__._,_.___
Dear Mr. Haque:
Honest article on self evaluation.
Yes, Bangladesh has long ways to go but time is running out. One out of five people are infected with arsenic poinsoning (WHO report), one hundred sixty million people crammed in an ever shrinking land mass and the the evil of global warming is staring at the face of Bangladesh more than any other place on earth.
You mention that if we take 20 best sellers from the sixties todate...
I will go one step further: take one thousand most popular books during the last hundred years and anlyze them and you will see a trend. The hallmark of our intellectualism is narrating social ills vividly, some times with exageration. Hardly do we see solutions to the problems in our literature. We seem to relish poverty, failure and childish behavior. Our culture fosters negativity, pessimism and a sense of helplessness.
Mr. Haque: You seem to imply that we are genetically inferior. Which is not scientifically correct. All races have well distributred mixture of people. Also if you look at our history our forefathers were not all local Hindus. In our vein flows the blood of Arabs, Pathans, Afgans, Turks and Persian. For over a thousand years scholars, preachers, writers, artists, judges, soldiers and rulers have come to our land. They did not go back. We are the children of these people. If you look around, you will know what I am talking about. So, it is not a matter of genetics.
We need to look around and find a source of moral values. We have to look around and find real leaders. We do not need to wait for our national leaders to give us leadership. This has to come from ordinary people doing small deeds of kindness and of noble value. Collectively that will generate the necessary force of change.
As people grow and mature each will come to his/her conclusion of the goal and objectivity of life. I have come to my own value of life. Travelling through time, reading, reflecting, seeing people, system and societies I have come to the realization that we have a great treasure which most Bangladeshis will never taste. I have been privileged to get a slight glimpse of that greatness and that is the reason I try to share my knowledge with others at any opportunity I get. But that is for other times.
Best of luck and never quit reflecting on life and what matters most. Sincerely look for solutions and you will find it.
Aziz Huq
Fast Retailing to set up
By Lindsay Whipp in
Financial Times
Published: July 13 2010
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c36ad9a-8e8c-11df-964e-00144feab49a.html
Fast Retailing will become the first Asian company to set up a "social business" – a term given to companies formed to address a social cause and whose profits are ploughed back into the company – in the region. It will own 99 per cent of the new company with Grameen Healthcare Trust holding the other 1 per cent. It will begin operations in September.
Muhammed Yunus, Nobel peace prize-winner and the founder of Grameen Bank, said: "It [sends] a big message to Japanese companies to use their technology to solve the problems of the people."
Fast Retailing, whose president, Tadashi Yanai, is
However, it has an economic growth rate of 5.6 per cent and is benefiting from a shift out of relatively high-cost production bases, such as southern
The Japanese government this year established a new study group with the aim of creating public-private partnerships in developing countries to target middle- and low-income groups as developed country markets stagnate.
The venture, which has a temporary name of Grameen Uniqlo, will sell products such as underwear, blankets, raincoats and school uniforms to families living in poverty at affordable prices – likely to be about a $1 or less. This will demand the most efficient and low-cost production.
Grameen Uniqlo is planning to employ 1,500 people within three years, the vast majority of whom will be sales people, who will use techniques such as door-to-door selling and education about the importance of sanitation and cleanliness. The venture also aims to nurture entrepreneurs through their sales training and employment.
The venture will benefit from access to Grameen's 8m borrowers and the use of its well-known brand in
May I please request Mohd. Haque not to indulge in spewing falsehoods in the name of History of Bengal? Most of what is easily available as the 'history' of our land has been tainted badly by the British historians who had vested interest in portraying Bengal as 'poor and wretched' for the simple reason that the British LOOTED Bengal ruthlesly. Go check the British Treasury entries rendered by the East India Company during the period.
There is no historical evidence of the following sweeping statement:
"Great majority of our population lived under poverty either under Mongols (Mughols), Turks or Panjabis"
Bengal was the richest country in the world, and the most ordinary person of that land lived contentedly in plenitude because the system of wealth production and distribution of wealth was equitable. Have you studied the pre-colonial economic system of Bengal?
