২৬ comments

1. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১০:৪৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   

   মাদারীপুরের দেড়শ বছরের পুরনো যৌনকর্মীপল্লী বন্ধের ঢেউ তোলা হয়েছে, ইসলামবাদী একটি গোষ্ঠী এর নেতৃত্ব দিচ্ছে, কিন্তু নেপথ্যের কলকাঠি নাড়ছে ভূমিদস্যূরাই। যৌনকর্মীদের পুনর্বাসন ছাড়া উচ্ছেদ একধরনের মানবিক বিপর্যয়।

   The red light district in Madaripur city is thought to have been in operation for at least 150 years, and the sex workers believe the sudden wave of protests are orchestrated by developers trying to take over the valuable land.

   Last month, about 10,000 people led by a new Muslim group called Islahe Kaom Parishad (the National Reform Council) rallied outside the rambling complex to call for it to be shut down and the 500 sex workers evicted.

   “Ever since they held that huge rally, I could not sleep properly. Tell me where I shall go?” Das told AFP. “This is my home and this is the only job I knew from my childhood. Please save us from these religious leaders.”

   The brothel, founded for native jute traders during the British colonial era, is a cluster of moss-stained three-storey brick houses and tin sheds in the middle of Madaripur, 60 kilometres from Dhaka.

   It is legal as it dates back to before Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, but is now being targeted by hardline activists from Parishad.

   The group has held a series of angry demonstrations and is lobbying city authorities on the grounds that the brothel corrupts the town’s young men and must be razed.

   Sex workers believe the activists are organised by businessmen linked to local politicians, and they report a campaign of intimidation including an explosive device found recently on the site and two attempted arson attacks.

   “We told the authorities that we won’t leave the place. Our job is lawful.

   We also don’t have any underage sex workers here,” said Momo Rani Karmakar, head of the Madaripur sex workers’ union.

   “We’ve inherited the place from our grandmothers, some of them are still alive. We are like a family here. It’s a conspiracy to grab our land worth crores of taka,” she said, adding that 110 children living in the brothel settlement go to school every day.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : A 150-year-old Bangladesh brothel fights closure।

2. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:২২ অপরাহ্ণ)

   বিশ্বব্যাংকের বার্মা অধ্যায় শুরু, কান্ট্রি অফিস উদ্বোধন হয়ে গেছে, ৮৫ মিলিয়ন ডলারের প্রথম অনুদানও প্রস্তুত। বিশ্বব্যাংক বার্মার ওয়েবসাইট।

3. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১ আগস্ট ২০১২ (২:৪৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

   গতকাল ভারতে ঘটেছে পৃথিবীর অন্যতম বৃহৎ বিদ্যুৎ দূর্ঘটনা, উত্তর পূর্ব ও উত্তর-পূর্ব ভারতের গ্রিড বিপর্যয়ে কোনো না কোনোভাবে বিদ্যুৎসমস্যায় পড়েছে ৬২ কোটি মানুষ, ইনফোগ্রাফিক্সে এক নজরে এই দূর্ঘটনা। রাশিয়া টুডে এক ফটোনিবন্ধে লিখেছে

   Power outages hit more than 19 states according to local officials, including Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, J&K, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

   In New Delhi, India’s capital, loss of power to traffic lights caused havoc on the streets. The shutdown of the city’s subway system, responsible for the daily transportation of some 1.8 million passengers, further snarled pedestrian and roadway traffic.

   Some 100 megawatts of emergency power are currently being pumped into priority areas around New Delhi, such as hospitals and traffic lights. Power is also being diverted into the subway to help stranded passengers reach the nearest station. Subway service has been partially restored.

   In Calcutta, lights were out at major hospitals around the city. At least 300 trains have also been affected by the outage in the country’s northern regions.

   Over 250 coal miners were trapped in mines in the state of West Bengal as a result of the outages. All of them have been rescued after spending few hours underground, officials say.

   ফটোনিবন্ধটি বিস্তারিত পড়ুন দেখুন এখানে।

4. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৪:৩৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

   

   গোর ভিডাল, একটি অক্ষরও পড়া হয়নি তার, গতকাল মৃত্যবরণ করেছেন ৮৬ বছর বয়সে — ছিলেন রাজনীতি যৌনতা ধর্ম ও সাহিত্যের অক্লান্ত তৎপর শক্তিমান ক্রিটিক। তার নামও তো শুনিনি আমি আগে। আমেরিকার সাহিত্যজগত নিয়ে ক্ষমাহীন অজ্ঞতা আমার!

   Gore Vidal was impossible to categorize, which was exactly the way he liked it.

   The reading public knew him as a literary juggernaut who wrote 25 novels —from the historical “Lincoln” to the satirical “Myra Breckinridge” — and volumes of essays critics consider among the most elegant in the English language. He also brought shrewd intelligence to writing Broadway hits, Hollywood screenplays, television dramas and a trio of mysteries still in print after 50 years.

   When he wasn’t writing, he was popping up in movies, playing himself in “Fellini’s Roma,” a sinister plotter in sci-fi thriller “Gattaca” and a U.S. senator in “Bob Roberts.” The grandson of a U.S. senator, he also made two entertaining but unsuccessful forays into politics, running for the Senate from California and the House of Representatives from New York.

   In other spare moments, he demolished intellectual rivals like Norman Mailer andWilliam F. BuckleyJr. with acidic one-liners, establishing himself as a peerless master of talk-show punditry.

   “Style,” Vidal once said, “is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” By that definition, he was an emperor of style, sophisticated and cantankerous in his prophesies of America’s fate and refusal to let others define him.

   Iconoclastic author, savvy analyst and glorious gadfly on the national conscience, Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills from complications of pneumonia, his nephew Burr Steers said. He was 86.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Gore Vidal, iconoclastic author, dies at 86।

   • 

     রেজাউল করিম সুমন - ১ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৭:৪০ অপরাহ্ণ)

     গোর ভিডালের কথা বলতে গেলে ভুলেই গিয়েছিলাম। মাহমুদুল হকের উপন্যাস ‘জীবন আমার বোন’ পড়তে গিয়ে তাঁর নামের সঙ্গে আমার প্রথম পরিচয় –

     না, রেক্সে যাওয়া চলবে না। ইদানীং জাতীয় পরিষদের অধিবেশন, ভবিষ্যৎ শাসনতন্ত্র, আইনগত কাঠামো, চীনের চাবি ভুট্টোর খেল-তামাশা, এইসব নিয়ে চায়ের কাপে ঝড় উঠছে ওখানে। আর আহামরি এক লেখক পেয়েছে গোরভিদাল, তাই
     নিয়েও কত মতবিনিময়ের ছড়াছড়ি […]।

     পুরোনো বইয়ের দোকান থেকে প্রথমে তাঁর Myra Breckinridge (১৯৬৮) কিনেছিলাম, ভিতরে ওই উপন্যাস অবলম্বনে নির্মিত চলচ্চিত্রের (১৯৭০) কিছু স্থিরচিত্রও ছিল। অদ্ভুত ধরণের লেখা। আরো পরে পেয়ে গিয়েছিলাম The City and the Pillar (১৯৪৮); যতদূর মনে পড়ে শেষ মলাটে আঁদ্রে জিদ-এর শংসাবচন ছিল, কিন্তু সে-বইটা আর পড়া হয়ে ওঠেনি।

5. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৩ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:১৯ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   গতকালের পশ্চিমবঙ্গের দৈনিক আজকালে অমিত বসুর লেখা উত্তরসম্পাদকীয় [http://www.aajkaal.net/cat.php?hidd_cat_id=6&show=25863677] পড়ে জানলাম : নিউইয়র্কে ক্যান্সার চিকিৎসা করতে যাওয়ার আগে ৬টি বই লিখবেন বলে এক প্রকাশক থেকে হুমায়ূন আহমেদ আগাম নিয়েছিলেন এক কোটি টাকা! সবসময় এভাবে আগাম নিতেন হুমায়ূন, প্রকাশকরা দিতেন? নাকি এটি বিশেষ সময়ের বিশেষ ব্যবস্থা? লিখতে না পারলে, এই যে পারলেন না, কী হবে? — সে কথা ভেঙ্গে নেননি প্রকাশক-লেখক? নাকি এটি রটনা? নাকি ঢাকার প্রকাশনা-হুমাযূন ব্যবসা আদতে এরকমই অন্ধ-নিশ্চিন্ত-রহমতশাসিত?

6. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৪ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:০২ অপরাহ্ণ)

   বাংলাদেশের পথিকৃৎ ক্রীড়াধারাভাষ্যকার আব্দুল হামিদের জীবনাবসান হল আজ সকালে ঢাকার এক হাসপাতালে।

   ক্রীড়া ধারাভাষ্যকার আব্দুল হামিদ আর নেই। শনিবার রাজধানীর একটি হাসপাতালে মৃত্যু হয়েছে তার।

   আব্দুল হামিদ বেশ কিছুদিন ধরে ইউনাইটেড হাসপাতালে ভর্তি ছিলেন। সেখানেই সকাল সাড়ে ৬টায় তার মৃত্যু হয় বলে বিডিনিউজ টোয়েন্টিফোর ডটকমকে জানিয়েছেন তার পুত্রবধূ ইসরাত কাইয়ুম।

   কয়েকমাস আগে আব্দুল হামিদের মেরুদণ্ডে টিউমার অপসারণ করা হয়। এরপর থেকেই অসুস্থ ছিলেন তিনি। তার বয়স হয়েছিল ৭৬ বছর।

   অবস্থা সঙ্কটাপন্ন হওয়ায় শুক্রবার বিকাল থেকেই আব্দুল হামিদকে লাইফ সাপোর্ট রাখা হয়েছিল। এর ২৪ ঘণ্টার মধ্যে তিনি চলে যান না ফেরার দেশে।

   দেশে ক্রীড়া ধারাভাষ্যের পুরোধা পুরুষ আব্দুল হামিদ। আর তাই এই অঙ্গনের সবাই তাকে ‘হামিদ ভাই’ নামেই সম্বোধন করতেন।

   আব্দুল হামিদ একুশে পদকে সম্মনিত। তিনি সাংবাদিকতায়ও যুক্ত ছিলেন, কাজ করছিলেন আমাদের সময়ে ক্রীড়া সম্পাদক হিসেবে।

   আব্দুল হামিদ ভলিবল খেলতেন। কিছুদিনের জন্য তিনি বাংলাদেশ অলিম্পিক অ্যাসোসিয়েশনের (বিওএ) মহাসচিবের দায়িত্বও পালন করেন।

   খবরের লিন্ক : ক্রীড়াঙ্গনের ‘হামিদ ভাই’ আর নেই।

7. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৪ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:৩৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

   আল্লাহ ভাবে এক আর চায়না করে আরেক। চীনের মুসলিম অধ্যুষিত (৪৫% মুসলিম) চিনজিয়াং (xinjiang) প্রদেশের আঞ্চলিক প্রশাসন সবাইকে পড়াশোনা ও কাজের স্বার্থে ঠিকভাবে খাওয়া দাওয়া করতে উৎসাহ দিচ্ছে, এবং সেসাথে এও বলেছে কাউকে জোর করে রোজা রাখা থেকে বিরত রাখা হবে না। আমাদের দেশে অবশ্য কায়েমি মাদ্রাসা ফ্রন্ট শান্ত আছে, চীনের এসব ব্যাপারে তারা মোটেই উত্তেজিত হয় না।

   China is discouraging some Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang from fasting during Ramadan. The government says the move is motivated by health concerns, but others said Friday that it’s a risky campaign to secularize the Muslim minority.

   Several city, county and village governments in Xinjiang have posted notices on their websites banning or discouraging Communist Party members, civil servants, students and teachers from fasting during the religious holiday.

   Regional spokeswoman Hou Hanmin was quoted in the state-run Global Times newspaper Friday as saying authorities encourage people to “eat properly for study and work” but don’t force anyone to eat during Ramadan.

   এবিষয়ে চীনের পত্রিকা গ্লোবাল টাইমসের প্রতিক্রিয়া।

   An AFP report on Wednesday said China restricts Ramadan fasting for Uyghurs in Xinjiang, including banning Party members, government officials and students from fasting or participating in religious activities during Ramadan.

   Hou said the authorities do encourage residents to eat properly for study and work purposes, but do not force people to eat during Ramadan.

   Turgunjan Tursun, a Uyghur scholar from the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that people can freely practice fasting in areas such as Turpan and the regional capital Urumqi, but in places such as Hotan and Kashgar in southern Xinjiang, where terrorist attacks have occurred frequently in recent times, government policies tended to be tighter.

   “Religious extremism is closely related to violence and terrorism, and cracking down on these is one of our top priorities,” said Hou.

   In some areas where religious extremism is common, children were reportedly forced to learn the Koran at underground camps, while some were abused or beaten to death if they refused to study it.

   In June, authorities in Hotan raided an illegal Koran teaching camp holding 54 children. The suspects started a fire with explosives, injuring 12 children and three policemen.

   Liu Changli, a teacher with the Shiyan primary school in Xinjiang’s Aketao county neighboring Kashgar, said that for the health of the children, her school encouraged the students not to practice fasting during Ramadan. She said this had received the consent of their parents.

   She added that the government is also making sure the children are not misled or hurt by criminals or terrorists during Ramadan, when extremists try to take advantage of religious sentiment.

   She added that Xinjiang is an area where crimes have been committed under the banner of freedom of religion.

   The Xinjiang government has been enhancing security and anti-terrorism measures after a spate of violent incidents, particularly in southern Xinjiang.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Xinjiang denies suppressing Islam।

   আমার কিন্তু চীনের এই উদ্যোগে ভাল লেগেছে, আমাদের এখানে সবাইকে পড়াশোনা ও কাজের স্বার্থে ঠিকভাবে খাওয়া দাওয়ায় উৎসাহ দেয়া উচিত এবং কেউ রোজা রাখতে চাইলে বাধা দেয়া উচিত নয়। কিন্তু এখানে মোল্লা থেকে ডাক্তার-কবিরাজ রোজার গুণগানে যেভাবে বৈজ্ঞানিক ফতোয়া দিতে শুরু করে চীনের উদাহরণ তাদেরকে ধাতস্থ করতে পারলে ভাল হত।

8. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৬ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১০:৫৯ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   আজ হিরোশিমা দিবস। পড়ুন কলকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের অধ্যাপক শ্যামল চক্রবর্তীর লেখা : হিরোশিমা থেকে ফুকুশিমা ও তারপর।

9. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৭ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৪:৩২ অপরাহ্ণ)

   অস্ট্রেলিয়ান শিল্পসমালোচক, রবার্ট হিউজেস, যিনি পরবর্তীতে ইউরোপে এবং জীবনের শেষ দিকে আমেরিকায় বসবাস করেছেন এবং কাজ করেছেন গত ০৬ আগস্ট নিউইয়র্কে দীর্ঘ রোগভোগের পর মৃত্যবরণ করেছেন। মৃত্যুকালে তার বয়স হয়েছিল ৭৪ বছর।

   

   Freedom did not mean idleness, however, as Hughes embraced the creative milieu on and, increasingly, off-campus. As well as being involved with the student newspaper and theatre, he also sold his paintings in Sydney’s galleries, and wrote and drew cartoons for publications including the Sunday Mirror and Observer, where he suddenly became art critic by default when the editor sacked the incumbent.

   As Hughes later observed, “Australia in 1958 was the only place in the world where someone as ignorant as I could have conducted his basic art training in public without being laughed off stage.”

   The prodigy quickly absorbed everything he could about art and the art of criticism, and was soon writing books including the ambitious Art of Australia. However, “by the early 1960s I could no longer conceal my worst inadequacies from myself. I was … eating my patch bare,” he wrote in his 2006 memoir, Things I Didn’t Know.

   After his mother’s death in 1963, Hughes moved to Europe, where he absorbed centuries of art previously only glimpsed in reproductions, then picked up work with publications such as the Sunday Times and BBC TV.

   In 1967 he married another Sydney expat in London, Danne Emerson, with whom he had his only child, Danton Hughes, the same year. Hughes indulged in the era’s taste for drugs and free love, but later described Danne as “a flying test-bed for every fad that existed in the 60s.” He also claimed that one of her many liaisons – with Jimmy Hendrix no less – led to him contracting gonorrhea.

   Their relationship soon broke down, though was not finally dissolved until 1981, when he married California housewife Victoria Whistler. This marriage also ended in divorce – at great financial cost to Hughes – then in 2003 he married artist Doris Downes, “the only woman who’s made me completely happy.”

