বিভাগ/বিষয় নিরপেক্ষ

সুপারিশকৃত লিন্ক : মার্চ ২০১৪

আজকের লিন্ক

মুক্তাঙ্গন-এ উপরোক্ত শিরোনামের নিয়মিত এই সিরিজটিতে থাকছে দেশী বিদেশী পত্রপত্রিকা, ব্লগ ও গবেষণাপত্র থেকে পাঠক সুপারিশকৃত ওয়েবলিন্কের তালিকা। কী ধরণের বিষয়বস্তুর উপর লিন্ক সুপারিশ করা যাবে তার কোনো নির্দিষ্ট নিয়ম, মানদণ্ড বা সময়কাল নেই। পুরো ইন্টারনেট থেকে যা কিছু গুরত্বপূর্ণ, জরুরি, মজার বা আগ্রহোদ্দীপক মনে করবেন পাঠকরা, তা-ই তাঁরা মন্তব্য আকারে উল্লেখ করতে পারেন এখানে।
ধন্যবাদ।

আজকের লিন্ক

এখানে থাকছে দেশী বিদেশী পত্রপত্রিকা, ব্লগ ও গবেষণাপত্র থেকে পাঠক সুপারিশকৃত ওয়েবলিন্কের তালিকা। পুরো ইন্টারনেট থেকে যা কিছু গুরত্বপূর্ণ, জরুরি, মজার বা আগ্রহোদ্দীপক মনে করবেন পাঠকরা, তা-ই সুপারিশ করুন এখানে। ধন্যবাদ।

১৯ comments

  1. মাসুদ করিম - ১ মার্চ ২০১৪ (২:০০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    অতীশ দীপঙ্করকে নতুন করে আবিষ্কারের আশা

    মুন্সীগঞ্জের টঙ্গীবাড়ি উপজেলার নাটেশ্বরে যে বৌদ্ধ মন্দিরের সন্ধান মিলেছে, তা থেকে অতীশ দীপঙ্করের বাল্য ও শিক্ষাজীবন সম্পর্কে ধারণা পাওয়া যাবে বলে আশা করছেন গবেষক দল।

    এক সময় বিক্রমপুর নামে পরিচিত প্রাচীন এই জনপদে একটি বৌদ্ধ মন্দিরের সন্ধান পেয়েছেন প্রত্নত্ত্বাতাত্ত্বিকরা, শুক্রবার সেই খননকাজ সরেজমিন দেখতে যান সংস্কৃতিমন্ত্রী আসাদুজ্জামান নূর, অ্যাটর্নি জেনারেল মাহবুবে আলম।

    প্রাচীন এই নিদর্শনের খনন কাজের প্রধান প্রধান ড. সুফি মোস্তাফিজুর রহমান জানান, নাটেশ্বর গ্রামে খননে ৯ মিটার বাই ৯ মিটার পরিমাপের একটি বৌদ্ধ মন্দির, অষ্টকোণাকৃতি স্তূপ, ইট নির্মিত নালা, আরো বেশ কিছু স্থাপত্যিক নিদর্শন আবিষ্কৃত হয়েছে।

    প্রাচীন বঙ্গ এবং সমতট জনপদের রাজধানী বিক্রমপুরের বজ্রযোগিনীর গ্রামে জন্ম হয় অতীশ দীপঙ্করের (৯৮০-১০৫৪ খ্রিস্টাব্দ)। তিনি বৌদ্ধ জগতে দ্বিতীয় বুদ্ধ হিসেবে পূজনীয়।

    জগৎবিখ্যাত বিক্রমশীল এবং সোমপুর মহাবিহারের অধ্যক্ষ হিসেবে অতীশ দীপঙ্করের পাণ্ডিত্যের খ্যাতি তিব্বত পর্যন্ত ছড়িয়েছিল।

    কর্মজীবন জানা গেলেও অতীশ দীপঙ্করের বাল্যজীবন সম্পর্কে খুব বেশি জানা যায় না।

    ইহিতাসের ডিগ্রি নেয়ার পর প্রত্নতত্ত্বে গবেষণা করে এখন জাহাঙ্গীরনগর বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের প্রত্নতত্ত্ব বিভাগের অধ্যাপক সুফি মুস্তাফিজর রহমান বলেন, “প্রশ্ন জাগে বাল্যজীবনে তিনি (অতীশ দীপঙ্কর) কোথায় বৌদ্ধ ধর্মের শিক্ষা-দীক্ষা নেন? বৌদ্ধ ধর্মে তার পাণ্ডিত্যলাভ কি হঠাৎ হয়েছে?”

    “আমাদের ধারণা প্রাচীন বিক্রমপুরে সদ্য আবিষ্কৃত বৌদ্ধ বিহারের সঙ্গে অতীশ দীপঙ্করের একটি গভীর সর্ম্পক ছিল,” বলেন তিনি।

    বিক্রমপুর ফাউন্ডেশনের উদ্যোগে এই খনন কাজে ৭০ জন কর্মী কাজ করছে। এর মধ্যে শিক্ষক, শিক্ষার্থী ও বিশেষজ্ঞ রয়েছেন। ফাউন্ডেশনের সভাপতি রাজনীতিক নূহউল আলম লেনিনও সার্বক্ষণিক খোঁজ-খবর রাখছেন।

    মুস্তাফিজুর রহমান বলেন, জরিপ ও খনন কাজ শুরু হওয়ার পর চার বছরে বেশ কিছু গুরুত্বপূর্ণ প্রত্নস্থান ও প্রত্নবস্তু আবিষ্কৃত হয়েছে।

    সাম্প্রতিক আবিষ্কার একটি বৌদ্ধ বিহারের অংশবিশেষকে তাৎপর্যময় বলে উল্লেখ করেন তিনি। সেখানে এ পর্যন্ত ছয়টি ভিক্ষু কক্ষ উন্মোচিত হয়েছে।

    বৌদ্ধ মন্দিরটি আনেকাংশে ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত হলেও পশ্চিম-দক্ষিণ কোণা ২ দশমিক ৪০ মিটার উচ্চতায় টিকে আছে। ১ দশমিক ৭৫ মিটার প্রস্তের দেয়ালের ভিত্তিমূলে ঝামা ইট ব্যবহার করা হয়েছে।

    অধ্যাপক মুস্তাফিজুর বলেন, “হাতে কাটা ইটের অপূর্ব জালি নকশা এবং বিভিন্ন আকৃতির ইটের কাজ মন্দিরের অসাধারণ নান্দনিক স্থাপত্যের রূপ দানে সহায়তা করেছে।”

    শুক্রবার এই প্রত্নস্থান পরিদর্শনের পর আসাদুজ্জামান নূর সংবাদ সন্মেলনে বলেন, “নাটেশ্বরে আজ আমাদের যে প্রত্নতাত্ত্বিক নিদর্শন দেখতে পেলাম নিঃসন্দেহে এটি আমাদের জাতির ইতিহাসে একটি নতুন অধ্যায় সংযোজিত করবে।”

