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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

[ALOCHONA] (hilarious) From Cafe Pyala - 6th Karachi International Book Fair



 

 

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

An Alternative Tour of the 6th Karachi International Book Fair

http://cafepyala.blogspot.com/

The 6th Karachi International Book Fair was held in Karachi this week. More than 300 publishers/ booksellers, more than a quarter million visitors over five days. You might have read about the importance of such events, you might have heard about the achievements of the fair and you might have been told about the diversity on offer. But since more than 70 percent of the stalls were trying to make money by making the readers better Muslims, we concentrated on the free goodies on offer.


6th Karachi International Book Fair (Photo: Suhail Yusuf / Dawn.com)



Things We Got For Free

A DVD of the first-ever documentary about Maulana Maududi's life, produced by Al Khidmat, Jamaat Islami's charity wing.

A CD of the Jamaat's current ameer Maulana Munawar Hassan's speeches. We accepted it under extreme duress.

Four pamphlets:

1. Sins of the Tongue (the Urdu version is called Zaban ka Gunah)
Not what you think. It's all about Islamic punishments for gossiping and backbiting.

2. Music: Quran aur Sunnat Mein [Music According to the Quran and Sunnat]
More haraam than you ever thought. It leads to road accidents and zina.

3. Quaid-e-Azam Speaks
… And it seems he couldn't utter a sentence without quoting from the Quran or invoking Islam.

4. How Good is Your Child's School?
They perform Shakespeare's plays? They celebrate Halloween? They have sleepovers at their friends' house? You need to find a more Islamic school.


We were also given a newsletter by the Pakistan Librarians' Association. Their favourite word seems to be 'decline.'



One Thing We Thought Was For Free But Wasn't


A DVD on goras converting to Islam.

We assumed it was for free because we were promised that everything on this particular stall was for free. But then we were told that this DVD was an exception. 80 rupees.



Things We Admired But Found To Be Way Out Of Our Budget

Kaaba Fun Game
Masjid Fun Game
Salat Fun Game



Things We Could Have Got For Free But Didn't

Complete Quran audio download to our mobile phone. Takes only five minutes to download, we were assured.



Books We Wanted To Buy But Then Looked At The Last Chapter

Two new biographies of Mohammad Bin Qasim, both with happy endings. Dude marries Raja Dahar's daughter and lives happily ever after. And we thought he was called back, tortured and executed by being sewn alive into a hide and drowned by the then khalifa.



Books We Didn't Even Know Existed

Collected works of Dale Carnegie (of How to Make Friends and Influence People fame) in Urdu. This was definitely the heftiest volume we have ever seen in the Urdu language.

A new translation of The Brothers Karamazov by a gentleman called Shahid Siddiqi.



One Thing We Did Buy

A funky looking mug which reads 'Smile, it's Sunnah.'


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[ALOCHONA] Of cars, sardines and ingenuity



Of cars, sardines and ingenuity
 
Syed Badrul Ahsan
 
Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith has just given us some most intriguing advice. He thinks it will help ease road traffic conditions if privately owned cars are packed to capacity instead of carrying one or two passengers, which is what we see being done these days. The minister has been generous enough to remind us that in countries in our neighbourhood, that is how things are done.
 
Before we move on to a discussion of what we should do about the cars that many of us happen to own, let us spend sometime on what other people in other countries do abroad and whether or not we can emulate them here in this sad country that we inhabit, that we love in full measure.
 
The finance minister speaks to us of the ways in which traffic is managed abroad. That is all very fine. But do we have, by way of a credible transport system, what all those good people have in their countries? They have wide roads, they have buses and other vehicles whose drivers stand ready to take people to their destinations, however far and diverse those destinations might be.
 
In those countries, the road network, embracing as it does a wide expanse of flyovers and highways, gives you the feeling that you will not lose your precious hours stranded on the road in a traffic mess only the Almighty can straighten out.
 
