Cost of living soared 44% |
__._,_.___
Salman Taseer Remembered
Tariq Ali
London Review of Books
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n02/tariq-ali/salman-taseer-remembered?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3302
Mumtaz Hussain Qadri smiled as he surrendered to his colleagues after shooting Salman Taseer, the governor of the Punjab, dead. Many in Pakistan seemed to support his actions; others wondered how he'd managed to get a job as a state bodyguard in the carefully screened Elite Force. Geo TV, the country's most popular channel, reported, and the report has since been confirmed, that 'Qadri had been kicked out of Special Branch after being declared a security risk,' that he 'had requested that he not be fired on but arrested alive if he managed to kill Taseer' and that 'many in Elite Force knew of his plans to kill Salman Taseer.'
Qadri is on his way to becoming a national hero. On his first appearance in court, he was showered with flowers by admiring Islamabad lawyers who have offered to defend him free of charge. On his way back to prison, the police allowed him to address his supporters and wave to the TV cameras. The funeral of his victim was sparsely attended: a couple of thousand mourners at most. A frightened President Zardari and numerous other politicians didn't show up. A group of mullahs had declared that anyone attending the funeral would be regarded as guilty of blasphemy. No mullah (that includes those on the state payroll) was prepared to lead the funeral prayers. The federal minister for the interior, Rehman Malik, a creature of Zardari's, has declared that anyone trying to tamper with or amend the blasphemy laws will be dealt with severely. In the New York Times version he said he would shoot any blasphemer himself.
Taseer's spirited defence of Asiya Bibi, a 45-year-old Punjabi Christian peasant, falsely charged with blasphemy after an argument with two women who accused her of polluting their water by drinking out of the same receptacle, provoked an angry response from religious groups. Many in his own party felt that Taseer's initiative was mistimed, but in Pakistan the time is never right for such campaigns. Bibi had already spent 18 months in jail. Her plight had been highlighted by the media, women had taken to the streets to defend her and Taseer and another senior politician from the Pakistan Peoples Party, Sherry Rehman, had demanded amendments to the blasphemy laws. Thirty-eight other women have been imprisoned under the same law in recent years and soon after a friendly meeting between Yousaf Gillani, the prime minister, and the leader of the supposedly moderate Jamaat-e-Islami, a member of the latter offered a reward of ten thousand dollars to whoever manages to kill Bibi.
Taseer's decision to take up Bibi's case was not made on a whim. He had cleared the campaign with Zardari, much to the annoyance of the law minister, Babar Awan, a televangelist and former militant of the Jamaat-e-Islami. He told journalists he didn't want the socio-cultural agenda to be hijacked by 'lunatic mullahs', raged against governments that had refused to take on fanaticism, and brushed aside threats to his life with disdain. He visited the prison where Bibi was detained – the first time in the history of the Punjab that a governor has gone inside a district jail – and at a press conference declared his solidarity with her. 'She is a woman who has been incarcerated for a year and a half on a charge trumped up against her five days after an incident where people who gave evidence against her were not even present,' he told an interviewer. He wanted, he said, 'to take a mercy petition to the president, and he agreed, saying he would pardon Asiya Bibi if there had indeed been a miscarriage of justice'.
Two weeks after this visit Taseer was dead. I never much cared for his business practices or his political affiliations and had not spoken to him for 20 years, but he was one of my closest friends at school and university and the two of us and the late Shahid Rehman – a gifted and witty lawyer who drank himself to death many moons ago – were inseparable. Some joyful memories came back when I saw his face on TV.
It's 1960. The country is under a pro-US military dictatorship. All opposition is banned. My parents are away. The three of us – we are 17 years old – are at my place and we decide that something has to be done. We buy some red paint and at about 2 a.m. drive to the Cantonment bridge and carefully paint 'Yankee Go Home' on the beautiful whitewashed wall. The next morning we scrub the car clean of all traces of paint. For the next few weeks the city is agog. The story doesn't appear in the press but everyone is talking about it. In Karachi and Dhaka, where they regard Lahore as politically dead, our city's stock rises. At college our fellow students discuss nothing else. The police are busy searching for the culprits. We smile and enjoy the fun. Finally they track us down, but as Taseer notes with an edge of bitterness, Shahid's father is a Supreme Court judge and one of my aunts is married to a general who's also the minister of the interior, so naturally we all get off with a warning. At the time I almost felt that physical torture might be preferable to being greeted regularly by the general with 'Hello, Mr Yankee Go Home.'
Two years previously (before the dictatorship) the three of us had organised a demonstration at the US Consulate after reading that an African-American called Jimmy Wilson had been sentenced to death for stealing a dollar. On that occasion Salman, seeing that not many people had turned up, found some street urchins to swell our ranks. We had to stop and explain to them why their chant of 'Death to Jimmy Wilson' was wrong. Money changed hands before they were brought into line. Years later, on a London to Lahore flight, I met Taseer by chance and we discussed both these events. He reminded me that the stern US consul had told us he would have us expelled, but his ultra-Lutheranism offended the Catholic Brothers who ran our school and again we escaped punishment. On that flight, more than 20 years ago, I asked him why he had decided to go into politics. Wasn't being a businessman bad enough? 'You'll never understand,' he said. 'If I'm a politician as well I can save money because I don't have to pay myself bribes.' He was cynical in the extreme, but he could laugh at himself. He died tragically, but for a good cause. His party and colleagues, instead of indulging in manufactured grief, would be better off taking the opportunity to amend the blasphemy laws while there is still some anger at what has taken place. But of course they are doing the exact opposite.
