২৬ comments

1. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১২:২৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

   সুপারস্টর্ম স্যান্ডি শুধু আমেরিকার পূর্ব উপকূলেই আঘাত হানেনি, এটি কিউবার সান্তিয়াগোতেও হাজার হাজার হেক্টর ফসলি জমির ক্ষতি করেছে, ৬০০০০ বসতবাড়ি বিধ্বস্ত করেছে এবং দশ জন নাগরিকের মৃত্যু হয়েছে।

   Russia Sends Plane with Humanitarian Aid to Storm-Hit Cuba

   A Russian Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft with humanitarian cargo took off from the Moscow Region to hurricane-hit Cuba, the ministry said on Thursday.

   “The Emergencies Ministry’s Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft with 32 metric tons of humanitarian cargo took off from the Ramenskoye airport at 23:45 Moscow time on Wednesday [19:45 GMT] to the Santiago de Cuba airport in Cuba, which was hit by hurricane Sandy,” the ministry said in a statement.

   The Cuban national headquarters on the civil defense earlier said that at least ten people were killed by Sandy hurricane in the Santiago de Cuba province. The storm also destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of cane and banana plantations and partly or completely ruined over 60,000 houses.

   The Russian Emergencies Ministry reported that it intended to send a total of three aircraft with rescuers and humanitarian aid to Cuba.

   হাইতির অবস্থা তো আরো করুণ। এ পর্যন্ত নিহত ৫৪ এবং ২০০০০০ লোক গৃহহীন।

   Hurricane Sandy: Haiti in emergency aid plea as disaster piles upon disaster

   Haiti and the United Nations are planning an appeal for emergency aid after Hurricane Sandy killed 54 people and devastated crops last week before going on to hit the United States.

   With hundreds of thousands of people still living in tents after the earthquake in 2010, Haiti was hardest hit by the storm. The call for donations follows a 96% drop in financial support for UN humanitarian programmes over the past two years, despite the continued vulnerability of the western hemisphere’s poorest country.

   Sandy has worsened the threats posed by cholera and food shortages, say senior aid officials evaluating the damage from the latest disaster before a meeting this week to draw up an appeal.

   “Haiti is trying to get its house in order, but each time disaster strikes, the progress is interrupted,” said Johan Peleman, head of the UN’s office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs. “This country is exposed to devastating consequences by each storm. With every burst of rain, entire mountains are washed away.” He said humanitarian funding had fallen from $2bn (£1.2bn) in 2010 to just $75m this year.

   Following a huge storm earlier this year, Haiti was only skimmed by Sandy’s tail, but its dire infrastructure and high levels of deforestation magnified the damage and number of casualties.

   The government raised the death toll to 54 on Tuesday with 20 still missing. Tens of thousands have been left homeless. In just four days, the south and south-west of Haiti was soaked by 50cm of rain, equivalent to almost an average year’s worth in London.

   Some victims were washed away when rivers burst their banks. Others died in accidents caused by the storm. One family of five – a mother and her four children – were crushed when the roof of their home collapsed in Grand-Goâve.

   But the greatest loss of life may still be to come as the country struggles to cope with the accumulated impacts of earthquakes and hurricanes which have devastated housing and crops.

   The deluge compounded more than a year of misery for the 370,000 refugees who have been living in temporary camps since 2010. The winds scattered thousands of tents and ripped through the tarpaulins of countless others. Video images show residents trying to sleep on sodden bedding and wading through muddy water on flooded pathways.

   Oxfam and the International Federation of the Red Cross are distributing additional sanitation and water purification kits. The government and aid agencies are also preparing to provide food and seeds to try to offset the harvest-time loss of crops such as plantains, bananas, maize and sugar cane.

   “It was a relatively small disaster, but it will have a big impact,” said Amelie Gauthier, of Oxfam’s office in Port-au-Prince. “These rains will have an impact for months to come. All it takes is the loss of one or two lemon trees and some families here will no longer be able to afford to send their children to school. As people lose more and more of their capital, the vulnerability increases with the accumulation of disasters.”

   The government has been praised for its response, but the series of disasters is taking its toll. “We have a lot of work ahead of us in terms of the aid that we will need to deliver in the days, weeks and months to come,” prime minister Laurent Lamothe has said. “It won’t be easy because there are many roads and bridges that have been cut off.”

   The government has warned the population that more extreme weather may be coming. “In November we may see more hurricanes. So if the government doesn’t work hard to protect the people Haiti will know a very hard time by the end of this year,” said a meteorological official quoted in a local newspaper.

   
   এক নজরে : আজ পর্যন্ত হ্যারিকেন স্যান্ডিতে নিহতের সংখ্যা ১৪৩জন।

2. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৫ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১২:৫১ অপরাহ্ণ)

   সাধারণ নির্বাচনের চেয়ে পার্টি কংগ্রেস অনেক বেশি কার্যকরভাবে রাষ্ট্রের জন্য নতুন নেতা নির্বাচন করতে পারে এটাই চীনের কমিউনিস্ট পার্টির অভিমত। তাই ৬ নভেম্বরে আমেরিকার সাধারণ নির্বাচনের চেয়ে ৮ নভেম্বরে চীনের পার্টি কংগ্রেসকে অনেক গুরুত্বপূর্ণ মনে করছেন চীনের রাষ্ট্রনিয়ন্ত্রিত সংবাদ বিশ্লেষকরা। এর মধ্যে চীনের সেন্ট্রাল মিলিটারি কমিশনে দুজন নতুন ভাইস চেয়ারম্যান নিয়োগ দেয়া হয়েছে এবং পার্টি কংগ্রেসে নতুন প্রেসিডেন্ট, প্রধানমন্ত্রী, সেন্ট্রাল কমিটি, পলিটিক্যাল ব্যুরোও নির্ধারিত হবে।

   The CPC Central Committee Political Bureau has united and led the entire Party, the armed forces and people of all ethnic backgrounds in the nation to maintain growth, keep prices in line, restructure the economy, improve people’s livelihoods, embark on reforms and promote social harmony, by adhering to scientific development and accelerating the transformation of the economic growth pattern, according to the communique.

   It added that the Political Bureau has continued to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy, maintained the continuity and stability of macroeconomic policies, and made efforts in expanding domestic demands, strengthening innovation, reducing energy use and emissions, deepening reform and improving people’s livelihoods.

   The Political Bureau has comprehensively pushed forward the socialist economic, political, cultural, social and conservation culture construction and the great new Party-building project, with various causes achieving remarkable results and maintaining a stable and relatively fast economic development as well as social harmony and stability, which has created sound conditions for the 18th CPC National Congress.

   The plenary session summarized the work of the past five years since the 17th CPC National Congress and held that the five years was an “extraordinary” period.

   Facing a volatile and complicated international environment and shouldering arduous tasks of reform, development and stability, the central committee of the CPC has led the Party to conquer various difficulties, and comprehensively advance various work while relying on people of various ethnic groups, the communique said.

   “The country’s economic development has remained stable and rapid. Reform and opening-up made significant progress. People’s living standards have remarkably improved. Democratic and legal system construction have taken new steps,” it said.

   Cultural construction came to a new level. Social construction made new progress. National defense and military construction opened up new prospects, said the communique.

   Works relating to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have been further enhanced. Diplomatic work has scored new achievements. Party building has been enhanced in an all-round way. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has been stuck to and developed.

   At the session, Fan Changlong and Xu Qiliang were appointed vice chairmen of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC).

   The plenum also promoted two alternate members of the 17th CPC Central Committee, Wang Xuejun and Wang Jianping, to full members.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Concluding CPC Central Committee plenum issues communique।

3. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ৯ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৩:০০ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   গত ৮ নভেম্বর ২০১২ থেকে শুরু হয়েছে চীনের কমিউনিস্ট পার্টির ১৮তম কংগ্রেস। এখানে এক নজরে পড়ুন আগের সতেরটি কংগ্রেস নিয়ে।

   July 23-31,1921
   First party congress

   The first congress of the newly-founded party, which had only about 50 members at the time, was held secretly in Shanghai in the presence of two representatives from Comintern, the international association of Communist parties. Although it lacked the structure and grandeur of subsequent meetings, the meeting laid down the foundations of Communist ideology – the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the abolition of private ownership, confiscation of all means of production and party control over the media – in the party constitution. The congress elected Chen Duxiu, one of the party’s founders, as its first general secretary. A young Mao Zedong made his first appearance on the political scene, as a delegate at the meeting.

   July 16-23, 1922
   Second party congress

   Delegates adopted a program calling for revolution against feudalism and imperialism as the party tried to purge anarchists and focus on orthodox Communist goals. The party also tried to establish itself as a force independent from the Kuomintang, the nationalist party founded by Sun Yat-sen, who had helped overthrow the last emperor and established the Republic of China in 1912. Chen Duxiu was reappointed general secretary.

   June 12-20, 1923
   Third party congress

   The congress was held in the southern city of Guangzhou, the power base of the Kuomintang (KMT), which was regrouping after a shortlived monarchy established by strongman Yuan Shikai. The Communist party congress decided to allow all party members to join the Kuomintang to establish a united front as demanded by the Comintern. The Soviet Union had started to support the KMT and helped it develop a Leninist party structure. The Comintern wanted to prevent splitting revolutionary forces in a China ruled by warlords. However, the Communist party was to keep its organisational and political independence. Chen Duxiu was voted chairman, the first time this post was introduced.

   January 11-22, 1925
   Fourth party congress

   The fourth congress tried to consolidate the party leadership’s control over regional branches. The party decided to continue its cooperation with the Kuomintang. However, this was a policy that would become difficult to implement. Sun Yat-sen died two months after the meeting and Chiang Kai-shek, a fierce anti-Communist who controlled the Kuomintang military, became his effective successor.

   April 27-May 9, 1927
   Fifth party congress

   Held in Wuhan, where the government had now moved to, the congress showed its support for the left wing of the Kuomintang, which had split from the right wing under Chiang Kai-shek, after the right wing started a violent purge of Communists just weeks before the congress. The congress also saw Mao Zedong unleash the first major ideological struggle in the Communist party, whose ranks had now swelled to almost 58,000 members. Following Mao’s proposals, the party turned away from its founder Chen Duxiu’s idea of workers as the main revolutionary force and decided that the Chinese revolution had to be led by peasants instead.

