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Friday, December 31, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Where did the Air Conditioners Go?



Where did the Air Conditioners Go?
 
Anika Hossain
 
If awards were being given out for the greatest mysteries of the year, the saga of our opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia's home would win hands down. After a rather dramatic and long drawn out episode which according to her, involved her being humiliated and forcibly removed from her residence in Cantonment, under the orders of the ruling party, it has been reported that Begum Khaleda Zia has been acting in an extremely secretive manner about her personal belongings.
 
 
Where did they go? . Photo: Star file
 
A loss of such enormity can leave deep scars on one's psyche. Afterall, she is claiming that she is currently homeless when the Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina has announced that not only does the opposition leader have a house on Minto Road and one in Gulshan, she has several other houses in her own name or "undisclosed names." Therein lies our first mystery. If this is true, and it undoubtedly is, (the leader of our nation would never make blatantly false statements) what goes on in these secretly owned houses?
 
 
Parking garage mysteriously missing several cars. Photo: Star file
 
The theories are endless. Some say they are secret hideaways to safe keep the valuables of the darling sons for whom the mother awaits patiently. These may include a few gold bars from Malaysia, colourful drinks (?) scores of deeds of a few thousand pieces of land and houses, a collection of Origami pieces made with American dollars (such creativity!) and so on. Another theory is that these houses are sanctuaries for professional troublemakers who can be seen vandalising the streets every time there is a problem in the garments sector. Some even say they are used as training centres for BNP supporters on how to conduct themselves during a hartal or when their leader is being forced out of her home (rule number one: Do NOT even consider leaving a demonstration simply because it is too hot). It is entirely possible of course, that she is using the houses for a purpose as innocuous as storage for her make-up, hair products and stock of pink saris and pearls.
 
Our second mystery lies in the fact that although the BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain claims that Khaleda had no intention of leaving her home and was "forcefully evicted," several eye-witnesses have stated that Begum Zia has been removing boxes of what she claims were personal belongings for several days before the eviction took place.
 
The army, rab and police officers present at her home during the eviction claimed there were several cartons packed and ready to be moved to her brother's home in Gulshan. Now, if Begum Zia had no intention of moving, and had no idea she would be obliged to obey court orders, why had she been packing? It is possible she had a premonition or perhaps a dream that the PM would throw her out personally if she didn't get going. Smart move. Voters must keep in mind her psychic powers during the next elections.
 
 
The dining room after removal of diamond studded (?) chandeliers. Photos: Star file
 
Hossain also claimed that Begum Zia was taken to an undisclosed location from her home before she was escorted to her office in Gulshan. Mystery number 3: Where and Why? Was she interrogated about her other houses? Maybe the officers wanted to check her bags and boxes to see if she had taken anything that did not belong to her (fixtures and fittings). Or perhaps they wanted to know why a family of ten would need forty eight couches to sit on (seventy four according to our PM which means there are twenty six either stolen or hidden away) and sixty one domestic help to do their household chores. Which brings us to mystery number 4 and 5. The unusually high number of domestic help can be attributed to Khaleda's personal efforts to reduce unemployment in our nation. After all, division of labour increases efficiency and therefore each maid probably has a small, but important role to play in the house. One for manicuring each of her toe nails, one for hair--no it would take more than one person to achieve that signature look. It can be assumed that the couches were used for entertainment purposes. Lets just leave it at that.
 
 
 
The PM also announced that Begum Zia is the proud owner of sixty-four air conditioners. This is rather dumbfounding considering she only has twelve rooms to put them in. But the PM would never lie, and this would mean Begum Zia has at least 5 air conditioners or more in each room. Either these are very, very large rooms or Begum Zia, along with her followers have serious heat allergies. While this itself is a mystery, it does answer for the shocking condition of the electricity supply in the city.
 
Lets move on to mystery number 7. Begum Zia's premonition/dream had clearly told her that she needed to remove everything that was removable from the house just in case something out of the ordinary happened. Therefore, with absolutely no intention to move on the court ordered day, Begum Zia had systematically removed every chandelier (and there were many) light fixture and bulb from the house and packed them away in one of her hundred cartons. She also had the army officers sign an agreement stating nothing would be damaged in her absence. Which naturally raises the question: Why? What was so special about these fixtures?
 
Perhaps Begum Zia replaced the glass on the chandeliers with diamonds and the brass holders with gold. Or perhaps the opposition leader has hoarding tendencies. Lets blame it on the aftermath of severe shock.
 
Mystery number 8 involves the ominously empty swimming pool sitting in Begum Zia's backyard. This pool has not received the attention it deserves or perhaps it was deliberately left out of the news. For one, it is empty, which completely defeats the purpose of its existence. Secondly, has noone wondered where the water goes? What is all that water used for? Was the swimming pool used as storage? For what? More money? Weapons? Skeletons? Will the government launch an investigation into this? All remains to be seen.
  
The headlines of many newspapers and TV channels have claimed that Khaleda Zia is mortified at being dragged out in a "single outfit" from her home. How many outfits does she normally wear when she leaves that house? Perhaps she should consider dressing lightly in the future given her trouble with high temperatures. The opposition leader may have been so busy packing up the kitchen sink, she had either forgotten to pack her own clothes or had no space in her one hundred cartons to put them in. No wonder she was crying poor thing. After all every woman loves her wardrobe.
 
