Once you taste aloofness

 Feelings of perplexity wells up

Once you have an understanding of that crass interior

The bubble of illusion swells up

 Only to burst…

Welcome to reality

 Welcome veracity.

Despite declarations by the United Nations, the African Union, the United States and the European Union that he had been resolutely beaten by  Ouattara, the opposition leader, Mr. Gbagbo did not give up and clung to power. Mr. Gbagbo used security forces to terrorize citizens in the former capital of Abidjan. But in the spring, militias who had fought for the north in the recent civil wars came to Mr. Ouattara’s aid, and gradually rolled across the country until Mr. Gbagbo was trapped in the presidential mansion in Abidjan. It took destructive airstrikes by French and United Nations helicopters to help end Mr. Gbagbo’s reign. Since then, Mr. Gbagbo’s generals have pledged allegiance to Mr. Ouattara. Although life is now inching back to normal in Abidjan, this power struggle caused the country to suffer a lot. For months, Mr. Gbagbo’s efforts to hold on to power had included assaults by his troops on neighborhoods of Abidjan and deaths among soldiers and civilians in several other districts of the city.

Many hundreds have been killed since the election and attacks on civilians were frequent. At least 700,000 people have fled their homes. More than four million young men are unemployed in a nation of some 21 million people, according to the World Bank.
According to the World Development Report 2011, a country with a history of violence is one of the main causes why they cannot become developed with the same pace as other countries who have similar economic stature. Although they take repeated steps towards development, since their law and order has never been strongly been enforced in the first place; the country would just fall back into the same cycle of violence. For Ivory Coast to become the one gleaming country of opportunity again, they need to make sure that such power struggles never surface again. For the country to prosper once again, slow and steady peace building efforts need to be taken.  The country should now call for a peace talk, disarm those who are illegally in possession of arms and build an interim government with neutral heads. The international community should only co operate in peace building, humanitarian and development efforts and not interfere in the country’s policies. It’s time Ivory Coast’s people take charge of their country and decide what they want for their future.

This post has also been posted in VoF world. You can find it at the following link: http://vofworld.com/crbst_92.html

Frankenstein- thought to be a monster but none of the character wanted to look at the circumstances he came from

When you first meet  a person your first impression of him or her usually lasts forever. 

For first impressions a person looks, height, body posture, the tone of his/her voice matters a lot. 

But once you get to know that person sometimes your image of that person changes. It either gets better or worse. Circumstances according to sociology plays a major role in building up and shaping one’s personality. 

These circumstances can be good or bad. However a person who have known all along your life might  change due to certain incident or accident. Even your loved one might change due to a betrayal. 

The sudden appearance of a friend who used to be one of my closest friends during the first few years of my 23 years  got me thinking. 

There was a time when i used to believe there is nothing i don’t know about her, but her sudden disappearance, her shotgun marriage and then hearing how she was abused by her husband left me in complete disarray. 

I tried to contact her during her absence, but she never called back; she wanted to avoid me. 

Our meeting was coincidental, she was crossing the street while i caught a glimpse and practically jumped at her. I was ecstatic. She however was no way near happy. 

I met a different person today, some one i don’t know. Some one who was uncomfortable around me and wished I didn’t know her. I understand she probably wants to forget her past and everything and everyone related to it. It occurred to me, we can’t stop some people from changing. We just have to accept it and hope, those people don’t decide you’re not needed anymore. 

I wonder if I followed her path, would I do the same thing she did today if I were in her shoes? I don’t know. I won’t be able to say that now. I feel lucky to have known a little part of her life. 

And I believe someday she would be able to remember me without any regrets or remorse.

I know it’s very lame, I just wanted to try.

Around 90,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers live and work in Bahrain, 10 per cent of the total population of that country. In the year 2006-07, these migrants sent $80 million in remittances home. But the recent murder of a Bahraini man by a Bangladeshi worker has sparked angry reactions from government officials and politicians. The Bahrain government has put a ban on recruitment of any further ‘untrained’ workers from Bangladesh. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Malaysia had already put restrictions on Bangladeshi laborers, sparked by earlier incidents. As often highlighted at seminars, foreign remittance is the second highest foreign currency earner for Bangladesh. But indifference from our embassies, corrupt middlemen, flawed immigration policies, lack of a strong government response and disparities in labor laws have placed hard-working men and women in international news headlines for the wrong reasons.

On May 23, 37-year-old Bahraini Mohammad Jassim Dossary got into a heated argument with a 32-year-old Bangladeshi mechanic in a garage and was killed for the extra 500 fils (around Tk 90) he refused to pay. The Bahraini government has put a stop to issuing work permits to expatriate communities, especially Bangladeshis. Following a visa clampdown in Bahrain on all unskilled Bangladeshi labourers, leaders of the Bangladeshi community, in collaboration with the Bangladesh embassy in Manama, set up a crime watchdog The Bahrain Bangladesh Samaj (BBS).

