Sorry I've been quiet for a few days. Well, a lot has been happening in my country, non chess related. I have to be careful with my words I suppose. The people started to protest against the military backed (or should I say military led?) caretaker government in our country. The national elections which were supposed to be held in Jan, have been postponed by almost two years, so this 'caretaker/interim' government will continue to rule. Protests got really violent, after an altercation on the Dhaka University campus between a group of students and soldiers (who have set up camps in several universities) while watching a football game. Perhaps it was the pretext that everyone's been waiting for. Two days of violence of the streets, with a lot of other people joining in with the students. The government imposed a curfew, and blocked mobile phone connections. There was no internet access, as apparently the lines were "sabotaged". The curfew was partially relaxed today, so let's see where we go from here. Overall, the government has earned a lot of praise for arresting most of the corrupt politicians, and fast tracking their trials. But the discontent is there for all to see...
As far as my chess is concerned, I've really fallen behind on the microdrills. Work, illness, and the political situation (everyone spends hours watching the news channels, heavily censored though they are) have all conspired to keep me sidetracked. And I don't want to start on CT-Art until I feel I am mentally 100%, or as close to 100% as possible.
Played a few games on FICS, my rating (still provisional), is now 1462, with 3 wins and 3 losses.
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6 comments:
Good luck.
We've been tensely watching the news from your parts. The government has detained many professors for questioning. We couldn't believe it when we heard that all cell phone signals had been jammed. It sounds very scary! It reminds me of Chile under Pinochet, though perhaps not as bad. Please delete this message if it will get you in trouble! Perhaps chess is a good way to keep a low profile.
Sounds like a hard situation to be in. My in-laws used to live there and we visited Dhaka a couple of times during the X-mas holidays. The last time we were there, we had to hide in an UN ambulance to get to the airport during a hartal.
Sad to hear that things are getting worse...
Glenn Wilson : Thanks :) My countrymen need all the luck we can get, we seem to be affected by natural disasters every other year.
Blue Devil Knight : I don't think they'll find this blog, at least I hope not :) Anyway, looks like we'll have to choose between the lesser of two evils : We managed to get rid of the incredibly corrupt government from past years (I think we were the most corrupt country in the world in the TI ratings for several years). Good news is that a lot of these politicians are now in jail, that's a first in this country. Corrupt deeds have usually always gone unpunished. The discontent with the current government arises because they seem to be taking extreme measures for most problems, and the solutions seem to be short term.
About the violence, latest rumours are that the jailed politicians are paying people to instigate violence. Some very sad scenes, a restaurant burnt to the ground, and also a lot of cars and buses attacked on the streets. The education minister's home was also under attack from the students. Enforcing a curfew seemed like the only way to stop the madness.
Samuraipawn : I know what you mean, hartals (nationwide strikes) have been quite common, particularly in the last 2 years or so. Since this caretaker government has taken over, we've been living under an emergency law which bans strikes and demonstrations, so things were much quieter and smoother until last week's violence. It's sad how easily politicians in my country can just declare hartals like that, imagine the damage to the economy, a hartal means all over the country, schools, collegese, factories, offices are closed.
Hope you liked Dhaka. Living standards have shot up recently, but the rest of the country is really falling behind. Very unequal income distribution, on the one hand you would see these ministers (from the previous government) owning Hummers, BMWs, and all, while a large majority of the population is living below the poverty line.
Thank you to all once again for the comments and support.
Here are some links to blogs on the political situation in my country, if anyone's interested. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the comments and reports though.
http://www.docstrangelove.com/2007/08/21/breaking-protests-spreading-on-university-campuses-in-bangladesh/
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/
http://rezwanul.blogspot.com/
And this BBC report sums things up quite nicely I think
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6966467.stm
Just read that BBC report. I think under the circumstances, you can be forgiven for falling behind on the microdrills :-).
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