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Saturday, April 12, 2008

[mukto-mona] From www.hazarikaonline.com re:election and hunger among DCs

 
 
 
 
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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
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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:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm

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[mukto-mona] Thoughts of Pohela Baishakh: Bangla language and cultural heritage

Dear Moderator,

The attached article titled "Consumerism, corruption, and the corporate
hegemony" is for possible publication in your esteemed website.

With kind regards.

Md. Anwarul Kabir
Assistant Professor & Research Coordinator
Department of Computer Science
American International University-Bangladesh
Kemal Ataturk Avenue
Banani, Dhaka
Dhaka 1213
Bangladesh

9890415, 8815386 Fax 00 88 02 8813233
url: http://www.aiub.edu
alternative email: kabiranwar@yahoo.com


Thoughts of Pohela Baishakh: Bangla language and cultural heritage

Md. Anwarul Kabir


Following the Bangla calendar when the Pahela Baisakh comes and we step into a new year, we try to search our soul with a view to rediscovering our cultural heritage originated from this deltaic land mingled with the Bengali ethnicity. On this day, most of the Bengalis, especially those from the middle class are engrossed in nostalgic feelings, appreciating the glorious past of our nationhood.

Yes. Indeed, once upon a time we had the colourful cultural spectrum. Agro-based village society of the land had the multi-dimensional cultural aspects. Literally we observed, 'Baro masee tero parbon' (thirteen festivals in twelve months) based on various features of six seasons, religious festivity and other social issues. In secular manner once all Bengalis celebrated many festivals like Nabanna, Poush Mela, Chaitra Sankranti, Eid, Moharam, Durga Puja, Kali Puja and so on. Among these festivals, many were purely secular (e.g. Nabanna, Poush Mela) and some were religious. However, many of pure secular festivals like Nababna, Poush Mela, have been sent to the museum at the point of history when most of the solvent middle class people were urbanised keeping behind their past peasant roots in remote villages.

In the past, the boundary between religious communities was blur, especially in festivals. Hindus invited their fellow Muslim friends in their Pujas, conversely Hindus also participated as guests in the Muslim's events and at that time there was no social taboos as we sometime observe in our 'modern' time. In those days, Islam of the land did not raise any question whether that particular festival originated from Hindu religion and whether Muslims should be debarred from participation. The reason behind this lay in the way of preaching Islam which began in around the 14th century in this region. Most of the people who were converted into Islam in the erstwhile East Bengal were from the lower strata of the Hindu community and they were inspired by the 'Peers'/'Aowalias' who followed the Sufism, contrary to the orthodox view of the Islam. This Sufism stressed on a spiritual union with God and did not require its newest adherents to abandon their traditional beliefs and practice totally. So, the influence of the indigenous Bengali cultural practices is predominantly evident among the Muslim community in this region. For this, the majority of the Bengali Muslim maintained liberal outlook and traditionally believe in the principle of peaceful coexistence with other religious communities.

Amazingly, the era of drawing distinct communal boundaries in the domain of religious festivals has been initiated in independent Bangladesh, especially after the fall of Bangabandhu. The reason is no doubt political. Irony is that being a valiant freedom fighter, General Ziaur Rahman in the independent Bangladesh first encouraged communal politics against the spirit of independence by amending some of the constitutional provisions. General Ershad, following his predecessor dictator Zia, embedded Islam as the state religion in our original secular nature of constitution. These, in turn, have promoted orthodox Islamists in the society. In time, this orthodox group could efficiently influence, especially the younger generation in line with their own defined 'Islam.' The involvement of many youngsters in Bangla bhai-Shaikh Abdur Rahman led terrorism in the name of Islam in the recent past has justified this assertion.

Though over the time, we have lost some of our traditional festival days, still we can be proud of our addition of Ekushey as a very special day which grew out of love for our mother tongue Bangla. Language is the most powerful instrument for smooth propagation of cultural heritages from generation to generation. Bengali languages in the recent past has reached in such a position when we can confidently assert that this is an one of the richest language of the globe. Bengalis from both Bangladesh and India have promoted Bangla to that extent that we are about to establish Bangla in all aspects of our life, starting from education to other private and public domains. Unfortunately, if we asses the present scenario of Bangla practise, our outmost failure in this context will definitely be revealed.

