The New Nation - Internet Edition

Price stabilisation during Ramzan

THE Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) still seems not prepared to face the special market situation during the holy month of Ramzan. There is usually an increase in the demand for consumable items, especially edible oil, lentil, gram, fruits, fish, meat and spices. The Commerce Adviser has reportedly observed that the demand for all essential items usually rise 50 percent during this month. Further escalation of prices in the existing inflationary situation will lead to additional expenditure and mounting sufferings of the poorer sections of the people.

Timely intervention by the authorities is urgently needed to keep prices affordable to all sections of the people. Adequate supply of the items at fair prices should be ensured for this. TCB has taken an initiative to buy edible oil and other items and has floated tenders three times. But no local or international bidders reportedly submitted tender. This has made the timely supply of the commodities by TCB uncertain. However, the Commerce Adviser informed that the government is going to take some steps like expediting collection and supply of the commodities, and opening fair price shops to tackle the situation.

The holy month of Ramzan is the month of restraint and self-purification.The business community is not out of this. They should refrain from making undue profit at the cost of the fasting devotees. Hoarding and extra profit go against the teachings of Ramzan. In some Muslim countries of the world, prices of essential commodities rather come down due to heavy subsidies on the one hand and honesty and sincerity of the traders on the other. The traders should be fair in business transactions. A section of the affluent people spends too much for eating and drinking during Ramzan. They should also practice self-restraint.

Addiction costs society dearly

IT is reported that the number of drug addicts has reached the range of two million and a half in Bangladesh. Of them, over eight-five percent are aged between fifteen and thirty years. As per a survey report on drug addicts, fifty-five percent are unmarried. They remain in the family of their parents and misuse their money. Some of the drug addicts also join gangs of robbers, thieves and terrorists and loot money.

The Narcotics and Drug Control Department and some private organisations, working against the use of narcotic drugs, conducted surveys on drug addicts in the country. Of the drug addicts, forty-three percent received education for seven to twelve years and twenty-five percent for one to six years. Thirty-six percent of them are unemployed. Some of them who obtain jobs fail to retain the employment for drug addiction. Twelve percent of the addicts are students of schools and colleges. The Narcotics and Drug Control Department should prepare a pragmatic work plan to monitor the process of drug addiction. They should note the activities of the youngsters among the drug addicts and bring them under the control of guardians at home and teachers in schools and colleges. The traders who smuggle drugs into Bangladesh through different routes and sell the same to addicts have to be identified and punished.

The society at large bears the burden of the drug addicts. The young addicts drop out of academic institutions. Quite a large number of drug addicts get away from their homes and the families They have already created problems of different dimensions for their families and the society at large. The sooner the corrective measures are taken, the better may be the prospect of checking the spread of addiction and helping youths to grow up as worthy citizens of the soil.

Tourism industry faces shortage of quality manpower

Mohammad Shahidul Islam

The hospitality and tourism industry has been well thought-out to be the vastest industry in the world. Its triumph is reviewed by economic indicators such as tourism share of employment and GDP (gross domestic product), or growth in revenues. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, 2007 proved to be the 4th consecutive year of health growth since 2004. The annual increase in travel and tourism economy GDP has averaged 4% in real terms. This is faster than that of the global economy overall. And in the same period travel and tourism has created more than 34 million jobs.

The long-term forecasts point to a mature but steady phase of growth for world Travel and Tourism between 2009 and 2018 with an average growth rate of 4.4% per annum, supporting 297 million jobs and 10.5% of global GDP by 2018. In 2020 the UNWTO envisages 1.6 billion travelers compared to around 900 million travelers in 2007.

These are all very impressive figures. But what do they mean? They mean that the Tourism and Hospitality industry is in dire need for human resources to accommodate this mammoth growth. It means that tourism can be the ideal choice for people who are looking for long-term career prospects.

It is vital that young people see tourism and hospitality as a serious and rewarding career choice. Yet not many do. Could it be that they are not well informed about the enormous opportunities that exist by, for instance, career counselors in their high schools, the media, the industry itself, family members or colleagues, or even government authorities representing the industry? Are they aware that young entrants and graduates of hotel management schools can move rapidly up the career ladder and with the proper higher education can aim to be in significant management positions by their mid 30's?