Even before this killing, Pakistan had been on the verge of yet another military takeover. It would make things so much easier if only they could give it another name: military democracy perhaps? General Kayani, whose term as chief of staff was extended last year with strong Pentagon approval, is said to be receiving petitions every day asking him to intervene and 'save the country'. The petitioners are obviously aware that removing Zardari and replacing him with a nominee of the Sharif brothers' Muslim League, the PPP's long-term rivals, is unlikely to improve matters. Petitioning, combined with a complete breakdown of law and order in one or several spheres (suicide terrorism in Peshawar, violent ethnic clashes in Karachi, state violence in Quetta and now Taseer's assassination), is usually followed by the news that a reluctant general has no longer been able to resist 'popular' pressure and with the reluctant agreement of the US Embassy a uniformed president has taken power. We've been here before, on four separate occasions. The military has never succeeded in taking the country forward. All that happens is that, instead of politicians, the officers take the cut. The government obviously thinks the threat is serious: some of Zardari's cronies now speak openly at dinner parties of 'evidence' that proves military involvement in his wife Benazir Bhutto's assassination. If the evidence exists, let's have a look. Another straw in the wind: the political parties close to the ISI, Pakistan's main intelligence agency, have withdrawn from the central government, accusing it of callousness and financial malfeasance. True, but hardly novel.
Another necessary prerequisite for a coup is popular disgust with a corrupt, inept and failing civilian government. This has now reached fever pitch. As well as the natural catastrophes that have afflicted the country there are local wars, disappearances, torture, crime, huge price rises in essential goods, unemployment, a breakdown of basic services – all the major cities go without electricity for hours at a stretch and oil lamps are much in demand in smaller towns, which are often without gas and electricity for up to 12 hours. Thanks to the loan conditions recently imposed by the IMF – part of a gear change in the 'war on terror' – there have been riots against the rise in fuel prices in several cities. Add to this Zardari's uncontrollable greed and the irrepressible desire of his minions to mimic their master. Pakistan today is a kleptocracy. There is much talk in Islamabad of the despised prime minister's neglected wife going on a shopping spree in London last month and finding solace in diamonds, picking up, on her way back home, a VAT rebate in the region of £100,000.
Can it get worse? Yes. And on every front. Take the Af-Pak war. Few now would dispute that its escalation has further destabilised Pakistan, increasing the flow of recruits to suicide bomber command. The CIA's New Year message to Pakistan consisted of three drone attacks in North Waziristan, killing 19 people. There were 116 drone strikes in 2010, double the number ordered in the first year of the Obama presidency. Serious Pakistani newspapers, Dawn and the News, claim that 98 per cent of those killed in the strikes over the last five years – the number of deaths is estimated to be between two and three thousand – were civilians, a percentage endorsed by David Kilcullen, a former senior adviser to General Petraeus. The Brookings Institution gives a grim ratio of one militant killed for every ten civilians. The drones are operated by the CIA, which isn't subject to military rules of engagement, with the result that drones are often used for revenge attacks, notably after the sensational Khost bombing of a CIA post in December 2009.
What stops the military from taking power immediately is that it would then be responsible for stopping the drone attacks and containing the insurgency that has resulted from the extension of the war into Pakistan. This is simply beyond it, which is why the generals would rather just blame the civilian government for everything. But if the situation worsens and growing public anger and economic desperation lead to wider street protests and an urban insurgency the military will be forced to intervene. It will also be forced to act if the Obama administration does as it threatens and sends troops across the Pakistan border on protect-and-destroy missions. Were this to happen a military takeover of the country might be the only way for the army to counter dissent within its ranks by redirecting the flow of black money and bribes (currently a monopoly of politicians) into military coffers. Pakistani officers who complain to Western intelligence operatives and journalists that a new violation of sovereignty might split the army do so largely as a way to exert pressure. There has been no serious breach in the military high command since the dismal failure of the 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy, the first and last radical nationalist attempt (backed by Communist intellectuals) to seize power within the army and take the country in an anti-imperialist direction. Since then, malcontents in the armed forces have always been rapidly identified and removed. Military perks and privileges – bonuses, land allocations, a presence in finance and industry – play an increasingly important part in keeping the army under control.
Meanwhile, on a visit to Kabul earlier this month, the US homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, announced that 52 'security agents' were being dispatched to the Af-Pak border to give on the spot training to Afghan police and security units. The insurgents will be delighted, especially since some of them serve in these units, just as they do in Pakistan.
------------------------------------
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Its USA's fault that she trusts her own enemies.
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bdmailer@...> wrote:
>
> *U.S. courts Pakistan's top general, with little result
> *
>
> By Karin Brulliard and Karen DeYoung
> Washington Post Staff Writers
> Saturday, January 1, 2011
>
> ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Countless U.S. officials in recent years have lectured
> and listened to Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the man many view as the most powerful
> in Pakistan. They have drunk tea and played golf with him, feted him and
> flown with him in helicopters.
>
> But they have yet to persuade him to undertake what the Obama
> administration's recent strategy
> review<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/14/AR2010121407420.html>concluded
> is a key to success in the Afghan war - the elimination of havens
> inside Pakistan where the Taliban plots and stages attacks on coalition
> troops in Afghanistan.
>
> Kayani, who as Pakistan's army chief has more direct say over the country's
> security strategy than its president or prime minister, has resisted
> personal appeals from President Obama, U.S. military commanders and senior
> diplomats. Recent U.S. intelligence estimates have concluded that he is
> unlikely to change his mind anytime soon. Despite the entreaties, officials
> say, Kayani doesn't trust U.S. motivations and is hedging his bets in case the
> American strategy for Afghanistan
> fails<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112307089.html>.
>
>
> In many ways, Kayani is the personification of the vexing problem posed by
> Pakistan. Like the influential military establishment he represents, he
> views Afghanistan on a timeline stretching far beyond the U.S. withdrawal,
> which is slated to begin this summer. While the Obama administration sees
> the insurgents as an enemy force to be defeated as quickly and directly as
> possible, Pakistan has long regarded them as useful proxies in protecting
> its western flank from inroads by India, its historical adversary.
>
> "Kayani wants to talk about the end state in South Asia," said one of
> several Obama administration officials who spoke on the condition of
> anonymity about the sensitive relationship. U.S. generals, the official
> said, "want to talk about the next drone attacks."
>
> The administration has praised Kayani for operations in 2009 and 2010
> against domestic militants in the Swat
> Valley<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053001090.html>and
> in South
> Waziristan<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/17/AR2009101700673.html>,
> and has dramatically increased its military and economic assistance to
> Pakistan. But it has grown frustrated that the general has not launched a
> ground assault against Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in North
> Waziristan.
>
> Kayani has promised action when he has enough troops available, although he
> has given no indication of when that might be. Most of Pakistan's
> half-million-man army remains facing east, toward India.
>
> In recent months, Kayani has sometimes become defiant. When U.S.-Pakistani
> tensions spiked in September, after two Pakistani soldiers were killed by an
> Afghanistan-based American helicopter gunship pursuing insurgents on the
> wrong side of the border, he personally ordered the closure of the main
> frontier crossing<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/30/AR2010093000491.html>for
> U.S. military supplies into Afghanistan, according to U.S. and
> Pakistani
> officials.
>
> In October, administration officials choreographed a White House meeting for
> Kayani at which Obama could directly deliver his message of urgency. The
> army chief heard him out, then provided a 13-page document updating
> Pakistan's strategic perspective and noting the gap between short-term U.S.
> concerns and Pakistan's long-term interests, according to U.S. officials.
>
> Kayani reportedly was infuriated by the recent WikiLeaks release of U.S.
> diplomatic cables<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113007679.html>,
> some of which depicted him as far chummier with the Americans and more
> deeply involved in Pakistani politics than his carefully crafted domestic
> persona would suggest. In one cable, sent to Washington by the U.S. Embassy
> in Islamabad last year, he was quoted as discussing with U.S. officials a
> possible removal of Pakistan's president and his preferred replacement.
>
> On the eve of the cable's publication in November, the normally aloof and
> soft-spoken general ranted for hours on the subject of irreconcilable
> U.S.-Pakistan differences in a session with a group of Pakistani
> journalists.
>
> The two countries' "frames of reference" regarding regional security "can
> never be the same," he said, according to news accounts. Calling Pakistan
> America's "most bullied ally," Kayani said that the "real aim of U.S.
> strategy is to de-nuclearize Pakistan."
> *The general's suspicions*
>
> Kayani was a star student at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff
> College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in 1988, writing his master's thesis on
> "Strengths and Weaknesses of the Afghan Resistance Movement." He was among
> the last Pakistanis to graduate from the college before the United States
> cut off military assistance to Islamabad in 1990 in response to Pakistan's
> suspected nuclear weapons program. Eight years later, both Pakistan and
> India conducted tests of nuclear devices.
>
> The estrangement lasted until President George W. Bush lifted the sanctions
> in 2001, less than two weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
>
> Kayani is far from alone in the Pakistani military in suspecting that the
> United States will abandon Pakistan once it has achieved its goals in
> Afghanistan, and that its goal remains to leave Pakistan defenseless against
> nuclear-armed India.
>
> Kayani "is one of the most anti-India chiefs Pakistan has ever had," one
> U.S. official said.
>
> The son of a noncommissioned army officer, Kayani was commissioned as a
> second lieutenant in 1971. He was chief of military operations during the
> 2001-02 Pakistan-India crisis. As head of Pakistan's Inter-Services
> Intelligence agency from 2004 to 2007, he served as a point man for
> back-channel talks with India initiated by then-President Pervez Musharraf.
> When Musharraf resigned<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/18/AR2008081800418.html>in
> 2008, the talks abruptly ended.
>
> The Pakistani military has long been involved in politics, but few believe
> that the general seeks to lead the nation. "He has stated from the beginning
> that he has no desire to involve the military in running the country," said
> Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council. But
> that does not mean Kayani would stand by "if there was a failure of civilian
> institutions," Nawaz said. "The army would step in."
> *'Mind-boggling'*
>
> Even some Pakistanis see Kayani's India-centric view as dated, self-serving
> and potentially disastrous as the insurgents the country has harbored
> increasingly turn on Pakistan itself.
>
> "Nine years into the Afghanistan war, we're fighting various strands of
> militancy, and we still have an army chief who considers India the major
> threat," said Cyril Almeida, an editor and columnist at the English-language
> newspaper Dawn. "That's mind-boggling."
>
> Kayani has cultivated the approval of a strongly anti-American public that
> opinion polls indicate now holds the military in far higher esteem than it
> does the weak civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistani
> officials say the need for public support is a key reason for rebuffing U.S.
> pleas for an offensive in North Waziristan. In addition to necessitating the
> transfer of troops from the Indian border, Pakistani military and
> intelligence officials say such a campaign would incite domestic terrorism
> and uproot local communities. Residents who left their homes during the
> South Waziristan offensive more than a year ago have only recently been
> allowed to begin returning to their villages.
> *The real power broker*
>
> Pakistani democracy activists fault the United States for professing to
> support Pakistan's civilian government while at the same time bolstering
> Kayani with frequent high-level visits and giving him a prominent role in
> strategic talks with Islamabad.
>
> Obama administration officials said in response that while they voice
> support for Pakistan's weak civilian government at every opportunity, the
> reality is that the army chief is the one who can produce results.
>
> "We have this policy objective, so who do we talk to?" one official said.
> "It's increasingly clear that we have to talk to Kayani."
>
> Most of the talking is done by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint
> Chiefs of Staff. In more than 30 face-to-face meetings with Kayani,
> including 21 visits to Pakistan since late 2007, Mullen has sought to
> reverse what both sides call a "trust deficit" between the two militaries.
>
> But the patience of other U.S. officials has worn thin. Gen. David H.
> Petraeus, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, has
> adopted a much tougher attitude toward Kayani than his predecessor, Gen.
> Stanley A. McChrystal, had, according to several U.S. officials.
>
> For his part, Kayani complains that he is "always asking Petraeus what is
> the strategic objective" in Afghanistan, according to a friend, retired air
> marshal Shahzad Chaudhry.
>
> As the Obama administration struggles to assess the fruits of its investment
> in Pakistan, some officials said the United States now accepts that pleas
> and military assistance will not change Kayani's thinking. Mullen and
> Richard C. Holbrooke, who served as the administration's special
> representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan until his death last
> month,<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/13/AR2010121306799.html>thought
> that "getting Kayani to trust us enough" to be honest constituted
> progress, one official said.
>
> But what Kayani has honestly told them, the official said, is: "I don't
> trust you."
> brulliardk@... deyoungk@...
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/31/AR2010123103993_pf.html
>
------------------------------------
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It was unwise to publish this article.
It may now spawn a jealous attack on FR Khan by the PM and her sycophants, given his international recognition and reputation not to mention the actual buildings he has left behind him.
After all, his accomplishments clearly pale in comparison to the PM.
------Original Message------
From: Mohammed Ramjan
Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
ReplyTo: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Dr. Fazlur Rahaman Khan a great Man in Tall Building StructureDesign
Sent: 13 Jan 2011 06:30
Dear All Assalamu alaikum We may read about some great people who has contributed a lot in Tall Building Structures Fazlur Rahman Khan (Bengali: ফজলুর রহমান খ়ান Fozlur Rôhman Khan) (April 3, 1929 - March 27, 1982), born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was a Bangladeshi-American architect and structural engineer. He is a central figure behind the "Second Chicago School" of architecture,[1] and is regarded as the "father of tubular design for high-rises".[2] Khan, "more than any other individual, ushered in a renaissance in skyscraper construction during the second half of the twentieth century."[3] He is also considered to be the "Einstein of structural engineering" and "the greatest structural engineer of the second half of the 20th century" for his innovative use of structural systems that remain fundamental to modern skyscraper construction.[4] His most famous buildings are the John Hancock Center and the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), which was the world's tallest building for several decades. Biography Fazlur Rahman Khan is from Bangladesh, village of Bhandarikandi in Shibchar Upazila, Madaripur District, Dhaka Division. He was born on 3 April 1929, in Dhaka. His father, Khan Bahadur Abdur Rahman Khan, BES was ADPI of Bengal and after retirement served as Principal of Jagannath College, Dhaka. Education Khan completed his undergraduate coursework at Bengal Engineering College (Now Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur). He received his bachelor's degree from the Engineering Faculty of University of Dhaka (Now BUET) in 1951 while placing first in his class. A Fulbright Scholarship and a Pakistani government scholarship (as Bangladesh was East Pakistan then) enabled him to travel to the United States in 1952 where he pursued advanced studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In three years Khan earned two Master's degrees — one in structural engineering and one in theoretical and applied mechanics — and a PhD in structural engineering. Career In 1955,
Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@rahman.com
------------------------------------
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Though, to me the paramount important matter is food and justice for our people today- that is the fundamental human needs. Squabbling on historical events and the positining of the vellains and heroes yet those interested can read 'shotabdi periey' by Hyder A K Rono who is not an AL or BNP supporter, on the 6points movements and how it evolved and culminated to our freedom fight. --- On Wed, 5/1/11, maxx ombba <maqsudo@hotmail.com> wrote:
|
January 7, 2011
A Winning Combination
By CONSTANCE ROSENBLUM
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/realestate/09habi.html?ref=realestate&src=me&pagewanted=print
AFZAL HOSSAIN, a 34-year-old artist and architect who grew up in Bangladesh, has vivid childhood memories of women making kanthas, handmade quilts constructed of layers of fabrics from worn garments and lavishly encrusted with colorful embroidery.
"Women sometimes spend up to a year making a single quilt," said Mr. Hossain, who immigrated to New York in 1996 and now lives with his wife and family in Jackson Heights, Queens. "It's a wonderfully social part of their culture because the women sit together and talk as they sew."
Mr. Hossain considers himself fortunate to have a kantha of his own. The fluffy white coverlet that dominates the master bedroom features doll-like figures wearing traditional costumes and posed beneath canopies of flowering trees.
And it is not the only such reminder of his homeland in the apartment that he shares with Julie Nymann, 37; the couple's 3-year-old daughter, Audra Shehnai; and Ms. Nymann's mother, Janet Nymann.
In certain respects, Jackson Heights couldn't be more different from Bangladesh. The historic district, the heart of the community, is defined by clusters of red-brick garden apartments that date back to the early 20th century. But the neighborhood is also a magnet for families from South Asia. When Mr. Hossain came to New York with his mother and a brother, Jackson Heights was a logical destination.
By the time Mr. Hossain graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree in architecture in 2004, he had fallen in love with Ms. Nymann, an architect from Tennessee he had met at a downtown bar frequented by young architects and designers. Once the two were engaged, they started looking for an apartment in his neighborhood. From that point on, things happened fast.
In July 2005, the couple bought a one-bedroom on the second floor of the Arlington, a garden apartment complex on 35th Avenue, for $165,000. Two months later they were married. The following year Mr. Hossain started a design firm called Bang/Architecture and Design (the echo of the word Bangladesh was intentional).
And as if the couple didn't already have enough going on, they also decided to open a cafe that would do double duty as an art gallery. By early 2007, as plans for the cafe moved forward, they learned they were expecting a child.
"So we were working on two big projects at the same time," said Ms. Nymann, who has vivid and not entirely pleasant memories of helping transform a onetime Indian clothing store into a center for coffee and art while eight months pregnant.
Their daughter was born in September 2007. Three months later the couple opened Espresso 77, a few blocks from their apartment.
Ms. Nymann's mother came the week after the baby was born. "And basically," her daughter said, "she never left."
All the pieces seemed to fall into place. Ms. Nymann's father had died a decade earlier. Her mother had been living alone in the family house. Ms. Nymann, who at the time was employed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, went back to work four months after Audra was born. Mr. Hossain was busy getting the cafe up and running.
For some families, so many people under the same small roof would have been a recipe for disaster. For this one, it proved ideal.
"We couldn't have opened the cafe without her," said Ms. Nymann, who is now a deputy director of architecture for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. "We couldn't have done anything without her."
Her husband concurs: "I was the one who urged her to stay," Mr. Hossain said. "Truly, we get along wonderfully."
Along with the benefit of an extra pair of hands, Ms. Nymann saw a less tangible but equally powerful benefit to her mother's presence.
"When I was growing up, my grandparents lived so far away, I really didn't get to know them," she said. "I feel lucky that my daughter will know what it means to have a grandparent nearby."
But a one-bedroom for four people was feasible only for so long. So in July 2009, when a pair of adjacent one-bedrooms became available on the building's fifth floor, the couple bought the apartments for $485,000. Last February, after the spaces were combined and reconfigured — an undertaking that cost $100,000 — the family moved in.
Many of the furnishings came from the usual places — the living room chandelier from West Elm, the entire kitchen from the Lowe's in Brooklyn, the shelves from Ikea, the wooden bench from Two Jakes in Williamsburg, the rugs from Target.
"The building has a rule that 80 percent of the floor has to be carpeted," Ms. Nymann said, "and with a toddler, we figured that would be a good idea. So one night we just went to Target and bought a whole bunch of rugs."
One item that has a more distinguished provenance is the teak and wool armchair made by Finn Juhl, the Danish furniture designer.
"My parents had bought it at Neiman Marcus in Dallas in the 1960s for $500," Ms. Nymann recalled. "Now it's probably worth $5,000."
Audra's room is pale green — "she chose the color herself," he father reported proudly — and from her window she can see leafy treetops and the moon. But everyone agrees that the best view is from the elder Ms. Nymann's bedroom.
"You can see practically to LaGuardia," her daughter said. "At night Audra and my mother sit there and watch the planes, and talk about where they're going and where they've come from. It's so calming, it helps her fall asleep."
Just as the colorful kantha recalls Mr. Hossain's homeland, so does his painting titled "Stealing Mangoes," which hangs in the dining area. The image, a swirl of blues and oranges, depicts a woman dressed in white who seems to be taking possession of an entire tree with her outstretched arms.
The painting was inspired by his own days of mango rustling.
"Back when I was growing up," Mr. Hossain recalled, "we used to do that at night, so no one would see us. We were always convinced that other people's mangoes were much better than ours."
E-mail: habitats@nytimes.com
------------------------------------
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TEST FUELS ANXIETY—AND AN INDUSTRY
Farah Akbar
City Limits* News
http://www.citylimits.org/news/article_print.cfm?article_id=3943
In Jackson Heights, the city's high school entrance exam means high pressure for immigrant students, and business for private test-prep centers.
* City Limits is a project of the Community Service Society of New York
Jackson Heights - In six months Moontasin Rahman, a seventh-grader at I.S. 230, will take a test required for admission to one of New York City's elite public high schools. It's offered to the city's eighth- and ninth-graders once a year in October. In addition to studying seven hours a week on her own for the test, she also attends a four-hour class once a week at a test-prep school in Jackson Heights, her Queens neighborhood.
Moontasin's parents have taught her to believe that graduating from one of the city's elite high schools will determine her fate as an adult. "If you get into one of these schools, you're set for college, you're set for life," Moontasin says. She's used to declining friends' invitations to hang out, preferring instead her books and practice exams. "Forget your social life and just study for the test!" Moontasin's parents say to her.
The Specialized High School Admissions Test, given free of charge by the New York City Department of Education, is the key to getting into the city's top three public high schools—Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School—and five other selective high schools.
So common is the exam for Bangladeshi adolescents that it's become a rite of passage. And parents' desire to see their children score well on the exam has helped an industry to sprout in the city's Bangladeshi enclaves. Moontasin is among the many Bangladeshi children who are present or former students enrolled in test prep classes run by fellow Bangladeshis.
The challenging test, known as the "Sci-Hi" exam for short, consists of a math and verbal sections. More than 27,000 kids took the test last fall. Only about one in five students wins admission to the specialized high schools. Asians and South Asians were 57 percent of the students who learned in February that they've been admitted to one of the eight competitive specialized high schools.
New York City Bangladeshis, numbering over 28,000, were the fastest growing Asian-American subgroup in the United States during the 1990s—the population grew 471 percent over those years, and New York City is home to the largest group of Bangladeshis in the United States. Ninety-four percent of Bangladeshi school-age kids attend public schools versus 79 percent of all city children.
The city's Department of Education offers free prep classes for economically disadvantaged students. But many immigrant families pay for private test prep classes despite having incomes that in many cases are low: In the case of Bangladeshis, their per capita income in New York City was reported in the last census as $10,479—less than half of the citywide figure of $22,402. Mostly by word of mouth over the years, the Bangladeshi community of New York City picked up on the importance of these schools, valued by previous generations of working class immigrants as a stepping stone to American mainstream.