   June 18-July 11, 1928
   Sixth party congress

   The congress was held in Moscow to protect the party from Chiang Kai-shek’s continued hunt of Communists. Mao Zedong, whose relationship with the Comintern was always difficult, did not attend but stayed behind in Jinggangshan, a mountainous area in Southern China where he was building his own power base. Chen Duxiu had been purged several months earlier because the Comintern saw him as too weak and compromise-oriented. He was replaced with Xiang Zhongfa, a hardliner from a poor family. He was the first party leader who was not an intellectual. The congress officially allowed the party to set up its own army.

   April 23-June 11, 1945
   Seventh party congress

   After 17 years of civil war and a war with Japan, the Communist party was finally in a stable and safe enough position to hold a national congress again. In the years following the last meeting and the end of the united front with the Kuomintang, the Communist party established soviets scattered across China as Chiang Kai-shek’s government continued to persecute Communists, amid a civil war and the Japanese invasion of China. From 1936, Mao Zedong had consolidated his position in the north-western enclave of Yan’an. The seventh congress confirmed his unrivalled leadership, electing him chairman and including his writings, ‘Mao Zedong Thought’, in the party constitution. The ideology centred on populist campaigns that mobilized the masses and the belief that in China the revolution would be led by peasants.

   September 15-27, 1956
   Eighth party congress

   This was the first congress held since the party came to power in 1949 and the last meeting to be held until 1969, during the cultural revolution. Mao Zedong remained chairman, and Deng Xiaoping, one of the party’s civil war veterans who was to become the architect of China’s market reforms after Mao’s death, was appointed general secretary. At its third plenary session in 1957, the central committee who had been elected at the eighth congress passed the decision to start “The Great Leap Forward”, a forced rural industrialisation campaign devised by Mao that triggered the worst famine in history. The decision to start the cultural revolution was passed at the 11th plenary session of the eighth party congress in 1966.

   April 1-24, 1969
   Ninth party congress

   From the eighth congress in 1956, to the ninth congress, the number of party members more than doubled to 22m. This congress, convened during the height of the cultural revolution, retained Mao as chairman. Liu Shaoqi, a former head of state, and Deng Xiaoping were denounced after they were targeted by Red Guards and purged in 1966 and 1967. Deng and Liu had repeatedly taken pragmatic positions and argued for a suspension of Mao’s policies such as the people’s communes as they had wrecked the economy. The party constitution included Lin Biao as Mao’s comrade-in-arms and successor. Lin died in 1971 in a plane crash in Mongolia as he attempted to flee China, following an alleged coup attempt on Mao. The party declared him a traitor after his death.

   August 24-28, 1973
   Tenth party congress

   Mao remained chairman of the central committee until his death in 1976. This was the first congress since US president Richard Nixon’s visit to China, which foreshadowed the opening of the country to the outside world after decades of belligerent isolationism. The congress was held when the Gang of Four, four senior party members including Mao’s wife Jiang Qing who helped drive the cultural revolution and were later to take the blame for it, were at their most influential. But the central committee elected at this congress purged the four in October 1976 and in July 1977 reinstated Deng Xiaoping as the party’s vice-chairman.

   August 12-18, 1977
   Eleventh party congress

   The congress declared the cultural revolution over and elevated Hua Guofeng to the position of chairman. After he had served in Mao’s home province and supported the cultural revolution, he was made Mao’s designated successor. The third plenary session of the eleventh central committee in 1978 formed the second generation of Communist party leadership under Deng Xiaoping. The plenum abandoned parts of the party’s ideology, including class struggle, continued revolution and other leftist lines which Mao had used to garner support for his campaigns during his lifetime. That session also rehabilitated other veteran party leaders who had been purged during the Cultural Revolution, including Peng Dehuai, one of the Red Army’s most senior military leaders whom Mao had toppled after Peng criticised Mao. The central committee’s fifth plenum elected Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, two younger reformers, into the party leadership and rehabilitated Liu Shaoqi posthumously. The sixth plenum in 1981 condemned the cultural revolution. It made Hu party chief and handed Deng Xiaoping control over the armed forces as chairman of the central military commission.

   September 01-11, 1982
   Twelfth party congress

   The Congress abolished the position of chairman in the party and made general secretary the top post. Hu Yaobang was elected to that position, but replaced by Zhao Ziyang in 1987 after party elders, including Deng Xiaoping, found Hu to be too liberal. Deng had been driving economic reforms since 1978, but the party leadership was eager not to move too fast nor lose political control.

   October 25-November 1, 1987
   Thirteenth party congress

   Deng Xiaoping and other senior leaders retired from active positions and Zhao Ziyang was elected general secretary. However, when he appeared to side with student protesters against Deng and other party elders during the Tiananmen Square protest, he was stripped from his positions at the fourth plenary session that year after senior leaders quelled the uprising on June 4. Deng thought Jiang Zemin, then party secretary of Shanghai, had handled the protests in Shanghai well, and he was appointed general secretary instead. He released a report on Zhao Ziyang’s “mistake” in handling the Tiananmen protests, accusing him of supporting unrest and splitting the party.
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   October 12-18, 1992
   Fourteenth party congress

   Jiang Zemin was re-elected party chief and chairman of the central military commission and Hu Jintao became a member of the standing committee for the first time. The third plenary session of the congress adopted the goal of building a “socialist market economy”, and at its fifth plenum in 1995, congress decided to focus on China’s transformation from a planned market economic system to a socialist market economic system. This fifth session also purged former Beijing mayor Chen Xitong on corruption charges. He was an ally of Deng Xiaoping and rival of Jiang Zemin, and the decision was seen as a power struggle at the top of the party.

   September 12-18, 1997
   Fifteenth party congress

   This was the first congress held since Deng Xiaoping’s death. The party included his ideology – a pragmatic line advocating the adoption of market elements in socialist China to boost the economy – in its constitution as ‘Deng Xiaoping theory’. Jiang Zemin was re-elected general secretary. The fourth plenary session in 1999 concentrated on closing, reforming and privatizing state enterprises.

   November 8-14, 2002
   Sixteenth party congress

   This congress elected Hu Jintao as general secretary along with the “fourth generation” of communist party leaders, including premier Wen Jiabao. Jiang Zemin retained control over the armed forces as chairman of the central military commission. He delivered a speech on the “Three Represents”, his most important ideological formula that broadened the Communist party’s mission from representing the working class to representing the whole population, which was later included in the party constitution.

   October 15—21, 2007
   Seventeenth party congress

   Hu Jintao was re-elected general secretary while Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang became standing committee members. Hu Jintao’s main ideological formula, the “Scientific Outlook on Development”, was included in the party constitution. The concept stresses a more balanced development model where growth is complemented by equal income distribution, social security and environmental protection. However, the Hu administration is seen as having failed to achieve many of those goals. In his last year in power, Hu faced the party’s worst power struggle since the Tiananmen crisis in 1989 as Bo Xilai, a contender for the party leadership, was purged on charges of corruption and abuse of power.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Congresses of the Chinese Communist Party[গ্রাফিক্স সহ]

4. 

   রেজাউল করিম সুমন - ১০ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১:০৫ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   জন বার্জারের সাড়াজাগানো বক্তৃতা ‘Let Vietnam Live!’ (জানুয়ারি ১৯৬৭) পড়ুন এখানে।

5. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১০ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (২:২১ অপরাহ্ণ)

   অভিনেতা, নাট্যকার, চিত্রপরিচালক গিরিশ কারনাড রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরকে ‘মেডিওকর’ নাট্যকার এবং রবীন্দ্রনাথের নাটককে ‘সেকেন্ড রেইট’ বলেছেন। হ্যাঁ, রবীন্দ্রনাথের লেখা নাটকগুলোর মধ্যে ‘সেকেন্ড রেইট’ নাটক আছে — কিন্তু রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর ‘রক্তকবরী’র মতো অনন্যসাধারণ আধুনিক নাটকও লিখেছেন। এবং তার সমগ্র নাট্যসৃষ্টির মধ্যে যদিও হাতে গোনা কয়েকটিই অনন্য নাটক আছে, কিন্তু যেহেতু কিছু মহান নাটক তিনি সৃষ্টি করেছেন, তাহলে তাকে কি আর ‘মেডিওকর’ নাট্যকার বলা যায়? অবশ্য রবীন্দ্রনাথের নাটক নিয়ে শুধু যে কারনাড এবারই প্রথম এমন কথা বলেছেন তা নয় — কারনাড আগেও এমন কথা বলেছেন এবং শুধু কারনাডের মতো কন্নড় ও ইংরেজি ভাষার নাট্যকার নয় বাংলা ভাষার অনেক নাট্যকারও রবীন্দ্রনাথের নাটক নিয়ে এমন মনোভাব পোষণ করেন। অবশ্য এতে রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের অমর নাটক ‘রক্তকবরী’, ‘মুক্তধারা’ বা ‘ডাকঘর’রের কিছুই আসবে যাবে না।

   
   পশ্চিমবঙ্গের বাংলা দৈনিক এই সময়ের বিশেষ আয়োজন : তুমি কি কেবলই কবি

6. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১১ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১:৫৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

   চীনের পরবর্তী প্রধানমন্ত্রী লি কেসিঅং(Li Keqiang)এর একটা হাস্যোজ্জ্বল ছবি আমার কাছে ছিল, সেটাই এতক্ষণ খুঁজছিলাম — কিন্তু পেলাম না। ওই হাসি কিন্তু আমার মনে আছে এবং ওই হাসি দেখেই আমি কল্পনা করেছিলাম এই লোকটা হয়ত একটু আলাদা হবে। কী হবে শেষ পর্যন্ত জানি না, আগামী মার্চে মোটামুটি পরবর্তী দশ বছরের জন্য যখন প্রধানমন্ত্রীর দায়িত্ব বুঝে নেবেন তারপরেই সবকিছু বোঝা যাবে ধীরে ধীরে। কিন্তু হঠাৎ ওয়াশিংটন পোস্টের নীচের লেখাটি চোখে পড়ার পরপরই যখন পড়তে শুরু করলাম, আমার মনে হল ওই হাসি দেখা আমার কল্পনা এত কিছু বুঝেছিল!

   Li Keqiang, China’s next premier, carries reformers’ hopes
   

   Li Keqiang, the man slated to become China’s next premier, is described by several former classmates and associates as a cautious political climber who moved up slowly through the Communist Party’s bureaucracy while quietly maintaining friendships with pro-democracy advocates.

