Unheard Voices

If you want to know the real meaning of the word arrogance,
this is what that is called arrogance.

Israelis Batter Gaza and Seize Hamas Officials

Published: June 29, 2006
GAZA, Thursday, June 29 — Israel stepped up its confrontation on Wednesday with Palestinian militants over the capture of an Israeli soldier, battering northern Gazan towns with artillery and sending warplanes over the house of the Syrian president………………..

And these all for one kidnapped Israeli soldier. What about our American Soldiers, who are being kidnapped regularly, killed in Iraq or elsewhere? Is an Israeli soldiers life more important than the life of an American soldier? Isn’t it for Israeli occupation of Palestine that the American soldiers are subjectedto terrorism everywhere?

Here is the link to the interview I did with BBC Asian Network this morning.

Interview

Happy listening!

Does martyrdom depend on which side of the history you have been or whether you have been on the side of the oppressor or the oppressed?
How does our contemporary history treat the millions of dead German soldiers during World War I and II?
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The journey Flight Lieutenant Motiur Rahman started 35 years ago, has just ended. He finally arrived where he ultimately intended to arrive when he hijacked the trainer aircraft from Karachi Airbase of PAF. Motiur Rahman is Bir Shrestho, the highest gallantry award winner of Bangladesh armed forces. He is our national hero; we have an airbase after his name.

And interestingly the man from whom Bir Shrestha Motiur hijacked the aircraft is Rashid Minhas. Rashid Minhas also posthumously won the highest gallantry award of Pakistan, Nishan e Haider. In Pakistan dramas are staged on Rashid Minhas, who is the national hero. And Pakistan also has a airbase named after Rashid Minhas.

In short, senior smarter and stronger officer Motiur Rahman stopped Minhas in the taxiway, chloroformed him, took control of the aircraft and tried to fly to India. Rashid Minhas, later regaining consciousness, tried to stop F L Matiur Rahman, and as a result the aircraft crashed, killing both.

A very very interesting discussion goes on this historical irony in a Pkistan Airforce Blog. This blog shows how divided pakistanis still are about the events of 1971.

One discussant puts it this way,

….Internationally speaking both Rashid Minhas (RM) and Matiur Rahman ( Mati) are equal in decorations, RM got the Nishan e Haider and Mati was given the Bir Shrestha which was introduced as the new country BD’s highest military award. Now technically speaking, RM will always be a hero to us and Mati a traitor and deserter; an enemy. For the other side RM would remain a symbol of tyranny or oppression or whatever and Mati the ultimate hero. Now no matter how we accept the whole thing or how Bangladesh accepts the past, and how we admit blame or deny it, these facts remain facts. Our rethinking or sympathizing, if at all, can not and should not make any difference to the fact that our hero was an enemy to them and their hero a traitor to us. Therefore, with all that accepted, we should move on to the next level of maturity and think in broader terms; In celebration of the spirit of soldiering and as tribute to the profession all armed forces respect the fallen of the enemy and acknowledge their valor when reqd. We’re not sure exactly how RM is regarded in BD but we can assure Bdeshis that Mati is surely NOT DISRESPECTED in Pakistan….

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While the remains of Bir Shrestha Motiur Rahman embarrasses two of our Ministers, who initially vouched for Rashid Minhas, the events proceeding bringing back of Motiur Rahman remains start a new era in Bangladesh politics. The sacred 1971, our liberation war has all along been a monopoly of Awami League to do politics on. Lately a matured BNP has embarked on the same theme. BNP’s venture on 71 based politics was also evident in BNP governments showing of highest honor to General Aurora when he passed away.

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Let me take this opportunity to remind ourselves of the location of other Bir Shresthas. I was told that the ministry of liberation war affairs has taken projects for construction of Smirity Stambah at the grave 7 Bir Shrestha Freedom Fighters and construction of school / college building at there permanent address. I don’t know how far the government project will go. And while we hope this project sees completion, let’s remind us where the other six are buried.

1) Birshrestha Shahid ERA Md. Ruhul Amin: Lakpur Sea food, Rupsha Ghat, Rupsha, Khulna

2) Birshrestha Shahid Lance Nayek Nur Mohammad Sheikh: Kashirpur, Sharsha, Jessore.

