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Thursday, October 28, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Worth a watch - On the upcoming Genocide & Warm Crimes Trials in Bangladesh



 

 

http://newsclick.in/international/saiful-haq-omi-genocides-bangladesh

 

Saiful Huq Omi on Genocides in Bangladesh

 

Saiful Huq Omi (30), Bangladesh, first studied telecoms engineering, before taking up photography in 2005.

His photos have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time and Asian Photography, among others.

His work has been exhibited in galleries from Zimbabwe and Russia to Japan and his home country. Saiful

has received a number of awards, including the All Roads National Geographic Award, and an emerging

photographers grant from the Open Society Institute.

His Rohingya project gained him a grant from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund.



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[ALOCHONA] Taliban Warning againt BD

There are Soldiers of 55 nations besides USA in Afghanistan but all are not on Combat Duty. Soldiers of 6 Moslim Nations are also there. UAE, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirghistan. BD would not be the first Moslim Country to send her soldiers there. NATO has Basis in 3 countries north of Afghanistan also.
BD Soldiers could be deployed to safeguard Supplies there if USA does not consider them Combat Ready.
BD JehaaDis just do not want their Savage JehaaDi Pakistani brothers shot dead by BD Army in Afghanistan and this is only their concern. Believe it or not, there are some Bangladeshis that they have recruited and sent to Pakistan to get trained by Pak Army and infiltrate in to Afghanistan. A few of them have been shot dead by US Soldiers. It was in news a couple of years ago that one of them was caught by NATO Soldiers there.
..
SUGGESTION:
.
* BD Government should interrogate its citizens arriving from Pakistan, who are not Permanent Legal or Illegal Residents of Pakistan.The ones, who fail to provide enough evidence, why they were in Pakistan, should be jailed for participating in Terrorist Activities and for Treason in case, they only got JehaaDi Training in Pakistan to cause Terrorism in BD and had not taken part in terrorizing NATO or US Army.
* Arrest and Conviction news of such JehaaDis should be reported to International Press to prove that BD is a full time partner in War against International JehaaDi Terrorism.  
--------------

Posted by: "Farida Majid" farida_majid@hotmail.com

Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:09 pm (SGT)




S. A. Hannan is against the idea of BD troops in Afghanistan as a part of ISAF. He writes:

Why as a Muslim country it would involve itself in fratricidal war in another Muslim country.[sic]

Very strange words coming from a staunch supporter and a cold-blooded aider and abettor
of 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh where his dear Jamaati brethren committed mass murder of innocent
non-threatening Muslim fellow-citizens along with Hindu fellow-citizens who were fellow-Bangalee!

I have a lot of affection for Afghanistan though I've never been there. The people there followed a big-hearted
Sufi Islam, not unlike the people of Bengal, and led simple life. It is the Pakistan's diabolical ISI in cohoot with the CIA that
created the Taliban in order to destroy a fragile people inhabiting a part of the world coveted by World Powers.

Now, Turkman, I don't think BD soldiers are very keen to meet Pakistani army whom they have already
defeated. It is that vicious communal "mullah" faction of Bengali people who killed their own people who have not
been vanquished. I hope you, and all the Pakistani friends will wish us well when we conduct the Trial of the War
Crimes seeking not only delayed justice but an end to all the evil efforts to mullacratize the country.

Farida Majid

[ALOCHONA] Burqa can't be forced: High Court

Some such Borqaa-clad women in the West are Islamic Extremists.

One of them, a Pakistani Punjabi in Elmhurst College, Illinois hated Christians so bad that she always taunted against Jews, Christians, Christianity and American Way of living all the time. She was so mad at her College and its Students for not mistreating, teasing or discriminating against her despite all her regular antics that one day she decided to take action against them.

Last year, she went to Toilet and wrote an Anti Islam Slogan on her Face with her Lipstick. 

Then, she started screaming that she was sexually assaulted.
College Security called Police because Hate Crimes are Federal Offense. She was on all TV Stations of Chicago Area and on some big News Media Networks broadcasting all over USA.
Not only all Anti Hate, Civil Rights and Human Rights organizations of USA issued statements in her favor but also Students of her College held Rallies in protest for her.
No DNA Evidence of the Attacker was found on her body and clothes.
What she he written on her forehead and face with Lipstick could be read only if she was standing in front of a Mirror so FBI said, why someone attacking her would write like this, when its not easy to write something from right to left or other way around?
She was given a Polygraph later to prove, what she reported was not a Lie.
She failed the test miserably broke down and then confessed.
She was arrested and charged but was bailed out by her Parents immediately.
She plead guilty in court and that court of so called Enemy of Islam, Killer of Moslims, at war with Islam, the USA (what she used to call USA) was so nice to her that she served no time in Jail and was put on Probation because this was her first Felony in Police Record.
A lot of Pakistanis and Arabs in USA get tired of tolerance of Americans. Dozens have taken similar actions. They vandalize their own Mosque and then Mosque Imam, sometimes knowing that some Moslims have done it, calls Police and reports "Some American Youth have vandalized my Mosque" and it gets reported all over in local US Media making Americans feel Guilty.
---------

Posted by: "Mohammed Ramjan" mramjan@hotmail.com

Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:06 pm (SGT)




Dear Sirs
All the good and moral things at somehow must merely be forced with when children are growing up. I astonished when saw a girl attending an USA University (at higher level of engineering) with Borqa, a quite amazed, from where she was encouraged ? reply - from her tender age she was asked by parent and practiced as to do so.

RE: [ALOCHONA] Re: A topic that needs our attention



ATTN:  Junel


Many thanks for your most wise, smart guidelines.
When Bangladeshi politicians will pay attention to the problems of common people?

khoda hafez.

