The New Nation - Internet Edition

Global food prices

WITHDRAWAL of farm subsidy by developed economies will trigger further increase in global foodgrain prices making cereals costlier for countries like Bangladesh. Higher domestic production is the only answer to meet the pressing challenge. As a net food importing country, Bangladesh is exposed to global food market volatility as a result of World Trade Organisation's negotiations in agriculture. According to the current trends of negotiations, developed countries may agree to a deal for significantly curtailing subsidies leaving global foodgrain market more open for rising economies such as Argentina, Brazil, India and China. Elimination of subsidies is likely to further increase food price.

Bangladesh being a least developed country needs special supports for facing the situation in view of the rising prices in the international market amid the ongoing negotiations. The market players might have made their strategies based on many factors like speculations, climate conditions, existing and upcoming trading rules. The equations may change as well if other players come up with different strategies. Meanwhile, the United States and Brazil are diverting farm products to produce bio-fuels. This has led to soaring global food prices. While growing demand was one reason for skyrocketing food prices, the use of agricultural products to make bio-fuels is another cause.

The continued rise in food and commodity prices has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries, which are producing large quantities of food and sell the same to the rest of the world at reasonable prices. There can be no lopsided priorities of certain countries that produce fuel at a cheaper cost to meet the domestic transport needs even if it leads to higher food prices elsewhere in the world. Bio-fuels are not only hurting poor consumers in Asia by driving up crop prices, they are also failing to help the region's farmers. A very selfish approach encourages conversion of food into fuel.

Gas and power crises

THE country's power generation is substantially dependent on gas as the power generating units are mainly gas-fired. Shortage of gas is, thus, hampering power generation which, in turn, creates power crisis. Power Development Board (PDB) sources say, poor gas supply has meant the complete shutting down of two power generating units while production in eight others has dwindled to more than half of their normal output. But the present production of power with little prospects of improvement, is creating deep worry about a severe power crunch in the coming hot summer months when demand for power will soar but meeting that demand would be difficult due to shortage of gas.

Many industries in the Tongi-Gazipur industrial belt around Dhaka are under-producing as these are gas based and the poor supply of gas to the units is creating serious difficulties. The industries in most cases are export-oriented and their failure to produce enough is not only denying them earnings but also posing a threat to their goodwill abroad. Gas is also used in large quantities to produce fertiliser. But production in the fertiliser factories has fallen in view of the gas crisis. The Council of Advisers' recent approval to allow import of over 0.1 million tons of fertilisers is indicative of the situation faced by the fertiliser factories. There was a record amount of investment in new industrial enterprises in recent years. The operation and viability of many of them have become uncertain in the face of the inadequate availability of energy. Thus, from whatever way one looks at it, the entire economy is facing a grave situation as a consequence of the decreased supply of gas. Thus, the government needs to boost the production of gas from the existing reserves, supply the same at the fastest in adequate quantities to users, specially to power generating units.

Only pro-active media can serve the purpose

Dr. M. S. Haq

Last evening (07 April 2008), Pakistan Television (PTV) had telecast a discussion program on challenges and opportunities of Pakistan me cricket both at present and in the foreseeable future. The problems associated with the present day security situation in the country and their impacts on holding - on the soil of Pakistan - cricket matches with some of the key ex-country teams (including inter alia those of Australia and Sri Lanka) were also discussed. At one stage of the discussion, the current participation of Bangladesh cricket team in matches at designated locations of the country came up.

The programme was participated by eminent plus important cricket personalities and senior cricket officials of the country. The discussants were successful in dissecting, briefly though, a number of developmental dimensions of the game in the context of Pakistani cricket, and the ramification through the past 60 years. They suggested measures for correction, as well as improvement in pertinent areas. One of the areas identified for improvement was: implementation plus coordination related insufficiency when it comes to missions and objectives of Pakistani institutions associated with various aspects of the game.

The programme was timely and relevant. The discussion was largely interesting, and apparently informative. The discussants were, on an average basis, articulate and they talked sense in pertinent areas. The overall presentational skills including inter alia the questioning skills of anchor person Saadia were commendable. But she appeared to be very formal at times - I mean, in an electronic journalism sense - with the discussants.

In the midst of good things, the program was not, however, immune from limitations. For example: the quality of comparing Australian team with Bangladeshi team by one of the discussants was poor; and calling Bangladesh as East Pakistan before world viewers especially, on the state run media (I mean, the PTV) by one of the discussants was, among other things, a display of naïve realism.

