Chotto Mind's Blog

Foreign Criminals Using WH Online Petition

2013-03-10T14:53:00.000-04:00

A petition has been made in the White House petition website that is being scammed by a terrorist network organized in Bangladesh. Sachalayatan, a blogging platform from Bangladesh exposed the techniques that the terrorist organization named Jamaat-e-Islami is using. It gives the complete way from creating fake emails to how to sign in the petition.

How would you send thousands of emails to the White House to stop the warcrimes tribunal?
A petition has been set up at the White House to stop the conspiratorial hanging of the leaders of Jamaat at the farcical tribunal in Bangladesh, which needs 100,000 signatures. If it is possible to get 100,000 signatures by March 18, Barak Obama will give out a statement protesting and condemning this and will take necessary actions against it. In order to reach the target quickly, you can follow the easy procedures described below.
1. Open your browser and click on the following link. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/express-concern-against-international-war-crime-tribunal-and-mob-justice-bangladesh/6gg04svt
2. You will first have to create an account with an email to sign this petition.
3. Now open another tab and go to this link: http://www.fakemailgenerator.com/
4. In the second tab, you will get a temporary email address which you have to copy. Then create a new account in the petition with this email. Wait until you get a confirmation link in the inbox. If you don’t get the confirmation link, go to the inbox and then copy and paste the email here (in the mail box) with which you signed up.
5. After creating the new account, sign the White House petition. Then close this tab and reopen it. (You may copy this link somewhere or bookmark it in the browser.)
6. Then again from the second tab, create a new mail ID using http://www.fakemailgenerator.com/ and create a new account at the White House petition page.
Don’t share this procedure on the Facebook wall, rather inform your friends of this via Facebook message or via emails. Please visit our blog daily. And to inform everyone in cell phones, use the following link to send SMS (text message) from PCs:
http://www.freesmscraze.com/worldwide/send_free_sms_to_bangladesh/index.html
(N.B: Besides opening the White House petition site in our browser, you need to open the site fakemailgenerator.com in a second tab.)
If you don’t understand, please comment.” Sachalayatan writer enamulhoque1 translates the complete site into English.

Enamul Hoque also provided graphs to illustrate the way the fake emails has been used. One such graph shows that from Port Arthur, Texas, A. A. initialized name signed the petition more tan 400 times. This completely proves that the signs in the petition has been faked. The statistics from Port Arthur also shows that out of 473 signatures from Port Arthur, 476 were from the same place. The second diagram states that the spike from 26th February. In the side, it also shows that the Port Arthur, Texas. This region has the population of 54,000 but 1% of all the signatures for the petition came from this area and with the same initials, A. A.

Bangladesh has been facing violence by the Islamic terrorist organization Jamaat-e-Islami. They have rampages through minority communities and ordinary Bangladeshi citizens after their leaders were brought to trial for war crimes. It is claimed that they have ties to Pakistan and other criminal groups. Minority houses have been taken down, women have been raped and countless have been killed.

New Nazi and Hitler in Bangladesh

2013-03-03T13:10:00.002-05:00

Families after families and houses after house are burning in Bangladesh. The international media has not taken any notice so far as another civil war erupted in the 8th populated nation. Bangladesh has always been a nation with Muslim majority; however, with the large population of minorities, there had been amiable nature between all of the sects. There has been one party that had been on the rise which is trying to transform the country into the state that Pakistan is in.

Recently, Hindus, minorities in Bangladesh has been targeted the most. Temples throughout the nation has been vandalized. In Noakhali, 76 Hindu houses had been burned down. Countless lives has been lost, but the international media is still silent and the human rights commissions are silent.

This "Bangla Spring" has been rarely taken into notice by the American government and American media. However, if the Islamic sects succeed, then there is a likely chance that Bangladesh will be turned into Afghanistan or Pakistan. This might become a major problem for not just Bangladesh's minorities and for the Western countries as well as Bangladesh might turn out to be a terrorist nation.

Prosecutors have compared one of the most important war criminals to Hitler. It was decided that the entire world will look into any nation that suffers from similar atrocity. Just as the Jews had been excavated out of their homeland and killed and raped, the minorities has also been punished the same way but the world didn't look at them.

This atrocity should be stopped. Let those cries be stopped. Let the new Nazi Jamaat be stopped.

Shahbag Protest in a Nutshell

2013-02-18T11:34:00.002-05:00

The Shahbag protest began on Tuesday, February 5th in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in response to the court not giving a war criminal of Bangladesh, Abdul Quader Mollah, the capital punishment. Mollah has been charged with the participation in atrocities during the Liberation War of 1971, which includes the mass murder in Mirpur. He was proven guilty in 5 out of the six charges brought against him. In couple of hours of the verdict, mass started to develop because many were expecting the capital punishment.

The place where the protest started has been renamed Projonmo Chottor because the new generation has been credited for the protest. Thousands are still protesting until today as they wait for the court to give Mollah and the other rajakars (war criminals) the capital punishment.

Tuesday, February 5th
Protest organized by Blogger and Online Activists Network (BOAN). Protesters started to draw cartoons, murals as well as hang effigies. According to Bloomberg.com, at least 14,000 joined the protest on the first day.

Wednesday, February 6th
Rumors spread that the protest is mutual.

Thursday, February 7th
Sit-in protest started with the demonstrators singing the national anthem from 8 am.

