Weekend Tribune Vol 1 Issue 9

Street Drinks 9

Polls in Pakistan 17

FRIDAY JUNE 14 2013

vol 1 Issu e 9

Roger Ebert 27

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CONTENTS

A Weekly Pro ducti o n o f

DhakaTribune Vo lume 1, Iss u e 9 J UNE 14, 2 0 13 Editor Zafar Sobhan Magazine Editor Faruq Hasan Weekend Tribune Team Fahim Razzaq Sumaiya Shams Faisal Mahmud Tamoha Binte Siddiqui Sheikh Mohammed Irfan Yusuf Banna Fuad M Hossain

6 Feature A tale from the sidelines

Photography Syed Latif Hossain Cartoonist Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy Contributors Naheed Kamal Nasia Chowdhury Adeyanju Pinheiro Ikhtisad Ahmed Dina Sobhan Bassema Karaki Ibtisam Ahmed M Sophia Newman Design Mohammed Mahbub Alam

Production Masum Billah Advertising Shahidan Khurshed Circulation Wahid Murad Email: weekend@dhakatribune.com Web: www.dhakatribune.com Cover Photo Nilgiri mountain range during monsoon by Mamunur Rahman Khan

17 Realpolitik Lessons from the “former enemy” state?

27 Obituary Roger Ebert

2 This Week in Pictures 4 Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Guilty as charged 5 Big Mouth Strikes Again Whose body is it anyway?

8 Post-Riposte Let the bets begin!

9 Top 10 Thirst quenchers 10 Thought Plot The battle of business minds 12 6° of Connotations Welcome home, Chinua 13 Photo Story El-Tanoura 18 Digital Bangladesh Pressing buttons, casting votes 19 Interview Saga of the three phoenixes 20 Game On Final bolt to the 2012/13 season 22 Tough Love 23 Backbenchers’ Club 24 What’s the Problem Knowledge is power 25 The Way Dhaka Was Lalbagh 26 Stranger in a Strange Land Can’t take my eyes off of you 28 Last Word

EDITOR’S NOTE

Time to wake up M

ore than a decade ago, Bjorn Lomborg, a young Danish environmentalist, wrote “The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World.”

It caught orthodox scientists on the back foot, as it not only questioned global warming, but seemed to back up its sceptical credentials with hard data. Lomborg’s ghost is yet to be exorcised as, years later, we are still caught up in an enervating debate about the existence of climate change. Our Staff Correspondent Faisal Mahmud takes a clear stance and chronicles the significant changes in weather and lifestyle in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, southeast Bangladesh. For the CHT residents, climate change seems to be here to stay.

Elsewhere, Ikhtisad Ahmed analyses the recent general election in Pakistan and chalks out lessons for us with our own national polls looming. Sheikh Mohammed Irfan sums up an exceptional year in European football, while Bassema Karaki survives a staring contest in her first Bangladeshi wedding. And don’t forget to empathise with our readers in Tough Love as our resident shrink Dina Sobhan just cannot hold back. Beat the heat this weekend and relax with Weekend Tribune! n

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THIS WEEK

INTERNATIONAL

REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

US International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ambassador Joseph Macmanus talks to the media during an IAEA meeting in Vienna on June 5.

REUTERS/Gary Cameron US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning (L) departs after day two of his court martial at Fort Meade, Maryland on June 4.

AP/Amr Nabil

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, waves to the crowd upon his arrival at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul early on June 7. Erdogan took a combative stance on his closely watched return to the country, telling supporters who thronged to greet him the protests that have swept the country must come to an end.

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AP/Thanassis Stavrakis

Egyptian protesters shout anti-Muslim Brotherhood slogans and wave a national flag during a protest against the new judiciary law at the high court in Cairo, Egypt on June 3.

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NATIONAL A baby giraffe was born in the Dhaka Zoo on June 5, a first in a South Asian zoo and second in an Asian zoo, as zoo officials informed.

Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhit presents the national budget for 2013-14 fiscal year on June 6.

Dhaka Tribune Jamat-e-Islami activists run amok in the capital on June 9, after calling for a countrywide shut down in protest of the jail terms handed to three of its leaders.

BSS

Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

On the occasion of the World Environment Day 2013, a month-long tree fair began on June 5 at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. Organised by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the fair showcases a wide variety of plants including flowers, fruits, ornamental and indigenous medicinal plants. The tree fair takes place every year and attracts a considerable number of people with green thumbs.

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whose line is it anyway?

Guilty as charged

Mohammad Ashraful, national cricketer

An angry fan

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Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

Wahidul Ghani, Ashraful’s coach

Mashrafe Mortaza, national cricketer

Big Mouth strikes again

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Naheed Kamal

Whose body is it anyway?

Female nudity is considered shameful or shocking, but it can also be subversive

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hen I got my third tattoo, the man I was seeing at the time objected, so I broke up with him. Bear with me; I had good reason to call it off.

The issue of women’s body and who owns it is going to be a recurring theme for me, as you may have realised by now.

When it comes to women, there is no limit on how many assumptions are made by everyone, and I am constantly reminded how loaded the female body is with so many contradictory “values” and “meanings.”

If, like me, you have been following the kerfuffle over the Ukrainian feminist group Femen, you will understand what I am referring to. In case you have not been paying attention, Femen are topless female activists.

They have caused quite a lot of anger and upset just about everyone – from feminists to Muslim women, to Angela Merkel and Heidi Klum.

Only Putin was amused by their protest against his thuggish behaviour towards the women rockers of Pussy Riot.

But long before Femen caught the global media’s attention, you may recall an Egyptian woman who dared to bare her breasts online.

Egyptian activist Alia Maagda Elmahdy posted topless photographs of herself on her blog. The outrage was deafening; threatened by the Islamists, she had to flee from Egypt. This was right in the middle of the Arab Spring, where women such as Elmahdy had led the way, dreaming of a brave new world.

In hindsight, it was naive of us to imagine the patriarchy would give up so easily. In the countries where spring had come, the Islamists have usurped power, and women’s rights have been pushed back by rising conservatism.

Femen’s outspoken and controversial protests against sexism are not to everyone’s taste. Last week, when three members travelled to Tunisia to protest against the detention and trial of Amina Tyler, a 19-year-old who posted her topless photos on Femen’s Facebook page showing “F*** your morals” written on her body, they knew the risks they took. Arrested and now at the mercy of the Tunisian government,

Femen responded with Topless Jihad Day on June 6. The very idea rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Elmahdy kick-started a debate across the world about women’s bodies, and what it means. The question on everyone’s mind is centred on whether or not a woman using her body to protest against oppression (of the body, and women) is effective.

Does exposing the flesh reinforce stereotypes about women’s bodies being nothing more than sexual objects?

Who is to judge if Femen’s actions are a legitimate form of protest?

Because, through the ages, women have used their bodies as a means of expressing dissent and protest. By not conforming to conventional ideas of beauty, by refusing to stay silent, by refusing to behave in a ladylike manner, by not being ashamed or afraid, by refusing to be body shamed or accept slut shaming, women continue to subvert society’s ridiculous constructs.

Women across the world are breaking taboos and simultaneously facing various challenges to their right and freedom. Just as they start to think they have won a small battle, they are called to arms again. The battle rages on.

Femen, Elmahdy and Tyler challenged unfair, oppressive and repressive uses of power. But most importantly, they dared to deny anyone the right to try and control their bodies.

They turned the female body into a tool for liberation.

There is little doubt in my mind that Femen has the highest profile of any current feminist movement. So I am not surprised to find so many groups denouncing the movement.

What makes Femen stand out, in my opinion, other than the obvious, is the nature of the criticism against them.

By and large, the argument against them revolves around feelings being hurt. Even when feminists say the movement is “problematic,” they do so on the basis of Femen’s failure to make “any effort to get in touch with existing feminist movements in countries or regions where those issues are on the political agenda.”

I can’t help being amused by Femen’s antics and the outrage it caus-

es among men and women, shaken out of their comfort zones by a bunch of rowdy, irreverent, topless women.

What’s not to like?

I agree completely with their agenda: destroy the patriarchy! Their fight is against all religions, dictatorships and the sex industry. The movement started as a response to the growing exploitation of women in Ukraine, where the commercial sex industry has led to various social ills.

Initially, they wore distinctive outfits, but it wasn’t long before they learned to use their nudity to their advantage. Since 2010, the group have protested topless, using their bodies to draw the media’s attention, and so have been accused of surrendering to sexist gender stereotypes. Regardless of the backlash, Femen have over 200 members worldwide. A Bangladeshi chapter is yet to launch itself; any takers?

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recognise old school feminists might be tired of seeing women’s bodies used commercially, and so may miss the point Femen is trying to make.

Most people ask if the nudity is distracting from the message, and the general opinion seems to be these women are not doing feminists or

the hijab or burqa, the idea of walking around nude in protest is not so simple. It only draws more unwanted attention to the body and not the person. So how does a protest that uses the female body help women who are oppressed?

