Weekend_Tribune_1_8

Confessions of the nightriders 6

David after Goliath 18

FRIDAY JUNE 7 2013

vol 1 Issu e 8

You speak English?

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CONTENTS This Week in Pictures Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Tug of war Big Mouth Strikes Again A bibliophile’s abibliophobia Post-Riposte Are we racists?

9 Top 10 National treasure 12 6° of Connotations Digital Bangladesh!

13 Photo Story Blood salt and iodine politics 17 Interview Breaking the boundaries 18 Game On David after Goliath 20 Digital Bangladesh You speak English?

21 Stranger in a Strange Land The customer is never right 22 Tough Love 23 Backbenchers’ Club 24 Day in the Life of An activist cyclist 25 The Way Dhaka Was Nawabpur Road 26 Culture Vulture The famous Persian excursion 28 Last Word

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8 A Weekly Pro ducti o n o f

DhakaTribune Vo lume 1, Issu e 8 J UNE 7, 2 0 13 Acting 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 Confessions of the nightriders

Photography Syed Latif Hossain Cartoonist Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy Contributors Naheed Kamal Sabiha Mahmud Sumi Nilufer Ahmed Phil Humphreys Zubier Abd Bassema Karaki Dina Sobhan Anisur Rahman Swapan Dave Besseling Design Asmaul Haque Mamun Mohammed Mahbub Alam Cover Mumit M Production Masum Billah Advertising Shahidan Khurshed Circulation Wahid Murad Email: weekend@dhakatribune.com Web: www.dhakatribune.com

10 Thought Plot Showing light to the street urchins

27 Obituary Rituparno Ghosh

EDITOR’S NOTE

Goodbye Fergie S

ir Alex Ferguson is more than a reference for other football managers and club owners; he is an institution in himself. I remember in the 1980s when Manchester United was not even the third best club in England, with Liverpool achieving legendary status throughout the 80s and early 90s. Then Fergie happened.

For more than two decades, Manchester United has been the dominant force in world football, leaving Liverpool to dwindle in the club’s shadow. Curiously enough, the club faces its biggest challenge off the field: can new gaffer David Moyes take off from his predecessor, or is Man U going to end up, ironically, as the new Liverpool? Phil Humphreys investigates.

Elsewhere, Naheed Kamal revisits a bibliophile’s worst nightmare, Bassema Karaki laments the dying customer service in the nation, while Anisur Rahman Swapan chronicles Tagore’s visit to Iran. We end with the sad news of the death of a very talented director whose unique brand of film-making traversed the Bangali divide.

Hoping that all our readers have a relaxing weekend. n

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THIS WEEK IN INTERNATIONAL

1 AP

3 AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

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1 Turkish protesters clash with riot police on June 1 near the former Ottoman palace, Dolmabahce, where Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintains an office in Istanbul, Turkey.

2 Symbolic Nobel Peace Prize signs are seen on a gate as marchers rally to call for the release of the jailed US Army Private Bradley Manning, a central figure in the Wikileaks case, at Fort Meade, Maryland on June 1. Manning, who confessed to giving classified information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Wikileaks, will stand trial in a court martial that could land him in prison for life.

3 Civilians inspect the site of a parked car bomb attack near a popular restaurant in the Ur neighbourhood in northern Baghdad on May 30. A series of morning bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed and wounded dozens of people in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country.

4 US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (C) poses with Japan’s Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera (L) and South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin during a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 12th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 1.

4 REUTERS/Edgar Su

5 Residents walk past smoking debris of a charred building in Lashio, northern Shan State, Myanmar on May 30. Many Buddhists and Muslims stayed locked inside their homes and shops were shuttered after twodays of violence in Lashio town.

5 AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe

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NATIONAL

1 The opposition leaders return to the Parliament on June 4, after their absence in the previous 83 sittings.

2 Heikki Eidsvoll Holm책s, Norwegian minister for international development, and Srinivas Reddy, ILO country office director, sign an agreement on June 3 to provide support for the ILO agencies to promote fundamental rights and labour relations in the export-oriented industries in Bangladesh.

3 Coworkers carry a female RMG worker injured in a clash with police in the city on May 29.

1 Dhaka Tribune

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3 Rajib Dhar/Dhaka Tribune

Nashirul Islam/Dhaka Tribune

FocusBangla

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4 Chhatradal workers vandalise public properties at Bijoynagar in support of the countrywide hartal called by the 18-party alliance on May 28.

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whose line is it anyway?

Tug of war

“Bangladesh will have regular, fair elections just like any other democratic country in the world.”

“Caretaker government is absolutely necessary before the elections, since I do not trust the government to hold fair polls.”

Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

Big Mouth strikes again

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Naheed Kamal

A bibliophile’s abibliophobia

The fear of not having anything to read keeps me up at night

B

ooks, libraries, reading, bookstores, the written word, language and culture – all of this, and much more related to them, I credit with keeping me sane.

I can’t imagine my world without books, especially my books, the ones I have collected over many years. They have become, in many ways, my keepers of secrets.

I am not sure I like the idea of digital books. While Amazon and Apple continue fighting over the digitalisation of books, prices online and publishing, all the talk about traditional books becoming obsolete just makes me nervous.

Among all the things I can’t find easily in Dhaka, the absence of a good bookshop upsets me the most. There are compensations in the form of New Market’s musty old stores, among which Zeenat Bookstore holds pride of place. I used to go there every other weekend with my uncle; we would usually walk down from Dhanmondi in less than 25 minutes, and I was allowed to pick any book I wanted and two comics. My childhood was shaped by these trips to the bookstore, and my birthdays were marked by volumes of books, mostly abridged versions of the classics, and assorted comics, Enid Blytons and Nancy Drew. But I would read anything I could get my hands on. Nothing escaped my grimy little fingers, as I devoured books. Often they made little or no sense, but I just loved the flow of words when I read them. If I wasn’t tearing around, I was cooped up on a window ledge of the old house, which was wide enough for me to sit comfortably on, with a book of my choice.

On March 7, many countries celebrate World Book Day, but did you know there was also a World Book Night, observed on April 23? It marks Shakespeare’s birth and death anniversary, which is why Unesco honoured the day by picking it for the International Day of the Book When I was going to university in Delhi, my favourite bookshop was Sehgal Brothers in South Extension market. In my final year, the store was being renovated, so there was a sale on everything, with 50% off on most books I wanted to buy. I would end up there without fail on alternate days and pick several books, and return home with my purchases dizzy with excitement. It wasn’t that I had loads of ready cash, I didn’t, but I was happy to live on milk, bread and eggs for a month if I could buy all the books I wanted. I did, and

arrived at the airport with 60kgs of extra luggage – all books. The man at the counter took pity on me I think, because he let me on board without charging me a paisa.

When I was in London, I would buy at least six new books every week, taking advantage of the Waterstones’ three for two schemes. My fondest memories of time spent with an ex-boyfriend are about ordering books from Amazon. com – he had access to an international credit card and a diplomatic “bag” that guaranteed delivery – and I would wait eagerly for the twice monthly thrill associated with the moment he would return from work, bag full of new books, for us, for me!

If I am on holiday, half my budget is allocated for books. In Bangkok, the massive Kinokuniya is one of my favourite places to spend hours just browsing. I read several at a time, which does muddle the stories and characters sometimes, but knowing I can always go back and read them again means I discover the story with each reading.

It isn’t unusual for me to be at a party and wish I was in my room reading my book. I have feigned illness and all kinds of “problems,” because I am reading a book too good to put down. I fail to answer the phone, eat, sleep, wash or bother with anyone or anything because I am so engrossed in a book. I have been known to skip work because I could not bear to part with a book.

I have always treasured books. They are, for me, the best gift anyone can give me. The return of a “lost” book that someone borrowed and forgot about is an even better gift in my book – excuse the pun. We all need stories to give our lives meaning and perspective, and I am never as happy as I am when I have a great book to read.

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vid readers will know how discombobulating it can be when you finish a book and find yourself in the mundane real world. The sense of loss associated with the end of a book is akin to saying goodbye to a dear friend for ever. Except with books, it is not for ever; we can always go back and discover them again, and again. There are books that I start to read as soon as I finish reading the last page.

There are too many books that have left their indelible marks on me, too many authors to mention. The books that have been my constant companions, the ones that saved me and helped me rise out of the depths of despair reveal new layers and meanings with each reading. While there are

some books and authors I find difficult to read, I save them for the right mood, some simply evade me. It is a rare book that I hate and am unable to read at all.

Not counting the genre known as Misery Lit, and the teenage girls’ fantasy Mills and Boons; neither held any appeal for me ever.

Books change us inextricably.

Whether they are textbooks in schools, or scholarly treatises, tomes for reference, biographies, fiction, novels, short stories, poetry or prose, they enrich and enlighten us through words. They are both educational and entertaining, and nothing Hollywood can produce beats the original book.

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!

My biggest fear is not having anything to read. The word that gives meaning to my fear is “abibliophobia.” I am a bibliophile, which means I love books. My love of books entails loving everything about them, which means the way they feel, smell, and the emotions involved with reading They give us perspective and make us better people, as a University of Buffalo study proves. Reading fiction is said to make us more empathetic. I am wary of the methodology used: researchers gave 140 undergraduate students passages from the “Twilight” series, and from “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” to read. The details can be found online. Bizarre.

