The New Nation - Internet Edition

SOARING food prices propelled the overall inflation to a 36-year high of 10.10 per cent on a point-to-point basis, according to a media report quoting the figures released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in the second week of this month. Food price inflation rose to 11.42 per cent in July last with an urban bias, indicating that the city-focussed interventions helped rather litle to ease market price pressures. Food price inflation, in fact, crept to 9.82 per cent in June from 6.65 per cent in January as the Bureau of Statistics figures mentioned as the urban food prices gained 12.46 per cent in July up from 10.71 per cent in June. Prices of food items rose to 10.97 per cent in rural areas in July compared to 9.11 per cent in June as reported in the media. A note of caution was sounded by economists that the situation 'would aggravate further in the coming days due to lower than expected agricultural output and global commodity market volatility'. At the same time, the economists, according to media report, warned the government saying it would face 'severe problems' until the next budget as food situation does not look good with static local production and supply shortage in the international market

The government rather should continue direct market intervention at least for the next two crop seasons -Aman and Boro. Signs of restoration of business confidence remain bleak due to atitude problems of the business sector as economists opined. In the past businessmen got some illegal benefits and they cannot change their way of doing business overnight According to reports, the net foodgrain production in the last financial year remained almost static at 24.87 million tonnes against 24.54 million tonnes of the preceding financial year. Foodgrain import, in fact, fell to 2.42 million tonnes in the 2006-2007 financial year from 2.56 million tonnes of the year back.

The Finance Adviser on several occasions stressed the need for increased agricultural production to contain inflation and announced a number of measures to keep supply and prices of essential food items stable. Import duties on a number of essentials were withdrawn and the government announced the plan of seting up four wholesale markets in Dhaka and giving easy trade loan to importers. The adviser in this regard mentioned the country's para-military BDR's programme of providing essential commodities at reasonable rates for which the government would double imports of rice and wheat to meet the domestic demand. But none of the planned four wholesale markets in the capital city has yet been set up. Inflation in countries like Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka as a whole is to be considered as the finance adviser in his budget speech had referred to with a view to defending the galloping inflation. But since then inflation in those countries declined while it rose abnormally in Bangladesh. Prices of the commodities would as usual depend on the demand-and-supply theory as economists have said.

THE Adviser for Law and Information recently outlined to the press a plan to bring into existence a Constitutional Council (CC). The express purpose of it would be ensuring the selection of competent, scrupulous and non-political persons to the Judiciary and constitutional bodies like the Election Commission (EC), Public Service Commission (PSC) and the University Grants Commission (UGC). The idea of the formation of the CC is a very sound one indeed. Hardly any quarter having sensibility and the desire for sustainable progress of the country will find any objection to raise against this plan. Indeed, it would be warmly received by all who wish the country to make progress in all spheres avoiding the kind of catastrophic conditions that prevailed in the country prior to the takeover by this caretaker government

All of the previous political governments tried to fill positions in the vital state institutions mentioned above with their own supporters with the least consideration for impartiality, competence and integrity of the appointees. The moves by successive governments to politicise all pivotal state institutions such as the above led squarely to a kind of situation that honest and scrupulous actions on their part became deeply suspect Thus, the caretaker government has made it its top priority to reform these institutions and restore their health. This has certainly happened in relation to the PSC and the EC. But reforms of the Judiciary, specially the higher Judiciary, cannot be similarly atempted without the formation of a body like the CC.

The proposed council would need to be empowered not only to ensure the dependability and cleanliness of future appointments. The delegation of powers to it to carry out removals of persons from their existing positions in the higher Judiciary based and justified upon scrutiny, will be also very important for the CC to carry its activities to a comprehensive and successful conclusion.

The composition of the proposed CC as has been reported looks good on the face of it It would have seven members including the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). The other members would be ministers and senior-most judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court But for dynamism, incorruptibility and checks and balances within this vital body may require the inclusion of some more members. The inclusion of the SCBA President may lend the body a genuine element of freedom from any form of official coercion. But at least two other members may be from the Judiciary, preferably retired justices of the Supreme Court with good track records. One member may be from the civil society the media with similar reputation of neutrality and integrity. The biggest gain of forming the proposed CC would be strengthening of the elements of stability of the system.