In those countries, you have professionally qualified and experienced traffic policemen who do not melt into the crowds every time there is congestion on the streets. And, of course, in countries away from ours, it is generally a disciplined citizenry we come across. No fake licences, no overtaking, no violation of rules.
 
So now we have a question for the minister: before we are told that we must use our cars in the way the government would like us to, can the government he is part of reassure us that all the circumstances we have spoken of can be replicated in our own land? The point here is not what people and governments do in other countries. It is one of how we have been faring in our country in all this time since we liberated the country nearly four decades ago from Pakistan.
 
You do not have to be an extremely wise individual to know how far behind other nations we have fallen, how full of holes our entire socio-political fabric happens to be, how we have turned into a mediocre nation at the hands of a political class that refuses to lift itself out of mediocrity. The truth is out there for all of us to go through again. But, yes, you can, if you wish, flip through some incisive reports that Transparency International Bangladesh has come up with of late. Our worries find confirmation with TIB.
 
The lesson ought to be clear. It is folly for us to refer to the progress made by other nations as long as we do not tackle our own realities here at home. Which takes us back to this matter of what we should be doing with our cars after this ministerial exhortation. The simplest of answers is: we stay put.
 
But since life has never been a matter of simplicity, we must now seriously consider what we should be doing when we awaken from our fitful sleep at dawn. You inaugurate the day through invocations to the Creator of the universe or through a dew-dappled foray into music. That is as it should be.
 
But that wonderful moment might not last longer, for now your day must begin with worries about how many people you can collect in your vehicle on your way to work. Besides your chauffeur, it is just you in that car. And you mean to be at your workplace when you are expected to be. But you cannot unless your car looks like a can of sardines, for those traffic constables, with a sergeant or two thrown in, will flag you down, ask you all sorts of humiliating questions and will not let you drive on unless you can manage three or four other individuals to accompany you to work.
 
Now, the difficulty with good people is that they are generally never good at managing bad people, or implementing bad measures. So you might end up in a heated argument with the police. It's your car, it's your office you are headed for and it's your business whether or not your vehicle has other people in the car before you can move on. Try as you might, you will likely not win that argument. Logic has little place in third world politics.
 
You just might see your car impounded, your chauffeur's licence taken away and you compelled to walk all the way to your office or wherever it is you are going. Now imagine a young mother on her way to pick up her child from school. She could run into big trouble with the police because, apart from the chauffeur, she is the only person in the car. She will lose time arguing with the constable; and back at that school, that little child will be weeping copious tears because her mother will have gone missing.
 
Absurdity in governance always gets on people's nerves. Not long ago, a police official cheerfully let his imagination roll. If cars on the streets of the capital moved according to their licence plates --- ka, kha, ga --- on particular days (ka on Sunday, kha on Monday and so on), all this traffic chaos could be brought to an end. That was what he said. You call that ingenuity?
 
The problem, minister, is not in our cars hitting the roads. It is in not having enlightened governance in the country.
 
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Rising prices



Rising prices
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] SAUDI ARABIA: RETHINKING ITS SOUL



SAUDI ARABIA: RETHINKING ITS SOUL
 
M. A. Muqtedar Khan
 
This article was syndicated in North America by Progressive Media Project. It was published by Al Ahram (Egypt)  May 6-12, 2004.  The Daily Times (Pakistan) 05.06.2004, The Daily Star (Lebanon) 05.06.2004, The Globalist (USA), Q-News (UK) June/2004, The Muslim Observer (Michigan) and The Minaret (CA), The Providence Journal (RI) 05.15.2004, The Saudi-American Forum 05.07.2004.
 
I  have just returned from Saudi Arabia, where I attended an international conference on terrorism (April 20-22) at the Imam Muhammad University in Riyadh  – the global headquarters of Wahabism. 

 
Imam Muhammad University is the factory where Wahabism is produced and serviced in Saudi Arabia. A large number of the Saudi clerics are educated and trained here. Nearly twenty thousand students study the core teachings of Abdul Wahhab, the founder of the Saudi Salafi movement, which is sometimes derogatorily and often popularly referred to as Wahabism.
 
In my previous in visits in1992, 1997 and 2000, I had found the Saudis to be proud of what they had become. They had covered a distance of nearly seven centuries on the back of oil in less than thirty years. They were arrogant, confident and sure of themselves and their place in the Muslim world and on the global stage.
  
But today they are confused, unsure, hesitant, apologetic and willing to accommodate. Some are belligerent even bellicose. But most people that I encountered, students, political elite, scholars, businessmen, professionals and cab drivers, are perplexed by terrorism within Saudi Arabia and by Saudis.
 
For a society, which was so remarkably free from a culture of self-criticism, I found the Saudi Arabia of today, more willing to listen; and that is the best news I have.
 
The conference itself revealed the extent and depth of rethinking taking place within Saudi Arabia. I was extremely critical of Wahabism as well as Saudi policies in closed-door sessions and found the Saudi scholars and the various ministers who were in attendance, open and willing to listen, sometimes they were in agreement, sometimes they were baffled, never offended.  Some even encouraged me to speak more.
 
There were of course the usual number of sycophants and apologists, but even they seemed apprehensive and willing to question their own beliefs. Several American and British scholars criticized the lack of critical thinking and openness in Saudi education and we were all pleasantly surprised when they responded by asking for help in introducing critical thinking in their pedagogy.
 
I ran into a member of the Majlis-e-Shura (the Saudi pretense for a parliament) at a TV studio where I recorded a one-hour interview on Islamic democracy, and he berated me for not being more critical than I was. I listened to him lambast the university and Wahhabi clerics for being the source of the problem behind terrorism in Saudi Arabia.  "All they teach," he said, "is to hate those who are different." "We are a country that is economically in the twentieth century and intellectually in the fourteenth century." I advised him to speak to his country and King as he spoke to me, as often as possible and as loudly as possible.
 
The House of Saud has long relied on the Wahhabi movement for domestic control and legitimacy and on the US for international security. But after September 11, these two allies of Saudi Arabia are being perceived as antagonistic. The House of Saud could not have both as allies anymore.
 
It is now becoming apparent that the House of Saud has chosen America over Wahabism.It is determined to maintain its relations with the US and is actively seeking to reform Wahabism and reconstitute the domestic basis of its rule.
 
The Saudi society is composed of two types of elite; the conservative and religious elite and the liberal political and economic elite. For decades the latter had focused on retaining political power and milking the oil cow. In exchange for freedom to become rich, the ruling elite allowed the religious elite the freedom to preach. Without a cultural of internal criticism, without an engaging alternate elite, without the emergence of self-critical and reflective voices within the religious establishment, the specter of Wahabism has grown and now is out of the hands of those who nurtured it.
 
Wahhabi ideas are now so deeply embedded that neither the ruling elite, who had abdicated their normative responsibilities until now, and the religious elite who are afraid of what they have created, can rein it in. Any attempts at sudden reforms may upset the delicate balance within the society and empower those who have decided to use terrorism to replace both types of elite.
 
Saudi Arabia needs to push both social and political reforms without undermining domestic and regional stability. It must fast track its social reform and maintain a steady progress towards political reform. The promise of municipal elections must be kept and the momentum towards more representative and accountable governance must be sustained.
 
It is time that Saudi Arabia stopped looking backwards for guidance and started looking forwards. Those who drive by looking in the rearview mirror only are destined to crash.
 
Terrorism by extreme Wahhabis, for whom the clerics and the royal family are not sufficiently Islamic, is once again forging a new social contract between the religious and the ruling elite. This time the House of Saud and the House of Abdul Wahhab will not come together to establish Wahhabism, but to dismantle Wahhabism and replace it with a self-critical, open, more moderate, and softer form of Salafi traditions.
 