All books, to some extent, enrich us, so I am wary of anyone who says they do not read books. I am scared silly when I learn there are people in this world, who, and I know this for a fact – because I went and checked myself – don’t own a single book. Not one! The scary part is they have children. From my limited experience of child bearing and rearing, I would say reading is an essential part of the whole process.

While it is easy to point fingers and blame everyone for everything, despite the internet, computer games and television, libraries closing down, absence of teachers and mentors, the future of traditional books is not bleak.

The printed book is not dying any time soon, and though surveys and studies indicate people are reading less, they are still reading for pleasure, and where the book holds meaning for a reader, they tend to go out a copy of the printed version. So there is no need to worry about digital books taking over the market, because books don’t need batteries. n W E E K E N D TR IBUN E FR I DAY, J U N E 7, 20 1 3

6 Sabiha Mahmud Sumi is an editorial assistant at Dhaka Tribune. She is also an artist, flute player and published author

FEATURE

Nik Squad

Confessions of the nightriders Sabiha Mahmud Sumi writes about the Gulshan-based cyclist group

Want to join Nik Squad on their late night rounds? Here is how you get started Step 1 Log on to Facebook and search for Nik Squad, or go straight to https://www. facebook.com/groups/ Niketongang/?fref=ts Step 2 Click on their ‘About’ page and find yourself the registration form, download it, and fill it out Step 3 Contact one of the admins for information about events Step 4 Carry the registration form along to your first ride

Omer Nashaad

I

magine if the inhabitants of Dhaka city came around to the idea of using bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. Not just carpenters, mechanics or electricians, but all people who otherwise depend on their cars, as if the world would end if each member of the family didn’t have one. Not to make us Bangalis look bad, but it seems the word “green” didn’t make much of an impression on most Dhaka citizens, merely because of the fact that “going green” can hardly ever be spotted on our day-to-day priority list. The Dhakaites are too busy worrying about the government in most cases. However, in the light of these nightriders, the most that can be said is that Dhaka dwellers have shaped things up.

So, if you happen to live in the Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara area and have been intrigued by an assembly of riders cycling to and fro, taking rounds

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

around your neighbourhood, you will be happy to know that these people are not creeps on bicycles. They are members of the Nik Squad, featuring Zaman Johan and Omer Nashaad.

Why Nik Squad?

Nik refers to the fact that most of the admins of the group are from Niketan in Gulshan. It really is very much the story of any odd easy-to-predict movie, where a group of people, before coming together in unison, are all alone doing what they love to do by their lonesome selves. A coincidence brought them together. That is precisely the story of Zaman Johan, who would ride to and from work on his bicycle, unusual to most in Dhaka city, and would wonder whether others like him in the city existed. He spread the word on Facebook and formed a group with five other bicyclists. Presently,

What you need for a ride n

Helmet

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Flashlight or some sort of light source attached to your helmet

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Right sized bicycle for you

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Bottle of water

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Small snack (bananas are a popular choice)

their Facebook group is 400 members strong. Though their initial inspiration for the group was envisaged from the platform BDCyclists had created, they have come a long way in making this yet another successful platform for bicycle enthusiasts.

Omer Nashaad, another member of Nik Squad, gave an overview of the group’s activities.

Nik Squad/BDCyclists – what’s the difference?

The only difference between BDCyclists and us is the fact that we have our rides at night. Nik Squad isn’t necessarily a group that is excluded from other rides and other bicycle groups. People who are a part of Nik Squad have and do go on other rides that BDCyclists organise and vice-versa. At times, when there is a senior BDCyclist member amongst us, we let them lead the ride.

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Tejgaon-Bijoy Sarani Bridge

Bangabandhu Convention Centre

Sangshad Bhaban

Agargaon Link Road

Book Worm

Old Airport Road

Mohakhali

Mohakhali DOHS

Tejgaon - Gulshan Link Road

Gulshan 1 Circle

Cantonment

Gulshan 2 Circle

Banani 11

Just Juice Gulshan 2

Did you know?

Omer Nashaad

For those of you who would end up running over somebody or get run over if given a cycle to ride, don’t flip the page just yet, because FYI Nik Squad shapes people like you into streetsmart bicyclists. So, if you are one of them and are interested in tweaking your transportation habits, call any one of the members

Airport Road

Asmaul Hoque Mamun/Dhaka Tribune

If you were to give enthusiasts a reason or background to what Nik Squad’s activities are about, what would your verdict be?

Where bicycling is a noble deed in terms of the environment, your health and well-being, we think it’s almost like a statement that we make here for those who belong to the GulshanBanani-Baridhara area. As such, people who are the ones seen getting into their fancy cars, entering their fancy workplace and then retiring at a fancy restaurant, can be assumed to avoid bicycles as their mode of transportation. However, for those who feel that they can break out of their usual habits and might be interested to, say, ride their bicycles to work or around town as an extracurricular activity of sorts, this is their platform, their outlet. Also, this is a place for young people to get away from their daily lives and enjoy a fun activity. Although this may not have been our initial aim or statement, this is something that resulted from what we started, which was simply a group who loved riding their bicycles.

Recently, has any pedestrian come up to you asking whether you are part of a group, or why you ride your bicycle at night, or why ride a bicycle at all in a city like Dhaka?

People come up to us all the time, asking whether we belong to a group

or not and whether we are open to new members, especially foreigners.

Just yesterday, two women came up to us and made a remark about how ‘cool’ it was that we ride our bicycles around the city at night.

What is an average number of people participating in Nik Squad rides?

About 40 people per ride.

What bicycles do you like best?

Hardtail mountain bicycles. Bicycles made by Merida.

One of the riders falls off their bike while speeding past a CNG and ends up with a big graze wound. What would Nik Squad do in that very situation, and what precautions would Nik Squad take?

We always have a first aid box on us at all times during the ride. Also, we follow a particular style of riding where we have one of the leaders riding up front, leading the group. And we have another riding at the back to ensure no one falls behind. The rest of the leaders usually ride in the middle, keeping an eye out for everyone. At all times, we keep emergency numbers handy and hospitals in mind when we plan out the ride, during our internal admin meetings. n

For more information about Nik Squad and their activities, contact any of the admins Zaman Johan 01199800136 Mohammad Asaduzzaman 01711082194 Omer Nashaad 01715076620 Ahrar Masud 01732761445 Lubna Noman 01732761445

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POST-RIPOSTE

Racism in Bangladesh

Are we racists?

“I

wish I were as pretty and fair like you,” I have heard that so many times in my life, directed at people who are fairskinned. It makes me uncomfortable, but also accustomed to racism that goes unnoticed and unchallenged in Bangladeshi society.

Why is it necessary to have a lighter skin tone ? Why are most of us obsessed – desperate, even – to look “fair”? Have you asked yourself such questions? If you have, then you probably have been on the receiving end of the discrimination based on

skin colour that prevails in the country.

One must blame the culture of accepting of such peculiar behaviour of running after “fairness.” Our sensitive, “not-so-light” (pun intended) culture promotes that being fair means one is superior and more beautiful. This generalisation shouldn’t sound so alien to you, not when you belong to a land where skin lightening creams are sold without question.

Each and every Bangladeshi is described on the basis of his/her skin tone, especially in the “market” of arranged marriages and (the word is

reiterated for the fair kind of emphasis) when one is a girl/woman. “Phorsha” (fair) girls are mostly preferred by most families when they want the “apple of their eyes” sons to get married, so that the couple can produce “phorsha” grandchildren. It’s a vicious cycle.

To add to the embarrassing list of racist activities, we gape and stare at white people in our streets and make them appropriately uncomfortable, just the same weird way we dart our nasty or suspicious glances at black people.

Seriously ... what’s wrong with us? n

Yes, we are Rifat Islam Esha

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

Of course, we’re not!

Faisal Mahmud

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H

ave you ever seen a restaurant with a sign saying “For white or fair-skinned people only” in Bangladesh? Have our dark-skinned people ever had to fight for voting rights in this country? Have we Bangladeshis ever faced something as humiliating and mortifying as apartheid?

The answer to all these questions is a resounding no. If Bangladeshis are considered racists, then we must believe that Santa Claus is real.

The problem is, some words and terms, like “racism,” often get so

overtaken by colloquialism that we tend to forget its original linguistic context. Though it is true that most Bangladeshis do favour fair-skinned people, it cannot be termed as racism.

Yes, we are prone to play favourites to the fair people over dark people.

After all, we were ruled by the “white” British rulers for 200 years and the “whitish” Punjabis for 24 years. So, you can’t blame the older generation for subscribing to a colonialist perspective of beauty. However, if the younger generation still thinks that way, then I have one word for them – anachronistic.

Yes, there will always be eyecatching TV commercials promoting fairness products as a means for your stepping stone to success. But seriously, the younger generation don’t buy that nonsense, do they?

