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Moving

Dear Readers,

Addafication is moving to a new domain - we will announce it tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, hope you enjoy reading our archives.

A Shi'i-Sunni problem?

Is the current violence in Iraq a Shi'i-Sunni problem? A divisiveness that is hundreds of years old on which a lid was put by Saddam's iron-hand?

A very complicated question.

For a fine analysis and response, turn to Haroon Moghul, of Eteraz fame.



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Has the Countdown Begun, Part I

A fine piece of analysis on the possibilities and consequences of attacking Iran

**
Has The Countdown Begun?
B. Raman

An Israeli air strike on Natanz and Isfahan is very likely soonerthan later. Things have started moving in that direction. Theaccumulation of US forces in the region is meant to deter anyIranian retaliation. ...

The US and Israel—acting separately and in tandem—have startedstepping up psychological pressure on Iran . This PSYWAR campaign isdirected at countering Iran's exploitation of the difficulties faced by the US in Iraq in order to advance its own agenda and to preventany US intervention in Iran and to convey a message to the Iranian public that Iran will pay a heavy price if President MahmoudAhmadinejad continues to defy the international community over its concerns regarding the real purpose of its acquiring an uraniumenrichment capability.

This PSYWAR campaign has so far taken the following forms:

* The recent US detention and questioning of two Iranian diplomats posted in Iraq on their role in assisting the Shiaextremist groups.

* The stepped-up US rhetoric on the devious game being played by the Iranian intelligence in Iraq by assisting the illegal Shia militias as well as pro-Al Qaeda Sunni extremist elements.

* The well-publicised authorisation by President George Bush of covert action against Iranians posing a threat to American lives and interests in Iraq.

* The beginning of an operation mounted by MOSSAD, the Israeliexternal intelligence agency, to eliminate senior Iranian nuclearscientists. The Sunday Times of London reported on February 4,2007 , as follows: "A prize-winning Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, whichis funded by the US State Department and broadcasts to Iran. Anintelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, anuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service.

Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrichuranium in another plant at Natanz which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.

According to Radio Farda, Iranian reports of Hassanpour's death emerged on January 21 after a delay of six days, giving the cause as "gaspoisoning". The Iranian reports did not say how or where Hassanpourwas poisoned, but his death was said to have been announced at a conference on nuclear safety.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to announce next Sunday — the 28th anniversary of theIslamic revolution — that 3,000 centrifuges have been installed atNatanz, enabling Iran to move closer to industrial scale uranium enrichment. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency say that hundreds of technicians and labourers have been "workingfeverishly" to assemble equipment at the plant."

* Stepping up of broadcasts and telecasts to Iran by radio stations and TV channels funded by the US and run by Iranian exiles.

* The movement of additional US naval ships, including anotheraircraft-carrier, to the Gulf and the designation by Bush of asenior naval officer (Admiral William Fallon) to head the US Central Command, which is responsible for operations in West Asia.In the past, a US Army officer had headed the Central Command.

Has the Countdown Begun, Part II

The US had seen in North Korea what happens if it avoids action inresponse to pressure from other countries co-operating with the US. North Korea has carried out a nuclear test and is now insisting thatany agreement it signs with the US and other powers would be as a nuclear power and not as a non-nuclear power.It is reportedly prepared to discuss a freezing of its military nuclear capability at its present level, but not its winding-up.

The US and Israel— Israel even more than the US—are determined toprevent a similar scenario in Iran. The price of inaction will beprohibitively high for Israel, endangering its future.

The US Congressional opinion—now dominated by the Democrats—is strongly opposed to Bush's Iraq policy. Its views on his Iranpolicy are much more nuanced. The likely opinion of the Jewishvoters in the US on the Iraq policy at the time of next year's Presidential elections would not be that important for the Presidential aspirants, but it would be in the case of Iran'snuclear designs. One could see evidence of it in the recent statements of Senator Hillary Clinton. She is not in favour of direct US military intervention in Iran, but at the same time shedoes not want to rule out the military option, should the worstcomes to the worst.