Friday, February 8th
A mass rally is done with hundreds and thousands of people joining the cause. Many poets and writers started to join the protest, giving their speeches.

Tuesday, February 12th
A 3-minute silence is called for from 4:00 pm to 4:03 pm. Thousands of vehicles stopped. People emerged to the streets and formed chains. Even a cricket game going on in the Sher-e-bangla Stadium was stopped for 3 minutes. Shibir, the student organization of Jamaat-e-Islami start rampaging by blowing and shooting at the police.

Friday, February 15th
A blogger and activist, Ahmed Rajib Haider is hacked to death by the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Monday, February 18th
Jamaat-e-Islami calls for a nationwide shutdown. The nation's Board Guards were immediately deployed to stop the Jamaat-e-Islami from disrupting continuing with the shutdown which didn't do much for the nation's daily life as many did not follow the shutdown at all. The president has also approved the amendment to the International Crimes Tribunal which calls for parties to be charged for war crimes (as well as individuals). It also allows equal opportunity for appeals against verdicts of war crimes tribunal.

Shahbag Protest Sparked by Social Media

2013-02-11T20:38:00.000-05:00

With the spark from the social media, Shahbag turned into a protest, demanding the capital punishment for 1971 war criminals. Shahbag protest has turned into a strict demand, searching only for the death penalty for all those who committed war crimes.

The spark erupted after Abdul Quader Molla, the secretary general of Bangladesh's Islamist party Jamaat-e Islami was sentenced to life in prison for murder, rape, torture and other crimes committed during the 1971 liberation war. With the verdict, Shahbag turned into Tahrir Square in Bangladesh.

The protest started from this Facebook event is titled: "Protest Against the Ruling Made for Quader Mulla". Till now, there are more than 12,000 Facebook users who are attending the event. Their only demand from dawn to dusk is to change the verdict. The Facebook event was created by Bloggers and Online Activists Network (BOAN) in order to protest against the verdict. Facebook still continues to play a major role in the protest as users of Facebook spread their message through video, photos and words. ICSF and Kazi Sudipto as well as many others started to share photos from their experience in the protest.

Quader Molla is proven to be in association with the killing of Pallab, a Bangla College student and the burning and killing of Hazrat Ali Laskar, his wife, two daughters (of whom one was raped) and two year old son. Additionally, he was also convicted of three other charges that had been proven. He wasn't given the death sentence even though Bangladesh still allows death sentence to be carried out.

The whole incident has been manipulated throughout the media. Some sources said that Associate Press had reported at the beginning that the event was by Jamaat-e-Islami themselves and that news spread to many news agencies throughout the world such as ABC and the Miami Herald. BBC was also brought into question when they emphasized on focusing on Abdur Razzaq, the lead lawyer for the Jamaat leaders facing trial, who described the tribunal as "a witch hunt". BBC's inaccuracies were also questioned, which led the BBC Bengali division to closely monitor the event and write clearly. Toby Cadman of The Huffington Post writes in a sympathetic tone towards Khaleda Zia, the opposition leader of Bangladesh. There was much more emphasis of the death of Jamaat activists and ICT was blamed for censorship. Many human rights activists are protesting themselves against the death penalty of the war criminals, to which Bangladeshi Facebook users are growing furious. All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council will be reporting about the ruling that would be made in the case to see if it is justified by human rights to which many Bangladeshi citizens oppose.

Many Facebook groups started to spread words of small emphasis in order to spur the attention of the media towards the other direction. Faraeji Andolon, Converse News, and Basherkella are three of those Facebook groups that has started to spread various biased news supporting the Jamaat. They are spreading news of one of the main leaders of the campaign being hurt by other members of the same group. Bangladeshi bloggers are blaming Ekushey TV (a private TV channel) for their wrong emphasis on the issue and creating a mob out of it. Many are also blaming them for spreading the news to change the public's attention from the actual event.

A new website has been constructed for the issue and @ShahbagSquare has become a major Twitter feed for updates of Shahbag. The protest has also been carried out to other nations which has been captured by Flickr. Many of the Bangladeshi blog aggregates have erupted as well, protesting for the death sentence of war criminals including Sachalayatan, Amarblog and Somewhereinblog. The location of the protest has also been renamed to "Projonmo Chattor" after the protests had started. Without meeting their demands, the protesters said that they will not move. These demands includes: capital punishment for Quader Mullah and all war criminals, ban on Jamaat and boycott on all Jamaat institutions. Kader Molla death was demanded in Causes.com and the petition has already received more than 5,000 signatures. #shahbag has become one of the important hashtags in Twitter. An online radio has also been started to protest against the ruling that alludes to the Swadhin Bangla Betar that gave the Bangladeshis news during 1971.

Article first published as Shahbag Protest Sparked by Social Media on Technorati.

The Cowardice of Rape

2013-01-17T06:15:00.004-05:00

With the death of Damini, protesters have flooded the streets, demanding stronger actions against rapists and stronger punishment, such as execution. No one could deny that these rapists and any other rapists should be punished severely and these rapists should be made as the icon of punishment in the case of rape but there is little talk on why these men are committing such atrocities. These men were born just like us, from the womb of a mother and that mother must have told told them about the pain that they had to suffer for their existence. Did these animals forget their mother when they were raping her and any other women or did they transform?