I think the collective mindset of our society about looks and fashion has evolved and matured enough to not segregate the fair-skinned and dark skinned people to define the epitome of beauty and attractiveness. Racism is not, at all, the term that could be or should be applied to an average Bangladeshi’s silly obsession with fair skin. n

TOP 10

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Galleries and Museums

National treasure Museums preserve of our past. And an art gallery is a hub where one can come in close contact with his/her culture, as well as the cultures of the world. Both of these places are quintessential elements of a modern society – one that helps acquaint with the past, the other soothing our souls with art. Keeping all these in mind, Rifat Islam Esha lists 10 best museums and art galleries in Dhaka

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Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts

The gallery is naturally illuminated so that the light falls perfectly on the paintings on the wide walls. The gallery hosts exhibitions, usually on weekly basis. They only display works of famous painters, so when you enter this place, you get to see the works of someone widely recognised.

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Bengal Art Lounge

This place exhibits national and international artworks, paintings, etc and gives you a taste of mostly, contemporary and emerging visual art. Artists from all parts of Bangladesh exhibit their work here, which helps build an understanding of the different regions of Bangladesh that one may not ever visit physically.

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La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka

It can be found within the premises of Alliance Française de Dhaka in

Dhanmondi. It’s actually a small hall, which displays works of various Bangladeshi and French artists. It’s one of the most famous exhibition spaces in Bangladesh. More than 20 exhibitions are held here every year.

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Dhaka Art Center

This is a non-profit organisation that holds exhibitions for all kinds of artists. The brightly-lit halls contain paintings on its walls that create a magical ambience for the audience. This place opens the gate of the contemporary for Bangladeshi art lovers. It also encourages and holds discussions on visual art and allows a free audienceartist interaction.

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Liberation War Museum

There are six galleries that display artworks on the struggles Bangladesh has gone through from 1947 to 1971. The artworks create a mental bridge between the audience and the country’s history, quite beautifully.

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Britto Arts Trust

Britto Arts Trust is the first ever non-profit organisation run by artists. It hosts events and runs various projects, encouraging artists from all walks of life to come together.

It was not constructed in an open space, yet it provides a “space” for the artists that is away from the noise of Dhaka.

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Gallery Chitrak

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Drik

When you walk inside this place, you feel like you are teleporting into a different dimension.

Chitrak displays works of various artists and holds four-five exhibitions annually. It displays works of artists of all ages (famous or not,) and anyone is welcome to go see the paintings that are hung on the walls of this traditional and homely gallery.

Drik is a powerhouse of visual art. It hosts exhibitions and workshops of various artists and photographers. It also provides various services within its vicinity, so one needs to be aware

Rifat Islam Esha is a social media editor at Dhaka Tribune who throws words around at her whims. You can reach her on Twitter: @rifat_islam

and on the look-out for the art and photography exhibitions.

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Bangabandhu Memorial Museum

The house of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was turned into a museum to restore a significant part of Bangladesh’s history. The museum contains paper cuttings and captioned photographs, framed on the walls. You can move around and see bullet markings on the walls, floors, windows, etc from when Bangabandhu and his family were murdered.

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Syed Latif Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Bangladesh National Museum If you are from Bangladesh and/or have a taste for Bangladeshi history and art, you should definitely be familiar with this place. This museum was upgraded as soon as Bangladesh gained its independence. It creates a link between our nation’s past and present.

Additionally, it contains various artworks, sculptures, etc that are bound to blow your mind. n

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Yusuf Banna is a staff writer at Weekend Tribune. He would be happier if he could be a poet, 24x7. He also dreams of being a painter and is envious of those who can paint

THOUGHT PLOT

Concern Worldwide

Showing light to the street urchins

Yusuf Banna writes about the NGO working with street children

Courtesy

F

or a nine-year-old boy like Mamun, the world is like a bubble. Living on a street near Mohammadpur, Dhaka, he wakes up early in the morning and spends his day collecting garbage, mainly plastic bottles and glasses, in the area around Dhanmondi Lake. It’s an important task that needs to be carried out every day, as the 16 million Dhaka dwellers produce about 4,200 tonnes of garbage every day, out of which 1,200 tonnes remain untreated.

A quarter of this untreated garbage is collected by the rag pickers. But that’s barely the point here.

Clad in a pair of torn pants and a t-shirt, bare-footed and with a sack in hand, Mamun collects rubbish on the streets and sells the day’s collection to his “Sardar,” the leader who manages all the street kids collecting street garbage. Mamun and his fellow rag pickers take the rubbish to the Sardar

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

at the end of the day to get their allowances – a paltry sum of Tk 50100, some food and a dose of addictive adhesive commonly known as “glue.”

For many a street urchin like Mamun, the stories are pretty much the same. Fortunately, there is an organisation named Concern Worldwide (CW) that has a different opinion on this matter.

Shamima Nasreen, communication coordinator of CW, says the total number of street children in Bangladesh is estimated at 400,000.

Almost half of them live in the capital alone. “These children are one of the most vulnerable social groups in this country. Without proper food, shelter and education, their lives are merely a fight for survival,” she said.

Ironically, these children are not supported by any social safety-net programme run by the government.

“Their contribution to the economy

and the environmental hygiene of Dhaka by doing the job no one else wants to do benefits all the city dwellers,” she said.

Taking this matter into consideration, CW has been working with Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and other NGOs under its urban development project named Amrao Manush since 2008. The aim of this project is to rehabilitate children who live on streets, especially those in Dhaka.

“CW has allocated a fund worth Tk500,000 to make sure the street children get access to proper healthcare and education. We have also made arrangements with various schools so that stipends are provided to such children,” Nasreen said.

Amrao Manush allows the children to enrol into the DCC-run music schools as well.

Nasreen said the NGO also ensures

Sniffing glue is the only respite in many street children’s life.

It comes as the only escape from the hard reality that these kids should not have to face

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About Concern Worldwide free healthcare for the pavement dwellers through the urban primary healthcare centres under the DCC. “With the help of the DCC, we have already started the construction of five centres where the street children as well as their families can live by paying a nominal fee,” she added.

Among the children who have been taken under the wings of CW, Russel, an eight-year-old orphan, who has been under the programme for the last seven months, has already finished the Class I textbooks. “I want to be educated. I don’t want to go back to the streets again. I didn’t like that life,” he said.

Kalam, a 12-year-old boy, said he used to get sick while rag-picking. “The smell of garbage was just too much to bear. So, I sniffed glue, which made me sick,” he said.

Now, Kalam has enrolled into a school with the stipend that CW provides and finished Class II studies.

Under Amrao Manush, 240 street children were given Tk500 stipend on May 1 and were enrolled into public schools, with access to basic rights.

270 women and adolescent girls are provided night shelter in five shelters spread around Dhaka – Kawran Bazar, Mirpur, Green Road, Ananda Bazar and Sadarghat.

His life has gotten normal and he has started to dream again.

Dr Sirajum Munir, professor at the Sociology Department of Dhaka University (DU), said the role of NGOs, particularly in the development sector, is constantly changing, and international NGOs in particular face a challenge in justifying their presence in the complex development environment of Bangladesh.

“In the last few decades, many people from various parts of the country, most of whom are climate refugees, have started flocking towards Dhaka in search for a better life and opportunities. Most of these people don’t find what they hoped for in the city,” Dr Munir said.

“Because of these people, Dhaka has observed an abnormal growth of slum population in the last decade.

Unfortunately, in time, even surviving in a slum becomes hard for many of them, which is why they have to look

40 people have been given vocational training and Tk5,000 fund to start small businesses.

for the next best option – living in the streets under the open sky,” he added.

Referring to different studies, Dr Munir said: “These pavement dwellers are the most vulnerable group of people in the urban society.

Our studies have shown that these people, especially the street children, are responsible for over 40 percent of crimes in the city, including drug trafficking, prostitution and even murder.”

Under this context, Dr Munir believes the government should have come up with some plan to effectively rehabilitate these people. “But, unfortunately, there are no such plans yet. The government’s social safety-net programme does not cover them,” he said.

He said NGOs like the CW and many others have been doing a great service to the society as a whole by effectively introducing rehabilitation programmes for the street children.

Concern Worldwide also runs an awareness campaign to educate people about the threats of HIV. More than 60 people have been trained under this programme, which has been running for three years “These sorts of projects taken by this organisation would give those hapless children a dream and a goal to move forward,” he said. n Note: The names in the article have been changed for confidentiality. All the facts have been provided by Concern Worldwide.

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12

6o of connotations

Nilufer Ahmed is a columnist and a profound thinker. She has travelled widely and gained unique exposure to varied cultures, societies and intellectual lives, trying to absorb the best of the east and west

Nilufer Ahmed

Digital Bangladesh!

The progress of this country seems, at times, oddly incredible

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he other day, I went grocery shopping to make sure we had everything, in case the recent hartal got extended for another day.

As soon as I entered my home, my domestic help opened the door and said: “Oh ma’am, I tried to call you on your mobile phone but it was busy.”

“Why, was there anything urgent?”

I asked her.

“I forgot to add salt to the grocery list. There’s not a pinch of salt in the house. It’s all finished!” she lamented.”Finished” or “shesh” was her favourite word.

