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These things keep changing in terms of their content, but remain always the most seductive form of procrastination. I’ve borrowed the name but changed the format around a bit from the legendary Radio 2 show.
The ten records that would be the equal, and perhaps even preferable to any Man Friday were I ever to end up deserted on some island, as I most surely would if I ventured out to sea:
2.Up the Bracket-The Libertines
3.Santiago, Chile 23/11/2005-Pearl Jam
5.Hats off to the Buskers-The View
7.Automatic for the People-R.E.M
9.The Stone Roses-The Stone Roses
And one 60-minute mixed tape, for any songs I missed out:
3.Tangled up in Blue-Bob Dylan
5.What Katie Did-The Libertines
6.Everybody here wants you-Jeff Buckley
7.The Thrill is Gone-Gary Moore with B.B King
8.Local Hero(Wild Theme)-Dire Straits
9.Little Wing/Maggot Brain-Pearl Jam (Milwaukee, WI 7/9/95)
Hoping the island would have the natural accompaniments.
Ah,fear. That old ally of those in power bent on the subjugation of those not. A word, nay an emotion increasingly relevant to the situation back home in the wake of Sheikh Hasina’s arrest and what it tells us about the time we are living in. Not her arrest itself, but rather the conditions surrounding it. There may well be valid grounds for putting together a case against her. As I believe there would be against almost anyone who has ever transacted in our corrupt system for any significant period of time. Maybe she deserves to be in jail for those. Nobody is, after all, above the law as the generals keep reminding us and being a former Prime Minister or the daughter of Bangabandhu should certainly be no guarantor of privelege in this regard. Maybe we are better off without her. And even better off with Khaleda Zia in the cell next to her. These are all more or less given. But the significance of this arrest lies more in the circumstances surrounding it. The devil, as they say, is in the detail.
The first question that springs to my mind is why now when she has started speaking up again? This case has been filed for quite a while now, from before the whole farce over allowing her or not allowing her to board a British Airways flight from Heathrow back home took place in April. If it is really the law that is being done justice through her arrest, why wait until the woman reverted to her outspoken character once more after a period of relative calm? If someone has committed a crime, justice is not waiting till she starts exhibiting criminal tendencies once more to take her to task. Rather, justice is a process that is almost always best expedited. In Hasina’s case, regardless of the merits or demerits of the case, that has clearly not happened. What purpose does the path that has been followed serve? Only one, as far as I can see, and that is not to show nobody is above the law, but that nobody is above the one at whose behest the law is enforced. Dare to do, or speak against him, and you shall be granted your long-overdue date with the law. I expected it in a sense. Hasina has never been the type able to take advantage of a situation where she is better off with her mouth shut. Unlike Jamaat, whose ‘leaders in prison’ count is exactly the number of words they have uttered against the SOE government. Nought.
And lest we forget, it happened more-or-less on the same day Abdul Jalil moved a step closer to buying his freedom by being moved to hospital, not long after ratting out his former leader in a statement bearing the stamp of coercion so large you would believe it is no less a man than Keyser Soze behind this whole palaver. All the arrests and warrants issued in the first six months, we would like to have believed they were all aimed at dismantling a polity gone bad. Now increasingly, it begins to resemble an operation aimed at dismantling opposition. It is here that I am afraid the generals are asking for more than their due.
As it is, they did not have power vested upon them by the will of the people. But for lack of better guardians, we put our faith in their vigilance. The unspoken, and unwritten mandate we granted them was to guide us towards a better democratic future. Not through inculcating a Bushesque culture of fear where those who are not with us are against us, but through meaningful reforms that embrace the participation of as wide a section of society as possible. By having recourse to a freehold over the law and its enforcement, the current administration already has an advantage over the ones which preceded it. By seeking a free run to the finish bereft of any opposition, they are asking for a significantly easier bite at the cherry than those they replaced, while also raising questions over whether we the public and they envision the same ends. They must prove they are worthy of the task by fulfilling their mission through negotiation of obstacles, not the arbitrary use of power to subdue them. That is not much different from what reigned previously.
Above all, to retain our good faith, they must refrain from the politics of fear. Because that is the point at which the freedoms fought for in ‘71 start becoming compromised. And as bad as things were for those fifteen years up until January, given the choice between a people cowering in fear and a people corrupted but standing, I know which one I would prefer to live amongst any day of the week.
Those of you in America, if you’ve been following the less-serious bits of the news over the past couple of days, will be aware David Beckham has arrived. Actually, if the coverage in the British press is anything to go by, you would be aware anyway. Brand Beckham, comprising Posh and Becks, is apparently set to take America by storm. I struggle to recall , probably because there never has been, a football transfer that by the initial looks of it at-least has been so little about on-the-pitch matters.
By that, what I mean is the L.A Galaxy probably did not have any actual need for Beckham on the pitch. I’m sure it was nothing like Alexi Lalas figuring they need a right-winger for this season, and who better than the man who’s filled that position with distinction for the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and of-course England for so many years now. Anything but. They say it will put the MLS on the footballing map. A global superstar is always good for drawing interest, which translates into bigger audiences and greater media coverage. Beckham is actually perfect for that role, because in-spite of his limited skills, no footballer has probably had as much column inches or television airspace devoted to him in the last ten years or so. Or sold as many shirts. Or made as much money. Ronaldo is Il Finomino, mezmerizing with his skill and audacity, but Beckham is no less a phenomenon, albeit only for his ability to flood his clubs’ coffers. Already L.A Galaxy have sold a reported 250,000 shirts with his name on the back, and the man himself has not pulled one on yet. The mind boggles at the prospect of such a potent marketing gimmick(and I don’t mean to belittle him with that, he really i) at the hands of the Americans. But will this have long-term consequences as far as the beautiful game’s stature in America is concerned? I doubt it.
