tOOns MaG

[(the CRNB logo, a pencil is uprising and staying upright, leaving the outskirt of a specific region, right after the image it is written
Cartoonists Rights Network
(Below) Bangladesh]
We the Cartoonists Rights Network of Bangladesh (CRNB) started its operation since the cartoonist Arif’s imprisonment; September 2007. Cartoonist Arifur Rahman was a contributing cartoonist to the fun supplementary ‘ALPIN’ of the leading Bangladeshi Daily PROTHOM ALO. The fanatic Islamic parties just picked the cartoon as a political issue and started a massive protest against the daily as well as to Arifur. The same joke which was the topic of Arif’s cartoon was published in November 1998 issue of KISHORE KANTHA, a weekly from the house of the leading Bangladeshi fanatic Islamic party Jamayate Islami Bangladesh. And the joke was published and represented one of its readers who is a Madrashah (Islamic institution) student. Arifur was from a rural area of Bangladesh. He dreamt to be a cartoonist. He achieved some national awards for his cartoon work. We started writing and motivating people to speak for Arif as he was all alone. As a caretaker government going on that time, we the common of Bangladesh have some limitations to do any activities. We took internet as the means to let the people know about his incident. Without having any affiliation just being inspired by the Cartoonists Rights Network International, we in Bangladesh started a group under the name of CRNB(Cartoonists Rights Network,Bangladesh). Ahmed Kabir Kishore was the creator of the group and the admin panel were guided by the renowned Bangladeshi Journalist, blogger Omi Rahman Pial (the author of the interview that first published in a blog and told about the uncensored tells happened in the jail life of Arif), Cartoonist Rokibul Haque Roki (editorial cartoonist,the daily Amar Desh), Iftekhar Inan (studying Business Communication in Sweden), Golam ahmed Khan (an entrepreneur, living abroad).
From the very first day we the members of the group trying to do something that let the people know that we are united and people should watch it. As well as we the cartoonists of Bangladesh were looking for something which can make us more respectful to the commons and can help us to be united. We found the two common contemporary issues that very well fit with our area; that is impurity in food and impurity in language. Now a days we the common of Bangladesh are just a play doll to the businessmen. They are mixing iron cracks with rice, mixing formalin to fish, marketing chemical in the name of energy drink apparently some of the media specially FM radio channels are promoting some radio Jockeys (known as RJ in our country) who all are speaking Bengali in such a way that the language is a kind of humiliating and is full of slang (the present government already published some rules and regulations for those RJs).We, the Bengali sacred lives for the mother language in the 21st February of 1952 and UNESCO recognized the day as the international mother language day. So we don’t let this happen. We planned to be united to protest and to stay together for these issues. We stayed together in the Teachers Students Centre of the University of Dhaka in the month of Language, February, 26. We were acclaimed by the common as well the media covered it with high appreciation. We believe that an editorial cartoonist may speak for our right but he should have the courage that we are here to fight and stand for him like a BRO of CRNI stood once for a Bangladeshi Cartoonist Arifur. That’s why we dedicated this movement to our friend BRO and the famous rebellious Bangladeshi Cartoonist named Dopeyaja (actual name was Kazi Abul Kashem).
Now CRNB team is as follows

Arifur Rahman, freelance cartoonist, blogger, film maker, animator
Ahmed Kabir Kishore, editorial cartoonist in the Daily Amar Desh and weekly Bichitra, worked as a staff cartoonist in the daily Prothom Alo, weekly Shaptahik-2000, the daily Matrivumi, and monthly Unmad, presently worked as associate creative director in a leading Bangladeshi Advertising Agency
Cartoonist Rokibul Haque Roki editorial cartoonist, the daily Amar Desh, worked in the daily Naya Diaganta, monthly Unmad
Cartoonist Tarik Saifullah editorial cartoonist, the daily Ajker Kagoj, worked in the daily Shamakal, monthly Unmad
Cartoonist Sadat staff cartoonist,the daily Prothom Alo and the Daily Star, worked in the daily Shamakal, monthly Unmad
Cartoonist Mehedi Haque staff cartoonist, the daily Prothom Alo and the Daily New Age, worked in the monthly Unmad
Cartoonist Mitu staff cartoonist, monthly Unmad
Cartoonist Kanon staff cartoonist, the Daily Amar Desh, monthly Unmad