I was tired and said: “Use the table salt and next time, don’t forget. You always forget something or the other,” I reprimanded her.

“But ma’am, we all have mobile phones with double SIM card slots!

Why don’t you get such a mobile phone? I could’ve called you on the other number if you were unreachable at one. This salt problem wouldn’t be a problem then!”

Progress is a matter of perspective.

What is in front of eyes may not be the whole truth, and the whole truth may not be so apparent I was dumbfounded. Double SIM card slots? Why hadn’t I thought of it before? Carrying two mobile phones was a hassle, and I kept misplacing one or the other all the time! And my house help from Chapai Nawabganj was telling me they all had double SIM card mobile phones! Digital Bangladesh, indeed.

But wait, how digital are we? The other day, I went to visit my mother’s grave at Azimpur graveyard. I asked the old gravekeeper to add some seasonal flower plants around the grave.

“Khalamma, aren’t you from Haque Villa? Give me your number, and you can call me at my number too,” the old man told me. He took out his phone and gave me his number!

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He then rattled off: “Let me know on phone what plants you need around the grave. I will take care of it. Pay me the next time you come. Don’t worry, I will take money from your brother who lives in Gulshan. He just called me an hour ago and told me to take care of your father’s grave in Banani.” “Amazing!” I thought. How efficient!

The gravekeeper had all my siblings’ contact numbers saved on his mobile phone from their visits to the graveyard.

After paying my respects to my mother, I walked back to the main exit and waited for my chauffeur to bring the car. That’s when a physically disabled begger came to me. Greeting me with a salam, he asked me: “Khalamma, are you doing well?”

By then, a few more beggars had joined in. One of them was talking on his mobile phone. While fishing for some changes in my bag, I heard snippets of his conversation: “Hello, hello bhai! Are they distributing tehari at Banani graveyard? ... we are going to get biriyani here at Azimpur tomorrow ... a businessman at Old Dhaka ... he was shot dead ... I will call you later ... walaikum assalam.”

I could hardly believe my ears. They were exchanging information on who had died recently and what the families were going to feed the poor at both their ends.

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s soon as I got into my car, I was surrounded by all sorts of beggars; it was a little scary. There were some females too, some clad from head to toe in black, their hands outstretched. My chauffeur strongly advised against paying them, while he weaselled us out of the mini mob.

“Those beggars are rich and that guy who was talking on the phone is their leader. They all have mobile phones and can afford them. They keep track of all that is happening in Gulshan, Banani and Old Dhaka, including qulkhanis, milads, both the Eids and, of course, Shab-e-Barat,” he said.

“Wow,” I thought. This was digital

Considering the blooming telecom sector, one could be impressed by the number of mobile phone subscribers in the country. However, whether that accounts for “technological progress” is a whole different story Bangladesh. But beggars with mobile phones? Did they also have laptops and iPads? I wondered.

Let me conclude with perhaps the best example of my digital country.

Last week, I was at the Kemal Ataturk Avenue stuck in traffic for what seemed like ages, while my chauffeur tried to navigate the car inch by inch through the maze of vehicles and humans. Suddenly, a man wearing kurta, jeans and shawl, and dark glasses, with some papers his hands, knocked on my window.

“Madam, I need some medical help,” he said. Out of sheer boredom caused by the traffic bottleneck, I looked for some changes in my bag. Founding none, I lowered the car window and apologised: “Sorry. No change.”

He was desparate. “Tk500 note will do, madam,” he said.

My chauffeur started the engine. ”Wait! Wait, madam! I take Master Card, Visa!” He pointed at the shop behind him. “My friend in that optics shop has a card machine. He can help if you give your card! ... Excuse me, madam! Madam!”

“Digital beggar, ma’am,” my chauffeur commented.

He put away his fancy triple-SIM mobile phone and drove off through the traffic of digital Bangladesh. n

PHOTO STORY

Blood salt and iodine politics

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Blood salt and iodine politics A photo story by

Pavel Partha

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14

PHOTO STORY Blood salt and iodine politics

“There is iodine in the company salt, not in our natural salt.

Rather, our salt is mixed with salty blood ... ’’ (Nur Alam, 75, traditional salt farmer, Rajakhali, Pekua, Cox’s Bazar)

S

alt is a very essential element, both for our health and everyday life. Traditionally, people from the coastal belt areas produce salt from sea water. They work hard for the production but earn very little income, sometimes not even enough to meet their daily expenses. Traditional salt looks slightly greyish since it contains dirt, and the size of salt cystals is relatively large. On the other hand, commercially produced salt is whitish and iodine crystal size is small. Since the UN suggests people to have food that contains iodine, the traditional salt producers are facing a tough time, although corporate salt producers easily cope by using technology. As a result, the price and demand of traditional salt has gone down.

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

Along with producing salt in a traditional way, salt farmers also cultivate agricultural products. The industrial salt fields, however, are not invovled in agricultural farming, mainly because they need to use chemicals in salt production.

After the 1991 cyclone, all the lowland areas in the coastal belt were flooded. The local salt farmers had no option other than to take a lease of land from the rich land owners. One of the conditions of such deals was the land wouldn’t be used for any other purpose, except for producing salt.

As a result, by 1997, paddy fields became a rare sight in Pekua, Cox’s Bazar.

Needless to say, local salt farmers were unable to meet their expenses.

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Decrease in the market price led to traditional salt farmers going backward despite local and natural salt being better in taste than the packaged iodised white salt.

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raditional salt farmers are yet to receive market facility, technology and capacity to store the salt for a minimum amount of time. The government doesn’t provide any support to these salt farmers, though the import of salt has become a very popular option.

Traditional salt farmers claim if they are trained to add iodine in their

salt, they could compete with the commercial salt producers. They also argue, since corporate companies are using chemicals and pesticides in salt fields, it would not only cause ecological and biological disasters, but would also destroy soil fertility.

Since traditional salt farmers have no platform to make their voices heard, they are often neglected. But they still dream of a better situation where the corporate companies would not have control over them, and they would be able to contribute to the national economy. n

The sun rises in the morning Salt sparks in the field and shining Let the time to go to the field Gentle breeze touches my heart I feel very fine softness And earn through selling my produced salt.

(Song of salt cultivation, from the book “Salt Producing Community�)

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16

PHOTO STORY Blood salt and iodine politics

Pavel Partha is a writer and researcher of ecology and biodiversity conservation. His areas of interest are the forest rights of indigenous people, protection of biological diversity, subaltern philosophy, eco-feminism, politics of representation, ecological justice, local knowledge and ethno-science, climate politics, oppressed religious practices, development disaster, jhum cultivation and agrarian revolution.

He can be reached at animistbangla@gmail. com

Special thanks to Md Mostafiz (70), salt producer, motherAlmas Khatun, father-Ala Miah, Bodoruddinpara, Rajakhali, Pekua, Cox’s Bazar, Nur Alam (75), salt producer, motherRashida Khatun, father-Amir Hamza, Rajakhali, Pekua, Cox’s Bazar, Rasel (10), salt labourer, mother-Khadiza Begum, fatherSyed Nuo, Pekua, Cox’s Bazar, Firoz Ahmed (80), salt producer, mother-Mobareka, fatherMotiar Rahman, Haidarghona, Banskhali, Chittagong, and Sultan Ahmed (70), salt producer, mother-Rawshan Ara, father-Mokhlesur Rahman, Chanua, Banskhali, Chittagong.

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

INTERVIEW

17

Azmeer Hossain

Courtesy

Yusuf Banna is a staff writer at Weekend Tribune. He would be happier if he could be a poet, 24x7. He also dreams of being a painter and is envious of those who can paint

Breaking the boundaries Yusuf Banna talks with the New York-based artist

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zmeer Hossain prefers going beyond the traditional rules of art. He has experimented with watercolour and mixed media, the result turning out to be something completely new and surprising to the art lovers and critiques alike. His artworks were exhibited at Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts last month. At the exhibition, Azmeer talked about his work, inspirations and motivations.

When and why did you move out of the country without completing your studies at the Art Institute Dhaka?

I left Dhaka for Montreal on December 5, 1997. I was very young then, and suffered from an emotional breakdown. It was sheer dejection that made me leave.

When did you move to New York? Why?

I’d always wanted to be an artist, and I never gave up that dream, even through the ups and downs of my life. So, after I was able to pull myself together, I went to New York in 1999.

How often did you visit home all these years? When did you decide to come back for good?

Not once. I was busy with my jobs, taking on tremendous workload just

to gather the money for my studies.

In 2006, I started participating in group shows too, besides studying and working. I was still chasing my dream, but the death of my mother in 2009 made me stop and realise what I was missing. I felt homesick. That’s why I decided I should come back to my roots.

From ceramics to drawing and painting in mixed media - you seem to have changed your field of work. Why?

Impatience. Moreover, I was trying to figure out my comfort zone. It took me three years to get stable, and I finally found my mentor John Ruggery, whose style of work and philosophy of teaching impressed me.

How would you describe the inspiration behind your work?

As I was studying at The Art Students League of New York, I found my forte in mixed media. While working on that, it occurred to me that mixed media in watercolour had never been done before, so I thought of giving it a try. It was a challenge, and that challenge acted as my inspiration.

