Unheard Voices

53 dead in Bangladesh Garments fire

This is priceless reporting from the “cultural correspondent” of New Nation.

“A section of the youngsters are becoming more and more prone to the westerns, which gives an alarming sound. In order to save ours own, a cultural revolution has become inevitable. Under no circumstances, valentine day, observance of 31st December and spring festival could be absorbed into our long nurtured culture,” said a retired Additional Secretary, Government of Bangladesh.

Going by the recent trends, New Nation is heavily promoting the Jamati point of view.

Everytime I read the speech Dr. Yunus gave at Daily star’s 15th anniversary, I get inspired. Bangladesh has so much potential, yet ……. !

Read this if you haven’t already.

From all indications, it is absolutely clear that Bangladesh has quietly and steadily built a very strong foundation to make the big leap forward. But our non-stop political bickering does not give a respite to celebrate or get inspired by our enormous successes to prepare ourselves to reach out to still higher levels of accomplishments. We are ready to launch ourselves into a path to cross $1,000 per capita income, 8 percent GDP growth rate, and reducing poverty level to under 25 percent in the near future. But our political attention remains riveted to day to day party politicking rather than strategic national issues.

Complete speech

-Asif

“To classify Bangladeshis, for example, only as Muslims and overlook their Bangladeshi identity is seriously misleading. To drown all that into a vision of ‘you are just a Muslim - please be moderate and likeable and replace all those extremist imams with moderate and likeable ones’, that is simply wrong-headed.”
Sen is also critical of the growing consultative power given to the religious organisations of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. It does, he believes, magnify the power and authority of religious leaders at the expense of a healthy democratic debate. “Suddenly the Jewish, Hindu and Muslim organisations are in charge of all Jews, Hindus and Muslims. Whether you are an extremist mullah or a moderate mullah, whether you’re Blair’s friend or Blair’s enemy, you might relish the idea of being able to speak for all people with a Muslim background - no matter how religious they are - but this may be in direct competition with the role of Muslims in British civil society.”

More of this interesting interview came out in Guardian

The current issue of Foreign Policy magazine has a spectacular
photo essay by Brendan Corr on shipbreaking in Bangladesh: huge
ships driven at full speed onto the beach at high tide, armies of
workers trudging out to strip them with bare hands. The physical
danger is intense; the health and environmental consequences are
potentially dire, as these tankers and container vessels and cruise
liners are loaded with asbestos and other contaminants.

Please see
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_janfeb_2006/endoftheline1.html

-Robin

Habib’s music is rocking international clubs now. A few days ago, a friend said she heard Krishno at an Iranian wedding in London. Go figure! Who knew Shah Abdul Karim Boyati’s song would rock the dance floors in London. Thanks to Habib and many more new generation musicians like him. Listen to this feature in NPR on Habib’s influence in Bangladeshi music

Incidentally, another favourite artist of mine is Ornob. Ornob will be rocking Queen Elezabeth Hall at the south bank ( a very mainstream theatre) in London on March 13. If you are in London, don’t miss this show.

Thanks to Iffat for giving us the habib link.

What do you all think of this new trend in Bangladeshi music? Good, bad or ugly?

-Asif

A Question of Time

Aly Zaker

A glorious past travelling through a promising present toward a formidable future.

…………….. I remember having been overwhelmed by his (Neheru) narration of the world chronicle in his “History of the World Civilisation” at the impressionable age of fourteen. The way he took pride in being an Indian–the India that had one of world’s oldest universities–the great university of Nalanda. Incidentally, this university was also graced by a Bangali scholar from Bajrajogini in Bikrampur. A gentleman by the name of Sriggan Atish Dipankar. I remember having seen an almost innocuous road in remote Kamalapur named after him. A road that leads you to the Buddhist monastery there. As if Atish Dipankar was only a monk. As if naming of an inconsequential road was an adequate honour for him.

…..

I read the Aly Zaker piece published in Daily Star several years ago. So this time when I visited Bangladesh, I made sure I visit his birth place, which is located within a stones throw from by ancestral home.

Who is this Atish Dipankar?

Tibetans revere Dipankar, granting him a rank second only to Gautam Buddha and refer to him as Jobo Chhenpo (a great god). The lamas of Tibet, who hold political and religious power, feel proud to be introduced as disciples and heirs of Dipankar. The influence of Dipankar is still felt in the religion and culture of Tibet. Dipankar wrote, translated and edited more than two hundred books, which helped spread Buddhism in Tibet. He discovered several sanskrit manuscripts in Tibet and copied them himself. He translated many books from Sanskrit to Bhot (Tibetan). He also wrote several books on Buddhist scriptures, medical science and technical science in Bhot. Dipankar wrote several books in Sanskrit, but only their Tibetan translations are extant now.
Dipankar was born in a royal family of Guada in Bikramapur of Bengal which is east of Bajrasana. His father’s name was Kalyansri and mother’s name was Prabhabati. His birth place, Bajrayogini reminiscent of a ‘Yogi with Bajra’, a typical Buddhist name with Mahayana traditions still bears the same name across the long stretch of a thousand years despite many ups and downs in history.

