Price For Uncheck Spending

Amid growing concerns,NPL keeps rising. Goods pile up due to ongoing fighting. Lack of credit and weak consumer activity Hit hard a firm's profitability.

Costs of high deficits are shockingly visible. Chaos in financial institutions provoked by Non Performing Loans(NPL) could be one of those. For a long time,I have not seen commercial banks’ ad in media on consumer loans. The obvious reason is that govt borrows money heavily from these banks,leaving little for private investors to finance their projects.

These big loans,distributed often by political or evil motives and not by project's rate of return or other technical parameters, were supposed to yield good return.However, they ended up in wrong hands and yet to go back to the banks' coffers. Their failed performance earned them the name NPL.

Last week,a news report says one of the conditions set forth by IMF is that NPL,which is 28.66% of total credit, should be lowered to 10% within the next two years(Source:“Khelapi Rin Komatey Hobey DUI Bochhorey(NPL Should Be Lowered In Two Years)”,Fakhrul Islam,Daily Prothom Alo,P-1,November 22,2022).This is an uphill task and in an election year a difficult task to comply. In fact,NPL keeps rising. Nevertheless, govt is optimistic about improving the situation by June next year.So everyone is wondering how govt could lower NPL to that desired level.

Meanwhile, interest rate rise,war in Ukraine have raised uncertainty and deteriorated financial positions of many firms. In Chattogram,exporters reported delay in shipments,increase in stocklot and low workorder.Some exporters have been stocking their items for more than 3 months(Source:"Gudamey Jomchhey Ponno,Dushchintao Barchhey(Stocklot Increases In Warehouse, Worry Grows)”,Masud Milad and Shuvonkar Karmakar,Daily Prothom Alo,P-9,November 25,2022). This delay in shipments and cancellation of orders have the risk of putting them into precarious position.

Though lending rate is hovering around 9% officially,central bank last week nodded to a rate of 12% for new lending,which is a bit high amid low consumer activity.There are reports that more and more consumers bank on savings to cope with the rising cost of living.

Despite official projection of a lowering inflation,price levels at the consumer level have yet to reflect it. News of arrival of wheat ships from Turkey or rice cargo from Myanmar and Vietnam have yet to lower the prices of wheat.Rising oil price and ongoing war on Ukraine used as pretext to raise the price of wheat in short span of time.When oil price has come down to $80/barrel and grain ships keep coming,prices of essentials are not coming down at the same pace.

Slash in consumption and inadequate credit,which is hard to access,for private sectors hint that rejuvenation of economic activity will not be easier. In this context,it is not clear how the government intends to curb on NPL. It is evident that ordinary people and honest investors pay the price for unregulated spendings in the past few years.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(15 juillet --- 22 juillet)

Ma Semaine Gastronomique

Date	Petit-déjeuner	Déjeuner	Dîner	Snacks,Sucreries,Boissons et Fritures
23	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Courge amère,Omelette,Thé sans sucre	Riz,Feuilles de l'amarante rouge,Haricot vert,Bombay Duck,Soupe des lentilles	Pain chapati(fait par moi),Feuilles de l'amarante rouge,Haricot vert	Mangue,Nouilles,Thé sans sucre
24	Pain chapati,Haricot vert,Lait chaud,Thé sans sucre	Riz,Rita poisson,Gourde épineuse avec graines du jacquier et tige de l'amarante	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Rita poisson	Riz gonflé,Thé sans sucre
25	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Rita poisson,Thé sans sucre	Riz,Tige de l'amarante avec pommes de terre et gourde épineuse,Poisson-barbe d'argent olive,Feuilles de l'amarante rouge,Cumin noir	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Feuilles de l'amarante rouge,Papaye-Gourde épineuse,Cornichon à la Mangue	Riz gonflé, Thé sans sucre
26	Pain tchapati,Papaye et Gourde épineuse,Thé sans sucre	Riz,Calebasse gourde,Feuilles de l'amarante tige,Poisson perche grimpante	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Feuilles de l'amarante tige,Poisson perche grimpante	Mabolo,Riz gonflé,Thé sans sucre,Dattes
27	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Gourde calebasse, Omelette,Thé sans sucre	Riz,Épinard malabar,Perche grimpante	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Épinard malabar et Ruhi poisson,Lait et datte	Dattes,Riz gonflé,Thé sans sucre
28	Pain tchapati(fait par moi),Omelette,Thé sans sucre	Riz,Courge amère,Poisson-barbe d'olive argent	Pain tchapati,Poisson-barbe d'olive argent,Lait	Mabolo,Riz gonflé,Thé sans sucre,Dattes
29	Pain tchapati(fait par moi), Omelette,Thé sans sucre	Riz,Citrouilles, Soupe aux lentilles,alose à Gésier du fleuve Ganges,	Riz,Pommes de terre bhaji,alose à Gésier du fleuve Ganges	Jacquier,Firny,Thé sans sucre

