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Sunday, August 1, 2010

[ALOCHONA] NEW STUDY OF RISKS FROM LOW LEVELS OF ARSENIC EXPOSURE IN BANGLADESH



NEW STUDY OF RISKS FROM LOW LEVELS OF ARSENIC EXPOSURE IN BANGLADESH HAS POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS

The following information was released by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center:

A new study published in The Lancet, focusing on the mortality from arsenic contamination of drinking water in Bangladesh, has potential implications for other regions with low level arsenic exposure in drinking water, including New England. According to Margaret Karagas, PhD, co-director of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center's Cancer Epidemiology and Chemoprevention Program and professor of epidemiology at Dartmouth Medical School, who published a Comment in The Lancet in conjunction with the study, the new research provides valuable data for establishing health and risk guidelines for low levels of arsenic concentration.

The prospective cohort research, called Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS), found that residents of Bangladesh exposed to well water with arsenic concentrations as low as 10 micrograms per liter, or 10 parts per billion, are at potentially increased risk of death. The researchers believe their data demonstrate that an estimated 21% of deaths from all causes and 24% of deaths linked to chronic diseases (including cancers) in Bangladesh could be attributed to drinking arsenic-contaminated well water at concentrations at or greater than 10 micrograms per liter.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit for arsenic contamination of drinking water is 10 micrograms per liter; according to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, approximately 13% of the drinking-water wells in New Hampshire exceed the EPA limit for arsenic contamination.

Long-term arsenic exposure has been linked with a higher risk of cancers of the liver, kidney, bladder, and skin, vascular disease and other serious health problems. Drinking water contaminated with arsenic is a significant public health problem in at least 70 countries.

In a Comment published with the HEALS research in The Lancet, Dr. Karagas stated: "The beauty of the HEALS cohort is that it includes concentrations at the lower end of the dose-response curve and concentrations at the high end at which known health effects occur. Such data are rarely available, yet they are important for establishing rational guidelines... An estimated 20% of the world's population lacks access to safe drinking water. In 2010, we are reminded once again of the effect of the earth's drinking water supply on the human lifespan and the challenges of securing this scarce resource." Dr. Karagas is currently involved in several ongoing arsenic-related studies in New England.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center combines advanced cancer research at Dartmouth Medical School with patient-centered cancer care provided at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock regional locations in Manchester and Keene, NH, and St. Johnsbury, VT, and at 11 partner hospitals throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. It is one of 40 centers nationwide to earn the National Cancer Institute's "Comprehensive Cancer Center" designation.

Learn more about Norris Cotton Cancer Center research, programs and clinical trials online at cancer.dartmouth.edu

http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/news_display/1218042022.html



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[ALOCHONA] 1972 Constitution



‎72' Constitution has suddenly become a holy cow, but who violated it 4 times before 1975 ?:
 
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In defence of the 1972 Constitution

Syed Badrul Ahsan

Photo: STARThere are some very significant reasons why we should be going back to the Constitution as it was drafted, deliberated upon and adopted in 1972. It matters little what its detractors happen to be saying about it. There are some who think that Bangladesh will never go back to 1972. You tend to wonder why they should be saying that.

Such men have always been vociferous defenders of the infamous Fifth Amendment, a piece of paper that will always be remembered for all the notoriety it brought into Bangladesh's politics between August 1975 and April 1979, and even beyond that. When you place that amendment in juxtaposition to the 1972 Constitution, you know what your preference ought to be.

The 1972 Constitution is by far the best and most eloquent instance of our self-expression as a nation. And it is because you have within it all those principles that went into the forging of Bengali nationhood, into an espousal of the four ideals which governed our thoughts as we waged war against the state of Pakistan in 1971.

For those of us who were witness, either on the fields of battle or in internal exile in occupied Bangladesh, to the villainy that could be committed by an army and by the very state it spoke for in the name of national integrity and in defence of what was clearly fake religiosity, thoughts of nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism were patently the new and needed underpinning of our collective life as a nation.

And yet, when you examine the historical parameters of Bengali heritage, you realise only too well that these four principles had always been at work among Bengalis. What occurred in 1947, when we decided to be part of Pakistan, was but an aberration.