In the Indian films, such transformations are common. Most movies follow the common storyline of an innocent young boy loves a girl but there are people who are trying to separate these two. That innocent boy turns into this romantic hero who knows all about love and would give up his life for her. Then he transforms again into an action hero who saves the girl from the gang and takes her back home and the story ends in a "happily ever after." However, during the time while this hero has a conflict with the gang, the heroine is sometimes raped. Mostly, movies from the 1980s and 1990s and some really popular, cult films includes scenes of rape but in those rapes, the hero comes just in time to save the girl.

Basudev Mahapatra from hotnhitNEWS mentions a event in his introduction of his article where two children were fighting in the tones of two famous Bollywood superstars. Many would claim that this is nothing out of the blue because the target of movies are for the audience to escape from reality. What the audience does not understand is that the friend who was with Damini was not Salman Khan or Ajay Devgan and he couldn't fight 4-5 men at once. In fact, maybe he couldn't find even a single on without a few bruises. But neither Salman Khan's Dabangg or Ajay Devgan's Singham were there and there were no one to save her.

Most Bollywood films involve a structure of sexual and explicit scenes and the children are allowed to watch them from an early age. They are therefore built up with the thoughts that these explicitly is the reality that they have to face when they grow up. However, these are not real in the ordinary life. The rape scenes do not directly cause people to commit rape but they cause the psychology of individuals to change.

In the United States, the gaming industry comes into question every time there is a shootout because children who play these games believe that in real life, killing someone can be done in one shot and does not require much mental pressure. What the children do not realize is that when someone dies in a game, it is not real and anyone you kill is not real but when you have a gun in your hands and you kill someone, it is all real. They fail to notice that when you are killed in real life, you cannot restart the game over again and start your life again.

Similarly, the woman who is raped in the movies is not raped in real life. She earns money from making a scene that looks as if she is being raped when she is not because she has given the actors permission for their act but the unwanted advance from men against a woman is what they face in real life. Her chastity is robbed from her and even if she is able to stand up, she cannot look up because she would be cursed by the burden of rape. She cannot live life as it is. She cannot marry, she cannot stay away from bitter words and most importantly, she cannot receive the love from her child without reminding herself of the incident.That incident will hunt her from the rest of the life because she wasn't acting; she was raped in real-life.

Many have acknowledged that movies, religion, music and the women are themselves to blame Naomi Wolf of Project Syndicate mentions. In India forums, "silvermoonlight" writes that there are major problem with the Indian society. She writes:

India is too complex a society with dowry system, caste issues, misogamy , rampant corruption, mix of urban and rural society etc..happening all at once...its a job not the government can fix nor violent protests nor hanging of criminals...at some point India's society will collapse...they will have to rebuild, and rethink how to live and love amongst each other.

Researchers throughout the world have focused on child psychology and how it can be altered with the introduction of violence from an early age. It has been proved countless times, as the American Psychological Association did in 2003 from a 15-year study that men who watched more TV were more likely to push, grab and insult others. Women who watched more TV would respond to someone who had choked, shoved or beat the women. The National Center for Children Exposed to Violence finds that children who are exposed to violence in the TV perceive the world to be full of crime.

Yes, the media is supposed to depict what is happening in reality. They are supposed to share information about events that are not acknowledged by others. However, they are not supposed to give false hope either because there were no hero to save Damini or girls who had been raped like Damini and the rapists who believe that they are heroes from raping are not heroes but cowards.

Article first published as The Cowardice of Rape on Technorati.

Is it football or 'football'?

2012-08-20T22:39:00.000-04:00

There it was, Alex Morgan scored the goal at the 122nd minute!

As I watched the goal, I started to think about association football compared to American football.

Association football had been an international sensation for more than 100 years. It came into form during the mid-1800s and still survives to be the most popular sport in the world (according to many sites such as 10topten). Then I looked up the monetary support that association football receives. Forbes clearly states that the three most expensive tournaments are from association football which includes tournaments such as the Champion's League, European Football Championship and the World Cup. More than half of the tournaments listed in Forbes were of association football.

So what's the actual name of the sport that the Americans call "football"?

I was surprised to find that it's called gridiron and distinguished the pages between gridiron and American football when I searched them in Wikipedia. Gridiron is the umbrella term for North American football which even many American football players would have hard time guessing.

Both the North Americans and the Australians have mistaken Aussie rules and gridiron as football. For most part of these sports, it is played with hands and not the feet (or what the British called foot). It's no wonder to Americans to see football players run with their legs when they should be upside down, running with their hands. Neither they throw the the ball from leg to leg nor do they run with the ball in their legs.

Although some have claimed that the name for American football stays football to show Americanism, which can't be found in the British sport. But it would be surprising for many to know that American football was also derived from Britain and not America. It was also without any gears and so similar to rugby that it became hard to distinguish between them. Then, the "mob football" gave rise to more violence and kicking during the early 1900s which gave the rise of leather helmets in football as a protective gear. This changed fast and was replaced by the plastic helmets in the late 1940s because of the numerous injuries that the game caused. NFL has also claimed that "The human brain, although encased by a heavy-duty cranium, isn't designed for football."

The Americans had be considered to be a violent country and this sport proves to be that. Still, in the 21st century when we have the equipments to test the damages that American football does to the brain, we still continue to play it as our national sport.

Does this prove to be ironic or that the Americans are of such character? Is it just hard for us to see that what we call football makes us look like a hypocrite in the world because it's not even played with the feet? Or maybe it is just that while we were trying to create a new sport that represented Americanism, we took something the British had done a long time ago and named it for our own?

