The topics such as economic development, management and overall povertyreduction are serious ones... Poverty reduction... | Asian sex
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The topics such as economic development, management and overall povertyreduction are serious ones... Poverty reduction...

The topics such as economic development, management and overall povertyreduction are serious ones and should be addressed as such. Any politically motivateddiscussions on these issues either by an academic or a politician at a seminar wouldalways end up either in polemics or partisan conclusions. The seminar on poverty reductionorganized by the main opposition political party Awami League the other day at theNational Press Club and addressed by well-known political figures as well as prominenteconomists ended up just in that. Participants raised all valid points such as thegovernment’s failure to meet the gap in power supply and demand, rising prices ofalmost all commodities, failure in reducing poverty level quickly despite rise ininvestment to the tune of 24 per cent of the GDP, widespread unemployment, lawlessness andinability to check violence and so on. However, if the speakers intended to address thetopics rationally, they would have reached a more rational conclusion.

The points they have raised are all valid ones and the governmentleaders cannot possibly deny them if confronted but would have, of course explained thereason of their failure. The Prime Minister the other day in her address to the nationadmitted some of the failures of the government itself. Although the gap between the richand the poor has been widening more speedily than the reduction in poverty level. And itcannot possibly be said that no development has taken place at all and the poverty levelhas increased because of this particular government’s mismanagement. Figures tell usa different story, which is difficult to refute. The development pattern as mentionedremained by and large unchanged since the democratically elected governments took over in1991. Needless to mention, confrontational politics and total standoff between the twomajor political parties have also contributed substantially towards this unfortunate andunacceptable state of affairs.

Let us quote neutral sources for establishing this fact. The AsianDevelopment Bank in its latest Quarterly Economic Update (QEU) on the development of theprivate sector stated that the private sector being the country’s economic engineaccounts for 80 per cent of the country’s GDP, 90 per cent of total employment and 70per cent of investment. Besides, the private sector contributed an estimated 88 per centof GDP growth and 87 per cent of investment growth during the period 1991 to 2003. It hasalso stated that the pattern of private sector development has demonstratedentrepreneurs’ response to favourable policy and institutional framework. This couldnot have happened if the three successive governments since 1991 did nothing as the partyin the opposition regardless of the party in power tend to suggest.

We would urge the political leaders belonging to both sides of thepolitical divide to understand that political rivalries and muckraking are two differentelements and should not be mixed up. People are becoming more conscious these days andshould have some respect for their intelligence.

According to an agency report published in this newspaper there havebeen 1638 incidents of human rights violation in the last three months till September thisyear. Studies show that as many as 75 to 84 per cent of women in the country are victimsof regular domestic abuse. It is their husbands who are the perpetrators in the majorityof the cases. While the numbers are shocking they are by no means surprising.

Females in Bangladesh are still generally considered the inferior sex.They have to put up with their miserable existence as societal and community support forbattered women is grossly inadequate. Unfortunately Bangladeshi culture encourages womento keep quiet about domestic abuse and complaints against husbands or in-laws are frownedupon. Tolerating abuse stoically is considered a great virtue for women.

Husbands also are under the impression that it is all right to usephysical force to discipline their wives. The curse of dowry still affects countless womenin spite of the various laws passed to stop the abominable practice. So this flagrantabuse of human rights is continues. And this abuse against women will continue as long asthe husband’s family considers wives as property. With values of religious extremismpermeating across the society the condition of women can only deteriorate. Just havingwomen as top political leaders will hardly improve the lot of women as has been proven inBangladesh and some other countries.

Domestic abuse or wife beating is not only limited to the lower incomegroups. It is hardly uncommon even in the so-called urbane educated families where thewife is often a working woman. In these families too women suffer in silence. However itis time we decide whether we should let half the population suffer the ignominy ofviolence on their persons. It is women who bear the lion’s share of theresponsibility of bringing up children. How can they bring up children in a proper waywhen they are victims of mindless violence? We hope domestic abuse will not be toleratedand such violations will not be swept under the carpet. This attitude of denial will getus nowhere. Women have a lot to contribute towards the development of the country. And forthat to happen women must be treated with the dignity they deserve.

"OK Shyam, let's press the control and escape keys at the sametime. That brings up a task list in the middle of the screen. Now type the letter 'P' tobring up the Program Manager."

She could not print yellow. All the other colors would print fine,which truly baffled everyone because the only true colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Tech support had the customer change ink cartridges. They made herdelete and reinstall the drivers. After over two hours of troubleshooting, they were aboutto tell the customer to send the printer in for repair when she asked quietly,"Should I try printing on a piece of white paper instead of this yellow paper?"

She was taken through the basics, then went over and printed out a testsheet. It printed fine. She was then asked to print a sheet, so she sent a job to theprinter. As the paper started coming out, she yanked it out and showed it to the hardwareengineer who completely at a loss for words finally managed to explain to her to waituntil the paper came out on its own. Problem solved.

And another user was all confused about why the cursor always moved inthe opposite direction from the movement of the mouse. He also complained that the buttonswere difficult to depress. He was very embarrassed when told to rotate the mouse so thetail pointed away from her..!

The 'winter of discontent' is upon us. Hard on the heels of theannouncement of power rationing, on October 12th, the government announced its programmeof gas rationing from 15th October. On 14th October the government took the decision thatit would shut down the Tongi 80MW power plant and the Palash Urea Fertiliser Factory forsome days. It will also enforce the law for stoppage of illumination of shopping complexesand markets in the evening peak hours which will save at least 200 MW of electricity. Thegas rationing and monitoring formula is being evolved by a high-powered committeecomprising the Energy Secretary, the Power Secretary, Chairman PDB and Chairman BCIC. Thecommittee has submitted its report yesterday 16th October.

We had learnt to live with power rationing over the last few years asnew generating capacity and transmission and distribution networks have not been in place,and as such the available power is not able to meet the growing consumer and industrialdemand. But now the government announcement about gas rationing has raised many questionsabout the efficient operation of this nationalised sector where we have been told, timeand again, that there is a surplus, which may also be exported.

At a press briefing on 12th October the Energy Adviser to thegovernment, Mahmudur Rahman, came out with the statement that the government is planningto ration gas to bulk consumers, particularly the fertiliser and power plants from 15thOctober to adjust for shortage in supply in the wake of a spurt in the rise of bulkdemand. He said that the country was facing a shortage of 100 million cubic feet per day(mmcfd) and it would drag on until the middle of 2007. The Energy Adviser is, therefore,not speaking about a temporary shortage situation, but one that will last for another twoyears at least.

According to the latest decision, the power sector will shed loadduring the daytime and ensure power supply during the peak hours. The power sectorconsumes around 43 per cent of the total gas, while fertiliser plants 21 per cent andcaptive power plants 9 per cent. It was learnt that due to gas shortage hundreds ofindustrial units in the Savar Export Processing Zone had to suspend production, thanks, tothe thinning flow of gas for the last one week. The low pressure of gas also hit thecountry's biggest power plant at Ghorashal and three other big power plants surroundingthe capital city, leading to load shedding of 1000 MW in the country. Petrobangla and theEnergy Ministry sources said that due to a shortfall in the gas production, the countryhad been facing gas shortage as well as gas pressure problems for few days.

The pressure level came down to 170 PSI (Per Square Inch) at JoydevpurGate against the required pressure level of 400 to 550 PSI for last few days. All the bigand small industrial units situated in the Savar Export Processing Zone and itssurrounding areas had to suspend production. Power Development Board (PDB) sources saidthat due to the gas shortage, Petrobangla cut 100 mmcf of gas from its regular allocation.Petrobangla regularly allocates 600 mmcf of gas to PDB. PDB produces 3600 MW of power inthe peak hours, but at 6.30pm on 14th October they could produce only 2807 MW of power. Itsaid the consumption of gas in the power sector was going up day by day. The number ofpower stations was 21 in 2001.

Now 26 power stations are operational. To meet the growing demand,Petrobangla supplied gas from the line-pack. This caused a gas pressure problem. Thepresent demand of gas is 1600 mmcf against the supply of 1512 mmcf, but the presenttransmission system is able to supply only 1262 mmcf of gas, Petrobangla said. However,the country posted a 22 per cent growth in the industrial sector, overtaking the growth ofgas production of 12.5 per cent. Poor planning of gas distribution and lack ofcoordination in the past among the Energy and Mineral Resources Division and otherministries related to setting up of industries including power plants have led to thecurrent gas crisis. Petrobangla officials blamed wrong site selection in setting up powerplants and industries for the current power crisis, which deteriorated due to the gassupply shortage.

A major problem in exploiting natural gas is the question of who tosell it to and at what price. Three types of market can be identified. The first is thepremium market, which consists of those consumers who have shown that they value theadvantages of gas- it is clean, controllable and requires no storage-and who are willingto pay for an equivalent amount of heat from another fuel: in our country petrol, dieselor kerosene. The premium market is in fact the existing gas market, the domestic andindustrial users. The semi-premium market is the consumers who would be willing to pay thesame premium for the use of gas, but do not, at the moment consider the advantages of gasare sufficient to offset the price difference between gas and competing fuels. In thetransportation sector, for example, CNG is still not as popular as it should have been. Ofcourse the failure here again is that of the concerned public agencies as they have notbeen able to provide as many CNG outlets as are needed for a majority of vehiclesswitching to gas. The bulk market needs any fuel to provide crude heat (e.g for firingboilers or driving captive power generators), and the determining choice is the price.While gas has the advantage that it does not require storage, it would be required tocompete with oil on price alone.

An important factor in the marketing of gas is the pricing. Thereshould not be a single price for gas, but rather a range of prices depending on the amounttaken, the conditions under which it is taken, and the effect of that particular demand onthe industry's costs. We have been imprudent regarding the pricing of gas. Till today gassupplied to domestic users for cooking, and also to hotels and restaurants are at a flatrate. This is irrespective of whether the ovens are burning twenty-four hours or fourhours a day. This profligacy in the use of gas, brought on by impractical pricing policiesis a cause of shortage of gas supplies today. The situation will deteriorate, to the costof the gas industry, as more cities and towns are supplied with natural gas through thepipeline. Metering for domestic use, as in Britain, for example, with coin-operated meterswould have introduced discipline in the use of gas and garnered more revenues and profitsfor the state monopoly. There are good grounds for charging prices close to long-runmarginal costs to those consumer classes that tend to be relatively sensitive to price,while setting other parts of the industry's tariffs above marginal costs in order to makea contribution to the industry's overheads, particularly the exploration and pipelinecosts.

The country is moving from crisis to crisis in the energy sector.Crisis in the power generation, fires in gas wells, inept operation of gas wells bycompanies like Niko, and now the threat of gas shortage in the face of increasing demand.

The situation bodes ill for our industrial and agricultural sector.Shortage of power and fertiliser will seriously affect our industrial and agriculturalproduction and the day-to-day trade and commerce. Where we were supposed to be in asituation of exporting gas and expecting foreign direct investment in gas-based industrialventures, we are now clamping down on domestic supplies also. This indicates a seriouslapse in our planning and implementation of energy projects and the requiredinfrastructure. Our economic upturn and inflow of foreign investments will be seriouslyaffected by this crisis.

As in the case of other crises, the government and the concerned publicagencies have to take crisis management measures. The situation cannot be allowed tocontinue till 2007 by which time we will fall back by many years in our competitivenesswith other developing countries. Already we have fallen behind in the globalcompetitiveness index as the latest survey shows. Along with rationing measures thelagging pipeline and gas infrastructure projects must be speeded up and new gas fieldsexplored and opened up. The pricing of gas for domestic, commercial and bulk consumers hasto be rationalised and effective metering devices installed for gas supply to thedifferent consumers. As this is being written time for us is short and action has been toolong delayed.

When asked whether, in general, they favored or opposed the method of"supporting dissidents in a non-democratic country," a clear majority (56 percent) opposed it, with only 31 per cent in favor. On this issue, both the major partieswere in harmony.

Support for using aid as a reward is high, but not for withholding itas a punishment, whether the aid provider is the US government or the World Bank.

Working through the UN:-- A large majority (68 per cent) prefersworking through the UN to promote democracy. A plurality believes that it should be thegoal of the UN to promote democracy in the world. Forty-two percent said the UN should notbe involved in attempting to influence what kind of government a country has.

Pressing for Human Rights:-- In contrast to more divided attitudesabout pressuring countries to be more democratic, large majorities favor the US puttingdiplomatic pressure on governments to respect human rights, speaking out against humanrights abuses, and encouraging other countries to do the same.

Asked specifically about seven countries - Burma (Myanmar), China,Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia - a majority-66 per cent to 70 per cent-ineach case favoured putting diplomatic pressure on the government to respect human rights,speaking out against the country's [US] human rights abuses and encouraging othercountries to do the same.

Americans were even more in favor of pressuring these nations on humanrights than they were of bringing students, journalists and political leaders to theUnited States to educate them on democracy. Americans also appear to be ready to acceptsignificant political costs as part of pressing for human rights. In another question onhuman rights, nearly three-fourths of Americans favored investigating possible humanrights abuses even if it meant that the United States would lose the ability to utilize aforeign military base as a result.

Many Americans feel that their federal elected representatives are notheeding citizens' views. Asked how much influence the views of the majority of Americanshave on the decisions of elected officials in Washington, on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 meaningnot at all influential and 10 meaning extremely influential), the mean response was 4.5.When asked how much influence the views of the majority of Americans should have on thedecisions of elected officials in Washington, on a scale of 0 to 10, the mean response was8.0. When asked what percentage of the time Congress makes decisions that are the same asthe decisions the majority of Americans would make, the mean answer was 39 per cent-lessthan chance.

Final words: We live in a world of competing political ideologies. Forexample, while the US has been promoting its version of capitalist democracy as the bestglobal model, Singapore under its former leader Lee Kwan Yew offered a competingcapitalist model with an impressive success story. Its mantra was: if you keep the economybooming, the population won't care about democratic freedoms. That is: people choosestability and growth over messy democracy that can lead to anarchy. [5] It is no surprisethat this latter model is popular among many authoritarian regimes, including China -which is now holding up a state-directed version of capitalism. And China is a grandsuccess story. So strong is the gravitating pull of China today that there is hardly amulti-national company that does not want to invest there and open up an office inShanghai.

There is no doubt that Saddam Hossein of Iraq was one of the worstdespots of our time, who - once buttressed by its former western patrons - killed so manyhuman beings. Yet, to many Iraqis living today in the post-Saddam era, his regime broughtstability and safety. People knew what was expected from them and what was not, and theyfelt secure. But in today's chaotic Iraq, which has turned into the worst killing field ofthe 21st century, there is no law and order. People don't know whom to trust. They feeltotally helpless and insecure. So the dilemma that many in the aspiring democraciesentertain is: what is better for a civilian - a despotic ruler who brings stability or asystem that leads to destruction?

When a system is imperfect in its own turf, it is always difficult topropagate its wisdom outside. Hopefully, the U.S. policy makers and those in the Europeanpowerhouses will take heed before getting too carried away by the false sense ofperfection and 'fits-all' mentality for their Western democratic system.

[2]. See John Pilger's "Sinister Events in a Cynical War,"www.antiwar.com, Sept. 28, 2005; also see Yamin Zakaria's article on the same subject.Times and Mail reported that explosives were found in the SAS men's unmarked Cressida.

[5]. As Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez, Sumiko Tan, the authors ofLee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas (1998) point out, Lee rejected "the notion thatall men yearned for democratic freedoms, prizing free speech and the vote over other needssuch as economic development.

Gandhi had many critics in the international peace movement. The NobelCommittee adviser referred to these critics in maintaining that Gandhi was notconsistently pacifist, that he should have known that some of his non-violent campaignstowards the British would degenerate into violence and terror. This was something that hadhappened during the first Non-Cooperation Campaign in 1920-1921, e.g. when a crowd inChauri Chaura, the United Provinces, attacked a police station, killed many of thepolicemen and then set fire to the police station.

A frequent criticism from non-Indians was also that Gandhi was too muchof an Indian nationalist. In his report, Professor Worm-Müller expressed his own doubtsas to whether Gandhi's ideals were meant to be universal or primarily Indian: "Onemight say that it is significant that Gandhi's well-known struggle in South Africa was onbehalf of the Indians only, and not of the blacks whose living conditions were evenworse."

The name of the 1937 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate was to be Lord Cecil ofChelwood. We do not know whether the Norwegian Nobel Committee seriously consideredawarding the Peace Prize to Gandhi that year, but it seems rather unlikely. OleColbjørnsen renominated him both in 1938 and in 1939, but ten years were to pass beforeGandhi made the committee's short list again.

In 1947 the nominations of Gandhi came by telegram from India, via theNorwegian Foreign Office. The nominators were B.G. Kher, Chief Minister of Bombay, GovindhBhallabh Panth, Chief Minister of United Provinces, and Mavalankar, the President of theIndian Legislative Assembly. Their arguments in support of his candidacy were written intelegram style, like the one from Govind Bhallabh Panth: "Recommend for this yearNobel Prize Mahatma Gandhi architect of the Indian nation the greatest living exponent ofthe moral order and the most effective champion of world peace today." There were tobe six names on the Nobel Committee's short list, Mohandas Gandhi was one of them.

The Nobel Committee's adviser, the historian Jens Arup Seip, wrote anew report which is primarily an account of Gandhi's role in Indian political historyafter 1937. "The following ten years," Seip wrote, "from 1937 up to 1947,led to the event which for Gandhi and his movement was at the same time the greatestvictory and the worst defeat - India's independence and India's partition." Thereport describes how Gandhi acted in the three different, but mutually related conflictswhich the Indian National Congress had to handle in the last decade before independence:the struggle between the Indians and the British; the question of India's participation inthe Second World War; and, finally, the conflict between Hindu and Muslim communities. Inall these matters, Gandhi had consistently followed his own principles of non-violence.

The Seip report was not critical towards Gandhi in the same way as thereport written by Worm-Müller ten years earlier. It was rather favourable, yet notexplicitly supportive. Seip also wrote briefly on the ongoing separation of India and thenew Muslim state, Pakistan, and concluded - rather prematurely it would seem today:"It is generally considered, as expressed for example in The Times of 15 August 1947,that if 'the gigantic surgical operation' constituted by the partition of India, has notled to bloodshed of much larger dimensions, Gandhi's teachings, the efforts of hisfollowers and his own presence, should get a substantial part of the credit."

The partition of India in 1947 led to a process which we today probablywould describe as "ethnic cleansing". Hundreds of thousands of people weremassacred and millions had to move; Muslims from India to Pakistan, Hindus in the oppositedirection.

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admin – Tue, 2005 – 10 – 18 01:01