Omi Rahman Pial, journalist, blogger, a doctor, presently working in a internet based news service
Iftekhar Inan, writer, studying Business Communication in Umea University, Sweden
Atiq Anan, lyricist, singer, owner of a musical group name Magpie Robin
Golam ahmed Khan,an entrepreneur, living in USA

by Pragneeth Eknaligoda

Letter from journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, who was abducted on 24th January 2010 in Colombo Sri Lanka

(This personal letter written by Prageeth Eknaligoda to a non relative daughter living in abroad provides window to his perceptions on political – military terror that has engulfed Sri Lankan Society. Written two months after he was abducted for the first time and later being dropped in a quarry in August 2009,. this is a personal narrative of his life after the abduction. The context of this narrative is the popular pro war sentiments in Sinhala society in the aftermath of war victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which made people like Prageeth a traitor. He was abducted for the second time and so far all efforts to trace him has failed .This is an English translation of his original Sinhala letter.)

03 November 2009

My daughter Ruwandi,

I read your email you sent me. Please excuse this late reply. Today you are not the small cute baby whom I cajoled in my lap. Now you are a grown-up person who understands things. My heart is full of joy for that. I didn’t have time to write you back in peace because I became isolated among thousands of human beings. I had again to adopt to tedious safe life patterns whether I liked it or not. I had to leave my job which made me loose my income. Even my closest ones didn’t have any other option than leaving me alone. This is not a personal fault of anyone. It is a logical reality. In these times no one can support anyone else. Furthermore, no one dares to help someone like me who has become a target of the sacred military regime. But if there were not two, three persons who were courageous enough to help me, my situation would have become unthinkable. The terror can even change the way a person thinks and acts.

What we have in this country today is a terror aimed at individuals. This is not like the generalized terror on society which we faced in 1988/89. It is a terror that is not visible because everyone tries to take care of oneself but does not pay attention to others. Like in those days no one helps the ones who became targets. The dependents become helpless. Although there is no open discussion among people fear is lurking in everyone’s mind. Instead of facing the fear in an organized way in this country people are living making fear a virtue. In this way, cowardness is masqueraded as tactical intellect or cleverness. They say that one is facing danger because of his foolishness. If not this, they look for some errors which he has made or they look for justifications for the suppression he is facing. Accordingly I am now confirmed as a fool or wrongdoer or sinner even among my closest ones. I am not going to make efforts to change this belief or argue to justify my stand.

I look at them with compassion. I am not going to use the terror as a reason to change or degrade the politics I believed as just and right and in which I was engaged in accordingly. I cannot act against my conscience. The government has a power stretched towards New Delhi , Beijing , Islamabad and Tel Aviv. I know they have a torture-army trained in methods of placing the body on nailed beds, picking up body parts and liquidating them in acid basins to destroy the opponents. And I know that puritan, common society is ready to provide billions of rupees to carry out those crimes. I know that killing me, being a patient and physically week to the lowest level, is easier than killing an ant. But just because of that I cannot support building a cruel autocratic state. I cannot support killing thousands including infants and old, humiliating them, imprisoning them, and grabbing their property and land. I cannot be a wise man who pretends not to see these actions. I cannot support dividing a country which should be united. That is against the morals I adhere to. Disgrace and death brings more happiness than supporting such a policy.

I have become a wrongdoer although I have not done any wrong against anyone. I do not blame anyone for this. I do not have anger against the soldiers who tortured me while abducting and taking me away to assassinate me. Why? Because they just did a job assigned to them. If they are not in that job they, too, would have been innocent persons like me and could have fallen victim to this cruel reality. And I know that the power of this cruel reality does not rest on those armed men or on President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Actually, as it came out from the President’s mouth he is only the trustee of the following: The power rests on the popular society which holds this sinful ideology. Mr. Rajapakse cannot do anything other than to say ‘black’ to things this society calls ‘black’ and ‘white’ to things this society calls ‘white’. I have understood that this is a historical reality like the social illness described by Albert Camus in his novel The Plague. So I am not shocked.

Daughter, I don’t have a party and I am not part of any organization, therefore, there is no organization to work on behalf of me. Even the people whom I represent don’t know that I am suffering because I work on behalf of them. I do not expect them to know about me. As I detached myself from kit h and kin early in my life, there are no social connections, too. Under these circumstances, the only path open for someone like me, who does not have any value or respect in this society and therefore, who receives no help from anyone, is to walk alone the destined path. I select that option by my own will.