And no matter how some people might inform you that Partition was inevitable, that the two-nation theory was the dominant reality of the time, you know in your heart and in your soul that it was anything but the truth. And we paid grievously for it. As a matter of fact, the communalism that was inaugurated in the 1940s lingers, in diverse ways, all across the subcontinent.

The battle for Bangladesh in 1971 was, from the historical as well as philosophical perspective, a necessity in order for communalism, for an unnatural course of politics, to be set aside. That we were first of all secular Bengalis and not communal East Pakistanis was what increasingly came to be reasserted in the 1950s (think of the Jukto Front and, before that, the language movement) and reinforced through the 1960s. The War of Liberation simply formalised, through the supreme sacrifices of three million Bengalis, that secular Bengali spirit.

The Constitution of 1972 was but a moral and legal adoption of that spirit. In the 1972 Constitution lay embedded the highest ideals of political liberalism. That the state of Bangladesh was the abode of everyone who inhabited it, everyone across the frontiers of faith, was the point the Constitution drove home.

Religion, having regularly been an excuse for Pakistan's rulers to explain away their political misconduct and their racial prejudices (what was done to East Pakistan was political and economic exploitation resting on deep-seated racism on the part of West Pakistan), was restored by the 1972 Constitution to its proper, noble place.

That is the good bit in the story. The bad came in with the Fourth Amendment to the 1972 Constitution. It was a bad move, an ominous one. And those who advised Bangabandhu to go for it did not quite realise the risks the country was being put to, even if a single-party state made sure that the four state principles remained intact.

The Fourth Amendment, you can say in hindsight, was the perfect opportunity old Pakistan enthusiasts needed to destabilise Bangladesh. General Ziaur Rahman saw that opportunity through to reality. He had no business tampering with the Constitution. But since it has been the rule with dictators to play God, Zia thought he could do a bit of tinkering with 1972.

And the moment he did that, through giving the Constitution a dash of the communal, he opened the floodgates to disaster. Had Bangladesh been a proper democracy constituted of a politically enlightened citizenry, the general and those who humiliated the country thus would have been held guilty of sedition.

If Zia hurled the first blow at the 1972 Constitution, General Hussein Muhammad Ershad followed with the next. He thought, in the infinity of his wisdom, that the state of Bangladesh was in dire need of a religion. People need religion. But Ershad told us Bangladesh needed a religion.

Now the fallen dictator would like us to know that Bismillah and the state religion should not be tampered with. But that is not our concern, is it? Our worry has more to do with the fact that two military dictators have tampered with the 1972 Constitution. It is that constitution we must go back to if we mean to have secular democracy flourish in our land.

Ah, but democracy must touch the lives of all citizens. Which is why the 1972 Constitution, in its restored, retouched and rejuvenated form, must enshrine within it the political and historical rights of all the tribes, all the sub-cultures who have inhabited this territory for ages. They are the Chakmas, Marmas, Mros, Santals and so many others. Do not sacrifice them only because Bengalis happen to be the bulk of the population.

Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star. E-mail:
bahsantareq@yahoo.co.uk
 


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[ALOCHONA] AUDIT REPORT TO EC: AL, many others miss deadline



 
 
Almost half of the registered political parties, including the ruling Awami League, have failed to submit audit reports on their financial transactions in the last calendar year to the Election Commission.Twenty out of the 38 registered political parties, including main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, submitted their audit reports before last Sunday, the last day for doing so.
   
Most of the parties out of the 18 who did not submit audit reports sought more time to do so. The parties were given seven months' time from January to comply with the legal provisionfor submitting reports on financial transactions.
   
Referring to the defaulting parties, chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda on Sunday said that the EC would not take a hard line in this regard and hoped that in the future the parties would submit their reports in time.'The commission at its meeting will decide what to do with those who failed to submit their reports, but will not take a hard line. The country's political culture will not be changed suddenly. This is the first time that the parties are submitting audit reports. In the future they will be more aware and submit the reports on time,' the CEC told the reporters.
   
The parties which have submitted the reports are BNP, Jamaat, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Awami Party, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasad, Zaker Party, Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, Bangladesh Khelataf Andolon, Progotishil Ganotantrik Dal, Bangladesh National Awami League Party (Bangladesh NAP), Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Islami Oikya Jote, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Bangladesh Islamic Front and Khelafat Majlish.
   