Atish Dipankar household was identified to the generations of people in Munshiganj/Bikrampur area as “Nastik Panditer Bhita” (meaning ancestral home of atheist scholar). People of successive generations particularly after decline of Buddhism in Bangladesh in 13th-14th Century may have had forgotten Atish Dipankar. Yet he had lived in public memory with veneration as a remote anonymous atheist scholar till his birth place was identified by scholars working on life of Atish Dipankar.

Anyway, going back to my visit to Dipankar birth place, As we came closer, a signboard of a’ goru chhagoler khamar ‘( Goat and cow farm) greeted us at the entrance of the mud approach road. The khamar has been erected alongside a walled compund. A signboard of ” Atish Dipankar Smriti stamva” is lying upside down in one side. Within the walled area there is a 3 feet tall brick structure with a plaque stating ” Deep Regards For His Immortal Soul. Memorial Stone Laid By“…. followed by two ministers name who apparently came to unveil the memorial(?). People living in the Khamar has hanged clothes for drying on the perimeter fence of the “memorial Stone”. It was after Eid Ul Azha, look like people have used this empty piece of land for cow slaughtering and processing. There was dried blood everywhere.
I looked at the dried blood and tried to remind myself what Atish Dipankar preached all his life.

Detail of Atish will be be found in many websites but this is the most comprehensive I came across so far.

Atish Dipankar foundation has established ADUST , the atishdipankaruniversity in Dhaka.

Ash of his body is well preserved in Kamlapur Buddhabihar in Dhaka. Late president of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman arranged the transfer of the ash-casket from China in 1978.

-Rumi

A terrestrial ‘channel’ can not be the ‘property’ of Bangladesh Govt.. A terrestrial channel is nothing but a range of frequencies. As far as the television network and its facilities are concerned, ETV had paid for all its own facilities, eg.transmitters, studios, etc.. When frequencies (i.e., channels) were allocated (there were six channels allocated, a different one for each region so as to avoid interference with the 9 separate channels BTV was using), it was suggested by the then government that an unused channel (’frequency’) for Dhaka which was previously used by BTV be used by ETV as an optimal solution to avoid interference. This was BTV’s so called ’second channel’ (known as Choi number channel) that was lying unused since the early 80s and still is after the departure of ETV. Later in an effective campaign of misinformation launched by Jamaat/BNP propagandists, it was said that ETV became the “owner” of this channel depriving the government and this channel was given away.

More

Happy Valentines Day — thanks Shah Newaz

Maa is a novel by Anisul Haq. It is available online. It is based on a true story, in fact editor Shahadat Chowdhury termed it as a docu-fiction.

I heared about this novel of Anisul quite a while ago, but somehow couldn’t find it handy to be able to read it. During this Dhaka trip, Maa was in my list of the must buy books.

Last night, after many years, I cried while reading this book.

This books tells, vividly, the story of a mother who lost her only son during our war of independence. Azad was one of the crack platoon guerillas fighting with the Pakistani armies in 1971. On 30th August, 1971, along with other guerillas like Rumi, Bodi, Jewel, Alam, Chullu; Azad was also arrested from his house at Magbazar.

It was saturday night. I finished the book in one sitting. I cried all along.

Azad’s mother lived fourteen years after Azad was taken away by Pakistani armies. When Azad’s mother went to see Azad at Ramna thana, Azad asked her mother for rice. Azad’s mother returned with cooked rice and curry, but Azad was not there anymore. Azad’s mother never saw Azad again. With this deep pain, Azad’s mother never eat one grain of rice for the rest of her life. She also saw Azad lying on the cement floor of Ramna thana. And she never slept anywhere but on cement floor for the rest of her life.

Don’t know why. A unearthly gloom gripped me all over. I kept on crying.

In Ramna thana, when Azad asked her mother’s advice whether he would divulge his comrades names on the face of torture, she asked Azad to remain strong and not to betray his country and friends.

All these sacrifice, all these agony, all these tears, for all these years, —what else can be a better tribute than a prosperous, progressive and peaceful bangladesh?

