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Category: development

Drik’s 25th Anniversary

Published by Shahidul Alam on September 4, 2014

The dot matrix Olivetti printer was noisy. The XT computer came without a hard drive: two floppy disks uploaded the operating system. When the electricity went (as it often did), we had to reload it. Our bathroom doubled as our darkroom. A clunky metal cabinet housed our prints, slides, negatives and files. Anisur Rahman and Abu Naser Siddique were our printers; I was photographer, manager, copy editor and part-time janitor. Cheryle Yin-Lo, an Australian who had read about us in a magazine, joined as our librarian. We offered and she happily accepted a local salary.
Screenshot 2014-09-04 13.14.44
The New Internationalist Magazine in Oxford, has been a long time friend and supporter. This two page spread was put together by them to commemorate Drik’s 25th anniversary. Thanks NI.

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Not Just Another Brick In The Geopolitical Wall

Published by Shahidul Alam on July 31, 2014

By leveraging its ties with non-western powers, BRICS can check US hegemony

Ramesh Thakur

2014-08-02 , Issue 31 Volume 11

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A different worldview?BRICS leaders profess a shared vision of inclusive global growth and the rapid socio-economic transformation of their own nations. Photo: Roberto Stuckert Filho/PR
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Building blocks?The BRICS bank will give priority to loans for developing countries to finance infrastructure projects and environmentally sustainable development. Photo: Media Club South Africa
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Where will India's poor go?

Published by Shahidul Alam on May 23, 2014

?Now, we have a democratically elected totalitarian government? ? Arundhati Roy

Tahir Mehdi
Updated?about 5 hours ago
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy
IN Pakistan, apprehensions are rife about Narendra Modi?s flamboyant success. But fervent Modi supporters in the Indian middle classes prefer to place him in the economic governance arena. Dawn recently talked to renowned Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, in Delhi to explore what Modi?s rise means for India.
?The massive, steeply climbing GDP of India dropped rather suddenly and millions of middle-class people sitting in the aircraft, waiting for it to take off, suddenly found it freezing in mid-air,? says Ms Roy. ?Their exhilaration turned to panic and then into anger. Modi and his party have mopped up this anger.?

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South-South Coope Award: Reality or imagination?

Published by Shahidul Alam on October 5, 2013

M. Shahidul Islam?in Toronto

?Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority,? said Adolf Hitler?s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945). In today?s cyber world, such a strategy holds little water given that the ordinary people too have access to what is deemed as secrets by the ruling coterie.

No wonder whispers and whining have begun to echo around the world about the news that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was honoured with a ?poverty reduction award? during the UN General Assembly?s (UNGA) 68th session by the UNDP?s South-South Cooperation (SSC).

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Change the world, one photo at a time.

Published by Shahidul Alam on August 6, 2013

2013 PhotoPhilanthropy Activist Awards


A stone crasher worker. Jaflong, Sylhet, Bangladesh. January 18, 2008.?Photo: Khaled Hasan/Drik/Majority World?MWC000752

THE ACTIVIST AWARDS ? next submission period opens October 1, 2013

The PhotoPhilanthropy Activist Awards?identify outstanding work done by photographers in collaboration with nonprofit?organizations worldwide and awards prizes ranging from $2,000-$15,000. In previous years, work was submitted on behalf of 435 nonprofit organizations from 88 different countries.

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