The New Nation - Internet Edition

Art Competition: Singapore in my Imagination: STB’s children art cum charity competition held

Staff Reporter

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) organised a children art cum charity competition titled 'Singapore in my Imagination' at the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the city on Saturday. This was the second time initiative from the STB to organise this type of art competition.

Main attraction of this year' event was including of the participation of 50 renowned schools and more than 200 children in the art competition.

The top 100 best images of Singapore drawn by the children are being exhibited over the next two days at the Shilpakala Academy.

Similar to previous year, the proceeds from the sale of the artwork will be donated to the International Centre for Diarrhoea Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B) fund for the betterment of children from Bangladesh.

The event was inaugurated by Kang Siew Kheng, Regional Director South Asia, Middle East & Africa and Kenneth Lim, Area Director of the STB.

In addition, members of the judging panel as well as senior representatives from the media partners were present at the inauguration.

Kang Siew Kheng said, "The STB is firmly committed to engaging the Bangladesh market. We have had strong visitor arrival growth from Bangladesh over the last few years averaging some 20 per cent year on year, with many Bangladeshi families choosing to make Singapore their first-choice destination for their holidays. Thus we wanted to continue this social engagement with schools in Bangladesh, which the kids enjoy, and at the same time, giving back something to the community."

The winner of the competition was Sadia Sultana Tasnim from Mapleleaf International School. The 1st runner up of the competition was Mosaddeq Ahmed Sijan from SFX Green Herald School and 2nd runner up of the competition was Tasneem Mohammad Zarif from British Columbia School. The award was handed over by the Consul General of Singapore in Bangladesh Kok Nam Tan.

The top 100 artworks were selected by an eminent judging panel comprising Prof Samarjeet Roy Chowdhury, Prof Rafiqunnabi, renowned cartoonist Shishir Bhattacharya and Prof Abul Barq Alvi.

Attractive prizes and certificate of participants were given to the winners and all participants by the STB.

Apart from the STB, the event partner was Benchmark Ltd, while official media partners were Channel i, Radio Foorti, ICE Today, The New Age, daily Shamokal and Bangladeshinfo.com.

TV Watch: Banglavision airs Confident Salt Amader Rannaghar tongiht

Entertainment Desk

Cooking related programme 'Confident Salt Amader Rannaghar' to be aired on Banglavision at 9:05pm on Monday.

Parvin Sultana Diti will moderate the programme, while Ushnish Chakraborti has produced it.

In every episode, a celebrity takes part in the show and presents recipe of an item. An invited guest also presents in the show to present his or her own recipe.

Besides, other regular events including 'Rannaghar tips' will be also presented in the show.

Special: Taslima Nasrin’s birth anniversary today

Entertainment Desk

The 46th birth anniversary of exiled writer Taslima Nasrin is today. She was born in Mymensingh in 1962 to Rajab Ali and Idul Ara.

Taslima, the ex-physician turned feminist author, who describes herself as a secular humanist. From a modest literary profile in the late 1980s, she achieved a meteoric rise to global fame by the end of the twentieth century, for her criticism of Islam and of religion in general. As return to Bangladesh was not possible, Taslima settled in India after long stay in Paris and Stockholm. In 2007, in the teeth of social protest, the government of India kept her in confinement in an undisclosed location for several months under tight security cover. Suffocated, she decided to quit India and eventually relocated to Sweden once again. Nevertheless, she continued to urge upon the Indian government for return to India. Finally, on 08 August 2008, she again landed in India. She is reported to be staying with an ex-Swedish diplomat in the suburbs of Delhi at an undisclosed location.

To celebrate her birth anniversary, a gathering will be held at her residence at Eastern Point in Shantinagar in the city today.

Madonna kicks off 'Sticky and Sweet’ tour in UK

AP, Wales

Even at 50, the queen of pop just can't stop courting controversy. As Madonna kicked off her international 'Sticky and Sweet' tour Saturday night, she took a none-too subtle swipe at the presumptive Republican nominee for US President. Amid a four-act show at Cardiff's packed Millennium Stadium, a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe's authoritarian President Robert Mugabe - and US Senator John McCain. Another sequence, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, followed by climate activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama.

The rest of the show had the usual Madonna fixtures: sequins, fishnets, and bondage-style outfits drawn from the 3,500 items of clothing reportedly whipped together by 36 designers specifically for the tour. Dancers sauntered across stage in top hats and tailcoats, and Madonna tried her hand at break-dancing and pole dancing. Some 40,000 fans - many in pink cowboy hats and boas - were treated to a heavy metal version of 'Borderline,' while 'La Isla Bonita' served as backdrop for a flamenco routine. The show, billed as a musical mishmash of 'gangster pimp,' Romanian folk, rave, and dance - was an homage to Madonna's continuous reinventions over the past three decades.

Convention: Udichi Dhaka city unit convention held

Entertainment Report

The 7th conference of Dhaka Metropolitan Unit of Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Gosthi was held the Shawkat Osman Auditorium of the Central Public Library in the city on Friday.

Eminent Educationist and writer Prof Sirajul Islam inaugurated the two-day long convention as chief guest, while Golam Mohammad Idu, founder vice president of Udichi, Prof Bodiur Rahman, Vice President of the central committee, Mahmud Selim, General Secretary, Prabir Sardar, Assistant Vice President, Jamshed Anwar Tapan, General Secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan Unit, among others, were present on the occasion.

Quazi Madina, President of Udichi Dhaka Unit, chaired the function.

Hundreds of artistes of eight branches of Dhaka city of Udichi Shilpi Gosthi performed in the two-day programmes.

They took part in discussion, musical soirees, recitation, dance performance and other functions on August 21 and 22.

Prof Niranjan Adhikari and Dr Shamsuddin Ahmed, Central Vice President of Udichi, spoke at the last day's programme at the Mukti Bhaban in Purana Paltan in the city.

Bollywood: Cheetah Girls go Bollywood with 'One World’

Agency

The Cheetah Girls: One World lives up to its title. The successful Disney Channel franchise travelled to India for its third movie (tonight, 8 ET/PT), mixing the familiar, three singing-dancing friends, with what many viewers will find exotic: dance, music and clothing emblematic of India's Bollywood film industry.

One World, which comes five years after the first Cheetah film, opens with the three recording hopefuls - Chanel (Adrienne Bailon), Dorinda (Sabrina Bryan) and Aqua (Kiely Williams) - hitting young adulthood and contemplating separate pursuits. (The fourth member, Galleria, is off to classes at Cambridge, an explanation for the absence of Raven-Symoné, who was in the first two films.) The three change plans when they're cast in an Indian musical, only to find one role when they arrive. The actresses, who spent two months in the cities of Mumbai and Udaipur, had to pick up different dance moves and music tempos, learning how various movements symbolized the stars, the moon and other elements, Bailon says.

"It was difficult for us in the sense that it was different. We're so used to one style of dance. (But) we were really enthusiastic about learning it," she says. "I think our movie will open some eyes to a whole new culture."