A pox on all partisans
by Zia Hassan, translated by Unnashic for AlalODulal.org
1) First, who are absorbed in love for Hefazat all day long - brother, there is a nine minute long video and there is another one recoded from a roof in which the shapla-chatter operation recoded-live can be seen. It is clear from these videos that thousands of dead bodies were not found at all. Continue reading
Savar Tragedy: We Need a Fundamental Shift in Mind-set
by Pavel Hoq for AlalODulal.org
© AP / Kevin Frayer
The Savar building collapse last month was a catastrophic event, but it was not the first of such tragedies for us and probably won’t be the last either. Before the nation could recover from the Tazreen Fashion fire incident a few months ago in November 2012, the Rana Plaza collapse shook the country again. And by the time this piece was written, there were already more such news in the media including a Sea-Truck sinking with 100 on board on May 5th, leaving 8 dead and a garments factory fire in Mirpur, Dhaka on May 8th that killed 8 more people. Continue reading
“This week, Fisher proposed to his readers what he titled “A fascinating map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries.” The deepest-red, or most racially intolerant, countries were India, Bangladesh and Jordan. Russia and China fell in the middle; much of Africa was left out for lack of data, but South Africa came out light blue (highly tolerant), and Nigeria light red (highly intolerant). Other highly tolerant countries included Pakistan and Belarus.” Continue reading
Bangladeshi garments should not play poverty to outsiders
by Farhad Mahmud
A colleague said: “If we force the issue (double the minimum wage) and it is firmly imposed, there is a danger that costs will increase too rapidly and business will be lost. The strategy is to shame the foreign buyers to reduce their profits (by paying a higher price for the products to support higher wages). Will it work?”
My short answer to your question will be it won’t. This is from my experience as a businessman who had been involved in a similar trade for many years.
Continue reading
Where Do We Go From Here (Part 2)
Shafiq
This is part 2 of a series that looks into deeper underlying causes behind recurring political crisis in Bangladesh. Part 1 is here:,
Where Do We Go From Here? (Part 1- The Belgian Incident)
http://alalodulal.org/2013/04/17/where-1/
Let us consider a hypothetical scenario. Bangladesh 5-10 years down the road. Another national election is looming. But the political scene has changed a lot in the last few years. Continue reading
© Larry Buchanan / New Yorker
The Number: Ten Cents
by Michael Guerriero for The New Yorker
