What do you exactly do in one line?

শিক্ষিকা: পিন্টু তোমার আম্মু আব্বু কি করে বল তো?

পিন্টু: আমার আব্বু আম্মু? উমমম......আমার আম্মু বাসায় কাজ করে আর আমার আব্বু চানাচুর বিক্রি করে...

Teacher: Pintu tomar ammu abbu ki kore bolo to?

Pintu: amar abbu ammu? Ummm…amar ammu bashay kaj kore ar amar abbu chanachur bikri kore…

One might wonder that Pintu might be an underprivileged young school boy whose mother must be working as a maid from house to house in the affluent neighbourhoods in Dhaka and whose father must be trying hard to meet his ends by selling crisps and light-bites under the scorching sun in Dhaka city. Where in reality, Pintu’s mom works as a full time housewife taking care of Pintu and his father actually works in Pran Foods in Bangladesh which produces, among other things, tasty and very popular chanachur. Interesting perspectives from a child on how simplicity is applied to describe job descriptions- which might be often misleading and funny too.

Can you say in one line what you do? I mean away from your official designation or the one you use on your visiting cards, can you really explain simply what you do for a living? I keep looking at so many job designations as we get ‘linked-in’ and wonder how we could add a bit of extra information in the space provided to describe what we do other than just saying ‘Chief Executive Officer’ or ‘Senior Accounts Manager’ etc. I have so many friends who have a common story to share that the moment they mention to their relatives that they work in ‘grameen phone’ many times they are faced to deal with direct requests to fix their mobile phones or to deal with their bill related issues – without actually figuring out what exactly the person does in that telecom company in Bangladesh. The moment we hear that such and such works in a telecom company we assume that they deal with fixing handsets and with bills. Same goes for bankers – when we hear someone works in a bank, we either just assume that they must be sitting lifelessly on the other side of the counter counting money or must be sitting in square shaped cubicles pushing papers. Is there really any way to add that extra bit of information to explain in a short space of time and space (both online and offline) what you do?

I have a friend whose visiting card says that he is an SME (Subject Matter Expert) in an IT company. That didn’t tell me anything much really so I asked him what he does there exactly. So he told me in plain jargon free English that he is actually a programmer who codes in C++ to make software for the security industry – that’s it. Its interesting to note here there are thousands like him who must be sharing the same job designation as his – ‘programmer’ – in so many other software companies in Bangladesh – but with that extra but precise piece of information that he provided to me verbally – that he makes software for security industry in C++ made it very clear what he does to earn his bread and butter.

Take the case of someone I really admire – Arild Klokkerhaug of Somewhereinblog – the largest Bangla blog in the world. Plain and simply – he is the CEO of one of the most exciting companies in Bangladesh – but as he puts himself to explain what he does – he is the ‘Head of Opportunities’ – Sure without any context you might not understand what he does but really as a CEO what else you expect one to do? Always on the look out for more opportunities for - growth, more innovation, more profit, more success! So think about it – when you say you are a manager in any company, remember you become ‘just another manager’, just another brick in the wall leaving room for imagination of what you actually do. Also I think our visiting cards are built keeping in view the company only, as if its taken for granted that those outside our companies or simple lay persons will be able to understand or atleast generalize what we do. But we can do surely better than that with some judicious use of space, time and words to say some more things about our work, right?

Digital Bangladesh - Get the crowd involved through crowdmaps

Initiatives related with Digital Bangladesh will be truly successful when UNDP in Bangladesh and the Access to Information Programme at the Prime Minister’s Office start relying more on the ‘crowd’ for feedback and service improvement requests across a variety of services on offer such as information, market price, human rights etc. To this extent, I share my inclination towards ‘crowdmaps’ – which is open source, integrated with a range of technology channels such as phone, Twitter, emails, SMS, web, which is free or at minimal cost, customisable, supports a variety of languages and truly inclusive by involving the ultimate beneficiaries in the full value chain process.

‘Crowdmap’ is based on the ‘ushahidi’ platform, the Kenya based technology for development start up which was first used during the post-election violence in Kenya in 2007. Since then, it has been used increasingly after the earthquakes in Haiti, New Zealand, Japan, during the crisis in Egypt, Libya etc. Other than being used after natural calamities and man made crisis, ‘crowdmaps’ – rather ‘mapmania’ is going to be one of the key buzzwords for the year 2011.

For example, take the case of a crowdmap set up for reporting and tracking violence against women say in Dhaka city. Imagine the power it would give to ordinary Dhaka women to report incidents immediately to alert police or social agencies via the crowdmap. It could be a quick call against the shortcode for the crowdmap, or a quick SMS or for even further details, they can always login to internet to report in detail what exactly happened. It would become clearer which areas in the city are more prone to incidents against women thus urging authorities to promptly take measures to prevent such events from occurring in future. Please note that crowdmap doesn’t require internet for interacting with its users – simple mobile or landlines can also be integrated with crowdmap via another useful technology useful for NGOs – frontlineSMS. Have a look at a crowdmap to track violence against women in Egypt.

I won’t go into much detail how exactly frontlineSMS or crowdmap work, you can check the links and innovate a service for your locality anywhere in Bangladesh. The key point I am trying to drive home is effective initiatives for Digital Bangladesh will need to come out of closed door seminars and workshops in government offices or posh hotels and from reliance on proprietary software or platforms. Rather than hiring expensive foreign consultants or taking alms from foreign donors on a never-ending basis to devise technology driven solutions for social change, we should explore open source and mostly free technologies such as crowdmaps to include ordinary citizens in various aspects of services which the Government or other social development agencies are mandated to deliver. At present I am involved in a crowdmap initiative for Bangladesh focusing on economic, cultural and social rights of citizens. Power to the 'crowd'.

Ipadio - connecting telephony to the internet, without accessing internet

One of the technologies I have been simply in love with is ‘ipadio’ at www.ipadio.com. When I met these guys at a technology conference in London last year, I knew immediately that this is it, the simplicity of the technology and its potential to reach to the last mile simply made me an ardent advocate. If you check out the website, you will see that it just connects simple telephony to the internet – means you only need a landline or a mobile phone to connect to the internet, by leaving an audio message. That’s it.

