৬৬ comments

1. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:২৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

   পৃথিবী সত্যিই ইন্টারেস্টিং জায়গা। জনসংখ্যা কোথায় ঘন কোথায় হালকা এনিয়ে বিগ পিকচারের এই ছবিগুলো আরো ইন্টারেস্টিং।

   The growing population of the world, now estimated to be over 7 billion, marks a global milestone and presents obvious challenges for the planet. There are extremely densely populated cities and sparsely populated countries. China is the most populous country with India following closely behind. This post brings together some disparate illustrations of our world as it grows, including scenes from Mong Kok district in Hong Kong, which has the highest population density in the world, with 130,000 per one square kilometer. In Mongolia, the world’s least densely populated country, 2.7 million people are spread across an area three times the size of France. Then there’s Out Skerries, a tiny outcropping of rocks off the east coast of Scotland where the population is just 65. And doing what he can to contribute to that 7 billion global milestone is Ziona, the head of a religious sect called “Chana.” He has 39 wives, 94 children, and 33 grandchildren. The world is an interesting place.

   ছবিগুলো দেখুন : World Population: Where it’s thick and where it’s thin।

2. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ২ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৫৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

   হিলারি এখন বার্মায়। গত ৫০ বছরে এই দেশে এটাই কোনো মার্কিন পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রীর রাষ্ট্রীয় সফর। গতকাল বুহষ্পতিবার সু চি/কি-র বাড়িতে একান্ত নৈশভোজে অংশ নেন হিলারি। তার আগে বুধবার তিনি রাজধানী নিপিধোতে প্রেসিডেন্ট থিন সেইনের সঙ্গে বৈঠক করেন। আজ শুক্রবার বার্মা ছাড়বেন হিলারি, অবশ্য তার আগে আরেক দফা বৈঠক হবে হিলারি-সু চি/কি-র।

   হিলারি বিভিন্ন সময়ে সু চিকে উল্লেখ করেছেন নিজের রাজনৈতিক জীবনের অনুপ্রেরণা হিসেবে। মিয়ানমার ছাড়ার আগে শুক্রবারও এক দফা বৈঠক করবেন তারা। এই বৈঠকে নাগরিক অধিকার ও গণতন্ত্রের বিষয়টি গুরুত্ব পাবে বলেই বিশ্লেষকদের ধারণা।

   বৃহস্পতিবার ডিনারের আগে সু চির বাড়ির সামনে তার কর্মী ও সমর্থকদের সঙ্গে দাঁড়িয়ে হিলারি বলেন, “আপনাকে ঘিরে এই যে এতোগুলো নিবেদিতপ্রাণ মানুষের উপস্থিতি- এর গুরুত্ব আমি বুঝি। এখানেই পার্থক্যটা প্রমাণ হয়ে যায়।”

   সু চি তার মার্কিন অতিথিকে স্বাগত জানিয়ে ভেতরে নিয়ে যাওয়ার সময় হিলারি বলেন- “আপনার বাড়িটা দারুণ”।

   সামরিক জান্তার শাসনের অবসান এবং গণতন্ত্রের দাবিতে আন্দোলনের মধ্য দিয়ে মিয়ানমারের অবিসংবাদিত নেতায় পরিণত হওয়া সু চির দীর্ঘদিন বন্দি জীবন কেটেছে ইয়াংগুনের এই বাড়িতেই।

   বিশ্লেষকরা বলছেন, হিলারি ক্লিনটনের এই সফরের মধ্য দিয়ে মিয়ানমার-যুক্তরাষ্ট্র সম্পর্কে এক নতুন অধ্যায়ের সূচনা হতে যাচ্ছে।

   বুধবার রাজধানী নিপিধোতে প্রেসিডেন্ট থিন সেইনের সঙ্গে বৈঠক করেন হিলারি। তিনি ইংগিত দেন, মিয়ানমার রাজবন্দিদের মুক্তি দেওয়াসহ সহিংসতা বন্ধের যেসব উদ্যোগ নিয়েছে তা আরো স¤প্রসারণ করা হলে ভবিষ্যতে অর্থনৈতিক ক্ষেত্রে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সহযোগিতা বৃদ্ধি পাবে। পাশাপাশি দুই দেশের কূটনৈতিক সম্পর্কেরও উন্নতি হবে।

   তবে একইসঙ্গে তিনি স্পষ্ট করেন, মিয়ানমারকে আরো বেশি সংস্কার আনতে হবে। বাতিল করতে হবে উত্তর কোরিয়ার সঙ্গে গোপন সামরিক চুক্তি।

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন এখানে।

3. 

   রেজাউল করিম সুমন - ৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৮:২৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   গত মাসে, ২২ নভেম্বর ২০১১ তারিখে, মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রে মৃত্যুবরণ করেছেন স্তালিন-দুহিতা স্ফিয়েৎলানা ইয়োসিফভ্‌না আলিলুয়েভা (জ. ২৮ ফেব্রুয়ারি ১৯২৬)। তিনি কোলন ক্যানসারে ভুগছিলেন।

   পড়ুন :

   Joseph Stalin’s daughter and critic Svetlana Alliluyeva dies

   Enduring lessons of Stalin’s little sparrow

4. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১০:২৫ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   ধর্ষণ কেন যুদ্ধের অস্ত্র?

   From the systematic rape of women in Bosnia, to an estimated 200,000 women raped during the battle for Bangladeshi independence in 1971, to Japanese rapes during the 1937 occupation of Nanking – the past century offers too many examples.

   So what motivates armed forces, whether state-backed troops or irregular militia, to attack civilian women and children?

   Gita Sahgal, of Amnesty International, told the BBC News website it was a mistake to think such assaults were primarily about the age-old “spoils of war”, or sexual gratification.

   Rape is often used in ethnic conflicts as a way for attackers to perpetuate their social control and redraw ethnic boundaries, she said.

   “Women are seen as the reproducers and carers of the community,” she said.

   “Therefore if one group wants to control another they often do it by impregnating women of the other community because they see it as a way of destroying the opposing community.”

   A report by Medecins Sans Frontieres says it first came across rape as a weapon in the 1990s.

   “In Bosnia systematic rape was used as part of the strategy of ethnic cleansing,” it said.

   “Women were raped so they could give birth to a Serbian baby.”

   The same tactic was used in a “very strategic attack” by state-backed Pakistani troops during the fight for Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, Ms Sahgal said.

   “They were saying ‘we will make you breed Punjabi children’,” she said, with the aim of weakening the integrity of the opposing ethnic group.

   Amnesty this year accused the pro-government Janjaweed militias in Sudan’s Darfur region of using mass rape in order to punish, humiliate and control non-Arab groups.

   Such attacks cause women and children to flee their homes, lead to fragmentation of communities and bring the risk of infection with HIV/Aids.

   Sexual violence is also used to destabilise communities and sow terror, Amnesty says in its Lives Blown Apart report.

   In Colombia, rival groups rape, mutilate and kill women and girls in order to impose “punitive codes of conduct on entire towns and villages”, so strengthening their control.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন এখানে।

5. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৫:৩৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

   উঁচু জাতের কী জঙ্গি দাপট! উচুঁ জাতের ছেলের সাথে নীচু জাতের ছেলের নামের মিল হওয়ায় নীচু জাতের ছেলেটিকে শেষ পর্যন্ত প্রাণ দিতে হল!

   Neeraj Kumar, was allegedly kidnapped and strangled by a group of boys led by 23 year old Neeraj Chaudhary, whose family resented the idea of the low caste boy having the same first name.

   The victim’s father, Ram Sumer, a vegetable seller, said when his son was admitted to primary school, the alleged killer’s father “called to advise me to change my son’s name because it was the same as his son’s”. Sumer said he told the father, an affluent landlord, it was too late to change the name because it had been entered in school records.

   The higher caste family was further incensed when Sumer named another son Dheeraj, the same as Chaudhary’s other boy. Sumer stated that, “So many names are common to so many people but Chaudhary disliked the idea because I belong to the lowest caste.”

   The victim was found dead in a forest near Raghupur village, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow.

   Brij Lal, police chief of India’s most populous state, said the victim was killed over “caste discrimination” last month but the murder only came to light a few days ago.

   Chaudhary has denied his family is responsible for the crime and has accused police of framing his sons.

   খবরের লিন্ক : Indian boy ‘killed for sharing higher-caste name’।

6. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৪ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৯:০৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   দেব আনন্দ প্রয়াত।

   Dev Anand, the ‘Evergreen Romantic Superstar’ of Indian cinema, has passed away in London on Saturday night following cardiac arrest. He was 88.

   Dev Anand, who had come to London for medical check up, was not keeping well for the last few days, family sources said. Hisson Sunil was with him when he breathed last.

   Dev Anand made his debut as an actor in 1946 in Hum Ek Hain. By the time his Ziddi was released in 1947 he was a superstar and has never looked back.

   Versatile Dev Anand has given countless hits like Paying Guest, Baazi, Jewel Thief, CID, Johny Mera Naam, Amir Garib, Warrant, Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Des Pardes.

   For his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, Dev Anand was honoured with the prestigious the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 2002.

   He established his film production company Navketan International Films in 1949 and has produced more than 35 movies.

   খবরের লিন্ক : Veteran actor Dev Anand passes away at 88।

7. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৪ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:০৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

   উদ্ভিদ রুখবে সমুদ্র ভাঙন। এই ‘বালি কলমি’ যার বৈজ্ঞানিক নাম ‘আইপোমিয়া বাইলোবা’ পশ্চিমবঙ্গের দীঘা সৈকতে প্রাকৃতিকভাবেই জন্মে। আমাদের দেশে কক্সবাজার বা কূয়াকাটায় কি এই উদ্ভিদের জন্ম হয়? জানাটা খুবই জরুরি, আমাদের সমুদ্র সৈকত ভয়ঙ্করভাবে ভাঙছে, বালি কলমি যদি তা ঠেকাতে পারে, সেটা হবে অসাধারণ প্রাকৃতিক প্রতিরোধ। সুমনের কাছে অনুরোধ, এবিষয়ে দ্রুত দ্বিজেন শর্মার সাথে আলোচনা করে একটা পোস্ট তৈরি হোক।

   • 

     রেজাউল করিম সুমন - ৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৮:৫৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

     ধন্যবাদ, এই বিষয়ে দৃষ্টি আকর্ষণের জন্য।

     ফোন করলাম দ্বিজেন শর্মাকে। বললেন, কক্সবাজারে একসময়ে প্রচুর জন্মাত এই বালি-কলমি। এখন মানুষজনের অত্যাচারে কতটা টিকে আছে, বলা মুশকিল; তাঁর জানা নেই। কুয়াকাটাতেও জন্মাবার কথা, আর সেখানে জনসমাগম তো তুলনায় অনেক কম। প্রচুর জন্মায় ছোট ছোট চরে — যেখানে জনবসতি নেই, ধানচাষ হয়, শুঁটকি শুকানো হয়।

     বালিয়াড়ির সুরক্ষায় অতন্দ্র প্রহরী এই বালি-কলমি। কিন্তু মুশকিল হলো, এদের সুরক্ষার দায়িত্ব কে নেবে? শ্যামলবাবুর লেখার শেষেও কিন্তু হতাশারই সুর — রক্ষণাবেক্ষণের অভাব ও প্রশাসকদের উদাসীনতার প্রসঙ্গ। জনসংখ্যা বিস্ফোরণ, মানুষজনের বিনোদন-তৃষ্ণা, সচেতনতার অভাব — এসব প্রতিবন্ধকের কথা বললেন দ্বিজেন শর্মাও। তবু এ বিষয় নিয়ে আলোচনা শুরু করা দরকার নিঃসন্দেহে। হাল ছেড়ে দিলে চলবে কেন?

8. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৪ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:২৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

   আজ সকালেই পড়ছিলাম সংগ্রামের নাম সক্রেটিস, কিন্তু অত্যধিক মদ্যপানে তিনি যকৃতটাকে ধ্বংসই করে দিয়েছেন এবং আজ ৫৭ বছর বয়সে সক্রেটিস মারা গেছেন।

   The former Brazil captain Sócrates has died at the age of 57, a Brazilian newspaper has reported.

   Sócrates had been in the Albert Einstein Israeli hospital in São Paulo since Thursday, when he was interned with food poisoning which developed into septic shock. He had been on a life support machine, the newspaper O Estado said.

   It was the third time Sócrates had been taken to hospital since August, when he spent nine days there due to a digestive haemorrhage caused by excessive drinking.

   Sócrates, who played for Brazil at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, spent 17 days in the hospital in September, with liver trouble. He had been recommended for a transplant.

   A qualified doctor, whose full name was Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, he sprang to fame at Corinthians in the early 1980s. The bearded, lanky Socrates was a leading player of his generation, along with the midfielder Zico. He also played in Italy for Fiorentina.

   খবরের লিন্ক : Former Brazil captain Sócrates dies in hospital at the age of 57।

9. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৪১ অপরাহ্ণ)

   প্রথম পর্বে প্রত্যাশিতভাবেই মিশরের নির্বাচনে ইসলামবাদীরাই জয়ী হয়েছে।

   Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, emerging as the biggest winner in the first round of parliamentary elections, is seeking to reassure Egyptians that it will not sacrifice personal freedoms in promoting Islamic law.

   The deputy head of the Brotherhood’s new political party, Essam el-Erian said that the group is not interested in imposing Islamic values on Egypt, home to a sizable Christian minority and others who object to being subject to strict Islamic codes.

   “We represent a moderate and fair party,” el-Erian said of his Freedom and Justice Party. “We want to apply the basics of Shariah law in a fair way that respects human rights and personal rights,” he said, referring to Islamic law. The comments were the clearest indication that the Brotherhood was distancing itself from the ultraconservative Islamist Al-Nour Party, which appears to have won the second-largest share of votes in the election’s first phase.

   The Brotherhood recently denied in a statement that it seeks to form an alliance with the Al-Nour Party in parliament, calling it “premature and mere media speculation,” Associated Press reported. On Dec. 3, el-Erian made it clear that the Brotherhood does not share Al-Nour’s more hard-line aspirations to strictly enforce Islamic codes in Egyptians’ daily lives. “We respect all people in their choice of religion and life,” he said.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন এখানে।

10. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:২৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    জার্মানিতে গোপন সোভিয়েত শহর, আজ পরিত্যাক্ত।

    After World War II, the town of Wünsdorf, some 25 kilometers south of Berlin, became the headquarters of the Soviet army in East Germany, and thousands of Red Army soldiers were stationed there. At the time, it was a bustling, heavily guarded military base surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. Now it is deserted and crumbling. Here, a gloomy foyer welcomes guests to the complex that once housed Nazi Germany’s Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces.

    এখানে দেখুন ফটোগ্যালারির ছবিগুলো।

11. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৪০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বাংলাদেশ বার্মা থেকে গ্যাস ও বিদ্যুৎ আমদানি করবে।

    Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has emphasized on importing electricity and gas from Myanmar to meet Bangladesh’s deficit. There is also need for direct road and air links between the two countries to boost bilateral trade and investment, she said when Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin met with her at Hotel Myat Taw Win this (Monday) afternoon.

    During the meeting, issues relating to the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and trade and investment were discussed.

    Referring to bilateral trade, the Prime Minister said Myanmar can import RMG, knitwear, pharmaceuticals, ceramics and jute goods from Bangladesh. She said Myanmar’s investors can also make investment in Bangladesh’s potential sectors by taking advantage of the incentives offered by her government for overseas investors. About tourism, Hasina favored signing of a MoU in the future to promote tourism between the two close neighbors.
    In response, the Foreign Minister of Myanman said his country is functioning as a bridge among the South Asian countries. He said Myanmar is gradually moving towards market economy.
    Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Ambassador at-Large Mohammad Ziauddin, Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes and PM’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad were present.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : BD seeks to import gas, electricity from Myanmar।

12. 

    রেজাউল করিম সুমন - ৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:১৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Sunday’s heavily disputed election results were a disaster for the Kremlin, who seem to have underestimated the level of national frustration. Putin now finds himself in a crisis, and while he has historically used such situations to his advantage, might the task of regaining authority prove too much this time?

    পুতিনের পতনের পূর্বাভাস?

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : The beginning of the end for Putin?

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১০ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৫:২৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

      সাংবাদিক নিগ্রহ, জর্জিয়ায় সহিংসতা, তরুণদের নিজের দলের কাজে বশীভূত রাখা — পুতিনকে নিয়ে সিএনএন-এর প্রধান আন্তর্জাতিক প্রতিবেদক ক্রিস্টিয়ান আমানপুরের ২০০৯ সালের ডকুমেন্টারি : CZAR PUTIN দেখুন।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১০:১৪ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      রাশিয়ার সামাজিক মাধ্যমে পুতিন বিরোধী আন্দোলনের রয়টারের রিপোর্ট।

      On Monday evening, Kolpakov, 38, was among several thousand Russians who took to the streets of Moscow in the biggest opposition protest in years.

      Such protests against Putin’s rule, as president from 2000 to 2008 and as prime minister since then, have rarely drawn more than about 200 people, some of them Soviet-era dissidents and others activists in marginalized opposition groups.

      Typically, they are quickly dispersed by heavy-handed riot police. But Sunday’s rally attracted about 5,000 people and a similar rally on Tuesday drew several hundred.

      Many were responding to calls on social networking sites VKontakte and Facebook to “continue the revolution,” and tweets sent by protesters from Triumfalny Square in central Moscow.

      “For the first time really the online presence has transformed offline politics,” said Konstantin von Eggert, a commentator for Kommersant FM radio. “The whole thing works like a snowball. This is definitely the start of something that will stay in Russian political life.”

      বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Insight: Social media makes anti-Putin protests “snowball”।

      • 

        মাসুদ করিম - ২৪ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:৫৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

        কারচুপির ভোট বাতিল করে নতুন করে ভোটের দাবিতে আজ মস্কোতে নতুন করে হাজার হাজার মানুষের বিক্ষোভ সমাবেশ শুরু হয়েছে।

        Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Moscow Saturday to press demands for new parliamentary elections and wholesale liberalizing reform in Russia, turning the temperature up on Vladimir Putin and his plans to return to the Kremlin.

        Police put the number of protesters within the space authorized for the rally at 29,000 but a far larger crowd was massed behind a long line of metal detectors set up on the street as would-be participants were screened through them one by one. Rally organizers and RIA Novosti correspondents on the scene estimated the turnout number at several times higher than the police figure.

        As the demonstration swelled, the Kremlin moved to respond in real time, with a spokeswoman for President Dmitry Medvedev announcing that reforms to ease restrictions on political parties could be enacted quickly.

        The atmosphere on Moscow’s Sakharov Avenue, named for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning late Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was calm but determined as citizens with a wide range of political views turned out to express their opposition to December 4 legislative elections in particular and to Russia’s political status-quo in general.

        বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Tens of thousands gather in fresh Russia vote protest।

13. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৯:৪৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    কয়েকটি ফটোগ্যালারি
    ১.
    পার্ল হারবারের আমেরিকান নৌ-ঘাঁটিতে ৭ ডিসেম্বর ১৯৪১ সালে জাপানের আকস্মিক আক্রমণই আমেরিকাকে দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধে সম্পৃক্ত করে। ফটোগ্যালারিটি দেখুন : “Remember Pearl Harbor”।

    ২.
    ‘ডি-ডে’র ঠিক চারদিন পরে ১০ জুন ১৯৪৪ সালে মধ্য ফ্রান্সের এক ছোট্ট শহরে জার্মান সেনাবাহিনী ৬৪২ জনকে হত্যা করে। ফটোগ্যালারিটি দেখুন : Remembering Oradour-sur-Glane।

    ৩.
    সম্প্রতি দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধের পরিত্যক্ত ১.৮ টন ওজনের এক বোমা রাইন নদী থেকে অপসারণ করতে জার্মানির ওই অঞ্চলের ৪৫০০০ মানুষকে অন্যত্র সরিয়ে ওই বোমা নিষ্ক্রিয় করা হয়। ফটোগ্যালারিটি দেখুন : Koblenz Quiet for Bomb Disposal।

14. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:৫৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

    সত্যিই জানা ছিল না আমাদের মুক্তিযুদ্ধের এই শহীদদের কথা : তারা তিব্বতি, যুদ্ধ করেছেন, অসম সাহসী পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামের ‘অপারেশন মাউন্টেন ঈগল’-এর মূল বাহিনী ছিলেন, শহীদ হয়েছেন ৫৬ জন, তারপর চলে গেছেন স্মৃতির অতলে, আমরা তাদের মনে রাখিনি। অমি রহমান পিয়াল আমাদের মনে করিয়ে দিয়েছেন

    কাপ্তাই বাঁধ ধ্বংস, পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামকে মিজোদের তৎপরতা থেকে মুক্ত এবং চট্টগ্রামের দিকে অগ্রসর হয়ে ভারতীয় সেনাবাহিনীর জন্য অনুকুল পরিবেশ তৈরির সেই মিশন সফলভাবেই সারে এসএফএফ। ১৬ ডিসেম্বর পাকিস্তানীরা যখন আত্মসমর্পণ করছে তখন চট্টগ্রাম বন্দর থেকে মাত্র ৪০ কিলোমিটার দূরে অবস্থান করছিলো তিব্বতী এই পাহাড়ি যোদ্ধারা। এর আগে দোহাজারী ব্রিজ ধ্বংস ও দখল করে বার্মায় পাকিস্তানীদের পালানোর পথ বন্ধ করে দেয় তারা। শত্রুমুক্ত চট্টগ্রামে প্রটোকল ভেঙ্গেই কুচকাওয়াজ করে এসএফএফ। এরপর তাদের প্রত্যাহার করে নেওয়া হয়। এর আগে ১৮ ডিসেম্বর পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামে তারা বন্দী করে ১ হাজার মিজো সেনা।

    ভারতীয় সেনা আর্কাইভে তো বটেই মুক্তিযুদ্ধের ইতিহাসেও চেপে যাওয়া হয়েছে তিব্বতীদের এই বীরত্বপূর্ণ ঘটনা। কারণ, বলা হয়েছে আগেই- প্রটোকল। এমনকি উবান তার ‘ফ্যান্টমস অব চিটাগং’ বইয়েও তেমন করে উল্লেখ করেননি। অথচ এই অনুরোধের লড়াইয়ে জীবন দিয়েছেন ৫৬ জন তিব্বতী (এক সাক্ষাতকারে উবান বলেছেন ৪৯ জনের কথা), আহত হয়েছেন ১৯০ জন। গোপন সামরিক অপারেশনের দোহাই দিয়ে পদকবঞ্চিতও করা হয়েছে তাদের। পুরষ্কার বলতে কিছু নগদ টাকা দিয়ে কাজ সেরেছে ভারত সরকার। আর বাংলাদেশও প্রবল পরাক্রম চীনের বিরুদ্ধে কূটনৈতিক লড়াইয়ের নিগঢ়ে আটকেছে এই ইস্যুতে। ১৯৭২ সালে বঙ্গবন্ধু শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান ঢাকায় এসএফএফ প্রতিনিধিদলের সঙ্গে এক গোপন সাক্ষাতে বাঙালীর হয়ে কৃতজ্ঞতার দায়িত্ব সারেন।

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : আমাদের স্বাধীনতার জন্য রক্ত দিয়েছিলো তিব্বতীরাও!

15. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১১:২৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    গত মাসেই তো কথা বলছিলাম কবিতার পারফরম্যান্স বিষয়ে, এত দ্রুত তাকে এত জগদ্বিখ্যাত করে দেবেন নোবেল বিজয়ী সুইডিশ কবি টমাস ট্রান্সট্রোমার তখন তো জানা ছিল না। হ্যাঁ, টমাস ট্রান্সট্রোমার চিরাচরিত নোবেল বক্তৃতা না দিয়ে তার ১৩টি কবিতা পারফর্ম করলেন এক অনন্য সাঙ্গীতিক পরিবেশনার সাথে একীভূত করে।

    Whereas many literature laureates prepare special lectures for the occasion, Tranströmer’s lecture featured readings of 13 poems from throughout his career coordinated with musical accompaniment.

    Tranströmer looked on as his work was set to music and sung by the Gustaf Sjöqvist’s Chamber Choir and Uppsala Chamber Soloists, among other performers.

    “Good poetry is a powerful thing. It can change our picture of the world, making it clearer, sharper, more comprehensible. And forever,” Englund said.

    “We should not be taken in by the understated tone of Tomas Tranströmer’s poetry. Several of the real wonders of our existence are constantly present: Memory, History, Death, Nature – nature not least. But each not as an overwhelming exterior presence, nor as something that assumes life under our gaze. In your work it is the very opposite: ego, the individual, is the prism into which everything is drawn. It gives us a feeling of context, even obligation,” he continued.

    “Dear Tomas, it is impossible to feel insignificant after having read your poetry. Neither is it still possible to love the world for the wrong reasons.”

    “But what makes great poetry great is not only that it clarifies or reveals something already present in our world, but also that it has the ability to actually widen the boundaries of that world. Therein lies its power,” Englund said.

    The first poem recited was “Minnena ser mig” (Memories Look at Me), originally published in 1983:

    A June morning, too soon to wake,
    too late to fall asleep again.

    I must go out – the greenery is dense
    with memories, they follow me with their gaze.

    They can’t be seen, they merge completely with
    the background, true chameleons.

    They are so close that I can hear them breathe
    although the birdsong here is deafening.

    Tranströmer began his serious writing career in 1954 when he published “17 dikter” (17 poems).

    Predominant in the Swedish poet’s work are themes of nature and music and he followed up “17 dikter” with several collections in the 1950s and 1960s, including: “Hemligheter på vägen” (1958; Secrets along the way), “Den halvfärdiga himlen” (1962; The Half-Finished Heaven, 2001) and “Klanger och spår” (1966; Windows & Stones : Selected Poems, 1972).

    With “Windows & Stones: Selected Poems”, published in English in 1972, he consolidated his standing among critics and other readers as one of the leading poets of his generation, according to his Swedish Academy biography.

    খবরের লিন্ক : Poetry and performance infuse Tranströmer’s Nobel lecture।

    সম্পূর্ণ পারফরম্যান্সের বিশদ : A Programme of Texts by Tomas Tranströmer।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৩৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      এখানে দেখুন শুনুন : The Blue House by Tomas Tranströmer performed by Louise Korthals & Tom Jönsthövel।

      শুনতে শুনতে মিলিয়ে পড়ুন

      It is night with glaring sunshine. I stand in the woods and look towards my house with its misty blue walls. As though I were recently dead and saw the house from a new angle.

      It has stood for more than eighty summers. Its timber has been impregnated, four times with joy and three times with sorrow. When someone who has lived in the house dies it is repainted. The dead person paints it himself, without a brush, from the inside.

      On the other side is open terrain. Formerly a garden, now wilderness. A still surf of weed, pagodas of weed, an unfurling body of text, Upanishades of weed, a Viking fleet of weed, dragon heads, lances, an empire of weed.

      Above the overgrown garden flutters the shadow of a boomerang, thrown again and again. It is related to someone who lived in the house long before my time. Almost a child. An impulse issues from him, a thought, a thought of will: “create. . .draw. ..” In order to escape his destiny in time.

      The house resembles a child’s drawing. A deputizing childishness which grew forth because someone prematurely renounced the charge of being a child. Open the doors, enter! Inside unrest dwells in the ceiling and peace in the walls. Above the bed there hangs an amateur painting representing a ship with seventeen sails, rough sea and a wind which the gilded frame cannot subdue.

      It is always so early in here, it is before the crossroads, before the irrevocable choices. I am grateful for this life! And yet I miss the alternatives. All sketches wish to be real.

      A motor far out on the water extends the horizon of the summer night. Both joy and sorrow swell in the magnifying glass of the dew. We do not actually know it, but we sense it: our life has a sister vessel which plies an entirely different route. While the sun burns behind the islands.

      “The Blue House” from The Blue House, translated by Göran Malmqvist, published by Thunder City Press. Copyright © 1987 by Göran Malmqvist.

      লিন্ক এখানে।

16. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১২ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:৫৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    দেশের বাইরে চীনের প্রথম সামরিক ঘাঁটি ভারত মহাসাগরে।

    In a move that may cause unease in India, China has announced that it will set up its first military base abroad in the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles to “seek supplies and recuperate” facilities for its Navy.

    The naval fleet may seek supplies or recuperate at appropriate harbours in Seychelles or other countries as needed during escort missions, Chinese Defence Ministry announced here today.

    China has already cemented its foothold in the Indian Ocean by signing contract with the UN backed International Seabed Authority to gain rights to explore polymetallic sulphide ore deposit in Indian Ocean over the next 15 years.

    The contract awarded this year to a Chinese association exclusive rights to explore a 10,000-square-km of international seabed in the southwest Indian Ocean.

    The base in Seychelles is regarded significant by analysts as China is about to launch its first aircraft carrier. It is currently undergoing final trials.

    Playing down its significance, Chinese Defence Ministry statement today said it is international practice for naval fleets to re-supply at the closest port of a nearby state during long-distance missions.

    Apparently commenting on a recent report that China will establish a military base in Seychelles, it said Chinese naval fleets have re-supply facilities at harbours in Djibouti, Oman and Yemen since China sent its first convoy to the Gulf of Aden in 2008.

    The decision to establish its first naval base abroad was taken during Chinese Defence Minister Geeraln Liang Guanglie’s goodwill visit to Seychelles earlier this month.

    খবরের লিন্ক : China to open its first military base abroad in Indian Ocean।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:৫৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

      চীনের প্রতিরক্ষা মন্ত্রণালয়, এই খবরকে অপপ্রচার বলেছে, তারা ব্যাখ্যা দিয়েছে, খবরে যাকে ‘সামরিক ঘাঁটি’ বলা হচ্ছে তা হবে আসলে ‘সামরিক সরবরাহ কেন্দ্র’।

      The navy is considering taking on supplies in the Seychelles while conducting escort missions to tackle piracy.

      Military experts stressed that the move did not equate to establishing military bases.

      “According to escort needs and the needs of other long-range missions, China will consider seeking supply facilities at appropriate harbors in the Seychelles or other countries,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement on its website on Monday.
      
      The statement was in response to a recent report that the Seychelles invited China to establish a military base in the Indian Ocean archipelago to crack down on piracy during a visit by Defense Minister Liang Guanglie, the first by a Chinese defense minister, earlier this month.

      The Press Trust of India news agency later interpreted this as Beijing reneging on its promise not to build military bases abroad.

      “In a move that may cause unease in India,” the agency said, “China on Monday announced that it will set up its first military base abroad”. The Seychelles, about 1,500 kilometers off the African coast and about 3,000 km southwest of India, is the smallest African state in terms of population.

      Some sections of the US media expressed concern that such a “military base” in the Seychelles will lead to Chinese influence surpassing that of the US in Africa.

      Li Jie, a professor at the Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told China Daily “as China will not send troops to protect the supply stop in the Seychelles, by no means can it be called an overseas military base”.

      Beijing has repeatedly confirmed that its policy of not stationing troops abroad will not be altered. It stands alone among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in not having overseas bases.
      
      Due to anti-piracy missions off the coast of Somalia, it is only natural for Beijing to ensure naval supplies, Li said.

      Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said on Nov 30 that China has sent 10 escort missions and more than 8,000 officers and soldiers to the Gulf of Aden since it commenced anti-piracy duties in 2008.

      The navy has escorted more than 4,300 vessels, including those from the United Nations World Food Programme and protected 50 vessels that had been earlier attacked by pirates, he said.

      Navy ships have used facilities in Djibouti, Oman and Yemen to take on supplies, according to the Ministry of Defense.

      “It is international practice for navies to take on supplies at the closest port of a nearby state during long-distance missions,” the ministry said.

      Peng Guangqian, a Beijing-based military strategist, said facilities allowing ships to take on supplies cannot be called military bases because “China respects the host’s sovereignty and internal politics, and no political conditions are attached”.

      “Besides, it will be solely used for logistics and supplies,” he added.
      
      Li Qinggong, deputy secretary of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, said that any arrangements over the use of facilities will be mutually beneficial with jobs provided for people in the Seychelles and the navy better able to protect China’s growing overseas interests.

      With 115 islands scattered in the Indian Ocean, a population of 85,000 and an army of just 500, the Seychelles had been seeking foreign assistance.

      Its president, James Michel, made an appeal to world leaders this month to pay more attention to the situation in Somalia to ensure regional security. Ships use sea lanes in the Indian Ocean to transport more than two-thirds of the world’s oil.

      The Defense Ministry statement said that during Liang’s visit the Seychelles expressed appreciation for China’s efforts to ensure safe navigation on the Indian Ocean, as well as general support China had given to the Seychelles.

      “The Seychelles also invited China’s navy to re-supply in the country during escort missions,” the ministry said.

      The US has a drone base in the Seychelles which is used to combat piracy.

      Li Qinggong also said reports about the Chinese military had been misinterpreted recently.

      The report of President Hu Jintao telling a meeting of military officers last week that the navy should “make extended preparations for warfare” grabbed headlines across the world.

      However, “to strengthen and modernize the defense forces and ensure military preparation are major concerns for the Chinese military”, Li said.

      “Hu has reiterated the importance of these two tasks at almost all major military conferences, so there is no change in policy.”