After a visit to the US in February last year, I had reported that there were three groups there—one group was totally opposed to any intervention in Iran. A second group urged intervention by the USbefore it became too late. The third group favoured intervention byIsrael with a US wink, without Washington getting directly involved. The third group seems to have won the debate.

Action to stop the acquisition of a military nuclear capability byIran is vital for Israel's security and very survival. The repeated anti-Israel and anti-Jewish statements of President Ahmadinejad make it all the more important for Israel to disrupt, if not destroy,Iran's nuclear plans. For Israel, the question is not whether Iran has the intention to acquire a military nuclear capability.

The question is should Iran be allowed to have an infrastructure capable of being used for military nuclear purposes even if it doesnot have the intention at present to use it for military purposes.Once it is allowed to have the infrastructure, any time—clandestinely and at short notice—it would be able to acquire a military nuclear capability and confront Israel with a nuclearfait accompli.

Israel is determined not to allow this scenario to develop. Twoelements of Iran's existing infrastructure are key in this regard— the uranium hexafluoride plant at Isfahan and the uraniumenrichment plant at Natanz. Raiding and destroying or seriouslydamaging them would be a more complex operation than the Israeli raid on the French-aided Osirak reactor in Iraq in the early 1980s. Osirak had not yet been commissioned. The French engineers collaborated with Israel by keeping away from the reactor site atthe time of the raid.

Natanz and Isfahan are facilities, which have already been completed and are already in the production mode. There is a greater risk of heavy human casualties and possible environmental damage than therewas in Osirak. Iran is a strong military power, with an ability to retaliate against Israel. Iraq of Saddam Hussein was not in the early 1980s. Moreover, it had got involved in a military confrontation with Iran. Israel did not have to pay a price for theOsirak raid. There is a risk that it may have to if it raids Isfahan and Natanz.

Israelis have a reputation of not allowing fears of likelyconsequences deter any action by them which they consider necessaryfor their security and survival. An Israeli air strike on Natanz and Isfahan is very likely sooner than later. Things have started moving in that direction. The accumulation of US forces in the region is meant to deter any Iranian retaliation. Israel hopes Iran will notbe unwise enough to retaliate. If it does, Israel is prepared forit. Israel is confident of its ability to take on Iran—even if Teheran instigates the Hezbollah to step up attacks on Israel fromthe Lebanon.

It would be suicidal for Iran to think that the painful experienceof the US in Iraq and of Israel in the Lebanon in July last year has weakened their will to resort to military action, if theyconsider it necessary in their national interests. It has not.


B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt.of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.

BP courts Berkeley

Too many people criticize American Academia for its increasing corporate flavor.

Here's an interesting article, pick of the week at Mother Jones.

Does it Matter if BP Sleeps With UC Berkeley and Californians Fund Their Hotel Room?

By Julia Whitty

Excerpt:

Nature.com, website of the British
science journal Nature, reports on growing concerns about
oil-giant BP's $50-million energy research partnership with
the University of California Berkeley. On February 1, BP
announced it will fund a decade of alternative-energy research
by Berkeley and its partners, the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (LBNL) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
-- fueling worries about the affair.

Some fear that the pact -- for
which final details are still being worked out -- could be a
repeat of a controversial $25-million contract that the
university entered into in 1998 with the biotech giant Novartis.
That deal expired in 2003, amid criticism that the academic freedom
of some university researchers had been compromised.

Click here for more.

Shia's and Sunnis on NPR

The Partisans of Ali

A History of Shia Faith and Politics.

I haven't listened to all the parts. But I can vouch that NPR (National Public Radio) is usually interesting

Click here for a background and the 5-part series:

More on this, to come.

Mohsin Hamid

Most of you guys, readers of Addafication, will have a sense of the term "Exile Complex."

