I understand your pain. I understand the platform from which you are speaking. But the time is quite different now. Everywhere there is degeneracy. Or the time is now premature or was premature even in sixties and seventies. Look at your ideal heroes of sixties and seventies. What are they doing now? Bangladesh is no exception. You are talking from a high and idealistic ground. You are expecting too much from Khaleda or Hasina or even from Manomohan Singh. I do not know about Venezuela or North Korea, But I can tell you that all the countries including India which are plagued with unemployment will feel relieved if they can export the menial labor. The reason is that the governments of these countries have neither ability nor intention to tap their human resources to the fullest extent. I agree with you that there is no pride in exporting menial labor. But you should agree that there is no pride in letting the unemployed people serve the indigenous rich people either as most of them not only underpay them, sometimes they treat them like slaves. I cannot be too idealistic and patriotic and say that we better exploit them rather allowing foreigners to exploit them. But the reality is that both Hasina and Manomohan Singh care about foreign exchange, less unemployment and hence less domestic chaos.
All the members of the civil societies do not necessarily have to advocate for radical changes. Even if they support---to use your own examples----Shahbag projonmo chotwor or anti-Allama Shafi stance, they should be saluted. You have quoted Humayun Azad and Akhtaruzzaman Ilyas. Neither of them advocated for radical changes. Humayun Azad, in your sense, was not doing quite the right thing as one of his priorities was condemning the Jamaaties and their role in 1971.
Unionizing the menial labors is a good idea. But how practical is it in a country like Saudi Arabia or Kuwait?
"Every issue of class and every specific issue of the peasants and workers are brought down to the filthy swathes of Hindu-Mussalman politics and then end up to Indo-Bangladesh issue and ultimately boils down to kids' pranks of Bangladesh-West Bengal divide."---Partly true as anti-Indianism is strength of some the parties and it sells well. But every issue of class and peasants ends up being a Hindu-Muslim issue. You need to be more specific.
From: Soumitra Bose <soumitrabose@gmail.com>
To: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com>
Cc: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2013 12:42 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: মিতা হ কের বাঙ্গা লীয়ানা ও ম রু-সাম্রাজ ্যবাদ
To: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com>
Cc: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2013 12:42 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: মিতা হ কের বাঙ্গা লীয়ানা ও ম রু-সাম্রাজ ্যবাদ
No other nation-state takes pride in sending people as menial labour. Bangladesh does, it was Khaleda Zia who re-iterated the funny theory of Zia-ur-Rahman's "janashakti roptani" [ Jesus Christ man! - some dare-devil assertion, I must admit]. Interestingly Hasina Begum did not oppose or set right this most insulting epithet.
The middle class or the so-called civil society [Very interestingly the epithet of Sushil somaj generated from Bangladesh and now being so sheepishly taken up by some West Bengal budheejeebees, who happen to be sycophants of the government] of Bangladesh does flare up on the question of Razakar Fnasi and not so much on the land struggle of the peasants of Bangladesh. At least it can be said that the West Bengal counterpart toppled a government on the question of Nandigram and Singur, but how much flaring did we see for Asuria, the names of those peasant upheavals are no more in public memory. The Pakistani middle class may be very elite but we can see the LAAL band going deep inside Pakistani villages and are involved in land struggles [Taimur's father was a militant in the Baloch upheaval]. We see so many Pakistani litterature on the struggle of peasants. We know the Sri Lankan civil society sacrificing lives for peasant causes. The plight of the peasants did not bring in many Bangladeshi intellectuals in peasants' and workers' organizations. There is no effort of organising the NRB menial workers in foreign soils. We found every political formation having their counterparts in USA, UK etc but not one union of menial workers and so called illegal workers led by any Bangladeshi leadership . ANSWER and other UK based organizations are highly connected to Indian, Pakistani & Nepali organizations back home, but none of these organizations have Bangladeshi intellectuals as activists or leaders among their ranks.
The Pakistani & Nepali and even Sri-Lankan Tamil and Sri-lankan radical labour leadership are trying to form a south-asian confederation of trade unions so that there can be a combined movement. In spite of humongous efforts the only response we gathered from Bangladeshi activists of various fractions is "OK! good idea, we will talk amongst us and get back to you" This getting back has crossed decades and is still in present continuous tense.
Check the facebook groups, check the newspapers and even the visual media. Every issue of class and every specific issue of the peasants and workers are brought down to the filthy swathes of Hindu-Mussalman politics and then end up to Indo-Bangladesh issue and ultimately boils down to kids' pranks of Bangladesh-West Bengal divide. Obnoxious is not the proper word! it is so disgusting and disparaging that the real issues of the producers can never come up as national issues! This is the "contribution" of the Bangladeshi middle class [so very much interested in peeping through the scrotal loin-cloth] This is now pushed down as the national-social-consciousness. The remarks on the women by some nincompoops got a befitting rebuff from the Bangladeshi civil society- this is the very first positive assertion and we are so bemused and assured that light is piercing through the darkness- Lal Salaam for that! but it is grossly inadequate, under-adequate and very miniscule than the adequacy mark. I still wonder how much would the response have been on any class question. We Salute the Shahbag movement and yes! what an upheaval was that! but what proportion of that was on the question of Savar massacre? Yes, lots of hulla-balloo indeed and now it is simply outside the public memory. In one case very similar to this politics in Pakistan or in Bihar or West Bengal there is at least a change in government and issues like these were some catalysts!