      খবরের লিন্ক : Navy looks at offer from Seychelles।

17. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৮:৫৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    আজ সকালেই চিরদিনের জন্য বিদায় নিলেন কবীর চৌধুরী। খবরের লিন্ক : জাতীয় অধ্যাপক কবীর চৌধুরী আর নেই।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৫:২৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

      কবীর চৌধুরী স্মরণে বোরহানউদ্দিন খান জাহাঙ্গীর লিখছেন

      কবীর ভাই আমাদের সভ্যতার দিকে অগ্রসর করেছেন
      বোরহানউদ্দিন খান জাহাঙ্গীর
      কবীর চৌধুরী, কবীর ভাইয়ের চিন্তার মধ্যে কোন অন্ধকার শব্দ ছিল না। তিনি ভাবতেন আলোর মতো, যে আলো সব অন্ধকার দূর করে দেয়। তিনি সারা জীবন জিজ্ঞাসার মধ্যে বসবাস করেছেন, যাতে সকল সমালোচনা উদ্ভাসিত হয়। তিনি কোন রাজনৈতিক তত্ত্ব প্রচার করেননি, কিংবা কোন মতাদর্শিক পুরুষ হিসেবে দেখা দেননি। তিনি প্রচারক ছিলেন না। বরং বিপরীত তাঁর ভূমিকা: তিনি ছিলেন দর্শক, বিশ্লেষক এবং ঘটনামাত্রার বর্ণনাকারী। তাঁর জীবনের লক্ষ ছিল: জানা। তাঁর অন্বেষার উদ্দেশ্য ছিল: জগৎ-সংসার সম্বন্ধে অনিঃশেষ বহুবাদিতা স্পষ্ট করা। সে জন্য কি তিনি বিভিন্ন গ্রন্থের অনুবাদের মধ্যে নিজেকে ছড়িয়ে দিয়েছিলেন? এৰেত্রে তিনি ব্যবহার করেছিলেন তাঁর নিরাসক্ত ব্যক্তিবাদ, যুক্ত করেছিলেন তাঁর হৃদয়ের ও মননের উষ্ণ সারা, এ সবই মানুষী অবস্থার স্থিতিশীলতা তৈরি করার দিকে তাঁর অভিযান। বিভিন্ন গ্রন্থ পাঠ করার মধ্য দিয়ে তিনি পৌঁছেছিলেন বিভিন্ন গন্তব্যে, একাধিক জীবনচর্যায়। এখানেই তাঁর মানস গতিতের রহস্য: তাঁর বুদ্ধিবাদিতার কেন্দ্রে জ্বলজ্বল করেছে হীরকের দু্যতি, বিভিন্ন গ্রন্থ তিনি পাঠ করেছেন, আর আমাদেরকেও তিনি পাঠ করতে শিখিয়েছেন জীবনচর্যার বহুবাদিতা। সে জন্য তাঁর অনুবাদ কর্ম অপ্রতিরোধ্য। যেন তিনি হাসতে হাসতে বলেছেন : দ্যাখো দ্যাখো জীবনে কত কিছু শেখার আছে।
      আমাদের সময়টা সঙ্কীর্ণ ডগমায় ভরপুর হয়ে আছে। আমাদের ডগমা ছাড়িয়ে যেতে হবে। আমাদের হতে হবে মুক্ত পুরুষ। সেই বিশ্বাস থেকে কবীর ভাই স্পষ্ট, ঋজু শাণিত পুরুষ হয়ে উঠেছিলেন। তিনি যা ভাবতেন তা বলতেন, যা বলতেন তা লিখতেন আর লেখার সঙ্গে, ভাবনার সঙ্গে তিনি যুক্ত করেছিলেন একঝাঁক তরুণকে। কারণ তরুণরাই সমাজটাকে, রাষ্ট্রটাকে বদলাবার অধিকারী। এই বিশ্বাস থেকে তিনি ঋদ্ধ ও শাণিত হয়ে উঠেছিলেন: চিরন্তন মানবিক সমস্যার হয়ত কোন সমাধান নেই, কিন্তু লড়াই তো করে যেতে হবে। যৌবনে তিনি সমাজতান্ত্রিক চিনত্মার সংস্পর্শে এসেছিলেন, সেখান থেকে তিনি সরে যাননি। যে কোন অবস্থায় আমাদের লড়াই করে যেতে হয়, লড়াই ছাড়া চিনত্মা শাণিত করা যায় না, শাণিত চিনত্মা ছাড়া সমাজ ও রাষ্ট্র বদলের ভাবনা ছড়িয়ে দেয়া যায় না। সার্থক হওয়াটা বড় নয়, লড়াই করাটা বড়। সে জন্য তাঁর চিনত্মা অমোঘভাবে মানবিক হয়েছে আর মানবিক হওয়ার মধ্য দিয়ে তিনি স্পর্শ করেছেন আকাশ। কবীর ভাই বিশ্বাস করতেন: আমরা নিজেদের বদল করি আমাদের যুগ এবং সংস্কৃতির সমস্যাগুলো বুঝবার মধ্য দিয়ে। এই বোঝার চেষ্টাটাই আমাদের অনবরত সৃষ্টি করে নতুন মানব হতে। এটা সত্য, ভবিষ্যত সমস্যা এবং প্রয়োজন নীতিগতভাবে বলা সম্ভব না, আগামী দিন কেমন হবে বলা সম্ভব না, কিন্তু কবীর ভাই শানত্মভাবে-নম্রভাবে বোঝাতে চেষ্টা করেছেন প্রতিটি প্রজন্মের সামাজিক-রাজনৈতিক মতাদর্শিক ব্যবস্থার পথ উন্মুক্ত করে দেবে ভবিষ্যত চাহিদার, ভবিষ্যত প্রয়োজনের (আমার বেশ মনে পড়ে খুলনায় তাঁর সঙ্গে একানত্মে কাটানো দিনগুলোর কথা: গল্পামারীর বধ্যভূমি প্রসঙ্গে আমরা আলোচনা করছিলাম)।
      তাঁর বহুবাদিতা আমাদের চিন্তর ইতিহাকে, একটি সাহসী ও আশা উদ্দীপনার সংযোজন। তাঁর বহুবাদিতা, একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ বুদ্ধিবাদী ও কল্পনাকুশল চ্যালেঞ্জ: সংস্কারবর্তী দেশে এ কথা বলতেই হয়। সে জন্য তাঁর এই নৈতিক আদর্শবাদ তরুণদের আকর্ষণ করেছে। এই দৃষ্টিকোণ, একই সঙ্গে দয়াবান এবং মানবিকতাসম্পন্ন, জীবনযাপনে হাজার সমস্যা সত্ত্বেও বাঁচতে সাহায্য করে। ব্যক্তির দায়িত্ব সর্বৰেত্রে, ঐতিহ্যিক ধর্মের পতনের পর, এই দৃষ্টিভঙ্গি সহনশীলতা, বোধগম্যতা তৈরি করে ব্যক্তি ও সমষ্টির ক্ষেত্রে, তৈরি করে মানুষের ৰেত্রে পরিপক্বতা, তৈরি করে সভ্যতা। কবীর চৌধুরী, আমাদের দিয়েছেন সবচেয়ে পরিপক্ব মানুষের ইতিহাস পাঠের বোধ, মানুষের স্বভাব বুঝবার অন্ধকারের মধ্যে জাতি, সময়ের চ্যালেঞ্জ সহ্য করার শক্তি। তাঁর চিন্তা আমাদের উপহার দিয়েছে ভাবনা অনুভবময়তা, আকাঙ্কা এবং দুঃখ সহ্য করার ৰমতা। ইতিহাস মানুষের ৰেত্রে, ফ্রিডমের বোধ এবং দায়িত্বের বোধ তৈরি করে : কবীর ভাই এই কাজটাই আমাদের জন্য করেছেন।

18. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:২৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

    নেপালে চীনের প্রধানমন্ত্রীর গুরুত্বপুর্ণ সফর বাতিলের ঘোষণা দিয়েছে কাঠমুন্ডুতে চীনের রাষ্ট্রদূত, কারণ কিছু জানানো হয়নি। শেষ মুহূর্তে এভাবে সফর বাতিলের ঘোষণা, আমাদের অঞ্চলের ভূরাজনীতি কেমন এলোমেলো ঠেকছে।

    Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has decided to put off his intended Nepal visit indefinitely.

    The Chinese Ambassador to Nepal informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kathmandu about Beijing’s decision today.

    The Chinese PM was scheduled to arrive in Nepal on December 20 for a three-day visit leading a 100 member delegation.

    It has been learnt that the visit was postponed from the Chinese side. However, the actual cause behind the postponement is yet to be divulged.

    Prior to Wen’s visit, a Chinese delegation had already arrived in the Capital on Sunday to take stock of security measures. They were busy the whole day yesterday holding extensive discussions with the government officials, including officials from the home, finance and foreign ministries at Hotel Soaltee to gather information about the arrangements being made for the PM’s visit to Nepal.

    Nepal had also prepared the agendas to be discussed with the high level Chinese delegation. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was expected to seek Rs 4 billion of assistance to fund the retirement package of Maoist combatants and other financial assistance on the occasion.

    খবরের লিন্ক : Chinese PM Wen puts off Nepal visit।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১৪ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:০৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

      তিব্বতের ভিক্ষুদের আগুনে আত্মাহুতি কি বড় ব্যাপার হয়ে উঠছে চীন সরকারের কাছে, ভয় পাচ্ছে ওরা নেপালে ওয়েন জিয়াবাওয়ের সফরের সময় সেখানকার ভিক্ষুরাও আগুনে আত্মাহুতি দিয়ে প্রতিবাদ জানাতে পারে?

      Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s much-anticipated Nepal visit has been cancelled. Sources attributed the cancellation of the high profile visit to China’s concerns about security and political instability in Nepal.

      Wen cancelled his visit after China’s team of security experts, after assessing the situation in Nepal regarding possible self-immolations and protests by Free Tibet activists, conveyed to Beijing that it was not the right time to visit Nepal, added the sources.

      The Chinese premier was scheduled to arrive in Nepal on a three-day official visit on December 20, which was prematurely ‘disclosed’ by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on November 15 only to rile Chinese officials.

      Chinese Ambassador Yang Houlan today called on Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha and informed him about the cancellation of visit. Shrestha, however, plainly maintained that Wen’s visit has been ‘put off’. “Preparations were under way, but the date was yet to be fixed bilaterally. We were supposed to finalise it after discussions. The Chinese side has requested for some time to ‘reschedule’ it,” said Shrestha. “The Chinese leader will visit Nepal soon,” he added but did not mention when.

      “We are sorry to inform you about our premier’s inability to visit Nepal now, as his presence in Beijing became necessary to be engaged in economic and budgetary issues,” Shrestha quoted Houlan as telling him.

      When Shrestha was in Beijing last month for the preparation of Wen’s visit, the Chinese side had put forth the condition that there should be ‘no protest in the name of Tibetan activists during the visit’. Shrestha, however, denied that security flaws were the reason behind the cancellation of the visit. “The Chinese side was very much assured about our security arrangements,” he stated.

      Three advance teams — protocol, security and political — from Beijing had visited Nepal for the preparation of Wen’s visit. Nepal and China had agreed on signing three agreements — pasturing, cultural exchanges and borders and ports managements — during the visit.

      Nepal had expected an announcement of increased Chinese annual grant, one-time special assistance and a line of credit of more than $5 billion for a new airport, four major roads along the Nepal-Tibet border, four dry ports and hydro projects.

      But sources suggested that possible protests by Free Tibet campaigners were not the only reason behind the cancellation of the visit. A political source claimed that even some ministers from Madhes-based parties were of the opinion that this was not the right time for receiving such a high profile dignitary. Besides, the Chinese side was suspicious about the future of the incumbent government, as its coalition partners and some leaders from PM’s own party were pitching for a unity government. Sources said the Chinese side had sought a new peace and friendship treaty between the two countries be signed during the visit. Nepal, according to sources, had expressed its inability to this effect before the promulgation of a new constitution.

      Lack of diplomatic finesse exhibited by the Nepali side could also be blamed, said the sources. Government ministers had even gone on record about issues to be discussed during Wen’s visit, which the Chinese side had assessed as flippancy in diplomacy. “It’s a diplomatic failure on the part of Nepal,” said Rajeshwor Acharya, Nepal’s former enovy to China.

      Why last moment hitch?

      • Security concerns: Protests by Tibetan activists, possible self-immolation bid

      • Flippancy in diplomacy: Premature ‘disclosure’ of date by the prime minister, lot of hype

      • Current politics: Uncertainty about incumbent government’s future

      • Naivety of ministers: Statements about agendas to be discussed during the visit

      • Deal(s): Nepal not in position to sign a proposed peace and friendship treaty before the promulgation of the constitution

      • Home concerns: Wen’s presence in Beijing for economic and budgetary issues more important

      খবরের লিন্ক : Chinese premier cancels Nepal visit।

19. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:৩৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    রাজমুকুটহীন হওয়ার ১০০ বছর পূর্ণ হল গতকাল কলকাতার। ১৯১১ সালের ১২ ডিসেম্বর রাজা পঞ্চম জর্জ কলকাতা থেকে ব্রিটিশ ভারতের রাজধানী দিল্লিতে স্থানান্তরের ঘোষণা দেন।

    King Emperor George V Dec 12, 1911 at the Great Coronation Durbar at Delhi announced: “We have decided upon the transfer of the seat of the government of India, from Calcutta to the ancient capital of Delhi…”

    Historian P.T. Nair, called the ‘Chronicler of Calcutta’ who has penned over 50 books on the city, said the decision was a blessing in disguise and gave the city space to grow educationally and culturally.

    “Indian Nobel laureates, from Rabindranath Tagore to Amartya Sen, are from the city and they all got the recognition only after 1911, with Tagore becoming the first Asian winner of the award just two years later,” said Nair.

    The establishment of the country’s first Indian Institute of Management in 1961 was a case in point, he said.

    Calcutta, then capital of undivided Bengal, was a hotbed of the revolutionary movement and the transfer came only months after the British government had to annul its plan to partition Bengal, following intense protests led by the Indian National Congress and also Tagore.

    “Bengal, especially Calcutta, had been politically very conscious. The revolutionary movement and the overall freedom movement had its seeds in Bengal. To counter this, they shifted the capital and the fact that Delhi was centrally located also helped,” said Nair.

    Calcutta, on the east bank of river Hooghly, became the capital under British East India Company rule in 1772. The city flourished politically and commercially. Other than the first multidisciplinary modern university in South Asia – the Calcutta University in 1857 – the city also got Asia’s first college of European medicine – the Medical College Bengal in 1835.

    The first printed English newspaper in the subcontinent came out of the city in 1789 when James Hicky published The Bengal Gazette.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : 100 years since Kolkata lost the crown।

20. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৫:৫৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বার্মার রুইলি শহর, যা বার্মা-চীন সীমান্তে অবস্থিত, বর্তমানে মাদক ও মানব পাচারের কুখ্যাত কেন্দ্র। বার্মার সামগ্রীক রাজনৈতিক অর্থনৈতিক অবস্থার পরিবর্তনের দিকে আশাবাদী দৃষ্টির পাশাপাশি আমরা উৎকণ্ঠিত এই ভয়ঙ্কর শহরটি নিয়ে।

    Most people have probably never heard of this place named Ruili. And yet it should be mentioned in the same breath with the world’s other capitals of globalized crime: like the mafia base Gioia Tauro in the Italian region of Calabria, the European center of human trafficking in Veleshta, Macedonia, and Ciudad del Este, in Paraguay, where the black market is legal and no goods are taxed.

    The city of Ruili has a population of 140,000 and is located in the Chinese province of Yunnan on the border of Myanmar. This “golden triangle” is the world’s second-largest producer of opium after Afghanistan, with hundreds of heroin and amphetamines refineries scattered across the landscape.

    Reporters and activists are busy chronicling signs that Myanmar may be edging toward democracy. This week’s visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives them even more to talk about. What isn’t being mentioned much, however, is that drug production and trafficking will have a decisive influence on the country’s future.

    “In Ruili, you’ll see things you won’t see anywhere else in China,” says a taxi driver, stunned to meet an Italian. On the street leading into the city center, we encountered four roadblocks.

    Unsurprisingly, the Chinese government has sent the army here. Burmese businessmen cross the borders nonstop to buy products on sale, browsing Ruili’s small parking slots, which have been turned into makeshift shops.

    On the other side of the border, Chinese buy raw jade, wood, minerals, and exotic animals. Others export heroin and amphetamines from Myanmar through the check point between Ruili and the Burmese city of Muse. Then the drug is sold in South China, Canton, Hong Kong, and finally to the rest of the world.

    Human trafficking is flourishing too. There are many young Burmese women in Ruili’s hundreds of brothels. Some of them came here looking for a new life. Many have been sold by their own families. Often, Chinese gangs cross the border to kidnap Burmese girls and sell them as wives in China. The first AIDS epidemic in China exploded here, and the area continues to have China’s highest percentage of HIV-positive people.

    This is also a strategic area for the region’s energy future. A $2 billion oil pipeline projected to carry Middle East oil from the Bay of Bengal to Ruili via Myanmar is currently under construction. It will allow oil to be transported through the Malacca Strait where piracy attacks are too frequent.

    The line here between legal and illegal activities is blurred. A man named Wei Hsueh-kang has recently obtained the rights to extract jade from Burmese mines. He is a drug trafficker, a respected businessman in China and the chief of an independence army in Myanmar. He is also wanted by the United States for drug crimes committed in U.S. territory. The Americans are offering a reward of $2 million for information leading to his capture.

    According to Ko-lin Chin, a Burmese researcher who has worked in these areas, Wei Hsueh-kang is the golden triangle’s most powerful drug trafficker, controlling a network of narcotics refineries. Despite being of Chinese origin, he has obtained the help of local armies. And with the money made from drug trafficking, he has founded a group that has interests in construction, agriculture, minerals, oil, electronic and communication, with bases in both China and Myanmar.

    Myanmar opened to China and to the free market in 1989. According to reports, more than one million Chinese businessmen moved to Myanmar in the 1990s. Some of them got rich and went back home. Most of them got stuck in an underdeveloped, corrupt and inhospitable country.

    Thanks to their contacts in China, though, many were able to bring to Myanmar technologies to refine heroine and to produce amphetamines. Today, more than 100 labs are hidden in the jungle of the Kachin region, where there are also jade mines.

    The producers sell drugs to the traffickers who carry it across the border, with autonomist militia and military corps acting as local protectors. Many traffickers have built houses and restaurants in Ruili. According to locals, a drug trafficking boss has just invested in the construction of a golf course. He is also said to be the owner of the hotel where I stayed.

