Addafication

There’s an article in last week’s New Yorker about the West Bengal part of the Sunderbans. Note the the dire threat rising sea levels poses to the survival of the mangrove forests in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_alexander

Bangladesh is getting a credit rating.

Muchhe jak glani, ghuche jak jora

Ogni snane shuchi hok dhora…

Ano ano, ano tobo, proloyero shankh

esho esho.

I wish I were walking somwhere near TSC in a white sari with a red paar.

Shubo Noboborsho dear readers!

2 qwik pts:

1. Adviser Hussain Zillur Rahman has invited AL to join a pre-official dialogue at the state guesthouse Padma by sending an invitation to the acting AL president Zillur Rahman via SMS! Zillur Rahman graciously accepted the invitation, no doubt in the greater national interest. Kudos to him. I don’t know if I would have. I’m no Ms. Manners, but an invitation from the state via SMS, to talks this important, this has got to be a first! How about making a phone call? Hand delivering a letter? What if the adviser picked the wrong number from his address book? What if he mistakenly sent it to AL and BNP both? What if he “mistakenly” invites both BNP factions to meet at the same time via SMS next? Isn’t there any protocol to follow? Are SMSs a safe way to communicate sensitive issues of national interest? Am I not hip and with it anymore?

Ok, here’s a pet peeve disclosure. SMS lingo is annoying. Please no plz.

2. Food riots, they’re almost here. Yesterday garments workers clashed with police demanding wage hikes. 50 were injured.

New Age “Extra” has a thoughtful article this week on the food crisis. This article actually quotes prominent economists who cast blame on the government in addition to the natural disasters and international factors. In case you have been wondering about recent food riots elsewhere in the world, BBC reports on Haiti (where cost of food rose 50%, the costs have risen 40% in Bangladesh) and unfolding crises in Asia, Africa, and Australia (you can access those pages through the Haiti link). This technocrat studded government’s inability to avert/minimize the food crisis in an efficient way may well go down as its greatest failure.

From the beginning many Bangladeshis were skeptical of the CTG’s hubris and overreach. A defensible argument can be made that this government’s political moves have crippled the economy over the last year and half. The frightening part is we have not yet hit bottom, it is still unclear if/when elections will be held, the big questions about Khaleda/Hasina remain unanswered, and general Moeen U Ahmed has generously given himself another year’s tenure in the “national interest.”

If the political parties can focus on reinstating democracy, this government will soon face a powerful coalition of political parties and frustrated masses. In the meantime, CTG has been taking numerous steps to seed dissension both within and among political parties. I think the whole move for war crimes trials, truth commission, in addition to the BNP rift, are parts of this strategy. I am all for war crimes trials, but under a democratic government, simply for legitimacy’s sake, same goes with truth commissions. Frankly, I have had it with this government, the poorest of the poor are starving (see below, people are forgetting what daal tastes like), that means crores of Bangladeshis are going hungry. Most importantly, I do not think the average Bangladeshi trusts this government’s good intentions, let alone ability to implement policies based on those intentions. It is time for elections, and time to wave a sorry goodbye to the CTG. Yes, I know this is easier said than done. Certain steps still need to be taken before we can have fair elections, but I think it is time we gave the CTG a few months to do what it can, and then hold elections. All of this is assuming that the political parties will behave themselves.

The CTG has abused the faith and trust of the people of Bangladesh and is pushing us towards a dangerous and uncertain future with its foot dragging disguised in lofty rhetoric. It is taking gleeful advantage of political parties that simply cannot seem to place the national interest above party/factional/personal interest. I can only hope that our politicians can heed their better angels and unite for democracy above all. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen famously argued that democracies are better at famine prevention than dictatorships. I can only hope that Bangladesh 2008/2009 will not become yet another case that proves Amartya Sen right.