   Li’s ties to known reformers have given some people here hope that once installed in the Chinese government’s No. 2 position — a promotion that is expected to be formalized at the conclusion of the party congress next week — he might become an inside advocate for changing the country’s autocratic, Leninist system.

   But friends and former associates also said that Li was always reticent when speaking, rarely revealing much about his personal views — leaving them to only guess that he shares the reform agenda. “He’s the kind of person whose mind you can’t really read,” said Dai Qing, a democracy activist who was jailed for nearly a year after the 1989 student protests.

   China’s outgoing premier, Wen Jiabao, also was seen by many here as a reformer who in recent years began publicly advocating for more accountability and less corruption in China’s Communist-run government. But without allies, Wen became an increasingly isolated voice for reform, unable — or unwilling — to push through his agenda. Some of Li’s friends and associates now wonder if he will suffer the same fate.

   Li is described as an extremely intelligent self-taught speaker of English and a loyal Communist Party member who gave up a rare opportunity to study abroad when the party asked him to stay in China to work organizing students at Peking University as a top official in the Communist Youth League. It was at the university that Li made friendships with many outspoken pro-democracy advocates, some of whom were jailed or went into exile after the 1989 military crackdown at Tiananmen Square.

   But some said he is not ruthless enough for the party’s internal maneuverings — a fact that some colleagues said may have relegated him to the No. 2 job, and not the presidency, which will go to the current vice president Xi Jinping.

   From student to party leader

   Unlike Xi, a so-called princeling whose father, Xi Zhongxun, was a Mao-era military hero and later a governor and vice premier, Li comes to the top of China’s power structure without a revolutionary pedigree.

   Li’s father was a mid-level county official — “a small potato,” said one classmate — in Anhui province, one of China’s poorest areas. And unlike Xi and the other princelings, whose upward path was eased by family connections, Li was admitted to Peking University on the basis of his scores on the national entrance exam, or “gaokao,” when it was first reinstated in 1977 after being suspended during the Cultural Revolution.

   Li entered Peking University, China’s most prestigious, in February 1978. Yang Baikui, who was an international politics student there, worked with Li for one year while at the school, translating an English book, “The Due Process of Law,” by British jurist Lord Denning. The book was brought to China by a professor, Gong Xiangrui, then one of China’s few British-trained lawyers, who inculcated his students in the ideas of Western-style liberalism and constitutional law.

   “He learned a lot from the book he and I translated,” Yang recalled. “I’m not sure about democracy. But I’m sure he believes in constitutional government. And also the rule of law.”

   Li had little formal English training. But Yang and others recall how Li diligently carried a stack of small notecards, held together with an elastic band, with English words on one side and the Chinese translation on the other. He would study the cards while waiting for the bus or standing in line at the school cafeteria. He became so proficient that in 2011 he stunned listeners at a Hong Kong University event by breaking protocol and speaking for two minutes in fluent English.

   After finishing Peking University, Li began working in the Communist Youth League while Yang became active in the pro-democracy movement that swept through China in the 1980s. The movement was crushed when Deng Xiaoping ordered troops to disperse students from Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, killing hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters. Yang was jailed for 11 months and then expelled from the Communist Party.

   Yang said he has not spoken with Li since they met at the Communist Youth League office a few days before the 1989 crackdown. But he said Li always “asks about my situation” and has other mutual friends from their school days convey his greetings.

   “Some of his friends can still be regarded as liberal. Li Keqiang will still discuss politics with them,” Yang said. “The main difference between him and the 1980s dissidents is how fast or how slow China’s democratization should be. And how many steps it should take before China is democratized.”

   ‘How far Li can go’

   Li Datong, who was fired as an editor of a China Youth Daily supplement for pushing the boundaries of official censorship, met Li Keqiang in the ’90s and considers him a reformer — even though, like others, he said the incoming premier’s hands may be tied by the system.

   “Li Keqiang is a product of the early 1980s, which was the era of enlightenment in China,” Li Datong said. “I always have high expectations for Li Keqiang, but his power is also very limited.”

   Several other of Li’s former colleagues and classmates agreed with that assessment.

   “If we can expect any democracy, it will be democracy within the system, and Li will help Xi in doing this,” said Yan Huai, a former official with the Communists’ now-disbanded Young Cadres Bureau, who joined the 1989 protests and then left for the United States. “How far Xi walks will determine how far Li can go. He won’t walk in front of Xi. And neither will he lag behind him.”

   He Qinhua, another law school classmate, said Li was likely to understand better than other Communist stalwarts the growing public demands for more accountability.

   “Li is not a conservative guy,” He said. But he added, “On political reform, the premier is not the one that can make the final decision. It’s the party general secretary.” Li, he added, “can do more in economic reform.”

   ‘Great expectations’
   
   Li’s doctoral thesis is in economics, and he has written more recent articles focused on China’s industrialization and how the shift to urbanization would improve agricultural conditions, leaving fewer farmers who were more productive. He has also written about the importance of building a stronger social welfare system.

   Li is also a realist. According to confidential U.S. diplomatic cables published by the group WikiLeaks, in 2007 he told then-U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt Jr. that economic figures coming out of China were mostly “unreliable.”

   Li’s rise has not been without controversy. In Henan, where Li became governor in 1998, he has been criticized for not taking steps to prevent the spread of the AIDS epidemic to hundreds of thousands of villagers who were contaminated after donating blood through a government program.

   Most of the infections happened before Li was governor. But one critic, Chen Bingzhong, a 79-year-old former head of China’s National Institute of Health Education, wrote an open letter that appeared on overseas Chinese Web sites in September calling Li “unsuitable to be the leader of a country.”

   Tao Jingzhou, another Anhui native and law school friend of Li’s who now works for an American law firm in Beijing, recalls sending a half-joking note to Li after his appointment as Henan governor. “Now you can take care of Middle China,” he wrote. “I hope one day you will take control of the Imperial state.”

   Now with his friend being elevated to premier, Tao said, “A lot of people have great expectations that things will change.”

7. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১১ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১:১১ অপরাহ্ণ)

   আজ সকালে বার্মার দ্বিতীয় বৃহত্তম শহর মান্ডালায়তে ৬.৬ মাত্রার তীব্র ভূমিকম্প অনুভূত হয়। এপর্যন্ত ছয় জনের মৃত্যুর কথা জানিয়েছে স্থানীয় সাপ্তাহিক ইলেভেন এর ওয়েবসাইটের সংবাদের ভিত্তিতে সংবাদসংস্থা এপি।

   A strong earthquake struck northern Myanmar on Sunday, collapsing a bridge, damaging several old Buddhist pagodas and leaving at least six people dead, according to local media reports.

   No casualties or major damage was reported in the nearest major population center, Myanmar’s second-biggest city of Mandalay, about 117 kilometers (72 miles) south of the quake’s epicenter near the town of Shwebo.

   An official from the Meteorological Department in the capital, Naypyitaw, said the magnitude-6.8 quake struck at 7:42 a.m. local time.

   According to news reports, the most significant damage appeared to be the collapse of bridge under construction across the Irrawaddy River east of Shwebo.

   The website of Weekly Eleven magazine said four people were killed and 25 injured when the bridge, which was 80 percent built, collapsed. The local government announced a toll of two dead and 16 injured. All of the victims appeared to be workers.

   Weekly Eleven also said two monasteries in the town of Kyaukmyaung collapsed, killing two people.

   “This is the worst earthquake I felt in my entire life,” Soe Soe, a 52-year-old Shwebo resident, told The Associated Press by phone.

   She said that the huge concrete gate of a local monastery collapsed and that several sculptures from another pagoda in the town were damaged.

   Other damage was reported in Mogok, a major gem-mining area just east of the quake’s epicenter. Temples were damaged there, as were some abandoned mines.

   খবরের লিন্ক : Strong quake strikes Myanmar; at least 6 killed।

   
   SHAKE MAP

   M6.8 – 52km NNE of Shwebo, Myanmar 2012-11-11 01:12:38 UTC

   Event Time

   2012-11-11 01:12:38 UTC
   2012-11-11 07:42:38 UTC+06:30 at epicenter
   2012-11-11 07:12:38 UTC+06:00 system time

   Location

   23.014°N 95.883°E depth=9.8km (6.1mi)
   Nearby Cities

   52km (32mi) NNE of Shwebo, Myanmar
   64km (40mi) W of Mogok, Myanmar
   116km (72mi) N of Mandalay, Myanmar
   124km (77mi) NNW of Maymyo, Myanmar
   362km (225mi) N of Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar

   • 

     মাসুদ করিম - ১২ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৩:০৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

     
     
     

     বার্মার ভূমিকম্পে ক্ষয়ক্ষতি ও আহতদের চিকিৎসার আরো ছবি দেখুন এখানে।

8. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১১ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৫:০৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

   পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সিপিএমের দৈনিক পত্রিকা গণশক্তি লিখেছে, নজর কেড়েছে হু জিনতাওয়ের শব্দবন্ধ। নজর কাড়বেই তো। আমরা জানতাম নট নড়ন চড়ন এখন শিখলাম ‘বু ঝে তেঙ’ — আমরা জানতাম নো বাড়াবাড়ি এখন শিখলাম ‘ ওয়েই ওয়েন’!

   
   হু জিনতাওয়ের শব্দবন্ধ

9. 

   মাসুদ করিম - ১১ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৮:০০ অপরাহ্ণ)

   সিরিয়ার সংঘাতের ভয়ঙ্কর মোড়। সিরিয়ার ভেতরের যুদ্ধের মর্টার শেল ইসরাইলের গোলান হাইটস সীমানা এসে পড়েছে এরপরেই ইসরাইলি সেনাবাহিনী সিরিয়ার সেনাবাহিনীকে ‘সতর্ক করা’ মিসাইল ছুড়েছে।

   

   Israel has fired warning shots into Syria after mortars launched from Syrian territory hit an Israeli base in the Golan Heights. It is the first time Israel has fired within Syrian territory since the 1973 war.

   The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said the missile was fired as a warning short after the errant mortal fired from Syria hit the military post.

   “In the midst of Syrian infighting, a mortar shell fired by the Syrian army struck near an outpost at Tel Hazeka,” The Jerusalem post cites IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai as saying.

   “In light of the policy instituted by IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, a warning round was fired back into Syria. We don’t believe it caused injuries or damages,” he continued.

