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Monday, June 23, 2008

Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Most expensive sari To Rakib

okki .. :D
 
mone rakhbar jonne thanks ..
 
be well...

 
On 6/23/08, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:

Hm bujhlam....Moneo rakhlam.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 3:24 PM, R@kiB <rakib.exe@gmail.com> wrote:

keno keu janteo parbena .. !!

hoito oi sarii peyei otit er kotha tumi bemalum vhulte boshecho ...  :D


acho kemon? sorry .. tomar signature e gaaner line plus mail er subject dekhe kochafy korar luv shamlate parlam na ... :D :D


ajkal group e mail dekhai jai na tomar ... !! nami mail likhteo vhulecho tumi? age je ki darun sob mail pathate ...
abaro pathao na .. hoito omon sari kine dewar saddho grp er sobar milito prochestaio hoileo hoite pare... but omon darun sob mail niyomito pele churii ami i na hoy kine dibone :P


vhalo theko, onek onek vhalo.



On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:46 PM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:
 

Hii Paglee, I didnt ask for this Sarii from my BF :), This Sarii is good but I prefer Churii than Sarii.
 
Akashii
 
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Paglee Girl <paglee.girl@gmail.com> wrote:

that mean, you already have asked such sari from your boy friend!!! uhhhh, when shall i get such oppportunity like you akashi! how poor i'm.

but don't worry, girls will not ask for this sari to their boy friends. because, in this high price market of bangladesh, if girls ask, boy friends will to die. khek khek khek.

paglee girl...khek.khek..khek.


On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 3:02 AM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:


                                 Most expensive sari


                                     Silk Sari

            How often have you come across a Rs. 40 lakh ($100,000)

                                  silk saree?

              Chennai Silks, a textile unit has come up with one
     of its kind and it is seeking an unmistakable entry into the
Guinness
     Book of World Records for being the most unique and expensive
saree.

        The exceptionally stunning saree is meticulously woven with 12
     precious stones and metals to depict 11 of Raja Ravi Verma's
popular
                      paintings. Explicitly projected is

         'Lady Musicians', one of the painter's very famous works that
           displays women belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds.

      Besides, the border of the saree pictures 10 other paintings of
the
               artist that pays tribute to 20th century artist.
     The best part of the saree being that the women in the paintings
are
      intricately hand-woven and beautified with jewels of gold,
diamond,
       platinum, silver, ruby, emerald, yellow sapphire, sapphire,
cat's
                         eye, topaz, pearl and corals.

     Already in the Limca Book of Records, this 40 lakh saree will be
the
      first silk saree that required the use of 7,440 jacquard hooks
and
         66,794 cards during the weaving process. Moreover, a group of
                  consummate workers took nearly 4,680 hours


........................................................................
.....................


             Now gals start asking your boy friend for this saree
                                      and
     Boys don't forward this mail to ur gal frnd, then you will be in big
                                   trouble.
 

 




 
--
Akashii Churii
(Ki vule Ami ato soyechi je betha,Ki kore vulechi Otit ero kotha,
janteo parbe na kew ta.......)
 



--
`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`

*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·` *R@kiB




--
Akashii Churii
(Ki vule Ami ato soyechi je betha,Ki kore vulechi Otit ero kotha,
janteo parbe na kew ta.......)




--
`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`

*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·` *R@kiB __._,_.___

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Home of the Bangladeshi Teens & Youths
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-> Official Website: http://www.ShadeshiBondhu.com
-> Group's short url: http://Group.ShadeshiBondhu.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Friends' Family
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




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Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Husbands are really innocent!!!

lolz =))
 

 



--
`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`

*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·` *R@kiB __._,_.___

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Home of the Bangladeshi Teens & Youths
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-> Official Website: http://www.ShadeshiBondhu.com
-> Group's short url: http://Group.ShadeshiBondhu.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Friends' Family
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
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Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Most expensive sari To Rakib

Hm bujhlam....Moneo rakhlam.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 3:24 PM, R@kiB <rakib.exe@gmail.com> wrote:

keno keu janteo parbena .. !!

hoito oi sarii peyei otit er kotha tumi bemalum vhulte boshecho ...  :D


acho kemon? sorry .. tomar signature e gaaner line plus mail er subject dekhe kochafy korar luv shamlate parlam na ... :D :D


ajkal group e mail dekhai jai na tomar ... !! nami mail likhteo vhulecho tumi? age je ki darun sob mail pathate ...
abaro pathao na .. hoito omon sari kine dewar saddho grp er sobar milito prochestaio hoileo hoite pare... but omon darun sob mail niyomito pele churii ami i na hoy kine dibone :P


vhalo theko, onek onek vhalo.



On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:46 PM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:

Hii Paglee, I didnt ask for this Sarii from my BF :), This Sarii is good but I prefer Churii than Sarii.
 
Akashii
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Paglee Girl <paglee.girl@gmail.com> wrote:

that mean, you already have asked such sari from your boy friend!!! uhhhh, when shall i get such oppportunity like you akashi! how poor i'm.

but don't worry, girls will not ask for this sari to their boy friends. because, in this high price market of bangladesh, if girls ask, boy friends will to die. khek khek khek.

paglee girl...khek.khek..khek.


On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 3:02 AM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:


                                 Most expensive sari


                                     Silk Sari

            How often have you come across a Rs. 40 lakh ($100,000)

                                  silk saree?

              Chennai Silks, a textile unit has come up with one
     of its kind and it is seeking an unmistakable entry into the
Guinness
     Book of World Records for being the most unique and expensive
saree.

        The exceptionally stunning saree is meticulously woven with 12
     precious stones and metals to depict 11 of Raja Ravi Verma's
popular
                      paintings. Explicitly projected is

         'Lady Musicians', one of the painter's very famous works that
           displays women belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds.

      Besides, the border of the saree pictures 10 other paintings of
the
               artist that pays tribute to 20th century artist.
     The best part of the saree being that the women in the paintings
are
      intricately hand-woven and beautified with jewels of gold,
diamond,
       platinum, silver, ruby, emerald, yellow sapphire, sapphire,
cat's
                         eye, topaz, pearl and corals.

     Already in the Limca Book of Records, this 40 lakh saree will be
the
      first silk saree that required the use of 7,440 jacquard hooks
and
         66,794 cards during the weaving process. Moreover, a group of
                  consummate workers took nearly 4,680 hours


........................................................................
.....................


