Thank You For The Bakshish!

Road, tree and footpath are torn asunder,
Greed for public money is behind the development blunder.
Bidi smokers pay the bill for public work,
Poor ranking does not even cause reaction knee-jerk.

1.
2014. I was cosharing a CNG taxi (three wheeler) on my way to Mirpur-10. The taxi had to go through the restricted garrison area in the middle of Dhaka. I started the journey from a place called Sainik Club, near Banani-11. The road stretching from Kachukhet to Mirpur-10 was in a sorry state. At first glance,one might think someone had ploughed the road with a power tiller. The road was so bad that in that short spell of journey we were literally lobbed into the air and instantly landed on our seat. Usually, such short journey is never meant to start a conversation with a fellow passenger,a stranger. The stranger could not help spitting his venom: " You know this road is supposed to be fixed long ago. Every year they sanctioned money.These SOBs swindled the money submitting false papers. It happened six times! S-i-x times! Can you believe it?They just do nothing. This road is right in the heart of Dhaka. Can you believe it?" He lamented throughout the journey while we were inhaling fair amount of cream colored dust jumping up and down inside the CNG.

Later the road was fixed. And I traveled along the road couple of times. In recent years, the road had gone through several surgeries of government's development work. It healed. But paid a price. It lost its earlier charm: Devdaroos and other garden trees were cut to make room for development work.

Once a question about the poor condition of the roads was thrown at a responsible ruling party leader who now holds the portfolio of road and transport. His answer was remarkable. "Well you know our people have short memories. They quickly forget everything. These repairing works are shelved for election years. When they travel along the newly fixed road in that election year they will tell themselves how bad the road was! People remember good thing only for a while!"

2.
Transparency International once again degraded Bangladesh in its corruption perception index. For the year 2020, from least corrupt to most corrupt countries,Bangladesh is placed 146. Among the most corrupt countries, Bangladesh is ranked 12th. Previous year, Bangladesh was the 14th most corrupt country.

Some snapshots could aptly describe the deterioration of corruption situation in Bangladesh.

In the last financial year, government relaxed the rules for legalizing the black money. Nearly Tk 100 billion undocumented money were deposited in the banks. Couple of times more money maybe lying in the coffers of owners of clandestine wealth.

Social safety net programs designed to help the vulnerable section of the society have also fallen victim of corruption. According to a news report, 46% of the safety net benefits have gone to the wrong hands. Who does not comply for such programs is taking full advantage of it due to lack of transparency.

Even the Transparency International in one of its local study has found that more than 50% of the climate change fund allocated for some government projects are stolen. Target groups do not get any benefit from such allocation.

Appeal of such fund even invited thugs to misuse the fund. According to a news report, a thug swindled millions of Taka out of Kushtia villagers. He deceived them lending him the money in a bid to spend part of the "thousands of crore taka" his hoax NGO received from abroad.

But nothing matches the magnitude of irregularities in infrastructure projects.Swollen figure of Padma Bridge construction cost has become a matter of the past. Similar trend is being observed in other development projects.A news report revealed that Khulna-Mongla rail link project now costs Tk 47.98 billion. Ten years ago when it was conceived the initial project cost was Tk 17.2 billion. Chittagong-Gundum rail link project, costs Tk 180.43 billion, was delayed on several occasions. It was kicked off back in 2010. Significant delay ended up raising the costs manifold.

Corruption also crippled the financial sector. Central Bank, the very regulatory body to check the operations of financial institutions has not yet settled the issue of the pirated forex money. Some miscreants stole thousands of crore taka from leasing companies. Public banks and specialized banks are still reeling from scams.

COVID -19 laid bare the ongoing corruption in the health sector. A hoax screening program was run by a group of thugs. Inflated equipment costs and lack of transparency filled the pockets of non-technical staffs. This week a news report revealed how overpriced goods were purchased for Faridpur Medical College bypassing the public procurement regulations , resulting in corruption of Tk 100 million. Earlier similar corruption allegations in procurement had surfaced for Borishal Medical college and Suhrawardy Medical College. Police even detained political leaders for supplying overpriced and faulty N95 masks to PG Hospital.

