Banner Advertiser

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Re: [ALOCHONA] Fw: New Miss California of Bangladesh origin



Well she is just a teenager looking for looove!!
 
It is America for crying out loud. She can have any opinion she feels strongly about.
 
We should give credit to the people in the US for running a new "Affirmative action" plan for Muslim women. First out of the blue an Arab American was named MS. USA and now California stepped up to crown another one Miss California from Islamic "Background". All of us have to agree Muslim women are under represented in show business and glamour world. Got to say sorry to stunning beauties of San Diego for not making the cut. ;-)
 
Only in American it is possible.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either."
 
-------Mark Twain 

 


-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Khundkar <rkhundkar@earthlink.net>
Sent: Thu, Jul 15, 2010 6:08 am
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Fw: New Miss California of Bangladesh origin

 

Watch out the new Miss Calif does not like illegal immigrants.

 
New Miss California Against Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
By NATASHA ZOUVES
Updated 8:59 AM PDT, Wed, Jul 14, 2010
NBC NEWS
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local-beat/New-Miss-California-Crowned-not-Miss-California-USA-98374434.html


Newly crowned Miss California Arianna Afsar is not in the same competition as Carrie Prejean, but she may turn out to be just as controversial.

The UCLA sophomore is staunchly anti-amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

"I think that people who want to be a United States citizen need to come over here legally in order to get the privileges that every American receives," said the 18 year-old, during a webcam interview with NBCLA.

Afsar's own father is an immigrant from Bangladesh, who helped bring three relatives to the U.S legally.

"It ended up taking him 10 years, but he did it legally," said Afsar. "I don't think that if you are close to the border that you have the right to be given the rights of a United States citizen."

Afsar believes all immigrants should follow the same legal process as her father.

She was crowned Miss California in Fresno on July 10.

"I was completely sh ocked," recalls Afsar. "I'm definitely ready for the job, but I'm still a bit shocked."

Afsar should have no problem with national attention. The San Diego native was in the semi-finals of "American Idol," season eight.

Originally a judge's favorite, Afsar was praised as being "cute as a button." But her rendition of Abba's "The Winner Takes it All" prompted judge Simon Cowell to call her "absolutely terrible." Soon after, she was eliminated.

Afsar used her singing talent and her passion for helping the elderly to win the Miss California crown.

She created the "Adopt-A-Grandfriend" program in 2005, which aims at providing companionship to often lonely nursing home residents.

Afsar will take her platform, singing talents and poise to the Miss America pageant in January 2011.


__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] RE: Khabor Dot Kom Group RE: Mujahid boastfully Justified Intellectual Murders in Mojlish-us-Sura meetings




 Mr. Sayed Aslam
 
Al Badar were paid by Pakistan Army and they were a side wing of Pakistan Army. What Jamat e Islami as being of a civilian entity had rule over Al Badar. It might happen that a few supporter may join with that force as I always speaking Razakar and Al Badar Al Shmas all were Vote bank of Awami league.
 
90% Razakars were from Awami league. those who were from Rickshawala, Tela Wala or miscreant of the society joint to Razakar etc. for a salary of TK. 90 per month.
 
All Islamic Parties did not support Pakistan to be broken under the help of India. Everybody knows that India is a clear enemy of Islam and Muslim in this subcontinent. In 1947 millions of Muslim were killed by Hindus, in 1948 millions of Muslim were killed in Hydrabad when they were opposing indian occupation of free Muslim Hydrabad.
 
Actually India was waiting since 1947 for an opportunity to separate east and west wing of Pakistan and that opportunity they got in 1971.
 
Sheikh Muzib he himselp was trying to be the prime minister of pakistan, has never uttered for freedom of Bangladesh. Bangladesh was never been in question of independences if Military rulers of the west transfer the power, to sheikh Muzibur Rahaman.
 
