La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(23 juillet --- 30 juillet)

Selon un reportage, gouvernement a détecté 87.000 bénéficiaires faux dans le système de protection sociale. Le gouvernement a récemment installé une base de données numérique pour vérifier les bénéficiaires.

Selon un reportage, effondrement d’une montagne a tué 12 personnes dont 5 Rohigyas à Cox's Bazar. De plus, inondation a tué 5 personnes à Cox's Bazar.

Selon un reportage, 2462 personnes sont tombées victimes de dengue depuis janvier l’année actuelle. Le vendredi 170 personnes ont été ciblées par dengue.

Selon un reportage, six villes ont fait record dans la détection et de nombre de mort à cause de COVID-19. Le mercredi le nombre de détection a touché le maximum 16.000. Chaque jour Bangladesh enregistre plus de 200 morts.

Another Industrial Disaster : Decoding The Incongruities

Unwanted death of workers continues unabated,
In our society, child labor is deeply rooted.
Feudalism,hooliganism are no longer despised,
Wellbeing of workers is even compromised.

Another industrial disaster once again shook Bangladesh on the eve of Eid,killing 52 workers on the outskirts of Dhaka,Narayanganj. ¹This week initial probe report came out with the findings. I decided not to share it here as only one leading daily published it, but it could not be corroborated as other outlets have not carried out the story yet.

The juice factory in question is used to store and produce consumer products like beverages and snacks. In that cramped factory premises many women and children were working on that fateful day. Prior to that, mysterious explosion in a shopping mall in the middle of a residential cum commercial area killed 15 people in a busy part of Dhaka, including the security guard living in the basement. Official probe report blamed gas leakage from an abandoned gas connection, severed due to pending dues 5 years ago.²No independent verification is there as independent forensic investigation is not allowed. Nor is it encouraged.

Shock and puzzle displayed on the press might remind one such incident is incongruous in Bangladesh’s industrial environment. But flourishing of crony capitalism, feudal mindset ,deception and trampling over other’s legitimate rights set the context for such tragedies. It is there in subtle and less crude form ,we get puzzled and shocked only when tragedies struck. Prelude to catastrophe is pretty much written in our society.

Even a decade ago ,this feudalism and flexing of muscle is less conspicuous. But now it is so shockingly omnipresent in vernacular activities, I think little element of puzzle is there. For one of the obvious victims of such attitude is the commitment to observe standards and rules that ensure rights of workers and consumers.

The workers were about to get their due salaries and bonuses. Many took up the job as COVID rendered them jobless and school drop-out.

Two issues popped out from this latest bout of disaster: child labor and worker's safety.

Much of the shock emanates from the death of school dropouts. But child labor is shockingly present in our country. Most of the conductors of misfit buses plying over the streets of Dhaka are kids,most of the workers in brick kilns in Cumilla are children who are sold out for six months as their families do not have enough income earning opportunities in Satkhira or in Lal Monirhat. One can even find them in ironsmith's sweat shops, cigarette vendor’s kiosk, pornography selling jobs or even sex working in the brothels of Bangladesh. I even saw conducts of a highly educated family towards their child servant, writ large on her back. When a society lowers its threshold of tolerance for cruelty towards children, there is little reason to get puzzled in reading the news of death of stranded child worker in a burning factory.

Many took the occasion to blame indefinite closure of schools (500 days according to some news report) for the rising number of child worker. Indefinite closure is surely harming educational attainment of children. But naïve is the argument that it is the reason behind increasing incidence of child labor. If a family is willing to send children to work and a recruiter is more than happy to recruit them and a society turns a blind eye to child labor, why do we blame indefinite closure of schools?

Another issue resurfaced amid this disaster is the worker’s condition at workplace. The matter has gone into oblivion since the Rana Plaza disaster. In terms of ensuring safety at factory premises, significant improvement has been made riding on the commitment of international buyers and domestic exporters. However, overall wellbeing of the workers remains stagnant and in some cases even deteriorated. I heard a BBC report that divulged that many female workers enroll their children to Lillah Boarding ( accommodation plus food are free there) of Dhaka based Madrasas as many factories do not have day care facilities. So worker’s children do not climb up the social ladder due to lack of access to mainstream education.