Which brings us to mystery number ten, the strangest of them all. In a country like Bangladesh, where a majority of the population is living below the poverty line, it is strange that our leaders should live like the Pharaohs of Egypt. Then again, those Egyptian fellows did believe they could take their treasures to the grave and afterlife. But instead of reproaching them for their extravagance, even beggars on the street are sympathising with Begum Zia's plight. Lets put our heads together and answer this. Do we really deserve to be governed by the likes of these people? Go figure.
 


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[ALOCHONA] 2010 : Success and hope



2010 : Success and hope
 


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[ALOCHONA] Kashmir:Shaking the mountains



Kashmir:Shaking the mountains
 
India's response to an uprising in Kashmir has been, by turns, repressive and complacent. It is storing up trouble for the future
 
A GROUP of special Indian police barged into a white-painted, single-storey house on the crisp morning of October 27th. They let their lathis do the talking. The wooden batons were first rammed through all the windows, furniture and a television. When the grey-haired owners protested, the rods were turned on them. The police broke the husband's leg and beat his wife's flesh a sickly purple. Before leaving, the officers added an insult, hurling religious books, including a Koran, to the floor.
 
Such intrusions are common in Palhallan, a hillside settlement in the north of Indian-run Kashmir. It looks like an idyllic rural spot, where bushels of red chilies hang from the eves of steep-roofed wooden houses and hay wains jostle with shepherds in narrow streets. But the village has been caught up in months of violent protests that have roiled Kashmir. In 2010 an uprising led by youthful Kashmiri separatists left over 110 people dead and thousands injured. Youngsters daub anti-India slogans on walls, yell at Indian police and soldiers to "go home", and hurl stones.
 
In turn its residents have taken a beating. A young man lifts his hand to his head, showing a zip-like scar running from the crown of his skull to his neck. It is the result, he says, of a police battering. His lament is typical: "I am an unpolitical person, but they treat me like a terrorist." Locals say they suffer collective punishment. Enraged officers usually fail to catch stone-lobbers, so lash out instead at families and residents nearby, accusing them, usually unfairly, of collusion.
 
As a military helicopter buzzes overhead, a resident counts eight people killed and many more hurt in the area in the previous three months. Bitterness deepens with each injury and funeral. "The police," he says, "they want to start a war." A return to war, or widespread armed insurgency, is unlikely for the moment. But fury has spread, spurring some young Kashmiris to demand a more violent, more bloody response than mere strikes and stones.
 
On November 10th three men in Pattan, a small town a few minutes' drive down the hill from Palhallan, took matters into their own hands. Hidden in the crowd of a bustling market they marched up to a pair of police constables, shot them at close range, snatched their rifles and fled. Both the policemen died. The Kashmiris have aped Palestinian methods, mobbing India's ill-trained, sometimes panicky, police, by raining stones and broken bricks on them.
 
The police—more in the habit of using sticks and bamboo shields—have struggled, fighting back with huge quantities of tear-gas (tens of thousands of canisters were fired in 2010) and then bullets. They have reckoned that any protesters who die have themselves to blame. Officials in Delhi bristle at any comparison between the year's events and Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland or the unrest in neighbouring Tibet. Kashmiris, they insist, have their own land and state, enjoy religious freedom, are by no means the poorest in India and take part in elections, most notably in 2008.
 
But there are severe limits to their democracy. Peaceful protests are prevented, jails are crammed with political detainees, detention without charge is common, phones are partially blocked, the press censored and reporters beaten, broadcasters muffled and curfews imposed. Those who complain too fiercely online are locked away. The authorities in Kashmir and Delhi say these measures are temporary. They say that to prevent abuses, the police are now being trained and re-equipped. (Soldiers, for the most part, have been kept away from street clashes.) Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Kashmir, says that police officers may even be prosecuted for misdeeds. But the repression persists, and risks causing ever greater resentment and instability.
 
Seen from Delhi the uprising appears manageable. Kashmiris have dropped their guns and shooed away Islamic insurgents who a decade or so ago skulked in the postcard-perfect mountains. The presence of a 350,000-strong Indian security force (some say the number is much higher), amid a population of just 11m, has also kept the armed militants at bay.
 
It helps India that Pakistan, the eternal trouble-stirrer in Kashmir, is in disarray. And India takes heart from the weakness and fractiousness of local leaders in Srinagar. Many have been bought off with well-paid posts, or jailed, or both. Moderates who attempt to reunite the parts have been locked up or worse (one was shot and paralysed by a mystery assailant). Some of the highest-profile ones, such as the stone-pelters' elderly icon, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, are kept under house-arrest.
 
Sticks and stones
 
Some Kashmiris darkly hint of picking up guns again, but the local leaders have no appetite for large-scale violence, fearful of a return to the carnage of the 1990s when thousands died each year. Instead they encourage low-casualty options such as throwing stones and prolonged stay-at-homes (hartals).
 
If such gestures have a goal, it is to gain attention. Young Kashmiris expose themselves to Indian bullets, hoping to draw compassionate outsiders—Barack Obama perhaps—to put pressure on India. Yet the strategy has so far achieved little. Outsiders, especially Western democracies once so cocksure and outspoken on human rights, now fret that their power is ebbing eastward. The Kashmiri separatists who suggest that "you people" or "Britain and America" could somehow chide India into a less repressive stance in Kashmir do not appreciate how eager Westerners are to court India as an ally.
 
