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BB
asks commercial banks to provide emergency loans to
poultry sector
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh Bank Wednesday
asked commercial banks to provide fresh loans on an
emergency basis to help rehabilitate the poultry farms
devastated by the so-called bird flu.
"This is to help overcome the affect of Avian influenza on
the rural economy," Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin
Ahmed told reporters, expressing his hope that the bankers
would realise the importance of enhanced lending.
"Apart from the economic recovery, it'll also help solve
the nutritional problem as poultry birds and eggs meet
much of our nutrition requirements," he added.
He said the central bank has advised the commercial banks
to strengthen lending to the sector at low interest rates,
which could be similar or even lower than the rate for
agriculture loan. The Bangladesh Bank issued a circular
Wednesday, asking the banks to strengthen loans to poultry
farmers who have been affected directly or indirectly by
the bird flu.
"Bird flu has caused a massive damage to the poultry
sector and it's now urgent to undertake rehabilitation
activities," said the circular. The central bank advised
the banks to relax the condition of down payment for
rescheduling the default loans in the sector on the basis
of bank-client relationship and disburse fresh loan as
early as possible.
It has advised to suspend recovering previous loans. It is
one year for the principal amount and six months for
interest amount.
The central bank has also advised the commercial banks to
monitor the loan disbursement activities so that the
poultry farmers are not harassed to get the loans.
The Monitoring Cell in the commercial banks earlier formed
to oversee the agriculture credit activities would also
monitor the loan activities in the poultry sector.
The commercial banks will have to report to the Bangladesh
Bank the poultry loan activities by the first week of a
month.
Former NBR chief for tax cuts to boost revenue
earnings
bdnews24.com, Dhaka
A former NBR boss Wednesday recommended that the
government make the next budget aiming at expanding the
tax net by cutting tax rates.
Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, former NBR chairman, also
recommended that the government introduce special taxation
for the SME sector to enable it flourish.
Speaking at a pre-budget discussion at the NBR in
Segunbagicha, Chowdhury, also chairman of SME Foundation,
pointed out that direct foreign investments were not
beneficial to the economy.
"Revenue earnings will increase when more taxpayers are in
the tax net as a direct result of cutting down tax rates,"
Chowdhury said.
Stressing the importance of NBR officials' capacity
enhancement, he said, "The field-level NBR officials lack
skills in carrying out their basic responsibility. They
have to discharge their responsibilities honestly and
sincerely."
"I don't consider FDIs to be beneficial for the country's
economy at all though they may appear to be so, as FDIs
harm the local industries, because most benefits get
netted by foreign investors."
Representatives of a number of SMEs attended Wednesday's
discussion on the forthcoming budget, chaired by NBR
chairman Mohammad Abdul Majid.
The NBR chairman said: "The forthcoming budget will
incorporate necessary governmental support for the
development of SMEs as they contribute specially to
poverty alleviation and employment generation."
Abdul Majid said: "We want to create a taxation-friendly
environment. Measures will be taken to ensure that the
taxpayers volunteer to pay taxes without any harassment or
intimidation. There won't be any hurdle between the
taxpayer and the tax collector."
WB to provide Tk 1,000cr for
repairing cross-dams, shelters
UNB, Patuakhali
The World Bank
will provide Tk 700 crore for repairing country's
flood-control cross-dams damaged by the super-cyclone Sidr
while Tk 300 crore for constructing shelter centres.
Managing Director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
disclosed the aid plan while visiting the Sidr-affected
Itbaria village in Kolapara upazila of the coastal
district on Wednesday, exchanging views with the
villagers.
She gave a patient hear when the local people apprised her
how they saved themselves from the devastating cyclone
that hit the country on November 15.
Later, she visited works on trawlers being made under the
initiative of Bangladesh Army for the sidr-affected
fishermen on the premises of Khepupara High School in the
municipal town of Kalapara. She also talked to the
affected fishermen. Earlier, Deputy Commissioner AGM Mir
Moshiur Alam and Executive Engineer of Water Development
Board M Zahiruddin apprised her of details about the
people affected by Sidr.
World Bank South Asia Region vice-president Praful C Patel
and County Director Zhu Xian accompanied her on the trip.
Iweala arrived here Sunday for a four-day visit to get an
in-depth view on key challenges facing the country and its
potential to overcome them.
GMG to include new flight
destinations in India
UNB, Dhaka
GMG Airlines, the country's first private airliner, has
planned to include its flight destinations in India and
the frequencies on the existing routes to the country to
properly utilize the Air Services Agreement between the
two neighbouring nations.
GMG Airlines plans to include Mumbai and Chennai in its
flight destinations either by mid-2008 or at the end of
the year respectively and will increase the frequencies to
Kolkata and Delhi soon.
As per the Air Services Agreement, Bangladesh and India
can operate 61 flights from either side to any metro.
"We'll be connecting the cities of Mumbai and Chennai by
mid-2008 or at the yearend, and will also be increasing
our frequencies to Kolkata and Delhi soon," GMG MD Shahab
Sattar told India Express AviationWorld, according to the
Internet.
He said the frequencies to Kolkata will increase from the
current 18 flights to 21 flights a week and the Indian
capital will receive one flight a day from the current
three flights a week from April next.
"Flights from Dhaka will connect Mumbai thrice and Chennai
twice a week and the airline will seek to appoint a GSA in
Delhi soon."
"We've agreements with Indian Airlines, Air India, Jet
Airways and Kingfisher Airlines in the country, and feed
traffic from Delhi and Kolkata to various domestic and
international routes from India, and a marginal rise in
our fleet will be an opportunity for us," Sattar said.
The airline currently operates MD80 aircraft in the Indian
skies and is hoping to introduce B737 aircraft once
inducted.
GMG launched services in 1998 and primarily operated
domestically using Bombardier Dash 8s until 2006, when it
embarked on an aggressive international expansion using
Boeing MD-82s to points in India, Nepal and Southeast
Asia.
GMG plans to start serving Abu Dhabi from April next while
Kuwait and Muscat soon. It later plans to extend the
Middle East services to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It
recently began serving Dubai using a wet-leased Boeing
747-300. A second 747-300 is due to arrive on April 15 and
the carrier also hopes to add to its fleet two leased
Boeing 767s later this year.
Foreign firms seek a bite of India’s $90bln food market
Reuters, Mumbai
When Kellogg launched breakfast cereal in India 14 years
ago, it underestimated the stranglehold of traditional
cooked breakfasts.
Cartons of cornflakes sat unsold on shop shelves. Those
who ventured to buy cereal ate it with hot milk, another
ritual as until recently milk was rarely pasteurised in
India, and they were put off by the soggy consistency with
none of the crackle and pop promised by the
advertisements.
Kellogg fought back with a massive educational campaign
and introduced products to suit local tastes such as
Basmati rice flakes and mango-flavoured cereal for
sweet-toothed Indians. It also made small packs for 10
rupees ($0.25) to encourage trial.
"It would be foolhardy for me to say Kellogg has replaced
cooked breakfast ... I don't think we can ever hope for
that," said Anupam Dutta, managing director of Kellogg
India.
"But we've become a part of the consideration set for
breakfast in many Indian homes, and that's a tipping
point," he said.
Getting a foothold in India's processed foods market,
estimated to be worth $90 billion, requires persistence
and a willingness to adapt products to suit culinary and
cultural preferences, experts say.
Rising incomes, more working women, modern stores and
greater culinary adaptation are helping food giants such
as Pepsico, Nestle, Unilever, McDonald's and Yum Brands
get a piece of the market.
"Every company that wants a share has to invest heavily,
localise extensively and be very patient," said Jayanta
Roy, at consultancy Frost & Sullivan, which estimates that
only a third of the processed foods market is in the hands
of large Indian and multinational firms. The rest is
controlled by regional firms.
Culinary adaptation appears to be key. Pepsi has had a big
hit with ethnic salty snacks and also sells "aam panna",
or green mango nectar, along with its colas.
Nestle pushed its Milkmaid condensed milk as being ideal
for traditional Indian sweets. But it tasted more success
with Maggi noodles, a bold step in a nation divided
between eaters of rice and "roti" (flat wheat bread).
Maggi soon became a staple in school lunch boxes, helped
by the ethnic "masala" (mixed spices) flavour. Nestle
recently launched packaged yogurt, taking on another time-honoured
tradition, while French rival Danone, along with Yakult
Honsha, launched yogurt probiotic drinks.
A few years back, Indian and foreign firms struggled to
push packaged foods. But these days it's much easier to
break into the market thanks to a younger population,
higher incomes, new technologies and a growing middle
class, estimated at some 50 million households.
"We have a young population with higher disposable
incomes, living away from the large joint families and
seeking greater convenience," said Hemant Kalbag, head of
consultancy AT Kearney's retail practice.
Myanmar-China fiber link established under GMS program
Xinhua, Yangon
A fiber link between Myanmar and China has been set up as
part of the information superhighway network (ISN) project
of the six-country Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)-Economic
Cooperation, a leading local weekly reported on Wednesday.
The establishment of the Myanmar-China fiber link would
not only improve Myanmar's domestic information link
system but also boost the country's information link with
GMS member countries including China, the Yangon Times
quoted the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications
as saying.
There are 12 ISN fiber links being built across the GMS to
boost information links. Of Myanmar's two ISN links
respectively with China and Thailand, the link with China
was built since April 2007.
The commission into service of the Myanmar-China fiber
link now would improve Myanmar's international telephone
service, internet usage and video- conferencing
utilization, the sources said.
The Myanmar-China fiber link was built across China's
Kunming and Myanmar's Muse with its link further extended
to reach the commercial city of Yangon.
The document on cooperation in implementation of the
Myanmar section of the GMS ISN project and enhancement of
cooperation between the two countries in the sector of
information industry was inked between Myanmar and China
during a visit to Myanmar by Chinese Minister of
Information Industry Wang Xudong in April 2006.
The ISN project covers building of a commercialized
information and communication platform in order to launch
basic business of chatting, data, connection of internet
as well as distant education, medical treatment, e-
government and e- commerce which will sharply raise the
capacity of the internet to promote the socio-economic
development of the subregion.
Back Page
Tax cut likely for
legally earned money
No more whitening
UNB, Dhaka
Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul
Islam on Wednesday said the high rate of tax on
undisclosed but legally earned money could be reduced to a
certain extent but asserted that the whitening of black
money would never be allowed.
" I will talk to the government for reducing the high rate
on undisclosed legal money. But black money will never be
allowed to be whitened," he said.
The custodian of exchequer of the interim government, who
is poised to announce national budget for a second time
sans parliament, came up with his stance while addressing
a seminar titled 'Public-Private Partnership for Housing
Development in Bangladesh' at a city hotel in the morning.
The American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)
and Asset Developments and Holdings Limited (ADHL) jointly
arranged the discussion, with the aim of eliciting
opinions for streamlining the real-estate sector through
newer initiatives. "Some businessmen are saying that
government should allow black money to be invested in the
housing sector. But one thing I want to say clearly that
there will be no provision in future that will allow black
money to be whitened, as it is a moral question," Mirza
Aziz said.
About the tax on undisclosed legal money, he said the tax
rate on the undeclared money is 500 percent, which is
really too high that usually frightens the owners away
from disclosing their money. Housing businesspeople at the
seminar also demanded of the government to lower interests
on bank loans for housing projects.
In reply the finance adviser said, " Reducing the interest
rate is very difficult. Because many housing businessmen
proved loan defaulters." The property businessmen also
requested the government to cut down duties on the import
of building materials like steel, cement, electrical and
sanitary items, lifts, standby generators, and substation
components. Speaking on the demand for reduction of
duties, Mirza Aziz said if the duties on imports were
reduced, then local industries would be harmed.
AIUB VC Prof. DR Carmen Z Lamagna, pro-vice chancellor
Prof. Dr Anwar Hossain and ADHL chairman Salim Akhter
Khan, among others, addressed the seminar. Dr Anwar
Hossain presented the keynote at the seminar.
In his introductory speech, Salim Akhter Khan rang the
alarm bell by saying that if the country's economy
continued to be as it is and per-capita income didn't rise
or stayed stable in real terms, Bangladesh could be on the
verge of famine in a matter of months. He said the
government could tap the huge private funds and savings
from both declared income and undeclared but lawful income
by offering tax incentives and rebates on investments in
housing construction.
"This, of course, does not imply any form of support to
income by illegal or corrupt means," Salim Akhter said.
BTRC to receive application for licensing call centres
from April
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission will receive
application for licensing a potential new-generation
business in call centre from the first week of April.
Besides, the Commission proposed to facilitate the
entrepreneurs of the potential new industry with tax
holiday for three years in Dhaka and Chittagong and five
years in the rest of the country starting from the
licensing.
Moreover, the BTRC proposed only 0.5 percent revenue
sharing after the termination of holiday period. The
proposals came at the 'Public Hearing on Call Centre
Licensing' organised by the Commission at Bangladesh-China
Friendship Conference Centre this (Wednesday) morning.
As a follow-up to Public Consultation on the Proposed
Licensing Guidelines for Call Centre, BTRC invited the
general public and call-center enthusiasts to attend the
public hearing where the proposed Licensing Guidelines,
and terms and conditions were discussed openly. Over 2,000
stakeholders took part in the hearing.
Presided over by BTRC chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manjurul
Alam, the programme was also addressed by BTRC
Commissioner JM Munir Ahmed and Aliwardi Khandakar,
director (legal and licensing) AKH Shahiduzzaman and
senior consultant Abdullah A Ferdous.
"There is no category for getting the call-centre license.
Any good citizen having trade license can apply for the
license," BTRC chairman Alam told journalists at the break
of the daylong public hearing.
BTRC would provide the license as long as there would be
the market demand, he said, adding that there is no
condition for getting the license at this moment. Anyone
could get the license at a cost of Tk 5,000 for five
years, which was proposed Tk 50,000 earlier, and no
renewal fee for the license.
"The advertisement for applying for the license will be
circulated on the BTRC website from the first week of
April and also go on television and radio. Meanwhile,
we'll revise the proposed licensing guidelines for call
centre based on the suggestions of the public hearing,"
Alam said.
Licensing is a continuous process and BTRC would not stop
it as revolution could be brought through establishing the
call-centre industry properly, he said.
"The market size of the industry was 382.5 billion dollars
in 2004, while it would be 641.2 billion in 2009… If we
can attract only one percent, that is 6 billion dollars,
then it would be even more than our current
foreign-currency reserve," the BTRC chairman said.
As the BTRC is proposing for the entrepreneurs to use IPLC
(International Private Leased Circuit) for operating the
call centres initially, the participants of the public
hearing found it much expensive and asked the BTRC to look
into the matter.
Responding to the remarks, chairman Alam said the BTTB has
discounted 25 percent bandwidth charge for IPLC to
facilitate the promising call centre industry.
"If needed, the BTRC will request the BTTB to reduce it
more," he said, adding that the BTTB would also be
requested to reduce the license fee of VSAT, as the
call-centre entrepreneurs would also need it. To
facilitate the industry, the BTRC is to take step for
establishing a second submarine cable at the end of this
month, Alam said, expecting that the submarine cable would
start in next one year at the maximum.
Poor Waste Management
in DCC Area
Ainul Haque Royal
The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is not cleaning
garbage-containers, causing health hazards to the city
dwellers.