In a country where respect for individual is diminishing and grabbing of someone else’s resources gaining acceptance, taking care of workers and their children appears to be a utopian dream. In addition, professionalism, which could be found a decade ago, sounds like a word of bygone era or a flaunting statement by those who did not practice it in the past and have no intention to do so in the present or future.

In a country where landing in any job is like getting the moon on one's hand, people seldom care about workers’ rights. Who does really care if few of them died in industrial disaster?

In this part of the world, politics is mingled with business ( owner of the juice factory is a former member of parliament) and overflowing clandestine wealth often contaminates the mainstream business. Furthermore, many get away with previous disaster and negligence to workers.

However, despite the anti-worker environment prevails in some factories, Bangladesh did not prevent the press from reporting on industrial disaster and workers' unrest unlike other countries of the region. For this reason, there has been widespread reporting on industrial disaster, which may be suppressed in other rival countries. Bangladesh’s attitude should be rewarded in this case.

No gainsaying that environment for doing business in Bangladesh has deteriorated over the years. At the one hand, business malpractices creep up; on the other hand, child labor and rent-seeking mentality are deeply woven in our society. If the issues remain unaddressed, then industrialization of Bangladesh may be plagued by such tragedies.

Notes and References:

1. “Massive Blaze At Narayanganj Factory Claims 52 Lives”,Dhaka Tribune report,July 09,2021.Link here
2. “Gas Leak Caused Mogh Bazar Blast,Probe Finds”,bdnews24 report,July 15,2021.Link here

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

 (17 juillet --- 23 juillet)

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(09 juillet --- 16 juillet)

Protect Bangladeshi Interest In South Africa

Riots in Natal ruin Bangladeshis.
Toil, money, dream are reduced in ashes.
Migrants do everything in times of need,
Standing by them is great nation's deed.

The tumultuous situation in South Africa has resulted in deployment of 25000 troops across the country. Mayhem caused by rioters also affected thousands of Bangladeshis living there. Lawlessness consumed 72 lives so far and caused 208 riots on Wednesday alone. ¹Compared to other countries, Bangladeshis in South Africa are better positioned and own groceries and super shops. However, a good number of them do not have valid papers. And those do business legally face regular bout of looting and violence. Prior to this round of violence, around 450 Bangladeshis fell victim of gun violence in South Africa in the last four years.²Having heard growing concerns from home, government finally raised the matter to South African officials in bilateral talks.

The latest riot ruined scores of Bangladeshi shop owners. Their shops were looted and then set on fire. A BBC report claims 400 Bangladeshi shops and groceries in KwaZulu-Natal were looted and on average affected Bangladeshi shop sustained loss of 300,000 Rand and 1 million Rand.³So little progress has been made in securing Bangladeshi interest in South African soil since the last bilateral talk.

I wrote a piece about little response from govt towards migrant workers in the wake of workers' ordeal in Malaysia during the last pandemic.⁴Some of the points I made there still relevant here. Any dignified nation should raise its voice if any unjust act is purported on its interest or its citizens. Many smaller nations did this and did not jeopardize bilateral ties. In the past we saw bodies of migrant Bangladeshi workers were found in jungles straddling along the Thai-Malaysian border.In Vanuatu, hundreds of Bangladeshis stranded in prisons falling into the lure of human traffickers. A Kuwaiti court sentenced high officials of Kuwait and a Bangladeshi law-maker for amassing huge wealth through human trafficking. More recently, Tunisian coast guards rescued 443 Bangladeshis from the Mediterranean sea between May 18 and June 10 of this year. They tried to reach Italy illegally by taking a perilous boat ride. Every week there is news of drowning of illegal immigrants who make this kind of desperate journeys from Libya. Poor Bangladeshi working souls perish abroad. But no steps are seen on the part of government to dig deep about these murky affairs. Some visible actions are taken if the tragedies merit to make international news item.

We have to remember that migrant workers' contributions help the country giving a firm footing by swelling the ForEx reserve. They send their money and savings whenever the country is in crisis. Last year, they sent $21.75 billion back home when COVID-19 severely slashed export earnings. Many sent their savings back home after losing their jobs in other countries. They could have been migrated to some other countries by transferring their savings to that new country. When they fall in crisis , government seldom stand by them. Till to date, no Bangladeshi govt official came to their rescue. News report indicates local Bangladeshis are providing them temporary shelter.

Bangladesh government should bring these incidents to the attention of South African officials. Bangladesh should make sure these shop owners who are literally on the brink of destitution get the compensation to resume their business activities and the culprits are brought to book without further delay.

Great and dignified nations never let the rights and honor of their fellow citizens ruin on foreign shores. No country scales up on the grievances of its workers and ignoring the rights of its citizens. Bangladesh should stand by its citizens deeply affected in the ongoing riots. Friendship and standing for just cause can go hand in hand. History is replete with plenty of examples.

---------------------------------------------------------------------Notes and References:

1. "Dokkhin Africaei 25000 Sena Mathe(25000 Soldiers Deployed in South Africa)", Daily Prothom Alo, July 16,2021.
2. "Dokkhin Africaei Char Bochhore 452 Bangladeshi Nihoto, Ki Karone Ghotchhe Eshob?(452 Bangladeshis Gunned Down in 4 Years in South Africa --- What are The Reasons?", Syeda Akhter,BBC Bangla, December 20, 2020. Link Here
3. "Dokkhin Africaei Danga: Byapok Khoikhoti Hoechhe Bohu Bangladeshir(Riot in South Africa: Many Bangladeshis Sustain Huge Loss)",Naguib Bahar, BBC Bangla, July 15, 2021. Link Here
4. " Help The Soul In Distress", Rezaul Hoque, https://hoquestake.blogspot.com.Link Here

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

The Dark Of The Mainstream-II

Government allows entry of black money,
Ignoring concern voiced by many.
Job creation, innovation, budget financing,
Are the goals such entry failed to bring.

The budget for FY 2021-22 retained the provision for legalizing the undocumented money. The parliament approved the budget. Before the bill was placed before the Parliament, the issue had been highlighted in the press. Repeated pleas for discontinuing the provision , as the advocates of transparency and egalitarian taxation rules made on various platforms, fell into deaf years. However, government raised the bar of retributive tax from 10 % to 25%. In addition, owners of undocumented money have to pay 5% penalty on the retributive tax. Flat purchase, land purchase, investment on savings certificate, investment on stock market are specified as means of legalizing the black money. Owners of clandestine wealth can also purify their money by investing in special economic zone and Hi-tecch park and paying a retributive tax of just 10%.¹

The decision will have impact on liquidity of the bank, flat price and land dispute. Clearly such provisions have pros and cons. No gainsaying that it would hurt consumer rights and honest tax payers.

Prof M A Taslim of Dhaka University and Ahsan H Mansur of Policy Research Institute wrote an article for Financial Express stressing emptiness of continuing legalization the black money. They wrote: "From an economic point of view, the essential difference between white and black money is that the latter is earned by paying taxes while the former evades taxation altogether. The profitability of a business enterprise that pays tax will obviously be less than that which evades taxation. The taxpaying business enterprises become less competitive compared with non-taxpaying business enterprises. The former may be then obliged to evade taxes in order to compete and survive. In the event they do not resort to such business practices, many of them would be forced out of business due to unfair competitive pressures. This will result in the economy having more non-taxpaying business enterprises and fewer taxpaying ones in the long run. To paraphrase a famous saying :'bad business will drive good business out of circulation'. The tax base of the govt will decline, leading to a secular decline in revenue collection. The process may be already in work as indicated by poor revenue collection, which is one of the lowest in the world." ²

It is indeed puzzling and hard to grasp that a legal business entity will pay a corporate tax of 40% or 35% meanwhile owner of black money will legalize their wealth by paying a retributive tax of 25%! Such policy measures leave no incentive for honest business men and legitimate holder of wealth. Inevitably, in this kind of situation Gresham's law will become true. Since 2004, if I am not wrong, this whitening scheme has been going on. But it did little to address government's woes of financing the budget. In 2013, tax revenue as percentage of GDP was 9.74% and budget deficit as percentage of GDP was 4%. In 2018, tax revenue(% of GDP) rose to 11.42% while budget deficit(% of GDP) widened to 5%.³

Another objective behind such decision is to bring investment in industry and create jobs. But if the motif of clandestine wealth owner is to whiten as much black money as possible, this kind of money plays little role in job creation, professional exposure in business dealings or any innovation in management or technology. On the contrary this kind of untreated money promotes corrupt practices in business. Embezzlement of export subsidy and misuse of back-to-back letter of credit are more prevalent.