The popularity of football (association football) is rising everyday even in the United States. Still, news medias throughout New York City shows American football and not football during their season. Maybe the media representatives know that football would dominate in popularity if they start to show that and lose the hopes of NFL. Maybe it's just trying to keep us ignorant.

Afterlife as a Begger

2012-07-20T10:59:00.000-04:00

It was the funeral ceremony of a grandmother who had died fifteen days ago. Though the body had been cremated the same night she had died, according to the scriptures of Hinduism, it was required that the person who died should be remembered fifteen days after her death through a gathering where everyone would pray for her. She was part of a rich family in Bangladesh, and her children were also rich, inviting almost the whole village in their house for the lunch. Everyone gathered together with the beggars that were found in the village, to eat and share their pray so that her afterlife would be as great as her life.

Among the regular visitors walked in a woman who wore a white-colored saree that covered her face, displaying only her wrinkled skin. It was still morning time, 10 o'clock in the bright sunny morning day as the house was getting prepared for the afternoon. She walked into the house and asked for food.

"Sit in the side," said a maid. "I will call the owner."

She walked into the house and called out the owner's wife, who's mother-in-law had died. She came out, peeked into the beggar and having seen her sit on a side, he asked a maid to get food for her. She examined the beggar's movements, knowing that she was not the common beggar from the village and no one had seen her here before. She received the plate with food in it, and walked up to her and handed her the food.

"Eat," she told the beggar. "If you need anything else, just let me know."

"No," said the beggar. "This is a lot to eat."

The owner's wife left and her children came up, with the neighbors around them. One of them, a boy saw that her cloths were worn out and needed repair or replacement and thus asked her if she needed any old clothing from the house. She looked up from the plate of food and still not showing her eyes, she told them that they had brand new cloths in a chest.

"I liked those," said the beggar. "Why should I wear old clothing at all when I have new cloths?"

A little surprised, another boy told her that those were not her.

"Those are mine," she answered to the boy who often did not intercept what was going on around him. "I used to wear them all my life. The red saree, the jewelry in the chest, those are what I should wear, and not those old cloths."

The boys did not understand her much, thinking that her mental state was not much of a great one. She stood up and walked out the doors of the house, not letting anyone know except for the neighborhood boys, some of whom followed her out the door. It took her considerable amount of time to walk to the doors and the boys followed her to the opposite door. The owner's wife came out with old clothing and handed it to her son so that he could take it to the beggar. He ran as his friends were already there in the road but upon going onto the road, they lost her, One of them said he saw her walking this path and his friend next to him looked into his shirt to remove a leaf that had fallen into his shirt. Then the other boy who had been watching her go had taken a blink which took her out of his picture as he figured out that right after she had come out of the house, her speed in walking was tremendous. It was thus concluded that she was the actual person who had died, she was the grandmother herself.

What is Dharma?

2012-07-03T14:10:00.001-04:00

The word 'Dharma' is derived from the root " dhri" which means to uphold, to maintain, to support, to nourish, to sustain. It contains the moral values required for sustaining human existence in its fullness. Self-development through self-restraint is called 'Dharma'. It is physical and at the same time spiritual. We are all inter-dependent and we must see the well-being of the whole universe as a whole. Dharma is the path of righteousness and living one's life according to the codes of conduct as described by the Vedas and Upanisads. Dharma means "that which holds" - the people of this world and the whole creation.

SOPA & PIPA Gone

2012-01-27T18:35:00.004-05:00

After the controversial SOPA bill had gone down the drain, what has happened to its lobbyists?

How My Web Days Are Going

2011-09-02T12:41:00.000-04:00

How are you passing your days?

Movie Review: Noukadubi

2011-08-13T07:02:00.001-04:00

Noukadubi Poster

It is always considered a major struggle to turn a classic novel into a movie and it is always difficult to turn one of Bengal's prominent author's novesl into a motion picture. That is what Noukadubi (Boat Wreck) is, written by Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate in literature. Director Rituporno Ghosh, who has already experimented with various classical novels, has made Noukadubi into a two-language film, both Bengali and Hindi. Ramesh, the protagonist of the film faces dilemma all throughout the movie. When his father calls him home from the village to for an arranged marriage, he faces dilemma from his love, Hemnalini. The two granddaughters of the great-Bengal actress Suchitra Sen plays the role of Hemnalini and Ramesh's married wife, Kamala. When they are on their way to return to Calcutta, the name of the film is visually seen by the viewers. This single incident brings confusion in Ramesh's life when he has to live it with an unknown girl that he had not married but is forced to show that she is his wife.
To the viewers, this confusion might seem awkward at first. Mostly towards the foreigners it might seem not common for a wife to not see the face of her husband during marriage and even after until they are alone. This is the common action done by ordinary Indians during the early 1900s and before. This period film depicts whether true love will finally triumph.
The reviews of Noukadubi were seen in newspapers such as The Telegraph from Calcutta, claiming that the movie tries to visualize how "the shiny ball called love wants to roll into the right pockets but keeps getting deflected by the rusted pins of life."
That is exactly that brings audience to the silver screen; to experience lights into Rabindranath Tagore's works and to see how love can play a role in the life of a person.

First published: http://blogcritics.org/video/article/movie-review-noukadubi/

Deadline: For the Politicians & Other Careers

2011-07-27T14:57:00.000-04:00

What would the Congress face if the debt limit is not passed by August 2nd? For me, it is difficult to say; rather I would list what a deadline would mean for each career.