The list is endless. Hardly any sector left where corruption has not unleashed its tentacles.

3.
The road I talked about earlier still goes through occasional digging and fixing in the winter. A new phenomenon is added : pedestrian's walkway also gets a new look every year. June and July mark the end and start of fiscal year in Bangladesh. So the last two quarters witness an unusual surge in spending the public fund allocated in the budget. As there is little transparency in spending the money, this kind of wasting and useless development work continues unabated just to make some vested quarter rich. Walkways in good condition,which could easily last for 4/5 years, pointlessly fall under the spade and excavator of money-thirsty contractors. It is indeed a mockery with the money of bidi ( cigarette for workers)smokers and laundry soap users who seldom use the walkways.

4.
Digitization is increasingly seen as a mean to inhibit corruption in public office. A joke popped up. Near future Bangladesh. A gentleman wants to avail the service of a public office. Like everyone else he maintains a prepaid account with the service provider.To his dismay, he notices that he has been charged Tk 100 more than the bill of the service.Flashing message on the smartphone screen reads: " Your bill is Tk X. Thank you for the bakshish of Tk 100. Have a nice day!"

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(15 janvier --- 22 janvier)

Selon un reportage, société bangladaise Beximco a racheté l'opération bangladaise de Sanofi en payant £35,5 million.

Selon un reportage, de plus en plus de Bangladais ont téléchargé l'appli turque BIP après WhatsApp avait montré incompétence de garder l'info privée.

Selon un reportage, Bangladesh a décidé de l'importer blé depuis Ukraine après la Russie avait imposé droit.

Selon un reportage, police a appréhendé un salarié du bureau de l'anti narco pour avoir saisi bijoux depuis un joaillier. Il était aussi un ancien dirigeant de la filiale du parti en exercice.

Woe In The Kitchen Market

Cooking oil price causes trouble manifold.
Raising snack price and squeezing the household.
Old style steaming-baking could offer answer,
Saving currency earned by sweat-shop worker.

1.
Nothing matches the joy of breaking a smoking hot singara into two and taking a little bite from one half after adding tamarind/tomato sauce on it.

The winter afternoon offers delightful sight of deep fried snacks on roadside. No matter where you live, if you take a stroll along the local allay you will notice roadside eateries and mobile snack sellers showcase multitude of snacks like singara, puri , samosa fried in palm oil. These items are on the menu throughout the year. People from all walks of life relish them.

When it comes to pay the price for the golden-brown desi snacks, they cost a bit more than what they cost few years ago. Wheat, cooking oil cost a lot nowadays. Despite the falling income of household , prices for the snacks show no sign to come down to their previous level.

2.
Prices of key kitchen commodities remain higher than their regular level. Coarse rice is still being sold at between Tk 45 and Tk 48 per kilo. Onion price drops as harvested onion reaches wholesale market. No change in prices of other essential commodities that matter a lot to middle and lower income groups.

It is the cooking oil price that is causing the most trouble.According to a news report, bottled soybean oil costs Tk 134 per liter. Meanwhile, a 5-liter bottle costs Tk 655. Soaring price is attributed to China's aggressive import from Argentina, world's largest soybean oil producer.

Apart from soybean oil we also import palm oil. Rising price of soybean oil will also influence the price of palm oil, which is increasingly being used to cook the delicious roadside snacks.

In the good old British colonial days, our cooking oil industry was self reliant. Veteran journalist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury recounted the glory days of Mustard oil in his memoir.Mustard oil, ghee(purified butter) were mostly used in cooking. Mustard was produced in abundance across the subcontinent and rural household possessed cows, goats, water buffaloes. So milk based products like ghee were available for mass consumption. Pakistani period put an end to the mustard oil and ghee industry as ghani(the place where mustard oil was processed) owners and milkmaid (mostly Hindu ) left the country. In addition, cheap dalda(cooking oil made up from animal fat) from Pakistan flooded the market. As the Bengali household took up the habit of cooking in dalda oil, dalda gradually curved out a market in East Pakistan. And the empty bottles of mustard oil and ghee gradually disappeared in the back of the racks of meat shelf.

