Paraguay’s Man of God and Politics

Earlier we know that the Bank of South is formed in Latin America to get rid of the IMF of World Bank. Thats a great news so far as the unity of South American countries are concerned against capitalist west. Here is an wonderful interview of Chomsky.

Marxist.com reports on Fernando lugo:

...A self-confessed "Bishop of the Poor," Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez is a former Roman Catholic priest of 30 years. He will be sworn in as President 31 years to the day of his ordination, which he had to renounce on January 11th 2005 before he could, in his own words, collaborate in "the search for solutions to the country's problems."...


in Wikipedia

The Nigerian judiciary and electoral fraud

In Nigeria last year, again there was fraud on a grand scale, in fact on a scale never seen in the past. The leaders of the western powers may fool themselves that there is real democracy in Nigeria or, to put it better they fool the general public that that is so. The masses in Nigeria know full well that the elections were not fair. They know that there was blatant fraud, stealing of ballot boxes, falsification of results, physical threats and even murder.

Full article at: marxist.com

60 Jumma Houses Burnt Down In Sajek

ILLEGAL Bengali settlers backed by a strong contingent of army personnel have burnt down at least 60 Jumma houses in four villages under Sajek Union of Rangamati district. Many Jummas are reported to have been wounded and women raped during the attack that began at 9:45 p.m. on 20 April. Details of the incident are yet to come.

Sources said tension had been mounting in the area since the settlers began constructing houses in March after grabbing Jumma people's lands.

Sensing an impending attack, the Jummas, 50 - 60 of them, gathered at a point of the village to defend themselves. This somehow leaked to the army who went up to them and asked them not to worry. "Since we are here, nothing will happen and settlers will not attack you" an RP Habilder, Harun, was reported to have told the Jummas.

The CO (Commanding Officer) of Baghaihat zone was also present there. However, he did not speak to the Jummas.

While the army engaged the Jummas in talks, a group of Bengali settlers mounted an attack on four Jumma villages namely Gangaram Mukh, Simana Chara, Purbo Para and Baibachara.

They torched the houses, beat up whomever they caught hold of and raped the Jumma girls and women. However, details as to how any have been raped and wounded could not be known immediately.

The Hill Students Council, a front organisation of the United People's Democratic Front, will hold a demonstration in Dhaka later in the day, today, in protest against the barbarous Sajek settler attack.

April 21, 2008

Rail line links London with Bangladesh

RAIL enthusiasts with a sense of adventure and 23 days to spare will be able to travel by train from London to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, when a new link opens later this year and it would be the longest rail route of the world longer than the trans-siberian one. Times Online reports:

"...The 7,000-mile Trans-Asia railway will follow one of the old Silk Roads through Istanbul, Tehran, Lahore and Delhi....The UN said the link would open up new trade routes within Asia and give the former Soviet republics of central Asia rail access to Iran’s strategic sea port at Bandar Abbas on the Gulf....."

Politics is the price of rice

Here is an excellent article by Rahnuma Ahmed published in New Age April 14,2008:

Recently, the chief adviser, in the light of accusations of poor food distribution, said shortages occur even in countries which have elected governments. Of course they do. That is not the point. The new system of corruption is individualistic, sector-oriented, and technocrat-elitist. It is not tied to constituencies and vote banks which have a nationwide spread, albeit with party lines of exclusion and inclusion. The new system is an introverted one. When it comes to food and other resources, the distribution is random. It is queue-oriented, linear. It does not encompass. Its reach is limited. Most are left out, 
writes Rahnuma Ahmed*

BHAT dey haramjada (Give rice, you bastard) – screamed the graffiti on a wall. It had stunned pedestrians in Dhaka. This was 1974.


In early March, six months before the famine had reached its peak, news of starvation deaths could be heard. Two to three months later, they had become common enough. Occasionally, dead bodies could be seen lying on the street. What had caused the famine of 1974? Amartya Sen, a Nobel Laureate, says that it was a reduction in the ability of people to command food through legal means available in society – in their entitlements to food – that led to the famine. Food crisis, says Sen, is caused not by food shortage but by the shortage of income and purchasing power. On a person’s ability to command commodities, particularly food, under entitlement relations. Starvation and famine are not only economic, says Sen. These are multi-dimensional subjects, they include social, political and legal issues. If groups of people lack purchasing power they can starve, even though markets are well-stocked. Even though food prices are low.


What had caused the famine of 1974? For Devinder Sharma, it was the US government’s decision to withhold 2.2 million tonnes of food aid that was at fault. The US government had wanted to ensure that the Mujib regime ‘abandoned plans to try Pakistani war criminals’. When the Bangladesh finance minister had called upon the US secretary of state, in August 1973, to appeal for food aid, the latter had advised the speedy settlement of disputes with Pakistan. Referring to Bangladesh government’s proposal of ‘war crimes’ trials of the Pakistan army, he had said it was ‘not good to have such trials’. ‘Humanity’ had never learned from war crimes trials, he said. Of course, the Americans had good reasons for saying so. The US ex-secretary of state Henry Kissinger’s name had repeatedly come up. War objectors had demanded that he be tried for US massacres in Vietnam, for America’s role in Bangladesh’s liberation war. That humanity never learns is best exemplified by the US and its allies. Pakistan. Israel. Humanity never learns unless, of course, the criminals are Nazis or Serbians.


But that is not the end of ‘famine is a political weapon’ for the US story. Pressure on the Mujib government returned. In 1974, the US ambassador said no food aid would be given to Bangladesh if it exported jute to Cuba. The Mujib government gave in to US pressure. Jute exports to Cuba were stopped, but by the time food shipments reached, it was too late. Most famine victims had succumbed.


Were there other causes? Some researchers say successive natural disasters, floods and droughts had prefaced the food crisis. Others mention the Awami League government’s lack of foresight in importing foods. In directing subsidised food to the politically vocal urban population, at horrific costs to far poorer rural people. Others stress political and administrative corruption which had encouraged massive hoarding, and the smuggling of food-grains. Many others say it was the gross mismanagement of the economy.


Why do I rehearse these instances from history? Because there are lessons to be learnt. Because it is not enough for either the chief adviser, his advisers, or the army chief to repeatedly say there is no shortage of rice, the markets are well-stocked, more rice is being imported, it will reach soon. Simplistic reasoning, simplistic assertions are not enough. There have been too many famines, too many deaths. Each death was one too many. We must learn from history. That lessons are not being learnt is obvious from what is being said. From the little that is being done. The rice queues keep getting longer.


In 1974 too, world food prices had risen. But the situation is far more grave now. Hard-hit consumers across the globe are protesting. Mexicans rioted in December 2007. Tortilla prices had jumped up; in some parts of Mexico, it was four times higher. In Indonesia, people have protested against the rise in soybean prices. In Burkina Faso, protestors attacked government offices and shops. Demonstrations have also taken place in Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Yemen. Severe weather, rising population, rapid increases in demand for food grain (China, India), speculation in commodity markets are listed as reasons. Also, a growing trend to turn food into fuel. Four hundred and fifty pounds of maize can be converted into enough ethanol to fill the 25-gallon tank of an SUV with pure ethanol at one time. Or it can be used to provide enough calories to feed one person for a year. The competition between food and fuel is encouraged by governmental subsidies given to biofuel in western countries. In non-western nations, that those hardest hit should be provided with income support to help them purchase food is something all concerned agree upon. Simultaneously, it is agreed that governments should increase their investments in agriculture in order to improve agricultural productivity.


The situation in Bangladesh is made peculiar because of its rule by a caretaker government. Because of the fifteen-month-long state of emergency. Recently, the chief adviser, in the light of accusations of poor food distribution, said shortages occur even in countries which have elected governments. Of course they do. That is not the point. The new system of corruption is individualistic, sector-oriented, and technocrat-elitist. It is not tied to constituencies and vote banks which have a nationwide spread, albeit with party lines of exclusion and inclusion. The new system is an introverted one. When it comes to food and other resources, the distribution is random. It is queue-oriented, linear. It does not encompass. Its reach is limited. Most are left out.
 