A delegation of the BNP led by Nazrul Islam Khan, a member of the party's standing committee, submitted the party's audit report to the EC secretariat. He declined to disclose the details of the party's financial transactions. 'Since no decision was made to make it public, we are not giving you (reporters) any details. We will make it public when the party decides to do so,' Nazrul added.
   
He, however, said that the party collected Tk 5 from several lakh party activists. But there was no major expenditure despite the arrangement of some rallies and processions, he added.On Sunday, which was the deadline, a two-member delegation of the Awami League, led by deputy office secretary Mrinak Kanti Das, handed over a letter to the EC seeking one month's time for submitting the report. Mrinak said that they had informed the EC that the task of auditing the financial transactions was being carried out and sought time till September 1 to submit the report.
   
Jamaat's legal affairs secretary, Jasimuddin Sarkar, submitted the party's audit report and said that party's main source of income is the regular contributions of the party's leaders, activists and supporters. Besides, some money comes from denotations by individuals, not institutions, on different occasions, he added.
   
According to Section 9 (b) of the Political Party Registration Rules, every registered political party should get its financial transactions in the immediate past calendar year audited by a registered chartered accounting firm, and submit the report to the EC by July 31.
 
This time the political parties got an extra day (Sunday) to turn in reports since July 31 was a public holiday.Registration of a political party may be cancelled in line with the Representation of the People Order for failing to provide the EC with reports for consecutive years.Election commissioner Sohul Hussain on Sunday expressed the hope that political parties would abandon the culture of not submitting audit reports. 'According to the rules, registration of the political parties will be cancelled for not submitting the reports of financial transactions. But our objective is not to depoliticise the society — rather we want to help the political parties,' he said.
   
The EC on July 26 wrote to the secretaries of the registered political parties to remind them of the deadline.The political parties got themselves registered with the EC in October 2008 before the ninth parliamentary elections. According to the Political Parties Registration Rules 2008, they were supposed to audit three months' financial transactions in 2008 and submit audit reports to the EC by 31 July, 2009.The EC, however, exempted all political parties from submitting audit reports on financial transactions in that period of time.
 


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[ALOCHONA] Gandhi On Fast In Kashmir



Gandhi On Fast In Kashmir

By Javaid Iqbal Bhat

It is not easy to know how Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru would have reacted to the present situation in Kashmir. Both of them were raised away from the dirt and noise of the coarse masses. For the most part their hands and feet remained unspoiled by the dust of ground. Their lives had more than a touch of what is known as the high profile. The choices and decisions made were impressed by their upbringing and the high profile bearing of their personas. Their minds and the mass psychology had a number of differences; rather an unbridgeable distance separated them. That is why even if Jinnah and Nehru are reborn and requested to help out the situation they would end up worsening and not easing out the distress of the people. For this is an extraordinary crisis in valley where an understanding of the pulse of people is more important than reworking the pace of governance. On an occasion when the University, an apex educational institution, has opened for four or five days in the past more than a month, when hope is trembling in the shadow of Fear, when the sight of the blood of teens becomes an everyday companion, morning arrives with the news of curfew reimposed and evening sends around the whispers of death in far off village, it is naïve to expect anything from the Jinnahs or Nehrus of the world. When brought back to meet the situation they would do what their mirror images are doing now; convene meetings, sift through files, order mechanical inquiries or call for a policy revision. All the humbug set of entities which we are used to hearing. Their names and designations are different but their postures and frames of mind are not at variance from their 'high profile' predecessors. Their problem is common; a marked distinction from the manner in which popular consciousness vents out its anxieties. The actions and gestures which they will offer have the trappings of cold professionalism produced out of the internalization of British style upbringing and education. But what is needed in this hour of crisis is the warmth of heart; someone whose words can come straight out of the heart unhindered by the manipulations of politicking.

That is why I was wondering how would the tallest of them all M K Gandhi have handled the situation. Unlike the others he took politics as a means of self realization; a medium through which the ordinary suffering masses can be made to benefit materially and spiritually. From the pages of history his name is the most appropriate to be taken out for making us understand the existing mind wearying dilemmas. He is also the most eligible due to his close association with the sentiment of the masses. So what would have been his magic mantra at this moment of crisis when abnormal life is threatening to become normal and death is inverting the meaning of life? Gandhi had two filters which he used to see and resolve the situation. Those were truth and non violence. On seeing the unbroken chain of teenage deaths in Kashmir over the past one and a half months, he would have decided to descend on the main scene instead of letting himself be surrounded in office by briefs, news reports and interest driven advisors. His was a politics of the field not of the office, mingling with the people in second class trains, sharing their water and food not to mention their worries.

For once it should be accepted that the so called elected representatives (puppets in the vernacular) also wish to come forward and defuse the crisis. However they can do so only at the cost of their lives. It is very much possible that if they do dare to come out to calm the nerves they would be publicly lynched to extinction. There is a tangible reason for such a possibility. No doubt they have carved a space for themselves; they have got the constitutional legitimacy to govern and seek the redressal of mass grievances. At the same time there is a serious lack in them. In order to win the hearts and minds of the people it is never enough to rely on the power of the vote or the seal of the constitution, there is something more which overrides these mundane laments' is called, needless to reiterate, moral legitimacy. It is precisely this moral legitimacy, which carves a space in the hearts and minds of the people that is missing from the members of the governing class. There is a fragile political legitimacy when it comes to moral legitimacy there is near nothing; or it simply does not exist. Gandhi never entered the realm of constitutional politics in that he never sought votes but he had, and has passed on to the future generations an imperishable legacy of moral legitimacy. He wished moral legitimacy to be the base for all kinds of legitimacies. How the moral legitimacy is created and nourished one just needs to flip through the first fifty pages of My Experiments with Truth. It is an inch by inch exercise, a brick by brick by construction; it arises by breaking the barriers of color and country without losing the essential ethical axis grounded in each human being. Find out what he did in England, Natal, Durban, Pretoria, Transvaal and then carried over to the shores of India, and you get the process of building moral legitimacy. This self effacing legitimacy came in handy when Noakhali was burning and he volunteered to pour balm bruised psyches.

Today as each district of Kashmir is under curfew and people are peering into the abyss of darkness Gandhi would have placed himself in the home of one of the shot dead teenagers, and sat on a fast unto death. Given an understanding of what he did in his lifetime his set of demands would be clear and unambiguous; release all the hundreds of boys picked up for unknown locations, sanitize the cities and villages of Kashmir of hundreds and thousands of armed men ostensibly guarding the territorial integrity of India but actually put on surveillance on an entire population determined to challenge the writ of government. Just in case you do not know, his last demand would be what he has said long before the current generation of stone pelters was born. "The people of Kashmir should be asked," said Gandhi on 29 July 1947 "whether they want to join Pakistan or India. Let them do as they want. The ruler is nothing. The people are everything." His demands may end in his dismay. As the perverted media has fed the public opinion to a jingoistic patriotism they may actually dangerously recoil on him. Fast is a weak instrument against the lunacy of nationalism. However, his method would show the mirror to the people concerned, holding out to them their real selves and at the same time assuage the bruised hearts of an entire populace continually living under the dense shadow of fear and held by the chains of force. It would awaken a contaminated conscience to immeasurable miseries being heaped on an unarmed population. That is what each being wishes in case of suffering being consciously ignored; giving it a human face, imagining ones own home in the trauma the Others has been put under. To be fair to him Gandhi is dead, wishing him return to revive the human face of contemporary India is a pipe dream. Though there are those known as Gandhians, can they do what their master taught them? Well, the answer is; better change the topic. Gandhi was a flesh and blood reality, Gandhianism is a fashion, a sellable commodity. His rearrival is a fantasy, our fate is the fact; an earnest prayer can change the lines of destiny. And prayer too for the health for the monster 'enemy'.

Javaid Iqbal Bhat
Assistant Professor
Post Graduate Department
of English,South Campus,University of Kashmir
E-Mail:- javaid@kashmiruniversity.ac.in
 


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[ALOCHONA] Re: KHABOR See all about জামায়াত নেতাদের মুক্তি আন্দোলন



Hi all covert & overt supporters - leaders of Jamat - Shibir - Razakar - Al-Badar, remember and mind it that,

Jamaat - Shibir- Razakar-Al - Badar will continue to be hated, criticized, damned as it was done in past and will be treated same at now and also be treated same in future, for hundreds and hundreds of years to come


 
Shafiqur Rahman Bhuiyan (ANU)
Auckland 
NEW ZEALAND. 