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(10 février --- 18 février)

Selon un reportage, police a préparé un procès-verbal contre un ancien député dans la tuerie d'un homme à Pallabi,Dacca.

Selon un reportage, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission a préparé une politique pour régler les réseaux sociaux. On trouve réponse à la plainte en 20 jours et enlèvement de contenu en 72 jours parmi les proposition.

Selon un reportage, un médecin a été tué après un rickshaw motorisé avait frappé son rickshaw. Dans les semaines récentes, on voit augmentation dans nombre d’accident dans les rues.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(08 octobre --- 15 octobre)

Selon un reportage, un homme d’affaires a accusé un policier de torture pendant interpellation dans une tenue de presse.

Selon un reportage, une série d’attaque contre lieux de vénérations de l’Hindou a été montée dans 10 villes à travers du pays. Police a appréhendé centaines de personnes dont un coupable qui avait diffusé une vidéo de diffamation présumée de Koran dans un temple de l’Hindou au Facebook. A Chandpur où situation a rendu pire,4 ont été tués par balles pendant que des agresseurs tentaient d’attaquer des temples de l’Hindou. Vendredi après les prières hebdomadaires, des temples ont été ciblés à Noakhali, à Chattogram.

Selon un reportage, police a arrêté un ancien secrétaire privé d'un ancien ministre,connu comme Monsieur 15% dans sa ville.

Selon un reportage, une cour américaine a trouvé un Américain, originaire de Bangladesh, coupable d’avoir tenté joindre les Talibans au Afghanistan pour lutter contre les États-Unis.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(19 novembre --- 25 novembre)

Selon un reportage, un éléphant a été tué par balles à Chattogram. A Cox's Bazar, 3 éléphants dont un électrocuté ont été tués par l'homme en novembre. Le bureau de forêt s'est dit que 11 éléphants avaient été tués par l'homme année actuelle.

Selon un reportage, une série de l'incendie a causé assez dégâts aux bidonvilles de Dacca. Bidonvilles de Mohammadpur, de Kalshi et de Mohakhali ont fait sujet de l'incendie hivernale. Bidonville de Mohammadpur appartenait à groupe Bihari, urdophones de Bangladesh. Les ouvriers ont ouvert une enquête sur cause de l'incendie.

Selon un reportage, un garçon a été tué par balles à Lohagora , Chattogram. Le coup de feu provenait d' un fusil de chasseur.

Selon un reportage, l'Arabie Saoudite a exprimé la volonté de mettre en place 560 mosquées et centre culturel islamique à travers de pays.

Selon un reportage, tout le Bangladesh est en deuil en écoutant le décès de vedette footballeur argentin Maradona. Son décès a fait une dans tous les quotidiens bangladais. Après Mother Teresa, Bangladesh a pleuré pour une vedette internationale comme ça. Cela montre la puissance de sport et comment le sport gagnent les coeurs de gens en franchissant les frontières internationales.

Selon un reportage, Singapour a expulsé 15 Bangladais pour avoir exprimé solidarité avec attentat terroriste en France et montré idéologie rigide dans les comptes de réseau social.