At present, in day-to-day conversation, in general, many youngsters are using mangled Bangla infused with large scale English and Hindi vocabularies. In this context Farhad Mazhar (New Age February 2000), a noted poet and writer has asserted that the advertisement of various cellular phone companies capture the language of the urban middle-class youth which is mixed up with English, Hindi vocabularies to a large extent in Bengali dialect in order to appear smart and cool. This new Creole (popularly known as dejuice Bangla) has a greater impact on the everyday conversation of this generation. Even the electronic media, especially private FM band radio stations and some private TV channels, are promoting this sub culture of language practice in their different programs . In Bangla practice discourse, Syed Badrul Ahsan, an eminent columnist, (Daily Star, February 2008) has observed that proper pronunciations and accents of Bengali words are not being maintained by the new generation and the electronic media show little respect to the issue.

In academic domain also, we are promoting English, as all pervasive globalization dictates us to do so, otherwise we will lie behind in the present competitive world in all context. In fact, we wrongly perceive the globalization as one way traffic and we are only the receiving end. If we compare, Bangla with other modern languages then it can be asserted that it has all properties to be a global media for communication. However, this is our collective failure to resist the aggression of this neo-colonial linguistic practice.

Finally, if we really want to portray ourselves as a self esteemed nation then we must uphold the inherent essence of Bengali nationalism --- the secularism and Bangla language. For this, we have a long way to go. Mich/ael Billing (1995), a contemporary sociologist of the UK, in his book entitled 'Banal Nationalism' has suggested that if a nation wants to uphold its cultural aspects and heritage in the psyche of its people, continuous flagging of cultural aspects of that nation is a must. This assertion relates the popular Bengali songs, 'Ek tara bazaio na/ Dui tara bazaio na/ Ek tara bazaile mone poira jai/ ek din Bangali chhilam re' (Don't play ektara/Don't play duitara/The tunes of ektara reminds me/One time I was Bengali). So, if we want to instil our cultural heritage and traditions into the mindset of the people, we need to practise our cultural ethos in our everyday life. We need to beckon the people, especially the younger generation under the parasol of our own culture, exposing the richness of our cultural heritages and traditions.

Md. Anwarul Kabir is an educationalist, working at the Computer Science Department of AIUB and is a freelance writer.

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary

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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

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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:
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

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[mukto-mona] A Story of perpetual discrimination


A story of perpetual discrimination
 
"Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh
Living with Vested Property"
BY Prof.  Abul Barkat, S Zaman, S Khan, Dr. Avijit Poddar, S Hoque, and Taher Uddin
Pathak Shamabesh  ( TheDaily Star, Dhaka 12 April 2008)
Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh
Living with Vested Property
Abul Barkat, S Zaman, S Khan, A Poddar, S Hoque, and Taher Uddin
Pathak Shamabesh
 
The title of the book is most meaningful as it relates the stories and events that actually took place to deprive the minority community of its rights and titles of property ownership. A research based book, it is outstanding in nature as it provides an account, with facts and figures, of how the protective security of the minority has been ignored for years together and how the minority community has been unable to enjoy the property handed down to it from one generation to another.

It is perhaps for the first time that such a book has been published, based as it is on authentic findings and in-depth studies of the historical discrimination that has compelled a large number of citizens to leave the country and so leave their ancestral home and belongings behind. Professor Abul Barkat and his co-authors have accurately projected the economic history, lapses in the land laws, willful negligence of the bureaucracy and greed of the politicians for property.

About 1.2 million households and 6 million people belonging to the Hindu community have been directly and severely affected by the Enemy/Vested Property Act. The community has lost 2.6 million acres of its own land in addition to other moveable and immovable property. The approximate money value of such loss (US $ 55 billion) would be equivalent to 75 per cent of the GDP of Bangladesh (at 2007 prices). The EPA/Vested Property Act has compelled Hindus to break family ties. Stress and strain, mental agony and a fuelling of religious fundamentalism have been the offshoot. The deprivation led to the growth of a communal mindset in what had been a historical secular climate and context.