-Rumi

Tasneem’s great piece in DS on why tragedies like the Kansat tragedy where farmers where shot for demanding electricity does not merit any discussion in our political arena.

I have been searching through the newspapers for one serious reference from any of the top opposition leaders regarding the Kansat drama for the past few days. Need I mention that I have failed?

Now the question targeted for the opposition remains, whether the Kansat killing is any less important than what is going wrong with the voter list? If I may note, our politics is now so very alienated from the grass-roots, that according to a Prothom Alo report, BNP and AL leaders in Kansat have confessed that they knew about the electricity problem from the beginning but never felt the urgency to treat the issue with any sort of attention. Maybe, ruling party activists were too busy plotting obstruction to opposition party long march while the opposition was busy planning its route to Dhaka and forming an “electoral alliance.”

The plain answer to this is Kansat gives zero milage to the Awami or BNP. It doesn’t pay to speak for these people. They are better off in finding ways to go to power. The wiretapping law that passed in the parliament today, do you think awami league who walked out protesting it will repeal this law when they are in power? Don’t hold your breath.
-Asif

1. The newspaper publishing the cartoons apologized on Jan 31, about 10 days ago.
2. Danish ambassador in Bagladesh, has apologized on behalf of his governmnet.

Now what else we can demand?
Shut the newspaper?
Hang the editors and the cartoonist?
The cultural editor has already been sent to indefinite leave.
The cartoonist is reportedly hiding in fear of life.

How we want to punish those reponsible for publishing the cartoons?Does Denmark have any law to do so?

We are liberal and progressive , always campaign for abolishing draconian anti freedome of speech laws. We demand that all the laws, those can be used to punish a journalist, cartoonist or artist should cease to exist.
Eaxctly that is probably the case of Denmak. They probably don’t have any law to punish a someone for opinions published in a newspaper.

Now more demands are coming to punish Denmark as a whole. Danish embassies are being arsoned, torched. Danish products are being boycotted.
.
The newspaper that publised the cartoons is apparently a right wing newspaper. Why punish all of Denmark for for the crimes committed by a handful? Isn’t it confusing? We, in one hand, blame the west for punishing the whole Muslim community for crimes committed by one Osama Bin Laden, and at the same time are doing the same mistake. Boycotting all danish products, punishing all of Denmark for crimes committed by a handful. It isn’t right. Should all of Bangladesh be punished for all what is written in Inqilab or Shangram or even janakantha?

Sevral years ago, Indian artist MF Hussein fell in the wrath of Hindu zealots for drawing a nude painting of an Hindu Goddess. Did India Hang M F Hussein? How would the rest of the world feel if India gave in to the street demands of right wing Hindus and did punish M F Hussein?

Before we burn Danish Flags, call for boycott of danish products, lets remember a friend of need.,DANIDA, the Danish International developement Agency. Bangladesh has been one of the main recipients of Danish assistance since its independence in 1971. Disbursements in Bangladesh increased from 144 million DKK in 1995 to 202 million DKK in 2004. Even in terms of foreign investment in Bangladesh, Denmark ranks 14th in 2002, way ahead of our ummah friends like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Malaysia etc.

It is true, what the Danish newspaper did is nothing but a blatant display of arrogance and hypocrisy recently being observed in a group of western population.

And it is harmful in more than one way. This event has given the cornered, transientltly contained violent Islamist groups in Bangladesh and rest of Muslim world a chance to come out of the hiding hole again. ” Khatme Nobuot”, the violence loving Islamist party held a huge rally in Dhaka today and their leaders delivered fiery sermons which were visible all over the electronic media in Bangladesh.

We have to remember, it is the time to remain calm. Lets not protest arrogance, ignorance and stupidity with greater display of arrogance, ignorance and stupidity. Lets cease this opportunity and educate the west about the teachings of Islam, the religion of peace. Lets educate them how Islam strictly rules against images of God or prophet. Lets teach west the rationale behind forbidding the idolization of Muhammad.

And at the same time while we protest the pencil caricature in a Danish newspaper, lets also show the guts to protest the caruicature using human bodies and blood in the streets of muslim countries. What is more henious? A cartoon or the suicide bombing of school bus, killing innocent children in Iraq? Or the bombing in wedding reception in Jordan? Or kidnapping of journalist Jill Carroll and force her into wearing Hijab and threat her of slaughtering?What justifies killing fellow Muslims because they are Shi’ite or Ahmadiya or Sunni of a different sect? Why collective muslim conscience is so quite in protesting those crimes?

-Rumi.

The operation of Community Radio, the radio for disseminating news and information of individual community, is yet to be started in the country due to the indifference of the government.