Daughter, isolation and humiliation of a person in danger is the same physical assassination but in a different form. In other words, it is part and parcel of the assassination. The characteristics of this other type of physical assassination is that the one being assassinated can watch how it is being carried out. This brutal pressure is exerted from the unknown gunman alias physical assassin who is in front and the known gunman alias soul assassin who is behind. This is completely different from the 1988/89 terror. I am experiencing this new kind of terror now. I am not the first person who is facing this situation but I would like to be the last one. I believe that this situation will not last long. Sometimes I may not see the future peaceful time following this fearful situation. But I am confident that the future will be better. The most important thing is to sacrifice the present for that future.

What I am writing here now is part of my conclusions I have reached after studying what happened to comrade Sunanda Deshapriya. Daughter, the society we are living in is indebted to him. But my belief is that no one took this into consideration to help him. I don’t know where he is living today and there is no way to find this out. At least, I was not able to render any help to him. But I think that for him, as well as for the whole society and for children like you to whom the future belongs, someone should make a detailed description of the cruel reality that everyone has become a victim of. I do not have the education to do that. I am not the right person. Because of that, even in these difficult and uncertain circumstances, what I am trying to do is to write down the present reality for the future in the hope that someone else will complete this in the time to come. My wish is that I will have enough time to do just that.

Daughter, please do not keep this note after reading it and say hello to Bertie Uncle.

Thank you,
Prageeth Uncle”

Link :- http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/02/disgracthe_physical_assassin_i.html#more

this article from Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=351504442537&topic=16144

New York, February 24, 2010—One month after the disappearance of her husband Prageeth Ekneligoda, the journalist’s wife, Sandhya Eknaligoda, told CPJ that she has not been able to get police or other government officials to actively investigate the case.

“I have written to the president and have not gotten a response,” Eknaligoda said today. Our children want their father back, and we have not gotten a single word about where he is.”

Prageeth Ekneligoda, a political reporter and cartoonist for Lanka eNews, disappeared on the night of January 24. Several CPJ sources said they fear he was abducted. Ekneligoda was described by colleagues as a political analyst who supported opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, who was jailed shortly after he lost the January 26 presidential election to incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Lanka eNews cannot be accessed in Sri Lanka, though the site is available outside the country. Access was blocked around the time of Eknaligoda’s disappearance, two days before voting started.

“The continuing unexplained disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda is a chilling reminder of the dangers Sri Lankan journalists face,” said Robert Mahoney, CPJ’s deputy director. “The lack of response by authorities to his wife’s pleas for an investigation are frightening given the impunity with which journalists have been abused in Sri Lanka.”

On January 29, CPJ expressed alarm over reports that Sri Lankan journalists have been subjected to government intimidation, arrests, censorship, and harassment in the aftermath of the January 26 presidential election. The situation has not improved since then, according to many journalists in the country.

Sandhya Eknaligoda said she last saw her husband when he left for work around 7:30 a.m. on the morning of January 24. After he did not return home that evening, she filed a complaint with the local police office at 11:30 a.m. on the next day. She said police refused to accept the complaint, and only began to look into the case two weeks later. A complaint she filed to Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission has not resulted in any more information, though the commission launched an investigation on February 12. Her attorneys have filed a case in the Court of Appeal, asking the government to reveal if they are holding him. The case is still being adjudicated.

Eknaligoda said her husband was previously abducted by unidentified individuals in August 2009, but released the next day. He had been handcuffed and blindfolded. The incident was never explained nor prosecuted by police. The couple have two sons, ages 16 and 13.

Sri Lanka ranks 13th on CPJ’s list of journalists killed for their work, and fourth on the CPJ Global Impunity Index. In March 2009, CPJ released Failure to Investigate, a report detailing attacks on journalists in the country and the government’s inability to bring prosecutions in the deaths of journalists.

more is here

http://cpj.org/2010/02/no-sign-of-sri-lankan-journalist-eknaligoda-one-mo.php#

Cartoonist and journalist, Prageeth Eknaligoda, was reportedly kidnapped days before the Sri Lankan presidential elections on 26 January 2010 and has not been seen since. This disappearance was just one of several incidents targeting independent or critical media workers in the run-up to the elections. According to the Cartoonists Rights Network, Eknaligoda had created work that was sympathetic to the opposition candidate’s position.Reporters Without Borders states that Eknaligoda had noticed he was being followed for the three days preceding his disappearance. He had previously been kidnapped in August 2009.

