For a Better Breakfast: The Inconvincibility of the U.S

Switching our TV sets or flipping newspapers, those time honored habits at breakfast table are things we have to learn to forget as barrages of Media images splash across and stay embedded in our minds for the rest of the day - and haunts us on beyond bedtime with more image updates in the nightmares we all have, sore indicators that Rumsfeld's Shock and Awe campaign is well on the verge of turning into a worldwide psycho-pathological icon - just as much as puking!

In the U.S haste to convince themselves and thereby the world, the death of Saddam's son's, what we are witnessing are attempts to play up on the human psyche a sordid acceptability of deliberately denying dignity of the dead, specially to those that have died violently.

While environmental activist worldwide have made photographing corpses of animals in shoots that our ancestors would indulge in the past, unfashionable - the corpse of fellow man, on one day horrifically bloodied and mutilated, and the next day reconstructed yet NAKED to cater to TV viewer sensibilities, together with parts of shattered limbs and bones and retrieved surgical implants on gory display as proof of death - proves that Uday and Qusay may well be dead - it convincingly convinces us to the state of American inconvincibility. Unacceptability?

The sheer magnitude of intrusive psychological violence allowed to percolate and the ofcourse it was America that saved the world at the very last moment gung-ho Hollywood aberration hypes that we may view at our convenience, or preview for our children to witness later as entertainment, to the wanton desecration of the limited time of the day that humans prefer to be in a reflective and peaceful state of mind - the word PEACE in essence has become a bizarre misnomer.

Ironic that it was the millennium Bushonian doctrine of PEACE that has landed us into this precipitous state. It was PEACE from International Terrorism promised us and we were told either you are with us or with the terrorist - yet we have never questioned that unrestrained psychological violence inflicted on peaceable non-combatants worldwide may also be termed TERRORISM, nor have we thought about how much damage it may wreck on the most fragile human condition - the mind. Millions of $s in Damage?

All that a worldwide coalition of willing pacifist can do, to fight this new and acceptable terrorist threat masterminded by the God's in White House, is write out our ritualistic whining in Editorials and commentary pages in publications that have few readers - the narcissistic truth however, nothing will change the global status-quo unless providence has other plans for us.

Now those are wishful thinking as the arrogant God's in the White House and 10 Downing Street are on a win win streak and have connived to go beyond providence - positioning themselves triumphantly as the Merchants of Life and Death - in their WANTED: Dead Or Alive, machismo, which we thought ended some two hundred years back with the demise of the Wild West!

Prophets and soothsayers abound in the Media embedded New World Order, and while the outcome of the War is NOT in doubt, what has not been bargained for is in Iraq it is/was no WAR, not even battles - they were/are merely skirmishes.

Problem with skirmishes: they cannot be predicted and therefore the prophets find themselves in some sort of unstructured limbo, unconvincingly handle-able but convincingly fraught with risks - given that the natives and their world wide support base of underdogs think they are a conquering Army - not liberators.

Asymmetrical warfare may be a wonderful new coinage suiting the inconvincibility of the military and the monetary, the abject symmetry of it all is it nonetheless whittles down to the cemetery, and in the US, Military grave diggers and morticians have never been more busier - which leaves us to ponder - what next?

A body that made so much sound - lies so peaceful when dead - yet tragically the only sound that we have heard Uday and Qusay making are the ones that have been fed to us through wanton Western media overkill. The two devils are mass rapist, (kidnapping women from the street to do…. you know what!) murderers who have done away with thousands and what have you, and those true impressions apparently lapped up with gusto in masochist post celebration of death by the Bush. Blair and Rumsfeld trio.

Yet in FREE Iraq we haven't heard of one arbitration made against the dead devils, not one woman who have come up to the media to neither say she has been raped - nor one relative of the dead willing to testify in a court of law? The U.S and U.S alone, is therefore the Judge, Jury, Executioner, Mortician and Grave Digger of TRUTH……..God Bless America!

No there is simply no way to deny that the only Weapon Of Mass Destruction destroyed beyond any reasonable doubt, photographed, reconstructed, videoed and now on the process of being DNA'd are two humans who could well have been taken alive, tried, their guilt's confirmed and executed publicly - but that is not going to be - not even with Saddam if the decapitation strikes of the recent past or ongoing present are any indicator.

There is however a catch - The U.S has Saddam's DNA's and unless they capture or kill him - it is going to be a very hard sell to cross-match them with the dead Uday and Qusay we are now feasting our eyes on!

We maybe left to convince ourselves with slides of colorful DNA samples of America's inconvincibility, and won't surprise any of us if posters and other bric-a-bracs of the slides make millions in the holy greens! Let us not forget Che Guevara and Bin Laden's posters!

Rumsfeld will hopefully be up there on CNN grotesquely cherubic as ever:

Sa-Dammit! I mean you guys were 'unhappy' with Uday and Qusay's photographs…..SO we decided to give Saddam a more humane and dignified touch…slides are after all Images guys….take it or leave it…and any of you want to use it for TV, sure thing….we ain't reconstructing nothing this time……but tell you what: your viewers may not be convinced as much as we are!

It is a sorry day for the world that the devils went to their Maker with so little known, so many unanswered question, giving lie mongers more opportunities to lie, and speculators to gorge on more imaginative stories of but and ifs and perhaps and maybe's.

All we can do is pray that the new Bushonian terrorist threat disappear from our collective destiny and we wouldn't ask for NO image or video or DNA's to convince us that they are gone.

Nature has a way of telling us when real devils depart - we eat breakfast better!


First Published 26th of July 2003

EShomabesh - Mutual Admiration Society: Killing two "Jay Birds" with one stone!

Dear Readers,

Please forgive my imprudence in having to drag something that has transpired in another e-forum, but the "Jay Birds" duo of notoriety and their ways about the Net being known to all of you - I thought I might as well share this post to eshomabesh with all of you.

This is in response to Some thoughts on a smooth sailor of reactionary forces!
Re-discovery of a cyber chameleon by the name MAC

It makes for a wonderful day for me when I wake up to realize that there is yet another barb aimed at me from two obsolete non-entities on the Net such as some Dr.Jay Ullah or one Jay Hassan who as far as I am concerned have nothing better to do then indulge in aimless Net 'jay-walking' when everybody has lost their interest in anything the two write meaning reduced to non-entities (read jerks!).

The classic example of these very uninteresting 'old lads' is they maintain a 'mutual admiration society' as ironically there are hardly anyone to admire them, and I would not repeat the too many times I have caught them 'apparels down' despite all their tall talks about fighting 'fundamentalism' or the more choosy theme in 'fighting for the Spirit of Ekattur'

Their deceits and lies are legendary.

Whenever challenged, as I have done on many occasions - they make a convenient disappearing act only to resurface with vengeance in some other forum - some more BARB's ensues, and may I reassure readers they will again go into hibernation once this post is released.

For this lot of jokers their 'defeated silence' means a patronizing 'patta dilaam na' in other words didn't give him any importance while they fail to realize that as things stand today they have been reduced to nondescript redundancy.

Let's start from this point:

Dr.Jay says

I just got this short write-up from Jamal Hasan, which he circulated amongst his friends. I asked his permission to post it in Nirvana. After some hesitancy, Jamal acquiesced in. This MAC character is a class by him. He calls himself a 'Jazz-fusion man' a three-decade old term. The world of Jazz has progressed in the last three-decades. Even John McLaughlin, the British musician who was in the forefront of Fusion Jazz, is no longer playing in that style. However, MAC lives in his own world the world of mid-1970s

Notice the hesitance in Jay Hassan, anybody reading the above will only surmise that what they talked about is how best to get back at me. They have to do it 'together' as they do not have the courage for a face to face, one on one encounter - nor anybody else to support them.

Yes I call myself a jazz-rock-fusion musician which I am aware is a 'three decade old term' but what about Rock musician or Tagore musicians how old are they and what is the millennium substitution for those terms Dr.Jay?

Also isn't it incredible to see how he has this uncanny ability to get inside my MIND and probe, explore and confirm that I live in the 'world of mid-1970s' ( I thought he was only a swine scientist - now it seems he is a mind scientist as well)isn't he only talking about himself and his friend the other Jay Hassan who have not stepped out a day beyond the 1970's?

Dr.Jay says;

Lately, MAC is playing a very dangerous game in many e-forums. Our gullible e-forum editors have the slightest of idea what game MAC is playing. Jamal Hasan is on the right track deciphering Mac’s evil design. I personally think that ‘Bangladeser Dak’ is a e-group with nothing but evil intent.

Readers note his malicious twist to the word Bangladesh – which clearly shows his love for the Kolkata duhduhs as they would exactly pronounce it the way he has typed it in!

However as far as BangladesherDak is concerned he has not been able to show one instance of our 'evil intent'and in reality what he and his friend Jay Hassan are afraid about is the content of news and the speed in which we deliver these to our readers - irrespective of whatever forum they belong.

Dr.Jay says:

They are out there to sow the seeds of anti-1971 spirit even though outwardly they may say that they hate the Pakistani army general. I would hope that the moderator of Mukto-Mona would read Jamal revealing piece with a magnifying glass. As long as the Mukto-Mona forum is promoting Bangladeser Dak, I would stay away from that forum. We should know who are our friends and foes.

Again no indication or ONE reference to our attempt to 'sow the seed of anti-1971 spirit' there must be a few thousand URLs on the Net from BangladesherDak or Dak Bangla and I challenge them to come up with one that stands behind their insipid hatred of accusations.

Readers do note the spelling of Bangladeshagain it simply cannot be a typographical error twice too many coincidences!

As far as the forum Mukto-Mona is concerned it seem a trifle odd that Dr.Jay should be spilling his bile about this on e-shomabesh? Goes only to show how too many disgusting personal slanders have a propensity to hit back at the oneself, and an indicator as to how unpopular he has become.

Note also his very clear delineation as to 'friends and foes' i.e.if you are not with me you are with the terrorist Bushonian mindset? Coming from an ex-Islami Chattra Sangha activist in his student hey-days the genes of fundamentalism will take a long time to disappear.

Now on to Jay Hassan and he has this to say:

My encounter with MAC occurred might be four years ago. I heard his name from one of my cyber activist friend Naeem Mohaiemen. Naeem let me know MAC was his bosom buddy. One time I even fell in the trap of MACs agenda. That was the time when he deliberately distorted a few Tagore songs and got the wrath of Rabindra lovers in Bangladesh. Naeems SHOBAK website still carries the names of the signatories who supported MACs stand on experimenting with Tagore songs.I recall MACs public posture was to 'popularize' Tagore songs by blending with Jazz and western tune.

First two deliberate misinterpretations (lies) here.

I do not think Naeem would ever be so stupid to tell Jay Hassan that we are 'bosom buddy's because in my 6 years of knowing Naeem I met him only once and that too for ten minutes in 1997?

We became e-friends and by that we were never a 'mutual admiration society' so to speak! We had differences and too many hot emails between us but that has not stopped ME from being his friend.

About Tagore music I sure stand behind my assertions of 1999 that I experimented to popularize Tagore and I shall continue to do it till the last breath has left my body and regardless of what 'Tagore fundamentalist'like the Jay mutual admirers society think or NOT.

Jay Hassan says:

Regarding Tagore songs, MACs nefarious design was exposed in no time. After the mockery of 'popularizing Tagore songs' he wrote a number of essays where he expressed his greatest faith in Islamic identity. The sum total of his articles indicated that Tagore belongs to an alien Hindu culture professed by high nose West Bengali Dadas that has nothing to offer to Bangladeshi Muslims. MAC never liked Tagore and his 'jazzification of Tagore songs' is nothing but a MACstyle ploy.

This exposes the true intent of the Jaybird duo!

In other words in order to popularize Tagore you` have to

a) Give up your Islamic faith and identity and convert to Hinduism if possible to show your 'iman' in Tagore

b) And yes, the second part where he 'sum totals up' is exactly the attitude I want to fight and will fight.

Tagore is not the property of Hindus of Kolkata alone but of all humanity, caste, creed and importantly RELIGION. There have been more contributions to Tagore and his work in Bangladesh than those in Kolkata.

Jay Hassan says:

Therefore, naïve I was about this dubious character’s ulterior motive! As days went by, MAC had gradually unmasked to me totally. He is none other than a bigoted and staunchly anti-Hindu, anti-West Bengal, anti-India type individual.

Anti-India, anti-West-Bengal – I admit to wholeheartedly but 'anti-Hindu' you might as well make this point clear with VERY specific examples.

Jays Hassans very weak example:

He is so much blinded by his anti-Hinduism that onetime in his rebuttal to one of my essays, he had the audacity to name a prominent cultural figure of Bangladesh as 'Ramendu HINDU Majumdar'. His extreme hatred to anything Indian or West Bengali pushed him into the camps of dark forces of Pakistani ISI/Jamaati Islami/BNP axis

.

I wonder what the hell is SO wrong in calling a Hindu a Hindu? I would have no problems if anybody called me Maqsood Muslim Haque!!

I also wonder where I went wrong in calling somebody who quickly converted to Islam to marry a Muslim damsel, changed his name to Nurul Islam to make the wedding legally binding and then goes about calling himself Ramendu Mazumdar and does his Shonatoni rituals shamelessly!

Calling him a Hindu is just reminding him that legally he is a Muslim and thats about it Jay! If this does not make him (Ram Hindu Mazumndar) unhappy; I wonder why it bothers you so much.

About my links to the Pakistani/ISI/Jamaati Islamii and the BNP axis, till such time you cannot come up with credible proof - I am afraid you will have nothing more than your own shadow to box with.

Jay Hassan writes:

He is no fool. His most essays would definitely critique the Pakistanis; their atrocity in 1971s Bangladesh, also his soft rebuke of BNP can be hardly ignored. But the final message is clear and that is his ultimate nemeses are Awami League, a group of well-known secular figures of Bangladesh like Syed Hasan Imam, Sanjida Khatun, Ramendu Majumdar, Aly Zaker – whom he calls Culture Vultures and last but not the least the expatriate secular writers who mostly write on the web.

Thanks for his great compliment in thinking I am 'no fool' and yes the rest of the things he says about the so-called secular figures are TRUE: I reiterate that they are CULTURE VULTURES and that is not something I say any more - but all of Bangladesh does. I may be credited for coining the term FIRST thats it.

A 100 marks for Jay Hassan for speaking the truth in an otherwise hate and lie filled posting - congratulations!

Jay Hassan writes:

MAC wrote quite a few lengthy essays in NFB, which is edited by his young days’ pal Tanvir Chowdhury. Due to MACs insistence, Tanvir stopped publishing secular writers Mijanur Rahman Milon and Sirajuddin Shopons essays in NFB. MAC once wrote a lengthy article on Bangladesh language movement. In conclusion, he taunted the UNESCOs selection of 21st February as International Language Day When I first read the article, I could not believe a Cannabis loving freewheeling Bangladeshi man would have such hatred to anything Bangla and Bengali. Now I understand he is nobody other than an operative of global Islamists’ Trojan Horse Brigade.

I am copying this email to Tanvir Chowdhury to find out if ever I have interfered with NFB and whether on my insistence he has stopped anybody from writing in NFB. This is typically 1970's mentality!!

Yes Tanvir and self are childhood friends but let us be clear on one count – we are not as intellectually degenerative as you and the other Jay bird.

What does the UNESCO declaration making Bangla and International language signify when the test of the world does not even have a clue as to what the hell it is? That was the only question I asked nothing more nothing less. If that makes me an Islamist Trojan Horse Brigade (whatever that means) suit yourself.

Jay Hassans flip side propaganda for Jammat I Islaam amd Golam Azam:

Regarding MAC my final analogy is like this. Let us suppose, Jamat leader Prof. Golam Azam is a good reporter and his egroup gives very interesting news. So, for the sake of enrichment some egroups may love to have Prof. Azams postings. My point is clear and unambiguous. I will never give the killer Azam an extra ounce of oxygen by strengthening his fronts. My final conclusion.

Why do you have to write so much about Gholam Azam when at the end of the day all you are doing is giving him far too much importance than he deserves?

Because the Jamaat is funded by Jews it becomes imperative for Jew lovers such as your good self Mr. Jay to keep them in the public limelight. You are giving him quintals of oxygen to survive.

I think it is time that you also noted very carefully that there has been only ONE man, in the total population of 120 million Bangladesh citizens to publicly call Gholam Azam a KAFIR and record it for posterity.

It is contained in an album called 'Nishiddho' and that album has by now reached 10 million people in Bangladesh and all across the world - and that ONE man is no one else but yours infinitely hated and loathed.

The 'Indefferent ANAM-using' on music!

'Indefference' aside - Mahfuz Anam, Editor and publishers respectively of two so-called 'national dailies', part time 'commentator', self proclaimed 'patron' of those that sorely need patronization, and weekend 'muser' in his 'very own' Star Weekend Magazine - a name the powerful in Bangladesh hold in supposed awe and admiration.

News, any news in either of his publications is lapped as the highest honor imaginable for sides of the hypocritical political or cultural cause celebre divide. After all there are only two sides in Bangladesh - and the bottom line is, if you have made it to the pages of his publications, chances are you have got it made - in other words you are IN the 'poor mans' substitute for The New York Times or The Washington Post - whoa!

To the purpose of this piece readers, I make it a point to savor as chutneez whatever Mahfuz writes for no other reason, other than it serves as a barometer for me to appreciate whatever macabre storm is ongoing in the minds of our construed 'doyens of thought process' as also to have a laugh in an otherwise placid existence in boring Bangladesh. The exception and no 'laughing matter' is his latest 'offering' in the 1st August STAR 2003 Weekend Magazine - Weekend Musing - Why are we so Indefferent towards Our songs and music' :

Digression my spell-check came in with a solid red line under the word INDEFFERENT - and as of now I have been unable to find its meaning in any dictionary. Could well be a new 'Mahfuz addition' to the English language - congrats!
The INDEFFERENT ANAM-using in a nutshell:

"Mahfuz's steps into a music store in Bangladesh for the first time in his life - to listen to music in his 'CD cum cassette player' which Mahfuz has purchased - FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE - and Mahfuz describes his shock and awe - and Mahfuz does his usual patronization sermonizing - end of the story!"

It also goes to prove that he has no CD player in his PC at home or office, or perhaps does not own or have a need for a PC…… and explains the state of English or its spelling in the DS?

Giving him a benefit of a doubt as this piece is no '14 Generation Rescue' (choddo gushti uddhar) exercise on Mahfuz - it is more than likely that he has suddenly been visited by the Muse Goddess, and that readers is no crime, indeed it is a belated blessing of sort. His rambling of the kind of music he likes to hear, while a clear indicator that he relates to the soundscape of the 'fashionable sixties' while queer in the millennium context - is acceptable and again NO CRIME or a big deal.

But I am more than certain that the 'big-shop' the 'big-Editor' went exploring for the kind of music to suit his rusty ears, was as crappy as his 'big newspaper' - for what I find very hard to believe is the apparent absence of ANY Bangla 'songs and music' - (Q: do you get songs without music - A: yes you do hamd o naath?) in the outlet he visited.

A 20 minutes rickshaw ride to avoid the 45 minutes it would otherwise take in a car thanks to the jam from The Daily Star's obnoxious precincts to music stores in Elephant Road - would have well found him discovering more than 50 stores with ALL kinds of music to 'check-out' in his new 'CD cum cassette player' contraption. The Eastern Plaza complex at 5 minutes rickshaw ride would have also given him atleast 20 shops to choose from in air-conditioned comfort!

His disdain for Hindi music and its wicked proliferation in Bangladesh is a domain of thinking where I agree with him ninety-nine percent, yet it is more than a little amusing to note that he has suddenly woken up to this hard reality - made all the more irritable in his 40 minute ordeal at a barbershop blaring 'appropriate' (read Hindi) music. The truth is almost all barbers in Dhaka are Bangladeshi-Biharis whose lingua franca is Urdu - not Bangla, and explains their love for Hindi, which is again a derivate from Urdu or vice versa.

In our excessive LOVE INDIA sycophancy of 32 years we have done ourselves a great service by standardizing the acceptability of India's national language to the 'cross section' of our population - butchers and barbers, students and sweepers, housewives and hustlers, Editors and hawkers…….so there is hardly any point making such a huge noise as we on the other hand - see absolutely nothing wrong with India or it cultural imperialism and 'patronize' them 'free of charge''.

After all India is a 'powerful friendly neighbor' - our inspirations live in Kolkata and Mumbai not in Dhaka and doing them a favor even when they don't want one - is albeit doing ourselves a favor: that is until we buy a 'CD cum cassette player' and wake up with a jolt to see that the bottom beneath us is …….well, not quite where it used to be!

'Bottomless basket' ala Henry Kissinger?

Mahfuz writes:

"The point I am making here is that there is in an inexplicable indifference among us about our own music. The truth is we do not promote our musicians or our music as vigorously as our rich heritage and our artistes deserve."

The point I am trying to make here is, while Mahfuz huffs and puffs about Hindi music he conveniently forgets the role of his very own publications over the years to promote and popularize them?

I am for instance reminded of a time when The DS had the misfortune of my ungraceful presence in one of their Conference at the British Council in 1998, where I pointed out in front of a gathering of more than hundred individuals that it has a full page every week entirely devoted to recent Hindi or Indian music releases, when the fact of the matter is more than twenty new Bengalee releases a week from Bangladesh are conveniently ignored. I also raised the question of the legality of the shops that sell Indian pirated music and The DS advertises 'free of charge'. I wanted to know if those shops are registered agents of any Indian music company - which we know they are NOT and said 'that means The DS is also promoting pirates and smugglers?'

All in the audience including Mahfuz nodded and had a round of applause going to approve of my heresy - and that is not all. To my horror I saw my most unattractive mug on The DS cover the next morning - with the audience in rapturous state of laughter - and my spoken words printed bold, verbatim!

Nothing however changed since that hallowed wintry day in 1998 in The DS attitude to promote Indian culture, indeed I have only seen its shamelessly spiraling - enough for me to refuse an interview to The DS Weekend Magazine last year 'until and unless changes were made to the current status quo'. That is the least I can do to do in all that needs to be done to fight this archaic chicanery of The DS as a protest for their 'all game' attitude to promote Indian music at the expense of our own.

Last if not the least the PATRONIZATION bug:

Mahfuz writes:

"But there are some superb voices whose songs are comparable to the most talented anywhere. But they are not getting our support. I have heard some fresh new voices who can easily make enchanting records given the due support. They definitely need our patronisation……The real answer lies in large-scale societal patronisation of our music. We must support music institutions and our newspapers must promote our artists. Our corporate world must sponsor big national musical events so that artists can perform in them and receive national recognition"

Let's be honest about something - "patronization" of the arts is a regal heritage and The DS or its Editor are neither music aficionados nor any kings or nawabs to do Bangladesh music any great favor. The purpose of such public sermonizing is to capitalize on the buoyant and thriving local music industry, a business just like any other business and one Mahfuz does not have to be an apologist or 'patron' to 'cash in' on.

Having said that, music in Bangladesh has come a long way and all of it through intense hard work of practitioners. Newspapers as such, do not necessarily make or break musicians for listeners do not go out and buy music based entirely on what has been written. In the final judgment, they would much rather let their ears and intangible sixth sense decide music that is good or awful, and there is a fair share of discernable listeners who know what to accept or reject.

The DS in the English language, or its sister publication the Prothom Alo in Bengalee in its 'patronization' have only lapped up and honored musicians and artists that have 'sold' albums - yet we know all too well that actual selling numbers are unknown to them or the musicians in the first place. The 'honor' to musicians is a 'payback' to the music marketeers who have advertised in their publications and the 'lobbying' that has gone behind the scenes to become Daily Star's STAR is not unknown - period.

The publications themselves have not shown any interest in the more complex issues that bedevils the music industry - questions of Intellectual Property Rights, royalties to artist from marketeers, exploitations, and importantly music criticism is an unknown domain because you simply cannot criticize music in the pain of not receiving advertisement. 'Music journalism'? Well ……..they still haven't quite got that figured out, not yet.

Ironically the publications themselves and their 'music journalist' are victims to marketeers of music, fizz and tobacco companies that fake 'talent search contest' in the guise of 'Star Search Contest' and in effect all they do is splash the photographs and sashay the egos of star wannabes, who thereafter recede to oblivion after the tamashas are done and over with.

Meantime so-called 'sponsors and patron' make a post event killing by selling video footage to TV channels, where artist do not get a cent in the deal. They are after all been 'patronized and promoted' - beggars cannot be chooser's! No STAR by the way, from any 'Star Search Contest' is a star in Bangladesh today.

It is a shame that the role of the Media is not one of promoting (patronizing?) any of the talents, but falling victims of tobacco companies to help sell couple of more packets of poison to the young - or fizz drink manufacturers making more money in 'organizing' concerts by selling bottles or cans of their 'generational' drinks in venues - all the more 'comfortable' if the parent company of the publication are the fizz makers Bangladesh distributor?

To add it all up.

The DS makes more money advertising concerts and bottles of fizz or cigarettes than it does selling their newspaper - and while any concert draw upwards of thirty thousand audience in the Army Stadium it does not in any way qualify for front page news or any NEWS at all. The 'tragedy' on the flip side is Mahfuz's cronies from the advertisement industry who also masquerade as 'cultural activist' find themselves in the front page of their publications even if there are just 10 curious onlookers to witness a dozen grey haired artist rendering closed eyed, nose flared version of Tagore music organized by Sammilito Sangskritik Jote (Combined Axis of Culture Vultures) at the Shaheed Minar!

Hypocrisy is not a cultural component, it is human idiosyncrasy, yet the underlying tragedy of Bangladesh's mainstream culture is - you can only be SOMEBODY if you are 'somebody's somebody', and 'talent' as such, is not a fundamental criterion to be in that lascivious position. Anybody can be a STAR in Bangladesh - but it makes good sense if one has the Editor of The Daily STAR (the STARS newspaper!), think you are STAR material and if you have the 'talent' to somehow suck up to him and his cronies and solicit their innate 'patronization' - You've got it MADE!

Last if not the least Mahfuz should not have woken up from his deep slumber.

Given the damage that has been done to the music industry in Bangladesh by his publications, perhaps it is time we should be mobilizing public opinion and promoting open import of Indian daily newspapers and periodicals. If free promotion of Indian music is no crime - neither should it be our endorsement or ratification to this proposal. Atleast we will be spared of horrific English and 'Indefference'….Yawn.

POST SCRIPT: The print version of DS yesterday Friday, August 08, 2003 i.e. 7 days after Mahfuz's 'indefferent' sermons - once again has these blatant pirates and smugglers advertised free of charge. Only 2 Bangladeshi releases were covered and the rest 18 or so?

Your guess is as good as mine - INDIAN.