gTalk Pinless Dial

As many of us, who are in abroad, cannot talk to our family in Bangladesh because of the current raids against illegal VoIP companies in Bangladesh, gTalk can come to our help. It is still functioning as I heard that its other end in Bangladesh is legitimate. Its customer care service is also very good. Its features (quoted from the site) are:

* Immediate activation on request.
* 1 minute billing increment
* No connection fees
* No maintenance fees
* No expiration date
* SPEED dial for the numbers you call frequently(up to 99)
* HOT number direct dial to most wanted number(up to 3)
* Recharge account using credit card.
* View call records online
* PINLESS dial from 6 telephone numbers
* Multi-language support
* No hidden cost

The site address is: https://www.gtalk.us/pinless/

You gotta watch it!

Believe me, your time will not be wasted!!!

Back to UTD

After passing one month in Bangladesh, I am back in UTD. It was an excellent weather there. But the political situation was frustrating after the poll turned to a laughing stock. On my way back, I saw on BBC that the old man has gave up and returned to his senses. It is the best news since the departure of last elected government. I am looking forward to see a free and fair election with a correct voter list. I think gradually, the situation in Bangladesh is becoming conducive for this. The army raids to the top corrupts' houses is very inspiring though they lacked the courage to touch the prince. But at least his best friend was briefly arrested, that is also a big achievement in our thoroughly corrupt country. I hope the next government will try the prince and his accomplices for their rampant theft.

Votebangla.com

http://www.votebangla.com/ is an excellent apolitical website with latest news and funny satirical cartoons. The news are of good quality. Hope the site will add many more features in future. It has just been launched. The site deserves a visit by you!

10 minute mail!

A simple but amazing solution to avoid spams. Many websites require to register before viewing some page or message board. Once you give one of your valid email addresses, that inbox is gone. You can expect lots of spams coming there from the next moment. I have so many such incidents. My gmail account now gets one spam mail per five minutes, sometimes more frequently. This 10 minute mail solution will help avoid such annoying problems. This site gives a temporary email address only valid for 10 minutes. You can check mail with web interface in that time. But you can only send mails to addresses where an email has come from. Once you get the verification mail for the registration there, forget that email address. Because that will be no more after 10 minutes. No more worry about spams! What an elegant solution!

It is coming at last

At last, the 14 party alliance declared to go for the old coward in case he fails to meet their demand. And after today's news of appointing two more election commissioners, it has become inevitable. I wonder why a man of 76 has no self-dignity. What will he get by being an accomplice of election engineering? He and his retarded friend in the election commission are trying to implement a blue-print of vote rigging, it is no more a secret now. He is losing ground everyday by his inexplicable behaviors. He is playing on people's tolerance, which has a limit. A sudden outburst from people is imminent now. I feel pity for the pigeon-hearted man.

Dr. Mohammad Yunus on Daily Show with Jon Stewart

What's happening???

What are these two stooges doing? I am surprised to read in bdnews24 that the President and the C.E.C. are discussing about groundwork for election and a poll schedule. It can be noted that this discussion took place right after former prime minister's demand for an immediate schedule for a poll. So, it is obvious that on command of their master, the slaves have started to work. I think the ongoing people's movement should immediately be redirected to the old scum sitting at the throne. He deserves no respect. People are only showing him respect due to his age and teaching career despite he has an active political background. The teaching background should have been discarded way before as I do not consider those who indulge in cheap politics to get promotion and illegal benefits as any ideal teacher. And now, it is proven that age alone does not purify a man. Despite all the sufferings of people, the weak-hearted (literally) gutless old man is still taking orders from his lady master and the prince. Enough blood is shed. To remove the puppets, it is not practicable to do one movement per person. My suggestion is to leave C.E.C., go for the old wicked. Strip him from all his offices. Appoint a really honest, unbiased, highly qualified Caretaker Chief. Then let him purge the whole corrupt administration. In my opinion, this is the best way to achieve the goal, optimal in the point of view of least bloodshed and suffering of people.

A Prime Minister we should be ashamed of!

Here is a report on unimaginable corruption of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Khaleda Zia. I wonder, how on earth after achieving so many things (e.g. two times being P.M.) a person can have so much greed? Doesn't their greed have any limit? Suppose, after death, they are placed in heaven, will they be content with what they will have their?? After how many times being P.M. their hunger for money will be satiated?

As the content of the website is continuously changing, I am pasting the report here:

Dhaka, Nov 05 (bdnews24.com)— Former state minister for power Anwarul Kabir Talukder Saturday alleged that 'Hawa Bhaban-bureaucrat-business' syndicate had sucked Tk 8,000 crore from the power sector during the last five years. The immediate past government invested Tk 17,500 crore in the power sector, but could not produce one megawatt of electricity during its tenure. He alleged that the immediate past Prime Minister, her Principal Secretary and the present energy secretary had been 'directly involved in massive corruption' in the power sector. In an exclusive interview with bdnews24.com Talukder alleged that 'hired goons' of the present Energy Secretary A N H Akhter Hossain ransacked the power offices in Uttara, Mirpur, Pallabi, Sabujbagh and other parts of the city and provoked people to go on the rampage on September 26. The 'ploy' had been designed to discredit him and tarnish his 'clean' image, Talukder claimed. "Following the September 26 incidents, former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar was given the charge of Power Ministry on September 28 on a verbal order from the then Prime Minister," said Talukder, who was reportedly sacked as State Minister for Power during the last government. Talukder had, however, claimed he resigned. ANH Akhter Hossain while talking to bdnews24.com Sunday denied Talukder's allegations terming them 'false and childish'. He said: "Regrettable; a senior person like him (Talukder) should not talk in such a way." Talukder, the former BNP lawmaker of Jamalpur-4 constituency, and now a leading figure in the newly formed Liberal Democratic Party of former President A Q M Badruddoza Chowdhury, said the power situation in the country would aggravate further. "It would take three years to maintain status quo in power sector even if improvement plans were implemented with honesty and efficiency", he said. He said he referred the cases of corrupt practices to the Anti-Corruption Commission and would testify in the court, if necessary. Regarding demand-supply, Talukder said daily demand of electricity was 5,500 mega watts against the production of 3,000 mega watts. The Power Ministry used to produce false statistics on electricity, he disclosed. Even, false statistics were placed at the meetings of the parliamentary standing committees, he said. He said the former Prime Minister and her Principal Secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui 'directly patronised corruption' in the power sector. Talukder said being instructed by Prime Minister, an 'unconstitutional' committee comprising bureaucrats were formed at the Prime Minister's Office. The committee's status was between the power minister and the state minister. This committee used to intervene into the ministry's affairs and patronised corrupt practices, he said. Of the total government fund of Tk 17,500 crore invested in the power sector during the last five years, he said, Tk 2,500 crore was spent as establishment cost. "Of the rest Tk 15,000 crore, Tk 8,000 crore was looted by the Hawa Bhaban-bureaucrat-business syndicate. Some Ministers and MPs were also involved in it," he said. Talukder claimed he tried to purge the power ministry of corruption—part of the reason he was removed from the job. He said the outgoing government's only project Tongi Power Plant, with 105 mega watts capacity, was yet to go into production because of corruption and use low standard of equipments. "The standard of the booster compressors was downgraded to Chinese standard from the internationally recognised standard resulting in lowering of the capacity, but interestingly the price went up," Talukder said. He pointed fingers at the Hawa Bhaban, PDB's board of directors and the dishonest officials of the Power Ministry for the 'corruption'. He said he could have purchased 200 mega watts of electricity at the rate of less than Tk 1.9 per unit from the private sector, but he was not allowed to do so. "If I purchased that 200 MW electricity from private sector, setting up of eight captive power plants with 240 MW could not be justified," Talukder said. Those eight plants were yet to go into production, but they had been paid, he said. "The state will have to pay Tk 8,000 crore to those eight captive power plant owners as subsidy during the next 15 years. But this money could easily be saved by purchasing electricity from the private sector," the former State Minister said. bdnews24.com/krc/rm/ad/1921 hours

Source: http://bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=0.03&id=49814#tp49814 (may not work)

Soldiers' stress

Here is a video of some soldiers telling how much stress they are in in Iraq. The job is not easy at all.

MuhammadYunus.org launched

A comprehensive site on Dr. Muhammad Yunus has been launched: http://www.muhammadyunus.org/. Thanks for the people who have put it up. I think it is one of the top web resources on the Nobel laureate.

A website about scientific revelations in the holy Qur'an

http://www.speed-light.info/ is a mind boggling website. It deals with scientific revelations in the holy Qur'an. It shows how the holy Qur'an provides scientific facts which were unknown at that time and many of them are still to be proved by modern science. In some sites ( e.g. wikipedia), I found an argument that knowledge similar to some revelations were prevalent in seventh century Arab world. It may be true for only a very few cases but certainly can not be true for the examples given in this site. Though I have read a book (a series of two parts; does not have any electronic version) which had many more such interesting things, I liked this site for being very concise and to the point.

Quadir Prize

Quadir Prize is an Annual Global Contest to Strengthen Bangladesh hosted by the Center for International Development at Harvard University . One has to propose an innovative and practical idea that would improve the lives of low- and middle- income people of Bangladesh. Proposals will be judged by four Harvard University faculty members, in consultation with scholars familiar with Bangladesh.The author of the winning essay will be awarded the Anwarul Quadir Prize, USD $25,000. Deadline for submission is December 31, 2006. This contest is sponsored by the Anwarul Quadir Foundation.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus: First Ever Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate!

Like many said, the Nobel prize of Dr. Yunus is the greatest achievement of our nation since independence. Today, one Chinese colleague in my lab was congratulating me. He was very amazed to see that a small country like Bangladesh can have such people. He told that none from his country ever got a Nobel prize (actually, one person with Chinese root got but he is not recognized in China). I cannot express how I felt at that moment. A Bangladeshi could achieve what no one from a big prosperous country like China did not achieve (no offence to Chinese, I am just giving example). Ours is not only a poor and small nation but also we can produce Nobel laureates. It is a proof of how much potential we are. Today is a great day for our country. Dr. Yunus, we are so proud of you! May your dream of alleviating poverty from the world come true!

Corruption in Biman

While reading this article, I was feeling so depressed that I could not read through the end. I was being torn apart while going through it. Isn't there any end to this insanity? All these started during the time of our former dictator Ershad and was subsequently exacerbated in manifolds by some very high ranking politicians of a leading party of our country. This coterie is systematically destroying Biman, once the pride of our nation. I still remember how my parents preferred Biman over other airlines, not because of economy but because of hospitality and homely feelings. I wish there would be a magician who would stop all these absurdity of our country!

Interview of Tarek Rahman

I just came accross the following clips of an interview of Tarek Rahman a.k.a. Tarek Zia, senior joint secretary of Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It is believed that he will be the Prime Minister of Bangladesh sometime in future. If ten percent of what he promised to do in this interview becomes true, then I will be satisfied.

Unbelievable idiocy!

I can't believe this. Beating national shooters after entering the shooting complex just does not make sense to me. Commonwealth games gold medalist Asif and another national shooter Shoebuzzaman are seriously injured and will take weeks to recuperate and get back to practice. This is insane. These sycophants of corrupt political leaders have crossed their limits way ago. Now, who can bridle these unscrupulous people of the most corrupt institution of Bangladesh?

One fine example

The state minister for power resigned today. He admitted his failure and said that his conscience made him take the decision. Though I seriously doubt whether he actually failed as he was in charge for only four months and it is very tough to implement anything good in that sector because of a coterie close to PMO, I salute his decision. At least he showed that ministers should have some conscience and enough selflessness to take such decisions. This should be a great example to some shameless ministers of present government who amassed over million dollars in this term but could do no good to the country. I think they buried their conscience deep underground long before joining politics. Otherwise, how could they become ministers? Shame on them!!!

Why Countries Like Bangladesh Remain Poor

This is a great article by Professor Mahfuz R. Chowdhury. It summarizes some causes of our poverty. Though the facts are well-known, the article is worth enough to go through.

CAN'T WE THINK SAME WAY FOR BANGLADESH

This is a mind boggling article which I got from bdresearchers group. After reading it, I can't help sharing it with all. I always had a high respect for Indian president, the article justifies it. If you have time, please go through it.

An article By Dr. Abdul Kalaam (PRESIDENT OF INDIA)

======================================================

"I have three visions for India. In 3000 Years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds.  From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and Looted  us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation.

We have not conquered anyone.  We have not grabbed their land, their culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM.

I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture  and build on.  If we are not free, no one will respect us.  My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation.

It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most Areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being  globally recognized today.  Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a third vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only STRENGTH respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept of space, Professor Satish Dhawan who succeeded him and Dr Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material.  I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first Satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years  played a very important role in my life of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994. The Dept of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation  but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A very light material called carbon-carbon.

One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg.  each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients .  In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs,  they could  now move around. Their parents had tears in their eyes.  That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative?

Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements?

We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them.

Why?

We are the first in milk production.

We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.

We are the second largest producer of wheat.

We are the second largest producer of rice.

Look at Dr Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit.

There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid  and a granary.

It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of  killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried  among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

Why are we so NEGATIVE ?

Another question : Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things?

We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India.  For her, you and I will have to build this developed India.  You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation .

Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.

Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.

                     YOU say that our government is inefficient.

                     YOU say that our laws are too old.

                     YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.

                     YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,

                     The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their Destination.

                     YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

                     YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore .

Give him a name-YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS.

YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best.  In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores.

YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are.

YOU pay $5 (approx Rs 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM.

YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity.

In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?

YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.

YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.

YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs 650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else."

YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then
tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?).
I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost."

YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.

Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?

Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston???
We are still talking of the same YOU.YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground.

If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India ?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place ," he said.  "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do?
Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job.  Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right.  We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative.

We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public.  When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room  protestations and continue to do the reverse at home.

Our excuse? " It's the  whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my  sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change the system? What does a  system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a  safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government.

Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country . Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J F Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians????

"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA  WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

Lets do what India needs from us.

Forward this mail to each Conscious PPL who really feel of their mother land for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk mails.

Thank you,
Dr Abdul Kalaam
(PRESIDENT OF INDIA)

 

 

 

  'CAN'T WE THINK SAME WAY FOR BANGLADESH'