But before that can happen the moderates within the religious establishment must prevail over the extremists and be prepared to make significant compromises – maybe even deviations – in the Wahhabi doctrine and in Wahhabi institutions. The extremists will then be isolated and can be fought both in the realm of doctrine as well as in the battlefield.
 
The staging of the terrorism conference at the Imam Muhammad University and the seriousness of the dialogue, its high degree of openness and criticism, have definitely raised expectations. Let us hope that Saudi Arabia can make the transition without trauma.
----------------
Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Assistant Professor in the department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He earned his Ph.D. in International Relations, Political Philosophy, and Islamic Political Thought,  from Georgetown University in May 2000.

Dr. Khan is also associated with the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

He is the author of American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana, 2002), Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (Praeger, 2004). His forthcoming book is titled Beyond Jihad and Crusade: Rethinking US Policy in the Muslim World (Brookings Institution, 2004).

Dr. Khan frequently comments on BBC, CNN, FOX and VOA TV, NPR and other radio networks. His political commentaries appear regularly in newspapers in over 20 countries.  He has also lectured in North America, East Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Dr. Khan's column has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek (Arabic), New York Post, Newsday, Arizona Tribune, Duluth News Tribune, The Daily Telegraph (London), The Sun (UK), Jakarta Post, Jordan Times, Manila Times, Outlook India, Palestine Times, Calgary Herald, The Daily Telegram (MI), San Francisco Chronicle, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Al Ahram (Egypt), Dawn (Pakistan), Daily Times (Pakistan), Hindustan Times (India),  Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Muslim Democrat,  The Christian Century, Islamic Horizons, The Message,   The Globalist.com, Arab News (Saudi Arabia)  Progressive.org, 
fpif.org,   Beliefnet.com, Arabies Trends, Al-Mustaqbal, Saudi Gazette, and many other periodicals world wide.

 
http://www.ijtihad.org/SaudiArabiaReforms.htm
 



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[ALOCHONA] Migrant workers declined in 2010



Migrant workers declined in 2010
 
Dhaka, Dec 28 (bdnews24.com)—The total number of Bangladeshi migrant workers has decreased by 21 percent compared to last year, but the number of female workers has gone up by 12 percent because of withdrawal of the ban on female migration.

A report by the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) of Dhaka University revealed the information at a press conference at the National Press Club on Tuesday.

In 2009, the government withdrew the ban on female migration, which was imposed in 2003. Over 6 percent of the total number of migrant workers was female this year.

RMMRU chairperson Tasneem Siddiqui presented the key findings of the report on the overall picture of the country's migration in 2010. The report says the country's labour exporting market has been affected by a global economic downturn.

Siddiqui noted that two organisations, including the Grameen Bank, have sought permission to export manpower as they have good relations with countries like Saudi Arabia, which import a lot of manpower. "The government should allow them in exchange for necessary fees," she added.

According to the report, over 7.5 million Bangladeshis had gone to several countries under short-term work agreement since 1976. There are around 1.5 million workers on long-term agreement, it says.

The report said the number of Bangladeshi workers, which was around 500,000, was reduced by 17.86 percent in 2009 for the recession. Of the Bangladeshi migrant workers sent this year, only 0.008 percent is professional. Of the others, 64 percent is less skilled, 17.84 percent is skilled and 4.25 percent is half-skilled. United Arab Emirate ranked top in importing manpower from Bangladesh this year, the report said.

Of the total number of workers sent overseas this year, UAE took 52 percent, Oman 11 percent and Singapore 9 percent, it stated.

The report said the number of workers, sent to Saudi Arabia in 1999-2004, was 60-70 percent. But the number came down to only 3 percent in 2009 and only 2 percent this year, it said. Over 40,000 workers returned this year after their agreements expired, it said.

