Islam took centuries to travel all the way to our part of the world and farther east. I hope the recent discussion about re-analyzing and reliving the teachings of Islam that also has started in Arabian peninsula will not take that long time to spread to Bangladesh. Here is video clip (via Rezwan) of Arab psychhologist Wafa Sultana debating different Islamic clerics.
This is heartening to see that Arab society and Arab TV are now accepting this sort of open remarks and discussion about Islam.
But our Bangladesh society still far from that open. It is incomprehensible that this sort of debate can go on in any Bangladesh TV channel.
I don’t understand why someone has to feel so insecure about Islam. Islam is a great philosophy and a major religion. Definitely it is very powerfully embedded in people’s mind and heart. What one poet/ author says, what question he/she asks should not be able to put a dent on people’s belief in Islam. The threats of fundamentalists to gag forcibly or kill everyone who tries to question some decree of Islam, only demean the power of Islam as a religion. The God’s religion, which has a strong follower should not fear one human being. Let people raise their questions, let them talk.
Despite being stabbed at the age of 82, Nobel lauret Naguib Mahfuz lived till the age of 94 before passing away yesterday. He was stabbed because his questions and frank approach while discussing religion Islam was not liked by Islamic fundamentalist.
This same fundamentalists recently threatened Writer Hasan Azizul haq to death. I hope he doesn’t have to endure what Naguib Mahfouz had to go through. I hope Hasan azizul Haq lives a productive literally life without fear.
Most of us have had a rigorous education in science and research and yet I am amazed at how easy it is for us to forget that good policy must be based on knowledge and facts. The confrontation at Phulbari, to the best of my knowledge, was not provoked by Asia Energy. So let’s stop blaming them for it! Let me be VERY CLEAR: I for one, will NOT support a position that allows or condones an unruly mob to attack and destroy private property.
AEC is NOT mining the coal commercially - the infrastructure for doing so is completely absent (just so you know, I have visited the area twice a year for the past five years since and have seen NO evidence, of any commercial activity). It is engaged in ‘pre-mining’ operations and, according to its own website, awaiting the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study. Whether or not the scope of its activities are in conjunction or in conflict with its license is something that I have no idea about. Nowhere in all these posts or field reports or newspaper articles have I seen an analysis or FACTUAL characterization of what it has done wrong. That is not to say that it has not exceeded its charter
- but I would feel a lot better if the experts and the reports actually cite and reference their case and/or violations.
Open-pit mining is not a novel concept. It is practiced successfully in many parts of the world. However, like most other forms of resource extraction, it can have severe environmental as well as social consequences. Modern mining techniques and regulations attempt, usually successfully, to minimize such impact. However, it is right for us to worry whether such would be the case in Phulbari. It would be easy for an insidious entity to take advantage of a corrupt government and wreak environmental havoc without fear of consequences. The principal issues at Phulbari are as follows:
(a) Is it economically feasible to mitigate the impact of the proposed open-pit mining? If No, STOP. If yes,
(b) Does Asia Energy’s proposal adequately cover such mitigation? If no, can the proposal be changed to cover such mitigation? If no, STOP. If yes,
(c) Can we depend on Asia Energy to follow through and complete such mitigation? If No, can we provide for ‘reserves’ or other mechanisms to ensure compliance? If No, STOP. If yes,
(d) Can we depend on existing governmental institutions to monitor and enforce compliance? If no, can a new or additional governance structures be set up to do so? If no, STOP, etc. etc.
There are many other issues: The issue of fair compensation to the affected people, the issue of a fair royalty and many more. As an aside, 6% royalty is not, prima facie, low or unreasonable. Nor is it unreasonable for a requirement that the proposed power plant purchase the coal at market prices. However, are they customary terms for a project of this nature? I do not know - and nothing I have read has attempted to analyze or compare the terms with other, similar deals. If the terms are not customary, then we should definitely consider the option of voiding the contract (or threatening to do so) and renegotiate for more favorable terms. For example, the GOB should enter into a long term contract for coal purchase based upon a combination of cost of production index and the existing long term contract rates (including renewal options). Perhaps that is how it is already set-up - does anyone know? Does anyone care? But these are not insurmountable issues.