The methodology adopted to collect information is appreciable. With primary and secondary data verified on the basis of documents relating to EPA/VPA and land survey, data from BSS and reports and journals, the work makes compelling reading. Besides, a number of eminent individuals have been interviewed to arrive at an understanding of the extent of the effect of the law on the deprived community. Sample districts taken under the study were sixteen but they covered the whole of Bangladesh in 1997-2006. Assuming the 1961 population share of the Hindu population was 18.4 per cent, the absolute size of this population in 2001 would have been 22.8 million rather than the 11.4 million reported in the census. In other words, the actual current (2001) figure is half the expected size. Thus the missing Hindu population was estimated to be 50 per cent with the mass outward migration from the mid-1960s onward as an effect of the EP/VP Act (elaborated in Chapter 3 of the book). Chapter 6 deals with case studies and Table 21 shows six broad categories of cases relating to loss of Hindu property
One cannot but agree with Justice Mohammad Gholam Rabbani when he observes in the foreword that the authors have done a historical job. The book, in fact, upholds the spirit of liberation and Articles 27 and 28 (1) of the Constitution. It re-emphasises the idea that "All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law." Reviewed by Shri Dhiraj Kumar Nath, a former Adviser to the Care Taker Government of Bangladesh
( www.thedailystar.net)

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

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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
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona 
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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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[mukto-mona] Re: Wall Street Journal: Candidates and Campaign Finance Ethics

WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/47734

Trust an ignorant drum beater for a particular candidate to assume that
he knows who "my" party and candidate are. This is a response from yet
another ignoramus who believes that he is omniscient.

But then this band of farceurs wear hats proclaiming a certain political messiah. How could they not know everything on earth when they have a messiah on their side?

The last clown act hasn't ended in this political circus!

Mehul Kamdar


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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
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf

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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

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


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm


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[mukto-mona] Manmohan's thought!!

 
Creative solutions needed to combat current food crises

OPINION: Manmohan Singh

Business Standard / New Delhi April 13, 2008 (http://business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?autono=319879&leftnm=4&subLeft=0&chkFlg=)



A progressive increase in agricultural productivity and income is essential for the removal of mass poverty and for creating an expanding market for industrial products. It is our sincere desire and effort to take Indian agriculture to a new level of knowledge-based development that is inclusive, equitable, environmentally sustainable and is regionally balanced. It is our goal to ensure both livelihood security and food security for all our people, paying particular attention to the needs of small and marginal farmers. 
 
India has had a long association with each of the international organisations present here today. We owe a debt of gratitude for your contribution to improving the lot of our farmers and enhancing our food security. India's green revolution would not have been possible without the active cooperation and support of several international organisations as well as some major developed countries, such as the US. 
 
Today, we are at the beginning of what may well be a new phase in our agricultural growth trajectory. We are once again faced with a situation where rising demand for foodgrain and other food items is running into supply constraints – both domestically as well as internationally. Similar pressures are being felt across the world. The world is faced with a situation where rising demand for food is not being met with a similar supply-side response. Further, the situation is becoming more complex due to alternative uses being developed for food crops - I refer here to the growing demand for bio-fuels. Owing to galloping oil prices, bio-fuels are being seen in many quarters as attractive substitutes for imported hydrocarbon fuels. Some see them as a greener alternative, although there may be more than one view on that. Many countries are actively promoting the development of bio-fuels. It's particularly worrisome that the new economics of bio-fuels is encouraging a shift of land away from food crops. What this has done is that for the first time, there is a direct linkage between oil prices and food prices. Food markets have got interlinked to oil markets, making food policy — complex as well as uncertain. 
 
Given this scenario, there is a feeling that the first green revolution has run its course. Modern technology has certainly widened the options available to our farmers and planners. Yet, the world seems to be facing the prospect of food shortages and rising food prices. I believe that this is going to be one of the most urgent challenges of our times. We need a second green revolution. The global community and agencies must fashion a collective response that leads to a quantum leap in agricultural productivity and output so that the spectre of food shortages is banished. 
 
We in India too are deeply concerned about rising commodity and food prices. Sharply rising food prices can slow down poverty alleviation, impede economic growth and retard employment generation. The global economy can also be hurt by this process. We in the developing world will of course be seriously hurt. In most developing countries, food prices are the kingpin of the price structure. A steep rise in food prices will make inflation control more difficult, hurting macro-economic stability. The constituency for economic reforms would also diminish. Pressures would mount for restrictive trade practices. We cannot react to such a situation by returning to an era of blind controls and by depressing agriculture's terms of trade. That will hurt the welfare of our farmers as well as long-term growth. The non-farming economy cannot prosper on the back of an impoverished farm sector. Hence, we need imaginative solutions that increase agricultural productivity, increase farm incomes, increase food production and, at the same time, also contribute to greater purchasing power in the hands of the poor. 
 
We are worried that climate change and global warming may have a harmful impact on land productivity and water availability. We need concerted global action to grasp the impact of climate change on agricultural production world-wide. We need more equitable, efficient and rational systems and institutions for the utilisation of scarce water resources. The first green revolution by-passed dryland farming. We need now new technologies and new production regimes for rainfed and dryland agriculture. 
 