The report also said the amount of remittances increased by 10 percent a year in the past 30 years. In 2009, the amount of remittances increased by 23 percent and stood at $10 billion

Bangladesh ranked five in terms of remittance income, though its growth is only 1.4 percent, according to the report.

http://bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=2&id=182884&hb=4


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[ALOCHONA] China-Bangladesh relations



China's policy on neighbouring
countries and China
-Bangladesh relations
CHINA and Bangladesh are close neighbours. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1975, the bilateral relationship has been enjoying a healthy and steady development. With the efforts of two peoples, China-Bangladesh relationship has entered a ripe period, writes Zhang Xianyi


 

CHINA'S neighbouring countries are the first priority in China's overall diplomatic pattern. With China's fast development, international community, especially its neighbours, attaches more and more importance to China and is concerned about how China will get along with its neighbours and what opportunities China's development will bring to them. China will unswervingly pursue a foreign policy of building good neighbourly relationship and partnership with its neighbouring countries and always be their good neighbour, friend and partner. This desire comes from China's traditional culture and is deeply rooted in China's foreign policy. It reflects China's idea of pursuing peaceful development.


   Building good neighbourly relationship and partnership is a logical choice China has made based on its historical and cultural tradition. China and its neighbouring countries have always been deepening mutual understanding through contact and communication, pursuing development through learning from each other and enhancing harmony through respect for differences, which has promoted development and progress of all parties. China deeply cherishes the hard-earned opportunity of peaceful development and sincerely hopes to join hands with its neighbours to maintain and develop a peaceful and harmonious environment.


   Building good neighbourly relationship and partnership is a logical choice China has made based on its foreign policy of peace. The foreign policy of China consistently pursues peaceful solution of international disputes, non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, equality of all countries and respect for the right of a country to choose its own way of development. Foreign policy on neighbouring countries is an important part of China's foreign policy of peace. Adhering to the principle of building good neighbourly relationship, China enjoys with its neighbours political harmony, economic cooperation of mutual benefit, mutual trust and security cooperation and mutual enrichment of culture. China makes every effort to maintain a peaceful environment and promote harmony and tranquillity.


   Building good neighbourly relationship and partnership is a logical choice China has made based on its practice of win-win cooperation. China is committed to integrating its own interests and development into the common interests and development of the world and making more opportunities and contributions to the world in achieving its own development. Dedicated to deepening cooperation of mutual benefit and promoting common development with neighbouring countries, China actively provides assistance within its capacity to its neighbours, endeavours to push forward economic and trade cooperation and has become a major impetus for the economic growth of its neighbouring regions.
   
   
Relationship with neighbouring
   countries in recent years

   IN THE context of deepening trends towards a multi-polar world and economic globalisation, new changes have taken place in the economic and political landscape of Asia. Overall, the pursuit of peace, stability, cooperation and development is the defining feature of the situation in Asia. In particular, mutual respect, good neighbourliness, friendship, seeking common ground while resolving differences and harmonious co-existence remain the most fundamental and important features of state-to-state relations in Asia.


   In 2010, the characteristics of China's ties with its neighbouring countries are good-neighbourliness, mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation.
   This year, high-level exchanges between China and its Asian neighbours have remained frequent and dynamic. China had more than 60 high-level visits and exchanges with almost all Asian countries. Centring on 'Friendship Year', China held commemorative activities in various forms with such neighbours as India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar respectively to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations. China and neighbouring countries continue to carry forward the fine tradition of working together to tide over difficulties with neighbour countries, strengthened solidarity and coordination, and actively promoted regional cooperation, thus playing an important role in helping Asia to lead in an economic rebound and promoting the world's economic growth.


   In trade, from January to September this year, the trade volume between China and other Asian countries exceeded $640 billion, up 38 per cent year on year. China remains the biggest export market for other Asian countries. China has scaled up assistance to countries in South Asia, like Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. China gave preferential tariff treatment to 70 per cent of imports from Bangladesh and Afghanistan in order to reduce trade imbalances. According to Chinese statistics, from January to September this year, China-ASEAN trade volume reached $211.31 billion, up 43.7 per cent year on year.


