Despite anger over the US-led invasion of Iraq, the American Dream lives on for Bangladeshis who are hoping to win a residence permit for the country in an online immigration lottery.
Thousands of Bangladeshi men and women have been crowding cyber cafes or the homes of friends who have Internet connections to file their online applications for a green card, or residency permit.
The US Diversity Visa 2005 lottery is being held from Nov. 1 to Dec. 30.
Washington offers 50,000 diversity visas each year to countries from which less than 50,000 people emigrated to the US in the previous five years.
According to newspaper estimates, at least 500,000 Bangladeshis try their luck in the scheme each year.
This year the quota for Bangladesh is a maximum of 3,500.
The lucky few will get a green card in 2005 which will allow them permanent residence in the US.
"I have been working hard, but I am not making enough money for a comfortable life," said Musharraf Hossain, 27, an executive in an import-export business in Dhaka.
"The atmosphere at work also depresses me and I want to emigrate to America as it's a land of promise ... you work hard and you get the return," Hossain said.
Another hopeful, 25-year-old Munirul Islam, a marketing executive with a foreign trading company, added: "Life has to be worthwhile and I am ready to work 24 hours now for the life I dream of -- luxury holidays, travel and a nice Jaguar car."
Both said they, like many Bangladeshis, were angry when the US invaded Iraq this year, but this did not change their dream of emigrating to that country.
"It has nothing do with my plan to emigrate to the US as it is a government policy, but I felt sad when women and children were killed, and Saddam Hussein who is the real culprit is not yet caught," Hossain said.
"Lives are being lost on both sides with an uncertain future for Iraqi people and as a Muslim I feel for the Iraqi people in general," added Islam.
Bangladesh, the world's third largest Muslim-majority country, opposed the war and said it would not send troops to Iraq unless under a UN-sponsored peace-keeping mission.
The country witnessed almost daily anti-war demonstrations when the conflict broke out in March.
In previous years of the diversity visa scheme, vendors would do brisk business selling application forms and stamped envelopes on the streets of major Bangladeshi cities.
Lynda Gomes, a housewife in her 20s, said she was hoping the cyber cafe operators would not make mistakes with her application.
"I am ready to pay and try my luck," she said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS