Mashuqur Rahman

Of courage and sacrifice

[Mashuqur Rahman, USA.]

Last Sunday I attended a seminar on the Bangladesh Genocide at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The seminar was organized by the Nathan Weiss Graduate College at Kean. The seminar inaugurated graduate course work on the Bangladesh Genocide as part of the Masters program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The seminar was introduced by Dr. Bernard Weinstein, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program Coordinator. The dean of the Graduate College Dr. Kristie Reilly and the President of Kean University Dr. Dawood Farahi also made introductory remarks.

Freedom fighter and author Dr. Nurun Nabi, Dr. Rounaq Jahan of Columbia University, Dr. ABM Nasir of North Carolina Central University, and Dr. Sachi Dastidar of the State University of New York made presentations to an audience of about 300 at the University Center Theater.

The event was organized due to the tireless work of Bangladeshi students at Kean University. These students, all born after 1971, are not only the future of the Bengali nation but also the future guardians of our history. I salute them.

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Aparajito

[Mashuqur Rahman, USA.]

Aparajito: The word cannot be properly translated into English. Those who have seen Satyajit Ray’s 1956 film “Aparajito” may translate the word as “unvanquished”. Undefeated. Unbowed. Uncowed. Unbeaten. It is much more than any of those words.

Today, four Bangladeshi prisoners of conscience — Moloy Bhowmik, Selim Reza Newton, Abdullah Al Mamun and Dulal Chandra Biswas — walked out from the Rajshahi Central Jail as free men — aparajito. These four Rajshahi University professors were sentenced last week to two years rigorous imprisonment by a Bangladeshi kangaroo court for taking part in a silent procession in August of this year. Today they were released when Bangladesh’s civilian puppet president, Iajuddin Ahmed, “pardon”ed them of their “crimes”.

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A baby named Cyclone

[Photo: Cyclone, a baby born during the onslaught of Sidr.]

[Mashuqur Rahman, USA.]

Cyclone Sidr battered Bangladesh last Thursday taking an yet unknown number of lives in its path. The latest official reports put the death toll over 2000. No one really knows how high the death toll will climb since rescuers have not yet reached all of the devastated areas. The Bangladesh Red Crescent is warning that the death toll could top 10,000.

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We are all Nur Hossain

[Mashuqur Rahman, USA.]

“Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.” — Archimedes, 220 BC.

On November 10, 1987 a young Bangladeshi man named Nur Hossain was shot and killed by the forces of Bangladesh’s part-time poet and full time dictator General Hossain Mohammad Ershad. On that day Nur Hossain had joined thousands of other Bangladeshis in protesting the dictator’s rule. The protesters demanded a return to democracy. Nur Hossain stood out amongst the protesters. He had the Bengali words “Sairachar nipat jak” painted in bright white letters on his bare chest, and the words “Ganatantra mukti pak” painted on his back. “Down with autocracy” on his chest; “Let there be democracy” on his back. He died for those demands and became a martyr for the democracy movement in Bangladesh.

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A conversation with Dr. David King

[Mashuqur Rahman, USA.]

This morning I received an email from Dr. David King. Dr. King is a lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. As ShadaKalo reported in his excellent post last night, General Moeen U Ahmed attended Dr. King’s class on Election Reform on Monday. The class consisted of 9 of Dr. King’s students.

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