American Lessons to Third World Nations

This is a true story, has its characters those are prominent men of our society and from international corporate arena too. So I am going to describe in such a way where there will be no names.

It was in a party, took place in Dhaka few days ago was attended by some of corporate big shots. Inviteds were mostly Bangladeshi and some of Pakistanis, Sri Lankans & other foreigners those are living here for professional purpose.
During the party a Sri Lankan once asked a Pakistani, “What’s really happening in your country?” The Pakistani told him “I actually don’t get what’s happening or what’s really gonna happen.” This discussion was also being attended by a Bangladeshi who is a very rich & famous chartered accountant from old days, was asked the same question by the Sri Lankan. That Bangladeshi simply answered, “I am also not sure about my one.” There was a wave of smiles between three men and then the Sri Lankan said, “As few days have passed I am living in you country, I had the chance to go through your newspapers a bit. I have got match between one of your present administrative big shot with one of stories which is about some Sri Lankan minister. Here is the story-

The Sri Lankan minister was often to go to US for necessary or unnecessary reasons at the cost of Government. Once he was there for quite few days & got invited to the party thrown by a US politician, an administrative associate. He naturally went to that party and was thundered by the palatial residence of that American politician. That minister has done lot of corruption in his country but this palatial residence was a real blow for him. During the party, he asked that US politician that how it was possible. That politician took him to the balcony and told him showing a river,
-Do you see that bridge upon the river?
-Yes, off course.
-Yeah! I made 5% off that. Understood how this home been made?
-Oh!

Then, that Minister came back to Sri Lanka. Years later, somehow that American came to Sri Lanka and was invited to that minister’s residence at a party. This time the blow was for the American. The guy who has already a palace in America, hit with a much bigger thunder, looked at the residence of the minister, who once asked him about his residence in America. The American’s first question to him was,
-Oh God! How you’ve made this?
- (smiled) Come on! It was simple. Come with me.
The minister took the American to the balcony of his residence and told,
-Look at there, do you see the river?
-Off course I do! Its there!
-Do you see any bridge upon it?
-No! How can I see? There is no bridge there.
-Yeah! I made 100% off that.””

The Pakistani & the Bangladeshi gentlemen were looking at the Sri Lankan while finally he ended up with his story. Nobody has asked anonymity in the post but I have deliberately skipped names. Because these men are prominent & famous and anybody will recognize them if I mention names.

Now, the thing which is depressing, we always think that business associates from abroad come to Bangladesh just to meet profit, nothing else, moreover our inner political affairs are of complete apathy to them. But that Sri Lankan proved it wrong and showed how he thinks about Bangladesh. Things are not better in Sri Lanka though, we could have been better, we could have protected ourselves from a very clear cut criticism of a Sri Lankan.

Ambassador Story Part II

Ambassador Story II: Ghost King’s three boons

by Rumi Ahmed. Published in In The Middle of Nowhere. November 24, 2007.

In Satyajit Ray movie Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen the ghost king ( ভুতের রাজা ) gave three ” বর” (Boon) to Gupi and Bahga. With these three boons Gupi and Bagha conquered the kingdom and his two daughters and did a lot of good things. Although the Ghost king only had three boons to give away, he ghost kings that has been running our Ghost kingdom apparently has a never ending stash of boons. And their boons usually are in one single form, i.e. ambassadorship to foreign kingdoms.

 

