Posts Tagged ‘politics’

Iran Invites Bangladesh To Get On Board Its Gas Pipeline Project

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

After signing a multi-billion dollar deal with Pakistan, Iran is planning to take Bangladesh on board its proposed gas pipeline project, and sources say Dhaka has shown keen interest in the proposal.

In a letter written to the Finance Ministry’s Economic Relations Division (ERD), the Iranian envoy in Dhaka has extended his country’s helping hand and said Bangladesh could “join the IPI pipeline project” to augment its energy requirements.

A top ERD official said on condition of anonymity that the letter had been forwarded to the energy division. “The division will now chart its own course,” the official was quoted as telling a Bangla newspaper. The Iranian envoy has reportedly said in his letter that since the pipeline would stretch as far as the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, Bangladesh could be easily linked to the grid.

The ‘Peace Pipeline’, as it is being formally called, will traverse over 1 724 miles (2,775 km) from Iran’s South Pars gas fields to the Pakistani city of Khuzdar. From the Pakistani border area, one branch will go to Karachi, while the other will reach India via Multan

Iran has vast untapped oil and gas resources with experts estimating the natural gas reserves at around 1,045 trillion cubic feet, which is second only to Russia.

A top Bangladesh government official said Iran had assured that if Dhaka gave its approval to the project, the pipeline would be extended till Kolkata. “It is really a great opportunity for Bangladesh as the country’s recoverable gas reserve would start drying up from 2013,” the official said.

Nearly 87 per cent of the country’s electricity needs are met by natural gas generation, and Bangladesh’s national oil company, Petrobangla, has said resources could dry up by 2015.

“Kolkata is very close to Bangladesh. It will be easier for the government to bring the pipeline to our border,” the official said

Bangladesh and Facebook Privacy, Politics, and Advertising Revenues

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Bangladesh banned facebook !Over the last few weeks and months, there has been a lot of commentary in the media on Facebook and online privacy. Much of the criticism that has been directed at Facebook has focused on either the absence of or poor usability with privacy settings ? issues that Facebook made moves to try to address with the release of updated privacy controls last week.

But fortunately and unfortunately for the company, this won??t be the last time that privacy issues cause it to make urgent product adjustments. These days, Facebook users often don??t publish the kind of information they share on it anywhere else on the web, putting the company in a unique and central position the future of online privacy. As a result, it is now responsible for setting and managing the expectations of 1) 500 million users who trust it with their data, 2) millions of businesses who trust it with their money and marketing plans, and 3) hundreds of national governments who have the power to regulate it whenever enough of either users or businesses get upset.

Facebook??s challenge is to continually adapt its privacy products to meet the varied and evolving needs of each of these diverse groups. When expectations and products get out of whack ? even if the problems are unspecific and/or exaggerated unfairly by media ? the company could quickly find itself in situations like it did a month ago with Senators teeing up the Facebook football on the steps of the Capitol. (And just this week, it also received an inquiry from the House Judicial Committee.)

Privacy and Politics
Facebook has shown it can survive the regular bans it gets from smaller countries (for example, Facebook was banned in both Bangladesh and Pakistan recently for facilitating for free speech/obscenity reasons ? not privacy), but those countries only represent a small portion of Facebook??s user base. And in cases like these, those governments have usually reversed the ban relatively soon when internal political pressure subsided (although in the Pakistan case, Facebook deleted an offensive group to help get access restored more quickly). But the stakes are much higher when talking about US government regulation.

Thus, Facebook is ramping up its Congressional staffer briefing efforts to try to educate and manage Washington better, especially in this election year. Unlike Google, Facebook doesn??t have many alumni high up in the Obama administration, so it??s going to have to start the Beltway dance quickly to make sure it isn??t underheard.