   The IDF fired a single Tamuz anti-tank missile, a weapon known for its high degree of accuracy, military sources told AFP.

   Just hours before the strike, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Syria that Israel would “respond” if stray shells landed inside the Golan Heights.

   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also said Israel was “closely monitoring what is happening on our border with Syria and there too we are ready for any development.”

   Israel worries the Syrian insurgency could engulf the Golan, turning the region into an ideal base for Islamic militants to launch attacks, as they do from Egypt’s Sinai desert.

   Israeli officials fear the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government could further lead to an Islamist power grab in Syria, fueling sectarian war and destabilizing the region.

   বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Israel fires ‘warning shots’ at Syria over Golan Heights mortar strike।

   • 

     মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১:৩৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

     ভয়ঙ্কর মোড়টাই নিল ইসরায়েল, সিরিয়ার সংকটের সুযোগে গাজার রকেট হামলার জবাব দিতে রকেট হামলা করল এবং হামাসের শীর্ষ সামরিক নেতা আহেমেদ জাবারিকে হত্যা করল এবং এখন গাজায় নতুন পদাতিক বাহিনীর আগ্রাসনের পরিকল্পনা চূড়ান্ত করল। পুরো ব্যাপারটাই সিরিয়ার সংকটের ঘোলা পানিতে নেতানিয়াহু সরকারের ফিলিস্তিন রাষ্ট্রের স্বীকৃতি ও মানচিত্র শিকারের সর্বাত্মক অপচেষ্টা ছাড়া আর কিছুই নয়।

     Had Israel not started a new military operation against Hamas in Gaza and also threatened Fatah in Ramallah (if it does not withdraw its Palestine recognition request at the U.N.), the agenda would again have been different. It would probably just have focused on the Syrian situation on the regional scale and joint ventures in Africa on the bilateral one. However, now there are two leaders – Morsi and Erdoğan – who are really angry because of what Israel is up to.

     If it was simply the killing of the top Hamas militant Ahmed Jabari and the hitting of rocket stores, Israel could stick with its propaganda line that this was a purely anti-terrorist opposition, but it is not. By threatening to topple Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and scrap the Oslo agreement if he does not withdraw the Nov. 29 U.N. recognition vote, Israel demonstrates that it has moved to secure a greater territory in which Palestinians could only have a lesser status.

     Trying not to leave anything to chance, Israeli strategists have probably been waiting for the right time since Hamas decided to evacuate Damascus almost a year ago, when the civil war there had began to flame up. The weakening of Syrian and Iranian support for Hamas in Gaza and the weakening of its Lebanon links – again because of the Syrian civil war – offered a golden opportunity to Israel to change the rules of the game.

     Egypt has immediately withdrawn its ambassador to Israel in reaction to the Gaza operation. Turkey has had no ambassador there since the failure to normalize relations through talks and the lack of an Israeli apology for the killing of nine Turks in 2010, when the civilian Mavi Marmara ship tried to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

     Turkey is one of leading countries trying to secure 110 votes for the Palestinians in the Nov. 29 U.N. vote. Egypt is likely to do the same. The voting could deepen the divides between Turkey, Egypt and Israel further; all of which are allies of the United States in the Middle East. This is not a comfortable situation for Barack Obama, who rightfully underlines Israel’s right to defend itself, but does very little – if anything – to uphold the Palestinians’ right to live.

     There is little room left for optimism that the Middle East can evade worse in the near future.

     বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Using Syrian crisis, Israel hits Palestians।

     আরো পড়ুন ইসরায়েলি দৈনিক Haaretzএর আজকের সম্পাদকীয়।

     Calm things down

     Ahmed Jabari, the Hamas chief of staff, was a military man who dedicated his life to war against Israel. His assassination yesterday by the Israel Defense Forces is supposed to send a message to Hamas, to the effect that it would do well to have more moderate figures as its leaders. However, past experience teaches that pinpoint assassinations of the heads of political movements and military organizations are not necessarily effective, and that they usually give rise to even more extreme leaders instead. It suffices to recall Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who was appointed to his position following the assassination of Sheikh Abbas Musawi in 1992.

     The lives of residents of southern Israel became impossible in recent days in the wake of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. But Israel’s chosen reaction – the assassination of a top Hamas official and an attack on Gaza – will only lend international legitimization to continued rocket fire by Hamas. Yesterday evening, rockets were already being fired at Be’er Sheva. And even though the Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepted some of them, the lives of Israeli citizens are being made even harder.

     Beyond the fruitlessness of replacing one military leader with another, and of turning the south into a war zone, Jabari’s assassination and its timing are liable to turn out to have been a strategic mistake. The escalating violence between Israel and Hamas is likely to make the situation in the entire region deteriorate. The relationship between Israel and Egypt, which is in any case fragile and includes a demonstrative lack of trust between the two leaders, is likely to degenerate rapidly and become a real conflict. A statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry yesterday, to the effect that “Israeli escalation will have an impact on the security and stability of the entire region,” and the demand of some members of the Egyptian leadership to reexamine the peace agreement with Israel are disturbing signs.

     In 2009’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Israel acted aggressively, and out of a desire to bring quiet to the Negev towns it harmed many civilians, among them children. Now is the time to remember the lessons of that operation and to avoid, as far as possible, violent actions that will cost the lives of innocent people. Now is the time to act to calm things down.

     • 

       মাসুদ করিম - ১৭ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১:২২ অপরাহ্ণ)

       ৭৫০০০ পদাতিক সৈন্যের গাজা প্রবেশের অনুমোদন ইসরাইলের মন্ত্রিসভার।

       

       LIVE BLOG: IDF strikes 85 targets in Gaza, including offices of PM Haniya
       After a quiet night, sirens sound again across Israel’s south; Israel’s cabinet approves expansion of draft to more than 75,000 reservists in preparation for ground invasion; Anonymous activists launch an attack on Israeli websites; initial attempts to bring a cease fire; on Friday rockets were fired at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

       8:40 A.M. Rocket explodes in the yard of a house near Ashdod, no reports of casualties. Second rocket explodes in open area (Yanir Yagna)

       8:09 A.M. Rocket explodes in Bnei Shimon Regional Council. No casualties or damage reported (Yanir Yagna)

       7:48 A.M. Iron Dome battery intercepts two rockets fired from Gaza toward Be’er Sheva and Ofaqim; five rockets explode in Eshkol Regional Council, one in Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council (Yanir Yagna)

       7:33 Israel Air Force strike in Khan Younis kills Palestinian. 25 Palestinians wounded in aerial assault on a house of a top Hamas military official near Jabaliya in northern Gaza. Other strikes targeted Gaza police headquarters, government buildings, smuggling tunnels and a mosque in Rafah (Avi Issacharoff)

       7:28 A.M. Deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, says initial attempts are made to bring a temporary cease fire between Israel and Hamas. Abu Marzouk, who is currently in Cairo, who is considered a key negotiator for Hamas, adds that such the sides are still far from reaching such agreement.

       7:13 A.M. After a relatively quiet night, sirens sound in Ashkelon area, Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council and Sdot Negev Regional Council. No reports of casualties or damage (Haaretz)

10. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (২:০৪ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    চীনের পরবর্তী প্রেসিডেন্ট চি জিনপিং( Xi Jinping ) হবেন ‘দুর্বল’ প্রেসিডেন্ট, বিশ্লেষকদের তাই ধারণা। গত সেপ্টেম্বরের শুরুতে যেরকম দুসপ্তাহের জন্য অদৃশ্য ছিলেন প্রেসিডেন্ট হওয়ার পর সেরকম কিছু তো খুবই ন্যক্কারজনক হয়ে উঠবে।

    China’s presumed leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping will be the weakest political leader of recent decades, taking over following a divisive political scandal that has prompted major power struggles within the ruling Chinese Communist Party, analysts said on Monday.

    More than 2,000 hand-picked delegates to the 18th Party Congress have been deliberating on who will take over from outgoing president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao since Sunday, official media reported.

    As the Party reels from a series of scandals affecting its top echelons, including the involvement of former Chongqing Party boss Bo Xilai in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, the era of Chinese “strongmen” along the lines of Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping has given way to factional struggles that seek the least offensive candidate to all sides.

    “Xi Jinping will be a very weak leader,” Willy Wo-lap Lam, former China editor of the South China Morning Post and author of five books on China, said in an e-mailed comment.

    “Firstly, he is not charismatic and he lacks a power network comparable to the Shanghai faction for [former president] Jiang Zemin and the Communist Youth League faction for Hu Jintao.”

    “His key crony, General Liu Yuan, is finished due to his association with Bo Xilai.”

    He said Xi’s presidency would be overshadowed by the political heavyweights who enabled his rise to power, the country’s previous two presidents.

    “Xi will have two mothers-in-law: Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, who nominated him as crown prince in 2007,” Lam said.

    New generation ‘not that powerful’

    Liu Dawen, former editor of the Hong Kong-based political magazine Outpost, said a number of China’s retired senior leaders had put in an appearance as the Party Congress debated the once-in-a-decade leadership transition.

    “This shows that these veterans still have influence,” Liu said. “To begin with, everyone thought it was only Jiang Zemin having his say.”

    “But the fact that all the old guard turned out for the 18th Congress suggests that the new generation isn’t that powerful,” he said.

    “They still seek opinions from the old guys on a lot of matters.”

    As the Party reels in the wake of the purge of its former political star Bo, reports of the crash of a luxury car belonging to the son of a close Hu aide, and of huge wealth connected to the families of Xi and premier Wen Jiabao have also brought its highest-ranking political elite into the spotlight.

    Liu said the Communist Youth League power base of Hu, together with the following of Jiang and the attempt by upcoming leader Xi to build his own support within the Party, would mean Xi’s tenure as president would be more complicated than those of his predecessors.

    “Everyone is putting their oar in, which will make the personnel negotiations extremely complicated,” he said.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Xi to Be ‘Weak’ President।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৫:৪৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

      লালফৌজের প্রিয় গায়িকা হবেন চীনের ফার্স্টল্যাডি, তিনি কি পারবেন প্রেসিডেন্টকে সবল রাখতে?