Moontasin's parents pay $75 for each weekend session to help her prepare for the rigorous exam.
Nahian Jahangir went through the arduous process of preparing for the test three years ago, and says it was all worth it. He was accepted at Bronx Science after studying at tutoring centers to prepare. "I had to get in no matter what," says Nahian. "It would be like an escalator to get into a good college," he says. Nahian would like to attend NYU so he can stay close to home after graduating and is thinking about becoming a doctor.
According to Community Board 3, which covers Jackson Heights, Bangladeshis are about one quarter of the neighborhood's population. Stepping into the bustling enclave of 73rd and 74th Streets between 35th and 37th Avenues in Jackson Heights, one enters a universe of South Asian culture: exotic spicy foods, intricate gold jewelry and Bollywood music. Something else of note is the slew of test-prep businesses that have sprouted. There are at least six such businesses on one block of 73rd Street.
"Bangladeshis like the prestige of these schools," says Santanu Barua. He is the owner of a school nestled in the basement of a shopping complex called "Bangladesh Plaza." Barua, 36, established Core Tutoring Center in 2004. He employs college students to tutor youngsters in all grades, and he teaches Sci-Hi classes. Barua immigrated to the United States in 1994 from Bangladesh and finished his degree in computer science and accounting. He has no background as an educator—he works in a bank in the day—but considers himself qualified enough to teach some classes.
His students are mostly Bangladeshis but he has a few Pakistani, Indian, Filipino and Latino students. On one weekday, seven youngsters fill a tiny classroom and dutifully listen to their instructor, a young woman who will soon take her MCAT exam for medical school.
Iqbal Zaman says that test prep centers are part of Bangladeshi culture. A math lecturer at LaGuardia Community College, Zaman started his tutoring business, Tutorial One, in 2005. The sole instructor at his school, Zaman started the center to help his community but also acknowledges that he intends to benefit financially as business increases. "It's good enough, it could be better," he says of his profits. He has about 10 students in his Sci-Hi prep classes, and charges less than large commercial franchises—$35 for a 2.5 hour group session with him.
The most well known test-prep business in the area is Khan's Tutorial. It was started in 1997 by Mansurul Khan, a former New York City public school teacher and assistant principal who immigrated with his family to the United States in 1985. According to Khan's son, Ivan Khan, himself a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science who also takes part in running Khan's Tutorial, the business has helped over 800 students gain admission into the elite high schools over the years. Khan's Tutorial is more expensive than the competition.
Zulkarium Rahman, 15, Moontasin's brother, is a student at Stuyvesant High School. He remembers giving up video games and having two "boring summers" between 6th and 8th grade because he was studying so much for the exam. "I felt bad, but I knew the end result would be better for me," he says.
In addition to the three top tier schools, the test is crucial to admission at other specialized high schools: Brooklyn Latin School; High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College; High School of American Studies at Lehman College; Queens High School for the Sciences at York College; and Staten Island Technical High School. One specialized high school not subject to the Sci-Hi exam is Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where getting in is based auditions and the student's academic record.
Stuyvesant has the highest cut off score of the eight schools. For the Fall 2007 exam, students scoring at 561 out of a score that ranged from 200 to 800 made it into the school.
Zaman argues that there is too much emphasis on the top three specialized high schools. He wants Bangladeshi parents not to panic if their children do not get into one these schools. "Is their life spoiled because they did not get in?" he asks.
Barua agrees that it's not the end of the world if an industrious student fails to gain admission. One of his former students didn't leave her house for days because of bad Sci-Hi test results. He says that the failure "destroyed her self-esteem." Though he concedes that he benefits from the Sci-Hi test prep craze financially, he does not support the excessive pressure put upon these kids to pass the test.
Moontasin remembers kids at her school receiving envelopes with Sci-Hi test results. "They were crying. I couldn't tell if they were happy or sad," she says. What would happen if her own Stuyvesant dreams were dashed? "It would be so horrible," she says.
------------------------------------
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Dear Alochoks
The opposition is definitely decrepit, aimless and worthy of scorn. But Shahnoor Wahid (SW) starts with `… before anything worth opposing happens'. He can think of nothing in the past 2 years that is worthy of opposition? Here's ten 1. food prices 2. the bdr massacre 3. murders by the BSF 4. entry by BSF into our territory 5. the meekest foreign minister in south asia. Here's another five - 6. the weakest home minister in south asia 7. lack of reform in AL (and BNP) 8. lack of reform in the police force 9. lack of reform of the bureaucracy 10. inactivity of the anti corruption committee 11. the ruination of campuses 12. the failure to even appear to be making gains in negotiations with India 13. the drying and damming of our rivers 14. the political waiving of corruption cases 15. the appalling hypocrisy of the ruling party in how it deals with its cadres
And for good measure it seems SW supports the murder and extortion committed by the cadres of his own party.
SW cannot distinguish between a blind supporter of AL and a blind supporter of BNP. Here are his 2nd and 3rd paragraphs slightly reworded:
Everything in his second and third paras is as equally applicable to both AL and BNP.
It would seem AL has scored a great moral victory over someone else's falling pajamas. Enough of a victory perhaps to stay silent about murder committed by his own party operatives? Enough to counter hilarity about his Home Minister's building used as a brothel?
In his 4th and 5th paras he mocks the opposition for saying the PM has sold the country to India. But he does not detail even one of the many gains he suggests have been made in negotiations. He does not give a single example of an action upon which we can be expected to assume India's generous intentions. SW describes a benign and gentle India and her ignorant neighbours. Such thinking is promoted by only one political party in the whole of South Asia.