During my forming years of working at Swisscontact Katalyst, I learnt a lot about how ICT is being used by rural farmers and small businesses in Bangladesh. Amidst all the fanfare and festivity about the power of ICT in Bangladesh, the reliance on internet and the need to access a desktop computer in a village or union parishad, provided that electricity is intact – always posed significant challenge till now – in implementing seamless access to information. I wonder in a country like Bangladesh where mobile penetration is way ahead that of internet penetration, something like ipadio would work wonders in allowing those with a simple mobile phone or in possession of a good old landline – to leave audio information in the internet. The file that gets generated is in .mp3 format making it easy for sharing, embedding in any other website, blogs, social media etc. Interestingly it can be the other way round as well – you can call up someone else and record that interview as an audio file, incase you don’t want the other party to incur any calling costs. Ipadio has freephone numbers in more than 60 countries of the world but they are still not in Bangladesh. If it was possible for them to obtain a local number in Bangladesh, I am sure the service could have been extended to the mass technology lovers and development organisations in Bangladesh.

Services such as this can prove to be extremely relevant and useful in crisis situations like in the Middle East and North Africa where the government is quick to shutdown internet and block mobiles. However, since its still possible to communicate via landlines phones, ipadio offers a great way out to pass out crucial information to the rest of the world. Governments will have to shut down international telephone gateways and even satellite communications to snap the full power of ipadio.

The Shadow Chronicles

Being an established self serving advocate, it was quite unbelievable that I would miss the chance to go up on stage and collect the silverware for my campaign "Mentos Monday" at the Adfest Dhaka 2011. But as ironic as it may be, it happened... and somehow, I really have no regrets about it :) After all, winning is all that matters and my missed chance was soon made up for as I stood on stage collecting the second silverware for the night that we (Ogilvy Bangladesh) had won. Winning feels great... everyone gets to take pride in it, dialogs start about it, criticism goes up by a notch... ah well, its all just part of the package at the end!!!

Beating the mighty Prothom Alo to take the best print ad award (news and publications category) was quite an achievement for Daily Sun. Being only a few months old, the English daily is hardly a match for the no.1 newspaper in Bangladesh for over a decade. And even when it comes to communication, Prothom Alo has been leading the way with some of the great campaigns that we've been exposed to in past few years. However, it wasn't to be the same this time around... the Daily Sun Victory Day (16th December) print ad dethroned its predominant competitor to take away the silverware!!!

The idea was to associate how the "pen" is mightier than the "sword" (or in this case the rifle) and salute the freedom fighters on the eve of Victory Day.

However, as deserving or crappy as it may seem... no sooner had the award been announced that an anti-alliance was formed. As I closely watched people from the creative industry bombard this piece of communication as a "copycat" of a noted campaign from a global brand; I simply couldn't resist to dig deep and actually unearth the practice of using such shadows in advertising around the world.

The campaign from which the one above had apparently taken inspiration (or copied) from belonged to Lego, the colorful interlocking plastic bricks that we all loved back in childhood.

This campaign was all about highlighting the greatest strength we posses as children, "creative imagination". When a child's vivid imagination takes over, even the simplest of Lego structures could stand for the unlikeliest of objects (in this case a ship, a dinosaur, a tank and a plane).

Considering how half a glass of water can stand for both optimism (if seen as half full) and pessimism (half empty) in one single visual representation; its hard to believe that a creative mind would associate the campaigns above to be of the same kind (let alone, dubbing the local to be a "copycat" of the global).

In fact, the use the shadows to mirror the subtext of the image is a common practice that's been going on for ages. Its easy to label a local creative as a knockoff of the global award winning work, but when you see the following, does the same neurons tickle your brains?

And more...

Even movies haven't shied away from ripping the benefits of this shadow-play either... 

Its really unfortunate, that we as a nation are obsessed with defaming the achievements of others (and I'm sure multiple occasions are popping up in your head, too). It would be really great to have something as original and authentic as the Holy Qur'an, but that's hardly ever the case. Because the brains behind such creative work take inspirations from their daily lives; it seems, at times their expressions of different ideas take not so different shapes at the end...

Its always easier to say something is "copied" rather than trying to interpret what the thought behind is, just like the way it is to condemn than to compliment!!!

For more on use of shadows in advertising, please visit http://abduzeedo.com/remarkable-uses-shadow-advertising

The joy of being served tea and biscuits by Jasim

Wonder if you would agree or not, but one of the silent pleasures of working in a company in Bangladesh lies in the privilege of ordering someone else (usually the office tea boy/girl) for a cup of tea or a black coffee and getting served straight at your desk when you must be crunching numbers with your open excel spreadsheet or are about to start that all important meeting with visitors. I always had full respect for these support service staff but never realised the luxury they used to offer us until I started working full time outside the country. I guess we carry the culture from our households where we grew up seeing our houses being cleaned, food being cooked and cars being driven by ‘others’ who were hired or kept to do such jobs only. So naturally when we get into workspaces, we could not get over that hard-coded habit of ‘being served’ the little refreshments of another day at work.

But honestly, would you really expect the same treatment when you are outside Bangladesh? May be you would silently miss that, like I do, but would you actually go to the extent of bringing someone over from Bangladesh to execute the same responsibilities? I did come across Jasim, the ‘imported from Bangladesh’ tea boy, here in London while attending a meeting owned by a British Bangladeshi gentleman. Most of the workplaces here have a kind of ‘serve yourself’ policy in designated kitchens, or you might see your hosts preparing your desired caffeine option before the start of any meeting. But to my surprise when my host ordered for some tea and biscuits to a nicely dressed young man, he jumped to his routine duty of boiling the water and pouring the biscuits on the plates for us. As I was being served by Jasim, I could not help asking my host how could he afford to have the luxury of having a tea boy in west London for such a small company as his. He explained rather proudly that he had brought Jasim from Bangladesh to offer him a better life. I didn’t ask in detail how exactly he could bring him over. No wonder he wears tucked in shirts and nice trousers but still ends up serving tea and biscuit to his Bangladeshi master. The other Bangladeshi staff at the meeting, young graduates from private universities in Dhaka, jokingly informed me that they also sometimes call for Jasim Bhai’s services as that is what the norm is in Bangladesh, so they feel good when there is someone else to serve them tea or coffee at work – it makes them feel important and in control somehow.

So there you go, order some tea to Jasim, sip it hot in cold cold London, feel good and empowered and continue working.

Discount Shopping News in Bangladesh!

Good news for Bangladeshi shoppers and marketers. Deshbazar.Co.CC offers a win-win service for Bangladeshi buyers and sellers.

Deshbazar.Co.CC is number one source for Bangladeshi shoppers to get discounts, hot deals, special offers, free offers and money savings shopping news from Bangladesh. That site finds the best and latest offers from Bangladeshi market and posts them for public. Have fun and happy shopping!

That website also recommends all Bangladeshi marketers or sellers to inform the site admin about their hot deals. So that the site admin can publish the special offers (consumer promotion) directly from the manufactures/importers/service providers to the target market. Thus Deshbazar.Co.CC could able to communicate to the customers and consumers to let them get the advantage of your latest offer(s).

