About Me
চট্টগ্রামের এক সম্ভ্রান্ত পরিবারের সন্তান সৈয়দ জাহেদ হোসেন। বাল্যকাল থেকে পড়া লেখার পাশাপাশি ছড়া, কবিতা, ছোট গল্প লিখায় পারদর্শী ছিলেন। দেশের প্রথম শ্রেণীর জাতীয় দৈনিকগুলিতে তাঁর অসংখ্য লিখা প্রকাশিত হয়েছে। ইউএনডিপিতে কর্মরত থাকা কালীন সময়ে উচ্চ শিক্ষা গ্রহনে ইংল্যান্ডে গমন। কর্মসূত্রে সৈয়দ জাহেদ হোসেন বর্তমানে ইংল্যান্ড প্রবাসী।
A letter from a blogger and Human Rights Activist Syed
I was born in 21 February. I was raised, educated
in Bangladesh and now live in Chittagong. This blog is the space I choose to
express my experiences and opinions on issues that matter most to me.
I divide my time
between writing [poetry,
blog posts, short stories, non-fiction essays, plays, novellas and novels], reading [fiction and non-fiction], and undergoing other projects. These
are my inspiration and source of my greatest love, happiness and achievement.
I’m an author,
blogger and full-time traveller.
I’ve written a few books, spread out
across both fiction and nonfiction. I run a blog that
brings in a few million readers a year, and I move to a new country every four
months, based on the votes of
those readers. In between I give talks on topics ranging from nonstandard
lifestyle choices to the future of the publishing industry.
I wrote
newspaper columns part-time from high school onward, and started blogging while
living in UK. Today, my books are my main source of income. Books that range in
topic from philosophical meanderings to speculative science fiction. From
collections of short stories about relationships to instruction guides for
social interaction.
I’m incredibly
fortunate to be able to do what I love for a living, and to share my ideas,
characters, stories, and questions with so many people. Everything I publish is
produced because I can’t not make
it; I love the words and concepts too much to keep them to myself.
This blog
records my pursuit in becoming the Utopian version of myself. I hope it inspires
readers to be the best they can be, through their own journey.
This blog is dedicated to the three most important influences on my life. Thank you for giving me such a special life.
ALSO
I’m on the internet, particularly Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Google
Plus. You can find my blog here, some photos of me here,
and can send me an email here.
I send out a newsletter with blog-like content and updates a
few times a month, and I’ve got another that goes out about as frequently
called Let’s Know Things, which contains links to
interesting things.
I
am currently try to developing a training center to help Long Term Unemployed
back into employment in the Bangladesh; the aim for the long term unemployed is
to again help them develop their skills to allow them back into the work force.
I
have best experience in working with a number of corporate organizations in
home and abroad.
I
was the member of Chittagong Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Bangladesh
aiming to promote, protect and strengthen bi-lateral trade and commerce between
Bangladesh and the World.
Media
Currently
I was attended some talk show in Betar Bangla UK (Shomoyer Eaakal
Shekaal).
Award:
Bronze
Award in Blood Donation from British Blood Bank.
Interest:
I
love travelling, socializing, meeting new friends, reading and watching movie.
My
Dream:
I
enjoy travelling and has a profound love for sustainable development. I am very
sympathetic to the people of devastated areas in South Asia and always extend
my hands to support them even personally. I continued being involved with
communication, social activities and business mainly for South East
Asia also in the UK and Bangladeshi communities.
I am currently on a death list. I have
already survived a knife attack on 2002 and tortured by rolling party on 2006.
I was arrested and tortured by Bangladeshi Government in 1999 during its Human
Rights Campaign about Stopping Corruption. It has difficult for me to be
normal. I write against fundamentalism. War criminals, religious intolerance. I
write against those who use religion to misguide the society. I write about
Human Rights violation in Bangladesh.
My life was turned upside down when terrorist
suddenly came in to my home while I was residing in UK. The terrorist raid and
attack caused my 72 years old father who is a social worker to get a stroke.
Following the raid my mother becomes very sick mentally. My father informed me
that the fundamentalist wanted to kill me. My parents moved to Australia from
Bangladesh at the end of 2011. Being scared of ending up in the same situation,
the land lord of my house cancelled the contract and within days, my family and
I lost everything that made sense in our lives.
The present situation in Bangladesh is
very uncertain. The police in Bangladesh are guilty of torture, rape and
killing. There is no security for anyone who writes against irrationalism, human
rights violation and advocates secular values. The fundamentalists have already
killed nine bloggers and editors who are on the hit list. The government
is doing nothing, but arrested bloggers, human rights activist and editors. The
justice system is breakdown, impounding the great societal depression. The
bloggers, writers are living in constant fear and there is no attempt by the
regime to address their security. As long as I live I will remember in my so
far stable but monotonous life in UK the events I witnessed during my last
visit to Bangladesh. There I saw child beatings and people not reporting cases
of child molestation and rape to the police. People being afraid of the police.