(Excerpts from Manmohan Singh's address at the Global Agro Industries Forum, New Delhi, 10 April, 2008) 
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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
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm

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


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

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


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm

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




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[mukto-mona] Ruling Techniques of Undemocratic Rulers

Dear Members,

Mankind is by born free and demonstrates strong
resistance to any type administration or governance.
As a result, rules in all time have to apply various
strategies and techniques for ruling the people under
them. Although the job is easier for democratic
rulers, it is very difficult for undemocratic,
unelected and unconventional ones. They have to
device complex techniques in order to remain in power.
Please read my article in Daily JaiJaiDin
(13-04-2004) analysing those techniques.

It is also available at:

http://www.jaijaidin.com/archive/2008-04-13/details.php?nid=64507


Best regards.

Ahsan Mohammed


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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

*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf

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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.

*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm

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

*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona

http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/


*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari

http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm

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


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm


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Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:

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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/


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[mukto-mona] Golf & Generals

 
The Military-Leisure Golf Complex By Nick Turse, Metropolitan Books 12 Apr 08 (http://www.alternet.org/workplace/82009/)
Pentagon elites and high government officials are tee-ing off at taxpayer expense at hundreds of courses all over the planet.
The following is an excerpt from Nick Turse's new book "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives" (Metropolitan, 2008).
Back in 1975, Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) decried the fact that the Department of Defense spent nearly $14 million each year to maintain and operate 300 military-run golf courses scattered across the globe. In 1996, the weekly television series America's Defense Monitor noted that "Pentagon elites and high government officials [were still] tee-ing off at taxpayer expense" at some "234 golf courses maintained by the U.S. armed forces worldwide." In the intervening twenty-one years, despite a modest decrease in the number of military golf courses, not much had changed. The military was still out on the links. Today, the military claims to operate a mere 172 golf courses worldwide, suggesting that over thirty years after Proxmire's criticisms, a modicum of reform has taken place. Don't believe it.
In actuality, the military has cooked the books. For example, the Department of Defense reported that the U.S. Air Force operates 68 courses. A closer examination indicates that the DoD counts the 3 separate golf courses, a total of fifty-four holes, at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., as 1 course. The same is true for the navy, which claims 37 courses (including facilities in Guam, Italy, and Spain) but counts, for example, its Admiral Baker Golf Course in San Diego, which boasts 2 eighteen-hole courses, as a single unit. Similarly, while the DoD claims that the army operates 56 golf facilities, it appears that this translates into no fewer than 68 actual courses, stretching from the U.S. to Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
Moreover, some military golf facilities are mysteriously missing from all lists. In 2005, according to the Pentagon, the U.S. military operated courses on twenty-five bases overseas.
A closer look, however, indicates that the military apparently forgot about some of its golf courses -- especially those in unsavory or unmentionable locales. Take the unlisted eighteen-hole golf course -- where hot-pink balls are used so as not to lose them in the barren terrain -- at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Also absent is the army's Tournament Players Club, a golf course built, in 2003, by army personnel in Mosul, Iraq. Another forgotten course can be found in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, at Kwajalein, a little-discussed island filled with missile and rocket launchers and radar equipment that serves as the home of the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. Similarly unlisted is a nine-hole golf course located on the shadowy island of Diego Garcia, a British Indian Ocean Territory occupied by the U.S. military and long suspected as the site of one of the CIA's post-9/11 secret "ghost" prisons. But even courses not operating on secret sites, in war zones, or near prisons and possible torture centers have been conveniently lost. For example, while the Pentagon lists the navy's Admiral Nimitz Golf Course in Barrigada, Guam, in its inventory of overseas courses, it seems to have skipped Andersen Air Force Base's eighteen-hole Palm Tree Golf Course, also on the island. And you'd think the Pentagon would be proud of the USAF's island links; after all, it was the runner-up, in 2002, for the title of "Guam's Most Beautiful Golf Course."