Each issue ought to be factually analyzed and evaluated. A case in point, AEC always refers to the number of people affected (needing to be
relocated) being 40,000 and much of the opposition states a number 10x greater. Who is right? What is the FACTUAL basis?
The fact is that there are significant high quality coal reserves in Phulbari and Bangladesh has few other sources of fuel and power and is a poor country to boot. We can ill afford to sit still and just shake our fists at foreign investors. What is the environmental and economic cost of importing and burning low quality (high sulfur) coal from India as is the current practice? What is the environmental and economic cost of the fuel shortages that lead to the indiscriminate cutting down of forests for firewood? What is the economic cost of the chronic electricity shortages that plague our industry? If we are to claim a rational basis for our stance, we must seek out rational analysis and avoid piling on on rumors, innuendos and political agendas that we may not support. There is no doubt that a great many of the participants in these protests have agendas that are far more political than environmental orgs should ever be. I would not be surprised if many of these political leaders are secretly thrilled with the deaths at Phulbari because of the enormous political and media dividends that resulted from them. It would not be the first (or the last) time that we have seen callous disregard for ordinary lives on part of politicians.
Something about the way the bangle media had been announcing numbers without any suffix had been bugging me for quite some time.
I would like to have some feedback from anybody who can shed some light on this.
I am talking about the way dates are mentioned without any suffix. For example instead of saying “ekush-e august”, they are saying “ekush august” without the “-e” suffix. Same thing with numbers in general. Instead of saying “ponero (15) jon loker shomabesh” they are saying “ponero loker shomabesh”.
When did this evolution happen? Why did this happen? Was it a move initiated by Bangla Academy or contemporary writers?
Please, if anybody knows something please post your comment here.
A fire engulfed the slum area in Muhammadpur, Dhaka around 7pm (Dhaka time) Tuesday (Aug 29). The cause of fire had not been identified yet.
According to preliminary estimate the fire claimed about 2000 slum houses. The gross loss was estimated at 3 crore taka. No fatality had been reported even though two children remained missing.
The residents attacked the firefighters out of frustration because they were late arriving at the scene, causing further delay in extinguishing the fire. The fire chief stated in front of TV camera that the team was dispatched to the wrong place (!) that caused the delay. How very unfortunate!!
In the early days of current BNP government, in the pre-RAB era, a crime drive called “Operation Clean heart” was initiated by the government. However this operation clean heart was popularly called ‘operation heart attack’ as those who were killed in this operation were all declared dying of heart attack.
Similarly another heart attack death occured yesterday, involving, this time, a member of police. During picketer-police hustle, a brick hit the police constable, Narayan’s forehead and later he was declared dead at Heart foundation hospital.
And spin regarding this death started even before the death was declared. State Minister for home immediately ceased the opportunity of this killing to put the blame squarely on opposition leader Sheikh Hasina’s raucous remarks.
And a counter spin was staged by news outlets like Daily Star, Prothom -alo etc. Their stance is that it was right that Narayan got hit in the forehead but he also had a heart attack at the same time.
All the party involved quoted the physicians at heart foundation hospital at their own sweet will.
The home minister’s vile efforts to politicize the unfortunate death against political opponent must be condemned.
At the same time conscientious souls should also condemn the double standard of media outlets like Daily Star or Prothom-Alo. These outlets claim aristocracy by preaching against Hartals, at the same time when this unfortunate death’s happen, they can’t hide partisanship while trying to undermine another hartal casualty by promoting it as a mere heart attack death.
The Daily Star photo declaring the death as heart attack death.
