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Post-mortem of Mujib killing trial vis-a-vis AI's appeal
M. Shahidul Islam
History may be written by the victors, but the rules of law can and should offer differing interpretations of history when needed. Unless that becomes evident, any meaningful debate on as historic and sensational a matter as the Sheikh Mujib killing trial is likely to remain less convincing to observers at home and abroad...[ FULL STORY ]
Indira award for Hasina
Hafiz Shamseer
Fulsome praise and unctuous tribute fell like avalanche last week on Sheikh Hasina for her winning the well-known Indira Gandhi Peace Award. It's a great occasion indeed both for her critics and sycophants in that she becomes the only politician in South Asia gifted with such honour ever since the prize had been introduced in 1986. The only other political figure in the neighbourhood to get it was Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, in 2005.
To the detached and the uninvolved, it is time for celebration no matter what the award is worth and how enigmatically it came about. But, to the toadies and the sycophants, it is a historic moment to rejoice. "This proves that Sheikh Hasina today is one of the world's top statesmen," one such flatterer brashly told this correspondent...[ FULL STORY ]
SEABED RESOURCES OF BANGLADESH
Triangular tugs in the Bay
Sadeq Khan
In the early fifteenth century, Chinese naval diplomacy was extended to the-then Bangla Sultanate (1412-14 A.D.) and friendly Chinese fleet, larger than armada, made a spectacular calling in the Bay of Bengal (The Chinese Ming Emperor, however, decided to end naval diplomacy in favour tributary arrangements in the east and silk route silver trade in the west of the Middle Kingdom). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, attracted by the riches of Suba Bangla (it is estimated that Suba Bangla accounted for over 12 percent of the civilised world's GDP at that time), European maritime powers rendered the Bay of Bengal a theatre of naval battles. The British won, as the East India Company gained better access in the territory and amidst the subjects of the Nawab of Bangla-Bihar-Orissya, successfully manoeuvring the ruling elite and the trading community...[ FULL STORY ]
Govt seeks time for hearing on crossfire
Holiday Report
The High Court last week adjourned until Dec 9 the hearing of a suo moto rule issued on the government and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to explain the killing of two brothers in Madaripur.
The bench of Justice AFM Abdur Rahman and Justice Imdadul Haque Azad ordered the adjournment on a government appeal...[ FULL STORY ]
Will US change its abandonment habit?
Patrick J. Buchanan
When America is about to throw an ally to the wolves, we follow an established ritual. We discover that the man we supported was never really morally fit to be a friend or partner of the United States. When Chiang Kai-shek, who fought the Japanese for four years before Pearl Harbour, began losing to Mao's Communists, we did not blame ourselves for being a faithless ally, we blamed him. He was incompetent; he was corrupt. We did not lose China. He did...[ FULL STORY ]
I.P.R.I. FOR CHINA'S ACTIVE ROLE
Growing Sino-American ties upset India
Fazle Rashid in New York
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited the US against the backdrop of joint affirmation last week by President Obama and President Hu Jintao that they would work together for the "stability of the South Asia region", a development that should not be lost sight of in Dhaka where link with New Delhi's South Block is attached far greater importance. There is a growing concern in New Delhi as reported in the US media that India has moved down the US's list of priorities and anxieties reinforced by Obama's emollient overtures to China during his recent trip to the region.
"I don't think the US has made up its mind as to where it sees India in its geo-political view, said Ms Arundhati Ghosh", a former Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Dhaka and was also India's permanent representative to UN and resisted signing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Meanwhile, of greater military and diplomatic import is China's holding a four-day first-ever conference on international peacekeeping at the behest of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The conference is viewed as Beijing seeking to shape the future of a region in which it plays a rapidly growing role...[ FULL STORY ]
World Food Summit stops short of help
for the hungry
Abdul Hannan
The three-day UN World Food Summit held in Rome last week, attended by more than 60 heads of state and government and with participation of 192 countries, was an utter disappointment. The FAO failed in its bid to set a target of eradicating hunger by 2025 and to get rich countries to commit to spending $44 billion a year -17 per cent of their foreign aid budget - in agricultural development aid to developing nations. Instead of the binding goals, the summit declaration reaffirmed its commitment to the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry by 2015, but failed to pledge specific funds. Yet, in July, the G8 nations promised $20 billion in agricultural aid over a period of three years.
The FAO director general regretted the absence of a deadline for the total eradication of world hunger. Oxfam decried the outcome of the summit as a "massive wasted opportunity, and unfunded and unaccountable.'' Besides, none of the leaders of the G8 industrialised countries, except Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, attended the summit...[ FULL STORY ]
India planning limited war
against Pakistan
Holiday Report
India is planning to launch a limited war against Pakistan, Pak Foreign Office stated last Tuesday.
According to a report published in Pakistan's Daily Times, foreign office statement follows Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor's address during a defence seminar, where he said the possibility of a lmited nuclear war was "very much a reality in South Asia"...[ FULL STORY ]
BUILDING TOWNSHIPS
Govt. robbing poor Peters to pay
well-off Pauls
Faisal Rahim
In the name of building new townships around the metropolis, the government is alleged to have joined the rank of big land grabbers now in gobbling up common people's land to serve the interest of the city elite.
Recent newspaper reports said the authorities are planning to set up four satellite towns on expanding city parameters to create new housing accommodation for city dwellers. The present Uttara township was nowhere thirty years ago but now only being expanded further and it is in its the third phase of development...[ FULL STORY ]
INTERVIEW WITH TAPAN RAYCHAUDHURI
A 'Bangal' Oxford professor speaks on Jinnah, Hindu-Muslim unity and Kashmir issues
Abdur Rahman Khan
He is proud to be a 'Bangal'. It is his identity as an individual and as a group. He is Professor Tapan Raychoudhury, a historian of international repute and the author of the popular book 'Bangalnama'.
In his memoir, Bangalnama, written in lucid Bengali, Professor Tapan Raychaudhuri has boldly claimed and narrated what constitutes the mindset of a Bangal and what closely observed the socio-cultural and political developments during the pre-independence period that led to creation of India and Pakistan in 1947.
He came to Dhaka last week to attend the Barrister Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Memorial Lecture 2009, organised by the Asiatic Society of Bagnladesh. His topic of lecture was "Muslims and Hindus in British India"...[ FULL STORY ]
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