Quote of the Day

In today's ultra-networked world, an unaffiliated individual with a laptop and an Internet connection is often more influential and resourceful than an organization with a staff of twenty and a fax machine was only twenty years ago. This is a truly strange period of institutional change when an organization's vast assets also look like its greatest liabilities. - Evgeny Morozov

Picture of the day

The difference of temperature between the two worlds...in and out of the house. Just to remind the readers that in many places in the world people do not have the luxury to live in a warm cocoon and are prone to the natural extremes.

The New Cabinet in Bangladesh

A new cabinet has sworn in a while ago. The 31 member team includes 23 ministers and 8 state ministers.

Here is the full list:

• Sheikh Hasina - Defence, Parliamentary, Religion, Women Affairs, Energy, Housing, Works
• Motia Chowdhury - Agriculture
• Syed Ashraful Islam - LGRD
• AMA Muhit - Finance
• AK Khandker -Planning
• Nurul Islam Nahid - Education
• Abul Kalam Azad - Information
• Dr. Abdur Razzak - Food and Relief
• Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain (father in law of Hasina’s daughter Saima Wajed) - labour and employment and expatriate welfare
• Dilip Barua - Industries (technocrat quota)
• GM Quader - Civil Aviation and Tourism
• Barrister Shafiq Ahmed - Law (technocrat quota)
• Raziuddin Ahmed Razu - Telecommunications
• Dr. AFM Ruhul Haq - health
• Col Faruq Khan - Commerce
• Abdul Latif Siddiqui - Jute and Textiles
• Ramesh Chandra Sen - Water Resources
• Enamul Huq Mustafa Shahid - Social Welfare
• Rezaul Karim Hira - Land
• Afsarul Amin - Shipping
• Abdul Latif Biswas - Fisheries and Livestock
• Syed Abul Hossain - Communication
• Dr. Dipu Moni - Foreign
• Advocate Sahara Khatun - Home


State Ministers:


• Mostafizur Rahman - Environment
• ABM Tajul Islam - Liberation War Affairs
• Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj -Home
• Dr Hasan Mahmood - Foreign
• Begum Munnujan Sufian - Labor
• Dipankar Talukder - CHT
• Ahad Ali Sarkar - Sports
• Yafes Osman -Science

Dacca Boots

Nepalis love their trademark Dhaka Topis. After caps, Dhaka (formerly Dacca), the capital of Bangladesh finally gets a boot fetish named after it.

Chilean industrial design student Camila Labra’s collection of footwear are made from recycled plastic bags and are called Dacca Boots.

From Trashbag Athletics:

Chilean industrial design student Camila Labra is bound to make a change on the way we thing of “environmentally sound” footwear. Appropriately dubbed Dacca Boots, feature an extensive collection of ankle high boots - made mostly out of recycled plastic bags. The boots are built by fusing several layers of polyethylene plastic shopping bags together. Resulting in a resistant material, sturdy enough to mold - while the interior components are covered with quilted piqué cotton fabric, to ensure comfort - these boots are impermeable, non-toxic, lightweight & flexible. Named after Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka, best known for being one of the most polluted city’s riddled with plastic bags in the world - which plastic bags have been banned since 2002, Dacca Boots was born! Labra accepts special orders for her Dacca boots, and will run you around $45 each.

Interested? Visit Botas Dacca

Debunking the myth of vote rigging

“It’s unbelievable that nearly 90 percent votes were cast in Monday’s polls, and that means a voter needed only 55 seconds to cast ballot.” - BNP office secretary Rizvi Ahmed

Shada Kalo debunks the myth:

The calculations are correct, but the data is wrong, because one polling center does not equate to only one polling booth. According to the Election Commission, there were 177107 polling booths, and that changes the calculation to:

Average votes cast per polling booth = 70 million / 177101 = 395 votes. Time to cast each vote = (480 x 60) / 395 = 72 seconds.

72 seconds is much better than 14 seconds or 55 seconds per vote, right?

Let’s take a look at the 2001 election. According to the Election Commission there were 56185707 votes cast in 149288 polling booths (29,978 polling stations). Using the same calculations:

Average votes cast per polling booth = 56185707 / 149288 = 376 votes. Time to cast each vote = (480 x 60) / 376 = 76 seconds

4 seconds per vote less time required in 2008 compared to 2001 may seem like it is significant. But consider this: in 2001, a voter would have to go to the polling officer, and give his name and father’s name. Then his record would be pulled up from a printed list, his address and age would be asked and his answers would be verified, then he would be handed a ballot paper and seal.

This time, a voter went to vote with a laminated ID card with an unique serial number. This number would be compared against the printed list. This is much faster than looking up by name, even manually, and there is no scope for confusion between Abdul Alim, son of Abdul Halim and Adbul Alim, son of Azizul Alim, etc.

Then the voter’s photo and other biographical data would be compared on the voter list and photo ID, and he would be handed a ballot.

The saving in time for using the photo ID would easily exceed 4 seconds per voter when compared with the time required in 2001 to verify the identity of each voter.

Our conclusion: a 2008 voter had more time available to cast the vote than a voter in 2001. So people looking for a conspiracy using fuzzy math should look at the 2001 vote first.

Gaza Conflict

The recent Gaza Strip bombings by Israel defense force has sparked worldwide protests and criticisms against Israel. For more perspectives than what you get in the newspapers please check these citizen journalists views:

• The special coverage page of Global Voices.
• Antony Lowenstein
• Haitam Sabbah
• The Observers

New year's resolution

New years resolution no. 1: I have started to moblog. I want to post a picture not using the sms to blog option. But its not working.