Recent developments regarding the contentious issue of relocating the Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma, Okinawa have elicited a heated exchange of ideas and much speculation on the future of the US-Japan alliance. Indeed, since the recently elected administration of Yukio Hatoyama first announced that it would seek a renegotiation of the treaty guiding the […]
It is an odd thing to wish for more positive news coverage of a country’s socio-economics. On one hand, one is grateful for any coverage whatsover, particularly when the coverage is of an overlooked country like Bangladesh; on the other one wishes bitterly that the news on the ground were such that positive coverage were […]
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh lifted a stay on a four year old High Court verdict that had declared illegal and unconstitutional the fifth amendment of the Constitution of Bangladesh. The fifth amendment had legitimized all successive governments after the assassination of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from 1975 until April 1979. This ban now makes […]
If education is the engine of economic growth and social replenishment, and education outcomes are path dependent, then we must care about how our youth begin their studies. This is more the case in Bangladesh than in most other countries. The sheer fact of the population of Bangladesh, its density and the growing divergence in […]
As India steps into a new decade it seems ready to take on the world. But this process will not be without some big challenges. While terrorism and internal security are crucial concerns, sustaining the rapid economic growth and making India easier and safer to do business with are also huge challenges. With the India-US […]
Let’s ring in the new year with forward looking news. Bangladesh and India are moving closer to politics in concert. The cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding that Dhaka and New Delhi would import and export electricity from each other over the long term. The Daily Star reports: “A meeting of the cabinet chaired by […]
The mourning of Ashura has come and gone, and not a whimper in Bangladesh. As readers of the New York Times and Guardian know Ashura is the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The events of that date in 680 AD are considered to have created the fault lines between […]
I am concerned with the effect of intra-party democracy and candidate selection on the quality of democratic policy making in Bangladesh. Though not as well-studied in politics as other more “titillating” topics like justice, candidate selection is the dominant issue in any practical study of a functioning democracy. To that end, it may serve us […]
Zainab Jeewanjee shares her experience in Pakistan and a couple BBC pieces documenting the horror of terrorist attacks carried out in Karachi Pakistan, in December 2009.
One year ago, to the day, the Awami League swept back into power with an overwhelming majority of votes and corresponding seats in Parliament. Promising change and prosperity in Bangladesh, Awami League leader and former Prime Minister Begum Sheikh Hasina Wajed trounced her opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Begum Khaleda Zia, the […]
Zainab Jeewanjee comments on a DAWN article that talks about foreign “meddling” in Pakistani affairs. She discusses how foreign dealings in Pakistan could be a result of history wherein political infrastructure was never put in place, inevitably making Pakistan reliant on foreign assistance for development.
Vietnam: The Asia Times has a fairly detailed article on Vietnam’s transportation bottleneck. Specifically, it takes a look at Vietnam’s port capacity as compared to its neighbors in the region, and how it’s current infrastructure needs to improve if Vietnam wishes to continue to see economic growth. To remedy the issue, the Vietnamese government is […]
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