The army chief’s versatile kitchen


The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, had said, on a visit to Chelopara in Bogra, Bangladeshis should increase the intake of potato in their daily diet. ‘We should not depend only on rice. Of course, we will eat rice but we must increase the intake of potato.’ That will reduce the food crisis, specially the pressure on rice. Potato yields this year have been very high.


A few days later, General Moeen invited the country’s leading editors to the army headquarters. The meeting was followed by a lunch where nine potato dishes were served with plain rice, fresh salad, fried ruhi fish. The potato-based dishes were: potato country curry, potato malai curry, potato noborotno curry, potato pudina curry, potato roller gravy, potato kofta curry, potato pulse curry, potato shak (spinach) curry. (Jaijaidin, April 9, 2008).


The list only proves that the army chief has versatile cooks, a versatile kitchen. But that was never in doubt. Just as his promotion, or his extension was never in doubt.
 


Street humour


The language of the streets is different from the language of those who rule the land. Emergency restrictions, and the intolerable food crisis has generated jokes that comprise a secret language of sorts between common people. Food jokes, queue jokes have been common elsewhere too.

Such as this one.

A man is queuing for food in Moscow. Finally he’s had enough. He turns round to his friend and says, ‘That’s it. I’m going to kill that Gorbachev,’ and marches off.

Two hours later he comes back. ‘Well,’ says the friend, ‘did you do it?’ ‘No,’ replies the other, ‘there was an even longer queue over there.’


A recent joke, overheard by a friend in Muktagaccha, between two rickshawallas:


So, shorkar says, we have to eat more potatoes. What do you say?


Well, get those high-talking advisers over, have rice, chaff, flour, and potatoes in charis (cattle troughs), let’s see what they eat. I’ll eat what they eat.


Nine types of any food would fill a rickshawalla’s stomach.

*Rahnuma Ahmed is an Anthropologist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She can be reached at: rahnuma@drik.net

Maoists Celebrate Victory in Nepal

It had been a historical election in Nepal help this month accoladed by the international delegates. Blog Nepal reports:

...The Maoist’s success has demonstrated the brilliant combination of bullet and ballot to rise to the power. Chairman Prachanda will be cited as an example of success in world communist movement. His challenge: turn the flowery promises into reality....

Links and Notes

Here are the links of some You Tube videos relating to the genocides of 1971 by the Pakistani army:

Bangladesh Genocide 1971 : Jogannath Hall, Dhaka University Massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMg9Ly9nK0g&feature=related

Bangladesh Genocide 1971: Khulna Massacres

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z6SgETOjug&feature=related

Bangladesh Genocide 1971: Rape Victims

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwPbkyZVJo&feature=related

Protecting Pakistan's Hindus

Guardian reports on the state of condition of the minority hindu in Pakistan:

...Pakistan, according to many accounts, was founded as a way to protect the rights and existence of the minority Muslim population of Colonial India in the face of the larger Hindu majority. Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, is reported to have said in 1947: "In due course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims - not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual- but in a political sense as citizens of one state." It is therefore a travesty of Pakistan's own founding principles that its Hindus - and not to exclude Christians and Ahmadis - have suffered so grossly...

When schools ‘teach' untouchability

In Gujrat, India still the teachers are practicing discriminition towards the untouchables unabashedly. DNA correspondent report:

...In village schools of Gujarat, SC children are forced to sit at the back, actively discouraged from participating in class activities, and even subjected to food and water taboos.....Dalit teachers and cooks are never allowed to serve food during the mid-day-meals to kids. Whenever Dalit cooks serve food, only Dalit children eat their mid-day meal...