    Here, drug traffickers don’t look like mobsters, but more like legitimate businessmen. Drugs, indeed, are just one among their many activities. Don’t imagine a giant global octopus maneuvering tons of narcotics across the world. This commerce, instead, is carried via flexible networks that don’t depend on traditional mafia structures. The connections between Chinese communities spread around the world facilitate international criminal activities.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Across China’s Border, Myanmar’s Fate Is A Question Of Drugs
    As Much As Democracy।

21. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৪ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৪৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বাংলাদেশের জনসংখ্যা ও জনসংখ্যার বোনাস।

    যদি স্বাধীনতা-উত্তর সাড়ে সাত কোটি জনসংখ্যাকে ১০ কোটি জনসংখ্যাতেও ধরে রাখা যেত, আমরা ২১ শতক শুরু হওয়ার পূর্বেই খাদ্য রপ্তানীকারক দেশে পরিণত হতাম। খাদ্য আমদানীর টাকা পয়সা দিয়ে আমাদের শিক্ষা ও স্বাস্থ্যখাত আরো উন্নতি হত। আমরা এত দিনে মধ্যম আয়ের উন্নত দেশে পরিণত হতাম। অবশ্য জনসংখ্যা নিয়ন্ত্রণের ক্ষেত্রে একেবারে যে অগ্রগতি হয়নি তা নয়। স্বাধীনতার পর প্রতি মা গড়ে জন্মদিত ৬ দশমিক ৫টি সন্তান। এখন প্রতি মা গড়ে সন্তান জন্ম দিচ্ছে ২ দশমিক ৫টি সন্তান।

    রাষ্ট্রীয় প্রণোদনা ও উৎসাহ পেলে এবং দারিদ্র্য সংখ্যার নীচে যে সমস্ত পরিবার তাদের ঘিরে ব্যাপক কর্মসূচি পরিচালিত হলে, প্রতি মায়ে গড়ে অন্ততঃ ২টি সন্তানে নামিয়ে আনা খুব কঠিন কিছু নয়। জনসংখ্যা নিয়ে বাংলাদেশে একটি কার্যকর প্রণোদনামূলক পরিকল্পনা প্রয়োজন। সর্ব মহলে এ বিষয়ে সচেতনতা সৃষ্টিও প্রয়োজন। রাষ্ট্রিয় পরিচালনায় থাকা প্রয়োজন জনকল্যাণে বিশ্বাসী একটি প্রগতিকামি অগ্রসর শ্রেণীর প্রতিনিধিত্বশীল শক্তি। এই জনসংখ্যার আধিক্যের মধ্যেও জনসংখ্যাকে কাজে লাগানোর একটা সুবর্ণ সুযোগ বাংলাদেশে শুরু হতে যাচ্ছে ২০১২ সাল থেকে। সর্বোচ্চ কর্মোপযোগী এবং সবচেয়ে কম নির্ভরশীল একটা জনগোষ্ঠি এই সময়ে পেতে যাচ্ছে বাংলাদেশ। কোন একটি রাষ্ট্র জনসংখ্যা পরিবর্তনে এ সুযোগ একবারই পেয়ে থাকে। যে সময়টাকে বলা হয় জনসংখ্যার ডিভিডেন্ড বা জনসংখ্যার বোনাস কাল। অর্থাৎ, জনগোষ্ঠির সবচেয়ে বেশি জনসংখ্যা থাকে ১৫ থেকে ৬৪ বছরের মধ্যে। এক থেকে ১৫ নীচে বয়সি জনসংখ্যাও কমতে থাকে এবং ৬৪ এর উপর জনসংখ্যা থাকে সবচেয়ে কম। মানে এই সময়টাতে সবচেয়ে কম থাকে নির্ভরশীল জনগোষ্ঠি, সবচেয়ে বেশি থাকে কর্মক্ষম জনসংখ্যা। এই সর্বোচ্চ কর্মক্ষম জনসংখ্যার কালকেই বলে জনসংখ্যা বোনাসের কাল।

    পূর্ব এশীয় দেশগুলোতে এই জনসংখ্যা বোনাসের কাল শুরু হয়েছিল তিন দশক পূর্বে। এখন সে সময় শেষ হয়ে বার্ধক্য জনসংখ্যার হার বাড়ছে। বাংলাদেশ জনসংখ্যা বোনাসের এই সর্বোচ্চ কর্মক্ষম জনশক্তিকে সঠিক কাজে লাগাতে পারলে রাষ্ট্র অর্থনৈতিক-সামাজিক উন্নয়নের ক্ষেত্রে উল্লম্ফন ঘটাতে পারে। ষাটের উপর এখন জনসংখ্যা মাত্র ৭ শতাংশ। পয়ষট্টি বছর বয়সের উপর জনসংখ্যা মাত্র ৪ দশমিক ৬ শতাংশ। নির্ভরশীল সংখ্যা এক সময় অনেক বেড়ে যাবে যা ২০ শতাংশ পর্যন্ত হতে পারে। বাংলাদেশে কর্মক্ষম জনসংখ্যার এই আধিক্য ২০১২ থেকে শুরু হয়ে ২০৩৩ সাল পর্যন্ত বিরাজ করবে। এই ‘কর্মক্ষম জনসংখ্যার সুযোগের জানালা’ বা জনসংখ্যার বোনাস ৩০ থেকে ৪০ বছর পর্যন্ত কোন কোন দেশে বিরাজমান থাকে। এরপর নির্ভরশীল জনসংখ্যা বাড়তে শুরু করে। অত্যন্ত শুরুত্বের সংগে কর্মমুখি জনসংখ্যার এই যে ডিভিডেন্ড তাকে অবশ্যই সুপরিকল্পিতভাবে কাজে লাগাতে হবে। এই সুযোগকে কোন ভাবেই ব্যর্থ হতে দেয়া যাবেনা। রাষ্ট্র পরিচালক, সমাজবিদ, শিক্ষক, বুদ্ধিজীবী, সংবাদকর্মি, এনজিও সংগঠক সবাইকে এই সুযোগের সদ্বব্যবহারে সক্রিয় ভূমিকা পালন করতে হবে। রাষ্ট্র পরিচালকদেরকেই নিতে হবে অগ্রণী ও ইতিবাচক ভূমিকা। সর্বাধিক কর্মক্ষম এই জনগোষ্ঠিকে সর্বাধিক কাজে লাগাতে হলে চাই প্রচুর কাজের সুযোগ সৃষ্টি ও কাজ সৃষ্টির পরিবেশ। এর জন্য প্রয়োজন সংঘাতমূলক রাজনীতি পরিহার করে গণতান্ত্রিক ধারাবাহিকতাকে অক্ষুন্ন রাখা। ব্যক্তি উদ্যোগকে সর্বোচ্চ সুযোগ দেয়া যাতে, প্রচুর কর্মসংস্থানের সৃষ্টি হতে পারে। সে কারণে অবকাঠামো সৃষ্টিতে সর্বাধিক সরকারি বিনিয়োগ নিশ্চিত করা। আর্থিক প্রবাহ বৃদ্ধির জন্য ব্যাংকিং খাতকে যুক্তি সঙ্গতভাবে সম্প্রসারণ ঘটানো। শিক্ষা ব্যবস্থার মানোন্নয়নে, বিশেষভাবে প্রাথমিক, মাধ্যমিক ও উচ্চ মাধ্যমিক শিক্ষার গুণগত ও ব্যবহারিক উপযোগিতার দিকে বেশি দৃষ্টি দেয়া। বিভক্ত সমাজ যাতে তৈরি না হয় সেজন্য বিভিন্ন শিক্ষা-ধারাকে জাতীয় একমুখি শিক্ষায় সংযুক্ত করা। সবার মাঝে আতœবিশ্বাস সৃষ্টির জন্য ও আয় বৈষম্য কমিয়ে রাখার প্রয়োজনে-দুর্নীতিদমনে সর্বোচ্চ প্রয়াস চালানো। সুপরিকল্পিতভাবে উল্লিখিত পদক্ষেপগুলো বাস্তবায়নে এগিয়ে গেলে কর্মক্ষম জনসংখ্যার আধিক্যের এই বোনাস, জাতীয় জীবনের অর্থনৈতিক ও সামাজিক চেহারার আমূল পরিবর্তন ঘটিয়ে দিতে পারে। রাষ্ট্র নায়কদের উচিত হবে না, জনসংখ্যার বোনাসের এই সুযোগকে হাত ছাড়া করা।

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : জনসংখ্যা বোনাসের যুগে প্রবেশ করছে বাংলাদেশ।

22. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:৪১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    সি. রাজা মোহন ১৯৭১ সালের যুদ্ধজয় ও বাংলাদেশের চল্লিশ বছর নিয়ে লিখছেন

    In India, many critics of the Shimla pact have argued that Pakistan’s Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto got the better of Mrs Gandhi. Whatever might be the merits of that argument, the reality is that, while India won the war in 1971, it could not win an effective peace settlement.

    In Pakistan, the army saw the Simla Agreement as an “imposed peace” by the victor of 1971. If India thought it had a settled framework for the resolution of the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir in the Simla Agreement, a revisionist Pakistan has successfully made the 1972 pact largely irrelevant to bilateral relations over the last three decades.

    Central to Pakistan’s revisionism was the acquisition of a nuclear deterrent. The first decision by Bhutto after the 1971 war was to launch a clandestine nuclear weapon programme. From Islamabad’s perspective, the nuclear move was indeed logical, but India failed to assess it properly despite Bhutto’s talk in the 1960s about making the bomb even if Pakistan had to “eat grass”.

    China, which clearly understood the strategic implications of the 1971 war, rendered massive assistance to Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes in a bid to reverse what it called “India’s hegemony” in the subcontinent.

    If the South Asian balance tilted in India’s favour at the end of 1971, a nuclear Pakistan reversed it by the end of the 1980s. Armed with a nuclear deterrent, Pakistan found that it could support insurgencies in India — first in Punjab, then in Kashmir, and eventually the extremist forces all across India.

    With its margin of conventional military superiority made irrelevant by Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, Delhi has struggled for more than two decades in dealing with Rawalpindi’s low-intensity proxy war against India that was defined in terms of a retribution for 1971.

    Delhi’s own half-cocked move of conducting a “peaceful nuclear explosion” in 1974 but refusing to exercise the military nuclear option engineered the worst of all possible atomic outcomes for Delhi.

    India inadvertently lent a strategic legitimacy to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. Deluding itself with the disarmament rhetoric, Delhi let a nuclear gap with Pakistan emerge.

    India’s gains in the east too evaporated rapidly after a bloody coup in August 1975 that killed the founder of Bangladesh, Mujibur Rahman.

    If India seemed a helpless bystander, the coup helped restore the influence of many ideological and political forces — internal and external — that opposed the liberation war in 1971.

    The deep internal divisions in Bangladesh and India’s own ineffective regional policy put Delhi’s relations with Dhaka in a deep freeze and undermined the gains of 1971.

    If the liberation of Bangladesh was a great triumph, Delhi’s failures after 1971 were monumental. They were rooted in the refusal to think strategically about the implications of the liberation war and prepare adequately for its consequences.

    Forty years after 1971, India is in danger of losing a second opportunity at hand to transform relations with Bangladesh. In her visit to Delhi in January 2010, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took bold risks to make a fresh beginning with India.

    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s return visit to Dhaka last September did much to advance the bilateral relationship. But the failure to sign the agreement on the Teesta waters, thanks to the tantrums of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has helped revive the trust deficit between Delhi and Dhaka.

    The inability of India, once again burdened with inchoate leadership, to quickly correct the course with Bangladesh could turn out to be as disastrous as the post-1971 policy failures.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Dhaka calling।

23. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৪:৫০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    তার সম্বন্ধে কিছুই জানি না, তার কোনো লেখা পড়েছি কি না কখনো তাও এমুহূর্তে মনে করতে পাচ্ছি না, কিন্তু আজ সকালে টুইটারে ঢোকার পর থেকে অনবরত দেখলাম তাকে নিয়ে টুইট চলছে, তিনি বহুদিন esophageal [ESOPHAGUS: a muscular tube that in humans is about nine inches (23 centimeters) long and passes from the pharynx down the neck between the trachea and the spinal column and behind the left bronchus where it pierces the diaphragm slightly to the left of the middle line and joins the cardiac end of the stomach] ক্যান্সারে ভুগে গতকাল মারা গেছেন, তিনি ক্রিস্টোফার হিচেন্স, তিনি ছিলেন a wit, a charmer, and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from, dare I say it, God, আমেরিকার ইরাক আগ্রাসনের সমর্থক।

    Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1949. His father, Eric, was a “purse-lipped” Navy veteran known as “The Commander“; his mother, Yvonne, a romantic who later kill herself during an extra-marital rendezvous in Greece. Young Christopher would have rather read a book. He was a “a mere weed and weakling and kick-bag” who discovered that “words could function as weapons” and so stockpiled them.

    In college, Oxford, he met such long-time friends as authors Martin Amis and Ian McEwan and claimed to be nearby when visiting Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton did or did not inhale marijuana. Radicalized by the 1960s, Hitchens was often arrested at political rallies, was kicked out of Britain’s Labour Party over his opposition to the Vietnam War and became a correspondent for the radical magazine International Socialiam. His reputation broadened in the 1970s through his writings for the New Statesman.

    Wavy-haired and brooding and aflame with wit and righteous anger, he was a star of the left on paper and on camera, a popular television guest and a columnist for one of the world’s oldest liberal publications, The Nation. In friendlier times, Vidal was quoted as citing Hitchens as a worthy heir to his satirical throne.

    But Mr. Hitchens never could simply nod his head. He feuded with fellow Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn, broke with Vidal and angered liberals by stating that the child’s life begins at conception. An essay for Vanity Fair was titled “Why Women Aren’t Funny,” and Mr. Hitchens wasn’t kidding.

    He had long been unhappy with the left’s reluctance to confront enemies or friends. He would note his strong disappointment that Arthur Miller and other leading liberals shied from making public appearances on behalf of Rushdie after the Ayatollah Khomeini called for his death. He advocated intervention in Bosnia and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

    No Democrat angered him more than Clinton, whose presidency led to the bitter end of Hitchens’ friendship with White House aide Sidney Blumenthal and other Clinton backers. As Mr. Hitchens wrote in his memoir, he found Clinton “hateful in his behaviour to women, pathological as a liar, and deeply suspect when it came to money in politics.”

    He wrote the anti-Clinton book, “No One Left to Lie To,” at a time when most liberals were supporting the president as he faced impeachment over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Mr. Hitchens also loathed Hillary Rodham Clinton and switched his affiliation from independent to Democrat in 2008 just so he could vote against her in the presidential primary.

    The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, completed his exit from the left. He fought with Vidal, Noam Chomsky and others who either suggested that U.S. foreign policy had helped caused the tragedy or that the Bush administration had advanced knowledge. He supported the Iraq war, quit The Nation, backed Bush for re-election in 2004 and repeatedly chastised those whom he believed worried unduly about the feelings of Muslims.

    “It’s not enough that faith claims to be the solution to all problems,” he wrote in 2009 after a Danish newspaper apologized for publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that led Muslim organizations to threaten legal action. “It is now demanded that such a preposterous claim be made immune from any inquiry, any critique, and any ridicule.”

    His essays were compiled in such books as “For the Sake of Argument” and “Prepared for the Worst.” He also wrote short biographies/appreciations of Paine and Thomas Jefferson, a tribute to Orwell and “Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring),” in which he advised that “Only an open conflict of ideas and principles can produce any clarity.” A collection of essays, “Arguably,” came out in September 2011 and he was planning a “book-length meditation on malady and mortality.” He appeared in a 2010 documentary about the topical singer Phil Ochs.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Christopher Hitchens dies at 62।

24. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:২৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বাংলাদেশের বিজয়ের ৪০ বছর উদযাপনে সলিল ত্রিপাঠির রচনা। একটা খুব অন্তর্ভেদী কথা বলেছেন তিনি, In South Asia, at some point sleeping dogs always wake up, তিনি লিখছেন

    Music, poetry, and art play an important role in shaping Bengali nationalism. Culture defines Bengal: Tagore decried boundaries; his idea of nationalism was cultural, and suffused with love for humanity and borderlessness. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a leader of India’s Independence movement, once said: “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.” Indeed, during colonial times, many major reforms for the emancipation of women came from reformists in Bengal. But Bengalis also raised political demands which the British considered seditious. And so the British deployed the time-honored tactic of dividing the people.

    Bengal was divided first in 1905, when Lord Curzon, then viceroy of India, partitioned the province ostensibly for administrative purposes but essentially to separate Hindu-dominated parts from Muslim-dominated ones. That division united Indians. Bengalis didn’t want to be divided; they protested. And after years of agitation they succeeded in getting the decision reversed in 1911, the year the colonial government moved the imperial capital of British India from Calcutta to New Delhi. Several Bengalis gave up their lives agitating for a united Bengal.

    But divisive seeds were sown. Economic inequality contributed to that. By 1947, in East Bengal, the landed class mainly comprised Hindus and the peasantry was Muslim. A large number of Hindu landlords lived off the land, living in Calcutta, their estates managed by Hindu managers whose relationship with the Muslim peasants was often exploitative. In the popular narrative, the Hindu landlord was seen as an oppressor. Rich Hindus joined the Congress. And rich Muslims joined the Muslim League, and they persuaded the peasantry to side with the Pakistan movement. Poor Hindus and Muslims had more in common with each other, but the religious narrative divided them.

    Come 1947, Bengal was divided again, with the larger, Muslim-dominated part joining Pakistan. Like Punjab in the west, Bengal saw a massive exchange of refugees, with Muslims leaving India for what became East Pakistan, and Hindus from East Bengal making their way to the west. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates the number of people who crossed borders in 1947 was about 14 million, with up to a million people dying in violence. Over the years, due to India-Pakistan wars, contact between families reduced; people yearned for homes they had left behind. One stark image capturing the cri de coeur of that time is in the Indian filmmaker, the late Ritwik Ghatak’s 1961 film, Komal Gandhar (E Flat). In the scene, the camera hurtles on a disused railway track, rushing toward the border, and stops abruptly, as the train journeys have stopped. (Ghatak died in 1976 and was born in what is now Bangladesh. His sister lives in Dhaka.)

    And yet, in spite of the savagery that accompanied the 1947 partition, proportionately more Hindus stayed in East Pakistan than they did in West Pakistan. While the outflow between the communities continued, the proportion of Hindus in Pakistan has dropped to 1.3 percent of its population of 180 million; of the 148 million Bangladeshis, Hindus account for 9.6 percent. With the new law on confiscated property, the Bangladesh government is attempting to set some historical wrongs right, just as it hopes to reclaim the narrative of its liberation movement through the new museum. If due process is handled properly and the rule of law prevails, the war crimes tribunal can play an important role in bringing a tragic part of Bangladesh’s history to closure. The battle between secularism and religion is an important one throughout the subcontinent, and Bangladesh is attempting to reclaim its secular ideal. It will have to be careful in this journey and avoid shortcuts.