Mohammed Nawazish

Our pundits continue to harangue on poverty alleviation, economic growth, business expansion, privatization, tariff and tax and a myriad of juicy economic jargons most of which we, the commoners, fail to peel off to make out the inner meaning. Bernard Shaw was perhaps right saying that if all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. Fact is, over years we have been noticing that despite some tangible economic growth leading to development, the fate of the vast majority of people continue to remain stuck at the cesspool of poverty and backwardness though a different picture should have been expected in the changing situation, This is an enigma we fail to resolve in our average intellect

We generally know that economic growth can occur in two ways - an increase in real GDP and an increase in real GDP per capita. Growth is an important aspect of national economy as it means more material abundance and ability to meet the economizing problem. We can't expect growth all by itself, there are four supply factors that allow an economy to grow - the quantity and quality of natural resources, the quantity and quality of human resources, the supply or stock of capital goods and, technology. Added to it, some additional factors contribute towards growth sustenance, such as, the aggregate demand must increase for production to expand, full employment of resources and both productive and allocative efficiency, stability in government and, economies of scale, that is, industries that have lower average total costs with increasing total output

To be true, actual knowledge about what creates growth is yet largely unproven. However, recent advances in econometrics and more accurate measurements in many countries is creating new knowledge to determine the variables and probable causes out of merely correlational statistics. Recent theories revolve around questions about what variables or inputs correlate or affect economic growth the most - elementary, secondary, or higher education, government policy stability, low tariffs, fair court systems, available infrastructure, availability of medical care, prenatal care and clean water, ease of entry and exit into trade, and equality of income distribution, and how to advise governments about macroeconomic policies. Education enables countries to adapt the latest technology and creates an environment for new innovations. The cause of limited growth and divergence in economic growth lie in the high rate of acceleration of technological change by a number of developed countries. These countries' acceleration of technology was due to increased incentive structures for mass education which in turn created a framework for the population to create and adapt new innovations and methods. More importantly, the content of their education was composed of secular schooling that resulted in higher productivity levels and modern economic growth.

This being the scenario of growth conundrum, where exactly do we stand in the development juke-box? With a paltry per capita monthly income of taka 1485.00 and per household monthly expenditure of taka 6134.00, we barely make both ends meet in a constant and vicious struggle for existence. While 47.5% of the people are engaged in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, 52.5% in various non- agricultural sectors including 3+% of unemployment Be it mentioned that 40% of the population live under the upper poverty line. In an agrarian economy the industrial sectors generally suffer from labour scarcity. These are known facts but equally known is the diverse paterns of obstacles that the entrepreneurs encounter as they proceed to float a company or instal an industrial unit Nothing moves in the normal channel and nothing gets cleared without fat grafts. No wonder, local and foreign investment is showing a downward trend in spite of government efforts. Our education system is a pointless exercise that serves no purpose in the creation of human resource in the global context Health and sanitation sectors beggar all description. Government policies vacillate indecisively and are mostly wrong than right With the basic fundamentals detailed in the preceding para pitifully flouted and ignored, it may look preposterous to talk on growth, development, expansion, brighter prospects and the like. Growth rate achieved over years continually dries up under pressure of population explosion and erratic and incoherent national policies.

Some believe that Free Market Economy leading to Globalisation may open a prospective door for us but there is strong opposition as well. We may have to give up a lot in favour of the superior economic powers and even we may be dictated on certain issues. Neither do we yet have the competitive ability to vend our products in open market But we can't get ourselves singled out as an off- tracker, rather the effects of globalisation will have to be utilised in our favour. An eminent Indian economist C. Balakrishnan writes that India has to concentrate on five important areas to follow to achieve this goal - the areas like technological entrepreneurship, new business openings for small and medium enterprises, importance of quality management, new prospects in rural areas and privatisation of financial institutions. The manufacturing of technology and management of technology are two different significant areas that can't be ignored either. We can formulate viable programmes in the above line to make the best use of free market opening and add strength to our efforts to atain stable development in real terms. It is time we remembered a part of John F. Kennedy's address to UNGA on September 25, 1961: Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty and illiteracy and disease. Self-determination is but a slogan if the future holds no hope.

( The writer is a retired senior civil servant of Bangladesh writes from Boston)

Barkha Dut

THE timing could not have been worse. On a day when television journalists were all set to wrestle the government to the ground over its imperious and inane Broadcasting Bill, along comes our own moment of ignominy and shame.