I say this because America luring away the top players at the fag end of their careers is nothing new really. Cruijff went. So did Best. Even Pele. And although the arrival of each was followed by a spike in the game’s popularity, it always proved to be temporary. Granted, there are certain conditions in place now that might mean Beckham is taking-off in fairer weather(a more professional league, experience of having staged no less a competition than the World Cup, American footballers playing around Europe, a national team that has recently shown signs of developing into a solid if not spectacular unit, and of-course the Soccer Moms) but I believe the Americans by dint of their…lets say disposition, will always find it hard to take to a sport where one of the possible outcomes is a draw. None of their sports endorses this concept, they find it not only alien but preposterous. But the hard-fought, honourable draw to those who know and follow football is one of the most breath-taking spectacles in the game and to compromise on this is to compromise on its charm. Not to mention that football is a much more cerebral sport than its American counterpart, and the Americans don’t generally seem to think outdoor sports and brain exertion go together(if football and American football is not enough as an example of this, look at cricket and baseball). Some games are simply not for everyone.
Nobody watching football for the first time will recognize why its called the beautiful game seeing Beckham play. He is not that type of player who will leave you astounded with the range of his footballing prowess. Even then, almost any top European footballers should be good enough to outshine the rest of the MLS, so expect Beckham to do well. He’s still got a good few years left in him, and during this time expect L.A Galaxy to be one of the most popular teams on the planet. Maybe a few more youngsters will pick up the game, although its an awfully hard ask of one man to affect a game’s popularity in such a massive country. The best bet for me will remain California’s immigrant communities. In any case, apart from the money, I’m sure Beckham has Messianic visions as well of being the saviour of football in the one country that has not yet felt its magic touch. Its hard to wish a guy earning $25 million good luck, but for that at-least, he has it from me.
Many of you will recognize this post shares its title with that of The Animals’ classic 1964 single. They only covered it of-course, as did many other artists as well(not quite with the same aplomb though). It has its roots in American folk music, a painstaking eulogy to life gone wrong in the brothels and gambling houses of New Orleans. Heartfelt as hell.
‘there is a house in New Orleans/they call the Rising Sun
and its been the ruin of many a poor boy/and God I know I’m one’
But this post is not about the song itself. Reason I was reminded of it, since when its been playing non-stop on my stereo, is that browsing through Daily Star today, I couldn’t help being reminded of the scene towards the end of Martin Scorcese’s last truly great film in my opinion, Casino. It captures the downfall(sorry about the Spanish dub) of the whole criminal establishment around Robert De Niro, with everyone either getting busted or getting whacked, in an apocalyptic implosion where treachery becomes second skin and repentance comes all too late. All set to the song I’ve been talking about in one of the greatest uses of music in a film ever.
So here I was today, reading about Jalil’s plea, Lobby’s 8-year sentence, Hasina’s heart-rending (but bewildering) question, and it occurred to me how similar the downfall of our political establishment has been to that part of the film. Comeuppance rolled into town, and those that didn’t make it to the border capitulated, one by one. Some gracefully, some pathetically.
But all surely, with regret. Jalil, in his plea sounded to me a broken man. The swipes he took at Hasina, while surely not misplaced, would have been much more appreciated if they had come during his courtship of power, not now when it has deserted him. Granted, there might have been coercion involved, but this too, only serves to reinforce the original image. The house has come falling down like the proverbial.
And maybe someone’s singing..
‘oh Mother/tell your children
not to do/ what I have done’
There really is no excuse for what is transpiring down in Colombo. Yesterday, Bangladesh were bowled out for 62, their lowest ever total in Test cricket. This follows closely on the heels of a first innings total of merely 89 in the first Test, which we lost of-course by a more massive margin than I care to mention.
Now don’t give me anything about going through a transition period with new captain and coach. Or about Sri Lanka being arguably the second-best side in the world today. Neither of the two precludes being at-least competitive. This team however, has been nothing short of dismal. Ever since the World Cup, where they were very, very good bar that defeat to Ireland, the Bangladesh cricket team has done nothing to overturn the indictment that has hung over them ever since I can remember: On their day, good. But when that ball is not quite hitting the sweetspot, or the batsman’s reading your change of pace, or those one-handed attempts in the outfield are coming up empty-handed, they are rather mortifying. Enough to shake your faith to the point it is only there by proxy of patriotism.
The just-concluded Dav Whatmore era, it has to be said for Bangladesh cricket, was the era of attainment. While gaining Test status is necessarily ordained by at-least as many factors off the field as there are on it, proving you are worth it is predominantly the challenge for the team itself. And under Whatmore, we achieved that. We attained our first Test victory. Which also made for our first series victory. Twice, we beat whoever was ranked number 1 in the world in one-dayers. And made it out of the first round of the World Cup. Those calls for scrapping our Test status had finally been buried in the mud somewhere in the beaches of the Carribean. Ready for a new challenge, sensing he had come as far as he could with this team, the man moved on. I don’t really believe there is much the BCB could have done about it, even less much they should have done about it, since he was clearly losing motivation as the years rolled on. Parting was at-least amicable.
We were meant, at that point to go forward from the Whatmore era. A young side with a young captain who appeared finally to be coming of age, what was most important at this point was conviction in purpose. Put a new man in charge of the young lads who could guide them through the next stretch of the treacherous terrain that is Test cricket. A man with sufficient experience and ability, especially the former given the team’s lack of it. What do the BCB do though? They let more than eight weeks go by, without making up their mind. And it is not as if the ficture list has been empty. We have already played a full series against India, and the present one against Sri Lanka is drawing to a close. Meanwhile the team of Shaun Williams and Sarwar Imran, two men who are accomplished coaches at the youth level but have nothing to show for at Test level, have been looking after the team. Very poorly. Nothing has gone right for us, and we’ve lost everything.
I’m not trying to make easy targets out of Williams and Imran(sir I should say, as I used to when coached by him). I have heard nothing to believe they are directly responsible in any way. Once, I quite subscribed to the Ian Chappell philosophy that coaches are unnecessary in cricket. But that is idealistic, and in this day and age when some of the more distinguished cricket coaches are as much sought after as their counterparts in football, I think even Chappell would admit a team sans a coach is like an airplane having lost contact with the control tower. Especially for a young team like Bangladesh, the choice of coach can sometimes act as an important signal of what direction the country’s cricket wants to take next. Assigning a high-profile coach like Whatmore had been seen as a sign of ambition I remember, and that is one quality our team did consistently show over the last four years(sometimes a bit too much, but that’s another matter).