It is a feeling of nostalgia for a home far away. The nostalgia is often wrapped around imaginations of a city - its smells, sights, sounds, and friends it contains.

The city remains geographically far but conversationally very near. It is evoked in the movies we like to watch. Perhaps more so in the music we listen to, and the older we get, the more we realize the encroaching influences of our old selves, old homes, and old cities, in our lives.

This past summer, I greatly enjoyed Baul music. But when I was thirteen, if you had snuk in a Baul or Lalon tape in my replete collection of the Seattle Grunge Scene, chances are, I'd be a bit annoyed with you. Things have changed. As have tastes.

All this then fall under the "Exile complex"

Also, in some ways, it is because of this very Exile complex, that we South Asians, Bengali, Indian, Pakistani or what have you, enjoy reading post-colonial literature so much.

Post-colonial literature?

I am sure Wiki has a definition, but just think of the kinds of literature Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth write.

They are about the former colonies and one of the objectives in these literatures is to show the effects of the long colonial hangover that exists in former colonies.

And the way in which people from the colonies, mostly Brown folks like you and me, negotiate modernity, westernization, et all, while trying to retain aspects of our cultural and religious pasts.

That said, post colonial lit can get a little tiresome. Some greatest hits aside, a lot of the new stuff that comes out keep re-inventing the wheel. Soon, all plots and characters start to look the same.

But a breath of fresh air, in the midst of such re-inventions, is Mohsin Hamid.

In fact, Mr. Hamid may even be my hero.

Brought up in Lahore, educated at Princeton and Harvard, Hamid worked for McKinsey and eventually wrote his first novel, "Moth Smoke," which became rather huge. The story: Darashikoh, a banker in Lahore manages to lose his job and fall in love with his best friend's wife at the same time. A life of drugs and crime await him and soon absorb him into its fold.

Lots of depth here though.

The story is an allegory of both the trial of Mughal prince Darashikoh by his brother (17th century), the infamous Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. Also allegorized is the state of Pakistan of the late 1990s when the country went nuclear.

So am eagerly awaiting Hamid's new novel, titled, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (forthcoming, Arpil 2007).

From Kirkus Reviews:

Changez (our hero) describes in eloquent detail his arrival in America as a
scholarship student at Princeton, his academic success and lucrative employment
at Underwood Samson, a “valuation firm” that analyzes its clients’businesses and
counsels improvement via trimming expenses and abandoning inefficient
practices—i.e., going back to “fundamentals.”

Changez’s success story is crowned
by his semi-romantic friendship with beautiful, rich classmate Erica, to whom he
draws close during a summer vacation in Greece shared by several fellow
students.

But the idyll is marred by Erica’s distracted love for a former boyfriend
who died young and by the events of 9/11, which simultaneously make all
“foreigners” objects of suspicion... and exits the country that had promised so
much, becoming himself the bearded, vaguely menacing “stranger” who accompanies
his increasingly worried listener to the latter’s hotel...A superb cautionary
tale, and a grim reminder of the continuing cost of ethnic profiling,
miscommunication and confrontation.

Exciting.

If you find Mr. Hamid's work and thoughts as interesting as I do, check out an interview with Tehelka. An excerpt:

Tehelka: How has Pakistan negotiated modernity?

Hamid: In remarkably
complex ways. You have everything in Pakistan — mini zones of talibanisation,
fashion shows with girls wearing next to nothing in Lahore, parties in Karachi
where people are doing cocaine and Ecstasy, villages where people don’t have
education or electricity. It’s a huge collage.

The thing people often forget about Pakistan is that it’s enormous. It’s the sixth biggest country in the world. China, India, US, Indonesia, Brazil, then Pakistan. It’s only when you
compare it with something even more galactically vast like India that it seems
anything but huge. So there’s a huge diversity in the way people are dealing
with modernity — from complete hedonistic embrace to religious reactionism.

