a nikonian’s blog

Daily Manabzamin has stolen one of my photos 2 days ago and published it on various newspapers as part of their promotional campaign. They have stolen the photo, which I published on my blog on 1 January 2007,  tempared it and published it without my permission. Motiur Rahman Chowdhury denied the claim and said he has no time to talk to me regarding a simple photo. This guy, who we see on Channel i every night at 12am as the host of a discussion show on next day’s newspapers’ headings, is a rude and very disrespectful guy. Though he and his staff first admitted a number of times of this infringement to my father who talked to them while I was away, he showed no respect and denied to settle the matter when I talked to him at night on 1 January 2008. He went as far as claiming that I’m being “emotional” for a “simple” picture and I should forget it. When I reminded him that what he’s saying is disrespectful to the creativity of a person and their rights, he says he has no time to waste on this issue… Well, we’ll see how it goes from here…

From today’s news:

• Even after this cyclone perished so many lives, destroyed properties and sources of living, NGO banks like Brac, Grameen, ASA are still sending their workers to collect interest from the destitute people of the affected areas.
• Moeen U Ahmed is ecstatic to have US navy on his side to help him deliver relief food. He still “thinks” he will be able to deliver food to each and every house of the affected areas. It’s just taking tad bit of time! Right.
• Moeen U Ahmed also thinks there’s no relation between emergency and political parties or anyone wanting to help the survivors. Everyone’s welcomed!
• Right. Masud Uddin thinks otherwise. He says no need for political parties involvement in distributing relief. An orange Lakme colour for him.
• Why do I think again whatever Moeen U Ahmed says is like “all quiet at the western front“?

I guess almost entire country felt the wrath of Sidr on last Friday; we realised in front of this powerful force, how small we are. Though I have to admit, because of all the shelters the last horrible, corrupt governments built around the south side of this sad little country, many lives were saved.

It’s not like I’m praising them or so. Even if one thinks that they are the lowliest of all the people with no sympathy for any individual; they still built them, at least to save themselves from their misery of “handling” aftermaths of such powerful cyclone. When we got the news of Sidr hitting the country, I was wary of this current military supported caretaker government. They failed incredibly to manage flood – which was a worst one in many years, how can I expect them to handle situations after this huge storm better than that? Well once again, I do have few complains.

It’s not like I hate this government so much that I feel content criticising them in each step they take. I do not hate them; they’re just so at a loss sometimes that it just irks me to a very good level. Like every government, they want you to believe everything’s under control when it’s not. And they think they are different because they’re above the level of those snotty satanic politicians. They don’t drink whisky and they don’t stuff their pockets with “donations“. Right! Not that I’m blaming them much to be honest; there must be “other” people in the government who are “making” these kind and gentle-hearted folks from the Republic of Gulshan “do” things that they may not have done in their “non-government” life.

Anyways, having said that, I need to go back to where I started – to Sidr. Could anyone just care to explain why on earth the meteorologists saw the darn storm and yawned out a category 4? You just see the SIZE on the screen and know instantly how huge it is. The day it already hit the country’s south side, they decided to agree with my brother that yes, it was even bigger than the size of Bangladesh! Now they might have said it somewhere but it wasn’t passed to me via any media until then. I don’t know what’s wrong these people or the system. I don’t understand why on earth they decided to declare Sidr a category 10 cyclone around 7pm when it was way too dark for anyone to travel to shelters, especially the ones who needed to cross a raging river! And why they had to jump 4 to 10 so instantly? Once again, my brother was right. They should have declared this a category 6 or 7 when they saw the SIZE!

I won’t be surprised if survivors start claiming that the message didn’t reach them. Government and meteorologists had time to evacuate people, make announcements but they didn’t. They waited till the sun set and it was too dark. It’s just reminds me how incompetent we are.

I was watching the channel National Geography few days back and saw in Hawaii, they open siren for many tsunami warnings to avoid casualties. It doesn’t matter if they cannot gauge how big that will be. But they do it each time there’s an earthquake nearby, just avoid any loss. We didn’t do any of that sort. We waited till it hit us and then declared it a category 10 super cyclone.

I guess there’s another thing baffles me. When they keep saying it’s going to hit Khulna, Barisal, Chittagong, neighbouring coastal areas and islands, why they failed to mention the names of each area including Dhaka? People in Bagerhat or Potuakhali probably weren’t prepared. People in Dhaka went to bed feeling content that it won’t come so close to Dhaka, let alone hitting Dhaka. Why they failed to comprehend its path? Isn’t that SIZE matters again? This was one hell of a huge storm, bigger than our homeland, isn’t that enough to declare an “emergency” to ensure full preparation? People in Dhaka weren’t ready. They didn’t stock up water or candles. The system failed to make people realise the strength of this storm, and when they did, it was too late for many people.

I just hope for the sake of all those people who died, survived, lost everything, this government does not show an audacity to declare their work as “well managed” because only 2000 people died. I, for one, will hate this government then. There should always be a regret of knowing that few more lives could have been saved if the system was efficient.

