| Bt crops and the bio safety snare Wednesday August 20 2008 06:16 IST Dr K P Prabhakaran Nair http://www.newindpr IN comments with a direct resonance for India, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, came out with the most scathing attack on genetically modified crops (GMOs genetically modified organisms) recently, and called it the "biggest disaster of all time." Not that India should be worrying about what the British monarch in the making says. |
Pic says a thousand words
(pic posted as requested by Mr Mujib Alam) Dear members
its indeed a great news that Bongo Apa Sheikh Hasina have recovered from the ear injury, which was threatening her hearing ( as per Dr Mudassir ). Since the pic shows she is using that particular ear to communicate, I hereby thank Allah for recovering her.
Now time has come for her to return home and face the court and come clean out of all the "allegation" of corruption against her. I am sure Bangladesh is waiting for her return eagerly.
Musfique.
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thanks to mr enayt hossain for this nice posting.pls go through
Note: forwarded message attached.
36m people in Bangladesh face acute poverty, hunger Staff Reporter Bangladesh's high economic growth during the last decade has resulted in significant reductions in poverty. However, 36 million people--about one quarter of the country's population-- Addressing this challenge is the focus of the workshop, "Understanding Chronic Poverty and Poverty Dynamics in Rural Bangladesh," that began in Dhaka yesterday. Government officials, researchers, and civil society representatives will discuss new findings on why some households and communities in rural Bangladesh remain trapped in poverty, while others have successfully moved out. These findings will help identify key factors that keep people poor. The workshop is being organized by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), Data Analysis and Technical Assistance Ltd. (DATA), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Drawing on information collected from 1,800 households across rural Bangladesh, the study found that while close to half the households surveyed moved out of poverty, around one-fifth remained chronically poor and a small percentage fell into poverty. These households were found to be extremely vulnerable to unexpected shocks, such as illness, dowry and wedding expenses, and floods. The study focused on three key aspects of poverty in rural Bangladesh: poor people's perceptions of what makes them poor; the factors that create and perpetuate their poverty; and the patterns of loss and gain that they directly experience. "Unlike previous studies, this research integrates two types of important data-household survey data and individual life histories-to provide a deeper understanding of the causes of chronic poverty in rural Bangladesh," said Bob Baulch, coordinator for the poverty dynamics and economic mobility theme at CPRC. The study found that those households that have lower education levels, own less land, hold fewer non-land assets and livestock, and have many young children and elderly members, face the most difficulty escaping poverty. Unexpected shocks, such as injuries, illness and livestock deaths, significantly increase the likelihood of chronic poverty. Dowry payments and wedding expenses are a heavy burden for most households. "This study makes it clear that rural households are particularly vulnerable to crises," said Md Zihadul Hassan, managing director of DATA. "The impact of a crisis, however, greatly depends on how much schooling the head of a household has received, whether property has been divided, and household ownership of livestock and other assets." Additionally, the study documented eight types of life trajectories based on accounts by people of their direct experiences of moving in and out of poverty. Many of these life trajectories displayed a "saw-tooth" pattern in which improvements in people's lives are reversed by illnesses and large medical expenses, wedding expenses, and legal disputes. "The life histories collected for this study reveal how improvements in poor people's lives tend to occur gradually, while declines occur suddenly," said Peter Davis, lecturer at the University of Bath and co-researcher of this study. "People's lives follow upward and downward patterns, not a smooth pattern of either progress or decline which is often suggested by more conventional research approaches." The households in the study are based in 102 villages located in 14 of the country's 64 districts and were originally interviewed between eight and 14 years ago. The researchers revisited the same households in late 2006 and early 2007 to assess the changes in poverty and well-being that occurred over time. "Unexpected shocks keep people in poverty and prevent them from moving out," said Agnes Quisumbing, senior research fellow at IFPRI. "This study provides a better understanding of these issues and can guide the design of more effective social protection systems for poor people in rural Bangladesh." |
Life on the Edge - No Country for Young Girls?
The number of female foetuses being aborted in India is rising, as ultrasound is increasingly used to predict the sex of babies.
The BBC World news series, Life on the Edge, travels across India with a young mother to find out why the country is still such a tough place to be a woman. Steve Bradshaw reports.
What would you do if your husband's family does not want you to have daughters - and insists you take steps to make sure it does not happen?
Would you walk out or would you stay on and take a chance?
What if the bias against girls is reflected across society? Does that mean you cannot make it on your own?
Vaijanti is an Indian woman who says she faces this dilemma.
She lives in the city of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, perhaps the world's most famous monument to a woman, the wife of a Mughal emperor.
"I had a lot of dreams in my heart," Vaijanti says, "just like in the movies... but now I think of love as a betrayal."
Vaijanti has taken her husband to court, saying he and his family insisted that she have an abortion because a scan showed she was expecting a girl.
Having already had one daughter, she says the pressure to abort the second child was intense.
So Vaijanti moved out of the marital home and now lives apart from her husband - with her two girls.
Gender skew
Testing and aborting for gender selection are illegal in India and Vaijanti's husband and in-laws deny the charges against them.
Despite the obvious bitterness between her and her husband's family, reconciliation is still possible.
 Girls still face discrimination in modern Indian society |
But Vaijanti was unsure of what to do next. We wanted to find out if she thought India really is a country biased against young girls.
Despite the law, some Indians clearly are using ultrasound techniques to scan for female foetuses, in order to abort them.
Figures suggest as many as a million such foetuses could be aborted every year in India.
It is unlikely nature alone accounts for this gender skew - in Delhi, for instance, only 821 girls are born for every 1,000 boys.
Many Indian families regard daughters as a liability.
Expensive dowries must be arranged for their weddings and they frequently move into their husband's households - making it less likely they will support ageing parents.
As Vaijanti had never travelled beyond Agra, director Nupur Basu took her on a whistle-stop tour of India.
In Rajasthan, she meets Jasbir Kaur, who left her husband after facing a similar predicament.
Told she should abort her girl triplets, she decided to go ahead and have them anyway.
She is a potential role model for Vaijanti, telling her: "You must educate your girls. Don't lose courage. Don't feel alone."
Although millions of Indian girls are still left out of formal education, Jasbir Kaur's three girls are doing fine in the local school.
Icon of globalisation
In Delhi, there is good and bad news. Vaijanti meets women who have come into Delhi filled with hope, but end up begging on the streets.
 |  In many places, boys are unable to agree to find girls to marry. Because of this, the nation will soon face an unimaginable crisis  Renuka Chowdhury Minister for women |
She also visits a disco for the first time in her life - no den of iniquity but a place where she meets some bright young women with good cheer and strong advice.
In Bangalore, there are also two sides to the picture.
This is the city that is world famous as an icon of globalisation and women's empowerment.
It has young girls working in IT, making good careers, and scooting around town on mopeds, listening to their iPods.
But there is another Bangalore - where some families still demand the expensive dowries traditionally given by a bride's family to the in-laws.
And while Bangalore's senior managers may encourage women, younger men may still question their qualifications and their right to work.
Finally Nupur also takes Vaijanti to Mahatma Gandhi's retreat, where she hears that the revered leader was concerned about the bias against women.
Writer Tridip Suhrud says Mahatma Gandhi "would have been deeply perturbed with this entire social surge of... civilisation to acquire this hard militant, masculine self-identity".
He adds: "He would have fought it with femininity."
'Grave situation'
We wanted to make this film after a leading development expert, Kevin Watkins, suggested India had a curiously ambivalent role in the globalisation debate.
 The Taj Mahal was conceived as a monument to an emperor's wife |
Its booming economy is cause for hope, and the government is clearly concerned about both gender and economic inequality.
But if huge swathes of the populace do not share the increasing wealth, the whole Indian model of development may be called into question.
Meantime, Vaijanti's immediate concern is India's missing girls - unborn because of the desire to have boys.
Vaijanti and Nupur call on Renuka Chowdhury, the minister for women, who says: "This is a very, very grave situation."
She adds: "In many places, boys are unable to agree to find girls to marry. Because of this, the nation will soon face an unimaginable crisis."
When Vaijanti left Agra she was quiet but watchful. At the journey's end, she is calm and eloquent as she weighs up whether to seek reconciliation with her husband's family.
"I feel at peace... I will go back to Agra now and think about what I should do for my daughters and myself. I will go back and think about my decision." | Students of Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology (http://www.sust. Supported by the CSE Society and OSN of SUST, the 3 days event begins with much enthusiasm. The programmer attending the Sprint will focus on 4 projects- A visual tool for quick website development, mobile tool for stock price searching, Development of a Bangla social networking site and a simple Bangla Input plug-in for Firefox. The Sprint was inaugurated by Khnadaker Tavir , Lecturer of CSE Department SUST and also addressed by the General Secretary of BdOSN. In the morning 4 team leader explained their task to group members and start coding. Some open adda (Informal meeting) would be organized. First of these marked a overview of the dynamic programming languages. It was learned that now a days Python, Perl and similar scripting languages are gaining popularity because of their simplicity and strength. Students in the adda, asked questions ranging from developing Robot to future career scope for the programmer. The camp will continue till morning of the 17th August. On that day, all 4 team will present their final product. All the programming code of the sprint will be released under GPL after final modifications and testing, if necessary. Regards Munir Hasan BdOSN, Bangladesh |