Money Mongers

Lately, I have been busy arranging and taking interviews of a whole bunch of fresh graduates for my firm. Considering the business is advertising and the firm being Ogilvy & Mather; I genuinely had expected a lot of good buzz from the "graduate market". It wasn't too far-fetched an expectation, since almost all of Hollywood has in one way or the other pictured admans to be the coolest, most sought-after and playful professionals right after George Clooney in any role (i.e. negotiator or thief) and Brad Pitt as a renegade (fight club, troy, kalifornia etc.). Even in our fashion/trendz go-to country India has colorful advertising personalities hitting the headlines quite regularly (Prasoon Joshi - Lagaan, Balki - Cheeni Kum and the critically acclaimed Rahul Bose; all hail from advertising). But when in comes to Bangladesh, just as many other "brainiac" industries; advertising is always referred as an industry in its nascent phase. Saying this, I guess its very clear to the wandering mind how hard it is to recruit good talents for the industry...

At the beginning of my career in advertising (which was not so long ago), I was told by one of my earliest mentors in this industry... your career is like a race, either you sprint start and get juiced out by the middle of it or you could run a marathon and live up to the Aesop's fable of "the hare and the tortoise". In both ways, its a race and running is imperative... there is no easy way out but its not only about raw power and brute strength either. The smartness lies with the "mode" you choose and also how effectively you make the most of the path chosen. Philosophies aside, it is very uncommon in today's youth to be accredited for being a marathon runner. For there is no prize for starting small to make it big one day, but only to start big to be the biggest in no time :) Sadly, we fail to realize... as Mr. Paul Arden rightly puts, "Its not how good you are, its how good you want to be". The word "potential" is more common in people than the word "successful" and one doesn't have to dig too deep to figure why?

The great talent-grabbers of past - BAT, Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Standard Chartered are still there at the top of the food chain. But its the more hyena like newcomers who have actually redefined the job prospects of a newbie. Upcoming and promising local banks (Brac Bank EBL, Dhaka Bank), conglomerates (ACI, Rahimafrooz), communications superpowers (GP, Blink, Warid/Airtel, Qubee) are all who operate in the upper-mid food chain and consume the most of talents. I am no communist, nor do I see myself resenting for not starting in any of the companies mentioned above... but I am pragmatic  and in no way can I justify some of the absurdest amounts that I hear of as "starting/basic package".

The US of A, the great capitalist superpower, the mother of dreamlands, the country which sets the benchmark for these "martian" salaries has a PPP (per capita GDP) of $47,123 and a minimum average MBA starting salary of $73,000 (the least a MBA graduate would start with). Makes sense; considering "ivy league" is a word coined by them and them alone, and almost 90% (figuratively) of the world's Top 500 universities are from mainland USA. Interestingly now, if we look at Bangladesh, a developing (a gentle word for poor) country from the third world with a meager PPP of $1565 (that to, after consecutive years of near-to double digit GDP growth), average starting salary for a decent MBA graduate is in and around the region of $5000 (taking in reference the average starting salaries posted in recruitment ads). While the US MBA grads enjoy a nearly 1.5 times valuation (as opposed to the general mass), its an astounding 3.2 times for a Bangladeshi MBA. And just to add more juice to the irony, no Bangladeshi university even features in the Top 500 and there is no sign of one making into that list anytime in the near future (According to webometrics, BUET the highest ranked, is 2916th in the World).

Its really good to be on the receiving end of such astronomic sums at the month's end... and I don't see any harm in watching these children (I couldn't find a better word for the freshlings) become complacent over time. Its not because they are right in doing so, but because in the rat-race of hiring the best talents, we have actually gone beyond the logical sums that rightly valuate a fresher's talent and capacity to contribute to the hiring organization. At the end, these companies do perhaps get the best of the best, but only to lose them in a few years for a better/sweeter deal to a competitor. This chain of offering better to get the best is indeed never-ending (only to the point when one becomes too expensive to maintain or simply, just redundant). The money we make... makes a lot of difference in our daily lives (after all, that's why we work to begin with) but we fail to realize the money cannot be the ultimate decisive factor in choosing careers. Religious Teacher, Doctors, Firefighters, Teachers and Police make the top half of the "most satisfying occupation" list in US. And when you wonder how would these occupations actually suit in Bangladesh terms, all you are left with is a grim expression.

All said and done... there will always be a disparity between the highest paying jobs and the most satisfying ones. It is for us to determine for ourselves which suits us the best, and not only that pays the best. A career is not about how fast you start the race, but how high you actually finish it. And finally to end it, I look back on the the apt words of Baz Luhrmann from the song "Sunscreen",

"…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself"

Bangladeshi TV ads in YouTube

One thing I must say I miss watching are the TVCs by the Bangladeshi companies. It has been quite a while that I have been requesting quite a few movers and shakers in the Bangladeshi brand-wagon to have a central archive of Bangladeshi TV ads online, preferably in YouTube or Vimeo. I had even approached academics who preach branding and advertising to undertake some sort of an internship project for a group of students who might volunteer to setup a dedicated YouTube channel for Bangladeshi companies. I am afraid all these efforts have fallen on deaf ears and our representation and exploitation by Bangladeshi businesses on YouTube remains at best – scattered and unorganised. There are individual efforts by some enthusiastic viewers to take the pain to record and upload online the TVCs mostly by mobile telecom operators, but that too, is not planned, organised or even patronised by any company officially. (you might want to read a related post regarding your company being WEBFFYT).

Now why would I advocate that either Bangladeshi businesses think seriously of maintaining an active presence in YouTube or why should I urge the brand-gurus, business magazines of Bangladesh to consider setting up a centralised channel to feature TVCs from all companies whose ads are being shown in the private and nationalised TV channels in Bangladesh? There are a few reasons.

Firstly, the immediate audience of these ads are not going to be Bangladeshi consumers inside Bangladesh, as they are getting exposed to those ads through TV channels in any case. They should be primarily targeted towards non-resident Bangladeshis and foreign investors, advertising professionals, film-makers, partners etc. who might be interested to know more about 1. what are the latest ads 2. their quality in terms of storyboarding, composing, shooting, messaging, execution etc. or 3. even just to know what a certain Bangladeshi company is up to lately with relation to their products, services and offers.

