Interview by the vampire of the blogpire

Mr. Vampire Hassan, a prominent Bangladeshi business journalist, takes interview of Mr. Blogpire (pronounced blog pyre), an active business blogger on the 14th day of September, 2008, at the latter’s den from undisclosed location in Dhaka.

Slamalikum Blogpire Bhai, its good to have you with me in this interview.
--Walaikumslaam, Vampy, yes its nice to be on air…I mean on internet.
So tell me blogpire Bhai, why are you called so?
--As you are a vampire and suck blood of Bangladeshi companies on print media, I sometimes kick a** (beep beep) and kiss a** (beep beep) of the same people on internet, specifically on Bangladesh Corporate Blog.
Right….but why do you use such slangs? Your posts might be read by young innocent children and cultured people.
--Actually I write what I speak and what I think, it does not go under the editorial censorship, as in newspapers and business magazines, so you have the raw opinion right from the horse’s mouth. However, I try not to cross the line. We discourage taking names, talking about religion, politics etc.
So…how do you feel when you meet the companies you blog about?
--I feel good as I am undercover, I still haven’t appeared on the cover page of Time Magazine, people don’t know who I am, its fine that way…as I believe there are too many one-man shows and me-too gurus of this and that and the number is growing…I give more emphasis on the point of view rather than on the person….a few people know however who I am, my friends in Facebook, my wife, my dog, neighbors, landlord, etc.
How about your employer? I mean do you work at all?
--Ofcourse I work, for somebody else, but no, my employer does not know that I spit fire and stir up controversies and say what I see about Bangladeshi companies in the blog.
I see…so how do you differentiate Bangladesh Corporate Blog with established business journalism platforms such as business newspapers, magazines such as Brand Forum, Executive Times etc…
--Well, first of all, since we are still a not-for-profit entity, we are not liable to any sort of advertisement commitments from sponsors, we have a disclaimer put up in the blog to safeguard our own skin, the traditional media is liable and responsible for what they write. Moreover, those newspapers and magazines are run by so-called heavy-weights and think-tanks who know that they know and so they can’t help but let us know always. But here, it’s the other way round, since we don’t know much, we ask and the whole world lets us know, so its kind of collaborative learning we are doing about the Bangladeshi businesses, brands and companies here.
Well…you seem to be a rebel when it comes to one-man-preaching on business issues of Bangladesh…do you have a problem with that?
--Not a problem…but a discomfort, Bangladesh Corporate Blog is a teamwork…and I find it funny when the new-found gurus find it hard to move around due to the weight of their so called know-how about branding, sales, advertisements and other domains of businesses in Bangladesh, as if they have just advised Eric and Larry to change the name of Google to Hagoo-gle. ROTFL.
So who do you want to encourage to become business bloggers?
--Students ofcourse…as they so many times talk about these issues informally any ways. Business executives can also blog about their businesses, companies but that culture is yet to set in in Bangladesh. But we are working on it. We have already started consulting a few companies here about the benefits of business blogging and how it can boost a company’s internet marketing strategy. That would be our commercial services.
Great…well I guess that was quite a good first meet interview…however since its nearly midnight, I need to fly back to my desktop to spot my next victim to suck blood…
--O really..so who will it be this time? BRAC Bank or Grameen Phone?
You will see in day after tomorrow’s newspaper then…
--Fine…happy vampiring.
Thanks..happy Bangladesh Corporate Blogging.