2010/7/31 kazi Mohammad Ismail <kazimohammadismail@yahoo.com>
 


salam
.



N.B.: If any one is offended by content of this e-mail, please ignore & delete this e-mail. I also request you to inform me by an e- mail - to delete your name from my contact list.


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[ALOCHONA] Who represents garment workers?



Who represents garment workers?
 
Syed Fattahul Alim
 
Photo: STAR


What is happening in the garment sector? The garment workers have grown restive and violence-prone even after the announcement of the minimum wage for the workers by the government in concurrence with the owners of garment and knitwear industries.

We witnessed their madness in Gazipur and in the capital on the day following announcement of the minimum wage (Friday). They rampaged through the roads and damaged vehicles plying the roads in the Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Banani, ransacked roadside shops and looted many of those.

The manner in which the violence broke out raised many eyebrows. The police, the garment industry leaders and even some labour leaders disapproved of the way the garment workers went ahead with their destructive activities, rejecting the just announced minimum wage structure at Tk.3,000 and demanding Tk.5,000 as the minimum wage instead. The government is of the view that outside forces are behind this anarchy in the garment sector.

Meanwhile, the violence spread to Ashulia in Savar and Narayanganj on Saturday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has issued stern warning against the troublemakers, who, she said, were out to foil the trial of the war criminals.

After Friday's outburst in the capital and Gazipur, even some well-meaning people were suspicious of the identity of the violent demonstrators. Were all of them garment workers or were they hired goons of the vested quarters? Some of them questioned.

The government leaders have already pointed their accusing finger at the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its alliance partner Jamaat-e-Islami. But after further intensification and spread of the garment sector violence on Saturday, the nature of the demonstration took a fresh twist.

The demonstrators, who blocked traffic movement on the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road for more than three hours, were protesting against the arrest of Montu Ghosh, adviser to the Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra and general secretary of the Narayanganj district unit of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB).

What is more, thousands of workers came out from dozens of garment factories in Ashulia of Savar and engaged themselves in pitched battles with the police, causing injuries to hundreds of workers and police.

The entire development testified to the fact that the violent demonstrators were not outsiders. And there was no mistaking the fact that they were demonstrating against the declared minimum wage structure.

And seeing that well-known trade union leaders are also supporting the garment workers' agitation, it becomes still harder to dismiss the latest eruption of militant demonstration and violence by the garment workers as purely the work of outside agents.

The scale and spread of the workers' agitation and violence in the garment industry is unquestionably an alarming turn of events. The violence that often broke out before were in most cases triggered by rumour over the captivity or death of their colleagues at the hands of the bullies engaged by the factory management. Sudden lockout of a factory by the management was also another reason for the wildcat agitation of the workers that took destructive form.

To be more to the point, the garment workers in those situations behaved like violent mobs as they lacked any leadership. Neither were they guided by any specific agenda.

The allegation of outside intervention to destroy Bangladesh's thriving garment industry was also being made in the case of those outbreaks of violence. And such allegations had justification in those cases.

But when the agitations were evidently driven by legitimate demands of the workers, for example, raise in pay, then the argument that outside agents are out to destroy the industry loses much of its ground.

But still one can hardly justify why the workers' agitation for higher pay or benefits should take such destructive form, especially when one sees that the workers are destroying the factories that provide them their bread.

Again, the violence that has erupted after the declaration of the minimum wage by the government raises more questions than it answers. The government made the announcement after it had discussed the issue with labour leaders and leaders of the garment industry.

Why, then, should the garment workers engage in such violence the very next day after the announcement? Were not the workers properly informed by the labour leaders about the minimum wage announcement? For one could notice a sense of frustration and desperation in the behaviour of the angry workers.

There is clearly a serious information gap between workers and their putative leaders who represented them at the talks with government and of course the industry management. The argument gets more credence when one hears complaint from the agitating workers that they have been betrayed.

Who betrayed them? With whom then the government and the industry leaders talked as workers' representatives when the minimum wage was being fixed?

To all appearances, the garment workers are not being properly represented during any talks, either with factory owners or the government. And this single factor apparently lies behind all the confusion, fears and uncertainties, and the resulting chaos in the industry.