The post-Whatmore era however, has started with hesitancy, uncertainty. I feel most poorly for Ashraful. The young man couldn’t have dreamt of a worse start to his reign as captain, and I fear it may damage his confidence beyond the short-term. But I hope the selectors will recognize he has not had all the conditions he would have hoped for met for him by the board’s failure to recognize the gravity of their decisions at this point for the future of our team. Get someone worthy of filling the shoes of a World Cup winner in there. Its not an up-and-coming coach that will do for us. We need someone who has mastered his profession, of the kind who don’t come cheap but that is the price of their knowledge and experience. We need to show we are pretty damn serious about taking that next step, which should be to show we can now consistently compete against the other Test sides. The era of attainment is over. It is time to usher in the era of consistency. And all our actions and decisions must reflect we are aiming for that. But the start does not bode well.
There’ve been rumours of quite a number of reunions floating around in the music press recently. Enough for some to brand this the ‘year of reunions’. While I am not much too excited about the impending get-together of the five Spices(and I think they’ll find the whole world’s reception to them in general will be rather subdued compared to the first time as well), I don’t mind it portending the news that The Verve, and that is to say their original line-up, have reunited as well, with an album due out in the autumn followed by a November tour of three U.K cities.
I found it hard to believe at first. Its been nearly a decade since the distinctly British clash of ideas(read egos) between frontman and lead guitarist that has brought about the demise of so many potentially great bands while at the same time providing the fuel for the magic they produce struck down The Verve mid-flight to their place in history. By then, these still-young men had brought out three albums to critical acclaim, although commercial success came only with the third, 1997’s sweeping classic, Urban Hymns. Many Verve(as they were originally called) fans however, and I am one of them, hold the first two records, and some of the singles brought out in their early days of experimentation with controlled psychedelia, typified by guitarist Nick McCabe building swirling walls of sound in an elaborate courtship of his pedal board, dearer to their hearts than the more string-laden ballads of Urban Hymns. This change in direction was significant, in that it signaled singer Richard Ashcroft had taken over the majority of songwriting responsibilities within the band. McCabe had already quit once, and most of the songs for Urban Hymns had been written before Ashcroft asked him back to lend the music some of his ’soul’. Make of that what you will, but as soon as he had done so and the album had come out, McCabe decided to pack up his soul and take it with him again, to a life of relative seclusion. Ashcroft has trudged along with the crowd through a solo career characterized more by defiance than brilliance, and the rhythm section of Si Jones and Peter Salisbury have hardly ever popped up on the radar long enough to be asked about anything to do with the band.
But now they are back together again, and it fills me with both apprehension and excitement. Their live shows are bound to be as powerful as ever, and a chance to catch them in London on one of those nights is not to be missed. Its wondering what the new material might sound like that has got my head in a spin. Is it really the ‘joy of the music’ that has brought them together again, or is it money? I’m sure the latter has some part in it, but if its more than the former, nobody’s going to lending the coming record any soul whatsoever. And without that aching, yet powerful, beautiful soul this comeback would serve merely to undermine the mythical stature their early work accorded them amongst fans of alternative rock. Older and cleaner, can they recapture the heady chemistry lent to their music in the early days by the vices and vibrancy of youth? I suppose we shall have to wait and see. I am excited about it nonetheless because if they can pull it off like I hope they’ll mean to(its hard for me to see McCabe saying yes to this had he not been given the creative responsibility his talents merit), it will make for the definitive rock album of the year. Owen Morris, one of the foremost producers of Britpop, once described McCabe as ‘the most gifted musician’ he’s ever worked with, and if he gets his way, we can look forward to psychedelic, space-rock finding its fullest expression since…well since, A Storm in Heaven, that dreamy debut.
Pearl Jam were in town recently. The nostalgia of 1993 was too much for me, and just had to go. Heard too many times about their live shows being an experience to savour, and can confirm it now. The set-list was very fan-oriented, with the Ten club having bought off tickets to the entire floor, and it made for some truly emotional moments. Why Go and Alive, two favourites from when me and Sajid(my earliest memory of both songs is you and me singing them in the back of your grandma’s car on a trip outside Dhaka, haha)had barely taken our first steps into boyhood were two of the highlights. The highlight was probably the searing rendition of Immortality, or the extended jam at the end of Crazy Mary. Mike McCready’s solos on the night were just wildfire. The whole band was in a cracking mood, and the audience were riding on the back of that which made it extra special. I’ve never been to a gig where the audience were so into the experience. Every song seemed to retain something or the other that made it special, and it was enough to make you think the bad had never had a dud in their now 16-year career. Being a collector of their bootlegs as well, I can assure you Pearl Jam have this ability to make any song sound great live. McCready and Stone Gossard throw thousand licks with their guitars, the rhythm section is always tight with Jeff Ament and Matt Cameron and Eddie Vedder is arguably the most brilliant front-man of his generation. If anybody’s living in a town they might be passing through, if you still want that good ol’ rock-and-roll concert feeling that most bands today have gone too electronic to provide, this is the band you want to go watch. make sure you’ve got the lyrics to their back-catalog down pat though. Otherwise you might embarass yourself in the the middle of the throbbing, dancing crowd singing along to Vedder’s every word and losing themselves in McCready’s every tune.
Went to see Roger Waters at Earl’s court as well recently. I’ll leave that though, for another day.
Quite the reformists, aren’t we? Factions at-least, from three of the four major parties, have now come out with reform proposals for party governance and structure over the past few days. The JP and BNP proposals would mean the end for Khaleda Zia, while the AL proposal, while more wide-ranging in scope and perhaps by dint of this, carefully skirts the leadership issue. At-least in the initial reports. The AL proposal has not been made public as yet. Party members have merely discussed some of its most important facets with the media. In any case, what cannot be doubted is that these events have the potential of ushering in a new era in Bangladeshi politics.