After independence, dalda dominated the market and soybean oil gradually made entry into kitchen market. Early ninety witnessed the boom of palm oil. Now dalda lost its place to palm oil.

Now our cooking oil need is mostly met by imported oil. According to a news report, domestic cooking oil demand is around 1.5 million tons. Our oilseed (mustard, sunflower, peanut, soya)production is still low. It is gradually increasing however. In 2014-15, we produced 901,000 metric tons of oilseeds. In 2017-18, oilseed production reached 1026,000 metric tons(Source: Bangladesh Economic Review 2019). There is always a demand supply gap. In 2014-2015, we imported $924 million worth of cooking oil. In 2017-18, the amount rose to $1863 million (source: BER 2019). Despite the unfavorable tariff structure, the stat shows how cooking oil hungry nation we have become. No wonder the cooking oil or the edible oil industry generates lucrative profit. The business groups involved in this industry expanded their businesses in other sectors.

However the industry did not manage to get rid of reliance on import. Oilseed cultivation land has increased over the years. But land scarcity and weather conditions make widespread cultivation of oilseeds untenable.

Meanwhile government can look forward to other countries where soybean, mustard and palm cultivation atmosphere prevail. Bangladesh could easily cut some sort of agreement with Myanmar, USA or other countries where commercial cultivation of soya and palm would be possible at an affordable cost. Semi processed or the whole produce could then be imported into the country and processed for domestic consumption. At least this kind of initiative will widen our sources of import and curb the dependence on one single source.

At the same time, it is not pragmatic to keep just few operators in the industry by imposing some protective duties. Government should abolish all kinds of entry barriers in a bid to allow new investment and initiative in this industry. Too many operators increase the possibility of better products at affordable price while nurturing a competitive atmosphere, which the oligopolistic industry badly needs right now for the sake of consumers. Similarly, government should welcome any foreign investment in this industry.

3.
Another traditional snack is also garnering lot of attention in this winter. It is the steam-cooked rice cake. "Bhapa pitha" (steamed cake),as it is popularly known in this part of the world, is available in two varieties:sweet--- molasses and coconut stuffed pitha---and non-sweet---no stuffed thing. Not a drop of oil is added in cooking this pitha. Traditional Bengali cuisine has many dishes where no oil is used. It means we have habits of eating oil free food. In many societies in the world where firewood is scarce, steaming and baking are pretty common practice in preparation of food. I am amazed watching how they cook food employing ingenious means to amplify heat. I find it hilarious that we ended up paying $1.8 billion in 2017-18 to import cooking oil. The figure does not include import of oilseeds. If it were included, then import of cooking oil related products would reach more than $2 billion. This currency was earned by our workers who took up jobs refused by others in foreign countries and spending gruelling hours at sweat-shop factories at home. We could save this money by switching and reviving back that heat-and- oil-saving part of our cooking tradition. Choice is ours.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(8 janvier ---15 janvier)

Selon un reportage, une cour américaine a condamné un Bangladais à 46 mois de prison pour avoir aidé trafiquants de l'homme. Il habite au Mexique et a aidé beaucoup de bangladais à entrer aux États-Unis clandestinement en franchissant le fleuve Rio Grande.

Selon un reportage, une cour anglaise a condamné un Bangladais à six ans de prison pour avoir violé une femme en Angleterre.

Selon un reportage, transaction bancaire à Cox's Bazar, la ville frontière à la proximité de la Birmanie, est parvenu Tk 750 milliards chaque mois.

Selon un reportage, le coronavirus a péri plus de 250 Bangladais dans un an en Angleterre. La deuxième vague a provoqué mort de 20 Bangladais chaque semaine en Angleterre.

Selon un reportage, police a appréhendé un ancien dirigeant de la filiale du parti en exercice pour avoir volé 49 ordinateurs depuis une université à Gopalganj.

Selon un reportage, organisation des droits de l'homme HRW dans un rapport a remarqué que surveillance de presse, arrêt de critique et suppression de voix opposante ont doublé au Bangladesh pendant confinement.

Incendie a causé assez dégât dans la semaine passée. Selon un reportage, incendie a détruit 500 maisons de Rohingya à Nayapara camp , Cox's Bazar. Selon un reportage, une explosion de bouteille de gaz a ravagé 60 maisons à Gazipur et tué 4 personnes . Selon un reportage, incendie mystérieuse à l'intérieur d'un bus a tué un conducteur pendant qu'il dormait.

