Bangladesh

I’ve written on this before; now, sadly, I’m writing on this again, so here goes:  I could not then, cannot now and will not, ever, defend the jerked, jolting way that every instrument of industry, learning and commerce in Bangladesh has shuttered for the second time this month  just because one lady with political pull […]

Given all this budget slashing, all that bail-outing, leaders of the European Union have promised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that funds pledged to Bangladesh for the European Union Climate Change Adaptation Fund would be delivered. Bangladesh is something of a case study for devising policy and infrastructure to combat the consequences of global cliamte change; […]

Whilst Khaleda Zia has been trying to gin up support for her country-wide protest movement to ring out against the sitting Awami League government, ostensibly for leading the country toward ruin, she has been chucked out of her house.  In her stead, the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina has used any availing opportunity to shame her near-life […]

The recent news that India’s microcredit industry is in dire straits should trouble Bangladeshi policy makers.  Through a combination of credit-overreach and political demagoguery, Indian banks are facing the prospect of a wave of microcredit loan defaults. Given the nearly $4 billion risk exposure that banks have undertaken in entering into the recently booming microcredit […]

The fight over forced homelessness of one by the other has gone beyond personal and political rivalry between Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia. BNP supporters have called a strike this weekend and took to the streets to protest Khaleda Zia’s eviction from her cantonment home; police have beat back party activists, and failing to do […]

The 2010 Human Development Index is out.  It offers some good news for Bangladesh.   Though Bangladesh ranked 129 among 169 UN members states (out of a possible 192 states in the world), it ranked 3rd in terms of improvement since 1980 in its assessed Human Development Index, itself a weighted average of education, wealth and […]

It had to come sometime.  The major international financial organizations, like the World Bank and the IMF, have long lauded the successful moves of the stewards of Bangladesh’s economy.  Now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken credit for that stewardship. She made the claim during Governor of Oregon Ted Kulongoski’s visit to Bangladesh.  I suppose […]

This is a fine thing: Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP from Bethnal Green and Bow (and the Shadow Minister for international development) met the two opposing leaders of the two major parties in Bangladesh. She declared that the ruling Conservative government would not cut its financial assistance to Bangladesh.  Ms. Ali and the Prime Minister […]

The latest World Bank economic data are now available and they indicate a strong, growing economy for a stronger, more prosperous Bangladesh.  The politics seem to be catching up, though some dark clouds yet remain on the horizon. At 5.8% annual growth, the Bangladeshi economy outpaced the U.S economy’s growth, itself at a startlingly weak […]

This may be news; some report worthy of attention.  Or not.  But let’s take note, anyway. The news at hand: Hansen Hashem CLarke, the son of a Sylheti man and African American woman has been elected from the 13th Congressional District in Michigan.  An accomplished politico, he served as Chief of Staff to noted Michigan […]

Over more than a month, I’ve been traveling quite a bit.  In that time, I’ve missed quite a bit of news that has been directly relevant to Bangladesh.  Over the next few weeks or so, I’ll try to readdress all that news and point to holes that might have gone not have gone missing had […]

The Law Minister of Bangladesh, Shafique Ahmed, recently claimed that no special law needs to be passed in order to ban religion-based politics in electioneering.  The recent strike against the 5th amendment by the Supreme Court suffices to end the explicitly religious turn in Bangladeshi politics ushered in Ziaur Rahman, dictator, president and founder of […]