============================================================




> To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> From: Ezajur@yahoo.com
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 06:26:14 +0000
> Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: A topic that needs our attention
>
> Dear QR
>
> I hope you are keeping well.
>
> This is not virtual adda. If it is, then it is virtual adda that drives Bangladeshi politics coupled with violence on our streets and the antics of our leaders in our media. As we can neither join the fray on the street, nor buy time in the media, we must argue where we can. I assure you, your arguments are nothing like adda.
>
> I respectfully suggest to you that getting bogged down in the water supply issues of Badda is a mistake. This is the responsibility, and failing, of the government. Politicians would love to see you busy carrying water to and fro. They might grant you a photo opportunity with them. They might tell their gangsters to leave you alone as you go about your business.
>
> Anything to stop you from doing what you call 'virtual adda'.
>
> Look at independent commentators on tv. Look at neutral citizens writing into the press. Look at the mood in the next dinner party you attend. And look how AL and BNP activists online avoid arguing with you or try to change the subject. Politicians are under pressure inspite of their stubborn facade. Its time to keep the pressure up and time to encourage others to contribute to this pressure. This, I believe, is the calling for you and me - and for all who place our beautiful country above party interests.
>
> If anything you should help the people of Badda protest, in public and in the media, against the proper authorities for the problems they face. This is what you can do:
>
> - Contact newspapers and demand they send journalists to Badda
> - Write your own aritcles, with photos, and send to newspapers
> - Visit the MP and water authorities and publish their repsonses
> - Take video evidence and send to the tv channels
> - Take the locals to the MP's house and WASA offices
> - Encourage the locals to block a road now and then in protest
> - Get a petition signed by locals
> - Organise the locals and empower their leaders
> - Try to engage international media
> - Take a load of sewage and deposit in front of the MP's house
>
> This is the fight. And you are a part of it. Drop your bucket and pail. Pick up your pen and phone.
>
> There is misery everywhere. Go to the source of the problem.
>
> I have long known about the contribution of our popular culture to our national malaise. But I never wrote about it because it seemed the greatest taboo of all. For the first time in my life I have seen someone else refer to it - in your recent mail. I am liberated. Thank you. I shall now attack our popular culture with all the malice I can muster - because I know that one other person has dared to write about it before me. Your thoughtful words are far more important than my bile. So you see - drop the bucket and keep your pen.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Junel
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, qrahman@... wrote:
> >
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I have been participating in 'Virtual adda" with all of you for many years. We passionately discuss and debate our ideas and argue about how best to improve [ Most of the time] our country and politics. Recently some friends of mine asked my help to solve a read problem in part of Dhaka. I felt real bad after learning that, large part of Badda [ An highly populated area near Gulshan] people are without water supply near about a month. Somehow the sewer line and line for drinking water got mixed and thousands of people are without drinking water. It is hard of many of us to imagine to live without water supply for even one day. I was very upset to discover that, Dhaka WASA has not taken any steps to "Fix" this issue. These people told me although they are not getting clean water and forced buy water at a very high price, they are forced to pay for the stinky dirty water they are getting at the same time.
> >
> > I have taken time to talk to some of these people are various issues that impacts our country. Like the virtual world, we discussed ways to improve our politics, communal harmony, business etc. But how in God's name people can think about these lofty ideas when our nation fail to provide clean water to these people? I was very disturbed when I heard what they have to go through to earn a living in Dhaka. As most of you know public transportation in Dhaka is horrible. You have to spend at least 2-3 hours every day to get CNG gas and safety of Dhaka roads can compete with roads of Kabul in Afghanistan.
> >
> > These people did not forget to remind me that, WASA employees forced them [ Extortion] to pay extra money when they received water connection in the first place.
> >
> > We had many discussion about "Pie in the sky matters" here. I like to hear your ideas about this one. Water shortage is bound to hit us harder in the coming days.
> >
> > It will be very nice if any of our members can do something to help these people. No one from the media came to talk about it yet. This can be a real opportunity for Alochona members to make a tangible contribution to people of Dhaka. Even if you know someone in the media, you can ask them to talk to these people.
> >
> >
> >
> > --qr
> >
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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[ALOCHONA] Borqa ban


  Rorcing Borqaa on your Daughters, your Employees or your sub-ordinates, you are violating their rights in name of Islam, when Borqaa was not even yet invented in the days of our Prophet and his own Wives and Daughters did not cover their face. My comments are inserted below.

-----------------

Posted by: "Syed Ziauddin" sziauddin@alfaisaliah.com

Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:08 pm (SGT)



As far as religion concerned, no one is allowed to insert anything in to religion from his own understanding nor one should dare to exploit the religion for own purposes in the sensitive issues like Burqa.
.
TURKMAN:
Even when Borqaa has nothing to do with Islam and it did not exist in the days of the Prophet? Is not Borqaa an 'insertion' in the religion to exploit Moslims? If Borqaa is a part of Islam, why Mollaas of more Moslims than in B.D. had failed to prove this in Indian Supreme Court last year?
----------------------
 It gives wrong signal to the non religious people or to the people of other faith. Before interpreting or propagating own views using the name of particularly Islam, even with self understanding for the good of the society - it is essential to see what islam says and allows about that.
.
TURKMAN:
 Islam says to women, don't show off your body, don't flaunt your beauty, don't be sexually provocative or be nude. It does not say wear Borqaa because it didn't exist in those days and it was a fashion or custom of those days that Male and Females used to cover their Heads. 
-------------------
 If you are not on the religious teachings - definitely creating mischief on the land which will instigate misunderstanding & confrontations. Don't act like so good to religious purposes specially in the Islamic issues with no proper knowledge.