Scientists find a fingerprint of evolution across the human genome

[I was first introduced to the Human Genome Project while preparing my Undergrad project]
Splicing exerts selective pressure on DNA sequence

The Human Genome Project revealed that only a small fraction of the 3 billion “letter” DNA code actually instructs cells to manufacture proteins, the workhorses of most life processes. This has raised the question of what the remaining part of the human genome does. How much of the rest performs other biological functions, and how much is merely residue of prior genetic events"

Scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the University of Chicago now report that one of the steps in turning genetic information into proteins leaves genetic fingerprints, even on regions of the DNA that are not involved in coding for the final protein. They estimate that such fingerprints affect at least a third of the genome, suggesting that while most DNA does not code for proteins, much of it is nonetheless biologically important – important enough, that is, to persist during evolution.

Conservation of genetic information

To gauge how critical a particular stretch of DNA is, biologists often look at the detailed sequence of “letters” it consists of, and compare it with a corresponding stretch in related creatures like mice. If the stretch serves no purpose, the thinking goes, the two sequences will differ because of numerous mutations since the two species last shared an ancestor. In contrast, it’s believed that the sequences of important genes will be similar, or “conserved,” in different species, because animals with mutations in these genes did not survive. Biologists therefore regard conserved sequences as a sign of biological importance.

To test for conservation, researchers need to find matching stretches in the two species. This is relatively easy for stretches that “code” for proteins, where scientists long ago learned the meaning of the sequence. For “noncoding” regions, however, the comparison is often ambiguous. Even within a gene, stretches of DNA that code for pieces of the target protein are usually interspersed with much larger noncoding stretches, called introns, that are removed from the RNA working copy of the DNA before the protein is made.

Signs of splicing

Previous researchers assumed that mutations in the middle of introns do not affect the final protein, so they simply accumulate. In the new work, however, the researchers found signs that evolution rejects some types of mutations even in these regions of the genome. Although the selection is weak, “introns are not neutral,” in their effect on survival, says CSHL professor Michael Zhang, a bioinformatics expert who headed the research team.

To look for selection, CSHL researcher Chaolin Zhang, a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University, looked in the human genome for a subtle statistical imbalance in how often various “letters” appear. The researchers attribute this imbalance to special short stretches of DNA that mark regions to be removed. Unless these signal sequences are sprinkled throughout an intron, the data suggest, it may not be properly spliced out, with potentially fatal consequences. Other sequences must likewise be preserved in the regions to be retained.

The scientists found a preference for some “letters” across intron regions, and the opposite preference in coding regions. Together, these regions make up at least a third of the genome, which is thus under selective pressure during evolution. The result supports other recent studies that suggest that, although most DNA does not code for proteins, much of it is nonetheless biologically important.

In addition to demonstrating how splicing affects genetic evolution, the statistical analysis identified possible signaling sequences, some that were already known and others that are new. According to co-author Adrian Krainer, a CSHL professor and splicing expert, “the exciting thing will be to experimentally test whether these predicted elements are really true.”

###

“RNA landscape of evolution for optimal exon and intron discrimination” appears in the April 15, 2008 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The complete citation is as follows: Chaolin Zhang, Wen-Hsiung Li, Adrian R. Krainer, and Michael Q. Zhang. The paper is available online at http://www.pnas.org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0801692105.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, nonprofit research and education institution dedicated to exploring molecular biology and genetics in order to advance the understanding and ability to diagnose and treat cancers, neurological diseases, and other causes of human suffering.

For more information, visit www.cshl.edu.

Source : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/cshl-sfa040808.php

Flowers' Fragrance Diminishing by Pollution

A University of Virginia study indicates that continuous air pollution causes the scent molecules to travel less distance and as result the insects can not follow the scent trail and pollination rate diminishes. Science Daily reports:

..."The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters," said Jose D. Fuentes, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a co-author of the study. "This makes it increasingly difficult for pollinators to locate the flowers."...

