The week in re(ar)view

Do the crime, do the time
A report on 25 July reported on prison officials collecting money from visitors in the name of running prison-run schools and mosques. They call it the 'common fund' which is an ingenious name. It could mean anything. The home ministry has prohibited officials from collecting money in this or any other manner. The reality is that if you have to visit someone in jail be prepared to pay all the way through to the final glimpse.

Realistic video games
4 kids were hurt on 18 July as a bomb exploded in a video game store in Sutrapur. Apparently another person left a small package that contained the explosive materials. Could this be the prelude to bigger things. Could someone be using this as a practice session for greater explosions? Worse yet, is this someone idea of developing an immersive game environment where you actually get to feel what its like to be blown up as your on-screen character suffers the same.

Spread the love
Want to know how to make big money? Become a politically affiliated contractor. 429 contractors have been hired for earth filling of a 61 kilometer stretch of road on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. That's roughly 7 people working each kilometer. We figured that the contractors might need moral support so there are so many of them so that they can hold hands and work. Now ain't that gay? We meant gay as in happy.

As a result of all this ,a 192 crore project has jumped to 349 crores. On a seemingly unrelated topic, our prediction for the 2007 sales figure of Porsche, BMW and Mercedes Benz: very, very good. When you make so much money from embezzling the common people show it off by riding in style.

Bangladesh is a happy planet
Here’s the final dose of ridiculous news for the day. A London based study that has devised a new category called the Happy Planet Index has been studying Bangladesh. Apparently the higher up in the rankings the better and happier is the country. Seems Bangladesh is a very happy place as it came in 41 out of 178. The results are base don three factors: life satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprint. The last means the measure of how the people use ecological goods and services. Oh yeah, we are definitely tops in the last one as we use up trees and forests and rivers. But at this rate we won't be happy too long.

By Gokhra and Mood Dude

RS Mailbx

Ooops, we did it again
In the article titled "Underground incorporated's "School Reunion" blast!" (Thursday July 20th, 2006), the author Rohini Alamgir wrongly referred to Bonny Prince as "another Sunbeams band". Two of the members of the band, vocalist Azhar and guitarist Zahin, are ex-BIT students who are currently in Scholastica.

They've never been in Sunbeams. In fact, most of the other bands happen to have members from different schools, yet they were labelled simply under one school name. I strongly suggest RS writers get their information right. Yet, one can't just blame the author here, because labelling the bands with school names was Underground Inc's Majed's idea.

Many referred to it as a marketing strategy, apparently "to attract school students". Just so no one's realized yet, these "school students" make up the majority of the concert-going crowd anyway.

Thank you Miss Alamgir and Underground Inc.
It's poetic
I just wanted to say that Adnan M. S. Fakir's poems are mesmerizing. His vigilantly chosen words lend an illustrative yet subtle feel to his poems. The words he associates with love, rain and other romantic genres are all very thought provoking and cohesive. Good job!

Nafisa Mahmood Football toons
This may be a bit delayed but have to say that the special football issue where Boo the dog does the reporting was fantastic. Although some of the drawings seemed a bit rubbed out it was still great. Best of all was Roberto Carlos shooting with a lighter.

Rizvi
The issue with all the spoofed football pictures in the center was simply awesome. Family members who don't even like the sport could not stop laughing. Whoever did the brainwork deserves applause. Could you please make this type of ridicule a regular feature. Also you could have done a lot more based on the final match between Italy and France. How come they were left out?

Adnan Kabir, Tahseen Salim and Farhana Sadiq (Football Freaks United)
We actually did the cartoon thing hoping to cut down our work by pasting a lot of pics taken from the net. It ended up being a lot more work, with drawing so many things to add to the pics, but in the end, with reactions like these, it was worth it.

As for the final match, we actually finished the work before it took place so that we could watch the game and then finally get a good night’s sleep. -Ed

Here’s what’s selling hot in the music stores this week. Thanks go to TUNESBD.com for collecting and providing the info.

1. Faisha Gesi, by Hyder Husyn- with the popular tracks like Tirish Bochor Pore and Faisha gesi, the album is going strong with the patriotic and humorous songs.

2. Shondha Tara, by Kumar Biswajeet/ Tapan Chawdhury- The title Track Shondha Tara's high popularity has made the album huge in the market.

3.Icche Ghuri, by Shironamheen- Shironamheen returns with this album of attractive melodious tracks.