Syed Ziauddin
.
TURKMAN:
Molaas are the ones creating mischief on earth by keep adding new things in Islam for last thousand years, not us. They have created this Borqaa mischief even in the West just to antagonize Christians instead of being thankful that they are letting  all poor Moslim Countries and most of the Moslims in their countries live off their Charity. Is not even seeking any help from Non Moslims is Hraam in Islam, while not only all poor Moslim Countries but also most of the Mollaas live off Charity of Christians in their countries?
How come begging for Charity or Charity called Aid is not an insertion in Islam and saying Borqaa should not be forced is, in your crazy Islam?
Who the hell are you trying to fool here with your foolish rhetoric?
---------------

TriTioMatra@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of S Turkman
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 10:04 AM


grahman wrote: " ... we need to understand that men or women should NOT be forced to go against religion either ...".
.
TURKMAN: But we need to understand that men or women are NOT being forced to go against religion either. We are going against "FORCING" them to follow something that is not a part of Religion because nowhere in Qoraan, Allah had said to wear a Borqa. Our Prohet's own wives never wore it because it was not even invented. All his wives never hid their faces either. If its a part of Islam, why all those big Pagri Mollaas of yours could not prove this case in Indian Supreme Court?
Why they lost this case?
Because your mis-translations and mis-interpretations of Qoraan and HaDees did not work there. There were Arabic Speaking Moslim Olma, who said opposite of what you Mollaas were saying.
Stop your B.S. sir ...!

Fwd: [ALOCHONA] The danger of Grameenism



There are too many Micro-credit institutions in our country. Too often I heard many horror stories about "Kisti" and how worried some people are about it.

However when you have a headache, you do not cut off your head, you should seek medication for i t and "Fix" the problem.

Few can argue if we would have been better off without any kind of micro-credit initiatives. We are imperfect people with "Perfect" expectations from others!!

Well, let us look into the "grameen" model and shave off what does not work and keep what works. Maybe these institutions needs to be monitored/regulated more. With our available mobile and IT technology, it is not hard to do.

Dr. Yunus has a little weakness for glamor world. Last time I checked, it is not a crime.
:-)

Personally I am happy that, he chose to think differently than others. He TRIED to help some women in front of him. How many of us goes beyond "Ideas" and makes an attempt to make a difference in lives of poor in our country?

If we think differently and become business "partners" of these people as the next "Phase/model" of micro-credit rolls out of our "Idea" factory. It may bring better results.

How about micro-insurance for reducing some of the risk factors from the very poor?

How about a "Pick performance analysis" of Grameen Bank, so we can repeat the successful ventures and stop the project that failed borrowers in the past?

I feel almost every problem we face has some solutions for them. We just have to look for it.





-----Original Message-----
From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Sent: Thu, Oct 28, 2010 12:57 pm
Subject: [ALOCHONA] The danger of Grameenism

 

The danger of Grameenism

By: Patrick Bond

Far from being a panacea for fighting rural poverty, microcredit can impose additional burdens on the rural poor, without markedly improving their socio-economic condition. (Also below, Khorshed Alam on why microcredit initiatives inspired by Mohammad Yunus's vision and implemented by Grameen Bank and other NGOs have not gone nearly as well in Bangladesh as has been publicised worldwide.)
 

For years, the example of microcredit in Bangladesh has been touted as a model of how the rural poor can lift themselves out of poverty. This widely held perception was boosted in 2006, when Mohammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, the microfinance institution he set up, jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize. In Southasia in particular, and the world in general, microcredit has become a gospel of sorts, with Yunus as its prophet.


Consider this outlandish claim, made by Yunus as he got started in the late 1970s: 'Poverty will be eradicated in a generation. Our children will have to go to a 'poverty museum' to see what all the fuss was about.' According to Milford Bateman, a senior research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London who is one of the world's experts on Grameen and microcredit, the reason this rhetoric resonated with international donors during the era of neoliberal globalisation, was that 'they love the non-state, self-help, fiscally-responsible and individual entrepreneurship angles.'

Grameen's origins are sourced to a discussion Yunus had with Sufiya Begum, a young mother who, he recalled, 'was making a stool made of bamboo. She gets five taka from a business person to buy the bamboo and sells to him for five and a half taka, earning half a taka as her income for the day. She will never own five taka herself and her life will always be steeped into poverty. How about giving her a credit for five taka that she uses to buy the bamboo, sell her product in free market, earn a better profit and slowly pay back the loan?' Describing Begum and the first 42 borrowers in Jobra village in Bangladesh, Yunus waxed eloquent: 'Even those who seemingly have no conceptual thought, no ability to think of yesterday or tomorrow, are in fact quite intelligent and expert at the art of survival. Credit is the key that unlocks their humanity.'


But what is the current situation in Jobra? Says Bateman, 'It's still trapped in deep poverty, and now debt. And what is the response from Grameen Bank? All research in the village is now banned!' As for Begum, says Bateman, 'she actually died in abject poverty in 1998 after all her many tiny income-generating projects came to nothing.' The reason, Bateman argues, is simple: 'It turns out that as more and more 'poverty-push' micro-enterprises were crowded into the same local economic space, the returns on each micro-enterprise began to fall dramatically. Starting a new trading business or a basket-making operation or driving a rickshaw required few skills and only a tiny amount of capital, but such a project generated very little income indeed because everyone else was pretty much already doing exactly the same things in order to survive.'

Contrary to the carefully cultivated media image, Yunus is not contributing to peace or social justice. In fact, he is an extreme neoliberal ideologue. To quote his philosophy, as expressed in his 1998 autobiography, Banker to the Poor,

I believe that 'government', as we know it today, should pull out of most things except for law enforcement and justice, national defense and foreign policy, and let the private sector, a 'Grameenized private sector', a social-consciousness-driven private sector, take over their other functions.
At the time as he wrote those words, governments across the world, especially in the United States, were pulling back from regulating financial markets. In 1999, for example, Larry Summers (then US Treasury secretary and now President Barack Obama's overall economics tsar) set the stage for the crash of financial-market instruments known as derivatives, by refusing to regulate them as he had been advised.

The resulting financial crisis, peaking in 2008, should have changed Yunus's tune. After all, the catalysing event in 2007 was the rising default rate on a rash of 'subprime mortgage' loans given to low-income US borrowers. These are the equivalent of Grameen's loans to very poor Bangladeshis, except that Yunus did not go so far as the US lenders in allowing them to be securitised with overvalued real estate.

