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‘THE tales of my farmers’, he says as he takes a long drag from the tightly-held cigarette between his fingers, ‘is no less heroic than the Herculean feats of Achilles or Prometheus.’ Dying rays of a winter afternoon get caught up in the ensuing smoke, and as Greek tragedies fade away behind the veil, from behind his desk at his second-floor office in the dramatics department of Jahangirnagar University in Savar, Selim Al-Deen tells me a quintessentially Bengali tale. It is the tale of fighting against nature’s wrath, of fighting with tigers, of clearing dense forests for cultivation, and it is the tale of one man’s search to bring the soil and soul of a race to the pages of literature and the stage of drama.
   Firoza Khatun was worried about his eldest son. Her third child, Selim, just couldn’t stop reading. This son of hers – born on August 18, 1949 – had taken to reading as if there were no tomorrow. As Firoza’s husband, Mofizuddin Ahmed, a deputy superintendent of customs, moved from one town to the next due to his job postings, she had to shuffle along with her seven children. Ever since Selim learned to read while they were at Anwara, Chittagong, he had read everything he got his hands onto. Comilla, their home district Feni, Moulvibazar, Kurigram, Rangpur, Lalmonirhat – the list of places Selim has attended schools at reads like a route crisscrossing Bangladesh. Perhaps, as he stayed at one place for such short a span, books became his best friend. And by the time it was time for Selim to head out to university in 1966, he had made his choice: he would be a writer.
   Selim recalls: ‘I read everything. By the time I entered university I had read most major works. My mother was so worried with my frenzied reading that she beat me once for reading all day.’
   The classrooms of Dhaka University’s Bangla department were to be the breeding ground of minds which were to shape the coming decades. ‘It was my teacher Munier Chowdhury who spurred me to put my attention to drama. If I had to point out a catalyst for my first inclinations into a particular stream of literature, it would be Munier sir,’ recalls Selim.
   And as Selim forayed into the realm of theatrics and looked deeper into original literature written for the stage, he started to have a grave realisation: ‘I almost felt insulted that starting from Roman literature to Shakespeare, all major languages of literature had great tragedies. Whereas Bangla utterly lacked any.’
   It was with this realisation that drama as an established form within the scope of Bangla literature lagged behind most other languages that urged Selim to take up writing drama. But Selim admits that it would not be another decade till he would finally be able to create a unique Bengali ‘narrative’ stream in his acclaimed play Kittonkhola.
   Selim Al-Deen’s fundamental contribution to the field of drama, and the literary form of Bangla drama, are many. But his crowning achievement has to be his success in giving Bangla drama a unique voice. ‘Techniques cannot be art. It is the realisation that it brings out. But to bring out that realisation depends a lot on the technique used.’
   While Selim started out with his first play Libriam as early as in 1968, while still a university student, his early works were, in his words, ‘more centred on European themes at the time’. ‘Sartre or Camus came into my early work. But I realised that Western dilemmas could not be the basis of Bangla drama,’ says Selim.
   Till 1977, Selim’s works such as Sharpa Bishawak Galpo, Jwandis o Bibidho Baloon, Explosive o Mul Shomoshya, Karim Bawali’r Shatru o Mul Mukh Dekha, Charkakrar Documentary were mostly based on the European school of thought.
   ‘Between 1978 and 1979, I spent considerable amount of time observing our folk forms of theatre, such as jatras. It was at this juncture that I sat down to write my first fundamental work on the new format,’ recalls Selim.
   The result was Kittankhola, considered as the first major play based on the new format. Selim never looked back. Through plays such as Bashon, Atotai, Saifulmulk Badiuzzaman, Keramat Mangal, Hat Hodai, Chaka (later made into a film), Selim kept up his experimentation with formats such as ‘epic realism,’ which he brought into Bangla plays single-handedly.
   The early nineties saw Selim focusing on a new style derived from the folk traditions. In Jaiboti Konya’r Mon, the ‘kathya-natya’ style was used. ‘This was another tradition that had been ignored for long. This format was again used in Hargaaz.’
   Selim Al-Deen has played a pivotal role in the theatre movement of Bangladesh with his involvement with one of the leading theatre groups in the country — Dhaka Theatre. One of its founding members, almost all of Selim’s plays have been staged by Dhaka Theatre. Selim has also been one of the key organisers of Bangladesh’s village theatre movement. He took the monumental task of creating the only dictionary on dramatics available in Bangla.
   Having been awarded with almost all national recognitions possible in the field of theatre, Selim Al-Deen’s work is studied at many universities across the world. Several of his plays have been translated into other languages, and staged too. In fact, he is one of few Bangladeshi writers to have his plays staged by West Bengal troupes.
   ‘But my life actually comprises of another component that I take pride in. In front of my eyes, I have seen the dramatics department of Jahangirnagar University grow. If I were to sum up my life’s work, then 30 per cent of it would be related to the university,’ Selim points out.
   Pressed to mention his greatest achievement in his own mind, he finishes, ‘I guess, I would consider my life’s work most relevant when considering Bangla drama’s search for its roots and a place in the firmament of world literature.’

THERE was a time in the 1950s and 60s when businessman and economists around the world used to say: ‘When the Wall Street sneezes, Europe catches cold and so goes the bromide and so moves the world economic activities.’ But the world economy has undergone sea changes in recent years and now there are many ‘poles’ of the world economy.
   Dollar’s spectacular rise is a post-second world war pheromone. Before that it was a gold reserve system and British pound sterling was regarded as hard currency of some sort. But involvement in two world wars shattered the British economy while the US virtually remained unaffected and emerged as a tiger of the world economy.
   It was decided in Washington that henceforward the US dollar would be considered as hard and stable currency in international trade and foreign exchange reserve. It was also decided that one ounce of gold would be equivalent to $35. From 1869 to 1970 the US economy enjoyed trade surplus. Since then the situation has reversed. The US has become a trade deficit country and the twin deficits – budget and trade – have started weakening the dollar. By running a huge current account deficit, the US has made the dollar vulnerable.
   The Economist wrote: ‘For half a century the dollar has been the hegemonic currency. A large slice of global trade is counted in dollars, a boon for America that has allowed it to issue debt more cheaply. The dominance has survived dollar slides before, as in the late 1970s and mid 1980s. But now, with the euro as an alternative, the fear is of a sudden shift in the global monetary system, with investors switching quickly from one currency to another… Much of the dollar’s weakness is driven by economic fundamentals. Since peaking in 2003 it has fallen by 24% against a trade-weighted basket of currencies. Given America’s need to borrow from abroad to finance its consumption, that is neither surprising nor sinister.’
   In 1971 US de-linked its currency with gold. A new floating exchange rate was initiated. In the financial market a currency will appreciate or depreciate against dollar in the market’s demand and supply. It was working well but now dollar is becoming unstable and vulnerable and those who maintained their foreign reserves in dollar are face to face with 15 per cent depreciation. But till now 65 per cent of world trade is being conducted in dollar. The present crisis in the US economy originates from conspicuous consumption by American consumers. They consume more than they earn. So it becomes necessary to borrow from foreign banks.
   Net private capital inflows into America seem to have evaporated since the credit turmoil began. The sub-prime crisis has turned the dollar into a sub-prime currency.
   Dollar faced its initial challenge from euro which was initially a weak currency. But as time went by euro became strong and started challenging dollar. Moreover, as the world economy has changed vastly in the last one decade, many poles in economic growth have emerged such as the European Union, ASEAN, China, India, etc.
   In a recent report, the International Monetary Fund says the dollar is losing ground as the currency of choice in the world’s foreign exchange reserves. The dollar’s share of foreign reserves was 63.8 per cent in the third quarter compared with 65.0 per cent in the 2006 July-September period, the report adds.
   By contrast, the 13-nation euro zone currency made up 26.4 per cent of global forex reserves in the third quarter, compared with 24.4 per cent a year ago.
   There were many cautionary notes about shrinking dollar. Though all agree that despite heavy odds the American dollar will remain the number one currency in the world, fluctuations in the world’s currency may lead to chaos and turmoil in the world economy.
   The European Union has said the dollar’s weakness is a problem for the world economy while the euro’s strength reflects confidence in the European economy. The main problem for the world’s economy without any doubt is the weakness of dollar. ‘That concerns certain sectors of the economy, not only European, but in the world,’ European officials say.
   The European Commission also says ‘total respect for the independence of the European Central Bank’ and ‘total support for the ECB’s reaction to the recent turbulence on financial markets’ are new features of the world economy.
   A news agency report says the US economy weakened dramatically in the fist quarter in its worst growth in four years, expanding at rate of just 1.3 per cent. A housing slump dragged the world’s biggest economy down sharply from its annualised 2.5 per cent pace in the previous quarter. And although economists expect growth to rebound this year, they caution that a turnaround would largely depend on whether the housing market can get back on its feet. The first snapshot of 2007 growth, which is likely to be revised in the coming months, dashed the hopes of most analysts who had chalked up growth projections of the US economy at at least 1.8 per cent. Moreover, the job market in US is tight.