One of the key challenges Facebook will face in the months and years ahead ? besides trying to keep privacy watchdog groups under control ? is getting Congress to think with broader context when it comes to online privacy, instead of targeting it, specifically. Because of its success, Facebook is now a poster child for how new technology is affecting our notions of online privacy today ? much like the leading e-commerce companies who were the first to handle big volumes of online credit card transactions in the ??wild west?? days of the consumer Internet. As informed observers like Tim O??Reilly recently noted,

When I wrote last week about Facebook privacy flap, I was speaking out of the frustration that many technologists with a sense of perspective feel when we see uninformed media hysteria about the impact of new technology. (How many of you remember all the scare stories about the risks of using a credit card online from back in the mid-1990s, all of them ignoring the risks that consumers blithely took for granted in the offline world?)??

There are real privacy issues to be faced in the data collected by web companies. But they are part of a far bigger picture of how the world is changing. We need thoughtful understanding of what the real risks are, not finger pointing by the media (and even more frighteningly, by members of Congress) at companies that are easy targets because they make good political theater.
Mark Zuckerberg has been telling us for years that his vision for Facebook is to create a public/private hybrid model for sharing information ? meaning Facebook will encourage users to make some information private, and some information public. As Facebook continues to tweak and change its products over the coming months and years, it will have to continually tweak its privacy controls as well to sufficiently match the expectations of consumers, businesses, and governments. It won??t always be exactly right, but it is in Facebook??s interests to continually protect and cultivate its greatest asset ? the trust that people put in the company by virtue of how they use Facebook to develop their online identity and build their part of social graph.

Privacy and Revenue
When it comes to the intersection of privacy issues and Facebook??s revenues, one important point to note is that Facebook is trying hard to reiterate that its in-house advertising model is not dependent upon its privacy model. In other words, people see the same Facebook Ads, no matter what their privacy settings are. In general, this is the simplest way that Facebook has avoided bigger problems with regulators. By handling the serving and optimization itself for most ads shown on Facebook.com, Facebook is working on building a large business that doesn??t require it to share personally identifiable information with advertisers.

The broader strategy question connecting privacy and revenue for Facebook, however, is that of the Facebook Platform. Here, there are actually two competing dynamics at play:

1) By allowing third parties to get access to some user information when users authorize applications, Facebook is enabling these third parties to in effect compete with it by creating their own advertising products that key off of user data obtained through the Facebook Platform. For example, if a user authorizes an application to access their list of music interests, that application might be able to provide a compelling ads or offers for concert tickets or other music-related items. If that application has access to advertising inventory that Facebook doesn??t, then it could, in a sense, capitalize on Facebook by plugging into its API.

We??ve seen this at play over the years as a variety of companies have created third party ad networks on the Facebook Platform to varying degrees of success. While there were aggressive players in this area during the first couple years after the Platform launched, Facebook has tightened the rules on third party data access here over time. In general, most of these companies have complained that Facebook hasn??t given them sufficient access to user data to create a larger opportunity, especially compared to Facebook??s own ad business, and we??ve seen some consolidation in this market over the last 18 months. (Most of the new advertising efforts are now focused on virtual currency ? see our previous coverage for more details on issues in that area.)

2) But the broader strategic goal of the Platform of course is to make Facebook??s social graph the underlying infrastructure for all parts of the Internet that depend on social context. For example, if Facebook can get many media sites to personalize content based on your Facebook identity and friends list, or many e-commerce sites to personalize their stores based on your Facebook identity and friends list, it would then play an important role in many internet services, apart from ads. If Facebook succeeds here, more of the Internet will depend on it for increasingly valuable parts of its functionality, increasing Facebook??s leverage as a growing part of the value chain.

Several years out, Facebook??s revenues will be increasingly affected by its off-Facebook.com activities. Here, the privacy questions get more complicated. Will Facebook be able to provide value to advertisers without sharing user data with publishers in a way that publishers will be willing to accept ? or will Facebook need to create new rules for sharing user data with publishers on its network? For example, would a travel website which depends on Facebook for social context allow Facebook to completely handle all the advertising on its site as well, or would it want greater control over its user and monetization data? If Facebook didn??t share any data with the publisher to follow the same type of third party privacy standards it does on Facebook.com today, the value proposition to the publisher would be less attractive. But if Facebook were able to create a service that worked well anyway, it would be able to grow its advertising business substantially on the back of the Platform. However, this is a much longer term question.

