Sunday, April 24, 2005

"Selling Eye" took over my thought



"Desperate mother puts eye on sale” from Bangladesh has attracted Reuters coverage for oddly enough news. Shefali Begum has not sold her eye. In the mean time, her story got huge hit in the news even she had not asked to sell her 2½ year old daughter, had not injured or killed anyone, had not abandoned her child. She has tried to sell one of her eyes for money, for subsistence- a huge denial of social darwinism. She is definitely pursuing her freedom of choice for the pursuit of happiness and success. She has taken her own intiative in providing for her needs-the definining idea of individualism.

Only thing she has forgotten to realize in a world where she is trying to sell eye for money, a lot of eyes with abundance and affluence have already been sold to personal lust, greed and growth. Unfortunately, these eyes don’t see her plight and anguish, and don’t feel her pain. This news is very sad and odd for us. A lot of discussions are now going on in the message borad to reach her, to help her and to be humane afterall again. With an oddly enough news, she may have opened a lot of eyes and insights for the time being as we feel very embarassed and humiliated.

As I was reading one of my favorite writers, Michael Harrington’s The Other America, Poverty in the United States of America, I found, “...the poor are politically invisible. It is one of the cruelest ironies of social life in advanced countries that the dispossessed at the bottom of soceity are unable to speak for themselves. ... They (the poor) are without lobbies of their own; they put forward no legislative program. As a group, they are atomized. They have no face; they have no voice”. Shefali Begum from Bangladesh, a developing country from South Asia, has come up in the news media with a new face and voice of desperation that only resides in poverty.

“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds” (Keynes).

# posted by Addabaj : 10:35 PM  3 comments

Monday, April 18, 2005

Living inside bubbles

Poverty is increasing both in the poor and the rich in Bangladesh. While the poor are becoming poorer financially as economic opportunities are shrinking and the rich are becoming poorer mentally as they’re increasingly living outside the touch of reality and sanity. Bangladesh is no longer a test case of development, it is presenting the glowing picture of the best consumeristic economy in the developing world. Look at the goods and luxury items in Dhaka city’s crowded shopping centers! Look at the Models of cars people are now driving in the Metropolitan areas! Some People over here even wait for Lexus model cars from the car dealers.

Who dare to say people are poor over here. We are all living inside bubbles and feeling very safe and secured !!! I’m not going to refer to statistical models or findings right here. We are definitly and successfully creating a show case of development that shows richness and abundance for the “Haves”. Even the capitalistic societies in the West have some sort of social safety net for the poor. We are amazingly creating a wonderful safety net for the poor in paper, planning and political speeches!!! That is why Addabaj is searching a new framework of understanding for all of us who are living inside bubbles. Who will remind us that bubbles are very transient and unsafe by nature, as I see children are busy in making bubbles. In my next blog, I’ll reconceptualize individualism in Bangladesh context. Read the rest in Bangla:


# posted by Addabaj : 6:14 AM  2 comments

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Happy Bangla New Year

Happy Bangla New Year Posted by Hello


Bangla New Year is deeply rooted in Bangladesh. In the rural areas, small buisnessmen and store owners open new books and collect their debts from the patrons on the First day of Bangla month of Baisakh. People go to fair and enjoy colorful shows. In order to know more about Bangla New Year festival, please visit:


# posted by Addabaj : 6:17 AM  0 comments

Sunday, April 10, 2005

New Ideas for Adda

Life is entangled with busy tasks of every day. I try to find time from my busy life schedule. I’d like to write on the wonderful human transition from industrial revolution to information revolution. I want to present our self identity, renaissance, tradition, historic consciousness, religious fanaticism, negative change in social values, instability, poverty, inequality, political intolerance and crisis in democracy. Social changes come through evoliving ideas and introspection. Next time I’ll be back with our eternal tradition and cultural heritage to observe Bangla New Year. Read the rest in Bangla:

# posted by Addabaj : 7:34 PM  0 comments

Friday, April 08, 2005

My First Job Interview

It happened right after my graduation from Dhaka Univesity. I was referred by my Professor to the Country Representative of a renowned donor agency in Dhaka. At the very end of my inerview, I was asked whom did I vote for in the Student Union? My interviewer was happy when they found that I voted for BJCD who were elected at that time. I was too happy to find out that they did not ask me whether I've ever joined in any student procession. If they did, I had to tell them one time I joined to protest the fundamenatlist Chatra Shibir's atrocity in the student campus and the one other time to protest Ershad's millitary governemnt. I'm glad they did not. I got the job right then that I needed too much. Read the rest in Bangla:


# posted by Addabaj : 10:00 AM  1 comments

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Lost her job!!!

I could not believe my eyes when I browsed this six month old news from BBC. Could someone be fired for blogging without any warning from her employer? If it's in Iran, I could believe it. It's really shocking? I hope, this airline attendant has already hired a good lawyer. I'm really shocked!!!Read the rest of the story from BBC:

See the snap shot from BBC:


# posted by Addabaj : 6:32 AM  0 comments

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

My Favorite Hide Outs

It's really interesting to share with you my very favorite hide outs. Almost every day, I used to stop by one of these hide outs on my way back home from the University. I think, these hide outs had lasting effects on my academic career and personal growth. These hide outs were my favorite spots to escape the scorchy summer and to browse quietly to advance my learning curve.

As I told you before, I love books. I still remember, during my childhood, whenever I had a fight with my elder sister, my father used to give me children's books and usualy asked me to go and read the book. He told, `Read this story book, it'll never fight with you'. Thanks Dad, I'm really blessed!!! So, I used to read quietly and it continued when I grew up. My secret and favorite hideouts were:

Please visit my favorite hangout and hide out places that I adore a lot. In the coming edition, I'll take you to my first job interview. Signing off right now to venture my long day. Thanks for stopping by.


# posted by Addabaj : 6:11 AM  0 comments

Sunday, April 03, 2005

In Search of Human Relationship

Read in Bangla:

# posted by Addabaj : 12:56 AM  0 comments

Friday, April 01, 2005

My First Love

I've received an overwhelming response from my friends who can hardly wait to hear about my First Love one more time. I don't know what and how much I should put out. After all, this is my life and my story. I thought, I should honestly share my real story. Before I say anything, I've really forgotten that today is the April full day. How come did they forget? Hahhhhaaaa.. Read the rest in Bangla:




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# posted by Addabaj : 5:39 PM  0 comments