Family Trip to NY city

A 2 day long hectic trip to NY city started very early morning of 21 April. Lucky Star Bus started from Boston at 6.30 AM & reached Manhattan Chinatown at around 11 AM. Then we took our lunch to McDonalds, bought subway tickets to Battery Park for availing ferry to the Statue Island. It was a long long que (both for buying tickets & checking into the ferry). Several hours were lost in ques. But it was a sunny beautiful day; so lovely journey along the Hudson river. We got off at the island, circled the statue, took pictures & came back to South Ferry area of Manhattan by the next available ferry. Then we took on a bus which gave great scopes to all skyscrapper building on NY including the Zreo Ground. By bus we went to the Central Park; walked & took rest there till the evening. Then at around 7.45 PM, my Jahangirnagar University classmate Rana picked us & showed different important buildings, statues and more importantly the glazing Times Square of nighttime. It was superb! Then we headed towards Queens & went to Matin Khan's house there. We chatted for about half an hour & started again. On the way Rana took us to the Bengalipara of NY (Jackson Heights).
Then we're taken to Rana's house at Long Island ( about 1 hour drive from downtown). Ooh! Nahid, another classmate & Rana's wife (who loved for long 6 years of university life followed by marriage) cooked many time delicious fods. We ate, talked & then went to bed at midnight.
Next morning Rana & Nahid took us to the Walmart & afterwards Nahid took us to the Sunken Meadow seabeach of Atlantic Ocean. After the lunch again to her house, Nahid carried us to the Huntington train station for travel to NY city. We got off that commuter rail at Jamaica station & took subway to go to Canal Street of Manhattan area. From there we boarded on Fung Wah Chinese bus at 6 PM to come back to Boston. At around 11.30 PM we arrived home.
Spending a couple of hours at home we at 3.00 AM headed towards the Sullivan Square to get our son boarded to Manchester Airport Shuttle as he had to avail a flight from Manchester Regional Airport on his way to the 5 day long trip to Amarillo, Texas (to her aunt's home).

Trip to NY proved a little too short, but the weather was great & we enjoyed many key attractions of the city.

MC Conference in MIT

Today finished the 3 day long Milleneum Campus Conference on global poverty alleviation. It was organized by the Global Poverty Initiative(GPI) of MIT and Milleneum Campus Network (a federation of student organizations based in different campuses across USA). The conference was superb. It seemed unbelievable that soley students can organize such a successful event. It was inaugurated on last Friday where former candidate of the US Presiential Election 2008 Jhon Edwards and USAID Administrator Henrieta Fore spoke. On the concluding day legendary Prof Jaffery Sachs of Columbia University & John Legend, winner of astounding eight Grammy Nominations attended with a unique session of music cum lecture. It was so inspiring that if I didn't make up to join, definitely it would have been a great miss during my Humphrey year.
John & Prof Sach presented the "Show Me- the poverty action tour". Also prof Amy Smith of MIT, Ira Magaziner, an expert of public policy; Paul Farmer, a physician cum anthropologist, among others delivered their keynote speeches with highlights on different aspects of poverty alleviation measures from the globe.
Me along with my son attended the conference. We both were fascinated by the works of others, particularly the students from MIT & other campuses in order to remove poverty curses from the world. We commited to make our own contributions in that cause.

My son coming to MIT today

Today is a very special day as my only child has already headed towards USA from Bangladesh. He's on plane right now at the moment.

He's coming to MIT to attend the ' Millenneum Campus Conference' on global poverty alleviation as an international scholar. The conference will be held during 17-20 April 2008. MIT is bearing his airticket as well as accomodation for the conference days. Being impressed by his writing qualities and experiences in relation to works on poverty alleviation, MIT selected him to sponsor in the conference. By the by, my son - Mohibul Islam completed his O level and A level courses from the EdExcel Examination (a British education system) and currently a 2nd year student of BBA in IBA(Institute of Business Administration) of Dhaka University. He's 19 plus.


Coming to MIT and participating in a MIT organized conference as an international scholar is really something to feel proud of. This will certainly add value to his future resume, I hope. I'm satisfied in contributing to his works and as a father feel proud of my son's success.