Olympics and Politics

While China claims that Dalai Lama and his allies are trying to destroy Olympics Dalai Lama supports olympics in China and agrees to be present at the event if China invites as khaleejtimes says:

"If China invites him, he can attend the Beijing Olympics, but under one condition, that is there must be a relaxation of suppression in Tibet,” Prime Minister Samdong Rinpoche said in Dharamsala, the exiled government’s base in north India.

According to Reuters:

"It is really deserving for the Chinese people to host the Olympic Games," he told reporters in Japan. "(Despite) the recent unfortunate event in Tibet, my position won't change."

Islamist protest in Bangladesh

Islamist organizations in Bangladesh protests against the Women Development Policy of the current Govt. Reuters said:

...Hundreds of members of a group campaigning for Islamic rule in Bangladesh clashed with police on Friday over a plan to give women equal inheritance rights...

Local daily Shamakal and Daily Star also make report.

Java No longer Free

After years of offering Java for free, Sun Microsystems introduced a new model to the Java line that is fee-based, says internetnews.com.

While all the old editions will remain, for enterprises looking for extra support, there is now the Java Platform Standard Edition for Business.

This product subscription platform is designed to offer more than double the time Sun will offer support for each platform release, provide faster access to technology updates and fixes and offer enterprise deployment features for customers.

Biman Hijacked!!!

A plane of a Bangladesh Airlines(Probably GMG airlines) plane made an emergency landing at Bangkok. The news says it was suspected to be hijacked.
links to the news 1 2

At least its a joke, bad joke.

On Minority

I had done a small research work on the minority conditions in India and Bangladesh. During that time I found the former Prime Minister of India, Mr. Rao to have silently supported the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Two Circles.net reports:

...Addressing a press conference on 3rd April in the capital, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ashok Singhal made sensational disclosure. He said Rao had information about the demolition and he had asked the then-RSS chief Bala Saheb Deoras to inform him about the actual act of demolition at least a day before. Babri Masjid was demolished on 6th December 1992 by thousands of Hindu fanatics while police and civil administration remained mute spectator...

A review of Minority in Pakistan by Daily Times:

...Out of Karachi's total Hindu population of 9,000, the merchant class dominated...The non-Muslims of Pakistan have had a raw deal since 1947 when they decided to remain in the new state...Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis have been short-changed by the Pakistan Muslim League on a moderate programme; the party succumbed to the hardline religious politics of the very clerics who had opposed the idea of Pakistan...The state got out of hand after 1947 and threatened the non-Muslims, and then gradually journeyed towards eating its own children

Daily Notes

BJP declares to abandon the minority welfare policies taken by current Indian Government in order to consolidate their Hindu vote bank. Times of India says :

Party president Rajnath Singh, in an interview to a news agency, said the BJP would withdraw all minority-appeasement policies of the UPA government...He said his party believed in providing equal opportunity to all sections of society, especially to the economically backward among all communities..."If NDA comes to power, we will cancel all schemes announced by UPA government on the basis of religion," Singh said.

This is revealing the fundamentalist nature of the party.

Srilanka watch reports another minority leader has been assassinated in Srilanka today by LTTE.

Dr. Julia Ljubimova found that air pollution may cause serious brain damage. Last night I was reading a comprehension on the diseased that is created by the enormous stress that the astronauts undergo during their space travels.

The daily times reports that more than 50 rivers of Philipines are endangered due to the pollution.

...Fifty rivers in the Philippines have been destroyed because people are using them to dump their rubbish, leaving some ecologically dead, an official said Wednesday.

Some days ago when I was reading some parts of the book "Power and Terror" I found Turkey to be a great ally of USA and how USA tolerates the crimes or state terrors of Turkey. Have a look:
....It has become a matter of dogma for the foreign policy establishment and much of the American media that Turkey is a "secular democracy". On the basis of strategic considerations and mythical views about the alleged moderation of Turkey, the Western world has stood by and tolerated acts of terror and violence against peaceful Christian communities that would have been denounced and opposed had they occurred elsewhere...