The Kashmiris who have died in recent months have at least embarrassed India, which may yet respond by moderating the repression. But the radical separatists, who define azadi, the Kashmiri word for freedom, as outright independence from India—or even, for a shrinking number, incorporation with Pakistan—will not be placated. And nor will India consider letting Kashmir go.
 
Time appears to be on India's side. With each passing year it will have more resources to throw north. The local economy, at least until recently, had been chugging along quite well, thanks to horticulture, tourism, funds from central India and heavy spending by the armed forces. A few Kashmiri expats had started returning and investing before the uprising in 2010. Development in itself will not fix Kashmir. But faster economic growth could at least prove a useful balm.
 
The government has made some political gestures. In September, an all-party delegation of Indian politicians—including even the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party—visited Kashmir. India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, made reassuring comments about addressing grievances there. The government in Delhi also pledged to send a high-ranking team of interlocutors to prepare a series of reports on Kashmir after consulting all sides in the conflict. A three-person team was eventually named in October.
 
These initiatives have started to persuade some in Kashmir of progress. But the team is made up merely of two academics and a journalist, people who carry no political weight. Nor does it help that they have already fallen into public squabbling. Kashmiris have watched their saga wearily. Some leaders have refused to meet the delegates, dismissing them as a joke.
 
Conspiracy theorists in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, accuse India's generals of sabotaging politicians' peace efforts because the armed forces reap big rewards in the territory. More likely the central government in Delhi, run by the Congress party, is shy of Indian nationalists, who complain whenever concessions are considered for Kashmir. In October, a writer, Arundhati Roy, suggested Kashmiris might have legitimate complaints, and that Pakistan might have a justifiable interest in Kashmir. Hindu nationalists demanded she be tried for sedition.
 
So Kashmir is left to smoulder, with dire consequences for its citizens. A visit to Srinagar's psychiatric hospital shows throngs of patients, crowding around its overworked chief consultant. They relate a dismal roll-call of anxiety, stress, depression, alcohol and opiate addictions, child abuse and suicides. As Dr Mushtaq Margoob takes a break to munch a chapati and sip milky tea, he talks of Kashmir as a broken society. Some patients become destructive, he says, describing a mother who watched her son shot dead on the street and who then went on to burn down her own home and that of her neighbours.
 
The most damaged, he concludes, are the youngest. "We see a collective anger, an aggressive, traumatised generation", he says. The head of a think-tank talks of 600,000 young, educated, Kashmiri adults who are now jobless, waiting for some sort of guidance. Religious and political leaders fret that their youngest followers, teenagers, excited by the stone-pelters, are increasingly attracted by more radical ideas.
 
Militancy stirs
 
Worryingly, the youngsters talk openly of religious antagonism. Some ask why Kashmir's Muslims do not turn on Hindus (many Hindu pilgrims visit a sacred spot in the state, but have so far been left unmolested) to seek communal revenge for repression. The head of a student movement, a man who has spent most of his adult life in prison and who is now on the run and hiding from police in the backstreets of Srinagar, warns of infuriated youngsters turning to a "battle of extinction" in which "others, not only Kashmiris, will be killed".
 
As long as political leaders exist to channel, and moderate, the rage of the stone-pelters and innocent victims, such excited talk might be discounted. Mr Geelani, a frail octogenarian, is one such. He condemns India as "an occupying imperialist power", but he is largely a moderating influence. He opposes any return to arms. He supports the pelters' goals, but not their methods. His practical demands, for the repeal of draconian laws, the end of police abuse and talks with the central government, are hardly off the wall.
 
Geelani awaits the call from Delhi
 
But Mr Geelani's influence is waning, along with his health. It is doubtful that anyone among a handful of potential successors could command as much local respect. The alternative could be more troubling. Some observers fear that as India succeeds in neutering Kashmir's nationalist politicians, religious groups will flourish.
 
A Wahhabi welfare organisation, al Hadith, which almost certainly benefits from generous Saudi funds, is quietly emerging as a powerful welfare, religious and cultural force. As others bicker, it has gone about building community centres, mosques, primary and secondary schools and clinics. It is seeking permission to set up a university. Its genial leaders deny being extremists, pointing to their love of education and computers; they say that in the planned university, women and non-Muslims will be enrolled too.
 
As for claims that the group, which says it has 1.5m members, is spreading conservative values in a territory long known for its Muslims' religious tolerance, one leader concedes only a "little, little component of cultural shifting". A few more women are wearing burqas, or staying at home, than did in the past. More Arab-style mosques are springing up.
 
The non-Muslim minority in Kashmir is much less sanguine, seeing al Hadith as a proxy for Saudi interests and a powerful example of the spreading "pan-Islamisation" of Kashmir. They fret that ties may exist to Wahhabis elsewhere, including terrorists, and warn that a powerful new force is rising in the territory, filling a vacuum created by India. Just now their concerns seem overblown. But the government in Delhi would be wrong to think of Kashmir as yesterday's problem.
 


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[ALOCHONA] The US ambassador and a Moshrefa Mishu



The US ambassador and a Moshrefa Mishu
 
by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
December 31, 2010

A leading news agency in Bangladesh has catered a news item on Professor Anu Mahmud demanding release of detained garment workers leader Moshrefa Mishu. This is not only alarming but very much disturbing news indeed, as Mishu's name came as the top instigators behind series of anarchies at various ready made garment factories in Bangladesh.

According to the news, a so-called citizen's platform has called for removal of US ambassador to Bangladesh, James F Moriarty. It also urged the government to declare him 'unwanted'. The group claimed that the ambassador was a lobbyist of foreign companies eyeing the country's oil and gas sector.