Man Vs Wild -II

Strange incidents perish 4 elephants in November.
Reasons of the killing no one bothers to remember.
Redesigning the policy and education hold the key
To change attitude towards the wild in vicinity.

Another disturbing piece of news revealed that an elephant was shot dead in Lohagora upazila of Chattogram. This month alone witnessed killing of three elephants in Cox's Bazar. One of them was electrocuted. Though the news report did not disclose the cause of the killing, some miscreants nowadays indulged in elephant killing on too many occasions. Department of forestry and IUCN, as the news report reported, claimed that 11 elephants had been killed in 2020.

It is a shame that this cruelty have been continuing unabated for some years. I was taken aback by another news of BBC. The story said a baby elephant fell inside a well in a village in Tamilnadu, India. Villagers and firefighters did everything to rescue the trapped elephant. Visibly different actions from two culturally close groups of people.

There is no denying that demographics, vegetation, villagers' behavior towards strangers, villagers' behavior towards animal have gone through rapid changes since the influx of Rogingyas. Forests located near the frontier transformed. In the face of accommodation need and agricultural activities, forests waned.Vegetation became thinner. Paddy fields invaded elephant tracks. Poor souls in search of foods trampled along the paddy fields, damaged thatched roofs and killed few villagers, causing worries to farmers. But recent killings did not hint that these were acts of angry villagers. In fact, villagers reported the killings.

Unwarranted hatred and tortures meted out to the elephants need to be probed. Investigative should be started to find out why the recent killings took place.

In one of my earlier pieces titled " Man Vs Wild" , I argued how sustenance of population encroached on forest lands.So habitats for animals are fast disappearing to feed the hungry population. Elephant tracks that straddled along both sides of the border for decades after decades also fell victim to this.

Humans have the ability to find new place to stay, to find new land to till, to convert wild forests into cultivable land, to cut trees to make firewood and to search and grow new crop when the existing ones became hard to find to fill stomach. Unfortunately poor creatures like elephants lack this ability. So they continue to maraude paddy fields, to knock out banana trees, steal crops and attack anything that causes obstacle on its way.

Failure to create symbiotic relationship between man and the wild lies in the flawed incentive structure in our development policies. Redesigning the incentive structure could easily save lives of endangered species and secure their habitats as well. At the same time, agricultural land, small commerce, villages situated in the vicinity of the habitat could also get benefits.

A peasant who receives regular allowance /grant for the damage or loss he sustained from trampling of wild animals will not cause any harm to them. Instead he took great care of them. In addition, he will take great care to the habitats of the animals.

Incentives can be given in many forms. For instance, a village located near a forest can be subject of a school stipend program for children of villagers so that they continue their education. The aim of the stipend program is to induce villagers to take an amiable stance towards the wild.

Financing such incentive programs will not be a difficult task as many bad projects swallow hard-earned money of the tax payers. Diverting these funds to finance the incentive structure will not be a difficult task. Scope of such programs will be small compared to other social security programs as forests are receding fast.

Many primitive society still displays far more greater responsibility towards the nature and the wild than us. In Africa, parents of a newborn of a primitive society take the umbilical cord to a nearby forest and bury it. The ritual is performed so that the baby develops a strong bond to mother nature and performs its duty diligently at later stages of its life.

Education can also play a role to develop some kind of responsibility towards the wild. Textbooks in elementary schools can incorporate stories, fables that inculcate students about rights of animals, developing fondness towards them, importance of protecting their habitats. Education and grooming at an early stage can make a lot of difference in our behavior towards animal and nature at later stages. Incident in Tamilnadu and that in Lohagora furnish the evidence. It is imperative that government and policy makers revise their incentive structure and redesign the policies to protect the wild.

Man Vs Wild

A trivial news emanating from Boalkhali of Chattogram caught me off guard. The news reads three lives perished in an attack by elephant herd. One met the death while gardening his cultivable land. The other person was struck by an elephant while he was picking arum leaves behind a saw-mill. An elderly man was trampled down by a herd of elephants after he had finished his morning prayers. Earlier, two baby elephants had been killed: one was drowned in a pond and another one was electrocuted by a trap set by villagers. Villagers claimed more and more elephants descended on villages, located on the fringes of forests of South Chattogram and Bandarban, in search of food. This is happening due to shortages of foods in the woods.

