from 27th august

this blog will be slightly more contribhed than usual, at least for this post, wrote this a few days back, blogger.com was causing grief.

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this is me killing a little time waiting for the good records office to fish out some 'CS' maps.

This mornign i had a little goose chase around the town looking for spatially relevant offices. I feel for the surveyors here the work is very tough, and theres so much to cover and nothing can be printed untill all disputes are settled...

needless to say i wont have the latest 'RS' mouza maps at my disposal as i did in Sirajganj. strange that, this place is less organised, despite being a bigger town, safer from the river hazard and home to the late ziaur rahman and seat of his son at present.

I got here(bogra) early on saturday morning, landed in dhaka from kl in the wee hours of last tuesday.Abiding memories of kl will be chillin at iium, roaming with my kl battalion and talking with syed hussain alattas (Captive minds, Sociology of corruption, the myth of the lazy lative, problems facing intellectuals in developing societies...) till silly morning hours. He is quite opposed to the Islamisation of knowledge movement, thinking it misleading, uber political and a distraction from our actual problems.

I see what he means, and what more or les everyone else means but i kinda fell for the students and people on the campus. As well as the term 'ignocracy' to describe out present day states he has a new term, 'Jargonist' to describe intellectuals hiding their lamoness and dishonesty behind obscure terminology.

dhaka was a bit cooler on return. was brought back to reality when RAB stopped our cab as we got into dhanmondhi. they were in plainclothes and zooming around in an ambulance.i think i was to monged to care at the time, they could have been anyone.
Interesting things afoot in the world.

• Hezbulla immediately get their hands dirty in rehabilitating the southern lebanese.
• Airliners in anglosaxon space go ape over terror threats.
  
• Inzamam ul huq's heroic confrontation with a wackho cricket umpiring decision by Darrel Hair. The Zidane effect. this isnt about cricket. thumbs up to pakistan on this matter.
  

not so Interesting things going on in my head.

• contemplate over the term madhab-diversity, which treid to draw attention to all the schools of islamic thought and law, which have become extinct. Maybe ive spent too long with my man shiro the ecologist.
• am loving Khaled Abu el Fadl, here is a fan page --> http://www.scholarofthehouse.com/
• wonder if bangladesh attracts all the secondrate foreign diplomats, development workers et all.
• think ive typed this stuff somewhere before....anyhoo toodleoo

achoo

so i only have a few days left in kl. shall i push my ticket later so i can fit indonesia into this trip?

in the past week or so i have dossed at iium(Rivendell), been to singapore and back(to meet Aragorn and Yoda), then penang( to meet Gandalf) and dossed some more in kl (ive run out of nerdy metaphors folks, sorry!). might post in detail later.

i am holed up in a poshish part of kl, petaling jaya, in a house that a kind couple has given over to wandering vagrants such as myself while they are abroud raking it in. i say its posh because some planning wonk neglected to include PAVEMENTS in the scheme of things.

kl is quite mixed up, everyone is really cute. malays havent been integrated into it more more than a generation...so the temporal spatial community aspect of things is less developed that in say..... penang. Im going to check out bangi, before i leave, i have a feeling its like dhanmondhi in the community respect(minus the ridiculous amount of schools). one people are settled well, the sophistication of the mosque services grows. imaging being able to listen to interesting lectures from the mosque from your bedroom.... community security systems... its all good.

got some new books today, one on phenomenology (weird philosophical method of research/analysis), raffles and religion, ef schomachers guide for the perplexed and something by a chap called steve fuller on intellectuals.

how will i carry all of this home ay? ay? ay?

ive reformed my ideas about proton, my mate has a cool bright yellow car..semi sportscar made by them. not bad... but hell what do i know about cars .. mechanised urban death machines.
i need to work on some aliph male credentials something..