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports made the demand at a press conference in Dhaka.

The committee secretary Anu Mohammad said, as disclosed in WikiLeaks cables, the US ambassador was pressurising prime minister's energy advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury to permit Asia Energy for open-pit coal mining in Phulbari.

The Phulbari open-pit excavation was halted following a violent protest in 2006 that killed three people.

The cables also revealed Moriarty held talks with Chowdhury in 2009 and urged him to approve British company Global Coal Management [GCM] to begin open-cast coal mining, the Guardian newspaper of UK reported based on WikiLeaks cables.

"He repeatedly put pressure on Bangladesh government to give the lease of the gas blocks to ConocoPhillips Company through export oriented agreement. He also put pressure to permit Chevron to buy old compressor machines and instruments in a high price. These US companies have been given advantages as per his directives.".

Anu Mohammad called those, who were involved in controversial oil-gas agreement, etc. as oil-gas-coal criminals. He suggested trying them as criminals.

Moshrefa Mishu, president of the Garments Sramik Oikya Forum [garment workers unity forum] is actively involved in series of notorious activities aimed at sabotaging country's textile and readymade garment sectors. It is important to mention here that, Bangladesh annually earns a few billion dollars of foreign exchange from the export of textile products. It is alleged that, Mishu is serving the purpose of vested interest groups with the aim of damaging Bangladesh's prospective export market thus creating opportunity for those competing nations in ultimately grabbing Bangladesh's stake in the international market. With such heinous agenda, Mishu has been actively involved in giving instigation as well as hiring hooligans in staging anarchism at various readymade garment factories with various lame excuses. Due such activities of Mishu, Bangladeshi textile and readymade garment exporters have lost at least a few hundred million dollars already due to rampage at various factories as well as delay and cancellation of export orders.

There is approximately 4,000 garment factories operating in Bangladesh. Factory owners mentioned in the media a number of times that in most cases, groups of outsiders [in the name of workers], vandalised the factories - sometimes in the presence of law enforcers. Due to such anarchism and vandalism, a large number of factories have even been forced to shut down due to huge financial losses.

Interestingly, following the arrest of Moshrefa Mishu, anarchism and vandalism in the textile and readymade garment sectors by unruly workers have totally stopped. This certainly proves that, Mishu was behind each of those notorious activities. It is quite interesting to see that Anu Mahmud has become very vocal in favor of this female hooligan.

On the other hand, Professor Mahmud has called for expulsion of the US ambassador in Bangladesh, James F Moriarty and demanded him to be declared Personna Non Grata [unwanted in his words]. He [Mahmud] sees US ambassador's efforts in favor of American companies as 'illegal'. Professor Anu Mahmud has shown the reason behind such demand stating the US ambassador is actively lobbying in favor of Asia Energy, a company already infamous in Bangladesh following the fatal shooting and murder of civilians at coal mining project at Phulbari area.

Asia Energy plc AIM: GCM is a new company, without any history of previous mining experience, quoted in the London Alternative Investment Market, set up to exploit open cast coal mining opportunities in the Phulbari region of Bangladesh. Asia Energy now trades under the name Global Coal Management. Asia Energy was incorporated in London in September 2003 and acquired 100% of Asia Energy Corporation Pty Ltd, which held the licenses to explore and mine the Phulbari Coal Project. Asia Energy Corporation Pty Ltd entered the coal mining scenario in 1998 by buying the mining contract originally awarded to international coal giant BHP on August 20, 1994. BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance [BMA] is Australia's largest coal producer and a leader in the international coal industry.

On the 29th August 2006 six protesters had been shot dead at Phulbari area, by paramilitary forces, when a crowd of 30,000 people stormed the local offices of Asia Energy. On the 30st August 2006 further unrest the day after the shootings when widespread half day strikes were organized. The Bangladesh government imposed a ban on further protests at the mine site. Gary Lye, chief executive of Asia Energy Corporation [Bangladesh] Pty Ltd, was quoted as saying "It is up to the authorities to determine exactly what happened, but it would appear that the unforgivable events and the needless loss of life and suffering that took place yesterday in Phulbari are entirely the fault of the organizers [of the protest]. Asia Energy has since had its right to mine in Bangladesh withdrawn.

On news of the withdrawal of mining rights, shares in Asia Energy PLC crashed, falling from 284p to 117.5p in a single day. The company requested trading be suspended, on 31 August 2006, saying "Asia Energy PLC became aware this morning of press reports quoting a junior minister in Bangladesh stating that the Bangladesh Government is canceling all existing agreements with Asia Energy. The Company had not received any communication from the Government to this effect. In view of this the shares of Asia Energy were suspended from trading on the AIM Market at 08:40 hrs [BST] this morning."

After the fatal shootings, on 11 January 2007 Asia Energy changed its name to Global Coal Management PLC at the same time as maintaining that it was 'fully committed to the Phulbari Coal Project in Bangladesh'.

I personally do not see any crime in Moriarty's efforts in favor of Asia Energy, because, in today's world, diplomacy is more related to economic issues. James F Moriarty is also trying his best in upholding the interests of American companies. It is also important to note that the ambassador is not lobbying in favor of Asia Energy without any signal from administration in Washington under the leadership of President Barack Hussain Obama. Here the ambassador has not personal interest. What he is doing is definitively aimed at protecting the interest of US companies.