    That battle is relevant in Pakistan, too. Is it a Muslim homeland of the kind Jinnah envisaged or an Islamic state? Taking stock of 1971 is part of that debate. Many Bangladeshis are troubled by what they perceive as the silence in Pakistan over the 1971 war. Granted, the Hamoodur Rahman Commission examined the military debacle, but the absence of follow-up has disappointed many Bangladeshis. Not just that, Pakistani citizens too want answers from those who have governed them. In the Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie’s Kartography, Maheen tells her niece Raheen: “Bangladesh made us see what we were capable of. No one should ever know what they are capable of. But worse, even worse, is to see it and then pretend you didn’t. The truths we conceal don’t disappear, Raheen, they appear in different forms.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Baptism by Blood।

25. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১০:২৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

    এখন থেকে পাকিস্তানের ক্যালেন্ডারে ১৬ ডিসেম্বর তারিখটি আর থাকবে না। তার পরিবর্তে ২৫ ডিসেম্বর তারিখটি ২বার থাকবে, একবার স্বাভাবিক তারিখ হিসাবে আরেকবার জিন্নার জন্মদিন হিসাবে — এর ফলে জিন্নার জন্মদিনের ছুটি সহজে বাড়ানো যাবে। পাকিস্তানের স্বরাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয় সূত্রের সদ্য খবর।***

    Keeping with the tradition of altering history that doesn’t suit its ideological and political preferences, Pakistan has decided to remove 16 December from all future calendars.

    This step is aimed at erasing history that happened 40 years ago, when on 16th December 1971, Pakistan army surrendered to the Indo-Bangladesh forces, leading to the division of Pakistan and independence of Bangladesh. Pakistan will now assume it never happened.

    “There will be no day numbered 16 in December. We’ll have 15 December followed by 17 December. To make up for the loss of this one day, we will celebrate 25 December twice – first as Christmas, and then as Qaid-e-Azam day, the birthday of Mohammad Ali Jinnah,” Pakistani Home Minister Rehman Malik announced.

    Mr. Malik rejected criticisms that the decision was against minority-rights as it effectively shifted Christmas on 24th December.

    “Look, this is in fact going to help our Christian brothers – Taliban and other extremist forces will be happy with Christmas being dislodged and will not attack any celebrations,” he explained. However, he didn’t commit whether two consecutive holidays would be announced on both the 25 Decembers.

    The Home Minister of Pakistan further claimed that there was nothing outlandish in the decision as Pakistan have been advancing clocks by an hour regularly in the past several years to save power. The clocks were later reversed by an hour to get back to the normal schedule. This decision takes that logic forward and advances the clocks by full 24 hours on the night of 15th December.

    The religious parties, ISI, and the Pakistani Army have welcomed the decision, which drew mixed reactions from Historians. While some historians termed the decision a “farce”, many others have expressed relief.

    “I hope we can now remove references in the history books that claim that the Pakistan armed forces defeated Indian forces everywhere in 1971; we used to have tough time explaining this to our students,” a Professor of History told Faking News on conditions of anonymity.

    খবরের লিন্ক : Pakistan to remove 16 December from all future calendars।

    *** সতর্কতা, এটি একটি ব্যাঙ্গখবর।

26. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৩:০৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বর্ণপরিচয় সাহিত্য সম্মান ২০১১, জীবনকৃতি সম্মানে এবার ভূষিত হলেন প্রয়াত কবি অরুণেশ ঘোষ। দেবাশিস পাঠক লিখছেন : ঠিকানা ছিল যাঁর হাওয়ার গাড়ি, সেই আবহমান অরুণেশ।

27. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:০২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    সামুদ্রিক গ্যাস খনির গ্যাস ডাঙ্গায় এনে এলএনজি করার দিন শেষ হচ্ছে। ভাসমান এলএনজি প্রজেক্ট বাস্তবে রূপ নিচ্ছে, ‘শেল’এর ভাসমান এলএনজি প্রজেক্টের বিশাল জাহাজ তৈরি হচ্ছে দক্ষিণ কোরিয়ায় এবং এটি প্রথম কাজ শুরু করবে অস্টেলিয়ার এক সামুদ্রিক গ্যাস খনিতে। আমাদের সামুদ্রিক গ্যাস খনির জন্যও এটা হতে পারে একটা সুখবর।

    VAST reserves of offshore gas could soon be unlocked after Shell confirmed it would go ahead with the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas plant.

    In a decision the company said would be a ”game changer” for the LNG sector, Shell said yesterday that it would deploy the floating technology on the Prelude field off Australia’s north-west coast.

    The transportable vessel, which analysts predict will cost more than $12 billion to build, can chill gas for export on site, removing the need for onshore processing plants.

    More than 480 metres long and 74 metres wide, the 600,000 tonne vessel will be too large for most of the world’s ports. It will be built at the Samsung shipyards in South Korea and is expected to produce 3.6 million tonnes of LNG a year.
    
    The Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, said the plant could add $45 billion to the economy over the 25 years it will be moored at Prelude. Research by the CSIRO in 2008 found that up to half Australia’s gas resources – 140,000 billion cubic feet – could not be developed because they were too remote to be connected to onshore processing plants.

    The vessel will be able to moor on top of remote gas fields – Prelude is 200 kilometres offshore – and will be built to withstand cyclones.

    Shell said the facility would speed up the development time of projects, as vessels could be redeployed to new fields when needed.

    The vessel is not expected to be finished until 2017, but a Shell executive director, Malcolm Brinded, said the company hoped to start building more of them before then.

    Mr Brinded said the Sunrise LNG project – in which Shell is a partner with Woodside and several other companies – was an ”obvious target” for another floating vessel, but a stalemate in negotiations with the East Timorese government remained a sticking point.

    East Timor wants an onshore processing plant to stimulate local employment, but developers say a floating facility is the only affordable option.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Floating LNG plant to unlock gas reserves।

28. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:৩৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বছরটা মনে হচ্ছে মৃত্যুতেই ব্যস্ত। প্রাক্তন চেক প্রেসিডেন্ট ও নাট্যকার ভাস্লাভ হাভেল মারা গেছেন আজ।

    Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He was 75.

    Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova said.

    Havel was his country’s first democratically elected president after the nonviolent “Velvet Revolution” that ended four decades of repression by a regime he ridiculed as “Absurdistan.”

    As president, he oversaw the country’s bumpy transition to democracy and a free-market economy, as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

    Even out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure. He was part of the “new Europe” — in the coinage of then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — of ex-communist countries that stood up for the U.S. when the democracies of “old Europe” opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion.

    A former chain-smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails. He was hospitalized in Prague on Jan. 12, 2009, with an unspecified inflammation, and had developed breathing difficulties after undergoing minor throat surgery.

    Havel left office in 2003, 10 years after Czechoslovakia broke up and just months before both nations joined the European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought his Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when it joined NATO in 1999.

    Shy and bookish, with wispy mustache and unkempt hair, Havel came to symbolize the power of the people to peacefully overcome totalitarian rule.

    “Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred,” Havel famously said. It became his revolutionary motto which he said he always strove to live by.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Havel, Czech playwright and president, has died।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১০:২১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      প্রতাপ ভানু মেহতা শোকলেখনে লিখছেন

      His remarkable 1990 address to a joint session of the US Congress almost reads like a manifesto for our times. The central challenge he contends remains, “We still do not know how to put morality ahead of science, politics or economics.” His lifelong struggle was not just against totalitarianism. It was against easy instrumentalism, the root of all our denials of humanity, freedom and plurality. In a resonant phrase, he describes states transforming people into “statistical choruses” for deployment in this or that cause. That instrumentalisation was not just the preserve of communist societies. Elsewhere he put it, “People are manipulated in ways that are infinitely more subtle and refined than the brutal methods used in the post-totalitarian societies. But this static complex of rigid, conceptually sloppy and politically pragmatic mass political parties run by professional apparatuses and releasing the citizen from all forms of concrete and personal responsibility; and those complex focuses of capital accumulation engaged in secret manipulations and expansion; the omnipresent dictatorship of consumption, production, advertising, commerce, consumer culture, and all that flood of information: all of it, so often analysed and described, can only with great difficulty be imagined as the source of humanity’s rediscovery of itself.”

      This worry about instrumentalism is paradoxically what inoculated him against Marxism. In what must surely be the densest philosophical epigram delivered to politicians anywhere, he told Congress that the only certainty his dissident experience taught him was, “Consciousness precedes being, not the other way round, as Marxists claim.” The idea that human beings could be reduced to impersonal forces, defined by their social relations, was anathema to any idea of humanity. To say that being determines consciousness is to deny the possibility of individuality. The hallmark of genuine dissidence is not just that it resists power; it also resists the idea that history can define us. A genuine dissident is always, in this sense, alone.
      …
      Havel never looked for redemption, a world where all contradictions had been reconciled. He is the great defender of plurality and heterogeneity. He resists the two great lies that trap us: the idea that we are only victims of larger forces and have no responsibility, and the idea that our individuality can be traded for something else. This is fundamentally not in the quest of an abstract idea of justice, but plain human decency. Human beings can discover themselves, and they can always become more than what they are.

      বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Havel in eternity।

29. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৭:২১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ট্রুম্যান ডকট্রাইন এনেছিল আমেরিকা-সোভিয়েত ঠাণ্ডাযুদ্ধ, ওবামা ডকট্রাইন কি আনবে আমেরিকা-চীন ঠাণ্ডাযুদ্ধ? চীনের পিপলস ডেইলিতে সাংবাদিক উ জিয়ানমিন প্রশ্নটি তুলেছেন এবং উত্তরও দিয়েছেন — তিনি বলেছেন আমেরিকা-চীন ঠাণ্ডাযুদ্ধ হবে না। কিন্তু প্রশ্ন হল, প্রশ্নটা উঠছে কেন?

    U.S. President Barack Obama, the first U.S. leader to attend the East Asia Summit, recently announced a plan to send 2,500 U.S. troops to Australia. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proclaimed the 21st century “America’s Pacific Century.” The United States has taken a series of high-profile actions to “return” to Asia, which has attracted worldwide attention.

    On Nov. 25, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “The Obama Doctrine” by Hugh White, a distinguished scholar and former deputy defense minister of Australia. White believes that Obama’s Asian adventure marks the beginning of the Obama Doctrine and said that the Obama Doctrine “mirrors the geostrategic and political essence of the Truman Doctrine.”

    The Truman Doctrine was created to contain the Soviet Union and led to the Cold War. The Obama Doctrine is aimed at containing China, and White believes the doctrine is a “very serious mistake” as it commits the United States to a strategic confrontation that will cost it dearly.

    To answer the question of whether Obama’s foreign policy will lead to a new Cold War, first we must grasp the general trend in today’s world. The international situation is complicated and constantly changing, with various dazzling new trends.

    The key to grasping the general trend is to realize that the themes of the times are peace and development, not wars or violent revolutions. Peace, development, and cooperation have become an unstoppable general trend, despite the existence of confrontation and conflict.

    Second, the U.S.-Soviet Cold War was caused by two great powers vying for world hegemony. China seeks no world hegemony and even has a national policy in place expressing its clear opposition to the practice. Furthermore, when given a choice between peace, development and cooperation on one hand, and Cold War, confrontation and conflict on the other, China firmly supports the former and opposes the latter. China will never have a new Cold War with the United States.

    In addition, today’s China-U.S. relations are fundamentally different from U.S.-Soviet relations. The former U.S.-Soviet relations were dominated by hegemony, and today’s China-U.S. relations are dominated by cooperation. There was no economic interdependence in the former U.S.-Soviet relationship.

    U.S.-Soviet trade only amounted 4 billion U.S. dollars at the best times, while today’s China-U.S. trade is about 400 billion dollars. The Soviet Union did not hold U.S. Treasury bonds, and China is the largest holders of U.S. Treasury bonds at present. The former U.S.-Soviet relationship was constantly undercutting each other but in the past 30 years of China’s rise, China shared the result of economic growth with the world, including the United States, to achieve a win-win situation. China does not do this for expediency. This is part of China’s peaceful development strategy.

    লিন্ক : Will Obama Doctrine lead to new Cold War?

30. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৯ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৯:২৪ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ২০১১! এবার এলো উত্তর কোরিয়ার একনায়ক কিম জং ইল-এর মৃত্যুসংবাদ।

    Kim Jong Il, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, has died, Yonhap News reported. He was 70.

    The news came in a radio broadcast at noon local time, Yonhap reported, citing North Korea’s official media.

    Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports.

    লিন্ক : Kim Jong Il dead।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১৯ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৯:৪১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      চীনের সংবাদসংস্থা সিনহুয়া কিম জং ইলের মৃত্যুর খবরের ব্রেকিং নিউজ দিয়েছে এভাবে।

      PYONGYANG, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) — Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), passed away last Saturday at the age of 69 “from a great mental and physical strain,” the DPRK’s official KCNA news agency reported on Monday.

      Kim died “from a great mental and physical strain at 08:30 (2330 GMT Friday) Dec. 17, 2011, on train during a field guidance tour,” said the report.

      লিন্ক : DPRK top leader Kim Jong Il passes away due to mental and physical strain।

31. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২০ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:০৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ফরাসি নাইট উপাধি পাচ্ছেন মূকাভিনয়শিল্পী পার্থপ্রতীম মজুমদার।

    মূকাভিনয়শিল্পী পার্থপ্রতীম মজুমদারকে ফ্রান্সের সর্বোচ্চ সাংস্কৃতিক সম্মাননা ‘নাইট’ উপাধি দিচ্ছে ঢাকাস্থ ফরাসী দূতাবাস।

    বাংলাদেশ মূকাভিনয় ফেডারেশনের সহ সাধারণ সম্পাদক নিথর মাহবুব-এর পাঠানো এক সংবাদ বিজ্ঞপ্তিতে জানানো হয়েছে, ২০ ডিসেম্বর সন্ধ্যায় এক অনুষ্ঠানে পার্থপ্রতীম মজুমদারকে ‘নাইট ইন দ্য অর্ডার অফ ফাইন আর্টস অ্যান্ড হিউম্যানিটিজ অ্যাওয়ার্ড’ সম্মাননা প্রদান করবেন বাংলাদেশে নিযুক্ত ফরাসি রাষ্ট্রদুত শার্লি কোজরেত। অনুষ্ঠানটি আয়োজন করা হয়েছে গুলশানস্থ ফ্রান্স দূতাবাসে।

    অনুষ্ঠানে আরো উপস্থিত থাকবেন বাংলাদেশ ব্যাংকের গভর্নর আতিউর রহমান।

    এ প্রসঙ্গে পার্থপ্রতীম মজুমদার বলেছেন, ‘বিজয়ের ৪০ বছরে এসে এই প্রাপ্তি বাংলাদেশেরই অর্জন বলে মনে করছি। সম্মাননাটি ফ্রান্স থেকেও নিতে পারতাম। কিন্তু বাংলাদেশের বর্তমান প্রজন্মকে উৎসাহিত করতেই নিজ জন্মভূমিকে আমি বেছে নিয়েছি।’

32. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২০ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৩৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

    দামি ধাতুর চেয়ে ব্যাকটেরিয়া ব্যবহার করে ব্যাটারির শক্তি উৎপাদনের গবেষণা করছে ফরসি বিজ্ঞানীরা, এর নাম হবে মাইক্রোবায়োলজিক্যাল ব্যাটারি। এবং এই গবেষণার সফলতা বায়ো-ব্যাটারির মাধ্যমে স্বল্পমাত্রার বিদ্যুৎ উৎপাদনের মতো কার্যক্রমেও কাজে লাগবে।

    In the corner of his lab at the University of Rennes 1, Frederic Barrière demonstrates a battery powered by the symbiosis of small plants and bacteria. A small light-emitting diode connecting to the two poles of the device illuminates, proving that the system produces an electric current.

    Barrière, a chemistry researcher with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), explains that the battery functions very simply, producing a modest amount of electricity by utilizing living microorganisms. The technique isn’t powerful enough to run something like an electric car, but it still has exciting potential. The system is currently undergoing trials, for example, in sewage treatment plants to not only clean the water but also produce electricity.

    The microbiological battery, which Barrière developed alongside a young doctorate student, is an impressive variation on a device that’s already been around for more than a century: fuel cells.

    “Classic” fuel cell batteries operate with electrodes that are immersed in hydrogen and oxygen. They rely on expensive catalysts, like platinum, to initiate chemical reactions on the electrodes’ surfaces. Barrière’s “organic” version uses live material – bacteria – as the catalyst. Unlike platinum, bacteria are abundant – and cheap.

    Instead of breathing oxygen into the air, the microorganisms breathe the metal of the electrode, which in turn circulates electrons in the battery and produces the electric current. Impressively, the bacteria – when placed in their optimal, oxygen-free environment – instinctively attach themselves to the appropriate electrode.

    Strange brew

    To catalyze electricity production, the only thing necessary is to feed a thin layer of the bacteria. This “fuel” can be a mix of organic compounds commonly found in waste products. A pilot plant in Australia is even operating with the liquid effluent of a brewery.

