Please Say no to Arms Race
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Posted:Nov 2, 2016 7:18 am
Last Updated:Nov 4, 2016 6:21 am 9859 Views
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It is no more a secret! They have it now and soon they will make it available to other countries if they finally decide so and the price is right!
I am speaking about the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter war plane!
China revealed its Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter in public for the first time on Tuesday last.
Is China set to overtake the United States world’s top aviation market in the decades to come?
How the plane was introduced to the spectators and the invited dignitaries who gathered at the Airshow China, in the city of Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.
It was done in a spectacular way!
Two J-20 Stealth Fighter Jets swept over the invited dignitaries and the spectators at the show’s opening ceremony in a 60- second fly-past, “generating a deafening roar that was met with gasps and applause and set off car alarms in a parking lot at the site.”
It is needless to say that the demonstration surely made the super powers aware of China’s defense ambitions!
"It is clearly a big step forward in Chinese combat capability," said Bradley Perrett of Aviation Week, a veteran China watcher.
Can the new Chinese fighter match the American F-22 Raptor air- to- air combat jet or the latest Strike Jet F-35? Only future has the answer to the question. However, it is now well known that the military gap between Beijing and Washington is narrowing down rapidly!
When will the superpowers including the budding ones really stop arms race between them and spend the money for good of the millions of their own people suffering from illiteracy, disease, poverty and starvation?
Source: BBC and Reuters.
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Bob Dylan and “Concert for Bangladesh”.
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Posted:Oct 31, 2016 8:14 am
Last Updated:Nov 4, 2016 6:27 am 9076 Views
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We all now know that the Nobel Prize in literature 2016 was announced on October 13. The Prize was awarded to Bob Dylan "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Before the name of the prize winner was announced, the likely favorites to win the prize as speculated were mainly one of the following persons:
1. Adonis (Syrian poet, essayist, and translator; 6/1 odds)
2. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (Kenyan novelist, playwright, short story writer, and essayist; 10/1 odds)
3. Jon Fosse (Norwegian novelist and playwright; 20/1 odds)
4. Ko Un (South Korean poet; 20/1 odds)
They were all deserving candidates to win the prize this year. But it did not happen.
We will never know whether these persons made the shortlist this year or not.
An American hasn’t won the Nobel since Toni Morrison won in freaking 1993. No one expected that an American would win the prize this year! I guess none could even imagine that the rebel poet, musician and songwriter Bob Dylan could win the Nobel ever!
Though I am not an American yet it made me so happy when I heard that Bob Dylan is the winner of the Prize this year. The reason is very simple. I shall never forget the contribution that Dylan had made towards the liberation war that we fought with the Pakistani invaders in 1971 to gain our freedom! I feel relieved now to learn that Dylan has finally accepted the award. I am sure that he will be in Stockholm during the Nobel Week in December, this year to receive the prize.
Perhaps, some of us who like to support freedom movements everywhere may still remember the two benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden organized on August 1, 1971, by the former Beatles’ member George Harrison and the famous Indian Sitar Virtuoso Ravi Shankar in an attempt to raise international awareness and fund relief efforts for refugees of Bangladesh, following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide.
I can still remember that Bob Dylan along with George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, and many more arranged and performed in “Concert for Bangladesh”.
Bob Dylan's performance was the crowning glory of the Concert for Bangladesh. "Dylan played five of his decade-defining and most popular songs from the 1960s, with the help of George Harrison on the backup vocals, Russell on Bass and Ringo Starr on tambourine."
Thank you again Bob Dylan for collaborating with Harrison, Shankar, Clapton and many more who were instrumental in arranging and performing in “Concert for Bangladesh”.
Appended are some of the photos from the historic event along with a previously unseen photograph of Bob Dylan (#1).
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A cute but aggressive bird in flight!
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Posted:Oct 29, 2016 11:51 am
Last Updated:Jun 12, 2019 9:31 am 14210 Views
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A Cute, Aggressive and Confident bird.
I like to watch bird, both big and small. You can say bird watching is my hobby. I have developed the hobby when I was a passing my free time in the garden of our ancestral home. My father who was a Government officer sent us to our ancestral home soon after the day, a Japanese Plane bombed the port city where we lived at time. May be, he was scared of the ultimate outcome of the war as the British Army was in the process of retreating from Burma and the Japanese army was gradually advancing towards Rangoon forcing the British military out from Malay.
Now back to the subject for which the above introduction has been made. I going to say about a cute but aggressive bird and show some of its photos in flight. I wonder whether the viewers would like the photos depicting a small bird in flight! As mentioned, the bird is aggressive. It is confident and familiar too. It is known as common Myna throughout the entire Central, South and South East Asia and found in abundance as it has adapted well to the urban environment of the continent including Australia and New Zealand where it was reportedly introduced to control pest and insects! It can be highly vocal most of the times and can whistle also and is even capable of mimicking human speech when in captivity
I like to watch this common Myna when it is in flight. You may also form some idea about its flight plan if you view minutely the uploaded ten photos of this common Myna in flight!
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JUSTICE FOR HOUBARA BUSTARD
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Posted:Oct 28, 2016 11:04 am
Last Updated:Oct 29, 2016 7:36 am 8969 Views
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Endangered Rare Bird----Justice for.....
HOUBARA BUSTARD, a shy rare migratory bird - the size of a chicken, will be hunted in large numbers indiscriminately during the coming winter in Baluchistan province of Pakistan openly as hunting them is no more banned in that country!
Though the Pakistani apex court did impose a total ban on hunting the endangered Houbara Bustard, yet the ban was reportedly flouted simply by disregarding the order of the apex court cancelling the special licenses granted to foreign dignitaries, especially to the wealthy Arab sheikhs as well as to the Arab royals who includes members of the Royal families!
It may be mentioned here that in 2014, the leaking of an official report that a prince of an important royal family had killed more than 2,000 birds in a 21-day hunting safari sparked an outcry. But it did not stop the hunting of this endangered bird species by the wealthy Arab Sheikhs!
The bird is similar in shape to a chicken or turkey, listed by the Union for the conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a “vulnerable” species at high risk of extinction. The IUCN also says that it is threatened by hunting and trapping "largely, though not exclusively, on its wintering grounds".
Not many of this species of bird is left now “because it has undergone rapid population declines over three decades owing to unsustainable hunting as well as habitat degradation.”
It is estimated that there are between fifty thousand and one hundred thousands left now!
Needless to say here that Pakistan is signatory to the Conventions.
In spite of Pakistan being a signatory to the conventions, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has since lifted the ban on hunting Houbara Bustard in January, 2016. A five-member larger bench of the apex court had announced the verdict on the review petitions filed by the federal and provincial governments against the ban mainly on the ground that role of the judiciary is to interpret the laws and not to legislate.
According to a report of BBC, the Arab princes and their wealthy friends like to hunt Houbara Bustards both as a sport and because the meat is considered an aphrodisiac.
The birds migrate in the thousands from Central Asia to Pakistan every winter - giving the Pakistani elite a chance to engage in "soft diplomacy".
Despite the hunting ban, the government issued between 25 and 35 special permits annually to wealthy sheikhs, allowing them to hunt the bird in its winter habitat.
The hunts are secretive, but controversial.
Source: BBC News.
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Green Eyed Cover Girl.
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Posted:Oct 27, 2016 8:36 am
Last Updated:Oct 28, 2016 10:36 am 8462 Views
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Famed Afghan girl is now in custody!
The woman who was immortalized by the National Geographic magazine is now in trouble in Pakistan.
The green-eyed 12 year old Afghan girl immortalized on a celebrated National Geographic magazine cover is now under arrest in Pakistan for living there on fraudulent identity papers (photo below).
Perhaps, those who read the magazine would recollect the haunting image of the green eyed Sharbat Gula taken by Steve McCurry in a refugee camp in Pakistan that subsequently became the most famous cover image in the magazine's history.
Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Sharbat Gula, for obtaining a fake ID card.
The original image of Gula was taken in 1984 in a refugee camp in northwest Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. McCurry later tracked her down, after a 17-year search, to a remote Afghan village in 2002 where she was married to a baker and the mother of three daughters.
Once again this green eyed Afghan woman faces an uncertain future rotting in a notorious Pakistani Jail!
Once again she is in the news limelight for a different reason and this time there is none to take her image to use it on a news magazine’s cover page!
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Where Land and Water Meet.....
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Posted:Oct 26, 2016 8:17 am
Last Updated:Apr 3, 2023 6:25 am 8754 Views
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Sundarbans is the biggest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. The forest covers approximately 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 sq mi) most of which is in Bangladesh with the remainder in India.
It is a UNESCO world Heritage site.
The forest lies at the feet of the mighty river Ganges that has formed the seaward fringe of the great Ganges delta spreading across Bangladesh and the Indian State of West Bengal. (See the great Ganges Delta where the forest is located in the appended Map)
The Bangladeshi and the Indian parts of the forest are separately listed in the UNESCO World Heritage list for obvious reason. While the Bangladeshi part is listed as Sundarbans, the Indian Part is listed as Sundarbans National Park, respectively.
The name Sundarban may have been derived from the Sundari tree that is found in abundance in this vast mangrove forest! However, readers may please note that the word Sundarban is a Bengali one meaning literally in English as “Beautiful Forest”.
A third of the entire area of this forest is covered by water and marshes. 'The Sundarbans is intersected by a network of tidal waterways, mudflats and tiny islands of salt tolerant mangrove forests.'
The forest is now a sanctuary for wildlife. Sundarbans is the home of the majestic Royal Bengal Tigers and spotted deer. It is also the home to many different species of birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and fishes. The saltwater Crocodile (Crocodiles paresis) still can be found here in this area. The estimated number of this species is less than two hundred in total. The forest also supports at least fifty species of reptiles and eight species of amphibians. The Gangetic River Dolphin is common in the rivers flowing through the forest.
The beauty of Sundarbans lies in its unique natural surrounding. Unless one visits the place, it is impossible to guess its beauty by reading articles.
Here land and water mingle in a amazing way. Wildlife some times goes completely wild! Do not be surprised if you suddenly see a tiger swimming across the river stealthily to haunt down a spotted deer! You may find a group of people harvesting honey from beehive by making smoke! Do not be afraid if you see a crocodile basking on the river bank!
Please view the photos to form an idea about this amazing forest!
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Is this a puzzle or not a puzzle?
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Posted:Oct 25, 2016 6:27 am
Last Updated:Apr 11, 2023 5:18 am 7455 Views
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This is not an article on all aspects related to Money. It is also not about money that talks or on funny money!! We all know that money is a current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes collectively. It is measured differently in different countries of the world... Here is some example of how cold cash is measured in some of the countries around the world.
In China, the currency the people use is called Yuan. In Australia, it is dollar. In Denmark, the Danish people call it Krone. In my country, we call it Taka; The Ethiopians call their currency birr. In India, the currency is called Rupee.
Those who are reading this article know how cold cash is measured in their irrespective countries.
The above two paragraphs have been posted as an introduction to tell that money has different names too when we use it to settle payments for something not related to Goods but mainly services rendered to or payable under a compelling circumstance and or under Government regulations. Here are some examples:
In church it is called offering
In school, it is fees
In marriage it is called dowry
In divorce, it is called alimony
It is known as debt when you owe someone
When you are bound to pay Government, it is Tax
In law court, it is Fines
A retired Government Employee receives Pension
Workers are paid Salaries/Wages
When we borrow from bank, it is known as Loan
When you pay a waiter in a restaurant, it is Tips
Kidnappers are paid Ransom
Ill-gotten gain is known as Bribe
We can answer many such questions easily when asked casually.
What do we call it when a wife gives money to her husband?
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Beauty of Autumn: Kashful
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Posted:Oct 23, 2016 9:54 am
Last Updated:Oct 24, 2016 10:03 am 12036 Views
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Kashful is one of the common flower and grass of Bangladesh.
We are now passing through the early autumn here in my Country. The natural beauty of autumn in Bangladesh is a wild flower that starts to bloom during Early-Mid September of the year. It also grows widely in the base of Himalaya range in Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan during early-late autumn near the riverbank retreating from monsoon floods.
While in Bangladesh, we call this flower as Kashful, it is known as Kans grass in English., Kaans in Hindi, Ee in Manipuri, and Pekkarimpu in south Indian language Tamil!
It may grow up to three (3) meters in height.
In Nepal, Kans grass is harvested to thatch vegetable gardens or fence. In Bangladesh , it is used to make brooms! I do not know how this particular grass is used elsewhere!
How could one describe it properly? Here under goes the description:
“It has harsh leaves, spreading rhizomatous roots, plumose panicles in white color, with slender and whorled branches having joint covered with soft white hair. Scientifically it is known as Saccharum spontaneum and is a family of sugar cane but as wild state.”
Kashful will give one an eternal feeling of being in heaven as it looks very pea to see standing in a field of a river bank! Kans ‘is all white, pure white land of softness, calmness, peace and silence will take you to a moment of elapsed breathing. It is always a place of attraction for creative minded people.’
The blooming time of Kans is early autumn in our country. Weather remains very hot and sunny when it blooms! Most of the Kans grass starts to bloom after heavy rain. It is better to avoid going inside a Kans field as it is very hot inside!
Here below I took the opportunity to quote about the ingredients and benefit of Kashful:
Quote…. “It has chemical constituents like alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, steroids and triterpene. Because of this elements Kans grass is being used externally on skin to deal with wounds, inflammation of joints and skin irritation. It also helps to cool down the body and to treat indigestion, constipation. It helps to stimulate milk for breastfeeding mother. But some research took it up to a level that Kans grass has ant-cancer element.”…. Unquote.
Kans Field can be seen in and around the city of Dhaka where I live now. In each and every field, one can enjoy the beauty of autumn--- Kashful.
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It’s expensive to be poor!
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Posted:Oct 22, 2016 5:30 am
Last Updated:Apr 2, 2017 7:36 pm 7191 Views
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True or False?
Is life really expensive for America’s poor?
I could never imagine it until I have read an article published on September 5, 2015 in “The Economist”, a journal published from United Kingdom. The title of the article is thought provoking too. It is as follows:
Quote…Why low-income Americans often have to pay more…unquote.
And according to the article, among others, it transpires that banking is too expensive for nearly one in three whose income is less than $15,000 a year. ‘More than half of this group says banking is too expensive for them. Many cannot maintain the minimum balance necessary to avoid monthly fees; for others, the risk of being walloped with unexpected fees looms too large.’
Is it really expensive to be poor in America?
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More Paintings from the collections
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Posted:Oct 18, 2016 5:06 am
Last Updated:Oct 21, 2016 9:58 pm 6913 Views
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Sharing some more works of the local artists from the private collections.
The last two of the list are works of a eight years old girl !!.
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