   In another development, China has told the United States to fix its own economic problems rather than deliver lectures, as the two sides warned at top level talks in China that protectionism threaten their trade ties. The United States came to the talks on the outskirts of Beijing with a long list of complaints about China’s economic and trade practices with the value of the Chinese currency, yuan, chief among the concerns. But China insisted that a weakening US dollar was a bigger global economic concern than the value of yuan.
   China also says, ‘The yuan is not the key issue, currently our focus is more on the depreciation of the US dollar which is a fighter global economic concerns than the value of the yuan.’
   One Chinese official said, ‘I sincerely wish to see a scenario where the US economy is getting stronger and the US dollar is getting stronger… Obviously to resort to trade protectionism and blame another country for the structural problems in the US economy is the wrong approach which would only harm the United States itself.
   US officials said, ‘China is employing unfair trade practices by keeping the tightly controlled yuan artificially weak. This gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage when selling goods to the United States and is a big factor behind the massive US trade deficits with China that hit 23.8 billion dollars in September.’ The US officials also cautioned against rising protectionism, both in China and the United States.
   There has been a rise in economic nationalism and protectionism sentiments in both China and the US.
   The post-war America first showed its economic prowess with a large programme of US aid to assist recovery of the European economies from the effects of the Second World War. The plan was proposed by the then US secretary of state George C Marshall. From 1948 to 1951 the US provided assistance in grants and loans to various European countries, including Austria, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. The main role of this aid in promoting recovery is thought to have been the provision of reserves to restore confidence in financial stability and the provision of working capital to allow liberalisation of production and prices. The Marshal plan was a huge success.
   Many countries fear that in the face of depreciation of dollar the US may look inward and practice protectionism in some areas. Nearly a decade ago globalisation became the key word for world’s trade and investment and the US played a pivotal role in setting up the World Trade Organisation. The people started talking of a ‘global village.’ Now the economic woes of the United States may lead to chaos and turmoil in the international economic system.
   The European Central Bank says global economic growth is robust but inflation risks remain as markets absorb the impact of the US subprime home loans and higher food price.
   Banks and investment fund have made losses on trading in mortgage backed securities, complicated financial institutions whose value is linked to US home loans. When large numbers of US homemakers began defaulting the value of these securities plummeted and global money markets dried up as banks became nervous about lending to each other.
   Now coming back to Bangladeshi currency. In 2003, when Fakhruddin Ahmed was the governor of the Bangladesh Bank, a bulk of trade was conducted when taka was depreciated against dollar about nine per cent. Since then taka could never regain it. According to experts, taka is artificially depreciated against dollar and for trade and commerce and for each US dollar the Bangladeshi currency should be appreciated by a minimum of five taka.
   The Bangladesh Bank governor’s arguments that if taka is appreciated against dollar then exporters will be disheartened and foreign remittances from overseas Bangladeshis will shrink are lame. Overseas Bangladeshis even now send money through ‘hundis’ whose value is very high and taka’s appreciation will not affect the inflow of dollar to the Bangladesh Bank. And exporters’ loss can be compensated by providing them incentives. India, whose currency appreciated 18 per cent against dollar, is giving various incentives to the exporters. Moreover, though theoretically we believe in export-driven growth, the Bangladesh economy remains depended on import. Bangladesh imports 5,000 products, of which 3,000 are imported from India. If we do not correct the value of taka, economically we shall lag behind the neighbouring countries. We had the potential to become a middle income economy but because of poor economic leadership we cannot even provide two square meals to 40 per cent of our population.