Visiting city's different spots this correspondent found
that there are many brick-made and lorry garbage
containers full of wastages spreading odours in and around
the areas. As a result, the pedestrians press their nose
with handkerchiefs while they pass through the areas.
According to sources, despite huge number of sweepers and
cleaners for the waste management of the DCC areas, the
situation remains unchanged.
Mir Obaidur Rahman, a coordinator of Bangladesh Paribesh
Andolon (BAPA) told The Bangladesh Today that many
dustbins are setup at different parts of the capital for
deposit of waste but these are not cleaned regularly.
These dustbins are polluting the environment, causing
various diseases including skin and asthmatic, he added.
"Apprehending environmental catastrophe, we knocked at the
door of the respective departments including DCC but the
authority did not pay any attention to the issue", he
said.
Earlier, in a bid to ensure the overall cleanliness and
improve the waste disposal system in the capital, the DCC
with the help of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
adopted a ten-year long project. A field of 200 acres of
land at Matuail in the city was created at a cost of Tk.
114 crore for waste management.
Environment scientist Jasimuddin Ahmed, former VC of
Jahangirnagar University said three years of the project
already have elapsed but it is yet to swing into action.
DCC sources said the authority has identified around 56
zones in the capital with a plan to put up five feet-high
wall surrounding the garbage containers to oblige people
to dispose wastes inside the bins.
Due to the financial crisis, inadequate and skilled
manpower and huge numbers of irregularities the waste
management activities are still hampered.
Crime
26 people sentenced in double murder, robbery case
UNB, Faridpur
Twenty-four people were sentenced to life term while two
others to three years' rigorous imprisonment by a court
here on Tuesday in a double murder and robbery case.
The court also fined the lifers Tk 1,000 each, in default,
to suffer two months more in prison.
The lifers are Alamgir Matubbar, Jamal Matubbar, Tabibar
Rahman Sheikh, Abu Bakkar Munshi, Alamgir Sheikh, Hafez
Talukder, Yunus Fakir, Hiru Mollah, Miran Mridha, Shahid
Khan, Kubbat, Masum, Tipu Khan, Shah Matubbar, Rois,
Alamin Talukder, Shada Miran, Farid Mollah, Giasuddin,
Kiamuddin alias Kia, Haider Sheikh, Nuru Fakir, Mazibar
Rahman Talukder and Rustom.
Two others - Biplob Das and Shyamal Chandra Pal -
sentenced to three years imprisonment for keeping the
looted goods - were also fined Tk 1,000 each, in default,
to suffer two months more in jail.
According to the prosecution, a gang of 30-35 robbers
stormed into the houses of Subhash Chandra Saha, his uncle
Balram Saha and neighbor Ratan Poddar at Rajapur village
in Bhanga upazila at dead of night on March 22, 2001.
Later, the bandits looted money in cash, gold ornaments
and other valuables, worth about Tk 6 lakh at gunpoint
from the three houses.
After examining the records and witnesses, Additional
District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Akbar Hossain Mridha
handed down the verdict in the jam-packed courtroom.
Girl violated
UNB, Gazipur
A garment worker was gang raped by miscreants near Board
Mill Bazar in Kaliakoir upazila Monday night.
Police said the hoodlums numbering 5/6 kidnapped the
adolescent garment worker of local Aiman garments factory
at gunpoint when she was returning home from her work
place at about 10:00 pm.
They took her to a bush near a pineapple orchard and raped
her one after another.
Hearing her scream local people rushed to the spot and
rescued her but the culprits managed to flee.
Police arrested two youths - Barek and Jasim -suspecting
their involvement with the incident.
Peasants, fishermen allege police harassment
UNB, Bhola
A group of peasants-fishermen of Daulatkhan on Wednesday
alleged police harassment of innocents by falsely
implicating them in a case of attack on the coastguards.
In a written statement to the newsmen they said those
named in the FIR were left out in the charge sheet under
influence of money.
A team of coastguards campaigning against the pirates on
October 21 last year came under lethal attack at
Swarajganj resulting in injuries to a coastguard. A case
was filed against 31 people.
Daulatkhan police investigating into the case have left
out 14 including the main accused from the charge sheet
under the influence of money and implicated poor
peasants-fishermen, they said and strongly pleaded for
fresh investigation into the case.
Peasants-fishermen present are Yusuf, Alauddin, Abu Taher,
Salahuddin and Hasan Miji while presenting the grievances
in writing.
Housewife commits suicide
UNB, Naraynganj
A housewife allegedly committed suicide in Dighibarab area
under Rupganj upazila here on Tuesday.
Police said Dilara Begum, 28, mother of two children,
locked into altercation with her husband Delwar Hosain
Monday night over going to her father's house in Barisal.
As her husband said after taking leave from his office he
would take her to Barisal within next two days she became
shocked and hanged herself from the ceiling of her bedroom
in the early morning.
On information police recovered the body and sent it to
hospital morgue for autopsy.
Local people said following a love affair with Delwar she
married him after converting from Hindu to Islam 15 years
back.
BDR recovers 30 statues, huge coin, brass, 6 held
UNB, Kushtia
BDR jawans in a drive recovered 30 statues of brass-metal,
huge brass and 31 Kgs of coin of 1 Tk denomination in
Barabazar area of the district town Tuesday morning.
Acting on a tip-off a BDR team, led by 1st class
magistrate Moktadir Aziz, raided 10 scrap-iron shops in
the area in the morning.
During the six-hour drive BDR recovered the statues and
coins from the shop of scrap-iron businessman Asai Member.
They also recovered 1,200 kgs of brass from the rest shops
and arrested six people in this connection.
The arrested were identified as Anwar Hossain, 38, Akber
Ali, 36, Obaidur Rahman, 34, Khokon, 25, Shihab Ali, 28,
and Juran, 35.
A case was filed.
Hundi trader arrested
UNB, Sunamganj
An alleged hundi trader was arrested in Laurer Gar area of
Tahirpur upazila Monday afternoon.
Acting on a tip-off, a patrol team of BDR 17 battalion
halted Jasimuddin, 27, son of Nijamuddin of Barachhara
village in the upazila, near the border outpost at about
5:30pm when he was returning home from Sylhet city.
Later, searching his body BDR recovered the Indian
currency. The law enforcers also seized Jasim's motorcycle
and his mobile phone set. Jashim later was handed over to
Tahirpur police station. A case was filed.
Pirate busted
UNB, Bagerhat
Notorious pirate Abul Bahini leader Abul Hossain arrested
from Kalapara in Patuakhali was given to police remand
when produced before the judicial magistrate here on
Wednesday.
Police arrested him in the morning and brought to Mongla
thana where he faced intense interrogation before taken to
the court.
Abul was accused in a case of plundering fishing trawler
FT Sagar-1 at Bore Point in the Bay on February28. Nine of
the 11 fishermen of the trawler thrown into the water were
still remained missing.
He and his associates are facing a number of cases of
looting fishing trawlers in the Bay and killing fishermen.
Outlawed leader held
UNB, Natore
Police arrested a regional leader of outlawed Purba
Banglar Communist Party (Lal Potaka) at Haltibeel in
Naldanga upazila early Wednesday.
Tipped-off, police raided a shallow machine room at the
beel at about 3:00 am and arrested Mogla Masud, local
regional leader of the underground party.
Naldanga thana Officer-in-Charge Ansar Ali said Masud was
wanted in at least 25 murder, extortion, snatching and
other criminal cases.
Convicted youth arrested
A Correspondent, Chapainawabganj
One Anarul Haque (35), son of late Bhadu Mandol of
Shimultala Zadupur under Sadar upazila in the district was
arrested from his home on Wednesday morning.
Source said acting on a secret information a squad of
Sadar Thana police led by S.I Atoar Rahman conducted a
drive and arrested his from his home. Anarul Haque was
awarded 3 years Impressments with Tk one thousand as fine
by the Chief Judicial Magistrates Court, torturing his
wife, on last 5 March.
Female thief netted
A Correspondent, Chapainawabganj
One-woman thief, Selina Begum (45) wife of Abul Kalam of
Huzrapur Khalghat under Chapainawabganj town was arrested
on Wednesday night. Local people said she entered with
broken the back side of a shop and prepared to stolen
goods, then local people caught her and informed to Sadar
Thana. Later a squad of Sadar Thana police reached there
and arrested her. In this connection a case was filed.
Mother, son arrested, heroin recovered
UNB, Sherpur
A woman and her son were arrested along with 26 small
packets of heroin in Maddha Bazar area of Taraganj upazila
Monday night.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided the house of
drug-peddler Farida Begum's house in the area at about
8:00 pm and arrested her and her son Rubel, 22, along with
contraband drug. Another report from Sylhet adds: BDR and
officials of Narcotics
Control Department in a joint drive arrested two
drug-peddlers along with 5 kgs of hemp at Moina village in
Kanaighat upazila Monday noon.
Being tipped off, BDR jawans and Narcotics Control
Department officials raided the house of Moniruddin, 40,
at about 2:30 pm and recovered the drug. They also
arrested Moniruddin and Abdul Huq alias Abdullah, 42,
during the drive. In another drive police recovered 360
bottles of phensidyl syrup from a microbus at Mansur
village in Jakiganj upazila Monday early morning.
Editorial
Present Government Irregular not Illegal
Barrister
Jamir Uddin Sircar, the Speaker of the last Parliament has
opined that the present Government is not an illegal
government but an irregular one, citing various provisions of
the Constitution in support of his contention. One is not sure
as to why the Speaker, of the now defunct Parliament, had to
express this particular point of view, specially when nobody
asked him for an opinion on the matter. He has moreover,
confused the issue further by citing provisions of the
Constitution which relate to the Caretaker Government as far
as holding national elections within 90 days is concerned
perhaps overlooking or sidetracking the fact that as soon as
the President declared the Emergency, Caretaker Government
ceased to exist in fact and in law. By providing an opinion
which is neither here nor there he has opened up a totally new
front in an already heated debate about what this Emergency
Government is all about.
Historically and logically speaking a government-in-being,
whatever its type and composition has never been considered
illegal by anyone, anywhere in the world, otherwise it would
not be a government and one has only to study the
Constitutional history of Bangladesh to realize how true that
is in the case of Bangladesh. Since almost the very inception
of Bangladesh, governments have rarely changed hands through
well defined processes except for the period 1991 – 2006; for
the rest of our history one merely sees a procession of
martial-law regimes changing hands through violent means. All
such governments were de facto or governments-in-fact which
later became de jure or legitimized themselves through
amendments of our Constitution at appropriate times – all on
the plea of necessity or as the CEC would like to term it
“Doctrine of Necessity”. No one in Bangladesh has ever
challenged the existence of such governments as being either
irregular or illegal even after such governments were deposed,
removed or changed. The Emergency Government too came into
existence because one single person, the President decided or
was convinced to decide that that an “emergency situation”
existed where certain provisions of the Constitution relating
to citizen rights needed to be suspended and the government
run by decrees; the Emergency Government did not come about
because people voted it to State power and it will not go away
if people wish it so. Suppose the Speaker had opined that this
Government is illegal, would the Government have disbanded
itself ? So the whole question of legality, regularity,
illegality or irregularity is really not very relevant now.
The point at issue here is not the legalistic, hair-splitting
opinions of lawyers regarding the nature of this Government;
the issue here is that we have been imposed upon by an
Emergency Government which really is unable to tackle the
numerous problems that the Nation and its people face right
now and the people have no option in replacing this government
with another one which will make an effort at solving their
problems and paying heed to their needs and demands. Although
the Emergency Government is telling us that election are just
down the road, nobody is able to take that for granted; not
the politicians, not the economists, not the media, not the
lawyers, nor even the common people. This uncertainty
regarding the future of government and governance is taking
its toll on every sphere of national life but more
particularly on the economic and social spheres. Therefore,
people are demanding immediate elections and a return to a
regularity of political processes, however flawed, whereby the
people are at least sure that they have the option of changing
governments at regular intervals; if they cannot live with one
particular government they will have a chance of getting rid
of it after five years. This is what is at stake here – the
right of people to choose their governments; the Emergency is
preventing that.
Analysis
The West, Islam, Islamism and
Jihad - Undigested Modernity and the Promise of Politics
We are today, not confronted with a clash of
civilizations but with a confrontation between the 'ideal of
jihad' and the 'rest of the world'.
Sami Zemni
The
attacks of 9/11, Madrid and Bali, the ‘cartoon’ riots, the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the radicalization and
polarization of numerous societies have all added strength to
the idea of an imminent clash of civilizations. Seen from
Europe, I argue that we are not heading towards a clash of
civilizations but rather confronted with two complex dynamics,
largely independent from one another. Firstly, within European
countries, we are facing a conflict-ridden but utterly
democratic dialogue between the Muslims of Europe and the
local authorities. Secondly, on a global level, there is a
clash between the ‘ideal of the jihad’ and the ‘rest of the
world’. It is the amalgamation of both these dynamics that
further polarizes the debates on the place and role of Islam
in world politics and the question of the integration of
Muslims in their host societies in Europe.
While it is fairly easy to contextualize the dialogue between
Muslims and the local authorities within Europe, Islamist
movements (and their violent offshoots) are the consequence of
undigested modernity. Islamism itself, in my perspective, is
not the issue but rather, our ‘political blind spot’ that
constitutes the problem of coming to grips with contemporary
violent forms of jihad’.
Under current neo-liberal globalization, the traditional
boundaries of inclusion and exclusion within the site of the
still powerful nation-state are changing and altering. We are,
by and large, living in what the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj
Zizek has called a context of post-politics, i.e. the
situation in which opposite ideologies grounded in political
parties and fighting democratically for the voter’s voice has
been replaced by the general consensus that capitalism is the
only natural way to go. The result is that politics has become
only a question of policy which thereby reduces and
obliterates its liberating promises.
The problems of Muslims in Europe cannot be reduced to the
bankruptcy of integration or the consequence of Islam. Second
and third generation Muslims are engaging in public debate and
participating in the civil and political realms of their
countries, pressing for the same rights that other groups
already enjoy. The Muslims of Europe are channeling their
questions, desires and wants within the existing
constitutional, legal and political landscapes of the European
countries. This accounts for the fact that the debate on Islam
in France is quite different from that one in Great Britain.
Muslims are posing their requests by and large through
democratic dialogue. And, as we often forget, democratic
dialogue is utterly about settling conflict in a non-violent
way. Therefore we should not be surprised that with dialogue
comes, from time to time, conflict. Ultimately this is proof
of the good functioning of democracy. Structurally, this
dialogue poses the question as to what space will be allowed
for Muslims within the European realm. The fact that Islam is
still seen as a religion foreign to Europe inevitably
influences the space given to Muslims. From the French model
of assimilation to the British multicultural setting, Muslims
have organized themselves in different ways, reflecting the
local, historically grown, political traditions. It is the
allowed space that informs us on the civic and political
participation of the Muslims and not specific Islamic theology
or doctrines.
Islamism is an ideology that endeavors to appropriate the
political space and public sphere through the mobilization of
religious (Islamic) resources and modes of social action
ranging from daw’a (predication) to jihad (violence,
terrorism) through which certain social groups manifest their
desire to control the state, to overthrow or oppose the state
and to install an order that is called “Islamic”.