Three recent ambassador posting reminded me of the ghost king. Some of these postings definitely raise concern about their appropriateness and justification. Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya was given the most vital post of the permanent rep at Geneva UN mission. This very important diplomatic job usually went to brightest of the foreign service officials. And this job needs diplomatic depth, experience and insight. And for sure this is definitely not a job where you need expertise in conspiracy. Dr Bhattacharya’s activities of last five years are laudable. But with change of government, his sudden silence, sudden collapse of his good candidate movement, his sudden blindness on what is going on in the election commission made people wonder about the real intentions of his last five years activities. Now his reward job tend to clear up many confusions.
Then comes two other top missions in Canada and Australia. This government has decided to award one Syed Fahim Munaem as ambassador to Canada. First it’s worth mention that with increasing number of Bangladeshi migrants in Canada and as a country with huge potential for a labor/manpower market as well as an importer of our RMG products, the Ottawa mission needed an experienced and dynamic diplomat. This Syed Fahim Munaem was a disaster as CA’s press secretary. I can’t believe his abject failure is a reason for his reward. So there must be something else that won him the boon. And it does not need too much wisdom to guess that his managing skill as managing editor of the Daily Star helped pave 1/11 and the benefactors of 1/11 owe someone some payback.

 

Australia is another vital mission and another hot spot of Bangladeshi immigrants as well as regional and trade collaborations. But traditionally this mission has been used as all paid, golfing retirement retreat of our military Generals. The outpost in Canberra has seen the golfing skills of Generals Shafiullah, Latif, Mannaf, Moinul, Harun Ur Rashid etc and now Bangladesh is paying an all paid three years golfing tour for Lt General Z Alam. Nobody knows what splendid thing Lt Gen Z Alam did for the nation so that a foreign secretary need to be bypassed for this job.
We need to remember that Bangladesh foreign service attracts the brightest young men and women of Bangladesh. They spend their lifetime, painstakingly climbing up the foreign service ladders. They spend a nomad life sometimes in Senegal, sometimes in Philippines and intermittently in Bangladesh. Their dream is to someday become an ambassador in a attractive places like Canada, Australia, UK etc. But almost all the time their dream is shattered by a renegade army general or a fortune seeking managing editor or NGO man who somehow manages to grab the grand slam.
It has been learnt that in par with Pakistan tradition, Bangladesh Foreign Service also had an understanding of allocating 30% of diplomat jobs to non cadre persons, meant for political postings. However since independence the 30% cutoff probably was never maintained as at any moment 40-60% top diplomat jobs went to persons who are not career diplomats. Since independence, the most wanted foreign mission jobs went to military discards. And discards include murderers of national leaders, coup mongering outlaws in the military. This tradition continued till to date. Our dear general Moeen U Ahmed became army chief bypassing 4 seniors generals. So all four had to go into retirement and they had to become ambassadors to 4 vital Bangladesh missions. Some senior officers are not liked by the army chief, again go open up some more top diplomat posts in foreign missions.

As this government is a non political neutral caretaker government, it was expected that they will avoid snatching top foreign mission posts away from foreign service officers. However, looks like this government is in a competition with all other political government to distribute these jobs to their near and dear ones. Otherwise how would you explain these three new postings in Canada, Australi, UN-Geneva? How do they deserve these jobs of tremedous value? And what is the fault of foreign service official who worked all his life from mission to mission with the hope of becoming an ambassador to those countries one day. What hope they will left with?

Ambassador Story

Ambassador story 1: Yasmin Morshed to represent Bangla Desh

by Rumi Ahmed. Published in In The Middle of Nowhere. November 24, 2007.

When in 1952 the students of Dhaka university took to streets in demand of announcing Bengali as the state language, defied rule 144 and was fired upon, the leader of pakistan was Khawaja Nazimuddin of Dhaka Nabab Bari. And clearly his ordered the police shooting that killed Rafiq, Jabbar, Shafiur, Salam, Barkat and 9 year old Ohiullah. Khawaja Nazimuddin took over the governorship of Pakistan after the sudden death of Mr M A Zinnah and became the prime minister after assassination of Liakat Ali Khan. Even after the killing of 21 st february when there was strong pressure/emotion both from the east and the west side of the country to announce Bangla as the state language, Khawaja Nazimuddin refused to yield to any pressure to recognize Bangla. And he did not let it happen as long as he was the prime minister. Later Mohammad Ali Bogra of Bogra Satani Nabab Bari, after becoming prime minister, did take the steps to recognize Bangla as the state language.
Although Khawaja Nazimuddin and his family failed to stop Bangla from getting the official recognition, they themselves never accepted Bangla as a respectable language. Down the generations his family kept on speaking urdu at home and getting education in a non bengali format i.e. either English or Urdu.

