March 2005 Archives

Compared to the world language, the necessity of a world script is much less, while a world dress is not necessary at all. Why only a world dress? In my opinion even the national dress of different countries is not desirable.

People select their dress in accordance with the local climate and environment, depending upon their physical needs and professional requirements, hence it is better not to criticize anyone's dress. For example, the normal dress in eastern India and East Pakistan [Bangladesh] is lungi, dhoti [men's lower-body garments] and punjabi [a style of men's shirt], but men wear trousers, as required, while working in factories. Likewise, in north-western India and West Pakistan [Pakistan], while the traditional dress is pa'yja'ma' [loose-fitting pants] and sheroya'nii [another style of men's shirt], peasants never wear this dress while ploughing the fields. Under such circumstances, the question whether one dress is good and another is bad does not arise. [PROBLEMS OF THE DAY - 22]

PROUTIST UNIVERSAL, 30 March 2005: The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has published a new report called Planting the Rights Seed: A Human Rights Perspective on Agriculture Trade and the WTO, which states clearly that the World Trade Organization (WTO) is promoting a trade agenda which supports globalization (global capitalism) and in the process will undermine the poor people as well as deny people their fundamental human rights. Seventy percent of the world’s poorest live in rural areas and sustain themselves on agriculture.

Pakistan came in for flak at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from Kashmiri groups in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which alleged trampling of fundamental rights of people in Gilgit and Baltistan and PoK.

The people of Bangladesh were repressed and subjugated by the Pakistani military rulers and their cohort Islamists in 1971. They invoked various aspects of Islam to justify mass murder, rapes, and torture of Bengalis. The political Islamists used Islam to commit genocidal crimes. I myself saw and observed the severity of crimes committed against the Bengalis in general and the minority Hindus in particular. All the crimes were justified in the eyes of most of the Mullahs and their allied fundamentalist forces. Many Bengalis still remember the crimes of the political Islamists even after thirty four years of the independence of Bangladesh. Here I am writing a few of the atrocities that I saw in 1971. First of all, I am giving a brief background information on the conflicts created by the Pakistani military and their Islamist cohorts.

[Proutist Universal Editorial Note: In the following article Garda Ghista makes a comprehensive analysis on the role of journalists in making the members of the human society aware against all sorts of corruption, collusion, nepotisms and exploitations. In many countries the freedom of press is suppressed and also due to the influence of capitalism where profit or money making is the only motivation, the capitalistic owners of the media companies use the talents of the journalists for fulfilling their selfiss purpose of making profit. By the power of money they force the talented journalists to twist many facts by indulging in falsehood. The author here gives a clarion call to all journalists of the world to be ever watchful of every nook and cranny of the society - especially the politicians (leaders). It is only through their writings common people can become aware about the misdeeds of the leaders so that they are mobilized to take immediate action to rectify any wrongdoings of the leaders, the politicians, capitalists and the priests who lead (or mislead) the masses. The author, Garda Ghista is a freelance journalist based in Kentucky, USA. She can be reached at editor@worldproutassembly.org. Please click here to read the complete article in PDF.]

PROUTIST UNIVERSAL (PU) is the organisation created to develop the Progressive Utilisation Theory (PROUT) first conceptualised by seer philosopher Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar in 1959. PROUT is a comprehensive social and economic concept that recognizes the physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions of human nature and as such provides a map for the holistic development of a truly progressive society. It is an alternative to Capitalism and Communism, neither of which has adequately met the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of humanity. While communism has severely restricted individual expression and human freedom, capitalism has widened social divisions with the unequal access to goods and services and the environmentally and socially destructive over-accumulation of wealth by a few.

The forward march of human beings requires an internal approach and an adjustment with external objectivities. That is, it requires an internal, spiritual approach, as well as an external approach which maintains balance, equilibrium and equipoise in the different arenas of our social, economic and cultural life.

Humanity is presently suffering from two problems - one is affluence or bountifulness, and the other is hortages of not only physical but also psychic pabula. Most of the developed countries suffer from bountifulness. If the flow of affluence is regulated, then an adjustment may be made so that physical shortages and psychic deficiencies can be minimized before they become chronic problems. In most countries of the world there is a tendency towards this type of adjustment. Everybody admits that there should be such an adjustment; consequently, you will find hardly any blind capitalism in the world today. Nevertheless, despite this tendency, there is still maladjustment and mis-utilization of resources in developed countries.