All the artworks displayed in my exhibition here were the product of that challenge.

Tell us more about your work.

Usually, painters render the image they intend to create in watercolour with four to five washes at best. I decided to do more than that, 50 washes in monochrome if needed. It seemed difficult, but not impossible.

I succeeded in doing it. All my watercolour paintings are playful gestures of layering monochrome, making abstract landscapes with a touch of nostalgia, and New York – the city I am in debt to.

Tell us about your creative process, your emotional journey, when you paint.

Well, that is quite difficult to answer.

Words fail me, so I have to paint.

Sitting in front of a white paper, I select my palette. After the first wash, it somewhat shows some direction, which I follow. Then forms and textures gradually appear. There is a critical point of balance in the composition, which can be defined as the climax if it is considered to be a story, upon which the whole structure depends.

I feel the pressure, and if it pleases me, then I am on the right path. Then emotion, visions, memories, ordinary objects, etc take over my psyche and the control of my brush. I’m simply led by my instincts, but I have to have a

grip and consciously decide when to stop, instead of getting overwhelmed by emotions.

What would you say is your achievement after all the hard work that you have done so far?

People coming to see my paintings and talking about them, getting positive appraisal from people I don’t know, students from my old department asking me about my technique – all these make me think about becoming a mentor. In a nutshell, all the positive feedback that gave me aspiration to keep going and exploring my possibilities is my achievement. The acceptance and love I got from my people after all these years will remain for ever in my memory. n

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18

GAME ON

Fergie’s Retirement

Phil Humphreys is a British former journalist currently working as a development consultant in northern Bangladesh. As a committed Yorkshireman, he likes what he says, and says what he likes

Wiki Commons

David after Goliath Phil Humphreys mulls over how David Moyes might follow Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United

After the long and successful reign of Sir Alex on Manchester United, it’s only natural that Moyes will need a while to find his own footing

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y any measure, Manchester United is more than mere football club, and its manager no mere mortal. On the day Sir Alex Ferguson announced his retirement last month, the Guardian online recorded more hits than for the resignation of Pope Benedict. Thanks in part to his transfer dealings, a current market value of around $3.2bn (Tk249bn) places United PLC among the 100 biggest companies in the UK. And even before Sir Alex clinched the last of his 13 Premier League titles in April, Reds’-supporting lawmakers in the UK parliament were calling for the committed socialist to be given a peerage.

United, then, is a religion, a business and a body politic, which also fields the most decorated football side in Britain. The players may have lost their manager, but gone also is the spiritual leader, chief executive, and prime minister.

Sir Alex used to say when a

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

footballer is at his peak, “he feels he can climb Everest in his slippers.” After camping out on the summit for over two decades, Fergie finally reached for his own following a typically memorable 5-5 draw in his 1,500th and last game in charge. Entertaining to the last, he left on a record high. For the one taking over at the top, though, the only way is down.

“I know how hard it will be to follow the best manager ever,” the hand-picked heir said, in surely the biggest sporting understatement of all time. First and foremost, though, David Moyes must follow Ferguson the man, for it will be far easier to collect more trophies for the club than to command the respect of all those wrapped up in it. To help him achieve this, the former Everton boss should look beyond the beautiful game, to politics, business and even religion, where the big handovers have been far uglier, and the hard lessons already learned.

The political situation: beware the backbencher

In November 1990, John Major assumed the leadership of a UK Conservative Party that had been bossed for 15 years by a lady so strong, a journalist from the Soviet Union christened her “Iron Lady.” Margaret Thatcher had already defeated the Argentineans in the South Atlantic and the coal miners in South Yorkshire before she turned her handbag to the male leaders of Europe, and then secured an unprecedented third straight general election win at home.

When she picked one fight too many and was forced out by her own party, however, her exit from the stage was inglorious. Wounded but still walking, she sloped off to the backbenches, never collected her counsel in order to keep it, and was a persistent thorn in the side of the man her supporters helped into office in her place.

Ferguson, by comparison, won all of his own battles, firstly with

Liverpool – knocking them off their “f—king perch” as he infamously recounted in 2002 - then against Arsenal and especially Arsène Wenger, and always with referees and the Football Association. He stayed strong enough to manage his own exit, but despite the assurances of his son, Darren – himself a manager at third-tier Peterborough United – that his father “will not be in the dressing room with David Moyes,” can anyone really know how the old man might react if one or all of the above move to fill the vacuum left by his departure?

Moyes, at least, has not waited to make his mark, relieving Fergie’s assistant manager and goalkeeping coach of their duties before he even officially begins his on July 1. John Major, also, did not so much reshuffle Thatcher’s final cabinet as clear it out, leaving only Douglas Hurd in place as foreign secretary. Even then, the prime minister struggled to deliver his

19 own team talk unheeded, and so he went “back to basics,” to a restorative values-based campaign which focused on the economy, education and policing in the political equivalent of “route one” football. Ferguson, however, fed United fans on a rich diet of success these last two decades, and neither will settle for that. They know how to win pretty; they do not want to see it done ugly.

David Moyes, then, faces a tough balancing act to impose his own style on the pitch, while retaining the principles that guided Sir Alex and the club to where he now finds them off it. It was a task way beyond Major, who never found a way to placate his main sponsor. So here is the first lesson for Moyes: beware the disgruntled backbencher.

The business plan: what would father do?

Until the tabloid newspaper phone hacking scandal broke in the UK a couple of years ago, it seemed inevitable that James Murdoch

would one day inherit the global media empire that his father built up from his acquisition of an Adelaide newspaper in the early 1950s. That Rupert Murdoch, who was also called to account by British parliamentarians in 2011, presented one of the most striking images of the whole affair: of father sitting “humbly” alongside son, as the News Corporation king and heir were engrossingly laid bare.

When things go wrong, to whom do you most often turn? A boy will always seek solace in the blind faith of his father, or a figure like him.

Ferguson says he first identified Moyes as a possible assistant manager underneath him at United in 1998, and that he has “admired his work for a while.” This paternal admiration could be called upon in times of crisis, but Moyes should be wary of cosying up too close: Rupert offered little in the way of support to James when his own stock and trade were so obviously on the line. The Murdoch example shows that in business, it is all too often every man for himself.

The religious teaching: Lobsang who?

Over two years after his election as the first political figurehead of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, Lobsang Sangay must still define himself by who he is not. In making an appeal to Congress on his third official visit to the United States this month, the Sikyong introduced himself as “the elected leader of the Tibetan people, now charged with the political responsibilities formerly held

by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.” He referenced the still popular spiritual leader by name a further six times in a 700-word article.

Lobsang Sangay is, to use football parlance, no “mug”: he began protesting Chinese rule at the age of 14 and was the first Tibetan to attend Harvard Law School, though he has never been able to set foot in his homeland. Outside Tibet and Dharamsala, however, who is really listening? There are precious few who would even know who he is, never mind what he does. His Holiness,

Bigstock

To turn Fergie’s turf into his own, Moyes would have to tread carefully.

Instead of fighting the legacy, Moyes would do well to use it as a shield and gradually establish his authority meanwhile, continues to draw attention at his every turn, unwittingly irking China and deepening diplomatic rifts with each foreign visit. Youth may no longer be on his side, but the people always will be; he is the one they still queue to see.

This is Moyes’s third challenge: how to escape from the lingering image of an icon. He surely will not want to be fielding press conference questions about Sir Alex during the 2015-16 season, but nor should he try to put too much distance between them too soon. For one thing, Moyes will have to walk past a grand statue and stand bearing Ferguson’s name every day. He must learn to live in their long shadows.

Last and surely least, then, is the team. The former England goalkeeper David James has sought to reassure Moyes through his Guardian blog, saying the United players always “policed themselves,” but it would be wise for the new commissioner to exercise a few cautions. John Major could not paper over the cracks in the Conservative party that Thatcher had opened up on Europe, James Murdoch saw a majority of non-family shareholders vote against his reelection to the News Corp board, and even Lobsang Sangay faces calls from his own people to adopt a harder line with Beijing.

For the last 26 years, the Manchester United players have only policed themselves through a common respect for – and fear of - the main man in charge. Now that the hairdryer has finally been withdrawn from service, what will Moyes use when he also needs to blow a fuse? If the one following on really has nothing and nobody else to turn to next season, then he should look upstairs. Not to Sir Alex Ferguson in his new executive office, but to his own god. He may well need one. n

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20 Zubier Abd is a writer, thinker, scientist, and avid ice cream lover all rolled into one

You speak English?

Zubier Abd introduces a new English learning centre in town

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hrough globalisation, the world is becoming smaller day by day.

With everything, from businesses to banks, going global, it’s a brave new world, and the language of this world is English. It is by far the most used language in communication overseas, and Bangladeshi businessmen, students and even travellers should have a well-grounded understanding of the language.

English is a prerequisite for going abroad these days; hence there has been recent growth in the English education sector. However, these night operations do an inadequate job at teaching English, and no doubt many of us have cringed when we heard the language being butchered.