Conclusion
If Facebook is able to navigate these near- and intermediate-term waters successfully, it will be in a very strong and unique position for many years to come. After all, for many of Facebook??s 500 million users, Facebook is the exclusive platform on which they are publishing and sharing any personal information online that??s tied to their authentic identity, enabling Facebook to continue to build a strong advertising business.

Fundamentally, a lot of people both like and trust Facebook, as shown by how they use and share information on it. But there are certainly going to be a lot of potholes ahead. Like the issues Facebook has faced in recent weeks, many of these won??t actually have any immediately measurable impact on user behavior ? but will be symptomatic of the work Facebook has to do with government, advertisers, and the media

Cash Subsidy On Potato Exports Double up.

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Denmark commitment for strong Development Cooperation With Bangladesh

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Denmark has assured Bangladesh of providing more support to the country’s power, energy, ship building industry and trade and business sectors for socio- economic development of Bangladesh.

The assurance came when the visiting Danish Development and Cooperation Minister Soren Pind paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office here.

During the meeting, they discussed wide range of bilateral relations, Danish investment in Bangladesh’s private sector and expansion of Trade and business between the two countries, said Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad after the meeting.

The Prime Minister said her present government attaches great importance to her relations with Denmark as it considers Denmark as a dependable friend and development partner.

She said Bangladesh and Denmark currently enjoy excellent bilateral relations that are characterized by friendly feelings, commonality of views, economic cooperation and increasing bilateral trade, which are well reflected in the economic cooperation between the two countries in various sectors of our development.

Referring to Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord signed during the past Awami League government, Sheikh Hasina said her government is committed to implementing the CHT Peace Accord with a view to upholding political, social, cultural and economic rights of all citizens living in the CHT region.

In this context, she said her previous government was trying to implement the accord fully in line with the agreement. The past BNP-Jamaat government did not take any initiative to implement the accord, she added.

The Prime Minister informed the Danish minister that land commission has so far been constituted in line with the accord to resolve the land related disputes in the hill region.

Sheikh Hasina said her government has also launched different projects for the development of Chittagong Hill Tracts. In this context, she sought more Danish support for the CHT region.

About terrorism, the Prime Minister said her government is firm to root out terrorists and militants at any cost. The terrorists have no boundary and political ideology, she added.

Regarding poverty alleviation, she said the present Awami League government has taken various measurers to build a happy and prosperous Bangladesh by eradicating poverty and hunger.

The Danish Minister lauded the Prime Minister for her able leadership and relentless efforts to turn Bangladesh into a modern technologically advanced one.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister M A Karim, Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Molla Waheeduzzaman and Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad were present.

Meeting with Dipu Moni.

Visiting Danish Development and Cooperation Minister Soren Pind has assured of continuing development cooperation with Bangladesh for development of the country.

He gave the assurance during his meeting with Foreign Minister Dipu Moni at state guest house Padma in the capital, Dhaka on Tuesday.

During the meeting, they discussed various issues including food and health security, strengthening democracy, establishing good governance, eliminating corruption, strengthening institutions, instituting rule of law, fighting climate change challenges, providing energy security, conducting counter terrorism measures, empowering women, and meeting crucial infrastructure requirements, a foreign ministry press statement said.

The foreign minister mentioned that the government is putting its efforts in these areas and is working to translate the peoples desire to bring positive changes in all spheres of life to realize the vision 2021.

She also said Bangladesh attaches great importance to the relations with Denmark and considers Denmark as a dependable friend and development partner.

The Danish minister pointed out the need for more high level bilateral visits between the two countries and expressed hope that more high level visits would take place between Bangladesh and Denmark in the near future

Secular education is to be reintroduced in Bangladesh

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

No Politics with religion .Bangladesh is set to reintroduce secular education in the country following a landmark judgement of the Supreme Court that made it illegal to mix religion with politics, the law minister has said.

“The apex court verdict has paved the way for reintroduction of the original spirit of the 1972 constitution…while the government has already prepared a draft for education with the spirit of secularism,” Shafique Ahmed told a convention of teachers here.

