Expressez-Vous

By: Protim Mallick

“A single photograph can speak a thousand words.” With this idea, 50 young amateur photo-hunters from home and abroad had put 60 of their finest images under the open sky to display their creative power. Organized by “Bangladeshi Photographers”, which started as an online community in www.flickr.com, the exhibition “60 Shots” started on the 13th of August at “Chobir-Haat”, opposite the Charukola Institute in Dhaka University area, Bangladesh.

“60 Shots” has aimed to give these young photographers, who are all below 25 years of age, a platform to present what they think and how they think to the viewers. Their images gave us the very idea of our country from the perspective of young people. The photographers made an effort to freeze the precious moments in life, no matter how simple, in a 16 by 12 inch frame. With the slogan “We share, We care, We inspire” Bangladeshi Photographers, had asked the young photographers to submit their images for “60 Shots”. Thus from a very large number of submissions 60 images from 50 photographs were selected.

The exhibition received a very big response at its first day, where people, young and old, had applauded the creativity of the young talented photographers. One of the many reasons for this was their ingenious idea of holding the exhibition under the open sky. There was enough crowd just at the first hour since the exhibition started! Major General Ibrahim, a great war-hero, was the chief guest invited in this exhibition. On asking, what he thought of “60 Shots”, he said:

“I am so delighted and pleased to have attended this exhibition showcasing the works of young amateur photographers, that I am unable to express my feeling in words. These young people are so much talented, that this may have been hard for me to believe, had I not witnessed it myself. Therefore, I would like to congratulate the organizers, and if there is anything that I can help with, I will surely do my best. I wish with all my heart that these young people go on further. Amena, Bristy, Rowena, Roman, Apurbo – I will remember the names of all the photographers, and I will definitely remember how Protim is shaking.”

He seemed to be enjoying the whole time of his stay, touring through the pool of images. For the photographers this had been a day of sheer joy and happiness where their creations were the centre of attraction.

One of the most important aims of this exhibition was also to inspire youths who are interested in this form of art. “Bangladeshi Photographers” group creates a community for every Bangladeshi photographer at home or abroad, to share their vision of photography. Bangladeshi Photographers group always welcomes new photographers to learn various forms of this art, and has now taken an initiative to showcase the talents of young undergraduate photographers. Since many young photographers may not be able to continue photography after a certain period of time, due to lack of time or any other negative factors, it will be organizing such exhibitions regularly to provide a constant source of inspiration to the upcoming photographers.

The exhibition continued til the 15th of August, everyday from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm. For those of you who missed this event, you don’t have to worry much because the next event is coming soon!

By: Tasnuva Tabassum

As I was waiting in the car, immovable in the well-known traffic jam of Dhaka city, looking around for something exciting to catch my eyes, what I noticed was a girl waiting for the bus in a bus stop and two men behind her continuously staring at the “wrong places” and passing comments to each other. The girl looked uncomfortable as she waited for the bus, which never seemed to show up among the cluttered vehicles in the road. As I was witnessing this kind of an unethical behavior of the men towards the girl, I wondered why the girl was weak enough to not raise her voice and just ask them to “shut up”. Why she chose ignorance instead of what, that could make a change?

This is an oh-so-familiar phenomenon in the streets of Dhaka, which is happening every day. Eve-teasing, as we call it, is men’s street sexual harassment or molestation of young women who travel their own streets to and from work, school, or their assorted tasks. In the male dominated society of Bangladesh, this eve-teasing, has mostly been ignored. These teasers, who have nothing better to do, have the decency of their souls sold out to the devils of disrespect towards women. This particular issue needs a recipe for change because eve teasing leaves a huge impact in both our individual and national life. Victimized women and girls do not only get psychologically troubled, but also continuously feel insecure to go outside their homes. They develop a sense of disbelieve and humiliation against men. In fact, within the patriarchal social fabric, eve teasing is a weapon to weaken, hurt or force women to consign to domestic affairs. It evidently restricts women’s mobility in the public, which contributes to their diminishing participation and contribution in outdoor activities and also causes early marriage. There is increasing realization that eve teasing severely restricts the mobility of women and girls, which is unquestionably a threat to women’s empowerment. All together, though apparently invisible, the cost of eve teasing is huge at our national and individual life in Bangladesh.