Here’s a thought, humour me if you will: if you are easily distracted by the sight of a naked body and fail to grasp the message, especially one scribbled on the body, then what does that say about you?

If society can’t see beyond the bare breasts of a group of women, then it says much about the ills that ail society. And the message those breasts are trying to share is therefore even more necessary for such a society to acknowledge.

You may not agree with Femen’s tactics, but they are effective. And I find the argument against female nudity reeking of sexism. Feminists, and women, regardless of race and religion, ought to support each other, despite our differences. We should all be concerned about how to ensue the rights of all women, no matter where they are from or what they believe in. n

Naheed Kamal is an irreverent and irreligious feminist.

An old soul of indeterminate age, with one too many opinions and a very loud voice (for a little person), she laughs a lot, mostly at herself.

She lives in Dhaka, against her best judgement. Mostly, Ms Kamal rants, a lot!

The reason I admire the women of Femen is because they are not subtle, they are not inoffensive, and they certainly aren’t ever apologetic about anything. They provoke and challenge stereotypes, and they do so while faced with loss of life, freedom, livelihood and ridicule women any favours.

I disagree; I rather like Femen for their cheeky ideas, and I do identify with their subversive notion. They refuse to be shamed; in other words, they do not conform. That is revolutionary for any woman, no matter where she’s from.

People assume women are surrendering to male sexual desire by exposing their bodies, but that is because society teaches us that nudity equals sex, which misses the point of Femen.

For women who are forced to don

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FEATURE

Climate Change and the CHT

A tale from the sidelines

Faisal Mahmud writes about the effects of climate change on southeastern Bangladesh

Faisal Mahmud is a staff reporter at Weekend Tribune who specialises in writing IT and telecom articles with depth and analysis. He is also in charge of the weekly Tech page for the newspaper

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or people like Kunjang Tripura, “border” is a mere six-letter word.

Growing up in the unforgiving Raing Khiang valley, deep into the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), hardship is something he is used to.

“But I can’t read the hills anymore,” he said in his native tongue (translation to Bangla was aided by a guide). He was found cutting bamboo in a forest near a “special” point at our border – Tinmukh, the place that marks the confluent point of the Myanmar, Bangladesh and Indian borders, was just a five-minute trek away.

“I collect and sell bamboos at the market in Mizoram. Sometimes I go to the Arakan market in Myanmar, too,” he said.

When asked why he didn’t go to the local market, Kunjang said: “Ruma Bazar (the nearest Bangladeshi market) is rather far for me, since I have to walk for over 20 hours lugging the bamboos. The mountain trails are also narrow, with some hills more than 3,000 feet high.”

The nearest market in Mizoram is

just a three-hour trek away, while it takes Kunjang five hours to go to the Arakan market. Besides, there are no check posts or barbed wires in place, blocking passage in these remote hilly areas.

“My ancestors used to live in Pranzog Para, beside the Raing Khiang Lake. As Jhum cultivation started to go scarce there, a group migrated and went further east to establish a new para (small locality) named Charching Para,” Kunjang said.

But Jhum cultivation became difficult in the new para too, as the land became insufficient for the rising population. As a result, a group migrated further east and established a new residence, once again, naming it Dhupanichara Para.

“I used to live in Dhupanichara Para, but about a year ago I, along with three other families, moved on and established our huts beside the Sinog Hills, near the Tinmukh border,” Kunjang said.

Kunjang quit farming a while ago.

“Strange things have been happening

in the hills for the last couple of years,” he said. “We prepared the hills for Jhum, but lack of rain rendered all our efforts futile. The harvest was so poor that we failed to pay the khajna (local land tax) for the Karbari (village head) and Raja (tribe king).

“Hunting has become difficult as well, due to a decreasing animal population as a result of diminishing water sources. Therefore, presently we have resorted to collecting bamboos and cane from the forests and selling them,” he added.

Kunjang is not alone in his dilemmas; there are many others who unknowingly face the consequences of global climate changes. They have been forced to leave their ancestors’ legacy, abandon their homes and search for a new, uncertain beginning.

Ejis Bom, a resident of Passing Para, the highest point of Bangladesh with a living community – at 2,700 feet above sea level – said “things” were changing around the hills of Bandarban. “Soil on a good number of hills has gone infertile; the water sources, which are

paramount to establishing a village, remain dry even during the monsoon.

Thus, we have been forced to leave our homes and search for a new place, to set up a new village,” he said.

Ejis’s words are credible, since changes have been taking place in and around Bandarban over the last few years. People have been moving

Life has become harder than usual at the CHT. Long-standing effects of climate change are forcing hill people to change their locations repeatedly, making them unable to settle anywhere permanently

HI Shumon

Water is drawn from the sources with bamboo pipe

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Md Kabirul Islam

Did you know?

There are 13 indigenous groups in the CHT. The most vulnerable to the climate change are the Khumis, Murongs and Pankhus There are three natural lakes in the CHT area, which are the major water sources. Those are: Boga Lake, Raing Khiang Lake and Nunchoi Matai Pukhiri Lake. Apart from those lakes, there are hundreds of jhiris, fountains and falls that work as water sources as well The CHT falls under the description of “major hardto-reach area” by Unicef for water and sanitation projects

Experts should soon come up with a solution that can nullify the effects of climate change in the CHT and render the hilly soil fertile once again

HI Shumon

Dried out water sources

around, from one place to another, in search of better means to survive. They have been creating new localities and sharing resources with other tribes – something that goes against their old customs.

Over the last 10 years, nine new villages were established in the Chimbuk range alone, and five others within the Sippi range. This is quite unusual, considering the fact that preceding those 10 years, a new village would be built every eight years (in proximity of the old ones) due to their population hiking.

The recent trend of migration in the CHT is a result of not just a growing population; on the contrary, the population has decreased in Bandarban in the last few years. The

factors at play in this case are the lack of water sources and cultivable hills, which in turn are the result of climate change.

Sujon Tripura, popularly known as Sujon Master to the locals, lives in Pranzog Para. He is involved with several NGOs working in the CHT. According to him, the burgeoning problem in the area is the dying of water sources.

“With the help of NGO Forum (an NGO working on public health, focusing on water supply and sanitation), I have identified more than 110 jhiri (small streams, beside which a hill village usually grows) that have either dried out or changed their courses,” he said.

Due to the decreasing number of

water sources, irrigation water for Jhum cultivation has become more and more scarce. “Also, the hills grow infertile after five or six yields now, which forces people to move from one place to another,” Sujon said.

Some have migrated to Ruma Bazar, Thanchi Bazar and the outskirts of Bandarban sadar, where they live in congested slums and earn their livelihoods by doing jobs like hill cutting, construction and others.

“A good number of people migrated to Mizoram and Arakan, as they found work in the timber factories there,” Sujon said.

Adam Trivet, a researcher at the University of Houston, Texas, visited the CHT and conducted research on the effects of climate change there.

“The cultivation period of a particular crop has lessened in the CHT hills over the years. This is actually a result of global climate change. The problem is neither the government, nor the NGOs who have come forward in this regard. No one has yet considered developing a new variety of high-yielding crops for Jhum cultivation that would require less water and withstand the changing monsoon climate in the area,” he said.

“The year-old practices in the CHT area have served the hill people long when the successive cultivation period was 12 years or longer; now, with the climate change, the period is less than five years. As a result, the soil fertility is decreasing and irreversible degradation of the environment is taking place,” he added.

“The only solution to this problem is to develop high-yielding crops for the hilly terrain that can withstand the changing climate. Philippines faced the same problem and they tackled it by doing so,” he pointed out. n

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POST-RIPOSTE

Sports Betting

Let the bets begin!

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he late (but never forgotten) Kerry Packer once said that every successful man who ever created anything worthwhile was a gambler.

Of course, what he was getting to was that gambling comes naturally to us and is part of a recipe of success.

While the same idea cannot quite be extended to organised gambling in sports, there is no reason to make it illegal either.

When something such as

gambling is made illegal, it doesn’t prevent the activity; it simply drives it “underground.” It expands and subsidises the criminal element that the prohibition was created to address in the first place. It attracts criminal organisations into the market, where instead of placing bets with reputable and regulated establishments, individuals deal in a black market with no protection of the law. It allows criminal organisations to profit from

an activity that otherwise wouldn’t be as profitable for them. This increase in profits subsidises their truly harmful activities and creates economic incentives for more people to go to work for these organisations.

The time is over to equate gambling in sports with criminality. To slightly paraphrase Packer once again: “There is a bit of a gambler in all of us gentlemen, care for a punt?” n

YAY

Faruq Hasan

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

NAY

Sheikh Mohammed Irfan

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hould sports betting be legalised? Absolutely not! That’s like saying: “Let’s immunise crime and that will put an end to it.”

If we legalise sports gambling, not only are we facilitating the reckless behaviour of gamblers, but we are also encouraging others to follow in their footsteps. The very essence of gambling is unpredictability, which

is never a good thing and is the main reason gambling is illegal in most places.