Some have raised their voices to question whether the reformists can be trusted, being as they are of the same ilk that ran amok over the last so many years. I believe the answer to that can only be found by giving them the opportunity to go forward with their initiative by lifting the ban on indoor politics. Yes, they never pushed for these reforms when they were running the system, but conditions then were not the most conducive to change. The system’s ills had become institutionalized, decaying it systematically. Extreme measures were needed to recall our polity from the altar of corruption and moral atrophy to the more noble path the profession idealizes. The State of Emergency is quite an appropriate moniker for what is really a critical juncture in this nation’s history. What is propagated now may stand for many more years to come, setting the scene for the nation’s struggle to break out of its shell and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the Asian countries to have shown the most vigour.
It is bound to be a wide-ranging process, and under it will fall more than just the political parties, but wherever it may be, let the work of reform begin !
Been wondering about ol’ Blighty and their role in this whole palaver that’s been the last six years. Is Blair the bastard it could be suggested or is he the one looking at a bigger picture? America the Isolationist is a worthy harbinger of the apocalypse. America Isolated could be it eventuated. Imagine the school-yard bully with not a single friend. So naturally not even a friend-of-a-friend. Not bound by anything to anyone, answerable to no-one and towering over everyone, he can claim that ice-cream you were dying for in the sun, that tape you mixed for your girl, that lunch packed by your mum , that magazine which seeing with the boys would be fun and whetever else he might fancy most times with the swipe of his arm, sometimes the clenching of his fist, and other times the friction between it and a brave boy’s skin. Isn’t the bully, the man, the entity without a friend infinitely more dangerous than the one that roams alone?
An ex-flatmate from Shrewsbury once said to me, a few weeks before Bush v Kerry, ’Half the (world’s) problem’s Bush and Blair. We’ve got to get rid of them’. I remember agreeing with him then, but now I’m not so sure. Blair, I’ve just talked about. Bush, he’s just an easy target. More hate’s wasted on him everday than electricity in our tenement. The man’s no more than just the figurehead for an idea. An idea he probably can’t quite grasp himself. If there was evidence to suggest it was even partly shaped by him, I would feel the hatred I myself once felt towards him had succeeded in giving him at-least one nightmare from which he’d woken up in a cold sweat. Preferably right when the missus had nipped off to get a late snack. And the wind was howling. And there was a sh… I should stop.
Bush is not ‘evil’ as he has been described. Evil requires some intellect. This man clearly has none. Evil moulds National Socialism. It cannot be a mere pawn of Neo-Conservatism. I sound like I’m hating on Bush. Okay, there was a shadow falling on the window.
I’d hoped ‘Sego’ would take ‘Sarko’. But she was always chasing the game, and never looked likely. Sarkozy’s just one of those guys you know are born to be President. He’s got that perfect blend of tough rhetoric and easy charm. The Socialists needed a better candidate, but at-least she kept Le Pen out of the finale.
Can’t quite get my head around what’s heppening back home. But at-least its uniting, not dividing. I wonder if Sheikh Hasina has taken a box of chocolates back for Khaleda Zia. As ever in Bangladeshi politics, nothing can be taken for granted. So much for Dr. Yunus’ stance. He never struck me as much of a potential leader. But I didn’t expect him to be so cowed, so early.
The Spider Man duo were on Jonathan Ross couple of weeks ago. Tobey Maguire was totally out of his league. Didn’t get a single joke and really just made a fool of himself. Some of these Americans just get lost when the Brits lay on their distinctive humour. Not Kirsten Dunst though. She was a darling. Maybe dating Razorlight frontman Jonny Borrell helped her, although he’s always struck me as a bit of a ponce despite two quite solid albums. I do predict here and now though, that the next Razorlight record will be crap. Full of ballads and forays into new directions that ultimately get nowhere. Borrell’s got what he’s in it for. And that spells the end for art.
I’m hoping the new Arctic Monkeys record will be fab though. Its just come out, some of you may have heard the single off it, ‘Brainstorm’. The riff’s got an arch-spy vibe to it, but I’m sure Turner’s rambling more about scummy men up in Sheffield than men in suits in in Monaco. If that is where Sean Connery seduces that woman in red playing baccarat in Dr. No. Anyway, the Monkeys released an EP in between that phenomenal first album and this latest one, in which they themselves ask, ‘In five years’ time, will it be/Who the f___’s Arctic Monkeys?’ My answer to that is a resounding ‘No’. Definitely a band to check out, if you haven’t already. Mardy Bum, A Certain Romance, Despair in the Departure Lounge, When the Sun Goes Down and Who the F___ are Arctic Monkeys? are especially recommended.
Sir Alex Ferguson is my man of the week. What a class act. I suspect this 9th premiership crown will be his sweetest. To build one of the great teams in history and reach the pinnacle is one thing. To see that team break down, overtaken by the new kids on the block, then build another team and take the title back from the touts in the grandest fashion by staying true to your principles is quite another. Never has this man gotten hold of a talented youngster and let him go to waste. His charges show a refinement, a maturity and a loyalty that belies the typical modern footballer’s instincts. What separates him from Jose Mourinho is that while Mourinho is only coaching footballers, Sir Alex Ferguson is also grooming men. Respect.
There is a reason why Australia are so dominant in cricket these days. There is enough talk on how they’ve taken the game to the next level. Well, what is this next level? Is it just better batting, better bowling and better fielding? In a sense, yes. But rather than the next, I would describe it as a different level. A different level where power reigns supreme. There are two ways through which the rest can now catch up. Either match them on power(noticeable isn’t it how the only time Australia have lost something significant is when a team playing at its best matched them on power as well-I am of-course talking of the Ashes in 2005 with England led by the likes of Flintoff and Pietersen) or take the game towards another, different level. As a purist, I hope and pray this different level is based less on power. However, the right and the ability to steer a spor in a certain direction accrues only to the leader. So whoever does it has to take the throne from Australia first, and this they have to do on Australia’s terms. But I don’t see that happening too soon. The lack of any serious sort of competition at all in this great sport is nothing short of a shame. And its just-concluded showpiece, such a shambles.
Not unlike me at 4 am.
I don’t quite know what to make of it all now. 48 hours ago, I was riding high, as I’m sure most other Banglaeshis were, on the team’s stellar performances in the Caribbean. A cracking victory against India, a job well done against Bermuda to qualify for the Super 8’s, an absolute dream performance culminating in possibly the most glorious day of our sporting history, and about thirty runs short of embarassing England. That would have more than done for me. Until that punch-drunk performance against Ireland yesterday. Its taken a bit of the shine off. If we had managed to win that one, the World Cup would have been complete, and we would have left no observer in doubt that we had definitively arrived as a force to be reckoned with. Now we’re not quite so sure.