And again this incidence exposes our non existent trauma system. At many as 20% of head injury/ intracranial bleed patients may have presentation similar to heart attack, abnormal ECG, abnormal blood test that are usually found in heart attack etc. These kind of patients need CT scan of the brain to rule out bleeding and if there is a bleed, evacuating it and decompressing the brain becomes an urgency. As far as I could dig out from different newspapers, heart foundation doctors, being trained only in heart problems, and lacking significant exposure to head injury patients, naturally inclined to treat heart problem, which they know how to treat. But they probably didn’t know that the apparent heart attack like presentation may be the result of bleeding in the brain.
For the sake of truth, the country should know the exact cause of the death. I hope autopsy will reveal the truth.
Following are some highlights of Asia Energy’s rise in the share market as reported by Neil Hume and Richard Wray in the business page of The Guardian, UK. It’s a compilation from 11 separate reports that spanned nearly two years – 16 October 2004 through 30 August 2006 (today).
It will open your eyes on how so many entities were on the get-rich-quick scheme – entirely based on the finding of quality coal in Phulbari.
It’ll help you understand why Asia Energy had been relentless in their pursuit in Phulbari…
Saturday October 16, 2004, Guardian
….Asia Energy, a company floated on AIM in April with a view to conducting “feasibility studies on coal resources within the republic of Bangladesh”.
Fringe broker W H Ireland raised £11.2m at 72p a share, giving an initial total market capitalization of £25m.
The stock sat just above the placing price until last month, when the company suddenly announced the discovery of a “world-class black bituminous coal seam 41.47 meters in thickness”.
A follow up statement declared: “Based on a 15m-tonne per annum coal operation, the cash-flow analyses indicate an average ungeared, post-tax project net present value (NPV) of $2.3bn using a discount rate of 10% and an average internal rate of return (IRR) of 50%. Coal production could start as early as 2007 with start-up capital to the second year of production of approximately $530m.”
…….. It is nevertheless eye-catching that Asia Energy should suddenly appear on the London market during the biggest mining rush in over a decade and then hit a huge strike within months of listing.
Friday January 14, 2005, Guardian
Asia Energy, which is developing the Phulbari coal project in Bangladesh, leapt 76p to 542.5p after Evolution Securities (broker) said its shares could be worth as much as £12.50. “Testing of coal quality at the Phulbari project has demonstrated that a significant proportion of the coal is suitable for sale as a soft coking or pulverised injection coal. This underpins the $2bn valuation placed on the project,” said John McGloin, an analyst. Asia Energy’s current market value is just under £210m.
Friday March 4, 2005, Guardian
Its (Asia Energy’s) shares have risen almost 10-fold since flotation in April 2004 amid claims that its Phulbari coalfield in Bangladesh is a world-class mine. (more…)
Lately when I visit Bangladesh , an increasing number of visitors come to greet me, known, fairly known, somewhat known, less known, hardly known or even unknown. They all have one thing common to them. They all carry a CD with them. A CD, very carefully cased, then wrapped in clothe, handled very respectfully and carefully, gets out of the hand bag or shirt pocket and unwrapped in shaky hands. Then the CD is handed over to me with a body language similar to when the British Monarch hands over the Victoria Cross to the recipient.
I can’t cite any data, because there are none. But recently, chest pain caused by coronary artery disease followed by coronary deaths have taken a epidemic proportion in Bangladesh. Every death news I get coming from bangladesh, a middle aged man, women, an elderly, or a young man; there is 90% possibility that the death was due to heart attack.
With rapidly developing cardiology service in Bangladesh, people with chest pain are now getting an angiogram to confirm some blocked coronaries. After the angiogram, these women/men, with the CD of the angiogram are left wth the decision on how to treat the blockage. Thus they start their journey to solve the unsolvable arithmetic.
They are often told, without giving any time to elaborate or Q &A, ” you have block, you need stents. If you put the regular stent this will cost you 1.5 lac, but if you put the medicated stent, it will cost you 4 lac taka”. In most cases I saw, they have no clue what a stent is, what is the benefit of a medicated vs a non-medicated one.
Most cases they have some money left in providence fund they thought of using for daughters marriage or sons foreign trip.