Why do you think the White man landed in Bengal for the specific purpose of looting and not anywhere else?
Have some self-respect, please.
Farida Majid
[PS : I had written often on history of Bengal on Alochona. See if you can dig them out from the archives. You may find them informative]
Dear sirs,
Assalamu Alaikum.The press has given wrong heading.What has been declared illegal is extra-judicial punishments based on fatwas or otherwise. Islam also does not approve punishments by private persons or groups.Fatwa is not a court verdict. Fatwa can never take the place of court verdict in Islamic law.
We shall wait for the detailed judgment to understand properly.
Shah Abdul Hannan
From:
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 3:35 AM
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Fatwa illegal : HC rules against all extra-judicial punishments upon writ petitions
Fatwa illegal : HC rules against all extra-judicial punishments
The High Court in a verdict yesterday declared illegal all kinds of extrajudicial punishment including those made in the name of fatwa in local arbitration.
It also observed infliction of brutal punishment including caning, whipping and beating in local salish [arbitration] by persons devoid of judicial authority constitutes violation of the constitutional rights.The court said the people's rights to life and equal protection have to be treated in accordance with the law.As per the rules of the Constitution, the citizens will not be subject to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment, the HC said.
The HC bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore came up with the verdict in response to three separate writs. The petitions were filed by rights organisations -- Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, BRAC Human Rights and Legal Services, and Nijera Kori, and four Supreme Court lawyers -- Advocate Salahuddin Dolon, Barrister Mahbub Shafique, Advocate AKM Hafizul Alam and Barrister Imaran-ul Hye.
The rights organisations filed a writ last year and the lawyers filed two separate writs this year with the HC, seeking necessary directives from the court to stop extrajudicial punishment in the name of fatwa.The petitions were filed following several newspaper reports and investigations by the petitioners into violence inflicted on women in the name of fatwa by local religious leaders and powerful corners.
It was alleged in the petitions that a number of deaths, suicides and incidents of grievous hurt of women were reported arising from punishment given in salish, but the law-enforcement agencies took no action to prevent those unlawful actions.Such kinds of conviction and punishment do not have any legal basis, they said.
The petitioners referred to international obligation under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979.
Earlier on August 25 last year, the HC directed the secretary to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, officials of the law-enforcement agencies and the chairmen of union parishads and municipalities to take immediate measures against extrajudicial penalties in salish.It also issued a rule asking them to show cause as to why their failure to prevent such illegal acts in compliance with their statutory obligations should not be declared illegal.
Barrister Sara Hossain appeared for the petitioners and Deputy Attorney General E
Sultana Kamal, also a former adviser to the caretaker government, said repression against women in the name of fatwa will decrease following the HC verdict.Women who want to control themselves as per their choice will get the right to protect themselves, she said, adding that perpetrators cannot impose their religious and cruel concepts upon them.
The HC bench of Justice Mohammad Gholam Rabbani in 2001 in another verdict declared fatwa illegal, although an appeal is pending with the Appellate Division in this regard.Petitioner Barrister Mahbub said yesterday's verdict is wider than that of 2001, since the latest one declares illegal all kinds of extrajudicial punishment, whereas the previous verdict declared illegal only fatwa.
Yesterday's verdict has asked the law enforcers to remain vigilant against extrajudicial punishment and report to the court about such incidents, he added.
Friends
Editorial : Question paper leak at BG PressNo mercy must be shown to those involved
THERE is little question that corruption in government is a sad reality we have lived with for years. Even so, there is in us that certain feeling that as governance improves and public sensibilities get to be more sharpened, such wrongdoing will be rolled back and the country can move on toward its desired goals. That being the sentiment, it comes as a shock for all us that some government staff have been involved in the crime of leaking question papers in return for dishonest financial gains. The crime we speak of concerns the Bangladesh Government (BG) Press taking place in Rangpur and involving a number of candidates for the position of assistant teachers at public high schools. As a report in this newspaper on Saturday notes, elements at the BG Press sold question papers related to an interview for the positions for a rather staggering amount of Tk. 25 lakh. The interview was, of course, cancelled as a consequence of the leak.