      

11. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১:১৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

    কী বলা যায় ভাবছিলাম, চীনের নতুন নেতা নির্বাচনকে কী বলা যায় ভাবছিলাম, কিছুক্ষণ আগে তা পেয়ে গেলাম তাই খবরটা দেরিতে তুললাম, পর্দা উঠল চীনের নতুন নেতৃত্বের, হ্যাঁ, পর্দাই তো ওঠে সব তো ঠিক হয়ে থাকে। চীনের রাষ্ট্রীয় সংবাদসংস্থার প্রধান কথা ছিল এবার ‘পরিবর্তন’ হবে। হ্যাঁ, পরিবর্তন হয়েছে — পলিটব্যুরোর ৯জন সদস্য নিয়ে আগে গঠিত হত কেন্দ্রীয় স্ট্যান্ডিং কমিটি এবার ৭জন সদস্য নিয়ে একমিটি গঠিত হয়েছে। এরাই চীনের সর্বোচ্চ নীতি নির্ধারক। আগে ছিল ‘সুপ্রিম নাইন’ এবার ‘সুপ্রিম সেভেন’। আরো একটা ‘পরিবর্তন’ হয়েছে চি জিনপিং (Xi Jinping) এবং লি কেসিঅং (Li Keqiang)ছাড়া অন্য ৫জন স্ট্যান্ডিং কমিটিতে একবারেই নতুন — এমনটি নাকি আগে কখনো হয়নি। আরেকটি ‘পরিবর্তন’ হয়েছে সম্ভবত আমি ঠিক নিশ্চিত নই, বিদায়ী সাধারণ সম্পাদক সাধারণত তিনিই মিলিটারি কমিশনের চেয়ারম্যান হয়ে থাকেন — সেভাবে হু জিনতাও(Hu Jintao)-এর যেখানে মিলিটারি কমিশনের চেয়ারম্যান হওয়ার কথা এবার মিলিটারি কমিশনের চেয়ারম্যান হয়েছেন নতুন সাধারণ সম্পাদক চি জিনপিং, অর্থাৎ রাষ্ট্রের প্রেসিডেন্টই হবেন এবার মিলিটারি কমিশনের প্রধান।

    

    Xi Jinping,59, was was named general secretary of the 82- million member Communist Party and is set to take over the presidency, a mostly ceremonial post, from Hu Jintao

    
    Li Keqiang,57, is currently China’s executive vice premier in charge of the economy and health care, and is set to inherit Wen Jiabao’s job as Chinese premier

    
    Wang Qishan,64, is currently vice premier overseeing the financial sector

    
    Yu Zhengsheng,67, trained as an engineer and was formerly minister of construction. He replaced Xi Jinping as Communist Party secretary of the financial hub of Shanghai

    
    Zhang Dejiang,66 this month, is currently Chongqing party secretary and vice premier in charge of industries including telecommunications and energy

    
    Zhang Gaoli,66 this month, has been the Communist Party secretary of Tianjin

    
    Liu Yunshan,65, has been minister of the Communist Party’s propaganda department

    List of members of Standing Committee of Political Bureau of 18th CPC Central Committee

    BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) — The following is a list of members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee:

    Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.

    They were elected at the first plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on Thursday.

    পুরো পলিটিক্যাল ব্যুরো, ছবির ওপর ক্লিক করলে পাওয়া যাবে তাদের অফিসিয়াল বায়ো : 18th CPC Central Committee leadership।

    
    পশ্চিমবঙ্গের বাংলা দৈনিক এই সময়ের আন্তর্জাতিক পাতা থেকে : চিনে পালাবদল।

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৫:১৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

      আরেকটি ‘পরিবর্তন’ হয়েছে সম্ভবত আমি ঠিক নিশ্চিত নই, বিদায়ী সাধারণ সম্পাদক সাধারণত তিনিই মিলিটারি কমিশনের চেয়ারম্যান হয়ে থাকেন

      হ্যাঁ, পরিবর্তন হয়েছে এখন নিশ্চিত। পড়ুন এখানে।
      

12. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৬:২০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ঋণসংকটে বিপর্যস্ত ইউরোপে কৃচ্ছতাসাধন বা ব্যয়সঙ্কোচন নীতি শ্রমজীবি মানুষের জীবন করছে দুর্বিষহ ও বেকারত্ব বাড়চ্ছে নজিরবিহীনভাবে। ব্যয়সঙ্কোচন নীতির বিরুদ্ধে স্পেন, পর্তুগাল, ইতালি, গ্রিস ও বেলজিয়ামে বিভিন্ন কর্মজীবি ইউনিয়েনের ডাকে ১৪ নভেম্বর ধর্মঘট পালিত হয়েছে। এই ধর্মঘট কোথাও কোথাও সহিংসতায়ও রূপ নিয়েছে। দিনটিকে ঘোষণা করা হয়েছিল “European Day of Action and Solidarity” এবং ইউরোপিয়ান ইউনিয়নের সব দেশের কর্মজীবি ইউনিয়ন এই আন্দোলনের সাথে তাদের সংহতি প্রকাশ করেছে।

    
    
    
    
    

    Protests Heaviest in Spain

    The fact that the protests have been particularly intense in Spain comes as no coincidence. The country has suffered deeply in recent years after its real estate bubble burst. Pressured by its European partners, the government in Madrid has implemented dramatic austerity measures that have exacerbated the country’s recession. Today, one in four Spaniards is unemployed, and joblessness among youth has skyrocketed to 50 percent.

    Most heavily hit by the strike in Spain is the country’s national railway. Only one-fifth of long-distance trains ran on Wednesday, and more than two-thirds of commuter train services were cancelled. The strikes also paralyzed airlines, with national carrier Iberia and low-cost company Vueling forced to cancel numerous flights.

    The strikes also brought production in plants for car companies like Volkswagen, Seat, Opel and Nissan in the region largely to a standstill. Unions estimated that around 80 percent of workers participated. In Barcelona, Spain’s second largest city, officials removed hundreds of trash containers from the streets to prevent them from getting burned.

    But the general strikes could also be felt in other countries around Western Europe on Wednesday:

    In Portugal, the strikes largely hit the public transportation and public services sector. In Lisbon, subway service ceased. Bus and train service was suspended all across the country. Workers at post offices and schools also went on strike. At hospitals, up to 90 percent of workers walked out for the day.
    In Italy, the country’s biggest union, CGIL, called a four-hour general strike and organized around 100 rallies. In Rome, police clashed with students who threw stones and unsuccessfully tried to rush the government palace. In Turin, protesters threw eggs and smoke bombs at the offices of the local tax authorities. Meanwhile, in Milan, rioting students smashed in windows of banks and the energy company Enel.
    In Greece, unions had prepared a protest that ended outside the parliament building. The protests began in the city center on Wednesday morning, with police expecting a relatively modest turnout, after a two-day general strike against the latest austerity measures passed by parliament already took place last week. The new law is unlikely to prevent the economy from continuing to contract: In the third quarter of 2012, economic performance dropped by 7.2 percent in comparison to the previous year, according to the Greek Statistics Institute.
    In Belgium, rail traffic was affected by workers’ strikes, with trains traveling to Brussels hardest hit. German national railway Deutsche Bahn provided a replacement bus service for its high-speed services between Brussels and Cologne. Meanwhile, Thalys, which offers high-speed trains between Paris, Brussels and Cologne, suspended service on the route for the day. “Unless a journey is unavoidable, passengers are advised not to travel today,” said a rail spokesperson.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : Anti-Austerity Protests Spark Violence।

13. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১১:৪৫ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    চলচ্চিত্র জগতের বর্ণাঢ্য মানুষ সুভাষ দত্তের জীবনাবসান হল আজ সকালে তার বাসভবনে।

    চলে গেলেন চলচ্চিত্রকার সুভাষ দত্ত
    সুতরাং, আবির্ভাব, ডুমুরের ফুলের মতো নন্দিত চলচ্চিত্র নির্মাতা, অভিনেতা, সাংস্কৃতিক ব্যক্তিত্ব সুভাষ দত্ত আর নেই।

    শুক্রবার সকাল ৭টার পর রাজধানীর রামকৃষ্ণ মিশন এলাকায় নিজের বাড়িতে মারা যান তিনি। তার বয়স হয়েছিল ৮২ বছর।

    চলচ্চিত্র পরিচালক সমিতির সভাপতি মোহাম্মদ হান্নান জানান, হৃদরোগসহ বার্ধক্যজনিত বিভিন্ন রোগে ভুগছিলেন সুভাস দত্ত। গত বছর বেশ কয়েকদিন হাসপাতালেও থাকতে হয় তাকে।

    বাংলা চলচ্চিত্রের এই গুণি নির্মাতার মৃত্যুর খবরে দেশের সাংস্কৃতিক অঙ্গনে নেমে আসে শোকের ছায়া।

    ১৯৩০ সালের ৯ ফেব্রুয়ারি দিনাজপুরে জন্মগ্রহণ করেন সুভাষ দত্ত।

    পরিবারের সদস্যরা জানান, শুক্রবার সন্ধ্যায় পোস্তগোলা শ্মশানে সুভাষ দত্তের শেষকৃত্য হবে।

14. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ১৯ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৬:১৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

    বার্মার ইতিহাস নিয়ে অমিতাভ ঘোষের কিছু অতিসাম্প্রতিক গুরুত্বপূর্ণ টুইট।

    In Burma find myself thinking often ofMaurice Collis’s Burma books. No British writer has written better or more insightfully about Asia.

    — Amitav Ghosh (@GhoshAmitav) November 19, 2012

    Strange to wander through the very rooms in Mandalay where on this day, 127 yrs ago, Burma’s last king would’ve heard of the British advance

    — Amitav Ghosh (@GhoshAmitav) November 18, 2012

    In Mandalay today 1 pm, event for The Glass Palace with Saya Nay Win Myint whose translation won the Myanmar Nat prize:Hotel Shwe Pyi Thar.

    — Amitav Ghosh (@GhoshAmitav) November 18, 2012

    Odd to be in Mandalay on the127th anniversry of the battle of Minhla where King Thibaw’s army was beaten.Sepoys did the dirty work as always

    — Amitav Ghosh (@GhoshAmitav) November 17, 2012

    • 

      মাসুদ করিম - ২২ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (২:৪৪ অপরাহ্ণ)

      অমিতাভ ঘোষের সাম্প্রতিক বার্মা ভ্রমণের সময় The Irrawaddy সাময়িকীর নেয়া সাক্ষাৎকার।

      

      The Glass Palace Revisited
      Amitav Ghosh, the internationally acclaimed author of Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke, first visited Burma in 1997 and set his novel The Glass Palace there three years later. Earlier this month, the Bengali-Indian former staff writer for The New Yorker revisited the country to see the changes taking place. He took some time to meet The Irrawaddy in Rangoon to discuss his recent experiences.