Secondly, uploading and making available TVCs in YouTube or Vimeo or a certain video sharing website will enable the viewers who are the ultimate consumers not only to comment on those ads but also to share it with their networks through social media and other means if the ad is worth sharing or really funny or controversial. I strongly believe that ordinary consumers can come up with interesting insights and observations about TVCs and we always don’t have to wait for Mr. Know All Ahmed to write reviews in monthly business magazines and business newspapers in Bangladesh. The viewers are the best reviewers too.

Finally this might open up another opportunity for event management companies or corporates who love to give away awards as a means of self-promotion, to actually arrange a crowdsourced best Bangladeshi TV ad award. In this case, the voting can be made open to worldwide viewers and not left on the hands of a jury made of business leaders, teachers, gurus who know each other well and prefer to keep a closed-door community.

So what do you think about this? Please share your views.

Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh - 8 ideas for your business!

How is your business gearing up for the greatest cricketing event of the world when it kicks off in Dhaka on February 17^th? As the cricket lovers from all around the world will either get glued to their TVs, computers and phones to get latest updates from the grounds of the sub-continent and while many of them will arrive in person to root for their favourite teams – how as a Bangladeshi business, you are preparing yourself not only to cash in on the opportunity but also to play some role whatsoever in upholding the local norms, cultures and traditions to the world media, to visitors in Bangladesh and to viewers abroad?

Might be a good idea to steer clear of the controversies and chaos ahead of the big event next month. Already quite a lot of chaos has been reported in relation to clashes for tickets, regarding the event managers of the opening ceremony and their involving Indian celebrities and the more serious concerns about adequate accommodation facilities for the foreign visitors. We can’t talk about all these in this post and neither we are in any position to provide solutions for them. Rather lets stay focused on opportunities. Not in any particular order or preference, some thoughts are as following –

1. Reengineer, rename and revamp your menu

If you are in the business of food, takeaways, fast-food or restaurants, how about renaming some key popular dishes in your menu according to the cricketing themes, teams or even players? We already have seen our love for opponent-named dish items when we had beaten Australia and New Zealand in form of kangaroo curry and kiwi bhorta special! So be innovative and go ahead rename your cocktails as ‘Captain Courageous-Shakib Special’, burgers as ‘Tornado Tamim’ or spicy items as ‘Mashrafee Masala’. Possibilities are endless.

2. Eat, sip and cheer

Again this goes out to those in food businesses, make sure you have TV screens, large and small, installed and supported by UPS to show matches as they are being played. Quite a great opportunity to lock in your customers to enjoy the match in your restaurants with specially discounted food prices for the duration of the match may be, or for an innings only or even for the first fifteen overs only!

3. A win for Bangladesh, a win for the food-lovers, shoppers and mobile users

Don’t wait for the politicians and governments to flood our players with accolades and awards incase we steal some thunder during this world cup, you can do it yourself from your business perspective, you can do it early on and by rewarding not the players but their numerous supporters and fan from around the country. Announce early on through your websites, social media pages, or put up a banner and print in your menus that you will offer free meals or free drinks all throughout the following day of a historic home win! This might be your gesture to show gratitude to Tamims and Shakibs incase they bring some much needed glory for the nation form the cricket war fields.

In the same tune, if you are a retailer, the world cup offers you a great external hook to offer discounts for a day, week or based on a match by match basis to your customers. Its just a matter of how you show your brand to be completely drenched in the world cup rain and how passionately you want to share this spirit with your customers.

Finally, the mobile phone companies can always offer their subscribers free minutes or free SMSes incase Bangladesh wins, so that the good news can be shared faster and wider among friends and families at home and abroad.

4. Freebies with every wicket, freebies with every six

Again this idea might work on a match by match basis and can be limited to the day of the match only. You can announce beforehand that every time Bangladesh is playing a match, every time an opponent wicket falls or everytime a Bangladeshi batsman scores a six, you offer a free coke to all who are present in your restaurant at that moment.

5. The glorious cricketing moments in DVD

We’ve talked about this before in an earlier post. No occasion will be as great as this to finally showcase in the form of a DVD/CD the historic winning moments of Bangladeshi cricket and make them available for purchase or as prize items competitions in your points of sales, business premises.

6. Patriotic marketing and patriotism merchandising

A great occasion yet again to print out t-shirts, mugs, key-rings, wrist-bands, stickers, photoframes etc. with the Bengal tigers on it. Even better that if you are a charity or as part of your corporate generosity towards the development of the sport in Bangladesh, you can decide to donate either the full or a certain percentage of sales to skills searching, developing initiatives for Bangladesh cricket.

7. Tourism and sightseeing – if a festival doesn’t exist – invent it and have fun!

There is no doubt that travel agencies and the tourism board of Bangladesh are gearing up to woo the foreign sports tourists to various scenic locations of Bangladesh. Many among this group might actually arrive in the sub-continent with a view to not only enjoy great games of cricket but also to make a touristic discovery of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the same breathe, which is certainly a good idea. It might not be the best idea to compare tourist attractions of Bangladesh with other countries as we have what we have and we can change things overnights, merely can try to improve them over time. Something we can certainly do is to innovate rituals or activities at or surrounding our tourist locations and relate them to cricket in such a way that even after the world cup finishes, we can continue with the trend and festivities years after years.

For example, how about a beach cricket tournament in Cox’s Bazar? The format of the game, rules, prizes etc. might require a whole different post but the key idea here is to innovate something unique which doesn’t exist as a tourist attraction related to cricket anywhere in the world- or certainly not in the Indian sub-continent. We have the longest unbroken sea beach in the whole world stretching 120 kilometres. A fun to watch 20-20 cricket match at every 5 kilometer of the stretch over a period of 2-3 days might draw enough participants and tourists alike to visit each location for the fun of it, and thus discover the unique beauties of the coastal Bangladesh in a different sporting way.

8. The cricket bat of best wishes

Although a bit late for this may or I am not entirely aware if anything similar have already taken place- but it would be nice if a massive cricket bat could have travelled to all district towns of Bangladesh where the fans could have signed in their support for the home team. If travelling to each corner of the country sounds improbable within a month then atleast visiting the divisional headquarters would be nice. In the end of the day, the world cup in Bangladesh will be more about the fans and lovers of cricket than about the players themselves. So the common public have every right to be a part of this festivity from outside the stadiums too.

So just some random thoughts here, let me know how you are preparing for the fun with the bat and ball next month.

Social 999 and Information Dam - How to deal with social emergencies with technology? - Part 1

Today - a post not directly related to businesses or branding as such, something more related rather with my work with social networks, technology,development, human rights - social change in general. Inspired by the latest conversations in the field, especially by the pioneering thoughts of Clay Shirky, I had been thinking along the lines of a concept which I term as 'social 999' and a related concept of 'information dams' and how, I wonder, we could use these to precipitate social change. These are very embryonic thoughts and will require further research, ideas and investigation in days to come.The key question is how would it be if we could use social networking platforms as some sort of a social 999 or a social 911 in which case we could use a combination of existing social media channels where the look-alikes of typical real life emergencies such as 'policing, medical and fire-fighting' could be dealt with by the community members themselves?