Whatever the true number of the military's courses, at least some of them are distinctly sprucing up their grounds. Take the Eaglewood Golf Courses at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. In 2004, the Pentagon paid out more than $352,000 to George Golf Design to refurbish its two courses (known as "the Raptor" and "the Eagle"). George Golf Design considerately worked on the courses one at a time, so that local duffers would not be left linkless. This was of critical importance since if both courses were out of commission, Virginia would have been left with only nine military golf facilities (navy, five; army,three; Marine Corps, one) with a total of fourteen courses.
Even though the military operates so many courses, apparently these still aren't enough to satisfy the insatiable golfing appetites of the armed forces -- at least judging by the number of golf resorts to which the Pentagon paid out American tax dollars in 2004. For instance, the Del Lago Golf Resort and Conference Center, in San Antonio, Texas, which offers an "18-hole championship golf course home to some of the region's most challenging and beautiful holes," received over $19,000, and the Lakeview Golf Resort and Spa in Morgantown, West Virginia, which boasts "two championship golf courses," received $16,416 from the army in 2004. When asked what exactly the army was up to at Lakeview, a resort spokesperson declined to "disclose any information" and stated that she was "unable to confirm activities" of the military at the resort if, in fact, they occurred at all. At the Arizona Golf Resort and Conference Center in Mesa, Arizona, which boasts "fine accommodations, great dining and a host of amenities, including a championship golf course, surrounded by beautifully maintained grounds," the army dropped a cool $48,620 in 2004. That resort wasn't, however, the top recipient of military funds among Arizona golf resorts.
That year, according to DoD documents, the U.S. Army paid $71,614 to the Arizona Golf Resort -- located in sunny Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A Saudi homage to the American Southwest that claims to offer the "only residential western expatriate golf resort in Riyadh with activities for all ages," the resort actually boasts an entire entertainment complex, complete with a water-slide-enhanced megapool, gym, bowling alley, horse stables, roller hockey rink, arcade, amphitheater, restaurant, and even a cappuccino bar -- not to mention the golf course and a driving range. It's the perfect spot, in the so-called arc of instability, for military folks to play a few rounds with other Westerners. For those in the Persian Gulf who prefer their links on a smaller scale, there are also miniature golf courses at such military bases as Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base and at Camp Doha, both located in Kuwait, Balad Air Base in Iraq, and the air force'sbase at Eskan Village, near Riyadh Air Base, in Saudi Arabia. But minigolf isn't the only activity for duffers stationed at Eskan. In 2002, the U.S. General Accounting Ofce investigated "seemingly unneeded expenditures" by the military and found that $5,333 had been spent on "golf passes" for folks from Eskan Village.
In fact, the GAO reported: "Air Force units purchased several golf items during their deployments to Southwest Asia that included a golf cart for $35,000, a corporate golf membership at $16,000 ... and a golf club/bag set costing nearly $1,500." The military's ardent love affair with golf carts hardly ended with that $35,000 model. In 2004 alone, according to the Pentagon's own documents, the DoD paid $6,860 to Golf Car Company, $6,900 to Golf Cars of Riverside, $9,322 to Golf Cars of Louisiana, $16,741 to Southern Golf Cars, and a whopping $37,964 to Golf Car Specialties. Similarly, in 2006, two golf cart concerns were paid a combined $58,644 by the DoD, while a German golf-equipment supplier, Continental Golf Associates, received more than $88,000 from the Pentagon.
Despite base closures and the work of committed environmental and community groups, which have thinned out some of the military's links, the Department of Defense continues to exhibit an obsession with golf, golf carts, and, above all, golf courses. Apologists, both within and outside of the military, often counter criticisms of DoD golf expenditures by claiming that military golf courses are not simply a drain on taxpayer money but revenue earners, through greens fees.
They, however, never make mention of the fact that these facilities are located on public land and pay no taxes; that they require funds for security; and that in all likelihood the public pays for the roads, water, and electric lines that service the courses -- sore points raised by former Arizona senator Dennis DeConcini in the mid-1990s when Andrews Air Force Base was sinking $5.1 million into its third course. (If the DoD really wanted to raise revenues, it would sell its courses. For example, the army's Garmisch, Kornwestheim, and Heidelberg golf courses in Germany are worth, says the DoD, $6.6 million, $13.3 million, and $16.5 million, respectively, while the DoD's Sungnam golf course in the Republic of Korea is reportedly valued at $26 million.)
Such a defense also fails to address why the Pentagon is in the golf course business in the first place. According to its officially stated mission, the DoD engages in war-fighting, humanitarian, peacekeeping, evacuation, and homeland-security missions and, says the Pentagon, provides "the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of the United States. Everything we do supports that primary mission." How, exactly, golf courses ensure that primary mission is a little murky, especially since the United States has more than 8,100 public courses and over 3,500 semiprivate courses (that allow some access to nonmembers). A more apt explanation is the fact that when it comes to golf, like much else, the Pentagon does what it wants, no matter who gets tee'd off.
Nick Turse is the associate editor and research director of Tomdispatch.com. He is the author of "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives" (Metropolitan, 2008).