Winter Is Coming!

Showroom, school fill empty factory space,
Vans with sold-out machine rob smile from owner's face.
Vibrant street market becomes thinner.
Winter money making comes under scanner.

1.
The pockets of textile/garments zone of Dhaka have become quiet. I am a frequent visitor to one such pocket. I see rickshaw vans flank the key road of that textile zone. Vegetable vendors, fruit sellers, utensil sellers, snack vendor, mobile beautybox sellers shout cheap prices for their articles at the rushing column of garment workers going home in a hurry to prepare the meal before they go to bed.

Nowadays that column becomes thinner, so does the number of shouting vendor.But this time around the winter, factories are packed with workers to make sure owners deliver the goods in time to super stores and brands in western hemisphere.And the street I am talking about is abuzz with people giving an aura of village fair. That is gone. A subdued activity occupies the street instead. Something bad is happening.The virus attack is unleashing its ugly face on Bangladesh's hard earned currency.

Across the street, arrays of grocery shops also catch the sombre mood. Months after months, shop owners lent workers rice, lentils and other essentials, hoping in good time they would be able to clear the dues.But the good time is still at the far end of the tunnel. Many lost jobs. Many found it difficult to pay the rent of the room they coshared with others. Landlord's patience worn thin.Some vacated house and left for the village or the mofussil district. Vibrant street market goes quiet, it will be quieter in the weeks down the line.

2.
More than a week ago, president of Bangladesh garments exporters' platform, BGMEA, wrote a letter to the government seeking moratorium on credit repayment. In the wake of COVID-19 crisis, government unveiled a Tk 50 billion credit package, which later rose to Tk 91.88 billion,for the garments sector to pay the salaries of the workers provided that six months later exporters would start repaying the instalment.In January, rebate on repayment ends. Since end of November,second wave of COVID-19 has been sweeping across the European and North American countries. First wave already cost 18% less export in the previous fiscal year, a news report claims. Current fiscal year started with optimism.However, some of the big retailers and brands that regularly imported clothes from abroad went bankrupt. The names include Primark and Debenhams. Local staffs of Debenhams Bangladesh even held press conference demanding their dues.

Major destinations of Bangladeshi exports also portray a grim picture: there is a surge in job cut in US in December; UK has gone into lockdown; France has shut all retail stores but the ones selling essential items; Germany has declared lockdown till 31st March. Shrinking income does not translate into buying more clothes. And social security benefits are never used in buying clothes. When uncertainty grips , people save money,slash consumption. More bad news and bad times coming for Bangladeshi exporters.

3.
In the first two quarters of current fiscal year,Bangladesh has exported $19.23 billion worth of goods, according to a news report. The sum is 36% lower than what it exported in the previous year. Lockdowns during the second wave will make further dent in the earnings. Since demand for Bangladeshi apparel items depends a lot on foreign household spending , significant reduction in foreign household income and consumption inevitably augurs ill for Bangladeshi apparel items.

Government support package so far is restricted to clearing the salaries of the workers. Even it is not controversy free. Sporadic protests were staged across the industrial areas, hinting irregularities in the salary payment through mobile financial service.

When it comes to supporting the initiative of creating demand for Bangladeshi apparel goods, government did little.In one of my earlier pieces, I elaborated how to create demand for Bangladeshi goods at home and abroad.Our annual development program (ADP), PM's relief fund could easily support development projects in other friendly countries. If our development program could accommodate uniform purchase program for police, school children in foreign countries or road building projects in other countries then demand for Bangladeshi goods will be created.By increasing the reach of our ADP program, we explore new markets where Bangladeshi goods have potential to enter.

By the same token, government can finance purchase of school dress for 50 million school children in Bangladesh. Or, it can provide incentives to government employees to buy Bangladeshi shirts. This indirect incentive will keep running the factories for at least couple of months and will help easing the employment crisis.