The above limitations tend to indicate, among other things: one, the discussant had opted to subscribe - whether intentionally or not - to weak and less substantive premises, as well as criteria for evaluating Bangladeshi team vis-à-vis Australian team, leading eventually to perceptions of above nature in relevant areas; two, a lack of sense and sensibility on the part of concerned discussant when it comes to internalizing and appreciating the reality of Bangladesh after 37 years of its existence; three, an apparent lack on the part of PTV to deal with above limitations in a more proactive or reasonable or both fashion; an apparent lack of Bangladesh High Commission in Pakistan in areas of media monitoring, media relations and media follow-up. It will be interesting to note here: the limitations were detected at the time when Pakistan People's Party and its coalition partners are in the government. It will also be interesting to note here: such limitations of PTV programmes did not come to my attention at the time of caretaker information minister Mr. Memon and during the government of PM Aziz prior to the caretaker government - all under the overall and able leadership of President Pervez Musharraf.

It is expected PTV, GEO and other media (print, electronic, etc.) of Pakistan will be more proactive and more active - than in the past - in protecting, preserving, projecting and promoting true images of, and facts about, Bangladesh through the foreseeable future - in an increasingly uncertain and progressively reintegrating world. The same also holds good in case of media of Bangladesh (print, electronic, etc.), per se. It may be mentioned here: media undercutting cannot serve, in a sense, bilateral, multi-lateral and other interests in a sustainable manner, likewise, the truth cannot be suppressed by false, again in a sustainable manner - the waiting could be long, at times.

It is also expected Pakistan will recognize and appreciate the fact, Bangladesh has sent its cricket team to Pakistan to play therein despite uncertainties, risks and vulnerabilities associated with its (I mean, the country's) current security situation. Australia has declined, so has Sri Lanka, so far. The last word: Bangladesh High Commission in Pakistan needs, among other things, to be more vigilant and productive when it comes to its role in managing media transactions in pertinent areas.

Lhasa, in transition

Barkha Dutt

NINETEEN years ago, when I was still at school, there used to be a photograph plastered across my bedroom wall, where it shared sizeable space with other emblems of teenage angst. At the time it was perhaps the world's single-most recognisable image: a slightly built young man about to be crushed under the might of a giant tank, refusing to move, staring the might of an entire nation state in the eye.

The 'Tank Man' - as the unknown rebel came to be known globally - was an icon for my generation. The fact that no one knew who he was only multiplied his magnificent courage in our minds. Whether or not you knew your Mao from your Deng, Tiananmen Square became a universal theme song for rebellion, inspiring elegies and ballads from Leonard Cohen and Joan Baez, among others.

But like much else in life, it didn't take long for the romanticised idealism of youth to be jolted into cynical adulthood.

The protests of 1989 failed to evolve into a coherent ideology for change, the rebel leadership combusted from self-destruction and economic reforms catapulted China into political stardom. It was clear that the anger in the aftermath of the massacre at Tiananmen Square had been more sound than fury.

Even the Google boys, who inspired us into believing that a great idea could change the world, succumbed to the mundane compulsions of the market. In mainland China, if you're 'googling' the Internet for details of the Tiananmen killings or 'independence' for Taiwan or Tibet, you won't find anything but a list of rules and regulations.

Google agreed to censor itself and became a complicit partner in the erasure of history. An episode of the Simpsons (owned ironically by the Murdoch media empire that caved into every major media restriction demanded by the Chinese government) summed it up the best. As the holidaying Simpson family strolls through Tiananmen Square, they stop at a plaque reading, "On this spot, in 1989, nothing happened." Today, nearly two decades later, as we applaud the dimple-faced Dalai Lama's gentle pragmatism and are shamed into guilt by the helpless tears of red-robed monks, I can't help feeling a horrible and cynical sense of déjà vu. Yes, op-ed writers and 'thinking' actors have been passionately outspoken about the Tibet cause. And yes, an otherwise impassive regime in Beijing seems momentarily on the defensive.

Yet, one can't help thinking that history will spin once more in a cycle of liberal rage and paramount indifference. We are sentimental (and simultaneously ignorant) about Tibet just as we were about the Tiananmen struggle back in the 90s. We respond with empathy to the Tibetan search for identity, not because we necessarily understand the complex political history that drives the movement, but almost entirely because of the benign grace of its leadership.

In fact, scarred by Partition and bruised by violence in Kashmir and the North-east, Indians are by and large notoriously unsympathetic to separatist causes anywhere in the world. The middle-class Indian is scarily enamoured of the idea of a mighty nation state that rules with an iron fist.