The activism of Islamism, just like other faith-based
movements, is a highly modern phenomenon. All forms of
fundamentalisms need and thrive on modernity to constitute
themselves. Islamism and its radical jihad-form do not stand
on the firm ground of (Islamic) tradition but are
traditionalized responses to the doubt, characteristic of our
modern predicament. It is not Islamic tradition that
‘produces’ Islamism or its militants. It is rather the
conscious choice by the militants for what they call Islamic
tradition – and one should add the “re-invented” forms of it –
that produces Islamism. Islamism in general and its jihad-form
in particular, are thus an anti-modern modernity, a way of
dealing with uncertainty within modernity and offer a
theoretical alternative.
Modernity was ‘imported’ into the Arab world from the second
half of the 19th century onwards with the introduction of
different institutional, military, legal resources and
technologies. This happened within the framework of
imperialism (later colonialism), i.e. within the frame of a
clear imbalance of power between the two shores of the
Mediterranean. This triggered responses of local rulers to try
and control the dynamics of their rapidly changing societies.
During the ensuing direct forms of colonization several forms
of resistance emerged. During the Nahdha or Arab renaissance,
Arab thinkers sought an answer to the question why the Arab
world was weakened and overrun by powerful European countries.
The responses were diverse and multifaceted but two arguments
were repeatedly stressed. One had to admit and accept that the
weakness was a consequence of certain ‘backward’ aspects of
Islam, or one had to admit that it was the consequence of not
following the ‘right Islam’. Islamic reformist thinkers argued
that Islam was buried underneath a century-old layer of dust
of ‘wrong traditions’. This way, a restoration of the
so-called Golden Age was started and a modern religious,
social and political movement emerged.
We are today, not confronted with a clash of civilizations but
with a confrontation between the ‘ideal of jihad’ and the
‘rest of the world’. The contemporary ‘ideal of jihad’ is a
rigid and dogmatic form of Islam in which all deeds and
actions of the believer are ‘weighed’ against an imagined
authentic Islamic ideal. This ‘ideal’ is however not an
ideology nor a culture, let alone a civilization. It is not an
ideology because it does not carry a positive vision for a
future society. It is not a culture because this ‘new ideal’
endeavors to destroy all particular and local forms of
culture. Hence their pathological attacks on local forms of
music, traditional ceremonies of marriage or other rituals.
The groups fighting ‘jihad’ are aiming their violence and
destruction towards anyone against them, in the first place,
against other Muslims.
The causes of the violence are to be found in the political
problems throughout the Arab and Islamic world. By focusing on
Islam, we evacuate the role of politics. By being blind to the
local, historical and specific causes of conflict and diluting
them in rhetoric of good and evil, we depoliticize these
conflicts. As a consequence, we seem to be less and less
capable of understanding why, under certain circumstances,
people use violence as a political means. Therefore we also
put less and less attention on the numerous forms of injustice
and poverty that subsist throughout the world. Hence it
becomes easy to put the blame on Islam and portray it as the
‘new enemy’ while doing nothing to tackle the root causes of
the problems. This policy is just like a bad doctor who would
treat the symptoms of an illness but not the illness itself.
The consequence is more violence and more insecurity.
The more Islam and Islamism (as its political offshoot) are
reduced to their sectarian components or extremist trends we
are putting political solutions aside and opting for a
military logic. The ‘military’ option undoubtedly feeds the
‘evil’ that it tells us it wants to eradicate. The miserable
consequences of such a policy can sadly be seen in the ruins
of Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan or the Palestinian Occupied
territories.
The ‘triggers’ of Islamism and violent jihad are not to be
discovered in Islam or its theology but in the human agency
manipulating and thus re-creating and re-inventing the
‘Islamic theologies’ while it posits itself as being authentic
and pristine.
At the basis of the revolt lies the disgruntlement with the
unjust world in which we live. Then, and only then (when the
need for a radical change is felt), the vast historic deposit
of Islam is manipulated so that it evolves into a new logical
system – at least in the eyes of those who follow it – capable
of dealing with the modern world’s problems. This happens
through the exclusion of the ‘Other’ who becomes the enemy
that has to be killed as he epitomizes Evil. The problem of
coming to grips with the phenomenon of jihad lies not in its
supposed archaic, nihilistic or ‘barbaric’ character but in
our political ‘blind spot’. The answer lies not in a hereafter
but in the realm of politics and thus, it suggests that in the
violent revolt against our modern condition emerges a new form
of politics that transcend the political action and that which
is only concerned with self-interest.
If a new, invigorated form of humanism does not succeed in
combining Western self-criticism with empathy for the rest of
the world, we are headed towards more violence and
incomprehension. To get to know each other without reducing
the Other (whether Muslim or not) to a threat, we should learn
to depoliticize and stop dehumanizing this Other.
If Europe keeps focusing on ‘Islam’, it will not be able to
find solutions for the numerous political problems.
Inter-religious and intercultural dialogues can reduce
suspicions and tensions between people but cannot stop the
violence, as this violence is not the consequence of religious
antagonisms but of political conflicts. It is time that we
talk less about Islam and more about the concrete movements
and parties that prevail in our modern times. To understand is
nothing more than the first step in reaching for constructive
solutions. Let us not wait too long. The world is in need of
it…
(Sami Zemni is a professor of political sciences at Ghent
University. In this piece, he explores how Islamist movements
are the consequence of undigested modernity and the need to
come to terms with our political blind spots in dealing with
complex West Islam issues.)
National Identity Driving Tibet’s Struggle
Right now, China is stoking a future of ethnic conflict that
will take generations and huge resources to solve.
Ed Douglas
Putting
the Olympic flame on the summit of Mount Everest must have
seemed a great idea to the planning committee of the Beijing
Olympics. What better expression of China's inexorable rise to
superpower status could there be? Everest was the crowning
glory for the queen in 1953. So it would be for China's
political elite.
Now the game is up. On Friday, a friend who organizes
expeditions to Everest called me on his way to Katmandu for
the start of the climbing season. He had just heard that the
Nepalese authorities, at China's request, had decided to stop
climbers going on the mountain until after those carrying the
Olympic flame had been and gone.
It was, on China's part, an act of frantic paranoia. Beijing
had only just banned foreign climbers from China's side of the
mountain, fearing pro-Tibet demonstrations. Now Beijing was
bullying Nepal, distracted by a chaotic election campaign, to
do China's bidding. China recently offered Nepal £100m for two
new hydroelectric dams and increasingly calls the tune in
Katmandu, so there wasn't much argument. It's what this says
about China's position in Tibet which is so revealing. In a
matter of days, the self-assurance of a regime that promised
to light a beacon to the world on the summit of Everest has
been utterly undermined. For the last 60 years of Chinese
occupation and colonialism, the Tibetan people have been
starved, murdered, tortured, imprisoned and marginalized in
their own land.
But even now, after decades of effort to subjugate Tibet, the
Chinese authorities couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't be
humiliated in Tibet's most remote, and easily controlled,
location - the slopes of the peak Tibetans call Chomolungma.
Rather than have Western climbers unfurling banners to demand
a free Tibet during a live broadcast beamed around the world,
they have preferred the embarrassment of closing the peak to
outsiders, as they did until 1980, four years after Mao's
death.
Leaving aside the inequalities between Tibetans and migrant
Han Chinese, there's no question that the Chinese have done a
huge amount to improve the economic conditions of the
indigenous population. Drive along the highway between Lhasa
and Shigatse, seat of the disputed Panchen Lama, No. 2 in the
Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, and you can see bright new houses
being built to replace the smoky hovels many Tibetans used to
occupy. True, part of this resettlement program is aimed at
settling nomadic herders whose mobility threatens China's
grip. China recalls how nomads in eastern Tibet put up strong
resistance following the invasion in 1950. But it would be a
gross caricature to deny China's attempts to bring economic
development to a disadvantaged region. China says it has
rehoused 10 percent of Tibet's population in 2006, building
279,000 new homes. Now that's progress. The high-tech,
high-altitude railway, opened in 2006 and tying China more
firmly to its Tibetan fiefdom, has brought a wave of new
investment along with more migration. When I first visited
Lhasa in 1993, people still defecated in the street. Now it is
a modern and much bigger city, albeit a largely Chinese one.
Tibet campaigners often argue that this combination of
investment and migration will swamp Tibetan's ancient culture
and snuff out resistance to China's annexation. If that was
the plan, it seems to have failed. Beijing predictably blamed
the Dalai Lama and his 'splittist clique' for masterminding
the riots that gripped Lhasa last week. But reports filtering
out from the Jokhang temple area, the holiest of holies for
Tibetan Buddhists, suggest the anger on the streets is real
and instinctive. It is the resentment Tibetans feel at the
inequality they face in their day-to-day lives.
Life might have got better for some Tibetans, but they see Han
Chinese migrants doing a whole lot better and at their
expense. The new railway might bring more money to Lhasa, but
it is also carrying back Tibet's vast mineral deposits and
timber to feed China's galloping economic growth.
It's inevitable, given his huge profile and the popularity of
his cause, that many Westerners see the Dalai Lama and Tibet
as synonymous. The Dalai Lama remains a source of hope for
many Tibetans, but beneath the charm and exoticism of his
story, Tibet's agonies should be familiar ground to any
student of colonialism. It is that inequality, and the despair
it brings, that feeds Tibet's resistance.
But Beijing is fixated by a personal and bitter campaign
against a man regarded as an icon around the world. Rather
than allow the possibility that he has influence inside Tibet,
and affection outside it, China courts ridicule by peddling
transparently false statements about him. An example. In
November, the Dalai Lama used his prerogative as a reincarnate
lama to suggest his rebirth wouldn't take place within Tibet.
He has said this before, but the statement launched a
typically petulant response from Beijing, suggesting the Dalai
Lama's statement "violated [the] religious rituals and
historical conventions of Tibetan Buddhism." Given the
wholesale destruction of monasteries in the 1950s and 1960s,
and renewed efforts in the 1990s to crack down on religious
freedoms, and the strict controls placed on monks within
Tibet, the idea that atheist Beijing should offer advice on
the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism was understandably laughed
off by the Dalai Lama's office.
China must hope, and friends of Tibet must fear, that when the
Dalai Lama dies, much of the momentum toward Tibet's eventual
freedom will die with him. Don't count on it. Tibet will still
be a country that is ethnically and culturally very different
from China. It's not a question of preserving Tibet's ancient
culture; that hangs on in remote villages, but it's mostly
gone in Lhasa. It would have changed anyway. Mobile phones and
the Internet would have undermined Tibet's oppressively
religious polity, already being reformed by the current Dalai
Lama, just as they are doing to China's version of communism.
It's a question of identity. The fact remains that Tibetans
feel Tibetan. No amount of economic development will change
that. It's also true that China is implacable in its
determination to stay put. Only a settlement that allows
Tibetans genuine freedoms and economic equality will bring
lasting peace. And that means meaningful agreements with the
Dalai Lama. Only then will Tibetans begin to trust the
Chinese.
Right now, China is stoking a future of ethnic conflict that
will take generations and huge resources to solve. That
conflict is deeply damaging to China's image abroad as a
progressive and modern country. The real question is what does
China have to fear from a more independent Tibet? It is the
risk of difference, of heterogeneity that frightens China - a
fear of multiculturalism.
Source: www.arabnews.com
Viewpoints
An
Inclusive World
This is indeed the challenge before us: to
reaffirm the human spirit so that we can bring the world
together again. The challenge is to create an inclusive world
where you, me and everyone has a stake.
Sundeep Waslekar
Once
I read an interesting story. Someone met a little boy about 4
or 5 years old. He gave him a world map from a magazine, tore
it into pieces and challenged him to put it together again.
The boy did it in a few minutes. How did the little one know
the location of Uruguay and Vietnam, Kenya and Kazakhstan? He
said: “Behind the picture of the map there was a picture of a
man. I put together the man and the world was together again”
This is indeed the challenge before us: to reaffirm the human
spirit so that we can bring the world together again. The
challenge is to create an inclusive world where you, me and
everyone has a stake.
We live in a world of opportunity. We can walk in outer space.
We can look into the inner core of an atom. For those of us
who are included, the world is great.
Since we exclude large segments of population from our world
of opportunity, we have also created a world at risk. There is
fear in the East. There is terror in the West. There is riot
in the North. There is Darfur in the South. And for 10 million
children who die every year with empty mouths, the world is
shame. It is a shame.
To perpetuate inclusion and justify exclusion, we play games.
Until the last century the name of the game was war, genocide
and fascism. Now it is terrorism and counter-terrorism. Some
relate it to religion. Some say it has to do with foreign
occupation. Some say the purpose is revolution. The fact of
the matter is that it is about relative deprivation. For an
unemployed young man in Colombia or Nepal it is not enough to
know that there are more unfortunate people in Peru or
Cambodia. If he feels that he is deprived as compared to
others in his own capitals or earns less than what his parents
used to earn, he enters the RED (relative economic
deprivation) zone and prepares to take up arms.
We need weapons no longer, not even smart weapons. Mere
callousness is enough. About 500 million children will be put
to death in the next 50 years, without the food that is
rotting in the granaries of many countries and suffering from
diseases that can be treated. This is more than the number of
killings in all the wars of the last 2000 years. Do we really
want a world where callousness means confidence? Do we really
want a world where exclusion means success? Do we really want
a world where war means peace?
The evidence of our collective callousness is abundantly
present in the first continent. I call Africa the first
continent because it’s there that the humanity began. About
25000 years ago, there was a community near today’s Lake
Edward. They knew fishing, cooking and counting. They made the
first table of primary numbers. It was carved onto what is
known as the Ishango bone. We can now see it in a museum in
Brussels. About 2500 years ago, Africa introduced the blast
furnace, which made today’s industrialization possible.
Somewhere along the line, Africa also invented the binary
system, leading to the foundation of computer science.
Now about a dozen countries in the first continent are
striving hard to speed up their economic growth.
Unfortunately, all this growth is in pockets and highly
inequitable. Therefore, in Africa as a whole, people earning
below a dollar a day are likely to increase from 350 million
now to over 400 million by 2015. It will take Africa another
one hundred years to meet the Millennium Development Goals
with this malaise.
Of course, Africa is not alone. South Asia, Central Asia and
parts of Latin America also account for the global pool of the
poor. On the other hand, the swelling number of economic
successes from India, China, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, Sri
Lanka, Brazil and many other countries prove one thing. It is
possible to overcome poverty and despair. Hope has future.
What do we do now to instill concern in our heart in the place
of callousness? What do we do now to generate prosperity where
there is poverty? What do we do now to construct peace and
deconstruct terror? It is easy to criticize. It is easy to be
cynical. It is much more important to find a way forward.
When the Second World War ravaged a part of the world, we had
the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe. When
colonialism ended, we had development to build infrastructure
and address basic human needs of the post-colonial societies.
We now need transformation to include the excluded in our
world of opportunity. Development was about help.
Transformation is about empowerment. Development was about
survival. Transformation is about actualization. Development
was about the context of despair. Transformation is about the
context of hope. Development was needed to provide life.
Transformation is essential to provide meaning to life.
The framework of transformation can be as follows:
l
Not just literacy, but capacity building
l
Not just poverty alleviation, but productive employment
l
Not just high income, but high esteem
l
Not just governance, but participation
l
Not just investments, but partnership
In June 2005, Strategic Foresight Group and the Alliance of
Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament brought
together a group of concerned leaders to recommend solutions
to the world’s security problems. It was a rare meeting of
leading minds from the Western and Islamic countries. In the
committee room of the European Parliament, they outlined the
parameters of global transformation.
With transformation, we can build an inclusive world, like a
home in which every habitant has a stake. The foundation of
this house must be sustainable childhood. Others have
emphasized the role of malnutrition and primary school to
achieve this goal. I would like to focus on secondary school
education, simply because it is understated.
It’s at the secondary level that there are high drop out
rates. The question is not merely of adequate supply. We need
new kinds of secondary schools with an emphasis on technical
and vocational skills to enable the students to participate
successfully in the market. The objective of education cannot
be confined to literacy. We must think in terms of
employability and capacity-building.
Of course, employability does not mean that we should create
robots and technicians. It is necessary to have a well-rounded
education – including humanities. We also need education that
will enable students to appreciate other faiths and cultures
and extract the best, in order to improve their own societies.
The human civilization has progressed whenever education has
functioned as a vehicle of ideas across cultures. About a
thousand years ago, scholars in Baghdad studied maths from
India and philosophies from Greece. Half a millennium later,
the Europeans developed technology based on the foundation of
the Arab scientific inventions. In the 19th century, the
Americans took a lead deriving from their knowledge obtained
from Europe. Now we don’t have to wait for centuries for
knowledge to travel. We can benefit here and now if we design
our school systems to facilitate mutual appreciation.
If education can provide the foundation, productive employment
will build the walls of our house of hope. There are currently
100 million unemployed young people in the age group of 15-25.
About 100 million young people will join labour force every
year in the next decade. At the current rate, at least 10
million of them will be drawn into the pool of the unemployed,
making another 100 million or a total of 200 million by 2015.
We have shown the ability to turn desert into oasis. There is
no limit to human enterprise. We have imagination to create
new industries. We have millions of acres of land in rural
areas that we can make productive. We can transform
agriculture into food processing. We can convert molasses into
energy. We need a master plan for productive employment in
Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The young men
in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rwanda and Sudan, Peru and Colombia
are young men after all. If they can wield a ploughshare with
dignity, they won’t need swords at all.
We need new instruments to be able to create new industries
and new employment on a large scale. We need to promote
entrepreneurship and self-employment. For instance, the
private sector can promote venture capital funds especially
designed for micro enterprises. There is already experience of
3000 micro-finance companies that can be used. As these funds
are likely to carry higher risk, multilateral development
banks and governments can subsidize the promoters in
public-private partnership.
Along similar lines, there is scope for social capital for
capacity-building, employment generation and entrepreneurship
development. In one of the poorest parts of Western India,
fishermen build community trusts where they contribute a share
of their income to a common pool. It is then used for
financing health and education of the needy and also to
provide seed capital for young fishermen to purchase new boats
and nets. The common pool thus enables one person after
another to be free from debt and get into business.
While we build the walls of this house, we must also think of
the ceiling. My friends in the Arab world, your ancestors are
the founders of modern thought. At the beginning of 9th
century, they had among them Al Khwarizmi, the founder of
modern algebra. One of your ancestors was Al Kindi who wrote
250 books on philosophy, physics, medicine and metallurgy. Ibn
Haiyan founded chemistry. Ibn Haytham discovered the science
of optics and also explored momentum and gravity of the earth
600 years before Galileo. Al Biruni determined the earth’s
circumference. And Ibn Sina? There has never been a man like
him. I doubt if there ever will be a man like Ibn Sina who
wrote 450 books on medicine and philosophy, mathematics and
astronomy. Of course, you did not have only scientists amongst
you. You have produced some of the greatest literature from
the Epic of Gilgamesh to Rubaiyat.
Can we have the House of Wisdom in every city and every town,
which was a regular feature of the region one thousand years
ago? Can we have blooming research in science, technology,
philosophy and literature to reach new frontiers in every
field of human endeavor? Can we have a modern Ibn Sina and Al
Kindi?
We need a deliberate strategy to build and spread thousands of
state of the art research facilities all over the Middle East.
If the region reclaims its scientific and literary heritage
and recreates the golden era that it experienced exactly a
millennium ago, it can once again emerge as a new leader of
thought for the entire world. It will boost the esteem of
young people in the region. It will provide them with
aspiration. It will replace the context of despair with the
context of hope. The big question is whether the leaders of
the Middle East are willing to make the mental shift that is
necessary.
Our new global house must have doors and windows. The windows
tell us the difference between darkness and light. We need
fresh air of reforms at all levels. At the national level, we
need governance that is transparent, accountable and
participatory. At the global level, we need governance that
makes occupation and manipulation impossible. We need
political systems that make inclusion a reality. We need a
context where an individual can freely think and act. We need
an atmosphere where every child can dream. We need openness so
that every man and woman can actualize his or her full
potential.
Finally, we need a house where all the adults share their
responsibilities in the interests of the common good.
Currently, we tend to depend on the industrial G-8 for many
things. We need a new way of thought that makes global
transformation a common responsibility of all. If the price of
oil hovers around $60, all oil exporting countries, including
those in the Middle East, Norway and Russia, will collect
surplus reserves in the excess of $2500 billion by the end of
this decade. Even if the price comes down to $50, they will
hold $1500-2000 billion in their treasuries. We need a new
energy G-8 that deliberates on the problems of the world and
allocates real funds for transformation. The two G-8
collectives can then join hands from time to time, along with
another group of 8 countries that are important emerging
economies. These could be India, China, Malaysia, Australia,
Brazil, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa. Together the three
groups of 8 can create a new G-24.
All of us in the Middle East, Asia and Africa go to the
industrial G-8 with requests for decisions. The time has come
for the most successful among us to set up a new partnership
of equals to formulate strategies to prevent the death of 500
million children in the next 50 years, to reorient education
and create employment for 100 million young people, to
establish thousands of Houses of Wisdom to create and spread
new scientific innovations initially in the Middle East and
later on in other parts of the world, and to improve the
capacity of governments to deliver public goods in an
accountable manner.
Of course, there are issues of occupation and fears of
terrorism. It will only be possible to address them
effectively at a new table, which represents new realities and
new aspirations. It will be only possible if the new players
come to the new table with a commitment to give and shape, and
not with the intention to ask and follow.
The most urgent need is for a group of leaders to come
together informally and form a moral compass. These must be
leaders of certain standing, leading important governments or
constituencies, so that others will listen to them. They can
then explore solutions to the most serious problems of
poverty, occupation, terrorism. The informal processes can
slowly pave the way for a formal one involving the main
players.
This idea of global transformation to create an inclusive
world may look like one Utopia. It may look like a dream too
unrealistic. But is it more realistic to believe that the
world will survive the next 50 years on the bodies of 500
million children? Is it more realistic to expect that the
world will survive the anguish of millions of unemployed
youth?
We need an inclusive world not merely because of the fear of
our survival. We need it because hope is feasible. We need it
because dreaming is good and aspirations are essential. We
need it because every citizen of the earth can become a
participant. We need it because the tomorrow is ours. We need
it because the impossible is often possible.
I was once on an aircraft that almost crashed. I was once at a
hospital when the world’s best doctors told me that my son
would survive for no more than an hour. I was once at a secret
place negotiating with terrorists when a dozen of them were
talking with the guns pointed at my head. On the aircraft, I
joined a spontaneous small team that helped the wounded and
the shocked. At the hospital, I mobilized knowledge resources
from around the world. The result is that my son is now a
healthy little child – as naughty as a kid should be. And the
terrorists I met that night have actually given up guns.
These little experiences have taught me a few big lessons. It
is possible to turn death into life. It is possible to convert
violence into peace. It is possible to transform darkness into
light. It is possible to change despair into hope. It is
possible to end exclusion. It is possible to create an
inclusive world.
All we need to do is to construct our common global home where
you, me and everyone has a stake. All we need to do is to
reaffirm the human spirit. We can then bring the world
together again.
(Sundeep Waslekar is President of Strategic Foresight Group.
Source: www.strategicforesight.com)
Comment
Carry on polluting
When it comes
to climate change, Britain has commitments alright. It has
more targets than an archery range. By 2010, ministers must
cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent; 2012 is the deadline for
that Kyoto pledge to lower greenhouse gases by 12.5 per cent
and come 2020, there must be "real progress" on the 2050 goal
of a 60 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions. And that lot are
just the highlights.
The easy response to this blizzard of announcements is
cynicism. Politicians say one thing, and promptly do another,
don't they? An investigation by the National Audit Office has
revealed that ministers use two sets of accounts when
reporting greenhouse gas emissions; only one includes
emissions from international flights and shipping. Using the
more stringent accounting standard, the investigation finds
"there have been no reductions in UK carbon dioxide emissions"
from the 1990 level. That message differs from the one put out
by the government.
Ministers have not been lying; they have simply been using a
more generous accounting method. Doubtless, many overstretched
companies and consumers wish they could do the same. But the
government knows that being too clever in the counting leads
to daft numbers. When Labour first proposed a 20 per cent cut
in carbon emissions by 2010, it was clear: there would be no
shortcuts in using emissions trading. After all, that would
allow one to carry on polluting by paying for the privilege.
Come 2000 and there was an about-face: now ministers "proposed
to include" emissions trading.
This is feeble. As with other spheres of government activity,
ministers could do with losing their mania for target-setting
and concentrating on execution. That involves being up front
with the public about progress. A fixed and objective
accounting standard is obviously better than one defined by
fuzziness. A very useful task for Adair Turner, and his new
Climate Change Committee, would be to devise an adequate means
of accounting for greenhouse gases, which could then be
debated in parliament and public. It would obviously be better
if carbon credits were treated as a bonus to any reductions in
pollution rather than a vital means of reaching prescribed
targets.
Rigorous accounting matters as a way of holding the government
to account, and keeping the public engaged in a vital, if
difficult, issue (the last goal is surely not helped by that
confetti of pledges). Ministers cannot keep claiming to take
climate change seriously-and then trivialise the measurement
of progress.
Source: www. theguardian.com
International
China warns of
‘life or death’ struggle over Tibet
AFP, Beijing
China said Wednesday it was engaged in a "life or death
struggle" over Tibet as it stepped up its rhetoric against
the Dalai Lama, branding him a "monster."
"We are currently in an intensely bloody and fiery
struggle with the Dalai Lama clique, a life or death
struggle with the enemy," the Tibet Daily quoted the
region's Communist Party leader Zhang Qingli as saying.
"As long as we... remain of one heart, turn the masses
into a walled city and work together to attack the enemy,
then we can safeguard social stability and achieve a full
victory in this intense battle against separatism."
At a meeting in Lhasa on Tuesday, Zhang blamed violent
unrest there and around the greater Tibetan region in
recent days on the exiled Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in
1959 following a failed uprising, the report said.
He said the Dalai Lama and his followers were bent on
separating the Tibetan region from Chinese rule and were
seeking to use the period before the Beijing Olympic Games
in August to foment unrest.
"The Dalai Lama is a wolf wrapped in a habit, a monster
with human face and animal's heart," Zhang said. "The
reality of this serious struggle has amply shown that the
Dalai Lama separatist clique is one of the main causes of
our region's social instability and the biggest danger
facing Tibet's development."
Following riots in Lhasa on Friday last week, China
declared "a people's war" on Tibetan separatists, using
rhetoric from the nation's Maoist era.
"The stability of Tibet is linked to the stability of the
entire nation and the security of Tibet is tied to the
security of the entire nation," Zhang said. He called on
all regional officials to stand on "the political high
ground," step up ideological work and fall in line with
the ruling Communist Party in the "complex and long-term
struggle against Tibetan splittists."
The ongoing unrest in Tibet, which began last week with
protests led by Buddhist monks on the March 10 anniversary
of the 1959 uprising, is the most intense in nearly two
decades.
The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest spiritual
authority and the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, on
Tuesday called on his followers in the Himalayan region to
refrain from violence.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian appealed
Wednesday for voters to back a weekend referendum on UN
membership, saying it was a way to show support for
Tibetans living under Chinese rule.
Chen said Saturday's referendum, being held at the same
time as elections for his successor as president, was
important to cement Taiwan's sovereignty against China,
which claims the self-ruled island for itself.
"The UN referendum must pass," Chen told a rally in the
northern county of Taoyuan.
"If the referendum fails, I'm afraid China would use this
event for their international propaganda. They would tell
the world that Taiwanese people are not concerned about
their own UN bid." "With the vote only a few days away,
there is nothing more important than this," he urged. "I
hope you will vote for the referendum, and this is also a
way of supporting Tibet."
Dalai Lama meets Tibet radicals after threatening to quit
AFP, Dharamshala
The Dalai Lama held talks with radical Tibetan exiles on
Wednesday, his aides said, a day after the spiritual
leader threatened to resign if violence in his homeland
worsened.
The meeting with the Tibetan Youth Congress and other
high-profile pressure groups came as he faced an
intensifying challenge to his position as leader of the
exiles' movement, based in the northern Indian hill town
of Dharamshala. The pro-independence Tibetan Youth
Congress has called for a review of the 72-year-old Dalai
Lama's "Middle Way" policy, which espouses non-violence
and autonomy within China rather than independence.
In contrast to the Dalai Lama, the group has also called
for an international boycott of the Beijing Olympics in
August.
A close aide to the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Taklha, told AFP a
meeting with Tibetan Youth Congress leader Tsewang Rigzin
and a handful of other radicals had taken place, but no
details were immediately available.
Another source in the exiled Tibetan administration said
the "friendly meeting" lasted 20 minutes, but also gave no
details.
On Tuesday, the Dalai Lama called for calm and better
relations with Beijing, and said he would step aside if
violence in Tibet intensified.
"If things are getting out of control, then the option is
to completely resign," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama said Tuesday he would resign as
leader of Tibet's exiles if unrest in his Himalayan
homeland worsened, as aides said a Chinese crackdown had
claimed 19 more lives.
Air strike kills dozen insurgents in Afghanistan: NATO
AFP, Kandahar
NATO war
planes killed a dozen Taliban rebels in southern
Afghanistan after bombing the vehicle in which they were
travelling, the alliance said Tuesday, rejecting claims
several civilians were killed.
The air strike late Monday followed a Taliban attack on
International Security Assistance Force soldiers, the ISAF
said in a statement.
The strike was called in against three vehicles
"positively identified carrying insurgents armed with
AK-47 rifles which fired upon ISAF," it said.
"ISAF positively confirmed one vehicle was destroyed and
an estimated 12 insurgents were killed." The force said
the attack was in a remote area of Helmand province in an
"isolated area where there was no housing or civilian
activity."
A parliamentarian from the area told AFP he had received
phone calls from people in the region who said the bomb
had struck a group of local men gathered for a
stone-throwing competition and dozens were killed.
"I was told 50 people were killed, which comprises of 18
Taliban and the rest of them civilians gathered for the
game," Amir Dad Mohammad told AFP.
US, Russia fail to end missile defence dispute
AFP, Moscow
The United States and Russia
failed in talks here Tuesday to bridge gaps over US
missile defence plans and the fate of the main strategic
arms treaty, but vowed to make a clean break with past
tensions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, flanked by US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters that
both sides had made "steady progress" on work to combat
nuclear terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass
destruction.
"We also discussed some contentious issues where we
haven't reached agreement as of now," Lavrov said after
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