Regardless of the outcome against the West Indies, I think where we stand in world cricket right now is this: We are at a point now where no team in the world can afford to take us easily. Whereas in the past they may have been able to get away with it, nowadays they will be punished. Given the inch, we will take the mile. That is progress.
At the same time however, we ourselves are not yet at the point where we can take any of the likes of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ireland, etc easily. We have established that we did deserve to be the 10th Test playing nation, and we are probably better than Zimbabwe at this point, but we still have some way to go before we can claim they are not even in our league. At the moment, our place in the cricketing hierarchy is akin to an island that is smack in the middle of the ocean dividing the elite from the mediocre. We can go away from the Caribbean with a lot to take from the tournament, but we must equally seek lessons from it as well. How we balance the two will largely determine which way we drift in the future.
What gives me the greatest pride as we follow the progress of the Tigers is not just that we are winning, but that we are winning playing a brand of cricket that is truly exhilarating. Young, fearless and even a bit brash, we are just what the ancient lungs of this great sport needed to revitalize it from the suffocation it faces in the hands of the traditional forces’ on-field monotony and off-field decay. If the ongoing World Cup can ever be remembered for anything above the murky waters that ran over its early stages, it is the majestic stride our Tigers have taken towards realizing their potential.
I’m relishing the status teasing me so agonisingly everyday as I try and deal with London. From the Pakistanis running the chicken shop to the Armenian professor running a human rights course to the Chinese students taking pictures on the tube to the Eritrean refugees mucking about on the buses, wherever I introduce myself, I am faced with a fierce examination to resist the temptation of introducing myself as a Bangladeshi in self-imposed exile from a military dictatorship. That would be just about the coolest you can get. And with each passing day, the news from back home tells me that pleasure’s not so far away…
Seeing shamshir and jajabor dropping quotes like the Indian fielders dropping catches, I thought I’d get in on the action as well…..
‘International order and international solidarity will always be the slogans of those who feel strong enough to impose them’-E.H Carr (1981)
I bought fair-trade coffee for the first time this past week. I was on my way home from uni when the call came that the house was out of coffee, and that is about as disastrous as it can get during the pre-exam period. I would save the day of-course, and in what style!
So here I was in the section they keep all this stuff at the local Tesco’s and there, looking quite pristine perched on one of the top shelves, I saw it. Fair-trade coffee. I had hardly ever seen something more beautiful in the supermarket. It looked like a Coalition of the Fascinating or something. Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, Ethiopia they were all there. I resolved to take three, one from each continent represented, but seeing they cost around 60p more than the brand we usually get, I did have to face that impossible task of choosing which one. Vietnam would have been the coolest four years ago. Colombia might stop making cocaine. Brazil are on the brink of something big anyway, they’ll take care of themselves. It would have to be Ethiopia, they deserve some recognition. The others didn’t really appeal to me much.
A bit later, I was confronted by the quite dreadful image of my flatmate spewing out his coff eeinto the sink, complaining it tasted like ‘korolla bhaji’ which I don’t know what you call in english, but suffice it to say it is the epitome of bitterness. So when I brought my own cup to my lips, it was with a new-found apprehension. I braced myself, sipped, and waited. Okay, not the most agreeable. Hmmm, but is that a bit of potential there? Nope, scratch that, its piss. But I managed to negotiate an agreement with my body to keep it in. The worst part was obviously agreeing with the lads. So I instantly broke out into a fiery polemic on how this coffee wasn’t about taste at all, but about much more. It was about the ills of free-market economics and how it bred its unequal benefits. It was about solidarity with the underdogs in the global order. About awareness of the consequences of our shameless consumerism. Above all about justice for coffee-growers in a world tuned only to the benefit of coffee-sellers. Something worked, for I heard no more complaints. The next day however, our regular brand was back, and when I asked for a cup, I was quite pointedly turned down. ‘You swore allegiance just last night’, they said. What cheeky buggers! On the defensive, I reacted with a sort of ‘Oh yeah, of-course, I’d forgotten we had some’. Quickly followed by some pathetic excuse for not having any. Which eventually evolved into an even more pathetic one for abstaining from coffee over the last few days.
Shams, Sana, LR…if you’re reading this mates, next time you brew some of your looting, exploiting brand of coffee, do bring me a cup please. Forget all that malarkey about justice and solidarity, truth is it was all about the packaging really.
Inspite of all its pitfalls, there remains to me no more enchanting a website in the world today than dear old Wikipedia. I know, its not the most reliable source for researching an article for say academic purposes, but that doesn’t stop it being the first destination I point my browser whenever I want to know about something of which I have no prior knowledge.
Few sites do greater justice to the ‘web’ part of the name in more gripping fashion. I’ve just finished reading an article on the Tokyo metro system, where I ended up having started my journey seeking the etymology of Mumbai, via the red buses plying the streets of the city where I happened upon a link to public transport in London and then a list of cities with rapid transit systems out of which Tokyo culled my interest simply because my flatmate had been mentioning a few days ago how it had done his head in trying to figure out the Tokyo ‘tube-map’ as it were, when he was there a couple of years ago(I said to him at the time that’s only because he’s an idiot, but now I feel I rather underestimated him). That is exactly why I love it so much. From nowhere, you can end up knowing quite a bit about something you have no idea you might even be interested in an hour back.
It works on the principle that knowledge should be free, and to me there can be no greater mantra to which I would lend my voice. Whoever came up with the whole thing would be my first pick(I quite like imagining I might one day be on the selection committee for one of these things) for a knighthood, or a Nobel peace prize (I’ve even got the ‘for’ part ready, its ‘for being the most revolutionary source of awareness in our age, without which peace shall forever remain an elusive concept’), maybe even a GQ Style award.