All the olemas of Pakistan and all the islamic parties of pakistan never believed sheikh Muzib and India  because if these get chanches they will destroy Islam and Muslim identity and their thought became true........true............true.......Sheikh Muzib introduced secularism and banned all the Islamic parties by his first constitution in 1971. Lanuthullah for this group of people.
 
Any misdoing ... raping ... looting ....killing by pakistani army or any other entity that were in 90% cases by that entities individual foe but not official administrative oreder by the military regimes but I strongly support those mis doers must brought to justice but we see Sheikh Muzib pardoned those 195 war criminals and returned them like as Jami Adar.
 
So be waken Mr. Sayed Aslam, open your eyes for last 200 years and for future 200 years and justify your standing.
 
Thanking you
 
Mohammed Ramjan Ali Bhuiyan
a fore front freedom fighter - 1971


Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:31:11 -0400
Subject: Re: Khabor Dot Kom Group RE: Mujahid boastfully Justified Intellectual Murders in Mojlish-us-Sura meetings
From: syed.aslam3@gmail.com
To: khabor@yahoogroups.com; notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com; chottala@yahoogroups.com; sonarbangladesh@yahoogroups.com

Mr. Mohammad Ramjan
 
fabricated !!!!!!!!! ..... that's  what the Jamaati supporters are
now saying!
 
Jamaati leaders have always misled it's faithful cadres in the
name of Islam wearing Islamic lebash (cloaks) !!!!!
 
Do  you want to deny that Jamaat organized It's armed gestapo
wing Al-bodor death Squads?
 
[Jamat's Al-bodor wing may still exist as an underground
organization .....Jamaat has never dissolved it].
 
In 1971 Al-Bodor's signature trade marks was to pick up innocent
civillians (pro-independence) and take them to their head quarter
and torture them and eventually kill these defenceless captives .....
Nizami-Mujahid gong were the master-minds behind these murders
of innocent civillians ...
 
The Jamaate Islami is demeaning Islam by using name of Islam for
every crime it commits ...... Jamaate Islami try to pose itself as a
Pro-Islamic party but in reality  they are the worst hypocrites that
exist on the face of this earth.
 
The  names of "AlBodor Death Squad" organizers has already been
written in the History of Bangladesh as the Tweentieth Century
Yazidists ...... !!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Syed Aslam
 
On 7/15/10, Mohammed Ramjan <mramjan@hotmail.com> wrote:
 

 All are lies and fabricated, Jamat e Islami can never do such and no need to do such a thing, don't beleive all these propoganda war.

Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:27:31 -0400
Subject: Mujahid boastfully Justified Intellectual Murders in Mojlish-us-Sura meetings
From: syed.aslam3@gmail.com
 
 Mujahid boastfully Justified Intellectual Murders in Mojlish-us-Sura meetings
 
iRxlËm mÔkwt iÖRwxpb gÖx¦Rygy pZøwKw¡ xdËt Mgê KkËZd: xkiwË« ÌRGixg Awxik owBbÖk :
 
 iRxlËm mÔkwt iÖRwxpb gÖx¦Rygy pZøwKw¡ xdËt Mgê KkËZd: xkiwË« ÌRGixg Awxik owBbÖk

xhIxgxW, XwKw ÌaËK

4 xbËdk eÖxlm xkiwË« ÌRGixgk Awxik owBbÖk kpiwd RwfkËK xRšwowgwb ÂkØ KËkËQ XwKw ipwdMk ÌMwËtëbw eÖxlm„ MZKwl bÖeÖËk XwKw ÌKëbÛyt KwkwMwk ÌaËK xiËëUw ÌkwW ÌMwËtëbw KwjêwlËt Awdw pt„ ZwËK ÌRGixgk elwZK RxŠ, Aþè ÌMwlwgwkØb Ggv RwiwtwZ oóeËKê xRšwowgwb Kkw pËtËQ„ owBbÖk ÌMwËtëbw eÖxlmËK gËlËQd, RwiwtwËZk ÌoË¢ßUwxk ÌRdwËkl Awly Awpowd Ìiwpwóiwb iÖRwxpËbk GKw£Ëk hÓxiKw Ìj þñwcydZwxgËkwcy xQl Zw Zwk xgxhdí oiËt Ìbtw g£ßËgø DËV GËoËQ„

xZxd gËld, Awly Awpowd iÖRwxpb xgxhdí oiËt AdÖxÅZ RwiwtwËZk iRxlËm mÔkwk ohwt Mgê KËk glËZd xZxdB GKw£Ëk gÖx¦Rygy pZøwKwË¡k AdøZi dwtK„ Ìooit xZxd gÖx¦RygyËbk pZøw dw KkËl RwiwtwZ G ejêìZô Ìe#QËZ ewkËZw dw„ iÖRwxpb AwËkw glËZd AwËkw oit ÌeËl xZxd þñwcydZwk þñeËqk og gÖx¦RygyËKB Ìmn KkËZ ewkËZd„ xKìç 16 xWËo¹k þñwcydZw lwËhk fËl Awlgbk gwxpdyk og pZøw exkKùedw gwþZôgwxtZ Kkw jwtxd gËl iÖRwxpb iRxlËm mÔkwk ohwt eÞKwËmøB glËZd„

MZkwËZB ÌRGixgk Awxik owBbÖkËK RwiwtwZ ÌdZw ixZDk kpiwd xdRwiy I Awly Awpowd Ìiwpwóiwb iÖRwxpËbk iÖËLwiÖxL Kkw pt„ Goit owBbÖkËK ÌbËL bÖB RwiwtwZ ÌdZwB xgxþôZ pd„ G oit ÌMwËtëbw KiêKZêwkw iÖRwxpËbk KwËQ eÞmí kwËLd 'Awedwk ÌdZÚËZò GKw£Ëk gÖx¦Rygy pZøwKw¡ NËUËQ„ ZLd iÖRwxpb AþñyKwk KËkd„ Goit ÌRGixgk Awxik ZwËK (iÖRwxpb) lqø KËk gËld 'AwexdËZw gÉgwk iRxlËm mÔkwk ohwt gÖx¦Rygy pZøwKwË¡k Kaw Mgê KËk gËlËQd„ Awxi Zwk owqy„ Goit owBbÖËkk Kawt P×eËo jwd iÖRwxpb„

xdRwiyËK ÌbËLB owlwi Ìbd owBbÖk kpiwd„ Gkek K×mlwxb xRšwow KËkd„ ZLd xdRwiy gËld, 'ÌbLËZBËZw ewkËQd ÌKid AwxQ'„ owBbÖk xdRwiyËK ÌbxLËt gËld, 'Ddwk oËŠ Awxi GK xgQwdwt NÖxiËtxQ„ ÌRGixgk dwdw xgnËt xgxhdí xgnËt Ddwk oËŠ Awiwk KawI pËtËQ„ ÌRwU AwiËl Awiwk ÌQËl ÌMÞ®wk pItwk ek DdwËK Awxi ÌfwdI KËkxQlwi„



The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Get started.




Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your inbox. See how.

__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] New york Times - Bangladesh, With Low Pay, Moves In on China



July 16, 2010

Bangladesh, With Low Pay, Moves In on China

By VIKAS BAJAJ

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/business/global/17textile.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

 

GAZIPUR, Bangladesh — The eight-lane highway leading from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, narrows repeatedly as it approaches this town about 30 miles north, eventually depositing cars onto a muddy, potholed lane bordered by mangroves and small shops.

 

But this is no mere rural backwater. It is the sort of place to which foreign manufacturers may increasingly turn, if the rising wage demands of factory workers in China prompt companies to seek new pools of cheap labor elsewhere.

 

Already, in factories behind steel gates and tall concrete walls, tens of thousands of workers, most of them women, spend their days stitching T-shirts, pants and sweaters for Wal-Mart, H&M, Zara and other Western retailers and brands.

