Biography 282: A technique to start a fire in a burner.

 When we lived in Saudi Arabia, my parents visited Bangladesh every Eid to spend time with their relatives.

On that day, we were staying at Faridpur in our grandparents' house (maternal). My cousin wanted to fire the burner (made of mud) inside a room. They used firewood, dry leaves, cow dung, etc., to create a fire to cook. My cousin Asha Apa saw inside the burner that the previous firewood had become coal. I saw it coloured red, which means very hot and still burning. Asha Apa added some new firewood and tried to make a good fire, but failed. Then she brought a matchbox. In the meantime, my grandmother came. She stopped Asha Apa and put the matchbox away. Then with a woodstick, she did something inside the burner, and it created a good fire. I saw the new firewood start burning from the coal. I understood, it's a very good technique. Though I never tried.

Why am I writing this? Just to keep a memory posted here.

When a woman sits beside a man.

 I can not walk very controlled, so I won't touch anyone. I know most people do like that. It should be. But I have a big body, and sometimes, I can't measure how much space my body will take. Or when I move, I can't measure if there is anyone around who might get touched.

Because of this problem, sometimes men get the wrong signals. They might think I am giving them a sign that I am interested in them.

Another thing I have noticed is that when I am with women around me, this doesn't happen. I sit in a bus, train, or streetcar with women without any fear of getting touched, but I don't touch them. But when I sit beside a male, I don't know why, no matter how hard I try to squeeze myself in a corner, we get touched, in most cases.

What's happening here?

Impacts on Democracy

 Pros:

At the beginning of the Internet, we felt it was a Democracy of information; people had access to enormous amounts of information worldwide. Which affects information democracy. People don’t have to wait for the newspapers or news on television; they get the news immediately, and everybody has access to it simultaneously. People can talk with each other worldwide; this is also a democracy. It allows like-minded people to come together and talk about their rights. Which may later create a massive protest.  For example, the Egyptian revolution around Tahrir Square was boosted by the internet connection with social media. People started to believe that if they wanted a free society, they just needed internet access. It is still true. Social media has been designed to empower the user. They can create content and post information about anything. The young crowd (Who first started using the internet widely) will know all the information without restrictions. The truth about other nations as well as their own nation. Like police violations of black people. It intends to change political power. Now, the political people reach out to the general public more directly, for example. Donald Trump didn’t pay for ads on TV media; he just tweeted to his 10 million followers. The Internet has given ordinary people broadcast power, which was only available to big media. People can put something on social media and get a big crowd.

Cons:

In other ways, the internet makes us disengaged, stupid, distracted, and clueless. People are losing their concentration abilities. The mind wants to behave the way a person behaves online. Too much information prevents people from learning anything and makes them too stupid, especially since the rise of fake news. Fake news is created to make people believe something else when they might be confused with the real news. This is how crazy people are getting together and making a global fake news emperor.

To understand the use of the Internet for corporate benefit, we need to understand the relationship between capitalism and democracy. It has been said that capitalism and democracy go hand in hand. But in reality, they have no connection. Without government regulation, capitalism gives enormous power to a couple of corporations. These corporations then have the power to influence the government. The government started making all decisions in favour of these corporations. The majority of the population has no influence on the policies.

Social media is now the most significant monopoly business. They are the big corporate giants now. Small company websites or anything like that are crashing because of these giant internet corporations. These corporations are becoming the only online earning machines. They are earning 2/3 of all online advertising revenue.

Every social media platform now collects personal information and puts it in an algorithm. Because of algorithms, news and information are given to us like an ideological bubble. Here, you don’t decide what you see or know what is left out. So, we are not free of information; an algorithm gatekeeper controls information coming to us.

Fake news generates more money than mainstream news. The democratic system shouldn’t rely on commercial journalism. It is difficult to understand who we are, the real one or the fake one. Things depend on who owns the media. Are they giving enough real information? Fake news influences every modern communication. It’s tough to know what’s true and what’s not.

The democratic Index ranked those countries first, subsidizing private journalism and keeping real journalism alive.

Now, with the internet, we have all the tools that can be used to liberate or oppress.

Biography 281: he cow only eats when my dad prepares the food.

My dad bought a cow for the Qurbani. Our home helper (a boy) followed my parents' instructions and prepared the food. The cow didn't touch it, so we didn't know what to do next.

Then my dad prepared the food, and the cow started eating. I couldn't find the difference, but there must be something. My dad said he had cows in their house. He used to prepare food for them, so he knew how to make food for them.

The cow we bought must be from good care. That's why if the food isn't prepared perfectly, it doesn't touch.

Online product prices shouldn't be more than the in-store price.

When I order online, I notice that grocery prices have increased. Why is this so? The company charges extra for services, including service charge taxes, product price taxes, delivery fees, delivery tips, and sometimes more. Then why do they need to raise the product price? For example, if I order a tray of 12 eggs, the price is $3 when I buy in person, but I have to pay a total of $12 with all charges online.

Who mostly orders online? Disabled individuals, elderly people, and busy professionals. Thus, those with lower incomes are actually paying more.

All product prices should be the same, whether purchased online or in-store. If extra charges are necessary, the reasons should be clearly stated in the receipt, including the amount of the additional charges and their justifications.

All charges should be clearly detailed and then applied to consumers.

Now, please don't raise in-store prices to align with online prices. Grocery owners seem reluctant to miss any opportunity to increase product prices. By the end of the year, they often make profits three or four times higher than the previous year. When consumers' purchasing power declines, it impacts all businesses in the country. More and more companies are closing their doors.

Human rights issue in the “Democratic Republic of Congo”

 

Current situation:

Heavy fighting is going on between the Congolese Army and M23 rebels. This war is causing a massive humanitarian crisis. Thousands of people are displaced—the war is influencing regional tensions. The M23 rebels have closed the capital as they are fighting there. Hundreds of thousands moved to another city, Goma, hoping to find their basic needs (food, water, and shelter). The situation may worsen when the UN withdraws its peacekeepers by the end of this year.

The human rights issues/violations:

This situation didn’t arise overnight. Decades of fighting with armed groups, violation of human rights, and gender-based violence created this massive humanitarian situation.

The Human rights violations we find more prominent are “Mass killings” happening through the armed groups fighting, inter-communal violence, giving trouble to the dissent, and terrible treatment to the detainees.

Hundreds of houses are burned down, and their property is looted. Children and the elderly are also getting killed in huge numbers.

The UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and/or UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples):

The Congo accepted 167 recommendations from 174 of the UNDRIP. Only three of the accepted recommendations are to improve Indigenous communities. Indigenous is a controversial word in Africa because it is believed that all Africans are indigenous.

Poverty is very prominent among Congo's Indigenous people (Locally, they are called Pygmy).  They don’t have any birth identity, and 65% of them don’t get any education.

Most don’t have a national ID card or birth record, so they don’t have a voter ID, so their contributions to politics are not considered. They don’t have a voice in Congo’s politics. Their lands have been taken, and knowledge of ancient medicine has been destroyed. These are clear violations of human rights.

There are more Human Rights violations against the Indigenous people. Like children are taken for forced labour and sexual exploitation. The criminal networks do these. Indigenous people work at very low wages. As they are illiterate, they had to depend on another group of people to manage their wages.