Take away the twinkling eyes, soothing spirituality and chuckling irreverence of the Dalai Lama, and his measured calls for non-violence, and ask yourself, would you still care about Tibet if he were not at the helm? Or would you be obsessing instead about Chinese goods flooding the Indian market and swallowing domestic companies in tsunami-like waves? Last month, when the prime minister was in China, crafting the theatrics of a changing relationship, Tibet wasn't even loud enough to be a stage whisper. But I don't remember any of us being especially upset. Instead, there was relief that the dragon could be a friendly animal too.

The truth is, that while there is much hand-wringing and chest-beating about Tibet, trapped in our own dysfunctional love and loathing for China, we are uncertain about how to respond - sometimes cautious, sometimes impulsive and, sadly, often indifferent.

Diplomacy though cannot afford to be maudlin or unpredictable. It is by definition much more strategic and self-serving.

Step back then and stack up the varied responses of the world to the current crisis. You may lose count of the number of hypocrisies that have come to haunt the China-Tibet debate.

There's America - lofty in its criticism, supposedly generous about how the Olympic Games must 'go on', furiously calculating trade volumes with one hand and how to contain Beijing with the other. Democracy isn't Washington's favourite word when it comes to oil-rich Saudi Arabia or a pliant Pakistan. But it's thrown about as a selective philosophical principle when needed. There's France and its playboy president who is asking for a boycott of the Olympics, but leads a country that has simultaneously been trying to persuade the European parliament to lift an arms sale embargo against China.

Closer home, the socially liberal communists - so quick to condemn 'state brutalities' and human rights violations within India - haven't just been silent, but they've actually termed Tibet an 'internal matter' for their ideological compatriots to tackle on their own terms. Then there's the BJP - filled with well-meaning rage at the government's effete lack of intervention, but stubbornly blind to the parallels the people of Kashmir may draw from the Tibet struggle.

And finally, there's the Congress, unable or unwilling to respond coherently. Till the churlish midnight missive was delivered to our ambassador in China, the government actually seemed a trifle pleased to receive a pat on the back from its northern neighbour on how it had 'handled' the protests. The Indian government prides itself on the hardball it has played with the world's superpowers on demanding a seat for itself at the global high table. But we are too timid and tentative to even allow a meeting between the Dalai Lama and the vice-president.

And then, of course, there is the rest of us - captivated by the poignant photo-opportunity of the present, till we turn the page and forget all about a tragedy called Tibet.

(Celebrated Indian television star and host Barkha Dutt is Managing Editor of NDTV 24x7.)

Time for the old Lion to go

Dr Terry Lacey

Many years ago I was driving across the highlands of Lesotho in thick mist and at dusk, on a grass road marked only by tyre tracks, on my way to a small Anglican hospital. Suddenly, out of the mist lights and movement all around, Range Rovers, four wheel drives and men and women in traditional dress on horses rode past on both sides unconcerned that we was driving the wrong way through their funeral procession. Then they were gone. A glimpse of Africa.

So I met Robert Mugabe just once, at Lancaster House, at the independence talks presided over by Sir Christopher Soames. Mugabe called me to see him. I assumed because I was General Secretary of War on Want, an NGO supplying his ZANU refugee camps in Mozambique , that he wanted to know about food aid and logistics. But not so. He knew I had been a European Commission official in DG8, the old EC development department. He asked me about the Lome Convention and how Zimbabwe could benefit. His political secretary wrote it all down.

The Lome Convention covered aid and trade relations between the European Community and the states of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, (now replaced by new sub regional agreements). The ACP agreement was good for its time but the performance of most African states under it, relative to other parts of the world, was to continue to lose their relative share of world trade. This reflected much wider problems. European or UN development programmes often did not bring out the best in African society. Africa wanted to be Africa, not a replica of Europe or the USA.

Mugabe was at Lancaster House leading the independence talks because ZANU had done what the British Foreign office had least expected and had beaten the experienced old hand Joshu Nkomo´s ZAPU as well as the Rev Albert Sithole's centrist party.

Soon after Lancaster House I visited the new Zimbabwe and had a strange feeling that things were not quite right. I noted the time Mugabe was said to be on holiday when the North Korean trained 5th Batallion did a minor pogrom in the ZAPU heartland of Bulawayo. Why this aggressive push for a one party state when Sam Njomo in Namibia and Nelson Mandela in South Africa came to represent multi party democracies ? Where did this instinct come from ? The African authoritarianism of Mobuto Sese Seko in Zaire and Gnassingbe Eyadema in Togo ? Or Soviet Stalinism with a dash of North Korea's Kim Il Sung ? What happened to this promising young man I met so briefly at Lancaster House ? What swallowed him up in the mist of African politics ?.