I know it can be a bit unreliable at times, but here you drift into the realm of how one defines knowledge. And for me, everything that is confirmed about a certain subject through rigorous testing or analysis is most definitely a necessary condition for knowledge, but not a sufficient one. For that, the random bits of trivia that the Wiki format often throws up, which may or may not be true(while acknowledging this possibility) makes for a more complete, accessible and interesting form of knowledge. That’s probably why since the first day I came across it, I was in love. It may have landed a few people in trouble in its time, but What I Know Is, its added a whole new dimension to the proliferation of knowledge in our society.
I’m a bit too inebriated you might say to say much now, but what a performance, what a result, what a day ! An upset yes, but the manner of the victory revealed a truth that has slowly been creeping up on the criceting world. We are no longer minnows. Weaker than most, yes, but a victory such as this is no longer a shock. Its merely a weaker team playing to its potential and overcoming a stronger team playing below par…Shabash bagher baccha ra!
If any confirmation was needed as to how far the current regime’s grasp could spread in Bangladesh, it arrived with the arrest of Tarique Rahman. Confirmation that this is an operation, the consequences of which may indeed alter the landscape ofBangladeshi politics in the most comprehensive manner. The BNP has in recent years often seemed a healthier party than the AL due to having, inspite of many a problem not entirely disassociated with Rahman, at-least a natural successor to the throne of party chief. The AL, as a party still so resonant of a Sheikh Hasina growing increasingly disconnected from the youth of a country where I believe I’ve heard around 40% of the population is under 20, on the other hand are only beginning to groom their next generation for the task. Comprised of a next generation much more familiar already with the tricky terrain that is rajniti, one could foresee a much better future for the BNP.
Then of-course, the masterplan started coming apart in a manner which would be more befitting of the British tabloids’ description of a cricket ball in the hands of the Pakistanis. And yesterday the umpire finally called for a new ball. Quite how the BNP would recover from this is hard to fathom. It is hard to see Ziaur Rahman’s eldest son mounting a credible comeback anytime soon.
The BNP’s only consolation would be that the AL is not in very good hands itself, and in no safe-house either with regards to being targeted. It looks increasingly as if the current regime is on a mission that could see the two behemoths of Bangladeshi politics crippled, down on their knees. Paving each side of a road for a third-party to emerge and finally make a mark in Bangladeshi politics. The Nagorik Shokti of Dr.Yunus? Possibly. But already entrenched in the system with the ability tofield candidates in well over the majority of constituencies, the Jamaat must not be counted out. They have possibly been the least affected by the whole drive.
Or perhaps they too will not be spared, once the criteria for these arrests are stretched beyond corruption a bit more. Bangladeshi politics without AL and BNP is a bit difficult to imagine. Will it retain the passion that is the spur behind so much from objections to marriage to eternal silence between brothers of blood. It is like the medicide we need, but can we take it as a people? In due course of time will the two see an upsurge in public sentiment towards them as did General Ershad after his party was more or less abased? Who will step up in their absence?
As with all things considered a ‘warm-up’, this victory against New Zealand too has to be seen for what it is: A means to an end, and not an end in itself. The result is irrelevant, we must remember that this game will not even count as an official one-day international, and I fear that as we have done too many times in the past, we will let a good result go to our heads and subsequently let our performances drop, happy to rest on our laurels as it were.
Therefore I feel it is imperative that rather than focus on the result itself, it is what came out of this performance that has to be held up and utilized. It is hard to judge from a game you haven’t seen (there was no coverage here at-least), but from the various reports flying around the net, this is what I have been able to gather:
Both the opening batsmen played their part, in the absence of first-choice Shahriar Nafees. Now Shahriar is of-course one of the first names on the sheet, so once the real thing starts, there can be no place for both Tamim Iqbal and Javed Omar at the top of the order. The two of them got similar scores, 46 and 45 respectively, but in different manners. While Tamim hit the Kiwi new-ball all over the park, Omar, in typical Omar fashion, grafted. So who would be the better option to partner Shahriar against India? Do you go for the more steady and experienced Omar, or the belligerent young Tamim ?There is still more cricket to decide from, but at the moment, I would back Tamim. In Shahriar we have finally found an opener we can buil an innings around. If Tamim gets in early and gets the run-rate going, this will take the pressure off Shahriar to play too many strokes early and risk getting out. I don’t see Omar fitting anywhere else in the order, so this would probably mean him being dropped.
It was also good that the middle order got some time at the crease, although they could surely have done with more. Md. Ashraful by all reports played sensibly for his 29, otherwise we might have been all out a lot earlier. In the next warm-up game, the most important objective
If one were asked to scan the British rock scene from the last decade or so and name some of its most resonant bands, it is quite a simple conclusion to draw that Oasis and Radiohead would gain the most mentions, followed closely perhaps by lesser acts such as Blur and Coldplay. The first two are certainly musicians of prime calibre, and Blur’s demise is as much a signature of Damon Albarn’s genius as was its rise. I have less conviction about the talents of Chris Martin and his brand of mellow pop-rock. However one band that music is definitely poorer for not giving more recognition is the constellation that was The Verve.
Yes, they are the ones who sang Bittersweet Symphony, one of the anthems of our era and they will be remembered for that forever. But try to name a few more songs from their back-catalogue, and most people will struggle beyond a couple. And that is where the tragedy lies. Because their back catalogue is so very, very good, inspite of being only 3 albums and a collection of singles long, that I have little doubt in my mind that they were the greatest songwriters to have come out of these shores since The Stone Roses’ eponymous 1989 debut changed the scene here altogether. And the strange thing is, Bittersweet Symphony has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Indeed, that third and last record, Urban Hymns (1997), is probably their weakest effort. Even then, it still is probably
Four days on, we’re back at the Queen’s Park Oval for our second game against Sri Lanka. The pitch shows a bit of wear, as this is the fourth game on this square, and accordingly, Saquibul is brought in to take Rasel’s place. Sri Lanka win the toss and choose to bat as expected, and they get off to a solid start with the openers bringing up the first fifty in the 9th over. It all looks set for the Sri Lankans to post a large total, but Tapash, bowling first-change, brings the first breakthrough for Bangladesh by bowling Jayasuriya through the gate with a slower one. Bashar then pulls a masterstroke by bringing back Mashrafee from the other end for a second spell to have a go at the new batsman, and the young man doesn’t let his captain down, taking two wickets in two overs so at the end of the first fifteen overs, Sri Lanka are 73/3.