The manner in which the whole scam was organized speaks of the sophistication and strategic planning that were brought into the scandal. Those involved made it a point to have some candidates peruse the question papers, on payment of Tk. 2 lakh each, at a guest house in Gangachhara upazila of Rangpur. They were to pay an additional Tk. 3 lakh each once the examinations were over. They were forbidden to take out the question papers or to copy their contents. They were only permitted to commit the questions to memory, which again was a bizarre situation. In any case, what is jarring is the involvement of government employees in such a sensitive area as a government printing press. Besides, when the matter involves a public examination, it is shocking that some employees there could so easily and recklessly set up links with corrupt elements and in exchange for money agree to let them know the questions beforehand. In simple terms, departmental confidentiality, to say nothing of trust, has been undermined here. Of course, such leaks of questions have happened before, particularly at educational institutions. But now that it is the BG Press which is involved, one can only guess what might happen --- and on a graver and bigger scale --- in future if the problem is not tackled right away.
Altogether 167 people have been arrested over the scandal. The authorities have constituted a five-member probe body to inquire into the incident. We urge that the body go into the details of the scandal and submit its report by the July 19 deadline given to it. Moreover, it is important that the report be made public in the interest of citizens. We also think that a wholesale survey of all such institutions be conducted immediately in order for any gaps or loopholes to be plugged for the future. And it goes without saying that those found guilty of involvement in the Rangpur BG Press scam be given exemplary punishment as a deterrence for those tempted to commit similar crimes in future. No mercy should be shown here.
Dear Alochok Haque
His reply is a teasing appetizer scoffed down without the need to chew at all. More like a single nut at the end of a long day of fasting.
The trouble with the Bangladeshi partisan animal is that he is completely partisan in absolutely everything. Such partisanship cannot be controlled or concealed. In fact such partisans resent that they live in an era, or function in area, where their partisanship should require any moderation all.
He patronizingly asks us to read history. He apparently knows something we don't. Apparently there are sound historical reasons for the condition of our nation today.
Of course he doesn't want us to be obsessed with AL and BNP. That's what they do – dilute the importance of politics when their own party is in power. We wouldn't be obsessed with AL and BNP if AL and BNP weren't obsessed with power. In Bangladesh politics is the cause and effect of everything because AL and BNP have made sure that politics is involved in everything.
An article is a self contained and complete piece unless of course it is stated that the piece is part one of three. Or as in his case, an entire education is required before his article can be understood.
In the face of provocation he defines the Daily Star, in the first instance, relative to the values of 1971 and Pakistan. Is that what the paper is – a revolutionary paper? Well then, it does not seem so revolutionary today eh? And if he then seeks to reflect his partisanship onto the whole paper I suggest the paper come clean and market itself more honestly. I have no problems with the principles of 1971 but I have problems with people who get all self righteous about 1971 and use it as a battering ram to justify our present actions and conditions.
Mujib did make history and is great, but I am not, unlike this journalist, defined by that man. The point is that I am disagreeing with Mujib banning papers and this journalist has no problem with Mujib banning papers. That's why in an article about the banning of newspapers he finds it possible, as a journalist, to bring in the banning of Mujib while ignoring Mujib's own banning of papers.
When supporting your party every little drop in the ocean helps.
And it is the refuge of them all – please be polite. But it is the very contempt and disregard for them that catches their attention in the first place. They pretend they are interested in dialogue, that they are not predetermined, that they are neutral, that they are free to call murder – murder. But they are not. The language I use is hard earned by them and the respect they demand is but a ruse to be trapped in their deceits. Politeness will get you high minded lectures about what happened in 1971 with scant regard for the condition of our nation or our government today.
Let me illustrate brazenly.