In fact a friend of mine who was taken to jail for a false case was bribed out
of the police quickly because of the fear that he would be tortured of killed
in custody.
Torture and extra judicial killing
increase day by day in Bangladesh. The condition inside the country is not
good. The terrible nature of human beings in power when the law does not
protect the common people is everyday life in Bangladesh. I also realised the
irony of the police who are the enforcers of the law breaking it to torture and
kill people in so called protective custody and the reality of a democratic
country in the people are afraid of the government. Only 5% people did vote
last election and the corrupted and nepotistic rich will ultimately decide who
leads.
In my childhood I heard many times the
phrase oath collapse of the rule of law. As my reading taste matured I came
across the writer Arundhati Roy, whose book The God of Small Things has
inspired me and broadened my mind. In this book Roy brings together what I want
to learn for the rest of my life. She describes kerala, a state in India, but
this description covers many parts of Bangladesh society too.
Because of the colonisation of
Bangladesh by the British, we still adopt lots of British culture still now. I
would love to learn the history of Britain, also I am a lover of literature and
comedy coming from the UK. I immerse myself in English literature and I have
tried to express my feelings by applying the creative use of language, e.g.
poetry, short stories and blog. My first book "Nirbak Attosomorpon"
was published on September 2013, and second book
"Chandrabatha" on September 2014.
I am currently living in UK. In
my ten years life in UK, I became connected with lots of community
organisation. I am a regular and awarded blood donor of British Blood Bank. I
am a registered organ donor as well . I am Charity fundraiser. I helped at
British Heart Foundation, Papworth trust, East anglia hospice, Cancer Research
UK etc. I write poems and blogs.
While some bloggers wanted to be
sentenced to death, which is the highest punishment in Bangladesh, I demanded a
fair trial eventually leading to long life in prison. For me it's a matter of
principle as I am not a supporter of death penalties and I would rather want
war criminal to be sentenced for as long as possible. The difference between a
lifetime sentence and centuries of prison is important to me, even if in
practice isn't there that much difference.
An expert on Asian issues from the press
freedom organisation “Reporters Without Borders”, explained that though
bloggers like me initially only criticise members of the rolling party, with
time, debate eventually got heated and out of hard.
The situation in Bangladesh is polarised
and complex and opinions are suppressed. Reporters without borders rank 129 to
179 on its freedom of Press index, and its one of the poorest countries in the
world ranked 146 out of 186 countries in the Human Development Index.
On 23 May, 2015, more than 150 writers
from around the world, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Yann
Martel have added their names to a letter condemning the deaths of three
bloggers in Bangladesh this year, calling on the country's government "to
ensure that the tragic events of the last three months are not repeated, and to
bring the perpetrators to justice".
In a joint initiative from PEN International and English PEN, the authors expressed their shock and horror at recent developments, noting that "although there have been several arrests, no one has been held to account for any of these attacks".
In a joint initiative from PEN International and English PEN, the authors expressed their shock and horror at recent developments, noting that "although there have been several arrests, no one has been held to account for any of these attacks".
Jo Glanville, director of English PEN,
described the recent attacks as "a campaign of violence against bloggers
and writers who are courageous enough to speak out in a hostile culture for
free speech".
"The government of Bangladesh must urgently address the climate of impunity and be seen to safeguard freedom of expression," she said. "These shocking events have united writers throughout the world in an important show of solidarity."
"The government of Bangladesh must urgently address the climate of impunity and be seen to safeguard freedom of expression," she said. "These shocking events have united writers throughout the world in an important show of solidarity."
The writers also demand that the Bangladeshi
authorities "do all in their power to provide protection and support to
bloggers and other writers at risk in Bangladesh, in accordance with
Bangladesh's obligations under national and international law"
My life is going to be destroyed. My
life is under threat and I am currently on death list which declared by
fundamentalist. I am afraid the rolling party which is related to high
corruption, silently sponsor fundamentalist, administration, manipulation and
use of law enforcement agencies to keep their power long term, torture, enforce
disappearance and kill the general public. The government might arrest or kill
me by crossfire to stop0 me from doing my campaign.
Now I am suffering from the apathy. I
feel like I am not myself anymore. I want to try to continue my fight for Stop Torture and Extra
Judicial Killing. After having lost everything already, thats the only
thing that keeps me going