More here

While the controversy over printing the handful of cartoons in the widely circulated Danish Jyllands Posten (and subsequently other European) newspapers has spiraled out of control, I am left wondering what is my own reaction. The reaction of the vast majority of the Muslim world is an apt reflection of the very dichotomy that face Muslims today. It is undeniable from a believer’s viewpoint that it is unacceptable to depict any images of any prophets. It is equally appalling that the Muslim world has remained relatively passive over the years as depictions have been made of other prophets throughout history. If God does not distinguish amongst His prophets (Sura 2:285, 4:152)), who are humans to make that distinction? Yet, Muslims by and large have by silent consent allowed depictions of Jesus, Moses, and other prophets to go unchallenged. And this reaction now – why?

Reaction over the cartoons is two-fold (interestingly an important detail left out in most reports) – depiction of the prophet and offensive caricature that aims to insult. If it were only depiction of the prophet (such as Jesus in Passion of the Christ, or Jesus depicted as African, or Moses in Ten Commandments), the upheaval would probably have been different, probably more contained in nature. It behooves us not to recognize that the content reeks of satyre and ridicule, hurting the very core of human dignity.

To express indignation is understandable and called for. However, just as the cartoonist themselves jeopardized their own legitimacy, so does emotional chaotic outburst manifested in holding all Danish companies and citizens responsible for the thoughtless act of a marginal group of people take away from the integrity of protest. As I look to Bangladesh, I cannot help but admire that way it has chosen to express herself. While taking the matter very seriously, it has not resorted to hasty reactions or outbursts. It is, after all, home to myriad faiths and cognizant of the sensitivity of religious ridicule. The Bangladesh Parliament has demanded an official apology from the Danish government and while condemning the act in the strongest of terms, has not spurred any aggressive form of protest (Source: New Nation), choosing instead to take things in stride in a composed manner. For a country with an overwhelming Muslim majority, it is truly praiseworthy to see how levelheaded the reaction and ensuing thought process has been.

Expression is of paramount importance in a world where the communication gap seems ever widening between different belief structures. Let’s take a minute and think of how Muslims and non-Muslims alike would react to a racist cartoon against an African American or Jewish American published in this century. The world would find it unacceptable. The Muslim world finds itself operating on the margins of being considered part of that world. Why that is so is a discussion beyond the scope of a cursory blurb. For now, it is a truth that one simply cannot ignore that this recent event has mustered more support for freedom of expression at the expense of transgressing the very essence of human dignity that freedom of expression is meant to uphold, than what the 21st century would want to claim in retrospect.

Does that then mean that torching down Danish embassies, boycotting their products, and holding counter-competitions calling for cartoons that ridicule other faiths the optimum reaction? Is this merely a game of action-reaction? What does it take to give us pause and truly ask ourselves, what are we really accomplishing here? Where do we draw the line and say “enough” of mud slinging – this is where it ends ‘insult for an insult’.

So, it’s a catch-22. Question is, is there an end to this convoluted vicious cycle of blatant hypocrisy. Perhaps, its human nature to stagnate when challenging oneself inconveniences one’s sense of false security. For believers and nonbelievers (by that I mean theists and atheists and the entire spectrum that lies therein) alike, it is a situation that can only keep getting worse. Let us then continue with this “you did, I did, you did, I did” chronic syndrome of apathy … and twiddle our thumbs for the end of the civil world, boxed in the narrow confines of our socio-religious-economic identities.

- Naureen

Euphoria
Ahmed Waris, Mohammedpur, Dhaka
http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/02/07/d60207110293.htm

London School of Economics recently termed Bangladesh as being the
“happiest nation on Earth”. Interesting. People living in the rural
areas have been consistently rated as being ‘happier’, ‘more trusting’
and also ‘more content’. They take what little they can and manage to
string a simple but content life on that little, coupled with some
social support. They do not know and I wager do not care about
Transparency International. But we do have a substantial number of
‘educated’ people who do, and so far two people have asked, one from
abroad, why are Bangladeshis so ‘happy’ even with the myriad problems?

A simple answer, simply because all of us somehow or the other manage
to profit from rule breaking and the negative situation around us.
Someone who wants to smoke will simply light up under a sign reading
“No Smoking Here” and then argue that if anyone has a problem he can
move away. People who break traffic rules pay a few taka to get away
from the on-duty sergeant and use the excuse, “Others do it too, why
should I not do it?” Going up the chain, a politician may take huge
bribes to sell out the interests of the nation while a judge may do
the same to let loose a notorious criminal.

He does it and is happy, I do it and I’m happy too. So everyone here
is happy with the situation.