One good man

7am, 28 January 2005. The local news is on TV, the foreign ones in Financial Times, and Daily Star from home. The last one has a cover story reading:

Kibria, 4 AL men killed in grenade attacks

I sit there for a while, my tea getting cold. I think about calling my parents, but decide against it — it’s middle of the night there, why wake them up. Why wake them up to the fact that the country was sleepwalking to a disaster?

Or did they need waking up at all? A few months earlier, I received SMS messages from friends and family: Dhaka is hot again, murder attempts on Hasina, we’re safe, don’t worry. For much of the following years, I’d receive more such messages: bomb attacks etc, but we’re safe, don’t worry. Things got so bad that in October 2006, when someone rang my cellphone and started: Have you heard the news? Dr Yunus… my first thought was the sentence would end in … has been assassinated.

Seemingly, Bangladesh has turned the corner since, since we haven’t had assassinations and grenade attacks for a while.

But have we really turned the corner? Five years later, the Kibria case is still unsolved. And for three of these five years, Bangladesh has been ruled by non-BNP governments (at the very least, local BNP men are implicated in the assassination, and there is a belief that BNP high ups were involved). Forget Kibria, three months on, we still don’t know who tried to kill Fazl-e-Noor Tapash.

Have we really turned the corner? Perhaps not.

Even as we mourn him, and demand justice, we should also celebrate SAMS Kibria’s life and achievements. We need more people like him in Bangladesh, particularly in politics.

(More at Mukti)

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jyoti, February 5th 2010 | Posted in Economy, History, News and events, Our Heroes, Politics

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed

fazle abedWhat a wonderful news to close the year with. Here is to you Sir Fazle Hasan Abed!

Dhaka, Dec 31, (bdnews24.com)— BRAC founder and chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed will be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services in tackling poverty and empowering the poor in Bangladesh and in other parts of the world.

Abed’s name was included in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List released on Dec 31, the NGO said in a statement on Thursday.

He is to be appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG). Abed is the first person of Bangladesh origin to be honoured with a knighthood by the British Crown since 1947.

Abed will receive his knighthood for his work spanning four decades in education, health, human rights and social development and for bringing financial services to the doorstep of millions of the poor in an effort to ease poverty in Bangladesh and other countries in Asia and Africa.

On receiving news of his knighthood, Abed said, “I am humbled by the honour to be conferred on me. I thank my colleagues in BRAC, who are at the forefront of the struggle to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh and abroad and I share this honour with them.”

Abed is the second person in his family to be honoured with a knighthood. His grand uncle justice Nawab Sir Syed Shamsul Huda, was knighted in 1913, added the BRAC statement.

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Asif, December 31st 2009 | Posted in Our Heroes

Nurul Islam’s death and our hollow national pride

Our country is going to be forty soon; our nationalism is prominently on display everywhere. However, I can’t but help detect a sense of hollowness in our national pride when we know that the country has not been fair to so many of its people. We have made a small step towards correcting that error through the verdict of November 19. Can this be the start of righting the wrongs that have been done to the people of this country?

Published by the Daily Star on 8 Dec.

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Asif, December 9th 2009 | Posted in Human Rights, Our Heroes

Baul Shah Abdul Karim: The Living Legend

If one asks ten young people from any part of Bangladesh , ” Gari Chole na Cole na , Chole na re…” —- whose song is this; the answer, ten out of ten times will be ” Dolchhut”. Similarly, the answer will be Habib, Anusheh, Shaon — if one plays the songs– Maya, Krishno, shokhi Kunja shajao go or Bhromor o koio giya.

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The fact is that all these songs are written, composed and sung by Baul Shah Abdul Karim. Baul Karim is a mystic poet and maestro of Lalon Shah stature. Baul Shah Abdul Karim died at the age of 93 yesterday. The contribution of Baul Shah Abdul Karim to our culture and nationhood is enormous. He was the Rabindranath Tagore of contemporary Baul culture. Although thousands of songs written by him are now unaccounted for, 1600 of his composed songs have been published by the government. Not only the songs mentioned above, many other songs, very famous and extremely popular for since 60s and 70s, are creations of Shah Abdul Karim.

It is a shame that many music groups/ musicians of current generation have become famous using Baul Shah Karim’s music,  but Baul Shah Karim was not given due credit. Dolchhut’s signature song is ” Gari Chole na, …”. I’ve seen them perform it on stage several times, I have their CD, I have video of the music. I’ve never seen them secificaly mentioning Shah karim as the creator of the song. Forget about royalty or intellectual property rights issues.

While young music sensations became legends using Baul ABdul Karim’s pieces, the REAL legend, nonagenarian Baul Shah Abdul Karim lived a very modest rural life on the bank of Kalni river. His nostalgia  ” age ki shundor din kataitam, gramer nawjowan hindu musolman…” speaks of the core spirit of the nation. Adieu Baul Shah Abdul Karim.

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rumi, September 13th 2009 | Posted in Heritage, Our Heroes, culture

Anu Muhammad injured

Shocking pictures! Dhaka, Sept 2 (bdnews24.com)—At least 22 people, including professor Anu Muhammad, were injured in the capital on Wednesday after police baton charged demonstrators attempting to besiege Petrobangla headquarters over recent exploration deals granted to two international companies.