An Event: Philanthropy, Profits and Progress

********
Philanthropy, Profits and Progress: The Role of Private Actors inInternational Development

A Conference Adda-fication's Shamshir is helping organize:

Friday, February 16, 2007, Columbia University, Jerome Greene Hall, Room 104.

Join CUPID at its third annual conference to evaluate activities byprivate actors — including philanthropic foundations, community-based organizations, corporations and others— that either directly or indirectly impact the development of thecommunities in which they operate.




Given the increasing visibilityof private actors in delivering services and creating economic opportunities in developing areas, CUPID believes a comprehensive and multidisciplinary review of their activities is timely andshould make for an exciting conference.

ONLINE CONFERENCE REGISTRATION at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cupid/Conference.html

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

12:30pm-12:35 Welcome remarks from Susan Ilyin, CUPID President

12:35-12:45 Conference introduction by Jennifer Fitzgerald,CUPID Conference Chair

12:45-2:15 Panel: Health, Education and Social Services

2:15-2:30 Coffee break

4:00-4:15 Coffee break

4:15-5:45 Panel: Business and Livelihoods

5:50-6:25 Keynote address

6:25-6:30 Closing remarks

6:30-8:00 Wine and cheese reception

CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Keynote Address * “Entrepreneurs as Engines of Change” by Paul Tierney, Directorand General Partner of Aperture Venture Partners and Chairman ofTechnoServe

Panelists - Health, Education and Social Services

* Dr. Jane Aronson, Pediatrician, Director of Worldwide OrphansFoundation and International Pediatric Health Services

* Helen Reisler & William P. Currie, Rotary Club of New York

* Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Programs in International andComparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

* John Trew, Senior Technical Advisor in Child Labor &Education, CARE USA

Panelists - Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure

* Shawn Miller, Director, Environmental & Social RiskManagement, Citigroup

* Professor Elliott Sclar, Director of the Center forSustainable Development at Columbia University\'s Earth Institute,Professor of Urban Planning at the Columbia University GraduateSchool of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

* Nicholas P. Sullivan, Author, You Can Hear Me Now: HowMicroloans and Cell Phones Are Connecting the World’s Poor to theGlobal Economy

* Panelist TBA, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Click here for the full line-up.

'71 Part One. A Mindset of Mutual Exclusivity

In Bangladesh, events of 1971 have cast a very long shadow. A shadow that has lodged itself in the subsequent history of the nation. And even harangues the present.

Memories and rhetoric around '71 configures party politics. They shape foreign relations and populate imagination of artists, novelists and activists.

Two years ago, I spent a good deal of time in London. The University at which I did my MA, didn't have many Bengalis. Not being particularly ethnocentric, I didn't necessarily miss being around my Bong buddies. But eventually, I was broken into the community at Bricklane.

Many of my British Sylhetti friends were already suspicious of me because of they considered me Americanized. The idea of America didn't seem very popular among many British Bengalis, try as I might to explain my nationalist loyalties didn't necessarily lie there.

One of my friends asked me quite wittily, "So since you want to call French Fries Freedom Fries, why not call Pizzas Circles of Justice?"

At any rate, these Bengalis in London I was hanging out with were far from the religious types. Most of them were involved with various underground art and music worlds. And religion seemed as big an anathema to them as America.

At one point that evening, one of them asked me how I felt about 1971. It was a strange question. The answer seemed obvious to me.

So I asked him more specifically what he meant. My new friend went to ask if I picked the Bengali side or the Muslim side in that fight. Generally impatient to such crude, sophomoric taking of sides, I told him, "neither."



My friend didn't seem too happy with the answer. I tried explaining to him how at no point, did the freedom movement assume an anti-Islamic color. If anything, journalists like Lawrence Lifschultz who became famous for their valorous reportage of events of '71, went to great lengths to point out the piety of Bengali Muslims before, during and after '71.

Of course champagne socialists and fashionable Marxists were outspoken. But they were hardly representative of the larger fabric of Bengali Muslim society.

Bengali or Muslim? I can't help but sense what really lurked behind it was another question, "Awami League or BNP?"