    নূহউল আলম লেনিন বলেন, “বিক্রপুরের সমৃদ্ধ ইতিহাস থেকেই আমরা অনুধাবন করতে পেরেছি সভ্যতার অনেক নিদর্শন মাটিচাপা রয়েছে। কিন্তু বিগত একশ’ বছরেও এগুলো উদ্ধারে এখানে খনন বা কার্যকরী কোন উদ্যোগ গ্রহন করা হয়নি। তাই আমরা উদ্যোগী হয়ে ২০১১ সাল থেকে প্রথমে জরিপ করি।”
    ২০১১ সালে খনন শুরু করে ২০১৩ সালের ২৩ মার্চ আবিষ্কৃত হয় রঘুনাথপুরে বিক্রমপুর বৌদ্ধ বিহার। পরবর্তীতে ২০১৪ সালের ১ জানুয়ারি থেকে টঙ্গীবাড়ি উপজেলার নাটেশ্বরে খনন শুরু হয়।

    সুফি মোস্তাফিজুর রহমান জানান, অনুমিত হয় প্রায় ৭ একর এলাকাজুড়ে যে দেউল (উচু ভূমি) রয়েছে সবখানেই ছড়িয়ে ছিটিয়ে রয়েছে প্রাচীন নানা স্থাপত্য । খনন সম্পূর্ণ হলে স্থাপত্যগুলোর চেহেরা স্পষ্ট হবে।

    যে ভূমিতে এই বৌদ্ধমন্দির ও অন্যান্য স্থাপত্য নির্দশন আবিষ্কৃত হয়েছে তার প্রায় ২ একর জমির তদারকি করতেন প্রবীন শিক্ষক নরেশ চন্দ্র দাস ও নারায়ণ চন্দ্র দাস। জমিগুলো অর্পিত হলেও স্থানীয় ভূমি অফিস থেকে লিজ নিয়ে এই শিক্ষকই ভোগ দখল করতেন।

    নরেশ চন্দ্র দাস বলেন, মূলবান জমি গেলেও তিনি সন্তুষ্ট যে বিক্রমপুরের প্রাচীন এই সভ্যতা ফুটে উঠেছে।

    নাটেশ্বরের বাসিন্দা নসরউদ্দিন নসু মাদবর বলেন, “খনন কাজের জন্য আমাদের জমিজমা কিছু ক্ষতি হলেও আমরা খুশি। কারণ এখানে যে এত মহামূল্যবান সম্পদ লুকিয়ে ছিল তা উদ্ধার হচ্ছে এটাই বড়প্রাপ্তির কথা।”

  2. মাসুদ করিম - ৪ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১১:৩৪ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

  3. মাসুদ করিম - ৪ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১২:৩২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    উপসাগরীয় অঞ্চলে নাস্তিকতা।

    Gulf atheism in the age of social media

    The Gulf states have a long association with Islam; after all, the religion was founded in the Arabian Peninsula more than 1,400 years ago. More recently, movements such as Wahhabism and Salafism were also founded here. However, over the past few years a rising number of Gulf nationals have started to distance themselves from religious practice and in some cases started to openly criticize the application of religion in society.

    It is therefore ironic that the godfather of modern Gulf atheists was brought up in present-day Saudi Arabia and turned Salafist before embracing atheism. Abdullah al-Qasemi was born in 1907 in Najd, central Arabia, to a conservative family and a strict father. Qasemi traveled to India and across the Middle East following the death of his father before getting his education in Cairo, where he initially defended Salafist teachings, which had him expelled from Al-Azhar University. Qasemi slowly distanced himself from Salafism following the publication of his book They Lie to See God Beautiful.” Qasemi survived two assassination attempts in Beirut and in Cairo for his nonbelief and went on to publish numerous books, including The Universe Judges the God and The Conscience of the Universe before he died in Cairo in 1996. His infamous statement, “The occupation of our brains by gods is the worst form of occupation,” is today widely quoted by Arab atheists.

    One of the first encounters I came across with hostility to religion — something that was unfathomable to me growing up — was an article by prominent Kuwaiti scholar Ahmed al-Baghdadi, who died in 2010 at the age of 59. The article, published in 2004 was titled “Is there no end to this backwardness?” The object of Baghdadi’s ire was Kuwait’s Ministry of Education, which he accused of a “systemic destruction of private education” because of a specialized committee’s proposal to replace music classes with additional classes on religion. “I have nothing to say but God curse members of this committee over their intellectual backwardness in this life and the next,” declared Baghdadi.

    “I am not afraid of religion, or bearded or turbaned people, and I see that music and developing an artistic sense is more important than memorizing the Quran or religious classes. [The classes] that are already there are more than enough. I do not wish to waste my money on teaching religion. … I do not want my son to learn from ignoramuses who teach him to disrespect women and non-Muslims,” he continued.

    Baghdadi went on to say that he wanted his son to learn sciences and foreign languages, not to “become an imam” or a “terrorist.” “The only people who went to religious institutions in old civilized Kuwait were those who failed in scientific studies.” Needless to say, Baghdadi’s article caused an uproar leading the writer to express his intention to seek asylum in the West. Although Baghdadi never declared himself an atheist, he was highly regarded among the underground Gulf atheist community as someone who championed their causes and demands.

    Although accurate figures on the number of atheists in the Gulf are nearly impossible to come by, a 2012 poll by WIN-Gallup International titled “Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism” published a surprising number of self-professed Saudi atheists. The researchers found that up to 5% of the Saudi respondents declared themselves to be atheist, a figure comparable to the United States and parts of Europe.

    In a rare interview, a self-confessed Saudi atheist spoke of the need to maintain a semblance of belief in religion in front of others, telling the interviewer that he was “shocked by the number” of atheists. The interviewee went on to cite social media as tools that made it easier for atheists to find each other. Indeed, the advent of Twitter and Facebook saw a proliferation of self-professing Gulf atheist accounts usually with the word “atheist” or “humanist” in the name, virtually all of them anonymous.

    In the decade before Twitter and Facebook, Paltalk, a video and audio group chat service founded in 1998, was all the rage in the Gulf. The service, which was launched in 1998, quickly gained momentum in the region that restricts freedom of expression. Within weeks, popular Paltalk chat rooms such as “Humanity” (run by a Kuwaiti) and “No Religionists,” dedicated to specific topics, sprang up, allowing entry to authorized persons only to discuss issues around religion.

    In an email exchange, a Saudi atheist Twitter user confirmed his anxiety to me: “My identity is top secret, and I don’t share it with anyone. I take many precautions in protecting it,” following threats to “many individuals who wrote much less things than outright atheistic views.” I asked the 47-year-old about the use of social media. “I do encounter many atheists online, especially through Twitter. And I am encountering more and more atheists in real life as well,” he said.

    Perhaps the best-known pioneering blogger in the Gulf is the Emirati atheist Ahmed Ben Kerishan. After a two-year absence from blogging, Ben Kerishan returned to social media in November 2012 by asking people to “open their eyes,” adding that “all religions lie” and that “secularism can set people free.” Famous Bahraini blogger Mahmoud al-Yousif once wrote that Ben Kerishan’s blog “should be reason enough for any non-Arabic speaker to start learning the language.”

    In the Arab Gulf, atheism (ilhad) is often conflated with secularism (ilmaniya). Although both are to different degrees unacceptable in society, the latter, unlike the first, is not punishable by law. A few decades ago most people in the Gulf had not heard of secularism, let alone atheism, even though many led a semi-secular lifestyle where men and women interacted openly. The advent of oil afforded the Gulf governments the opportunity to institutionalize and standardize religious practice in society. In addition, due to the history of Islam in the region, many in the Gulf strongly associate religion with national identity. Any distancing from or criticism of religion also equates to distancing oneself from national identity, which governments are keen to stress. The spread of political Islam in parts of the Arab world caused some of the youth in these countries to distance themselves from religion.