He said the Awami League government planned to reintroduce secular education system after being backed by the apex court that ruled illegal a 1979 constitutional amendment that facilitated the flourishing of religion-based politics in the country.

The original constitution of 1972 embodied four fundamental principles of nationalism, socialism, democracy, and secularism.

Earlier this week, the apex court ruled the Fifth Amendment, which had also legitimised the post 1975 military backed regimes in Bangladesh, as illegal and upheld the original 1972 constitution.

Ahmed said the judgement nullifying the Fifth amendment “has not hurt religion, but established it” despite a “misleading propaganda” by the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The Awami League-led grand alliance government welcomed the judgement. However, the BNP said it would make detailed comments only after going through the full text of the verdict. Jamaat-e-Islami, BNP’s key ally in the earlier four-party coalition government, described the judgement “part of a plot to ban Islamic politics”.

Bangladeshis want faster progress

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Bangladesh-growth-graph-best
The Bangladeshi belongs the prospect of the Nation .
-(boston.com)Bangladesh native Abdul Momen, a management professor at Framingham State College, was a longtime critic of successive governments, military and civilian alike, in his homeland.

Now that he has been appointed ambassador to the United Nations for Bangladesh, Momen will have to field criticism of the six-month-old government he has agreed to represent. And some of that criticism is surfacing in his adopted state, Massachusetts.

Rafiq Islam, who lives in Falmouth on Cape Cod and has been in the United States for 26 years, contacted the Globe to say he had just returned from Bangladesh and found the crime and security situation to have deteroriated. He said that extrajudicial killings of political figures also have continued despite the promises of the new government.

He said that the new prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, elected in a landslide victory in December, appeared to be doing what she had done in her first term as prime minister, from 1996 to 2001, promising change and then failing to deliver. “The situation has not improved very much. Many international watchgroups have criticized the government, and the so-called progress has not materalized. It is more of a political dictatorship than a real democracy,” Islam said.

I wrote about Momen’s appointment in the Globe on Tuesday. Last night I asked him by email to respond to criticism that the government isn’t doing enough or acting fast enough. Momen, who is traveling today to Bangladesh to collect his credentials for the UN post, answered by email before departing.

He said that in just a few months, the Awami League government led by Hasina in fact has made significant progress in a number of areas.

For example, he said the government had cut the prices of essential foodstuffs, including rice, by half in the last six months. To reduce corruption, the government has required Cabinet members to declare their wealth, and has made the financial system more transparent. The economy is likely to grow 5.5 percent to 6 percent this year, Momen said, ahead of earlier projections.

He acknowledged that there are law and order problems in Dhaka, the huge capital city, and that extrajudicial killings have continued, although he said the pace of such killings has been cut drastically. “More importantly, in the present government, both the Law Minister and the Home Minister have publicly stated that they will not tolerate any extrajudicial killing and those responsible would be punished to the fullest extent of the law. This is a good beginning. I have written personal notes to both the Ministers to fully stop the extra-judicial killing as it simply unacceptable.”

Momen said terror attacks by Islamist extremists had stopped since Hasina took office, but he added that because of campaigns against tax evaders and corruption, “many well-to-do people are upset and they are trying to derail the government.”

The daughter of one of the most prominent victims of extrajudicial violence in Bangladesh is Nazli Kibria, a professor at Boston University. Her father, Shah AMS Kibria, a member of Parliament and former finance minister, was assassinated in 2005. The family maintains a web site about Kibria and the assassination. The previous year, Hasina herself narrowly escaped a similar grenade attack.

Nazli Kibria applauded the appointment of Momen to the UN, but said she was upset that nothing had been done by the new government to bring the perpetrators of her father’s killing to justice. “My father was a member of the Awami League. We expected this new government to do something, but they?ve done absolutely nothing. My family is not happy about it,” she said.

Momen said in his email: “As you know, extra-judicial killing has become a norm, especially over the last seven years, and it is taking time to fully stop it.”

M A Latif was involved in a scuffle -A Short Personal Interviews on the scuffle by M A LATIF

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

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M A Latif at Metropoliton Hospital bed

m-a-latif

M A Latif  at Metropoliton Hospital bed?