Bangladesh’s largest labor market Saudi Arabia, around 15 lakh Bangladeshis, imposed a ban on recruitment of Bangladeshis in the household and agriculture sector. Thousands are also being forced to leave Saudi Arabia because it unofficially stopped renewing residential permits to Bangladeshis. According to government sources, the decision was taken in view of the fact that the quota fixed for Bangladeshi workers in the Kingdom was over. But floating were rumours that the Kingdom had stopped hiring Bangladeshis because media reports assumed that they were involved in “most criminal acts in the country”.

Several highly publicized immigration meltdown incidents have contributed greatly to an international black eye for Bangladeshi migrants. The media is only highlighting the one or two worst cases.

In late 2006, Kuwait stopped hiring manpower from Bangladesh on grounds that Bangladeshis “resort to crimes”. Even in Malaysia television imagery of hundreds of Bangladeshis, stranded fuelled fears of the ‘illegal immigrants’ from Bangladesh. The workers were eventually flown back home empty-handed.

The six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — are home to approximately ten million foreign workers, with the largest number in Saudi Arabia taking workers from developing countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A 2006 Human Rights Watch report in the United Arab Emirates’ highlighted significant abuses inflicted on unskilled migrant workers.

 Extremely low wages, routine withholding of wages for months, confiscation of passports as ‘security’ to keep workers from quitting, is the reality of migrant Bangladeshi workers. The overall industry is termed as the notorious ’3-D jobs’ — dangerous, dirty and demeaning.

The source of migrant dissatisfaction needs to be examined further. Lower wages, compared to local compatriots, forced labor and constant abuse are realities that everyone should look into more deeply. In 2002, a Bahraini man was jailed for three months after being convicted of torturing a Bangladeshi employee. The 35-year-old victim told police that his employer had tied him up with a rope, beat him and then gave him electric shocks. In his defense, his employer said that he was trying to ‘startle’ the worker so he did not run away.

Human Rights Watch reported that suicides among construction workers were on the rise and said they were mostly stress related. Psychiatrist Dr Shiv Prakash said in an interview with Construction Week, “They know that they are in a bonded labour type of situation and are reacting to what they think is the biggest mistake in their life, an irreparable loss. It is the reaction to this loss which can lead to suicidal contemplation.”

The Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) based in Bahrain reported more than 20 cases in 2005 of rape and physical abuse of foreign housemaids to the police over a period of two-and-a-half years, but none resulted in a conviction. It is important for the government to safeguard the rights and working conditions of Bangladeshi women workers abroad. The government should monitor how Bangladeshi domestic workers are treated by their foreign employers. Should give them language training to help them communicate with law enforcement agencies if need arises.

The plight of the workers begins in Bangladesh, where they are forced to pay exorbitant fees for employment contracts. According to the Ain O Salish Kendra’s ‘Human Rights in Bangladesh 2006′ report, the government authorized cost for travel to the Middle East is about Tk 40,000 to Tk 50,000 but workers often end up paying Tk 200,000 to the recruitment agencies. Corrupt middlemen take advantage of the workers’ lack of education and make them sign papers they don’t understand. Some contracts are translated into local language, but the terms and conditions are overstated.

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) gives NOCs (No Objection Certificates) to the government on recruiting agencies, based on which the government then gives license to a particular agency. Currently 786 recruiting agencies are members of BAIRA.

But Dr Atiur Rahman, Professor at the Department of Development Studies in Dhaka University says regulating this sector is of utmost importance and restrictions put on Bangladeshi workers will have a very bad effect on the total flow of remittance. “Even now 90% of the remittance originates from the unskilled labourers,” says Rahman, “our skilled development process is very slow.” He says, “There is a lack of transparency in how these agencies work,” says Rahman, “licences of the corrupt recruiting agencies should be cancelled.”

Bangladesh must look beyond temporary solutions, and look at empowering migrant workers before they leave the country and respond to their needs while they are overseas. Countries must ensure migrants have access to justice and support services, including full translation facilities. Bangladesh must aggressively regulate the manpower industry immediately. Agencies that have been found to abuse workers even once must have their entire licenses cancelled. Training on language and culture of host countries must be made compulsory for all migrants. An estimated 50 lakh Bangladeshis are working abroad around the globe. Of them, about 30 lakh living in the Middle East send approximately 70 percent of the total remittance received by Bangladesh. We should not be thankless and continue to show a blind eye to our hard-working soldiers and give them the respect that they deserve.

Source:

Hana Shams Ahmed

It has been a year since the terrible and ghastly incident. The brutal deaths, the murderous rampage, those dark 3 nights- has seen a year.

What we have yet to see is justice being served.

Only the families of these departed souls know how they are suffering, we can’t relate to their pain. The once trapped hostages relives those horrid days over and over again.

A wife lost her husband who had nothing to do with the mutiny, 4 months later she lost her only son(7 years old) who became sick at the loss of his father.

Now she is left with nothing…………………………….

Money won’t bring back their beloved.

Only proper trial will. It has been a year and the only thing the government has been able to do is open the case???!!!!

It makes us wonder whether our legal system will ever be effective?

Don’t give us fake hope, give these honourable soldiers the respect that they deserve.

March 18th is a movement for freedom of speech for bloggers around the world in remembrance of the first blogger who died in prison to support a cause. Support this movement and put yourself on the map on March 18th.

Bloggers UNITED!!!!