On last few points, I also don’t understand why CA Fakhruddin eventually didn’t cancel his trip to Batexpo 2007 opening event in Sonargaon Hotel on the eve of Sidr hitting our land? Though he urged people there to come forward and work together to tackle the aftermaths, why this government yet to accept relief from any donor countries or agencies? There are countries that opened their relief fund ONE DAY BEFORE the storm hit us, but it’s been three days and the government is still joggling ideas of whether they should accept it. These are relief funds for God’s sake and they aren’t asking it back!

And what is wrong with this system again?! I saw this little clip where rescue or relief operation helicopter’s pilot giving an interview to a channel saying he’s seen things here (which aren’t good) and he will report it back. Report it back?? Why he has to fly all the way and report it back? Why they just don’t radio his whatever contact? This is the problem with this system. By the time you receive your relief, you’re exhausted, almost dying, suffering to no end. If this government is so happy to change so many systems, why cannot they just make an efficient system to manage a single flood or storm regardless of how big they are?

Updates (20 November 2007): While it can be appreciated that Foreign Affairs adviser Iftekhar Chowdhury requested for donor countries’ help, I still cannot believe he had the authority to point out again and again that the money should only go through the government. Could he care a little to explain where did all the donated money for flood victims go?? He also thought the government is in control of the situation! I can’t believe my ears! What does he think of this now and this freaking situation? I cannot help but say these advisers are pure amateurs! They have no idea what they are doing, no control over the situation, no sympathy. And what’s with this hapless Finance Adviser? He thinks the crops destruction will not affect our economy!! Does he have a clue how many people in this country live on farming? What a worthless claim of such terrible situation!

Some links:

• Dublarchar only talks of death, devastation (Daily Star)
• Silent queue for succour (Daily Star)
• Big blow to Sundarbans (Daily Star)
• Red Crescent fears toll may top 10000 (Daily Star)
• Sidr: Make a difference (E-Bangladesh)
• Reaching out to Sidr victims (Keep me honest)
• Many updates in The Third World View
• A baby named Cyclone (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying)

This may not be an interesting topic for anyone reading my blog today but to me, it’s been one of the most important days for my brother and my whole family. So my sweet little brother, Shabib, graduted today as an Electrical and Electronic Engineer from IUT in Gazipur! We had a lovely day in IUT campus, met almost all of Shabib’s friends individually and took some nice photos! I’ve never been to IUT before because they don’t allow any female visitor going in. My mum went only once during his admission 4 years ago. IUT has a beautiful campus! I wonder why my brother sometimes didn’t feel like staying there in his dorm. The obvious reason is his attraction for anime which are all stationed in our home! Anyways, I’m very happy for him for his on-time graduation. Congratulations, Shanimebib!!! :-)

We’ve got our website on Climate Change & Bangladesh (climatebd.com) running finally, although it’s just the layout! So many things need to be updated there - articles, photos, stories, a discussion board! I’m quite excited because with this, we hope to encourage youths to get involved in tackling climate change and its affect on Bangladesh. Though it’s never possible to stop the changes, we are far too late to do so, but at least some measurements could be taken to save our land and people from being lost absolutely.

I’ve also got my own domain, so most of my visitors will see this post much later though when they finally found their ways in. So framedland.com is gone and instead I’ve got nazzina.com running as well as nahina.com - dedicated to our anime interests.

Thanks to one of my friends - Nasim bhai, I found this blog which I never saw before! What a huge place dedicated to Environment (as per 15 Oct ‘07)!

It’s been way too long since I posted something here. I guess I could share a photo of Madhabkundo just to keep it rolling. Any comment? Horrible? Terrible? Ugly?

[ Click the picture to see larger version ]

It was coming for a very long time. Meteorologists said. Scientists said. Climate Change experts said. But our dear advisor Tapan Chowdhury said otherwise. He challenged dear Jesus and said well, it’s not going to be so serious. What do you mean not serious? Is that because Republic of Gulshan is dry as dead while rest of the country sinks like bloody Titanic?

IF these advisors played their role not so improperly and slightly cared for the people suffering, this catastrophy could have been avoided. If not, at least people would have said they tried. You actually cannot control flood. It’s a natural process of disastrous time that we’re heading to in next 10 years. Bangladesh will produce world’s first Climate Change refugees. We will have more than half of the population dislocating from their original places because the country will remain under water months after months, possibly for years as well. But what do we do? We are worried about two venomous women who, they think, would gobble up the whole country. So what do we have? A huge possibility of having severe flood and its aftermath situation which might become very tough to handle.

And what is with this publicity stunt? It seemed the Chief dragged all the reporters to ensure they cover his sincere flood relief distribution sceneries and overtly emotional speeches while standing on knee-deep water. It seemed a pure political stunt. To gain hails from sarcastics who would think army is the best, democracy nasty? I personally think democracy is nasty too. But I strongly believe army ruling the country is never  better. IF it’s not a patriotic stunt by our Chief of army and his men then why do we have him announcing publicly that army would give away their one-day salary to flood relief fund? Why NOW it’s a news when it’s been practiced since 1988 flood, or possibly even before that??? WHY we see a humble Subedar holding a toilet to pose for a photo while distributing those to the villagers? WHY do we even hear as some officer as a Lieutenant’s name on television when government officials go to distribute food to flood affected people? Isn’t this flood seems used for political gain by army itself?