Spring Food Festival

Last 11 April 2008 evening was something special for the BU Humphrey Fellows of 2007-08 session. Fellows & their families cooked their country specific dishes, guests related to the program (host families, coordinators, acadenic advisers, MIT Humphrey fellows and also personal relatives/friends of the fellows) were invited to the party. Indeed a lot variety of foods were on the table. Me & my wife cooked 3 dishes -Polao, Chicken curry and Egg curry.
Everybody the enjoyed the evening - food as well as talks with each other. At around 8.30 all fellows introduced themselves to the guests formally. Then a computer slideshow was presented where individual and group photos were displayed. Afterwards, individual country musics were displayed as chosen by the fellows.
All the guests seemed very pleased with the decoration, food and overall arrangements. We feel proud to have such a succesful and wonderful party. It's a milestone in the success of our Humphrey Year.

Lawrence, a town lost by the economic realities

We spent the last weekend to Mr. Mahmud's house in Andover, a city about 20 miles north of Boston. To attend a inviting party in another city, we're crossing a small town named Lawrence. There we saw many large factory & even residential buildings deserted. I was heard that long ago it was a very thriving industrial belt with many textile industries. Workers' houses were made nearby. With the rise in wages & other costs, America lost its competitive advantages in textile production and consequently factories shifted to China, India & even Bangladesh. As a consequence, Lawrence lost its economic activities & now looks like a crime-prone ghost city. Mostly, the next generation of the Afro-American workers live nearby now. It's a living example of how economic dynamism shifts across the nations in this globalized world.

Lost into DC museums

After long 8 months my wife joined me as she arrived USA on 7 March. That was the concluding day of our workshop at WB-IMF. As she's on her flight by Emirates (Dhaka-Dubai-JFK-DCA or Reagan airport ) I was checking her flight status online in order to be at the airport just in time. Everything was fine for her journey to the US.

On 8 March morning we went to explore the DC meseums & other attractions. At first we went the Capitol Hill, then into the Orchid garden museum. It was awesome! The garden area was covered with artificial transparent roofs (to protect plants from cold, snow). Orchids in dry lands, deserts, rainforests and in other natural environments were looking so gorgeous!

Then we visited the art gallery museums, my wife was fascinated by the arts, specially of artist Pablo Picasso. Our next museum was Natural History Museum. It was so huge & superb! Of particular interest to me were the Egyptian mummies (still unpacked) and earthquake zone line illumination(Ctg & Sylhet area directly on that line!).

Our last visit for the day was Air & Space Museum. There visitors can see the first mission to the moon (Apollo 11, 1969), views to the earth from sattelites, first plane by Wright Brothers & many other attractive things including plane dummies.

In addition to the above, there're many other museums in Washington DC. But due to time constraints we couldn't got there. Also the good thing about DC meseums is that they've all free entrance. We feel previledged to have the opportunity of visiting some great museums of the world!

World Bank- IMF Workshop in Washington DC

I attended a 5 day long (3-7 March'08) workshop on Finance and Development organized jointly by the World Bank & IMF for the Humphrey Fellows in their head offices in DC. In total 43 fellows from different campuses attended. On the opening day of 3 March, it was just reception cum dinner hosted by the WB head office. Then the next 2 days were scheduled for IMF & the last days were for WB activities. The IMF sessions covered overview, world economic & financial market developments, IMF program design & conditionality, IMF survellience for the member countries, poverty reduction & debt relief, growth & poverty reduction in the sub-saharan African countries ; and IMF reform efforts. One unique arrangement was made of a speech by someone while fellows took their luncheon. In all of the sessions speakers tried to highlight different aspects of the IMF in the context of growing criticism of the organization by the world community. One speaker mentioned of a joke that if a country's economic conditions improve after the IMF program adoption, all credits go the respective country's own policies whereas if it detriorates, all blames lie on the failures of IMF. I personally enjoyed IMF sessions (and also the good food served!)
WB sessions were held on the top floor of their main building on 18th street. It covered WB organogram, functioning mechanism of IDA, governance, evaluation mechanisms of WB initiated projects, global evironment issues and so on. Most of the sessions were very interactive & fellows found ample scopes to make questions or comments.
Joining to the WB-IMF workshop was indeed a previledge. We came to know many aspects of those 2 world class institutions. Also many items (T-shirts, souvenir bags, electronic diary etc.) were gifted to the participants.
Out of 43 fellows, 11 were from Boston University. Also BU fellows (in picture) were more active in the workshop sessions. I personally stayed active in all of the sessions I could attend. Attending in such a workshop is definitely in line with the prestige & honor associated with being a Humphrey Fellow.