   In investment, statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, China's non-financial investment in Asian countries grew by 102 per cent year on year, and Asia has now hosted more Chinese-invested enterprises outside China than any other region in the world.
   In infrastructure and connectivity, China actively seeks to cooperate with related countries in developing roads, railways, navigation routes and ports in the region.


   Besides, China has extended a helping hand to Asian countries hit by natural disasters. The Chinese government provided disaster relief aid to Pakistan worth $250 million when the country was ravaged by a devastating flood rarely seen in history. In recent official visit of Wen Jiabao, the premier of the State Council of China, to Pakistan, China pledged to provide Pakistan with $10 million in cash, a concessional loan of $100 million and professional buyer's credit of $300 million for its post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction. In the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and volcano eruption in Indonesia, China offered $530,000 to Indonesia. China has taken an active part in the post-disaster reconstruction of Pakistan and the post-conflict reconstruction of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.


   As a big country in Asia region, China believes that the old security concept and security logic defined by alignment, strength, deterrence and power should be rejected in the region. A new security concept should be established with mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination at its core, one that recognises, respects and rises above national differences in terms of ideology, values, social system and development stage. China has been doing what it says. It has played an active and constructive role in addressing hotspot issues. And it is dedicated in its effort to seek peaceful resolution of disputes over territory, territorial sea and maritime rights and interests through friendly negotiations.


   China advocates an open and inclusive concept on civilisation. It believes that it is important to vigorously facilitate social, cultural and people-to-people exchanges among Asian nations with different cultural background and political systems the basis of fully respecting the cultural tradition, social system and development path of individual countries. This will further enhance understanding, friendship and mutual trust between the peoples of China and its neighbouring countries. And it will consolidate public support for friendly relations between China and its neighbours.


   Cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and its neighbouring countries have been most robust in recent years, as evidenced by even broader and more substantive cooperation on a larger scale. Chinese immigration authorities registered in 2009 a total of more than 21 million inbound and outbound visits made by people from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia alone.


   In 2009, more than 160,000 students from other Asian countries came to study in China. Eight of the top 10 home countries of foreign students are China's neighbours. We place great importance on enhanced youth exchanges among Asian countries and have established annual youth exchange mechanisms with Japan, India, Vietnam, Mongolia and Pakistan.


   China has set up more than 100 Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in Asia and has set up Chinese Culture Centres in the Republic of Korea, Japan and Mongolia. China values media exchanges and cooperation with other Asian countries. Press ministers conference and high-level forum on broadcasting and television have been held on a regular basis. We encourage exchanges and visits between media organisations of China and other Asian nations to increase media coverage about each other.


   Major global issues such as reform of the international system, climate change, energy and food security and sustainable development have been put under the spotlight. Bilateral and multilateral cooperation on such issues, which has been very vibrant, has become a most promising new growth area in international cooperation. As China, India, Indonesia and other emerging developing countries in Asia have a more important role to play, the international community pays closer attention to where Asian nations stand on global issues. China and many Asian countries, especially neighbouring countries, which have similar circumstances and positions and the same fundamental interests, have engaged in multifaceted coordination and cooperation to address global issues together.
   
   China-Bangladesh relationship
   CHINA and Bangladesh are close neighbours. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1975, the bilateral relationship has been enjoying a healthy and steady development. With the efforts of two peoples, China-Bangladesh relationship has entered a ripe period.


   The year 2010 is a year of good harvest for the China-Bangladesh relationship. Both countries held a series of activities in celebration of the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations and based on that, spared no efforts on the development of bilateral relationship in all fields and obtained plenty of achievements.