Yesterday is 26th February. On the summons of cartoonist Kishor the cartoonists of Bangladesh gathered themselves at TSC in Dhaka University.They were present in a campaign against “Adulteration in food and Adulteration in language.”A good number of cartoonist including Kishor,Mehedi Haque, Tonmoy, Mitu ,Kanon ,Raki and Tarik Saifullah kept standing hanging cartoons on their chests.According to the assiduity of Kishor the campaign was celebrated successfully.Through the campaign cartoonist Kishor proved that they can protest the injustice against them.

New Delhi, Jan 1 (IANS) It took the 1-2-3 agreement “to draw him out”, and quite fittingly the Kerala Cartoon Academy has prepared a coffee table book with caricatures from 123 cartoonists, ranging from Raj Thackeray to R.K. Laxman, for the usually reticent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he comes visiting over the weekend.

The unique New Year gift weighs five kilograms and will be presented to the prime minister on Jan 3 at the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram by the Kerala Cartoon Academy, an association of more than 100 cartoonists that is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Amongst those who have contributed to the tome are E.P. Unny, Ravi Shankar, Ajit Ninan as well as politicos like Raj Thackeray, chief of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Communist Party of India-Marxist’s M.M. Monayee and Muslim League leader M.K. Muneer.

“These cartoons had a common factor – Dr. Manmohan Singh; as protagonist, antagonist or even as a victim,” said a Kerala Cartoon Academy statement.

Academy secretary Sudheernath added that the “non-demonstrative Dr. Singh was no cartoonist’s delight”. But the signing of Indo-US civil nuclear deal, which prompted the Left parties to withdraw its support to the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, changed all that.

“It took the 1-2-3 Agreement and nuclear energy to draw him out. Literally,” Sudheernath told IANS.

“His turban, which became the nuclear orbit in many cartoons here, his square face, thick eyebrows, thin beard, spectacles, pullover, white kurta and pajama – finally a vivid enough picture emerged of the man who is our prime minister,” said Sudheernath, a Delhi-based cartoonist.

The Kerala Cartoon Academy, in collaboration with the Indian Cartoonists’ Association and the Press Club of India, had organised an exhibition of 123 caricatures of Manmohan Singh at the Club premises here in February last year.

“This bunch of 123 cartoons and caricatures is a chronicle in its own right, of an atypical PM’s political awakening,” said the Academy.

Manmohan Singh’s personality, responses, attitude and above all his politics come alive here, said Sudheernath.

He said the Kerala cartoonists “brainstormed” about the appropriate gift to be presented to the prime minister when they invited him as the chief guest for the valedictory function of the academy’s silver jubilee celebrations.

“First we thought of giving 25 cartoons to the PM. When we sent word to brother cartoonists, the response was overwhelming. To the nuclear PM no less than 123,” he said.

Sudheernath said 63 cartoons in the book were from Kerala-based cartoonists who were members of the Academy and the rest from other states; there were a few from overseas as well.

A couple of NRI cartoonists and two woman cartoonists complete the lot.

Manmohan Singh, who begins his two-day Kerala visit Saturday, will be inaugurating the 97th Indian Science Congress.

Thanks
Regards

SUDHEERNATH
(Cartoonist)
secretary
Kerala Cartoon Academy
www.sudheernath.com
09868264230
011-22770365

Dear Cartoonist,

This year, the Kerala Cartoon Academy  is planning an exhibition of the caricatures of Oscar winners Resool Pookutty and A R Rehman, to salute the talented Indians and their achievement globally.
We are planning to 50 caricatures each of Resool and Rahman, which would be exhibited in December.
As of now, we have collected 50 Resool Pookutty caricatures from 50 cartoonists.

Now KCA is requesting all cartoonists to contribute caricature/cartoon of A R Rehman to make out effort fruitful and meaningful.
You may email a hi-resolution (300 DPI) image of the work to

cartoonacademy@gmail.com

Thanks

Regards

SUDHEERNATH

(Cartoonist)

secretary

Kerala Cartoon Academy