SOME LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES TO UNITE BANGLADESHI MARINERS FROM SINGAPORE

From: khairul anam <[email protected]>

Date: 17 May 2014 17:38:36 BST
To: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>
Cc: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>, “Hannan, Abdul” <[email protected]>, bdmariners yahoogroups <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [SMC] Mariner’s Forum

Dear Baten

I fully endorse the clarification given in your email and personally think it would be a good idea to have this forum moderated from Singapore as most of the BD mariners living abroad now are probably living in this country. Being placed at a strategic location for becoming a global hub for us, mariners from Singapore seem to have been giving more time in maintaining e-contacts and organising BD mariners events on a very regular basis. So it makes sense to have our coordination centre based in Singapore, for the time being at least. You in particular, have been giving a lot of time in maintaining liaison with other fellow mariners distributed globally and I sincerely appreciate and acknowledge all your contributions – thank you very much.

JMAAA have been very active and they still are by maintaining a meaningful website, maritime museum at our Marine Academy and doing some effective social work and we cannot deny their contributions towards good causes. However, we must not mix this neutral and new mariners forum (not an organisation) based in Singapore with JMMAA or ABAMA, which are the associations (unfortunately two at the moment) of the Marine Academy alumni only.

I would encourage all the Bangladeshi mariners living round the world including Bangladesh, to come under one forum irrespective of their background, religion or location for maintaining communication and liaison with each other, with the objective of staying connected together globally. Let us think of the ways forward for contributing to the forum effectively under one umbrella for our common benefit.

Best regards

Khairul Anam

UK

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2014 10:48 AM
To: Ghulam

Subject: [SMC] Re: Mariner’s Forum

Dear All, Salam,

We need more such positive & encouraging comments/feedbacks/suggestions like Ghulam sir rolled out.

Thank you my dear elder brother (FCC),

I have sent you invitation to join this forum & please remain glued, in the days ahead to come, we surely need you onboard & guiding us to navigate in the right voyages.

I have noted all your valuable points into my note book & surely we will share/discuss again & again which will best suit at least for our majorly of mariner brothers if not for the entire marine community.

Kind regards

Baten (18th), Singapore

On Saturday, May 17, 2014, Ghulam Hussain <[email protected]> wrote:

Gentlemen,

Good day.

May I add a few comments to this email thread.

The initiative taken by Baten is heartwarming and commendable. It is start for heading towards a more professional approach.

My points are simple, in no particular order and it is not intended to oppose any constructive step presently being taken for the common cause of maritime bondage and unity, specifically between Bangladeshi Mariners.

1. The professional approach would be to have a Group in LinkedIn. Graduating into LinkedIn could be considered at a later stage as well. This can be named, for example, Bangladesh Mariners. All details of members could be found in their Profiles with LinkedIn and all Mariners can be a part of the group.

2. There could also be a Group Facebook where members (and their families, wives, children etc) could interact socially as well, by uploading photos, albums etc. The family is very much part of the fraternity.

3. One could also consider a Twitter Account, where tweets could readily be exchanged. Its a much quicker way to send important news.

I mention the above, since these are the most universally accepted modes of communications between professionals (and families when it comes to Facebook), which we are all are,

A Yahoo Group, in my humble opinion, works better for interacting batch wise perhaps?

Having said the above, any Group Formation is as good as the regularity of members visiting it.  I have seen many being hosted which are dying a natural death. It is unfortunate we are not yet  as computer savvy as we should be in this “digital age”.

As an example, when I open my computer, I generally have four pages open for the day, using four service providers, Google Chrome for Office Mail, Internet Explorer for Personal Mail, Safari for Facebook and Mozilla FireFox for LinkedIn. That is the limit of my patience and scope of attention. I also flit between mails from the Nautical Institute and other professional bodies but I do spend lot of time on LinkedIn. Will I again go into Yahoo?

We need to move with the times. Form a group for interaction and beyond, fine, but lets get a universal platform commensurate to our professional standards. Let it be controlled by Baten.

And finally, to add to Sarwar’s (19th) recommendations. Let our Merchant Navy Officers’ Association be as strong as the Singapore or Indian Associations. Take a Regular Fees fro members,  represent the Officers and fight for their rights AND ensure a fund is built up to help those who need assistance. Again , all we have to do is to browse the net and see what they do, it would surprise us all. We need a strong leader for this organization, who has the leadership qualities, the integrity, the charisma and the acceptability within the fraternity and the authorities to take things forward. Let us not get someone who uses the offices for personal gains. In fact, we need a strong Committee, who can guide the CEO/Chairman, whoever, and we need a leader who can give his FULL TIME to the cause. If required, he needs to be paid. Unless we do this, it would e just another “body” in someones office run by a volunteer. It will not serve the purpose.