Of course he would lead a radical land reform program, but why did he leave it so late ? And why so wrapped up with political patronage for supporters ? The UK and commercial farmers would have supported it if it had been better planned and implemented. Why so politicized and so badly done when the Smith regime itself had done well with small farmer support schemes in defiance of sanctions ?

In Namibia by contrast there was no sense in breaking up white commercial farms in areas of low black population, and the large black population was right up North. The political and farming map of Namibia had been determined by the limits of Afrikaaner and German hydrology 30 years before, so the commercial farms were where available technology had worked, and the deep artesian water in the North was still there, waiting to be used later. Namibian thinking reflected pragmatism and reconciliation as well as the realities of demographics and hydrology.

In Zimbabwe by contrast belated land reform took on the character of a latter day anti colonial class struggle, rewarding aging supposed freedom fighters, or political supporters, in defiance of the British colonial inheritance, to bring down the white farming class. The result was to dismantle what worked and previously made the country prosperous without being able to substitute workable alternatives. The theory of land reform from a radical European textbook without the practice of achieving real results in social and economic transformation or production. The degeneration of rural radicalism into an authoritarian patron client state.

The rest was accounted for by bureaucratic ossification, accumulation of subservient advisors and exclusion of good ones and the tendency that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The loyalty of the security forces until the last moment the inevitable reflection of power politics, self interest and fear of change.

Now it appears the old lion may lose his last election battle, with a close run first round maybe leading to a final run off election. If he loses will he go quietly, or play his last card, the military card, and end his days in a perverse tribute to the book by Ruth First that Power Comes Out of the Barrel of a Gun? Perhaps his last instincts are from the heart of the old Africa that the old lion will never go except to his last resting place. Nonetheless hopefully a solution will be negotiated. Whenever, at last, change does come, hope and pray for Zimbabwe to never again place quite such dependence and power upon the shoulders of one man.

Dr Terry Lacey is a development economist who writes from Jakarta, Indonesia, on modernization in the Muslim world, investment and trade relations with the EU and Islamic banking.

Opinion: Averting impending malaria threat

Sarker Nazrul Islam

Mosquito has become a menace in the cities and towns of the country. It is, in reality, an annual exercise. It scares the city dwellers with a risk of malaria, dengue and other diseases of which mosquitoes are the carriers.

Lakes with dirty liquid covered with water hyacinth and other aquatic herbs, drains with stinking stagnant water, pools of industrial chemical discharges and human wastes at different corners of the city, and rotting garbage and unhygienic latrines in the slums are the ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes. During the rainy season these insects multiply at a faster rate. Such is the situation that exists now. Mosquito Control Wing (MCW) of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) occasionally takes different programmes to contain the ultra increase of the insects but have so far failed to bring expected results. MCW recently implemented a 16-day crash programme in which all the wards of the city were brought under the larvicide and adulticide drives. But the insects proved to be too stubborn to be controlled. The MCW had assured the people that it would control the mosquito influx. But the situation reportedly turned for the worse.

Life in a mosquito-ridden city has become simply difficult. The poor and the floating people are the worst sufferers. The city dwellers are now spending a lot for mosquito nets and repellents to protect themselves. But very often they prove to be inadequate for the same. In this situation, the people in the city remain susceptible to malaria and other mosquito borne diseases. There are chances of spread of malaria in the city also. So, birth controlling of mosquitoes has become urgent and an immediate priority.

The MCW is poorly equipped to face the challenge. It must immediately be equipped with adequate manpower and necessary logistics. Drains must be repaired and cleaned to facilitate passing out of water. Regular cleaning of the drains be introduced to keep them free from becoming the breeding ground of mosquitoes. Arrangements for serving the drains once or twice a day by running water might reduce mosquito hazard considerably. Whatever actions are taken that should be on a regular basis, not on contingency or ad hoc manner. Occasional sprays of insecticide are not enough to free the city from the hazard. A master plan needs to be taken urgently. Along with these measures, a crash programme for eradication of malarial germs might also be taken.

Civil bodies, NGOs - we have enough of them by now - and the city dwellers themselves must volunteer in unision to fight mosquitoes back. Only a civic sense of cleanliness - of the home and the area around - may keep the city clean and free from mosquitoes or else it will not work. The slogan be - keep clean or suffer the dirty mosquito bites.