It’s past midnight now, I took a shower after returning home but it refuses to go away.
I can smell it on my wet hair as strands blow over my face while the fan whirs above. I can smell it on my nightwear and, as I rest my chin on my clasped hands, I can smell the stench of rotting corpses and bloated bodies which stretches from Rana Plaza to Adhar Chandra school grounds in Savar ? rise up from my fingers.
It has not only come home with me, all that scrubbing as I showered has proven to be of little use.
It is not the dead workers who are to be blamed. The stench rises from, as Vijay Prasad puts it, the terror of capitalism. Volunteers looking for corpses. Rana Plaza. Savar. Photo: K M. Asad Continue reading “MASS MURDER AT SAVAR”
Kazi Azizul from Linkedin group:?Bangladesh Business Discussion
Latest count 261 dead, 371 missing. bdnews24.com 4:00 am GMT. Workers killed in Rana Plaza in Savar, Bangladesh, embrace in death. Photo Taslima Akhter
Wednesday, 24 Apri: The Clean Clothes Campaign, along with trade unions and labour rights organisations in Bangladesh and around the world is calling for immediate action from international brands following today’s collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Savar, in Dhaka Bangladesh. The collapse of the eight story building, covering three factories and a mall, cost the lives of at least 82 people and injured over 800. Wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo K M Asad Wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Monirul Islam
Activists today managed to enter the ruins of ‘Rana Plaza’ and found labels linking major European retailers to this latest tragedy: Spanish high street brand Mango and British Primark. Rana Plaza also produced for a host of well known European and US brand names including C&A, KIK and Wal-Mart. These brands were also involved in the fire at the Tazreen factory, not far from Savar, where 112 workers died in a fire exactly five months ago. German costcutter KIK was also involved in the Ali Enterprises fire in Pakistan, where nearly 300 workers burned to death last September. Blackboard lists number of dead and missing at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Taslima Akhter Uncontrollable grief of survivors at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Taslima Akhter Woman grieves over a body at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo K M Asad Survivors grieve at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo K M Asad
The killed and injured workers were producing garments for when their factory ? with allegedly illegally built floors – suddenly gave way with a loud sound, leaving only the ground floor intact. This latest collapse provides yet further evidence that voluntary company led monitoring has failed to protect workers? lives. Labour rights groups say unnecessary deaths will continue unless and until brands and government officials agree to an independent and binding fire and building safety program. Shocked onlookers at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo K M Asad Hundreds of people gather at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo K M Asad
?It’s unbelievable that brands still refuse to sign a binding agreement with unions and labour groups to stop these unsafe working conditions from existing. Tragedy after tragedy shows that corporate-controlled monitoring is completely inadequate,? says Tessel Pauli from Clean Clothes Campaign. Bodies being excavated at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo K M Asad
She adds: ?Right now the families of the victims are grieving and the community is in shock. But they, and the hundreds injured in the collapse, are without income and without support. Immediate relief and longterm compensation must be provided by the brands who were sourcing from these factories, and responsibility taken for their lack of action to prevent this happening.? Survivors searching for loved ones at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Taslima Akhter Survivors being taken for medical care at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Taslima Akhter Survivor in shock being given water at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Taslima Akhter
Makeshift medical centre at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Taslima Akhter
To stop these collapses from happening, the Clean Clothes Campaign calls upon brands sourcing from Bangladesh to sign on to the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement immediately. The CCC, together with local and global unions and labour rights organisations has developed a sector-wide program for action that includes independent building inspections, worker rights training, public disclosure and a long-overdue review of safety standards. It is transparent as well as practical, and unique in being supported by all key labour stakeholders in Bangladesh and internationally. A woman searches for missing family members at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo K M Asad
The agreement was already signed last year by the US company PVH Corp (owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) and the German retailer Tchibo. The labour signatories are now calling on all major brands sourcing in the industry to sign on to the initiative in order to ensure its rapid implementation. The programme has the potential to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers currently at risk in unsafe and illegally built factories. The price of greed. A dismembered hand at wreckage of Rana Plaza, a building which collapsed on 24th April in Savar Bangladesh, killing many. Photo Monirul Islam
CCC has been campaigning on safety issues in Bangladesh since the collapse of the Spectrum factory in 2005, which left 64 people dead and involved high street brand Zara.
Dhaka, Bangladesh. April 24, 2013 [DrikNEWS] – At least 100 garments workers have been found dead and 600 others injured as an 8-storied building, Rana Plaza, collapsed in Savar bus-stand area of Dhaka on Wednesday morning. Four garments factories and a bank branch located in the complex were closed on Tuesday after the building?s wall showed cracks. However, some workers returned to factories on Wednesday before the collapse. The injured workers of the Rana Plaza collapse alleged that they had been compelled to join work Wednesday. They also alleged that garments authorities forced them to enter the risky building on Tuesday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is closely observing the incident and ordered three unit of Army instantly to start rescue mission.
NEW DELHI ? An eight-story building in Bangladesh that housed several garment factories collapsed on Wednesday morning, killing at least 70 people, injuring hundreds of others, and leaving an unknown number of people trapped in the rubble, according to Bangladeshi officials and media outlets. Continue reading “Bangladesh Building Collapse Kills at Least 70”
Local residents help firefighters battle the deadly factory blaze at Smart Exports, Mohammadpur, Dhaka, January 26, 2013 ?AP Josna, isn’t Josna feeling cold?
I didn’t know what to say as I sat beside Josna’s mother on the curb, outside the Emergency department of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). It was slightly chilly, the last cold wave of January was making its appearance felt.
The breeze seemed to blow away her words, but only as far as outside appearances went. They clung to the inner recesses of my mind.
I shivered, but not because of the cold. Josna, 16 years old, a garment factory worker at Smart Exports in Mohammadpur Beribadh area, was lying cold, on a metal trolley inside the morgue. Continue reading “Eating up children”
Monica Jahan Bose and the women of Katakhali Photo Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
“Her Words: Storytelling with Saris” is a collaborative printmaking and story project celebrating the achievement of literacy by women in the remote island community of Katakhali, Bangladesh, which is my ancestral village and part of an eco-project coordinated by Samhati, an organization of Bangladeshi women. These women all lost their homes in recent cyclones and have been working with Samhati to rebuild their lives. I will collaborate with 12 women to: create 24 woodblock prints on sari fabric using words the women have learned along with designs and images; have them write their own stories; record their oral histories and take portrait photos of them wearing the saris; and document the project through photo and video. Each woman will keep one sari to wear as a statement of her achievement, and the remaining folio of 12 sari prints will be brought back to the US to be exhibited. Photo Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority WorldContinue reading “"Her Words: Storytelling with Saris"”
From?Bangladesh,?Cuba,?Turkey,?United Kingdom Open-eared and well-travelled world/jazz fusion
The music of Lokkhi Terra isn’t for those who don’t travel well, while those with strong wanderlust in their bones are advised to strap themselves in. The sound of this London-based, multi-membered collective zigzags all over the map. Their point of departure appears to be jazz fusion, but from here they touch down in the streets of Bangladesh, the Afrobeat clubs of Nigeria, the cantinas of Cuba and the beaches of Brazil. Such eclecticism might suggest a disjointed jumble, a sound dreamed up by committee. But in Lokkhi Terra’s care, it all makes utter and perfect sense, a seamless collage of some of the best noises this planet’s ever made. And they’re a bunch keen on album titles that sum up their modus operandi. Last year’s No Visa Required emphasised their border-busting sound, while their forthcoming record also gives a hint of their influences and inspirations: it’s called Che Guevara’s Rickshaw Diaries.
(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011)
They have all performed around the world at venues such as Ronnie Scotts, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the House of Commons, Glastonbury and at Womad.? They were one of the critics? choices at this year?s Womad festival in the UK, and was the band chosen to perform at the closing ceremony of the South Asian Games 2010.
Lokkhi Terra?s two albums?No Visa Required,?and?Che Guevara?s Rickshaw Diaries, received much critical acclaim around the world.
The combined sonic forces usually transform a quiet room into one which has people clapping and swaying within minutes and Khan is hoping for a similar reaction in India. Times of India. Lokkhi Terra will be playing?23rd of January at Blue Frog Delhi and on the 24th January at Blue Frog Mumbai.
Lokkhi Terra is led by the Bangladeshi Kishon Khan Kisho Khan?Pianist/Composer/Arranger/Producer
Here is what people have said about him:
?Kishon Khan leant back from his keyboards with the glee of a man driving a super-car, and played as if distilling the entire 1970s work of Herbie Hancock into a high-octane drive in the country, as congas bounced and brass slid around him…? FT.com
?A formidable jazz pianist? Simon Broughton, Evening Standard
? Highly innovative, a key figure in the British Bangla-Afro-Cuban-Jazz circle? Agogo Records
?Exceptional? ? Movimientos
Kishon Khan is a classically trained pianist, born in Bangladesh, and brought up and living in London. He is widely regarded as one of the most versatile players on the scene today ? sessioning across the genres whilst also being at the heart of some of London?s most critically acclaimed bands. He has lived, studied and worked in countries a far afield as Cuba, Brazil, South Africa, and of course Bangladesh, and this is reflected in the diversity of his musical works/collaborations.
Lokkhi Terra is developing the theme music for Chobi Mela VII, the international festival of photography, held in Dhaka.
———
The year sadly ended with the attack at Ramu, the devastating fire at Tazreen Fashions and the brutal assassination in broad daylight of Biswajit Das. While both parties wax lyrical on their successes at the talk shows, the real heroes of Bangladesh continue to be the farmer in the field, the migrant workers and the garment workers who pay for the lavish lifestyles of the Tri State residents of Gulshan, Baridhara and Banani. Let’s take time to remember some of the other Bangladeshis who have made us proud. Some of them young like the choreographer Akram Khan and the writer Tahmima Anam the cricketer Shakib Al Hasan, the educationist Salman Khan and others more senior like the elephant in the room whom we are not allowed to mention, Muhammad Yunus.