The biggest shortage over the next 10 years seems to be with semi-skilled labor, but the most critical area is with the skilled labor: managers and supervisors. In order to recruit top talent, the industry must speak out loud to attract bright youngsters to join it. The industry must attract young men and women who are looking to develop a career rather than only developing their skills. Employers who look to retain talent need to take more of a stake in their employees' careers.

The other day I leafed through a hospitality news letter and found the following 2 hospitality mentors' commentaries: Joelle Hellinckx, Hilton Hotels' Director of Resourcing for Europe recently commented: "We are planning to open 121 new hotels in Europe by 2016 which, in terms of people, means that by 2011 we need 39 additional general managers and 104 operational managers. In Hilton we already have a large talent pool and have defined paths to reach general manager positions, but we need to find additional people to meet this demand."

Starwood, the world leading Hotel Company, is opening 50 hotels each year over the next five years. "We identified that, by 2009, there would be a gap, so we launched 'Grow global projects'," said Jane Wright, Regional Director of Human Resources, Northwest Europe of Starwood. "The aim is to recognize people we can fast track, so that, in two years time, they will be able to take over the managerial roles." The group is also working on strengthening its relationship with colleges in order to attract graduates from commerce and finance, as well as hospitality, backgrounds.

These are but two minute examples of the shortage in human resources that leading international hotel chains are experiencing.

What the young are probably not aware of is that the global tourism industry provides the largest selection of career prospects to young adults who pursue a quality education in this field. Today the industry is much more than hotel and restaurant enterprises. It now encompasses an array of companies that specialize in airlines, cruise lines, sports arenas and entertainment / amusement centers, senior living communities, car rentals, casinos, club management, real estate development, meeting planning, consulting, corporate managed services, finance companies with ties to investment banking , asset management, conference and convention management, facility design, catering, bed and breakfast operations, large chain restaurants, general brand management and franchise management, accounting, law, human resources and management training, information technology, travel agencies, and much more.

This can be encouraging to cite here about the Bangladeshi hospitality workers round the world, who are also countable and significant with the see-saw of the global hospitality industry's fate. I am hopeful, once Bangladeshi workers will be dominating in aforesaid positions.

There are numerous opportunities for Bengali graduates in this field. Tourism enterprises are facing fierce competition. In order for them to be successful they need to hire graduates of universities with higher education in hospitality and tourism management who have talent and passion for our industry. The speed of change within the industry including change in customer expectations, competition, legislation, new technology, and economic factors emphasizes the need for the industry to anticipate these changes, be clear about its potential impact and make appropriate adjustments to management structures, roles and development. Thus, the need for graduates with a good solid higher education to facilitate and manage change, from strategic and operational perspectives is a must. Clever enterprises know this and hire only graduates with higher degrees in hospitality and tourism management.

As an industry professional, I am always enthusiastic to spread the word around and encourage young people of Bangladesh to choose hospitality and tourism as a career and urge them to pursue a quality education to prepare themselves for promising leadership positions-the great perks await them.

Fresh debate on tax reduction

Vim Joo-young

The buzzword for President Lee Myung-bak's government is economic revival, though it was briefly overshadowed by a controversy over Lee's Cabinet and secretarial appointments and the April 9 general elections. In last December's presidential election, the Korean people distressed by prolonged economic slump, overwhelmingly elected Lee. His "74T campaign pledge called for increasing annual economic growth to 7 percent, raising per capita income to U5$40,000 in a decade and making Korea one of the world's top seven economies.

The Lee government is now obliged to produce visible results to quench the people's desire. But the present circumstances at home and abroad are not favorable. A variety of external threats, including sky high oil prices and the U.5. slowdown, are weighing heavily on the Korean economy. The start of the Lee government appears to be extraordinarily turbulent. How should the government handle the unpredictable situation? Above all, it has to encourage "economic-mindedness." That's because it is a source of omnipotent power that makes even the impossible possible.

