The New Nation - Internet Edition

Skilled manpower shortage

THE RMG sector reportedly cannot utilise 25 percent of its production capacity due to lack of skilled workers and mid-level management personnel. It is known from factory owners that many workers have left for China, UAE and Vietnam against promises of higher wages. This shortage of skilled workers has led to decrease in production. If this situation continues, Bangladesh might lose market share of the RMG business. A number of factors have led to the situation. The pay structure for the RMG workers is disproportionate to the high prices of essentials. Delayed payment of wage and arbitrary deduction of payment against overtime by a section of factory owners have made life difficult for the workers.

RMG sector is now the second highest foreign exchange earner accounting for nearly 75 percent of the country's annual export and provides employment opportunities for more than 25 lakh workers. Bangladesh earned US$14.11 billion in the last fiscal year from export of readymade garment. A target of earning US$25 billion by 2030 has been set by the garment manufacturers and exporters. Any damage to this vital sector will serve a mortal blow to the national economy.

Employment of garment workers and employees and payment of salary and benefits should be systematised to ensure job security. Employers must not shut their eyes to the grievances of the workers. Their problems should be addressed in right earnest. Investment does not mean expenditure merely on buildings and machines. It should also cover, most importantly, welfare of the workers. Along with training of workers at the BGMEA fashion and technology institute, short training courses may be organised to impart skills training to workers with a view to raising the required number of skilled workers to on an urgent basis to meet the shortfall that the industry now faces.

Bail out potato farmers

THE production of potato has increased over the years. Farmers are producing potato for augmenting income. They use quality seeds and fertiliser for cultivating potato in the autumn season. They produced around ninety lakh tons of potato in the current season. As reported around five lakh tons of potato remain unsold and the farmers are bearing the burden thereof.

The production cost of potato is estimated at around fifteen Taka per kilogram. The farmers naturally would want to sell their potato at a price that meets the cost of production and yields some profit. But the reported price at the farmers' level remains low and many farmers have failed to sell their potatoes. They have stored their potato in godowns. It is important to note that cold storages set up by private entrepreneurs at different locations are used by businessmen at fixed rates of charges, which seem to be unfavourable to farmers. Safe storage of tomatoes and other perishable farm products is thus not possible for them to avail. The official agencies should take supportive measures for ensuring the sale of farm products, at home and abroad. The sooner such measures are taken the better may be the outcome for the farmers and the people at large.

It is to be noted that the consumption of potato may increase. If the supply and use of potato is increased at large kitchens like those of the armed forces, the police, dormitories of academic institutions, the ultimate sale of potatoes and tomatoes and other perishable farm products may be augmented. The government may take a bailout plan for those farmers who cannot sell their potatoes by helping market those at competitive prices. The plan may comprise collection of the stockpiled potatoes from farmers for push sale.

When media distorts facts

Nava Thakuria

Northeast India has been exposed to indigenous insurgency since long back, but the recent Agartala explosions might be an indication that the region is slowly slipping into the grip of international terrorists. The series of explosions that rocked the Tripura capital on October 1 spread fear psychosis among the people of Northeast, but at the same time the incident ignited them to get united against terrorism. However the citizens remained unhappy at the way the media covered the act of terrorism with distorted facts.

Though the local media did justice while covering the incident, where there was no casualty, the international news agency tried to exploit the situation to manufacture sexy news. In fact, the agencies like AP, Bloomberg, Reuters, AFP, AHN, UPI, IANS and ANI grabbed the opportunity to put the news in such a way that the readers (audience) around the world get convinced that the series of blasts in Agartala killed at least 2 persons. And that way they only helped the terrorists to get the extra dividend out of a condemned act.

The Associated Press (dateline Gauhati, October 1, 2008) reported that 'a series of blasts exploded in crowded markets in India's remote northeast on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring at least 100'. The reporter quoted senior police official Shreyesh to narrate that 20 more victims were in critical condition.

The All Headline News (dateline Agartala, October 1) described that 'four bombs exploded at a bus stand, two marketplaces and a residential area in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura Wednesday killing four people and wounding 100 others'. The report did not have any quotes regarding the casualties except some narration of the incident.

The United Press International also reported in similar words. A news item with Agartala date line on October 1, described, "Four explosions in Agartala, India, Wednesday night left four people dead and 76 more injured, hospital sources said".

Quoting The Times of India, it also added, "The state police confirmed just one death but said the toll likely would rise."

The Bloomberg (with the bye line of Michael Heath), reported on next day that 'Indian police and forensic specialists are investigating five bomb blasts in the northeastern state of Tripura that killed at least two people and injured 100 when they ripped through a bus depot and crowded markets'. The Reuters correspondent in Guwahati, quoted the Tripura police spokesperson Nepal Das on October 1 to describe that 'at least two people were killed and about 100 wounded when four bombs exploded' at Agartala. The Agence France-Presse too quoted Mr Das to narrate the news (date line Guwahati, October 1). Claiming that the police spokesman responded through telephone from the town of incidence, the AFP reporter described that 'at least one person was killed and 100 more wounded Wednesday when five bombs ripped through busy markets and a bus station in a northeast Indian town'.

Amazingly, the same police officer (Mr Das) was seen during a news slot of a satellite television channel on October 2, where he declared that the police did not have any information regarding the casualties.

The Indo Asian News Service (October 1) also reported that 'at least two people were killed and about 100 injured when four powerful bombs ----, the police said'. It also quoted the police spokesman Mr Das in a different paragraph to narrate that the first bomb went off at the popular Maharajganj Bazar (Gol Bazar) at about 7 p.m., followed by three near-simultaneous blasts, one at the G.B. Market, one at the Radhanagar public bus stand and the last in Krishnanagar locality.

The same agency (IANS) reported again on October 3 from Agartala, where it maintained silence on the causalities. The news said, "Life returned to normal in this capital city of Tripura less than 48 hours after serial blasts left about 100 injured, and the state government announced a cash reward for anyone providing clues about those responsible for the blasts."

Similarly the Asian News International reported (date line Agartala, October 2) that 'terror struck Agartala ----within 30 minutes in crowded market places and a bus stand'.

Two persons were confirmed dead and about 76 injured in the five blasts of which at least two of the blasts were powerful. The injured were taken to the nearby hospital. According to sources in the hospital some of the injured are in critical condition, it added.

The Indian news agency Press Trust of India also did the same mistake. A report by PTI (date line Agartala, October 2) continued to present the facts as usual while saying 'a day after five back-to-back low intensity blasts rocked this city killing at least two people and wounding 100 others, authorities beefed up security throughout Tripura and sealed the 856 km-long India-Bangladesh border'. The Bangladesh based Muslim fundamentalists were being suspected to be involved in the incident.

Some Indian metro dailies, published from Kolkata and New Delhi also reported deaths (one to five) in Agartala blasts. The website of CNN-IBN highlighted that 'there were five blasts on Wednesday evening (in Agartala) killing two people and injuring 70 others'. Shamefully the Doordarshan, India's national news channel, also parroted the same version of news for the whole day of October 2.

The news readers read it for many times and the information was also flashed and scrolled continuously in DD News. However, the local newspapers of Tripura were restrained while reporting the incident. They did not report about any casualty. Daily Desher Katha, a prominent Bengali daily from Agartala reported only about the injured persons. Speaking to this writer from the news desk of Daily Desher Katha, a senior journalist clarified that the reporters might got confused with other dead bodies in the same hospital, where blast victims were taken for treatment.

Meanwhile, The Director General of Police Pranany Sahay confirmed next day that nobody was killed in Wednesday night's serial blasts in Agartala.Addressing the media persons in the capital city, Mr Sahay also informed that only 52 people got noticeable injuries in the incident. The State chief minister Manik Sarkar also came out with the statement that the Wednesday blasts did not have any casualty. He also announced that the government would take the responsibility for the treatment of the victims.

Now the question that arises is whether the responsible agency reporters should make such news out of a tragic incident with distorted reports? Was not it enough for them, where a series of explosions hit a State capital, to prepare a news item for the international readers? Then was it necessary to add some deaths to their news (as colour and flavour), even if it was factually wrong?

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Guwahati, Assam, India.)

We are playing enemy's game

Asif Haroon Raja

Qaroon had immense wealth, Pharaoh had enormous power and Hamman had phenomenal brain power. Today the three strings of wealth, power and media are in the hands of the Jews. India too has brains and power and is accumulating wealth at a fast pace. America has immense military power and wealth but its leadership is thick headed because of which it has to depend upon the brain power of others. This handicap has been exploited to the maximum by the American Jews, the biggest minority in America. Today they control the economy, media and political power of USA. They also hold sway over the State Department, Congress and the Pentagon and Mossad is closely aligned with CIA. All the leading banks, financial institutions and business corporations are in their control. No American candidate or even the president can win elections without the support of Jews. This weakness has made American policy makers entirely dependent upon the Jews to manage its affairs.

Jewish clout over the power centres in America can be seen from the fact that America has become the most reviled nation in the world because of oppressive and depraved policies of Israel against the Palestinians, its Arab neighbours and the Muslim world as a whole. Despite its villainous conduct Israel is the blue-eyed of USA and is recipient of largest US military and economic assistance. All its crimes are not only overlooked by USA claiming to be the champion of democracy and human rights but it take pains to cover its misdeeds without any compunction. It is essentially because of Israel that US leadership has to follow double standards and in the process earn the disrespect of the world. India has also become the strategic partner of USA and with its attractive economic market and second largest community residing in USA it is in a position to influence US leadership.

Suffering from deep-seated animus against the Muslims, the Jewish and Hindu lobbies have been constantly poisoning the ears of American leaders after the fall of Soviet Union that Islamic fundamentalism posed a real danger to the west which if not bridled would change the world order based on Islam. Since USA and its western allies and Japan were entirely dependent on oil in Muslim countries, these apprehensions were listened to but never taken seriously. It is widely believed that the Jews were the masterminds behind the gory drama of 9/11 to provoke American leadership and the public and generate undying hatred and revenge against the Muslims.

Once the neo-cons led by Bush came into power in January 2001 who had shared Jewish concerns, Islam became the common enemy of USA, Israel and India and acquisition of oil and wealth of Muslim world their common objective. It was decided to enact a drama so as to convince the people of America and the western world that unless terrorism within the Muslim world was not destroyed, the world may become insecure. A band of fanatic Muslims having grievances against the Americans because of unsolved Palestinian problem were taken on board by the Jews to carryout terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The neo-cons led by Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and some others were part of the grisly plan. The countries put on the hit list were Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Pakistan. When the Taliban rulers did not agree to the terms of oil pipeline project connecting Central Asian States with Afghanistan and down south, Afghanistan was also included in the list. 9/11 provided a ready made excuse to operationalise the new strategy of pre-emption and regime change through shock and awe and terrorism became the buzzword. All freedom movements waged by the Muslims were put in the category of terrorism. From among the axis of evil, Afghanistan and Iraq have been decimated and now the eyes are focussed on Pakistan and Iran.

Similar to the three strings of wealth, power and media, the cobweb spun by the spider too has three strings on which the whole structure stands. The prey that gets netted into apparently silky and harmless looking web is not eaten up by the spider straightaway particularly if it is aggressive and is struggling hard to free itself from the web. The spider first sucks the blood of the insect to sap its strength and after it loses strength to struggle and almost becomes lifeless, it becomes easy for the spider to enjoy its dinner.

Following the principle of a spider, the Indo-US-Israeli nexus worked out a sinister plan to initially break the Pak-Afghan friendship by taking the ruler of Pakistan on board and swallowing Afghanistan with Pakistan's help. Having detached nuclear Pakistan it was then to be gradually weakened from within to sap its resilience and warrior spirit by applying varying techniques. The first major breakthrough was achieved on the night of 14 September 2001 when Gen Musharraf submitted to American diktat and willingly agreed to do as told to do. The Mossad teamed up with CIA, RAW and MI-6 in Kabul and the four having conceptualised the plan and constructed the web in which Musharraf had already fallen went about enfeebling Pakistan in a graduated manner. The strengths of Pakistan had to be weakened and its weaknesses accentuated and vulnerabilities exploited. To start with, the first hammer was delivered on the time-tested administrative structure which had the ability to run the country even when there was no political machinery working in the country. The half-baked local bodies system ran into snags at the very outset and has no capability to take off. The constitution was bruised and the legislature turned into a dummy. The PM imported from USA pursued credit driven economy instead of investment driven economy. As a consequence whatever economic progress that was achieved was a mirage since no effort had been made to strengthen economic foundations.

In rural Baluchistan where the army had to be employed to control foreign sponsored insurgency led by Bugtis and Marris, the US, EU and India made loud protests. Human rights activists at the behest of foreign powers made lot of noise that human rights were being trampled and exerted pressure on the government to withdraw the army. Conversely, peaceful FATA was deliberately made explosive by pushing Musharraf to induct the army and fight the tribals. He was constantly prodded to send more forces to suck the blood of the militants and no complaint was ever made by any that human rights were being violated. The purpose was to create conditions wherein the trunk of the army got weakened and defamed. Any effort made towards restoring peace was quickly disrupted through its agents and drones controlled by CIA and Mossad to keep the fire of militancy burning. In the process the two extreme flanks of the country were inflamed. Instead of fighting the real enemy the army fought own Islamists dubbed as extremists and terrorists and the two spilled each others blood.

Having got the army irretrievably stuck in the quagmire of FATA, the US first accused it of not doing enough and kept prodding it to do more but never got satisfied. Having played this theme for sometime, another theme was played that the army was aligned with the Taliban and playing a double game. The army was then mocked at alleging that either it was purposely not putting down militancy in FATA, or was incompetent and lacked the capacity to defeat the extremists.

The ISI too was blamed of double game and assisting the Taliban. In our enthusiasm to please USA, the army kept expanding its radius of operation and as a sequel to it militancy kept spreading. Great majority in Pakistan strongly felt that by fighting US proxy war on terror its effects had spilled into Pakistan and Pakistan was paying a horrendous price for the flawed policy. They wanted detachment of Pakistan from this senseless war that had taken a heavy toll on both sides. Musharraf however adamantly maintained that extremism was the chief threat to the integrity of Pakistan and it must be fought relentlessly.

Both India and USA jointly exerted pressure on Musharraf and made him agree to incapacitate all Jihadi organisations involved in Kashmir Jihad and to make Kashmir issue redundant. In order to please his mentors, Musharraf came out with a skewed concept of enlightened moderation which delighted the west. With the opening up the society to Indian and western culture, the youth got distracted towards the life of comfort and pleasure. Ideological motivation, concept of Jihad and warrior spirit was gradually debilitated. Whatever reservoir of morality we had was washed away with the issuance of NRO. The society as whole fell into a state of inertia. Musharraf had been so thoroughly entangled in the web that even if he wanted to he could not have freed himself or Pakistan from it. During his eight years of rule, Musharraf never sought national consensus on any critical issue whether it was amendment in constitution, his issue of uniform and holding of two offices, employment of army in Baluchistan and then in FATA, judges issue or when he issued the most controversial NRO or declared emergency.

For reasons best known to him, he half-heartedly tried to obtain national reconciliation on Kalabagh Dam but failed and promptly pushed the matter in cold storage. This dichotomy of responses was unexplainable and was not received well. If he had taken a unilateral decision on Kalabagh issue the great majority would have hailed his decision and remembered him for times to come. Failing to initiate work on Kalabagh Dam considered vital for Pakistan's survival, he allowed India to build Baglihar and Kishanganga dams to choke Pakistan. Today India is in a position to stop flow of Chenab River whenever it wants and has already done so to further sap our dwindling economy. Today the country is faced with unprecedented power crisis.

While Musharraf was pulled into the web two years after his takeover, Zardari was ensnared much before he took the reins of power in his hands. He therefore neither has the energy or the capacity to resist efforts of our adversaries to capitulate Pakistan. Instead of resisting he is enthusiastically playing the game of the enemy.

Qaroon, Pharaoh and Hamman all perished and so were the case with all the great nations and civilizations bragging about their riches, supremacy and cleverness. The rise and fall of mighty individuals and civilizations bring home a lesson that all are mortal and only Almighty Allah is immortal, infallible and omnipotent. In the recently concluded annual congregation of Tableeghi Jamaat attended by Muslims from all over the world, the revered Maulanas gave an apt and purposeful advice to the participants.

They reminded them that Allah Almighty is the only provider and fender of the human beings and no harm or favor could come their way unless desired and ordered by Allah.. Therefore, the creations should fix their hopes to Allah instead of other perishable creations. It is He who would solve all their worldly problems of greed, hatred, intolerance, discontentment from their lives and instead fill them with love, patience and satisfaction.

Learning no lesson from Quran or history, our rulers instead of seeking forgiveness for their countless sins and seeking blessings of Allah, they are bending over backwards to seek blessings and guidance of fallible USA. Instead of making the people of Pakistan happy who elected them and bestowed them with all honors they are trying to mollify and make happy their mentors in Washington. Rather than endearing to win the respect of the people Zardari is craving to earn the approbation of foreign masters and become their blue-eyed boy as in the case of Musharraf. USA has found the ideal man to serve their interests. May God help Pakistan!