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[mukto-mona] Progress of ideas and societal good

WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/47657

1. Power of the state of the art technology is such that it can do and undo things most efficiently and effectively. The scale of destruction it can cause clouds our views of what fantastic things it is doing to the humans. Invasion, domination, persecution, etc. have always been there and very clearly they still exist. But over the centuries there has been gradual (with some discontinuities and regressions) paradigm shifts in the collective wisdom (or 'ideas') whenever it has come to dealing with humans or 'good' of the human societies.

2. Aristotle supported slavery, aristocracy and superiority (and hence domination) of husband over wife. He preached that slaves had no right to education. They were born to be slaves and were nothing more than living instruments. During the same periods, we see similar things in India too. Only Brahmans had the right in the Vedas although there are instances where low-caste persons got access to these supreme books of knowledge. Jesus never denounced slavery. Even after 600 years Mohamed did not abolish the system although he advised his followers to treat them well and, if possible, even to liberate them. India still has caste system although in the eye of law it is a crime. Now slavery is illegal and adult francise is the norm. I see these developments as social advancements and signs of progress of ideas over time.

-SC


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[mukto-mona] Billionaire backers point a possible direction to an Obama Presidency

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24060056/from/ET/

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By Matthew Mosk and Alec MacGillis

updated 4:04 a.m. CT, Fri., April. 11, 2008
WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama credits his presidential campaign with creating a "parallel public financing system" built on a wave of modest donations from homemakers and high school teachers. Small givers, he said at a fundraiser this week, "will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful."

But those with wealth and power also have played a critical role in creating Obama's record-breaking fundraising machine, and their generosity has earned them a prominent voice in shaping his campaign. Seventy-nine "bundlers," five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed. Donors who have given more than $200 account for about half of Obama's total haul, which stands at nearly $240 million.

Obama's success in assembling bundlers offers another perspective on a campaign that promotes itself as a grass-roots effort. While the senator from Illinois has had unprecedented success generating small donations, many made online, the work of bundlers first signaled the seriousness of his candidacy a year ago and will be crucial as he heads into the final Democratic primaries with a lead against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).


The bundler list also sheds light on those who might seek to influence an Obama White House. It includes traditional Democratic givers — Hollywood, trial lawyers and Wall Street — and newcomers such as young hedge fund executives, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Chicago-based developers and members of the black business elite. One-third had never contributed to a presidential campaign, much less raised money.

California cash
The list includes partners from 18 top law firms, 21 Wall Street executives and power brokers from Fortune 500 companies. California is the top source, with 19 bundlers. Both Illinois and Washington, D.C., have six, and five hail from New York.

Among the group are businessmen such as Kenneth Griffin, a famously private 39-year-old billionaire who threw his support behind Obama's presidential campaign just as he hired a team of lobbyists to urge Congress to preserve a lucrative tax loophole.

A year ago, Griffin invited Obama to speak to employees of his Chicago hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, and in subsequent months, employees and their families gave the candidate nearly $200,000. Griffin had previously backed Republicans, including Obama's initial U.S. Senate opponent.

Obama resisted Citadel's lobbying push, but a hedge fund executive who knows Griffin said he suspects Griffin's continued support owes to more than a desire to sway the senator on the tax issue. "Ken's a smart guy, and I guess he's done the math and decided that Barack is the best candidate," said Daniel Loeb, the chief executive of Third Point Management in New York.

Casino developer donates
Several on Obama's list at least appear to have interests in conflict with his platform. There is the billionaire casino developer who plans to put a slot parlor in Philadelphia; Obama has decried gambling for its steep "moral and social cost." And there is the director of General Dynamics, the military supplier that has seen profits soar since the onset of the Iraq war and that has benefited from at least one Obama earmark.

The use of bundlers was perfected by George W. Bush, who in 2000 and 2004 set some fundraising records that Obama has shattered. Bush established a competitive hierarchy of "Rangers" and "Pioneers," with tracking numbers to monitor fundraisers' progress and silver cuff links and belt buckles for high achievers.

Obama's bundlers help make up a more loosely defined "national finance committee," whose members are made to feel part of the campaign's inner workings through weekly conference calls and quarterly meetings at which they quiz the candidate or his strategists. At one meeting, bundlers urged the campaign to link Iraq war costs with the faltering economy. And they got an advance copy of Obama's Philadelphia speech in which he addressed the incendiary remarks of his longtime pastor.