Our past era of high economic growth is a good example. In this respect, I want to point to the importance of lower taxes. The government's partial tax reduction plan, already unveiled by ministries in their policy briefing sessions, is effective in stimulating the people's economic mind. The government has to maximise its policy effect by devising more comprehensive cuts. Of course, there was a similar pro-con debate on tax cuts three years ago. At that time, even the then president and his budget minister joined in the debate, siding with opponents to lowering taxes. But the debate ended fruitlessly because of the government's nervous response to the issue.

All advanced countries' efforts toward economic revival since the 1980s have been based on "streamlining of government functions and restoration of market's role." A low tax regime is regarded as an important means of economic revival. In line with such a global trend, tax reductions should be reconsidered in Korea.

For that purpose, I want to point to several misunderstandings about tax cuts. First of all, the argument that tax cuts are not necessary because Korea's tax burden ratio is not higher than those in advanced countries is erroneous. From the standpoint of the taxpayers, the lower tax burden, the better. Moreover, Korea should lower its tax burden ratio if it is providing far fewer government services compared to advanced countries.

At this point, few Koreans seem to believe that they are being sufficiently served by the government in return for their tax payments.

The tragedy of the previous Roh Moo-hyun government began with its argument that the nation would have to pay more taxes to receive more government services. Second, the contention that tax reduction would worsen state fiscal deficit is not right, either. That's because the fiscal deficit problem can be resolved by cuts in state expenditures and privatisation of public corporations. But tax cuts would be rendered impossible, if a high-ranking government official strongly insists there is no such room as was the case with the Roh administration.

Don't we really have room to slash expenditures? Evidence of wasted taxpayer money is everywhere, as seen in the perennial year-end replacement of sidewalk bricks nationwide as well as the controversial infrastructure projects, such as the artificial coastal lake Sihwa and the massive Saemangeum reclamation. Considering the realities of widespread inefficiency and budget misappropriations, the expenditure cut is merely a matter of the government's will.

Lastly, at issue is an argument that tax cuts are advantageous to the high-income class and adversely affects income distribution. The issue should not be viewed from an excessively class-oriented perspective. Besides, the middle class leads consumption and savings. Brisk economic activity by the middle class will help revitalise the economy and thereby help lift up those in the low-income bracket.

That is a very natural way to fight poverty. If such principles are ignored, it is difficult to expect any policy measures to produce visible results. The Roh administration already proved that. Accordingly, the Lee government needs to rearm itself with the theory of market economy. In this sense, the new government's push for government downsizing and deregulation appears to be in the right direction.

-Korea Economic Daily

On different planets

Uri Avnery

I SPENT the whole day flipping between the Israeli channels and Aljazeera. It was an eerie experience: in a fraction of a second I could switch between two worlds, but all the channels reported on exactly the same occasion. In one section of the breaking news, the events happened at a distance of a few dozen meters from each other, but they could just as well have happened on two different planets.

Never before have I experienced the tragic conflict in such a stunning immediacy as last Wednesday, the day of the prisoner swap between the State of Israel and the Hezbollah organisation. The man who stood at the centre of the event personifies the abyss that separates the two worlds, the Israeli and the Arab: Samir al-Kuntar.

All Israeli media call him "Murderer Kuntar", as if that were his first name. For the Arab media, he is "Hero Samir al-Kuntar".

Twenty-nine years ago, before Hezbollah had become a significant factor, he landed with his comrades on the beach of Nahariya and carried out an attack that has imprinted itself on the Israeli national memory with its cruelty. In the course of it, a four year-old girl was murdered, and a mother accidentally suffocated her small child while trying to keep it from giving away their hiding place. Kuntar was then 16 years old - not a Palestinian, nor a Shia, but a Lebanese Druze and a communist. The action was set in motion by a small Palestinian fraction.

Years ago I had an argument with my friend Issam al-Sartawi about a similar incident. Sartawi was a Palestinian hero, a pioneer of peace with Israel, who was later assassinated because of his contacts with Israelis. In 1978 a group of Palestinian fighters ("terrorists" in Israeli parlance) landed on the shore south of Haifa in order to capture Israelis for a prisoner swap. On the beach they came across a photographer who was innocently strolling around and killed her. After that they intercepted a bus full of passengers, and in the end all of them were killed.

I knew the photographer. She was a gentle young woman, a good soul, who liked taking pictures of flowers in nature. I remonstrated with Sartawi about this despicable act. He told me: "You don't understand. These are youngsters, almost kids, untrained and inexperienced, who are operating behind the lines of a dreaded enemy. They are scared to death. They cannot act with cool logic."

Last Wednesday, the difference between the two worlds was apparent in its most extreme form. In the morning, the "Murderer Kuntar" woke up in an Israeli prison, in the evening the "Hero al-Kuntar" stood in front of a hundred thousand cheering Lebanese from all communities and parties. It took him but a few minutes to cross from Israeli territory to the tiny UN enclave at Ras-al-Naqura and from there to Lebanese territory, from the realm of Israeli TV to the realm of Lebanese TV - and the distance was greater than that transversed by Neil Armstrong on the way to the moon.

By talking endlessly about the "Bloodstained Murderer" who will never be freed, whatever happens, Israel has turned him from just another prisoner into a pan-Arab hero.

Nowadays it is already a banality to say that one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. This week, a slight movement of the finger on the TV remote control was enough to experience this first-hand. Emotions ran high on both sides.

The Israeli public was immersed in a sea of sorrow and mourning for the two soldiers, whose death was confirmed only minutes before the return of their bodies. For hours on end, all the Israeli channels devoted their broadcasts to the feelings of the two families, who the media had spent the last two years transforming into national symbols (as well as rating-boosting instruments). No need to mention that not a single voice in Israel said even one word about the 190 families, the bodies of whose sons were returned to Lebanon on the same day.

In this whirlpool of self-pity and mourning ceremonies, the Israeli public had no energy and interest left for trying to understand what was happening on the other side. On the contrary: the reception accorded to the Murderer and the victory speech of the Mastermind of Murder only added fuel to the flames of fury, hatred and humiliation. But it would have been really worthwhile for Israelis to follow the happenings there, because they will have a lot of impact on our situation.

It was, of course, Hassan Nasrallah's big day. In the eyes of tens of millions of Arabs, he has won a huge victory. A small organisation in a small country has brought Israel, the regional power, to its knees.

Nasrallah promised to bring Kuntar back. For that purpose he captured the two soldiers. After two years and one war, the newly freed prisoner stood on the tarmac in Beirut, dressed in a Hezbollah uniform, and Nasrallah himself, endangering his personal safety, came out and embraced him in front of the TV cameras, as a cheering crowd went wild with enthusiasm. Faced with this demonstration of personal courage and self-confidence, its dramatic flair so characteristic of the man, the Israeli army reacted with the inane statement: "We would not advise Nasrallah to leave his bunker!"

Aljazeera brought all this live, hour after hour, to millions of homes from Morocco to Iraq and the Muslim world beyond. It was impossible for Arab viewers not to be swept along on the waves of emotion. For a young person in Riyadh, Cairo, Amman or Baghdad, there was only one possible reaction: Here is the man! Here is the man who is restoring Arab honour after decades of defeats and humiliation! And when Nasrallah announced that "As from this moment, the era of Arab defeats has come to an end!" he captured the spirit of the day.

I suspect that there were also quite a number of Israelis who made unflattering comparisons between this man and our own cabinet ministers, the champions of empty, boastful verbiage. Compared to them, Nasrallah looks responsible, credible, logical and determined, without spin and hollow words. On the eve of the huge rally, he addressed the public and forbade firing into the air, as is common in Arab celebrations. "Anyone who shoots, shoots at my breast, my head, my robe!" he declared. Not a single shot was fired.

(Uri Avnery is an Israeli peace activist. He served three terms in the Israeli parliament (Knesset), and is the founder of Gush Shalom. Palestine Chronicle. com.)