If Bangladeshi government will pay any heed to what Professor Anu Mahmud demanded, it will certainly put Dhaka-Washington relations into the worst ever crisis. And of course, in that case, the worst sufferers will be textile and readymade garments exporters of Bangladesh, who earns billions by exporting products to US market. Do we see any similarity between Mishu and Professor Mahmud's agenda?

 


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[ALOCHONA] No let-up in Juba League, BCL atrocities



No let-up in Juba League, BCL atrocities
 
IT WAS the turn of the Juba League, the youth front of the ruling Awami League, to hog the headlines, needless to say, for wrong reasons while, just a week back, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the AL students' front, hogged the headlines for a clash between the two factions of its Jagannath University unit, which left 57 people, including seven journalists, injured. According to a report front-paged in New Age on Friday, pre-polls infighting in Juba League left three of its activists killed in Jhenaidah Tuesday night. Notably, the Juba League and the Bangladesh Chhatra league have been regularly hogging the headlines, simultaneously or by turn, for their excesses and atrocities, since the AL-led government assumed office in January 2009. The two factions of the Juba League, according to the New Age report, engaged in a clash with sharp weapons over extending support to two rival councillor candidates in the municipal polls to be held on January 13. According to the superintendent of police of Jhenaidah, as quoted in the report, both the groups had been engaged in tussle for long.
 
It is to be pointed out, as we did in these columns many times before, that once subduing significantly their political opponents, particularly the activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, in the wake of the assumption of office by the AL-led government, the Juba League and Chhatra League have repeatedly engaged in internecine clashes. They even sometimes clashed with each other as well. On almost every occasion the reasons behind those clashes involved extortion, rent-seeking, abduction, tender manipulation and the like. But, regrettably, both the government and the ruling party have thus far displayed a curious blend of indifference and indulgence with regard to the many incidents of excesses and atrocities of the Chhatra League and Juba League. While there have been tough talks from the leaders of the government and the ruling party, these have hardly been translated into decisive, demonstrative and deterrent actions, legal or organisational, which appear to send the message to the law enforcers that the troublemakers belonging to the ruling quarters should be left alone. As a result, the ferocity and frequency of such incidents have gone up.
 
However, it is imperative that the government and the ruling party should act decisively and demonstratively to rein in the troublemakers in Juba League and Chhatra League immediately. At the same time, the conscious citizens need to raise their voice against continued excesses and atrocities by the two organisations and sustain the pressure on the ruling quarters for decisive and deterrent actions.
 


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[ALOCHONA] Saudi Wahhabi architecture: Gargantuan and Gaudy



 

December 29, 2010
New Look for Mecca: Gargantuan and Gaudy
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/arts/design/30mecca.html?pagewanted=print

 
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — It is an architectural absurdity. Just south of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Muslim world's holiest site, a kitsch rendition of London's Big Ben is nearing completion. Called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the world, the centerpiece of a complex that is housing a gargantuan shopping mall, an 800-room hotel and a prayer hall for several thousand people. Its muscular form, an unabashed knockoff of the original, blown up to a grotesque scale, will be decorated with Arabic inscriptions and topped by a crescent-shape spire in what feels like a cynical nod to Islam's architectural past. To make room for it, the Saudi government bulldozed an 18th-century Ottoman fortress and the hill it stood on.

The tower is just one of many construction projects in the very center of Mecca, from train lines to numerous luxury high-rises and hotels and a huge expansion of the Grand Mosque. The historic core of Mecca is being reshaped in ways that many here find appalling, sparking unusually heated criticism of the authoritarian Saudi government.

"It is the commercialization of the house of God," said Sami Angawi, a Saudi architect who founded a research center that studies urban planning issues surrounding the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and has been one of the development's most vocal critics. "The closer to the mosque, the more expensive the apartments. In the most expensive towers, you can pay millions" for a 25-year leasing agreement, he said. "If you can see the mosque, you pay triple."

Saudi officials say that the construction boom — and the demolition that comes with it — is necessary to accommodate the ever-growing numbers of people who make the pilgrimage to Mecca, a figure that has risen to almost three million this past year. As a non-Muslim, I was not permitted to visit the city, but many Muslims I spoke to who know it well — including architects, preservationists and even some government officials — believe the real motive behind these plans is money: the desire to profit from some of the most valuable real estate in the world. And, they add, it has been facilitated by Saudi Arabia's especially strict interpretation of Islam, which regards much history after the age of Muhammad, and the artifacts it produced, as corrupt, meaning that centuries-old buildings can be destroyed with impunity.

That mentality is dividing the holy city of Mecca — and the pilgrimage experience — along highly visible class lines, with the rich sealed inside exclusive air-conditioned high-rises encircling the Grand Mosque and the poor pushed increasingly to the periphery.

There was a time when the Saudi government's architecture and urban planning efforts, especially around Mecca, did not seem so callous. In the 1970s, as the government was taking control of Aramco, the American conglomerate that managed the country's oil fields, skyrocketing oil prices unleashed a wave of national modernization programs, including a large-scale effort to accommodate those performing the hajj.

The projects involved some of the world's great architectural talents, many of whom were encouraged to experiment with a freedom they were not finding in the West, where postwar faith in Modernism was largely exhausted. The best of their works — modern yet sensitive to local environment and traditions — challenge the popular assumption that Modernist architecture, as practiced in the developing world, was nothing more than a crude expression of the West's quest for cultural dominance.