If you look at how the emergency numbers and the services that are provided across countries by calling the usually three digit emergency number, you will realise that there are several characteristics related to the emergencies. Firstly they concern with loss, damage or deterioration of properties, health or even life of an individual or a community as a whole. Imagine what happens when a fire breaks out in a block of buildings and there are women, children and elderly trapped inside. Think about a theft or a crime occurring which effect a household or an individual which require police to address the case immediately. In the same breathe, imagine when the paramedics rush with their ambulance to attend to the deteriorating health situation of any unfortunate ailing person in pain. All these circumstances include the threat to health, property or law and order which can influence individuals and communities alike.

Secondly there is this aspect of reaction speed. Imagine what would happen if the fire brigade arrives to a burning block of flats after say 2-3 hours when the whole infrastructure might get reduced to ashes. Similarly what's the point if the paramedics arrive at the scene to attend a heart patient in distress after an hour or so? How quickly the emergency service providers can react is one of the key critical success factors that make 999 or 911 effective and useful for the community.

Thirdly it's important that perfectly skilled professionals are standing by to respond to our emergency calls. How terrible it would be that a bunch of amateurs wearing uniforms would show up with water buckets to extinguish a fire? Even worse if they hesitate to plunge into the fire risking their own lives to save others. The brave-hearts fighting with fire are expected to be brave and well trained. Similarly you will not want amateurs to attend to a patient who have just had a heart attack.

Finally there is this issue of abuse of the system. Imagine the amount of false alarms the emergency services in real life must have to deal with on a daily basis. This can range from old widows calling 999 to help look for their missing cats to panic struck health freak who calls for paramedics after mild chest burns which may be due to trapped wind. In majority of the cases I guess emergency service providers have no other way but to respond and attend to such calls, incase the issues are life threatening, even if they end up with a pure time wasting experience.

Now lets take this opportunity to replace these emergencies with some kind of a social emergency, violations of human rights of some sort against any individual or a community and imagine the services- as actions against those violations. How could we conceptualise a ‘social 999’ like scenario where the user groups, communities of best practices, groups, tribes, tightly or loosely connected networks – whatever you call it, will use social networks to deal with a social emergency, a man made crisis of some nature, which might require urgent addressing by all involved to tackle the challenge. Lets look into some more details of social 999 and the concept of ‘information dam’ in the next release.

Image taken from http://www.snodlandcommunityresponders.org.uk/about.html

Know the BTCL number ? Wannna know the Home Address too ?

This can only happen in Bangladesh ! Yes my friend only in Bangladesh !

I don’t know whether you know about the E-Bill service from the state owned BTCL or not, but today I’ll show you how anyone can see the address or even bill of last month using the E-Bill service from this so riotous service !

Take a BTCL number and log on here http://203.112.222.42/

Your Customer ID(Area Code+Phone) : is your BTCL number (For Dhaka its 02XXXXXXX)

And here comes the interesting part

Your Password is Same as your Customer ID (!!!!!)

Rest can be done easily by any layman who know a small bit of Internet !

Click on the Print/View customer Bill from where you can easily get the address !

Not mention, the very Pungta’s can easily change the password so that the actual user would never(!) be able to access their Bill !

Thanks BTCL for keeping our information so safe !

NB: Please change your own password not others !

Robi gets a Bangla website for itself

Secret cables from @Robileaks confirm the fact that senior management of Robi (erstwhile Aktel) have secretly taken into heed the request from Bangladesh Corporate Blog to have a Bangla version of its website. Irated with the akika from Aktel to Robi, we did give them quite an earful in this post here, which also included a tip to have a Bangla website. Although we haven’t received any note of thanks from senior Robiuls as we Bangalees usually prefer not to acknowledge our sources of inspirations and ideas and generally claim all to be our very own. So never mind.

Hats off to Robi for taking the lead to have a Bangla version of its website, not only as the first Bangladeshi telecom operator to have done that but also the very first Bangladeshi leading brand to have done that I believe. Please let me know if you are aware of any other Bangladeshi companies who have a website in both English and Bangla. Although just having a website in Bangla may not have any direct impact on increasing its popularity and profitability, it goes without saying that those 1. in rural or urban Bangladesh 2. who are more comfortable consuming information in Bangla than in English 3. who want to know through internet more about Robi - would find this initiative to be very timely, locally sensitive and culturally adaptive.

Robi sets an example for companies in other industries too. Say for example if you are an IT company and if you are trying to woo new clients, partner companies in Denmark primarily – then try having a Danish version of your website too. Just having a target market language version of your website will not be a clear cut guarantee for winning new business but somewhere there is this social element regarding languages in business that it creates a first impression if you attempt to communicate or represent your credentials and expertise in the language of your customers. In the end of the day, you will not win any IT outsourcing business if you have a great Danish version of your website, but your programmers and management included are incompetent and unnprofessional.

Its going to be even more important to have business content in local languages available online. Not only will this increase the outreach of that content to an audience who are more comfortable with local languages, it will also push up local language search engine optimisation, which I guess is still in its infancy.

Daily Star Means Business

Its extremely encouraging to learn that the leading English daily of the country - The Daily Star - is going to revamp its business section in an 'exciting 8-page format, from personal finance to heavy industry, from green business to small business, from management styles to real estate, from luxury goods to logistics -- we will be giving you something new to read every day.'

Undoubtedly a very timely initiative by the English daily to highlight Bangladesh corporate, businesses-small and big. Some quick observations regarding their intention when they said we will be giving you something new to read every day. I don't want to sound cynical here but it would help in near future if we allow, enable and encourage followers of the Daily Star to do more than merely 'reading'. In no way the new initiative should be a reinforcement of a passive participation by mere reading the business news. The Daily Star is in an extremely advantageous position to facilitate more interaction, collaborative production from its business readerbase who can contribute to the formation of the business journalism that they are trying to focus on. I would be biased to advocate for more blogging aided with consumer journalism with videos, audio, images, text etc. from its readers who are first hand consumers of products and services of Bangladeshi companies. Please keep in mind that there is a difference between business journalism and business blogging and DS can't expect to do both. Also, it would be interesting to see how the DS takes advantage of digital platforms i.e. websites and social media to propagate its renewed focus on Corporate Bangladesh to make the Brand Bangladesh more visible and much talked about beyond the borders.

