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A neocon journalist looks at Bangladesh. An informative read & scary that BD is getting attention from the likes of Bob Kaplan!
January/February 2008
Atlantic Monthly
by Robert D. Kaplan
The URL for this page is http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/kaplan-bangladesh
With rising Islamic fundamentalism, weak government, and not enough dry land for its 150 million people,
Robert D. Kaplan, an Atlantic national correspondent, is the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the
The monsoon arrived while I was in a shallow-draft boat traveling over a village that was now underwater. In its place was a mile-wide channel, created by erosion over the years, separating the mainland of
As ink-dark, vertical cloud formations slid in from the
On another day, in order to see a series of dam collapses that had forced the evacuation of more than a dozen villages, I rode on the back of a motorcycle along a maze of embankments framing a checkerwork of paddy fields that glinted in the steamy rain. Again, the sight that greeted me—a few crumbled earthen dams—was not dramatic, unless, that is, you were holding the "before" picture in front of you.
Yet from one end of
I went through towns that had a formal reality as names on a map, but were little more than rashes of rusted-corrugated-iron and bamboo stalls under canopies of jackfruit trees, teeming with men wearing skirt-like lungis and baseball caps and women in burkas that concealed all but their eyes and noses. Between the towns were long lines of water-filled pits, topped with a green froth of hyacinths; the soil had been removed to raise the road a few feet above the unrelieved sea-level flatness. Soil is a commodity so precious in
In every respect, people were squeezing the last bit of use out of the land. One day I saw a man carried by on a stretcher moments after he had been mauled by a Royal Bengal tiger. It is not an uncommon occurrence. As fishing communities crowd in on one of the tigers' last refuges in the mangrove swamps of the western Bangladeshi-Indian border area, and as salinity from rising sea levels reduces the deer population on which the tigers feed, man and tiger have nowhere else to go.
The Earth has always been unstable. Flooding and erosion, cyclones and tsunamis are the norm rather than the exception. But never have the planet's most environmentally frail areas been so crowded. The slowdown in the growth rate of the world's population has not changed the fact that the number of people living in the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters continues to increase. The
American journalists sometimes joke that, in terms of news, thousands of people displaced by floods in
With 150 million people packed together at sea level,
While scholars debate the odds of such scenarios, one thing is certain:
Atop the Bay of Bengal, the numberless braids of the Ganges,
Calamity threatens when the amount of water arriving by river, sea, or sky is tampered with, whether by God or by humans.
Yet
Four hours' drive northwest of
In a mangrove swamp in the southwest, at a fishing village of bamboo-thatched huts, I watched a local NGO perform a play about climate change. It emphasized the need to conserve rainwater through catchments and to plant trees against erosion. Hundreds of villagers were there. I was the only foreigner. Afterward, they showed me the catchments that they had already built to direct rainwater into their wells.
Through similar bottom-up, purely voluntary means, the total fertility rate in Bangladesh has been cut from seven children born per woman after independence to three now—a striking achievement, given the value placed on children as laborers in a traditional agricultural society. Polio had been eradicated, before a recent reinfection from
The credit for coping so well rests ultimately with NGOs. As familiar as their work now is, NGOs in
Of course, this enhanced role raises ethical questions, not least because many of these Bangladeshi humanitarian enterprises have for-profit elements. Take Muhammad Yunus, who, along with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering micro-credit schemes for poor women: Grameen also operates a cell-phone and Internet service. Then there is the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, which, besides doing bounteous relief and development work, operates dairy, poultry, and clothing businesses. Its head offices, like those of Grameen, are in a skyscraper that is some of
"One thing led to another," explains Mushtaque Chowdhury, BRAC's deputy executive director. "In order not to be dependent on Western charities, we set up our own for-profit printing press in the 1970s. Then we built a plant to pasteurize milk from the cattle bought by poor women with the loans we had provided them." Now they've become a kind of parallel government, with a presence in 60,000 villages.