"eliza fetch me my slippers."

so tmrw.. need to get hold of some wedding worthy clothing that doesnt smell, go to a malay wedding and meet up with a funky prof who writes about corruption, and its sociology.

engineering seems generally to be quite a corrupt thing, wastes of moneies that could be best spent elsewhere... or at least spent on something interesting (to me of course). take the proliferation of kiddies playground in petaling jaya. its all well and cute, but someone is really teking the piss here.

oo i tried to find buyers for bangladeshi handloom products, only i had no idea how much my samples were worth :-P

thankfully im getting to spend time with really deep and thought ful people. though i primarily came for a conference, i dont feel like my paper was scrutinised adequately, iA that will happen now that contacts have been made.

we got dosa takeaway yesterday, generated a ridiculous amount of washing up.

1 dosa is 1 ringit, about 15 pence! (90 cents in penang, which is full of hookers of indeterminable gender btw)

Will all the budding entrepreneurs that undoubtedly read my nonsenseness figure out a way of getting starfruit juice on the global market....

Kuala Lumpur dreamin'

Arrived in Malaysia a few days ago for a conference at IIUM..... the campus is huge and majestic. send your brightest kids here.

The book shop is a far more boring place than it was a few years ago, where are the piles of ancient stuff?

Bizarrely finding the more mature students and alumni to be more clued up and hungry.

Enjoying all the juices at the mo, i have no idea about the malay language and generally consume whatever they give me, its all good. Well that a lie, today a got jhalled by some over the top south indian nosh. aaah well we live and learn.

Bumping into nonrandom funky types on a regular basis.

Picked up two books of note from a japanese book chain ?!? once i landed.

One was a selection of essays in dedication to Syed Hussein al Attas (who penned The Myth of the Lazy Native, The Sociology of Corruption and Intellectuals in the Developing World). a good constellation of contributers.

The second was by the Consumers Association of Penang(CAP) , a Halal and Haram food guide. its quite deep, with no hgolds barred, defniately something to circulate around the uk.


Came back into town today with someone from Sisters in Islam, a pseudoummahto feminist type with strong views on where her country is heading. seemed a little conused, im sure theyll find their place eventually, if they already havent. reviews that ive heard of them vary a lot, but im weak, i have a soft spot for sisters no matter how prog rock they reckon they are. doh! keep having to remind people to step back and look how far the country seems to have come, albeit as a rather top down state... but its human nature to draw comparisons with more 'advanced' places.


At the conference i was expecting more social science/humanities types... or at least fiqui types with playful dispositions.... we were discussing the higher objectives of the sharia when a sister from the audience goes on about 'we dont wanna become like the Christian faith, with our faith a shadow of its model self through all this adaptation to western systems.'

I mean come oooooon.

People sweated blood to establish IIUM, an advanced hybrid institution to nourish an integrated islamic knowledge culture, several of the experiments seems to have gone belly up, while this one still has some gas in the tank..... and you come up with some london isoc level disourse....grrr

Oh well, it takes all sorts. I've learnt a lot from the past two days and met some people that i will iA continue to know.

It really gives hope that people think about such a range of issues(CSR, whistle blowing, bioethics, economic culture, penal systems, history) and relate them the the realisation of the Maqasid. But do these urban educated ummahtic types have much 'traction' in the outside Ummah? i fear not, but we'll have to see how the meanings spread through the communities.

I chatted maqasid with a madrassa teacher in rural, river eroded Bangladesh the other day...he seemed to recognise what i was talking about. the Maqasid are mind broadening, thats just the coockie for us.

The range of knowledge adventurers here(IIUM) is vast, as i mentioned before... the older people seem to have their heads screwed on, they honour this knowledge movement by their intellectual scrutiny, attitude and vigour. Its what they do next that adds greater strength to the entire point of the institution. They teach, learn and communicate with a really rational conception of ummah at the heart of things.

This enculturation process can only happen with time, its deeper that the uk brit muslim isoc fetish, as we can see philosophical carry through in the careers of the students.... the best dont dissappear into the ranks of wage slaving or capitalistic banks and consultancies. They seem to have an internal guidance system.

How much of this is seeded at the uni and how much of this is nascent personality?

