Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

Silent Screams By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) July 30, 2004 Like an experimental rodent From here I could hear The whispers Silent and Potent Ultrasonic Beyond perceptual limitations For us the two legged men and women Theoretically bonded in breathy symmetry Like a tethered animal to be slaughtered From here I could see The glare Blinded and clobbered Infrared Beyond perceptual limitations For us the oblivious munching animals Rhetorically grounded in flaky poetry Bobby Fischer Is on the run But hounded, deported Into a closed circuit monitored room His every move Opening, middle and the end game Groomed But Shan’t be notarized and catheterized It’s the justice served So they said in ample flare It’s the justice served So they said in fumble grumble Smothering justice Dying children in bombarded jungle In ripped apart towns Under the desert sun Or blackened moon Forcibly humbled for further decorum to mellow, to swoon We could mumble Th...

Dear Readers, This is an interesting article that perhaps could be perceived cynical to many, and some may even could proclaim "The Left Wing's Deep, Dark Secret" in similar fashion, still it does shed light on politics and its intricacies. Regards, Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) The Right Wing's Deep, Dark Secret By John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, writers for the Economist, are co-authors of "The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America" (Penguin, 2004). BOSTON — One of the secrets of conservative America is how often it has welcomed Republican defeats. In 1976, many conservatives saw the trouncing of the moderate Gerald Ford as a way of clearing the path for the ideologically pure Ronald Reagan in 1980. In November 1992, George H.W. Bush's defeat provoked celebrations not just in Little Rock, where the Clintonites danced around to Fleetwood Mac, but also in some corners of conservativ...

Dear Readers, There is nothing new on the allegation that the Bush administration's real purpose of invading Iraq was to secure the increasingly dwindling oil supply. John Chapman is a distinguished civil service worker, and his analysis on this highly publicized issue invokes a fresh perspective. In our energy hungry world, oil and gas play not-so-surprisingly a dominant role for various nations' strategic move and global politics. It is not only U.S. the sole nation entrenched in the politics of fossil fuel, other small to larger nations are into it in full vigor too. Peace loving folks around the world must protest in oil and other theology driven wars that has and had caused so much destructions and deaths, and at the same time we must also seek to understand the opposing nations, like France, Germany, China, Russia, India and others, those who have vital economic interest in the same black diamond, what are their short or long term goals? Could they be trusted blindly? I...

Dear Readers, Though flood occurs every year in Bangladesh due to its lower riparian location, this year's flood has already proven to be devastating for millions. The intensity of flood water, the number of villages and towns submerged under water, the overflowing sewers and the apparent lack of "war-footing" by most of the elected political leaders in handling this calamity, are shocking. The Bangladesh Observer correctly points out that the overall reaction from the "civilized" world is quite uncivilly "lukewarm". And there are equally senseless comments made and actions taken by the two supreme leaders of Bangladeshi politics. " Prime Minster Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh was recently quoted by the media as saying in Bogra, her political heartland, that the floods are a blessing! She explained that it fertilizes the land with the sediment it brings. It doubles crop production the next year. She, however, did not say how people survive...

A voice for the poor in AIDS battle ''Does the world care enough? The global spending for HIV/AIDS is $4.7 billion. The global military budget is $956 billion, or $2.6 billion a day. Does such a world promote access for all? Does spending of this kind speak of an ethical world?" Perhaps the world does not care enough about HIV/AIDS with its paltry spending of $4.7 billion comparing to military expenditure ($956 billion), however, as long as Reverend Michael J. Kelly and many other like him selfless human beings are alive and waging the battle against AIDS, other diseases and against social injustice around the world, there is still hope for the mankind. Here is the full article published in The Boston Globe: A voice for the poor in AIDS battle Priest focuses on orphans, elderly By John Donnelly, Globe Staff July 19, 2004 BANGKOK -- At the end of the day, he shuffled from meeting to meeting. His back was bent. People passed him on either side, paying ...

Dear Readers, Exploitation of "weaker vessels", poor women from the poor nations, enslaving them, auctioning them after examining their bodies in open market like soon to be slaughtered animals for religious creed, and selling these profitable commodities to rich Arab sheikhs in the middle-east or to other money-magnet of our world for forced domestic or brothel servitude, while keeping the outlaws, the pimps and the odious "sheikhs" out of the loop of laws, and threatening the victims by using the "hudood" laws or scaring them for their illegal immigrant status point toward a dysfunctional "civilization" where the world, the all pampered "free world" keeps numb or utter the weakest protest as a mere token for the sake of political gain in the region. "A Bengali woman can be sold in Pakistan for Rs 70,000 to 150,000 - depending on age and looks. Auctions of girls are arranged for three kinds of buyers: rich visiting Arabs (she...

Dear Readers, Many may think it an one-sided article, but the following lines raise a serious concern: "Arab states should condemn Sudan; otherwise their anger over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rings hollow. How can they protest the killing of Palestinians when their kin exterminate Africans in Sudan?" Regards, Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) Racism at root of Sudan's Darfur crisis By Makau Mutua BUFFALO, N.Y. - The visits by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Sudan last week gave hope that the genocide in Darfur can be arrested before an entire people is obliterated. But anyone - including Mr. Powell and Mr. Annan - interested in averting more tragedy there must understand that Darfur is not an accidental apocalypse of mass slaughters, enslavement, pillage, and ethnic cleansing. The Darfur pogrom is part of a historic continuum in which successive Arab governments have sought to entirely destroy black Africans in...

Francis Fukuyama shocked the world with his 'End of History' thesis that the market would take over the role of mighty nations. But 9/11 changed all that. Now, in this exclusive article, the world's foremost economic philosopher argues that our very survival depends on stronger government Sunday July 4, 2004 The Observer The death of Ronald Reagan last month and the moving tribute paid to him by Margaret Thatcher remind us that we still live in their shadow, in an era in which the chief impulse of politics has been to reduce the size of the state. That agenda was critical in its time, for it was clear that the enormous growth of state sectors in the developed world in the 20th century had become economically harmful and socially stultifying. China and India have begun to free themselves from excessive state control, which reached monstrous dimensions under communism. But there are signs that the Reagan-Thatcher era is ending and that the pendulum will swing the ot...