Along with that, in Bangladesh, it has gradually become brutal form of sexual harassment often resulting in grievous hurt, abduction, acid throwing, rape murder and forced suicide. Eve-teasing, though, had been previously considered under the VAW reports of BNWLA since 2000, but from 2005 the organization has declared crusade against eve-teasing and published a poster trying to bring this matter into the limelight and held various discussions, meetings and event held a press conference to create awareness as well. In 2004-5 the Bangladeshi women’s group, Mahila Parishad distributed a poster and conducted a campaign against eve-teasing because several young women, students, and even young girls committed suicide owing to social pressures-shame-daily harassment. In 2007, Advocate Habibun Nessa of Naripokkho, reported 29 suicide deaths in the last four years. In some cases the police colluded with the eve-teasers and blamed the women for their own problems. Bangladesh has no laws against eve-teasing, much less respect for women who dare to venture alone or even in groups in the streets.

Along with the law enforcement being weak on this issue, there are also various other causes which leads to this unacceptable behavior of these teasers. Firstly, it’s the silence and ignorance. The silence and ignorance of these victims add up to themselves being teased frequently. If every girl was brave enough to just say “SHUT UP” in the faces of these big –mouth-bastards, who are apparently “small everywhere”, then to some extent, we could see less of eve teasing. It is very much disgraceful, shameful, and dishonorable for us if we ignore them and increase their guts to speak trash with their big mouths. However, in some cases, raising our voices is not enough when it becomes inaudible to the world. But in that case, we should not be weak enough to let our voices end up inaudible. With the spread of education and economic well-being, the consequences of eve teasing are now widely known. We should demand perpetrators brought to justice. So, what we need most now is to voice collective protest and action against eve teasing. Side by side, without ensuring a sensitive, supportive and responsible law-enforcing force, all efforts will go in vain. After all, they have a huge role in preventing all dreadful and unlawful incidents including eve teasing. So let’s get together and voice our collective protest against eve teasing and be familiar with it as a crime against humanity. For dignity, respect and self-confidence, every woman has to raise their voices, shut up the big mouths and therefore, make a statement.

By: Karen Lim for Voyage Film

ANKARA, Turkey - Wouldn’t it be nice to attend a UN conference without having the need to wear those earphones that takes a while before you finally manage to make it work? But no, we are cursed. Our forefathers earned God’s ire, tore down what was known as the tower of Babel and sent all men in different directions speaking in different tongues.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confounded their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech (GENESIS 11:6-7).

So, blame it on those guys who built the tower so high they wanted to reach the sky and show God who is in command. If not for them we would have been ordering Chinese food without second-guessing its main ingredient, or watch the opera and pierce our heart with meaningful words not just through its melodramatic music.

Sure it makes a good argument on whether or not this bible passage is for real, but I leave that for theological debate. True or not, this pretty much shattered the linguists utopia of a unified language – as elusive as peace is one spoken language. This doesn’t mean defeat. It means more work, both for the language teacher and for the learner.

At this day and age, statistics showed that ENGLISH is the global lingua franca. Never has there been more clamors to speak English than in our century where internet connects us all over the globe, where companies asked fluency both for spoken and written English and most importantly the domination of English as the international language in communication, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.

While it is only the third largest language behind Chinese and Spanish, combining both native and second language speakers makes English now the most spoken language.

With this facts on-hand one can only surmise that elsewhere, outside Philippines where English is one of the official language. If you ask “how are you,” you don’t expect “I’m 35 years old, thank you” answer coming from a person who said he is studying intermediate English. A full-grown man whose walls are decorated with all his certificates from graduate studies, translated English books to his native language will sweat profusely, grab the nearest pen and paper and start writing the English words coming out from my mouth so he can respond accordingly, hopefully before sundown.

In Turkey, English centers are in its all-time high. In the capital Ankara alone there are almost a hundred of them, mostly situated in the centre Kizilay where they are about ten steps away from each other. TESL (Teaching English as Second Language) teachers are having a field day; they have an option of teaching in government/private schools, language centers or private classes, the latter being the most financially rewarding among the other choices.