Student: a project or homework deadline would mean that anything after that deadline is late. That homework/project would be graded differently. If that is the first assignment from the teacher from the school year, then the teacher would start to look at the student that has handed in the project/homework late or did not hand it in at all. This might cause the student to receive a failing grade.
Chemist: failing to give in the research report by the deadline would most likely mean a fire for the chemist. Even if that is not the case, he would have to go through higher authority of the company looking over his work for a really long period of time.
Cost estimator: a cost estimator failing to "estimate" the cost would mean he does not want the job. He would better look for another job because he is getting fired.
Designer: failing to submit the design of clothing, website or any other type of object would mean that the designer is putting extra work into the project. He is devoted and an extraordinary project is expected from him/her.
Doctor: a doctor failing a due date (for example of a surgery) would mean the person with heart condition (if they had heart conditions) to be dead because the doctor could not coupe with the deadline that was posted.
Lawyer: a lawyer not presenting sufficient information before the deadline of a case would make the lawyer lose the case. In the bar association, he would receive poor reputation.
Professional Athlete: a professional athlete not submitting the forms for an entry to one of the competition would ultimately lead the athlete to not compete at all even if that athlete is one that everyone knows about.
Reporter: a reporter not submitting an article on deadline might cause the reporter to get fired from the job.
Teacher: a teacher not submitting the grades of his/her students before the deadline would cause the teacher answer questions from the school administration as well as his/her students.

And what does our politicians have to face? Do they face their own conscience or as Alexander Hamilton had said: "the Great Beast"?

Debt Limit

2011-07-07T10:20:00.000-04:00

The debt limit deal has to be reached by the beginning of August. The debt is now at 14 trillion dollars.

This clock calculates all the information on debt: http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The New York debt is: http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-new-york-debt-clock.html

The World debt clock: http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

Halfway Down the IPL

2011-05-03T17:52:00.000-04:00

The Indian Premiere League now has a new chairman, replacing the previous Lalit Modi. As this happened, the look of the tournament has also changed as the matches are not getting interesting at all. The current Commissioner and the Chairman of IPL is Chirayu Amin, who has had time with monitoring and managing companies such as the Alembic Ltd., a 104 years old pharmaceutical company.

Lalit Modi, the previous Chairman and Commissioner of IPL was alleged of taking bribes and committing corruption. With the introduction of two new teams, the Pune Warriors and the Kochi Tuskers, the Chairman wanted to sell those franchises by money. The bid caused resignation of Shashi Tharoor, a minister of India which also led to the removal of Lalit Modi from the Chairman and Commissioner's position.

As this was happening, two teams were also asked to be removed. The Rajasthan Royals and the Kings XI Punjab had their franchises terminated because these franchises breached ownership rules.

Now at the halfway stage into this year's competition, questions of close matches raise. In the previous years when Modi was the Chairman and the Commissioner of IPL, matches had been much close than before. These has not been a single tie in this year's IPL yet. There has also not been a match with a 1 run victory or a 1 wicket victory. There has been one tie game in the previous year, or another tie in the previous year. This year, the wins are much greater with runs or wickets, causing everyone to believe that maybe it had some managing from the Chairman himself.

Article first published as Halfway Down the IPL on Blogcritics.

Only 10 Teams in 2015

2011-04-23T16:55:00.002-04:00

In the 2015 Cricket World Cup, the International Cricket Council is thinking about inviting only 10 countries. This would mean that only the countries with test ranking will be allowed into the World Cup. Over the internet, many countries are speaking against it. Afghanistan, Ireland, Singapore and Canada are speaking up first. Within 48 hours of the final of World Cup 2011, this decision was out. Countries like Afghanistan are the top rising stars that are rising up to compete in the upcoming world cup.

@rickeyre in Twitter commented: and if the ICC continues to limit the #Cricket World Cup to 10 teams it's an admission of their failure to create a global sport.

Now cricket Australia is saying that it is their idea to limit the number of teams in the world cup so that the game stays popular. In Australia, it is not as popular to make the weak games into the pay-per-view list. Many stadiums would be without any supporter and that would be a disaster for the ICC. Cricket Australia's spokesman said:

"Our starting point on ICC Events has always been that qualification should be based on merit. We support moving to a 10-team ICC World Cup in 2015 and longer term, support moving to ICC World Cups which are 10-team contests based on merit, (like) the top 10-ranked nations in the world. The ICC has discussed reviewing the position on 2015 and we will be an interested participant (both as an ICC member and also as a co-host) in that discussion."

Many are sending their responses to ICC's new format:

@Dylstra: I've just e-mailed @cricketicc as to why a 10-team 2015 World Cup is a horrible idea. You should too: enquiry@icc-cricket.com

As I looked over, I would consider that this was because of the Australian board which could not let Australia be in the ODI top rank.

Congratulations INDIA

2011-04-02T21:07:00.000-04:00

Maybe the whole thing was keeping the nerves.

Photos copyrighted by Cricinfo.

Pictures not only says a thousand words but the words of the hearts also.