Just as cell phones have allowed developing countries to make an end run around the need for a hard-wired communications grid,
The linkage between a global community on one hand and a village community on the other has made Bangladeshi NGOs intensely aware of the worldwide significance of their country's environmental plight. "Come, come, I will show you the climate change," said Mohon Mondal, a local NGO worker in the southwest, referring to a bridge that had partially collapsed because of rising seawater. To some degree, this awareness feeds a mind-set in which every eroded embankment becomes an indictment against the
NGOs would not have such influence in Bangladeshi villages without the country's moderate, syncretic form of Islam. Islam did not arrive in
But this low-calorie version of Islam is giving way to a stark and assertive Wahhabist strain. A poor country that can't say no to money, with an unregulated, shattered coast of islands and inlets,
A decade ago, women in Dhaka and in the port city of
Here is how global warming indirectly feeds Islamic extremism. As rural Bangladeshis flee a countryside ravaged by salinity in the south and drought in the northwest, they are migrating to cities at a rate of 3 to 4 percent a year. Swept into the vast anonymity of sprawling slum encampments, they lose their local and extended-family links, becoming more susceptible to a form of Islam with a sharper ideological edge. "We will not have anarchy at the village level, where society is healthy," warns Atiq Rahman. "But we can have it in the ever-enlarging urban areas." Such is the weakness of central authority in
The military has become the power behind a caretaker civilian government since the autumn of 2006, when the political system appeared on the brink of chaos, with strikes, demonstrations, a spate of killings, and a stagnant economy. The ruling Bangladesh National Party was in the process of fixing the upcoming election, and the opposition Awami League was planning a series of attacks by armed gangs in return. Up to that point, elections had essentially been contests between these two feudal dynasties: the Awami League, headed by Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, one of Bangladesh's founding fathers who was assassinated in a military coup in 1975; and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by Khaleda Zia, the widow of another of the country's founders, General Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in another coup in 1981. The animosity between the two women harks back to their feud over whose family played a greater role in the country's independence struggle, as well as to the pardon Zia's late husband gave to the killers of Hasina Wazed's father.
Because each party is too weak to rule on its own, each has sought alliances with various Islamic groups and turned a blind eye to al-Qaeda affiliates such as Jemaah Islamiyah, which has reportedly used
For now, the fear that radical Islam will take advantage of a political void keeps the military from returning to the barracks. "But in the long run, we are hostages to democracy," Mahmudul Islam Chowdhury, a former mayor of
Barisal, a major river port in southern Bangladesh, offers a case study of the costs of that vacuum: a middle-sized city that reeks of garbage and raw sewage, because treatment plants are inadequate and canals have dried up, and because unauthorized high-rises have brought ever more people into the urban core. Ahmed Kaisea, the district environmental director, was another official who told me, "The laws are just fine. There is just no enforcement." I had walked in on him without an appointment. He did not seem busy. His phone never rang, and there was no evidence of a computer. With electricity cuts throughout the day, use of the Internet is severely limited in
For the many rural newcomers to
The social cohesion that does exist on the national level is the result of linguistic nationalism, not democracy. Unlike
But that principle is not inviolable.
India and China are nervously watching Bangladesh, for it holds the key to the reestablishment of a long- dormant historical trade route between the two rising behemoths of the 21st century. This route, as the Chittagong lawyer indicated, would pass through Burma and eastern India, before traversing Bangladesh on the way to Kolkata, helping to give China's landlocked southwest its long-sought access to the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Whether this happens may hinge on the relationship between the environment and politics in
Toward the end of my stay in
Society coped as well as it could, often ingeniously. A cascade of cell-phone text messages told of danger ahead. Signal flags had been set up on beaches to forewarn of incoming water. Disaster supplies had been pre-positioned in places as part of an increasingly sophisticated early-warning system. The Bangladeshi army and navy were available in case of major catastrophe. Otherwise, in many ways, it was up to the villages and the NGOs to deal with the natural world.
