him to surrender in front of the people of Dhaka…to be harassed. He said, 'I won't surrender, I surrender in Dhaka office.' I said, 'No, you would surrender in the Racecourse Maidan [now Suhrawardy Udyan] in front of the people of Dhaka.' It's the only public surrender in history."

On views that it was risky to arrange the surrender ceremony in public with not much troops mobilised, he said, "I knew we had hardly any troops outside Dhaka which was problematic for public surrender...But would it have been better to be in safety and make him surrender in his office? No. I wanted him to face the people."

Recollecting those historic moments, the architect of surrender ceremony said, "Niazi retorted, 'Dhaka would fall over my dead body.' But I did it the way I thought it should be. I didn't have any directives or instructions for it. Was it wrong, I ask you?"

In the morning of December 16, Jacob was contacted to "go and get the surrender".

"What happened on December 13…there was an American resolution vetoed by the Soviet Union. The Russians said, 'You better hurry up, we can't be going.' Then on 14th December, we intercepted a message that there was a meeting in government house. With the governor and Niazi in the meeting, we arranged to have an air strike on the government house. And the governor resigned.

"General Niazi, Farman Ali went to see the American Consul-General Spivack (Herbert Spivack) on the 14th (December 14) afternoon with the proposals for ceasefire under UN, withdrawal under UN, handover of government to UN, withdrawal of anybody including ethnic minorities under UN and no war crimes, and there were some other clauses. This was given to Spivack. He then sent it."

Bhutto, who was then at the UN office in New York, refused to accept the ceasefire, Jacob said, adding, "So, on the 15th (of December), the Americans gave it to us in Delhi and we accepted the ceasefire. On the 16th morning, I was told to go and get the surrender."

About Niazi's reaction to the proposal for surrender, Jacob recalled: "He [Niazi] said, 'Who said I would surrender? You have only come here to a ceasefire.' So, this argument went on. Then Farman Ali chipped in and said, 'You have put down joint command. There is no question of anything with Bangladesh Army.' The document I gave him for surrender it was joint Indo-Bangladesh command, it was not Indian army. He said, 'I'm not accepting it.' I'm not going to all the details; this was a very difficult negotiation."

Later, Niazi told the Hamidur Rahman Commission that he [Jacob] had blackmailed him into surrender. "He said, 'I was forced to surrender because General Jacob blackmailed me.' I never blackmailed him."

Giving Niazi 30 minutes to make up his mind, Jacob walked out. "Going back, I put the paper on his table and asked him, 'Do you accept this document?' For three times he didn't answer and I picked it up and said [it's] taken as accepted," he went on.

During the negotiations, he also asked the Pakistani general to surrender his revolver. "I told him to surrender his revolver. He put a dirty little revolver. The lanyard was dirty and frayed in parts."

In his book "Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation", Jacob said he realised only later that the pistol was not Niazi's. It was a normal army issue .38 revolver.

"The barrel was choked with muck and apparently had not been cleaned for some considerable time…More likely, Niazi had taken it from one of his military policemen and surrendered it as his personal weapon. I could not help feeling that in his own way, Niazi had got a little of his own back," he wrote.

On the absence of General MAG Osmany, then the commander in chief of the Bangladesh armed forces, at the surrender ceremony at Racecourse Maidan, Jacob said, "He was in Sylhet. He had a helicopter but he couldn't make it. It's not our fault. We wanted him there."

Queried exactly when India had engaged in the war, Jacob chuckled and asked back, "Officially or unofficially?"

Going into details, he said India was monitoring the situation since the launch of Operation Searchlight on March 26 and was shocked at the events that unfolded across the border.

"We've Mujib's declaration…Zia's declaration on independence. When the refugees started coming in, I was standing on the border. They were in a very shocking state. So, we started getting more and more refugees and the government of India decided that we should help the Muktibahini, the freedom fighters."

The official orders certainly came later, he recalled.

"The help was extended and more and more involvement took place. For instance, Tajuddin, Nazrul Islam, Osmany, Khondker--they all came to the Theatre Road, and the Muktis were organised."

"The time…it was in April unofficially." Officially, India's involvement in the war began on December 3.

In conversation with New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg that day, Jacob said the eastern army was confident of liberating Bangladesh in a short time.

Asked yesterday what made him that confident, Jacob said, "We were prepared for this. Anyone knew we were going to liberate Bangladesh. The Muktibahini were trained, equipped, the East Bengal Regiment was there, and the Indian army was waiting to go."

On December 3 evening, Pakistan bombed Indian airfields in the west, therefore it was taken as a war. "So, we moved in."

Asked about his interrogation of Niazi and some of his generals after the surrender, Jacob replied, "They denied the atrocities, they denied everything. And they let us know that they would never forget the humiliation and they would take "badla" (revenge) for it."

Reminiscing his days with famous Bangladesh politicians, Jacob described former prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, who was instrumental in forming the first government of Bangladesh, as "one of the finest people I've ever met".

"I had great privilege of working with him. Nazrul Islam, Osmany--we worked together. I found them dedicated nationalists, great people."

Asked why India and Bangladesh failed to try the Pakistani prisoners of war, he said: "As far as I recollect, political agreement was that Pakistan government would try them when they would go back."