    Such a system could be of great benefit in waste treatment plants, which tend to be large electricity consumers. In efforts to make this bio-battery even more efficient and ecological, it may be possible in the future to apply the system to the roots of photosynthetic plants, which capture the carbon dioxide omitted by the bacteria while also providing the carbohydrates the bacteria feed on.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Bright Idea? French Scientists Turn To Bacteria To Power Batteries।

33. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২০ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:০৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ১৯ ডিসেম্বর বাংলা ব্লগ দিবস পালিত হল। সেখানে সামাজিক মাধ্যম ও সাইবার আইন নিয়ে কথাবার্তাও হল।

    আজ ১৯ ডিসেম্বর তৃতীয় বাংলা ব্লগ দিবস। ব্লগিং শক্তি ও সম্ভাবনাকে আরো বিস্তৃত করতে গত দুই বছর বাংলা ব্লগ দিবস পালন হয়ে আসছে। বাংলা ব্লগ ২০০৫ সালের ডিসেম্বর মাসে যাত্রা শুরু করে। ২০০৯ সালের ১৯ ডিসেম্বর প্রথমবারের মতো পালন করা হয় বাংলা ব্লগ দিবস।

    ‍এবারের ব্লগ দিবসের প্রতিপাদ্য বিষয় ‘গণজাগরণে সোশ্যাল মিডিয়া ও সাইবার আইন’। ১৩টি বাংলা কমিউনিটি প্ল্যাটফর্মের যৌথ আয়োজনে আজ বিকেল পাঁচটায় ঢাকার পাবলিক লাইব্রেরির মিলনায়তনে অনুষ্ঠিত হতে যাচ্ছে ব্লগ দিবসের অনুষ্ঠান।
    এবারের ব্লগ দিবসের প্রতিপাদ্য বিষয় নিয়ে বিভিন্ন ব্লগার ও ব্লগ সঞ্চালকদের কাছে মতামত জানতে চাওয়া হয়েছিল। তাদের মতামত নিয়েই এবারের আয়োজন।

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : গণজাগরণে সোশ্যাল মিডিয়া ও সাইবার আইন।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:০২ অপরাহ্ণ)

      ব্লগকে আইনের ঘরে বন্দি করার বিরুদ্ধে সচলায়তনে হিমু যথার্থই লিখেছেন : মিডিয়াহাউসের মিডিয়াহাউশ।

34. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১০:১১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    হাজার হাজার দুর্লভ বই পুড়ে গেছে মিশরে।

    Volunteers in white lab coats, surgical gloves and masks stood on the back of a pickup truck Monday along the banks of the Nile River in Cairo, rummaging through stacks of rare 200-year-old manuscripts that were little more than charcoal debris.

    The volunteers, ranging from academic experts to appalled citizens, have spent the past two days trying to salvage what’s left of some 192,000 books, journals and writings, casualties of Egypt’s latest bout of violence.

    Institute d’Egypte, a research center set up by Napoleon Bonaparte during France’s invasion in the late 18th century, caught fire during clashes between protesters and Egypt’s military over the weekend. It was home to a treasure trove of writings, most notably the handwritten 24-volume Description de l’Egypte, which began during the 1798-1801 French occupation.

    The compilation, which includes 20 years of observations by more than 150 French scholars and scientists, was one of the most comprehensive descriptions of Egypt’s monuments, its ancient civilization and contemporary life at the time.

    The Description of Egypt is likely burned beyond repair. Its home, the two-story historic institute near Tahrir Square, is now in danger of collapsing after the roof caved in.

    “The burning of such a rich building means a large part of Egyptian history has ended,” the director of the institute, Mohammed al-Sharbouni, told state television over the weekend. The building was managed by a local non-governmental organization.

    Al-Sharbouni said most of the contents were destroyed in the fire that raged for more than 12 hours on Saturday. Firefighters flooded the building with water, adding to the damage.

    During the clashes a day earlier, parts of the parliament and a transportation authority office caught fire, but those blazes were put out quickly.

    The violence erupted in Cairo Friday, when military forces guarding the Cabinet building, near the institute, cracked down on a 3-week-old sit-in to demand the country’s ruling generals hand power to a civilian authority. At least 14 people have been killed.

    Zein Abdel-Hady, who runs the country’s main library, is leading the effort to try and save what’s left of the charred manuscripts.

    “This is equal to the burning of Galileo’s books,” Abdel-Hady said, referring to the Italian scientist whose work proposing that the earth revolved around the sun was believed to have been burned in protest in the 17th century.

    Below Abdel-Hady’s office, dozens of people sifted through the mounds of debris brought to the library. A man in a surgical coat carried a pile of burned paper with his arms carefully spread, as if cradling a baby.

    The rescuers used newspapers to cover some partially burned books. Bulky machines vacuum-packed delicate paper.

    At least 16 truckloads with around 50,000 manuscripts, some damaged beyond repair, have been moved from the sidewalks outside the U.S. Embassy and the American University in Cairo, both near the burned institute, to the main library, Abdel-Hady said.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন এখানে।

35. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:৩১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ১৯৯১ সালের ৮ ডিসেম্বর সোভিয়েত ইউনিয়ন আনুষ্ঠানিকভাবে একটি চুক্তির মাধ্যমে লুপ্ত হয়ে যায়। কলামিস্ট Fyodor Lukyanov এনিয়ে লিখছেন

    Twenty years ago, on December 8, 1991, the leaders of the Soviet Union’s Slavic republics – Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia – signed an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union. Formally, they claimed the right to dissolve it because these three republics established it in 1922. Many analysts still dispute the legitimacy of this deal, but that does not change anything. By December 1991, the Soviet Union had de facto ceased to function, as power already belonged to its constituent republics.

    The 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union evoked more lively debates than the tenth or 15th anniversaries. This seems paradoxical – with the passage of time, emotions generally subside, giving way to more sober and unbiased analysis, all the more so since the Soviet past is no longer a functional tool capable of creating something new.

    This anniversary brought into stark relief the divisions between Russia and the other former Soviet republics. In Russia, people remember the collapse with mixed emotions. Some feel sorrow and nostalgia, others feel joy and schadenfreude, but everyone perceives it as a loss. The other republics, which are still called “newly independent states,” celebrate it as their birth, that is to say as something gained.

    This conceptual difference existed before, but now it is acquiring a special meaning for Russia. The fixation on collapse – an exclusively destructive act – is setting the tune for national development. Luckily, Russia has never had strong revanchist attitudes, but it is still suffering from an inferiority complex in its current borders, although it is perfectly clear that nobody wants to restore the USSR.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Uncertain World: Destructive Soviet nostalgia।

36. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২২ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৩:০২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    অর্থনৈতিক সংকটে দিশাহীন ইউরোপকে অনেক বিশেষজ্ঞ ২০০১-এর আর্জেন্টিনার অর্থনৈতিক সংকটের পরবর্তী উত্তরণপ্রচেষ্টার নায়কদের কাছ থেকে উত্তরণভাবনা বিনিময়ের পরামর্শ দিচ্ছেন।

    In the past, European and American politicians were only too happy to lecture Latin American countries on good budget management and debt control. Now, the question when European diplomats visit Buenos Aires is quite the opposite: Can Europe learn from Argentina?

    Two American economists, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman and crisis prophet Nouriel Roubini, have advised Europe to take a close look at the Argentine debt crisis. “It seems as if they still haven’t learned anything from our crash,” Lavagna says, pointing out that Europe has prescribed its debt-ridden member countries the same austerity measures that brought down Argentina. “That creates a long-lasting recession,” he says, “and the region spirals further and further into decline.”

    Few countries have the kind of extensive experience with financial crises that Argentina does, a country which underwent three collapses in the space of 20 years. Hyperinflation, chaos at the banks, debt moratoriums, debt restructuring — the same scenes simply repeated themselves. Argentines saw three different currencies come and go within 10 years and the country was a regular customer at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    “We’re crisis specialists,” confirms José Luis Machinea. As economics minister under President Fernando de la Rúa, he had a front row seat as the crash unfolded. Machinea draws parallels to the crisis in Greece: Argentina too was caught in a currency trap, he says, with its peso tied by law to the US dollar.

    As a result, Argentina’s government had to pay higher and higher interest rates on loans issued in dollars. By the mid-1990s, it was clear the country was headed for a financial crisis. The IMF tied a bailout to a tough austerity program, and Argentina cut pensions and government employees’ pay. Instead of stimulating the economy, leaders focused on battling the country’s deficit.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Argentina’s Lessons for a Crisis-Ridden Europe।

37. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৩ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১১:৫৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

    চলে গেলেন আব্দুর রাজ্জাক। আজ বাংলাদেশ সময় ৯:৫০-এ লন্ডনে তার জীবনাবসান হয়েছে।

    ’৬২-এর শিক্ষা আন্দোলন, ৬ দফা আন্দোলন, স্বাধীনতা সংগ্রাম এবং মহান মুক্তিযুদ্ধে তিনি অগ্রণী ভূমিকা পালন করেন।

    আওয়ামী লীগের সভাপতিমণ্ডলীর সাবেক সদস্য আব্দুর রাজ্জাক স্বাধীনতার পর সামরিক স্বৈরাচারবিরোধী আন্দোলনসহ সকল গণতান্ত্রিক আন্দোলন-সংগ্রামের পুরোভাগে থেকে নেতৃত্ব দিয়েছেন।

    অসাম্প্রদায়িক বাংলাদেশ প্রতিষ্ঠার স্বপ্ন নিয়ে মৌলবাদ, সাম্প্রদায়িকতা ও যাবতীয় প্রতিক্রিয়াশীলতার বিরুদ্ধে আব্দুর রাজ্জাক সারা জীবন সংগ্রাম করেছেন। ’৯০-এর দশকের শুরুতে শহীদ-জননী জাহানারা ইমামের নেতৃত্বে একাত্তরের ঘাতক দালাল নির্মূল কমিটির ব্যানারে স্বাধীনতাবিরোধী, রাজাকার ও যুদ্ধাপরাধীদের বিচারের দাবিতে যে গণআন্দোলন শুরু হয় সে আন্দোলনে আব্দুর রাজ্জাক অগ্রণি ভূমিকা পালন করেন।

    আব্দুর রাজ্জাক মুক্তিযুদ্ধের চেতনা বাস্তবায়ন ও একাত্তরের ঘাতক দালাল নির্মূল জাতীয় সমন্বয় কমিটির অন্যতম সদস্য ছিলেন।

    রাজনৈতিক জীবনে আব্দুর রাজ্জাক বহুবার গ্রেফতার হয়েছেন এবং জেল-জুলুম ও কারা নির্যাতন ভোগ করেছেন। আইয়ুব খানের শাসনামলে ১৯৬৪ সালে প্রথম তিনি গ্রেফতার হন এবং ’৬৫ সাল পর্যন্ত জেল খাটেন। কারাগার থেকেই মাস্টার্স পরীক্ষায় অংশগ্রহণ করেন।

    এরপর ৬ দফা আন্দোলন করতে গিয়ে ১৯৬৭ সাল থেকে ’৬৯ সাল পর্যন্ত তিনি কারারুদ্ধ ছিলেন।

    ১৯৭৫ সালে জাতির জনক বঙ্গবন্ধু শেখ মুজিবুর রহমানকে ঘাতকরা হত্যা করার পর আব্দুর রাজ্জাক পুনরায় গ্রেফতার হন। ’৭৮ সাল পর্যন্ত তিনি কারাবন্দি ছিলেন।

    এরশাদের শাসনামলে সামরিক স্বৈরাচারবিরোধী আন্দোলনের সময় ১৯৮৭ সালে আব্দুর রাজ্জাককে গ্রেফতার করা হয়।

    পাকিস্তান আমলে ৬ দফা আন্দোলনে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ভূমিকা রাখেন আব্দুর রাজ্জাক। বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা সংগ্রাম ও ১৯৭১ সালের মহান মুক্তিযুদ্ধের অন্যতম সংগঠক ছিলেন তিনি।

    মুক্তিযুদ্ধে আব্দুর রাজ্জাক ভারতের মেঘালয়ে মুজিব বাহিনীর সেক্টর কমান্ডার (মুজিব বাহিনীর ৪ সেক্টর কমান্ডারের একজন) ছিলেন। তিনি মুজিব বাহিনীর একজন সংগঠক ও মুক্তিযোদ্ধাদের প্রশিক্ষকও ছিলেন।
    তিনি দেরাদুনে ভারতের সেনাবাহিনীর জেনারেল উবানের কাছে প্রশিক্ষণ নিয়েছিলেন। মুজিব বাহিনী গঠনে অন্যতম রূপকার ছিলেন।

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : আব্দুর রাজ্জাক: এক বর্ণাঢ্য সংগ্রামী জীবন।

38. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৪ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৫:৪০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে প্রাচীন বিছানা পাওয়া গেছে দক্ষিণ আফ্রিকায়। ধারণা করা হচ্ছে বিছানাটি ৭৭ হাজার বছরের পুরনো।

    The world’s oldest bed, dating back 77,000 years, has been discovered in a cave in South Africa.

    The bed, made of bundles of sedge and wild quince leaves, was found by archaeologist Lyn Wadley of Wits University, while excavating a site at Sibudu in KwaZulu-Natal province, as reported.

    The site was a rock shelter on a cliff face on the banks of the Thongathi river, 40 km north of Durban, where Wadley has been working as an archaeologist since 1998.

    Wadley found the bed (about 1×2 metres in size) buried more than three metres deep in sediments.

    What was special about the bed was that it was covered with a layer of aromatic leaves from a plant called the river wild quince. No other tree leaves were found on the bedding, so the leaves were not there as a result of random leaf fall, the report said.

    The leaves of the river wild quince have insect-repellent properties, especially against mosquitoes, so these bed-makers clearly had a good knowledge of herbal medicine, it said.

    There was also evidence at the site that bedding was occasionally burnt, presumably to get rid of residual bugs.

    The bed-makers were Middle Stone Age humans, skilled in making stone tools, including spearheads, knives and scrapers, as well as perforated-shell jewellery.

    They also made bone tools and mixed ochre — natural earth containing ferric oxide, silica, and alumina — which might have been used as an insect repellent or as paint.

    Before this extraordinary discovery, the earliest known beds were about 25,000 years old, and the earliest known use of herbal medicine was about 5,000 years ago.

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

39. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:০৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ১০৮ বছর বয়সে ক্রিস্টমাসের আগের দিন মারা গেলেন অভিনেতা ও গায়ক ইয়োহানেস হিস্টারস। হল্যান্ডে জন্মগ্রহণকারী এই শিল্পীর নাৎসি সম্পৃক্ততা তাকে আজীবন জার্মানিতে বিতর্কিত রেখেছে। কিন্তু তার দীর্ঘ শিল্পী জীবন তাকে এমন এক অসাধারণ উচ্চতা দান করেছে — যেখানে তিনি অপ্রতিরোধ্য জীবনীশক্তির সমার্থক হয়ে উঠেছিলেন।

    Dutch-born entertainer Johannes Heesters, who made his name performing in Adolf Hitler’s Germany and was dogged later in his long career by controversy over his Nazi-era past, died Saturday, his agent said. He was 108.

    The tenor Heesters made his debut on the big stage at the Volksoper in Vienna, Austria in 1934. His career took off in Berlin where, starting in 1935 — two years after the Nazis took power — he became a crowd favorite at the Komische Oper and Admiralspalast.

    He gained fame by appearing in films such as “Die Leuchter des Kaisers” (“The Emperor’s Candlesticks”) and “Das Hofkonzert” (“The Court Concert”).

    Despite his popularity in the Third Reich, Heesters was never accused of being a propagandist or anything other than an artist willing to perform for the Nazis, and the Allies allowed him to continue his career after the war, when he took Austrian citizenship.

    Heesters died early Saturday at the hospital in the southern city of Starnberg, where he had been cared for while being in critical condition for several days, his agent Juergen Ross said.

    In Heesters’ native Netherlands — which was occupied by Germany for most of the war — some viewed him as irredeemable given his appearances under the Nazi regime.

    In February 2008, he braved protests to perform in the Netherlands for the first time in 44 years at a theater in his native Amersfoort.

    In his previous attempt, in 1964, he was booed off the stage in Amsterdam when he tried to appear as the Nazi-hating Captain Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.”

    Heesters said it gave him a “heavy heart” to know he was “not wanted in my homeland.”

    “What did I do wrong? Sure, I acted in films in the Third Reich, entertainment films, which distracted countless people inside and outside Germany from daily life during war,” he wrote later about the reception he received.

    “Sure, I wanted to make my career and I remember well at the time how many people in the Netherlands were proud that I made a career in the huge neighboring country,” he added. “But apart from my career — and the fact that, through no fault of my own, Adolf Hitler was one of the fans of my art — what have I done?”

    Critics focused on a visit Heesters made to the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.

    In December 2008, Heesters lost a court attempt to force a German author to retract allegations that he sang for SS troops there.

    Heesters maintained he had been ordered to go to Dachau by the Nazis in an attempt to deceive the public about what was really going on there, but said the alleged performance “never happened.”

    But Berlin author Volker Kuehn cited an interview with former Dachau inmate Viktor Matejka where the prisoner recalled “I pulled the curtain for him, I was there, I saw him singing.”

    Around the time of the court case, Heesters was shown on a Dutch television show saying that Hitler was “a good guy.” His wife, Simone Rethel, immediately intervened, saying that Hitler was the worst criminal in the world.

    “I know, doll,” Heesters responded. “But he was nice to me.”

    Rethel protested after the clip was aired, telling Dutch papers that he had been tricked into making the remarks, and that the program had cut out other parts of the interview where Heesters condemned the Nazi regime.

    Heesters continued to be a popular performer in Germany well into his old age, making regular appearances on television and on stage. He made 1,600 appearances in his best-known role, as Count Danilo in Franz Lehar’s operetta “The Merry Widow,” and 750 as Honore in the musical “Gigi.”

    At age 98, he put health problems such as knee and appendix operations behind him to perform in Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” As he turned 105 in 2008, Heesters was performing in a musical comedy in Hamburg.

    “To have nothing to do, to sit there waiting for little aches and pains, is fundamentally wrong,” he once wrote. “Life has to be lived.”

    Heesters was born Dec. 5, 1903 in the Dutch city of Amersfoort, the youngest of four sons of a businessman. His first wife, Dutch actress Louisa Ghijs, died in 1983. The couple had two daughters, Wiesje and Nicole.

    Heesters married his second wife, German actress Rethel, in 1992.

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

40. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১০:২৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ঋতু গুহের জীবনাবসান। এই অনন্য রবীন্দ্রসঙ্গীত শিল্পী অসুস্থতার জন্য গান থেকে দূরে ছিলেন অনেক দিন। গতকাল শ্বাসকষ্ট তীব্র হওয়ায় হাসপাতালে নেয়ার পথেই তার মৃত্যু হয়। শুনুন এখানে তার অনন্য কণ্ঠের পরিবেশনা, কাল রাতের বেলা গান এলো মোর মনে।

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

41. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১০:৫৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ‘সৌর প্যানেল’ নয় দেয়ালে ‘সৌর রঙ’এর একটা প্রলেপই সূর্যের আলোকে পরিণত করবে সৌরশক্তিতে!

    One-coat paint generates electricity with tiny semiconducting crystals

    Paint is less efficient than panels, but will improve

    So far, paint has to be stored in the dark
    Researchers have developed a ‘solar paint’ that could one day replace solar cells and make renewable energy much cheaper.

    The paste, which is made of hi-tech ‘quantum dots’, can be put onto any surface and produce electricity from the sun.

    The dots are semiconducting crystals which are between two and 10 nanometres in diameter and are mixed into dye that looks like normal paint.

    In tests they were just one per cent efficient, less than one 10th the efficiency of a standard solar cell, but the researchers are convinced that rate will improve in the future.

    The paint has prompted speculation it could one day be applied to the side of homes to turn the entire property into a giant hi-tech ‘sun trap’.

    Solar energy has long been championed as a solution to the growing energy crisis, but it is expensive.

    A typical home needs around 285 square feet of solar panels to meet its electricity needs, costing around £10,000, although that does not include the expensive installation.

    Those who wish to use energy guzzling devices like an air conditioner might have to pay even more.

    University of Notre Dame scientists used nano-sized particles of titanium oxide and covered them in either cadmium sulphide or cadmium selenide.

    The paste was created by putting this into a mixture of water and alcohol.

    When it was put onto a conducting material and light was shone onto it, the scientists noticed that electricity was generated.

    The discovery has been praised because it is so simple to set up and required little more than a paint brush, office tape and a heat gun to make it work.

    Lead researcher Prashant Kamat, a professor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Notre Dame’s Center for Nano Science and Technology, said: ‘We want to do something transformative, to move beyond current silicon-based solar technology.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন এখানে।

42. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:০৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

    আধুনিক হিন্দি থিয়েটারের প্রাণপুরুষ সত্যদেব দুবে কোমায়। বাদল সরকারের এবং ইন্দ্রজিৎ, পাগলা ঘোড়ার হিন্দি প্রযোজনা, মোহন রাকেশের আধে আধুরে ও বিজয় তেন্ডুলকরের খামোশ, আদালত জারি হ্যায় প্রযোজনার জন্য বিখাত এই লেখক, নাট্যনির্দেশক ও অভিনেতা এক দুর্দান্ত অপ্রতিরোধ্য নাট্যপ্রতিভা। আমরা তার আশু রোগমুক্তি কামনা করছি। মৃত্যুর মিছিলে তিনিও যোগ দিলেন, প্রায় এক ঘন্টা আগে বোম্বে থেকে এক বন্ধু জানালেন তিনি আজ চিরবিদায় নিয়েছেন। সংবাদমাধ্যমে এখনো খবরটি আসেনি। লিন্ক পরে আসছে।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৫:০৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

      Renowned director, actor and screenplay writer Satyadev Dubey passed away here this morning after suffering from a prolonged illness. He was 75.

      “He was in coma for the past few months. He suffered a brain stroke and passed away at the hospital at 11.30 am,” said Satyajit Dubey, his grandnephew.

      The veteran playwright and director suffered a seizure at Prithvi Theatre Cafe in suburban Juhu in September this year, and since then he was in coma.

      Dubey’s health was fragile for quite some time and he was in and out of hospital in the last few years.

      A Padma Bhushan awardee, Dubey had become a legend in Marathi-Hindi theatre. Though born in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, he made Mumbai his home, and became a towering figure of the Marathi theatre.

      In his long career, he produced/directed plays of all the prominent playwrights of post-Independence period: Girish Karnad (Yayati, Hayavadana), Badal Sarkar (Evam Indrajit, Pagla Ghoda), Chandrashekhara Kambara (Aur Tota Bola – Jokumaraswamy in original Kannada), Mohan Rakesh (Aadhe Adhure), Vijay Tendulkar (Gidhade, Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe).

      He also penned film scripts/dialogue, including Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bhumika’.

      লিন্ক : Noted theatre personality Satyadev Dubey dead।

43. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:৪৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বেনজির ভুট্টোকে স্মরণ করছেন মারভি সারমেড। তিনি লিখছেন

    At the Lok Virsa last year, I met a family from southern Punjab who had brought their snakes and were showing snake tricks to earn meagre money. One of their children was wearing a locket bearing BB’s picture. The woman of the family was swearing against Musharraf, the army, feudals and extremists who had snatched their beloved leader. The anger in her voice was so intense that I for once thought she must be a blood relative of BB. She was not.

    I recall women of my own family when BB took oath as the prime minister in 1988. My family, being a landholding Punjabi orthodox religious family, has been strongly against a progressive and socialist Bhutto. The men in our family frequently borrowed right-wing arguments against a woman head of the government being un-Islamic, while equally conservative and religious women including my grandmother vociferously confronted the argument. It was amazing to see these women drawing power from a woman prime minister with whose political views they did not even agree. Our village women, very conservative in religious and cultural views and who were made to believe that the PPP was an anti-religion party, could not help loving BB. Women, I can still remember, got new dreams of playing a powerful role in society.

    Her struggle did not end when her party came to office in 1988. Seeking office was incomplete without power, which still rested with the all-powerful establishment that had delayed nominating her as prime minister despite her party’s clear majority. They did never rest after that. One wonders what potent challenge she posed to them that they had to invest all their might, money and resources to gather all the opposing political parties on one platform against BB’s PPP. Her clear-headed vision that led the country throughout the years of crisis distinguished her from the rest of the lot who started appearing pygmies in front of her.

    My last meeting with her was in November 2007 when she calmly heard our criticism on various recent decisions that we thought would give a lease of life to a dictator. How patiently she heard, how diligently she took notes and how sagaciously she responded to every single concern of ours. When she arrived in October 2007, she had changed in many ways. One could see the strength of her resolve seeing a sea of people ready to sacrifice their lives for her. Despite strict security warnings, she would not stop from going to the hospital to visit the survivors of the October 18 terrorist attack on her rally.

    Prior to that, she was the only leader among the entire bunch of expedient politicians of Pakistan who spoke openly against terrorists and their apologists. She was the only leader who tried to lead people’s opinion against the militants who had forced the tragedy of Laal Masjid (Red Mosque), instead of criticising the military action against the militants or terming the Laal Masjid militants as ‘innocent students’ like almost every politician did.

    The unusual courage she displayed was not without a vision of possible consequences. She knew the price she might have to pay. Nothing deterred her. She went on and lived up to every challenge. And boy, what a life she lived! Salutes to a leader par excellence, to a woman with unfathomable courage and resolve, to a politician of exemplary vision, to a committed democrat who never failed the test of pragmatic and inclusive politics. Rest in peace BB. Pakistan misses you.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Remembering Benazir Bhutto, personally!

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২৭ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (২:৩৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

      বেনজিরপুত্র বিলাওয়ালের বেনজির স্মরণ।

      What we do know is that there are 86,000 more schools because of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. That, under her government foreign investment quadrupled; energy production doubled; exports boomed. Under her government, 100,000 female health workers fanned out across the country, bringing health care, nutrition, pre and postnatal care, to millions of our poorest citizens. It was under her government that women were admitted as judges to the nation’s courts, that women’s police departments were established to help women who suffered from domestic violence and a women’s bank was established to give micro loans to women to start small businesses. It was under Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s leadership that cell phones, fibre optics and international media were introduced, and the Pakistani software industry blossomed. And it was on her very first day as prime minister, that all political prisoners were freed, unions legalised and the press uncensored. It was an amazing record of accomplishment, made even more remarkable by the constraint of aborted tenures, by constant pressure from a hostile establishment and presidents with the power to sack elected governments.

      She never had a free and fair election. She was always under siege. She would say: “We were in government but not in power.” Yet she delivered so much. And we can only dream of what might have been had she lived. One thing I am certain of — three-quarters of a billion Muslim women all around the world would have felt empowered, would have rejected limits on their opportunity to learn, to earn, to grow and to lead. Almost two billion Muslims around the world would have seen a modern face of Islam belying the caricature of our great religion in the West and the demagoguery of the jihadists within our own ranks.

      বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : On the fourth death anniversary of my mother।

      • 

        মাসুদ করিম - ২৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:৩৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

        পাকিস্তানি লেখক সাংবাদিক মোহাম্মদ হানিফের বেনজির স্মরণ।

        Any sudden death can tinge one’s memory and judgment, but there are certain facts about her that are conveniently ignored. Even if all the allegations about her corruption and arrogance are true, one should keep in mind that she was active in politics for 30 years, out of which she was in power only for four and a half years. The rest of the time she struggled against two of the most well entrenched military dictators in the region. Still she managed to raise three kids, took care of an ailing mother and stayed in the most notorious arranged marriage in South Asia.

        The reason we don’t see very many dossiers on the financial corruption during General Zia and General Musharraf’s regimes is that when Bhutto was in power the intelligence agencies went into over drive documenting or sometimes inventing her misdemeanours. When the generals or their cronies are in power all the intelligence leaks just dry up.

        The Pakistan government and the international media’s security analysts are crying themselves hoarse over how she shouldn’t have stuck her head out of the sunroof of her bullet-proof vehicle. Too arrogant and too reckless they say. To me that sounds like a clear case of blaming the victim. After all nobody accuses airline passengers of being reckless when they choose to take a plane despite all the plots to blow them up that keep getting discovered. Benazir was a self-confessed fatalist. Senator Babar Awan who was with her during the Karachi attack remembers that when her security people asked her not to step out from her bullet-proof truck to an open platform she asked a simple question: is God inside the truck and not outside it?

        That Benazir Bhutto is no more is evident in the clinically efficient way the Musharraf regime has dealt with her party in the aftermath of her assassination. The People’s Party leadership wanted to take her coffin to her hometown by road, in a procession. That would have been the biggest political rally in the history of Pakistan. Instead she was put away in a waiting C130, transferred into another waiting helicopter, flown to her ancestral village and buried before hundreds of thousands of her supporters could reach there to attend the funeral. When the party leadership announced that they wanted elections to take place according to schedule, Musharraf went ahead and postponed it for six weeks, apparently giving his supporters a chance to regroup and not get wiped out in the face of a Bhutto sympathy wave. Suddenly it seems there is nobody in Pakistani politics who can argue, bargain, cajole, and cut a deal with the establishment. Benazir Bhutto could do all that and then go and sell it to her supporters like it was their own triumph.

        For the purpose of those lost in the forensics’ labyrinth, or waiting for the UN inquiry report about her murder, one can point out that more than 50 years ago Pakistan’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali was assassinated in the same Rawalpindi park (hence the name Liaquat Bagh) and the last I heard my colleague Mazhar Zaidi was trying to unearth the mystery by going through some recently declassified CIA documents. He remembers that even then the Pakistan government had conceded to the opposition’s demands and called in Scotland Yard experts. In our own lifetime we have seen General Zia’s plane blown up in mid air. Experts were called in from the USA, but we never found out what happened. Benazir Bhutto’s own brother was gunned down while she was the Prime Minister. Scotland Yard was called in then too, yet his murder remains a mystery. The only time Pakistan security agencies did their job was when General Musharraf was attacked. Within months his attackers were tracked down, arrested, put on trial and hanged. And the man responsible for the investigation, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, promoted to the top job in the army.

        More than a decade ago, we survived as Benazir Bhutto’s neighbours. But as we watch the nightmare unfold after her death, it does feel that someone has tied our hands behind our backs, gagged us, not quite killed us, but made us promise at gunpoint that we shall never name her killers.

        বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : A BB Murder Fantasy।

44. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৭ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৩৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

    এমাসের দশ তারিখে যে পূর্ণ চন্দ্রগ্রহণ হয়েছিল, তা ছিল এক কথায় অসাধারণ। বিশেষ করে আমাদের এই অঞ্চলের মেঘমুক্ত আকাশে সন্ধ্যা সাড়ে ছয়টা থেকে রাত সাড়ে দশটার দেখার জন্য সবচেয়ে অনুকূল সময়ে সংঘটিত হয়েছিল এই দশকের সেরা চন্দ্রগ্রহণ। এখানে দেখুন বিগপিকচারের চন্দ্রগ্রহণ ফটোগ্যালারি।

45. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৭ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৬:১৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

    রাষ্ট্র নিয়ন্ত্রিত ব্যবসায়িক প্রতিষ্ঠানের প্রশংসায় পঞ্চমুখ মনে হচ্ছে ব্রিটিশ সাপ্তাহিক ‘দি ইকোনোমিস্ট’কে, কী হলো? মন্দায় মুক্তবাজার মুখপত্রের মজ্জায় ঠাণ্ডায় ঢুকে গেল নাকি? অবশ্য তারা এই সূত্রে বেছে নিয়েছে তাদেরই রাষ্ট্র নিয়ন্ত্রিত ব্যবসায়িক প্রতিষ্ঠানের সর্বকালের সর্বশ্রেষ্ঠ ‘ইস্ট ইন্ডিয়া কোম্পানি’কে। সেসাথে বর্তমানের চীন, রাশিয়া. সৌদি, ব্রাজিল, মেক্সিকোর নানা রাষ্ট্র নিয়ন্ত্রিত কোম্পানির কথা বলে যুগের ধারাকে উচ্চকিত করতে চাইছে। হাঁটু মাটিতে নেমে এসেছে ‘দি ইকোনোমিস্ট’-এর এখন দুহাত জড়ো করে শুধু রাষ্ট্র নিয়ন্ত্রিত ব্যবসায়িক প্রতিষ্ঠানের দিকে তাকিয়ে থাকা বাকি দিনগুলো।

    The East India Company foreshadowed the modern world in all sorts of striking ways. It was one of the first companies to offer limited liability to its shareholders. It laid the foundations of the British empire. It spawned Company Man. And—particularly relevant at the moment—it was the first state-backed company to make its mark on the world.

    Twenty years ago, as the state abandoned the commanding heights of the economy in the name of privatisation and deregulation, it looked as if these public-private hybrids were doomed. Today they are flourishing in the emerging world’s dynamic economies and striding out onto the global stage.

    State-controlled companies account for 80% of the market capitalisation of the Chinese stockmarket, more than 60% of Russia’s, and 35% of Brazil’s. They make up 19 of the world’s 100 biggest multinational companies and 28 of the top 100 among emerging markets. World-class state companies can be found in almost every industry. China Mobile serves 600m customers. Saudi Arabia’s SABIC is one of the world’s most profitable chemical companies. Emirates airlines is growing at 20% a year. Thirteen of the world’s biggest oil companies are state-controlled. So is the world’s biggest natural-gas company, Gazprom.

    State-owned companies will continue to thrive. The emerging markets that they prosper in are expected to grow at 5.5% a year compared with the rich world’s 1.6%, and the model is increasingly popular. The Chinese and Russian governments are leading a fashion for using the state’s power to produce national champions in a growing range of “strategic” industries.

    The parallels between the East India Company and today’s state-owned firms are not exact, to be sure. The East India Company controlled a standing army of some 200,000 men, more than most European states. None of today’s state-owned companies has yet gone this far, though the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has employed former People’s Liberation Army troops to protect oil wells in Sudan. The British government did not own shares in the Company (though prominent courtiers and politicians certainly did). Today’s state-capitalist governments hold huge blocks of shares in their favourite companies.

    Otherwise the similarities are striking. Both the Company and its modern descendants serve two masters, keeping one eye on their share price and the other on their political patrons. Many of today’s state-owned companies are monopolies or quasi-monopolies: Brazil’s Petrobras, China Mobile, China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission, to name but a few of the mongrel giants that bestride the business world these days. Many are enthusiastic globalisers, venturing abroad partly as moneymaking organisations and partly as quasi-official agents of their home governments. Many are keen not only on getting their government to provide them with soft loans and diplomatic muscle but also on building infrastructure—roads, hospitals and schools—in return for guaranteed access to raw materials. Although the East India Company flourished a very long time ago, in a very different world, its growth, longevity and demise have lessons for those who run today’s state companies and debate their future, lessons about the benefits of linking a company’s interests to a nation’s and the dangers of doing so.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : The Company that ruled the waves।

46. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৯:৩৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    মির্জা গালিবের ২১৫তম জন্মবার্ষিকী পালিত হল তার জন্মভূমি আগ্রায়, ২৭ ডিসেম্বর ১৭৯৭ সালে আগ্রায় তাদের পারিবারিক হাভেলিতে জন্ম হয়েছিল গালিবের — যেহাভেলি হতে পারত বহু পর্যটকের গন্তব্য সেখানে অনেক দিন থেকেই চলছে মহিলা কলেজ। গালিবপ্রেমীদের অনেক দিনের দাবি আগ্রায় অন্তত একটা গালিব মেমোরিয়াল হোক — কিন্তু রাজ্য সরকার বা কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের কোনো পক্ষেই তেমন কোনো সাড়া পাওয়া যাচ্ছে না।

    “Dil-e-Nadaan tujhe hua kya hai, aakhir is gam ki dawa kya hai” – this and hundreds of other familiar couplets continue to inspire and draw fans of Urdu literature to Mirza Ghalib, whose 215th birth anniversary is being celebrated in the Taj city Tuesday.

    Sadly, Mirza Ghalib’s haveli in Agra where he was born in 1797 is now a girls’ inter college.

    The people in the Kala Mahal locality of inner Agra where the haveli is located have no knowledge that the great poet was born amongst them.

    “The whole world may revere and hold Ghalib in awe and admiration, but the locals seem to have no regard for him,” laments Kartar Singh, the ‘X Factor’ hero of Sony TV, who is from Agra. For the past two weeks, Kartar Singh has been practising hard to present Ghalib’s choicest ghazals at a programme later in the day.

    For years, admirers of Mirza Ghalib and lovers of Urdu Shayiri have been demanding a fitting memorial to the poet in Agra, but the culture departments in Lucknow and New Delhi have never creatively responded.

    “When tourists from Pakistan and other countries ask to be taken to Ghalib’s birth place, we feel apologetic and embarrassed,” says Sandip Arora, former president of the Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association.

    “The central and state governments should jointly build a fitting memorial and a library in Agra where Urdu poetry lovers can spend time and enlighten themselves,” Arora told IANS.

    Mirza Asad Ullah Khan ‘Ghalib’ was born in the Kala Mahal area of Agra in 1797. He moved to Delhi where his poetic talent blossomed and found new expression at a time when Bahadur Shah Zafar, himself a poet of mean standing, was the Mughal emperor.

    His rich contribution to Urdu ‘adab’ (culture and literature) continues to inspire poets till this day.

    “Surely, Agra which in many ways nurtured the poetic brilliance of the three pillars of Urdu literature – Ghalib, Meer, and people’s poet Nazeer Akbarabadi – should have a fitting memorial and the Agra University should establish Mirza Ghalib Chair to further research in various facets of Urdu literature,” says Surendra Sharma. He is the president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society which Tuesday celebrates Mirza Ghalib’s birth anniversary as Jashne-Ghalib at hotel Goverdhan, with cake-cutting and poetry recitation.

    Former Uttar Pradesh governor T.V. Rajeswar five years ago suggested that Agra University set up a Mirza Ghalib Chair to promote Urdu literature, but the university has been dragging its feet on the proposal.

    Similarly, the house where Ghalib was born was to be acquired by the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government to be converted into a memorial, but the proposal faded away after Mulayam lost the 2007 state assembly elections.

    “Urdu poetry has stagnated in modern times as new poets are not getting recognition. Had it not been for the Bollywood film industry, the Urdu language would have joined the ranks of dead languages,” said Nasir Mohammed, a journalist.

    Syed Jaffrey, director of the Mirza Ghalib Academy in Agra, wants better facilities and support from government agencies to promote research in Urdu literature.

    “Agra, which has given so much to the Urdu culture, should have a decent memorial for the poet. The municipal corporation has proposals pending to name a busy street or crossing after the poet, but there has been no follow up,” he added.

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

47. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (৯:৫৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    অবসাদ নিঃসঙ্গতায় বিদীর্ণ ছিল রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের জীবন। তার নতুন ইংরেজি জীবনী Rabindranath Tagore: An Interpretation এর লেখক সব্যসাচী ভট্টাচার্য এমনই জানাচ্ছেন আমাদের। সদ্য প্রকাশিত এই বইয়ের লেখক ও প্রকাশকের দাবি এটাই রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের প্রথম বুদ্ধিবৃত্তিক জীবনী।

    Famed for his literary, artistic and intellectual capabilities the world over, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore led a very lonely life and even suffered from frequent bouts of depression, says his new biography. “In January 1915 Tagore again speaks of a ‘breakdown’, ‘deep depression’, but in February he claimed to have been healed in the solitude of the boat he inhabited on the banks of the Padma (river) in north Bengal,” says Prof Sabyasachi Bhattacharya in his book ‘Rabindranath Tagore: An Interpretation’.

    Incidentally, one of Tagore’s worst spells of depression was in 1914, a year after his book of poems ‘Gitanjali’ brought him sudden international fame as he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 prize in literature.

    “Another such bout of depression is recorded in Tagore’s letters in October 1914….Earlier to that, in May 1914, he had one of his worst spells of depression,” the book says disclosing a part of the poet’s life rarely examined by Tagore scholars.

    Published by Penguin India, the biography portrays him as a man who was deeply sceptical, self-critical and struggled handling the turmoil and conflicts in his ‘inner life’. According to the author, Tagore was always chased by loneliness ever since his childhood as reflected in his memoirs ‘Jiban Smriti’ and ‘Chhele Bela’. In a letter to his confidant Charles Freer Andrews, the bard says, “I was very lonely that was the chief feature of my childhood I was very lonely. I saw my father seldom: he was away a great deal…I was kept in the charge of the servants of the household after my mother died”.

    Even as a young man he spent a great deal of his life in solitude as he had to supervise the rich Tagore family estates in north Bengal, and stay on his boat on the river by the sand-flats for months together with no other companion than servants and boatmen. “Sometimes I would pass many months absolutely alone without speaking, till my own voice grew thin and weak through lack of use,” Prof Bhattacharya quotes Tagore as having written to his friend once.

    On the spell of depression which lasted for three months in 1914, the book quotes his friend Andrews as saying: “he (Tagore) told me afterwards that the mental pain he experienced soon after his arrival (for a retreat at Ramgarh) was almost equivalent to death agony. He had hardly expected to survive it”. Six years later, Tagore again suffered from another bout of depression, but this time it was due to illness.

    In 1921, Tagore had confided to Andrews in New York as to how he was afraid that he will be rejected by his own countrymen once he returns to India. “My solitary cell is awaiting me in my motherland,” he had said.

    The biographer attributes the bard’s chronic loneliness to “disappointment with the support he received from his people, especially the Bengali people, a sense of loneliness in his life as an institution builder in a society, and a mindset that was hostile, or at best apathetic”.

    After winning the Nobel in 1913, a cynical Tagore felt that the felicitation by his countrymen is a “momentary excitement” which would soon disappear because only a few among the celebrants truly appreciated his writings. In 1919, when Chittaranjan Das attacked him in his presidential address to the Bengal Provincial Conference, a Congress organ, Tagore felt that he was “alone and supportless” in his home state.

    The author says one of Tagore’s most memorable songs ‘Ekla Chalo Re’ (If They Answer Not to Thy Call, Walk Alone) was written in 1905 when he felt isolated and supportless. “His mind was in turmoil caused not only by the partition of Bengal but also by his failure to gain the attention and support of the mainstream nationalist leaders in the anti-partition agitation,” writes Prof Bhattacharya.

    লিন্ক : Tagore was haunted by depression: Biography।

48. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৮ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:১০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    খুলনার রূপসা উপজেলার পিঠাভোগ গ্রামে রবীন্দ্রনাথের আদি ভিটের সন্ধানে বাংলাদেশ। পড়ুন এখানে।

49. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৯ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৫৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

    আজ সকালে চিত্রনায়িকা দোয়েলের দীর্ঘ রোগভোগের অবসান ঘটল মৃত্যুর মধ্য দিয়ে। সকাল ৯টা ২০ মিনিটে ঢাকার এক ক্লিনিকে তিনি শেষ নিঃশ্বাস ত্যাগ করেন।

    জনপ্রিয় চিত্র নায়িকা দোয়েল আর নেই। বৃহস্পতিবার সকাল ৯টা ২০ মিনিটে রাজধানীর ধানমন্ডিস্থ একটি ক্লিনিকে শেষ নিশ্বাস ত্যাগ করেন তিনি।

    দীর্ঘ দিন ধরেই বিভিন্ন শারিরিক অসুস্থতায় ভুগছিলেন দোয়েল।

    চিত্রনায়ক স্বামী সুব্রত ও একমাত্র মেয়ে দিঘিসহ অসংখ্য ভক্ত রেখে গেছেন তিনি।

    দিঘি চলচ্চিত্রে এ সময়ের সবচেয়ে জনপ্রিয় শিশুশিল্পী।

    আমাদের চলচ্চিত্রের একসময়ের মিষ্টি নায়িকা দোয়েল। শুভদা, রাজলক্ষ্মী-শ্রীকান্তসহ বহু ছবিতে অভিনয় করে জনপ্রিয়তা পেয়েছিলেন তিনি।

    দোয়েলের আরেকটি পরিচয়, তিনি চলচ্চিত্রাভিনেতা সুব্রতর স্ত্রী ।

    গত নভেম্বরে হঠাৎ করেই স্ট্রোক হয় দোয়েলের। অচেতন অবস্থায় তাকে প্রথমে রাজধানীর স্কয়ার হাসপাতালে নেওয়া হয়। প্রায় দু সপ্তাহ অচেতন থাকার পর তাকে পিজি হাসপাতালে স্থানান্তর করা হয়। প্রায় তিন মাস পর দোয়েলের জ্ঞান ফিরে আসে। কিন্তু হয়ে পড়েন পুরোপুরি বাকরুদ্ধ এবং নিথর। পরে তাকে বাসায় নিয়ে যাওয়া হয়। জ্ঞান ফিরে আসার পর থেকে দোয়েল শুধু ফ্যালফ্যাল করে তাকিয়ে থাকেন। চলাফেরা করতে অক্ষম হয়ে পড়েন। ডাক্তাররা জানিয়েছিলেন, তার সুস্থ জীবনে ফিরে আসার আর সম্ভাবনা নেই।

    তাতে কী… মা যে চোখ খুলে তাকিয়েছেন তাতেই খুশি ছিলো ছোট্ট দীঘি। দোয়েলের চিকিৎসা তহবিল গঠনে সহায়তার জন্য গত ফেব্রুয়ারিতে শিল্পী সমিতির আয়োজনে রাজধানীর কলবাগান মাঠে অনুষ্ঠিত হয়েছিল একটি চ্যারিটি কনসার্ট।

    সম্প্রতি আবারও গুরুতর অসুস্থ্য হয়ে পড়ায় তাকে দ্রুত ক্লিনিকে নেওয়া হয়। বৃহস্পতিবার সকালে পৃথিবীর সব মায়া কাটিয়ে তিনি পারি দেন পরপারে।

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

50. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৯ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১:২৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

    তুরস্কের সংস্কৃতি বিষয়ক দুটি খবর।

    ১. তুরস্কের শিশু সাহিত্যিক সেভিম এক এবারে হান্স এন্ডারসন পুরস্কারের শর্টলিস্টে অন্তর্ভুক্ত হয়েছেন। তিনি আশা করছেন এই পুরস্কার যদি তিনি পান তাহলে পাশ্চাত্যের তুরস্কের শিশুসাহিত্য নিয়ে অনেক দিনের ভুল ধারণা পরিবর্তন হবে এবং এতে তুরস্কের শিশুসাহিত্যিকদের কাজ ইউরোপের অন্যান্য ভাষায় আরো বেশি অনূদিত হবে।

    What are the Hans Christian Andersen Awards?

    Switzerland-based International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) biannually presents the Hans Christian Andersen Awards to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature. The Hans Christian Andersen Award is the highest international recognition given to an author and an illustrator of children’s books. The nominations are made by the National Sections of IBBY, and the recipients are selected by a distinguished international jury of children’s literature specialists. Astrid Lindgren, Erich Kastner, Gianni Rodari, Christine Nostlinger and David Almond are among the bearers of the award. The Author’s Award has been given since 1956 and the Illustrator’s Award since 1966. The Award consists of a gold medal and a diploma, presented at a festive ceremony during the biennial IBBY Congress. A special Andersen Awards issue of IBBY’s journal Bookbird presents all the nominees and documents the selection process.

    Previously, Turkish author Eflatun Cem Güney was selected to the honorary list of the award in 1956 and 1966. Among the shortlisted Turkish authors are Muzaffer İzgü, Gülten Dayıoğlu and Ayla Çınaroğlu.

    Having been shortlisted for the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Awards, Turkish children’s author Sevim Ak believes the prejudice of the Western world against Turkish children’s literature will change to some extent if she is granted the award.

    “Western publishers abstain from our children’s and teenagers’ literature due to previous bad experiences. I believe once we overcome this bias, a great many high-quality works of literature in Turkey would have the chance to be translated into other languages,” she told the Hürriyet Daily News.
    Sevim Ak was selected as worthy of nomination by the Turkish Association of Children and Youth Publishing (ÇGYD) for her contributions to children’s literature so far, which Ak considers as an award in itself.

    Turkish literature trend
    Having been shortlisted for the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Awards, “However, I must say that the boom in terms of quality is way below that of quantity. What has already been created is boldly presented as if a new creation, or if a certain type of story sells well, its imitations are rapidly taking their places in bookstores’ shelves. Most importantly, because the publisher’s ultimate target is their books’ inclusion to schools’ curricula, the stories are becoming alien to an actual child’s imagination.”
    Ak said she had a strong belief that it was possible to tell the problems of real children in a language and style that suited all ages. “However, we still could not overcome some taboos in this field; we are still at a toddler’s level in surpassing them.”

    Ak’s harshest critique is the lack of interest in alternative publications outside of the bestseller champions. “These lists are populated by fantasy and adventure stories. These genres are of a global penetration and they are often launched at the market simultaneously with their film adaptations, PC or PlayStation games or toys, and alternative works have to wait to be noticed and discovered by the readers silently on the dim corners of the bookshelves.”

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Turkish author waits for Hans Andersen Awards।

    ২. তুরস্কের অপেরা গায়িকা মেরাল মেন্ডেরেস মৃত্যুবরণ করেছেন। তার বয়স হয়েছিল ৭৮ বছর।

    Meral Menderes, a trailblazing Turkish opera artist, has died aged 78 at her house in Istanbul’s Maltepe district, according to a written statement from the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet.

    Menderes took the Istanbul opera stage for “Tosca” in 2010 for the 50th anniversary of the State Opera and Ballet. During her speech at the ceremony, Menderes commented on the opera’s building problem.
    “Please save us from this nomadic situation,” she said, adding that a permanent building to stage opera works in Istanbul should be acquired.

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

51. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৩১ ডিসেম্বর ২০১১ (১২:৪৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    পৃথিবীর বৃহত্তম গণতন্ত্র ভারতে ২০১১ ছিল রাগী বছর। শহুরে মধ্যবিত্ত দুর্নীতির বিরুদ্ধে, কৃষকরা শিল্পের জন্য জমি অধিগ্রহণের বিরুদ্ধে এবং ব্যবসায়ীরা খুচরা বাণিজ্যের সংস্কারের বিরুদ্ধে তাদের রাগ প্রদর্শন করেছেন।

    To understand some of the underlying dynamics of Indian democracy today, we need to put it in the context of post-1991 realities. India’s democracy now coexists with rising capitalism. Serious tensions between democracy and markets have by now emerged. That is what produced the anger of 2011. That is why the government is paralysed.

    Consider three of the biggest events of the year. Facing an urban land constraint, India’s capitalism badly needs to acquire agricultural lands for industrial and commercial use. But farmers have hit back. They will offer land only when the proposed commercial acquisition demonstrably serves their interests as well.

    To reduce the enormous waste in the farm-to-store supply chain and to create value for itself, consumers and farmers, India’s capitalism also wishes to bring modern techniques of refrigeration, logistics and retail to the country. But, using perfectly legitimate modes of lobbying and protest, traders have successfully pushed reform back, at least for now. Indeed, the reversal was a surprising outcome of the clash between democracy and markets. As Nehru hinted in The Discovery of India and political observers have known for decades, the trader, the customary bania, has never enjoyed political legitimacy in India. But the first week of December produced the triumph of the bania.

    Finally, consider the year’s most vociferous expression of anger, the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement. Though Hazare is both against crony capitalism at the higher levels of the polity as well as routine corruption at the lower bureaucratic tiers, it is the 2G scam that brought him to Delhi. People beyond Maharashtra had not heard of him until March 2011. Telecom crony capitalism gave him a national halo, and a democratically legitimate movement was born.

    Capitalism has always had at least two sides: innovation and cronyism. Freedom to do business often generates innovative entrepreneurialism. Google, Apple and Amazon have not only produced fortunes for their share holders, but also benefited millions of consumers all over the world.

    Search for profits can, however, also lead to collusion between government and business. Post-1991 India might have produced an Infosys, as also quite a few Dalit millionaires. But it has also had a 2G scam and multiple mining and land scandals.

    India is not alone in experiencing crony capitalism. As they rose economically, Japan in the 1950s and 1960s, and South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, also had a lot of cronies promoted by the state. In the second half of the 19th century in the US, christened the Gilded Age by Mark Twain, the rise of industrial capitalism was accompanied by corrupt politician-business links.

    Whether or not authoritarian polities rebel against such collusion, democratic polities tend to. Faced with political pressures, Japan, South Korea and the US had to clean up the business environment, substantially if not wholly. Something similar might happen in India.

    Can the anger of 2011 be a source of political creativity? Resolving the tensions between democracy and markets requires imagination and skilful political communication. Consider examples:

    Reform of retail trade heavily favours farmers and consumers. Their numbers far outweigh those of the trading community which, though organised, has little mass legitimacy. That government could not make numbers and legitimacy count over organisation shows how poor the government’s communication strategy was.

    The clash between farmers and industrialisation can be handled, if farmers are given stakes in the commercial use of land without entirely killing profits for the industrialist. A new political understanding, mediated by government and historically made in most industrialising democracies, is necessary. That rural welfare requires the eclipse of agriculture is a law of economic development. Rural folk need to be connected to larger markets. If one leaves peasants on land for ever, one only perpetuates their poverty. Agriculture can at best grow at 4-5 per cent per annum; industry can easily grow at twice that rate.

    Finally, a Lokpal will reduce corruption at the top, but crony capitalism cannot be fully defeated unless the dependence of India’s elections on big money is broken. When will India’s political leadership boldly step forward, make that point and do something about it?

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : The year of living angrily।

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