Excerpts from “Extra” below:

Undoubtedly, the worst conditions are with the poorest of the poor, particularly labourers and rickshaw-pullers who are unable to work unless they have their three meals a day.
While their families go without meals for two or three days at a stretch, they must share the largest chunk of their daily earnings on their own food. Economist Abul Barakat estimates that round half of the population are going half-fed or without food.
Nurul Islam, a 38-year-old rickshaw-puller, moved to Dhaka seven or eight months ago. He spends Tk 60 to Tk 80 a day on food, mostly in the mess halls. ‘I start work at 11am and work till late in the evening. It is difficult to make enough money.’
It is the same for Abu Bakr, a 56-year-old who has been pulling rickshaws for nearly twenty-six years. ‘Ten years ago I used to pay Tk 30 for the rickshaw; nowadays they ask for Tk 90 or Tk 100. Then you need at least Tk 60 for food.’
‘For a while, I forgot how dal [lentils] tastes as I could only afford to buy rice and even the price of wheat had gone up from Tk 15 to Tk 45,’ says Fazlu, a rickshaw-puller aged 35.
‘Dal now costs Tk 90 per kilo,’ says Abdus Selim, the owner of a small stall in Moghbazar that sells rice, eggs, oil and other essentials. ‘Hardly anyone buys dal now; it’s too expensive and beyond their means.’
He reports that people have been buying more or less the same amount of rice over the past year, since they cannot choose to buy any less, but instead are cutting down on other costs such as meat and vegetables.

…

The World Food Program predicted that the rising prices of food items (see UN warning from Dec 2007), especially rice, could cause political instability as poorer households spend most or all their income on food. The UN agency said that the possibility of political, economic and social unrest is growing as the price of food is rising much faster than people’s wages in Bangladesh.

Politicians and economists observed that the hard-pressed people would have taken to the streets had the state of emergency not been in force.

‘What has till now prevented a rise in crime is the largely visible security forces and policemen everywhere. But sooner or less, I think it will become inevitable as more and more people reach a point where they have absolutely nothing to lose,’ says N Ahad, a private service holder, also a victim of food shortage.

…

Protests have already begun.

On March 25, several hundreds formed a human chain before the Chittagong Press Club on Saturday, protesting against unusual price hike of essential commodities and sale of unpacked and unhygienic baby food.

In Sylhet, Rajshahi, Bogra, Barisal, Khulna and Jamalpur, according to New Age reports, people have become frustrated with the high prices and only find a small measure of respite from the OMS centres.

Poor response

The continuing crisis of rice is a result of the government’s failure to ensure timely import, point out economists. Although, the twin floods and cyclone Sidr hampered rice production, experts feel, the market could be stabilised had concrete and faster steps been taken.

The government has been slow to tackle the problem and has only recently set up open market sales (OMS) around the country, and that too in small numbers.

….

Economist professor Abul Barakat puts the blame for the current price spiral on the free market economy and specifically ties the rice price rise to market speculation, import problems, high production cost and a lack of coordination among the ministries.

Zaid Bakht, research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, says the government was late in making pragmatic decisions keeping the global food production and supply situations in mind. He believes that programmes such as open market sale and vulnerable group feeding should have been launched earlier to keep people’s sufferings at minimum levels.

It is difficult to term a movie about the Cambodian genocide as a personal favorite or to recommend it highly, it is after all, a movie about a harrowing subject. But I believe this one should be seen in every high school history class. The “Killing Fields ” (1984) tells the true story of deep friendship between a NYT journalist Sydney Schanberg and a Cambodian photojournalist, both determined to bring to the world the turmoil engulfing Cambodia as Phnom Penh fell in 1975. As the murderous, ideology- blinded Khmer Rouge regime gained control of Cambodia, the photojournalist is taken to the infamous re-education camps while the American journalist is forced to abandon his friend. The movie presents a chilling portrait of the genocide through the suffering of the photojournalist and his fellow Cambodians as well as a moving tribute to the enduring friendship between the two men, partners in the same worthy cause.

The real-life Cambodian photojournalist of “The Killing Fields,” Dith Pran, passed away last week. You can read his obituary here.

Here is an excerpt from the original article (Jan 20, 1980) that Sydney Schanberg of the NYT wrote about Pran and their time in Cambodia:

After a breakfast of Pepsi-Cola at a restaurant whose French proprietor is glad for company but who has no other food, we walk back to the hotel and decide it is still safe to move around. So we drive to the biggest civilian hospital — Preah Keth Mealea — to get some idea of casualties. People are bleeding to death on the corridor floors. . . .

We can stand to look at these scenes no longer, so we depart. But as we get into our car and start to leave the compound, some heavily armed Khmer Rouge soldiers charge in through the main gate. Shouting and angry, they wave us out of the car, put guns to our heads and stomachs and order us to put our hands over our heads. . . .

They take everything — our car, cameras, typewriters, radio, knapsacks — and push us into an armored personnel carrier, a kind of light tank that carries troops in its belly that they have captured from the Government army.

We all get in — three journalists and our driver, Sarun — except for Pran. We hear him continuing his entreaties in Khmer outside. . . . Finally, he climbs in and the armored car starts to rumble forward. After a few minutes of chilled silence, Sarun turns to me and in French asks me if I know what Pran was doing outside the vehicle. I say no, since the talk was in Khmer. Sarun tells me that Pran, far from trying to get away, was doing the opposite — trying to talk his way into the armored car. The Khmer Rouge had told him to leave, they didn’t want him, only the Americans and “the big people.” He knew we had no chance without him, so he argued not to be separated from us, offering, in effect, to forfeit his own life on the chance that he might save ours.  As the armored car moves through the city, it becomes an oven. Sweat starts pouring off us as we stare at one another’s frightened countenances. . . .

Meanwhile, Pran is keeping up his pleading with the driver of the armored car, telling him that we are not soldiers or politicians or anyone hostile to the Khmer Rouge. No one here is American, he insists, they are all French, they are only newsmen. Whatever meager words we exchange among ourselves are in French. . . .

Suddenly, after a 40-minute ride, the vehicle stops and the rear door clangs open. We are ordered to get out. As we move, crouching through the door, we see two Khmer Rouge soldiers, their rifles on their hips pointing directly at us. Behind them is a sandy riverbank that slopes down to the Tonie Sap River. Rockoff and I exchange the briefest of fear-struck glances. We are thinking the same thing — they’re going to do it here and roll us down the bank into the river.

But we climb out, like zombies. No shots are fired. Pran resumes his pleas, searching out a soldier who looks like an officer. For a solid hour he keeps appealing, cajoling, begging for our lives. The officer sends a courier on a motor-bike to some headquarters in the center of the city. We wait, still frozen but trying to hope, as Pran continues talking. Finally, the courier returns, more talk — and then, miraculously, the rifles are lowered. We are permitted to have a drink of water. I look at Pran and he allows himself a cautious smile. He’s done it, I think, he’s pulled it off

 

A must-read post by Asif Saleh at Drishtipat blog about the proposed NSC. The most thought-provoking segment of the piece -

Someone please ask the good old pol-sci professor to give us an example of another country where in stead of the police force, a security council is needed to ensure internal security. Secondly, since when a security council is used to decide on food and energy issues? With lots of deals on coal and energy involving a lot of cash coming up, this should raise the red flags on any one’s mind, if it hasn’t yet.

My quick-fire two cents on the issue:

1. I would have thought that the SOE government would have tried harder to distinguish itself as often as it could from HM Ershad’s playbook.

2. The cost of a new government setting its own agenda a number of important issues will increase drastically. This is a good or bad thing - based on one’s perspective.

3. The ability of the SOE government to continue to set the agenda of any new government on a number of issues will increase drastically. This is a good or bad thing - based on one’s perspective.

4. The SOE government sees quite clearly where the waters are most dangerous. (See Leela’s last post on food riots.) The energy policy stuff being tied in with national security (though NOT internal security( I do not see as necessarily being strange (though the issue Asif bhai raises is worth keeping in mind.) BUT tying in food with internal security suggests how acute the SOE government sees the current food crisis as being…

5. But on the other hand, the NSC has talked about pretty openly for a while (too lazy to link to anything right now). This makes the SOE’s government near-neglect of the food price situation last fall/winter all the more puzzling.

6. I continue to hope that with regard to food prices and such like, they’re reading a little bit more Hayek, liberally seasoned with Keynes, and a little bit (well, ok, much much) less Marx. I doubt it…