colorful moments...

we here at somewhere in… have done a lot of work for ensuring freedom of expression on the internet since 2005, not the least by facilitating more than 100 000 blogs to be setup.  still this work is just at its early stage, as 95% of the bangladesh population are still to get on the internet.  freedom of expression should never be taken for granted.  today we have it, tomorrow we may not.   if we want a democratic society, we must protect our freedom as well.

in early november 2011, i was in kathmandu as a participant of the south-asian meeting on the internet and freedom of expression arranged by the internet democracy project, in collaboration with point of view (india), the centre for policy alternatives (sri lanka) and global partners and associates (UK).

it was also highly encouraging that mr. frank la rue, UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression joined us for the full meeting.  for three days we shared experiences and status reports on the internet and how free our voices actually are, with participants from nearly all the south asian countries.

this is me with mr. frank la rue

from bangladesh it was me, syeda gulshan ferdous jana from somewhere in net ltd., and swapan ahmed who is the executive director of voice.  we concluded the meeting with the kathmandu statement which i will share in a separate post.  the last dinner together was a wonderful experience with a cultural show at a very traditional nepali restaurant:

an elegant and traditional nepali dinner, here with my friends anja, bishakha and sushmita

kathmandu and nepal was very charming and beautiful, but i only got to see this after the three day meeting was over.  i was lucky that arild and kinnori came to kathmandu the day before our meeting ended and we had a few days of sightseeing thereafter.   i just have to share a few nice memories from these days:

arild and kinnori at kathmandu darbar square

a good time and place to play

me and kinnori at the baktapur darbar square a late november evening