 

One of the Bangladeshi companies here, the DBL Group, employs 9,000 people making T-shirts and other knitwear. Business has been so good that the company is finishing a new 10-story building with open floors the size of soccer fields, planted with row after row of sewing machines.

 

"Our family needed the money, so we came here," said Maasuda Akthar, a 21-year-old sewing machine operator for DBL.

 

As costs have risen in China, long the world's shop floor, it is slowly losing work to countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia — at least for cheaper, labor-intensive goods like casual clothes, toys and simple electronics that do not necessarily require literate workers and can tolerate unreliable transportation systems and electrical grids.

 

Li & Fung, a Hong Kong company that handles sourcing and apparel manufacturing for companies like Wal-Mart and Liz Claiborne, reported that its production in Bangladesh jumped 20 percent last year, while China, its biggest supplier, slid 5 percent.

 

"Bangladesh is getting very competitive," William Fung, Li & Fung's group managing director, told analysts in March.

 

The flow of jobs to poorer countries like Bangladesh started even before recent labor unrest in China led to big pay raises for many factory workers there — and before changes in Beijing's currency policy that could also raise the costs of Chinese exports. Now, though, economists expect the migration of China's low-paying jobs to accelerate.

 

And while workers in Bangladesh and other developing countries are demanding higher pay, too — leading to a clash between police and protesters earlier this week in a garment hub outside Dhaka — they still earn much less than Chinese factory workers.

 

Bangladesh, for instance, has the lowest garment wages in the world, according to labor rights advocates. Ms. Akthar, who is relatively well paid by local standards, earns about $64 a month. That compares to minimum wages in China's coastal industrial provinces ranging from $117 to $147 a month.

 

"The Chinese firms that are beginning to get into trouble are producing textiles, rubber footwear and things like that," said Barry Eichengreen, a professor of economics and political science at the University of California. "And there are lots of countries in South Asia and East Asia and in Central America that would like to fill this space."

 

But Bangladesh has its own challenges to overcome.

 

China's combination of a vast population of migrant workers, many with at least elementary school educations, along with modern roads, railways and power grids in its industrial provinces, has bestowed it with manufacturing capabilities that countries like Bangladesh cannot offer. Beijing also provides low-cost loans and other incentives to its industries that other countries have trouble matching for theirs.

 

Most of Bangladesh, meanwhile, suffers blackouts six to seven hours a day because it has not invested enough in power plants and natural gas fields — deficiencies that the government is working on but that will not be eliminated quickly.

 

The country has a literacy rate of only 55 percent — compared with more than 92 percent in China. As a result, workers in this country are only one-fourth as productive as the Chinese in making shirts, jackets and other woven clothes, according to a report by the Center for Policy Dialogue, an independent research organization based in Dhaka.

 

Despite its handicaps, Bangladesh nearly doubled garment exports from 2004 to 2009. And the industry now employs about three million people, more than any other industrial segment in this largely agrarian country of 160 million. From June through November last year, garment exports accounted for more than 80 percent of the country's total exports of $7.1 billion.

 

Among developing countries, Bangladesh is the third-biggest exporter of clothing after mainland China, which exported $120 billion in 2008, and Turkey, a distant No. 2, according to the World Trade Organization.

 

And with nearly 70 million people of working age, Bangladesh could probably absorb many more of China's 20 million garment industry jobs.

 

Still, some of the changes in China could prove to be mixed blessings for Bangladesh. If China allows its currency, the renminbi, to trade more freely, Bangladeshi exports would become more competitive.

 

But a stronger renminbi could also hurt Bangladesh by raising the price of machinery and fabric imported from China, its biggest supplier, said Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, an assistant professor of economics at the Yale School of Management. Over time, Bangladesh could buy more from other countries, like India, but those countries first would need to build up significant production capacity.

 

And as in China, workers in Bangladesh have started demanding higher pay. In recent weeks, labor protests have periodically shut down garment factories as thousands of workers battled police in Dhaka and other garment hubs like Gazipur. Late last month, police clashed with about 15,000 protesters on a busy Dhaka street lined with garment factories. In one exchange, a clutch of protesters lobbed bricks at police officers from an alley opposite the Outright Fashion factory, before fleeing as the officers charged at them with batons, tear gas canisters and the hot, colored water used to both disperse protesters and mark them for later identification.

 

Garment workers are demanding a 200 percent increase in the minimum wage, to 5,000 taka (about $71) a month — which is how much workers with several years of experience now earn. The government, which plans to announce a new minimum wage soon, last increased it in 2006, to 1,662.50 taka (about $24). Since then, inflation has been as high as 9.9 percent a year.

 

"Most garment workers live in slum areas where one room costs 2,000 to 3,000 taka," said Mushrefa Mishu, president of the Garment Workers' Unity Forum, an association that claims to represent more than 60,000 members.

 

Labor leaders want the government to make it easier for workers to form unions — very few factories are unionized today — and to require higher safety standards and better working conditions.

 

In January, H&M, Wal-Mart, Gap, Tesco and other Western clothing buyers asked the Bangladeshi government to raise the minimum wage and reset it every year, although the group did not specify what the wage should be. A spokeswoman for H&M, Malin Bjorne, said the company was willing to pay more for clothing to help support higher wages. It is unclear whether other companies would do the same.

 

But factory owners here argue that a big increase in wages would make them uncompetitive against Vietnam and other big producers, which have higher labor costs but also have better infrastructure and are more efficient producers. If that happened, Bangladesh's China opportunity could prove all too fleeting, they say.

 

"If it's 5,000 taka, I would close all my factories," said Anisul Huq, a former head of the Bangladeshi garment industry's trade group and a factory owner whose customers include H&M and Wal-Mart. "Even if it's 3,000 taka, lots of factories will close within three or four months."

 

__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Beyond the Veil: A Response



Beyond the Veil: A Response



__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] RAB arrest another ULFA leader



RAB arrest another ULFA leader
 
 
Dhaka, July 17 (bdnews24.com) -- Rapid Action Battalion arrested a leader of the Indian separatist group, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), Ranjan Chowdhury and an associate from Kishoreganj's Bhairab Upazila in the early hours of Saturday.

The ULFA leader, Ranjan Chowdhury alias Major Ranjan, has been staying in Bangladesh since 1997 and has been maintaining contact with the group. Ranjan and his assistant Prodip Marak were arrested from Lakkhmipur area of the Upazila around 4.30am. The RAB recovered a foreign-made pistol, a revolver, four rounds of ammunitions and four hand grenades in their possession.

Ranjan Chowdhury is referred to as major Ranjan as he specialises in military training and has been working for ULFA since 1990, commander Mohammad Sohael Ahmed, RAB legal and media wing's director, said in a press conference at their headquarters on Saturday noon. "Ranjan received special training to use firearms and grenades. He escaped to Bangladesh in 1995 after serving a year in prison at India. However, he maintained constant contact with ULFA leaders in Bhutan and Nepal including its military wing chief Paresh Barua." Ranjan hails from Dhubrir Gouripur's Madhu Shoulmari area of Assam. He lived at Gazni in Jhenaigati Upazila in Sherpur in Bangladesh and married a Bangladeshi woman Sabitri Dum in 2001.
 
Last February, Indian authorities arrested ULFA chief Arabinda Rajkhowa along with a number of members of the separatist group including his personal bodyguard Raja Bora, the deputy commander-in-chief of the ULFA's military wing Raju Barua. Despite various media reports claiming that the ULFA chief was arrested by Bangladesh and handed over to his home country, authorities in both the countries declined to comment on the matter. However, it was proved that Rajkhowa has long been staying in Bangladesh under the alias of Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury and even had a Bangladeshi passport citing him to be a citizen by birth.

ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia is currently in a Bangladeshi prison.
 
---------------------------------
ULFA to Dhaka: Stop 'crackdown'
 
New Delhi, Dec 11 (bdnews24.com) – The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has appealed to Awami League government to stop its ongoing crackdown against the insurgent organisations of northeastern India.

"A party like the Awami League, which fought for Bangladesh's freedom, should try and understand our passion for independence. "We are fighting against Indian colonialism much the same way they fought against colonialism of Pakistan," the ULFA 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua said in a statement e-mailed to bdnews24.com.

Four other insurgent outfits of the troubled region--the outlawed Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)--have also echoed the ULFA. "We know that the spirit of freedom has always prevailed, even against the strongest power on earth. "And we believe that in the spirit of freedom the people of Bangladesh will have sympathy and support for our liberation struggle transcending their government's contrary policies," they said in the joint statement with ULFA.

The ULFA has been pursuing an armed struggle since 1979 with the professed objective of liberating the hydrocarbon-rich northeastern Indian state of Assam from what they term as New Delhi's 'colonial rule'. Thousands have died during its insurgent campaign. Barua heads the armed wing of the outlawed organisation. The NDFB too is fighting for an independent homeland for two million Bodos, who live in parts of western Assam and are among the early settlers of the state.

The MPLF is a conglomeration of three secessionist rebel organisations of another northeastern Indian state Manipur. The NLFT and ATTF are also fighting against the Indian government with the objective of liberating Tripura from colonial rule of India. "The people of northeast India wholeheartedly supported the Bangladesh liberation war, so why should Bangladesh not support our struggle," Barua said in the communiqué from an undisclosed location.

The ULFA military chief's appeal to the AL government came a week after New Delhi announced the arrest of the outfit's chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa by the Border Security Force (BSF) near the India-Bangladesh border at Dawki in northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya. Raju Barua, the deputy commander-in-chief of ULFA's armed wing, was also arrested along with Rajkhowa on Dec 4 last

Sources in the Indian government's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), however, had said that Rajkhowa had been picked up from somewhere in Bangladesh and was unofficially handed over to the BSF. Dhaka has categorically denied that Rajkhowa was detained in Bangladesh. But Rajkhowa, himself, indicated that he had been arrested in Bangladesh. "Bangladesh has betrayed us (ULFA)," he had told journalists when produced in a court in Guwahati, the capital of Assam, on Dec 5.

The five insurgent outfits in their joint statement said that the "arrest and hand-over" of Rajkhowa and other leaders of ULFA by the Bangladesh government had deeply hurt the sentiments of the peoples Assam, Manipur and Tripura, who had contributed in no small way to the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. "It may be recalled that our region served the much needed rear base of the Bangladesh liberation war. The peoples of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura provided generous shelters to hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters of Bangladesh. "And now our Region provides shelter for livelihood to hundreds of thousands of migrant Bangladeshis," the proscribed organisations stated. "It is, therefore, only natural that the peoples of our region now engaged in liberation struggles feel betrayed in their hour of need by this act of the Bangladesh government."

The ULFA military chief Barua also strenuously denied Indian media reports that his organisation was aplnning to launch attacks in Bangladesh to avenge the handover of Rajkhowa and other leaders. "We are not waging war against any other country, we are only fighting India, but we appeal to Dhaka not to fall prey to Indian colonialism," he said.

India and Bangladesh have not yet inked any bilateral extradition treaty. Delhi has also long been conveying to Dhaka its concern over Indian insurgents and terrorists having bases in Bangladesh. But some sources have suggested that Dhaka has recently accepted Delhi's proposal for a tacit understanding to track down and catch the fugitives of India illegally taking shelter in Bangladesh.

Last month two ULFA leaders – its 'finance secretary' Chitrabon Hazarika and 'foreign secretary' Shashadhar Choudhury – were arrested by the BSF near the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura. The ULFA alleged at the time too that Hazarika and Choudhury had in fact been picked up by some unidentified men from a residential area in Dhaka and later handed over to the BSF.

After the detention of the ULFA chairman and others, its military wing chief Barua is the only top leader of the outfit who is still absconding. Indian intelligence officials believe that Barua too was based in Dhaka, at least till recently. In March 2008, two men Mohammed Hafijur Rehman and Din Mohammed, both prime accused in the Chittagong arms haul case, had confessed in the court that the 10 truck-loads of weapons and ammunition that was seized in 2004 had in fact been meant for the ULFA. Rehman also revealed that Barua, himself, had supervised the arms-smuggling operation.

It is not clear now if Barua is still in Bangladesh or has fled to any other neighbouring country in the wake of the crackdown by Dhaka on Indian insurgents and terrorists. Amid speculation of a peace-process between the government of India and ULFA, Barua said if India was a people's democracy, it should allow the "voice of the people of Assam to be heard."

"Negotiations must be free and unfettered. Or else, India should hold a referendum or a plebiscite and let the people of Assam express themselves freely. If they say they want to be part of India, so be it. "We will accept the people's verdict but the conduct of the plebiscite should be free and fair and nobody should try to influence it," said Barua.

------------------------
 
ULFA claims Delhi 'creating roadblocks' to peace
 
By Subhra Kanti Gupta in Guwahati

Guwahati, Oct 27(bdnews24.com) — One of northeast India's strongest separatist groups, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), has offered negotiations for reaching a peaceful settlement, but blamed the Indian government for "creating roadblocks."

"Delhi is adopting different yardsticks for starting negotiations. While it continues to talk with the Naga rebel groups without insisting on them surrendering weapons, it is asking us to give up our arms before talks start," ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said this week in an e-mailed statement. "Why should Delhi ask us to surrender weapons when it has never negotiated a deal with any major rebel group by insisting on such conditions?" he asked.

That gives the feeling that Delhi is not interested in achieving peace in Assam through negotiations, Rajkhowa said, insisting "we are always for a peaceful settlement." The ULFA has been decimated by a series of reverses leading to the arrest or death of many of its field commanders.

Indian intelligence says the new Bangladesh government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has also come down heavily on the ULFA, booked its leaders in many cases like the 2004 Chittagong 'ten truck arms' seizure and arrested a number of them. "Dhaka's tough attitude has made it difficult for the ULFA to thrive, so they will look for a breather," a senior official of India's intelligence bureau said.

"I am sure the moderate section of ULFA wants to talk," said Ajit Kumar Bhuiyan, editor of the largest circulated Assamese daily 'Pratidin'. "But I am not sure whether the peace feelers have the backing of the outfit's hardline military wing chief Paresh Barua," said Bhuiyan, who was also a member of the now defunct Peoples Consultative Group (PCG) that was set up in 2006 by the ULFA to facilitate talks with the Indian government.

In 1992, ULFA leaders led by Arabinda Rajkhowa did open parleys with the Indian government but Paresh Barua opposed the moves and the peace efforts fell through. The PCG folded in 2007 after Delhi called off negotiations, following three rounds of talks, blaming the ULFA for not enforcing a ceasefire. The ULFA was set up in April 1979 to fight for Assam's independence. Thousands have died during its separatist campaign.


__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] The nun and the burqa



The nun and the burqa
 
Bronwyn Lay
 
Bronwyn Lay

 
 
When Germaine Greer savaged Michelle Obama's dress in The Guardian I sighed. Again with the clothes! I got to thinking about feminism and fashion.

I live in France and one of the main cultural barriers is my Australian sense of dress — slobby and untamed. I often catch glimpses of sympathy from villagers as I lob up the street in 'male' clothes, i.e. Blundstones and jeans.

Admittedly, I find French fashion oppressive. The Sunday markets in the posh village near us are riddled with women in tight white pant suits, fake tan, gold bling and violently spiked heels. The uniform is completed by a ciggie hanging off one hand and a small dog tucked under the other. Plastic surgery is rife — faces like melted masks, with no laugh or grief lines and lips bursting out like helium balloons.

The predatory 'beauty' market is a challenge to feminism, and I resent the capitalist industry that drains money and energy from women by promising to transform them into mannequins.

In summer two extremes of fashion ideology — burqas and mannequins — line up at the market to buy bread. Many Saudi Arabian families come to this region for holidays. burqas, some diamond encrusted with Chanel markings, can be seen flying around as women pick out peaches from the stalls. The fabric drapes over the cobblestones as if claiming possession, and wings of fabric are nothing but graceful.

Burqas can be confronting as images of the Taliban come to mind, but I am distrustful of my own fear. These links, made in the subconscious and fed by the media, demand rigorous interrogation.

As my daggy clothes brush against burqas while we wander through the markets together, I'm well aware that my refusal to partake in French fashion doesn't affect me much. In the middle of 2008 France denied citizenship to a woman because her values were incompatible with laïcité, the principle of the secular State.

The Conseil d'Etat rejected Silmi Faiza's application because of her presumed subservience to her husband and her reclusive lifestyle. The evidence to illustrate her inability to assimilate French values, particularly equality of the sexes, was her refusal to give up wearing the burqa. As her husband and three children were already French, Faiza is the only member of her family denied citizenship. Equality of the sexes?

When the decision to reject Faiza's application for citizenship hit the media, strict Islamic dress codes were equated with radical Islamic values. One blogger claimed the burqa was a contemporary swastika. The case raised a plethora of issues: the compatibility of the secular state with religious practise, the use of the law to impose civic values and how equality of the sexes is defined.

If you took a substantive rather than formal view of equality of the sexes, it would be easy to equate plastic surgery consumers as proponents of commodifying capitalism. You could construct an argument that these 'mannequins' are incapable of assimilating in a state that upholds real equality of the sexes.

This argument would be howled down but is it all that far fetched? Faiza consented to the burqa, claiming no one forced it on her. Many consumers of plastic surgery decry the claim that they do it for the male gaze. 'It's for me,' is the common call.

Where plastic surgery consumers brandish their choice to be objectified, the burqa can be used to hide from it. Both are possible reactions to the male gaze, and they equally stir the disquiet of many feminists.

Whether or not the burqa is oppressive is contestable. But that aside, the State is opening a Pandora's Box if it presumes it can get under the fabric/skin of those it believes have consented to their own oppression.

Anyone who has worked with victims of domestic violence knows that it's problematic to question an adult's capacity to determine their own life. Free choice, a cornerstone of liberty, can be an insurmountable barrier when you're desperate to save a woman's life by convincing her to flee a lethal relationship, but she refuses to budge.

The State doesn't force women living with domestic violence to leave home, because its ingrained respect for individual consent is paramount in civil law and is embedded into Western cultural norms.

Issues of consensual oppression are difficult to adjudicate. Any democratic State that assumes a capacity to see though layers of culture, social conditioning and freedom of choice faces contradictions and accusations of totalitarian tendencies. Is a reclusive life inherently oppressive? How does one measure subservience? By your clothes?

Following the logic of the Conseil d'Etat inane analogies are all too easy. I wonder how a fully garbed nun, living a reclusive life of prayer and consenting to the authority of a male Pope/Bishop, would fare. I doubt the nun would be refused citizenship.

So I wonder if this decision epitomises French fear of Islamic religious practises, rather than an issue of equality of the sexes. As with the nun's garb, beneath the burqa, plastic surgery and my own 'men's clothes' are flesh and blood women who, regardless of their feminist position, religious practises and cultural choices, are entitled to equal access to the law and its resultant protection.

It's all too easy to create a victim and then pick on her clothes. And Germaine, leave Michelle alone.


Bronwyn Lay lives with her family in rural France. She is enrolled in a Masters of English Literature at the University of Geneva and is working on her first novel. Previously she worked as a legal aid lawyer in Australia with post-graduate qualifications in political theory.

 http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=10396



__._,_.___


[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
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

__,_._,___