A picture of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri decorates his flower-covered grave as Lebanese light candles at Beirut's Martyrs' Square March 21, 2005. Syria has completed the first stage of a two-phase plan to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after facing mounting international pressure and Lebanese popular protests since the killing of former prime minister al-Hariri last month. Syrian troops have been pulled back to the Bekaa Valley and about 4,000-6,000 have been withdrawn completely. (Source: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj, 21 Mar 2005)

A Palestinian policeman holds a Palestinian flag at the Anabta checkpoint near the West Bank town of Tulkarm March 22, 2005. Palestinian police were deployed in the town of Tulkarm for the first time in more than four years on Monday after Israel gave Palestinians security control of a second West Bank city.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request from the parents of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo to order her feeding tube reinserted, dealing a blow to attempts by the U.S. Congress and the White House to prolong her life.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian woman committed suicide so her two blind sons could receive her eyes and see, a newspaper reported Monday.

But doctors say the chances of success are bleak, The Indian Express reported.

Siddique Islam (National News Service ) Dhaka, Tuesday, March 22 : the death toll in Sunday night’s devastating tornado in the country’s northern districts Gaibandha and Rangpur rose to 43, unofficial sources said Monday.

For the general convenience of the people of the world, the necessity of a world script is not as great as the necessity of a world language. But then, it cannot be denied that learning languages will be easier if the different languages of the world are written in one script.

National News Service, Kolkata 22/03/2005: The spineless jelly who run the Indian Government have been exposed again in the incident of the visa refusal to Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, by the USA. Here is a Country run by Christian religious bigots, lecturing and dictating to India how it should run its affairs.

Once again, the ‘human rights’ lobby has launched a virulent and unsubstantiated campaign against the police in the case of the attempt on the life of S.A.R. Geelani, who had been acquitted in the case of the December 13, 2001, attack on India’s Parliament. While there is invariably great concern for the fundamental ‘human rights’ of terrorists and other criminals to be ‘presumed innocent unless proven guilty’, no such concern, obviously, exists even in the case of the wildest allegations against the police or security forces anywhere in the country.

New Delhi: President A P J Abdul Kalam today (March 21, 2005) voiced serious concern over "dubious means" adopted to cobble up numbers to form Governments.

His remarks assume significance in the backdrop of recent political developments in Jharkhand.

'You go, Muslim girls," I thought, sitting in a Muslim prayer service in New York City last week, the first public observance of the traditional Friday call to prayer that's ever been led by women.

Siddique Islam (National News Service) Dhaka, Monday, March 21: The leaders of country’s top ten trade promotion bodies have stressed the need for taking necessary measures for holding the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit immediately.

With advances in technology, the mastery of human beings over space and time will continue slowly to increase, so the necessity of a world government, also, will be profoundly felt. Gradually the people in one region of the world will have to interact more with the people in various other regions, and in the course of this interaction they will have to try to understand one another better.

Threats against press freedom in Asia "spiked" last year, as authoritarian regimes in North Korea and Myanmar kept a tight grip on the media while the Philippines remained the deadliest place in the continent for journalists, a US-based media rights group said Monday.

Dutch politician and women's rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Tuesday said Islam was unfriendly to women and urged Europe not to tolerate religious violence.

"Muslim religion is many things but it's certainly not friendly to women," she said at the European Parliament, warning the West that it "shouldn't indulge in and buy fallacies from Muslims."

(New York) -- Amnesty International has written to American Express regarding its sponsorship of an event featuring Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. The Asian-American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) has invited Chief Minister Modi to address their conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on March 24.

ROME (Reuters) - Leading U.S. ally Italy said on Tuesday it would start withdrawing its soldiers from Iraq in September, in a fresh blow to U.S. President George W. Bush's shrinking coalition.

KARACHI, PAKISTAN - On the evening that Basira Jiskani ran away from her abusive husband almost a year ago, she felt relief for the first time since she left home. But things only got worse.

THE MASS media are helpful in raising public awareness of corruption cases. In fact, because of media coverage, there is generally less corruption in countries with free access to information.

As put by the director of the Organization of American States, "the media are civil society's great ally, especially in fulfilling the need to inform, in a serious and responsible way, so the citizens can exert pressure to clean up cases of corruption."

Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Sunday, March 13: The government of Bangladesh has planned to go for third round of bidding to make way for international gas and oil companies in conducting survey and exploring new gas fields in the offshore of the Bay of Bengal.

National News Service, Kolkata, 13/03/2005: The tragi-comedy of Jharkand Government formation continues unabated. Soren and Balmuchu have been succeded by Munda and Munda. All the five independent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) have been sworn in as Ministers along with the Chief Minister.

Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Friday, March 11: Hartal has cost Bangladesh 3–4 per cent of its GDP on an average every year between 1991 and 2000, said a United Nations Development Programme Report (UNDP), which was released in Dhaka Thursday last.

[PROUTIST UNIVERSAL Editorial Note: The government of India is going to submit a bill to the parliament next week (between 14 - 19th March, 2005) to enact the final version of the patent law at the dictate of W.T.O. Communist party said they will oppose it but it is doubtful. The policy of global economy is to establish the global control of multinationals over nation states. This is neo-colonialism and must be opposed with all force.]

In the quest for economic growth, free-market ideology has been embraced around the world with the fervor of a fundamentalist religious faith. Money is its sole measure of value, and its practice is advancing policies that are deepening social and environmental disintegration everywhere.

MY FATHER, Shah A.M.S. Kibria, was assassinated on Jan. 27. He was 73 years old. In his lifetime he had held various senior positions in Bangladesh and abroad, including finance minister of Bangladesh, undersecretary general of the United Nations and executive secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and foreign secretary of Bangladesh. At the time of his death my father was a leading member of the opposition in Parliament and a regular newspaper and magazine columnist.

The more time is passing by, the more the glare of casteism, provincialism, communalism and nationalism is fading away. The human beings of today must understand that in the near future they will definitely have to accept universalism. So those who seek to promote social welfare will have to mobilize all their vitality and intellect in the endeavor to establish a world organization, abandoning all plans to form communal or national organizations.

In tune with the Indian government some Indian media people are raising their voice for restoration of democracy in Nepal. As if Indian Government is too concerned for democracy. On 14th February in a speech the foreign secretary [of India] Shyam Saran said, “we want the whole South Asia to become a flourishing democracy" and in his opinion that is the only guarantee of peace and development. Hollow slogans from South Bloc are common to hoodwink the people, but realities contradict the slogans.

Siddique Islam, (National News Service), Dhaka, Sunday, March 06: the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, Saturday asked all the commercial banks not to open any fresh letters of credit (LCs) against imports without settling the previous import-related matters, official sources said.

National News Service, Kolkata: On Saturday 05/03/2005 three LeT terrorists were shot by the Delhi Police during a raid. These terrorists were planning to attack the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun, and some IT establishments in Bangalore.

It has been established beyond doubt that two of the killed were Pakistanis citizens. The Pakistani passport found at the scene carried the name of Sadiq.

A ceremony during which at least 7000 men, women and children in Niger in West Africa were to be freed from slavery has been cancelled at the last minute by the Government.

The BBC News website quoted a spokesman for the Government's human rights commission as saying Saturday's planned ceremony had been cancelled because slavery did not exist in Niger. The Government had been a co-sponsor of the event.

Heathrow Airport is being targeted by protesters over claims live animals are being imported for laboratory research.

An anti-import campaign was launched in January called Gateway to Hell.

John Milton from the campaign said they will hold constant protests until the west London airport stopped allowing animals to be imported.

TRIPOLI (AFP) - Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, in another overture to the international community since he renounced weapons of mas destruction, has issued a call for economic liberalisation in the North African state.

"We must liberalise power, labour and economic activity without exploitation," Kadhafi said in a speech broadcast on television Thursday.

National News Service, Kolkata 06/03/2005: In Jharkand despite the intervention of the President Kalam, the Governor Syed Sibi Razi, has bought forward the date of trial of strength by only six days to the 15th of March 2005.

HUT BAY, India (Reuters) - When the earth shook and the waters began receding from the creek near their settlement, the Onge of India's Little Andaman island knew nature was telling them something.

The primitive hunter-gatherers did not wait to pick up their possessions or their passports but instinctively made for higher ground. All of the 100 or so Onge left in the world seem to have survived the tsunami's deadly power.

Two months on, the tsunami offers the chance for a fresh start for the Onge, a tribe whose roots stretch back to man's earliest ancestors but whose contact with the outside world over the past century-and-a-half has brought them close to extinction.

Scientists working with powerful imaging computers say the spectacular "Hobbit" fossil recently discovered in Indonesia had distinctive brain features that could justify its classification as a separate — and tiny — human ancestor.

The new report, published Thursday in the online journal Science Express, seems to support the idea of a sophisticated human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man proliferated.

The new research produced a computer-generated model that compared surface impressions on the inside of the fossil skull with brain casts of modern and ancient humans, as well as chimps and other primates.

Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Thursday, March 03: Leader of the Opposition and the Awami League President Sheikh Hasina Wednesday asked people to form action committees with pro-liberation and progressive forces across the country and fight unitedly against the coalition government to end its 'misrule.'

The more the human mind becomes magnanimous or expanded, the more it rises above the sentiments of tribalism, communalism [socio-religious sentiment], provincialism, etc. Often I hear people say that nationalism is an appreciable sentiment and that there is no narrowness in it.

Police on the Indonesian resort island of Bali are hard-pressed to explain the sudden proliferation of white markings at hundreds of temples across the deeply superstitious Hindu island.

National News Service, Kolkata, 4 March 2005: Angry NDA members stall both houses of Parliament. NDA members demanded the restoration of Parliamentary democracy in Jharkand.

Christian proponents of creation theory continue to confront the Darwinian theory of evolution in new ways. Creation theory itself, however, is covertly anthropocentric. Nevertheless, the controversy concerns more than Christians and their scientific opponents.

The absence of collective outlook is the root of all evil. The strong are perpetrating atrocities and injustices on the weak; powerful human groups are exploiting powerless ones. Under such circumstances it is the duty of virtuous people to wage war on the oppressors.

National News Service Kolkata 3/3/05: Mr. George N. Sibley, the Consul; General of the USA in Kolkata, today inaugurated a nursing school in Kolkata, Islamia Hospital in a brief function at Mahajati Sadan Annex Hall in Kolkata this morning.

Dilip Chatterjee from Kolkata, (National News Service) 3/3/03: The Governor of Jharkand has defied all Parliamentary and Constitutional norms by inviting JMM supremo Sibu Soren to form the Government in Jharkand.

The freedom of women from unjust social laws of religious institutions, capitalist manipulation and a patriarchal social order is a fundamental factor in the humanisation of the society. The domination of women by men started about three to four thousand years ago during the ascendancy of the priest era. In the capitalist era it reached its culminating point.

The tense standoff regarding the eviction of the squatters on both sides of the Rail line in the Dhakuria area of South Calcutta ended with the police retreating without evicting the squatters.

Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Wednesday, March 2: The US Human Rights Report on Bangladesh drew angry reaction from the government while the opposition hailed it as one giving the real picture.

JAKARTA (Agencies): Hundreds of people hit the streets across Java on Tuesday to protest against sharp fuel price hikes -- an average of nearly 30 percent.

Protests took place in at least 10 cities and towns, as anger grew over the government's decision to raise fuel costs.

Political democracy is about one person one vote, a convention not reflected in the market place where voting is on the basis of one dollar one vote. This inconsistency between political voting and market voting has fatal implications for democracy, with the wealthy using their power to frustrate its practice.

Awareness of the problem is not new. In 1873 Chief Justice Ryan of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court warned "There is looming up a new and dark power .. the enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economical conquests only, but for political power ... For the first time really in our politics, money is taking the field as an organised power. It is unscrupulous, arrogant, and overbearing ... The question will arise and arise in your day .. which shall rule - wealth or [people]; which shall lead - money or intellect; who shall fill public stations - educated and patriotic free [people], or the feudal serfs of corporate capital."

"Alternative visions are crucial at this moment in history. Prout’s cooperative model of economic democracy, based on cardinal human values and sharing the resources of the planet for the welfare of everyone, deserves our serious consideration."

~ Noam Chomsky, Critic of U.S foreign policy, supporter of libertarian socialist objectives

"Today, capitalist exploitation is rampant almost everywhere. Capitalism is now in its final stage of degeneration. In the early part of the capitalist era, society experienced certain advantages, but now, society has become the victim of insatiable rapacity, unbearable hardship & heartless deprivation. Those countries suffering the weight of capitalist exploitation are rapidly moving towards [worker] revolution. PROUT advocates another type of revolution called "nuclear revolution," through which every aspect of collective life - social, economic, political, cultural, psychic & spiritual - is completely transformed. New moral & spiritual values arise in society which provide the impetus for accelerated social progress. The old era is replaced by a new era -- one collective psychology is replaced by another. This type of revolution results in all-round development & social progress." ~ Shrii P. R. Sarkar

National News Service, Kolkata, 28/02/2005: In the recently held Assembly election in the three States of Bihar, Jharkand and Haryana, were concluded yesterday 27/02/2005 with the declaration of the results.