Sure enough, it came.

"So are you Pro-Indian or Pro-Pakistani. "Neither," I told him. "I am pro-nothing. I like both India and Pakistan. Although I am not sure what you mean by 'Pro-India' and 'Pro-Pakistan.'

(To be continued)

1971 Series

Leading upto 21 Feb, Addafication will feature a series of posts on '71, Pakistan, and the creation of Bangladesh. As well as the Mujib and Military Periods. Stay tuned.

Valentine's Day

I will steer clear of commenting upon empty theological debates about celebrating Valentine's Day. I will also try not taking any potshots at the yearly windfall generated for the gift-card industry, which estimates that 1 billion valentines are sent world-wide. Of course, the various Archie's and Hallmark shops in Dhaka (including the Archie's at New Market - how long before there's one even at Gausia/Ga-chhuwa!) are probably doing crisp business as well...

The Economist's blog (yes, even the Economist has a blog these days!) says everything I would want to say, in a post aptly entitled the Cost of Love:

"Demand on Valentine's Day is what economists call highly price inelastic, meaning that large increases in the price have only a small dampening effect on demand. Very few men will dare show up without the requisite red roses merely because a dozen of them now cost three or four times what they do on an ordinary day—not if they want to keep their sweetheart, that is. Likewise, the drive-thru is not a very good substitute for candles, wine, and filet mignon, so restaurants charge accordingly. Even so, they don't charge a market clearing price; in New York, it is thought well to book at least a few months in advance if you want a decent restaurant, longer for a really good one.

Is there any hope? "

I like the ending:

"And, of course, remember that money isn't everything. The most romantic thing I've ever heard of was the broadway producer who, when he was poor and starting out, gave his future wife a bowl of peanuts, which was all he could afford. "I wish they were emeralds," he told her. Thirty years later, when they were rich, he gave her a bowl of emeralds.

"I wish they were peanuts," he said. "

OK, I'm officially a sap...

Speaking of Pakistan

This Tuesday, at 11:00 AM, I am lecturing on Jinnah and the Muslim League as a part of a South Asia course. 2nd floor, Mathematics Building, Columbia University, if you want to make it.

I am a tad nervous. Not so much because of stage fright, but more so because it's always hard to talk about Jinnah and the idea of Pakistan. Too many people seem to have axes to grind when it comes to this topic. I have none. I care about being sensitive to all sides.

The idea of Pakistan is intrinsically tied to both Pakistani and Indian nationalisms. For the Indian state, the fact of Pakistan's creation was anathema because it gave the lie to its claims to represent both Hindus and Muslims of Hindustan.

Of course to Pakistani nationalists, the idea of Pakistan is deeply meaningful. Pakistan meant to be the homeland for all of South Asia's Muslims. Critics of Pakistan point out that Jinnah's two-nation theory - that Muslims and Hindus were two separate nations - was an outcome of colonial rule and thinking. They criticize Jinnah for adopting it. Other critics have alleged that Pakistan was merely a bargaining table for Jinnah.

They point to facts of post-47 history to validate these claims. Urdu was popular largely among the Mohajirs from India and Punjabis. The Punjabi-Mohajir nexus was set in place as long as Punjabis dominated the army, the most powerful institution in Pakistan by far.

Meanwhile, Balochis, Sindhis, Bengalis and Pathans all demonstrated autonomous tendencies in varying degrees - the most outspoken of them being perhaps the Bengalis and Balochis. Many of these autonomous movements were borne of an expression of cultural distinctiveness.

I heard recently that in the Balochi uprising (that Mr. Bhutto suppressed with an iron hand) many of Sheikh Mujib's writings and formulations for East Pakistani autonomy were widely read in Balochistan.

Was Jinnah's Pakistan then a mistake?

There are defenses possible of course to Jinnah's designs.

