You see, BD Agents of ISI, the JI people had to come up with an angle to say something against USA in that news.
What I want to know is, why these Bangladeshi Investors don't buy some un-inhibited islands, clean them up using Bangladeshis, develop Farmland, implant Bangladeshi Workers there and grow Rice themselves?
There are hundreds of such islands for sale in this world but the cheapest could be found in Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia. Population congestion would also reduce this way.
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, qar <qrahman@...> wrote:
>
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> I did not see any indication this was part of any "Plan" of our government. If they knew how to plan, I am sure we would have seen some evidences of it. It is a pure business venture and calling it colonialism is premature in my honest opinion.
>
> Some people are afraid this investment will be used as an excuse to do man power business. By taking money from people offering them "Jobs" in foreign lands and stick it to them. It is too soon to comment on it. Albeit some business houses expressed doubts about viability of such plan. Africa has major problem with water, man power, power and transportation, so we have to wait and see how these enterprising business houses make it work.
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> Either way I feel secretary Clinton's comment was taken out of context and she was talking about China NOT Bangladesh. Having said that, it will be nice to watch if some of our countrymen can make this project work.
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mir Monaz Haque <haque@...>
> To: alochona <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sun, Jun 12, 2011 11:26 am
> Subject: [ALOCHONA] Bangladesh leases African land - Clinton warns Africa of 'neo-colonialism'
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> Neo-Colonialism?
>
> Bangladesh has leased tens of thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of a government drive to improve food security in the poverty-stricken South Asian nation, an official said recently.
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> Two Bangladeshi companies have leased 40,000 hectares of land in Uganda and Tanzania and another firm will sign a deal for a further 10,000 hectares in Tanzania this week, foreign ministry director Farhadul Islam said.
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> “The government strongly supports companies leasing farmland in Africa. The aim is to bring most of the farms’ output back to Bangladesh to ease food shortages,†he said.
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> Bangladesh’s 150 million citizens have been hit hard by sharp increases in the price of rice, the staple grain, which was up by an average 50 percent year-on-year in April, according to official figures.
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> Since Bangladesh identified overseas farming as a key way of improving food security late last year, local businessmen have also scoured Africa for suitable land to lease, Islam said.
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> Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave a green signal to a proposal that Bangladesh leases land in some African countries and send farmers there to grow crops like rice and cotton for its consumption as well as export.
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> Why the reports of Bangladesh farming mega deals in Africa sound "neo-colonialism"
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> One of the most intensely discussed international economic phenomena in recent years is that of companies from across the globe coming to farm crops for their home markets in Africa.
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> Opinions about this trend span the ideological spectrum. Doubters and outright opponents seem to have the loudest voices, but this has not discouraged foreign investors who see Africa as the next big farming frontier, nor accommodative African governments hoping these deals will kick-start their moribund agricultural sectors and spur broader-based overall economic development.
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> The latest reported deal-of-the-month are plans by Bangladesh investors to lease land for a similar purpose in a number of African countries. Very little is known about the claimed Bangladesh farming deals, an opacity common to these arrangements and one of their most criticized aspects. What little has come out in news reports has almost all been from the Bangladeshi entities reportedly involved, with no word yet from the African partners. The question is, is it neo-colonialism?
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> The latest farming deals are all being reported from the Bangladeshi side, with an almost we-can't-believe-we-have-negotiated-such-good-deals breathlessness. There has been no word heard at all so far from the governments of Uganda and Tanzania, two of the countries named as willing, even eager to lease tens of thousands of hectares to Bangladeshi companies.
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> Under the plans, the Contract Farming System will enable Bangladeshi companies to get at least 60% of the produce. In return Bangladesh will train African farmers in rain-fed rice cultivation, seed conservation and irrigation.'' On the other hand, Bangladesh Government says (and also Mr. Abdul Matlub Ahmad, owner of Nitol Group says) that, “under the deal, we can bring some 80 percent of our output back to the country after payment of some annual fees. We shall employ some 25,000 Bangladeshi workers â€" some 90 percent from Uganda,†he said. But in Africa foreign leasing of large tracts of land can be a very sensitive topic.
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> My Remarks
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> Bangladesh is planning a new innovation (or should I say a new invasion to Africa) without any social-anthropological analysis. This plan is not sustainable; because sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. That means it should meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, or - Environment, Local People, Future (ELF).
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> A new plan made only by politician in Bangladesh cannot be sustainable. Where are our Sociologists, Anthropologists, Socialreformers, and Philosophers? Society becomes an object of curiosity when people feel the need to make sense out of rapidly changing social realities. As long as the social order in which we live seems stable and unchanging, we tend to take it for granted and think little about it; it appears so natural and normal to us. But when we are confronted with sudden changes in our social environment, our lives transformed by forces that we do not understand. We are bound to ask questions such as: What causes such changes? Where will they lead us? Are they changes for the better or for the worse?
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> Clinton warns Africa of 'new colonialism'
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> U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday warned Africa of a creeping "new colonialism" from foreign investors and governments interested only in extracting the continent's natural resources to enrich themselves and not the African people.
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> Clinton said that African leaders must ensure that foreign projects are sustainable and benefit all their citizens, not only elites. A day earlier, she cautioned that China's massive investments and business interests in Africa need to be closely watched so that the African people are not taken advantage of.
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> "It is easy, and we saw that during colonial times, it is easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave," Clinton said. "And when you leave, you don't leave much behind for the people who are there. We don't want to see a new colonialism in Africa."
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> Clinton said the United States didn't want foreign governments and investors to fail in Africa, but they should also give back to the local communities.
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> "We want them to do well, but also we want them to do good," she said.
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> "We don't want them to undermine good governance, we don't want them to basically deal with just the top elites, and frankly too often pay for their concessions or their opportunities to invest."
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> -Monaz Haque, Berlin
>
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