3) Birshrestha Shahid Captain Mahuddin Jahangir: Sona Masjid, Chapainababganj.

4) Birshrestha Shahid Lance Nayek Munshi Abdur Rauf: Burirghat, Naniar Char, Rangamati.

5) Birshrestha Shahid Sepay Mostafa Kamal: Mogra, Akhaura, B’baria.

6) Birshrestha Shahid Hamidur Rahman: Daloi, BOP, Kamalganj, Mauluvibazar

It’s like getting the opportunity to win a medal in the olympics or play in a winning team in the world cup soccer.

It is about publishing in the New England Journal of Medicine. Everybody, somehow involved in medical science have the same dream, the dream of publishing in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The New England Journal of Medicine is worlds oldest ( established in 1812), largest and arguably, the best known medical journal. Every issue of NEJM, immediately after publication, gets intensely scanned by major news outlets like CNN, NY Times, Public radio, BBC, Reuter etc for the health news of the months.
While less than 1% all the academic physicians, scientist in USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, Israel and other developed countries could fulfil the dream of publishing in NEJM, a bunch of Bangladeshi scientists, who live and work in Dhaka, did it last week. A landmark research was performed in ICDDR,B, Dhaka and the results were published in NEJM.

Single-Dose Azithromycin for the Treatment of Cholera in Adults

Debasish Saha, M.B., B.S., Mohammad M. Karim, M.B., B.S., Wasif A. Khan, M.B., B.S., Sabeena Ahmed, M.Sc., Mohammed A. Salam, M.B., B.S., and Michael L. Bennish, M.D.
From the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh (D.S., M.M.K., W.A.K., S.A., M.A.S.); the School of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (M.L.B.); and the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (M.L.B.).

If you are in search of some Bangladeshi heros, here are some. May be our Bangladeshi media don’t even know what is NEJM, and what a real landmark research mean, these people are the one who Bangladesh people should celebrate, not the Brazilian or Argentine soccer players.

INDONESIA - The recent family cluster of H5N1 avian influenza cases in Indonesia marks the first time laboratory tests confirmed human-to-human transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported . Though this WHO report not released as press release, rather The WHO discussed some of its findings concerning the cluster at the end of a 3-day meeting in Jakarta, according to reports. The agency presented a report on the cluster to the Indonesian government without releasing it to the news media. But the Associated Press (AP) said it had obtained a copy. According to the International Herald Tribune report, the first five family members who got sick had identical strains of H5N1, one that is common in animals in Indonesia. But the virus mutated slightly in the 10-year-old boy.

MORE HERE

Photo: GMB Akash

By Saad Hammadi with New Age, an excellent piece of investigation on “a strong network of child traffickers operating across South Asia and beyond are selling Bangladeshi children across the border for sex, pornography and organ theft”.

Children for Sale

Saad Hammadi reveals how a strong network of child traffickers operating across South Asia and beyond are selling Bangladeshi children across the border for sex, pornography and organ theft.

Last month, when twelve-year-old Mamun boarded a launch for Dhaka, he was angry and distressed and wanted to get a job in the city to be able to send some money to his family in Comilla. He had worked some years at a tea stall in the Comilla sadar but he got tired of the beatings by the shopowner every time he poured too much milk or dropped a tea cup and chipped it. Arriving at Dhaka’s Sadarghat launch terminal Mamun was befriended by Jahangir — a boy of his age — who promised to find him a well paid job. Little did Mamun realise at the time that this eager friendship was only a ploy to traffic him out of the country.

Last month, when twelve-year-old Mamun boarded a launch for Dhaka, he was angry and distressed and wanted to get a job in the city to be able to send some money to his family in Comilla. He had worked some years at a tea stall in the Comilla sadar but he got tired of the beatings by the shopowner every time he poured too much milk or dropped a tea cup and chipped it. Arriving at Dhaka’s Sadarghat launch terminal Mamun was befriended by Jahangir — a boy of his age — who promised to find him a well paid job. Little did Mamun realise at the time that this eager friendship was only a ploy to traffic him out of the country.

Defence sources also reveal that trafficking for pornographic purposes concentrate in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar. Children from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were also trafficked to other countries like the Gulf states, England, Korea and the Philippines for pornographic purposes, sources said.