This journalist will praise the President for his role in creating a human rights commission. But he would never dare to condemn an AL Home Minister about the beating of children by police with sticks during the recent hartal. Let alone a Home Minister and a President who are correctly informed about 1971.
Decent conversation implies a basic decency. Basic decency cannot be determined by decent conversation alone. What you secretly do, what you deliberately ignore, what you cunningly manipulate is more important than how nicely you converse.
In Bangladesh, the wiliest foxes are those who speak in the nicest way. It gets you very far, often unchallenged, in a nation which only 40 years ago was renowned for its poverty and illiteracy.
Our nation is best served not by those who invoke 1971 day and night for political gain. Our nation will be best served when those who do so are dead and a new generation reengages with its past more honestly, without self interest, blind partisanship and crass sentimentality.
It's why this journalist privately thinks Chatra League's agenda is a necessary evil. It's why he will feign decency in the written word but condone murder, extortion and violence committed by people, who like him, think loving Mujib necessarily makes you a complete man.
We don't need lectures on heritage by those who translate heritage into the politics of Bangladesh and blind support for a Nethri. This journalist is a closet Nethrist. He has a platform. But his intellectualism is not the same intellectualism of 1971. It is the intellectualism that is roundly rejected by many Bangladeshis who know that we are nowhere near where we should be – and why.
Decent conversation. About what? Banning the sky?
It's far more useful for them to learn that they too can be held in despicable contempt by people who can read and write English.
Ezajur Rahman
Kuwait
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "Mohd. Haque" <haquetm83@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Mr. B Ahsan,
> Â
> Thanks for your quick reflection and parting knowledge. As far as I am concern in this thread of postings, educating myself is the main objective as my profession is something has no link with what I say or do here (in this blog) or elsewhere in contrary to your position in this connection.
> Therefore my reading habit or writing a post, only to develop and make my opinion for the greater interest of our people I do not have AL or BNP in my background. What you as a political editor of daily star, as a prolific writer, take your position or taken your position already in the mind of thousands of DS readers or your own readers it is entirely their judgement, asking them to educate further to understand your writing is sheer arrogance.
> Â
> I used to read all your writings even when you wrote on 'lau er doga ebong alur vhorta', I did say in my last posting - 'distinctive' way of writing. But as I said, I will say again you do form the group what readers like me do not want to align, you have already become part of a media that has already raised many concern. Values of 71' that is your selling point nothing beyond that, nation's well being and greater intersts impaccably made a curved distant. You may take it or leave it.
> Â
> If you have a grain of respect to your readers, you endeavor to educate them not lecture them. Well, that is the remnant of our political players and their greatest marketeer's characteristics.Â
> You support AL, love Bango Bandhu I have no problem, but your reply did establish what I did not utter out of respect.
> Any way keep writing. Hope I did not write any thing disrespectful to you personally.      Â
> Â
> Haque
>
> --- On Sat, 10/7/10, B Ahsan <bahsantareq@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: B Ahsan <bahsantareq@...>
> Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] Re: The sky, the mind, the ban culture
> To: "Mohd. Haque" <haquetm83@...>
> Date: Saturday, 10 July, 2010, 1:10 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Read history, understand it, go into the details of what this nation has gone through. Don't be obsessed with the AL or BNP.
>
> Where my writings are concerned, you seem to have very little knowledge of them. Or you read selectively. Read, I say again. Educate yourself. Don't just read newspaper articles. There are books, loads of them.
>
> As for the Daily Star, it happens to be a defender of the principles for which we fought against Pakistan in 1971. You have any problems with that? Objectivity? Drop the idea. Go for the truth. Respect your heritage. Disagree with people like Mujib, but do not delude yourselves into thinking that they do not matter in Bangladesh's history. They are men who made history.
>
> The language you use about people you disagree with is appalling. Is that a result of education? Or is bigotry there? You want to have a decent conversation? Then use decent language. If you can't, drop the whole idea.