             Now gals start asking your boy friend for this saree
                                      and
     Boys don't forward this mail to ur gal frnd, then you will be in big
                                   trouble.




--
Akashii Churii
(Ki vule Ami ato soyechi je betha,Ki kore vulechi Otit ero kotha,
janteo parbe na kew ta.......)



--
`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`

*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·` *R@kiB




--
Akashii Churii
(Ki vule Ami ato soyechi je betha,Ki kore vulechi Otit ero kotha,
janteo parbe na kew ta.......)
__._,_.___

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Home of the Bangladeshi Teens & Youths
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-> Official Website: http://www.ShadeshiBondhu.com
-> Group's short url: http://Group.ShadeshiBondhu.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Friends' Family
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
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__,_._,___

[Shadeshi_Bondhu] Husbands are really innocent!!!

__._,_.___

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Home of the Bangladeshi Teens & Youths
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-> Official Website: http://www.ShadeshiBondhu.com
-> Group's short url: http://Group.ShadeshiBondhu.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Friends' Family
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
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__,_._,___

Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Most expensive sari

Only churi not sari!? khek khek khek... anyway, just did a fun in response of your reply. So, akashii api, what is your best color in sari and best color in churi that you like? by the way, i neither put on sarii nor churii. :( my style is paglee type.

paglee
(all are sleeping now, except me)

 
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 11:46 PM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:

Hii Paglee, I didnt ask for this Sarii from my BF :), This Sarii is good but I prefer Churii than Sarii.
 
Akashii
 
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Paglee Girl <paglee.girl@gmail.com> wrote:

that mean, you already have asked such sari from your boy friend!!! uhhhh, when shall i get such oppportunity like you akashi! how poor i'm.

but don't worry, girls will not ask for this sari to their boy friends. because, in this high price market of bangladesh, if girls ask, boy friends will to die. khek khek khek.

paglee girl...khek.khek..khek.


On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 3:02 AM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:


                                 Most expensive sari


                                     Silk Sari

            How often have you come across a Rs. 40 lakh ($100,000)

                                  silk saree?

              Chennai Silks, a textile unit has come up with one
     of its kind and it is seeking an unmistakable entry into the
Guinness
     Book of World Records for being the most unique and expensive
saree.

        The exceptionally stunning saree is meticulously woven with 12
     precious stones and metals to depict 11 of Raja Ravi Verma's
popular
                      paintings. Explicitly projected is

         'Lady Musicians', one of the painter's very famous works that
           displays women belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds.

      Besides, the border of the saree pictures 10 other paintings of
the
               artist that pays tribute to 20th century artist.
     The best part of the saree being that the women in the paintings
are
      intricately hand-woven and beautified with jewels of gold,
diamond,
       platinum, silver, ruby, emerald, yellow sapphire, sapphire,
cat's
                         eye, topaz, pearl and corals.

     Already in the Limca Book of Records, this 40 lakh saree will be
the
      first silk saree that required the use of 7,440 jacquard hooks
and
         66,794 cards during the weaving process. Moreover, a group of
                  consummate workers took nearly 4,680 hours


........................................................................
.....................


             Now gals start asking your boy friend for this saree
                                      and
     Boys don't forward this mail to ur gal frnd, then you will be in big
                                   trouble.
 

 




 
--
Akashii Churii
(Ki vule Ami ato soyechi je betha,Ki kore vulechi Otit ero kotha,
janteo parbe na kew ta.......)
 

__._,_.___

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Home of the Bangladeshi Teens & Youths
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-> Official Website: http://www.ShadeshiBondhu.com
-> Group's short url: http://Group.ShadeshiBondhu.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Friends' Family
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Most expensive sari

keno keu janteo parbena .. !!

hoito oi sarii peyei otit er kotha tumi bemalum vhulte boshecho ...  :D


acho kemon? sorry .. tomar signature e gaaner line plus mail er subject dekhe kochafy korar luv shamlate parlam na ... :D :D


ajkal group e mail dekhai jai na tomar ... !! nami mail likhteo vhulecho tumi? age je ki darun sob mail pathate ...
abaro pathao na .. hoito omon sari kine dewar saddho grp er sobar milito prochestaio hoileo hoite pare... but omon darun sob mail niyomito pele churii ami i na hoy kine dibone :P


vhalo theko, onek onek vhalo.



On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:46 PM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:

Hii Paglee, I didnt ask for this Sarii from my BF :), This Sarii is good but I prefer Churii than Sarii.
 
Akashii
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Paglee Girl <paglee.girl@gmail.com> wrote:

that mean, you already have asked such sari from your boy friend!!! uhhhh, when shall i get such oppportunity like you akashi! how poor i'm.

but don't worry, girls will not ask for this sari to their boy friends. because, in this high price market of bangladesh, if girls ask, boy friends will to die. khek khek khek.

paglee girl...khek.khek..khek.


On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 3:02 AM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:


                                 Most expensive sari


                                     Silk Sari

            How often have you come across a Rs. 40 lakh ($100,000)

                                  silk saree?

              Chennai Silks, a textile unit has come up with one
     of its kind and it is seeking an unmistakable entry into the
Guinness
     Book of World Records for being the most unique and expensive
saree.

        The exceptionally stunning saree is meticulously woven with 12
     precious stones and metals to depict 11 of Raja Ravi Verma's
popular
                      paintings. Explicitly projected is

         'Lady Musicians', one of the painter's very famous works that
           displays women belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds.

      Besides, the border of the saree pictures 10 other paintings of
the
               artist that pays tribute to 20th century artist.
     The best part of the saree being that the women in the paintings
are
      intricately hand-woven and beautified with jewels of gold,
diamond,
       platinum, silver, ruby, emerald, yellow sapphire, sapphire,
cat's
                         eye, topaz, pearl and corals.

     Already in the Limca Book of Records, this 40 lakh saree will be
the
      first silk saree that required the use of 7,440 jacquard hooks
and
         66,794 cards during the weaving process. Moreover, a group of
                  consummate workers took nearly 4,680 hours


........................................................................
.....................


             Now gals start asking your boy friend for this saree
                                      and
     Boys don't forward this mail to ur gal frnd, then you will be in big
                                   trouble.




--
Akashii Churii
(Ki vule Ami ato soyechi je betha,Ki kore vulechi Otit ero kotha,
janteo parbe na kew ta.......)



--
`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`*`~`

*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·` *R@kiB __._,_.___

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Home of the Bangladeshi Teens & Youths
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-> Official Website: http://www.ShadeshiBondhu.com
-> Group's short url: http://Group.ShadeshiBondhu.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Friends' Family
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Most expensive sari

Hii Paglee, I didnt ask for this Sarii from my BF :), This Sarii is good but I prefer Churii than Sarii.
 
Akashii
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Paglee Girl <paglee.girl@gmail.com> wrote:

that mean, you already have asked such sari from your boy friend!!! uhhhh, when shall i get such oppportunity like you akashi! how poor i'm.

but don't worry, girls will not ask for this sari to their boy friends. because, in this high price market of bangladesh, if girls ask, boy friends will to die. khek khek khek.

paglee girl...khek.khek..khek.


On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 3:02 AM, Akashii Churii <9003.aj@gmail.com> wrote:


                                 Most expensive sari


                                     Silk Sari

            How often have you come across a Rs. 40 lakh ($100,000)

                                  silk saree?

              Chennai Silks, a textile unit has come up with one
     of its kind and it is seeking an unmistakable entry into the
Guinness
     Book of World Records for being the most unique and expensive
saree.

        The exceptionally stunning saree is meticulously woven with 12
     precious stones and metals to depict 11 of Raja Ravi Verma's
popular
                      paintings. Explicitly projected is

         'Lady Musicians', one of the painter's very famous works that
           displays women belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds.

      Besides, the border of the saree pictures 10 other paintings of
the
               artist that pays tribute to 20th century artist.
     The best part of the saree being that the women in the paintings
are
      intricately hand-woven and beautified with jewels of gold,
diamond,
       platinum, silver, ruby, emerald, yellow sapphire, sapphire,
cat's
                         eye, topaz, pearl and corals.

     Already in the Limca Book of Records, this 40 lakh saree will be
the
      first silk saree that required the use of 7,440 jacquard hooks
and
         66,794 cards during the weaving process. Moreover, a group of
                  consummate workers took nearly 4,680 hours


........................................................................
.....................


             Now gals start asking your boy friend for this saree
                                      and
     Boys don't forward this mail to ur gal frnd, then you will be in big
                                   trouble.




--
Akashii Churii
(Ki vule Ami ato soyechi je betha,Ki kore vulechi Otit ero kotha,
janteo parbe na kew ta.......)
__._,_.___

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Home of the Bangladeshi Teens & Youths
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-> Official Website: http://www.ShadeshiBondhu.com
-> Group's short url: http://Group.ShadeshiBondhu.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SB: Friends' Family
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Special report: Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century

'stop corruption'?!! how? the persons who are doing so, never read such article and even if they know, it is not  a matter to them. coz,they can go other country. coz their investment in other countries and though they are not doing good in banglades, they achieve reward for doing good work and get award for holding most share of investment. So, sometimes i think,one day i'll ultimately have to die. so, why shouting. may be i'm helpless and victim that is why i think such negative.

paglee girl...he..he..hee....

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 1:55 PM, dina khan <dina30_khan@yahoo.com> wrote:

plant trees....every where to the river both sides & road sides around the ponds in every house  & on the bank of sea for making the country green which will absorb carbon mono oxide carbon dioxide & will produce oxygen..........

stop corruption be honest & quality educated to know & to do correct works with update wisdom.being efficient knowledge persons..........



--- On Sun, 22/6/08, ♪ bLuE BoY ♪ ««« <pramiti.riday@gmail.com> wrote:
From: ♪ bLuE BoY ♪ ««« <pramiti.riday@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Special report: Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century
To: Shadeshi_Bondhu@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, 22 June, 2008, 11:56 AM

LOL.. if things wree so easy, the giant climatist wudnt b such
concerned abt da rise of see level.. and the rich country who r
producing huge amount of carbon-di-oxide wud just popse Bangladesh to
finance to build a 30 ft high damn around da sea!! the sweet watre is
becoming salty, ppl cant drink or use it.. so it wont play any role to
prevent dis if all rivers r made 30 ft deeprer.. we will die, yes die,
in sea water if the ginat carbon-di-ozide producing countries dont
stop doing so.. u know, dis gas is just warming the globe which is
infact the actual reaosn of dis rising of sea level.

On 6/22/08, dina khan <dina30_khan@ yahoo.com> wrote:
> Warning for action
> The result for filling all rivers canals bil jhil & ponds and using deep
> tubule for raising the deep underground deep water for using in irrigation,
> the result of corruption & ignorance, the result of cutting all trees, the
> land of Bangladesh is going down which are the main causes for flood every
> year in Bangladesh & also the causes for sea water coming in Bangladesh &
> for this causes in future the land of Bangladesh will be gone under the sea
> water Bay of Bengal.
> It may call flood of Noah as God 's punishment.
> Advising for action
> 150 millions people of Bangladesh must need to be careful need to be honest
> & quality educated.
> Stop all corruption & try to be all quality educated, stop using deep
> tubule for raising deep under ground water for using & irrigation, dig 30
> feet all rivers canal jhil bils & ponds for holding flood & sky water &
> make 30 feet high barrage in front Bay of Bengal to protect coming sea
> water inside the land of Bangladesh & plan trees every where on the barrage
> & on river both sides.
>
>
> --- On Sat, 21/6/08, R@kiB <rakib.exe@gmail. com> wrote:
>
> From: R@kiB <rakib.exe@gmail. com>
> Subject: [Shadeshi_Bondhu] Special report: Bangladesh is set to disappear
> under the waves by the end of the century
> To: "we_frndz" <we_frndz@yahoogroup s.com>

> Date: Saturday, 21 June, 2008, 7:54 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bangladesh - 1971-2071: born in blood, died in water!!!!
>
> From The Independent:
>
> Special report: Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of
> the century
> Bangladesh, the most crowded nation on earth, is set to disappear under the
> waves by the end of this century – and we will be to blame. Johann Hari took
> a journey to see for himself how western profligacy and indifference have
> sealed the fate of 150 million peoplewent to see for himself the spreading
> misery and destruction as the ocean reclaims the land on which so many
> millions depend
> Friday, 20 June 2008
> Alamy
>
>
>
> Battling the waves: many Bangladeshis depend on the ocean
>
>
> This spring, I took a month-long road trip across a country that we – you,
> me and everyone we know – are killing. One day, not long into my journey, I
> travelled over tiny ridges and groaning bridges on the back of a motorbike
> to reach the remote village of Munshigonj. The surviving villagers – gaunt,
> creased people – were sitting by a stagnant pond. They told me, slowly, what
> we have done to them.
> Ten years ago, the village began to die. First, many of the trees turned a
> strange brownish-yellow colour and rotted. Then the rice paddies stopped
> growing and festered in the water. Then the fish floated to the surface of
> the rivers, gasping. Then many of the animals began to die. Then many of the
> children began to die.
> The waters flowing through Munshigonj – which had once been sweet and clear
> and teeming with life – had turned salty and dead.
> Arita Rani, a 25-year-old, sat looking at the salt water, swaddled in a blue
> sari and her grief. "We couldn't drink the water from the river, because it
> was suddenly full of salt and made us sick," she said. "So I had to give my
> children water from this pond. I knew it was a bad idea. People wash in this
> pond. It's dirty. So we all got dysentery." She keeps staring at its
> surface. "I have had it for 10 years now. You feel weak all the time, and
> you have terrible stomach pains. You need to run to the toilet 10 times a
> day. My boy Shupria was seven and he had this for his whole life. He was so
> weak, and kept getting coughs and fevers. And then one morning..."
> Her mother interrupted the trailing silence. "He died," she said. Now
> Arita's surviving three-year-old, Ashik, is sick, too. He is sprawled on his
> back on the floor. He keeps collapsing; his eyes are watery and distant. His
> distended stomach feels like a balloon pumped full of water. "Why did this
> happen?" Arita asked.
> It is happening because of us. Every flight, every hamburger, every coal
> power plant, ends here, with this. Bangladesh is a flat, low-lying land made
> of silt, squeezed in between the melting mountains of the Himalayas and the
> rising seas of the Bay of Bengal. As the world warms, the sea is swelling –
> and wiping Bangladesh off the map.
> Deep below the ground of Munshigonj and thousands of villages like it, salt
> water is swelling up. It is this process – called "saline inundation" – that
> killed their trees and their fields and contaminated their drinking water.
> Some farmers have shifted from growing rice to farming shrimp – but that
> employs less than a quarter of the people, and it makes them dependent on a
> fickle export market. The scientific evidence shows that unless we change
> now, this salt water will keep rising and rising, until everything here is
> ocean.
> I decided to embark on this trip when, sitting in my air-conditioned flat in
> London, I noticed a strange and seemingly impossible detail in a scientific
> report. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – whose predictions
> have consistently turned out to be underestimates – said that Bangladesh is
> on course to lose 17 per cent of its land and 30 per cent of its food
> production by 2050. For America, this would be equivalent to California and
> New York State drowning, and the entire mid-West turning salty and barren.
> Surely this couldn't be right? How could more than 20 million Bangladeshis
> be turned into refugees so suddenly and so silently? I dug deeper, hoping it
> would be disproved – and found that many climatologists think the IPCC is
> way too optimistic about Bangladesh. I turned to Professor James Hansen, the
> director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, whose climate
> calculations have proved to be more accurate than anybody else's. He
> believes the melting of the Greenland ice cap being picked up by his
> satellites today, now, suggests we are facing a 25-metre rise in sea levels
> this century – which would drown Bangladesh entirely. When I heard this, I
> knew I had to go, and see.
>
>
>
>
> Even the capital, Dhaka would not survive a massive sea-level rise
>
>
> 1. The edge of a cliff
> The first thing that happens when you arrive in Dhaka is that you stop. And
> wait. And wait. And all you see around you are cars, and all you hear is
> screaming. Bangladesh's capital is in permanent shrieking gridlock, with
> miles of rickshaws and mobile heaps of rust. The traffic advances by inches
> and by howling. Each driver screams himself hoarse announc-ing – that was my
> lane! Stay there! Stop moving! Go back! Go forward! It is a good-natured
> shrieking: everybody knows that this is what you do in Dhaka. If you are
> lucky, you enter a slipstream of traffic that moves for a minute – until the
> jams back up and the screaming begins once more.
> Around you, this megalopolis of 20 million people seems to be screaming
> itself conscious. People burn rubbish by the roadside, or loll in the
> rivers. Children with skin deformities that look like infected burns try to
> thrust maps or sweets into your hand. Rickshaw drivers with thighs of steel
> pedal furious-ly as whole families cling on and offer their own high-volume
> traffic commentary to the groaning driver, and the groaning city.
> I wanted to wade through all this chaos to find Bangladesh's climate
> scientists, who are toiling in the crannies of the city to figure out what –
> if anything – can be saved.
> Dr Atiq Rahman's office in downtown Dhaka is a nest of scientific reports
> and books that, at every question, he dives into to reel off figures. He is
> a tidy, grey-moustached man who speaks English very fast, as if he is
> running out of time.
> "It is clear from all the data we are gathering here in Bangladesh that the
> IPCC predictions were much too conservative, " he said. He should know: he is
> one of the IPCC's leading members, and the UN has given him an award for his
> unusually prescient predictions. His work is used as one of the standard
> textbooks across the world, including at Oxford and Harvard. "We are facing
> a catastrophe in this country. We are talking about an absolutely massive
> displacement of human beings."
> He handed me shafts of scientific studies as he explained: "This is the
> ground zero of global warming." He listed the effects. The seas are rising,
> so land is being claimed from the outside. (The largest island in the
> country, Bhola, has lost half its land in the past decade.) The rivers are
> super-charged, becoming wider and wider, so land is being claimed from
> within. (Erosion is up by 40 per cent). Cyclones are becoming more intense
> and more violent (2007 was the worst year on record for intense hurricanes
> here). And salt water is rendering the land barren. (The rate of saline
> inundation has trebled in the past 20 years.) "There is no question," Dr
> Rahman said, "that this is being caused primarily by human action. This is
> way outside natural variation. If you really want people in the West to
> understand the effect they are having here, it's simple. From now on, we
> need to have a system where for every 10,000 tons of carbon you emit, you
> have to take a
> Bangladeshi family to live with you. It is your responsibility. " In the
> past, he has called it "climatic genocide".
> The worst-case scenario, Dr Rahman said, is if one of the world's land-based
> ice-sheets breaks up. "Then we lose 70 to 80 per cent of our land, including
> Dhaka. It's a different world, and we're not on it. The evidence from Jim
> Hansen shows this is becoming more likely – and it can happen quickly and
> irreversibly. My best understanding of the evidence is that this will
> probably happen towards the end of the lifetime of babies born today."
> I walked out in the ceaseless churning noise of Dhaka. Everywhere I looked,
> people were building and making and living: my eyes skimmed up higher and
> higher and find more and more activity. A team of workers were building a
> house; behind and above them, children were sewing mattresses on a roof;
> behind and above them, more men were building taller buildings. This is the
> most cramped country on earth: 150 million people living in an area the size
> of Iowa. Could all this life really be continuing on the crumbling edge of a
> cliff?
>
>
>
>
> Disease from 2007's floods presages worse to come
>
>
> 2. 'It is like the Bay is angry'
> I was hurtling through the darkness at 120mph with my new driver, Shambrat.
> He was red-eyed from chewing pan, a leaf-stimulant that makes you buzz, and
> I could see nothing except the tiny pools of light cast by the car. They
> showed we were on narrow roads, darting between rice paddies and emptied
> shack-towns, in the midnight silence. I kept trying to put on my seatbelt,
> but every time Shambrat would cry, "You no need seatbelt! I good driver!"
> and burst into hysterical giggles.
> To see if the seas were really rising, I had circled a random low-lying
> island on the map called Moheshkhali and asked Shambrat to get me there. It
> turned out the only route was to go to Coxs Bazar – Bangladesh's Blackpool –
> and then take a small wooden rowing boat that has a huge chugging engine
> attached to the front. I clambered in alongside three old men, a small herd
> of goats, and some chickens. The boat was operated by a 10-year-old child,
> whose job is to point the boat in the right direction, start the engine, and
> then begin using a small jug to frantically scoop out the water that starts
> to leak in. After an hour of the deafening ack-ack of the engine, we arrived
> at the muddy coast of Moheshkhali.
> There was a makeshift wooden pier, where men were waiting with large sacks
> of salt. As we climbed up on to the fragile boards, people helped the old
> men lift up the animals. There were men mooching around the pier, waiting
> for a delivery. They looked bemused by my arrival. I asked them if the sea
> levels were rising here. Rezaul Karim Chowdry, a 34-year-old who looked like
> he is in his fifties, said plainly: "Of course. In the past 30 years,
> two-thirds of this island has gone under the water. I had to abandon my
> house. The land has gone into the sea." Immediately all the other men start
> to recount their stories. They have lost their houses, their land, and
> family members to the advance.
> They agreed to show me their vanishing island. We clambered into a tuc-tuc –
> a motorbike with a carriage on the back – and set off across the island,
> riding along narrow ridges between cordoned-off areas of sand and salt. The
> men explained that this is salt-farming: the salt left behind by the tide is
> gathered and sold. "It is one of the last forms of farming that we can still
> do here," Rezaul said. As we passed through the forest, he told me to be
> careful: "Since we started to lose all our land, gangs are fighting for the
> territory that is left. They are very violent. A woman was shot in the
> crossfire yesterday. They will not like an outsider appearing from nowhere."
> We pulled up outside a vast concrete structure on stilts. This, the men
> explained, is the cyclone shelter built by the Japanese years ago. We
> climbed to the top, and looked out towards the ocean. "Do you see the top of
> a tree, sticking out there?" Rezaul said, pointing into the far distance. I
> couldn't see anything, but then, eventually, I spotted a tiny jutting
> brown-green tip. "That is where my house was." When did you leave it? "In
> 2002. The ocean is coming very fast now. We think all this" – he waved his
> hand back over the island – "will be gone in 15 years."
> Outside the rusty house next door, an ancient-looking man with a long grey
> beard was sitting cross-legged. I approached him, and he rose slowly. His
> name was Abdul Zabar; he didn't know his age, but guessed he is 80. "I was
> born here," he said. "There" – and he points out to the sea. "The island
> began to be swallowed in the 1960s, and it started going really quickly in
> 1991. I have lost my land, so I can't grow anything... I only live because
> one of my sons got a job in Saudi Arabia and sends money back to us. I am
> very frightened, but what can I do? I can only trust in God." The sea stops
> just in front of his home. What will you do, I asked, if it comes closer?
> "We will have nowhere to go to."
> I was taken to the island's dam. It is a long stretch of hardened clay and
> concrete and mud. "This used to be enough," a man called Abul Kashin said,
> "but then the sea got so high that it came over the dam." They have tried to
> pile lumps of concrete on top, but they are simply washed away. "My family
> have left the island," he continued, "They were so sad to go. This is my
> homeland. If we had to leave here to go to some other place, it would be the
> worst day of my life."
> Twenty years ago, there were 30,000 people on this island. There are 18,000
> now – and most think they will be the last inhabitants.
> On the beach, there were large wooden fishing boats lying unused. Abu
> Bashir, a lined, thin 28-year-old, pointed to his boat and said, "Fishing is
> almost impossible now. The waves are much bigger than they used to be. It
> used to be fine to go out in a normal [hand-rowed] boat. That is how my
> father and my grandfather and my ancestors lived.
> "Now that is impossible. You need a [motor-driven] boat, and even that is
> thrown about by the waves so much. It's like the bay is angry."
> The other fishermen burst in. "When there is a cyclone warning, we cannot go
> out fishing for 10 days. That is a lot of business lost. There used to be
> two or three warnings a year. Last year, there were 12. The sea is so
> violent. We are going hungry."
> Yet the islanders insisted on offering me a feast of rice and fish and eggs.
> I was ushered into the council leader's house – a rusty shack near the sea –
> and the men sat around, urging me to tell the world what is happening. "If
> people know what is happening to us, they will help," they said. The women
> remained in the back room; when I glimpsed them and tried to thank them for
> the food, they giggled and vanished. I asked if the men had heard of global
> warming, and they looked puzzled. "No," they said. We stared out at the
> ocean and ate, as the sun slowly set on the island.
>
>
>
>
> AP
> Nasa's James Hansen thinks there may be a 25-metre sea-level rise. This
> would drown Bangladesh entirely
>
>
> 3. No hiding place
> Through the morning mist, I peered out of the car window at the cratered
> landscape. Trees jutted out at surreal angles from the ground. One lay
> upside down with its roots sticking upwards towards the sky, looking like a
> sketch for a Dali painting. Shambrat had spat out his pan and was driving
> slowly now. "There are holes in the ground," he said, squinting with
> concentration. "From the cyclone. You fall in..." He made a splattering
> sound.
> It was here, in the south of Bangladesh, that on 15 November last year,
> Cyclone Sidr arrived. It formed in the warmed Bay of Bengal and ripped
> across the land, taking more than 3,000 people with it. Like Americans
> talking about 9/11, everybody in Bangladesh knows where they were when Sidr
> struck. For miles, the upturned and smashed-out houses are intermixed with
> tents made from blue plastic sheeting. These stretches of plastic were
> handed out by the charities in the weeks after Sidr, and many families are
> still living in them now.
> There have always been cyclones in Bangladesh, and there always will be –
> but global warming is making them much more violent. Back in Dhaka, the
> climatologist Ahsan Uddin Ahmed explained that cyclones use heat as a fuel:
> "The sea surface temperatures in the Bay of Bengal have been rising steadily
> for the past 40 years – and so, exactly as you would expect, the intensity
> of cyclones has risen too. They're up by 39 per cent on average." Again I
> circled a cyclone-struck island at random and headed for the dot.
> The hour-long journey on a wooden rowing boat from the mainland to
> Charkashem Island passed in a dense mist that made it feel like crossing the
> River Styx. The spectral outline of other boats could sometimes be glimpsed,
> before they disappeared suddenly. One moment an old woman and a goat
> appeared and stared at me, then they were gone.
> The island was a tiny dot of mud and lush, upturned greenery. It had no
> pier, so when the rowing boat bumped up against the sand I had to wade
> through the water.
> I looked out over the silent island, and saw some familiar blue sheeting in
> the distance. As I trudged towards it, I saw some gaunt teenagers
> half-heartedly kicking a deflated football. From the sheeting, a man and
> woman stared, astonished.
> "I was in my fields over there," Hanif Mridha said. "I saw the wind start,
> it was about eight at night, and I saw everything being blown around. I went
> and hid under an iron sheet, but that was blown away by the wind. The water
> came swelling up all of a sudden and was crashing all around me. I grabbed
> one of my children and ran to the forest" – he pointed to the cluster of
> trees at the heart of the island – "and climbed the tallest one I could
> reach. I went as high as I could but still the water kept rising and I
> thought – this is it, I'm going to drown. I'm dying, my children are dying,
> my wife is dying. I could see everything was under water and people were
> screaming everywhere. I held there for four hours with my son."
> When the water washed away and he came down, everything was gone: his house,
> his crops, his animals, his possessions. A few days later, an aid agency
> arrived with some rice and some plastic sheeting to sleep under. Nobody has
> come since.
> His wife, Begum Mridha, took over the story. Their children are terrified of
> the sea now, and have nightmares every night. They eat once a day, if
> they're lucky. "We are so hungry," she said. The new home they have built is
> made from twigs and the plastic sheet. Underneath it, they sleep with their
> eight children and Begum Mridha's mother. The children lay lethargically
> there, staring blankly into space over their distended bellies.
> Begum Mridha cooks on a lantern. They eat once a day – if that. "It's so
> cold at night we can't sleep," she said. "The children all have diarrhoea
> and they are losing weight. It will take us more than two years to save up
> and get back what we had."
> If cyclones hit this area more often, what would happen to you? Hanif looked
> down. He opened his mouth, but no words came.
>
>
>
>
> AFP/Getty Images
> Life on the edge: a woman and child in their riverside hut in Dhaka as the
> country braced for floods last September
>
>
> 4. Bangladesh's Noah
> In the middle of Bangladesh, in the middle of my road trip, I tracked down
> Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan. He was sitting under a parasol by the banks of
> a river, scribbling frenetically into his notebook.
> "The catastrophe in Bangladesh has begun," he said. "The warnings [by the
> IPCC] are unfolding much faster than anyone anticipated. " Until a few years
> ago, Rezwan was an architect, designing buildings for rich people – "but I
> thought, is this what I want to do while my country drowns? Create buildings
> that will be under water soon anyway?"
> He considered dedicating his life to building schools and hospitals, "but
> then I realised they would be under water soon as well. I was hopeless. But
> then I thought of boats!"
> He has turned himself into Bangladesh's Noah, urging his people to move on
> to boats as the Great Flood comes. Rezwan built a charity – Shidhulai
> Swanirvar Sangstha, which means self-reliance – that is building the only
> schools and hospitals and homes that can last now: ones that float.
> We clambered on to his first school-boat, which is moored in Singra. In this
> area there is no electricity, no sewage system, and no state. The residents
> live the short lives of pre-modern people. But now, suddenly, they have a
> fleet of these boats, stocked with medicines and lined with books on
> everything from Shakespeare to accountancy to climatology. Nestling between
> them, there are six internet terminals with broadband access.
> The boat began to float down the Curnai River, gathering scores of beaming
> kids as it went. Fatima Jahan, an unveiled 18-year-old girl dressed in
> bright red, arrived to go online. She was desperate to know the cricket
> scores. At every muddy village-stop, the boat inhaled more children, and I
> talked to the mothers who were beating their washing dry by the river. "I
> never went to school, and I never saw a doctor in my life. Now my children
> can do both!" a thin woman with a shimmering heart-shaped nose stud called
> Nurjahan Rupbhan told me. But when I asked about the changes in the climate,
> her forehead crumpled into long frown-lines.
> I thought back to what the scientists told me in Dhaka. Bangladesh is a
> country with 230 rivers running through it like veins. They irrigate the
> land and give it its incredible fertility – but now the rivers are becoming
> supercharged. More water is coming down from the melting Himalayan glaciers,
> and more salt water is pushing up from the rising oceans. These two forces
> meet here in the heart of Bangladesh and make the rivers churn up – eroding
> the river banks with amazing speed. The water is getting wider, leaving the
> people to survive on ever-more narrow strips of land.
> Nurjahan took me up to a crumbling river edge, where tree roots jutted out
> naked. "My house was here," she said. "It fell into the water. So now my
> house is here –" she motioned to a small clay hut behind us – "but now we
> realise this is going to fall in too. The river gets wider day by day."
> But even this, Nurjahan said, is not the worst problem. The annual floods
> have become far more extreme, too. "Until about 10 years ago, the floods
> came every year and the water would stay for 15 days, and it helped to wet
> the land. Now the water stays for four months. Four months! It is too long.
> That doesn't wet the fields, it destroys them. We cannot plan for anything."
> When the floods came last year, Nurjahan had no choice but to stay here. She
> lived with her children waist-deep in the cold brown water – for four
> months. "It was really hard to cook, or go to the toilet. We all got
> dysentery. It was miserable." Then she seemed to chastise herself. "But we
> survived! We are tough, don't you think?"
> We sat by the river-bank, our feet dangling down towards the river. I asked
> if she agrees with Rezwan that her only option soon will be to move on to a
> boat. He is launching the first models this summer: floating homes with
> trays of earth where families can grow food. "Yes," she said, "We will be
> boat-people. "
> I clambered back on to one of the 42 school-boats in this area. Young
> children were in the front chanting the alphabet, and teenagers at the back
> were browsing through the books. I asked a 16-year-old boy called Mohammed
> Palosh Ali what he was reading about, and he said, "Global warming." I felt
> a small jolt. He was the first person to spontaneously raise global warming
> with me. Can you tell me what that is? "The climate is being changed by
> carbon dioxide," he said. "This is a gas that traps heat. So if there is
> more of it, then the ice in the north of the world melts and our seas rise
> here."
> I asked if he had seen this warming in his own life. "Of course! The floods
> in 1998 and 2002 were worse than anything in my grandfather' s life. We
> couldn't get any drinking water, so the dirty water I drank made me very
> sick. The shit from the toilet pits had risen up and was floating in the
> water, but we still had to drink it. We put tablets in it but it was still
> disgusting. What else could we do?"
> Mohammed, do you know who is responsible for this global warming? He shakes
> his head. That answer lies a few pages further into the book. Soon he, and
> everybody else on this boat, will know it is me – and you.
>
>
>
>
> Getty Images
> Locals work a new pump in Sirajganj, installed after flooding hit water
> supplies
>
>
>
>
> 5. The warming jihad
> What happens to a country's mind as it drowns? Professor Philip Jenkins of
> Pennsylvania State University believes he can glimpse the answer: "The
> connection between climate change and religious violence is not tenuous," he
> says. "In fact, there's a historical indicator of how it could unfold: the
> Little Ice Age."
> Between the ninth and 13th centuries, the northern hemisphere went through a
> natural phase of global warming. The harvests lasted longer – so there were
> more crops, and more leisure. Universities and the arts began to flower. But
> then in the late 13th century, the Little Ice Age struck. Crop production
> fell, and pack ice formed in the oceans, wrecking trade routes. People began
> to starve.
> "In this climate of death and horror, people cast about for scapegoats, even
> before the Black Death struck," he says. Tolerance withered with the climate
> shocks: the Church declared witchcraft a heresy; the Jews began to be
> expelled from Britain. There was, he says, "a very close correlation between
> the cooling and a region-wide heightening of violent intolerance. "
> This time, there will be no need for imaginary scapegoats. The people
> responsible are on every TV screen, revving up their engines. Will jihadism
> swell with the rising seas? Bangladesh's religion seems to be low-key and
> local. In the countryside, Muslims – who make up 95 per cent of the nation –
> still worship Hindu saints and mix in a few Buddhist ideas, too. In the Arab
> world, people bring up God in almost every sentence. In Bangladesh, nobody
> does.
> But then, as we returned to Dhaka, I was having a casual conversation with
> Shambrat. He had been driving all night – at his insistence – and by this
> point he was wired after chewing fistfuls of pan, and singing along at the
> top of his voice to the Eighties power ballads. I mentioned Osama bin Laden
> in passing, and he said, "Bin Laden – great man! He fight for Islam!" Then,
> without looking at me, he went back to singing: "It must have been love, but
> it's over now...."
> I wondered how many Bangladeshis felt this way. The Chandni Chowk Bazaar –
> one of the city's main markets – was overcast the afternoon I decided to
> canvass opinions on Bin Laden. I approached a 24-year-old flower-seller
> called Mohammed Ashid, and as I inhaled the rich sweet scent of roses, he
> said: "I like him because he is a Muslim and I am a Muslim." Would you like
> Bin Laden to be in charge of Bangladesh? "Yes, of course," he said. And what
> would President Bin Laden do? "I have no idea," he shrugged. What would you
> want him to do? He furrowed his brow. "If Osama came to power he would make
> women cover up. Women are too free here." But what if women don't want to
> cover up? "They are Muslims. It's not up to them."
> A very smartly dressed man called Shadul Ahmed was strolling down the street
> to his office, where he is in charge of advertising. "I like him," he said.
> "Bin Laden works for the Muslims." He conceded 9/11 "was bad because many
> innocents died," but added: "Osama didn't do it. The Americans did it. They
> are guilty."
> As dozens of people paused from their shopping to talk, a pattern emerged:
> the men tend to like him, and the women don't. "I hate Bin Laden," one
> smartly dressed woman said, declining to give her name. "He is a fanatic.
> Bangladeshis do not like this." As the praise for Bin Laden was offered, I
> saw a boy go past on a rickshaw, stroking a girl's uncovered hair gently,
> sensuously. This is not the Arab world.
> The only unpleasant moment came when I approached three women selling
> cigarettes by the side of the road. They were in their early thirties,
> wearing white hijabs and puffing away. Akli Mouna said, "I like him. He is a
> faithful Muslim." She said "it would be very nice" if he was president of
> Bangladesh. Really? Would you be happy if you were forced to wear a burqa,
> and only rarely allowed out of your house? She jabbed a finger at my chest.
> "Yes! It would be fine if Osama was president and told us to wear the
> burqa." But Akli – you aren't wearing a burqa now. "It's good to wear the
> burqa!" she yelled. Her teeth, I saw, were brown and rotting. "We are only
> here because we are poor! We should be kept in the house!"
> I wanted to track down some Bangladeshi jihadis for myself, so I called the
> journalist Abu Sufian. He is a news reporter for BanglaVision, one of the
> main news channels, who made his name penetrating the thickets of the
> Islamist underground. He told me to meet him at the top of the BanglaVision
> skyscraper. As the city shrieked below us, he explained: "In the late 1980s,
> a group of mujahideen [holy warriors] who had been fighting the Soviets in
> Afghanistan came back to launch an Islamic revolution here in Bangladesh.
> They tried to mount an armed revolt in the north and kill the former Prime
> Minister. But it didn't come to much."
> Islamic fundamentalism is hobbled in Bangladesh, because it is still
> associated for most people with Paki-stan – the country Bangladesh fought a
> bloody war of independence to escape from.
> But Sufian says a new generation of Islamists is emerging with no memory of
> that war. "For example, I met a 21-year-old who had fought in Kashmir, whose
> father was a rickshaw driver. He said it was his holy duty to establish an
> Islamic state here through violence. Most were teenagers. All the jihadis I
> met hated democracy. They said it was the rule of man. According to them,
> only the rule of God is acceptable."
> He said it would be almost impossible to track them down – they are in
> prison or hiding – but my best bet was to head for the Al-Amin Jami mosque
> in the north-west of Dhaka. "They are fundamentalist Wahhabis, and very
> dangerous," he said. Yet when I arrived, just before 6pm prayers, it was a
> bright building in one of the nicer parts of town. Men in white caps and
> white robes were streaming in. An ice-cream stall sat outside. I approached
> a fiftysomething man in flowing robes and designer shoes. He glared at me. I
> explained I was a journalist, and ask if it would it be possible to look
> inside the mosque? "No. Under no circumstances. At all."
> OK. I asked a few polite questions about Islam, and then asked what he
> thought of Osama bin Laden. "Osama bin Laden?" he said. Yes. He scowled. "I
> have never heard of him." Never? "Never." I turned to the man standing,
> expectantly, next to him. "He has not heard of Osama bin Laden, either," he
> said. What about September 11 – you know, when the towers in New York fell?
> "I have never heard of this event, either." Some teenage boys were about to
> go in, so I approached them. Behind my back, I can sense the Gucci-man
> making gestures. "Uh... sorry... I don't think anything about Bin Laden,"
> one of them said, awkwardly.
> I lingered as prayers took place inside, until a flow of men poured out so
> thick and fast that they couldn't be instructed not to speak. "Yes, we would
> like Osama to run Bangladesh, he is a good man," the first person told me.
> There were nods. "He fights for Islam!" shouted another.
> The crowd says this mosque – like most fundamentalist mosques on earth – is
> funded by Saudi Arabia, with the money you and I pay at the petrol pump. As
> I looked up at its green minaret jutting into the sky, it occurs to me that
> our oil purchases are simultaneously drowning Bangladesh, and paying for the
> victims to be fundamentalised.
> After half-an-hour of watching this conversation and fuming, the initially
> recalcitrant man strode forward. "Why do you want to know about Bin Laden?
> We are Muslims. You are Christian. We all believe in the same God!" he
> announced.
> Actually, I said, I am not a Christian. There was a hushed pause. "You
> are... a Jew?" he said. The crowd looked horrified; but then the man forced
> a rictus smile and announced: "We all believe in one God! We are all
> children of Abraham! We are cousins!" No, I said. I am an atheist. Everyone
> looked genuinely puzzled; they do not have a bromide for this occasion.
> "Well... then..." he paused, scrambling for a statement... "You must convert
> to Islam! Read the Koran! It is beautiful!" Ah – so can I come into the
> mosque after all? "No. Never."
>
>
>
>
>
>
> AFP/Getty Images
> Children step on board a school boat run by the Bangladeshi charity
> Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha
>
>
> 6. The obituarist?
> In a small café in Dhaka, a cool breeze was blowing in through the window
> along with the endless traffic-screams. The 32-year-old novelist Tahmima
> Anam was inhaling the aroma of coffee and close to despair.
> She made her name by writing a tender novel – A Golden Age – about the birth
> of her country, Bangladesh. When the British finally withdrew from this
> subcontinent in 1948, the land they left behind was partitioned. Two chunks
> were carved out of India and declared to be a Muslim republic – East
> Pakistan and West Pakistan. But apart from their religion, they had very
> little in common. The gentle people of East Pakistan chafed under the
> dictatorial fundamentalism imposed from distant Islamabad. When they were
> ordered to start speaking Urdu, it was enough. Her novel tells how in 1971,
> they decided to declare independence and become Bangladesh. The Pakistanis
> fought back with staggering violence, but in the end Bangladesh was freed.
> Now Anam is realising that unless we change, fast, this fight will have been
> for the freedom of a drowning land – and her next novel may have to be its
> obituary.
> Anam came to Bangladesh late. Her Dhaka-born parents travelled the world, so
> she grew up in a slew of international schools, but she always dreamed of
> coming home. Her passion for this land, this place, this delta, aches
> through her work. About one of her characters, she wrote: "He had a love for
> all things Bengali: the swimming mud of the delta; the translucent, bony
> river fish; the shocking green palette of the paddy and the open, aching
> blue of the sky over flat land."
> "You can see what has started to happen," she says. The vision of the
> country drowning is becoming more real every day. Where could all these 150
> million people go? India is already building a border fence to keep them
> out; I can't imagine the country's other neighbour – Burma – will offer much
> refuge. "We are the first to be affected, not the last," Anam says.
> "Everyone should take a good look at Bangladesh. This story will become your
> story. We are your future."
> It is, she says, our responsibility to stop this slow-mo drowning – and
> there is still time to save most of the country. "What could any Bangladeshi
> government do? We have virtually no carbon emissions to cut." They currently
> stand at 0.3 per cent of the world's – less than the island of Manhattan.
> "It's up to you."
> Anam is defiantly optimistic that this change can happen if enough of us
> work for it – but, like every scientist I spoke to, she knows that dealing
> with it simply by adaptation by Bangladeshis is impossible. The country has
> a military-approved dictatorship incapable of taking long-term decisions,
> and Dutch-style dams won't work anyway. "Any large-scale construction is
> very hard in this country, because it's all made of shifting silt. There's
> nothing to build on."
> So if we carry on as we are, Bangladesh will enter its endgame. "All the
> people who strain at this country's seams will drown with it," Anam says,
> "or be blown away to distant shores – casualties and refugees by the
> millions." The headstone would read, Bangladesh, 1971-2071: born in blood,
> died in water.
>
>
>
>
> Getty Images
> Hell on wheels: Dhaka in flood last summer
>
>
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