Read rest of the post here.

Comment from a fellow Drishtipat friend-

Some positive news from back home as Fl. Lt. Matiur Rahman’s remains have finally been brought back to Bangladesh. What an absolute disgrace that one of the greatest heroes of our liberation war was kept buried in Pakistan, that too marked as a traitor, for almost 35 years! Anyway, better late than never!

From Banglapedia

Rahman made a secret plan of hijacking an aircraft. His aim was to join the liberation forces with the hijacked plane. On the morning of 20 August Pilot Officer Minhaz Rashid was scheduled to fly in a T-33 aircraft from Masrur Airbase in Karachi with Matiur Rahman as his trainer. The T-33 aircraft was code-named ‘Bluebird’. During the training flight Matiur Rahman attempted to take control of the aircraft into his own hands, but failed. The plane crashed in Thatta, a place near the Indian border. Matiur’s dead body was found near the crash sight, but no traces of Minhaz’s dead body could be discovered. Matiur Rahman was buried at the graveyard of fourth class employees at Masrur Airbase.

Matiur Rahman was awarded the highest state title of honour ‘Bir Srestha’ in recognition of his patriotism and sacrifice.

More on wikidipia on this

This is another instance of what diaspora can do. This campaign to bring him back home started in Houston a couple of years ago with this petition. Slowly it gathered momentum and officials moved to make this happen. Kudos to all who has been proactive on this to give proper respect to this great hero of our war.

Will have more on this later … but here is the link for now

Hard to believe but 10 days before the show, there are only a handful of tickets left.

Caption: The Girl With Red Ribbons dancer and choreographer Rubaiat Sharmin (Jhara) © Shaheen Alam

June 20. With a certain level of solemnity we have observed the World Refugee Day themed this year: Hope. Now, as if frustrations never give us any break ever, Bangladesh remains a country where plight of the refugees — Rohingyas and Biharis — is embossed on its face like a shameless scar.

Plight of the numberless Rohingya refugees remain one of the most under-reported, mis-reported story of our time. Recently, Irrawaddy magazine interviewed me for their June 2006 cover story. A minor amendment?

The Rohingya Riddle
By Clive Parker/Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh
June 2006

Burmese refugees in Bangladesh are running out of options.

Iman Hussein does not officially exist. But standing less than 100 feet from the Naff River which separates his makeshift refugee camp in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh from his homeland of Arakan State in Burma, he says there are more pressing concerns for his group of 14,000 refugees: “We are just hoping for assistance,” he says.

In Dhaka, the Ministry for Food and Disaster Management has yet to permit the UNHCR refugee agency to register this group of Rohingyas, thereby denying them food and medical aid. The Burmese Ambassador to Bangladesh, Thane Myint, does not even recognize the Rohingyas as an ethnic group.

“Many people are claiming they lived in Rakhine [Arakan] State a long, long time ago,” he says, chuckling. “Some of them are, or have been, living in Myanmar [Burma]. Some of them may not be [from Burma].”

The Bangladesh government says there are just over 20,000 Burmese people in the area — the number registered officially with UNHCR in two refugee camps south of Cox’s Bazaar. But the Burmese embassy in Dhaka recognizes only 10,000 as citizens of Arakan State. There are many more Buddhist Burmese refugees living illegally in Bangladesh. Those interviewed by The Irrawaddy — both Buddhists and Muslims — gave the same reason for leaving their homeland: they were fed up with human rights abuses inflicted by the Burmese military government.

“Shouldn’t the [Bangladeshi] government ask the question, ‘Why are they here?’ Instead, they ignore the problem,” says Jim Worrall, the head of UNHCR’s Cox’s Bazaar office which overseas nearby Kuta Palong refugee camp and further south, Nayapara.

Worrall says the group of Rohingyas on the bank of the Naff River — the most urgent case — needs “a political solution before we [UNHCR] can do anything for them.”

Read rest of the post here.

Another strange one from the land of hope…

Former deputy inspector general of police Anisur Rahman says the three girls and four boys are septuplets born to him and his wife, but a human rights group has accused him of planning to traffic them.

The High Court on Sunday ordered Rahman to have the DNA tests carried out at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore within four months, said lawyer Salma Ali of the National Women’s Lawyers Association which filed the petition.