Bangladeshi students who learn English at such places might end up having difficulty in communicating effectively. Under such circumstances, a forward-thinking place called the Center for Innovative Language Learning (CILL) was launched on May 31.

Surreptitiously located on the second floor of a building with a bold sign reading “Ambassador of Kabab” in Khilgaon, CILL is a small place with a big idea. It seeks to revolutionise the way

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Courtesy

Instead of teaching English as a rigid language to be memorised, CILL provides an interactive, virtual way of learning English through conversations online

DIGITAL BANGLADESH CILL

English is taught in Bangladesh. The brainchild of Syed Md Azmal Hussain, CILL hopes to teach prospective students English using an interactive, independent learning system, in which students are encouraged to develop a grasp on the language both in and outside the classroom. Through its use of a process called VELL, CILL seeks to change the conventional way English has been taught in classrooms through memorisation of words and sentences.

VELL, short for Virtual English Language Learning, is a process of teaching English developed by Azmal over the past year. With a BA and an MA in English (TESOL) from North South University, he has been working as a trainer for various companies in Dhaka for the past few years. He previously worked with the British High Commission and has helped teachers from several schools across the city sharpen their English language skills. Azmal has charming demeanour and an energetic personality. He talked animatedly while explaining VELL with an experienced air. VELL is a technique of learning English through virtual conversations. It offers students a place where they can exercise their

growing skills however much they please. If they are shy about speaking, they can opt to listen. In classrooms, it is difficult to get this kind of intimacy, as students feel scrutinised and become rigid.

Azmal took two of his former students who lacked confidence and were unable to express themselves proficiently in English. A couple of times a week, he would talk with them for an hour over Skype. When asked how they felt about learning in this manner, one of them, Nayon, said: “It was much more intimate than learning in a classroom. It was like having a chat with my friends, and it helped me express myself in English.”

Azmal reasoned: “A language is a way to explain the world and should not be confined to just the classroom, where it is rigidly taught as floral words.”

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ILL hopes to use VELL to make learning more interactive. They will have a staff member, from morning till 8 at night, who will always be online and ready to talk with students about anything they want. Students are never more than a mouse click or two away from being able to practise their English and refine their speaking

skills. Every member of CILL has at least an MA in English language, and Azmal points out that quality is of the highest priority at CILL. As the chief coordinator, he is “determined to uphold the standard in teachers to ensure the highest quality in teaching available to students.” Mahjabeen Hussain, who is the chief training consultant at CILL and a lecturer at North South University, said: “The key difference here is VELL. No one offers online help in Dhaka. People are usually intimidated and shy in class and are reluctant to ask or respond to questions, but VELL solves that problem.” CILL is populated with exNSU graduates, who are eager and willing to use their expertise to make English more accessible to adults and children alike.

With its use of online teaching and emphasis on virtual classrooms, CILL seeks to introduce a new facet in the teaching of English in this country. Its dedicated and highly qualified staff have high hopes for their endeavour.

It is the county’s first platform for integrated, online language learning and, hopefully, not its last. n

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

21

Customer Service

The customer is never right Bassema Karaki relives her experiences of poor customer service in Bangladesh with care, since it charges for its services to begin with. Unfortunately, waiters in Bangladesh rarely meet the people’s expectations. Whenever the waiters are asked about a particular dish on the menu, they simply repeat the name of the item (For example, if it is sizzling beef, they will say: “It’s beef.”) or they will read the description already given on the menu. They are not even acquainted with the food they are serving, and so they are unfit to help customers. To make matters worse, the waiters are trained to speak without thinking. The other day, my husband and I went to a Chinese restaurant right before closing time, and they told us not to sit on the table we chose because it was reserved. The restaurant was almost deserted, and we questioned as to who would be coming so late and why they couldn’t just sit on another table. To this, the waiter looked confused and simply repeated that it was reserved. We then requested to see the manager, who told us the exact same thing. We were so displeased with their treatment that we walked away, but they didn’t even seem to care that they were losing customers.

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

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hen it comes to customer service, Bangladesh is definitely at the bottom of the list. Incompetence seems to be the trend in workplaces here.

Employees are simply not trained to place customer satisfaction above all else. Because of this lacking, I have had the misfortune of dealing with some of the most ridiculous, ineffective employees I’ve ever met.

Recently, I went on a visit to an international bank chain and walked up to the information desk to inquire about foreign accounts.

When I questioned the woman sitting behind the desk, she stared into space for about a minute as if searching deeply for an answer. I then asked her whether she knew anything about the topic, to which she giggled a little and then pointed to her left in the direction of the bankers. Apparently, this was her way of requesting that I receive my answers elsewhere than the information desk. I was shocked that this clueless and unprofessional woman had been seated at the help desk of such a renowned bank. She did not know the first thing about customer service and was simply a waste of resources.

A couple of weeks ago, I went shopping for shoes in a reputable shop. The minute I walked inside, I was bombarded with the usual stares, but this time I was also stalked around the shop! One employee was always one step behind me, and it made me feel like a thief under supervision. I finally decided to engage in conversation with the man because he was making me extremely uncomfortable, so I asked him whether a pair of shoes came in my size. He simply continued to stare at me until I asked again. After staring a little while longer, he called over a colleague, who told me to wait while he checked for my size. They made me wait 15 minutes only to tell me my size wasn’t available. I then asked what shoes were available in that size and they both looked at me in confusion. They had no clue! I was surprised that the most common shoe shop in Bangladesh could not ensure more competent employees.

A restaurant is one place where people would expect to be served

Whether you’re in an exclusive bank or a five star hotel, the policy “customers are always right” simply does not exist in Bangladesh.

People here are treated according to how thick their wallets are and how many musclemen they own

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ustomer service is extremely important in the healthcare industry, yet it is completely neglected in hospitals in Bangladesh. Recently, my friend injured his wrist playing sports, so he went to one of the best hospitals in Dhaka. Although the emergency room was not that busy, he had to wait for four hours before anybody looked at him. The nurses and hospital employees worked in a chaotic manner that lacked synchronisation and it took another two hours to get an X-ray of his wrist. Finally, they wrapped up his arm and told him to come back the next day to receive his medical report. Nobody even bothered to apologise for the unnecessarily long wait. When he came the next day, they told him they had lost the report and that he would need another X-ray! It is common knowledge that radiation is harmful, and because of the hospital’s lack of organisation, my friend was being exposed to it in excess. Again, nobody bothered to apologise for the huge error that had been made. It took

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

another two days for the report to come out, and before then my friend did not know whether his wrist was sprained, strained, or even broken!

From healthcare and banking to phone and internet services, all businesses are more focused on making money than on keeping the customers satisfied. What must be realised is that customer satisfaction is profitable for businesses, and so employees should be better trained on how to treat their clients. Although it is sometimes amusing, I hope that these

employees will adopt the philosophy that the customer is always right and will work to give customers a more enjoyable experience. n

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

TOUGH LOVE 1

I find it impossible to drive around Dhaka anymore. I frequently suffer from serious bouts of road rage and become confrontational with other drivers and commuters. It’s as if the entire city is conspiring to make me look like a fool in front of my kith and kin. Is there any way to control my temper lest I am convicted of homicide and dragged away by the police in front of my children?

DINA SOBHAN Kith and kin? I’m afraid you’re already at risk of sounding, if not looking, like a fool by employing expressions like that ... Dhaka is notorious for making the sanest of men want to bludgeon their neighbour and run over cows, dogs and rickshaw-walas alike. It doesn’t help that everyone thinks that the streets are their “baaper rasta” and behave accordingly, either honking imperiously as drivers or walking infuriatingly slowly in the midst of traffic as pedestrians. Your best recourse is to resign yourself to a life of hermitage, where you can bone up on those antiquated phrases

you so love, and allow the rest of your presumably sane family to continue on with their lives in the mad metropolis that so irks you. Or, you can do what 90% of the population does, having had the same urges as you at one time or another, and hire yourself a driver. Novel idea, what? Hence, your chauffeur can deal with the mean streets of Dhaka, swallowing his homicidal rage with a cup of tea and dreams of a fat monthly paycheque driving you to Motijheel every day, while you read the morning paper and remain blissfully unaware of the insanity that surrounds you. n

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

2

There is a pretty large age gap between my wife and me; she is 22 and I am 45. Although she doesn’t seem to mind, it sometimes bothers me, particularly as my friends make fun of me and call me a cradle snatcher. Some go so far as to say she only married me for my money, and so on. To make matters worse, I look older than my age, and our public appearances draw snickers and stares.

How can I prevent being a laughing stock with all these factors working against me?

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

So, you’re not only old but you look it, and your friends and family alike mock you on a daily basis. Explain to me again how you landed a hot (?), young wife? Unless you are stunningly erudite and possess the wit of a latterday Oscar Wilde, and/or she is either homely as hell or the least shallow woman in all of Bangladesh, chances are she did marry you for your money … I mean, let’s be realistic. My point is, how bad can it be? People laugh at you, but you get to go home with

her at the end of the day regardless, you old geezer! You should wear your reputation as an object of ridicule with pride. Because your other option would be to leave your young wife and find yourself an age-appropriate partner, who looks as haggard as you but loves you for your wrinkles, maybe? Get some perspective, old man, and stock up on the Viagra while you’re at it. n

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BACKBENCHERS’ CLUB

Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy/Dhaka Tribune

Across 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)

Solution for last week’s crossword

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DAY IN THE LIFE OF

An Activist Cyclist

Pedalling for pleasure Tamoha Binte Siddiqui pedals around with a member of BDCyclists Tamoha Binte Siddiqui is staff correspondent for Weekend Tribune, because weekends are the highlights of her life. True story!

