Same old story

“La fortresse” by Fernand Melgar is a Swiss documentary about those refugees, seeking for asylum in calm and prosperous Switzerland. The movie is about a camp or “registration center”, it’s residents – social workers who teach, treat, interview the refugees. And,  of course,  about hundreds of people from different continents.  People whose motherland became incompatible with what we call “life”.  Or people who just pretend to had been insulted, offended,  hurt  by their motherlands?

I’m not going to write about the movie, one can get the better idea clicking the movie official webpage

This movie, shown on central Russian TV, was discussed then by “specialists” and “critics” (the name of the program is “watch and discuss” – weekly TV show where they show different non-mainstream movies and then discuss it).

I was amazed by the naïve and, on the other hand, fierce criticism. On the whole,  people from TV screen estimated the movie as “how the rich Europe humbles those poor people from third world”.

Crap!  The film director, Mr. Melgar 9a fragment of interview with him was also shown in TV program) said himself that he wanted to show how social workers try to help people, how difficult it is to understand these people, who sometimes don’t speak French or English, to educate them, to help them to overcome the pain which they feel. Because many of them saw violence, killing. How difficult it is for every social worker to hear dozens of such terrible stories in a day, and to be calm and gather himself up to find some encouraging words for all these people. 

Moreover,  it is an open secret that many people just cheat to get European passport.

Anyway, that’s also out of topic today.  I must say that 4 month of staying in Russia, my motherland, gave me the strange inspiration. Inspiration to open my eyes to the delusions and fears of my country, my nation and my nearest and dearest.

Russia is at war. Sunday, 27th February, the anti-terror operation regime was announced in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria region. Several killings of innocent people, tourists, and other attacks were happening there for last one week.  A month had not yet passed since explosion of a bomb in largest international airport.

Nalchik

But nobody says this word “WAR”. Neither Mr President nor Mr Premier, neither my mother or any friend of mine. The Chechnya war was successfully terminated by Mr Putin, wasn’t it? And those explosions in Moscow metro and airport, those killings of journalists and fights of “Russians” and “blacks” in the capital of Russia – it’s just a bad sign of the whole world’s enemy - terror. Right, Barack?

Nobody thinks about war. But everybody is scared. The Middle East and north Africa developments scare Russian people when they watch TV. Why? Because they see “those wild black  Muslims” from the screen. And our “wild black Muslims” are very near, not only in Nalchik but in every multistory.

All I’m going to highlight in this blog - and I already started doing it in previous posts - is devoted to this fear, raised by media manipulation, historical experience and society development in whole. 

p.s.   jokes and inoffensive post are promised as well =) Peace!

p.p.s  photo of Nalchik is taken from http://www.elbrusoid.org/phorum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=7&topic=12178

Bangladesh Victory Day

Today, 16 December, Bangladesh celebrates national Victory Day.

It is the 39th anniversary of the victory of Bengalis over Pakistan aggression and massacre which lasted from March to December, 1971. On 16 December the allied forces of the Indian army and Bengalis’ Mukti Bahini (freedom fitters) crushed the West Pakistani forces deployed in the East.

That victory gave people of former East Pakistan (after 1947, when British India was partitioned into the states of India and Pakistan, modern-day Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan and was called East Pakistan) not only freedom but a new state Bangladesh. Declaration of Independence was announces by Bengal political leaders (declaration was signed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Father of the Nation) in March, 1971. Officially 26 March is considered the Independence Day of Bangladesh, when the name Bangladesh was in effect henceforth. Though, unofficially there is controversy on who and when did the first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio (which is a question of political manipulations actually).

Commenting on the achievements of the country after winning the Liberation war, President Zillur Rahman in his statement said, "We could not yet attain that objective after four decades of independence. The anti-liberation force as well as the vested quarters created obstacle in the way of democracy and development by killing Father of the Nation. Or democratic advancement has been jeopardized afterwards in absence of a people's government. As a result, we lag far behind in anticipated development", bdnews24.com reports. This speech was supported by the words of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Thirty nine years have passed since independence but the desired dreams and aspirations of independence are yet to be achieved," she said in her statement, according to news agency.

In one voice with ruling party sounds the opposition this day. As bdnews24.com quoted the opposition leader Khaleda Zia speech, "Even though our motherland was freed from enemies in 1971, their sharp eyes are still on us. An imperialist force is working to turn us into a subjugated race. We will have to unite nationally to fight it."

As for harp imperialists’ eyes, needless to say that in 1971 USSR helped Indian army as main ally of Bengalis’ Mukhti Bahini. The Soviet Union was interested in strong India. So independence of Bangladesh which could make India’s rival Pakistan weaker, played into USSR hands. Soviet authorities gave assurances to India that if a confrontation with the United States or China (which supported Pakistan) developed, it would take counter-measures. Officially this  was enshrined in the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty signed in August 1971.
USSR recognized Bangladesh as new state in January, 1972, and after 2 month, in March, 1972, father of nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made his first diplomatic visit to Moscow.
Almost forty years later, this fact of assistance during the war is the only fact which Bangladeshis can recall about Russia or former Soviet Union. Still it’s amazing how strong the memory is.
Today many families in Bangladesh and abroad think of other memories, though. Dead brothers and fathers, raped women, killed babies, the millions of refugees, millions of destroyed lives. This song, the greatest Bangla songs of all times, is for them.

Ek shagor rokter binimoye Banglar shadhinota anle jara amra tomader bhulbo na amra tomader bhulbo na...
(We will not forget the ones who liberated Bangladesh by spilling a sea of blood, we will not forget you... – I’m sorry for the incorrect translation, if it is so)

And some personal memories of last year V-day (2009) in Dhaka (full set is here)