Read the rest here

Civil unrest is always worrisome in a densely populated nation that still ranks among the world’s 50 poorest, to be sure. Yet what’s remarkable about the grim headlines emanating from Dhaka of late is how little they threaten the country’s stubbornly robust national economy. In spite of sporadic unrest, rampant corruption and a polarized political system that’s all but dysfunctional, Bangladesh finds itself in the midst of a sustained boom. On June 8, Finance Minister Saifur Rahman forecast that the national economy would grow by 6.7 percent in 2006. The main drivers: surging export growth and a robust service sector.

Read full article here

It has happened to many Bangladeshi expatriates. Once the motherland is left behind there is no looking back. Some watch the Bangla news channels on a lazy Sunday morning just so as not to sound too ignorant when a fellow Bangladeshi makes a passing comment about some current political event. Others just couldn’t care less. This is the impression most of us have of Bangladeshis residing abroad. Drishtipat is an activist organisation for expatriate Bangladeshis to help victims of human rights violation in Bangladesh This, as a matter of fact, couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are thousands of Bangladeshi expats all over the world who are not only worried about the horrifying human rights situation in Bangladesh but also want to do something to bring about a change and feel helpless to do so from such a distance. This was the basic idea behind forming Drishtipat.

Read the entire article

Wrote this when I was in Dhaka last April as an email to friends. Interestingly had two type of reacitions from readers. The expats were very touched while the locals in Dhaka called it “faltu romanticism”.

Ode to Dhaka on the Homecoming Day

Asif Saleh

Today I landed in Dhaka after quite some time. Here is a brief run down of my initial reactions. Take the reactions with a grain of salt as they may not seem rational and all emotional.

After a brief unexpected stop over in Berlin, I arrived this morning 5 hours delayed. Berlin stopover was due to a pregnant passenger having complications. I told that story to the curious immigration officer in Bangladesh and guess what his reply was….not feigning any concern for that woman he says…that lucky kid will be born with a German passport. Welcome to Dhaka the city of the passport fetishers! Zia airport was better organised than the Heathrow terminal of British Airways. I am finishing off some shopping for Eeshita (shutir shari) and Anahita(she wanted lal churi ) today and then want to jump into business. Dhaka is supposed to be vacation but ever since Drishtipat, the social organisation that I run on my free time, it has never felt like one. But it never feels like work either.

Every one here is complaining about load shedding. Our avid BNP fans in the family my two khalas, has officially declared that they will vote for AL. So I think that there is a general shift in the direction of the wind. I think every 5 years people just get sick of one party and switch to other — just for the heck of it. Went to new market after ages. Balaka is playing Spielberg’s “War of the worlds”. I am jealous of these teenagers with tickets. The best we could do in the 90s was James Bond’s “Never Say Never Again” — a good 15 years after its release. War of the worlds came eight months after. So that’s progress too. Bangladesh has six TV channels now. Boishakhi, Channel 1, and Bangla Vision being the new additions. From the names, you can tell that they just increased the numbers.
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Preparation is going on in full swing for a great launch event on July 2nd. While rehearsal for this dance drama is going on in full force by dp creative, we have managed to get a very strong panel lined up for you for the discussion session. International Garment and Textile Worker Federation’s General Secretary Neil Kearney is coming from Brussels and Gap Inc’s Global Partnership Manager Lakshmi Bhatia will also be here. With representatives from BGMEA, government and renowned researcher Naila Kabeer among others, this promises to be an exciting session.

We are looking for your help and good will. There are only 9 days left to buy your ticket online at a reduced rate. Tickets are going fast. Seats are limited. So please buy online at http://london.drishtipat.org and let your friends and family know.

Also if you are interested in being a sponsor or providing an advertisement to the brochure for this prestigious event which will be attended by British Bangladeshi VIPs, intellectuals, academics, young professionals and students, this is a great opportunity to publicize your business and helping us. You can get the sponsorship rates and details here . This will help us tremendously to cover the cost of the show as you know the funds raised will go the garments workers’ disaster fund created by the Internation Textile and Garment workers Federation.

For a good cause, good entertainment and stimulating debate and networking opportunity, buy your ticket today from our website.