One of the obvious signs of presence of clandestine wealth is a criminalized society. In one of my earlier posts I elaborated it at great length.⁴

An alternative way to accommodate this wealth is to create an alternative environment for it. So that stigma-free money can enter economy. We need a special place where these pollutants will end and go through a treatment process and then the processed money will reenter economy. Think of a specially administered region that has its own financial institutions and own rules to govern them. Undocumented money of all hues could meet here. People in possession of such wealth should not be banned from channelling funds to such administered region. Special kind of financial institutions could be formed in this region and depositors will be allowed transfer, reinvest or open bank account in the mainland with the interest they earn and part of their money one year or a fixed-time later. Bank statements from these institutions vouch for whitening black money. Moreover, fund of these specialized institutions will be reinvested in mainstream economy and in research activities. At the same time, undesired leverages of black money owners in decision making and governance could be eschewed. Remember problems often creep up when such untreated money are invested in the economy strings are attached to them.

We have special economic zones , cantonment boards where special laws regulate conducts of individuals and business entities. By the same token, we can set up special administered region in a remote corner with restricted entry. In the island of Moheshkhali where a deep sea port is being built, such region could be set up as there is no short of land . Access to the island is not easy. At the same time, accountability of administered region will have to be ensured. And all the state organs that are still not accountable to parliament and judiciary should be held accountable to such institutions, or else culture of no-accountability will jeopardize all the good initiatives. This is another reason for the presence of clandestine wealth in our society.

As we do not draw water from sewer for consumption, we should not allow untreated black money in our economy. It is better to allow sin-city in the remotest part of the country so that mainstream economy is left unperturbed. Many regional countries have such cities and they are just a plane-ticket away. A specially administered city will reduce the incidence of capital flight as well bring black money from other transnational owners offsetting to some extent laundering of money. To address the maladies in our society and economy,stemming from parallel economy, there is no alternative to setting up a treatment plant.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes and References:
1. "Kalo Taka Thaklo, Barlo Korer Har ( Whitening Continues, Tax Rises)", Daily Prothom Alo, June 30, 2021.
2. "Black Money And Investment", M A Taslim and Ahsan H Mansur, Daily Financial Express, April 16,2009.
3. Bangladesh Economic Review 2019.
4. "The Dark Of The Mainstream", Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com Link here

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(25 juin --- 02 juillet)

Selon un reportage, une explosion mystérieuse a détruit un bâtiment à Mogbazar, Dacca, tuant 11 personnes.7 bâtiments avoisinants ont aussi subi des dégâts. 3 bus ont aussi été détruits.

Selon un reportage, police a arrêté deux journalistes après un dirigeant du parti en exercice avait porté plainte contre eux. Ils ont publié reportage de corruption dans leurs site de nouvelles.

Selon un reportage, le bureau de prévision de l'inondation estime que le niveau de l'eau des fleuves majeurs peut franchir le seuil dangereux et inonder les villes du nord dans deux jours.

Delta Wrecks Havoc

A new variant sweeps across the country,
Causing havoc and claiming lives in plenty.
Cheap vaccine remains out of reach for the poor,
Further delay showing COVID the exit door.

COVID-19 situation in Bangladesh has turned worst. On July 1, 143 patients died of COVID-19 related complications, highest number of death from COVID¹. Death tally reached 14646 on July 01. Over the past one week, every day more than 100 people succumbed to COVID. Delta variant is doing most of the havoc. 80% of the patients tested turned out to be infected with this deadly variant, according to IEEDCR.In addition, number of confirmed COVID-19 patients crossed 900,000 mark. THE last 100,000 were detected in 29 days² 2. This is an indication how fast COVID-19 spreads across the country.

Propagation deteriorated in the South-Western districts where Bangladesh shares a long border with India and where some parts are not fenced by India. This is where "flesh corridor" straddles and smuggling activities are vernacular. These border districts are hardly hit by COVID. Mango-producing districts topped the list of detection and death. South-Western districts surpassed them later. Now, Dhaka and Chattogram are witnessing a gradual rise in the number of death.