    In the struggle between the state and the nonreligionists, the latter are certainly at a disadvantage. One of the most notorious cases of blasphemy was that of Saudi blogger Hamza Kashgari, who was arrested in 2011 for tweeting about the Prophet Muhammad: “I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.” Following a two-year stint in a Saudi jail, his first tweet read: “Good morning to hope … to souls which never die … thank God.”

  4. মাসুদ করিম - ৯ মার্চ ২০১৪ (৭:৫৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    মালেশিয়ান এয়ারলাইন্সের বেইজিংগামী এখনো পর্যন্ত ‘নিখোঁজ’ ফ্লাইট MH370র ঘটনাটি অস্বাভাবিক, সাধারণত উড়ন্ত বিমানের হঠাৎ করে ‘বিধ্বস্ত’ হওয়ার ঘটনা বিরল এবং বোয়িং৭৭৭-এর ক্ষেত্রে আরো বিরল, এটা কি কোনো সন্ত্রাসী হামলা? পাইলটের আত্মহত্যা?

    Why jet might have disappeared

    The most dangerous parts of a flight are takeoff and landing. Rarely do incidents happen when a plane is cruising seven miles above the earth.

    So the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jet well into its flight Saturday morning over the South China Sea has led aviation experts to assume that whatever happened was quick and left the pilots no time to place a distress call.

    It could take investigators months, if not years, to determine what happened to the Boeing 777 flying from Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

    ‘‘At this early stage, we’re focusing on the facts that we don’t know,’’ said Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer with Boeing who worked on its 777 jumbo jets and is now director of the Airsafe.com Foundation.

    If there was a minor mechanical failure — or even something more serious like the shutdown of both of the plane’s engines — the pilots likely would have had time to radio for help. The lack of a call ‘‘suggests something very sudden and very violent happened,’’ said William Waldock, who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

    It initially appears that there was either an abrupt breakup of the plane or something that led it into a quick, steep dive. Some experts even suggested an act of terrorism or a pilot purposely crashing the jet.

    ‘‘Either you had a catastrophic event that tore the airplane apart, or you had a criminal act,’’ said Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consultancy Leeham Co. ‘‘It was so quick and they didn’t radio.’’

    No matter how unlikely a scenario, it’s too early to rule out any possibilities, experts warn. The best clues will come with the recovery of the flight data and voice recorders and an examination of the wreckage.

    Airplane crashes typically occur during takeoff and the climb away from an airport, or while coming in for a landing, as in last year’s fatal crash of an Asiana Airlines jet in San Francisco. Just 9 percent of fatal accidents happen when a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet airplane accidents done by Boeing.

    Capt. John M. Cox, who spent 25 years flying for US Airways and is now CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said that whatever happened to the Malaysia Airlines jet, it occurred quickly. The problem had to be big enough, he said, to stop the plane’s transponder from broadcasting its location, although the transponder can be purposely shut off from the cockpit.

    One of the first indicators of what happened will be the size of the debris field. If it is large and spread out over tens of miles, then the plane likely broke apart at a high elevation. That could signal a bomb or a massive airframe failure. If it is a smaller field, the plane probably fell from 35,000 feet intact, breaking up upon contact with the water.

    ‘‘We know the airplane is down. Beyond that, we don’t know a whole lot,’’ Cox said.

    The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records in aviation history. It first carried passengers in June 1995 and went 18 years without a fatal accident. That streak came to an end with the July 2013 Asiana crash. Three of the 307 people aboard that flight died. Saturday’s Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 passengers and crew would only be the second fatal incident for the aircraft type.

    ‘‘It’s one of the most reliable airplanes ever built,’’ said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

    Some of the possible causes for the plane disappearing include:

    — A catastrophic structural failure of the airframe or its Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines. Most aircraft are made of aluminum which is susceptible to corrosion over time, especially in areas of high humidity. But given the plane’s long history and impressive safety record, experts suggest this is unlikely.

    More of a threat to the plane’s integrity is the constant pressurization and depressurization of the cabin for takeoff and landing. In April 2011, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from Phoenix after the plane’s fuselage ruptured, causing a 5-foot tear. The plane, with 118 people on board, landed safely. But such a rupture is less likely in this case. Airlines fly the 777 on longer distances, with many fewer takeoffs and landings, putting less stress on the airframe.

    ‘‘It’s not like this was Southwest Airlines doing 10 flights a day,’’ Hamilton said. ‘‘There’s nothing to suggest there would be any fatigue issues.’’

    — Bad weather. Planes are designed to fly through most severe storms. However, in June 2009, an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed during a bad storm over the Atlantic Ocean. Ice built up on the Airbus A330’s airspeed indicators, giving false readings. That, and bad decisions by the pilots, led the plane into a stall causing it to plummet into the sea. All 228 passengers and crew aboard died. The pilots never radioed for help.

    In the case of Saturday’s Malaysia Airlines flight, all indications show that there were clear skies.

    — Pilot disorientation. Curtis said that the pilots could have taken the plane off autopilot and somehow went off course and didn’t realize it until it was too late. The plane could have flown for another five or six hours from its point of last contact, putting it up to 3,000 miles away. This is unlikely given that the plane probably would have been picked up by radar somewhere. But it’s too early to eliminate it as a possibility.

    — Failure of both engines. In January 2008, a British Airways 777 crashed about 1,000 feet short of the runway at London’s Heathrow Airport. As the plane was coming in to land, the engines lost thrust because of ice buildup in the fuel system. There were no fatalities.

    Loss of both engines is possible in this case, but Hamilton said the plane could glide for up to 20 minutes, giving pilots plenty of time to make an emergency call. When a US Airways A320 lost both of its engines in January 2009 after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York it was at a much lower elevation. But Capt. Chesley B. ‘‘Sully’’ Sullenberger still had plenty of communications with air traffic controllers before ending the six-minute flight in the Hudson River.

    — A bomb. Several planes have been brought down including Pan Am Flight 103 between London and New York in December 1988. There was also an Air India flight in June 1985 between Montreal and London and a plane in September 1989 flown by French airline Union des Transports Aériens which blew up over the Sahara.

    — Hijacking. A traditional hijacking seems unlikely given that a plane’s captors typically land at an airport and have some type of demand. But a 9/11-like hijacking is possible, with terrorists forcing the plane into the ocean.

    — Pilot suicide. There were two large jet crashes in the late 1990s — a SilkAir flight and an EgyptAir flight— that are believed to have been caused by pilots deliberately crashing the planes. Government crash investigators never formally declared the crashes suicides but both are widely acknowledged by crash experts to have been caused by deliberate pilot actions.

    — Accidental shoot-down by some country’s military. In July 1988, the United States Navy missile cruiser USS Vincennes accidently shot down an Iran Air flight, killing all 290 passengers and crew. In September 1983, a Korean Air Lines flight was shot down by a Russian fighter jet.

    • মাসুদ করিম - ১১ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১২:৪৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

      The U.S. Navy dispatched a second ship Monday to assist an emergency operation in the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea that has grown to involve at least 40 other vessels and 34 aircraft from 10 countries. But as in the previous two days of searching, no wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 appeared.

      China, which has expressed mounting frustration with the Malaysia-led investigation, said Monday night on its Defense Ministry Web site that it has deployed 10 satellites to help in the search, purging them of their original commands.

      The Malaysian government said search areas had been significantly expanded to include a larger square of the Gulf of Thailand and, to the west, a swath that reached farther north, toward the Andaman Sea.

      In Thailand, officials interviewed travel agents in the beach resort of Pattaya, where tickets were apparently issued for two men who later boarded the flight with stolen passports, according to the Associated Press. The two men’s fake identities had raised the possibility that a terrorist attack brought down the Boeing 777, which was carrying 227 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished Saturday.

      But U.S. and other officials say they have found no evidence of terrorist involvement.

      Senior American officials dismissed reports that a group called the Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade had asserted responsibility for the plane’s disappearance. “No group by that name has been previously identified, and it is not clear who is behind the claim,” said a U.S. intelligence official who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

    • মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ মার্চ ২০১৪ (৮:২৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ হাসিনার নির্দেশে দুটি ‘পেট্রোল এয়ারক্র্যাফট’ ও দুটি ফ্রিগেট সাগরে অনুসন্ধান চালাবে বলে জানিয়েছেন প্রধানমন্ত্রীর বিশেষ সহকারী মাহবুবুল হক শাকিল।

      শনিবার থেকেই এ অনুসন্ধান শুরু হবে বলে জানান তিনি।

      Piracy and pilot suicide are among the scenarios under study as investigators grow increasingly certain the missing Malaysia Airlines jet changed course and headed west after its last radio contact with air traffic controllers.

      The latest evidence suggests the plane didn’t experience a catastrophic incident over the South

      China Sea as was initially suspected. Some experts theorize that one of the pilots, or someone else with flying experience, hijacked the plane or committed suicide by plunging the jet into the sea.

      Adding to the speculation that someone was flying the jet, The New York Times on Friday quoted sources familiar with the investigation as saying that the plane experienced significant changes in altitude after it lost contact with ground control, and altered its course more than once.

      A U.S. official told The Associated Press earlier that investigators are examining the possibility of “human intervention” in the plane’s disappearance, adding it may have been “an act of piracy.” The official, who wasn’t authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was possible the plane may have landed somewhere. The official later said there was no solid information on who might have been involved.

      While other theories are still being examined, the official said key evidence suggesting human intervention is that contact with the Boeing 777’s transponder stopped about a dozen minutes before a messaging system on the jet quit. Such a gap would be unlikely in the case of an in-flight catastrophe.

      A Malaysian official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to brief the media, said only a skilled aviator could navigate the plane the way it was flown after its last confirmed location over the South China Sea. The official said it had been established with a “more than 50 percent” degree of certainty that military radar had picked up the missing plane after it dropped off civilian radar.

      Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said the country had yet to determine what happened to the plane after it ceased communicating with ground control about 40 minutes into the flight to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people aboard.

      • মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১:৪১ অপরাহ্ণ)

        PM Najib Razak’s Press Statement on Flight MH370

        Seven days ago Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared. We realise this is an excruciating time for the families of those on board. No words can describe the pain they must be going through. Our thoughts and our prayers are with them.
        I have been appraised of the on-going search operation round the clock. At the beginning of the operation, I ordered the search area to be broadened; I instructed the Malaysian authorities to share all relevant information freely and transparently with the wider investigation team; and I requested that our friends and allies join the operation. As of today, 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft are involved in the search. I wish to thank all the governments for their help at such a crucial time.
        Since day one, the Malaysian authorities have worked hand-in-hand with our international partners – including neighbouring countries, the aviation authorities and a multinational search force – many of whom have been here on the ground since Sunday.
        We have shared information in real time with authorities who have the necessary experience to interpret the data. We have been working nonstop to assist the investigation. And we have put our national security second to the search for the missing plane.
        It is widely understood that this has been a situation without precedent.
        We have conducted search operations over land, in the South China Sea, the Straits of Malacca, the Andaman Sea and the Indian Ocean. At every stage, we acted on the basis of verified information, and we followed every credible lead. Sometimes these leads have led nowhere.
        There has been intense speculation. We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of the families and those watching around the world. But we have a responsibility to the investigation and the families to only release information that has been corroborated. And our primary motivation has always been to find the plane.
        In the first phase of the search operation, we searched near MH370’s last known position, in the South China Sea. At the same time, it was brought to our attention by the Royal Malaysian Air Force that, based on their primary radar, an aircraft – the identity of which could not be confirmed – made a turn back. The primary radar data showed the aircraft proceeding on a flight path which took it to an area north of the Straits of Malacca.
        Given this credible data, which was subsequently corroborated with the relevant international authorities, we expanded the area of search to include the Straits of Malacca and, later, to the Andaman Sea.
        Early this morning I was briefed by the investigation team – which includes the FAA, NTSB, the AAIB, the Malaysian authorities and the Acting Minister of Transport – on new information that sheds further light on what happened to MH370.
        Based on new satellite information, we can say with a high degree of certainty that the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was disabled just before the aircraft reached the East coast of peninsular Malaysia. Shortly afterwards, near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control, the aircraft’s transponder was switched off.
        From this point onwards, the Royal Malaysian Air Force primary radar showed that an aircraft which was believed – but not confirmed – to be MH370 did indeed turn back. It then flew in a westerly direction back over peninsular Malaysia before turning northwest. Up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane.
        Today, based on raw satellite data that was obtained from the satellite data service provider, we can confirm that the aircraft shown in the primary radar data was flight MH370. After much forensic work and deliberation, the FAA, NTSB, AAIB and the Malaysian authorities, working separately on the same data, concur.
        According to the new data, the last confirmed communication between the plane and the satellite was at 8:11AM Malaysian time on Saturday 8th March. The investigations team is making further calculations which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after this last point of contact. This will help us to refine the search.
        Due to the type of satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane when it last made contact with the satellite.
        However, based on this new data, the aviation authorities of Malaysia and their international counterparts have determined that the plane’s last communication with the satellite was in one of two possible corridors: a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian ocean. The investigation team is working to further refine the information.
        In view of this latest development the Malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation into the crew and passengers on board. Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear: we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path.
        This new satellite information has a significant impact on the nature and scope of the search operation. We are ending our operations in the South China Sea and reassessing the redeployment of our assets. We are working with the relevant countries to request all information relevant to the search, including radar data.
        As the two new corridors involve many countries, the relevant foreign embassies have been invited to a briefing on the new information today by the Malaysian Foreign Ministry and the technical experts. I have also instructed the Foreign Ministry to provide a full briefing to foreign governments which had passengers on the plane. This morning, Malaysia Airlines has been informing the families of the passengers and crew of these new developments.
        Clearly, the search for MH370 has entered a new phase. Over the last seven days, we have followed every lead and looked into every possibility. For the families and friends of those involved, we hope this new information brings us one step closer to finding the plane.

        • মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১১:৪৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

          ‘Democracy is dead’: ‘Fanatical’ missing airliner pilot pictured wearing political slogan T-shirt as officials reveal flight MH370 could have been on the GROUND when the last satellite signal was sent

          An image has emerged of the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet wearing a T-shirt with a ‘Democracy is Dead’ slogan as it has been revealed he could have hijacked the plane in an anti-government protest.

          Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a father-of-three, was said to be a ‘fanatical’ supporter of the country’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim – jailed for homosexuality just hours before the jet disappeared.

          It has also been revealed that the pilot’s wife and three children moved out of the family home the day before the plane went missing.

          It comes as FBI investigators say the disappearance of MH370 may have been ‘an act of piracy’ and the possibility that hundreds of passengers are being held at an unknown location has not been ruled out.

          Officials also revealed that it is possible the aircraft could have landed and transmitted a satellite signal from the ground. If the plane was intact and had enough electrical power in reserve, it would be able to send out a radar ‘ping’.

          Captian Shah was an ‘obsessive’ supporter of Ibrahim. And hours before the doomed flight left Kuala Lumpur it is understood 53-year-old Shah attended a controversial trial in which Ibrahim was jailed for five years.

          Campaigners say the politician, the key challenger to Malaysia’s ruling party, was the victim of a long-running smear campaign and had faced trumped-up charges.

          Police sources have confirmed that Shah was a vocal political activist – and fear that the court decision left him profoundly upset. It was against this background that, seven hours later, he took control of a Boeing 777-200 bound for Beijing and carrying 238 passengers and crew.

          Yesterday, Malaysian police searched his house in the upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb of Shah Alam, where he had installed a home-made flight simulator. But this newspaper can reveal that investigators had already spent much of last week examining two laptops removed from Shah’s home. One is believed to contain data from the simulator

          Confirming rising fears, Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak announced yesterday that MH370 was deliberately steered off course after its communication system was switched off. He said it headed west over the Malaysian seaboard and could have flown for another seven hours on its fuel reserves.

          It is not yet clear where the plane was taken, however Mr Razak said the most recent satellite data suggests the plane could have been making for one of two possible flight corridors. The search, involving 43 ships and 58 aircraft from 15 countries, switched from the South China Sea to the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.

          In another dramatic twist early Sunday Indian officials however, said the search was on hold until ‘fresh search areas’ were defined by Malaysia. It is unclear what the reason was for the delay.

          Data showing the number of plausible runways where the plane could have touched down – which need to be at least 5,000ft – offer a baffling number of potential locations.

          • মাসুদ করিম - ১৭ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১১:১৯ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

          • মাসুদ করিম - ১৮ মার্চ ২০১৪ (৫:৩৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

          • মাসুদ করিম - ২০ মার্চ ২০১৪ (২:২৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

          • মাসুদ করিম - ২৩ মার্চ ২০১৪ (৭:১৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

            MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah received a two-minute phone call from a mystery woman a little before take-off on March 8, MailOnline has reported.

            The woman used a mobile phone number that has been obtained under a false identity, the report stated.

            Was it one of the last calls made to or from the mobile of Captain Zaharie in the hours before his Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur?

            Investigators are treating this information as significant because anyone “buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Malaysia needs to fill out a form giving their identity card or passport number”, the report said.

            This was one of the anti-terrorism measures put in place after 9/11 to ensure every number is registered to a “traceable person”. But in this case, the number was traced to a shop selling SIM cards in Kuala Lumpur.

            It was recently bought by someone with a woman’s name but whose identity was fake. The mystery caller came to light when Malaysian investigators examined phone records of both Zaharie and co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid.

            Investigators are looking at this a little suspiciously because it might link Captain Zaharie with terror groups that routinely use untraceable SIMs. All the others who Captain Zaharie spoke to have already been interviewed, the report said.

            The Mail on Sunday also reported that investigators are going to question Captain Shah’s estranged wife. The couple, who have three children, were separated but living under the same roof.

          • মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ মার্চ ২০১৪ (৯:৪১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

          • মাসুদ করিম - ২৬ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১০:৪৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

  5. মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১০:১৯ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ইউক্রেন সংকট বুঝতে এলেখাটি পড়তে হবে। ইউক্রেনের সংকট ভাষার ও জাতিগত বিভাজনের শুধু নয় — অর্থনৈতিক পদ্ধতির বিভেদও সেখানে প্রকট।

    Ukraine is stuck in a post-Soviet condition
    Yakov Feygin 12 March 2014

    It is common to speak about Ukrainian politics as being defined by a ‘Russian nationalist’ East and a ‘Ukrainian nationalist’ West. This language permeated the popular press during the tumultuous Maidan protests, with commentators suggesting that even if Maidan’s protesters won in Kyiv they would surely face recalcitrant Russian separatism in the Eastern regions. Yet, as Maidan moved to victory in Kyiv, in Eastern Ukraine, resistance from the supporters of the Party of Regions in the East virtually disappeared. Why, if Ukraine is divided along ethnic lines, did the population and elites of the Eastern regions switch sides so quickly? Because Ukraine is not just divided along linguistic or ethnic lines, but by its two different economic systems: the more prosperous East carries the political legacy of Soviet heavy industrialisation, while the less developed West is relatively free of such political burdens.

    Soviet Ukraine

    Ukraine’s current boundaries were not set until 1945, when the Eastern parts of what had been Poland (and smaller parts of what had been Romania) were added to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, in the aftermath of the Second World War. However, the regions that were bolted together by Stalin in the wake of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany were very different. One was a Soviet industrial heartland whose history of development reached back to the Czarist period; the other was a largely rural society with little heavy industry.

    The last decade has seen a flurry of historical research on the process of ‘Sovietisation’ in Western Ukraine. The weight of this research has shown that the cultural and political project of turning peasants into loyal Soviets was extremely successful in the western borderlands. The USSR successfully co-opted and created a Ukrainian nationalism that could co-exist and reinforce Soviet identity and values. Still, the economic divide between the eastern and western regions remained: Western Ukraine remained relatively agricultural with some light industrial development, while Eastern Ukraine was a major engine of the Soviet economy, mining a vast reserve of coal, and using those resources to build a massive steel and heavy-machine industry.

    Those divisions remain today, as Eastern Ukraine provides the country’s main non-agricultural exports, which are still machine tools, steel, energy and pharmaceutical products, with the main export market still Russia and other post-Soviet states. The main change since the end of the USSR has been that the owners of these enterprises now receive profits in cash instead of perks; and move this cash into a financial system closely connected with banks in the EU. The market structure, however, and, most importantly, monopoly control and rent extraction remain. This combination of Soviet management and Western financing is what I call ‘the post-Soviet condition.’

    The ‘post-Soviet condition’

    The ‘post-Soviet condition’ implies a number of things; Soviet enterprises were not just sites of production, they were also the core of the Soviet welfare state. Factories, in addition to employment, also provided housing, medical care, child-care, education and holidays. Essentially, what many of the Western-minded reformers of the 1990s did not understand was that capitalist property rights would not displace this complex and embedded network of authority, perks and exchange. The post-Soviet state – not only Ukraine – is thus a weak state with extremely strong institutions and local networks; and they are especially strong in Eastern Ukraine, and have been since the death of Stalin. In fact, the entire post-Stalin leadership of the USSR from Khrushchev to Gorbachev was comprised of ethnically Russian functionaries who cut their teeth and had their powerbase in the coal and steel heartland of Eastern Ukraine.