In his 5th and 6th he presents a Wikipedia article on the Lousiana Pact as some form of evidence. Perhaps he thinks the visual of facts from Wikipedia on any irrelevant subject would give his article some facts. Certainly the only facts in his piece are facts about the Lousiana Pact!
In his 7th and 8th paras SW correctly points out the failure of the opposition to build a case at their press conference. But he does not give a single example of how the government did not cave into Indian demands. His notion that only a few media outlets are unhappy about the government's approach to India is flatly wrong. If anything, it is only worry about public opinion that has obliged the government to press for transit fees. As it happens the Indians have already refused to pay transit fees at Ashuganj!
The 9th para is correct – except that the AL is just as predictable as the BNP.
It is his 10th para that demonstrates the naive hopefulness of the blindly partisan. SW does not identify a single proof of mutual respect between Indian and Bangladesh. He sees no intimidation but would not like to comment on the probability of a powerful RAW in Dhaka. He could not even contemplate the remotest possibility of India's involvement in the BDR massacre. And his mind skips effortlessly past all the horrors on our borders. In this para he asserts a new leadership role for Bangladesh in the region even though Myanmar and India do what they want on our borders and our seas. A democratic Myanmar and a reconciled Sri Lanka would naturally follow Bangladesh under a descendant of Mujib he thinks. Finally, Malaysians showing interest in vague bilateral deals is presented as sign of a quantum leap. Malaysia looks like it will return lacs of our workers and make it illegal for Deshis to marry Malaysians! Yes. Quantum leap based on mutual respect indeed.
His final para is correct – we should all like to see the opposition demanding justice in each of these cases. But there are other cases too including the ones I listed in my first para. Leaving SW's poor use of plurals intact: "The silence of the ruling party and its leaders regarding these nationally important issues gives rise to many unpleasant gossips. Shouldn't the ruling party give efforts to stop such gossips?"
SW represents the thinking that arguing is more important than the argument. This is all pervasive in our political culture at disastrous cost to our country.
SW strings sentences together no better than a kitten playing with a ball of string.
Ezajur Rahman
Kuwait
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "ezajur" <Ezajur@...> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Robin
>
>
>
> In this context I am neither goose nor gander as I am not blindly for
> AL, BNP or Jamaat.
>
> Don't pick on me man just because it's easier to talk about my
> volume than my points.
>
>
>
> My fetish is to oppose the fetish of not holding one's own party
> accountable – AL or BNP.
>
> I use a language that is clearly understood by those with whom I am
> arguing.
>
>
>
> At least I have the courtesy to explain to others what I believe they
> are blind about.
>
> I thank you for confirming that the salient points of my arguments
> remain consistent.
>
>
>
> We should all speak up. I don't doubt you have a better voice than
> me.
>
> But if you won't speak up then don't expect me to stop, however
> flawed I may be.
>
>
>
> Be careful not to appear to stick up for one side if you want to appear
> neutral.
>
> As far as Bangladesh is concerned I suspect I won't have a pleasant year
> at all.
>
>
>
> Shahnoor's first line includes `…. before anything worth
> opposing happens'.
>
> There's a child dead, hanging on a barbed wire fence on the border.
> A few days ago.
>
>
>
> You can ignore it. You can raise hell about it. You can contextualize
> it. Your choice.
>
> Either way, Shahnoor wouldn't know a good argument if it hit him in
> the face.
>
>
>
> But I'm willing to teach him.
>
>
>
> Ezajur Rahman
>
> Kuwait
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Robin Khundkar <rkhundkar@> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Ejaz aka angry young man
> >
> > What is good for the gander is good for the goose. Please note that
> every single post of yours includes a similar but "opposite fetish" . So
> much so one doesnt even have to read it to know the salient points.
> Please do extend the same courtesy to be blind as a bat and deaf as a
> lamp post to others if they choose.
> >
> > Have a pleasant new year.
> >
> > Robin
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > From: ezajur Ezajur@ [Add to Address Book]
> > To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: 1-yr on ...Position of the Opposition --- only
> the slipping pyjamasare in tatters for having slipped too many times
> > Date: Jan 11, 2011 7:30 AM
> >
> >
> > What garbage is written here by Shahnoor Wahid! So effortlessly lapped
> up gleefully by Farida - even highlighting her favourite phrases! Like
> any partisan creature, she could not pretend intellectual neutrality for
> too long.
> >
> > Shahnoor is as blind as a bat and as blind as the opposition he
> imagines he is mocking.
> >
> > In his entire piece the only facts and figures, the only evidence
> mooted, is the Louisiana Pact!
> >
> > Oh yeah! And the Malaysians made a phone call. Was it to invest in
> Desh? Was it to send back 300,0000 labourers? was it to ensure Deshis
> can't marry Malaysians? Who know! Who cares! 'Some bilateral business
> deals'. Wow! Maybe Rwanda could be interested too! No need to talk about
> it in detail when he's given so much detail about the freaking Lousiana
> Pact!
> >
> > He thinks we are going to become a leader of South Asia! Even though
> we have yet to show in decades that we can stand up to anyone with even
> words.
> >
> > He thinks we can't be intimidated! Even though India shoots one Deshi
> every 4 days without a whisper from Dhaka.
> >
> > He thinks we're beating India in some sectors! Even though we are
> simply a captive market for India.
> >
> > Hey Shahnoor! Stop looking at stupid Khaleda 24/7 and look at your
> party once in a whlile.
> >
> > Nonsense.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "Emanur Rahman" emanur@ wrote:
> > >
> > > Its amazing how ridiculous and deluded the supporters of the
> political status quo are. They don't realise that every word they write
> and utter in criticism at their opponents is equally applicable to their
> own!