Now they start debating how to better use the money. Should they go to NICVD at Dhaka where it will cost less, or Heart foundation or other new hospitals in Dhaka, or go to India or Singapore.? They get a price quote for life from all these places. Medicated stent …Taka, non medicated stent…taka.
They keep on bracing the madness of Dhaka streets, in search of a solution to the riddle. Is it worthy paying 2 lac for a renewal of life, how to renew it, with medicated or nonmedicated stent? Where to go, NICVD, India? Or rather to save the money for daughetr’s wedding or son’s possible opportunity for a job in malaysia.
With pain in the chest and a CD in their hand, they keep calculating with a resolve to solve the unsolvable riddle.
Bangladesh today is the largest and most respected contributor to UN peacekeeping efforts. Of total 60 peace missions mounted so far by the UN, Bangladesh has successfully participated in 30 missions in 23 different countries. So far over 49,000 personnel from Bangladesh Armed Forces have participated in these missions from Bosnia to Haiti to Georgia to Cambodia. Bangladesh has contributed 9,758 peacekeepers (more than 14 percent of the total), who are operating in 12 different UN missions in countries like Congo, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, among others, including leadership to UN mission in Sudan.
And back home, we are counting dead bodies, living under a ruthlessly facist regime. ‘Operation Clean Heart’ in 2002 and 58 heart failures, 3 months of martial torture on 11,000 people and it never stopped there. Welcome ‘Men in Black’: RAB and ‘crossfire’ murders 283. Mutilated dead bodies dumped here and there. Human rights? Do ‘criminals’ have any? Looks like they do. At least when international human rights advocates are looking close into the issue.
In comes an appeal from the Asian Human Rights Commission asking the Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations to expel Bangladesh Army from UN peacekeeping operations if RAB is not disbanded. You know what? If this is something to bank on: Bangladesh Army is soon going to have trouble: Seat back in their barracks and suck their thumbs, hard. If ‘crossfire’ is preferred over ‘international minesweeping’, that is going to bring in bad news.
The many universities popping up like mushrooms in Dhaka and other cities had raised concerns in people’s minds for quite some time – are these accredited institutions OR just money-making ploys?
The revelation that some of these private institutions may actually be operating illegally has caused nightmares to graduates of these schools who studied for years to obtain desired degrees and their parents who spent lakhs of takas.
If these schools had no authorities to offer degrees in the first place then those degrees wouldn’t hold any real values.
It caught education ministry’s attention when the scandal broke out in May 2006 that The International University (TIU) at Uttara headed by none other than the wife of state minister of education Ehsanul Haque Milon has been in operation for more than five years with a fake approval.
The university claimed to have received the non-objection certificate from the education ministry in 2000 signed by one Syed Mainuddin, giving the university permission to run the professional and technology-based educational institution under the management of West Coast Educational Foundation (WCEF), Uttara. The university allegedly had been trying to woo students through advertisements in newspapers offering degrees in different subjects including master’s degree in business administration, bachelor’s degrees in English and computer science and even PhD (!!??).
In April 2006 the education ministry issued a circular stating that “the WCEF has been running TIU with a fake approval of the ministry”. The ministry has requested the UGC to conduct an investigation and submit a report to the ministry but UGC did not take any immediate action.
The education minister, M Osman Farruk, has taken a strong stand in the fight against irregularities by these private universities and branches of some foreign universities in Bangladesh. However he expressed frustration about not being able to stop these private universities with foreign affiliation who are actually doing manpower business in the name of sending students to universities overseas. He mentioned Prime University has been running an outer campus in Kishoreganj (Farruk’s own area) illegally for years and couldn’t be closed down despite several attempts (The ministry issued several letters to the university administration for immediate closure of the campus.).
Farruk cited strong opposition from different influential quarters against the proposed changes in the Private University Act of 1992. The ministry in 2003 initiated a move to amend the Private University Act 1992, form an accreditation council, and formulate uniform statutes and uniform grading system for all private universities. The move has been shelved.
In 2004, the National Committee for review and evaluation of the activities of the private universities headed by the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Professor Dr. Asaduzzaman recommended shut down of 8 of the 52 private universities. These recommendations had never been followed through.
Osman Farruk is known to be a person of great integrity – I’ve known him a long time since his days at World Bank in Washington D.C. He’s one of the handful of gentleman in PM’s cabinet. I hope he’ll be able to shut down these fake and substandard universities who are cheating on the students with fake degrees and robbing their guardians off a huge amount of money.
A very touching and sad piece from Anisul Huq in Prothom Alo about the recent death threat against MZI and Hasan Azizul Huq. Ever since I have been reading his column, I have never seen him so dispirited.
There are a lot of worry around that Bangladesh is becoming Afghanistan and Bangladeshis definitely take the remarks as very offending to Bangladesh.
However with the recent renewal of consistent post independence Bangladesh sporting debacle, Afghans may take it demeaning to be compared to Bangladesh at least when sports is considered.
Here is a table taken from the daily Star which shows the medal standing of this SA games and the ranking tally of all the SAF games.
This report which is a great overview on the issue was created months before the recent crisis broke out.
As the prospect of open pit mining for coal seems to become real in Bangladesh, horror feeling shrouds the Northern region of the country. The local people including the indigenous Santals in the mine area accuse Bangladesh government and the company in contract, UK based Asia Energy, of deception. Philip Gain of Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) reports.
[The name(s) of the photographer(s) to be credited for the above photos could not be found.]
The law enforcement officials had once again gone against civilians instead of protecting them. This time it was Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) who fired shots on a rally arranged by a group demanding cease on the controversial open pit coal-digging project supervised by British company Asia Energy.
The fires shot by BDR left 5 confirm dead while couple more remained missing.
BDR force and police beat up protesters (including women). One protester alleged that the BDR personnel ransacked their house and set fire.
The protesters claimed they began rallying peacefully toward the Asia Energy office when the BDR began shooting at them randomly. The group went berserk and retaliated by setting fire to a local hotel.
NTV showed video clips of BDR and police force smacking and kicking a few people (not sure if they were protesters or bystanders).
The local administration body decided to ask Asia Energy to cease all work in the coal mine till the situation calmed down but Asia Energy stated they indented to continue mining according to the planned schedule.
Awami League led the 14-party coalition meeting and called hartal on Aug 30. What good is a hartal going to be? Everybody is sick and tired of this hartal ritual.
Please note that it was AL who finalized the deal with Asia Energy back in 1998 after BHP sold the license to them. Asia Energy is supposed to pay only 6% royalty to Bangladesh govt which is nearly nothing allowing them to pretty much loot natural resources from our desh.
Other reasons why Asia Energy should pack and leave is the irreparable damage the open pit digging will cause to the environment. Not to mention the fifty thousand plus people that will be displaced due to this project.
Even though a little kid, I still remember the day when Ershad was ousted from power by the people of Bangladesh. Everybody was busy thinking about Bangladesh’s rise as a democratic nation and all the possibilities that lied ahead in the post Ershad era. People of Bangladesh were also debating and wondering about what lied ahead for the expelled autocratic military leader as far as trial and punishment goes especially after he was arrested and confined. I doubt that none even in their wildest dream thought that there would come a day when people would be talking about the possibility of the very same leader becoming a part of the ruling party.
Ladies and gentlemen, sixteen years after the fall of Ershad, we are witnessing what none even considered as a remote possibility. Did I mention that it was BNP, the current ruling party, and the Awami League, currently the main opposition party that formed alliance to end Ershad’s autocratic rule?
Most of us have had a rigorous education in science and research and yet I am amazed at how easy it is for us to forget that good policy must be based on knowledge and facts. The confrontation at Phulbari, to the best of my knowledge, was not provoked by Asia Energy. So let’s stop blaming them for it! Let me be VERY CLEAR: I for one, will NOT support a position that allows or condones an unruly mob to attack and destroy private property.