Obama policy advisers also meet with bundlers and other top givers. Anthony Lake, who served as President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, has met with so many Obama contributors that, in an unusual move, the campaign credits him for funds raised when he conducts the meetings. He's on the top bundler list. "This is the first time I've ever gotten involved in this kind of work in a campaign," Lake said.

Patronage appointments?
Bush bundlers openly discussed the system's transactional nature — more than 100 of the 246 Pioneers in 2000 received an administration job or appointment, and 23 became ambassadors. Obama's fundraisers say they see their work more selflessly.

Boston financier Alan Solomont, who leads Obama's Northeast fundraising, said many are rallying to the candidate because they expect that he will break with old traditions, such as rewarding big fundraisers. "There's nobody with their hand out," Solomont said. "People are doing this because they believe in this candidate."

The campaign maintains that its fundraising success among average Americans has lessened its reliance on big donors. Donations of less than $200 account for nearly half of Obama's contributions, compared with a third of Clinton's and a quarter of Sen. John McCain's, according to the Campaign Finance Institute. More than 1 million people have given money to Obama's campaign.


"In this campaign, outsized influence is given to the small donors," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

Still, Obama wants to hold his own against Clinton in attracting big donors. He began assembling his bundlers well before announcing his bid in February 2007. Chairing his national finance committee was Penny Pritzker, heiress of Chicago's Hyatt hotel fortune, who raised money for his 2004 Senate campaign. Running day-to-day fundraising was North Carolina native Julianna Smoot, who had raised money for the national trial lawyers association and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Smoot put together a list of wealthy Democrats, and Obama, with only two years in Washington under his belt, deftly courted them. On Feb. 5, 2007, for example, Florida investment manager Mark Gilbert flew to Washington to meet with Obama but got only a short evening meeting before the candidate broke off for another engagement.

'Very impressed'
Obama did not realize that Gilbert had come just to see him, and when he found out, he quickly made amends. Gilbert got a call that night at his hotel. "It was the senator," he said. "He said he didn't realize he was going to have so little time," and he invited Gilbert to breakfast. "I was very impressed that someone trying to build a national team would reach out like that," he said.

The bundlers grew to include perennial Democratic money men, including Louis B. Susman, the Citigroup executive who headed fundraising for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) in 2004. Kirk Wager, a Florida trial lawyer and Kerry fundraiser, had planned to sit out this election before Obama persuaded him to come on board.

"Barack called me and said, 'I really need your help.' He said, 'No, Kirk, I really mean it. I literally know less than five people in the state of Florida,' " Wager said.

But because Clinton had already enlisted many reliable party backers, Obama also had to appeal to newcomers, said James L. Hudson, a D.C. developer and Obama bundler. "It required some stretching," he said.

New faces included Scott Blake Harris, a Washington telecommunications lawyer whose son worked as an intern in Obama's Senate office. Harris avoided Obama's ban on accepting money from federal lobbyists by cutting off his work for such companies as Microsoft, Cisco and Sprint-Nextel at the end of 2006.

"I had never raised a nickel for anybody," Harris said. "But I just found him to be totally captivating and moving."

Chicago offered more opportunities. Obama knew he could count on longtime supporters in the African American business community, such as his wife's friend, Desiree Rogers, head of the Peoples Gas utility. Her ex-husband, John W. Rogers, the head of Ariel Capital Management, is also a bundler.

'Uncanny ability'
A $1,000-a-person fundraiser that Desiree Rogers hosted in January attracted 600 people and spilled over to a neighbor's apartment. Obama repeated his pitch three times, she said.

"He listens intently to . . . questions, and he answers them in as long and personable way as he can. He has an uncanny ability to remember names and the subject area someone is interested in," Rogers said.

The Chicago contingent also includes James Crown, a director of General Dynamics, the military contractor in which his family holds a large stake. The company has been the beneficiary of at least one Obama earmark, a request to spend $8 million on a high-explosive technology program for the Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The program got $1.3 million.

The descendants of Henry Crown, architect of a great American fortune, James Crown and his family donated more than $128,000 to Obama's U.S. Senate race in 2004. Crown was among the first people Obama approached as he contemplated a White House run.

Crown said he and Obama never discussed General Dynamics, which, with its focus on Army programs, is a defense contractor that has benefited directly from the Iraq war. Obama's opposition to the war never meant that he wanted the armed forces to be poorly equipped, Crown said.