So, the government, the industry leaders and all others concerned must first ensure that the workers are being properly represented during any deal with the factory management, or the industry leaders or the government. That calls for the growth of healthy trade unions in the industry.

Strikes, demonstrations or any other form of workers' movement would take organised shape only when those are guided by proper leadership. Otherwise, it becomes an amorphous and chaotic mob. And the industry then turns into a happy hunting ground of the outside agents who have an axe to grind.

Syed Fattahul Alim is a senior journalist

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=148989



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[ALOCHONA] Weapon of mass destruction - our road

It was my mother who lost almost all her mundane beings and spent every moment in fear and anxiety of death or attack while my two teen aged brothers fighting somewhere or preparing for ambush and my father on his toes hiding in some distant relatives house. These two boys were in their bravery, exited to make next ambush, fearless and happy to be part of it, for them life was adventure. But it was not so for my mother, whole nine months, and for my father -it was his own life, his two best possessions and his entire family. Who sacrificed more, who suffered most and who ripped the benefits?

40 years on we have 40km road block(Dhaka, Chittagong highway on 30th July) to move from one city to another. Not clogged road under the sky but kept and maintained as 'weapon of much destruction'. 55 thousand people were killed in 15 years and 12 people daily. No one to see to these no one to give us a road to walk safely. These roads are manned by machinery in perfect machination of obstruction, snatch, small and big loot and above all threat and intimidation. This machinery is set up by the statecraft by changing and enacting policies under their own freedom and whim. They are the supreme authority yet people make believe that, when people die they grief, offer sermons.
And we are taking their sermons often in the spirit of my parent's sacrifice, with a pretense of sadness and grief. Sarcastics and insulting gesture of our supreme leaders.
So far neither we could take on to any of those who obstructed the road traffic, collecting tolls, allowing illegal and unauthorized vehicles to ply without any kind of road discipline. What a heaven created for illicit operations by vetting human lives. So many people already gone and everyday getting killed, a nation often boast about its media, intelligentia, civil right, human right groups, claims to remain vigil against all perpetrators could not or did not stop a single mishaps. When statecraft run by mafia and there henchmen, the regulators or supervisors can't be present and working for people.
The latest sacrifice made for prosperous Bangladesh is two highest officials from our bureaucracy, only yesterday. I wouldn't write emotional stories(how there kith and kin cried and yelled) like some news media handcrafted and compare their offspring's agony, fear and anxiety with my mother's during 1971. Outrageous enough these two officials were part of the supreme leader's state program.
They were trained as official for more than 30years for nation's service. Gone without notice. Who cares. Hundreds of highly trained military were killed in peace time, cars and helicopters started colliding with electric wires only to kill the GOC's or big officials. As if statecraft is on vacation before their summer drill.
Killed are usually buried, those alive grief, make statements then carry on as usual. So is the human face in our part, a brute, uncompassionate and careless characteristics and days on, getting solidifying.
If someone think of blaming(to come out as good guy) he/she follows no intelligence or human rule.
Only few days back the very well known writer's mother were given an empty oxygen bottle to breath inside ICU in a well known hospital and noticed by the writer himself, not by the attending nurse and mother did not die. The writer was charges with taka 80,000 (eighty thousand taka) for the maltreatment. Went home and perhaps started writing another piece of his writing on whatever he right best and whole community cheers with him. This mother has another two bright, well known, well established sons.

To me artists means a special creatures who can only think of his beauty, body, sex, money and fame, else not a matter. They learn how to enjoy life and bocome ruthlessly materialistic, yet if fall sick had to beg even after a very colourful career. Elizabeth Tellor enjoyed her life, married 9 times, earned two Oscars yet raised millions for suffering people and often sided with fellow artists to help in need. It is only Eliyas Kanchon shown some wisdom after his wife's tragic road accident and only person who is after so many years, still obsessed with the cause, continuing his own endeavor.
But the monstrous authority that control everything, often using their own truck driver to kill their opponent can not be tamed or bring into account by endeavor of Kanchon!
We do not have voice (imagine the same writer wrote an article how a man was killed on the eve of a recent hartal and kept mum on the negligence that is also taking many lives everyday and about to take his own mother, oi je political mileage), we do not have literature, we have lost our sovereignty, lost our morals and values what we remain with that only matches the media that write stories to sell, writers novel about free sex and materiality of life and gossip of those so called right activists.
My mother is long gone, gone are the two bright hard earned assets of this dilapidated statecraft, their sacrifice or blood has no value to this nation.