These include the German architect Frei Otto's remarkable tent cities from the late 1970s, made up of collapsible lightweight structures inspired by the traditions of nomadic Bedouin tribes and intended to accommodate hajj pilgrims without damaging the delicate ecology of the hills that surround the old city.

Fifty miles to the west, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Hajj terminal at King Abdul Aziz International Airport is a similar expression of a form of modernity that can be sensitive to local traditions and environmental conditions without reverting to kitsch. A grid of more than 200 tentlike canopies supported on a system of steel cables and columns, it is divided into small open-air villages, where travelers can rest and pray in the shade before continuing their journey.

The current plans, by contrast, can read like historical parody. Along with the giant Big Ben, there are many other overscale developments — including a proposal for the planned expansion of the Grand Mosque that dwarfs the original complex — in various mock-Islamic styles.

But the Vegas-like aura of these projects can deflect attention from the real crime: the way the developments are deforming what by all accounts was a fairly diverse and unstratified city. The Mecca Clock Tower will be surrounded by a half-dozen luxury high-rises, each designed in a similar Westminster-meets-Wall Street style and sitting on a mall that is meant to evoke traditional souks. Built at various heights at the edge of the Grand Mosque's courtyard, and fronted by big arched portes-cocheres, they form a postmodern pastiche that means to evoke the differences of a real city but will do little to mask the project's mind-numbing homogeneity.

Like the luxury boxes that encircle most sports stadiums, the apartments will allow the wealthy to peer directly down at the main event from the comfort of their suites without having to mix with the ordinary rabble below.

At the same time, the scale of development has pushed middle-class and poor residents further and further from the city center. "I don't know where they go," Mr. Angawi said. "To the outskirts of Mecca, or they come to Jidda. Mecca is being cleansed of Meccans."

The changes are likely to have as much of an effect on the spiritual character of the Grand Mosque as on Mecca's urban fabric. Many people told me that the intensity of the experience of standing in the mosque's courtyard has a lot to do with its relationship to the surrounding mountains. Most of these represent sacred sites in their own right and their looming presence imbues the space with a powerful sense of intimacy.

But that experience, too, is certain to be lessened with the addition of each new tower, which blots out another part of the view. Not that there will be much to look at: many hillsides will soon be marred by new rail lines, roads and tunnels, while others are being carved up to make room for still more towers.

"The irony is that developers argue that the more towers you build the more views you have," said Faisal al-Mubarak, an urban planner who works at the ministry of tourism and antiquities. "But only rich people go inside these towers. They have the views."

The issue is not just run-of-the-mill class conflict. The city's makeover also reflects a split between those who champion turbocharged capitalism and those who think it should stop at the gates of Mecca, which they see as the embodiment of an Islamic ideal of egalitarianism.

"We don't want to bring New York to Mecca," Mr. Angawi said. "The hajj was always supposed to be a time when everyone is the same. There are no classes, no nationalities. It is the one place where we find balance. You are supposed to leave worldly things behind you."

The government, however, seems unmoved by such sentiments. When I mentioned Mr. Angawi's observations at the end of a long conversation with Prince Sultan, the minister of tourism and antiquities, he simply frowned.

"When I am in Mecca and go around the kaaba, I don't look up."



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Thursday, December 30, 2010

[ALOCHONA] A nice story



A nice story

Every Friday afternoon, after the Jumma prayers, the Imam and his eleven
year old son would go out into their town and hand out "PATH TO
PARADISE "and other  Islamic literature.

This particular and fortunate Friday afternoon, as the time came for the
Imam and his son to go to the streets with their booklets, it was very cold
outside, as well as pouring rain.

The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, 'OK, dad, I'm
ready!' His dad asked, 'Ready for what' 'Dad, it's time we go out and distribute
these Islamic books.'

Dad responds, 'Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring rain.'
The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, 'But Dad, aren't people

still going to hell, even though it's raining?'

Dad answers, 'Son, I am not going out in this weather.'

Despondently, the boy asks, 'Dad, can I go Please'

His father hesitated for a moment then said, 'Son, you can go. Here are the
booklets. Be careful son.'

'Thanks, Dad!'

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven year old boy
walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he
met in the street a pamphlet or a booklet.

After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and
down to his VERY LAST BOOKLET. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone
to hand a booklet to, but the streets were totally deserted.

Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to
the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody
answered..

He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still
no answer.

Finally, he turned to leave, but something stopped him.
Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the
door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front
porch!

He rang again and this time the door slowly opened.
Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly

asked, 'What can I do for you, son?' With radiant eyes and a smile that lit
up her world, this little boy said, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you,
but I just  want to tell you that ALLAH REALLY LOVES AND CARES FOR YOU and I
came to give you my very last booklet  which will tell you all about God,
the  real purpose of creation, and how to achieve His pleasure.'

With that, he handed her his last booklet and turned to leave.

She called to him as he departed. 'Thank you, son! And God Bless You!'

Next week on Friday afternoon after Jumma prayers, the Imam was giving some
lectures. As he concludes the lectures, he asked, 'Does anybody have
questions or want to say anything?'

Slowly, in the back row among the ladies, an elderly lady's voice was heard
over the speaker. 'No one in this gathering knows me. I've never been here before.  You see,
before last Friday I was not a Muslim, and thought I could be. My husband
died few years ago, leaving me totally alone in this world... Last Friday,
being a particularly cold and rainy day, I was contemplating suicide as I
had no hope left.