Congrats to the Egyptians

2011-02-11T22:29:00.000-05:00

The voice of the Egyptians showed the voice of democracy. Here are few of the comments posted on Twitter after the great win:

@3arabawy: We scored big victory everyone. But we should not stop the protests and the strikes until the rest of our demands r met. #Jan25
@yslaise: Thank you Bouazizi, Khaled Said and the youth of Tunisia and Egypt, for giving me stories to teach my son about sacrifice, unity and freedom
@Ghonim:
مبروك لمصر .. المجرم غادر القصر
Congratulations Egypt…the criminal has left the palace
@ianinegypt: Mubarak steps down to Allahu Akbar ringing out in Tahrir Square. #egypt #jan25

Windows & Ubuntu

2011-01-31T21:16:00.001-05:00

For me, the final decision that I could come up with was that you would need both a Windows and an Ubuntu desktop. So any Linux or Windows cheerer, please accept the fact that time is changing for us to accept both.

Verizon Review & the Truth

2010-12-11T07:52:00.000-05:00

Speedtest.net had showered me with all the statistics I needed. Europe: 9.59mbps. North America: 8.14. Okay the United States: 9.89. Rhode Island has the highest 16.73 (I thought Rhode Island was the smallest state in the United States). Hauppauge had the highest 34.26 and second highest Geenvale with 34.78. Let me see those on the map, but sorry they were not there.
Now lets go to my location, which said it had Road Runner/Earthlink/Verizon but Verizon with 2.37mbps? No more. I looked up the headquarter for Verizon which I noticed to be in New York meaning Manhattan. But one of the major company to rise in the wireless, are they backing up with their basics, the internet? I had no clue whatsoever about Verizon's plans and what this would bring for them but I was pretty sure that it would not benefit the Verizon company as it hoped. When I had called Verizon, I heard their own technical services calling the billing section in various names. For example, when the technical service section tried to create a line for me with the billing, the technical department had to call their billing section "crap" as if these in the billing section did not do any good. I understood the problem right away because for me to talk to a technical representative took me 10+ minutes but for me to talk to a billing representative took me 30+ minutes. The good thing was that I had speaker phone so that I could put it on speaker and wait for them but for the ones who do not have speaker phone or do not know how to use it, how does Verizon feel? First they do not have the capability to provide you with that much service and then they tell you you have to wait?

Or I believe Verizon is trying to tell us something. They are trying to tell us, we do not need you. Why do you not switch to Earthlink or Road Runner?

Rationalist Says...Oops

2010-10-09T16:59:00.000-04:00

As I heard the stories from the Bible, I started to question myself about what I was hearing. Partiality, segregation, an infinite dynasty, 'fear God' and victory? How can these be implied to Christianity and rationalism? Let me get to the point, then it will all be clear. These are taken from the Old Testament, and are not to written to offend anyone.

David is the second king of the kingdom of Israel. Saul is the first king for the same kingdom.
The idea that David is chosen seems to be wrong to the fact that how can God look at each of the individuals differently? God withdrawing his favor from Saul seems to say that God was discriminating between human beings that were essentially all created by Him. Even if this is thought wrong

David's dynasty forever, then where is Doomsday?

It is noted in the Old Testament also "Fear God and keep his commandments into judgment including every secret thing for God will bring every deed into judgment including every secret thing weather good or evil".
"Fear the God", what does that seem like? Why should one "fear" God when he is supposed to be the loving and caring person?

"God will ultimately be victorious over evil and establish his kingdom forever"-- so not victorious now?
Really, what are we supposed to think about this quote? God will ultimately be victorious over evil, does that mean that he is not victorious right now? Did not he created it all and controls it all? If that is true, then it also has to be true that you don't have to be victorious. Or am I to think that God is Frankenstein who has no control over what He has created?

Still Fighting Strong & Brave

2010-09-01T19:20:00.000-04:00

Even when the President of the United States was delivering a speech to end combat in Iraq and withdraw combat troops from the region, the soldiers were fighting. The Associated Press reports "American soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents."

But an optimistic president cannot be let down by these raids. As told in a New York Times Blog by a Iraqi teacher:

“I have not heard the speech. It’s an American matter between President Obama and the people of the United States. We do not care if they withdraw or not. The important thing is that security is improved and we can live an ordinary life.”

This declares that safety and security is the main concern still lurking in Iraq's backyard, which the Americans say has vanished from the American and NATO forces in Iraq. The praises that President Obama received from the Iraqis will help in the course of action and through the time that passes with it. But in Politico, it is stated that fewer people have actually watched the speech. The report, according to Nielsen states that 29.2 million viewers were watching the speech, which is 9 percent fewer than June's oil spill speech. But the phrase that is mentioned all over the news is one, that it is "time to turn the page", and sure will it be a page turned in the history book of the United States.

Movie Review: Peepli [Live]

2010-08-24T19:29:00.002-04:00

What does the question of suicide form in our heads? Must be something serious, at least for the ones who think of death as being something serious. But Aamir Khan changed the script into one extraordinary aspect that is sure to change our aspect into farmer suicide.

Peepli [Live] is directed by Anusha Rizvi and it's producer is Aamir Khan, which means there would be seriousness even with the comedy provided in it. Think about a movie that receives 100% from Rotten Tomatoes or one that can actually achieves 4.5 out of 5 from Taran Adash. It means it has to be special in its ways, there cannot be anyone denying that.

There is the mix of Indian culture in the film, but it shows not the 90s style in movies but the Indian style that is in Madhya Pradesh, their tongue, their culture, their songs and their lifestyle. It is rated with an "A" for adult by the censor board which is because of the frequent curses that the characters speak of. But it is nothing different from the actual lifestyle that a farmer has when he is broke and a governmental loan to pay off.