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Lawmaker of ruling Awami League, who earlier took newspaper headlines several times for his erratic and rude behaviour, on Friday landed in hospital after being beaten by own partymen for assaulting police officers at Chittagong port city.

The Water Transport Coordination Cell began operations on Friday after dropping MP and CCCI president Mohammed Abdul Latif from the post of adviser and convenor, leading to a run-in with police.

Shipping minister Afsarul Amin and Chittagong City Corporation mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury attended the launching programme as chief guest and special guest respectively.

The WTCC was formed in 2005 in association with Coastal Ship Owners’ Association and Bangladesh Cargo Owners’ Vessel Owners’ Association.

A memorandum of understanding signed with the chamber stipulated that the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president and senior most vice-president would hold the post of adviser and convenor respectively.

But Latif, Awami League MP from Chittagong-10, thrust himself into the post of both adviser and convenor on being elected CCCI chief eight months back.

The aggrieved ship owners sat with the shipping minister who on June 3 directed senior vice president of the chamber Mohammed Abdus Salam to take the charge of convenor.

Ignoring the minister’s directives, Latif expressed his desire to retain the convenor’s post and got related papers signed by the chamber directors.

He decided to launch WTCC operations without intermediaries of the ship owners’ association while the latter retaliated by cancelling the MoU with the chamber signed four years ago

Around 10am on Friday when Latif, accompanied by some hundred supporters, attempted entering the WTCC office, the police stopped them and an altercation arosema-latif

A close aide of the lawmaker, Enamul haque Muniri, alleged that the policemen and the supporters, belonging to a particular faction of the ruling party, have manhandled the lawmaker sending him to a private facility for treatment with a fractured arm.

He(latif) kept lying there even after Shipping Minister Afsarul Amin and Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury walked past him to the meeting where they were the chief guest and special guest.

Later, Bangladesh Chhatra League activists carried the lawmaker out of the building around 5:30pm.

The WTCC was formed in 2005 merging two organisations of inland cargo vessel owners–Coastal Ship Owners Association of Bangladesh (COAB) and Bangladesh Cargo Vessel Owners Association (BCVOA).

As per a memorandum of understanding COAB and BCVOA signed with the CCCI, the senior vice-president of CCCI was to act as the convener of WTCC while the CCCI president would act as an adviser.

However, Latif even after becoming the president of CCCI on December 15, 2008, clung on to the convener and the adviser posts.

As vessel owners drew the shipping minister’s attention to the matter, the minister directed them to form an ad hoc committee following the rules of the organisation.

On June 3, COAB and BCVOA formed the 14-member ad hoc committee, excluding Latif, and made Gazi Belayet Hossain Mithu the convener.

The ad hoc committee was to form a new constitution to run WTCC under a new management, excluding the CCCI, and elect a new committee.

The ad hoc committee informed Latif of his expulsion from WTCC in a letter Thursday.

The meeting of the ad hoc committee was held as scheduled.


Latif earlier took the newspaper headlines first for humiliating two police officers at Patenga on one occasion, misbehaving with another police officer on a Biman flight and rudely rebuked deputy commissioner of the port city in two other incidents.

On another occasion he was criticised for his rude behaviour with a port officials, including a senior navy officer serving on deputation at the main port, in presence of a visiting parliamentary delegation.

?Interview:

Latif alleged, “Shipping minister Afsarul Amin and Chittagong mayor ABM mohiuddin Chowdhury set the police to stop him entering WTCC office.”

“At their instruction police kept beating me mercilessly until I fell on the ground.”

He alleged that the minister and his men were trying to occupy WTCC office to establish a reign of plundering.

“It is because of them that the country has become a land of thieves and cheats,” he said.

A Short? Interviews on the scuffle by M A LATIF ?from Metropolitan Hospital with The editor( www.gurumia.com ?) Md Moshiur Rahman ?when meet him to see his phisical condition .

Grumia : Say something in short about the scuffle.

M A Latif : I have courage to say truth and i am a politician to change the Contry? to a expected developed level. Problem is our system does not allow change easily .(system- political and burucrates positions- traditions-profit maker). So this is an example that the root of facilitor goast are still strong . To get real change of? the old political goast and get ?a real reform political views ?we may? sometime fall in such a situation .