Theres was a cute Ayatollah from london here aww.

gtg and piddle about.

pre malaysiastani warblings

its easy to buy off people in this country. im suprised it hasnt sold itself down the ribher more than it has.


take the (lack of) science funding.

this ignocracy has penniless bhision. So many of the public uni teachers spent a lot of time teaching (the whole afternoon in the pribhate unibhersities to boost their salaries (i hear you can get like a lakh a month).

and what time for research?

oh and dont let me start on the the total absence of planing and strategy in building science infrastructure of any productibhe power. the bhariability and dumbarsedness of ebhery gobhernment. Maaan i need to fix this keyboard.

i guess i'll be a little less harsh about those who jump at the 'debhelopment' honey.

the degeneracy is our own and some is empowered from outside, the shift can happen from within, im just thinking (deterministically) how it might.....


Ershad joins the bnp, they win...the AL goes through a collapse and transformation into something better. yeah right


The AL win, joi bin bingobondhu runs ICT with a bit of efficacy, proud muslims are oppressed.... the bnp-al shared gobht agreement goes through another cycle. yeah right


OR

something rather interesting happens. somebody with a plan and talent shows some initiatibhe.



i would prefer the two main parties to knockthemselbhes into outerspace, im sure that any group of uni kids could do better, though keeping a lid on the selfish businesses and industrial interests would be interesting to crush....Zidane style.

The story behind the 'MP candidates can stand in a maximum of 5 seats' rule is from the 1980s when ershad thwarded hasina and khalida zias scheme to stand in 150 seats each to oust him.

a canny operator as always, he 'adapted' the constitution. the scenario around rule changes and the rules for making rule changes are always quite rebhealing (Thankyou Ms Ostrom)

im listening to a bhery crap album by a band called aurthohin. My cousin , who's in a band would call is cheap 'ami' tumi 'bhalobashi' tripe. i concur. thats 80 taka that i guess i wont be seeing any time soon.

a rather funky blog -> http://www.safiyyah.ca/wordpress/

back in dhaka

the past 9 or so days hae been a reelation of the experiencial kind.

gien large amounst on semi reliable yet conflicting spatial data, what can one do? The changes in the landscape sincelast years pilot are quite marked. some communities hae moed twice in that time.

i guess ill post pictures when i havev some decenvt bandwvidth, in the mean time rest assured that it was a beautiful trip with lots of river boat ridingv (not the most efficieant form of transportation)

i got about one third of my study areas nailed. took longer and cost more that i had vhopevdv, but next time it'll definately be a swifter less 'flabby'


so reach home in the early hours to find a stuck 'bhe' keyv again.

Had exactly the same problem last year. but now its more annoying because i wanted to electronicify the data i hae just collected.

laters.

oh lit l ooks like ershad wivll going the ruling coalition before the caretaker goernment.
though you can neer tell with these things.

I met an Awami Leaguer fanatic on a boat the other day. He was funny, hvad iews that were vso poisonous that you wonder what vkind of soul must hae constructed them in the first place.. Gold seller in some rural backwater, been on tabligh many times internationally, niqaabi wife and long beard.

in bangladesh, there are two parties that appear to get a lot of the bhotes, they all hae their mythology of the history of the formation/successionist struggle that ended up resulting in thes country. Each mythology only tells something like 5% of the story.

anyhoo...

got back to my inbox to see a rather pathetic emotibhely worded peacenik bhirtual petition calling for 'peace' in lebanon to be sent to tony bliar. why is it so hard to wish people Bhictory? why are people so hostaged by the media discourse in the UK?

and another example of opportunist a-religious writing trying to masquerade as a silent majority muslim bhoice.
http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/07/28/d607281502103.htm

Intellectual corruption of a high degree, but nonetheless published in the premier english daily of Bangladesh. But hey what can you expect of full-time capitalist/part-time human rightists?


Oh, in sirajganj i met with anv old old school gentle man. a prolific writer on the independence war and islamic things in later years. scarey at times , but he had some spine and was prepared to impore his iews with time. He was an awami leaguer during 71, the char islands around here proided a lost of people with a safe political exile to escape the heat of the military crackdown.

I agreed with his bhiew that we need someone strong like khomeini to rebherse the degradation this society has suffered at the hands of contemporary 'goats and cows'. He said something along the lines of 'eije, musalman democracy now, as shundor me diye bisna de ghumao'. Roughly translated thats 'hey muslims take democracy and go to bed with pretty women'.

more than words.