Situation was so dire that government imposed a week-long lockdown, deploying Army across the country. It is a desperate attempt to cut the spiraling trend of death and infection. Before the lockdown came into effect, thousands of people had rushed to ferry-ghat, finding whatever means available to them amid suspension of regular transport services. Bakri-Eid is about take place on Mid-July. So greater number of people left Dhaka. A South China Morning Post video how people thronged ferries violating social distancing rules. Like previous exodus, motor-bike and private-car ride sharing service provider made fortune out of people misery. Law enforcement personnel was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people and haplessly watched them leaving the city.

It is also important to note that in recent months government increased number of testing centers and hospitals. They got RT PCR machine and centralized oxygen system. So number of test and hospitalized patients increased. It means many people living in the society with virus showing no symptoms. It is indeed worrying. Earlier common people shirked COVID rules saying" Goriber to kotona hoe na(Poor people do not catch Corona)". Rising number of death and detection rate proved how wrong they are.

Furthermore, in a densely populated country, Bangladesh is among the top 10 countries in terms of highest number of people living in per square kilometer, it is impossible to maintain social distancing rules. Not only that most of the people engage in labor-intensive task and informal sector. With scanty savings they cannot stay away from doing their job observing COVID rules. Rent seeking activities of some quarter in key cities also complicated the matter. Roadside bazar, overcrowded slum and shared accommodation played a role in worsening the propagation.

So more number of unidentified COVID patients may be roaming in the society further spreading the virus.

It is a difficult task for law-enforcement personnel with few COVID-protection gears to oblige others obey COVID related rules. Lesson learnt from firs round of COVID battle is that lack of safety gears cost lives of doctors and caregivers. A country cannot recuperate that loss. It is not that easy to churn out such professionals with that level of experience and expertise. It takes a lot of time to groom them.

Lots of Police also died while performing their duties amid pandemic last year. Only small part of them got vaccinated. They are vulnerable to COVID as they have to tackle it from the ground.

Vaccination program came to an abrupt halt after US had stopped sending RNA messenger to India. Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum Institute of India for delivery of 30 million ampoules of AstraZeneca vaccine. It only received 7 million doses before the US ban on ingredient export came into effect. Following the debacle, government entered negotiations with China, Russia and USA for vaccine. Sinopharm's vaccine purchase was confirmed. In addition, US sent 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine. Earlier Bangladesh had taken delivery of 2 million doses of Pfizer vaccine from GAVI. These are signs of goodwill, sent in small batches. But Bangladesh needs bulk amount of vaccine.

Some countries in the Middle East where large number of Bangladeshis work made it clear they would not allow migrant worker who had jab of non-Western vaccine.So many Bangladeshis went through costly quarantine procedure in spite of having Sinopharm's vaccine. Government decided to give them Pfizer vaccine.

Commitment to finance vaccination program is plenty. But it is not clear how many doses one individual requires as variant after variant doing their damage. For poorer countries it is not possible to purchase additional booster shot that costs more than $ 10 . Local production could be a solution as cost will be reduced significantly. Despite repeated pleas of calling the vaccine a global public good and relaxing the TRIPS laws, no progress has been made. This will give fresh fuel to protectionism and globalization will receive another blow. Moreover, critics of globalization will point out that it is a one way track and in terms of crisis this globalization does not work for poorer countries. So a vaccine for the poor is a must. As deadly variants loom large and new bout of wave may wreck havoc, an ideal vaccine should not cost more than couple of dollars ( under $5 ). As there is no alternative to mass vaccination, cheap credit and grant should be made available to poorer countries so that they can continue the vaccination program at ease.

The newer deadly variants test the ability of health system to cope with COVID. At the same time it brought to fore unevenness of globalization in terms of vaccine production and distribution. Unless it is addressed urgently, we may end up living in a compartmentalized world where showing the COVID the exit door will be further delayed.

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Notes and References:

1. "Sob record chhariye ek dine koronai mrityu 143(143 die one day making a record)", Daily Ittefaq,July 01, 2021.

2."Akranto 9 lakh chharalo, kal theke kathor bidhinishedh(Cases crossed 900000, Strict lockdown from tomorrow)", Daily Prothom Alo, June 30,2021.