Gurumia: How are you felling now ?

MA Latif : I feel pain on my left hand ?.neck and backbone,

An important note from Prof. Syed Ahsanul Alam Parvez’s to PM

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

chairmanBased on?a real good governance philosophy “the equitable distribution of wealth.” described by Prof. Syed Ahsanul Alam Parvez. Through which prof Ahsan described the primary guideline for innitiative or awareness?to overcome the global recession and to overcome the political demand of?Bangladeshi Citizen.?
A Cautionary Note to Bangladesh?s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina- -Prof. Syed Ahsanul Alam Parvez.

After a landslide victory you are assuming the premiership of Bangladesh when the world is facing one of the worst recession of contemporary history. There are good reasons to believe that Bangladesh will face the trauma of the global recession by late 2009. The have-nots and the poor people of our country will not be able to bear it. So you have no option but to be proactive and act in time to surprise the world. Your and our creator gave you a lifetime chance to write your name in gold as the world’s most benevolent lady prime minister by turning Bangladesh to a middle income country during your office this time as prime minister. You have to address the issue of income distribution and social justice in our country very thoughtfully. You should be the first Prime minister of Bangladesh with the aim of raising awareness and creating framings and visions that promote equal dignity for all citizens in the country you govern. (more…)

Trainning for democratic sustainability In Bangladesh- by India

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

India has achived their degnified position on Democracy parctice.Demoratic Govermant is the most appreciable governance but the case study on Bangladesh has many bitter examples. Only lacking of proper democratic knowledge and excercise ,it may happen. Even it created a 2 years long caretaker govt.

somnath-chatterjeeIndian Parliament Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has offered to train Bangladesh MPs as he praised the restoration of democracy in the eastern neighbouring country as a ?positive development? for South Asia.

Chatterjee and his colleagues are here at the invitation of Speaker Abdul Hamid of the Bangladeshi Parliament.

Speaking at a function, the Lok Sabha speaker said the relations between India and Bangladesh were rooted in a ?shared cultural, economic and political history?.

Both had worked together with common goals and aspirations in the past and should continue to do so, he said.

During a meeting with Hasina, Chatterjee offered to train Bangladesh?s parliamentarians, many of them first termers.

He said that in a parliamentary democracy, the legislatures had the ?immense responsibility? of guiding the destiny of their nations and remained at the centrestage of their democratic polities, according to a statement issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat in New Delhi.

Chatterjee, who arrived here on Saturday at the invitation of his Bangladeshi counterpart Abdul Hamid, is scheduled to address the inaugural session of the four-day Parliamentary Orientation Programme here.

HAI !!HAI !!DEMOCRATIC POWER POLUTED BY POWER POLITICS

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

?Democracy is the best political solution for any nation.In the Modern world the world politician and citizen shown their support for democracy.Democracy is a vast fact where the rights of all citizen is equal and interactive power holder for national activities.In our contry last two years we could realise the necessity of democracy but we should not forget inspite of loving democracy?, almost nations 85% citizen supported the non democratic caretaker govt. can we remember why?why- we supported?undoubtfully for nondemocratic power excercise from a democratic govt. In our contry long excercise of democracy is shouted only for the voting part . All other part is almost neglated.

We was hopeful by seeing the caretaker govt acceptance and thurst of democracy at the same time that we will excercise the new democratic govt with new experience of people demand.We were expecting a new nation of people rights. corruption free , no crime previlised ,progressive political excercised govt.

We? are frusted by seeing so scenes( FROM TODAY DAILY NEWS PAPERS)

We get that our politics has dimantioned in two part AWAMI LEGUE AND BNP ,, but their is one major part who?do not support blindly to any party and the percentage is 50% who say good to the good and bad to the bad. So the power holder should concious about the general and concious citizen of the contry and should not tolare any political agreecive motivator who try to gain their own, through political violence to create them own space by acting as a serious supporter of the party…..in fact they are responsible t fall down the impression of a democratic party.

Please stop them anyway.