He recounted stories of what happened in sirajganj when a bunch of nutters were let out of jail and basically permitted to hae their ebhil way with all the mohajer/bihari communities. All of the things that the bdeshi nationalised liberation discourse accuses pakistanis and loyalists of are included. It is these criminals that probhoced such fury from the national establishment. How politicised they were with their acts is a question we really need to look into. but i double the children of the rebholution will be doing that enytime soon.


A pious man of the time was a pir called Assadullah Shirazi. major Arif, the man incharge during the following military crackdown had an interesting relationship with him. After seeing the xtent of depreaity inflicted upon the biharis, he took shirazi to the spot to show him and said 'look what your bengalis are doing'.

the pir fainted.

woke up in the majors quarters. the major wanted to 'brush fire' the area for 10 miles. but stopped because of the power of the

anyway, this narratibhe matches another one i head last year. Again from an elderly ex Awami/Mukti chap. Racially flabhoured bhnidictibhness.


hingsha or enbhi - seemed to be the dominant motiator for many in the definition of the bengali nationalism, rather than a superior philosophical and practicaly competant powerblock.

sad that.

spose its also a lesson that degradation can happen obher night, whereas adbhancement takes time and shortcuts should be abhoided.

but resent ment is seeded by injustice.

After independance from the dogs of English Imperialism, migrants from india and rich migrants to india basiaccly swapped libhing arrangements. well this was the bengali experience anyway.

folks here didnt like being passed obher like that. a many times displaced uncleji in a field site was going on an d on about this. 'this was our soil, and they treated us like this'.

k bored of this now. going out.

"you need to blog more prolifically man"

ok then.

got my mandatory 8 hours sleep between stupid hours.

needed a phone for the ganjside trip

so my gps is finally working... now all i need to do is figure out what the 'India-Bangladesh' datum corresponts to. Datums are approximations of the earths geometry.... yeah the world is round, but theire are different 'standards' for shape that are considered better fits for various hunks of Gods good Earth. Needless to say the default was some random WGS-84 thing ...USA -centric... bless.

Waypoint 1 - phone SIM shop oin kolabagan where i got my Grameen phone sim from....
Waypoint 2 - Bashundara City shopping complex where a bulletproof and rather prehistoric nokia beast was procured. Bashundhara City is like the biggeset mall in the universe, a monument to the market.... the manic's 'Motorcyle Emptiness came to mind'

Culture sucks down words
Itemise loathing and feed yourself smiles
Organise your safe tribal war
Hurt maim kill and enslave the ghetto

Each day living out a lie
Life sold cheaply forever, ever, ever

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

Life lies a slow suicide
Orthodox dreams and symbolic myths
From feudal serf to spender
This wonderful world of purchase power

Just like lungs sucking on air
Survivals natural as sorrow, sorrow, sorrow

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

All we want from you are the kicks youve given us
All we want from you are the kicks youve given us
All we want from you are the kicks youve given us
All we want from you are the kicks youve given us

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

Drive away and its the same
Everywhere death row, everyones a victim
Your joys are counterfeit
This happiness corrupt political shit

Living life like a comatose
Ego loaded and swallow, swallow, swallow

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness everlasting nothingness

then i promptly forgot about it....

Picked up this rather amazing weekly news publication called 'the probe' i remember someone telling me about it in london. Its startlingluy mature and explores a lot of routes im interested in. Big up to them!


exploting geography i stop off ar dhaka university, specifically the department of geography and environment. It is a magnificent campus. met a bhai that id got to know last year. we started talking like a bunch of old codgers... about the dhaka uni students being more interested in flirting and dating than their work.

what to do?...

prayed asr (late) in the uni masjid, met a bro there from jagganath college, the site of a recent confrontation between student wings. physics student wahey! he knew where my nanis gram was.

dun dun dun

i eventually find a rikshawallah up for taking me home... get hopelessly stuck in traffic and dismount upon seeing a kabab shop.

so this random man sits on my table, he's ordering takeout. we get chatting. he is a local working in the Housing sector, very widely travelled, alumni of dhaka uni's Zooology department. He likes my thesis topic.

smug fug.