This tragedy is a stark reminder that trappings of development are making a heavy dent in the nature. The result is obvious: the elephants could not sustain in receding forests and devoured the surrounding paddy fields on far too many occasions.

This tragic encounter is also taking place in other parts of Bangladesh: in Moulvibazar wild cats are caught by locals while they try to catch fish. In villages close to Sundarban, Royal Bengal Tigers often prey on livestock. In Rajshahi, a mango orchard is occupied by Shamuk Khol birds' nests, prompting local administration to issue notice against orchard owner of causing any damage to the nests and doling out compensation.

Stray incidents call for urgent policy action so that man and wild can live in harmony. Many of our neighboring countries make great progress in this regard, significantly reducing incidence of tragic encounters and loss of property. Bangladesh can draw lessons from them.

To accommodate growing population, houses are being built in cultivable lands. Cultivable lands are being used to grow cash crops that fetch more money for farmers. Moreover, for the sustenance of growing population, forests turn into cultivable lands. For this reason we see paddy fields invade forests where elephants roam free. Trees used to grow in the woods were cut down and agricultural land were transformed into orchards. So desperate birds like Shamuk Khol make nests on mango tree tops. Pisciculture is so widespread and profitable that no pond or ditch is left unused for desperate "mechho bagh" or Fish Tigers to fill their stomach. Thin vegetation, disappearance of mangrove forests due to increased human settlement and agricultural activity are pushing the deer stock further from the reach of tigers. Evidently the hungry Maharajas raided the nearby villages in search of food and made headlines on the newspaper.

Development and preservation of forest can go hand in hand, contrary to the argument that stresses on the tradeoff between the two. A symbiotic relationship could be explored so that the two could coexist in harmony.

Peasants would not lay traps if there were incentive /compensation to damaged crops stemming from marauding elephants. Subject to the report of forestry officials in the wake of such incident, local administration could hand down cash or subsidized rice, more than the value of damaged crops,to the victims. In this situation, any approaching herd of elephant does not pose any threat to harvest, so the peasant is no longer hostile to elephants. Meanwhile, the starving elephant gets an alternate source of food in the paddy fields and becomes more docile at a later date.

Shamuk Khol nest incident in Rajshahi is an eye opener. There local administration gave words to the orchard owner that he would be duly compensated and issued a notice for not obliterating the nests. The assurance and local support from the villagers salvaged the nests.

Similarly, Sunderban villagers could be given wild hogs or piglets so that the tigers prey on them instead of the cattle. Proper training can be introduced to take care of the mangrove forests. In addition, subsidized rice could be distributed among villagers who comply government instructions to preserve the forest and to be kind to the wild.

Local administration and forestry officials could initiate advocacy campaign in the target area in a bid to disseminate information on incentives. Awareness building is at the core of this advocacy campaign. Special job program and scholarship for children at school in target area could also be introduced.

Most of our public fund is squandered away because of corrupted projects and mismanagement. Projects aimed to preservation of the wild will not demand more money. Government could easily allocate fund for this kind of initiative that will in the end bridge two hostile communities.

In Africa, parents of a newborn of a primitive society take the umbilical cord to a nearby forest and bury it. It is done so that the baby develops a bond to mother nature and performs its duty diligently at a later stage.

This kind of practice is conspicuously absent in our society, which receives lights of education and enjoys all the marvels of modernity. Government cannot sit idle and needs to act fast.

Any encounter with wild tiger may end up with tragic consequences. But that does not bar humans to preserve endangered species like tigers. Because we know the value of such species in nature and have the vision about what the world will look like without them. For this reason, elephant trek, Shamuk Khol nest, safe preying zone for fish tigers and undisturbed habitat for Royal Bengal tigers should be included in our development agenda. A society is recognized as developed when it mourns loss of its wild. Do we really progress to that stage?