M Haque


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[ALOCHONA] TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN INDIA AND BANGLADESH



 
TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN INDIA AND BANGLADESH
 

The Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh,

Being conscious of the urge of their two peoples to enlarge areas of mutual co-operation;

Desirous of expanding trade and strengthening economic relations between the two countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit;

Have agreed as follows:

Article I

The two Governments recognizing the need and requirement of each other in the context of their developing economies undertake to explore all possibilities, including economic and technical cooperation, for promotion, facilitation, expansion and diversification of trade between the two countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

Article II

The two Governments agree to take appropriate measures in accordance with the evolving international trading system for mutual benefit of developing countries and least developed countries in so far as such measures are consistent with their individual, present and future development, financial and trade facilitation.

Article III

The two Governments agree that expansion of their mutual trade exchanges would make an important contribution towards their development. To this end, they agree to take appropriate and special measures during periodic reviews taking into account the asymmetries between the two countries with a view to augmenting and diversifying their mutual trade specially in respect of specific products as may be agreed upon.

Article IV

All payments and charges in connection with trade between the two countries shall continue to be effected in freely convertible currencies in accordance with the foreign exchange regulations in force in each country from time to time.

Article V

Imports and exports of commodities and goods produced or manufactured in India or Bangladesh, as the case may be, shall be permitted in accordance with the import, export and foreign exchange laws, regulations Dt. 22/03/2006 Page 2 of 3

and procedures in force in either country from time to time taking into account asymmetries between the two countries.

Article VI

Each Government shall accord to the commerce of the country of the other Government, treatment no less than that accorded to the commerce of any third country.

Article VII

The provisions of Article VI shall not prevent the grant or continuance of:-

a) Privileges which are or may be granted by either of the two Governments in order to facilitate frontier trade by separate agreement(s);

b) Advantages and privileges which are or may be granted by either of the respective neighbouring countries;

c) Advantages resulting from any customs union, a free trade area or similar arrangements which either of the two Governments has concluded or may conclude in the future.

d) Advantages or preferences accorded under any scheme for expansion of trade and economic cooperation among developing countries, which is open for participation by all developing countries, and to which either of the two Governments is or may become a party.

Article VIII

The two Governments agree to make mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways, roadways and railways for commerce between the two countries for passage of goods between two places in one country through the territory of the other.

Article IX

Each Government will grant merchant vessels of the other country while entering, putting off and lying at its ports the most-favoured-nation treatment accorded by their respective laws, rules and regulations to the vessels under the flag of any third country.

Both the Governments agree on the basis of shipper's preference, to utilize to the maximum extent possible, the vessels owned/chartered by shipping organizations of the two countries concerned for shipping cargoes imported or exported under this Agreement at competitive freight rates.

Article X

The two Governments agree to cooperate effectively with each other to prevent infringement and circumvention of the laws, rules and regulations of either country in regard to matters relating to foreign exchange and foreign trade.

Dt. 22/03/2006 Page 3 of 3

 

Article XI

The two Governments agree to accord, subject to their respective laws and regulations, reasonable facilities for the holding of trade fairs and exhibitions and visits of business and trade delegations sponsored by the Government concerned.

Article XII

In order to facilitate the implementation of this Agreement, the two Governments shall consult each other at least once in a year or earlier as and when necessary, and shall review the working of the Agreement with special attention to the asymmetries between the two countries.

Article XIII

This amended Agreement shall come into force on the 1st April, 2006. It shall remain in force for a period of three years. It may be extended by a further period of three years by mutual consent subject to such modifications as may be agreed upon.

Done in New Delhi, on the 21st March, 2006, in two original copies, each in Hindi, Bangla and English, all the texts being equally authentic. In case of difference, the English text shall prevail.