Magrib adhan goes off, and im drawn towards kataban mosqujid (known as a publishing hub for religious texts and thoughts) . walk passed polystyrene sculpturer (500tk for something semi 3-D and massive, ready the next day provided you give him a design).

Then the pet shops which didnt smell as much as the uk ones.

And into the mosque, theres a curiously named "Centre for the preaching of the quran by post " downstairs. Cute.

wander towards the first row, nice qiraat, no 'big deal' manajat. Have an awkward time leaving though, trying to avoid interrupting peoples prayer beams.

books shops, islamic ones all around.

so i feast.

not too much in english, but pick up a book of the Muslims of Nepal by a sis who wen there to do her MA back in the day, an old publication by the Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought and a translation of Shayk Qaradawi's 'economic security in Islam'.

get home in time for a quick cooling shower (ok, too much detail), madly rushed kurta-pyjama iron and dash to a wedding.

not that i know the groom, he was a relly of a journo mate. Interesting venue and crowd many of hwho m were very goreously dressed and not male. Half the Deshi Cabinet was there. Wanted to invade the Water Resources Ministers space and squeeze his brain, but was too polite/cowardly. He is a good guy, many say, one of a few. My bhaiya attributes this to him being a sportsman.

its true here i think. last year, my feild assistant was an ex-footy player tragically taken out of the game by dodgy ligaments. really broad minded and noble character.

get home late, well fed and well met.

and we are off in midnight dhanmondi with some gdangs and ma blue guitar and the truth.

RAB drive past.

no title really...more of a brain dump vibe.

Jumma today was FAB, went to an old Eidgah Masjid, it felt like a significant gathering. Outside there were (expensive) fish sellers. typical. in London there would be the odd dawah stall or functionless doss in place.

Friday prayers happen in different forms, for example the entire top floor of a shopping arcade becomes a mosque type area, bit cramped but cute.

The foreign minister had some strong words for Palestine and Lebanon, reflecting what everyone is feeling here. More that words....please.....I read them in a rather interesting paper, the story around which is even more intriguing. Its owner is a little ummahtic righty in political inclination, while his bro is the leader of the manju faction of the Jatiya Party!

In desh theres a few English papers: the Daily Star (sellout but some kind of benchmark, thinks its a little lefty but it talks to itself, its paymastersthe donors and its made up civil society chums, NewAge (interesting things to say now and again, not so partisan as the Daily star. but still without spirit) and the New Nation, which is published by the Ittefaq group. Today the New Nation published a rather large statement from the OIC, a random Dfid statement and a noholds barred yvonne Ridley piece as op-eds. Editorials and wotnots were decent.

While the New Nation published the foriegn ministers own words, the New Age included coverage of a loony lefty party condemnation of the government for allegedly not saying anything against The Occupation's most recent infliction of barbarism in Arabia.

'Dialogue of the deaf' is the most immediate phrase that comes to mind.

People here are losing sleep over the pain of Lebanon, this is evident from reciprocal and loud Ameens in du'a and conversations even with people. Whats refreshing is that people speak without proverbial condoms here, no consideration of self censorship that is so marked in the uk. Simple and enescapably true.

Politics in this country is like a football league where not of the teams really makes me tick. Though im clearly going to want to repel the most obnoxious posse.

Quite miffed at the news from London that have kidnapped another bro on a US whim. May his family and self be strong and the affected communities not dispirited, but emboldened.

In the UK theres a silly non reciprocal extradition situation with respect to the US. They can procure our people, whilst their (un)fortunate citizens are free to basically piss all over the world. In its selfish programme to step on everyones throats, the US administration violates soveriegnty on a number of scales. As well as ripping apart the glorious peoples of Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. It arranges for the abduction of individuals from their homes.

A week or so ago, a Bangladeshi in Bangladesh was kidnapped for them by the brits. I use the word kidnap, because thats what it feels like, looks like and reads like.

I would like for Bangladesh to expel its UK high commissioner as a gesture of disgust at the UK support of the Occupation and its spinelessness with regard to protect its citizens from harm. Im sure Anwar bhai wouldnt really mind. But thats not really going to happen now is it?