So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my
home... I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on
the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on
that chair, so lonely and broken-hearted I was about to leap off, when
suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought,
I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.

I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more
insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly....

I thought to myself again, 'Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my
bell or comes to see me.' I loosened the rope from my neck  and started for
the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.

When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there
on my front porch was the most radiant and  angelic little boy I had ever
seen in my life.. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! The words
that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead TO LEAP TO
LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I just came to tell
you that ALLAH REALLY LOVES AND CARES FOR YOU!'* *

Then he gave me this booklet, Path To Paradise that I now hold in my hand.

As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my
door and read slowly every word of this book. Then I  went up to my attic to
get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more.

You see? I am now a Happy Vicegerent of the One True God. Since the address
of your congregation was stamped on the back of this booklet,  I have come
here to personally say THANK YOU to God's little angel who came just in the
nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell.'

There was not a dry eye in the mosque. The shouts of TAKBIR...ALLAH AKBAR..
rented the air. Imam-Dad descended from the Mimbar  to the front row where the little angel
was seated.He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

Probably no jama'at has had a more glorious moment, and probably this
universe has never seen a father that was more  filled with love and honor
for his son... Except for One. This very one...

Don't let this message die, read it again and pass it to others. Heaven is
for His people!Remember, Allah's message CAN make the difference in the life of someone close
to you.


[Quran 5:3]: This day I've perfected your religion for you, and completed my
favor on you, and chose Islam for you as religion..

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dahuk/message/21582


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[ALOCHONA] 74.01% Prothom Alo readers do not support for an airport at Arialbeel



74.01%  Prothom Alo  readers do not support for an airport at Arialbeel

http://www.prothom-alo.com/onlinepoll


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[ALOCHONA] India Succumbs To US Pressure: Iran Halts Oil Sales To India



India Succumbs To US Pressure: Iran Halts Oil Sales To India

An oil trading dispute between India and Iran has further escalated, with Tehran refusing to sell oil to India under new rules instituted by New Delhi

The Reserve Bank of India has said that deals with Iran must be settled outside the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) system used by it and other member nations' central banks to settle bilateral trades.

Iran's state-owned oil company has refused to accept payments for oil sales to India without guarantees from India's central bank.

Iranian sources have confirmed the dispute and Indian sources said officials from the central banks of the two countries are set to meet on Friday to further discuss the matter.

Iran, which is under UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, is likely to want to rescue a trade that is worth about $12bn a year.

While the UN sanctions do not forbid buying Iranian oil, the US has been pressing governments and companies to stop dealing with Tehran.

Trade trouble

On Wednesday, two Indian industry sources said National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) had turned down Indian oil firms' requests for payment outside the ACU.

"Indian firms had asked Iran to immediately nominate a bank in Europe through which payment can be made. But NIOC refused," said one of the sources.

A NIOC source said any mechanism outside the ACU "is not acceptable" because "this exercise is in place for so many years".

"How can India unilaterally decide to halt it without any alternative mechanism? How can you demolish a building without renting out an apartment?" the source added.

The ACU includes the central banks of India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Iran, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

India is the biggest buyer of Iranian crude in the group, consuming around 400,000 barrels per day between two state-owned refiners and privately-owned Essar Oil.

US Pressure

The Hindu on Thursday reported that the move is an example of India succumbing to American pressure. The report states that Indian Reserve Bank's move is the direct result of American pressure.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/12/20101229182547512814.html



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[ALOCHONA] US ambassador's removal demanded

US ambassador's removal demanded

Dhaka, Dec 30 (bdnews24.com)—A citizen's platform has called for
removal of US ambassador to Bangladesh, James F Moriarty. It also
urged the government to declare him 'unwanted'.

The group claimed that the ambassador was a lobbyist of foreign
companies eyeing the country's oil and gas sector.

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power
and Ports made the demand on Thursday, at a press conference held at
Mukti Bhaban, at Paltan, Dhaka.

The committee secretary Anu Mohammad said, as disclosed in WikiLeaks
cables, the US ambassador was pressurising prime minister's energy
advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury to permit Asia Energy for open-pit
coal mining in Phulbari.

The Phulbari open-pit excavation was halted following a violent
protest in 2006 that killed three people.

The cables also revealed Moriarty held talks with Chowdhury last year
and urged him to approve British company Global Coal Management (GCM)
to begin open-cast coal mining, the Guardian newspaper of UK reported
based on WikiLeaks cables.

"He repeatedly put pressure on Bangladesh government to give the lease
of the gas blocks to ConocoPhillips Company through export oriented
agreement. He also put pressure to permit Chevron to buy old
compressor machines and instruments in a high price. These US
companies have been given advantages as per his directives," said the
Guardian report.

Anu Mohammad called those, who were involved in controversial oil-gas
agreement, etc. as oil-gas-coal criminals. He suggested trying them as
criminals.

The committee also demanded release of detained garments workers
leader Moshrefa Mishu.

It announced a countrywide procession on Jan 5 next year and also a
protest meeting and procession at Muktangoan in Dhaka at around 3pm
the same day.

Additional programmes include meeting at the divisional towns and
countrywide foot march from Jan 10 to Jan 30. Other members of the
committee were also present at the conference.

http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=183039&cid=2


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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Indians occupy vast Bangladesh land in Sylhet border



Indians occupy vast Bangladesh land in Sylhet border
 
Sylhet, Dec 29 (UNB) - Indians have allegedly occupied 32 kilometers of Bangladesh land in border areas of Bianibazar and Zakiganj upazilas of Sylhet district.
 