About Drabir Alam n

Head of Planning at Asiatic Events Marketing Ltd n

Studied BBA and MBA at the IBA

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n May 24, Drabir Alam, an active member and moderator of the group BDCyclists, woke up at the crack of a rain-sodden dawn. He had a long day ahead, as the BDCyclists had scheduled the Birthday Ride in order to commemorate the group’s second anniversary. Do BDCyclists really need an occasion to ride? “Of course we do. Waking up is an occasion, breathing is an occasion; having lunch counts as one too. If you love to cycle, everything is an excuse to ride,” Drabir says. So, with this infectious energy, which is typical of all

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Owns a Cyclocross Masi Uno CX 2012 Model bike and a Hardtail Mountain Bike Format TerPro n

Has covered more than 10,000km since joining BDCyclists

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

Courtesy

true BDCyclists, Drabir got out of bed early in the rainy morning, while most people dug deeper under their covers.

He reached Hatirjheel at 5:30am and conducted a training session for the group’s racing team till 7am. Then, Drabir and the racing team started towards Manik Mia Avenue, the meeting point for the Birthday Ride. It was still raining on and off, and Drabir was pessimistic about the number of people who would actually show up for the ride. He hadn’t need to worry, however, as 300 other riders who are just as passionate about cycling as

himself braved the rain and the murky roads and were present at the venue by 8am.

The group started for Nando’s in Gulshan on their bikes. Nando’s had approached them to be a part of their Heal the World campaign and invited them to celebrate the group’s anniversary in their premises. Drabir enjoyed some cake and food along with his fellow cyclists before the award giving ceremony. Awards went to regular activists, Beginner’s Lesson coordinators, QA coordinators and people who received badges in the monthly 1000km challenge. Drabir himself won a crest for the amazing feat of completing a 400km ride to Sylhet and back within 24 hours last July.

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fter the celebrations, Drabir, along with more than 100 other determined riders, got ready for their 60km journey towards Jahangirnagar University (JU) and to plant 100 saplings there as part of the Heal the World campaign. A diverse group of people participated in the ride, including the elderly and the young, the student and the businessman.

“Some of them were new members.

They had never gone on such long rides before,” Drabir said. Seeing

their determination and enthusiasm, however, the moderators did not discourage them from joining.

The group reached JU within two hours with some short breaks, and the cyclists each planted a sapling in the university grounds. Some of the riders, exhausted from the long ride, jumped into the pond inside the university premises to cool off. They tried to pick up Drabir and throw him into the pond too, but he managed to escape the predicament.

After narrowly escaping being thrown into the chilly waters, Drabir enjoyed a fantastic Nando’s lunch with the others. Exhausted, muddy, and filled to the brim with peri peri chicken and khichuri, the cyclists then started back for Dhaka in the afternoon.

Drabir was in a hurry, as he had an office meeting at 5:30pm. Despite the wind, the rain, the slick roads and a punctured tire, Drabir made it to Dhaka on time. Like Superman changing in phone booths, Drabir quickly changed into formal office attire at home before heading to work. His head was in the meeting, but his heart remained with the 100 or so mud-splattered cyclists.

He couldn’t wait to get back on his bike again. n

THE WAY DHAKA WAS

Abul Kalam Azad is an engineer living in Kakrail

Nawabpur Road 1963

Bangladesh Old Photo Archive

If I could collect stories from Nawabpur Road, they would fill an entire volume. My father had a small grocery store there when I was growing up in the neighbourhood, which was an anomaly, since back then it was a very commercial area.

The streets were filled with banks, “unofficial” money lenders and a few mechanical stores that fixed old cars. The number of stores has quadrupled since then, and there are more people on the streets, but the essence of Nawabpur Road is still there – that of a bustling, commercial neighbourhood that is a world of its own.

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Nawabpur Road

Today

Syed Latif Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Today

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CULTURE VULTURE

Tagore’s visit to Iran

The famous Persian excursion

Anisur Rahman Swapan is a thinker, literary critic and a romantic at heart

Anisur Rahman Swapan writes about Rabindranath Tagore’s historic visit to Iran and the warm welcome he received

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To most Persian intellectuals, Tagore was a mystic, poet, bard, philosopher and a storyteller all rolled into one, a modern day Renaissance man

W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

Persian civilisation in the poem, and that he wanted the Indians to be enlightened by it.

On May 7, 1932, Ettelat published a full-page story, covering the programmes held the day before celebrating Tagore’s birthday. Tagore was awarded a degree, a medal, and was presented with handwritten and decorated manuscripts of the great Persian poets Sheikh Saadi and Nizami, as well as many other things. The reporter who covered the event noted that the crowd was so humongous that journalists and volunteers had a difficult time keeping track of things.

The second part of the celebration was held at the premises of residence of the religious and cultural affairs minister. The event was grand, featuring receptions, speeches, a musical orchestra, cultural performances, recitations from the guest of honour’s works, etc. It was followed by a dinner that was attended by more than 1,300 guests.

The poet, along with his travelling companions, visited the Persian parliament, where he was presented with a collection of verses by Persian poet Anwari. In addition, Ashekey Isfahani took photos and wrote six short reports on the visit.

There were also reports on a conference between Tagore and the socio-cultural elites of Persia, his visit to the American College of Tehran, and his telegraphic conversation with renowned archaeologist Hartsfield.

Tagore thanked Hartsfield for his role in discovering a new era in human history and guiding him during his visits to the archaeological sites of Shiraz and Persepolis.

According to Ettelat, a documentary of the birthday celebrations was filmed by the director of the Persian Cinema Artist Institute, which was later screened in and outside Iran in several languages. Tagore also attended a stage-drama based on the tales from

mathematician Syed Jalal Tehrani, where many topics including the poet’s encounter with Albert Einstein came up.

Tagore left Tehran on May 15, while, officials, literary, socio-cultural, intellectual, religious and media personalities bid him a warm farewell from Tehran, Qazvin, Hamadan, Kermanshah and the border city Kasrey Shirin, reported Ettelat.

The poet sent a farewell message before departing from Persian territory, thanking his hosts for their warm hospitality and commemorating the long historical, traditional and cultural relationship between India and Persia. n

Courtesy

abindranath Tagore’s visit to Persia (presently known as Iran) in 1932 was designed to observe his 72nd birthday by the Pahlavi kingdom, a visit heartily covered by the Persian media. It was the only birth anniversary of Tagore that was officially observed by a foreign state during his lifetime.

During his visit, the Persian elites called him “Tagor” and considered him to be an Indian philosopher, rather than a poet. There are records of a huge number of published reports on Tagore’s visit to Persia in Farsi newspapers and periodicals. A select few will be mentioned and discussed here.

Roznameh Ettelat, a major Farsi daily during that time, covered the historic visit by publishing more than 90 reports and at least six articles on the life and achievements of the poet, almost every day since his entry into Persia on April 13 till his departure on May 15 in 1932.

In April 14, 1932, Ettelat reported on Tagore’s arrival to the country through the port city of Bushehar. Mirza Abul Hasan Khan Farughi, governor of Bushehar province and brother of the then foreign minister, and Malekus Shoara Bahar, poet, welcomed the poet and his companions. Accompanying Tagore were his daughter-in-law Pratima Devi, personal secretary, physician and the Persian consular of Bombay Keyhan. Mohsin Khan Asadi, an official from the Persian foreign ministry, was appointed as the official interpreter for the visitors.

Tagore was interviewed by an Ettelat reporter. The reporter’s impression of the poet was interestingly narrated in an article titled “Molakatey Doctor Tagor (Interview with Dr Tagore), which was published on May 4, 1932.

In the interview, Tagore talked about the poem he had presented to the Persian king. Tagore explained how he narrated his views about the glorious

the epic “Shah-Nama” performed by, the Tehran Theatre Group, and written

by Zoroastrian priest Arbab Sharukh Aflatun, at Zoroastrian Association Auditorium on the night of May 7.

On May 10, 1932, Ettelat published details of the lecture delivered by Tagore at a crowded reception in the Academy of Persian Literature, recitation of Tagore’s poems as well as poems written about him, and his visit to the Firoz Bahrami School of the Zoroastrians, were the highlights of the day. Ettelat also reported on Pratima Devi’s visits to different centres, handicraft and cottage industries where Pratima exchanged views with the artists and craftsmen.

The following day, the newspaper published a report on the meeting held between Tagore and the Persian

OBITUARY

27

Rituparno Ghosh

A sudden goodbye

Yusuf Banna is a staff writer at Weekend Tribune. He would be happier if he could be a poet, 24x7. He also dreams of being a painter and is envious of those who can paint

Yusuf Banna remembers the celebrated film-maker

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ne can almost imagine the last scene of Rituparno Ghosh’s life.