Talking on Bangladesh-India tie, Jacob said it was very good from the beginning, "and getting stronger and stronger".

However, there should be much more interaction between the two countries in commerce, trade, investment and other areas of economy. They share common interests, border, and have Bangla-speaking people, he said.

"On the whole it is very, very good. We've common interest and we've to work together. We're both powers in the region; Bangladesh is a very powerful country."

Jacob said 1,400 Indian troops were killed and 4,000 wounded during the Liberation War.
  http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=29736


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[mukto-mona] Prophet Muhammad and his Islamic Tribe

Prophet Muhammad and his Islamic Tribe

Today's religious map of the Middle East traces to the unification of the Arabian tribes under the banner of Islam in the 7th century, and their subsequent conquest of much of the known world. Muhammad's genius was in finding a way to unite the myriad of fissiparous, feuding Bedouin tribes of northern Arabia into a cohesive polity. Just as he had provided a custom of rules under which the people of Medina could live together, so he enlarged that tradition for all Arabs, but this one had the imprimatur not just of Muhammad, but of an Allah, submission to whom called -- Islam -- spelled out in the Koran, bound Arabian tribesmen into the community of bedouin believers, the umma.

Building on the tribal system of "balanced opposition," Muhammad was able to frame an inclusive structure within which the tribes had a common, Allah-given identity as Muslims. But unification was only possible by creating a tribalized enemy against which Muslims could make common cause. This Muhammad did by opposing Muslims against infidels; and the dar al-Islam, the land of Islam and peace, against the dar al-harb, the land of infidels and conflict. Through the precepts of Islam, traditional Bedouin raiding was sanctified as an act of Islamic religious duty.

With every successful battle against local unbelievers, especially after the critical early battle against the Meccans, more Bedouin joined the umma. Once united, the Bedouin warriors of the umma turned outward, destroying the world on the of jihad, holy war. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Arabs, in lightning thrusts, challenged and beat the Byzantines to the north and the Persians to the east, both weakened by their continuous wars with one another, thus imposing their control over the Christian majority in the Levant and the Zoroastrian majority in Persia, and therefore over the entire Middle East. These stunning successes were rapidly followed by conquests of Christian and Jewish populations in Egypt, Libya and North Africa's Maghreb (Arabic for "the West"), and, in the east, central Asia and the Hindu population of northern India. Not content with these triumphs, Arab armies invaded and subdued much of Christian Spain and Portugal, and all of Sicily. Since the Roman Empire, the world had not seen such power and reach. All fell before the Saracen blades.

Most accounts of Islamic history, even that of the Lindholm's esteemed
The Islamic Middle East, glide over these conquests, as if they were friendly takeovers. But the truth was very different.

The evidence is overwhelming that vast numbers of infidel male warriors and civilians were slain, and that most of those spared, particularly the women and children, were enslaved for domestic and sexual servitude. While men who willingly converted were spared, their wives and children were taken as slaves. In conquered regions, children were regularly taken from parents, while on the borders -- especially in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa south of the Sahara -- raiding for slaves was normal practice. Of the male slaves, a substantial number were made eunuchs by the removal of sex organs, in order to serve in harems. This account of the Arab campaign in northern India illustrates the usual procedures:

"During the Arab invasion of Sindh (712 CE), Muhammad bin Qasim first attacked Debal; It was garrisoned by 4,000 Kshatriya soldiers and served by 3,000 Brahmans. All males of the age of 17 and upwards were put to the sword and their women and children were enslaved. "[Seven hundred] beautiful females, who were under the protection of Budh (that is, had taken shelter in the temple), were all captured with their valuable ornaments, and clothes adorned with jewels." Muhammad dispatched one-fifth of the legal spoil to Hajjaj, which included 75 damsels, the other four-fifths were distributed among soldiers."

The multitude of reports from Muslim, indigenous and other sources of the Islamic conquests are equally detailed and equally daunting to a modern reader. It is true that throughout history intergroup relations in most of the world were exploitative and repressive, and not infrequently brutal and bloodthirsty. The world of Islam was not so much an exception to this, as exemplary of it.

The theological foundation of the Arab Empire was the supremacy of the Arab Islam and the obligation of each Muslim to advance its domination. The notion of Jihad, in particular, served to establish the Muslim community's permanent state of war against the dar al-harb until the infidels' conclusive submission and the absolute world supremacy of Islam.

Yet even as Islamic armies were coming to dominate the known world, fissures emerged within Islam, which would give rise to the bloody internecine battles that continue to this day in Iraq and elsewhere.

Most notably, the relentless oppositions within tribal life have been reflected on a large scale in the battles between Sunni vs. Shiite, a battle originating in a squabble between closely related kin groups over the leadership of the Islamic empire following Muhammad's death. Their divergent philosophical orientations are based on two tribal principles: Sunnism recognizes leaders based on an enforced consent; Shiism recognizes leaders based on descent. The continued anatagonism between the two groups constitutes one of the many ways in which the tribal spirit continues its dominance in the Middle East.

Philip Carl Salzman is professor of anthropology at McGill University. This article is drawn from his forthcoming book, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (Humanity Books)

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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh

http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm

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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm

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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona 
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/


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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm

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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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