Most people who engage themselves in this habit risk their lives, families and resources over the possibility of an outcome which they are not part of in reality. On the other hand, every game in the bet is usually fixed, as most betters want

to physically affect their outcome.

The result of fixing games is the obliteration of the spirit and value of sports. So, we should ask ourselves: how far are we willing to compromise our value system? Remember, a society without values is a society without any real ambition. n

TOP 10

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Street Drinks

Thirst quenchers

Syed Latif Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Whether a cup of hot tea during winter or an ice cold glass of sugarcane juice during summer, Dhaka’s streets offer a plethora of drinks. Amid all this variety, it goes without saying that only a few are very popular, and to that end, Faisal Mahmud suggests 10 drinks that fit the bill

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Tokmar Shorbot

Despite its strange and unappetising look, this summer fruit drink is popular among Dhaka’s people, especially the working class.

Besides quenching thirst during the hot and humid days, it is also very refreshing.

Pagla Pani

Found in the areas near the river Buriganga, it is a concoction of water, green chilli, hajmi powder and achaar (pickles) of your choice, with sugar to add taste.

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Tadi

Tadi or palm wine is probably not legal due to it containing alcohol. However, there are at least 50 tadi vendors within the capital. It is rare to find them in one place, because they are always on the move. The process of making tadi involves an adept climber piercing the tip of the tree and collecting the sap in a bottle. This sap is subsequently left to ferment on the tree for a specific number of days, occasionally just hours. It’s

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quite an addictive drink.

Lassi

A popular drink prepared from yoghurt, it is generally sold at fast food restaurants.

Street lassi, however, is available in the old town. Recipes are similar, besides the vendors using homemade yoghurt and rose water.

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Syrup Shorbot

A popular drink among the working class, especially rickshaw pullers, it’s cheap, tasty and, most importantly, it’s served cold. Vendors usually have a variety of flavoured syrups in bottles. Though the contents and hygiene of these bottles are questionable, the taste is not.

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Aloe Vera juice

Aloe Vera naturally contains vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Vendors sit with a bucket of fresh Aloe Vera and upon request instantly prepare a glass of its juice. It is available in most parts of Dhaka, especially bus stops.

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Lemon juice

Its emergence as a widespread popular street drink is rather new. Lemon juice vendors can be found in most parts of Dhaka.

The drinks they serve are tasty and, in most cases, hygienic.

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Coconut water

Daab or green coconut vendors can be found almost everywhere in Dhaka, especially around most hospitals. Most people find it to be the healthiest and most hygienic street drink available in the capital.

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Sugarcane juice

Cheap, freshly squeezed and served with ice, sugarcane juice is unarguably one of the bests among all the street drinks Dhaka has to offer. Hygiene is rather questionable, though the taste outweighs that issue.

Faisal Mahmud is a staff reporter at Weekend Tribune who specialises in writing IT and telecom articles with depth and analysis. He is also in charge of the weekly Tech page for the newspaper

1 Tea Tea is not just another drink for the Dhakaites; it’s a part of our lifestyle. Tea stalls are the most important social hubs for Dhaka-dwellers and, to the greater extent, Bangladeshis. Be it politics, sports or culture, Bangladeshi people love to argue and converse over a cup of tea at the road-side stalls. Tea stalls, better known as “tonger dokan,” are widespread throughout Dhaka. n

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10 Nasia Chowdhury is an aspiring writer who spent most of her teenage years juggling a basketball and a Thesaurus

THOUGHT PLOT

Masters of Ideation

The battle of business minds

Nasia Chowdhury writes about the competition organised by NSU YES!

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night set in tiny bright lights along with members of NSU YES! attired in blue, all stars and achievers in their own manner, decked the North South University (NSU) Plaza on May 30. An air of suspense filled the atmosphere as the Masters of Ideation – Battle of Supremacy continued their battle of minds.

The second instalment of Masters of Ideation, sponsored by Mutual Trust Bank, was organised subsequent to the success of the first one held last year. The event is an inter-university business scenario analysis and strategy making competition, organised by Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES!), the business club of NSU. The grand finale was held on May 30 at their premises.

This competition aims to create a platform for students across the

nation to prove their skills regarding strategic analyses, and as a result prepare for the real world of business.

This year witnessed the participation of 32 teams from all over Bangladesh.

With aims to provide a fair start before the competition kicked off, a workshop was held on May 17 to educate participants with adequate knowledge and acquaint them with the competition’s format. Consequently, the participating teams were divided into several groups and they competed with each other, spanning over two rounds. The teams were given cases to solve; not only did they solve the major strategic problems, but they also provided solutions for the minor problems. All teams were closely evaluated and the top six teams were selected to battle it out in the grand finale.

The top teams presenting their impressive solutions were: Abstract from NSU, Angry Pencils from IBADhaka University, Arrow from Bangladesh University of Professionals, Retro Nur from NSU, Bat Cats from IBA–Dhaka University and YOLOR from IBA-Dhaka University.

Following the evaluation of their performances, the champion of MTB Masters of Ideation 2013 was announced. Bat Cats triumphed, while the first and second runners-up teams were Angry Pencils and Retro Nur. The teams were awarded trophies and prize money of Tk50,000, Tk30,000 and Tk20,000, respectively. Professor Dr Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, dean at the School of Business of NSU, conferred the awards and prize money to the winners.

Guests and judges who graced the

NSU YES! began its journey in 1994 and has been working diligently to aid the success of students nationwide

Shakil Mahmud Shanto

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Shakil Mahmud Shanto

Adib Ahmed

Renowned business experts in the country were present to groom participants ahead of the competition event with their assessment and time were M A Hashem, chairman of the NSU Board of Trustees who was the chief guest, and Dr Md Abdus Sattar, acting vice chancellor of NSU, Mohammad Iqbal, head of SME Banking, Mutual Trust Bank, Khaliquzzaman Elias PhD, chief coordinator, Students Club,

NSU, Dr Gour Gobinda Goswami, coordinator, Students Club, NSU, and Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury as special guests, among others.

YES! is devoted towards creating entrepreneurial mindsets and building a sense of ethical practice and leadership amongst students from different universities. They achieve this by organising business competitions, seminars and workshops. The main brands of NSU YES! are Ad Maker Bangladesh – The Creative Fight, Masters of Ideation – Battle of Supremacy and NSUers Meet Corporate Icons – Be Enlightened.

Ad Maker Bangladesh is by far the

largest television commercial making and marketing competition in the country. NSUers Meet Corporate Icons is one such seminar where students of NSU are given an opportunity to listen and learn from prominent corporate icons in our country. A few other events organised by YES! include Agro-Based Business Plan Competition 2008, Social Business Plan Competition 2010 and IT Based Business Plan Competition 2011.

Abdur Rakib Khandoker, in-charge of external communications – media and sponsors of the NSU YES!, said: “We give students an opportunity to experience an easy-going corporate life, which highly emphasises on

maintaining transparency and ethical conduct. Learning about team work and team effort, students are able to showcase their abilities and hone their skills further by organising and participating in such events. The youth of the nation are presented with mindboggling predicaments, where they have to compete with the very best minds under intense pressure, while being evaluated by very talented experts and professionals. It brings out the best in each individual as they try to excel and outdo themselves.”

They get accustomed to corporate life and the professionals also become aware of the talent and handpick them for future employment.

Reshad Mohaimen, president of NSU YES!, said: “We are really happy to receive such a huge response from this year’s Masters of Ideation. NSU YES! will definitely bring more competitive events like this in the future so that students can be benefitted.”

Bangladesh is a nation with a large youth population. Young people are the heart and strength of every nation, therefore grooming them for their future endeavours is the prime step towards building a prosperous country. Omar Faruq Khan, general secretary of NSU YES!, said: “Masters of Ideation is an attempt to encourage students of this country to use their knowledge of strategic analysis which might pave the way for a developed Bangladesh.”n

NSU YES! at a glance No 1 student-run business club in the country Organises events and invites students from all over the country in order to develop the nation as a whole Carries a brand image Members are highly prioritised to represent Bangladesh at such events abroad

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6o of connotations

As a Nigerian journalist, Adeyanju Pinheiro consistently gives a critical eye to activities and events around her. When not working, she is an outspoken and lively person who enjoys travelling, meeting people and playing Scrabble

Adeyanju Pinheiro

Welcome home, Chinua The father of African literature rests in peace in his own land

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he red carpet was rolled out, the dignitaries arrived in a whirlwind of helicopters and armed guards as Nigeria buried the revered writer Chinua Achebe. The occasion was thronged by dancing troupes, a choir, red-bow-tied trumpeters, keyboard players and people darting around filming on their tablets. It was exactly the sort of pomp this literary titan hated, and therefore often ripped apart with the witty, acerbic tip of his pen.

The body of Chinua Achebe, who died in March, arrived in Nigeria for burial in his hometown Ogidi in Anambra, since the honourable final resting place for an Igbo man is his ancestral village. Achebe’s body arrived from the US; he died in Boston at the age of 82 following an illness. Relatives of the “father of modern African literature” as well as officials were at southern Nigeria’s Enugu airport as Achebe’s coffin was lowered from the plane.

