Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

“An Inadvertent Partner to America's Sworn Enemies” By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) October 27, 2004 “A new age of proliferation is just beginning, and George W. Bush is its father.” A new kind of brutal world is emerging, and George W. Bush is its executioner. These are not my words. And these are not election time hyperbole either. With each blundering aggressions and stubbornness shown by this “God” toting administration, the rest of the world reacts accordingly. Bush’s preventive war doctrine which is softly called as the preemptive war just for making it more palatable, are raising the urgency among the nations around the world to adopt their own preventive / preemptive measures. And what can be more preventive than going nuclear like the big brother already had gone along with other open and covert members of growing nuclear club? The debates between Kerry and Bush highlighted a few issues that generally do not get much attention in the press. One of them is the issue of N...

When Zbigniew Brzezinski speaks his mind, many listens with respect. After all, he was the national security adviser in the Carter administration. Mr. Brzezinski is also one of the few prominent American citizens who dared to come forward a few years ago against the impending war when the American media and most liberal politicians had shown nothing but their cowardice and self-denial rhetorics. There are many points one may not agree with Mr. Brzezinski, including his suggestion of solving Israel and Palestinian crisis in a way that would deprive many Palestinians of their basic rights, like return to their ancestral land from which they were evicted, even no formal planning of compensation or alternative arrangements for these distressed refugees scattered around in Jordan and other parts of Middle East was presented. However, there are some critical points Mr. Brzezinski made that urge further exploration. Here is one of them: " President Bush's "global war on ter...

There is no surprise in knowing that most Muslims in U.S. supports John Kerry over George W. Bush ( >90% ). Why? Here are the obvious reasons: "Not only do they see Bush's Patriot Act as discriminatory, most of these Americans dislike the president's unwavering support of Israel - including his backing of Ariel Sharon's security fence and the diplomatic isolation of Yasir Arafat." William Safire could have added one more reason in his New York Times artice and that is the illegal war on Iraq that the Bush administration started based on deceptions and lies. However, to many it may sounds surprising to know that evem most Jewish Americans are supporting Kerry over Bush (80%), even though Bush has purported himself as the Israel's "best friend in the White House". William Safire opines the reason as the following: "most Jewish Americans quite properly base their vote on issues like social justice, civil liberty, economic fairness and not ...

How convenient is it to kill a "bandit" rather than taking him to the due process of justice, unless there are reasons to worry for the law enforcement officials in India that a captured "bandit" might disclose the names of powerful boys high up involved in shady matters. Read the following from a BBC article : "A leading human rights group has called for an inquiry into Veerappan's killing. The group, People's Watch, say the killing could have been avoided. Its head, Henry Tiphagne, asked in an interview with the BBC Tamil Service: "Why could the 100 armed police officers who surrounded Veerappan not have forced him to surrender or simply wounded him?" Tamil Nadu police say the killing of Veerappan and three associates was the result of months of planning. Veerappan had many times told journalists how he had bribed police and politicians, and had made clear he would give details if he was ever tried. Mr Tiphagne said, w...

Here is a good piece from Democracy Now! on Bush's faith based politics.

The Guardian writes , "The chairman of judges, the former arts minister Chris Smith, said: "This was an incredibly difficult and close decision. It has resulted in a winning novel that is exciting, brilliantly written and gets deep under the skin of the Thatcherite 80s. The search for love, sex and beauty is rarely so exquisitely done". The result was a split vote, with Hollinghurst, Mitchell and Colm Tóibin's The Master, a fictional portrait of the author Henry James, "all very close". The Line of Beauty is a sumptuously written parable of the well-upholstered rise, decline and disgraceful fall of Nick Guest, an Oxford postgraduate who is a proud, detached connoisseur of literature, music and style. " Here is a good source of information on Alan Hollinghurst .

The Known World – a Book Review By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) October 9, 2004 I. Does color of one’s skin matter in determining whether someone can be cruel? Does religion matter in one’s fallibility from the apex of compassions? What is it that makes us blind facing the oppressions committed by “our people”? What is it that provokes us castigating “others” from our benevolence that we solely reserve for the powerful and economic might or perhaps for our immediate family or friends? In the time of slavery, possibly the most revolting part of American history, selling and buying the colored men, women and children in the broad daylight was just like any other exchanges of properties that had monetary value. Religious scriptures were interpreted such a literal way that these scriptures supposedly ordained a societal system where the slaves followed their masters to heaven or to hell. In the matter of all practicality for earthlings, it was the earthly hell that the slaves wen...

First Reader By Billy Collins I can see them standing politely on the wide pages that I was still learning to turn, Jane in a blue jumper, Dick with his crayon-brown hair, playing with a ball or exploring the cosmos of the backyard, unaware they are the first characters, the boy and girl who begin fiction. Beyond the simple illustration of their neighborhood the other protagonists were waiting in a huddle: frightening Heathcliff, frightened Pip, Nick Adams carrying a fishing rod, Emma Bovary riding into Rouen. But I would read about the perfect boy and his sister even before I would read about Adam and Eve, garden and gate, and before I heard the name Gutenberg, the type of their simple talk was moving into my focusing eyes. It was always Saturday and he and she were always pointing at something and shouting "Look!" pointing at the dog, the bicycle, or at their father as he pushed a hand mower over the lawn, waving at aproned mother framed in ...