Jinnah wasn't necessarily the Miltonic self-absorbed nation-maker that many of his critics like to see him as. It was important from him to have a flexible idea of Pakistan because its spatial boundaries were far harder to define, as Indian Muslims were diffused all over. It was important for the idea of Pakistan to develop gradually.

And Jinnah wanted a far more complex Pakistan. First up, he wanted the whole of the Punjab and the whole of Bengal. This would have made a substantial difference.

Think about this. Sikhs and Hindu Punjabis continued to dominate the Indian Army at least for a while, the way Punjabi Muslims dominated the Pak Army. If Pakistan included the whole of Punjab, the Pakistan Army would have been mighty. And religiously diverse.

Religious diversity in the most important state institution of Pakistan would have gone a long way in defining its nationalism.

Secondly, if Pakistan had the whole of Bengal (Jinnah wanted Calcutta), the civil-bureaucratic administration of new Pakistan would have been far more colorful and complex. Bengali Hindu Bhadraloks, were prominent in the early years of the Congress in the early days of India.

If Pakistan had absorbed these Calcutta-based civil servants, bureaucrats and intellectuals, their presence would have greatly changed the character of Pakistan. We would have had on our hands, a far more composite, pluralistic and diverse Pakistan in the upper echelons of civil-bureaucratic-military administrations.

However, the realities of 1950s and 60s Pakistan were starkly different. The state failed to incorporate the Bengalis of East Pakistan into its fold, neither economically nor politically or culturally, and events of '71, perhaps not in their gruesome form, now appear inevitable to those that look back and reflect.

To my Bangladeshi and Pakistani readers:
The post is not an exercise is pro-Pakistani nostalgia or anti-Pakistani rhetoric, but in reminding ourselves of the complex trajectories of history that are too often levelled into simple narratives.

A great interview with Shabana Azmi

Ever heard of the Indian New Wave?

The Indian New Wave or "Parallel Cinema" was largely a movement to produce high-quality Indian films, rich in plot and texture, to counter the incessant saccharine feel-good and formulaic Bollywood productions.

A sitar of this movement was the distinguished Shabana Azmi. I remember Ms. Azmi from Masoom, a movie that left quite an impression on me as a child. The songs were great, as were the child characters. And D.K. Malhotra played by Nasiruddun Shah was memorable.

Recently interviewed by BBC's Mike Willaims, Azmi shoots from the hip. Very conscious of her femininity, she speaks of growing up in a famous family, marrying a famous Urdu poet, her multiple identities - resisting any neat categorization. Always displaying a characterstic confidence, she breaks down tough questions re: women's rights, marginal voices, her involvement with politics, and Islam.

Click here for the interview.

Doing Business in South Asia Report 2007

The World Bank's Doing Business in South Asia Report 2007 Report was just launched yesterday. Get your PDF hot from the presses here! [Hat tip: WB/IFC's Private Sector Development Blog for the link]

Lot's of interesting data and topics. A sample: It takes 425 days to register property in Bangladesh. Four Bangladeshi cities are covered: Dhaka, Chittagong, Bogra and Khulna. Check it out!

On The AL MOU Scrapping and Reading Things Closely

One of the hot news items in the last couple of days has beenAL's scrapping of the MOU with Khelafat-e-Majlis. Defending the MOU required AL to twist itself into pretzels/jilapis (the most prominent recent example, of course, being Sajeeb Joy Wazed's blog post on this matter, which numerous commenters, such as many on Drishtipat blog, justly critiqued). Now the MOU has been scrapped.

Mr. Wazed writes (at the end of an otherwise good post that has some interesting thoughts about corruption that I hope to reflect some time) about the scrapping of the MOU today (see bottom of that post):

"Finally, I hope the cancellation of our much maligned MOU demonstrates that the AL is willing to listen and respond to criticism and suggestions. As I said, welcome to the 21st century Awami League!"

BUT if you look at the newspaper reports, the actual scrapping has exactly NOTHING to do with listening to and responding to criticism. NOTHING!