He was then taken to a stadium in Awka, where some 2,000 people had

Chinua Achebe was a scholar, literary, moralist and, above all, a humanitarian. He has left behind his legacy within his books for his many fans and peers from around the world gathered and the Anglican archbishop of Anambra prayed over his body. “Indeed a great man of letters has gone, but we are consoled that his good work and deeds shall endure for long,” Innocent Okechukwu, a 27-year-old lawyer, said at the stadium. For days, young people marched in the scorching heat with banners commemorating the late author. As they sang lilting hymns at the funeral, some of the redgowned choir members put their arms around each other.

Achebe was best known for his 1958 debut novel “Things Fall Apart,” a novel

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about the collision of British colonialism and his native Igbo culture in the south-eastern Nigeria. The novel has sold more than 10 million copies. He went on to write another 20, some critical of politicians and what he called a failure of leadership in Nigeria. Despite his success, Achebe turned down all offers to teach creative writing courses, saying: “I don’t know how it’s done.”

In 2004, he declined a national award, refusing once again a second time in 2011, saying: “The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed, let alone solved.”

However, this time, the author was in no position to resist the state honour being conferred to him.

Beyond all the glossy arrangements, what was left for many was a simple celebration of a deeply admired man. “I have never seen so many people, even white people, dancing to our [Igbo] music. I cannot ascertain the exact number of people, but there are more than 10 villages put together,” Ike Dimelu, a farmers in his 50s, said.

“The world is in our village today because of Chinua Achebe,” he added.

The ceremony was attended by fellow writers, local officials, foreign dignitaries and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

A service at a local Anglican church followed after.

Y

et, after they have paid their last respects, said their goodbyes and departed, a vital aspect of Achebe’s burial was still pending. According to Igbo tradition, death is not an end to life; rather it is simply a transition into a new world. Without the rites of passage performed during a ceremony called “ikwa ozu,” which means “celebrating the dead,” Achebe will be forbidden from taking his rightful place among his ancestors. No matter how accomplished he was in this life, the literary icon would not be accorded an iota of respect in the next world.

It is pertinent to say that Achebe became a moralist, one who grew up loving humanity and the Igbo

Father of modern African literature, Chinua Achebe was a humble yet stubborn individual. He remains the pride of his village and its predominant Igbo culture – the one whose funeral the whole world came to witness cultures/traditions, not the tales he learnt from the religion of his parents, but from the moralistic, stubborn and ancient folklores in the Igbo tradition.

Igbo funerals generally tend to be very lavish. Vast amounts are expended on livestock and alcohol entitlements for various age grades within the deceased’s community, for the entertainment of guests and, usually, for the long-distance transportation of the corpse. In order to recuperate financially, many families tend to wait several months after the burial before embarking on the even more expensive “ikwa ozu”, thus the ceremony being frequently referred to as the “second burial.”

Sometimes, families that can afford to organise the ceremony immediately prefer to wait for months. That way, their friends and they can reconvene for a second fanfare, and perhaps combine the ikwa ozu with a grand memorial service.

Different people, different culture ... still, the literary icon lives on. n

PHOTO STORY

13

el-tanoura

EGYPTIAN FOLK DANCE

El-Tanoura A photo story by

Sadia Marium

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PHOTO STORY EL-TANOURA

“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?” ~ Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

I felt blessed to be able to witness the Tanoura dance performed by the Free Tanoura Group from Azhar city, Cairo, the “city that never sleeps.”. Roadside cafes, lights, people rushing towards the metro and vibrant street-performances are a few things that attract tourists to Egypt.

Tanoura is an Egyptian folk dance usually performed by Sufi men – the dervishes – during Egyptian Sufi festivals.

Tanoura in Arabic means skirt, referring to the large colourful skirts that the performers wear, whirling around during the dance. The whirling dervish is said to have originated in Turkey, but is a common practice among Sufis in other countries like Syria and Lebanon.

The round skirts and swirling denotes the circle of life, or that of the universe.

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The philosophical basis for the spinning is from an idea that says the movement in the world begins and ends at a certain point. It is, therefore, essential that the movement is circular. The dancer is like the sun when he moves, the dancers around him like the planets. The dancer unties and removes four different skirts, signifying four seasons, during the finale.

And the anti-clockwise movement is exactly like the movement around the Ka’bah. A dancer raises his right arm towards the sky and his left arm down, signifying the union of earth and heaven.

He turns himself around and enters a trance-like state, aspiring to become the light touching the heaven.

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PHOTO STORY

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EL-TANOURA

REALPOLITIK

17

Polls in Pakistan

Lessons from the “former enemy” state?

Ikhtisad Ahmed is a writer and an erstwhile lawyer.

He is bound by absurdity, and exists, therefore he is

Ikhtisad Ahmed analyses the recent general election in Pakistan Pakistani politics in recent years 1970

The first ever general election of the united Pakistan is held on March 7. Despite winning an overall majority, Awami League is prevented from forming the government by the outgoing military regime

1973

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is sworn in as the prime minister on August 14. He was not elected, rather selected by members of the National Assembly

1977

The second general election in the history of Pakistan is held on March 7. Violence and civil disobedience mars the elections, resulting in martial law being enforced once again

1985

B

angladeshis, in their overzealousness to learn from and replicate the former West Pakistan in many walks of life, including politics, can be guilty of forgetting to take pride in their hardfought independence. The much vaunted establishment of democracy in a hotbed for extremism and rampant corruption means that, once again, Bangladesh looks to the country it used to be a part of for answers as its own general election draws near.

To begin with the positives, this is the first time that two successive democratic governments have been elected, and power is changing hands without military intervention.

This first civilian transfer of power is being overseen by an interim government following the first successful completion of a five-year term. Nevertheless, the popular, clean and liberal Imran Khan, hailed as the favourite to win the general election, informed BBC News on the campaign trail that corruption was so inherent to Pakistani politics that up to 80% of politicians would be behind bars if they were active in any civilised nation. His defeat at the hands of the conservative Nawaz Sharif, convicted in 1999 of corruption and terrorism amongst other things, seems to

REUTERS/Mohsin Raza

vindicate his claims and usher a return to the old ways instead of fulfilment of the promise of change.

The want and need for change has been hampered by the elitism and cronyism rife in Pakistani politics.

The aforesaid Sharif and the former President General Pervez Musharraf were supposed to be on the ballots, alongside Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Zardari is the son of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and head of the Pakistan People’s Party, who was assassinated in 2007. Musharraf was ultimately disqualified on grounds of corruption and conspiracy to murder, the latter also a claim levelled at the person who is going to be the new prime minister. The population clearly has a severe dearth of choices to effect change.

Even Imran Khan is far from a man of the people. Educated at the prestigious Cathedral School in Lahore and Oxford, he spent his formative years in active politics convincing the voters that he was neither an elite nor a heathen. However, his popularity, owed in no small part to his cricketing conquests, has seen him encourage a significant proportion of the country’s vast, disillusioned, and to-date apathetic youth population to take part. That 36 million of the

registered 86 million voters who were voting for the first time is a cause for cheer. Greater public discourse and involvement should also serve as a caution for politicians who have, until now, trodden the glamorous path of corruption without care or consequence.

Faced with such optimism, history tells a different story. Pakistan failed in the first attempted democracy. At the time, the outgoing military regime refused to cede power to an East Pakistani government. This resulted in a bloody nine-month war that gave birth to Bangladesh. Both nations have since seen the deft and nonchalant use of military coups in governance.

After subsequent failed experiments, Pakistan may hope to emerge as a democracy - criticism of rigging, lack of overseas voters’ participation and election violence notwithstanding.

However, military intervention is a threat that still looms large, packaged as a saviour of the people in lands that make a mockery of the very democracy that the West advocates, at times with force. The existing political parties’ penchant for autocracy means this will never completely go away, as the populace will always want an escape from dystopian nightmares. n

Non-partisan elections are held in Pakistan on February 28, with 207 of the independent candidates being elected. One of them, Mohammad Junejo, is selected as the prime minister

1988

A coup ousts the government and holds general election on November 16. Benazir Bhutto’s liberal-minded PPP wins overall majority

1999

After Bhutto and Sharif trade places twice without completing full terms through the early 90s, Pervez Musharraf’s military government takes over

Did you know?

There were no direct elections held in Pakistan on a national level between 1947 and 1958 Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League won 167 of the 342 National Assembly seats in 2013.

PPP won 39 seats, and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won 35 seats Voter turnout in 2013 was an estimated 60%, up from 44% in 2008, and the highest since the 63% that saw Awami League win in 1970

2008

Free and supposedly fair elections are held on February 18. A coalition government is formed between PPP and Muslim League, with Yousaf Raza Gillani of the former becoming prime minister

2013

General election is held in Pakistan on May 11 W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, J U N E 1 4, 20 1 3

18

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? Education Sector

Knowledge is power

Sheikh Mohammed Irfan writes about the crumbling schooling system in Bangladesh

Sheikh Mohammed Irfan is a pragmatist, bringing spotlight to the persistent problems in Bangladesh

Rather than putting enormous pressure on their shoulders, children should be given the time and space to learn at their own pace.

That way, their hidden talents are more likely to come out, and they will be more certain about their career choices

R

ecently, there has been an abnormally high average of students achieving outstanding academic results. In the past year alone, results show that about 86% of students passed the Secondary School Exam (SSC) and 79% passed the Higher Secondary Exam (HSC). Among them, a whopping 82,215 taking the SSC and 61,162 taking the HSC scored a perfect GPA of 5. Does this mean we’re surrounded by a new generation of Einsteins and Newtons? Sadly, the reality is far from so, and the ugly truth is that the quality of education has degraded to such an extent that Bangladesh may have no future to look forward to.

In Bangladesh, the quality of basic education is highly compromised.

Children in schools are pressured to achieve beyond what is suitable for their age. The constant stress of exams virtually stunts their academic growth and creativity. Because the lessons they are taught in classrooms are inadequate, these children are compelled to avail private tutors in order to do well in their exams. The stunning reality is that students attend school only to become eligible to take official exams and graduate under the name of an institution.

The bulk of education students receive is given in coaching centres generated by schoolteachers. What’s

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Syed Latif Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

appalling is that most teachers are running a business and purposely slack off in school so that students are forced to participate in their coaching institutions. It’s absurd to think that students in Class I require coaching when they are already studying in school, yet such is the case. One may still be satisfied thinking they are learning somewhat through coaching, but even that is not so. Students are simply taught to memorise information relevant to their exam material, spit it out during the exam, and then forget it. There’s no participatory education, creative learning, or understanding involved in most of these “educational institutions,” and the overall development of these children through basic education becomes negligible.

While schools begin the process of dismantling bright minds, colleges and universities complete it by ensuring that all creativity is stifled. Due to the shortage of colleges, students are forced to take a multitude of exams under strenuous circumstances in respective colleges. Students who fail to comply with this stressful system are unable to complete their education.

At this stage in their life, it is absurd to think that they can achieve good results without attending a coaching centre.

Although none of the universities

in Bangladesh are ranked among the top 500 in the world, their entrance exams are more daunting than any top university. Owing to the bulk of college graduates passing with superb results, the number of seats available for them is limited. Hence, the universities devise a system of insufferable entrance exams in order to eliminate prospective students.

Students who are rejected then have to resort to private institutions.

Because most of them cannot afford to do so, their education is stunted and they become idle. It’s extremely difficult for them to find jobs since most professional institutions prefer university graduates, which is why the unemployment rate of the youth is so high. In fact, according to the UN Statistics Division, citizens aged 15-24 make up 9.3% of the total 5% unemployment rate in the country.

S

tudents fortunate enough to attend universities must face the perilous student politics that comes with it. Ideally, student politics enjoins a radical movement that allows students to exercise their right to freedom. In reality, however, it’s the greatest obstacle to students and is responsible for session jams and prolonged paths to graduation.

Student politics creates an unsafe environment for the students and

produces a negative impact on society.

Students wealthy enough to attend foreign universities face even more difficulty adjusting to an educational system so inconsistent with their own. Whether abroad or at home, Bangladeshi students face tremendous difficulty achieving their goals and are constantly strained to attain what should be provided for free: good education. Corruption has deeply scorned the education system at all levels, and political meddling has destroyed the very ethics of education.

It’s conclusive to say that the final nail in the coffin has been placed in the education of Bangladesh.

All hope is not lost yet, though.

Bangladesh remains home to highly esteemed individuals and has produced great minds like Rabindranath Tagore, Satyendra Nath Bose and Muhammed Yunus. We should aspire to continue creating such great minds. Our society has no problem incorporating foreign principles and practices, and so we should make it a priority to adapt to a proper educational system. Education is the backbone of a society, and it’s important for us to ensure the best education available, as this determines our future. Education free of politics, corruption and suppression is the way to the future of our country. n

INTERVIEW

19

Neemtali Sisters

Saga of the three phoenixes

Faisal Mahmud writes about the three survivors of Neemtali slum fire

R

una, Ratna and Asma would have been called orphans had Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina not intervened and altered their fates.

Three years after the ghastly tragedy that claimed the lives of their parents, among 128 others, in the worst fire incident to have struck the nation at Neemtali, Old Dhaka. The three have now married and have settled down.

However, the fear and stench of death still linger in their lives and it has been three years since the devastating blaze that rendered them homeless.

Runa (Ratna’s sister) and Asma were both supposed to be wedded within a week of June 3. But the fire that killed nine members of the sisters’ family and three members of Asma’s family shattered their dreams. Days after the tragedy, on June 9, the three dared to hope for a better life when the prime minister personally posed as their guardian and arranged for their weddings saying all three were her “daughters.”

On the third anniversary of Neemtali fire, Weekend Tribune visited the trio.

While she and her siblings (Ratna and Faisal) survived, nine members of her family were tragically killed in the fire.

Runa’s husband Jamil also lost seven members of his family, who were wedding guests at Runa’s house when the fire broke out. Runa and Jamil now live in a small three-storey building in

get a job, but that hasn’t happened yet. He doesn’t have any complaints against the prime minister, though.

“She is our mother and she is the prime minister of our country,” he said.

“I know how busy she is, but if I could only get a job to support my family then I would be grateful.”

present has a plastic factory with chemicals stored on the ground floor,” he said. “I asked the government to relocate the storehouses so that no one will lose their dear ones in tragedies in the future.”

Suman’s little brother was killed in the blaze. n

Faisal Mahmud is a staff reporter at Weekend Tribune who specialises in writing IT and telecom articles with depth and analysis. He is also in charge of the weekly Tech page for the newspaper

Asma-Alamgir

Asma and her husband Alamgir presently reside in a small apartment in Kayettuli. Pictures of the prime minister with the couple during their wedding, and on Eid-ul-Fitr later, hang on the walls of their small abode. “It was the best day of my life. We will never forget what Ammu (Hasina) did for us,” Asma said.

Her husband Alamgir, who runs a small business of hardware goods, said he still cannot believe the wedding took place at Ganabhaban. “I am married to one of three daughters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and I am really proud of that,” he said.

“We have no complaints now.

I was totally lost after my mother, grandmother and nephew died in the blaze, but Ammu gave us a new life,” Asma said.

Asma, who has a two-year-old son now, said she met Hasina last on Eidul-Fitr in 2010. “We know how busy she is. I only asked for her blessings for my family,” she said.

Runa-Jamil and Ratna-Suman

It was Runa’s wedding on June 3, 2010 – the day the fire broke out.

PIB/GovBD

Old Dhaka, owned by the family.

Ratna and her husband Suman live in the building opposite to Runa and Jamils’.

Like Asma, Runa has a two-anda-half-year-old son and is expecting again. Her husband Jamil has been unemployed for the last eight months.

“We are not in a good condition. We only live on the money that we get from the tenants of the third floor,” he said.

Jamil claimed he was told by the prime minister’s office that he would

Runa said she only seeks the blessings of her mother. “I would really love to see the prime minister come to my house and bless my child,” she said.

Ratna’s husband Suman works at Basic Bank, also wants Sheikh Hasina to provide jobs to Jamil and her brother Faisal, something they claim was promised to them.

Three years after the tragedy, Suman is still seething at the lack of efforts to relocate the chemical storehouses in the area.

“Even the house where I live at

Three years after the fire that killed their families, the three girls, privileged to address the prime minister as Ammu, now live in fear of another chemical disaster

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20

Sheikh Mohammed Irfan is a pragmatist, bringing spotlight to the persistent problems in Bangladesh

GAME ON

European Football Round-Up

Final bolt to the 2012/13 season

Sheikh Mohammed Irfan sums up the exciting new dimension of European football

REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

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ayern Munich earned the title King of Europe by defeating Borussia Dortmund.

The Germans saw, came and conquered the Wembley to cap off a fascinating year. While the Germans celebrated the dawn of a new era, the rest of Europe adeptly witnessed a football revolution. This year, Sir Alex Ferguson retired from his everlasting post in Manchester United, David Beckham played his last game at Paris St Germain and Jose Mourinho got sacked after three years with Real Madrid. As we bring the curtains down on Europe’s 2012-13 season, football can’t get much better or exciting than this.

Let’s get down to business: money talks, and it brings titles too. After Chelsea won last season’s Champions league, it was a clear message to

REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Bayern Munich’s coach Jupp Heynckes holds up the Champions League trophy on the balcony of the town hall in Munich June 2, 2013. Bayern Munich completed the treble by beating VfB Stuttgart 3-2 in the German Cup final on June 1, 2013, adding the trophy to the Champions League and Bundesliga titles they have already won this season.

football purists and clubs all over Europe that money does deliver.

Bayern spent millions in buying players like Javi Martinez, Xherdan Shaqiri and Mario Mandzukicto, and the results paid off. Clubs like Manchester United, desperate to wrestle back the Premier League title from their city rivals, went on a summer spending spree.

A combination of money and shrewd transfer policies won them the title in style. Most notable would be the signing of Robin Van Persie from their arch nemesis Arsenal, as he went on to top the scoring list in the Premier League.

If big guns were out in the market, none would have been able to dominate it as Paris St Germain has. Finally, French outfits captured the attention of Europe by their marquee signing of players like Zlatan

Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Ezequiel Lavezzi and David Beckham. As a result, they ended up winning their third French league title, justifying that their money was well spent. The sun rises in the east, but it was Zenit St Petersburg who shone brightest far east of Europe. Extraordinary signings like Hulk and Alex from Porto, which came with more than 50m (Tk5.14bn) meant only one thing: a new dawn was looming around Europe and competitions became diverse, exciting and demanding, such that most clubs’ performance levels notched at least two gears up.

If money was the talk of Europe, youngsters would be the engine of clubs driven by financial constraints.

Borussia Dortmund went all the way to the final with young stars like Mario Gotze, Marco Reus and Robert

21 AFP/Carmen Jaspersen Dortmund’s Polish forward Robert Lewandowski (R) points out to Dortmund’s midfielder Mario Goetze (L) where to play the ball during the German DFB cup football match FCO Bremen vs Borussia Dortmund on August 18, 2012 in Bremen, northern Germany.

Munich in the Champions League semi-finals. The Germans won 7-0 in total, handing Barcelona their heaviest defeat in a decade. As Barcelona is the fundamental forbearer of Spanish football, their defeat sent shockwaves around the world. Paris St Germain, AC Milan and Glasgow Celtic also went on to prove that Barcelona and the Spanish football style were breakable.

It was interesting to see a new style of game attracting football lovers across the world. The Germans played an

especially perfect blend of attacking and counter-attacking football that kept everyone enthralled.

To sum up the season, we look at the best player, team and game of the year. The player who made all the headlines is none other than Mario Gotze. From playing fascinating football and firing and assisting goals for Dortmund, to his €39m blockbuster transfer to Dortmund’s archrivals Munich, Mario Gotze is the top player of Europe this season. The best team is

REUTERS/Adam Hunger

Lewandowski. They ripped through team after team, shrugging off giants like Real Madrid, Ajax Amsterdam and Manchester City. They weren’t alone, clubs like Malaga, battling financial debts and bans by UEFA, went down like warriors. Achieving a quarter final in their first appearance, followed by some eye-catching performances by players like Isco, proved teams can still deliver under dire circumstances.

On the other hand, Tottenham achieved their highest point allocation in two decades with the likes of Gareth Bale. Under the leadership of youthful coach Andre Villa Boas, Spurs displayed exceptional football throughout the year taking the English Premier League to a nail-biting finale. Their northern neighbours over the highlands, Glasgow Celtic put up a daring fight in Europe that earned even Snoop Dogg’s admiration, who dubbed them “the real bravehearts.”

From the return of the “Old Lady” Juventus, to the first fall of any defending European champion in group stage, the action continued throughout this season of European football. The “Blues” were knocked out by some muscle power from the Ukrainian powerhouse Shakter Donetsk and cheeky play by the Italian champions Juventus. This ensured yet another sack in the ever-long list of managers in Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, as Roberto Di Matteo was fired for poor performances.

It was also a year of tactical success for managers, as Europe finally managed to dissect the strong Spanish possession and domination in football.

This defeat is best described by the demolition of Barcelona by Bayern

Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek signs autographs as he heads to the locker room during the first half of their friendly soccer match at Yankee Stadium against Manchester City in New York, May 25, 2013.

without a doubt Bayern Munich, not only because they won the Champions League, Bundesliga and the German Cup, but because of the manner in which they won. Their treble this year made them one of the greatest Munich teams to ever exist. Lastly, the best game was the Champions League quarter-final first leg between Paris St Germain and Barcelona. This game was exciting not only because of the goal that secured a last minute draw, but because it played as the middle ground for dissecting Barcelona and the Spanish philosophy that was dominating football for the past six years. Preceded by Milan’s attempt to dismantle Barcelona, this game polished Bayern’s destruction of Barcelona in the following game.

In addition, Real Madrid has also failed to capture a single title this year, which resulted in the expulsion of Jose Mourinho. With the speculation of Cristiano Ronaldo also leaving, a new generation is on the brink in Madrid. Conversely, Atletico Madrid won their first trophy in the shape of Copa Del Rey against Real Madrid. Atletico was blessed with strikes from Radamal Falcao, who finished only behind Lionel Messi in the Spanish Premiera Liga. However, the year was still eventful for Lionel Messi, who broke the highest number of goals scored in a calendar year, a record previously held by Gerd Müller.

Barcelona and Messi also managed to wrestle back the Spanish crown this season. Finally, Chelsea finished the year as the first team to win the Europa League after winning the Champions League. They faced Benfica from Portugal, who were also in their first major final in decades.

If all that and more happened last season, imagine what to expect from next season’s European football. n

Jose Mourinho, Di Matteo, Mancini and Stramaccioni were among the footballers axed for poor performances this season

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22 Dina Sobhan is a freelance writer and cautions readers not to take her “advice” here too seriously!

TOUGH LOVE

Dina Sobhan

1

I just got into a very prestigious university and my parents and relatives, who have high expectations, are very proud of me.

Problem is, I really don’t want to go to university. I want to take a year off and go travelling and “find myself.”

I know my parents will have a heart attack if I tell them about my plans.

Am I really wrong to want some time to myself? And how can I break this to my parents without them going bonkers?

Last year, I borrowed a lot of money from my husband and opened a boutique. My husband was against the idea from the beginning, saying a small boutique isn’t really profitable, and I am not business savvy enough to take care of it by myself. One year and a lot of losses later, it turns out that he was right and I was wrong. I’ve made up my mind to close the shop and try to repay him as much as I can.

But I don’t think I can live with his gloating and I-told-you-so comments.

How can I save face and make a clean exit?

2

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Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

Let me save you some trouble and tell you how this is going to play out: you’re going to piss off your entire family and shatter their dreams of living out their golden years on your dime for the privilege of going backpacking around Europe or Asia, unwashed and living in dives where your roommates will be roaches and Eastern European refugees. You’ll emerge from this experience after three months, smellier, dirtier and with a bacterial infection, which may well be the only thing you’ll gain from it all. You’ll have no better insight into your psyche, nor the world around you, and will wish you’d taken that holiday to Phuket with your parents for a week instead.

Go to college, you moron. All the experiences you seek will present themselves in the classroom and out, through the friends you’ll meet and the conversations you’ll have with random people. You’ll dabble in some recreational “activities,” read a few books that will blow your mind, become an atheist, swing the other way for a while, and/or a protestor for some cause or the other, and hopefully fall in and out of love for four solid years. In between, you’ll do some travelling and emerge from this experience having found yourself, hopefully without the aforementioned bacterial infection. n

Dear Martha “Not” Stewart, “A fool and his money are soon parted,” the saying goes. In this case, there seems to be two of you. If you made a big ol’ mess of your business, I think you should share the blame.

You, for going into the business knowing that you suck at it, and your husband for letting you do it, knowing the same. I’m assuming you must have some other skills at your disposal, such as cooking and performing your wifely duties. The easiest way to shut him up – and

spare yourself the agony of his manly swaggering – is to cook him a nice meal (or order in if you’re no good at that either) and then proceed to remind him why he married you in the first place. Perhaps you can use your feminine wiles to worm your way out of this mess and also make a few mental notes of how to help yourself out of the next debacle. I hear the restaurant business is a real winner … n

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BACKBENCHERS’ CLUB

Across 1 5 6 8 10 11

Vegetable placed to incriminate (5) Fifty-one nil return for black gold (3) Boozy card game (5) A cereal nut (5) The Spanish mast initially made of wood (3) Game used to relight your fire (5)

Down 1 2 3 4 7 8 9

Real spy chopped herb (7) Weapon found up your sleeve (3) Play with small dog (3) Carrot-top thinner and less grubby (7) Waterproof computer (3) Current unit for a politician (3) Absence of ace king for older 8 Down (3)

Solution and clues for last week’s crossword

Across Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

5 Motivate in church tower (7) 6 Cuban vehicle holds a thousand (5) 9 LA rid of torrid state (7)

Down 1 2 3 4 7 8

Happening joint (3) Northern folk ski in some confusion (7) Massive sort out in attic (7) Swan enclosure (3) Stern but almost silly (3) Poet Ayres looks up atlas (3) W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, J U N E 1 4, 20 1 3

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DIGITAL BANGLADESH

Faisal Mahmud is a staff reporter at Weekend Tribune who specialises in writing IT and telecom articles with depth and analysis. He is also in charge of the weekly Tech page for the newspaper

Pressing buttons, casting votes

Faisal Mahmud writes about the digital way to vote in the upcoming elections

A “There is no risk of remote vote tampering as the EVMs will not be connected with each other or to a central server.”

SM Lutful Kabir

ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE

head of the next general elections scheduled in 2014, much debate has been going on about the security and effectiveness of an electronic voting machine (EVM).

So far, the Election Commission (EC) has successfully used the EVM, on a limited scale in city corporation polls in Chittagong and Narayanganj and on a larger scale in Comilla.

The technology is the brainchild of Professor Dr SM Lutful Kabir, former director of the IICT. Terming it as a more secured voting medium than the manual one, Dr Kabir said: “The EVM model that the IICT has developed and the EC has adopted has no extra risk, other than the ones prevailing in a manual voting system.”

By “extra risk,” he meant the intentional mismanagement by the presiding officer during an ongoing election, or the forced invasion in to the poll centres by the party cadres. In those cases, certain micro-chips could be used to alter the EVM programme and particular number of votes could be tampered against an electoral symbol.

Referencing the IICT design documents, he said: “Each EVM has a smart card and the machine will be functional only if a particular smart card is installed. The smart card is supplied by the EC to the assistant presiding officers of a poll centre.”

EVM has two units: control unit and ballot unit. Connected with each other by wire, the control unit is placed in front of the assistant presiding officer while the ballot unit

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is placed inside the voting booth.

Control unit has a digital display and several switches, namely “ballot,” “start,” “close,” “memory clear,” “demo result” and “final result.”

Start switch is used to initiate the voting process. If an experimental vote is stored in the machine memory, that switch will not work until that vote is deleted by using memory clear switch. Once the start switch is pressed, no experimental vote can be placed and the memory clear switch becomes dysfunctional.

The demo result switch, used to see the result of experimental voting, also becomes dysfunctional with the pressing of start.

By pressing ballot switch, an assistant presiding officer start the ballot unit and send a voter to the booth to cast a vote. As soon as the vote is placed, the ballot unit becomes dysfunctional until the next pressing of the ballot switch.

The close switch is used to stop the whole voting process of a poll centre permanently. If there is any attack on the polling centre, this switch could be pressed to stop the voting. Then, the EVM in that particular centre can only be used to see the voting result by pressing the final result switch.

Ballot unit has display comprising all electoral symbols with a particular switch accompanying each symbol. A voter can cast a vote only if the green light at the upper portion of the ballot machine is on. The green light will be on only if the assistant presiding officer presses the ballot switch from the control unit.

A voter can only press a switch against an electoral symbol once.

Once the switch is pressed, the vote is cast and it will be displayed at the control unit display and will be stored in the memory chip. When a vote is cast, the red light at the lower portion of the EVM will light up. After that, it doesn’t matter if a voter presses the switch again for several times, as no further presses will be counted.

Also, if a voter pressed several electoral symbols switches at a time, the EVM will make a beeping sound as a warning, indicating that the vote has not been cast properly. The voter then can re-press only one switch to place the vote.

The ballot unit becomes dysfunctional for 10 seconds once a vote is placed. This is also part of the EVM’s security measure to prevent vote tampering.

With that and the close switch, the EVM system is quite reliable, according to Dr Kabir. In case there is some sort of deal between the party cadres and the presiding officers, the votes still have to be cast by pressing

the electoral symbols, and that takes time (only five votes every minute). So it is much better than before, when one could simply replace the ballot box to alter the results.

Each EVM will come with a programme that functions as per the election rules. “The programme will be installed in the EVM at the time of the elections only after an expert panel verifies it. It can’t be changed once installed, which further lessens the risk of vote tampering at the field level,” Dr Kabir said.

However, Dr Kabir admits no electronic system can be fool-proof.

The smart card supplied to the assistant presiding officer could be faked to alter the result in the EVM. “But in that case, the password with the smart card needs to be hacked, which, technically, will be very hard,” he added. A microchip could also be installed in the EVM to alter the election results as well.

“But these malpractices prevail in a manual voting system. The security measures that are taken for the EVM will be much more reliable,” he said. n

THE WAY DHAKA WAS

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LALBAGH

Bangladesh Old Photo Archive

Living near the Lalbagh area was like playing at a historical treasure hunt every day.

There was, of course, the big Lalbagh Fort that would stick out no matter where you would go for miles around.

But aside from that, the whole area was steeped in so much history that I couldn’t even begin to list. Once, my brother and I found a plate and eating utensils just lying around under the mud near the fort. Apparently it was 400 years old! We still have it at my grandmother’s place, a testament to a bygone era.

Shaila Siddik is physician living in Baily Road

Lalbagh 1985

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

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STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND Weddings

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

Bassema Karaki is a LebaneseAmerican married to a Bangladeshi. She shares how strange, crazy, and humorous life in Bangladesh can appear to an outsider looking in

A wedding is supposed to be the most beautiful and memorable event of a couple’s lives, Bassema Karaki recounts her first experience at a Bangladeshi wedding but judging by uring my stay in Dhaka, I flowers and lace, but it was so crowded to have one priority: satisfy their can throw one of the most bizarre the dreadful have been fortunate enough that I couldn’t get a glimpse of the appetite. After satisfying their appetite fashion shows you’ll ever lay eyes on. situation to attend several wedding bride and groom. As my husband and I for staring, it was time to satisfy their In this particular wedding, the heat newlyweds ceremonies, where I came to the approached the stage, I was shocked to stomachs. A group of guests dragged of competition amongst women that Bangladeshi weddings see the situation the newlyweds were my husband and me towards the and girls could be felt, and their cries endure on their conclusion are unlike those anywhere else in the in. They were sitting on their chairs, dining section and forced us to sit at for attention could be heard. It was wedding day world. Where I come from, weddings surrounded by flashing lights from a table with complete strangers, as obvious that most of these ladies had here, I’d say they are all about celebration. The bride people gawking at and taking pictures there were no empty tables. While we spent the bulk of their day beautifying groom or their loved ones give of them, as if they were some exotic awkwardly waited for the waiters to themselves for a wedding that would wouldn’t want and moving and humorous speeches, a zoo animals. Nobody got close enough serve our food, the strangers facing us only last for a few hours. Girls snatched to remember it huge wedding cake is cut, the couple to congratulate or converse with them. continued to do what they did best: the opportunity to take pictures on much have their first dance, after which People simply stood at a distance and stare. When the food was served, the stage as soon as the bride and groom

Can’t take my eyes off of you

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everyone joins in and carries the bride and groom on their shoulders. Food is served afterwards, and the dancing and celebration continue till morning.

Bangladeshi weddings, on the other hand, are social functions to which everyone the bride and groom’s parents have ever met are invited to stare at their daughter and son in recognition and then eat on their behalf. There is no dancing or celebration, and the only entertainment one will get is watching the fashion parade of the guests.

My first experience at a Bangladeshi wedding began as soon as I stepped into the ballroom. After an impressive show of lights outside the hall, I was disappointed to see that the inside was quite plain, except for a stage up front. It was beautifully decorated with

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did what most Bangladeshis do best: stare. To make matters worse, the bride and groom were blinded by the intense light of two monopods right in front of the stage. The bride herself looked extremely uncomfortable, as if it was difficult for her to move. It was clear why: she was covered in gold from head to toe, so much so that half her face was hidden behind a gigantic nose ring and a headpiece. The visible part of her face was covered in so much foundation that she resembled a ghost, especially in contrast with the groom’s dark skin. While she attempted to smile throughout the function under such strenuous circumstances, the groom didn’t bother after a while and simply stared back at the crowd.

As for the guests, most seemed

men attacked the dishes like there was no tomorrow! Finally, one of them had the courtesy to pass a dish towards us so we could join in. I soon realised in amusement that all the women used cutlery, while the men simply dug in with their hands, Bangladeshi style. Apparently, at weddings women behaved in a more “civilised” manner than men. To my astonishment, as soon as these people were done eating, they got up to leave although it was barely 10pm.

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eddings give people an excuse to dress up and flaunt their possessions, and this is no exception in Bangladesh. From orange hair and golden scarves to spiky shoes and glittering heels, Bangladeshis

stepped down for dinner, and how they were posing for photos was hilarious.

Women were conspicuously eyeing each other up and down; even I was subjected to their scrutiny. With their faced caked with layers of make-up, it was difficult to have a conversation with them without being distracted by how ridiculous they looked. It seemed everyone was competing with the bride for attention.

After this and several other wedding experiences, it’s safe for me to say that being a Bangladeshi bride seems to be an overwhelming, if not dreadful, experience. Being a guest, however, is quite amusing and I hope I get invited to more weddings. n

OBITUARY

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Roger Ebert

Ibtisam Ahmed is a student of history and politics. He lives in a fantasy and writes about reality

Two thumbs down Ibtisam Ahmed remembers the noted film critic Part III” a slightly better score than the superior “The Godfather: Part II,” but he said he would not change a word – not because he was right, but because it would be unfair to his readers if he did not have any integrity.

Ebert began to compile Best of the Year lists to help provide an overview of his picks. He was notable for not showing a bias towards Hollywood productions; two of his first three best picture choices (“The Battle of Algiers” and “Z”) were both foreign productions, while recent picks include Spanish “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Iranian A Separation.” In 1975, Ebert was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the first ever film critic to be given such an honour. The same year, he started hosting a television film review show with Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel. The two created the trademark phrase “Two thumbs up,” used when both of them gave a film a positive review. The continued to work together until Siskel’s death in 1999, following which Ebert continued the show with a rota of co-hosts.

Unfortunately, Ebert’s own health began to deteriorate not long after. In 2002, he was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. Over the next few years, he underwent several surgeries to tackle the problem, including an operation that removed part of his jaw. The resulting complications caused him to lose his ability to speak, eat and drink for an extended period of time, forcing him to leave his show for the first time since its inception.

But Ebert was anything but a quitter.

Using a computerised voice system, he gradually made a triumphant return to television. At the same time, he utilised online media such as Twitter and his now-famous film blog to continue writing. At the time of his

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hree years before his death, Roger Ebert said: “What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder and laughter.

You can’t say it wasn’t interesting.”

It was this simple approach to life by a man painfully stricken with cancer that helped embed Ebert into the hearts of millions. Not that the world ever needed any reminders of his dedication or his genius.

Born Robert Joseph Ebert in Urbana, Illinois, the future film critic grew up in a deeply religious family who emigrated from Germany three generations prior. He showed an early interest in journalism, contributing as a sports writer in his high school newspaper before becoming editor in his senior year, sending letters regularly to fanzines and winning a student radio broadcast event. While studying as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, Ebert began to write film reviews for the university newspaper.

It was after he completed his master’s that he began to look for a job to support himself while working on his doctorate at the University of Chicago. He applied to the Chicago Daily News, but was recommended by its editor to the Chicago SunTimes instead. He started as a regular reporter, but when then film critic Eleanor Keane left the job in 1967, Ebert was given the job. He soon decided to discontinue his PhD and focused solely on journalism. His reviews became instant hits for their insight, style, wit and honesty. He was admired for admitting that his reviews, while taking a systematic approach to filmmaking and film-viewing, were still very much subjective and his readers had every right to disagree with him.

Famously, he awarded “The Godfather:

death, he had written 7,202 reviews, 31,260 tweets and 3 screenplays.

Roger Ebert’s passing in April was one of the great tragedies of the year, not because he was a statesman who shaped the world or an artist who inspired a generation. He was, quite simply, a hard-working man with a talent for writing, who did not let any hardships dampen his mind or his spirit. In the end, history will remember him as much for his extraordinary courage as for his brilliant writings. n

Life of Roger Ebert 1942 Born on June 18 to Walter and Annabel Ebert 1961 First film review, on “La Dolce Vita,” published

1966 Joins the Chicago SunTimes as a reporter, a year before becoming its resident film critic

2006 Loses part of his jaw due to a cancer operation and is forced to take a year off from work

2009 Made an honorary life member of the Directors’ Guild of America

2013 Passes away on April 4, two days before his final review, on “To the Wonder,” is published

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LAST WORD M Sophia Newman

M Sophia Newman is an American writer living in Dhaka.

She blogs at www. msophianewman. com. She thanks HR

Friendship, death and the Matthew effect I am your white skin

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have seen her face, but not in person. I have seen her reaching hands, but can’t match them to these photographs. Standing next to her, we couldn’t find her. She is dead and we are alive, and so we have found each other, Little Brother and me, instead.

On April 24, when Rana Plaza collapsed, my roommate, a 21-year-old Bangladeshi photojournalism student, was at the scene within half an hour.

I joined him there six days later. I research mental health in Dhaka; that was part of why I’d gone to Savar. I wanted to understand the full breadth of the disaster’s traumatic impact.

Next to the flattened factory was a half-finished construction site – terribly dusty, but undamaged and safe. A single policeman guarded the doorway. Walking up, I was sure the swarming international press and my foreign appearance would make the cordon feeble. I was right; the cop didn’t stop me.

I met Little Brother – who has a Bangladeshi name I substitute, out of affection, with this one – and he did what I’d guessed he would do. He brought me to a dead body.

Little Brother had shown me his photographs – a bleeding head wound, a hastily amputated foot – and complained about the press holding back troubling images. He wanted people to see the disaster’s full horror I didn’t want to see a body. I found the idea frightening. But I had seen a worrisome expression in Little Brother’s eyes when he’d come home the night before. I’d asked how he felt, and he’d slowly mentioned guilt, fear, anger. To see the ruins, I figured, would mean he wasn’t alone with his disturbing memories. Friendship obligated me to go.

It was worse in person than his most brutal photos. A woman’s hands jutted from between two collapsed floors. The top of her head – long black

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hair coated in dust – was barely visible from the thick layers of concrete.

She had been so close to survival.

Given a few heartbeats more, her flailing body might have followed those hands in escaping the crashing concrete. In death, her hands were frozen in a pose of physical torment and unfulfilled yearning – each knuckle tensely bent, each hand a grasping claw.

I looked at Little Brother. He was a few feet behind me, his camera at his side. “Don’t stay there long,” he said.

I nodded. We walked downstairs and past construction cranes in the back lot. Meanwhile, I thought of our other roommate.

This roommate is an American, like me. He’s 25, six-foot-three, blue-eyed, baby-faced, milk-fed, charismatic. One day, soon after I moved in, Roommate had hugged me. He and I had a friendship innocent of romantic aims, and in our culture, platonic hugs between genders are unremarkable.

But his intensity surprised me – my entire nervous system relaxed towards happiness when I was enmeshed in his long arms. I felt warm, sleepy affection.

A post-Rana Plaza hug might have been nice, too, if that hadn’t ceased to be an option.

A few weeks before, our roommate had made the sort of discriminatory comment that leaves most Americans upset. When I’d called it unethical, he’d become enraged. Then he’d stonewalled me for days. I’d spoken up for people I love in the category he disliked. He’d reverted to silence, stalwart in his prejudice. Our hugs, it was clear, were finished.

When Rana Plaza collapsed, Roommate mostly behaved as though it hadn’t, despite sharing a room with a traumatised young man who edited photographs of the carnage right in front of him.

“He thinks he is better than Bangladeshis,” Little Brother complained to me. But I saw him as an embodiment of the Matthew effect, a sociological phenomenon where advantages or disadvantages become amplified over time. (It’s named after Matthew 25:29, in the Bible: “For whoever has will be given more, and

I asked a tearful woman if she was alright, and she gripped my shoulder and sobbed “Amar chhoto bon! (My little sister!)” over and over, as if to call the missing girl back. Lacking enough subtleties in my faltering Bangla to console her, I could only hold her in my arms they will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”)

Handsome, wealthy, and white, Roommate has experienced unfettered privilege his whole life.

But this became his accelerating disadvantage. Used to unchallenged entitlement, he had yet to figure out how to be fair to disadvantaged groups. Raised in circumstances where no insight into calamity was required, he couldn’t commiserate in harsh conditions. Accustomed to enjoying affection in favourable circumstances, he couldn’t reach out in tough times, when hugs mattered most. His empathy was fragile, designed only for ease – nonexistent; life’s hard knocks take it from him.

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ver time, I’d noticed he knew little about human suffering and seemed to want to know nothing more. This is achievable in beleaguered Bangladesh only through deliberate obliviousness of nearly all media and civic life. Roommate was achieving it. He treated politics, grief, and us with indifference. At Rana Plaza, I wondered if he would have disdained Little Brother for pointing out the dead woman’s reaching hands.

Little Brother is different. On April 30, he and I left Rana Plaza for a schoolyard overflowing with people searching for missing relatives. There, he photographed a bereaved family weeping. Then he turned to me and said, “I want you to help me. You are my white skin.”

Little Brother retrieved a dirty box from below a policeman’s desk.

Inside, hundreds of crumpled flyers documented missing workers’ names, photos and relatives’ phone numbers.

The task was simple: I’d set each paper

on a bench and he’d photograph it. He calculated my racial privilege would grant us leeway from the police. I assented. Families crowded close, pushing more leaflets towards the camera.

Little Brother is from this overcrowded, nearly unliveable megacity. Brought up amid challenges demanding empathy, he seems to have an inner foundation for generating it. Amid weeping mothers, he photographed with a calm clarity the world could understand. He’d soon accumulated over 1,500 images, of people now revealed to be both living and dead. Among them, presumably, are the 300 deceased workers who are yet unidentified by DNA testing and whose families are uncertain of compensation.

He acknowledged the unfair advantage of my white skin and cleverly asked me to reverse my own Matthew effect by coming closer, not selfishly avoiding the destruction. To use my foreignness in Little Brother’s favour – helping photograph flyers, walking through the wreckage by his side – gave him a platform to advocate for others. It closed the unjust gap between us.

Standing in the ruins, I’d wished for a second to be entwined again in Roommate’s friendly embrace.

But soon, I realised I felt affection for my Little Brother, and what we’d seen together could not be unseen.

Our mission became clearer, our compassion accelerating, the distance widening between us and our roommate, and quickly, irreversibly, we left him in the dust. n