What was meant to be a television exposé on a Delhi schoolteacher who lured and coerced young girls into prostitution, has turned out to be an elaborate and orchestrated charade. The girl who plays the victim of the so-called resident pimp was neither a student at the school nor a reluctant sex worker. Instead, she was an aspiring reporter with her eye on the big break (I suppose, we should be grateful she was not a hired insurance agent or private detective - the new practitioners of the sting operation phenomenon). But by the time the channel's bluff had been called, there were riots outside the school and hysteria across the country as parents hyperventilated about whether schools were being run as brothels.

So, was there any truth in the allegation that the schoolteacher under scrutiny was doubling up as a sex agent for paedophiles? We don't really know. Several girls at the school told journalists that the teacher discomfited them with her vulgar innuendo. But the falsehoods employed by the television channel in question have sullied the truth irrevocably with their dirt; the means has made the end entirely irrelevant In this case, the sting has struck itself in the tail.

The aggressive-defensive explanations have begun. We want our viewers to believe that this isn't about sting operations; it's about the distinction between good and bad journalism. But whether we like it or not, the fact is that the hidden camera has blurred the lines between right and wrong, between investigation and entrapment and between storytelling and spying. We need to admit that sting operations belong to the muddy and murky backwaters of journalism; waters you should venture into only if you are well guarded in tall boots and only when there are real crocodiles to catch. And all such journeys need a map and a clear path to plot Instead they seem to have become free-falling adventures in which decoys and booby traps substitute navigation and clear thinking.

For those of us trained to believe that a reporter's source is inviolably sacred, adjusting to the advent of sting operations has been both interesting and difficult Instead of assiduously cultivating our own 'Deep Throats' within the otherwise impenetrable institutions of power, we could now use a hidden camera to hustle our way in. It was a moment of liberating power, but like every other classic high, it was both potentially addictive and dangerous.

Textbook journalism everywhere in the world has always frowned upon the sting as a tool of reporting. American graduate schools like the one I atended in New York, have a favourite ethical case study offered in the classes on media ethics. In the 1970s, the American newspaper, Chicago Sun Times, decided to expose how no one could run an honest, clean business without bribing the local police, especially if it involved procuring a much-coveted liquor licence. (Bar owners in India who will tell anyone who cares to listen how much money they lose in bribes, will identify with this one.) So 17 reporters from the newspaper just went ahead and opened their own bar, the Mirage. It also helped that you could get the cheapest draught beer in town there. The police performed on cue. The inspectors came in and asked for bribes nearly every day of the four months that the bar remained open. They were caught on hidden camera; it was 1978, so the sound of the shuter had to be drowned out by an especially loud jukebox. The 25-part series run grabbed several awards, but never the Pulitzer, because the jury could not agree on whether the methods used were honourable enough. The correspondents later argued that there had been no artificial lure, no money set out on the table deliberately; that they had actually run a real bar to show the everyday batle against corruption that small businessmen fought They said this was tough, in-your-face journalism, not entrapment

This is, perhaps, what is at the heart of the mater. There is something unseemly and mildly sleazy about reporters playing Pied Pipers who lay out the cheese to seduce conmen into their rat traps. It is much easier to justify the use of a hidden camera when it is for capturing an event that would take place whether or not the camera was there. Entrapment somehow can't manage to shake off the suggestion of fabrication.

And yet, even the conservatives among us have come to accept that sometimes you lie to nail a bigger lie. The argument in favour of stings is the old and obvious one; sometimes there is just no other way to tell a story. Think about the hardest hiting headlines in the past few years. Whether it was the Tehelka story that exposed how political donations operate on a dangerous quid pro quo, the cash-for-questions scam that revealed how money was all it took to get an issue debated inside Parliament or the BMW sting that pointed to a chilling collusion between the defence and the prosecution in one of the most high profile hit-and-run cases - not one of these scams would have been possible to unveil without the use of a hidden camera. Most recently a sting operation by Zee TV tried to expose corruption among judges - something that no one ever talks about for fear of contempt In every such case, the methods may have been dodgy, but the truth they exposed was unquestionably in the public interest

It's when underground investigations get mixed up with salacious sex scandals (we have had our share of so-called casting couch exposés masquerading as journalism) or hidden cameras are used to break the confidence of a source who has done no wrong himself, that stings enter the unethical zone. An innate lack of honesty with viewers is another huge problem area. A number of channels never reveal whether money has changed hands, whether stories have been purchased or in what circumstances an unsuspecting, hapless source has been lied to. Sometimes even the most robust operations are not transparent - remember Tehelka and the use of women as sexual bait to the army officers it was trying to expose? It was a fact that emerged only after the scam had hit the headlines, and the team was forced to admit that it had been a mistake, first to use the women and then to keep it from the public eye.

Most of us marvel at the ingenuity and imaginativeness of sting operations, defend their right to exist and will argue that if well-used, they are an invaluable tool for justice. But we can no longer pretend that the recent conjured-up operation in Delhi is an aberration we can afford to ignore. Before the government uses the exception to thrust its own set of motivated rules on us, let us in the industry admit that we need a code of conduct that we can all agree upon, and one that we draft ourselves. (Thanks, but no thanks, is what we need to tell the I&B Ministry).

It's something I have long argued in favour of on these pages. We must be ready for the scrutiny we subject others to. Because when the reporter becomes the story, the news takes a backseat

Eric Margolis

TIGERS' and the 'White Eagles' who commited some of the worst atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Germany also remains haunted by folk memory of the hordes of blood-crazed mercenaries who turned much of this nation into a wasteland during the savage 30 Year's War. The name of the great mercenary captain, Wallenstein, still resounds, and of those most feared mercenaries of all, the ferocious Swiss, who once terrorised Europe. Wrote Machiavelli: 'where there is gold and blood, there are the Swiss.' The Vatican's Swiss Guard is a faint reminder of the 'furia Helvetica.'

Small numbers of mercenaries have been used in many modern wars, from Vietnam to Central America. The most famed modern mercenary force is France's tough Foreign Legion.

The rise of powerful mercenary armies within the United States, and their use in Iraq and Afghanistan, is an entirely new, deeply disturbing development

Last weekend, mercenaries from the US firm 'Blackwater' gunned down 11 Iraqi civilians during an atack on a convoy they were guarding. Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Al Maliki, ordered Balckwater's thousands of swaggering mercenaries expelled from Iraq. But his order was quickly countermanded by US occupation authorities.

There are 180,000 to 200,000 US-paid mercenaries in Iraq - or 'private contractors' as Washington and the US media delicately call them. They actually outnumber the 169,000 US troops there. Britain pays for another 20,000. At least half are armed fighters, the rest support personnel and technicians. Without them, the US and Britain could not maintain their occupation of Iraq.

These private enterprise fighters, like the Renaissance's Italian condotierri, German landsknecht, and Swiss pikemen, are lawless, answering to no authority but their employers. Democrats in the US Congress are rightly demanding these trigger-happy Rambos to be at least brought under American military law.

The US State Department now has its own litle army in Iraq and Afghanistan of about 3,000 Blackwater gunmen who protect American officials and their local collaborators. Some reports say State has spent $678 million alone with Blackwater since 2003.

Afghanistan's US-installed leader, Hamid Karzai, is surrounded at all times by 200 American bodyguards, his own people not being trusted to protect their president Iraq's US-installed leaders are similarly guarded by US mercenaries.

Nearly all Washington's contracts for mercenaries are awarded without competitive bidding to firms close to the Republican Party. Blackwater's owners are major contributors. Their 7,000-acre base in the southern United States is likely the world's largest non-government military operation and a menacing creation straight out of the famous film, 'Seven Days in May.'

This unprecedented use of mercenaries has masked the depths of US involvement in Iraq and clearly shows how litle the occupying forces can rely on the locals, whom they supposedly 'liberated.' It has also allowed the US to sustain an imperial war that could never have been waged with conscripted American soldiers, as Vietnam clearly showed.

Vice President Dick Cheney took Vietnam's lesson to heart by championing use of mercenaries for nasty foreign wars. But democracies should have no business unleashing armies of hired gunmen on the world.

Worse, these private armies hardwired to the Republican Party's far right are a grave and intolerable danger to the American Republic. Congress should outlaw them absolutely. The great Roman Republic held mandatory military service by all citizens was the basis of democracy, while professional armies were a grave menace.

How ironic that colonial America, which rose up in arms in response to the British crown's use of brutal German mercenaries, is today resorting to the same tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan. Europe wants no more of private armies. Americans have yet to learn this painful lesson.