>
> Syed Badrul Ahsan
>
> --- On Sat, 10/7/10, Mohd. Haque <haquetm83@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: Mohd. Haque <haquetm83@...>
> Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] Re: The sky, the mind, the ban culture
> To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> Cc: "B Ahsan" <bahsantareq@...>
> Date: Saturday, 10 July, 2010, 11:34
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Ezajur,
> Â
> As I have mentioned earlier about SBA there is no way you can expect any thing objective from him, he can criticise the whole world and in a very distictive literary forms but nothing against Awami League.
> Today our biggest tragedy is we do not have any writers who you can read with an objective mind, if you want to read them either you need to put yourself in AL or BNP's mind set.
> How much you try to bring it to their attention, no use. Otherwise, same columnist or writer could have benefit the country in a great way.
> Amader pora kopal.Â
>
> --- On Wed, 7/7/10, ezajur <Ezajur@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: ezajur <Ezajur@...>
> Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: The sky, the mind, the ban culture
> To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, 7 July, 2010, 3:28 PM
>
>
> Â
>
>
>
> Syed Badrul Ahsan does everything possible to divert the reader from where blame lies - if blame lies with Awami League. Here he talks about everything under the sun in a crafty, roundabout way. He thinks he is very manipulative but for those who care enough to look twice his blind partisanship is very plain to see.
>
> Which is why he will talk about Pakistan banning Mujib but never mention Mujib banning political parties, the press etc. Whatever the situation, these people will find a way of twisting things in favour of their party and their their nethri.
>
> So he brings in Mujib, Tagore, Pakistan and even banning the sky.
>
> But what he should be doing is writing about who is responsible for the current banning fad in Dhaka. But what can you expect? Under no circumstances will people like him attack those who are doing the banning if those who are doing the banning belong to their party.
>
> And people like him are lead writers in the Daily Star.
>
> It is a horrific situation.
>
> Hey Badrul - talk about everything but don't talk about AL leaders who are behind the banning. Bloody rubbish Nethri system turns men into mice.
>
> And Badrul is a mouse. Just like every other man who swears blind loyalty to his Nethri and doesn't have the basic morals to protest injustice within his party.
>
> We are a nation of mice.
>
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "ezajur" <Ezajur@> wrote:
> >
> > Syed Badrul Ahsan is the Head of Awami League Current Affairs at the Daily Star. This piece is one of the best examples of what is wrong with intellectualism in Bangladesh today. This piece is deliberately diversionary and misleads the reader to a place far away from where the reader should be. It is political trickery posing as non partisan intellectualism.
> >
> > It is appalling that he is in such an important position and it is appalling that he is getting away with this kind of journalism - a kind of yellow journalism that hides both its real origins and its real motives.
> >
> > This is about as irrelevant and nonsensical a piece that you will find.
> >
> > Just what the politicians love to see in our papers.
> >
> > Instead of holding authorities to account Syed Badrul Ahsan has us reaching for our dictionary.
> >
> > Hey Badrul! Nowka! Nowka!
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Ezajur Rahman <Ezajur@> wrote:
> > >
> > > The sky, the mind, the ban culture
> > > Sadat Uddin Ahmed AmilSyed Badrul Ahsan
> > > THE ban on Facebook could be lifted within days. Or perhaps by the time you read this in print, it might already have been withdrawn. But that is not what exercises our minds at this point. What we are upset about is the brusqueness with which the attack on Facebook was made. Of course, if there is anything obscene that has appeared on it, if the reputations of citizens, powerful or meek, have been ridiculed, all that the authorities needed to do was to go after those who indulged in such nefarious deeds. But to assume that an entire system can be done away with or simply run out of town only rekindles in us all the old thoughts of bygone rulers trying to govern us through control mechanisms that eventually did not amount to much. Control led to chaos. The mechanisms broke down.