Foreigners usually grab this opportunity to earn the extra dough. Usually, native speakers are the most sought after. English learners find the dragged vowels and rolling consonants of the American accent appealing and the linguistic glamour of the British English when they say “sorry love can you hold the lift for me please?” impressive.

In fact, TESL teachers remain bankable; you can always find a student who wants to learn English even while having lunch with a friend, and the good news is they are willing to pay extra despite the economic crisis. For the more professionals though, hiring season usually starts September with a contract that ends in June. Target destinations where there are high demands for TESL teachers are usually China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and South Korea in Asia, some European countries, and in the United States.

Some teachers just teach to travel, while others travel to teach, either way the weight is mostly on the learners. There is just no perfect teaching method that’s why all those language schools remain in business, and interactive CDs or online English language learning keep on multiplying by the day. What was missed was the pure hard labor of studying.

In Turkey for example a one-year English prep school is required for most of the universities. Yet, huge percentage of the Turks are mono-syllabic when it comes to speaking in English. Until they finish college and starts looking for a job will they realize they need to speak more than “hello,” and then they will start learning the basics again as in A-B-C alphabet basic let’s count 1-2-3…

However, the students are not at all faults here. What’s weird is that their government demands so much for the mastery of the English language yet modern English such as 21st century technology creation needs to pass the ministry of language and translate it to Turkish. “wi-fi” now becomes “kablosuz”.

All sorts of English test are hurdles for one’s desire of a good job but on the other hand, mass media are all in Turkish. They test your knowledge but never encourage. Now most of the language learner starts with feverish enthusiasm. “let’s study’s English everyday, no problem!” or “I want to speak English like water flowing” has been spoken like a broken record.

Two weeks had passed and they will start yawning, bored to death, three weeks and the water runs dry. For them task-based language learning is more comfortable: teacher speaks, students listen, teacher asks question number 1, student answers question number 1, etc. An interactive class has been proven to be more effective: teacher speaks-student speaks, watch, read and listen-all activities in English, this is otherwise known as the communicative language teaching. However, this is not for the faint-hearted, as it involves the use of brain for thinking and information processing, I have seen students almost crawling out of the classroom when this method is applied.
The good news is language learning is solid; you learn it once you know it forever, the grammar rules 20 or 30 years ago is still applicable 20 or 30 years after. That English article you wrote remains a masterpiece for the next generation to read. It just takes perseverance to master it, practice, talk.

Maybe one day we will be back again in biblical times where everyone speaks in the same tongue, this time in English tongue. No more lost in translation moment, just the Bob Marley song, everybody singing in unison…one world, one love, let’s get together and be alright!

About the author:
Karen Lim is a journalist covering mostly military activities and major political stories in Asia. Based in Ankara, Turkey Karen contributes to Voyage Film as story producer and project coordinator. For Turkey story coordinates, contact Karen at info@voyagefilm.com

By: Sylvain Henry

Sustainable employment is employment that provides a household enough money to pay the bills, cover healthcare, and provide job advancement. To me it also means employment that does not harm a worker’s environment or society. There are too few jobs like this in the world and especially in the Bajaur Agency of Pakistan.

So, a few weeks ago, I launched a global initiative I call the Prosperity Prayer that would help attract sustainable employment and also help create it. Simply put, it is a 6-word prayer that people, like myself, affected by this great recession of 2009, add to our blogs, tweets, profiles, and websites. If these six words have any power at all then you will soon see this prayer everywhere. I personally have full faith that this is a simple, safe and sure prayer is one that people of any faith can use.

Here is the prayer: “Help us create sustainable employment today.”

Adding these words online had a magical effect: it has created global solidarity between like-minded people, beyond my expectations, and has enabled me to meet with four high commissioners, religious leaders, and several media professionals. I have also met with Arun Gandhi, fifth grandson of Mahatama Gandhi. These influential people had never heard of me before, nor heard of me, and yet they welcome me as they hear these six simple words spoken by an unemployed man. I imagine these words would have the same effect on whoever uses them in good faith.