Interview: Shahidul Alam - http://shahidul.wordpress.com
Read more…

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Asif, September 2nd 2009 | Posted in Environment, Our Heroes, energy policy

Edward Kennedy, Bangladesh, 1971

Edward Kennedy on Time Magazine cover

Edward Kennedy Time Magazine

“A charismatic, pre-Chappaquidick, Ted Kennedy was gunning for a future White House run. Kennedy seized on the Bengal crisis [1971 Bangladesh genocide] as the latest evidence of the Nixonian tradition of supporting non-democratic, ruthless military regimes…The Nixon White House kept up a spirited defense, but the opposing forces had the upper hand. A bill was pushed through the Senate banning US arms sales to Pakistan, giving Nixon a bloody nose. ”
[Naeem Mohaiemen, Accelerated Media & 1971, Economic & Political Weekly, 26/01/2008]

CNN: Kennedy revered in Bangladesh

Crisis in South Asia
Report to US Senate, 1971
Senator Edward Kennedy

“A traveler today in eastern India cannot help but see, smell, and feel this misery. It is etched in the faces and lives of refugees in countless ways. It is the malnourished child hanging limply in its mother’s arms – one child out of a half million who, in a matter of hours or days, can easily die from the lack of protein and adequate medical care. It is a young girl, quivering in a refugee camp in Tripura, still in a shock after seeing her mother and father slaughtered by Pakistani troops. It is a 14-year-old boy in Jalpaiguri hospital, whose face is contorted from the pain and anguish that he has experienced since he saw his family shot before his eyes and since he received a bullet wound in his spine which has paralyzed him for life. And it is the expression of hundreds of thousands of refugees living in sewer pipes on the outskirts of Calcutta, while overworked relief officials struggle to provide some food and shelter and hope for a needy and hopeless people. Read more…

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naeem, August 26th 2009 | Posted in 1971, Liberation War, Our Heroes

The man who did not sell us out

In South Asia, August 15 marks the end of two over-arching symbols and the birth of two legacies. It marks the end of British rule in the sub-continent. Scholars talk about the two divergent, almost contradictory, strands of the British Imperial legacy: the monarchic viceroyalty and the democratic representation. Like almost everything else in South Asia in the 20th century, the North Indians divided — “partitioned,” if you will — the legacy between them. The authoritarian tradition went to Pakistan and the parliamentary democratic tradition went to India, hence the divergent histories since that fateful year of 1947.

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UV_Admin, August 15th 2009 | Tags:
Posted in Our Heroes

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan R.I.P.

Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan died in San Francisco, U.S., on Friday at the age of 88.

Hailed by violinist Yehudi Menuhin as ‘the greatest musician in the world,’ Khan had many firsts to his credit in taking Indian classical music to the west. He was admired by both eastern as well as western musicians for his brilliant compositions and his mastery of the 25-string instrument.

The illustrious son of Ustad Alauddin Khan was the first to cut a long play record of Indian classical music in the U.S. and to give a sarod recital on American TV.

The Ustad was also the first Indian musician to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991. He was nominated for Grammy Awards five times between 1970 and 1998.

Born on April 14, 1922 in Shibpur village of Comilla district, now in Bangladesh, Khan took up music at the age of 3, learning vocal music from his father and percussion from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin.

His father trained him in several other instruments too, but he decided to concentrate on sarod and vocals.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/20/stories/2009062057862000.htm

When we were in dire need of some friends and some help, these men in above video stood up courageously for our cause. Pandit Ravi Shankar told George Harrison about the plight of the people of Bangladesh under Pakistani occupation during our war of independence. He appealed to and convinced George Harrison to do something for the suffering millions in Bangladesh. A landmark aid concert was organized, first of its kind in history of music and activism.

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rumi, June 20th 2009 | Posted in 1971, Liberation War, Our Heroes

President Ziaur Rahman (1936-1981): In Memoriam

On the anniversary of Ziaur Rahman’s death, by tacitaeterno…

I hear… of your recent saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Only those generals who gain success can set up military dictatorships. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”
- Abraham Lincoln, message to General Joseph Hooker, Army of the Potomac

May 30 is the 28th anniversary of President Ziaur Rahman’s death. It came approximately 10 years and 2 months after he gave a radio announcement, from Chittagong, declaring the Independence of Bangladesh on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then in the custody of the Pakistani Army.

During our Independence War, he was Sector Commander over much of today’s Chittagong Division, and commander of Bangladesh Army’s ‘Z” brigade. At the end of the war, with Pakistani forces crumbling before the assault of joint Indo-Bangladeshi forces and surrendering on 16 December 1971, he was awarded the Bir Uttom. At the onset of independence, Zia became one of the senior-most officers of the Bangladesh Army. His performance during the nine-month war and his radio announcement at the onset of the war marked him as different from his fellow officers. He was made Brigade Commander of Comilla, close to where his force had done most of the fighting during the war… ( More at In the Middle of Nowhere)

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UV_Admin, May 30th 2009 | Posted in History, Our Heroes

Airbrushing, personality cults, birthday thoughts

Had he lived, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would have been 89 today.  I have never had much time for those quibbling over his contribution to the creation of Bangladesh.  One can play parlour games of ‘what ifs’ until the ocean rises to Dinajpur, but Mujib’s central place in our freedom struggle is undisputed.

Or it ought to be.  Sadly, for many in my generation, it hasn’t been that straightforward.  When I grew up, under martial law, Sheikh Mujib was never mentioned.  I recall one of my teachers, in the Air Force run Shaheen School, being heavily reprimanded by someone in uniform for referring to Bangabandhu during a school function.  I remember my father’s excitement when he came across an Indian magazine in Calcutta because the particular issue was banned in Bangladesh for running a cover story on Mujib (along with Indira Gandhi and ZA Bhutto).

Even though he had already been been dead for a decade, and even though the people ruling Bangladesh at that time has walways maintained an on-again-off-again relationship with his party, Mujib’s wagging finger still sent a shiver to the powers-that-be.  That’s why Mujib was being airbrushed out of history.

(More at Mukti)

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jyoti, March 17th 2009 | Posted in Censorship, Our Heroes
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