Local administration and land settlement officials of the two upazilas and local people said the occupied land has been omitted from the survey list at India's instigation in order to keep those out of the land settlement survey which is being jointly conducted by Bangladesh and India in the border.
 
Besides the 32 kilometers of land, they said, another 712 acres of Bangladesh land at Noagaon Mouja of Muria union in Bianibazar upazila was also occupied by the Indians and being used by them for long.These lands were not included in the ongoing land settlement survey and also left out of the two countries' boundary talks and previous surveys under pressure from India, it was alleged.
 
Bangladesh may lose these vast tracts of lands unless steps are not taken immediately to include those in the current land settlement survey, the local administration cautioned.
 
According to upazila land settlement officials, Boundary Commission chief Sir Cyril Radcliff, in collusion with Indian Congress leaders, submitted a report in British parliament on August 17 in 1947, illegally including three frontier thanas - Patharkandi, Ratabari and Badarpur - in Assam. The three thanas originally belonged to erstwhile East Pakistan on the basis of plebiscite held on the eve of partition of the sub-continent.
 
Similarly, the 32 kilometers of land from the mouth of Barak river at Haritikar to Gajukata near midstream of Kushiara river was originally given to erstwhile East Pakistan and later occupied by India in 1947. No initiative has been taken so far even after the independence of Bangladesh to recover the occupied lands, nor any measures taken to include the matter in the two countries` agenda of negotiations or in the survey records.
 
As a sequel to Indian conspiracy, Bangladesh also lost its sovereignty over 712 acres of land in the border between Sylhet`s Bianibazar and Karimganj thana of Assam.
 
Banking on the Radcliff report, the Indian authorities forcibly occupied the land during the Pakistan period but later agreed to return it to Bangladesh following the independence of the country.
 
But, on August 19 in 1999, more than 50 Indian nationals, backed by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) intruded into Bangladesh territory and occupied the land, driving away the Bangladeshis who had been living there for centuries.The land remained under Indian occupation since then and no step was taken by the Bangladesh government for the recovery of the land.
 


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[ALOCHONA] BSF ignores BGB proposal to shut narcotics factories on Indian border



BSF ignores BGB proposal to shut narcotics factories on Indian border
 
 News - BSF ignores BGB proposal to shut narcotics factories on Indian border
 
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has not yet responded to a proposal made by Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) during a director-general level meeting in March to shut scores of phensidyl factories across border in India.Officials of Department of Narcotics Control and other sources told UNB that phensidyl smuggling into Bangladesh from India alarmingly increased in the last 1 and half years because of lax border vigilance.
 
They said smuggling of phensidyl and other contraband drugs have shot up following change of government in both Bangladesh and India couple of years ago and last year's February 25-26 carnage at BDR headquarters in Dhaka.They said that lack of effective border control because of shortage of border guards following BDR mutiny, smugglers stepped up operations across the India-Bangladesh frontier.
 
Quoting a BGB source Narcotics Control officials said not only India, contraband items are being smuggled into Bangladesh from Myanmar too.About 32 types of narcotics and contraband items were pouring in through 512 points along the 4,400-kilometer long frontier with India and Myanmar, they informed.Alluding to a statistics made recently in this regard by Family Health International, they said different types of banned drugs worth over Tk 347 crore are being smuggled into Bangladesh from India every year.
 
A UN survey recently revealed that about 65 lakh (6.5 million) people, including 9 lakh women regularly use different types of contraband drugs in Bangladesh while another 1 lakh peddle with banned drugs.But Narcotics Control Department put number of drug addicts in the country at 46 lakh (4.6m).
 
Talking to UNB, Wadudul Bari Chowdhury, Director Operation, Narcotics Control, admitted that the department is outmoded and understaffed to cope with growing number of narcotics related criminal activities and smugglings on borders.
 
Among other causes, lack in coordination with other law-enforcement agencies and acute shortage of logistics supply are impeding their efforts to check use of narcotics and curb smuggling, he added.Proposals have been made to the government to update the department, he told UNB.
 
Admitting this, DG Khandaker Mohammad Alim said besides putting proposal to government for developing the department, joint meetings with India are being arranged to discuss trans-border narcotics smuggling and curbing those effectively. Officials of both countries' narcotics sat across the table recently in India to discuss the problem.
 
BGB sources said they requested BSF to shut 132 Phensidyl factories located at Indian villages bordering Bangladesh during DG-level meeting of the two countries' border guards held in Indian capital at end of March but the Indians paid no heed to their request. Besides, they mentioned that there are 52 Phensidyl factories in India's West Bengal state near Jessore border and 70 other factories along the 72km border with India near six bordering districts.
 
Moreover, list of 10 heroin-making and processing factories were placed before BSF DG for taking immediate action against those but no step was taken although nine months have passed, they said.
 
A BGB official said among 32 drugs, Phensidyl, heroin, hemp, yaba tablets, wine, beer, Lupegesic injection, pathedin, morphine, Viagra tablet, icepill, rectifying spirit, etc are mostly smuggled into the country from India. Many other drugs, including yaba, pour in through the southern-most border with Myanmar.Though discussions were held between narcotics officials of India and Bangladesh no talks were held with Myanmar as yet, Narcotics and BGB officials said.
 


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