   In 1970, New York became Hughes’s permanent base when he was appointed Time’s art critic – thanks to the magazine’s perseverance. Demoralised by his first wife’s abandonment, dodging debt collectors and without a phone, Hughes had been hard to find in London. Time finally connected via his neighbour’s phone, but drug-induced paranoia led Hughes to shout abuse then hang up, thinking it was the CIA calling about his participation in Vietnam War protests.

   Hughes quickly established himself in the United States, and further developed his international reputation, particularly through the acclaimed television series and companion books The Shock of the New and American Visions. His book about England’s colonisation of Australia, The Fatal Shore (1987), was another major success.

   Hughes’s fame was only enhanced by his colourful attacks, such as this assessment of Francis Bacon: “Some art is wallpaper. Bacon’s is flypaper”. His virulence grew in proportion with his disenchantment with postmodern art, and what he described as the “cultural gorge and puke of the early ’80s”.

   In 1996, his disenchantment extended beyond art as he plunged into a severe depression that required anti-depressants and psychotherapy for several years. Then, in 1999, he was involved in a horrific car crash near Broome. His injuries were nearly fatal (and continued to hamper him for the rest of his life), but it was the consequent legal proceedings that made the biggest headlines.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Robert Hughes turned criticism into an art।

10. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৯ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:৪০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    মধ্যপ্রাচ্য শুধু তেল, ধর্মীয় কঠোরতা আর সন্ত্রাসের পৃষ্টপোষকতার জায়গা নয়। মধ্যপ্রাচ্যে সংস্কৃতির জোরালো অবস্থানও আছে। মধ্যপ্রাচ্যের সংস্কৃতির বর্তমানের ৫০ রূপকার নিয়ে আলমনিটরের চমৎকার ফটোগ্যালারি : 50 People Shaping the Culture of the Middle East।

    Deena Amr, Jordan (ক্রমিক ৯)
    Jordan isn’t famous for its cinema, but young director and screenwriter Deena Amr is helping change that perception. Her first feature film, A 7 Hour Difference made a splash at the 2011 Dubai International Film Festival. The film portrays the struggles of Dalia, who is back home in Amman from her studies in the United States for her sister’s wedding. When her American boyfriend shows up, the relationship thrusts questions around women, culture and religion. Amr’s film screened in June at the Manhattan International Film Festival in New York.

    Thaer Hilal, Syria (ক্রমিক ৫০)

    Contemporary artist Thaer Hilal has compared the seasonal colors of his village, Al Nassireya, outside Damascus, with the patterned hues present in his paintings. He work has been featured in several international exhibits, museums and biennales, where he’s picked up awards. In addition to painting, he’s created installations. He told Al Arabiya recently: “Though I embody the pace of people, I am just a bystander who imparts everything around me to my paintings.” Hilal also lectures on art runs creative workshops for kids in the UAE, where he’s based.

    Khadija Al-Salami, Yemen (ক্রমিক ২)

    Khadija Al-Salami is considered the first female producer in Yemen. She was married at age 11, but later divorced and pursued her education, eventually becoming the press and cultural official at the Yemeni Embassy in Paris. Women’s lives figure prominently in her 20-some documentaries, including one about a female prisoner. After filming during Yemen’s unrest last year, she told The New York Times that she wanted to compare Yemeni and Tunisian women and “the roles they played in the revolutions.”

    Youssra El Hawary, Egypt (ক্রমিক ৪)

    With more than 170,000 hits on her April YouTube hit, “El Soor” (The Wall), singer Youssra El Hawary has been hailed as more than a passing Internet sensation. In the video, the skinny-jean-clad El Hawary, in her 20s, sings sweetly with accordion in tow, against the backdrop of a graffitied wall, ubiquitous in post-revolutionary Cairo. An actress and singer with local troupes, El Hawary is seen as an up-and-coming star of Egypt’s alternative music field.

    Ahmed Mater, Saudi Arabia (ক্রমিক ৫)

    Ahmed Mater is considered one of the most significant artists in the Saudi contemporary art world. His range spans painting, photography, installations, video and calligraphy and have been displayed extensively. Motifs from traditional and globalized culture often live throughout his work. He is also a founder of Edge of Arabia, an independent arts initiative that nurtures a network of artists in Saudi Arabia through exhibitions and educational programs.

    Adel Al Mshiti, Libya (ক্রমিক ১২)

    As Libyans rebelled against Muammar Gadhafi’s decades-long rule last year, Adel Al Mshiti’s song, “Sofa Nabqa Huna” (We Will Stay Here), became their soundtrack. The song repeatedly implores staying put, which served as a much-needed morale-booster as Libyans fought for their revolution. It’s a strong message from Al Mshiti, who was imprisoned for six years under Gadhafi. A doctor by profession, Al Mshiti told USA Today: “My music is my weapon.”

11. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৪ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৪:২৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    আগামীকাল মক্কায় শুরু হতে যাওয়া দুদিনব্যাপী ওআইসি (অর্গানাইজেশন অফ ইসলামিক কোঅপারেশন) সম্মেলন থেকে সিরিয়ার ওআইসির সদস্যপদ বাতিলের সিদ্ধান্ত আসতে পারে।

    Foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) proposed Monday to suspend Syria from the body at a meeting in Saudi Arabia, while a formal decision looks likely to be adopted on Wednesday.

    Top diplomats of OIC member states made the proposal at a preparatory meeting for an extra OIC summit scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

    The formal decision on Syria, which notionally requires a two-third majority, is very likely to be passed and adopted.

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৩:৪৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

      ওআইসি সিরিয়ার সদস্যপদ বাতিল করেছে।

      The Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria’s membership early on Thursday at a summit of Muslim leaders in Makkah, citing President Bashar Assad’s violent suppression of the Syrian revolt.

      …

      The statement by the 57-nation group said: “The conference decides to suspend the Syrian Arab Republic membership in the OIC and all its subsidiary organs, specialized and affiliated institutions.”
      The move had been approved on Monday at a preliminary meeting of OIC foreign ministers and was agreed on the summit’s second night despite opposition from Iran. The two-day emergency solidarity summit was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in the holy city of Makkah.
      Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah presided over the meeting, attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whose country has openly criticized the push to suspend Syria.
      Participants had agreed on “the need to end immediately the acts of violence in Syria and to suspend that country from the OIC.”
      The final statement said there had been “deep concern at the massacres and inhuman acts suffered by the Syrian people.”
      OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told a news conference the decision sent “a strong message from the Muslim world to the Syrian regime.”
      “This world can no longer accept a regime that massacres its people using planes, tanks and heavy artillery,” he added.
      It was “also a message to the international community stating that the Muslim world backs a peaceful solution (in Syria), wants an end to the bloodshed and refuses to let the problem degenerate into a religious conflict and spill over” into the wider region, Ihsanoglu said.
      The emergency summit of the world’s largest Islamic bloc opened late Tuesday with the suspension proposal put forward by a preparatory meeting of foreign ministers, a symbolic attempt to pile pressure on Damascus over its deadly crackdown on a 17-month uprising.
      The move by the OIC, which represents 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, is aimed at further isolating Assad’s embattled regime.
      Syria was suspended from the Arab League last year over its clampdown on the uprising that Assad characterized as a plot by Western and rival powers to overthrow his regime.
      The meeting called for the “immediate implementation of the transitional peace plan and the development of a peaceful mechanism that would allow building a new Syrian state based on pluralism, democratic and civilian system.”
      It also urged the UN Security Council to “assume fully its responsibility by stopping the ongoing violence and bloodshed in Syria and finding a peaceful and lasting solution to the Syrian crisis.”
      The participants also stressed “the principal responsibility of the Syrian government for the continuation of violence and bloodshed.”
      Algeria, Pakistan and Kazakhstan had called for the final statement of the summit, to which Damascus was not invited, to also pin blame on the armed opposition for the bloodshed in Syria, according to informed sources at the summit.
      And Egypt’s President Muhammad Mursi proposed the formation of a committee grouping his country with key players Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to try to find a settlement to the Syrian conflict, a delegate had said.
      Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday criticized the move to suspend Syria’s membership of the OIC, saying it would not resolve the conflict and was not in line with the group’s charter.
      However, a source close to the participants told AFP that the Islamic Republic which had repeatedly voiced support to its Damascus ally met the decision with a “soft reaction.”
      Iran’s president had avoided mention of the Syrian conflict in a 55-minute speech on Tuesday night. “There has been a clear change in the Iranian position toward Syria,” according to a diplomat at the Makkah summit.
      In a conciliatory move, King Abdullah proposed on Tuesday setting up a center in Riyadh for dialogue between Muslim Sunnis and Shiites.
      In a second statement called the “Makkah Pact,” the participants proclaimed their support for “Muslim people who are oppressed like the Syrian people.”
      It underlined the summit’s support for “the oppressed Muslim peoples… who face the combat aircraft and heavy guns of the regular armies as is the case of the Syrian people.”
      The statement backed cooperation between Muslim states, the fight against divisions between Muslims, promotion of “moderate” Islam and the “fight against terrorism and the thinking behind it.”

      বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : OIC suspends Syria’s membership।

12. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৭ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১২:২১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    লন্ডনে ইকুয়েডরের দূতাবাসে যখন জুলিয়ান অ্যাসাঞ্জে আশ্রয় নিয়েছেন তখন পশ্চিমাদের এত তোলপাড়ের কী আছে?

    Ecuador would offer political asylum to WikiLeaks website founder Julian Assange, who has sought refuge in the country’s embassy in London, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said Thursday.

    The decision came only one day after the British government threatened to storm the London embassy to arrest Assange. The British government has ordered Assange be extradited to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of rape and sexual assault.

    Patino said the Ecuadorian government would keep “loyal to its tradition to protect those who seek refuge with us at our diplomatic missions,” he told a press conference.

    He said the decision was made after Britain, Sweden and the United States refused to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to the United States for trial over his release of a mass of classified U.S. documents.

    Patino said Ecuador was worried, if Assange was extradited to the United States, he would not receive a fair trial, adding it was a “sovereign decision” protected by international law.

    “Ecuador feels … that he could be the victim of political persecution because of his decisive defense of the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press,” he said.

    খুব বেশি দিন আগের কথা নয়, এবছর মে মাসের শুরু দিকে চীনের অ্যাকটিভিস্ট চেন গুয়াংচেং-এর বেইজিং-এ আমেরিকান দূতাবাসে অবস্থান ও তাকে হাসপাতালে ভর্তি করা নিয়ে স্বয়ং আমেরিকান পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রী হিলারি ক্লিন্টনের জড়িয়ে পড়ার কথা আমরা জানি। এবং তখন পশ্চিম সম্পূর্ণ নিশ্চুপ ছিল। মে মাসের সুপারিশকৃত লিন্কে লিখেছেলাম, বেইজিং-এর আমেরিকান দূতাবাস থেকে পায়ের চিকিৎসার জন্য ‘চেন’কে হাসপাতালে পাঠানো হয়েছিল এবং বলা হয়েছিল ‘চেন’ এরপর তার পরিবারের সাথে থাকতে সম্মত হয়েছে। কিন্তু এখন পরিস্থিতি ভিন্ন ‘চেন’ নিজেকে আর চীনে নিরাপদ মনে করছেন না, তিনি এখন দেশের বাইরে চলে যেতে চান। আবার ‘চেন’কে দ্রুত বেইজিং-এর আমেরিকান দূতাবাস থেকে হাসপাতালে পাঠানোর পেছনে অনেকে মনে করছেন হিলারির সরাসরি তৎপরতা জড়িত রয়েছে।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২০ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:১৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      লন্ডনে ইকুয়েডরের দূতাবাসের ব্যালকনিতে দীর্ঘ দুমাস পর জনসমক্ষে উপস্থিত হয়েছেন জুলিয়ান অ্যাসাঞ্জে, দশ মিনিটের ভাষণে ওবামাকে আহ্বান জানিয়েছেন ‘ঠিক কাজটি করুন‘:

      “The United States must pledge before the world (it) will not pursue journalists for shining light on the secret crimes of the powerful. The U.S. administration’s war against whistle blowers must end,” he said directly appealing to President Barack Obama to “do the right thing’’ .

      Mr Assange also demanded the release of Bradley Manning, the American soldier awaiting trial for allegedly leaking secret government files to WikiLeaks, pointing out that he had already spent more than 800 days in detention without trial whereas “the legal maximum’’ was 120 days.

      Wearing a full-sleeved light blue shirt and a red tie with his hair heavily cropped, Mr Assange stood pointedly next to the Ecuadorian national flag as a line of police officers waited outside to arrest him if he stepped out of the embassy.

      “I am here today because I cannot be closer to you,” he told his supporters.

      Mr Assange, who is at the centre of a diplomatic row between Britain and Ecuador after the latter granted him asylum, recalled how the police “ descended on this building’’ as the British Government threatened to strip Ecuador of its diplomatic status and storm its embassy to seize him.

      “Inside this embassy in the dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up inside the building through its internal fire escape. But I knew there would be witnesses, and that is because of you,” he said.

      Describing the threat to WikiLeaks as an attack on free speech , Mr Assange said: “We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America. Will it return to and re-affirm the revolutionary values it was founded on? Or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark.”

      He concluded his 10-minute speech, peppered with praise for Ecuador, with a “ thumbs up’’ to the world’s media.

      বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Stop “witch-hunt,” Assange tells U.S।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:৩৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

      আইনের দীর্ঘ হাত? ইকুয়েডর দূতাবাস থেকে যেভাবেই বের হোক অ্যাসাঞ্জে, তাকে ব্রিটিশ পুলিশ গ্রেপ্তার করবেই। আলোচনায় কিছু না হলে ইকুয়েডরের সরকার ইন্টারন্যাশনাল কোর্ট অফ জাস্টিসের শরণাপন্ন হবে অ্যাসাঞ্জের বিরুদ্ধে এই পুলিশি গ্রেপ্তারি পরোয়ানার বিরুদ্ধে।

      British police are to arrest Julian Assange “under any circumstances” if he attempts to flee the Ecuadorian embassy. The secret police documents revealing the order, were found in plain view outside the embassy, in the arms of London’s…finest.

      When Lewis Whyld of the Press Association snapped a photo of a few officers standing on the steps outside of the Knightsbridge embassy on Friday, he had no idea that Assange’s fate was literally in one of the officer’s hands.

      The handwritten tactical brief, scrawled in barely legible scribble and partially obscured by the officer’s arm, says that however Assange leaves the embassy – be it in a diplomatic car, container or bag – he should be arrested.

      “Brief – EQ. Embassy Brief Summary of current position Re: Assange. Action required Assange to be arrested under all circumstances. He comes out with dip immune [diplomatic immunity] as dip bag in dip bag in dip vehicle ARRESTED. Discuss possibilities of distraction SS10 to liaise…provide additional support,” the visible portion of the “restricted” official document reads.
      
      Despite diplomatic bags, containers and vehicles legally holding the same status as embassies, the document seems to entail that MET police would violate that immunity to seize Assange in the event of an escape.

      The officers also appear to be prepared for any smokescreen allowing Assange to slip out of the embassy as the documents implores the officers to be vigilant for “the possibility of distraction.”

      The calls for “additional support” via an unknown agency called SS10 might fall on deaf ears, as Scotland Yard said they had no idea what it is.

      S020, the Met’s counter-terrorism protective security command, is written near the bottom right-hand corner of the document, though no context is given as to why. The idea that the counter-terrorism command could have any role to play in seizing someone wanted for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault, will likely set off alarm bells for Assange and his supporters.

      Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy for over two months, after Britain’s highest court gave the green light for his extradition to Sweden. Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador last Thursday over fears he could be extradited to the US via Stockholm and possibly put to death for his role in the leaking of sensitive diplomatic cables.

      Britain and Ecuador have been locked in a heated diplomatic stand-off over the Wikileaks founders fate, ever since, with British Foreign Secretary William Hague saying under no circumstances would Assange be granted safe passage out of the UK.

      On Thursday, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told RT a previously announced UK threat to temporarily strip the country’s London embassy of its diplomatic immunity in order arrest Assange “remains in force.”

      Patino vowed that any move to “invade our embassy” would be a serious breach of international law, which would entail “serious consequences.” While he hopes that a diplomatic solution can be reached with the UK, he said that Ecuador is prepared “to turn to the International Court of Justice to be able to ensure safe passage for Mr. Assange.”

13. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৮ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:১৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    নিল হারবিসন (Neil Harbisson) সম্বন্ধে আমার কিছুই জানা ছিল না, জানা ছিল না কিছু আইবর্গ (Eyeborg) নিয়েও। আজকে ফাইনান্সিয়াল টাইমসের ম্যাগাজিনে একটা লেখা পড়ে আমি আপ্লুত। লেখাটা এখানে পুরো তুলে দিচ্ছি, একটি অক্ষরও পড়তে ও শুনতে ভুলবেন না!

    Not many people go for a walk in the supermarket for fun, but I do. I have an electronic eye that converts light into sound to enable me to “hear” colour – so the cleaning product aisle is very exciting. The rows of rainbow-coloured bottles sound like a symphony to me.

    I’m totally colour blind. I was born with achromatopsia, a condition that means I see the world in greyscale. I was diagnosed when I was 11; before then, my parents thought I was just confusing colours, or couldn’t learn the difference.

    I was born in Belfast but grew up in Catalonia. As a child, I tried lots of ways to understand colours. At first, I related them to people: when someone talked about blue, I thought about a friend of mine who was very brainy. Pink was a feminine, hippie kind of girl; yellow was a boy from London, very childlike and eccentric.

    

    Kids at school teased me – once, someone gave me a red pen and told me it was blue, and I wrote a whole essay in the wrong colour. People found it funny when I wore mismatched socks, and as a teenager I wore only black and white clothes. In secondary school, my art teacher gave me permission to paint in greyscale.

    When I moved to Devon to study music composition at Dartington College, I heard a lecture by Adam Montandon, a cybernetics expert. He helped to create my first “eyeborg” device, which lets me hear light waves. The very first thing I looked at with it, outside the classroom, was a red noticeboard. It made the note F, the lowest sound on the spectrum. Red was my favourite colour for years.

    I had cables coming out of my head at first, snaking down into a big backpack with a laptop. It made people a bit uncomfortable. But now the eyeborg translates colour into sound using a chip at the back of my skull. It makes noise by pressing against my head, but from September it will be inserted into the bone. I have to recharge myself at a power socket, but I’m working on ways to use my blood circulation instead.

    Thanks to the eyeborg, I’ve made a career by combining music and art. I do concerts where I plug myself into a set of speakers and play the colours of the audience back to them. The good thing is, if it sounds bad, it’s their fault! I also make sound portraits of individuals. Prince Charles sounds surprisingly similar to Nicole Kidman.

    I began to perceive sound as colour, too. Telephone rings became green; Amy Winehouse seemed red and pink. So I started to paint using the sounds around me. I’ve made pictures of pieces by Vivaldi, Beethoven and Mozart.

    The eyeborg has changed the canons of beauty for me. I like listening to paintings by Andy Warhol, Joan Miró and Mark Rothko, because they all produce very clear notes. But Da Vinci, Velázquez and Munch sound disturbing. They paint with many shades of the same colour, so they produce notes that are too close together. They sound like the music from a scene in a horror movie when something bad is about to happen.

    My bedroom is black and white, which are silent and allow me to sleep. The floor of my house is painted red, which makes the lowest note and so gives a nice depth to the sound of the house. The back of my front door is green, which is a middle-sounding note – it’s like a tuning fork that resets me before I go out.

    There’s no legal protection for cyborgs. In 2010, I started a foundation to protect our rights. I’ve been kicked out of Harrods because I was perceived as a possible security threat, and many cinemas don’t let me in because they think I’m going to record the film. I did get permission to appear with the eyeborg in my passport photograph, which has made things a lot easier with airport security.

    I never take the eyeborg off: I wear it to sleep, and in the shower. It feels like a part of me. When I started to hear the sound of colour in my dreams, that’s when I began to think of myself as a cyborg.

    লিন্ক : ‘I’m a human cyborg – I can hear colour’।

14. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৮ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:৩৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ভারত বার্মা পাকিস্তান বাংলাদেশ : হিন্দু-মুসলমান নিয়ে নতুন দাঙ্গার সলতে পাকানো হচ্ছে, এর পেছনে কি সুনিয়ন্ত্রিত ষড়যন্ত্র রয়েছে?

15. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২২ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:০৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

    গত সোমবার বার্মায় গণমাধ্যমের উপর থেকে প্রি-সেন্সরশিপ তুলে নেওয়ার যেঘোষণা দেশটির সরকার দিয়েছে তার প্রকৃত অর্থ কী?

    The decision of the Burmese government on Monday to abolish the pre-censorship of articles in the national media has received a mixed response. The Irrawaddy examines the consequences of this landmark move.

    What did the PSRD say to editors?

    The Burmese government told editors of weekly journals on Monday that, effective immediately, their outlets “no longer need to pass the censorship board.” Tint Swe, the head of Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), added that the easing of restrictions was the result of policy changes within the Ministry of Information.

    So time to congratulate journalists in Burma?

    Journalists who faced pressure and imprisonment in Burma cautiously welcomed the announcement that they will no longer be required to submit articles to the country’s draconian censorship board. But they are very aware that “Big Brother” is still there to monitor and watch.

    The move is not enough to restore media freedom. However, it is safe to say that the government has made a small concession after shutting down local journals and facing pressure and street protest from journalists.

    So no more censorship and Burma’s enjoys press freedom?

    No, no yet. The government will continue to monitor news and bulletins and the censorship board is still active and has not been abolished. Burma’s 1962 Printers and Publishers Registration Act is still there—the act was imposed shortly after former dictator Gen Ne Win seized power.

    Moreover, editorial staff at journals are required to follow 16 guidelines towards protecting the three national causes— non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity, perpetuation of sovereignty—and “journalistic ethics” to ensure their stories are accurate and do not jeopardize national security.

    Journalist also say that the notorious 2004 Electronics Act remains in place and activists, journalists, blogger and social media commentators have been put behind bars under it if found sending prohibited information, messages or photos through the internet.

    In Burma, many journalists exercise heavy self-censorship and this will continue.

    What about the new media law? Is it still coming to Burma?

    The Ministry of Information has been drafting the new media law and will soon submit this to Parliament. The bill has been modified several times and has 10 chapters including one on the ethics and responsibilities of journalists. Journalists in Burma have complained that they have not seen the proposals yet and have been denied the opportunity to provide input and feedback.

    What are sensitive issues when reporting in Burma?
    
    In spite of the continued presence of the PSRD and existing laws it seems that more rules and regulations are being introduced.

    Recently, journalists were given stern warnings not to cover communal violence in Arakan (Rakhine) State. Weekly journals were also shut down after they reported the health of former junta number two Vice-Snr-Gen Maung Aye and a possible cabinet reshuffle.

    The government remains concerned about media reports of corruption, top generals and their business empires, the military’s poor human rights record, army offensives in ethnic regions, Burma’s relationships with neighboring countries including China, India and Thailand and as well as its shady military connections with North Korea.

    But the Burmese press is freer under President Thein Sein?
    
    Yes, this is true. Local journals can now report more news which was forbidden in the past.

    They can write about the opposition movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, the 88 Generation Students, land confiscation, parliamentary debates and the current reform process in Burma.

    Thein Sein mentioned the importance of the “fourth pillar” in his national speeches and he gives interviews to foreign media. There is a rumor that he wants to see more press freedom and his office recently gave the green light to form an interim press council. However, the new 20-member body has since been put on hold due to dissatisfaction amongst members regarding its role.

    So what next for the Burmese media?

    Journalists will continue to push for the final abolishment of the PSRD and all oppressive controls on the industry. They will also ask the government allow daily newspapers.

    In fact, ever more weekly journals have been facing defamation lawsuits from government officials and businessmen. The Ministry of Information still controls publishing licenses and any publication that harms the reputation of a government department can still be reprimanded under the Printers and Publishers Registration Act, and publishers can also face heavy sentences under Burma’s Penal Code if they are found guilty of inciting the public to unlawful activity.

    However, as Burma is going through a period of transition it is predictable that there will be setbacks and conflicts with the media. The fight to have more freedom will continue and journalists will also need to show they are more professional and responsible in reporting—using the freedom they so desire wisely is essential.

16. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২২ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৯:৪২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    উত্তরপূর্ব ভারতকে বুঝতে শেখর গুপ্তের অবশ্যপাঠ্য লেথা।

    A venerable old teacher in my journalism school taught us the “three example rule”. So here are the three I picked up over the past week as India’s “northeast” hit the headlines for reasons happy and sad.

    The first two came as Hindi cinema responded joyfully to Manipuri boxer Mary Kom’s success. No surprise that Shahid Kapoor, while hailing her as India’s “million dollar baby” called her “Maricom” as if she was some latest internet-mobile phone product rhyming with telecom he is endorsing, and kept the twitterati amused and indignant for a day. Then someone much older, enormously better read and cerebral, Amitabh Bachchan, said she hailed from Assam, only to correct it later. And finally, a little exchange I had with a genuinely well-meaning former civil servant (with long and distinguished service in the Northeast) on a TV show on whether Mary Kom’s success would change our perceptions of the Northeast. He wasn’t happy that so many boys and girls from the Northeast, now spreading all over India, were mostly working in our service industries, from restaurants to airlines, to hospitals. Why aren’t they doing more important jobs?

    Each one underlines to us some aspect of the ignorance, insensitivity and patronising “mainstream” attitudes that we retain about the Northeast. You can understand Shahid Kapoor not being able to spell his favourite boxer’s name. He probably has no time to read the sports pages in the newspapers, or go beyond the glamour supplements. Mary Kom, I’d suspect, can spell better than him, and definitely can teach him a real thing or two about boxing. But Senior Bachchan? You can understand someone of an older generation (including mine) confusing a Naga, Mizo, Khasi or Garo for being an Assamese — Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya were districts in old Assam. But Manipur?

    It is one of the oldest and most distinct states in India and has never been part of any other state. Its demographics can, however, be confusing. Its largest and most distinct ethnic group are the Meiteis of the plains, most of whom are Vaishnavite Hindus and non-tribal. They have given us many stars in weightlifting (Kunjarani Devi), boxing (Dingko Singh, Suranjoy Singh, Devendro Singh), archery (Bombayla Devi) and, not to forget, hockey (Thoiba Singh). Manipur’s hills are inhabited by diverse tribes and many of the conflicts that arise there, including the recent blockades, are because of inter-tribal tensions, compounded by lousy and corrupt governance. Even when I first went to Imphal as a reporter in January 1981, the state was often described as “Moneypour” for its leaky and corrupt government, large sections of which were hand-in-glove with one or the other of its many insurgent groups. Our northeastern state’s demographics can fox anybody. For every tribe that inhabits Manipur’s hills, Nagas, Mizos, Kukis and, of course, Mary Kom’s Kom (a microscopic tribe of just over 20,000), for example, a larger number live in a neighbouring state or Myanmar. So you can understand the senior AB getting mixed up.

    The most important of the three, however, was the civil servant’s response — and not because it was lacking in empathy. Both in his lament that young northeasterners were coming to the mainland and finding jobs only (or mainly) in the services sector, and that more effort was needed to “integrate” the Northeast with the rest of India, he highlighted the fact that the establishment elite’s view of that region has not essentially changed in the last many decades. It is still a distant and estranged region that needs to be somehow brought into the fold, “Indianised”. That stars like Mary Kom would help “us” and “them” in that endeavour. And further, that, it can only change if somehow, people from that region, particularly those with distinctive northeastern features and therefore subjected to truly unfortunate and now criminally illegal racial taunts in our big cities (mainly Delhi), move into workplaces “more important” than the ones they are currently visible at.

    It betrays, equally, a lack of understanding of economic mobility — people move into jobs and professions for which they have distinctive skill advantage. And also the added strength of work ethic, dignity of labour and casteless, classless social equality that our tribal societies mostly — and thankfully — still retain. I had my first exposure to this wonderful non-hierarchical view of life in my early travels to the Northeast when I found, to my total surprise, drivers, peons, police escorts all sitting down with the minister and his guests to eat at roadside dhabas. And then, at the Aizawl secretariat, a post-lunch table tennis game between my old friend Fanai Malsawma, then education minister, and his driver. As the driver thrashed Malsawma, he continued to remind him of how slow, lazy and leaden-footed he had become since he was made a minister. And others, mostly drivers and junior employees, sniggered and applauded. Show me a driver in the mainland who will thrash his minister at any game. Or, a minister who will take it in his stride.

    It is because of this remarkable tribal approach to life, casteless egalitarianism, dignity of labour, that tens of thousands of our minutest minorities have discovered how indispensable they are to the booming services sector in our big cities. And they bring some of the most remarkably unique talents, besides, indeed, boxing, archery and weightlifting. A majority of singers and musicians at our restaurants and bars, even at Rashtrapati Bhavan at the banquet for Barack Obama, are boys and girls from the Northeast. You cannot go to a restaurant, bar, or spa, fly on an airplane or be laid up at a hospital without finding someone from the Northeast performing a key function. Should we look down on them patronisingly? Can we even afford to? Go ask the owners of these businesses, even security companies, who are now running around the platforms of Bangalore’s railway station, pleading with their northeastern employees not to flee. These terrified young people represent the first generation of our northeastern compatriots to venture out, seeking a living and dignity in the mainland. We owe it to them — and to ourselves — to make them feel wanted, respected and secure.

    Most of us do not even know how tiny these minorities are. There are just over a million and a half Nagas, less than a million of Mizos and all the tribes in Manipur do not add up to a million (7.4 lakh in the 2001 census). Add to that a million each of Khasis and Garos. Arunachal Pradesh has just about a million tribals. And the Bodos, much in the news for the wrong reasons lately? Just about 15 lakh, scattered over several districts of mostly lower and middle Assam.

    Their rising presence and indispensability to our cities speak of their brilliant talent which, in turn, is only matched by our ignorance about them. That ignorance is responsible for our lack of respect for our most distant countrymen, as well as our failure to understand what makes them angry. The latest and the saddest example is our lazy view of the Bodo violence through the prism of our mainland’s communal/ electoral politics. Identity, ethnicity, livelihood and survival in the Northeast, including Assam, are very complex issues, fuelled by native peculiarities rather than our classical Hindu-Muslim paradigm. Most Bodos are not even traditional Hindus. Many follow their own indigenous faith, and a sizeable number are now Christian. They are not attacking these settlers because they are Muslim. Nor were the Lalungs, or Tiwas as they are known today (it will be a stretch even now to describe them as Hindus), who killed more than 3,000 in four hours in Nellie in February 1983. It just so happens that the settlers (who the tribes see as alien infiltrators) are Muslim, and Bengali-speaking. But it is better to leave such grave and complex misconceptions about our northeastern citizens for another day. For now, we are struggling to spell their names right, to even figure out where they are coming from. Thirty-one years back, when Arun Shourie sent me to the Northeast as this newspaper’s correspondent, the cashier had earnestly asked me in which currency he should be sending my salary. Events of the past 10 days would tell you that we haven’t changed very much since.

17. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৩ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১২:৩৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

    চীনের নগরায়ন বুঝতে একটি চমৎকার লেখা : Moving to the city।

    In China, there is no private property in land. Rural land belongs to collectives, urban land to governments. Citizens, firms, organisations have only user rights over land, no ownership rights. As a consequence, once the government sponsors an industrial or urban project — factories, metros, high-speed trains, bridges, roads, housing, commercial buildings — it faces little legal contestation.

    Chinese governments can easily claim that urbanisation is in the public interest and individual interests must be sacrificed for the greater good of society. Confident that no legal challenges can deter them, 60 per cent of the provincial cities are currently planning to build metros. From an Indian perspective, that is truly staggering. Only Delhi metro — and to some extent, Kolkata — have gone smoothly.

    If legal contestation is ruled out, can Chinese citizens mount political challenges? Considerable protest in China has indeed emerged over “land grabs”, leading to the reversal of government plans. But lacking opposition parties and a free press, such “citizen successes” have only been episodic, not systematic. Things can change in the future, but that is where they are at the moment.

    India’s democracy allows routine challenges to the government’s plans. Big urban projects often get entangled in legal or political contestation — over change of land use, compensation terms, rehabilitation plans, corruption. China is perhaps not less corrupt, but an Anna Hazare-style movement is impossible.

    Clearly, the Chinese system offers greater political and legal space for urbanisation. But who uses this space and how? The answer points to another great difference between the two countries.

    In China, local governments have led the drive for urbanisation. They receive a proportion of taxes collected from commercial activity, but most of all, they keep a large part of the revenue that transformation of land use — from rural to urban — generates. The more local governments convert rural lands for commercial purposes, the greater their incomes. Moreover, as the land becomes urban, government benefits of urban planning — better sewerage, water, power, schools — also arrive. In rural areas, these public services, provided by the rural collectives, are rickety.