 

Yasmin Zakiuddin ( later turned Morshed) had to go to Pakistan for her education in sohi Urdu as there was no good ” Non-Bangla” education outfit in pre and post independence Bangladesh. So, on returning home, she built Dhaka Scholastica school to help the coming generations of Khawaja Nazimuddin keep shunning Bangla. This school will, rather following a school curriculum tailored to the culture, history and sensitivity of Bangladesh, will impose a European curriculum. Although Scholastica maintains a tag line of “equal fluency in Bangla” to silence the skeptics like me, the ultimate goal was to send Bangla back to where Nazimuddin thought it belongs, the language of the uncultured, dirt poor peasants and subjects.
And what Nazimuddin could not do with bullets and tear gas, her great-grand daughter did it superbly fifty years later. Only in 25 years, The counter ‘Ekushey’ revolution of language movement that she started, saw grand success. Thanks to Yasmin Morshed’s English Medium revolution, we now have a generation of Kids who would rather converse in English among themselves. And Bangla has been relegated to where is belongs, the education medium of the poor, low class kids.
Yasmin Morshed has just been appointed Bangladesh’s high commissioner to Pakistan. I don’t know what she did to uplift the nation or to promote the science, economy or culture of Bangladesh to deserve such a rewarding assignment. But I know that Urdu loving Ms Yasmin Morshed will have a soothing life in Pakistan among her kins.
And this is how the revolution that started on 21st February 1952, ends, three generations later, in a big defeat.

Feeling Envy of Deads

More photos have been uploaded. Click to follow to the gallery

• Have you ever faced hunger for two or three days?

• Have you ever found your home ravaged to rubble?

• Have you ever fallen in situation when you even have no water to drink?

• Have you ever fallen in situation where your living, your profession, your family & your home, everything is lost & gone?

• Have you ever thought of how it will feel when you will be turned to a penniless man within a night and you have to have your food, clothes, if someone other gives it to you?

• Have you ever fallen in situation where you have absolutely no home to live, no bed to sleep, no food to eat, and no chance to get those stuffs soon?

• Have you ever thought of a situation when you have lost all of your family members at once, whereas they all remained till last night?

• Have you ever fallen in a situation when you have lost your parent & found him/her in… … …

I actually don’t intend to go further. Actually those of us who are seating in front of the computer screen & are reading this post right this time, never ever think about the situation I have mentioned above. We are never able to imagine what will happen if we fall into situations like these (May Almighty bless us). The fact is, millions of Bangladeshis at the south are facing these situations. They are now becoming jealous on those who have died. This is a very unfortunate situation, when a survivor becomes jealous on the dead. This is what is called extreme disaster. We have to come forward to get them back to their lives. They have lost their living, their home, their loved & dearest ones.

Now, we have to do something before they lose their desire to survive further. I have mentioned some ways at the post next to this to help these victims of Cyclone Sidr. They need your help. Please do whatever you can do from your position.

Banglalink users click to donate for the victims of Cyclone Sidr. 

 

They Need Your Help

 

We need to hit it back. And the only way to do this is helping its victims. The situation over those affected areas is grave. Survivors have been helped to survive but they need help to survive further. People have lost their home. Poor parents have lost children, children have lost their parents. They have lost what they have got. Nothing is left apart from their lives. And this is such a time when they need your help badly. This is the time when a nation don’t need to see, who is the regime, how is the government, how is the corruption situation, what are political identities. This is the time to come forward with what you can provide. Our brothers & sisters are in trouble. Just think of that the cyclone could ravage your home if the direction would change a bit. Then what would happen to you? You would not be seating in front your screen this way. So please help those victimized people to get them back in their lives.

BANGLADESH

Chief Adviser’s Relief and Welfare Fund,
Current Account No. 33004093,
Sonali Bank, Prime Minister’s Office Branch,
Tejgaon, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
SWIFT Code : BSONBDDH

Ref: Chief Advisor’s Office Website and Bangladesh High Commission to Canada Website

FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN AUSTRALIA

Bangladesh High Commission ,Canberra
Account Name: Relief Fund
Account Number: 032729 199161
Bank: Westpac Banking Corporation
Branch: Manuka, ACT

ref: Press release on flood relief

FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN CANADA

Those living in Canada and wish to help, may please send bank/postal draft, cheque to be drawn on any of the following bank account:

Prime Minister’s Relief Fund,
Account No. 00236-5077441,
Royal Bank of Canada,
99 Bank Street, Ottawa, Canada,
C/O – Bangladesh High Commission, Ottawa.
SWIFT Code : ROYCATT2.

If you are sending bank/postal draft, cheque , etc., you may also send it to Bangladesh High Commission in Ottawa (275 Bank street, Suite-302, Ottawa, ON K2P 2L6) for deposit with the accounts.

Please also note that at the special request of the High Commission, some money exchanges/remitting agencies owned by Bangladeshi expatriates in Toronto and Montreal have agreed to remit money to any of the above relief funds free of charges or commissions.

ref: Bangladeshi High Commission in Canada

 

Links to other organizations: (click on the links below to go to their websites and donate)

The International Federation of the Red Cross (You can select Cyclone SIDR)

UNICEF

CARE

Islamic Relief

Bangladesh Cyclone Appeal – World Vision UK (You can select Cyclone SIDR) Tel: 0800 088 088

Save the Children

Christian Aid

British Red Cross [ tax efficient donation for people living in uk]

Catholic Relief Services

Courtesy:

Asif (Drishtipat)

& Rumi Ahmed 

We Are Shocked

I can’t believe that I will no more see any music album outlet which will mention about him. The person who tracked a different way in feature reporting culture of Bangladesh’s newspaper arena, the person who explored a different essence in Bangladeshi music band culture, that long hair guy with hypnotizing voice, Sanjib Chowdhury has passed away. This is the thing which is fact but unacceptably difficult to go through. We have fallen into one of this earth’s most unexpected situations, where people are not ready to accept what has happened, are not ready to admit the fact.

Sanjib is the singer of two of my most favorite songs, “Ami Tomake Bole Debo” and “Shobuj Jokhon” from Dolchhut’s album “Hridoypur”. In 1996, after Sanjib Chowdhury & Bappa Majumdar started with their band “Dolchhut” and released their first album “Hridoypur”, it was assumed that a new chapter in Bangladeshi band music has started, which concerns more about cool & charming composition than commercialism of music. This made them to take huge time before releasing this album. Sanjib Chowdhury today has left a vacuum in both music & journalism. He was the category in music which does not contain many figures. He has taken his type with him & it’s not sure if this vacuum is ever filled by anyone. I have said before and saying again, during writing each sentences of this post, I am facing too much difficulty to get reminded that Sanjib Chowdhury is dead & it’s such a fact which is real hard to accept. He has never been alarmed of this; never let this world know this is going to happen. None of his body parts ever told that it’s going fatal. Just two nights stay in Apollo Hospital CCU has put him in such a different world, which has never returned anybody yet. I still have not learnt that how Bappa Majumdar is feeling right this time, but I guess it’ll be a real hard time for him when he will discover the forever’s absence of Sanjib in coming days of his life. Sanjib’s fans including me will miss him for sure, so will all of artists of Bangladesh, but Bappa & Dolchhut will never be able to escape the memories of Sanjib. So far I have seen Bappa has always kept some special room for Sanjib in his musical career. I don’t know how he will take this.

We mourn & we are expressing our condolence at the death of journalist & singer Sanjib Chowdhury, who has died at his age of 43 and has been survived by his wife Progga Nasrin Shilpi & daughter Kingbodonti.

We Mourn