    Western Ukraine, on the other hand, looked very different. Even today, it is poorer than its eastern counterpart with only two well-known industrial enterprises: a television factory and a bus plant, both of which were secondary in the Soviet economic pecking order. While the region had a large agricultural complex, this industry did not create the politically powerful networks that the East’s heavy industry did. But Western Ukraine had something else: it was the capital of the underground trade in black market goods coming in from the satellite states of Eastern Europe. That was part of its history – a multicultural and multilingual entropôt that had been part of many empires, which had naturally become, in Soviet times, a hub for illicit exchange: not only goods but also ideas and culture including Western rock ‘n roll, which was pouring in from the relatively more liberal Eastern European socialist states.

    Networks

    The influence of Soviet industrial relations still shapes the political landscape in Ukraine and the larger post-Soviet space. Western Ukrainians had less industry to be privatised during the 1990s, thus creating a less powerful network of oligarchs to control not only the economic, but also political, life in the region. This is not to say that Western Ukraine has stable property rights or clean politics: if the reign of Tymoshenko has shown us anything, it is that gas and transit rights can be milked by politicians on either side of the divide. However, the smaller scale of these networks meant that the same kind of hegemony over the economy and politics does not exist.

    In Eastern Ukraine, deeply connected networks of managers and functionaries were able to scoop up large, vertically integrated Soviet industries and their attendant networks of patronage and power. As in Russia, what post-communist reformers did not understand (or wilfully ignored) was that property rights would not instantly turn Soviet enterprises into entities with a corporate identity and long-term profit motives. The lines continued to be blurred between welfare and property rights, and the defence of the structures of the state from the profit motives of individuals and enterprises. The difference was that now liquid cash could be moved across borders into the global banking system, and used to purchase goods that the old elites could only dream of.

    Putin and Yanukovych

    The 1990s and early 2000s saw bloody battles over control of these property rights and power networks across the entire post-Soviet world. In Russia after 2003, Vladimir Putin was able to bring some stability to this arrangement of power by amalgamating these networks into a centralised oligarchy, using presidential power to balance the interest of various Kremlin ‘groupings’ and their local patrons.

    Yanukovych did something similar in Eastern Ukraine. However, unlike Putin, Yanukovych did not have the billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue to build the coercive mechanisms of the state; indeed, the financial picture is dire. One of the overlooked stories of the protests was that, by comparison with the number of protesters, there were simply not that many Berkut riot police on the street. This is a direct consequence of a lack of fiscal resources. On top of that, Yanukovych had no leverage in the Western regions because they did not play by the same set of post-Soviet rules as his base in the East. Yanukovych had the bad luck of having to rule over a hybrid Soviet economic heartland and periphery, while Putin’s Russia contains a far more uniform set of industrial relationships and power relations. The lesson is that leaders like Putin and Yanukovych are not strong dictators ruling over powerful states but in fact weak leaders of weak states balancing strong institutions.

    Who wins, who loses

    Indeed, this helps explains why the EU Association Agreement was a spark for protests. Many have noted that the EU offer was not a panacea for all Ukraine’s many ills – requiring heavy structural adjustment for not that much return. For the pensioner living in Donetsk as well as the Eastern oligarch, this deal posed a threat to their economic security and the cosy ways of doing business. For the resident of Lviv, however, with prosperous Poland just over the border, this is a win-win situation, as they don’t have as much to lose. The same is true for young and educated people in the East, who, like their Moscow counterparts, see the only opportunities for growth, lying in a Western-style economy. Indeed, a recent article by Radio Free Europe interviewing the vying camps of pro- and anti-Maidan protesters in the East Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, presents incidental evidence that anti-Maidan protesters are older and regard their Russian-language Soviet legacy as a guarantee of financial stability, while pro-Maidan protesters are younger, less engaged in heavy industry and feel stifled by the systemic corruption that accompanies the ‘post-Soviet condition.’

    Viewing the events in Ukraine in terms of the political-economic networks of the ‘post-Soviet condition’ explains why Eastern separatism is being sustained by Russian military pressure, and has so far had difficulty mobilizing a sustained protest movement. Outside of occupied Crimea, whose economy is deeply tied to the Russian military and Russian tourism, we have not yet seen pro-Russian mobilisation on the scale that can establish political hegemony. The elites know that with Yanukovych out of office and on the run he is virtually useless to them as he cannot balance interests and produce favours. Is there really any point in their fighting for a rump Eastern Ukraine that might be easily cut off from the Western banking network, and the goods it can purchase? Nor is it worth their joining Russia where they will come under the sway of more powerful elites. Ideology and ethnic mobilisation falls by the wayside as political networks realign. We are now witnessing something similar to what historian Stephen Kotkin observed in the events of 1989: a political run on the bank. Furthermore, while nationalism is a powerful emotional force, Eastern Ukraine contains a significant population of people who are as fed up with the ‘post-Soviet condition’ as their West Ukrainian countrymen, and who see the Maidan movement as their own.

    The conditions for liberal democracy

    What lessons can be drawn from the above, for those who want to see a liberal democracy emerge not only in Ukraine but all across the post-Soviet world? Most immediately, the problems in Eastern Ukraine should be seen not so much as an ethnic conflict as a conflict between clans of rent seekers who have lost the stabilising factor of Yanukovych mediating between them. More importantly, Ukraine and the rest of the post-Soviet states need to become strong states. If the European Union, the United States or any other international actor really wants to build a liberal democratic society in Ukraine or the post-Soviet world as a whole, it needs to encourage the transfer of what should be the welfare and protective functions of the state away from rent-seeking oligarchs who have managed to hold entire governments hostage, into an independent state. This means doing something that European and North American policy-makers might consider anathema: weakening ownership rights. Instead of austerity, we need to encourage the formation of a functional and strong welfare state that can liberate citizens from networks of patronage linked to old Soviet industrial structures; and encourage the formation of independent unions that can represent the economic interests of workers, before the state. Only through these institutions can the ‘post-Soviet condition’ finally be relegated to history, and ‘liberal capitalism’ built. Until then, the peoples of Ukraine and many other post-Soviet countries will remain stuck in a post-Soviet state.

  6. মাসুদ করিম - ২০ মার্চ ২০১৪ (৩:৪১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ১০০ পর্যন্ত গেলেন না খুশবন্ত সিং, বিশ্ব খুশির দিনে ৯৯তে বিদায় নিলেন।

    Blue Hawaii Yoghurt

    IT must be over 40 years when I first met R.K. Narayan in his hometown, Mysore. I had read some of his short stories and novels. I marvelled how a storyteller of modern times could hold a reader’s interest without injecting sex or violence in his narratives. I found them too slow-moving, without any sparkling sentences or memorable descriptions of nature or his characters. Nevertheless, the one-horse town of his invention, Malgudi, had etched itself on my mind.

    And all my south Indian friends raved about him as the greatest of Indians writing in English. He certainly was among the pioneers comprising Raja Rao, Govind Desani and Mulk Raj Anand. Whether or not he was the best of them is a matter of opinion.

    Being with Narayan on his afternoon strolls was an experience. He did not go to a park but preferred walking up the bazaar. He walked very slowly and after every few steps he would halt abruptly to complete what he was saying. He would stop briefly at shops to exchange namaskaras with the owners, introduce me and exchange gossip with them in Kannada or Tamil, neither of which I understood. I could sense these gentle strolls in crowded bazaars gave him material for his novels and stories. I found him very likeable and extremely modest despite his achievements.

    We saw a lot more of each other during a literary seminar organised by the East-West Centre in Hawaii. Having said our pieces and sat through discussions that followed, we went out for our evening walks, looking for a place to eat. It was the same kind of stroll as we had taken in Mysore punctuated by abrupt halts in the middle of crowded pavements till he was ready to resume walking. Finding a suitable eatery posed quite a problem. Narayan was a strict teetotaller and a vegetarian; I was neither. We would stop at a grocery store where he bought himself a carton of yoghurt. Then we would go from one eatery to another with R.K. Narayan asking “Have you boiled rice?” Ultimately we could find one. Narayan would empty his carton of yoghurt on the mound of boiled rice. The only compromise he made was to eat it with a spoon instead of his fingers which he would have preferred. Such eateries had very second-rate food and no wines. Dining out was no fun for me.

    One evening I decided to shake off Narayan and have a ball on my own. “I am going to see a blue movie. I don’t think you will like it,” I told him. “I’ll come along with you, if you don’t mind,” he replied. So we found ourselves in a sleazy suburb of Honolulu watching an extremely obscene film depicting all kinds of sexual deviations. I thought Narayan would walk out, or throw up. He sat stiffly without showing any emotion. It was I who said, “Let’s go.” He turned to me and asked kindly: “Have you had enough?”

    We should get Narayan in the proper perspective. He would not have gone very far but for the patronage of Graham Greene who also became a kind of literary agent. He also got the enthusiastic patronage of The Hindu of Madras. N. Ram and his former English wife Susan wrote an excellent biography of Narayan. Greene made Narayan known to the English world of letters; The Hindu made him a household name in India.

    Narayan was a very loveable man, but his humility was deceptive. Once when All India Radio invited a group of Indian writers to give talks and offered them fees far in excess of their usual rates, while all others accepted the offer Narayan made it a condition that he should be paid at least one rupee more than others. In his travelogue, My Dateless Diary, he writes about a dialogue at a luncheon party given in his honour. “I blush to record this, but do it for documentary purposes. After the discussions (between two publishers declaring which of Narayan’s novels is their favourite one, and rank him with Hemingway and Faulkner as the world’s three greatest living writers) have continued on these lines for a while, I feel I ought to assert my modesty—I interrupt them to say, ‘Thank you, but not yet…’ They brush me aside and repeat, ‘Hemingway, Faulkner and Narayan, the three greatest living…'” Narayan goes on at some length about the argument between the publishers over whether to include Greene or Hemingway besides Narayan himself among the three greatest.

    I was foolish enough to write about this in my column. Narayan never spoke to me again.

    Death is rarely spoken about in our homes. I wonder why. Especially when each one of us knows that death has to come, has to strike. It’s inevitable. This line from Yas Yagana Changezi says it best: Khuda mein shak ho to ho, maut mein nahin koi shak (You may or may not doubt the existence of God, you can’t doubt the certainty of death). And one must prepare oneself to face it.

    At 95, I do think of death. I think of death very often but I don’t lose sleep over it. I think of those gone; keep wondering where they are. Where have they gone? Where will they be? I don’t know the answers: where you go, what happens next. To quote Omar Khayyam,

    “Into this Universe, and Why not knowing
    Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing…”

    and,

    “There was a Door to which I found no Key
    There was a Veil through which I could not see
    Some little Talk awhile of Me and Thee
    There seemed—and then no more of Thee and Me.”

    I once asked the Dalai Lama how one should face death and he had advised meditation. I’m not scared of death; I do not fear it. Death is inevitable. While I have thought about it a lot, I don’t brood about it. I’m prepared for it. As Asadullah Khan Ghalib has so aptly put it,

    “Rau mein hai raksh-e-umar kahaan dekhiye thhamey
    Nai haath baag par hai na pa hai rakaab mein

    (Age travels at galloping pace; who knows where it will stop
    We do not have the reins in our hands nor our feet in the stirrups).”

    All my contemporaries—whether here or in England or in Pakistan—they’re all gone. I don’t know where I’ll be in a year or two. I don’t fear death. What I dread is the day I go blind or am incapacitated because of old age—that’s what I fear—I’d rather die than live in that condition. I’m a burden enough on my daughter Mala and don’t want to be an extra burden on her.

    All that I hope for is that when death comes to me, it comes swiftly, without much pain, like fading away in sound slumber. Till then I’ll keep working and living each day as it comes. There’s so much left to do. I have to content myself by saying these lines of Iqbal:

    “Baagh-e-bahisht se mujhe hukm-e-safar diya tha kyon?
    Kaar-e-Jahaan daraaz hai, ab mera intezaar kar

    (Why did you order me out of the garden of paradise? I have a lot left to do; now you wait for me).”

    So I often tell Bade Mian, as I refer to him, from time to time, that he’s got to wait for me as I still have work to complete.

    I believe in these lines of Tennyson:

    “Sunset and evening star,
    And one clear call for me
    And may there be no moaning of the bar,
    When I put out to sea…
    Twilight and evening bell,
    And after that the dark!
    And may there be no sadness or farewell,
    When I embark.”

    I believe in the Jain philosophy that death ought to be celebrated. Earlier, whenever I was upset or low, I used to go to the cremation grounds. It has a cleansing effect, and worked like a therapy for me. In fact, I’d written my own epitaph years ago:

    “Here lies one who spared neither man nor God
    Waste not your tears on him, he was a sod
    Writing nasty things he regarded as great fun
    Thank the Lord he is dead, this son of a gun.”

    I had even written my own obit in 1943 when I was still in my twenties. It later appeared in a collection of short stories, titled ‘Posthumous’. In the piece, I had imagined The Tribune announcing the news of my death on its front page with a small photograph. The headline would read: ‘Sardar Khushwant Singh Dead’. And then, in somewhat smaller print:

    ‘We regret to announce the sudden death of Sardar Khushwant Singh at 6 pm last evening. He leaves behind a young widow, two infant children and a large number of friends and admirers. Amongst those who called at the late sardar’s residence were the PA to the chief justice, several ministers, and judges of the high court.’

    I had to cope with death when I lost my wife. Being an agnostic, I could not find solace in religious rituals. Being essentially a loner, I discouraged friends and relatives from coming to condole with me. I spent the first night alone sitting in my chair in the dark. At times, I broke down, but soon recovered my composure. A couple of days later, I resumed my usual routine, working from dawn to dusk. That took my mind off the stark reality of having to live alone in an empty home for the rest of my days. When friends persisted in calling and upsetting my equilibrium, I packed myself off to Goa to be by myself.

    I used to be keen on a burial because with a burial you give back to the earth what you have taken. Now, it will be the electric crematorium. I had requested the management of the Bahai faith if I could be buried. Initially, they had agreed, but then they came up with all sorts of conditions and rules. I had wanted to be buried in one corner with just a peepal tree next to my grave. After okaying this, the management later said that that wouldn’t be possible and that my grave would be in the middle of a row and not in a corner. I wasn’t okay with that—even though I know that once you are dead it makes no difference. But I was keen to be buried in one corner. They also told me later that they would chant some prayers, which again I couldn’t agree with, because I don’t believe in religion or in religious rituals of any kind.

    Though I’m quite fit, I know I don’t have much time left. I’m coming to terms with death, preparing myself. And since I have no faith in God, nor in the day of judgement, nor in the theory of reincarnation, I have to come to terms with the complete full stop. I have been criticised for not sparing even the dead, but then death does not sanctify a person, and if I find the person had been corrupt, I write about it even when he’s gone.