Yunus has long argued that 'credit is a fundamental human right', not just a privilege for those with access to bank accounts and formal employment. But reflect on this matter and you quickly realise how inappropriate it is to compare bank debt – a liability that can be crushing to so many who do not survive the rigours of neoliberal markets - with crucial political and civil liberties, health care, water, nutrition, education, environment, housing and the other rights guaranteed in the constitutions of countries around the world.

Microcredit mantras
By early 2009, as the financial crisis tightened its grip on the world, Yunus had apparently backed away from his long-held posture. At that time, he told India's MicroFinance Focus magazine the very opposite of what he had been saying: 'If somebody wants to do microcredit – fine. I wouldn't say this is something everybody should have' (emphasis added). Indeed, the predatory way that credit was introduced to vulnerable US communities in recent years means that Yunus must now distinguish his Grameen Bank's strategy of 'real' microcredit from microcredit 'which has a different motivation'. As Yunus told MicroFinance Focus, 'Whenever something gets popular, there are people who take advantage of that and misuse it.'

To be sure, Yunus also unveiled a more radical edge in that interview, interpreting the crisis in the following terms. 'The root causes are the wrong structure, the capitalism structure that we have,' he said. 'We have to redesign the structure we are operating in. Wrong, unsustainable lifestyle.' Fair enough. But in the next breath, Yunus was back to neoliberalism, arguing that state microfinance regulation 'should be promotional, a cheerleader.'

For Yunus, regulators are apparently anathema, especially if they clamp down on what are, quite frankly, high-risk banking practices, such as hiding bad debts. As the Wall Street Journal conceded in late 2001, a fifth of the Grameen Bank's loans were more than a year past their due date: 'Grameen would be showing steep losses if the bank followed the accounting practices recommended by institutions that help finance microlenders through low-interest loans and private investments.' A typical financial sleight-of-hand resorted to by Grameen is to reschedule short-term loans that are unpaid after as long as two years; thus, instead of writing them off, it lets borrowers accumulate interest through new loans simply to keep alive the fiction of repayments on the old loans. Not even extreme pressure techniques – such as removing tin roofs from delinquent women's houses, according to the Journal report – improved repayment rates in the most crucial areas, where Grameen had earlier won its global reputation among neoliberals who consider credit and entrepreneurship as central prerequisites for development.

By the early 2000s, even the huckster-rich microfinance industry had felt betrayed by Yunus' tricks. 'Grameen Bank had been at best lax, and more likely at worst, deceptive in reporting its financial performance,' wrote leading microfinance promoter J D Von Pischke of the World Bank in reaction to the Journal's revelations. 'Most of us in the trade probably had long suspected that something was fishy.' Agreed Ross Croulet of the African Development Bank, 'I myself have been suspicious for a long time about the true situation of Grameen so often disguised by Dr Yunus's global stellar status.'

Several years earlier, Yunus was weaned off the bulk of his international donor support, reportedly USD 5 million a year, which until then had reduced the interest rate he needed to charge borrowers and still make a profit. Grameen had allegedly become 'sustainable' and self-financing, with costs to be fully borne by borrowers.

To his credit, Yunus had also battled backward patriarchal and religious attitudes in Bangladesh, and his hard work extended credit to millions of people. Today there are around 20,000 Grameen staffers servicing 6.6 million borrowers in 45,000 Bangladeshi villages, lending an average of USD 160 per borrower (about USD 100 million/month in new credits), without collateral, an impressive accomplishment by any standards. The secret to such high turnover was that poor women were typically arranged in groups of five: two got the first tranche of credit, leaving the other three as 'chasers' to pressure repayment, so that they could in turn get the next loans.

At a time of new competitors, adverse weather conditions (especially the 1998 floods) and a backlash by borrowers who used the collective power of non-payment, Grameen imposed dramatic increases in the price of repaying loans. That Grameen was gaining leverage over women – instead of giving them economic liberation – is a familiar accusation. In 1995, New Internationalist magazine probed Yunus about the 16 'resolutions' he required his borrowers to accept, including 'smaller families'. When New Internationalist suggested this 'smacked of population control', Yunus replied, 'No, it is very easy to convince people to have fewer children. Now that the women are earners, having more children means losing money.' The long history of forced sterilisation in the Third World is often justified in such narrow economic terms.

In the same spirit of commodifying everything, Yunus set up a relationship with the biotechnology giant Monsanto to promote biotech and agrochemical products in 1998, which, New Internationalist reported, 'was cancelled due to public pressure.' As Sarah Blackstock reported in the same magazine the following year: 'Away from their homes, husbands and the NGOs that disburse credit to them, the women feel safe to say the unmentionable in Bangladesh – microcredit isn't all it's cracked up to be … What has really sold microcredit is Yunus's seductive oratorical skill.' But that skill, Blackstock explains, allows Yunus and leading imitators
to ascribe poverty to a lack of inspiration and depoliticise it by refusing to look at its causes. Microcredit propagators are always the first to advocate that poor people need to be able to help themselves. The kind of microcredit they promote isn't really about gaining control, but ensuring the key beneficiaries of global capitalism aren't forced to take any responsibility for poverty.
The big lie
Microfinance gimmickry has done huge damage in countries across the globe. In South Africa in 1998, for instance, when the emerging-markets crisis raised interest rates across the developing world, an increase of seven percent, imposed over two weeks as the local currency crashed, drove many South African borrowers and their microlenders into bankruptcy. Ugandan political economist Dani Nabudere has also rebutted 'the argument which holds that the rural poor need credit which will enable them to improve their productivity and modernise production.' For Nabudere, this 'has to be repudiated for what it is – a big lie.'

Inside even the most neoliberal financing agency (and Grameen sponsor), the World Bank, these lessons were by obvious by the early 1990s. Sababathy Thillairajah, an economist, had reviewed the Bank's African peasant credit programmes in 1993, and advised colleagues: 'Leave the people alone. When someone comes and asks you for money, the best favour you can give them is to say 'no'… We are all learning at the Bank. Earlier we thought that by bringing in money, financial infrastructure and institutions would be built up – which did not occur quickly.'

But not long afterwards, Yunus stepped in to help the World Bank with ideological support. When I met Yunus in Johannesburg, not long before South Africa's April 1994 liberation, he vowed he wouldn't take Bank funds. Yet in August 1995, Yunus endorsed the Bank's USD 200 million global line of credit aimed at microfinance for poor women. However, according to ODI's Bateman, the World Bank 'insisted on a few changes: the mantra of 'full cost recovery', the hard-line belief that the poor must pay the full costs of any program ostensibly designed to help them, and the key methodology is to impose high interest rates and to reward employees as Wall Street-style motivation.'

Bateman also remarks on the damage caused to Bangladesh itself by subscribing to the microcredit gospel: 'Bangladesh was left behind by neighbouring Asian countries, who all choose to deploy a radically different 'development-driven' local financial model: Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, China, Vietnam.' And the countries that were more reliant on neoliberal microfinance soon hit, Bateman insists, 'saturation, with the result of over-indebtedness, 'microcredit bubbles', and small business collapse.' Just as dangerous, Yunus's model actually 'destroys social capital and solidarity,' says Bateman. It is used up 'when repayment is prioritised over development. No technical support is provided, threats are used, assets are seized. And governments use microfinance to cut public spending on the poor and women, who are left to access expensive services from the private sector.' The Yunus phenomenon is, in short, a more pernicious contribution to capitalism than ordinary loan-sharking, because it has been bestowed with such legitimacy.

Bateman records extremely high microfinance interest rates 'everywhere'. In Bangladesh, for instance, these are around 30 to 40 percent; in Mexico, they go up as high as 80 percent. No wonder that in the most recent formal academic review of microfinance, by economist Dean Karlan of Yale University, 'There might be little pockets here and there of people who are made better off, but the average effect is weak, if not nonexistent.'

As the Wall Street Journal put it in 2001, 'To many, Grameen proves that capitalism can work for the poor as well as the rich.' And yet the record should prove otherwise, just as the subprime financial meltdown has shown the mirage of finance during periods of capitalist crisis.


The latest figures suggest that nearly 70 million people (out of 150 million total) in Bangladesh are still living below the poverty line; of those, about 30 million are considered to live in chronic poverty. Grameen Bank now has around seven million borrowers in Bangladesh, 97 percent of whom are women. Yet after decades of poverty-alleviation programmes what effect has Grameen had in its home country? The microcredit initiatives inspired by Mohammad Yunus's vision and implemented by Grameen Bank and other NGOs have not gone nearly as well in Bangladesh as has been publicised worldwide.

To start with, the terms of microcredit in Bangladesh are inflexible and generally far too restrictive – by way of weekly repayment and savings commitments – to allow the borrowers to utilise the newfound credit freely. After all, with a first repayment scheduled for a week after the credit is given, what are the options but petty trading? The effective interest rate stands at 30 to 40 percent, while some suggest it goes upwards of 60 percent in certain situations. Defaulters, therefore, are on the rise, with many being compelled to take out new loans from other sources at even higher interest rates.

Worryingly, in the families of some 82 percent of female borrowers, exchange of dowry has increased since their enrolment with Grameen Bank – it seems that micro-borrowing is seen as enabling the families to pay more dowry than otherwise.

Only five to 10 percent of Grameen borrowers have showed improvement of their quality of life with the help of microcredit, and those who have done will tend to have other sources of income as well. Fully half of the borrowers who could not improve were able to retain their positions by taking out loans from multiple sources; about 45 percent could not do so at all, and their position deteriorated. Many are thus forced to flee the village and try to find work in an urban area or abroad. It has now become clear that most Grameen borrowers spend their newfound credit for their daily livelihood expenditure, rather than on income-generating initiatives.

The main difference between microcredit lenders and feudal moneylenders was that the latter needed collateral. It is true that microcredit has created money flows in rural areas, but also that it created a process through which small-scale landowners can quickly become landless – if one cannot pay back the money at high interest rates, many are forced to sell their land. In cases of failure of timely repayment, instances of seizure by Grameen of tin roofs, pots and pans, and other household goods do take place – amounting to implicit collateral.

This does not mean that credit is not useful to the poor and powerless. The problem lies in the approach taken. Poverty is conceptualised extremely narrowly, only in terms of cash income; when in fact it has to do with all aspects of life, involving both basic material needs such as food, clothing and housing; and basic human needs such as human dignity and rights, education, health and equity. It is true that the rural economy today has received some momentum from microcredit. But the questions remain: Why has this link failed to make any significant impact on poverty? Why, despite the purported 'success' of microcredit, do people in distress keep migrating to urban centres? Why does a famine-like situation persists in large parts of Bangladesh, particularly in the north? Moreover, why does the number of people under the poverty line keep rising – alongside the rising microcredit?

In fact, poverty has its roots and causes, and expanding the credit net without addressing these will never improve any poverty situation. Experience shows that if countries such as Bangladesh rely heavily on microcredit for alleviating poverty, poverty will remain – to keep the microcredit venture alive. Grameen Bank's 'wonderful story' of prosperity, solidarity and empowerment has only one problem: it never happened.

~ Khorshed Alam

~ Patrick Bond is a senior professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Development Studies Centre for Civil Society in Durban, South Africa. Khorshed Alam is executive director of the Alternative Movement for Resources and Freedom Society, based in Dhaka.


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[ALOCHONA] FW: The Future of India-Pakistan Relations




 


To: sanfeatureservice@yahoo.com
From:
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:02:01 -0700
Subject: [uttorshuri] The Future of India-Pakistan Relations

 
The Future of India-Pakistan Relations

Nirupama Rao

Our relations have been encumbered by a host of missed opportunities. We compound these by refusing to learn from history and thereby condemn ourselves to replicating the past rather than unmaking it.
 