> > >
> > > What's the difference between BAL and BNP? Nothing. Both are two
> evils that have killed millions of people since day one of independence
> through corruption, incompetence and petty rivalry.
> > >
> > > The stench of hypocrisy is palpable.
> > >
> > > Short changed as usual are the nation. Nothing causes me to wretch
> as violently as when I hear BAL and BNP spineless sycophants talking
> about the people!
> > >
> > > Oops....I feel something coming up....
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Emanur Rahman | m. +447734567561 | e. emanur@
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Farida Majid farida_majid@ > Sender: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> > > Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 16:16:46
> > > Reply-To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> > > Subject: [ALOCHONA] 1-yr on ...Position of the Opposition --- only
> the slipping pyjamas
> > > are in tatters for having slipped too many times
> > >
> > >
> > > [Highlights by me. -- Farida Majid]
> > >
> > >
> > > Tuesday, January 26, 2010
> > >
> > > Position of the opposition
> > >
> > > Shahnoor Wahid
> > >
> > > WHEN the opposition takes a position before anything worth opposing
> happens, what happens to the position of the opposition? The answer to
> the riddle is it becomes a case of severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
> The opposition becomes obsessed with a thought that has no connection
> with reality. And it starts to do things compulsively no matter how much
> damage it might cause to its mental health.
> > >
> > > Like one possessed, opposition stalwarts would continue to babble
> and berate; r! ant and rave, about something that has only happened in
> their foggy im agination. You tell them in all earnestness about the
> state of their mental health but nothing would make them see reason.
> They would not come out of it. The situation would soon begin to go out
> of their hand.
> > >
> > > One fine morning they would put on their best suits and saris, and
> pajamas that would not slip off, and invite the press to make a great
> show of politicking. They would make painful efforts so that their
> "concern" for the future of the country would show on their wrinkled
> foreheads. In a masochistic manifestation, they would accuse the
> government of selling the country off to India through secret deals. In
> a schizophrenic stupor, they would keep saying the same thing, over and
> over again, never waiting to know whether people believed in what they
> said or not.
> > >
> > > At night, in neurotic nightmares, they would see wild Indian mares
> chasing them down the slopes of mountains, thus causing them to wake up
> sweating and swearing. What a predicam! ent the prime minister has
> gotten them into! She should have been aware of the mental state of the
> members of the opposition and acted accordingly. She should have stuck
> to the traditional foreign policy with India that has been pursued by
> their predecessors since 1947.
> > >
> > > This phobia of selling the entire country, lock, stock and barrel to
> India reminds us of the actual purchase by the United States of America
> of a big landmass, which is known as Louisiana Purchase. Documents say:
> "The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane "Sale of
> Louisiana") was the acquisition by the United States of America of
> 828,800 square miles (2,147,000 km2) of the French territory Louisiana
> in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation
> of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), a total cost of 15
> million dollars for the Louisiana territory.
> > >
> > > "The Louisiana Purchase encompassed all or part of 14 current U.S.
> states and two ! Canadian provinces. The land purchased contained all of
> present-day Ar kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts
> of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River, most of North
> Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, the
> portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental
> Divide, and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city
> of New Orleans. (The Oklahoma Panhandle, and southwestern portions of
> Kansas and Louisiana were still claimed by Spain at the time of the
> Purchase.) In addition, the Purchase contained small portions of land
> that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta
> and Saskatchewan. The purchase, which doubled the size of the United
> States, comprises around 23% of current U.S. territory. The population
> was estimated to be 97,000 as of the 1810 census." (Source:
> > > Internet)
> > >
> > > In the press conference the opposition leaders went on to a frenzied
> finality detailing how the government succumbed to the demands of India,
> w! ent down on its knees and handed over everything on a silver platter
> and came back empty handed. What an insidious inference! What a
> simpletonic surmise! They made every effort to make the media buy their
> words. Their career depended on that.
> > >
> > > Did the media buy that stuff? Did the nation believe what they said?
> A handful of newspapers and electronic channels loyal to them printed
> articles and organised some talk shows to peddle the stuff further among
> the masses. They could not find many buyers. It has come as a rude
> awakening to them that even the man on the street has the wisdom to say,
> "Let's wait and see".
> > >
> > > It became conspicuous from day one that the opposition would say
> exactly what they did about the treaties and MoUs signed in India after
> the return of the prime minister. They had their draft ready but they
> hadn't done their homework well. The handful of "wise" brains cooked
> something in a hurry and the leaders served them before the! crowd. It
> was bland and tasteless. End of the day it did not ensure a higher berth
> for the opposition in the esteem of the people.
> > >
> > > The India-Bangladesh agreements on some of the vital issues are need
> of the time and these would be materialised on the basis of mutual
> respect and not intimidation. As a fast developing nation we shall have
> to move ahead to become a leader and not a follower in South-Asia. We
> are ahead in many sectors, even compared with the corresponding sectors
> in India, so now is the time to take the quantum leap...no more
> crawling. Recently Malaysia has shown interest to strike some bilateral
> business deals with Bangladesh. Now, should we suspect the motive behind
> such interest?
> > >
> > > We would like to see the opposition organise similar press
> conferences to demand punishment of the murderers of ASM Kibria; real
> culprits of grenade attack on Awami League rally, Ramna Botomul bombing
> and Udichi bombing; demand arrest of all militants; demand trial and
> punishment of the War Criminals and killers of ! Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
> and four national leaders in Dhaka Central Jail. The silence of the
> opposition and its leaders regarding these nationally important issues
> gives rise to many unpleasant gossips. Shouldn't the opposition give
> efforts to stop such gossips?
> > >
> >
>
------------------------------------
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