   The political mutual trust between the two countries has been strengthening. In March and June, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh and Xi Jinping, vice-president of China, had a very successful exchange of visits to each other's countries. The countries signed four economic and technical cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding and issued joint statement. The two countries decided to establish and develop a closer comprehensive partnership of cooperation from the strategic perspective and on the basis of the principles of longstanding friendship, equality and mutual benefit.


   The economic and trade cooperation has been pushed forward with big steps. China provided Bangladesh with a grant of 100 million RMB yuan. Also, China provided Bangladesh $700 million on the projects of fertiliser factory and introduction of 3G technology and expansion of 2.5G network.
   From January to October, the total volume of bilateral trade reached $5.4 billion and is expected to exceed $6 billion. Starting from July 1, 4,762 Bangladeshi items exported to China began to enjoy zero tariff treatments. This is improving and will continue to improve the trade imbalance between the two countries.


   The cultural exchanges and people-to-people contacts have been developing at a fast pace. Various groups of the two countries had exchanges of visits in the fields of culture, arts, media, drama, religion, etc. The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Bangladesh-China People's Friendship Association jointly organised the China-Bangladesh Friendship and Brightness (Ophthalmic) Trip in October. A Chinese medical team visited Bangladesh and provided free medical operations to 100 Bangladesh cataract patients.


   At present, China-Bangladesh relationship is facing unprecedented historic opportunities. In the coming year of 2011, we hope the two countries would further implement the joint statement, enrich the contents of closer comprehensive partnership of cooperation and intensify bilateral cooperation in different fields:


   (1) Continue to exchange high-level visits and contacts, intensify friendly exchanges between government agencies, parliaments, political parties and non-governmental organisations;
   (2) Intensify cooperation in trade, investment, agriculture, transportation and infrastructure development;
   (3) Further widen people-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation;
   (4) Strengthen exchanges and cooperation to safeguard respective national security and stability and promote peace and stability in the region;
   (5) Maintain close coordination and cooperation to uphold the common interests of the two countries as well as that of developing countries in international and regional affairs, such as climate change, energy and food security.


   China stands ready to closely work with Bangladesh to achieve respective development goals, upgrade the living standard of the two peoples and enhance the longstanding friendship between the two countries.


   Zhang Xianyi is the Chinese ambassador in Bangladesh.

 

http://www.newagebd.com/2010/dec/29/oped.html




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[ALOCHONA] SC asks for documents from TIB

SC asks for documents from TIB

The Supreme Court (SC) authorities Tuesday asked Transparency
International Bangladesh (TIB) to submit relevant documents to back up
its recent survey report that said service seekers suffer most at the
judiciary.

Badrul Alam Bhuiyan, a deputy registrar at the SC, signed the letter
Tuesday. An SC Official handed it over to TIB official at their Banani
office later in the afternoon.

Sources said the letter asked for the documents and related
information about the people in judiciary who have been found involved
in corruption.The letter also asked for submitting the full survey
report which was revealed at a programme in the capital on December
23, added the sources.

However, no deadline has been mentioned for submitting the
documents.Talking to The Daily Star, a Supreme Court high official
said on condition of anonymity that the SC would take action if the
TIB provide the names of the corrupt people.

TIB SURVEY FINDS

TIB in its latest survey found that over 84 percent households in
Bangladesh became victims of corruption while receiving services from
government and non-government institutions between June 2009 and May
this year.

Most people became corruption victims at the judiciary, according to
the survey report disclosed on Thursday. About 11 percent of the
surveyed households that received services from the judiciary paid an
average Tk 7,918 bribe each.

According to the survey, households that sought service from the High
Court paid on an average Tk 12,761 each for services. They paid on an
average Tk 6,598 and Tk 6,178 each at magistrates' and judges' courts.

Usually lawyers, court employees, court clerks and brokers take the
money to hasten or postpone hearings, for withdrawing and destroying
case documents and influencing the judgement, the survey report added.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=27646


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