I think that the 'development dollar drip' and the 'play it safe' have too many people stoned to think straight. Folks aren't too confident in that respect, but they are moving and expecting more from education, which is where the smarter takas are in bangladesh. Theres a debilitating perception amongst a lot of quite well off people that they are poor and powerless regarding this scale of feck up. they keep thinking on the nationscale. must do something about that....

Heres an interesting legal position.

hmm what else. oh. I am sick of the word stakeholder and the patronising use of the word 'womenfolk' in developmenty reports im reading.

My neice is very cute and very well humoured, she becomes more and more adorable the more i look at her. What on earth in her 8 month old head is so much fun! i wish someone would let me in on the joke. I think she might like Led Zeppelin.

oh and deshi aador showers! i am only just recovering from them.

Zidane is the man! That must've hurt.

Im really looking forward to the next few laps of life.

Dhaka at night is beautiful and serene.

Katchi biryani rules.

Photoshop is tooo flippin slow.

Internet is sooo slow.

Fuskas rock.

Weather is quite nice.

Need to sort out that 'waking up' business one of these days.

This is Ganj Control to Uncle Tom

took some control, and made a decision. it paid off.

and so here i am, sleeping in khalus old room, spending my days and nights wandering around dhaka. A ca moment, im relearning the urban geography, a lot has changed in a year, building work, prices, greater policial stakes, and more interesting ummahtic bookshops.

have been lucky to have bumped into all manner of funky inspiring types in the last few days since i landed.

work is stuttering, one day i think ive got all the data i need to select specific field villages and send a massive map to the printers.... and the other minute i realise that ENVI is not goin to read ERDAS Imagine files.... and dodjy windows 95/98/2000 software that still believes in those autoexec.bat files is really getting on my nerves. there you go, some technical mumbo jumbo to show that im not JUST dossing.

Dhaka is beautiful, especially at night, well to my eyes at least. When theres a strike and the roads are emptier, theres a kinda wild serenity here.

I should really post some pictures, figuring how to again is the main problem.


random obs..

-cows can produce serious weights of milk. Imagine carrying around full to bursting udders. eurgh.
-folks in the ganj area just west of me over the river can sell their produce quite easily and directly to the posh folk of dhanmondhi at a much better price without going to markets.
-lost of people here have studies river erosion related issues at some point or another.
-dhaka uni and buet grads rock.
-if ever your suitcase breaks in two places on the way down the stairs of your house, just get to the airport, you'll find a better bag solution there.
-many deshis are not accustomed to returning the randomly thrown salams of me.
-the letters pages of the newspapers are the most interesting parts.
-leaving home without moderate amounts of taka-age can be frustrating.
-dont let street book hawkers bearing tomes of arundhati roy clamber into your motor rickshaw.
-to remember the right names of your cousins sprogs and the months of peoples deaths.
-thunder means internet connection goes off.

Enough soap box rubbish, im fine , im eating properly and have not been kidnapped yet, in fact i feel much safer and free-er here than in london.

The search for WMD off green street!

Last friday, a 4 AM dawn raid by 250 coppers resulted in one man getting shot (not fatally). he was then arrested along with his brother, and the ever fickle media discourse swiftly shifted from the troubles of the deputy prime minister to the lates nutty '9/11 blues' .Apparently this was a potentially dangerous situation that warranted an eir exclusion zone, but no evacuation of neighbouring properties!! The invasion occured in the London Borough of Newham, a strong kinda suburban multicultural community. Went to green street (asian shopping area) for a peekaboo that night and have seldom seen the place so quite... (kebabish was deserted). The kids in the area know it was a load of pants and many spoke bravely at the cameras pointing at them, showing they have more sense than most, as well as an emerging community solidarity.


The police issued a statement covering their arses, and the media and publics speculated over the little info they had. The right wing telegraph, the scum of the world and times were characteristically blood thirsty, with tales extending to reports of 'sources' saying that the younger bro, shot the older one. channel 4 has been quite sober. The News today in bangladesh even used 'al quaida suspects' as a headline. everyone is making money from the war on terror.

If people read rubbish, i guess they become rubbish.