"I stand in agreement with what he has said [about the Iraq war.] Those who work in the defense industry are extremely focused on the national defense," he said. "That doesn't mean we want to be fighting wars."

The Chicago finance elite has been a major hub of Obama's fundraising, led by Pritzker. Another major figure is billionaire Neil G. Bluhm, a hotel and office building developer. But Bluhm has posed a symbolic problem for Obama in Pennsylvania, site of an April 22 primary, because his latest endeavor is a push to open a controversial casino along the Philadelphia waterfront.

Bluhm's path crossed Obama's in 2003, when Bluhm pursued a gaming license for a Chicago riverboat. That June, he gave the first $1,000 of what would become more than $78,000 in contributions from him and his family.

Gambling licenses
In 2006, Pennsylvania awarded Bluhm one of two coveted Philadelphia gambling licenses. Last year, his partners in the project, called SugarHouse, made $2,300 donations to Obama, including nearly $50,000 from the Philadelphia law firm Cozen O'Connor, which represents him in the deal.

Bluhm said that the gaming project "has got nothing to do with" his support for Obama and that the two have never discussed it. "My interest in him is, I think he's inspirational, I think he will enormously improve our economy and our relations with other countries," he said.

The Obama-Bluhm connection startled members of Philadelphia's anti-casino groups who knew that the senator had resisted efforts to legalize gambling. It was "really surprising to find [Bluhm] in Obama's corner," said Debbie King, who helped start Mothers Against SugarHouse. "I was inclined to vote for Hillary. But when I heard Obama's criticism about gambling, I thought about changing my vote. Now I'm not sure what to do."

Then there is Griffin, the hedge fund executive. Of his $230,000 in contributions since 2003, slightly more has gone to Republicans than to Democrats, including $2,000 to President Bush's reelection campaign. When Obama ran for Senate, Griffin backed Jack Ryan, Obama's original GOP opponent.

But Obama's presidential campaign launched just as Griffin's Citadel sought to go public, and the investment group moved to enlarge its Washington presence, vastly increasing its lobbying spending to $790,000 last year. Its focus: fighting a proposal to apply the higher corporate tax rate to private equity firms and hedge funds that go public.

In July, Griffin told the New York Times that his initiative would be diminished if his tax rates went up. "I am proud to be an American," he said. "But if the tax became too high, as a matter of principle I would not be working this hard.''

Loophole
That month, Obama came out for closing the loophole, and he later decried the legislation's collapse in October, after opposition by Citadel and others. "If there was ever a doubt that Washington lobbyists don't actually represent real Americans, it's the fact that they stopped leaders of both parties from requiring elite investment firms to pay their fair share of taxes," he said.

A Citadel spokeswoman declined to comment. Stephen Brown, a finance professor at New York University, said it is hard not to discern self-interest. Hedge funds "have a strong interest in becoming involved in the political process, and that is really the whole story behind their support of Obama," he said. "In their analysis — and they have good analysts — Obama is likely to be successful, so it is very much in their advantage to have a strong voice with him."

Database editor Sarah Cohen and staff researchers Lucy Shackelford, Alice Crites and Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

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[mukto-mona] Poverty in America

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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
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf

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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:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm

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Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm

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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

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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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[mukto-mona] Political Analyst Daveed Gartenstein-Ross talks about South Asian politics

 http://www.voanews.com/bangla/2008-04-08-voa5.cfm

 
Political Analyst Daveed Gartenstein-Ross Analyzes Democracy in South Asia


08-April-2008
Interview - Download (Real) audio clip
Interview - Listen to (Real) audio clip

Daveed-Gartenstein--Ross
Daveed Gartenstein Ross
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the Vice President of a think-tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

 

In an interview with Voice of America's Bangla Service, Mr. Gartenstein-Ross reflects upon the challenges for Democracy in South Asian countries.

 

He said that the challenges are not only from the terrorists but also from poverty and the economic problems such as silent famine in Bangladesh and the rising prices of fuel all over the world. 

 

Mr. Gartenstein-Ross also agrees with the CIA report that if there is any terrorist attack on the West, it would be from Pakistan. He is skeptical about the democracy in Pakistan and the curbing of the terrorism there.

 

In this interview he also talks about the election in Bhutan.

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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

*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf

*****************************************

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.

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

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

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


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

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


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm

*****************************************

Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm

****************************************************

VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

****************************************************

"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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Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

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