4.Oniket Prantor, by Artcell- Oniket Prantor had been one of the most anticipated albums of Bangladesh and certainly has proved that Artcell is still the best underground band.

5.Prottutponnomotitto by Bangla- Bangla's second Alternative/Fusion album featuring on Lalon's songs

6.Light Years Ahead, by Stoic Bliss- One of the first ever RnB/Rap albums of Bangladesh with exceptional lyrics

7.Lampur Aloo, by Dj Rahat feat- Tun Tun Baul Another Folk/Fusion album , strong with great folk lyrics. Remix done by Dj Rahat.

8.Ek Mutho Gaan, by Bappa/Fahmida - The romantic pop album features duets and singles from the popular artists Bappa Mojumdar and Fahmida Nobi

9.64m 53s, by Arbovirus- Talented Underground band Arbovirus hits the audience with their great rock compositions and artistic lyrics.

10.Tribute to Baul Shah Abdul Karim, Mixed Album- A tribute to the Great Baul Idol from various musicians from Bangladesh and Abroad.

By Tunesbd.com

This is in context to the article written by Adnan Fakir published last week. The article is very offensive to the entire girlhood (soon to be womanhood). Firstly, we would like to state that his article is completely baseless.

Girls do not “continuously fight mentally or physically” and they surely do not create any such commotion that our not-so beloved writer has mentioned in his article.

Secondly, guys do not fight for well defined and matured reasons because they are not matured enough themselves (let alone fighting for matured reasons). Girls are more matured in every aspect than guys. “An analysis of their internal struggles”. Who doesn't have to struggle? Life is all about struggle surely there are times where guys struggle as well.

Something that astonishes us that how Fakir being a guy can understand the internal struggle of girls' mind and life? It is just impossible. And F.Y.I. if he understood us correctly than he would never made such ugly comments about our behavior, thoughts and perception.

“This class of girls are few but brutally dangerous. These “leader girls” are great real life debaters and future scary moms.” These sentences has struck us greatly because he wants to indicate what kind of a person these days moms are and what kind of personality will we be adopting as a guardian when we grow up. Not only that but he shows an extreme hatred towards talented girls whom today's people think of as future stars of our country. If he thinks us girls have jealousy, we backbite then maybe he has been deaf and blind.

We have heard boys say to each other “Achha bol to tui backup die kare pitaite chash?” and the second guy says that “amar na Tanhimke akdom bhalolage na” and when Tanhim comes up to them they say that “are dosto shunsish ki hoise kalke?...”

Nowadays, boys are prone to imitate feminine-like traits; they wear bracelets and chains around their wrists and necks, and look like a walking jewelry shop and even started applying fairness cream. “Power Rangers”? This is merely a flop TV series with very bad (as in faltoo) fighting and special effects and has no resemblance to girls fighting.

I have seen guys fight for t-shirts so he should not try to blame us for all the fighting and it's not like we start beating the heck out of a person whenever we don't like any one, we only go to protest vehemently when our patience is stretched to the greatest extent and the limit line has been crossed by people like Fakir's provocations through ugly comments.

Satisfaction is far beyond any man's reach. Who wouldn't want more? If he has read Economics he will know that there is no satisfaction to man's want. Girls do live happy lives unlike some boys (namely Fakir) and if he has never met any such girl maybe he is too obsessed with girls' flaws rather than their good qualities or he has been locking himself in his room writing a book about how he hates girls.

Our conclusion is that FAKIR HATES GIRLS, which is clear from his write up. We do not know what is the mystery behind it; either he is jealous of our creativity, good manners, and talent, or is angry at us which always comes from a fear of loosing real love, affection and admiration from the people around us.

By Adeeba, Prima, Talita, Aliza and Anushe

Our reply
Seriously, ladies, had you met Adnan in person, you wouldn't be taking so much umbrage at what was clearly intended to be a satirical spoof, not a generalization on the vices of women. He, and in fact all the guys at RS have the utmost respect and admiration for women.

All said and done, you cannot deny that the kind of women mentioned in the article do exist in high school environment.

Also note that nowhere in the article is it written or implied that girls are superior. The article should have had a disclaimer as well as a reference to it being based on actual events.

Similarly we welcome anyone to blast away the annoying characteristics of men (which we have done several times over). And lastly, no one can really understand and analyse the female mind. It's a bigger mystery than the creation of universes. But you can't really chew up a guy for trying no matter how foolhardy an attempt.