Chabra <chabra2007@gmail.com> wrote:
From: "Chabra" <chabra2007@gmail.com>
To: <lovelyurdu@yahoo.com>
Subject: Sahih Bukhari (Kitab ul Iman)
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 16:49:42 -0800
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.0/1216 - Release Date: 1/9/2008 10:16 AM
WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/45989
Farida Majid,
What do you mean by Mukh Bhyangchani ?
I did not understand the true meaning of this term?
Can you explain please ?
Thank you.
Sincerely,
M.Anwar
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-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
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WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/25715
Dear Hassan,
If I do robbery and you publish it against me, will you be
offended? People will blame you or me? Why did you not say the
victim in your writing to express their comment on newspaper with
politely? People will justify, is Taslima Nasrin guilty or not?
I am not supporter of Taslima Nasrin but I believe if any writer
wants to do misguide, people will easily find out about that. We
should not think people are foolish.
Taslima Nasrin just expressed her past experience through her
writing not by the court or force. But why did the offender writers
(their activities proof they did the offence)
went to court to ban Taslima's book? May ask you why do you support
the victims who have no honesty and courage to refuse complaint
against themselves? Do you really think Taslima Nasrin's writing is
wrong and there is no logic and no proof?
Helal
Sydney
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
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*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
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*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
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*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
Yahoo! Groups Links
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Detained BNP senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman was placed on one day's police remand for interrogation in an extortion case against him by a court yesterday.
On the other hand, Tarique complained to the court that physical tortures were carried out on him in remand on December 31 last.
He also sought justice from the 'independent' judiciary.
"Please, don't place me on remand. They torture me in remand. Let me live…I want to live," cried out Tarique, making a fervent appeal to the judge, as crowds of media crew, police, lawyers and his supporters scrambled outside the court in Old Dhaka.
As the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, filed with Gulshan Police Station by Khan Mohammad Aftabuddin, managing director of Reza Construction Ltd, sought to the court to place him on seven days' remand, Tarique complained that he was subjected to "physical and mental torture" during repeated remands.
"Inhuman tortures were inflicted upon me taking me blindfolded with a piece of black cloth to an unknown place on December 31 last. Inhuman tortures continued round-the-clock binding my hands above. Now I feel severe pain in my waist and I can't sit," he said.
Besides, he alleged that he had been facing negligence in treatment.
During the remand hearing, Tarique Rahman, eldest son of detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia, was given a chair to sit in the dock as he felt sick and couldn't keep standing.
Tarique said, "I'm in politics for a long time. For that I went to many places of the country. I helped many orphans, poor and helpless people. I distributed cows and goat among these people. I arranged the weddings of many poor girls. I also arranged treatment of many people. I'm a politician, not a terrorist. I'm concerned about the safety of my life."
The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ehsanul Haque eventually granted police one day for grilling Tarique in the extortion case.
Earlier, Tarique was taken to the court amidst tight security. In the beginning he tried to speak to the media, but police did not allow him to do so.
Lawyers said that the IO prayed for his seven-day remand on November 15 and hearing was completed upon the prayer. The judge rejected the remand prayer and asked the investigating police official to interrogate him at the jail gate.
After about two months, the IO of the case again sought his seven-day remand on January 7.
Tarique's counsel alleged that he was "tortured in the name of remand" and also prayed to the judge to give order to interrogate him at the jail gate instead of granting remand anymore.
During the hearing, the lawyers argued that Tarique Rahman's name was not in the FIR of the case. Controversial businessman Giasuddin Al-Mamun, his friend, is to blame for allegedly taking money from the real-estate firm, they told the court.
"Tarique Rahman is the victim of conspiracy and was arrested only to keep him aloof from politics," said the panel of lawyers.
It was alleged that Giasuddin Al-Mamun demanded Tk 1.32 crore from the Reza Construction Firm--as it clinched construction-work order for two roads in Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj on June 23, 2005.