      Question: What’s the reason behind your trip?

      Answer: Earlier this year the translation of The Glass Palace won the Myanmar Literature Award. At that time the Indian Embassy wrote to me and asked if I could come but I was not available right away. I’ve been planning to come back for the last couple of years since the reforms started. This is a very good opportunity. I seized it.

      Q: The last time you were in Burma was 1997. What differences have you noticed after 15 years?

      A: It is like going from one planet to another. It’s so different. It’s almost unbelievable, and I was told in fact that most of these changes actually occurred in the last 12 months, which is truly staggering because the visual landscape has changed so much.

      One of the things that make cities of Burma so distinctive is that all the men wear longyi. Now the longyi seems to be fading. Everyone is in shirt and pants. That’s one thing. The traffic on the roads, the taxis, the buildings—all of that is starting to change. But most of all change is in the atmosphere.

      I was doing an event at the Indian Embassy and inside there were so many people who came to the meeting. I spoke of things I would not have dreamt of and which people would not have accepted before. I was talking about the press scrutiny board and [late veteran Burmese journalist] Ludu Sein Win who was such an inspiration to me. So all those things, 15 years ago you couldn’t have mentioned.

      Famed Journalist ‘Ludu’ Sein Win Dies
      By SAW YAN NAING / THE IRRAWADDY| June 18, 2012 |

      
      “Ludu” Sein Win (1940—2012)
      “Ludu” Sein Win, an outspoken Burmese journalist, passed away at Shwegondaing Hospital in Rangoon on Sunday after a long fight with lung disease. He was 71.

      Widely respected in the world of media both inside and outside Burma, Sein Win was known for his outspoken comments and biting criticism of the military junta led by retired general Than Shwe. Until his final days, he continued to write critical commentaries expressing skepticism of the new Thein Sein-led government.

      Born on Aug. 13, 1940, in Mandalay, Sein Win was educated at Lafon Memorial High School and Mandalay University, before heading south to study at Rangoon University. He was always deeply interested in journalism and in 1964 landed a position as a reporter for Ludu Newspaper.

      In 1967, he was arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison when Ludu was shut down by the central government. He was released in 1976, but was again apprehended and jailed in Insein Prison for four years.

      Soon after his release in 1980, he suffered a stroke which left one-half of his body paralyzed. Despite his ill-health, Sein Win—or “Ludu” Sein Win as he was now known due to his prominent role within the banned newspaper and the pen name he adopted—remained dedicated to journalism and wrote many memorable articles which were continually published in Rangoon-based journals and magazines until shortly before he died.

      Sein Win published more than 20 books, including translations, many of which were about journalism. He also organized English language training courses for youths in Rangoon.

      The patron of the Myanmar Journalists Association Organizing Committee, Maung Wuntha, another veteran of the Rangoon media circle, said on Monday that a great many people were mourning the death of Ludu Sein Win, saying he was one of the best known journalists in Burma, and was widely respected and loved by many, especially young people.

      “He never hesitated to criticize or make comment,” said Maung Wuntha. “With his straight-forward words, he was not only brave in criticizing the government, but also opposition groups when he found their weaknesses.”

      Ludu Sein Win also criticized Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, for its aging leadership and inactive role in the political process.

      He said that Burma needs to have alternative groups to lead the country forward, and pointed to the 88 Generation Students Group as an alternative democratic leadership.

      Maung Wuntha, who is currently an editor at Pyithu Khit, a news journal based in Rangoon, said that many youths in Burma respected Ludu Sein Win and followed his books and work with avid interest.

      Ludu Sein Win was often capable of writing two or three articles a day, said Maung Wuntha.

      In an interview with ASEAN TV on April 5, Sein Win said that he viewed the current process of political reforms as “a game” played by the former military regime which had transformed themselves into a civilian government.

      He severely reprimanded the international community for engaging with the new government, criticizing them for dealing with Naypyidaw on a business agenda. The international community, he said, saw Burma as a big market and that they wanted to “go fishing in its troubled waters.”

      He opined that the Burmese government had benefited from the international community’s lifting of economic sanctions—it had been awarded the Asean chairmanship for 2014, and it had received much international investment while ordinary Burmese civilians saw none of the benefits.

      In 2006, he had an opinion piece titled “Burmese people can’t wait much longer” published in The New York Times, and he was also quoted by The International Herald Tribune over the Myitsone dam issue.

      Ludu Sein Win also contributed to exile Burmese media including The Irrawaddy.

      On Monday morning, Burma’s state-owned MRTV 4—which rarely mentions anything about persons who are critical of the government—broadcast a brief report about Ludu Sein Win’s death.

      On Facebook, Twitter and other social media, hundreds of Burmese paid tribute to him.

      Thiha Saw, the chief editor of Rangoon-based Open News, said, “His passing is a great loss for our society at a time when space is finally appearing for press freedom.”

      Q: What’s your impression of Aung San Suu Kyi?

      A: That’s like writing a book. Let me say that for me she’s been a sort of beacon in the world. I feel that admiration for her, and I’m feeling incredibly happy she reached this point in time when she’s able to initiate changes in Burma. When I was here in 1996 it was on the eve of [the ex-military government] proposing a new Constitution. Essentially the deal they were offering then was not really different from the deal the NLD [National League for Democracy] eventually accepted.

      So, I felt then she and the NLD was making a mistake by turning down that deal [at that time]. I said so to her that time because they withdrew from the 2010 elections. I said to her that one consistent thing in the history of Southeast Asia in the 20th century is that any party that withdraws from the election loses something very profoundly.

      In 1942 when the Congress of India withdrew from the election, it had a profound impact, creating a sort of condition whereby after that they were crumbling. So I felt even then that a small step forward was better than no step forward. I felt that then, to be honest, she was badly advised because—and I’m just giving my opinion—that it was her British and American advisers who were pushing the view that [the NLD] should withdraw.

      I have seen a lot of things written about the constitutional arrangement settling proposed deals and I’ve seen a lot of criticism of it, especially from the NGO community who don’t want any place for the military and so on. Of course, in principle they are right. But you have to remember you are operating within this context.

      What we’ve seen in the Southeast Asian context is that you can’t create a perfect Constitution. For example, in Pakistan you have a perfect democratic Constitution but power is not in the hands of civilians, which means in effect that the constitutional authorities, the elected authorities, actually are helpless.

      They have no power. They become window-dressing. So I think at least as a transitional measure it is much better to have the army there and make it accountable because if it is in the open to some degree, it’s accountable. In Pakistan, it’s not. It becomes the deep state. By creating a perfect Constitution what you create is a deep state. So I personally think a transitional measure is not without reason.

      Q: Your uncle and father were your inspirations for writing The Glass Palace. Could you tell our readers more about them?

      A: My uncle’s family was in Burma from the earliest 20th century. He created a big kind of business in teak. He got the contract to provide the sleepers throughout India. So he became very rich. On December 24, 1941, when the Japanese first bombed Rangoon, one of the bombs fell on his timber yard which was right by the river. So all his timber was burnt up.

      That was the catastrophe for him. He left. He walked over the mountain, and came back to Calcutta. I grew up with him, and it was amazing in life to see this man who once was very rich, yet slowly his life dwindled and dwindled. All his life, even though basically he left Burma, in his head he was living in Burma.

      So he would tell these stories of Burma all the time. I just grew up with these stories. My father’s stories of Burma too. My father came and stayed in Burma. He was in India when the Second World War broke out. He joined the British Indian Army. When the British reinvaded Burma in 1944, he was with Lord Slim’s army.

      Q: Have your father and uncle read The Glass Palace?

      A: No, my father died two years before The Glass Palace was finished. The book was dedicated to him. It’s very sad because his stories are very important parts of the book. My uncle’s stories too. He died long before the book.

      Q: Aung San Suu Kyi said India should support Burma’s democratization process. What will be the future Indian-Burmese relationship?

      A: I think it’s very important. I would say it’s more important for India than Burma. India and Burma share a thousand-mile border. It’s a very critical border for India because that area of India is incredibly underdeveloped. But it has the unbelievable human potential that we see in India now.

      My friends teaching in universities have told me that their best students come from northeastern India. The fact that Burma has a troubled border and India has a troubled border will hold back both countries. If an economic corridor can be opened between Assam and Southeast Asia, it would revolutionize India, let alone Burma. So in that sense, that border is more critical to India than Burma.

      I really hope that India begins to engage in Burma in a serious way but also with a kind of humility. Yesterday, at one of my events here, there was an adviser to the Burmese President. He said to me how keen he is for Indian business investment in Burma.

      I wanted to say to him “be careful with what you wish for” because we can’t forget what happened here in the 1910s and 1920s when Burma’s rice producing industry was taken over by Indian money lenders, and a very large percentage of Burmese farmers went into catastrophic indebtedness.

      So the point is it should be good business rather than exploiting. That’s one thing I hope for. The other thing I would like to see best is an expansion of cultural and educational links. India has more Burmese student refugees than any other country except Thailand. So that’s the natural bridge.

      Q: India was quite supportive to the Burmese democracy movement in the early days but later Burma seemed to be forgotten. Why did that happen?

      A: I don’t think it happened. In 1993, India gave Aung San Suu Kyi the Jawaharlal Nehru Award—the biggest award in India. The Burmese resistance movement was at the defense minister’s house. The defense minister at the time was George Fernandes. In those days, I was covering a story so I used to go to Fernandes’ house.

      All the Burmese resistance was around his house. Apart from that there was widespread support for the NLD. I think what [India] did was they switched from a position of non-engagement with the junta to a position of engagement like that of Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations]. You can criticize that move. People have criticized India on that move. But in reality, that’s the policy that worked.

      Q: Why does India have so many internationally renowned writers like Rabindranath Tagore, yourself, Salmen Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth?

      A: I can’t explain really. I think in India people love telling stories. That’s always been the case. You can consider India’s influence in Southeast Asia was never a military influence, or political influence even. But it was the influence of stories like Ramayayan and Mahabarata.

      Throughout Southeast Asia, throughout Asia, they became such important cultural forms. It happened not through power, not through politics. It happened through stories. In a sense I think you could say we are doing what our ancestors did—telling stories. That’s one thing we are good at.