NEW DELHI : I consider it a privilege being invited to speak to such an august gathering at the Jamia Milia Islamia on a subject which is of critical importance to over a billion people of South Asia. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Vice Chancellor Najeeb Jung, who I am proud to call my friend and batchmate, my former colleagues Ambassador Satyabrata Pal and Ambassador T.C.A. Rangachari, Shri M.J. Akbar, Dr. Raja Mohan, Dr. Ajay Darshan Behera and the faculty of this reputed centre of learning for providing me an opportunity to set my sights on the future and speak on how I see the evolving paradigm of relations between the two largest countries in the South Asian sub-continent. Predicting the course of one of the most complex and unpredictable relationships in the modern era is a task that most intrepid astrologers would hesitate to undertake and ladies and gentlemen, I am no astrologer. I will however, attempt to approach the subject as a practitioner of diplomacy and international relations.

Six decades after the tragedy and trauma of Partition, a host of issues continue to bedevil India-Pakistan relations and cast long
shadows on bilateral ties. The challenge then, is to grasp this moment in history to explore the possibility of peace in the region in the larger context of an increasingly interdependent and globalizing world. In the India-Pakistan discourse, we have literally eaten bitterness for the last sixty years and given the complexities of our ties, the task of improvement in ties is also Sisyphean. Some argue that we must induce a radical transformation of mindsets
on both sides that view each other through the prism of an embittered past and entrenched hostility. This may be the conventional wisdom but is often not borne out by the behaviour of the multitudes of common people living on either side of the border. I say this in the realization that there are enough people in both countries that continue to be prisoners of the past. And yet, how does
one explain the warm and spontaneous applause of thousands of spectators at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 3 this year when the Pakistani contingent entered the stadium for the opening ceremony of the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi or the statements of support from the Pakistani sports authorities in the run up to the Games when others were vying with each other to write off the
event before it had started? What explains this? On the one hand there is the push of realism that compels us to see the relationship with Pakistan as hobbled by its many limitations, while on the other hand, there is the pull of
emotion, of sentiment, of the muffled footsteps of shared history that beat in our blood, that generates a response that is giving and generous.

 

It may be tempting to conclude that the common man desires
peaceful and good neighbourly relations and that the governments of both
countries are somehow impediments in achieving this cherished goal. This would
be far too simplistic and naïve. While it is apparent that the people of both
countries desire to live in peace and amity, yet it takes only one act of
mindless terrorism, like the barbaric attack on Mumbai in November 2008, to
vitiate the atmosphere and poison public perception.

 

Of course, there is the engulfing deficit of trust between
the two countries that needs to be bridged. This needs to be done both at the
government and people to people level. Numerous well-meaning efforts in the
past have faltered and many will continue to do so in the future unless both
sides show an unwavering commitment to stay the course and create a propitious
and enabling environment to surmount the innumerable obstacles that are
littered on the path to peace. There is no magic panacea that can make this
happen. But it is incumbent on each and every one of us to persevere with
patience and dedication so that future generations do not remain hostage to a
poison-ridden legacy of political misunderstandings and geopolitical
antagonisms.

 

The Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan met on the margins
of the SAARC Summit in Bhutan in April this year and agreed to normalize
relations and to address the deficit of trust that exists between the two
countries. Accordingly, they mandated their Foreign Ministers and Foreign
Secretaries with the task of working out modalities for restoring trust and
confidence in their relationship and thus paving the way for a substantive
dialogue on all issues of mutual concern.

 

Pursuant to this directive, I visited Islamabad
in June to prepare the ground for a subsequent visit by the External Affairs
Minister to Pakistan
the next month. While I do not want to dwell into the specifics of both these
visits, notwithstanding the cordial and frank exchanges, our efforts to bridge
the trust deficit and pave the way for a serious and comprehensive dialogue
were thwarted by a level of overreach by Pakistan that complicated the
resumption of a sustained dialogue process. However, we do not view this as a
set-back in our quest for peace as both sides appear to be committed to
ensuring that the spirit of Thimphu is not
lost. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has accepted our invitation to visit India, dates
for which will be decided through diplomatic channels. We will continue to
strive for a resolution of all outstanding issues through dialogue.

 

The countries of the South Asian region have a common stake
in ensuring a peaceful, stable environment that guarantees a bright and
prosperous future. Democracy has infused a new vitality among all countries in
the region, and brought with it a revolution of rising expectations and
perceived possibilities among the peoples of South Asia.
The leadership in all the countries of South Asia
is obliged to concentrate on the imperative of providing inclusive and sustainable
development and economic opportunities to the needier sections of their
populations. This realization should also unlock bilateral relations between India and Pakistan. It informs the vision of
our leadership when they seek dialogue with Pakistan. The linkages resulting
from economic interaction, connectivity and people to people contacts could
build the sinews of a more durable and lasting peace in which stakeholders will
have a vested interest in preserving the gains of a mutually beneficial relationship.
This is the call of the 21st Century.

 

India's
advocacy of an incremental, graduated and forward-looking approach that seeks
to address the deficit of trust is by no means an attempt to avoid tackling of
the substantive differences that trouble relations with Pakistan. While
there can be no guarantees for success, such an approach seeks to build first
on what is achievable and simultaneously to also address the more intractable
issues in a sustained manner. The issue of terrorism arising out of the
sub-conventional conflict directed by Pakistan
against India
for over two decades now, cannot be ignored either. It is as substantive an
issue as the issue of Jammu and
Kashmir, or the issue of the Siachen Glacier.

 

As we seek to pave the way for a serious and comprehensive
dialogue, how do we enlarge the constituencies of peace in both countries so
that the dawn of a new era does not remain a chimera? I had earlier referred to
economic linkages and enhanced people to people contacts. The task before us is
to translate this on the ground to a mutually enriching and beneficial
partnership for the greater good.

 

The Indian economy has grown exponentially in the last
couple of decades and despite the global downturn, it continues to grow at over
8 %. While the Government is committed to inclusive growth so that the benefits
of an ever expanding economy percolate down to the grassroots, we would be
happy to share this growth with all our neighbours. This can only be done if we
are able to promote our complementarities and link our economies to a
trajectory of inclusive and incremental growth. Artificial barriers and
self-defeating policies need to be struck down. The ensuing economic
interaction and mutually beneficial cooperation can lift our region from the
morass of poverty and deprivation and at the same time create vested interests
in a shared vision of peace and prosperity for our people. Unfettered trade and
investment flows coupled with freer people to people exchanges at various
levels, particularly between the youth of the two countries, and better
communications could help in realizing this vision.

 

Education can form a bridge in bringing together young minds
in the region. Universities and academic institutions in both India and Pakistan can play an important role
in creating objective understanding. The South Asian
University, under the
SAARC framework, provides an ideal platform to create a South Asian
consciousness. The vision of a world-class South
Asian University
was envisaged by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at the 13th SAARC Summit in Dhaka in 2005 when he stated:

 

"The people of our subcontinent are at the cutting edge of
scientific and technological research and in the front ranks of the knowledge
society across the world. Wherever an enabling environment and world-class
facilities are made available to our talented people, they excel. Let this
become a forum where our academicians, scholars, researchers and gifted
students can work together in the service of human advancement".

 

The University, which commenced its first academic session
this year, has as its core objectives, building a culture of understanding and
regional consciousness; nurturing a new class of liberal, bright and quality
leadership; and building the capacity of the region in science, technology and
other disciplines considered vital for improving the quality of life of the
people. It can play a stellar role in peace building and reconciliation in the
subcontinent by providing a foundation for mutual comprehension and
understanding amongst our youth. We have emphasized that Pakistani students
seeking admission to the SAU are entitled to the same non-discriminatory
dispensation as all other entrants to the University from other South Asian
countries, and that we welcome them to come to SAU.

 

The future of India-Pakistan relations, as I see it, must be
predicated on such a win-win situation where everybody has a stake in
furthering the cause of peace and good neighbourly relations. It is with this
vision that our Prime Minister has repeatedly reached out to Pakistan. The
recent devastating floods in Pakistan
provided an opportunity for us to express our solidarity with the people of Pakistan in
their hour of need. Our offer of $ 25 million was meant to alleviate the
heart-wrenching suffering of the people and we are ready to do much more as a
neighbour that shares a long border with Pakistan. We are ideally placed to
rush badly needed relief material, food, medicines and supplies across the
border to provide succour to the suffering millions. Pakistan wished us to route our
assistance through the United Nations. We were ready to oblige.

 

I am not trying to predict a rose-tinted future for
India-Pakistan relations. But surely, we can dare, perchance, to dream? To
dream of a future where on both sides of the divide, our two countries will
foster imaginative and creative approaches to tackling problems of peace and
security, confidence-building in both conventional and non-conventional areas
of defence, the differences over Jammu and Kashmir, and gird our relationship
by a raft of clearly enunciated agreements and understandings that can bury the
rusting, corrosive hatchet of sixty years and more?

 

Our relations have been encumbered by a host of missed
opportunities. We compound these by refusing to learn from history and thereby
condemn ourselves to replicating the past rather than unmaking it. However, to
learn from history we cannot afford one-sided or biased interpretations. We
must also remember that essentially, we were one people shaped from the same
timber of humanity before we decided to part ways. There is a need to
understand the past in a more redemptive way. Unless we rise above the present
we cannot realise the future we seek. The choices for the future are stark and
real. Either we learn to live together in peace and harmony or we risk
imparting to future generations our differences and prejudices that will
continue to divide us rather than unite us and indeed widen the gulf between
us. Given the complexities of our relationship and the tortured path that we
have traversed till now, it is easy to be cynical and predict a gloomy future.
However, as an eternal optimist and someone who believes in the power of people
to shape their destiny I feel it is incumbent on all of us to strive and
achieve a peaceful and mutually reinforcing relationship that will unlock the
true potential of more than a billion people for their betterment. Can we
realise this goal? The answer needs to be jointly explored sooner than later or
else time will pass us by and yet another opportunity would go a begging. I am
confident that if we are to approach this with a shared vision and a conviction
of purpose, the quest for peace need not remain elusive and in the realm of our
fantasy. The eyes of the rest of the world are on us as we engage in this
quest.

 

That, Ladies and Gentlemen, would be my prognosis for the
future of India-Pakistan relations. I would like to conclude by wishing all the
participants in this symposium success in their deliberations.—SAN-Feature
Service

 

Keynote Address by India's Foreign Secretary  Nirupama Rao at the Pakistan
Studies Programme (Jamia Milia Islamia), New
Delhi on October 19, 2010

 

 

 




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Re: [ALOCHONA] Danger of Destiny 2000 looting all money from poor

Ramjan Miah - I know you have a direct phone line to Allah Almighty but I am just a mere mortal. Could you please elaborate what the hell is Destiny 2000. I cant get bothered about something unless I know who I am getting bothered about. Just reading your email wasted two minutes of my time.

Robin Khundkar

From: Mohammed Ramjan <mramjan@hotmail.com> [Add to Address Book]
To: group Alochona <alochona@yahoogroups.com>, "tritiomatra@yahoogroups.com xx" <tritiomatra@yahoogroups.com>, Nari Bangla <banglarnari@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Danger of Destiny 2000 looting all money from poor
Date: Oct 28, 2010 1:24 AM

Dear all

Be awaken about the danger of Destiny 2000; we need more write-ups on the web onto them.

Mohammed Ramjan Ali Bhuiyan
Kuwait


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[ALOCHONA] Re: [Dahuk]: Germany Will Become Islamic State, Says Chancellor Merkel



Friends


It is surprising that the "Germans" only Blue Blood carrier and most diligent nation in the world as claimed for years are afraid to be devoured by the meager,innocent n poor Muslim minority. This statement by the erudite,prudent Chancellor Merkel makes her not only a laughing stock but also her nation as well.

People should know that present day modern and technologically developed world it is not the number but the intellectual and muscle power matters to rule over the majority. If we look at the beast of the ME the illegal "Jewish State" that how it is reigning supreme over the vast majority Arabs who has been turned loyal dogs of the west ??????????????????????????????????

Does anything more is needed to the fear of the blue blood Germans ?????????????

Faruque Alamgir

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 11:56 PM, Fahmida Bhuiyan Lipi <fahmida201@gmail.com> wrote:
 

Germany Will Become Islamic State, Says Chancellor Merkel

Muammar Gaddafi recently stated that "There are signs that Allah will grant victory to Islam in Europe without sword, without gun, without conquest. We don't need terrorists; we don't need homicide bombers. The 50 plus million Muslims (in Europe) will turn it into the Muslim Continent within a few decades."


Chancellor Andrea Merkel

Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germans have failed to grasp how Muslim immigration has transformed their country and will have to come to terms with more mosques than churches throughout the countryside, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

"Our country is going to carry on changing, and integration is also a task for the society taking up the task of dealing with immigrants," Ms. Merkel told the daily newspaper. "For years we've been deceiving ourselves about this. Mosques, for example, are going to be a more prominent part of our cities than they were before."

Germany, with a population of 4-5 million Muslims, has been divided in recent weeks by a debate over remarks by the Bundesbank's Thilo Sarrazin, who argued Turkish and Arab immigrants were failing to integrate and were swamping Germany with a higher birth rate.

The Chancellor's remarks represent the first official acknowledgement that Germany, like other European countries, is destined to become a stronghold of Islam. She has admitted that the country will soon become a stronghold.

In France, 30% of children age 20 years and below are Muslims. The ratio in Paris and Marseille has soared to 45%. In southern France, there are more mosques than churches.


http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/2010/09/24/germany-will-become-islamic-state-says-chancellor-merkel/

--
Massalama,
Fahmida Lipi

The Prophet  said, 

Allaah likes most two drops, one of tears due to fear of Allaah and a drop of blood shed for the sake of Allaah; and two marks, one received (i.e., wounded) in the cause of Allaah, and a mark received in the cause of discharging an obligation commanded by Allaah. [Tirmidhi]




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[ALOCHONA] Top Taliban Join Peace Talks With NATO Help



Top Taliban Join Peace Talks With NATO Help
 
 
 Taliban insurgents pose in front of a burning German military vehicle in northern Kunduz Province.
 
 
High-level talks to end the war in Afghanistan reportedly involve face-to-face discussions with the most senior Taliban commanders, who have secretly left their sanctuaries in Pakistan with the help of NATO forces.
 
The talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai's closest circle and members of the Quetta shura, the Taliban leadership, also include leaders of the Haqqani network, a hard-line Afghan militant group, and Peshawar shura, a group of fighters from eastern Afghanistan, The New York Times reported.
 
Some leaders of the Quetta shura who oversee the Taliban war effort in Afghanistan have left their havens in Pakistan aboard NATO aircraft to attend the talks on explicit assurance that they would be protected, the paper said. Others had roads into the country cleared by allied forces.
 
Last week it was revealed that NATO was providing safe passage to Taliban commanders engaged in settlement talks, the clearest sign yet that the U.S. takes Kabul's discussions with the insurgents seriously. "When the Taliban see that they can travel in the country without being attacked by the Americans, they see that the government is sovereign, that they can trust us," an Afghan official was quoted as saying.
 
Previously, the Afghan government acknowledged that it has been talking with the Taliban, but discussions between the two sides were described as mostly informal and indirect message exchanges relying on mediators.
 
Mullah Omar, the overall leader of the Taliban, is specifically being kept out of the negotiations because of his close ties to Pakistan's intelligence agency, or ISI, which detained up to two dozen Taliban leaders earlier this year after it was discovered they were in secret talks with the Afghan government, the newspaper reported.
 
The Times said it was withholding the names of the Taliban officials involved in the talks at the request of the White House and to avoid retribution by those opposed to a possible peace deal. One Afghan official told the paper that "identifying the men could result in their deaths or detention at the hands of rival Taliban commanders or the Pakistani intelligence agents who support them."
 
The Obama administration is a partner with the Afghan government in the talks with the Taliban, even though U.S. officials aren't sitting at the table, two top administration officials confirmed last week.
 
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that any reconciliation between Karzai's government and the Taliban insurgents must be led by Afghans. But he told a NATO news conference that the U.S. is offering advice and following the initial talks.
 
The Obama administration's position is sensitive, because taking any role in talks with the Taliban risks criticism within the U.S. "One of the principles we have established with President Karzai is transparency with one another as this process goes forward so we know what they are doing, they know what we are doing and they understand what our requirements are," Gates said. "And frankly, we share with them what we think will be in their own best interest as the process goes along."
 
Gates added: "It's basically a partnership as we go forward with this with clearly the Afghans in the lead. I think we're confident that we have access into this process and plenty of opportunities to make our concerns as well as our suggestions known."
 
In taking a public role in the current talks, the Obama administration risks being accused of negotiating with the Taliban, the radical group that harbored Usama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
 
By making the U.S. role public, the administration may be signaling to a U.S. public weary of the conflict that the Obama administration is committed to ending it. Obama plans to begin withdrawing some troops in July 2011, but there won't be large numbers coming home then.
 
U.S. military commanders, meanwhile, may feel comfortable with the talks because they believe that the insurgency has been damaged by the arrival of tens of thousands of additional troops in recent months. Though the Taliban are far from defeated, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S and NATO commander, and others say that the momentum has shifted to NATO forces.
 
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, was more cautious in her assessment of the U.S. role in the talks.She said that the U.S. continues to insist that, as part of any peace deal, the insurgents lay down their weapons, cut ties with Al Qaeda and pledge to respect the Afghan constitution with its protections for women's rights.
 
While the U.S. supports what the Afghans are doing, she said, it isn't ready to make any judgment about how far the talks should go. "There are a lot of different strains to it that may or may not be legitimate or borne out as producing any bona fide reconciliation," Clinton said. "This will play out over a period of time," she said. "We're not yet ready to make any judgments about whether any of this will bear fruit."
 


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