As always, the very best to all who put in their time and effort for a worthy cause.

Sincerely,

Captain Ghulam Hussain (11th)

(MBA, FNI, FICS, CMILT, MRIN),

Cell: +88011711523091

On 16 May 2014, at 12:29, “baten [email protected] [s_m_c]” <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear All, Salam,

I sincerely thank Mahbub for his below email asking for clarifications.

It is a very simple internet forum aim is to remain connected globally by stitching the missing link of communication between all our professional mariners around the globe.

All may agree with me that with our missing link, many of our mariner brothers were & still disconnected from each other. Many are not connected with what is happening around us & going un-noticed.

No doubt that it will be always better for all of us to share our views among each other with whatever means available to us. Few of us only communicating with each other, which is far short of our primary goal.

This forum is not an organization. It will be independent, impartial from all our present association/society/organization/etc which we are now running & continue to run around the globe.

This forum is for all Bangladeshi origin professional mariners (Marine academy & non-academy) around the globe irrespective of their academic background & religion.

This includes all Marine academy cadets from 1st batch until the present Batch & all the future batches to come & join us.

And also all the Non-marine academy professional mariners (direct entry/fisheries/etc) sailing or sailed in foreign going ships.

All our collective vision is to help our professional mariners & their family members during their needs.

This forum will be controlled, regulated & managed from Singapore for the time being.

With the view of others, we will add few code of conduct to follow for posting information & messages.

As an individual, brothers will not think what this forum will give us in return; rather we will always think what we can contribute for our entire marine community.

With this view, I’m very sure that all our brothers will feel great & proud to be part of this forum.

With Kind Regards

Baten (18th Batch)

Singapore

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 10:20 PM, mahbubur rahman <[email protected]> wrote:

Dear Sir,

and all who are addressed above,

Thanks for this nice effort – a timely one; but may I request for few clarifications.

1. Is this forum open to  mariners of all nationalities around the globe – that is at least, the literal meaning of the call.

2. Is it for all mariners with Bangladeshi origin living around the globe – that is what I implied upon. In such a case, our association in Ctg could act as a platform. I feel, they thought of this around 3 years back – but than all quiet. In fact, the association need some one shore based, highly dynamic capable of self support and to be supported by a group to take the association to that level where it actually represents all Bangladeshi Mariner, ex and current. Association could be the best forum.

3. Is it for Ex cadet of Marine Academy – particularly for the seniors. Either of our two alumni association could work as a platform. Unfortunately, confusion on the name and leadership and the very purpose – unclear – paralyzed both these association at their birth.

Now this is just a forum over the internet – in the virtual world created by mankind – how pleasant would it be if this forum could be linked to one of the platform – with their physical presence. Can the current leadership of any of these platforms come up with an idea to link themselves with this proposed forum.

Baten Sir, shall highly appreciate if you also clarify the following:

– The scope or arena of focus for the forum

– how it will be control / regulated and managed

Thanks and kind regards

Mahbub (19th batch marine academy)

Setu Tours and Travels

Uttara

Dhaka

On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 3:18 PM, baten <[email protected]> wrote:

Salam to All Respected Seniors & Beloved Juniors around the Globe,

Not to be confused, our call to all professional mariners to join this common forum is not to form a new organization.

Around the globe, we have many organization & let all these run & remain as it is.

Our present invitation to all our professional mariners to join one common forum is to gather all under one roof, this will help us keep in touch with each other in a very simple manner. Our main aim will be mariners welfare around the globe by connecting all globally. With this single forum, we all can help each other during our needs.

Now we all are detached & do not hear each other.

Let us all join this single forum & we hear each other.

To join this forum, please write to [email protected] & then confirm your email request to join.

Alternatively, you can send me email ([email protected]) & then I will send you invitation to join, then you click “join mailing list”.

May I request you to deseminate among your known contacts/groups via email or using available website to join this forum.

I am very confident that with this forum we bring unity among all our mariner brothers & we all remain united forever.

Kind Regards

Baten (18th Batch)

Singapore