    Thus, the incentives for Chinese local governments are all geared towards urbanisation. Again, the contrast with India could not be sharper. India’s cities may be engines of economic growth, but politically, India’s democracy is weighted towards the countryside. Elections are decided in the villages, not in the cities. As a consequence, public resources flow towards the countryside in greater magnitude. The rural population is currently about two thirds of India’s total population, and the urban population a third. But the budget of India’s ministry of rural development is five to six times larger than that of the ministry of urban development.

    Equally important, in India, the revenue from the transformation of agricultural land to commercial land does not go to local governments. As a result, unlike China, India’s rural local governments have a vested interest in staying rural. To become urban is to disown a potential entitlement to greater public funds — for example, allocations from the mammoth NREGA programmes.

    Under these conditions, India’s urbanisation is bound to be slower. But a final question remains. Who has paid for China’s urban transformation? Are there only winners, or also some losers?

    China’s urbanising experience relates directly to the Nobel Prize winning theory of W. Arthur Lewis, a development economist of the 1950s. His basic insight was as follows: labour can be pulled out of agriculture for use as cheap industrial labour, allowing profits to be made, and the profits so made can be reinvested, leading to a virtuous cycle of rising investment and higher economic growth — not forever, but for quite long. China appears to have followed this route. Its transformation is manufacturing-led. Peasants have been turned into industrial workers.

    But this process has been policed via the Chinese hukou system. In India, a rural resident can get on a train in Azamgarh; head towards Mumbai; find a place to sleep, if necessary on Mumbai’s sidewalks or in an already crowded slum; and look for a job. In China, the movement is tightly regulated.

    The hukou system is a residence permit system. Also, an urban hukou comes with health, education, retirement, housing and unemployment benefits; a rural hukou has fewer benefits. Beijing today has 19.6 million residents, only 13 million have an urban hukou.

    It is estimated that carrying rural hukou, 200 million migrants work in China’s factories today. Compared to urban hukou holders, they pay more for healthcare and for education of their children, and enjoy virtually no unemployment and retirement benefits. Indeed, in stark contrast to the free public schooling for urban hukou holders, the education of the migrant workers’ children is mostly private and so expensive that a whole generation of children is growing up in the countryside with grandparents, where they can afford education but are deprived of parents, who are busy earning wages in urban factories.

    China, thus, has two kinds of citizenship: an urban citizenship, and a rural one. The hukou system also allows China to ensure that slums do not exist in the middle of cities, only in the periphery.

    The Chinese government appears to be saying to its rural folk: we promise you a manufacturing job, but you are not free. In contrast, India is telling its rural citizens: you are free to move, but we can’t promise you a job.

18. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ আগস্ট ২০১২ (২:৫৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ভারতের সাম্প্রতিক ইন্টারনেট ভিত্তিক ‘হিংসাত্মক বক্তব্য’ যা আসামের দাঙ্গাকে চারিদিকে ছড়িয়ে দেয়ার চেষ্টা করেছিল তার বিরুদ্ধে ভারত সরকার টুইটার হ্যান্ডেল, ফেসবুক পেজ, ইউটিউব ভিডিও, ব্লগস্পটস, বিভিন্ন ওয়েবসাইটের নির্দিষ্ট পাতা, সম্পূর্ণ ওয়েবসাইট মিলে প্রায় ৩০০ আইটেম ব্লক করে দিয়েছিল। কিন্তু কেন এই ধরনের ‘চৈনিক ৪০৪ ফায়ারওয়াল‘এ অভ্যস্ত হয়ে পড়ছে গণতান্ত্রিক সরকারগুলো? গণতান্ত্রিক দেশগুলো পেনাল কোড ব্যবহার না করে উত্তরোত্তর এই সেন্সরশিপ ব্যবহার করার প্রবণতা মতপ্রকাশের স্বাধীনতার জন্য এক বড় হুমকি। ভারতের দৈনিক পত্রিকা ‘দি হিন্দু’র এই সম্পাদকীয় সবার অবশ্যই পড়া উচিত। সবার বোঝা উচিত টুইটার হ্যান্ডেল, ফেসবুক পেজ, ইউটিউব ভিডিও, ব্লগস্পটস, বিভিন্ন অ্যাকটিভিস্ট ওয়েবসাইট শুধু ‘হিসাংত্মক বক্তব্য’ প্রচার করে না তার চেয়েও বেশি ‘হিসাংত্মক বক্তব্য’এর বিরুদ্ধে অবস্থান নিয়ে থাকে।

    Tweets and twits
    The orders issued by the Ministry of Communication and IT to block more than 300 items on the Internet, including Twitter handles, Facebook pages, YouTube videos, blogposts, pages of certain websites, and in some cases entire websites, tell a revealing story of a government that has simply not applied its mind to the issue of how to deal with hate speech, both cyber and traditional. There can be no argument against taking down material that can incite violence, and some of the targeted content rightly needed to be blocked. But this should have been done transparently, with judicial oversight. In the present case, it is not clear what laws have been invoked to block the items specified in the four orders issued from August 18 to 21. Certainly, the orders themselves do not make reference to any law. As pointed out by the Centre for Internet and Society (http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/analysing-blocked-sites-riots-communalism), if the government had acted under the Information Technology Act, the host servers of the affected sites should have been notified and given 48 hours to respond under the IT Rules of 2009; and if it used the emergency provision in the Rules, which are themselves opaque, the orders should have come up before an ‘examination of request’ committee within 48 hours. Another serious problem is that the orders do not mention the duration of the blocks.

    Especially disturbing is the decision to block the Twitter handles of right-wing agitators and one pro-Hindutva journalist. Bad taste, warped logic and chauvinist comment do not, by themselves, add up to hate speech or criminal incitement. If an individual is really spreading hate through speech, print or the Internet, let the government proceed against him or her under the Indian Penal Code — where the courts will have the final word — rather than indulging in censorship that is pre-emptive and arbitrary. And mindless too: among the sites blocked is an anti-hate page on a Pakistani website which was one of the first to expose how fake photographs had been used to whip up Islamist passion on the Rakhine clashes in Myanmar. A London School of Economics-Guardian study of the 2011 London riots documents how Twitter was used extensively in a positive way, to organise community clean-up operations after the riots. On the other hand, their analysis of 2.5 million tweets showed, the response to messages inciting riots was ‘overwhelmingly negative’. The lesson from this is that it is possible to counter hate on social media through the same platform. This is really what the government should be doing, instead of the Sisyphean task of trying to block noxious content that will always find other ways of bubbling to the surface.

19. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৪:০৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বাংলাদেশে বার্মা বদ্বীপের সাম্প্রতিক বন্যা নিয়ে তেমন গুরুত্ব দিয়ে সংবাদ প্রচার চোখে পড়েনি। প্রতিবেশী দেশের প্রাকৃতিক দুর্যোগে প্রথম প্রতিবেশী দেশেরই এগিয়ে আসা উচিত। বাংলাদেশের পক্ষ থেকে আনুষ্ঠানিক ভাবে ত্রাণ সাহায্য এ চিকিৎসক দল পাঠানোর কোনো উদ্যোগের খবর এখনো দেখিনি। দেশের সরকারি ও বেসরকারি সব ত্রাণসংস্থার দৃষ্টি আকর্ষণ করছি।

    Fierce Flooding Disrupts Delta Life
    Although they live in thatch huts on stilts up to six feet high, flooding is still an unwelcome annual visitor for those living on farmland stretching across the Ngawun River in the Irrawaddy Delta—the rice bowl of Burma.

    “As we live in a low-lying area, floods are not a big deal for us. But this one is unusual,” said Daw Hmway of Shin Gyi Pyauk Village by Thapaung, a provincial town more than 20 miles from the divisional capital Pathein (Bassein).

    A heavy deluge caused the river to rise four feet above its danger level of 17 feet last week, she said. Water started to lap the bamboo floor of her stilted hut—an experience which astonished the 70-year-old who last encountered such levels in 2004.

    While sitting in the village monastery where she and dozens of other people have sought refuge for the last two weeks, Daw Hmway told The Irrawaddy that she was afraid because the flooding has already destroyed 18 houses in her village.

    “It’s quite alarming for us,” she said. “The water shakes our hut. What if our house falls down? That’s why we are staying here now.”

    Daw Hmway is one of more than 80,000 people who have been affected by this year’s unusually strong monsoon.