One can visualise it through the eyes of a camera – a dimmed light and a man sleeping soundly on his bed. The camera then zooms in on the face of the man. There is the sound of shallow breathing. Suddenly, the man starts moving as if having a nightmare.

The restless movement continues, the man starts sweating, and at the peak of his turmoil, the clock starts ticking with more urgency. The man exhales his last breath, and the ticking stops …

But this isn’t a scene from a movie.

This is how the last moments of Rituparno Ghosh must have been, who died in his sleep due to cardiac arrest on May 30.

Born on August 31, 1963 in a family involved with film industry, Rituparno was a true master of cinema emerging from the post-Satyajit Ray generation.

He was among the few Bangali filmmakers who actually understood the language of cinema. He won 12 national awards, as well as few international ones for his films. He was still mastering the technique of storytelling on celluloid screen when he died. His last venture, a sleuth flick titled “Satyanneshi,” had just been finished, but he didn’t live to see the post-production and reception of his last work.

In the 19 years of his career, Rituparno made 19 movies, which proves that he was constantly productive and industrious in his creative pursuits. Moreover, his efforts to promote Bangali cinema made him an activist in this field. In February, in the presence of a few prominent actors from both sides of Bengal, Rituparno and Hasanul Haque Inu signed a deal, which asserted that Bangla films would be released in Bangladesh and

West Bengal at the same time.

Rituparno had a flair for portraying the lives of the urban middle class with sensitivity and a panoramic sense of framing, like his mentor Satyajit Ray. He often dissected the inner ambiguity and conflicts of his characters with the sharpness of a surgical knife, which developed into his signature style.

Like Satyajit, he also moved from advertising to cinema. In 1992, Rituparno made his first film “Hirer Angti,” a movie for children that never got released. Then came a string of films that showcased his anguish as a creative person and his thirst for experimentation. In 1994, he made “Unishe April,” a movie inspired by Satyajit’s “Jalsaghar,” which portrayed the tension between a mother and a daughter with contrasting professions.

It bagged the National Award for best feature film.

Next was “Dahan,” Rituparno’s most acclaimed film, which perfectly exhibits a Bangali middle-class crisis.

He then went on to make movies such as “Bariwali,” “Asukh,” “Utsab,” “Shubho Mahurat,” “Chokher Bali,” “Dosar,” “Shob Charitro Kalponik” and “Abohoman.”

Rituparno then went against the grain and made the controversial movie “Chitrangadha,” where he acted as a woman and won the Special Jury Award at the 60th National Film Awards just a few days before his death. He later confessed that this award had moved him the most.

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ituparno had some issues about his gender. He believed himself to be a “woman wrapped in a man’s body,” and he became outspoken about this aspect of his life by changing his outlook in later years. In “Chintrangadha” we can see a shadow

Wiki Commons

of this inner dispute.

He made one English movie titled ”The Last Lear,” starring Amitabh Bachchan, and two Hindi movies – “Raincoat,” starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and “Sunglass,” for which he won the National Award in 2012.

Besides films, Ritoparno was editor of the popular magazine Anandalok

and the supplement Robbar of Sangbad Shamoyiki. His lucid columns were widely read and followed.

Due to his talent in a diverse number of areas and his colourful and illustrious personal life, Rituparno will surely be missed by many. n

Rituparno Ghosh: achievements 1995 “Unishe April” wins the National Award in the Best Feature Film category

1997 “Dahan” wins the National Award in the Best Screenplay category

2000 “Bariwali” wins the NETPAC Award in Berlin Film Festival

2007 “Dosar” wins the Best Actress Award (Konkona Sen Sharma) at the New York Film Festival

2010 “Abohoman” wins the National Award in the Best Direction and the Best Feature Film categories

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LAST WORD Dave Besseling Dave Besseling is the author of “The Liquid Refuses to Ignite” and is currently the managing editor of the Motherland magazine in New Delhi

Truth is stranger than satire?

These days, one has to wonder whether a news piece carries substantial truth or is just a joke

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ne of my Facebook friends recently posted a link to an article from the New Yorker’s satirical blog, The Borowitz Report, which imagined a North Korean missile test being postponed due to the lack of mastery over Windows 8.

This friend’s accompanying comment began saying: “How much would I love this if true!”

And I wondered how many people reading the blog, which sports the tagline “The news, reshuffled,” might not realise it was a joke. Not necessarily because they wouldn’t get it, but because once shared over Twitter or Facebook, the article is twice removed from its contextual source.

It’s out there in the realm of ultimate dupability.

Much like the rush to integrate sidebars of blogs into their homepages, it seems every other online news outlet these days has a section aping what The Onion has been doing for ages – turning every day into April Fool’s.

I wonder how long we have before the trend gets stale, and if there will be some sort of backlash. But if all this satire is the result of an excessive mistrust of news, what form will a backlash to excessive satire take? I have no idea. But while it’s here and de rigueur, there’s something to be said for the Jon Stewarts and the Stephen Colberts of the world, who often end up sounding more truthful and sincere – and far more entertaining – than real news.

As the greater part of modern world is in the grips of social media, one has to struggle to get real information amid the “exciting news” flying around faster than a jet “Cross-dressing Catholic priest and adult store owner to plead guilty to meth dealing ring.”

I first saw this headline from March 30 on www.irishcentral.com.

It took me a good few minutes to cross-reference and conclude that this was, in fact, a real headline and that irishcentral.com was a “real” news source. Yet somehow, this outlandish declaration provoked me to ponder the ills of the Catholic Church more than, say, just another story about another paedophile would have. Even reading a satirical Onion headline that W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, J U N E 7, 2013

barely reads as satire, “Resigning pope no longer has strength to lead church backward”, gives the same reflective effect. It hits you as sincere because it’s not really news. Strange, that.

Feeling the need to question what’s in front of your face as being real or not is how both sensationalism and satire work their magic. And the effect of this suspicion really is magic: the weirder something gets, the greater the discernible truth.

And so it goes for the Borowitz piece. The underlying truth there is that North Korea may have missiles, but the country is a mess and its technology subpar. The underlying message: Don’t fret, NoKo is not a threat to you.

It’s more true because it’s not true.

US Secretary of State John Kerry went prancing around the Far East saying that if North Korea doesn’t cease its nuclear ambitions, the international community is ready to go in there and, like, you know, do something. No satire there, just a paraphrase, and what he said in reality was nearly as vague and just as vapid.

It’s times like these I miss Donald Rumsfeld. That black-eyed goon was a satirist’s dreamboat. He mused, famously, on Iraqi WMD: “There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns.” And so on. A teenager today must watch that clip and think: “You mean that wasn’t an Onion story?” (Or, likely, the teenager would cite a source more contemporary than The Onion of which I’m not yet aware.)

If the wartime Bush administration has left any legacy to international diplomacy, it’s been their satirefriendliness, which occasionally, in spite of itself, exposed the truths of their nefarious intent. As a consequence of Dubya’s post-9-11, loose-tongued tone of apocalypse, neither Kerry nor Obama will be tossing around epithets like “Axis of Evil” when drawing parallels of the threat posed by North Korea, or Iran for that matter—Syria seems to be providing enough of an excuse for potential “intervention” around there anyway— and we can consider acronyms even close to “WMD” stricken from the US diplomatic lexicon forever.

Quoth Kerry on his recent visit to Beijing: “What happens with respect to North Korea can affect Iran, and what happens with Iran can affect

North Korea.” See? He’s not giving us anything to satirise besides his blandness, of course not, he knows all too well the little theory of which I speak.

Satirical articles and blogs may have their charms, but overkill may lead information seekers to become impervious, and real news may not have the desired impact when the time calls for it If, under whatever pretext, the US invades North Korea (and/or Iran) and, for example, reports appear about “underground bunkers” around Pyongyang (and/or Tehran), learning what we have from Colin Powell’s shameful UN speech about phantom Iraqi WMD—and remember those beautiful drawings of Bin Laden’s underground cave networks so elaborate they would make a James Bond villain jealous?—my instinct to satirise would probably wager any underground stockpiles in Pyongyang and/or Tehran would contain a few boxes of expired Chinese fireworks, and some rockets fashioned from a bunch of toilet paper rolls and some duct tape. Maybe an old computer running Windows XP. Or maybe that’s more like what Borowitz would report. Or maybe something like this: “In an attempt to destabilise the North Korean military, a gang of FEMEN activists has been dispatched to form a human chain along the DMZ and jump up and down.”

Either way, any such foolishness would only speed our minds straight to the essential truth of the situation.

That’s the power of how we’ve come to interpret political newspeak in the digital age where we can’t even continue our begrudging good faith that a news agency is reporting the truth.

Though I do wonder if we won’t have become too desensitised to satire by the time the US invasion of North Korea/Iran happens. I wonder if we won’t have to try a slightly different delivery system to subvert the spin doctors. Wait a minute. Of course! No one would ever suspect… I wonder if anyone’s ever tried to sneak a satirical op-ed about the pseudo-scientific relationship between fake news and the truth into a daily newspaper from Dhaka before? n