Best Air's destiny is, now, in the hands of Destiny! (R U Serious!!?)

Yeah dawg! I'm serious.

When Best Air (BA) was grounded, I never though it'd catch up again, but here it is, making the news once more! Guess who's at the controls now? ummmm..... Biman? GMG?... United Airways?? ... nnnope!!! It's Destiny, yeah bro, that's right. I don't know how many of you do get excited hearing a marketing (low-level) company taking over an aviation company, but I do (a lot)!!

Here's why: Say you are a teacher at a University, and on your recent holidays you want to go visit your cousins in Australia. On the way to Australia, over the Pacific, your jet starts falling due to engine failure, and the decompression has had its toll on the pilots' lives. At that point one of the surviving crews approaches you and asks, can you fly a plane? What would you say? (Lolzzzz)

All that was my thoughts on the taking over of the business. Anyway, if you'd like to read the news that I copied from two newspapers you might actually get some serious news. Hope you've a good week!

THE DAILY STAR

Destiny Group has bought off 80 percent stakes in the troubled Best Air for Tk 150 crore, said a top official of the local airline yesterday.

Best Aviation Ltd, the owning company of Best Air, and Destiny, a multilevel marketing company, signed a share-transfer deal on November 11, according to M Haider Uzzaman, who now acts as the managing director for the airline.

The deal was announced at the re-launch of the carrier last night.

“We were looking for partners to recover from the financial crunch that forced us to be grounded for months,” said Haider Uzzaman who had presided over Best Aviation as chairman before the takeover.

Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, chairman of Destiny Group, said his company wants to help Best Air come out of the crisis it has been facing for the last 21 months.

"Best Air has a ready infrastructure and permission to fly on 17 routes, and this has made us interested," said Amin, also the new chairman of Best Aviation.

"Now, we have plans to purchase three aircraft, including ATR-500 with the capacity of 72 seats, and Airbus-320 with 150 seats," he said, adding: "We hope these new initiatives will help the airline begin a new journey and regain its reputation."

The company started passenger service in January 2008 under brand Best Air.

But within 14 months of its operation, the airline was grounded amid financial crisis resulting from a surge in oil prices on the global market.

Haider Uzzaman said: "The fuel price soared so high that we were unable to bear the losses coming from the increased fuel bills."

"And eventually we were forced to suspend flights to avoid further losses," he said, claiming that the airline incurred a loss of Tk 72 crore at the time it was grounded in March 2009.

Since then Haider Uzzaman had been looking for partners to inject fresh funds to salvage the airline that spread wings to catch a portion of Bangladesh's air travel market of nearly 40 lakh passengers a year.

"We negotiated with many potential investors. Finally we formed ties with Destiny," he said.

The airliner had earlier formed a partnership with Kuwait-based Aqeeq Aviation Holding in March 2007. But Haider Uzzaman claimed that Aqeeq did not invest in the airline in line with the contract.

He said Destiny would pay Tk 56 crore initially. "The rest will be paid within the next three months."

The partnership will help Best Air use the huge marketing and distribution network of Destiny and resume flights soon.

"We are trying to give a new look to the airline by bringing in new aircraft and hiring skilled hands from home and abroad," said Haider Uzzaman, adding that the airline wants to resume domestic flights from March 26.

He said the airline is now in the process of getting a clearance from Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh to resume flights.

"We want to resume our passenger services on Dhaka-Chittagong route from the Independence Day. We also plan to operate two flights a day on Dhaka-Cox's Bazar route from the same day."

It will resume flights to Sylhet, Barisal, Jessore and Syedpur on March 26, Haider Uzzaman said.

The airline plans to open flights to regional destinations such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Dubai, Singapore and Male from September next year.

DAILY SUN

Best Air will appear in a new shape in March next year aiming to provide better services by world class professionals.

The announcement of re-launching came at a function held at a city hotel on Monday afternoon.

Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad attended the occasion as chief guest.

Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Civil Aviation and Tourism Moin Uddin Khan Badal MP, Secretary Shafiq Alam Mehedi and Destiny Group Chairman Mohammad Rafiqul Amin also attended the programme.

Destiny Group recently acquired 80 percent of shares of Best Air. Best Air would operate flight in domestic and international routes by Airbus-320 and ATR-500. The Airbus-320 has 150 revenue seats with 15 business classes while the ATR-500 has 72 passenger seats.

In international routes, it would operate flights to Bangkok, Canton, Jeddah, Kualalampur, Maldives, Manila, Myanmar, Singapore, Ryad, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong through digital fly-by-wear flight control system.

Expert cabin crew from home and abroad will offer modern in-flight services to ensure comfortable fly in the air.

Bangladeshi police responding to SMS - Latest science fiction

This is one of the recent technology related development that caught me by surprise – Where you can send SMS to complain to police in Bangladesh. There is no wonder that mobile based value added services in Bangladesh are pioneering, innovative and much ahead of the game in the region. However this one went a bit too far. In a place where its challenging to get help from the police in time even through normal means, expecting that men in shining armour will show up just by sending an SMS is a bit far fetched. Moreover, I really don’t understand why would someone send an SMS to file a General Diary with police when the same could be done more conveniently by just dialling up number.

Foreign development agencies sometimes have a mandate to show impact to their donors. When it comes to technology, may be its too lucrative for them to show a science fiction like project for the local region which might wow the donor and media. It would have helped if UNDP could have looked at the existing systems of policing and thought of how to improve that first. For example, how about a 999 like nation wide number for emergency services such as fire, medical emergency and police related issues? I accept however that there are a few strange socio-cultural snags in Bangladesh which makes it difficult to even get a cab from the streets to make it to go where you want to. And to get help from police in time, without any involvement of bribes and bureaucracies is still a rather utopia. SMS and technology in general may be can’t change basic mindset or the impression towards police, something UNDP need to keep in mind. So lets come down to earth from science fiction like projects such as this and see how we can make basic technology work to provide public services to the common people.

Promoting your products and services through Statusbites

Since one of my key jobs is to find out how social media and user generated content can contribute to social change, we recently came up with a simple tactic which I call ‘statusbites’ to increase the circulation, frequency and visibility of status messages in social networks specific to any campaign, cause etc. Since the same principles can be applied to for-profit organisations as well, I thought to share the same for use by Bangladeshi managers who are contemplating how best to use social media for a variety of business objectives. Please note that increasingly consumers are getting to know about your products and services not from your official websites and TVCs but from the newsfeeds in their Facebook profiles through the fan pages and groups of companies they subscribe to. So an important mindshift needs to take place that rather than expecting consumers to travel to your websites to know more about you, you need to make sure that your message is travelling to where they are spending their times these days.