    

    Situated in a flood plain, more than 10,000 acres of farmland in Thapaung are now submerged, according to figures from the township’s Irrigation Department, creating a vast expanse of water as far as the eye can see.

    The division’s relief management committee said 24 out of 26 townships in the whole delta region have been hit by torrential rain and floods this month—a big blow to Burma’s annual rice yield as local farmers contribute 20 percent of national production.

    “It’s taken for granted that every affected farmer will resume their work as soon as the water subsides. But the problem is that they don’t have any capital for tools and seeds. The relevant authorities have to think strategically for the good of farmers and production,” said the director of a rice wholesale company in Rangoon who asked to remain anonymous.

    On a recent visit to some affected villages in Thapaung, The Irrawaddy witnessed flood victims still reeling from their dreadful experience—staying at village primary schools and monasteries, which are usually built on higher ground and hastily converted into relief camps.

    “Even though we don’t have enough food, we have to share what we have,” said U Wimala, the abbot of Aye Myitta Monastery in Shin Gyi Pyauk. His rickety premises are now sheltering dozens of flood victims.

    The government was quick into action late last week when a quantity of rice was delivered to every household in the affected area—ahead of other informal relief efforts organized by well-wishers.

    “Yes, we had the government relief supply but it is only 0.14 bushels [less than one gallon]. We have 10 family members. It’s not enough,” complained Sandar Cho, a mother-of-four from Kya Ku Village.

    The local primary school has been forced to close and is currently packed with flood victims ranging from a coughing old man to breast-feeding mums and children who a fortnight ago would recite lessons here. A few pigs are tethered in the corner while a distressed rooster crows every five seconds.

    When the floodwater reached the floor of his house last week, Aung Thein hurriedly assembled a makeshift platform at a higher level in the living room to accommodate his sick father and five-year-old son. The new structure is now so close to the roof that it leaves no room for the occupants to stand up.

    “Thank god the water is now receding. If not, we would be amongst those staying at the school,” the 35-year-old farmer told The Irrawaddy while waiting for relief supplies to arrive.

    Contrary to others in the delta region, people from villages in Thapaung generally do not work during the rainy season.

    “Every field is inundated when the rains come so we can only work in the winter and summer. Economically, the flood doesn’t affect us very much. But socially, it’s disastrous,” said Thein Zaw Oo, the administrator of Kya Ku Village.

    “Now we can only think about food. But the problem that lies ahead is how we can rebuild our houses which were damaged by the flood. It gives me a headache,” said Htwe Ye, whose hut in Ka Tat Yoe Village was destroyed by the flood.

    For two weeks now Mya Myint Zu has stayed away from school as it has been converted into a relief camp. The fifth grader always outsmarts her classmates in every exam and aspires to be a teacher.

    Asked whether she was happy not to have any homework to do as the school is now closed, she replied, “Yes, but not very much.

    “I want to go back to school. I miss my friends and lessons too.”

20. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৬ আগস্ট ২০১২ (১:৩৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    তার নাম নিশ্চয়ই আমরা কেউ ভুলিনি, চাঁদে প্রথম মানব সেই নিল আর্মস্ট্রং আজ ৮২ বছর বয়সে মারা গেলেন।

    Former US astronaut, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, has died at the age of 82, US media reported today.

    Armstrong underwent a heart-bypass surgery earlier this month to relieve blocked coronary arteries.

    

    As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.

    খবরের লিন্ক এখানে।

21. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৩০ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৬:৪০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ২০০২ সালে গুজরাটের নারোদা-পাটিয়ায় সংখ্যালঘু নিধনের ঘটনায় মোদী সরকারের মন্ত্রীসহ ৩২জন দোষী সাব্যস্ত। পড়ুন এখানে ও এখানে।

    এনিয়ে ‘দি হিন্দু’র সম্পাদকীয়

    A stunning verdict

    The conviction by a Gujarat court of BJP legislator Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi along with 30 others for their role in the Naroda Patia massacre is the strongest judicial affirmation yet that large-scale communal violence is almost always a product of pre-meditated political planning and calculation. An estimated 95 Muslims, many of them hapless women and children, were hacked to death in Naroda, a minority neighbourhood in Ahmedabad targeted by armed mobs under the indulgent gaze of the Gujarat government in the wake of the February 27, 2002 Godhra train carnage. The verdict is a landmark one. It is for the first time that an Indian court has convicted a sitting MLA — Ms Kodnani was also a minister in the Narendra Modi government from 2007 to 2009 — for mob aggression against members of a religious community. Secondly, the court has not only upheld the charge of criminal conspiracy against the 32 individuals convicted, it has also found one of them guilty of rape and sexual harassment.

    The establishment of conspiracy augurs well for the future of communal violence prosecutions, where the judicial trend so far has been to uphold murder but not conspiracy. It is a victory particularly for the Special Investigation Team that was brought into the picture by the Supreme Court following the failure of the State police to properly prosecute the post-Godhra riots cases. For the families of the Naroda victims, who identified the aggressors braving threats and intimidation and who were able to come forward to some extent because of the protection offered by the apex court, there cannot be a greater vindication than the trial court finding evidence of rape and molestation. It has been their plaintive cry that the violence was orchestrated and targeted against women, who were subjected to gang rape and worse before being slaughtered. Violence against women is a pattern established over and over in anti-minority pogroms, and the judgment has done yeoman service in foregrounding this fact. Needless to say, the conviction is a huge setback to the Gujarat Chief Minister personally. The fact that Ms Kodnani led the Naroda killings was common knowledge, yet Mr. Modi made her a minister, even putting her in charge of ‘women and child development’ as if to thumb his nose at the victims. A bigger worry for Mr. Modi ought to be the establishment of conspiracy. The Chief Minister has maintained all along that the “riots” were a spontaneous act by crowds enraged by Godhra. It stretches credulity that Ms Kodnani could enter into a conspiracy with her co-accused without the government getting a whiff of the group’s criminal intentions and conduct, before, during and after the killing.

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ৩১ আগস্ট ২০১২ (৮:৩২ অপরাহ্ণ)

      সাজা ঘোষিত হয়েছে, নিধনযজ্ঞে প্রধান দুই আসামি গুজরাট রাজ্যের প্রাক্তন বিজেপি মন্ত্রী মায়াবেনের ২৮ বছর এবং বজরং দলনেতা বাবু বজরঙ্গির যাবজ্জীবন কারাদণ্ড হয়েছে। বাকি ত্রিশ আসামির সাত জনের হয়েছে ২১ বছর করে জেল, বাইশ জনের ১৪ বছর করে জেল, এবং একজন আসামি ফেরারি থাকায় তার কোনো শাস্তি ঘোষিত হয়নি।

      Naroda riots: Kodnani gets 28 years in jail

      BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, a former minister in Narendra Modi government, was on Friday awarded 28 years imprisonment by a Special Court which also gave a life term to a Bajrang Dal leader till death in the Naroda Patiya massacre — the worst of 2002 post-Godhra riots — in which 97 people were killed.

      Of the 29 other convicts, seven were given a jail term of 21 years by an Additional Principal Judge Jyotsna Yagnik.

      Like 57-year-old Kodnani, they will also have to first serve 10-year imprisonment under Section 326 IPC (voluntary causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means).

      The remaining 22 convicts were given simple life imprisonment (14 years) by the court which described communal violence as “cancer” on Constitutional secularism.

      The Court named Kodnani as “a kingpin of riots” in Naroda area and sentenced her to 18-year life imprisonment after serving 10 years jail term under IPC Section 326.

      Fifty-five-year-old Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, the other high profile accused, will have to spend his entire remaining life behind bars, it said.

      Kodnani, a three-time MLA from Naroda area who was considered to be close to Modi, is the first woman to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case.

      “Communal riots are like cancer on Constitutional secularism and the incident in Naroda Patiya was a black chapter in the history of the Indian Constitution,” the Judge observed.

      Kodnani and Bajrangi were on Wednesday held guilty under IPC sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) and the prosecution sought the maximum punishment of death sentence for all the convicts.
      
      Social activist Teesta Setalvad, who has taken up the case of the post-Godhra riots victims in Gujarat, said they are “completely satisfied” with the manner in which the court has given “exemplary punishment“.

      “It is the first time that a politician’s involvement in communal violence has been recognised,” she said.

      The Court had on Wednesday convicted 32 and acquitted 29 persons in the Naroda Patiya case in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage. It did not pronounce sentence against one accused who is absconding.