Daily Star quotes AL Acting Secretary Obaidul Quader:

"We had made some deals and agreements with some parties as part of our election strategy centring the January 22 poll. Since the election was cancelled, those deals and agreements have automatically been cancelled.... "

Daily Star continues:

Quader, who spoke as an AL spokesman yesterday, however said the political
unity among the components of the grand alliance will continue.

"But all the written deals or agreements and seat sharing with all the parties have been cancelled," said the AL leader adding that they will think afresh about signing deals or reaching agreements with the grand alliance partners in a new situation when a fresh schedule for the upcoming parliamentary polls will be announced.

Asked whether they will sign the MoU again with BKM, the AL leader brushed aside the possibility and said they have not thought of it yet. As the election was cancelled, their strategies will change in the new situation, he said.

And New Age gives us some more quotes

AL presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim also said, "Since there is no election, there is no agreement or MoU with any party."

So if the newspaper reports are to be believed, then the rationale for there being no MoU is not because AL has necessarily changed its mind about the matter (and Mr. Quader leaves the possibility of the MoU tantalizingly open), but because since there are no elections up ahead and the MoU was about the elections, the MoU is ipso facto null and void. If Mr. Quader and Mr. Selim are to be believed, this is not about "listening and responding to criticism" at all!

Yet, Mr. Wazed tells us that it is about listening and responding to criticism. As J. Caesar pleaded, "Et tu Brute?" Or should it be, "Welcome to the 21st Century Awami League indeed! Just as confusing as it has been for some time to even those who would give it the benefit of the doubt. And, perhaps, just as confused as it has been as well..."

Yes, welcome to the 21st century AL indeed... Say it isn't so, Sajeeb bhai! I really want this new transparency thing to work for you, and for all of us.


[Another quibble, to round off this post. I am a little disturbed by Daily Star's headline about the scrapping of the MoU. "AL Scraps MoU with Bigots". Now, it is likely the case that Khilafat-e-Majlis (KM) are bigots, but that's a normative term rather than a objective, descriptive one of the type one expects on the reporting pages of Bangladesh's largest English newspaper run by a sophisticated and experienced team. It's entirely appropriate to have KM be described as bigots in the op-ed or editorial pages. But to have a news account be headlined that way seems to me to be a breach of journalistic standards. Contrast again with the more objective language of the young'uns at New Age. Zafar Sobhan, e chithi pabe kina jani na, but seriously, you guys can do better...]

A broader horizon, but a smaller view

Here is something I wrote on Bangladeshi urban youth and values a while ago. I beleive its still relevant. Read it, let me know what you think, and let's see if there is a solution.

Here's the punch line of the piece: The struggle will be to inspire the young to take up this challenge, and ally their dreams of individual success to those of the nation. We must give them a sense of place and belonging, teach them that freedom is not to move away and start a new life, but to stay here and build a better life. We must give them the freedom to think freely, to define themselves, their aspirations and their future in a way that reshapes Bangladesh, and takes it to a better place. Those of us in a position to do so must think long and hard about how we can inculcate the youth with a sense of purpose, a sense of identity, a sense of tomorrow…

The rest is at: http://www.newagebd.com/store/anni05/transitions.html#1

World Press Photo of the Year

Spencer Platt, USA, Getty Images (Thanks, BQ)

Young Lebanese drive through devastated neighborhood of South Beirut, 15 August.

Kids and Praise

Raising a child is perhaps the utmost social engineering endeavor. Far surpassing anything any strange state has ever endeavored. One that's perhaps more treacherous because you have a near blank slate of a young mind on which to impress. A slate that, through strange processes of osmosis, is likely to absorb all kinds of qualities from people around, to which the parent might be completely oblivious.

One doesn't have to read Freud to realize how utterly important the early few years of a child's life are to his eventual emotional/intellectual/social development. And parents figure centrally in this of course.

Pop psychologists say, perhaps not always without a kernel of truth that how a father treats his daughter or a mother treats her son has a lasting impact on how the girl or the guy interacts with a future partner in a relationship.

So I was recently reading on New York Magazine the dangers of praising a young child. My parents weren't big about praise. Not atypical of desi/deshi parents I suppose who are constantly struggling to find a right balance between discipline and freedom, praise and monition.

According to the NYmag article, it is not a good idea to praise your kid too much, especially regarding his "smarts." Apparently, this sort of praise undermines the importance of effort to the kid. Soon, he/she learns to divide the world into skill sets he possesses versus ones he doesn't.

Things he thinks he is naturally good at, he continues to do, and he soon starts to develop one-dimensionally, avoiding other activities he decides he is not naturally gifted at. In sum, smart kids cop out and are often not hard-working.

So what's the solution? Shouldn't we praise our kids at all (I don't have one btw)?

Ashley Merryman, concludes:

Eventually, in my final stage of praise withdrawal, I realized that not
telling my son he was smart meant I was leaving it up to him to make his own
conclusion about his intelligence. Jumping in with praise is like jumping in too
soon with the answer to a homework problem—it robs him of the chance to make the
deduction himself.
But what if he makes the wrong conclusion?
Can I really leave this up to him, at his age?
I’m still an anxious parent. This
morning, I tested him on the way to school: “What happens to your brain, again,
when it gets to think about something hard?”
“It gets bigger, like a
muscle,” he responded, having aced this one before.

On Dr.Yunus entering politics

I have nothing against Dr.Yunus joining politics per se. I believe in the aftermath of the current ‘cleansing’ operation that is being carried out back home, there will be a place for smart, qualified individuals to take the places vacated by possibly the worst generation of politicians witnessed by any country in any period in history. Dr.Yunus is certainly a very capable man. He is one of Bangladesh’s most accomplished sons, much loved and respected both home and abroad. Naturally, we would always want our leaders to be drawn from that pool. But Dr.Yunus is not the only one in that pool, and it isn’t a must that everyone from that pool should be in politics.

Every nation’s success necessarily depends on a wide variety of forces coming together from different fields to form a coherent whole. This includes not just political parties, but also civil society, NGOs, businesses, educational institutions, media organizations, etc. Each has its own role to fulfill and it is a precondition of any successfully operating democracy that each does fulfill its role to its full capacity, or nearly enough as possible.

Dr.Yunus' merits as a politician is ofcourse an unknown quantity. What we do know is that he has played a role in reducing poverty from the fabric of civil society, not as part of the government at any stage. NGOs have played a very, very important role in the development of our rural areas, and Grameen is of-course at the very forefront of that. We must be aware of the potential consequences of Dr.Yunus entering the field of politics on the work of Grameen. The man himself has said that entering politics equates to becoming controversial. His becoming controversial will also mean his brainchild turning controversial. As it is, there are criticisms starting to surface about the Grameen Bank model. The intense trauma faced by members of groups who cannot repay their debt(and hence let down others in their group) has resulted in even suicide, and the loans-scheme is said to perpetuate the debt-trap for already poor communities. And it is true that the Grameen model is not perfect, that it can be improved. But I fear a Dr. Yunus in the realm of politics will not be able to lead the improvement process as only he can.

I firmly believe Dr.Yunus has an important role to play in Bangladesh society. But it is not in politics. His role is best fulfilled as part of the civil society, to strengthen it in lieu with politics which has to be strengthened by politicians, not civilians merely because they might be bigger achievers. No country is led simply by its most prolific achiever. We dont have to be too. And no country's problems can be solved by one man's initiative, or even two or three. It is the institutions that have to be cleansed. If that is done, as the current CG is taking steps toward(for example the seperation of the executive from the judiciary), there will be no need for Dr.Yunus to leave Grameen for Parliament. And that is what we must aspire to. Not to be dependant on any person(as some of the general public’s crying out for Dr.Yunus to enter politics would suggest), but to be dependant on our system.