(Kamal Nath) (M. Saifur Rahman)

Minister of Commerce and Industry Minister for Finance & Planning

Government of the Republic of India Government of People's

Republic of Bangladesh



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[ALOCHONA] Pranab Mukherjee due Aug 7



Pranab Mukherjee due Aug 7
 
 
  
Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will pay a whirlwind visit to Bangladesh on August 7. Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the visit.
 
He is also expected to present at a ceremony where a memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed between India and Bangladesh granting Bangladesh Tk 100 crore as loan, private television ATN Bangla reports.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to provide the loan during Hasina's visit to India on January this year.
 


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Re: [ALOCHONA] Business Projects :Bangladesh Army following model of PakArmy



It is not that politicians need to stay out of the army's business. It is more the case that as long as we have traitors, thieves, intellectual and moral bankrupts in politics and as long as they are supported by equally evil opportunists it is the duty of the army to overthrow all such governments and execute their leaders and followers as quickly as possible. The failure to do so means they have failed in their duty to defend the country. Period. It is not so much "democracy be damned" and "democracy has damned us".

Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com


From: qrahman@netscape.net
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:19:56 -0400
To: <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] Business Projects :Bangladesh Army following model of Pak Army

As long army is focused in defending every inch of this country and obeying laws of the land in "Welfare trust" businesses, I do not see any problem.
Pak army is a good as long pak generals stays within their pay grades. If our army can stay out of politics and our politicians can take their noses out of army businesses, it would help us a lot.

-----Original Message-----
From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Sent: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:25:06 +0600
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Business Projects :Bangladesh Army following model of Pak Army

 

Business Projects :Bangladesh Army following model of Pak Army
 
Says BBC radio documentary
 
The business Bangladesh Army is carrying out in the country, is just following the model of Pakistan Army, reported the second episode of the nine-part BBC radio documentary "Probaho" yesterday.

The documentary revealed this while investigating business projects of Bangladesh Army, particularly the Mongla Cement Factory in Khulna.

Regarding the relations between two armies, eminent expert on military affairs in the sub-continent Dr Ayesha Siddika told the weekly BBC documentary, "There is a keen interest in building links with Bangladesh. I mean, older officers, Pakistan Army officers, want to develop a close relationship with Bangladesh Army."

Ayesha also said that she had taken part in many discussions in which high ranked officials of Pakistan Army and Air Force talked without due respect and dignity that another sovereign country deserves. "I know a retired general of Pakistan who is a businessman nowadays and frequents to Bangladesh. He can be defined as a medium of communication," Ayesha added.

While investigating the history of Mongla Cement Factory, a concern of Bangladesh Army Welfare Trust, the documentary found that a bilateral deal was signed between Pakistan and Bangladesh on October 13, 1988 focusing on a loan of $ 5 crore at 2 percent interest.

The deal was signed at a time when Gen Ziaul Haque of Pakistan was killed in a mysterious plane crash nearly two to three months back and Pakistan was heading for a general election.The then Pakistan Army chief was Aslam Begh when Pakistan government approved the loan for Bangladesh considering it as a state matter, the documentary said.

The Mongla factory was financed by a portion of the loan. A government document shows though there were discrepancies in the deal the two states signed, Sena Kalyan Sangstha (SKS) did not face much problem in purchasing machineries for the cement factory project.

The documentary quoted a letter addressed to the then managing director of SKS on June 6, 1990."The deal between SKS and Pakistan Heavy Mechanical Complex Ltd have discrepancies …..The institutional deal allows payment in advance, which was not entertained in the state deal. We need an immediate explanation in this regard," the letter reads.

The time when the cement factory was financed also coincides with the military rule in Bangladesh.High ranking army officers of that time confirmed BBC that the then Pakistan high commissioner in Bangladesh was much eager to have the loan used in implementing the cement project of SKS.

The documentary said that the cement factory in 2008 earned Tk 24 crore as profit--equivalent to the half of the total business profit earned from the business ventures under the trust.The trust was established in Bangladesh in June in 1998 following the model of Pakistan Army Welfare Trust, which was established in 1965.

Pakistan army established the trust showing reasons that as army is the biggest defence force in the country and largest number of personnel are going into retirement every year, the force needs a separate business platform for welfare of the soldiers, said a book titled "Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy" by Ayesha Siddiqa.

The projects taken under the trust are more profitable than SKS's and mainly controlled by army headquarters, the documentary added.
 



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