      Q: You are from the world’s largest democracy. What are the disadvantages of being a writer in a democratic society?

      A: The idea that there are no constraints on writers [in democratic society] is a mistake. There are constraints even in the US and I myself experienced those constraints around 9/11 and 2001. We experienced literary censorship.

      The real threat to freedom of expression in our times doesn’t really come from the government. In most parts of the world now it comes from non-state actors like extremist groups or other various kinds. In India, various kinds of identity groups object to someone saying this or that.

15. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২১ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১০:২৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Hay Festival Dhaka প্রথমবারের মতো গত ১৫ থেকে ১৭ নভেম্বর অনুষ্ঠিত হল বাংলা একাডেমিতে। বাংলাদেশের লেখকদের ইংরেজি ভাষায় রচিত সাহিত্যের সম্ভাবনার দুয়ার খুলে দেবে এই উৎসব।

    Despite the immense popularity of English-language writing from South Asia, including impressive recent debuts from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, it makes sense that the language has been regarded with more suspicion in Bangladesh. The country’s movement for independence, culminating in 1971’s Liberation War that resulted in the massive murder of ordinary Bangladeshi — at that time East Pakistani — civilians by the Pakistani army, began with the Language Movement of 1952, when Bangladeshi students at Dhaka University protested Bangla’s exclusion as the one of the divided country’s official languages. The twin shadows of Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam loom large over contemporary literature and society at large, though few remember that Tagore’s self-translation introduced Bangla literature to most of the outside world for the first time, because of the poet’s active engagement with the English language.

    That might be changing. This year Tahmima Anam published her second book, The Good Muslim, a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. And here in Bangladesh, with her help, the Hay Festival returned last week in an expanded format. After its inauguration on Thursday night, the book and arts festival ran all day on Friday and Saturday, over the Bangladeshi weekend, 15 — 16 November, and attracted an enthusiastic crowd of over 4,000 readers to its panels, performances, and book stalls. Founded in the small, book-loving town of Hay-on-Wye, Wales, the festival now boasts 15 locations, from Istanbul to Xalapa, plus Dhaka. At the Dhaka Hay’s opening ceremony, which inaugurated the stately Bangla Academy’s new auditorium, General Director Professor Shamsuzzaman Khan said that hosting the festival at the Bangla Academy “means greater exchange of ideas and new literary perspectives… greater cooperation and increased exposure for writers and Bangla literature.”

    The festival featured events in both languages, as well as poets and writers from minority languages like Chakma, but placed a special emphasis on emerging English-language writers like K. Anis Ahmed and Maria Chaudhuri. In Lifelines, a much overdue anthology of writing from Bangladeshi women, writer-editor Farah Ghuznavi collects short stories by fifteen younger Bangladeshi women writers. In her introduction Ghuznavi recalls Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein’s Sultana’s Dream, suggesting the poet first wrote her best known work in English “to make the thoughts and ideas of Bengali women accessible to a larger readership.” The festival also featured the launch of Bengal Lights, the new English-language literary journal edited by Khademul Islam, himself a talented writer. The stylish biannual journal is one of the most important English-language print journals in all of Asia, and paired with Ghuznavi’s anthology, introduces the most exciting Bangladeshi writers working in English today.

    বিস্তারিত পড়ুন : English-Language Literature Finds Its Place in Bangladesh।

16. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৪ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৭:০৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

    পাকিস্তানের বিখ্যাত কলামিস্ট আরদেশির কাওয়াসজি (Ardeshir Cowasjee) আজ ৮৬ বছর বয়সে মারা গেছেন। পাকিস্তানের ইংরেজি দৈনিক ‘দি ডন’এ তার শেষ কলাম : Lost in the mists of time।

    
    Ardeshir Cowasjee (1926 – 2012)

    With equal consistency each regime since 1949 has paid nauseatingly hypocritical lip service to Jinnah, distorting both his image and his creed, without making the slightest effort to make of Pakistan what he wished it to be. As for the “you are free” aspect of his most famous address of Aug 11, 1947, it has been quoted on thousands of occasions. Yet apart from a brief period following the birth of Pakistan, “you”, the minorities, have not been free to pursue the religions in which you were raised.

    The first nail in the coffin of religious freedom came in 1949 — yes, so early in this country’s life — with the objectionable Objectives Resolution that put paid to any tolerance of minorities. Not that there should be such a thing as minorities in Jinnah’s Pakistan, for as he said that far gone day, if the people of Pakistan work in the spirit of the equality of all, “in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities … will vanish.” What has happened? They have multiplied.

    Since then, in complete disregard of his exhortation that “religion is not the business of the state”, a string of rulers has brought this state of Pakistan to where it is today, to men and women being killed or tormented in the name of one of the great religions of the world, in the name of the law as it exists here, and even in the name of the constitution. The atrocities we have witnessed, and witness to an even greater extent today, are in large part due to the fact that religion is very much the business of the state. But it is an adopted religion that masquerades in the name of Islam, distorted and made to measure for those whose purposes it serves.

    Tolerance, freedom? As I write I have before me a photograph of MAJ, sitting on a London lawn, a cigarette in his mouth, in the company of his two dogs. Now there is a goodly horde out there that would swear I am hallucinating. Such a thing is intolerable, as was proven only as far back as 1999 when Pervez Musharraf was censored by — and sadly surrendered to — the forces of darkness for daring to allow himself to be photographed with one dog tucked under each arm. And this is but a trite example of the bigotry and intolerance that pervade our lives.

    

    Equally important — if not more so, as all things flow from it — was Jinnah’s insistence that the foremost duty of any government is to impose and maintain law and order. Well, that has been a non-starter, as the leaderships we have suffered have been the foremost violators of the laws as they stand and have been efficient perpetrators of a state of disorder.

    That when writing on Jinnah’s Pakistan there is nothing but a long line of lament, dismay and disgust is a dismal fact. The corrupt, the inept and the gutless who have been in charge of this country for far too many decades and surrendered themselves and their policies to false deities have tailored the state to their fit, throwing out all pretence, and certainly intent, to curb lawlessness, instil tolerance and keep within acceptable bounds “the biggest curses … bribery and corruption…. the evil of nepotism and jobbery.”

    As with their predecessors, the present incumbents of power seats, federal and provincial, have no interest in attempting to emulate the creed set forth by our founder-maker. Nothing new. But what is sad in all this deliberate ignorance is that to the youth of Pakistan, Jinnah and all he stood for have become largely irrelevant — he is lost to the young, the majority of our exploded population.

    Perhaps, in times to come, when, as our democratic pundits predict, a series of elections will hopefully wash out the rot, a leadership will emerge that realises the wisdom imparted by the man who made this country. It is a far cry, but not impossible. We must hope, and hope on, that the mists of time will clear and dissipate.

    Until then — and I shall not be around — it is difficult to disagree with the suggestion made by the last dismissed prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Let those who wish to leave the country for greener pastures, leave. In the present era, even under the supposedly liberal present dispensation, there is nothing and no one here that can offer them tolerance, freedom of worship, law and order.

    Oh yes, coincidentally but not presciently, Jinnah ended his Aug, 11 1947 speech to his constituent assembly by reading out a message received from the United States of America. It conveyed “the best wishes of the government and the people of the United States for the successful conclusion of the great work you are about to undertake.”

17. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ২৮ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৫:৫২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    এটি একটি তালিকা। ২০১২ সালের ১০০ উল্লেখযোগ্য ইংরেজি বইয়ের তালিকা। সম্পাদনা করেছেন নিউইয়র্ক টাইমস বুক রিভিউয়ের সম্পাদকেরা।

    The year’s notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.

    FICTION & POETRY

    ALIF THE UNSEEN. By G. Willow Wilson. (Grove, $25.) A young hacker on the run in the Mideast is the protagonist of this imaginative first novel.

    ALMOST NEVER. By Daniel Sada. Translated by Katherine Silver. (Graywolf, paper, $16.) In this glorious satire of machismo, a Mexican agronomist simultaneously pursues a prostitute and an upright woman.

    AN AMERICAN SPY. By Olen Steinhauer. (Minotaur, $25.99.) In a novel vividly evoking the multilayered world of espionage, Steinhauer’s hero fights back when his C.I.A. unit is nearly destroyed.

    ARCADIA. By Lauren Groff. (Voice/Hyperion, $25.99.) Groff’s lush and visual second novel begins at a rural commune, and links that utopian past to a dystopian, post-global-warming future.

    AT LAST. By Edward St. Aubyn. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25.) The final and most meditative of St. Aubyn’s brilliant Patrick Melrose novels is full of precise observations and glistening turns of phrase.

    BEAUTIFUL RUINS. By Jess Walter. (Harper/HarperCollins, $25.99.) Walter’s witty sixth novel, set largely in Hollywood, reveals an American landscape of vice, addiction, loss and disappointed hopes.

    BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK. By Ben Fountain. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $25.99.) The survivors of a fierce firefight in Iraq are whisked stateside for a brief victory tour in this satirical novel.

    BLASPHEMY. By Sherman Alexie. (Grove, $27.) The best stories in Alexie’s collection of new and selected works are moving and funny, bringing together the embittered critic and the yearning dreamer.

    THE BOOK OF MISCHIEF: New and Selected Stories. By Steve Stern. (Graywolf, $26.) Jewish immigrant lives observed with effusive nostalgia.

    …

    NONFICTION

    ALL WE KNOW: Three Lives. By Lisa Cohen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.) The vanished world of midcentury upper-class lesbians is portrayed as beguiling, its inhabitants members of a stylish club.

    AMERICAN TAPESTRY: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama. By Rachel L. Swarns. (Amistad/HarperCollins, $27.99.) A Times reporter’s deeply researched chronicle of several generations of Mrs. Obama’s family.

    AMERICAN TRIUMVIRATE: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf. By James Dodson. (Knopf, $28.95.) The author evokes an era when the game was more vivid and less corporate than it seems now.

    ARE YOU MY MOTHER? A Comic Drama. By Alison Bechdel. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $22.) Bechdel’s engaging, original graphic memoir explores her troubled relationship with her distant mother.

    BARACK OBAMA: The Story. By David Maraniss. (Simon & Schuster, $32.50.) This huge and absorbing new biography, full of previously unexplored detail, shows that Obama’s saga is more surprising and gripping than the version we’re familiar with.

    BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. By Katherine Boo. (Random House, $27.) This extraordinary moral inquiry into life in an Indian slum shows the human costs exacted by a brutal social Darwinism.

    BELZONI: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate. By Ivor Noël Hume. (University of Virginia, $34.95.) The fascinating tale of the 19th-century Italian monk, a “notorious tomb robber,” who gathered archaeological treasures in Egypt while crunching bones underfoot.

    THE BLACK COUNT: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo. By Tom Reiss. (Crown, $27.) The first Alexandre Dumas, a mixed-race general of the French Revolution, is the subject of this imaginative biography.

    BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History. By Florence Williams. (Norton, $25.95.) Williams’s environmental call to arms deplores chemicals in breast milk and the vogue for silicone implants.

    COMING APART: The State of White America, 1960-2010. By Charles Murray. (Crown Forum, $27.) The author of “The Bell Curve” warns that the white working class has abandoned the “founding virtues.”

    DARWIN’S GHOSTS: The Secret History of Evolution. By Rebecca Stott. (Spiegel & Grau, $27.) Stott’s lively, original history of evolutionary ideas flows easily across continents and centuries.

    A DISPOSITION TO BE RICH: How a Small-Town Preacher’s Son Ruined an American President, Brought on a Wall Street Crash, and Made Himself the Best-Hated Man in the United States. By Geoffrey C. Ward. (Knopf, $28.95.) The author’s ancestor was the bane of Ulysses S. Grant.

    …

    পুরো তালিকা এবং প্রত্যেকটি বই নিয়ে আলোচনার লিন্ক : 100 Notable Books of 2012।

18. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৩০ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (১১:৫৪ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ‘নন-মেম্বার ইউএন স্টেট উইথ অবজারভার স্ট্যাটাস’ এই অবস্থানের জন্য ফিলিস্তিন ভোট জিতল জাতিসংঘে : পক্ষে ১৩৮ ভোট, বিপক্ষে ৯ ভোট, অনুপস্থিত ৪১ ভোট।

    

    In historic vote, Palestine becomes non-member UN state with observer status

    138 countries voted in favor, 9 against, and 41 abstained; Abbas in UN speech: Enough of aggression, settlements and occupation; Netanyahu says Abbas speech at UN ‘full of lies.’

    In a historic session of the United Nations in New York Thursday, exactly 65 years after passing the Partition Plan for Palestine, the General Assembly voted by a huge majority to recognize Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member state with observer status in the organization. Some 138 countries voted in favor of the resolution, 41 abstained and 9 voted against: Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, U.S., Panama, The Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru, and Micronesia.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the resolution “unfortunate and counterproductive,” explaining that “only through direct negotiations between the parties can the Palestinians and Israelis achieve the peace that both deserve: two states for two people, with a sovereign, viable, independent Palestine living side by side in peace and security with a Jewish and democratic Israel.”

    Following the vote, U.S. UN envoy Susan Rice said the resolution does not establish Palestine as state, that it prejudges the outcome of negotiations, and ignores questions of security.

    Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas delivered a hard-hitting speech in which he was highly critical of Israel, drawing extensive applause from the floor.

    “Palestine comes today to the General Assembly because it believes in peace and because its people, as proven in past days, are in desperate need of it,” Abbas said.

    The Palestinian Authority chairman said “The moment has arrived for the world to say clearly: Enough of aggression, settlements and occupation.”

    “The world is being asked today to undertake a significant step in the process of rectifying the unprecedented historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people since Al-Nakba of 1948.”

    “The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine,” Abbas said. He concluded his speech to a standing ovation.

    Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, responded to Abbas’ speech, saying that peace could only be achieved through negotiations, not via the UN route.

    “For as long as President Abbas prefers symbolism over reality, any hope of peace will be out of reach. No decision by the UN can break the 4,000 year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel,” Prosor said.

    Those who vote in favor are undermining peace, he said. “The UN was founded to advance the cause of peace. Today the Palestinians are turning their back on peace. Don’t let history record that today the UN helped them along on their march of folly.”

    Prosor said that Israel remains committed to peace, but that “we won’t establish another Iranian terror base in heart of our country.”

    Responding to Abbas’ speech, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying the world had watched a speech “full of dripping venom and false propaganda against the IDF and Israeli citizens. This is not how someone who wants peace speaks.”

    Like Haaretz on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Tumblr

    The statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said that no Palestinian state would be established without guarantees for the security of Israel, and that the way to peace would be through negotiations.

    After long weeks during which Israel had tried to scuttle the Palestinian move using intimidation and threats to bring down the Palestinian Authority and cancel the Oslo Accords, it continued Thursday the line it has taken in the past few days of trying to belittle the move and present it as meaningless.

    A few hours before the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a tour of the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem that the UN General Assembly decision to recognize the state of Palestine “will not change anything on the ground.”

    Netanyahu attacked the international community and said that “It doesn’t matter how many hands will be raised against it, there is no force in the world that would cause me to compromise Israel’s security.”

    Netanyahu said the decision will not advance the establishment of a Palestinian state, but rather delay it. “Peace can only be achieved through negotiations between the sides with no preconditions, and not through unilateral decisions at the UN. I suggest not to be impressed by the applause at the UN. I remember the applause Israel received in the hall when it decided to unilaterally leave Gaza. We received applause and took missiles. Israel left Gaza and Iran entered. Exactly the same thing happened when we left Lebanon. As prime minister I will not allow another Iranian terror base in Judea and Samaria – in the heart of the country – one kilometer from the center of Jerusalem.”

    At this stage Israel’s reaction to the Palestinian move in the UN will probably be low-key. Israel is expected to impose limitations on senior PA officials and cancel their VIP cards that allow them free passage through Israel Defense Forces checkpoints in the West Bank, and will deduct debts of about NIS 1 billion that the PA owes various Israeli bodies, notably the Israel Electric Corporation. The deduction will come from confiscating the monthly tax revenues that Israel collects for the PA.

    More stringent steps will be considered in the future in the event of further Palestinian moves such as turning to the International Criminal Court in The Hague or an attempt to be accepted into other UN agencies.

    A senior official in Jerusalem said that Israel is not interested in carrying out immediate reactionary moves that would only serve to further focus international criticism of Israel, and not the Palestinians, who will be pressured after the UN move to renew negotiations with Israel without preconditions.

19. 

    মাসুদ করিম - ৩০ নভেম্বর ২০১২ (৯:৫০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    গুজরাল ডকট্রাইন* খ্যাত ভারতের দ্বাদশ প্রধানমন্ত্রী ইন্দর কুমার গুজরাল আজ বিকেলে ৯৩ বছর বয়সে হরিয়ানার গুরগাঁও-এর এক হাসপাতালে ফুসফুসের সংক্রমণে মৃত্যুবরণ করেন। ১৯৯৬ সালের ডিসেম্বরে বাংলাদেশ-ভারত গঙ্গা পানিচুক্তির সময় তিনি ভারতের বিদেশমন্ত্রী হিসাবে রেখেছিলেন বিশেষ ভূমিকা। ১৯৯৭ সালের একুশে এপ্রিল তিনি ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী হন এবং ১৯৯৮ সালের উনিশে মার্চ পর্যন্ত তিনি এই পদে আসীন ছিলেন।

    Former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral passes away

    Former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, who headed a rickety coalition government in the late 1990s, died today after a brief illness. Gujral, 92, breathed his last at 3.27 pm in a private hospital after a multi-organ failure.

    He was admitted to the hospital on November 19 with a lung infection, family sources said.

    The former Prime Minister, who was ventilator support, had been unwell for sometime. He was on dialysis for over a year and suffered a serious chest infection some days ago. He will be cremated in nearby Delhi tomorrow.

    I K Gujral, who migrated from Pakistan after partition, rose to become the Prime Minister with a big slice of luck after he came up through the ranks – starting as Vice President in NDMC in the ’50s to later become a Union Minister and then India’s Ambassador to the USSR.

    Gujral, an intellectual who propounded the ‘Gujral Doctrine’ of five principles for maintaining good neighbourly relations, left the Congress to join the Janata Dal in the late-1980s.

    He became Minister of External Affairs in the V P Singh-led National Front government in 1989. As the External Affairs Minister he handled the fallout of the Kuwait crisis following Iraqi invasion that displaced thousands of Indians.

    Gujral had a second stint as External Affairs Minister in the United Front government under H D Deve Gowda, whom he later replaced as Prime Minister after the Congress withdrew support in the summer of 1997.

    He emerged as the consensus candidate after serious differences developed among the UF leaders including Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh and others as to who will become the Prime Minister.

    It was another matter that his government survived only for a few months as Congress again became restive in the wake of Jain Commission report on Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

    

    Brezhnev too focused on China. He felt that Chinese ‘were warmongers’ who believed that ‘even the internal problems could be sorted [out] via wars’. He made very derogatory remarks about Mao Zedong’s health and endorsed Mrs Gandhi’s views regarding Chinese designs on Bhutan. He took out a Chinese map from his portfolio to point out to her the Bhutanese loci. I also had a quick look at the map and whispered to her in Hindi to carefully look at the Sino-India boundary, which was different from our Indian maps. She got the point but remained discreet and whispered back in Hindi: ‘I am unable to locate it’.

    Brezhnev surprised her and all of us when he revealed that ‘Pakistan had approached us to suggest formation of a regional cooperation group compromising Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and of course the USSR’, but he would not reveal his reaction to the proposal. However, he did endorse Mrs Gandhi’s claim that such group would be anti-India. Brezhnev then expressed his anxiety regarding the situation in Bangladesh, where, on 15 August 1975, the president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and most of his family members had been assassinated and uncertainty prevailed.

    Podgorny, who had just returned from a trip to Afghanistan, told us that the prevailing situation in that country was unstable and that the Americans were pumping in a lot of money and importing manpower to entrench themselves. He cautioned that, in such a venture, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (the prime mister of Pakistan), the Shah of Iran and the Americans had ‘common design’.

    — from I. K. Gujral autobiography ‘Matters of Discretion’, first published 2011

    *Gujral Doctrine

    1. Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka, India would not seek reciprocity, but would give and accommodate what it could in good faith and trust.

    2. No South Asian country should allow its territory to be used against the interest of another country of the region.

    3. No country should interfere in the internal affairs of another.

    4. All South Asian countries must respect each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

    5. They should settle all their disputes through peaceful bilateral negotiations.

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