I hope that these folks, when they are found innocent, find it easy to get jobs, grow from the experience and that their families are ok. I wish people would understand the longterm effects of these things, peoples lives are ruined..... the cloud of suspicion never goes away.

The police/spooks/govt will find nothing(99.99999% certain), and will have discreditted themselves. They insist that they were acting on Spooky direction, which in turn is allegedly informed by a detained descriptions from an informant. The weakness of this method is that anybody with a grudge or agenda can use this time of trial as an opportunity to be nasty.

Sound familiar ey? The 'blame it on the informant' routine seems to be acceptable these days. Whether its a war on iraq, the insane murder of the Brazilian man on the Tube, or this latest trick.

Anti terror fetished institutional types prefer to listen to and accept the information they have been telling themselves to prepare for. That way they have a function, can avoid the real issues and just show the immigrants who is boss for once.

How on earth does such BS, that keeps leading to these ricin and manchester stadium plots that never were..... sustain and reproduce itself? What kind of heartless creatures work in these 'security' fields? When will the people strongly reject the security agenda, and these 'experts' be put on the dole where they belong..... in a place where they cannot harm the rest of us with their insame 'logic', mandarin prattleing and colonialist attitude?

Good things to come out of this?

I know that the Muslim community is wisening up and becoming bolder, and large parts of other ones in the rest of the country too. The solidarity for the victims is greater than a few years ago.

Bangladeshi Engineers resist corruption, but then get a beating, police chicken out

Deshi newsarticle

http://www.newstoday-bd.com/frontpage.asp?newsdate=5/23/2006#4393

LGED engineer assaulted Police refused to take case

SHERPUR, May 22: A government engineer, beaten by ruling party activists seven days ago, Monday moved the court as police refused to accept case, reports UNB.
Magistrate Suraiya Begum of the cognizance court after hearing the petitioner directed the OC of Nakla thana to record the case after preliminary investigation into the allegation.
Lawyers outside the court said the magistrate should have referred the case to some others for investigation as the police had already declined to accept it under political pressure.
Subhash Chandra Malakar, Assistant Engineer
of LGED of Nakla filed the case against JCD leader Tutan Chowdury and his seven or eight accomplices for beating him and his senior colleagues on May 16.
Informed sources said Tutan, brother of whip Zahed Ali Chowdhury, secured Tk 65 crore contract for construction of a bridge. Halfway of the work Tutan pressed them for illegal favour that would sustain heavy loss to the exchequer. On refusal Tutan and his accomplices beat him, executive engineer Jamal Hossain, upazila engineer Mahbubul Alam and accountant Zafarullah Bhuiyan.
Following the incident LGED engineers went on work stoppage protesting the incident.
The engineers said they were under threat on their life.

I read this story and felt a number of things. I am assuming that the reporting is representative of the truth.

1) Really pissed of at such blatant skanki-evil-criminal behaviour on the part of the contractor,, who has shamed his family and political background. I think hadd punishment would be a good idea to deter this kinda thing.
2) Thankfulness that there are some in public service who are openly resisting the corrupting influence of the powerful.
3) Amazement at the police refusal to show any backbone, maybe this is one for RAB?
4) How lacking the NGO-social engineering types are when they bleat about 'techno fixes', 'engineering lobby', 'corruption at LGED' and 'lack of public participation'. everyone is passing the buck.

In Bangladesh, engineers come under a lot of pressure to do favours for individuals. When the demands come from political types they have the power to transfer the public servant to some place far away, distressing the family. there are other ways of getting compliance as well.

When i was there last one lovely guy from the water board said 'Bangladeshe ..shodh pothe thakte onek oshubida ase' which would mean 'In Bangladesh it is very difficult to stay on the straight/true path'.

So on behalf of I , Me and Myself i would like to thank Subhash Chandra Malakar, Assistant Engineer of LGED, executive engineer Jamal Hossain, upazila engineer Mahbubul Alam and accountant Zafarullah Bhuiyan. May invisible hands come to your protection and those who show such quality as you did. May the multitudes be inspired by your stand.

Not that they would ever be reading this, but yknow, as a pathetic blog tribute which at least makes me feel better.