The Spirits of 1971 and 2013
The movement that was started by a group of Bangladeshi youth at the Shahbag intersection in Dhaka on February 5, 2013, has grown tremendously. Initially there was just one podium in Shahbag. Now the youth all over the country have erected "Gonojagoran Manchas" (people's awakening podiums) in almost every sub-district of the country. The youth, led by internet savvy bloggers, have been joined by millions of ordinary people. The movement has been praised by noted intellectuals. It has also been supported by the government, even when the youth did not allow leaders of the governing political party to speak from their "Gonojagoran Manchas." The youth movement has now turned into a people's movement, and it has been coined as 'Spirit of 1971' by a section of the Bangladeshi intelligentsia/media.
Children like yours
It was Shahana's first trip abroad. Shahana was a 10th-grader at an English medium school in Dhaka, and she was part of a student exchange program that had been jointly established by her school and a partner school in New York City. Every summer, a student from her school is selected and sent to the United States to spend four weeks with the family of a student at their partner school. In return, an American student then spends four weeks in Bangladesh in the following winter.
Is Shahbag the Solution?
The rally that was started on February 5, 2013, at the Shahbag intersection in Dhaka was against the sentences that were handed down to Abdul Quader Mollah by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). The organizers and the participants of the rally felt that the sentences were too light for the crimes for which he was convicted.
The advent of 'Bangla Spring
The restless and clear-headed thinking young generation of Dhaka took to the street to vociferously protest the judgment meted out by court against one of the Jamaati leaders by the name Abdul Quader Mollah who committed crime against humanity during 1971 freedom struggle. The young generation is not happy that the culprit was given a life sentence. They wanted to see the convict, A. Quader Mollah walk the gallows.
Bangladesh's invisible minority
Babu and Arif have been friends from childhood. They went to school together, played on the same cricket team and had no secrets – except one, but only until recently. While they were out having phuchkas at a street stand somewhere in Dhaka, Arif suddenly slipped into an awkward silence for a couple of seconds.
"Babu, shon, toke amarkichubolar ache… Listen, I want to tell you something…"
"What is it, dosto?"
"I haven't been fully honest with you… Remember when I told you that I really like that girl? That wasn't quite true. It's actually her brother I like. I am gay."
Internet freedom under attack in Bangladesh
The 14-minute trailer of the movie titled "Innocence of Muslims," a movie that may or may not exist, is poorly made and outright stupid. Anyone of even modest intelligence, Muslim or not, will find it painful to watch. The trailer, produced by Egyptian-born U.S. resident Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, was initially uploaded to YouTube in July 2012. From that time until September it got the attention it deserves: none. Then, on September 8, Egyptian television host Khaled Abdallah reported on the film and showed excerpts of an Arabic version of the trailer. We all know what happened next.
Resistance to Imperialism in Bangladesh and Haiti
Following is a conversation between Anu Muhammad (an organizer with the National Committee in Bangladesh, which works against resource extraction and imperialism), two members of One Struggle (Daniel and Stephanie McMillan), plus Irtishad Ahmad and Swapan Majhi. It took place in Miami, on October 18, 2012.
Anu Muhammad: Tell me about your organization.
Stephanie McMillan: One Struggle actually started 20 years ago against the US occupation of Haiti and the forced return of the people who were leaving the Cedras regime. It first started out only focused on Haiti, and then it became a more internationally focused anti-imperialist group. And it disbanded after a while. But we recently, two years ago, decided to restart it because there was a need— and it seemed like there was a basis— to organize an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist group.
And then the Occupy movement started a year later. We didn't want to get sucked into that so much that we lost our identity and our autonomy. So we worked within it, but we didn't want to become the Occupy movement. We went there and formed an anti-capitalist caucus within Occupy in South Florida. And we also have a New York chapter starting, and people in different places who are interested.
Four of us just traveled to Haiti and met with workers organizations who are mostly garment workers, but also some agricultural workers fighting against the multinational corporations and factories and imperialist domination overall. I know you're (Anu) focused on the extraction of natural resources, like coal and natural gas, and they have a similar problem where entities like the Clinton & Bush Foundation are buying up a lot of land on the coast of Haiti to build hotels and...
AM: And it's related to President Clinton?
Daniel: Oh yeah. He's in Haiti all the time. It's an outgrowth of the Clinton Global Initiative.
AM: So they are very interested in tourism?
D: Oh yeah. Very interested in tourism and the sweatshops. AM: Because that "helps people"… (laughter)
D: I usually say after a hundred years of help, if we are in this situation, we don't need that help. (laughter)
D: We're still in the same, or worse situation than we were about 100 years ago, based on the occupation, so there is no reason we need that help. And also they just gave a contract to the Prince Charles Foundation to basically rebuild Port-au-Prince, which is the capital of Haiti. And again the Clinton Foundation is involved. So, what they are trying to do is to move all the popular masses outside the capital. So they have the center city Port-au-Prince to for businesses, tourism, and so on. They are trying to displace the masses and put them in the countryside.
AM: This must be being publicized as a huge development effort for the people of Haiti.