To the recent moves that the central government would deploy its own resources in covering remittances from international labor migrants, the AL government has announced that it will recruit international laborers alongside private recruitment agencies. The move is designed to result in lowering the individual and social costs of transacting with these private–often sordid, criminally […]
The Daily Star reports today the program of street protests that BNP leader Khaleda Zia promised would oust the sitting Awami League government was just a bargaining chip to have cases pending against her and her two sons removed from the docket. Against those pending cases, the BNP offered to pull the program of agitation […]
The incarcerated leader of Harkatal Jihad al Islam (HUJI), Mufti Abdul Hannan has implicated members of the BNP in a 2004 grenade attack against members of the Awami League. When asked whether they were guilty of the charges brought against them, Hannan, his brother and a deputy claimed they were innocent. Instead, they claimed local […]
I’ll try to pull together some news and analysis in one post. It might strike, you, the reader, as odd that the days news gets separated into digestible chunks, when the foodstuff is run through and through with rough hewn complexity and inter-related dependence. This has everything to do with the news business model, of […]
David Roodman, a scholar at the Center for Global Development has been studying Microfinance for a while now. His work on loan repayment at the Grameen Bank has been an excellent, transparent source where any interested reader can see the latest finding and writing in the much-balleyhooed microfinance business model. His latest writing on Grameen […]
While even the international media had gotten in on the mainstream narrative that Manjur, the BNP backed candidate would lose the Chittagong Mayoral election, he won out in the last count–and by an impressive, incontestable 95,528 votes. Mr. Mohammed Manjur Alam polled 479, 145 to the Awami League candidate, Mr. ABM Mohiudddin Chowdhury’s 383617 votes. […]
The hotly contested election in Chittagong, intensely barked about, has ended peacefully. The BNP backed candidate, expected to lose to his Awami League backed opponent, has claimed to be broadly satisfied with the polling process. Apart from some minor instances of irregularities— that, if verified, would not mount to much–the polling on Thursday was widely […]
Just like Haiti’s Port au Prince, large portions of Bangladesh’s major cities are liable to be washed away in some coastal, rain soaked incident. The throng of people in Chittagong live in cramped spaces, in rough hewn, corrugated, unconstructed huts in that hilly city, like millions others lived in Port au Prince. And like […]
Heavy rain off the Bay of Bengal hit Cox Bazaar in Southeastern Bangladesh and caused landslides which are responsible for at least 52 deaths, small buried alive in their own homes, unready and unaware onslaught. The AP piece published in the Washington Post, draws out the story distressingly well: “The mudslides struck early Tuesday in […]
In a sign that suggests that indeed, Bangladesh and China are moving closer together, China has proposed to help Bangladesh construct its first deep sea port in Chitttagong. Chinese officials have also promised to help Bangladesh put up its first sattelite in orbit. This news follows Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s successful state visit to China. […]
The Economist tends to recount the sordid tale of Bangladeshi politics every so many months. It has done so again. However, the greatest contribution that the piece lies in its nearly lightning quick analysis of the relative strength of the BNP as it is now constituted. So, The Economist: “Demoralised and in disarray, the BNP […]
The Finance Ministry has released the projected budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The budget has been revealed as two counter-vailing currents are flowing in somewhat cross-cutting directions. In the first cut, the budget has been released in the aftermath of encouraging IMF reports on Bangladesh’s macroeconomic health and stability. Remittance inflows have increased. The […]
There’ll be an election for mayor in Chittagong on June 17th and already the BNP has announced ultimatums should any so-called vote rigging occur. This is a two candidate race now that the major candidates who might have otherwise split the right and left tickets have pulled out of the electoral contest. Instead of placing the […]
The proposed budget for fiscal year 2010-2011 has been delivered to parliament. One of the brightest lights of the budget is the proposed 13.5% increase in allocated education expenditure. The Finance Minister has argued that the increase is the largest of any other sector in the budget. The lion’s share of the allocated funds is […]
The latest row between the battling Begums and their parties is over budget proposals and procedures. On Monday, during a press conference Begum Khaleda Zia offered proposals for an alternative budget. However Begum Zia only announced these proposals outside the parliamentary session. This even though the ruling Awami League had offered and welcomed BNP proposals […]