If I am not wrong the one of the Famouse Mummy(not Tutenkhanum) of Egypt was in our meuseums in USA for almost a year.Same way there was some arts from france and other countries too. Those are one Masterpieces. This is a culturul exchange programme going over civilized world. If we do not participate thats our problem. However I do not see there was any intention of two advisers to send those Items to theif. Look wait and see we are not united in any issues and whoever did the job if the are Bangladeshi they must not be united for a long time and the fact will come out. Those who are trying to make politics on this issue they do not have any love for Banglades.
Please excuse my sppeling mistakes.
M Amin/Texas
-----Original Message-----
From: Syed Aslam <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com>
To: khabor <khabor@yahoogroups.com>; chottala@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 3:33 pm
Subject: [chottala.com] Absolute power corrupts, absolutely - Weekly Blitz story
Absolute power corrupts, absolutely
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
The Interim government led by Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed now shall stand liable to the entire nation for sending invaluable artifacts to France despite tremendous protest from various sections of people including Bangladeshi press, because, it is disclosed that, two pieces of extremely precious 'Vishnu' statues had already been stolen from the second consignment. According to various sources, cost of these stolen statues would cross a few million dollars. It is also learnt that, three more status are also missing from the first batch of consignment, which was already sent to France. But, some of the influential members in the government, who are ultimate beneficiaries of the entire scam are keeping the matter secret. Meanwhile, some of the influential advisors in the interim government has suggested law enforcing agencies to try to make a fake recovery drama and replace those stolen statues either with two replicas or two of similar statues [not ancient like the stolen one] recovered by the law enforcing agencies to comfort the protestors. Weekly Blitz already exposed the entire scam and mentioned that two of the influential advisors in the interim government are behind this smuggling of invaluable national assets. Giving immediate reaction to the incident one of the eminent archeologists in Bangladesh said that, the interim government has virtually betrayed with the entire nation by forcefully sending such invaluable artifacts to France defying massive protests.
The 1,500-year-old terracotta Vishnu statues bound for an exhibition in Paris were stolen while in the custody of Air France at the Zia International Airport. Named 'Vishnu' and 'Bust of Vishnu', the statues are from Gupta era of the seventh century. Since being discovered in a dig at 'Mahasthangarh' of Bogra [Northern district in Bangladesh], they had been kept at the National Museum in Dhaka. Cost of these statues are at least US$ 9-10 million while the insurance value of the entire consignment is only US$ 60 thousand. So, if the two stolen statues are finally not found, Bangladesh will have to be happy with the compensation of the part of the entire insurance money. According to Bangladeshi authorities, the invaluable Vishnu statues had been missing from the possession of Air France.
Despite series of protests from people in various walks of life against smuggling of invaluable artifacts to France from Bangladeshi museum, it is shocking to know that the present interim government paid no heed to people's voice, rather silently smuggled the second batch of 189 artifacts to France. Cost of the first and second batch of such precious artifacts would surely cross a few billion dollar.
Meanwhile, due to massive protest in the society, Cultural Affairs Adviser Ayub Quadri in Bangladesh admitted his failure in informing the people about sending such precious artifacts to France and said the heirlooms will be brought back home. The advisor to the interim government said this during a briefing, which was organized following media reports on sending the artifacts to display at an exhibition to be held at 'Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts' in Paris.
The Bangladesh government on December 1 sent the first consignment of 42 age-old objects while the rest of 189 items were sent silently during Eid holiday, triggering an apprehension that those either could be smuggled out or lost. And very surprisingly, if the entire consignment of artifacts worth at least seven billion dollars will be lost, Bangladesh government will get just 2.6 million Euro as insurance covers this amount. It may be mentioned here that, two of the influential advisors in the interim government played important role in smuggling of such invaluable national property to France, defying court order and public reaction. Their over enthusiasm in sending such items surely leaves significant doubts in the minds of people about the ultimate motive behind this secret deal.
Meanwhile, French Embassy in Bangladesh has issued a statement denouncing any possibility of these invaluable artifacts being either stolen or only duplicate copies are being sent back to Bangladesh. If anyone will read the statement of the Embassy, it will be clear to understand the ultimate intention of sending of such huge number of artifacts to Guimet Museum.
In the statement, the French Embassy said, " As of not returning the artifacts at all, this would be theft: it is a serious allegation that is both insulting and ridiculous in view of recent history. Stolen artifacts are trafficked everywhere, but they do not come from national European museums: they are stolen from their country of origin, whichever it is, as recent recovering of such pieces made by RAB or by many police forces throughout the world demonstrate."
Yes, people of Bangladesh said the artifacts will be stolen or duplicated by the Guimet Museum itself and never sent back to Bangladesh . The French Embassy rightly said that, stolen artifacts are trafficked from the country of origin. Yes, it is absolutely true, as our invaluable artifacts are trafficked to France. So, the statement of the embassy never says anything negative about the possibility of our invaluable artifacts being trafficked to France with the active influence of two of the advisors of the interim government.
The statement of the embassy on insurance amount is dubious enough. Let us just read what they said on this issue, which will surely let us understand the ultimate intention. The embassy said, "much has been made of the insurance values. Unique artifacts have, by definition, no monetary value because they can not be replaced, so the insurance value is only an amount set aside for restoration in case of damage. Because a precise amount has to be decided upon, the closest value taken from international auction houses is usually used by the lender. This value is best kept reasonable for two reasons: first, since accidents happen so seldom and would be anyhow fully compensated by the borrower, there is little call to make the insurance companies profit from huge bonuses and second, too high a premium might put the artifacts at risk of been stolen after their return because people might think, mistakenly, that they will be able to sell them for that price. In this particular case, values were reasonable to start with and, purely as a gesture of good will, have been increased further."
Now, when the artifacts will come back to Bangladesh , who can guarantee that these are not mere replicas? Hopefully, this artifacts scandal shall not become a very serious allegation against the present interim government in the days to come. But, of course, the entire process is extremely dubious and especially sending of the batches during holidays leaves strong signal to everyone that, we have every reason to be doubtful. Why the Bangladesh government was over enthusiastic in sending such invaluable items? Who will ultimately benefit from such cloudy deal?
The sending of artifacts now evidently proves that the interim government shows no respect either to public opinion nor to press reactions. It behaves like dictators or someone holding absolute power. And of course, absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
Now let us focus on the incident at Rangs Building. Everyone in Bangladesh by now know that more than one dozen poor construction workers were killed in the collapse of the Rangs Building, most of whose dead bodies are yet to be recovered from the rubbles. According to experts, many people got struck inside the building for days before they died as no one did anything to rescue them. Ridiculous! Shameful!
The advisor concerned to the ministry never visited the spot and the Chief of the interim government, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, who passes through the building everyday, never considered it important to at least get down from his car to see what was happening there. Why? May be there is no value of human lives to many of the members of the present interim government. We all know, Dr. Ahmed has gone to Mecca for performing Hajj to clean his sins. But, do we consider the Almighty Allah to be a stupid to forgive us of our blunders involving human lives? Every human being are the loving creations of Allah, and if someone shows disrespect to such creations, the Almighty shall never forgive him or her. Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is a wise man. So far we know, he is an honest human being too. May I leave a question to the very conscious of the Chief Advisor to the interim government as to how he can seek forgiveness from Allah for ignoring those poor construction workers struck inside Rangs Building and ultimately letting them die? When the Chief Advisor's convoy will pass through the Rangs Building , will the smell of decomposed human bodies will at least move their heart?Posted on 26 Dec 2007 by Root
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