4.
Nowadays I catch sight of vans carrying sold-out electric sewing machines on far too many occasions. Orders are drying up. Factory owners, the ones work as subcontractors, are going out of business. They are selling their equipments. Empty factory buildings in some part of Dhaka are turning into school, private clinic or showroom for home appliances.Some remain empty.

For the winter vegetable sellers on that partly-dark, partly-bright street , there are not too many workers left to shout at. Cheap vegetables remain unsold.Bad time is really contagious. The industry that sustains the economy, logistics company and financial institutions is finally showing signs of weakness. In all these years, winters mean making money. Now, winter is really coming for Bangladeshi RMG industry!

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(01 janvier --- 08 janvier)

Selon un reportage, deux viols ont bouleversé le pays. Une fille indigène a été violée et tuée à Cox's Bazar. La famille de victime s'est dite qu'elle avait été abdiquée avant de viol.Une écolière a été violée et tuée dans un appartement à Dacca. Police a appréhendé son copain.

Selon un reportage, accident dans la rue a tué 4.969 et blessé environ 5.000 personnes à travers du pays l'année dernière. Une ONG a fait le bilan.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement a donné son aval à importer 330.000 tonnes de riz dans 3 jours. Les provisions de base continuent à augmenter dans la semaine passée. Le riz a vendu Tk 45 per kilo dans le marché de denrée de base.

Selon un reportage, un fonctionnaire de ministère des Affaires étrangères a été accusé d' avoir donné VISA faux pendant qu'il travaillait dans l'ambassade de Bangladesh à Nairobi au Kenya. Beaucoup de ressortissants des pays africains ont été trouvés avec VISA faux dans l'aéroport de Dacca.

Selon un reportage, la société indonésienne de vélo-partage «gojek» a considéré son investissement de $17 millions dans la société bangladaise Pathao comme perte.

Charity To Ease Starvation

New year starts with soaring prices,
Causing household hardship and crises.
Stemming the price rise lies in preservation.
Charity may ease the problem of starvation.

The first week of new year was a bad week for Bangladeshi consumers. Key kitchen commodities registered high prices at the market. Middle class and lower middle class with shrinking income are finding it difficult to maintain family expenditures prevailed prior to COVID-19.

The queue of daily laborers is growing long in Dhaka. In my neighborhood, I met a gacchi(a person who cleans tall tree tops, fetches the fruit grown there, casts pot and collects juice of date-palm) who constantly implored my mother to hire him to clean the tree top of our coconut tree. The task might enable him to buy some rice that would sustain his family for couple of days.

Dhaka's green is receding fast. Many houses had tall trees. The sprawling apartment building boom requires optimization of space. The tall trees had to give in their space to apartment complex. Some are spared near roadside or boundary walls. The tall trees often pose risks to the residents as their proximity to the apartment building means thieves can easily break into houses closer to ground floor. Apartment buildings often hinder sunlight reaching the tall trees. So the tree and its canopy grows towards the side where there is ample of sunlight. This causes the tree having precarious shape and position. Whenever there is strong wind or storm , tree branch or sometimes the whole tree falls on pedestrians, cars or petty commerces and causes irreparable damage. Coconut tree , of course, remains as exception, like the interests of bureaucrats in any kind of turn of events , as their roots are widely spread. Only one or two coconuts and dead branches fall victim of storm. That is why we seldom read news report like a huge coconut tree got uprooted and destroyed cars in Dhaka.

The disappearing of tall trees engenders the profession of the gacchis. These village folks come all the way from remote corners and add up to the slum dwelling population of Dhaka. They are constantly in search of tall trees in Dhaka. Whenever they catch sight of one, they approach the owner for cleaning the tree in exchange for a bargained sum and part of the fruit or juice collected from the tree tops. Of course, like other professions, it has perks. The gacchi can retain dead branches, leaves and other unwanted staffs collected from the tree.

Dwindling number of tall trees and coconut trees lead them to switch to other professions. Hardship sustained by the gacchi is an indication how volatile the staple grain market is. Though winter vegetable market gives a relief (a kilo of bean is Tk 10 and a fair size cabbage is Tk 10), nothing matches to a smoking hot plate of rice when it comes to fill the stomach. At the grain market, inferior quality of coarse rice is being sold between Tk 45 and Tk 48 per kilo.

I read a news item that claimed many rice exporting countries like Viet Nam is importing rice from India causing the recent price hike in the international market.

I delved into news reports on prices of kitchen commodities and noticed that all essential items but onion show an increasing trend in prices.Cooking oil is being sold at Tk 107 per liter. Palm oil costs Tk 95 per liter.Cheapest source of protein,egg, is being sold at Tk 88 per dozen.TCB sells a kilo of lentils at Tk 50.

A typical household passes really hard times with the rise in prices of key commodities. What steals the show is the onion, which was sold at more than Tk 100 per kilo couple of weeks ago. As India lifts the ban on onion export from January 1, onion price drops at Tk 20 per kilo. According to a news report carried by a leading daily, 26000 metric tons of onion await at Chattogram port for clearance. Importers are reluctant to take delivery of their consignments as falling onion price inflicts losses on them. TCB also sustains loss as it has to import 70000 metric tons of onions from abroad.

I think Ministry of Agriculture should initiate a research program that will concentrate how to preserve agricultural goods. Most of our cold storages are engaged in storing potatoes. In addition, onions kept in cold storage got rotten quickly once they were out of storage. Could it be possible to make onion chips when it is sold cheap? Later, the onion chips/ dehydrated onions could be marketed when the price soars. At the household level, this kind of preserved or processed kitchen items may not become popular. But hotels, dormitories, seminaries, garrisons where big catering facilities are needed to feed hundreds or thousands of people, the onion chips or dehydrated onion could be used to prepare meal.

Similarly, we could dry many vegetables or agricultural commodities when they are abundant in one season and could reintroduce to consumers in another season when they are scarce. This could at least save hard earned money.

There is no denying lack of income earning opportunity pushes millions to starvation. In old days when rice was scarce, I heard many families lived on rice starch, which was thrown out once rice was cooked. It was also used to harden thin clothes. When I was a kid once I tasted it with butter , pepper and a pinch of salt. It tasted really good. But it never complements the desired calorie needed by a man. Point is one simply cannot live on rice starch.

Charitable activities are hard to find nowadays. In India and Pakistan, there are many charitable organizations who take the onus to feed the hungry people. These organizations feed hundreds of thousands people everyday. Unfortunately, such charitable organizations are conspicuously absent in Bangladesh. However, there is a campaign of feeding people in exchange of 1 taka , run by some philanthropic institutions. But its operations and reach are not as large as those in other South Asian countries.So starvation persists with daring growth of luxury. Feeding the hungry does not necessarily mean feeding biriyani/ khichuri 3 times of the day. Plain rice with a simple curry 1 time per day could at least resolve or ease the starvation problem. The super rich, corporate houses, professional bodies and individuals can step forward to finance their operations.

Starving population whose number continues to swell as pandemic's true damage becomes more visible does not get along well with the image of a middle income , doing-well economy. Since past policies of the government undermine social activities of NGOs and other voluntary organizations, responsibilities lie with the government to make sure that a great part of the have-not community do not go to bed with empty stomach.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(25 décembre --- 01 janvier)

Selon un reportage, la mesure sanitaire a grippé les établissements scolaires encore une fois. La premier ministre a fait ça assez clair que si la situation continue devenir pire le gouvernement n'a pas envie d'ouvrir les écoles. L'examen terminal d' école aura lieu à mi-juin.L'examen terminal de lycée pourra se dérouler à mi-août.

Selon un reportage, la police indienne de l'Assam a découvert un tunnel clandestin relie une forêt de l'Assam et la frontière de Bangladesh. Le tunnel, une longueur de 200 mètre, a été utilisé pour passer contrebande et gens. En enquêtant une abdication, la police indienne a découvert le tunnel.

Selon un reportage, élection municipale a eu lieu dans 24 municipalités. Le parti en exercice a remporté 18 et le parti de l'opposition a remporté 2 municipalités. Electronic Voting Machine(EVM) a été utilisé. Le parti de l'opposition a accusé le gouvernement de fraude électorale dans plusieurs municipalités. Dans quelques bureaux de vote, représentants de candidat indépendant de candidat de l'opposition ont été expulsés.