What are statusbites?

Statusbites are a series of short texts which describes a company product, service, news piece, event etc. which can be published and promoted over a period of time through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Why do we need statusbites?
Its not always the case that users come to your company website to know more about your products and services. You need to ensure that your messages travel to digital spaces where an increasing number of your customers spend a significant amount of their daily lives in recent times – social networks. Statusbites aim to inform consumers who are more comfortable to consuming information through social networks with the help of the series of statusbites. So by the end of the run of say 10-15 status messages and provided they have followed the sequence – they would be able to comprehend the key messages, key benefits, objectives, features etc. regarding the product, service your company is trying to promote.

Also, you can’t expect that all your followers and fans in social media come across your posts the moment you publish them. Most of the time your publications/status messages can be buried down a plethora of other messages that the users are bombarded with every second – both from updates from their friends/families and from other subscriptions. So you need to make sure that your message shows up often- not to flood the newsfeed, but in convenient frequencies.

How to prepare statusbites?
•Think of the 10 or 15 key messages you want consumers to know about the product, service, event you are organising
•Write each of them down within 130 characters with space and the hashtag of your choice (i.e. #gpnewoffer)
•State whether you want each of the statusbites to link to your company website, Facebook page etc.

How are they scheduled?
The statusbites can be scheduled to appear in your preferred social networking properties with the help of a third party software called Co-Tweet. The scheduling of statusbites publication can be spread over a week, two weeks etc. depending on the plan of promotion before, during or after a target event, date of your product/service launch.

Example:
Gpfact1/10 - #grameenphone launches #mobitaka to make remittances easier http://shortlinktoyourwebsite

Gpfact2/10 – did you know that #mobitaka allows you to get rewards of 10% for every 100 taka you remit? http://shortlinktoyourwebsite

Gpfact3/10 – did you know that 10,000 people used #mobitaka in November to remit a total of 150,000 taka to their friends and families? http://shortlinktoyourwebsite

So as you can see, you don’t have to do entirely new things in social media for your products and services, rather if you tweak your status message slightly to suit your objectives and the audience, you might appear to be more engaging and informing in social media networks. Let me know what you think.

NOT EVERYONE CAN FLY

10,000 is the amount you have to spend to make a return trip to Chittagong.

14,000 for  Cox's Bazaar. Yet it took me not a paisa more than

9,000 to make a return trip to Kuala Lumpur. Ask me how?

To answer this question, we have to turn to the magnificent 70's. When despite the Cold War's Russian roulette, a gentleman called Freddie Laker coined the infamous "Sky Train" service between London and New York. Laker Airways, which eventually failed... had started an era in air travel which would shape a large portion of what we see as the "airline industry" today. Low-cost aka. budget aka. no-frills airlines, are in simple words, airlines that sell tickets at considerably lower fares. Although too simple to address, this cost-saving is actually achieved though a very streamlined, effective and no-bullshit model. Over the years, airline behemoths like Southwest in 70's, Ryanair in 80's, Easyjet in 90's and last but not least Air Asia in 00's have started out with this no-frills model, sustained the global downturns and have survived to be winners at the end. In fact Southwest today is one of the largest airlines in the world, and also one that sustained the least (-) growth during the post-9/11 recession. I wonder why?

I am not a widely travelled person as many of you who are reading this could and would be. But I do know a bit of history and adding to that a few jargon from the business school, a few years learning the consumer traits... I do at time get an insight or two, right. Today's dissection will not be about the low-cost air travel model, that's for the travel gurus and airline pundits to solve. But what I want to bring to light, is the successful and almost unimaginable revival of a dead-concept in the hands of a magician, who goes by the name of Tony Fernandez. Unless you haven't figured it out yet (gosh! this article is so not for you, then)... I am talking about the latest and the bestest airline that flies to Dhaka, Air Asia...

1 Ringgit (Tk. 23) is how much he paid for taking over an ailing low-cost carrier by the name of Air Asia.  Although the token money was nothing more than a formality, he took over the debts of a dying airline with nothing but his exceptional management skills and a trusted bunch of investors (through Tune Group). He gave up his career as a Regional Boss at Warner Music, invested his life's savings into this unknown Tune Group and left the rest to his proven track record of turning things around. And this was all in 2001...

As 2002 drew the dawn of a new day in his own life and the life of his newest venture, Air Asia... It was nothing short of miraculous, when the airline posted profits within a year of its takeover. Some say marriages are made in heaven, acquisitions in hell; but this acquisition was simply too good to be true. And after nearly 10 years of doing business by selling a single class of seats, in a single type of aircraft (initially Boeing 737 and now Airbus A320), with no on-board meals, no refunds and exceptional turnaround times... Air Asia proudly boasts a fleet of 103 aircrafts (with 121 in orders) flying to over 60 destinations around the globe.

Their model was pretty straight-cut to begin with - keep journey times less than 4hrs , which enables them to have seats that don't recline, serve no complimentary meals and of course charge for everything from a reserved seat to extra baggage (well as opposed to a general airline, Air Asia offers 15kg of baggage per head) to even having some extra leg room (yes, they call it HOT SEAT :p). The aircrafts are maintained by some really efficient crew who have a turnaround time that can compete with a Formula 1 pit-stop any day (no wonder, Air Asia sponsors Scuderia Ferrari) and because they are all of a single type, having spare parts in dire times is never a worry anyway.

Ironically even after the arrival of this messiah (who has literally let everyone fly), the local scene hasn't changed much till today. United still flies return trips to Chittagong for no less than 11,000 and with almost equally shitty seats, they charge 24000 to KL as opposed to Air Asia's meager 17000 (at max on a peak period). Air Asia lets you pre-book tickets... not just any advance, but literally years in advance... Whereas for a traditional career out of Dhaka, web ticketing is a hieroglyphic and advance ticketing a myth. In the past decade, Bangladesh has seen the rise of a few private carriers (namely GMG, United and most recently Regent), demise of some other private carriers (Royal Bengal, Parabat, Best) and the continued disgrace of the flag carrier (Biman).

When the whole world is busy benchmarking them against the low-cost operators, Bangladeshi airlines' are busy fighting their own battle... staying in the green to stay in flight! Albeit we have one of the most discouraging air travel frameworks in Bangladesh - high cost of aviation fuel, non-competitive airport charges and subsidized flag carrier; the opportunities were always there. The moment Bangladesh government opened our skies for a short duration in 2007, airlines like Air Asia jumped into this opportunity. Foreseeing the ever-increasing spending habits of the growing middle-class and a lifelong "wanderlust" nature of us, Bangladeshis... Air Asia did what local airlines couldn't do in ages (probably could never have done, either).

They brought down flying to a "reasonable level"!!! By reasonable, I don't refer to the (throw away price) TkTk. 17,0000 I will be paying to fly off to KL once more in a few days via Air Asia. These folks from Malaysia, have not only made air travel an affordable mean of getting around (well ironically, only to KL and onwards for now) but also introduced us to a concept unseen, unheard and untried.

End of the day, all that we have learnt and tried to achieve is nothing but follow their suit by lowering airfares (when promotional fares meant 1 Ringgit for a KL-SG flight, we replicated it as 10-15% off on an already overpriced ticket of DHK-BKK flight), sticking to Cold War-era gas-guzzler aircraft (the De Havilland Dash 8s and even older MD-80s are nothing short of 10 to 20 years old as they are bought) and eventually getting themselves F*CKED (bankrupt) in the process (case in reference, GMG).

People say, men in the army have their brains in their knees; strangely it seems... so do the pilots and aviation aristocracies!!!

And thus we remorsefully realize... NOT EVERYONE CAN FLY!!!

The beauty of BUZZ!!!

Social networking, microblogging, instant messaging, twitting... all this make up for the world that we live in. A world which is LOUD, too OPEN for the closed-minded and COMPLICATED beyond definition. Yet we enjoy living in it... complain or not, suffer or not... we do like livin' in this "chaos". Such a world is nothing but a creation of ours; well at least I tend to think so. As we get more and more involved with the "power of the internet" over "actual human skills", we consistently make way for the "new world" to take over the old one, the one we define as our planet... a place where we have lived in for thousands of years. This change isn't a overnight process though; over the years... through the million hours we have spent making this world more a spiderweb, grapevine or whatever you wish to call it.... we have become victims of creating a BUZZ about everything. Everything that moves, every soul that sneezes... makes a BUZZ! In simpler words... we are a victim of the very buzz that we create to keep ourselves content, recognized and most importantly going on for more.

Sitting here in my desk on a random saturday night, with my facebook window open, MSN signed on, gtalk in "away" status... I am conveying my message through a blog. A message against buzz is ultimately going to be promoted via another buzz. That's how ironic the whole process is, yet that is how we have come to accept life as. We live in it, we breathe it, we look forward to creating a bigger and better version of it every freakin' time... We simply are... and will be...BUZZed!!!!

Authored by Sabih Ahmed at http://sabihspeaks.blogspot.com/

Cause marketing for Bangladeshi NGOs

This is that one time in the UK when patriotic Britons don the poppy in response to the annual call from the Royal British Legion's poppy appeal - As they mention that "each year the nation expresses its unequivocal support for The Royal British Legion's charity work through the Poppy Appeal. Our emphasis this year is the need to help the Afghan generation of the Armed Forces and their families - today and for the rest of their lives. Our target in 2010 is £36 million and we call on the nation to give generously and to wear their poppies with pride". Starting from day to day commuters to TV presenters,from football fans to students, Britons from all walks of life proudly seem to show off their support and engagement with the cause, as appealed by the British Charity. Some key observations which the Bangladeshi NGOs and charities can take note of.

1. Performing a ritual

One of the most important elements that binds together a group, a tribe is the act of performing some routine acts depending on the time of the month, sighting of the moon or it can be any other relevant social norm to which everyone adheres to at the same time. British Legion has successfully branded this period of the year as if its the 'poppy period' where every interested British citizen buys a paper poppy clip from off-licence shops, tube stations for a pound or more and puts it on their clothes to show their affiliation to the cause. Its pretty amusing to see every next person around the city wearing it, be it on TV, work, public transport etc. As if its a yearly ritual which is unwritten in any holy script or in the country's constitution, but its the charity's appeal to practice this ritual for a noble cause it has been advocating for.

2. Connecting patriotism

The British Legion successfully linked its cause to a wider hook - patriotism. Whether the UK should have sent troops to Afghanistan or not, that might be entirely a different discussion. But the dignity that is involved in serving the nation wearing uniforms and the pain and losses that the families endure is something which has a very strong emotional appeal, much beyond any political myopia. Its very likely that social causes related to patriotism will almost always appeal especially to the young generation and prove more effective than calls and causes related to religious beliefs.

3. Using technology

The charity has made it easier for donors to make their contributions in a variety of ways combining mobile and web based channels. They have made it easier for people not only to donate money but also to track their contributions by providing transparency enabled by technology. They have also opted for outdoor advertising.

4. Adding glamour and peer pressure

The charity has successfully endorsed famous celebrities and media personalities to wear the poppy without signing any of them in exchange of any fat checks. The glitterati have picked this up as an accessory, as a 'must wear' during this time of the wear, lest they get branded by the British media or public as 'insensitive' to the heroics and sacrifices of the British troops. This sense of obligation is a type of peer pressure which spreads in common public as well, when you will see majority of the fellow commuters in the morning bus/tube wearing that, either you will become curious to know more what this is all about or you will end up getting one for yourself too, in order not to be left out of the current craze.

Once upon a time Bangladesh was called the land of mosques. Now its also the land of NGOs. We are so used to asking for alms to foreign donors with our palms up that we have completely forgotten to put our hands back in our own pockets. I wonder what does it take for a social enterprise or any NGO to release coatpins, badges of Bangla alphabets from a week before 21 February every year? NO. We would rather sell red roses and red baloons during that time because that's what 'others' are doing. Why doesn't Muktijoddha Foundation come up with such schemes which say a campaign called 'Amra ekti phul ke bachabo bole juddho kori' every December and asks for a donation of 5 tk. in exchange of a Shapla (water lily) pin or a wrist band which everyone will feel like wearing? Shapla - the national flower of Bangladesh, to remind the new generation that the valiant freedom fighters of Bangladesh had taken up arms to protect the innocent flower and the innocence of our motherland in 1971. Cynics will always claim that we don't have money, but I really don't have any urge to refute these claims, everybody knows very well how rich some rich are getting and how poor some poor are becoming in Bangladesh. Moreover when we already have a socio-religious ritual of zakat or fitra every year, I honestly believe that even religious NGOs could add some sort of innovation in their appeals for causes which can give them some uplift from stereotypes and prejudice. Finally, I can safely claim that Bangladeshi NGOs have enough clues and hooks in our culture and history to innovate the way they go about doing their business. Atleast this time, we should not wait to see first in Zee TV or Star Plus how this is done and then try to duplicate it.

image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherlock77/3016582409/