    I don’t believe in rebirth or in reincarnation, in the day of judgement or in heaven or hell. I accept the finality of death. We do not know what happens to us after we die but one should help a person go in peace—at peace with himself and with the world.

    I’ve lived a reasonably contented life. I’ve often thought about what it is that makes people happy—what one has to do in order to achieve happiness.

    First and foremost is good health. If you do not enjoy good health, you can never be happy. Any ailment, however trivial, will deduct something from your happiness.

    Second, a healthy bank balance. It need not run into crores, but it should be enough to provide for comforts, and there should be something to spare for recreation—eating out, going to the movies, travel and holidays in the hills or by the sea. Shortage of money can be demoralising. Living on credit or borrowing is demeaning and lowers one in one’s own eyes.

    Third, your own home. Rented places can never give you the comfort or security of a home that is yours for keeps. If it has garden space, all the better. Plant your own trees and flowers, see them grow and blossom, and cultivate a sense of kinship with them.

    Fourth, an understanding companion, be it your spouse or a friend. If you have too many misunderstandings, it robs you of your peace of mind. It is better to be divorced than to be quarrelling all the time.

    Fifth, stop envying those who have done better than you in life—risen higher, made more money, or earned more fame. Envy can be corroding; avoid comparing yourself with others.

    Sixth, do not allow people to descend on you for gup-shup. By the time you get rid of them, you will feel exhausted and poisoned by their gossip-mongering.

    Seventh, cultivate a hobby or two that will fulfil you—gardening, reading, writing, painting, playing or listening to music. Going to clubs or parties to get free drinks, or to meet celebrities, is a criminal waste of time. It’s important to concentrate on something that keeps you occupied meaningfully. I have family members and friends who spend their entire day caring for stray dogs, giving them food and medicines. There are others who run mobile clinics, treating sick people and animals free of charge.

    Eighth, every morning and evening devote 15 minutes to introspection. In the mornings, 10 minutes should be spent in keeping the mind absolutely still, and five listing the things you have to do that day. In the evenings, five minutes should be set aside to keep the mind still and 10 to go over the tasks you had intended to do.

    Ninth, don’t lose your temper. Try not to be short-tempered, or vengeful. Even when a friend has been rude, just move on.

    Above all, when the time comes to go, one should go like a man without any regret or grievance against anyone. Iqbal said it beautifully in a couplet in Persian: “You ask me about the signs of a man of faith? When death comes to him, he has a smile on his lips.”

  7. মাসুদ করিম - ২৪ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১:৩১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Nazi scientists planned to use mosquitoes as biological weapon
    Himmler ordered secret research into how malaria-infected insects could be sent behind enemy lines, research reveals

    The Nazis considered using mosquitoes as biological weapons during the second world war, research has revealed.

    Towards the end of the war, scientists at an institute in Dachau conducted research into how malaria-infected insects could be kept alive for long enough to be released into enemy territory.

    In January 1942, the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, ordered the creation of the Dachau entomological institute. Its official mission was to find new remedies against diseases transmitted by lice and other insects: German troops were often plagued by typhoid, and there were concerns about a developing typhoid epidemic at the Neuengamme concentration camp.

    But in an article for the science journal Endeavour, Klaus Reinhardt says protocols kept by the head of the institute allow no other conclusion than that the institute also pursued research into biological warfare.

    In 1944, scientists examined different types of mosquitoes for their life spans in order to establish whether they could be kept alive long enough to be transported from a breeding lab to a drop-off point. At the end of the trials, the director of the institute recommended a particular type of anopheles mosquito, a genus well-known for its capacity to transmit malaria to humans.

    With Germany having signed up to the 1925 Geneva protocol, Adolf Hitler had officially ruled out the use of biological and chemical weapons during the second world war, as had allied forces. Research into the mosquito project had to be carried out in secret.

    In the end, the research proved of little value. Behind the project was “a bizarre mix of Himmler’s smattering of scientific knowledge, personal paranoia, an esoteric world view, and genuine concerns about his SS troops”, Reinhardt told Süddeutsche Zeitung. In comparison with the biological research of the allied forces, he said, Nazi research had been “risible”.

    Animals were frequently employed for military operations during the first and second world war, though mainly for transport and communication. In 2004, the British government unveiled a memorial dedicated to the animals including horses, dogs and pigeons who served and died alongside British and allied troops.

    During the first world war, glow worms were often kept by British soldiers to help them read maps at night. American researchers also worked on a plan to use bats to carry incendiary bombs, but the programme was shelved.

  8. মাসুদ করিম - ২৪ মার্চ ২০১৪ (১:৪১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Scottish independence: Draft written constitution to be published

    An interim written Scottish constitution will be published this summer, the country’s deputy first minister has announced.

    Nicola Sturgeon said the draft Scottish Independence Bill will be released for consultation before the Scottish Parliament’s summer recess.

    It will set out the foundations of an independent Scotland if the country votes Yes in the referendum.

    The Better Together campaign said the SNP’s timetable had been “discredited”.

    Ms Sturgeon will tell an audience in Cardiff that the document will “enshrine Scottish values” and put in place the legal necessities, until a constitutional convention prepares a permanent constitution for Scotland in the event of independence.

    She will make the speech in the Wales Governance Centre Annual Lecture, two years to the day that Scotland would become independent under the Scottish government’s timescale, if there is a Yes vote in the referendum on 18 September.

    Ms Sturgeon will say: “Today, the date which will become our independence day following a vote for independence this September, I want everyone in Scotland to consider who we are as a nation and what we have the potential to become.

    “Independence is not a historical argument, it is the opposite – a live and vital opportunity to chart our own course, to give us the power to determine our own future and build the kind of country we can all be proud of.

    “A written constitution is an important part of a nation’s identity – it defines who we are and sets out the values that we hold dear.

    “Currently we are without a written constitution, and the UK is the only country within the European Union or the Commonwealth that does not have a written constitution or a constitution Act – that is a democratic deficit an independent Scotland will not replicate.

    “It is a cornerstone of Scottish democracy that sovereignty rests with the people. That is why we want to make the drafting of our permanent written constitution an inclusive process involving all the people of Scotland – it must be a constitution by the people, for the people – articulating Scotland’s values, enhancing our liberties and defining our responsibilities.”

    Drafting a constitution “will energise and inspire” people across Scotland, Ms Sturgeon believes.

    The deputy first minister will also tell the audience that independence can create “a truly equal relationship across these islands”.

    She will say: “The very foundation stone on which the No campaign bases its argument is in effect being demolished by the leaders of that campaign.

    “Those opposed to independence claim that the UK – as it currently stands – is an equal partnership of nations and of people. But in its attempts to scare voters in Scotland, the No campaign is destroying the very idea that the UK is a partnership of equals.”

    A spokesman for Better Together, which is campaigning to keep Scotland in the UK, said: “The SNP’s timetable for breaking up the UK has been widely discredited, whether it’s on EU membership or setting up the apparatus of a separate state.

    “The idea that everything will be sorted in just 18 months simply isn’t credible.

    “Nicola Sturgeon should be honest about the consequences of leaving the UK on our currency, EU membership, pensions and more. Telling us everything will be alright on the night isn’t good enough.”

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