Being sons and daughters of East Bengalee refugees, it really hurts deep down as a nostalgic romantic historical social psyche is never lower than any reality for almost half of West Bengalees whose some predecessors hail from there! Once the most socially and class conscious political arena is now dealing with a false consciousness [a la Benjamin] of tied-to-birth Hindu-Muslim divide! Disgusting is a very mild epithet!
On 19 August 2013 00:00, Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com> wrote:
Thanks, Subimal, for defending Bangladesh from Soumitra's excessive allegations. You are so right to point out that << Bangladesh is not unique in this respect. A lot of Indians, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans also go to the middle eastern countries with menial jobs. >>I am tempted, but I won't repeat your request: << Soumitra may want to elaborate on why he thinks that "The civil society of Bangladesh is thus the worst criminal society of Bangladeshi people." >> I fear Soumitra may come up with another bluster which will, as is usually the case with him, have many embedded nuggets of truth. There is no denying today, despite many glaring flaws, Bangladesh has the best record in the subcontinent of making headway with human development. ~ farida apa From: subimal@yahoo.com Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 18:23:57 -0700 Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: মিতা হকের বাঙ্গালীয়ানা ও মরু-সাম্রাজ্যবাদ
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 4:26 PM
Subject: [mukto-mona] FW: মিতা হকের বাঙ্গালীয়ানা ও মরু-সাম্রাজ্যবাদHere's my dear Commie brother, Soumitra's take on Mita Huq's silly comment, and Fatemolla's even sillier response.Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 10:38:35 +0530Subject: Re: FW: মিতা হকের বাঙ্গালীয়ানা ও মরু-সাম্রাজ্যবাদFrom: soumitrabose@gmail.comTo: farida_majid@hotmail.comPetrodollar has corrupted an entire nation and has made the nation available for menial jobs throughout the world. The fact that there is hardly any developed country in this world where Bangladeshis will not be found doing menial work, is a clear cut example of how the neo-colonialism [led by Anglo-American policymakers and their european associates] survives on the surplus labour of Bangladeshis- the plot is as exploitative as it was during the direct colonial days if not worse.When the only question of development in Bangladesh is the loot of surplus and when the toiling producers of Bangladesh is getting the wrong end of baton and still holding the western civilization bobbing up through their labour, then these so-called civil society of Bangladesh is murkying the water with this kind of cheap consciousness.The religious divide is the worst kind of consciousness a nation-society can have. Some so-called "modern"ites tout this divide as a question of culture and not tradition nor a study, they keep the divide alive through whatever means they can- this reminds us Chilekothar sipay where a communist has to be either Hindu or Muslim and one cannot opt for a new identity. If there is a muslim who is a communist he would be further examined deep as a Muslim-befriending-Hindu-communists. This is the bondage, a bondage from which a person can never get free of.This is a direct resultant of the low culture the civil society has pushed down the Bangladeshi society. The very low standard of general education, of the dungeon of the informal educational environment [ the street corner level of discussions and discourse] for years has brought the nation down to the lowest level of social consciousness. One do not find this environment in the streets of Pakistan even- there the principal topic of public-social discourse is poverty, government exploitation, class exploitation. In Bangladesh it is the main issue, but that is always shoved below the carpet by no other class than the middle class and the civil society. The worst and criminal kind of middle class and civil society [ as expressed by the late Humayun Azad] in the known world is perhaps the one in Bangladesh.In Bangladesh every issue that comes up in the public-space gets precipitated very fast into Hindu-Muslim or in some kind of Religious division. This is the unfortunate part and that is the bane of Bangladesh society. People cannot have their rightful nourishment, nor their rightful basic needs and they find the civil society squabbling on religion and other divisive non-issues. The civil society of Bangladesh is thus the worst criminal society of Bangladeshi people.On 12 August 2013 21:54, Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com> wrote:Fatemolla (Hasan Mahmud of Canada)r bull shit. It is dangerous at this juncture to pontificate on 'what is Bangalee' or what is not. It creates the unnecessary binary opposition of Musulman v. Bangalee. Yet, we know that it is a fact that there is no such thing as "non-Bangalee razakar". The ones who are facing trial for crimes committed in 1971 at the Dhaka War Crimes Tribunal right now are all Bangalee.Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:16:13 -0700From: hasan@HasanMahmud.comSubject: মিতা হকের বাঙ্গালীয়ানা ও মরু-সাম্রাজ্যবাদ To: srbanunz@gmail.com; nazrulic@gmail.com; manik195709@yahoo.comCC: khabor@yahoogroups.com; Miss_Bangladesh@yahoogroups.com; farida_majid@hotmail.comমিতা হকের বাঙ্গালীয়ানা ও মরু-সাম্রাজ্যবাদ
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