Puzzle of the week
- Author: sr
- Filed under: Politics
May 9,2006
Why are these middle-aged men giving this young chap a bunch of flowers? Why are they ignoring the distinguished looking female figure standing next to the lad? And notice how one of the blokes giving the flowers nearest to the camera has his torso bent a little - almost as if in genuflexion. Why is he doing that?  What on earth is going on?? A south asian ritual of some description? Some sort of rite of passage? They say such rituals have three phases. The first is separation - where the participant is taken away from his/her familiar environment. And they are required to adjust to different/foreign circumstances. Then there is the transition phase - the time that the participant learns the appropriate behavior for the new stage they are entering. The last phase, incorporation, takes place when the participant is formally admitted into the new role. I wonder at which stage this young lad is at?
It is of course the “picture of the week” on the Awami League web site. Posted on 30th April it is still there today (9th May). I know they say a week is a long time in politics but nine days is stretching it a bit?
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5 Responses for "Puzzle of the week"
very creative Shafiur…you never seem to stop entertaining us
I didn’t think you would like that post, Rubel. But happy that you did!
Hey it’s a free world. You gotta say what’s on your mind. We take politics too seriously in Bangladesh sometimes, I think. Plus, without a tough crowd you can imagine what our politicians will get away with!
[…] And a week ago, Khaleda was denying that she ever set out to establish a dynasty. She forgot to mention all the appointments she had made from her family. And of course she forgot the classic BNP slogan ( who dreamt this one up, anyone?) “Khaleda Zia is our leader Ziaur Rahman is our philosophy Tarique Rahman is our future.” Similarly, Hasina no doubt puts her successes down to merit. Have a look at the front page of the awami league web site. Can you recognise the faces in the photos? Find any of the languishing in prison lieutenants there? Nope. Find the Sheikh Mujib family there…? Click the image to go to the web site. Or see my earlier post about her dynastic leanings. […]
[…] In July of this year, there came the stunning news that Sheikh Hasina had been arrested. The writing was on the wall for some time but no one could believe it when it actually happened - especially not Hasina herself! She always thought that her status as daughter of Mujib conferred some special status above and beyond that due to a politician or even a party leader. And she repeatedly reminded people of that relationship in her own hectoring, finger-wagging style. The powers of state were supposed to be hers by birth-right and then suddenly and incredibly, she was at the mercy of those powers! Before the CTG took over and during Khaleda’s tenure in 2006, Hasina was busy preparing her son to take on the job. After each deadly clash on the streets, her son Joy ( who would stay at home during the demonstrations behind mummy’s apron), would visit the wounded in hospital. Yes it was a farcical as that. Read HERE and HERE.  But with her arrest, the annointed son has not had the spine to show up in Dhaka and protest in person. He prefers blogging in the US and has launched a toothless petition on the web seeking his mother’s release and which has garnered something like 800 signatures (many obviously fake- I put in two names myself!) over all these months . And not long after, in september, came the arrest of Khaleda Zia. And before that her dear son Tarek. Ah Tarek. I doubt if there has ever been a “politician” so bereft of a sense of proportion and so unable to appreciate the role history had handed his family. Uncouth and uneducated, she and her son Tarek are finding out the hard way. “Zia is the idea, Khaleda is the present, Tarek is the future.” Last year that slogan looked menacingly possible but now Tarek’s chances of becoming the future are as good as George Bush’s chances of becoming a Hafiz. And this week’s awful news of the killing of Bhutto. Two brothers and father…all dead. That is the tally. They are blaming the nebulous Al Qaeda ….as it says you must on the song sheet. Musharraf’s anti-democratic politics had nothing to do with it of course! US stooge status has brought further ruin to this failing state of Pakistan, a process that started in 1947. And this week too the Nepali political parties have decided to boot out the monarchy. I say democratically above but I am not forgetting the ten years of bloodshed between 1996 and 2006. Nearly 15,000 people died in that conflict - mostly non-combatants. The Maoists walked out of the interim government and demanded the monarchy end. And it looks like it will. […]
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