Please Retweet #bangladesh #muhammadyunus #tahminaanam #akramkhan #shakibalhasan #salm
While the real heroes of Bangladesh have consistently been our farmers, our migrant workers and our garment workers, they are rarely celebrated. There have been significant other achievements in 2012. Bangladeshi photographers continue to excel and I have not singled out any individual achievement.
Please feel free to provide links to other achivements which I have surely missed out.
Photo ? Palash Khan /?http://www.palashkhan.com
Dhaka 03 June 2012. Bangladeshi mountaineer Nishat Majumder poses after arriving at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on June 3, 2012, following her successful ascent of Mount Everest. Majumder became the first Bangladeshi woman to climb the highest peak of the world. Photo by Palash Khan
——–
One of the most influential structural engineers of the 20th Century
You may readily recognize some his most famous works as a structural design engineer: the John Hancock Center building in Chicago; Chicago?s Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower); the Hajj Terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. In his short lifetime, Fazlur Khan, perhaps more than any other individual, combined his love for structural engineering, architecture and art to usher in a revolution in skyscraper construction during the second half of the twentieth century, making it possible for people to live and work in ?cities in the sky.?
————- “Rehman Sobhan receives ‘BDI Lifetime Achievement Award” Lovlu Ansar from New York Professor Rehman Sobhan
New York, Dec 24 (bdnews24.com)?The Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI), a New York-based research and advocacy group based, on Monday named Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), for the ‘2012 BDI Lifetime Achievement Award’.
The award is designed to ‘honour outstanding individuals who, through their scholarly and/or policy and civic engagements, have contributed significantly to understanding the challenges, and pursuing the ideals that would lead to the development of Bangladesh and improving the quality of life for its citizens’.
—— Bangladesh wins the Earth Care Award 2012 for LDCF adaptation project
The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) of Bangladesh won the Earth Care Award 2012 (sponsored by the Times of India) for spearheading the??Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF)??(LDCF) project ?Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change through Coastal Afforestation in Bangladesh?. This year?s Earth Care Awards category was “Community-based adaptation and mitigation”.
The LDCF- funded project has a strong community-based adaptation component and has benefited 18,269 households by involving them in afforestation, agriculture, livestock, and fishery-based livelihood adaptation.
—–
Wasfia Nazreen?from Bangladesh and our 2 climbing Sherpa (Ngima Grimen Sherpa?and?Da Kusang Sherpa) had successfully summit Mt. Everest at 6:26 AM on 26 May 2012. This Expedition was organized by Expedition Himalaya. We express our congratulation to all the summit members and crew.
Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah have led by example in the absence of Bangladesh’s most vital player, Shakib Al Hasan
Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah played important roles in Bangladesh’s win in the deciding ODI in Mirpur?? AFP
Bangladesh captain?Mushfiqur Rahim?and his deputyMahmudullah?have taken the long overdue steps from being occasional match-winners to players who can regularly do so. Their performance in the 3-2 victory in the ODI series against West Indies has been the biggest gain for Bangladesh in the last four weeks of international cricket.
In the deciding match in Mirpur, Bangladesh had stumbled to 30 for 3 in pursuit of 217, when Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah counterattacked and put on 91 runs. They only made 40s, but their contributions prevented a susceptible line-up from collapsing.
Please Retweet #Bangladesh #2012 #nishatmajumder #fazlurrkhan #rehmansobhan #wasfianazreen #cricket
In memory of Tazreen Fashion’s workers
Monday, December 24, 2012
Rokeya Bahini organised a flash protest at Sonargaon Hotel at midday today. Members of the Bahini flashed open a banner, “Justice for Tazreen’s Workers” in the lobby of the five star hotel. The hotel authority illegally detained members of the Bahini, subjected them to questioning and took away their banner. Rokeya Bahini at Sonargaon Hotel
The protest was in rememberance of the workers who were burnt to death at Tazreen Fashions in Nischintapur a month ago, on November 24th. The government and the BGMEA put the death toll at 112 but family members of missing workers, left labour organisations and independent activists insist the figure is much higher. Both the government and the BGMEA are colluding in suppressing the exact number of workers who died and we are furious at the fact that the factory owner has not yet been arrested.Continue reading “Flash protest at five star hotel by Rokeya Bahini”
Honourable prime minister,
I AM an unborn citizen of Bangladesh. I was killed before I was born. My mother was twenty-two weeks and three days pregnant with me when fire broke out at Tazreen Fashions in Nischintapur.
I was killed before I was born. Ultrasonic images of pregnant Mimi (pseudonym) taken less than a fortnight before fire broke out at Tazreen Fashions on November 24, 2012 burning to death 112 workers, according to the government and the BGMEA; the actual death toll, according to family members of missing workers, labour organisations and activists, is much higher. Honourable prime minister,
My mother, Mimi (pseudonym) worked as an operator in the sewing section of Tazreen Fashions. My father, Rakibul (pseudonym), works as a helper in a local bus company. They had met and fallen in love in Nischintapur?s factory surroundings, they got married at a nearby Kazi office (marriage registrar?s office). These days, say neighbours, they had been very happy, their joy radiated as does that of expectant parents. But it was short-lived.
I was killed before I was born. Continue reading “NISHCHINTAPUR TRAGEDY: Letter from an unborn child”