Hundreds of people are now very actively participating in this initiative worldwide. The prayer attracted the attention of a special resident of the war-torn Bajaur Agency region, Mr. Muhammad Khurshid. He has inspired me to approach the high commission of Pakistan in Ottawa, Canada, and invite the high commissioner and his entourage to a sustainable employment career fair that I am planning in a few months. Also, Muhammad has inspired me to donate a giant Peace and Prosperity Banner to the youth of Bajaur Agency to motivate them to join Muhammad and myself to help create sustainable employment with the youth and to let them know that the world cares about them.

The presentation of the banner at the high commission was a momentous event. The Archbishop of the Anglican Spanish Speaking Church (Primate-Archbishop Leonardo Marin-Saavedra), two Ishayan Monks and a strong supporter (Nancy Loucks-McSloy) from London, Ontario, assisted me in my presentation of the banner to the high commission yesterday (July 2nd, 2009). I am most grateful for this collaboration.

I would like to take this opportunity to mention a unique incident that happened when we unrolled the 12 foot by 12 foot banner on the lawn before the high commission and the Archbishop. A big white bird, probably a seagull, flew over us and landed very near us, on a stone statue of a youth, and watched us and the banner at that precise moment we presented it to the high commission. Our huge banner has a big white bird on it similar in size and shape to the bird who flew to join us. The coincidence was noted by all, especially by the Archbishop. I prefer to believe it was a sign that peace and prosperity is soon attainable to the youth of the Bajaur Agency region.

The greatest injustice and cruelty to humans are poverty and war. Help us attract the opposite, namely prosperity and peace with one common prayer for prosperity. There can be no peace without prosperity for all.

sylvain.henry@ymail.com

By: Dikshya Karki

After a long time I had found a seat in the local bus to Dhulikhel. I was enjoying my time watching the lady beside me in a deep sleep. The bus driver was a man in his forties and that’s why I concluded he had the radio on-tuned to some F.M station. Two kids got on the bus from Sallaghari. The sister was irritated for no reason with the little brother. She didn’t get a seat and was standing. The bus jolted and she nearly feel down. ‘You should hold the iron handles’ he told her. ‘Hey! Why should I do what you ask me to do’ she retorted. She was a lot older than her little brother and taller. I couldn’t comprehend why she was irritated. The bus drove on and the news from the F.M station came to an end. The news reader repeated the headlines.’King of pop:Michael Jackson dies at age fifty ‘.Oh!

Facebook was filled with Michael Jackson. It didn’t matter; he was only a child molester. In the evening every channel featured Michael Jackson. NDTV-Michael Jackson, BBC-Michael Jackson, CNN-Michael Jackson, Channel V-Michael Jackson, Vh1-Michael Jackson and CNN IBN-Michael Jackson.I couldn’t help watching. NDTV had this interesting feature about the influence of Michael in India. Every city has a number of Michael Jackson dancing academies. Some are pros while some gurus were giving there best shot in Akon’s ‘NA…NA…NA’. The whole Indian commercial cinema has been inspired by Michael’s moves. From Mihtun’s ‘Iam a disco dancer’ to Prabhu Deva in Pukar. Even Amitabh Bachhan when he was in the lows of his career had tried to ‘moonwalk’ in some weird attire and an even weirder song. It was funny. Govinda’s entry in the industry had been in Jackson style but the most look alike was ‘Javed Jaffery’. He surely danced like Jackson and he must have done more than a dozen shows in his style. The feature even showed a glimpse of one of his stage shows, wearing a curly wig, dressed in a golden suit and raising ‘the finger’. I was impressed.
BBC had a more comprehensive report. They had someone who had interviewed Jackson twice and clips of his hit songs. The radio reporter had also been invited to a party by him. He was sociable and soft spoken was his verdict. Michael’s first stage show, his erratic behavior- pretending to throw his child out of the window, his out of the blue love for animals, possible publicity stunt by getting friendly with a chimpanzee, Neverland, marriage with Lisa Marie Priestley, numerous plastic surgeries and yes the moonwalk was shown. Then I started feeling sad.