I believe what seems to me might be wrong :-)

August 1, 2007

Mr. Fakhruddin Ahmed
Chief Advisor
Government of Bangladesh
Dhaka

Re: Human Rights Situation in Bangladesh

Dear Chief Advisor:

When your caretaker government was established in Bangladesh on January 11, 2007, many Bangladeshis and international actors were reassured by the appointment of apparently non-partisan and competent officials. The initiative largely had the support of Bangladesh’s influential civil society as well as the international community. Many had despaired at the state of near political anarchy, widespread corruption, and severe human rights abuses that had emerged in the country in recent years. The promise of free and fair elections in the light of attempts to rig elections was also welcomed.

Your government has taken some strong initiatives to clean up corruption and hold political and business leaders accountable for their actions. Measures to reform the civil service and bureaucracy have been welcomed by many Bangladeshis, though we caution that due process for civil servants must be observed. And, unlike the previous government, you have made it clear that you will not tolerate or condone the actions of violent militants.

However, we are deeply concerned that the laudable goals of fighting corruption and reforming the political system are not being matched by efforts to protect human rights. Serious and systemic human rights abuses are taking place on your watch. Many of these, such as torture and feigned “crossfire killings,” were serious problems before you took office and continue today. Others, such as emergency rules that do not respect basic due process rights, or the large number of arbitrary arrests and detention without proper judicial oversight or public accountability, are a direct result of your government’s policies.

The joint forces, led by the army, have shown almost complete disregard for established legal norms conducting arrests and holding people in detention. Instead of being brought immediately before a magistrate, detainees are routinely taken to army barracks and other unofficial places of detention and tortured, both as punishment and to force them to sign confessions. Many people are being picked up in the middle of the night without warrant. Led by Bangladesh’s military intelligence unit, the DGFI, the security forces are often in plainclothes and offer no identification. When asked, they claim they can do anything they want because they are thus empowered under Bangladesh’s emergency laws. (continues…)

… We would particularly like to use this opportunity to remind you of the case of journalist Tasneem Khalil, who has worked as a consultant for Human Rights Watch and as a stringer for CNN. On May 11, 2007, Mr. Khalil was taken into custody after midnight by men in plainclothes claiming to be Bangladesh’s “joint task force.” Mr. Khalil was taken from his home in front of his wife and child, blindfolded and driven to an interrogation center, where he was tortured and questioned about his work as a journalist, writings on his blog, as well as his employment with Human Rights Watch and CNN. Many of Mr. Khalil’s possessions, including computers, phones and passport, were confiscated when his home was ransacked. We immediately contacted your government for help, and Mr. Khalil was eventually released after more than 22 hours in custody.

We have since learned that Mr. Khalil had been held and tortured by the DGFI. The interrogation center Mr. Khalil was taken to is an extension of the DGFI headquarters in Dhaka cantonment that houses at least one torture chamber and a detention facility. This is a full-time illegal detention and torture facility. Mr. Khalil saw sophisticated torture equipment and could hear other detainees screaming in pain. At least five DGFI officers took part in the torture sessions that left Mr. Khalil with severe injuries. At one point he was photographed with a revolver and some bullets placed before him, suggesting that he was being set up for a faked “crossfire killing.” Before his release, Mr. Khalil was forced to make false confessions, and asked to sign documents and testify on video admitting to acts that could be considered treasonous. We have received other credible reports of the same type of activities by DGFI.

As you know, Bangladesh’s military forces have become notorious for taking people into custody, torturing them to death or executing them in faked “crossfire killings.” We were concerned that Mr. Khalil would meet a similar fate even after his release. He had to remain in hiding until, after long and unnecessary negotiations, his passport was eventually returned and he and his family were able to leave Bangladesh for safety abroad.

In a sense Mr. Khalil was fortunate. He had the advantage of foreign friends, colleagues, and diplomats who were in a position to appeal to your government for help. However, there are thousands now in custody, unable to secure bail and often subjected to torture, who are not so well connected. We do not know who is being tortured at this very minute by DGFI or others, but we do know that it is happening.

We appreciate your personal intervention and that of other government officials to ensure Mr. Khalil’s release and safe exit from the country. But as his case makes clear, arbitrary arrest and detention and torture are a significant problem in Bangladesh today.

Your government knows who was responsible for Mr. Khalil’s torture – and that of many other victims – where they work, and where the torture centers are located. Your government knows that these are not isolated cases – an untold number of people are being tortured every day. As a matter of basic human decency as well as your obligations under international law, you must act to close down such torture centers without delay. We look forward to public statements from you and members of your government on this subject, as well as action. (continues…)

From Brad Adams, Asia Director, Human Rights Watch.

This is just a glimpse. Please read the complete letter for more details.

When we will catch him and pour him with snots coming from the angelic noses of the little innocent Deshi kids… We need to wash him with those, to purify his disturbing soul…

Voice of Bangladeshi Bloggers trashes him.

I think next target could be Captain (retd) Taj of AL since he went through the trouble to file a case.