The spinners get in on the action then, and although they don’t run through the order, they do manage to keep the run-rate in check. Razzak in particular is miserly, finishing his spell with figures of 1/29. Going into the slog overs, Sangakkara is the only recognized batsman left for the Sri Lankans. He delivers some hefty blows, but Tapash and Mashrafee show admirable discipline by mixing their pace and keeping the ball up, so the ‘hit-me’ balls are about as hard to find as peace in the Middle East(ok, obviously not quite) and Sri Lanka finish with a final score of 254/8. Not much more than we chased down against those mighty Australians that memorable day in Cardiff. We have to believe its gettable. And from the way our players trot off the park, you can tell they do.
Bangladesh’s innings gets off to a steady start, as Shahriar and Javed put a premium on seeing out the new ball. Wickets in hand is going to be the key to this chase, and we are happy to take 34/0 at the end of ten overs. Then Murali enters the fray, and immediately makes an impact, bowling Javed with a doosra. Bashar as usual starts nervously, but his deputy spots the moment to ease some of the pressure by stepping up the run-rate, and at the end of the first fifteen, we are at a very respectable 62/1. The required rate has crept up a bit from the beginning of the innings, but Bashar and Shahriar keep their cool and the hundred comes up in the 24th over. We are still on course, but Read the rest of this entry »
Not yet a decade old as a Test playing nation, the weight of expectation should not yet come to rest too heavily on the shoulders of the Bangladesh cricket team. Although exhibiting steady improvement, we are still some way off the calibre that should draw this often crippling, often reinvigorating burden as well. Such measures of proportionality however, are chucked out the window when you are representing the nation in a sport akin to its religion. So naturally, as we count down the days to the 2007 World Cup, there is much deliberation on our fate in the competition decorating that age-old passion of Bengal, adda, wherever and whenever it is taking place. Millions of predictions have already been made I’m sure, and no less hopes expressed, dreams manufactured or expectations declared. This is one not unlike any of those, in three parts.
March 17,
Bangladesh v
India Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad
We all know giants are at their most vulnerable when they have only just gotten on their feet. India have come into the tournament on the back of some pretty good form, but form counts for nothing on match-day. The breeze is light, the sun is a roar, and the pitch is a road. We radiate positive attitude right from the start, picking four seamers and choosing to bat on winning the toss. For affirmation, Shahriar cuts Pathan behind point for two consecutive boundaries as the first over yields eleven. If often we suffer from confidence crises as a result of poor starts, this was certainly not going to be one of those occasions. The openers are separated in the eleventh over, but not before they have put on 54. Certainly solid, with much potential for being the foundation of a good total. The middle-order, featuring Ashraful promoted to number 4, manages to build on that such that we enter the slog overs with six wickets in hand and 188 on the board. Ashraful is set, batting on 46.The last ten overs go for 81 as Mashrafee
Conspicuous by its absence from all of Dr.Yunus’ pronouncements thus far, ever since he started closing the gap between himself and political engagement till now that he can be all but said to be a politician, has been his ideological standpoint. Before he left for Calcutta having just floated the idea of floating a party, he spoke of the rather obvious. The shambolic state our political process is in; the need for new faces to rejuvenate it. On his return, he has sprouted visions of considerable grandeur. Mega ports; mega highways; mega museum exhibitions. Somewhere in between, it dawned on him staying apolitical would not do. Somewhere in this protracted process that constitutes taking a stand, I hope he didn’t manage to lose what he stands for.
What he has said thus far is not indicative in any way of how he plans to lead our nation. He has only spoken of what he wants for our country, and admirable as they are, that is not enough. More importantly, none of it is original. It is all very well to speak of lofty ideals, it is a very different matter to translate them into practise. Indeed, Dr. Yunus has never, even before his proximity to politics became so narrow, taken any clear stand on the ideological spectrum. Nobody is quite sure whether he is standing to its left or right. His rhetoric in the past few weeks has betrayed only populist or neo-populist tendencies. Even the name he has suggested Read the rest of this entry »
I have nothing against Dr.Yunus joining politics per se. I believe in the aftermath of the current ‘cleansing’ operation that is being carried out back home, there will be a place for smart, qualified individuals to take the places vacated by possibly the worst generation of politicians witnessed by any country in any period in history. Dr.Yunus is certainly a very capable man. He is one of Bangladesh’s most accomplished sons, much loved and respected both home and abroad. Naturally, we would always want our leaders to be drawn from that pool. But Dr.Yunus is not the only one in that pool, and it isn’t a must that everyone from that pool should be in politics.
Every nation’s success necessarily depends on a wide variety of forces coming together from different fields to form a coherent whole. This includes not just political parties, but also civil society, NGOs, businesses, educational institutions, media organizations, etc. Each has its own role to fulfill and it is a precondition of any successfully operating democracy that each does fulfill its role to its full capacity, or nearly enough as possible.
Dr.Yunus’ merits as a politician is ofcourse an unknown quantity. What we do know is that he has played a role in reducing poverty from the fabric of civil society, not as part of the government at any stage. NGOs have played a very, very important role in the development of our rural areas, and Grameen is of-course at the very forefront of that. We must be aware of the potential consequences of Dr.Yunus entering the field of politics on the work of Grameen. The man himself has said that entering politics equates to becoming controversial. His becoming controversial will also mean his brainchild turning controversial. As it is, there are criticisms starting to surface about the Grameen Bank model. The intense trauma faced by members of groups who cannot repay their debt(and hence let down others in their group) has resulted in even suicide, and the loans-scheme is said to perpetuate the debt-trap for already poor communities. And it is true that the Grameen model is not perfect, that it can be improved. But I fear a Dr. Yunus in the realm of politics will not be able to lead the improvement process as only he can.
I firmly believe Dr.Yunus has an important role to play in Bangladesh society. But it is not in politics. His role is best fulfilled as part of the civil society, to strengthen it in lieu with politics which has to be strengthened by politicians, not civilians merely because they might be bigger achievers. No country is led simply by its most prolific achiever. We dont have to be too. And no country’s problems can be solved by one man’s initiative, or even two or three. It is the institutions that have to be cleansed. If that is done, as the current CG is taking steps toward(for example the seperation of the executive from the judiciary), there will be no need for Dr.Yunus to leave Grameen for Parliament. And that is what we must aspire to. Not to be dependant on any person(as some of the general public’s crying out for Dr.Yunus to enter politics would suggest), but to be dependant on our system.
One of my favourite things in the world. Admittedly less.. accessible in this era of revolution(you know the one I’m on about) , but still such an integral part of the whole package. I was just listening to The Verve’s first record, A Storm in Heaven,and having a look through the sleeve and came across some ‘too good’ pictures, and kind of got lost in there. So I’m going to try to remember some of my favourite album packages, and list them. And post pictures. I hope its not gonna be too much of a mission. Its definitely not gonna be in order of preference.
1.Right, first one to roll in this list has got to be Michael Jackson’s Dangerous. I’m sorry, but that’s legendary. First album cover that I loved. Possibly the first one I ever saw. First one I remember anyway. Contrary to what those three might add up to, that wasn’t the first song I heard as well. It is just that one of my sisters had decided that would appeal to 
me most when the time came for me to own my first tape. I of-course had no say in the matter, even though I accompanied her to that shop around the corner at Elephant Road, Geetanjoli. I was handed that tape and the moment my eyes met Michael’s coming out of that totally unnecessary attempt at resembling a Boa Constrictor, I redeemed its value to my heart. This was not going anywhere. I have to say, I liked Give in to me (ok ,and Keep the faith too) and even though I last listened to it like fifteen years ago, you can’t take anything away from the ones that come first.
A friend was telling me the other day how everything was looking up in Bangladesh now ever since the postponement of the elections. His source, reliably enough, was his mother back home, who had called to check up on her son, as mothers do. I really have no reason to disbelieve her, Bangali ghorer bou that she is. Her optimism certainly matches that of the stock market, almost always such a good indicator of a country’s state of political health. The streets are less violent these days, most people have run out of excuses to not show up at work or school, and probably less important but no less indicative, the newspapers are managing to save up on their red ink. We may indeed be on a break from democracy(and as The Economist has dubbed it, in the midst of ‘The coup that dare not speak its name’), but fewer points in our history have given this feeling that we are all bound together as a nation under what Rousseau would have called ‘the general will’.
The thing about democracy that has always troubled politicios is whether it should be an end in itself or the means to a greater end. Too often, and especially in the aftermath of the third wave of worldwide democratization that started in the 1970s, it has been concocted as the former. Consequently, many countries have jumped on the bandwagon with little regard for the hard part, which is staying on it, or staying on it with any degree of comfort anyway. Stanford’s Larry Diamond, in a paper studying the obstacles to democracy functioning properly in these third wave countries, has identified three key obstacles that are preventing many countries from being truly liberal democracies as opposed to the merely ‘electoral’ democracies that are prevalent in many parts of the world today. Broadly, these can be outlined as:
i)Political Corruption
ii)Rent-seeking behaviour
iii)Weak judicial systems
Where the prevalence of all three of these phenomena are high, it can be said that democracy is merely a smokescreen for a political system that has grown rotten to the core. In such a situation, democracy is rendered pointless since it nurtures a society where the vast majority of the population is denied equal opportunity. Even economic benefits which may or may not be forthcoming begin to lose their utility as the benefits accrue to only a select group of individuals who have their hegemony entrenched in the society. Although a democracy by name, the dynamics of such a society are antithetical to its very principles. The conversation will never die at a lunch between Mr. Diamond and anybody who has lived in Bangladesh over the last two decades.
There is no doubt that the limits on freedom imposed by General Ershad’s regime called for change, and democracy was the only viable alternative. But as time has gone on, we have shown ourselves quite incapable of dealing with it, at-least as long as the political scenario consisted in the main part of two parties whose differences lie not in the realms of ideology, social policy or a national vision, but almost exclusively personal issues. This is quite natural when party hierarchies are built along nepotistic lines, and we in Bangladesh have been unfortunate enough to be cursed with not just one such party, but two. Even as great an advocate of justice as Albert Camus once stated that though he believed in justice, he would defend his mother above justice. Similarly, whatever the merits or intentions of the respective families in the seats of power in the Awami League and the BNP might be, as good family men and women ourselves, we cannot expect them to ever conduct their politics in such a way as to compromise their own families’ positions. Especially when in the zero-sum game that is power (read=politics), any compromise on their part will lead directly to a benefit on their rival family’s part, and vice versa. It is not enough to vilify the two parties on grounds of their failures. Their failures have to be understood in order to be rectified, and what we need to grasp is that as long as our political consciousness consists almost exclusively of a family feud, there will be no place for national interest. Our salvation never lay in their hands.
This is of-course in reference to noises coming out of ‘Desh that whisper the current administration may be considering sending the current leadership in both parties to exile. This is admittedly far-fetched, but the collapse of democracy in neighbouring Pakistan did eventually result in similar consequences. Were it not for the additional problems brought on by 9/11, Pakistan could have been in a much better position now than it is already, which in itself is a significant improvement on where Bhutto and Sharif were leading them. I feel a kind of guilty pleasure at the prospect of this playground scuffle amongst dysfunctional grown-ups being taken elsewhere. We are an essentially political people, us Bangladeshis, and there will be no dearth of people to take their place, that is for certain. Politics will return to Bangladesh. It may take a while, but it will. That the current state of affairs is largely the result of a distinctly international recipe is also no secret, and thus we can carry on this period of rehabilitation with less regard to threats of sanctions, etc. It is important however, that before we reinstall democracy in our nation, we go through all the steps that constitute democratization. That we leave no stone unturned this time. So that we don’t handle ourselves quite as atrociously as we did the last time. The seperation of the judiciary from the executive, so long yearned for yet so long denied, and now finally delivered, is confirmation that our optimism is not misplaced.
It is rare to speak in favour of anything resembling a coup. But let not the need for political correctness prevent the truth being told. We, and we only if you are like me, are at our most optimistic since that other night sixteen winters ago.
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