That brings us to the plot, which is simple yet powerful. The plot revolves around Natha, a poor farmer from the village Peepli who would be losing his plot of land due to a unpaid government loan. A fix that is provided by the government is for the farmer to commit suicide, which Natha would commit with the help of his elder brother. But as the time for local elections comes about, a small suicide of a farmer turns into a fierce political rebel, media ramping up at the poor farmer's doorsteps. Each of the groups avenging benefits from it; the current governmental party tries to protect Natha whereas the opposition party gives him bribe to commit suicide. Natha's feelings are not realized except by himself, who in spite of all this wants to protect himself, at least who wants to have his life taken by himself?

The film has produced what one can call "the voice of villagers", the songs mix with the sound of the village, the language plays with it, and most importantly was the story, a story that cannot get better than that. It is a movie, as one of the founding father of Indian film industry, Amitabh Bachchan commented: "The film took me back to my place of birth and deposited me within the distinct atmosphere of my roots, and I loved that." It touches every man's heart, the hearts of the millions and speaks the voice of the farmers whose voice was not heard before.

যোগে কি শক্তি অর্পিত?

2010-08-22T19:13:00.000-04:00

পতঞ্জলি হচ্ছে ভারতের আদি-যোগ প্রতিষ্ঠাতা, যিনি বলেন ভগবানের কাছে আবার ফিরে যাওয়াই আমাদের লক্ষ্য। ডুয়ালিস্টিকরা মনে করেন মানুষ ভগবান থেকে এসেছে, মানুষ হিসেবে বাস করে, এবং পরে আবার ভগবানের কাছে ফিরে যায়। মনিইষ্টরা মনে করেন মানুষই ভগবান এবং তারা ভগবানের কাছে ফিরে যায়। কিন্তু প্রশ্ন হচ্ছে, এই যোগ করে কি শক্তি আমরা পেতে পারি?

স্বামী বিবেকানন্দ এই বিষয়ে তার The Complete Works of Vivekananda-তে তার উত্তর দিয়েছে, অতি সংক্ষেপে এবং আমাদের বোধগম্য করে। ধরণ হচ্ছে কোনো একটি বস্তুর প্রতি একাগ্র চিত্তে মন বসানো, যার থেকে আমরা ধ্যানে অবতরণ করি, এবং সেখান থেকে সব ছেড়ে দেবার শক্তি পেলে আমরা সমাধিতে উৎপন্ন হতে পারি। এই ধ্যান, সমাধি, ও ধরণ যখন একটি বস্তুর উপর আমরা করে থাকি, তাকে বলা হয় সংযম। যখন আমাদের চিত্ত ধ্যানে মগ্ন, বা সমাধিতে, তখন থেকে আমরা সময় বলতে আর কিছু অনুভব করি না। সেই সময় থেকেই আমরা যোগের শক্তি কি কি অনুভব করতে শুরু করি।

যখন আমরা সময়ের অধিষ্ঠানে থাকি না, তখন আমাদের এই ক্ষমতা আসে যার মাধ্যমে আমরা ভূত ও ভবিষ্যত দেখতে পারি, এবং এমন নয় যে শুধু আমাদের নিজেদের কিন্তু পুরো বিশ্বের। অতএব, তারা যদি তাদের মগ্নতাকে জোড়ালো করে, তাহলে তারা দেখতে পারে তাদের পূর্ব জন্মকে অনুভব করতে পারে, সেটার বিষয়ে জানতে পারে। শুধু তাই নয়, একজন যোগী সেই ক্ষমতার বশে নিজের দেহ থেকে আত্মাকে সরিয়ে নিতে পারে, যার ফলে সে অন্য সকলের কাছে অদৃশ্য হয়ে যায়। সে জানতে পারে তার মৃত্যুর সময়, এবং মৃত্যুর সময় জানার ফলে সে তার পরবর্তী জন্মকে আরো জোরালো ভাবে দেখতে সক্ষম হয়। যোগী শক্তি পায় যেটা অসীম, সে পুরো বিশ্বব্রহ্মাণ্ডের জ্ঞান পায়, সে তারা-নক্ষত্রের গতি বিষয়ক জ্ঞান পায়, সে শরীর বিষয়ক জ্ঞান পায়, তার আর ক্ষুধা থাকে না, এবং তার নার্ভগুলো একস্থানে মনোনিবেশ করে।

একজন ব্যাক্তি প্রতিভা দ্বারা এই ক্ষমতার অধিপতি হতে পারেন, কারণ সে তার আগের জন্ম থেকেই এই বিষয়ে জ্ঞানী। সে এই ক্ষমতার অংশীদার হতে পারে যখন কোনো না কোনোভাবে তাকে তার এই পূর্বজ্ঞান মনে করিয়ে দেয়া হয়। সেই যোগীর কাছে আসে অলৌকিক শক্তি যার মাধ্যমে সে তার পাঁচ ইন্দ্রিয়কে অতি অবশ্যক ব্যবহার করতে পারে এবং তার চাহিদা মত দেখতে, শুনতে ও বুঝতে পারে। সে তার চিত্তের মধ্যে বাঁধ খুলে দিয়ে তার দেহ ছেড়ে অন্য দেহের মধ্যে প্রবেশ করতে পারে। সে তার উদানা (আমাদের শরীরের উপরের অংশের নার্ভগুলো)-কে সে চালাতে পারে নিজের ইচ্ছা মত, যাতে সে নিজেকে হালকা করে তুলে। এই হালকা হবার কারণে যোগী জলে ডুবে না, কাঁটাতে হাঁটলেও বা আগুনে দাঁড়ালেও কিছু তার ক্ষতি করতে পারে না। এই থেকে সে আকাশের মত হালকা হয়ে যায়, এবং সে যেখানে ইচ্ছা সেখানেই যেতে পারে।