> > > The trouble with the post-modern era is that you cannot have all your wishes come true. All this technology around you is really daunting. More importantly, there is the matter of citizens' increasingly powerful sensibilities coming into play. Think back on the Tagore centenary celebrations in 1961 here in this land. Much effort was put into the job of trying to disrupt the proceedings by the Ayub Khan regime because it and its toadies believed Bengalis were actually celebrating the genius of a Hindu bard. Nothing worked for the regime, though. The presence of Justice Syed Mahbub Murshed at the head of the Tagore programme warded off the sinister shadow of the regime. The wolves then lay low, until the time came a few years later when Khwaja Shahabuddin, Ayub's information minister, finally clamped a ban on Tagore music in East Pakistan. That victory proved pyrrhic, though. By the late 1960s, Tagore was back and with him, with Bangabandhu Sheikh
> Mujibur
> > > Rahman in the forefront, Bengali nationalism was in the ascendant.
> > > Banning has never been a solution to a problem. It has been a problem on its own. Look at the record. Military regimes in Bangladesh and Pakistan, having shot their way into power, have gone for imposing a ban on or a suspension of the constitution. That act was speedily complemented by restrictions on the way women would move around. It is rather curious that one of the first things coup-makers do is push civilised laws under the carpet and go for an inspection of female anatomy, in the latter instance, eventually deciding what women should be wearing or not wearing. Well, as history informs us so gleefully, constitutions have always come back and women have certainly refused to have their couture chosen by soldiers propping up illegitimate governments. Usurper regimes have gone for a ban on politicians and political parties. Yahya Khan thought banning the Awami League in 1971 would resuscitate a dying Pakistan in our lives. In the event, the Awami
> > > League only made sure that Pakistan was banned in Bangladesh for all time in December 1971.
> > > There is something about the mind that rebels, always. When you ban a book, you are not only stifling intellectual freedom but also you are, at the same time, provoking people into wanting to read it. It is then that clandestine ways are discovered for the book to be distributed to as wide a circle as possible. You can threaten a writer with beheading; you can force a writer into exile. But do not forget that such ham-fisted measures only make the writer that much more appealing and readers that much more demanding. You can come up with all the excuses you can muster about the absence of moral dimensions in a movie and then clamp a ban on it. Once you do that, you are helping in the creation of an insular world for yourself. Insularity, you will of course remember, was what brought down apartheid South Africa and white minority-ruled Rhodesia.
> > > There is a certain degree of arrogance which comes with banning. Turkey's generals, for all their appreciable role in upholding the country's secular traditions, made the mistake of arguing that women could not wear headscarves. The consequence was defiance. Watch the wife of President Abdullah Gul. She never lets go of her headscarf. And like her, other Turkish women have taken to ignoring the scowl of the army. Just as the state cannot decree what raiment people can get into, individuals or groups of individuals cannot and must not insist that a particular sect of believers be proscribed as a faith. You can observe your religion in all its totality, but you cannot turn it into a weapon to intimidate adherents of other beliefs. In much the same way, you cannot be self-righteous about your politics and then use it to hunt down people and destroy their reputations on spurious charges of treason. If you do, you will find the guillotine waiting for you.
> Do
> > > not forget America's Joe McCarthy.
> > > The mind is certainly wider than the sky. You cannot outlaw the sky, can you? Why must you then try putting the mind in fetters? Why not ban the ban culture itself?
> > > Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.
> > > Email: bahsantareq@
> > >
> >
>
------------------------------------
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Its foolish to measure our success by the proliferation of our names.....another typically ignorant Bangladeshi mentality.
Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com
Dear Alochoks, If we connect the jergon - best brains are not allowed to stay in the country or they are settled in outside. When I do believe this, yet I am frustrated as I notice that all these best brains serving the best economies and societies or humanities, there contributions do not appears as such. If you go to a book shelf in - say Dubai or Kuala Lumpur or in London or New York how many titles you see authored by our best brains settled and enjoyed their lives in west. Please do not bring in Tommy Mian or Monica Ali as reference. Would appreciate if you can start a healthy debate on my frustration. --- On Fri, 9/7/10, ezajur <Ezajur@yahoo.com> wrote:
|