United in grief, united in seeking justice

Asif writes in UV:

Never thought we have to revisit mass grave in independent Bangladesh. But yet mass graves, cold blooded murder of innocent army officers, civilians, families, elderly couple, pregnant women are revisiting us. We mourn our loss. We offer silent prayers in solidarity with the families and their loved ones. There is no word to describe how we feel. 

With the help from a lot of people in Dhaka, UV ran live updates of the crisis as it unfolded.  For those of us involved in that effort, emotions went from ‘what’s going on’ and ‘who’s in charge’ to ‘how could this happen’ to a sense of numbness as the full extent of what happened started becoming clear. 

There will be a lot of time for analysis, and this blog (and allies) promise to do our part.  But today we mourn.  Today we believe: … ঐ দিন কারোর প্রতি অন্যায় করা হবে না, আর প্রতিফল হবে ঠিক তার যা তুমি করেছ …  (The Quran, 36:54).

Do best pictures really win?

Dear reader, these are difficult times.  The global economy is facing the severest slump in generations, while Bangladesh has been rocked by renewed Islamist militancy.   Bad news are all around us, and things will probably get worse before they get better.  All the more reason then that we take a break from the doom and gloom and set off to the movies. 

Well, not quite off to the movies literally, but let’s ask a question that’s different from the usual topics in these pages.  The Academy Awards, Oscar, are upon us.  Slumdog Millionaire is the odds on favourite.  But is that the best movie of the year?  How often does the year’s best picture actually win the Oscar?  Put differently, how does posteriority treat an Oscar winner?  And what’s the metric of ‘best’ anyway? 

These questions come up every year.  You see, Oscar, like the Nobel for subjects other than natural sciences, or the Man Booker or Pultizer, involves a lot of politicking and lobbying and broader socio-cultural trends.  With the ’emergence of India’ being a favourite talking point of the global cognoscenti, it may not be all that surprising that Slumdog will win the Oscar, just as it may not have been surprising to see Arvind Adiga’s White Tiger win last year’s Booker.  More about the book some other time, but is Slumdog the best movie of 2008?  Let’s be more specific, was it the best movie available to the general filmgoing public in the Anglophone world in 2008? 

The turnout debate and other election irregularities

If it is possible to change the results of one polling centre after the ballot count, it puts a question on the whole system.

…দেশে-বিদেশে প্রশংসিত একটি নির্বাচনকে … হঠাত করে প্রশ্নবিদ্ধ করার চেষ্টা হচ্ছে, তার তদন্ত হওয়া দরকার ।

….যদি উল্লিখিত কেন্দ্রে মোট ভোটারের চেয়েও অতিরিক্ত ভোটার ভোট প্রদান সম্ভব হয়ে থাকে তাহলে দেশের বাকি কেন্দ্র গুলোতেও এ জাতীয় ভোজবাজির ঘটনা যে ঘটেনি তার নিশ্চয়তা কোথায়?

The first quote is from a series by yours truly and Syeed Ahamed before the 29 Dec election.  The quote is from this piece.  The overall series is available here.  The second quote is from an article published in Daily Amar Desh on 17 Dec 2008, after our analysis led to investigative reporting by Prothom Alo.  The last quote is from Mr Mahmudur Rahman, who owns Amar Desh and was among other things a major campaign strategist for BNP during the Dec 2008 election.  He wrote this as part of a series of ‘post game analysis’ of why BNP lost.  The quote is from this article.  The series ran in the Daily Naya Diganta throughout January. 

Mr Rahman’s central thesis is that high voter turnout, 89 per cent nationally, is an evidence of serious irregularities in this election.  By way of comparison, turnouts were around 75% in 1996 and 2001, and ranged 50-55% in previous elections, including in those of 1970 and 1991.  I contend that Mahmud Sahib, and other BNP supporters parroting that line,  is very likely to be wrong in the turnout debate.  I also speculate on whether there might have been other irregularities that BNP doesn’t want to talk about, but if true deserves broader discussion.

Random Dhaka ramblings 2

I intended to write weekly posts during my time in Dhaka.  Obviously that didn’t happen.  Over the fold, mainly for archival purposes, some random thoughts that I could have blogged.