Human rights activists led rallies across the United States on Friday (January 11) to build pressure on the Bush administration and Congress to end the detention of foreign prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay military camp. From Washington, DC to Boise, Idaho, civil libertarians held more than 20 demonstrations and sit-ins across the country and encouraged their supporters to wear orange as an expression of opposition to indefinite detention and torture. Orange is the colour of the jumpsuits worn by the first Guantanamo detainees. Their photographs were first released by the US Department of Defence in 2002.
   ‘We believe people will turn out in force to express their opposition to the symbol and reality of Guantanamo,’ said Jameel Jaffer of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the nation’s largest and most influential rights advocacy groups, which is sponsored the day of action.
   In a statement, Jaffer, who is director of the ACLU’s national security project, described the Bush administration’s policy of indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay prisoners as a violation of the US. constitution and international human rights system that has been going on since 2002.
   The ACLU’s ‘Close Guantanamo Bay’ day marks the six anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at the US military base in Cuba, where hundreds of foreigners continue to languish behind bars without any trial in the US courts. In all about 800 people have been held at the Guantanamo prison — some of them for years on end — since it opened in January 2002.
   The Bush administration justifies their detention by stating that the naval base in Guantanamo is outside US territory so constitutional protections do not apply, an argument that has been consistently challenged by United Nations experts and human rights groups at home and abroad.
   In May 2006, a UN panel that monitors compliance with the world’s anti-torture treaty urged the United States to close its prison at Guantanamo and avoid using secret detention facilities in what George W. Bush and his allies call the ‘war on terror.’ The Bush administration dismissed those arguments, saying the UN experts lacked accurate information.
   Last month, a UN investigator said he strongly suspected the Central Intelligence Agency of using torture on prisoners at Guantanamo, adding that many prisoners were likely not being prosecuted to keep the abuse from emerging at trial.
   On a visit to Guantanamo, Martin Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, attended a pre-trial hearing of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver.
   Scheinin said US authorities told him that out of about 300 detainees currently held at Guantanamo, 80 were expected to face military trials for suspected crimes. Another 80 inmates had been cleared for release.
   President George W. Bush says the United States does not engage in torture. However, he remains unwilling to disclose what interrogation methods are being used at Guantanamo and elsewhere.
   The ‘Close Guantanamo’ campaign initiated by the ACLU and other rights advocacy groups included events across the United States throughout the month of January, but it reached its climax on January 11, with rallies and demonstrations in major towns and cities including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, DC.
   Organisers said some of the nation’s most popular performing artists expressed their willingness to participate in the rallies. Among others, musician Henry Rollins, actress Gloria Reuben, and singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello said they wore orange to express their outrage against illegal detentions.
   ‘I am wearing orange to help bring back the dignity our country has lost as a result of Guantanamo,’ said Ndegeocello in a statement. ‘We must join together in solidarity to demand the immediate closure of this shameful prison. It has tarnished America’s image in the world and continues to be a symbol of torture and injustice.’
   According to the ACLU, in the past few weeks, hundreds of Internet users have subscribed to its Close Guantanamo pages on Facebook and MySpace.com, including campaigners from both parties’ presidential campaigns.
   One World.net, January 11, 2008.

Selim Al-Deen: demise of a maestro

It is absolutely shocking that Selim Al-Deen, the drama maestro, is no more. He was a bold playwright, a devoted teacher and a determined cultural activist. The country has lost a genius. May his soul rest in peace.
   Arjumand Banu
   Dhaka
   

I am glad that the teachers and the students of Dhaka University are going to be released. But I must say that I am a bit puzzled about what adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said: the case has to be completed and then whatever may be the verdict the teachers and the students will be released. People may interpret it as if the government is interested in ‘pardoning’ them.
   To release and to pardon are not the same thing.
   Waheed Nabi
   England

Next on Quick Comments

a. Students want unconditional release of teachers, fellows: Protests continue on DU campus (New Age, January 15) b. Prosecution moves for quick disposal of cases: Prof Anwar protests at Hossain Zillur’s statement (New Age, January 15) c. 50 injured as police, workers clash (New Age, January 15) d. Govt hopes parties won’t place ‘illogical’ conditions for dialogue: BGMEA Bhaban to be pulled down, says Quader (New Age, January 15) e. Playwright Selim Al-Deen passes away (New Age, January 15)