Many years ago, I was just an elementary school kid then. We used to live in a walled government residential quarter and just outside the wall there was the huge slum. During those years, up from my upper floor balcony, I had an up close look at the slum life of Bangladesh.
Every morning their day started with a noisy quarrel. As the day proceeded the noise used to heat up. It was like everybody was fighting with everybody. Morning, noon, evening and night. And along with these quarrel, life used to go on. Cooking, shopping, gossiping and even quite frequent procreation; all used to go on quite aptly in this non stop quarrel environment.
Since I started blogging I feel like I went back to those days. Now I myself is quarreling, day in day out. Everybody is busy fighting with each other.
Then I look out of the blog world and to the real world. Its’ the same thing there too. Its’ nothing but Hoongkar and palta Hoongkar. Look at the TV screens–that’s all the same. Politicians, in public meetings, in press conferences, in TV shows, in party meetings—everywhere they are busy with relentless yelling at each other.
Shamefully our nation is divided.
And shamefully and unfortunately, there is no pacifying or unifying reconciliatory force.
Several weeks ago, I watched Debapriyo Bhattacharya and Barrister Moinul Hossain yelling at each other with red eyes in Tritio Matra at channel I. In our society now we hardly have anybody who is not polarized.
Once a while I had a horrible feeling that we are not far from being like those feuding Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda who used machetes and other blunts objects to kill 800,000 to 10,00,000 human being over a period of 100 days.
And exactly what we are doing? Well, we, 150 million people are divided into two groups in support of two families who are trying to somehow grab the ruling power of the country. And an overwhelming majority of the feuding people will never have any benefit or even a say in how they will be ruled by their chosen people.
And it is all about ruling one of the poorest and reportedly most dysfunctional states in the world.
Selucus what a strange country is it! What a strange people we are!
December 21, 2006 at 12:12 am
Hi Rumi
There are lots of people who have started looking at themselves drawing parallel with Rwanda. It is a scary thought and sadly not a distant reality unless the division is not mended soon…very soon.
December 21, 2006 at 1:16 am
I sometimes think that we as a nation is not ready for democracy yet. If we can not resolve an issue as fundamental as election and if we do not have any trust on one another then we might as well through up our hand in the air and look for forward to military rule. The hell with democracy and AWL and BNP. Neither of these utterly nitihin jote deserve to be our government.
December 21, 2006 at 1:31 am
Rumi,
Lets not get too depressed;Life is a combination of all depression n happiness thats how we all learn from mother Nature.Rawanda is but a small problem area compared to the mutli-ethnic and multi-poverty stricken areas of Eastern Africa and also the West- I know that and Africs very well, and am thankful to GOD that we havent reached that level as yet.Not far from here is India where political disturbance is also twice more; NDTV and other channels show them everyday. Sure is sad that the Nation is divided into groups and that is one reason why I encourage and support SHUJON for good candidates who will also submit their details with their nomination papers- the presence of this candidates will effect change-AND the good part is that still there are majority people who remain out of this party-frame and judge things better and their suggestions carry a lot of weight for betterment of the country.Its true that these majority dont have too much power but we shouldnt underestimate their efforts for change-“tiny drops of water make an 0cean.”
You r right that discussions on Tv sometimes are pathetic specially in respect of the style which is detrimental for the young generation but then a lot of public awareness has increased out of all this events from 0ct 28 till date.-Thats a very positive sign.
At the end of the day dont be surprised to hear within a day or two that all parties are ready for elections;you know and we all know that preparations are on.
So cheer up, listen to yr favourite music,go for photography, if you like the art,and or play yr faourite game; it will Liven you you.
Best of Luck
December 21, 2006 at 4:51 am
Thursday, December 21, 2006 3:44pm
Photo: Qamruzzaman/ bdnews24.com/ Dhaka, Dec 21, 2006
BREAKING NEWS
Clashes mark hartal in Dhaka
The army took control of the road through Shyamoli in Dhaka after supporters of the general strike wrecked several buses in morning picketing Thursday. The police fired rubber bullets into protesters on the road. The police also clubbed and teargassed crowds. The Awami League and its allies enforce the countrywide daylong hartal amid stern security measures with deployment of about 10,000 personnel across the city. bdnews24.com correspondent Abu Sufian saw hartal supporters vandalise two buses in Shyamoli. The general strike that shut businesses and schools is part of the mega-alliance’s street protests to pile pressure on the interim government to shift the voting day, which the Election Commission reset for January 22.
December 21, 2006 at 2:24 pm
I hate to make you feel… further down. But the fact is, we’re not going into this election with a level playing field, and no one cares about it. I have five words I wished people cared about: the plight of the people.
Army, no army, RAB, human rights, international observers, civil society consciousness… we are really in the dark. Plunging further into it.
December 21, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Some of you are indulging in name calling of the political leaders and of each other. We want to remind you that comments which are NoT constructive and aimed at flaming each other and does not add any value to a discussion or analysis — are being rejected outright. Similarly, some people are indulged in comment flooding. Please desist. Let others talk as well. Also we are inviting the quiet ones to talk as well. At the end we want this area to be a place of healthy and factual debates on rights, issue, diaspora and Bangladesh — not meaningless mudslinging and partisan bickering.
December 21, 2006 at 9:43 pm
[…] 006 @ 21:42 EST South Asia Bangladesh, Politics Global Roundups drishtipat on Bangladesh as a divided family, with parallels drawn on quarrels in slums and the bl […]
December 21, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Yes, we are a divided nation but this fact alone should not be a matter of concern. After all, many established democracies have a divided character. The Republicans vs the Democrats, The Laborites vs the Conservatives, the Congress vs the BJP and the list goes on.
What is problematic is how badly we handle this division. We have accepted the notion that the winner takes all. The party in power manipulates the military and the civil services, misappropriates financial assets, designates friends and family to high positions.
In a nutshell, the winning party runs the country as if it is a kingdom not a democracy. I frankly wonder if we are ready for real democracy.