তার ভেতরকার শক্তির ফলে সে এটা বুঝতে পারে যে সকল কিছুই জ্ঞানে অসীম, সে সকল পদার্থের উপর তার ক্ষমতা প্রয়োগ করার শক্তি আনে, এবং সেই ইথারের ফলে তার শরীর ধ্বংসের বাহিরে চলে যায়, (যদি যোগী নিজে মৃত্যু চায়, তাহলে তার মৃত্যু সম্ভব) তার কোনো অসুখ হয় না, তার মৃত্যু থাকে না এবং কষ্ট থাকে না। যদি যোগী এই সকল ক্ষমতাকে ছেড়ে দেয়, তাহলে তার মধ্যে কোনো ক্ষতির অংশ থাকে না, এবং কৈবল্য লাভ করে। কৈবল্য হচ্ছে যখন যোগী একা ও স্বাধীন। সে সেই শক্তিগুলোকেও ছেড়ে দেয়, এবং সেই যোগী সকল থেকে ছাড় পায়, স্বাধীন হয়ে যায়। সেই সময় সেই যোগীর আত্মাকে পূর্ণ বলা হয়, বা যখন ভগবান আমরা নিজেরাই হয়ে যাই, কারণ মনে রাখতে হবে লিও টলস্টয়ের একটি বইয়ের না, "The Kingdom of God is Within You."

Is the Media Bias or Discriminating?

2010-08-19T10:43:00.002-04:00

The media through the internet has been playing a negative role against the Chinese. The Pakistanis being homeless is coming up to the news much more often than the Chinese mudslide. Google News World Section has posted the mudslide story as their 11th news by rank at the time of writing. I questioned myself the devastation the two natural disasters had produced, one in Pakistan and the other in China.

The Xinhuanet news agency released the information that 1,287 were dead from the mudslide. They also claimed that 457 were still missing. I later checked CNN's world, but before even going to the World section, I found the Pakistan's story on the front page which I had not noticed for the Chinese. The title of the story was Number of Homeless in Pakistan Doubles. I understand the situations, I understand both of the situations but what I do not understand is, why is the international media playing a lot with the Pakistanis when they could also look upon the Chinese.

The Chinese generosity could be also seen from the flood relief sent to Pakistan by the Chinese, reported by Xinhuan. Xinhuan reports that 50 million yuan were donated for the victims of Pakistan, which equals to 7.4 million US dollars. My question to the Pakistanis is, if the Chinese can help when they are also in the need for money and relief, why cannot the Pakistanis? Why cannot Zardari, the president for Pakistan visit the location of the relief camps himself and still want international support at the same time? (This had been reported, one example is here.) ABC News reported that:

Government officials have been accused of not doing enough. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was criticized after he visited a medical camp that was later revealed to be a fake. Gilani passed out relief checks to actors who were hired to play victims for the photo-op shown on national television.

My question towards the Pakistanis who are still asking for money and relief is, how they international community help when you, yourself do not have the courage to go on?

[Image courtesy of News.cn]

Swami Vivekananda 1.4.1

2010-08-13T12:17:00.002-04:00

Soul, God, Religion

At the beginning of the 19th century, religion was disappearing. Essentially every religion is one and united.
Most religions declare that the body has something that does not mutate, remaining the same. But they claim that it had a beginning which would be impossible because anything that had a beginning must have an end.
Beginning only means beginning of a cycle.
If there was an absolute beginning, then the whole burden of impurity would go into God.
A child is born with past tendencies, no child is born with tabula rasa or a clean, blank mind. The ancient Greeks and the Egyptians thought that a child is born with hundred tendencies.
Christianity after coming out of its origin had lost the root of it in Europe.
All religion teach us about the eternity of the soul, and its luster has been deemed. No one understood that all the Gods were the same.
The sun god, wind god and the nature's other gods changed into one God, monotheism rising from it. But then we learned that that God is immanent in nature which means we can reach Him.
By knowing that the God is essentially the same as us, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us. It is the mind that is the kingdom of heaven.
Everything has been created by him, just as there are thousand different radii but they converge through only one point.
Love and charity is the oneness in every human which should be searched. Until religion makes you realize God, it is useless. It is as if a donkey is carrying sugar but does not know its sweetness.
A lion was born among a flock of sheep where it was raised with grass and learned to bleat. A stranger lion came and saw the lion eating grass, and took it to the pond, showed its face to it and after understanding that it was not a sheep but a lion, it learned to roar and not be a sheep any more.

Some questions follow from the book:
- Q. A man in the audience said, "If ministers stop preaching hell-fire, they will have no control over their people."
- Q. What did the Lord mean when he said, "The kingdom of heaven is not of this world?"
- Q. Do you believe we come up from the animals?
- Q. Do you know of anyone who remembers his previous life ?
- Q. Do you believe in Christ's crucifixion?
- Q. If he could have produced such a semblance as that, would not that have been the greatest miracle of all?
- Q. Do you believe Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount?