The New York Times just published a heart-wrenching piece on the death of an innocent 12-year-old girl in Pakistan who worked as a servant in the home of a wealthy lawyer. That poor child, little Shazia Masih, might have died from injuries sustained from vicious physical abuse from her employer. Now, simply switch the […]
Politics in Bangladesh matters to me. Politics in Bangladesh might matter to you. But why should the U.S. government worry about politics in Bangladesh? I have at least 2 arguments in response to that question. The first response attaches to ongoing developments in the attempt to establish regional security in South Asia, to a) support […]
The sitting Awami League government has hanged the 5 individuals convicted of assassinating President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. The executions came some 14 hours after the Appelate Division of the Supreme Court rejected a review of the Supreme Court verdict. Quite apart for the normatively retrograde administration of capital punishment in Bangladesh, The Daily […]
The images below require no introduction nor explanation. They do require that we ensure that within our lifetime we are able to look upon these images as we do when we gaze upon the work of Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis. We must ensure that this lived experience no longer attaches to any young […]
There was a rush of rioting today in the garment factory district of Dhaka earlier this morning. Following an unfortunate accident where a garment factory worker was run over by a speeding bus, factory workers were reported to have torched 15 vehicles, while vandalizing 50 other vehicles. Over 200 riot policemen responded to the […]
I’d like to alert you, my readers to two recent pieces published in the British media on better business and economic growth in Bangladesh. The first is a piece published by BBC 4, In Business. A story of a garment factory in Bangladesh resurrected under pressure, shows the ways and means of becoming an […]
The meeting between the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and India left one issue dangling on the ropes between disputed territory and no-mans’ land. The two governments agreed to post-pone till later any discussion of water sharing of the Teesta River. Today, the Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, Tari Ahmed Karim, said those talks on the […]
The Awami League led government is responding to the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami’s ringing claims that the joint agreements recent signed by Bangladeshi and Indian leaders are detrimental to Bangladesh’s national interests. The Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni declared that the joint communiqué signed by the leaders of Bangladesh and India “would be a public document […]
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh is planning a mass protest movement against the Awami League’s signed agreements with India. Claiming that the agreements are bound to diminish Bangladeshi sovereignty, the leader of Jamaat, Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami claimed that he would persuade Islamic leaders, students and intellectuals that their claims to Bangladesh as citizens would best be met […]
The Awami League government of Bangladesh will enact civil service legislation that will regulate the appointment and promotion of individuals within the government public service ranks. Though the Constitution of Bangladesh requires the nomination and promotion of individuals within government public service by an regulated institutional instrument, none has ever been devised. In a public […]
Begum Khaleda Zia has accused the Awami League government of selling out Bangladeshi’s interests in favor of security and India’s regional ascendancy. Insisting that she has not taken a stand against India, per se, she nevertheless claimed that Sheikh Hasina had given away Bangladesh;s national sovereignty during her state visit to India. The Daily Star […]
There’s been more than passing interest in the documentary on acid violence and abuse in Bangladesh that I flagged a few days ago. There’s also been more than passing confusion about the availability of the documentary on Youtube. So here again, is the documentary. This time I’ve embedded both Parts 1 and 2. See below, […]
Predictably, Sheikh Hasina is defending the agreements she signed in India as steps in the right direction toward solving the manifold political economic problems that plague Bangladesh. This is because, predictably, the BNP is claiming that the agreements signed so far amount to cheap talk and that Sheikh Hasina has failed to protect Bangladesh’s […]
Let us never forget that this week we have witnessed misery. Haiti is a blanket reminder of all that we are and shall always be. Indeed, we now have reason to celebrate that Bangladesh is no longer immiserated– it is poverty stricken. Bangladeshis suffer from sheer adverse facts on the ground; they do not suffer […]
Partisans of the BNP might think the Awami League corrupt; similar a devotee of the Awami League might think the BNP fascistic. Either way, there is always some ground on which to base these opinions. The Awami League cannot be thought good, through time all the time. Indeed, one might do well to always look […]