The next morning I felt sadder. Every newspaper was covered with news about his death.Kantipur had an interesting feature by Smita Magar. I never knew Dhiraj Rai is called the Michael Jackson of Nepal. He must know he doesn’t deserve the title. Still his reaction to the news was interesting. Rai had always been a huge fan of Jackson and when he was small you could watch Michael’s videos by paying one rupees in Bhrikutimandap but he and his friends always jumped the walls to get a free watch. Abhaya and Yanik all expressed sadness. The sale of Michaels albums were already increasing in ‘Tik n Tok’.

I have never been a die hard Michael Jackson fan. The only song I can really remember is ‘Black or white’ and recently I tried to dance along with Anuska in Thriller. I couldn’t and realized what a great dancer Michael was. More than his music, dance, composition and lyrics I know him from all the things that went wrong in his life. After watching Lisa Marie’s interview on Oprah he was a manipulator to me. He married the daughter of the King of Rock and Roll because he thought of himself as the King of Pop and wanted an offspring. Oprah has always been a critique of Michael Jackson. The molestation charges against him might have been settled outside court but he was an unproved child molester. Lisa Marie insisted the marriage was real and they loved each other like any normal husband and wife. I had also watched this crap program on Vh1 which said Michael practiced voodoo. He wanted to act as ‘Peter Pan’ and since Steven Spielberg didn’t give him the job he had taken help from a tantric and made him ill. It included a list of people he wanted dead. I also remember reading news about Michael Jackson going for sex change. ‘Michael is now a woman’. It just makes me sad now. The price you have to pay for being the best-for being a great entertainer.

Michael Jackson in fact was never really real for me. He was a ghost. I couldn’t imagine him as a normal human being- someone who dressed normally. Always this media frenzy, this confusion is he black or white, the curly hair, the colorful army suit, the black lasses, which gender does he belong to, the plastic nose, plastic surgeries, Neverland?

But he was real and he was a legend. There will never be another Michael Jackson. His was a life that started and ended with the media. From his first stage shows to his last practice session the media replays the images as never before. His was a turbulent life-the first lie he told about his age recorded on camera, harassed by his father, all the media attention, the identity issues, nose surgeries, failed marriages, eccentric behavior.

Life isn’t fair but death is more unfair. M.J’s dead and so is the possibility of correcting the mistakes he made. No one is perfect and so wasn’t Jackson. Now that he’s dead few of us would like to remember he was the self proclaimed ‘king of pop’. I would like to forget all the bad, evil and ugly things that surrounded his life. He was par excellence in what he did and he deserves respect.
The king of pop-Everything thing we today is Michael Jackson. Every popular dance step- the hat, the black suit, the white armband, the black hat, white gloves, dancing shoes, robotic steps, love ballads. Who could have thought of moon walking except MJ?. Two days before his death he was practicing for his upcoming tour. The photos look so lively.

‘Pop’ reminds of mine own encounter with pop culture a long time along. Many years ago I was participating in an extempore-speech competition. It wasn’t hard core extempore. We were given four issues before hands and asked to prepare. One of the topics was pop culture. So the whole night I practice. I parrot the meaning of popular culture and two other topics. There is one topic I am unprepared about. The next day I am all geared up, I go a temple, ring the bells put on a saffron tika and pray to God to spare me that one topic. I enter the battlefield. The MC asks me to pick one folded piece of paper among four. Alas! I pick the one topic I am unprepared about. I am blank; I am apologetic and leave the stage. If only I had got another topic I know I would have nailed it. But now years later I know why I didn’t get to rant about Pop culture. The speech would be a sham. I knew so little of what I was speaking. I wouldn’t give the example of MJ and pop culture without MJ goes no where. This is my redemption. My small tribute to MJ.

I don’t know if MJ ever realized what a huge influence he was to the world. It was heart warming to watch the inmates of Philippines most guarded prison, hundreds of them dancing to his tunes on CNN. Dancing was introduced to the prison as a form of rehabilitation and they have become a hit with inmates. Once a month they perform in front of the public. They wanted MJ to perform for them but sadly it’s no more possible.

Maybe the winner stands alone…….