Tag: Dhaka

Internet Propaganda of a Candidate for the Mayor of Dhaka!


This post is not a Mayoral campaign of Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky for the Mayor Election of Dhaka 2008. This news is published here because I found it as an interesting news and nothing else.

It looks like Bangladesh is entering cyber world for election campaign! Just in Facebook I’ve seen a Bangladeshi named Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky is campaigning for the Mayor Election of Dhaka 2008. Well… it amazed me much. I’ve never seen any Bangladeshi candidate running propagnda in cyber world for any kind of election before. And I think we got the first one!

His name is Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky. He has a Facebook account. He has a regular blog. And he has a campaigning page in Facebook also! It seems that Bangladesh is entering in a new era of election campaigning. Whatever I could remember that once I had read the political blog of Sajib Wajed Joy (son of Sheikh Hasina the former PM of Bangladesh) but for some reason it is now not updating anymore. Apart of this I could not recall any personal site or blog of any of our political persons. In that sense Mr. Siddiky did a great job. Also it is not a bad idea to grab the young generations by wandering in the cyber space. To my concern, nobody had done it before. No doubt that he is a learned person but the question is how perfect is he for the Mayor of Dhaka? Well if you visit is Facebook Campaign page, you’ll find some 200 supporters, and whatever I know rest of the people of Dhaka have hardly heard his name!

I am not going to the argument about his winning chances, but… hey… it is indeed a interesting fact, isn’t it?

A Request to All IUTians

If you are a Facebook member, you should know that in Facebook there is a scope of creating a network of college or university alumni. If you are an IUTian then you’ll sure want our own network in Facebook too. Imagine your profile in Facebook is showing that you are a member of IUT; isn’t that cool! In that case we all have to work in a body. So what’s our duty? Well it is simple… just send a request to a specific URL and for that you have to have a Facebook account.

Here is the whole procedure:

  1. Sign in your Facebook account.
  2. Go to the following URL (you can also copy and paste the URL to your browsers’ address bar). http://www.facebook.com/help/add_network.php?ntype=college
  3. Type Islamic University of Technology, Dhaka in the Name of college/university text field.
  4. Type your email in the form of xxxx@iut-dhaka.edu where xxxx is your IUTs’ email account. (In case you forget it, then just type your student ID there) Then submit it.
  5. Then please inform other IUTians by emails or blogs or forum or any other media.

Dhaka: Second Dirtiest City in World

Yeap… You read it right! Dhaka is the second dirtiest city in the whole world. And this ranking has been published by the Forbes. About Dhaka it says, “Lead-poisoned air lands Dhaka, Bangladesh, the No. 2 spot on the list. Traffic congestion in the capital continues to worsen with vehicles emitting fatal amounts of air pollutants daily, including lead. The World Bank-funded Air Quality Management Project aims to help.”

So what’s the big deal? We don’t care of ourselves… isn’t it! All we used to know that Kolkata (city in India) is much more dirty than Dhaka. I personally never visited Kolkata, but from various pictures of Kolkata I can say that Kolkata is much dirtier than Dhaka. But this ranking tells us something different. The present scenario of Burigonga river is very much shocking. Pollution turns water of that river in to black. Carbon Monoxide and Lead emitted by the vehicles are main culprits to cause air pollution in Dhaka.

Is anybody there to take proper steps for surviving Dhaka from a polluted environment? It’s the high time for all of us.

Heads on spears

To read the original report published in Forbes, click here. To see the pictures of the ranked cities click here.

Ijtema cut short for biting-chilly weather

In an unprecedented incident, the three-day Biswa Ijtema, ostensibly the second largest yearly congregation of the Muslims, on the bank of Turag River at Tongi was cut short on its inaugural day yesterday due to an inclement weather that had caused deaths of at least three pilgrims. The akheri munajat or the concluding prayers of this year’s ijtema started at 7:55pm ending at 8:15pm yesterday instead of its schedule tomorrow. [The Daily Star; Saturday, January 26, 2008]

For the last two days life in Dhaka as well as else where in Bangladesh is disrupting with chilly wind and drizzles. This includes a foggy and cloudy weather through out the country. Due to this cold spell and inclement weather, the lowest temperature in Dhaka was 15.3 degrees. The difference of minimum and maximum temperature in Dhaka was only 2.4 degrees Celsius.

And yesterday was the beginning of the IJTEMA, second largest religious congregation of the Muslims after hajj, begins today on the bank of the river Turag. This year due to the political stability of Bangladesh, at least three million people from about 58 countries were expected to join. Ijtema plays a significant role in rapid dissemination of Islamic ideals and lessons of the Quran and Sunnah across the globe. Usually Ijtema holds for three days. The last day is known as AAKHERI MUNAZAT’s DAY. In the last day all the Muslims regardless scholars and ordinary people, pray to Allah (the Almighty) for establishing universal peace and strengthening unity, solidarity and fraternity in the Muslim world.

Ijtema

Devotees at the Biswa Ijtema ground use plastic sheets to take cover from the drizzle. The poor conditions led to the congregation’s abrupt end last night. Photo: Anisur Rahman

But the inclement weather wrapped up the whole congregation. The canopies and mats used in Ijtema grounds were damaged in the rain. The devotees collected polythene as an alternative since they were cost-effective. Many of the elderly devotees had to take shelter at various mosques and other places adjacent to the Ijtema ground. But yesterday, after evening the drizzles were turned into rain which made the authorities taking the decision of winding up Ijtema on its inaugural day, considering the sufferings of several lakh pilgrims in a bitter cold weather.

Regarding this, my opinion is that government should take necessary steps to build permanent buildings there on Ijtema ground with the help of the other Muslim countries. As it is obvious that Ijtema will be held in Bangladesh in the upcoming years like the former years, government should provide the devotees with facilities of brick-built cabins instead of canopies. It is a great issue as many Muslims scholars from around the worlds come Bangladesh only for joining Ijtema. So, I think other Muslim countries will come forward to help Bangladesh in this regard.

Dhaka Re-defined

I’ve never seen Dhaka from this view angle before. Thanks to Mr. Rajesh Barua for sharing these stunning photos of Dhaka city. After seeing these photographs, I have to admit that I did not take a close look to Dhaka before. The city is so much beautiful. The first one was taken from the Kaarwan Bazaar SAARC fountain and the second one is Khilgaon Flyover. The third one is most probably from the junction of Dhanmondi 1 and Science Laboratory. And the fourth one is from Dhanmondi Lake, one of my most favourite tranquil place of Dhaka.