Watching the watchmen watch the lamppost

On 5 July, 17 people under the banner of an organisation called Lamppost gathered in front of the Indian High Commission to protest the Tipaimukh dam.  Evidently, a scuffle with the police ensued, and two people were arrested.

Let’s see how our media covered the news.  At least one of the reports below is outright false.  Maybe all of them are.  The truth doesn’t seem to be something that exists in today’s Bangladesh.

On Tipaimukh 2

A week ago, in my first post on Tipaimukh, I made two points.  First, as a downstream country, the dam will affect Bangladesh.  Second, India has clear obligations to Bangladesh — legal, political, and moral obligations — on this issue that it is not meeting.  I concluded that post with this:

India itself is downstream from rivers originating in China, and is vulnerable to the same practice that it is inflicting on us.  India can be reminded of this politely, but firmly.  And if the bilateral effort doesn’t go far, this must be raised at multilateral fora.

In this post I make two more points.

• Our political parties, on balance, are doing well on this issue.
• As concerned citizens, there is a lot we can do.

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).

Election related activism

With comrades from Drishtipat, I worked in a number of projects before and after the election. Some of these are linked over the fold.

Back to blogging

To be sure, I didn’t quite stop blogging. I’ve linked my UV posts below. I was also involved with some other election related activities (posted, when appropriate). I’ll also do a second instalment of random Dhaka ramblings. After that, regular posts will commence.

Notes from a Conference

I represented Drishtipat in a conference titled ‘Changing Asia: forging partnerships, building sustainability’ held in Manila on 29-30 Aug. The Conference was held by the Asia Forum to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Magsaysay Award, and more details are available here. Other representatives from Bangladesh were: the Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman; Father Richard Timm of Human Rights Hotline; and Sharif Kafi of another NGO.

In what follows, I summarise the Conference proceedings, and where appropriate, my take on things.

(More at UV)

DP Challenge 2008

Robust economic growth is essential in promoting human rights and social development.  As such, Drishtipat announced the beginning of the Drishtipat Challenge 2008 in February.   Through this business development Challenge, now entering its second year, Drishtipat seeks to create employment opportunities by funding promising small businesses.