Allegations also have it that he also threatened that the tender would be cancelled if Aftabuddin refused to give the speed money. "Later, Aftabuddin paid the money by cheque," it is stated in the graft case.
A chaotic situation was created in the court as police pushed a cameraman of Channel-I from the stairs of the court when he went to take video shots of Tarique.
"As he protested, all the police gathered there and attempted to beat the journalist. But the situation became normal with the intervention of lawyers," a witness said.
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
Detained BNP senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman was placed on one day's police remand for interrogation in an extortion case against him by a court yesterday.
On the other hand, Tarique complained to the court that physical tortures were carried out on him in remand on December 31 last.
He also sought justice from the 'independent' judiciary.
"Please, don't place me on remand. They torture me in remand. Let me live…I want to live," cried out Tarique, making a fervent appeal to the judge, as crowds of media crew, police, lawyers and his supporters scrambled outside the court in Old Dhaka.
As the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, filed with Gulshan Police Station by Khan Mohammad Aftabuddin, managing director of Reza Construction Ltd, sought to the court to place him on seven days' remand, Tarique complained that he was subjected to "physical and mental torture" during repeated remands.
"Inhuman tortures were inflicted upon me taking me blindfolded with a piece of black cloth to an unknown place on December 31 last. Inhuman tortures continued round-the-clock binding my hands above. Now I feel severe pain in my waist and I can't sit," he said.
Besides, he alleged that he had been facing negligence in treatment.
During the remand hearing, Tarique Rahman, eldest son of detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia, was given a chair to sit in the dock as he felt sick and couldn't keep standing.
Tarique said, "I'm in politics for a long time. For that I went to many places of the country. I helped many orphans, poor and helpless people. I distributed cows and goat among these people. I arranged the weddings of many poor girls. I also arranged treatment of many people. I'm a politician, not a terrorist. I'm concerned about the safety of my life."
The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ehsanul Haque eventually granted police one day for grilling Tarique in the extortion case.
Earlier, Tarique was taken to the court amidst tight security. In the beginning he tried to speak to the media, but police did not allow him to do so.
Lawyers said that the IO prayed for his seven-day remand on November 15 and hearing was completed upon the prayer. The judge rejected the remand prayer and asked the investigating police official to interrogate him at the jail gate.
After about two months, the IO of the case again sought his seven-day remand on January 7.
Tarique's counsel alleged that he was "tortured in the name of remand" and also prayed to the judge to give order to interrogate him at the jail gate instead of granting remand anymore.
During the hearing, the lawyers argued that Tarique Rahman's name was not in the FIR of the case. Controversial businessman Giasuddin Al-Mamun, his friend, is to blame for allegedly taking money from the real-estate firm, they told the court.
"Tarique Rahman is the victim of conspiracy and was arrested only to keep him aloof from politics," said the panel of lawyers.
It was alleged that Giasuddin Al-Mamun demanded Tk 1.32 crore from the Reza Construction Firm--as it clinched construction-work order for two roads in Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj on June 23, 2005.
Allegations also have it that he also threatened that the tender would be cancelled if Aftabuddin refused to give the speed money. "Later, Aftabuddin paid the money by cheque," it is stated in the graft case.
A chaotic situation was created in the court as police pushed a cameraman of Channel-I from the stairs of the court when he went to take video shots of Tarique.
"As he protested, all the police gathered there and attempted to beat the journalist. But the situation became normal with the intervention of lawyers," a witness said.
The Chief Adviser owes an explanation to the nation on the circumstances that compelled four advisers of his government to resign. This is because their sudden resignation is a prosaic pointer to the crisis the interim government is in today. If not, why they had to go? More so because, the present administration cannot be allowed to fail as its failure will result in a grave national crisis. The interim government had assumed power on January 11 last year pledging transparency and accountability for all its actions. The resignation has thus to be explained in public, taking the people into confidence. This is because the way the four resigned questions the essence of the caretaker concept in the Constitution the present caretakers had taken oath to preserve. The exit has brought to the fore many pertinent questions. If they were removed for causing crises in governance—triggering food crisis leading to grave economic insecurity of the nation, fertiliser scarcity, industrial unrest and Hajj mismanagement, then the action is certain to be like cutting the head for curing the headache. The entire cabinet has to take full responsibility for what the advisers had to go for. We were surprised in the lopsided manner in which different burning issues were dealt with by the caretaker government. At times, we felt that the caretakers were powerless, having suffered from indecision time and again. Possibly, the real power lay elsewhere. Otherwise, why is the government not yet ready to start crucial dialogue with political parties over reforms that would not take the nation to pre-1/11 days? If 2008 is called as the year of elections, the caretakers appear to have put the horse before the cart. If the cart is election, the horses are certainly the parties. Even if the voter listing is ready by June or July this year, parties won't be ready for the electioneering. The biggest crisis in the polity will ensue when the parties would be asked to take preparations for the election. But how can they? With Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina kept behind the bars, the two major parties are almost certain to keep themselves away from the electoral race. And any election without BNP and Awami League would be devoid of any credibility. This will again plunge the nation into grave crisis. Let good sense prevail on the holders of power in the country. The people, who had welcomed the 1/11 changeover, are no more appreciative of certain actions of the caretaker government. They now find a huge gap between words and deeds. The interim administration has taken a long list of agendas, which it possibly cannot stomach. We are aware of what overeating does to a human health. The interim government has to take all actions, displaying the highest level of transparency and accountability. More so, because it is an un-elected government. The Chief Adviser himself is on record as having firmly committed to ensure these two. Otherwise, he runs the risk of being disbelieved. The main task of the caretaker government is holding of a free, fair and transparent election, free from muscle and money power. People will accept only those reforms which are related to creation of congenial atmosphere for achieving this lone goal. There cannot be any derailment in this regard.Advisers' exit
The military-controlled interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed took over from the discredited 'caretaker administration' of President Iajuddin Ahmed under a state of emergency almost a year back with the self-professed objective of helping the country overcome the political crisis prevailing then, upholding and consolidating 'the democratic system through ensuring a congenial political and social environment, holding a free and fair election and ensuring the people's voting rights.' In reality, however, the government has seemingly done just the opposite. It has induced a climate of fear in social and political milieu, which has predictably had a debilitating impact on the economy; overstepped the constitutional boundary vis-Ã -vis its mandate and jurisdiction, which has raised questions about its constitutional legitimacy; and created further political uncertainty by trying, so far unsuccessfully, to redraw the political landscape through its so-called 'minus-two formula.' Overall, the government seems to have compounded the crisis rather than resolving it.
The resignation of four advisers on Tuesday is the latest in the series of crises that the interim government seems to have created for itself and the country. What prompted the four advisers to resign is not clear and the government has not yet come up with any clarification other than the press secretary to the chief adviser telling journalists on Tuesday that they had resigned on personal grounds. Meanwhile, there have been reports that the four advisers were called in to the Chief Adviser's Officer and asked to resign. If the four advisers did resign on personal grounds, it could be an indication that they did not agree with either the mandate or the programmes of the interim government as they stand now. On the other hand, if they were asked to resign, it could be construed as an indirect admission by the interim government and its military backers that these four had put the incumbents into disrepute and caused erosion of its public acceptability. Should that be the case, it should be pointed out that the council of advisers is collectively responsible for whatever the government does or does not do, and that the country has further sunken into crisis because of its collective lack of political understanding of the statecraft. Making one adviser or the other scapegoat for its collective failure would not help in any way to resolve the crisis.
The interim government must realise that the current crisis is political and has to be resolved politically. Therefore, the most prudent step for it to take would be to engage in talks with the political parties to reach consensus on how best to return the country to a democratic fold, to be governed by the people's elected representatives. Simply put, the incumbents should consult with the political establishments to devise ways and means to complete the task it is assigned by the constitution, i.e. assisting the Election Commission to hold contested and credible general elections.