Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts

Mar 11, 2013

For a long time now, I've been theorizing that we've completely forgotten why we have a government. We've all gotten so used to paying our own way out of everything, that the 'government' is almost a group of entertainers who go on Sangsad TV and say the darnedest things. Accountability is a fairy tale creature, while Corruption is a way of life.

This freedom from responsibilities given to any Bangladesh government is too painfully clear at this stage of our lives in the backdrop of a few things - trials of war crimes/human rights violation of 1971, Awami League's indemnity due to being in power, the Shahbagh movement which is now called the 'Stage of Mass Awakening', and the violence we're witnessing across the country, especially outside Dhaka.

The way I, an ordinary working man and lunatic, see it, is that the war crimes trials would have taken massive planning to complete successfully. Especially, since if I am the party, then I've been lenient on criminals who work for me, and similarly, to war criminals who work for me, but I am happy to persecute the others. For success, in really wanting a successful rooting out of anti-liberation elements, I'd need to have either been fair to start with, or, planned way ahead using lots of intelligence gathering and precautions to avoid a violent situation, knowing very well that one particular opponent in the arena, have a knack for it just like me!

If I had security considerations, and knowing the violence-knacked-opponent, I also would not have allowed the Shahbagh to carry on, instead of using it to poke that violent beast and to put more ordinary people in harm's way.

BAL was never one to play down their 'party' identity even while holding the majority in parliament. Every hartal, we've seen their party members taking law into their own hands, right in front of the police. It is commonly alleged that the police is a force that was built largely using political leaning as a criteria. Even if it wasn't, they sure do let the BAL guys do what they want in front of them! In such times, when you hear the Queen mother ask us (the general people) to form 'defense committees' in every area, its everyone's guess that it would mean defense committeees comprising of these same BAL guys who have that knack. Whereas before,  I could say they were unlawful, now, its the Queen's calling!

The government has been given their rights by us the voters and taxpayers, and they usually have 'responsibilities' in most countries. Security in the wake of a 40 year late war crimes trial, combined with the criminals in question all being active in politics should've been of utmost importance. This should be counted in their tally of failures.

Note: The photo was the cover of a documentary titled My Architect, about Louis Isadore Kahn the architect. The film was created by his son.

Posted on Monday, March 11, 2013

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Jul 24, 2012

The government did a good job! Ask anyone in the government, they'll always claim they always do! Yes, they kept our (or my) heads (head) spinning like a top. I woke up every two days asking myself the question I placed as the title of this post.

When one day its 'Get lost World Bank! We don't need you!', the next would be 'We're still thinking about it, we'd like some dialog', and then followed up by 'We can do this, we don't need the world bank's money! Even little kids want to give up their lunch money... they called the Prime Minister and said so themselves!'. They had even set up policies for a special bank account where citizens can contribute for the bridge over river Padma (M is silent for all you non-bengali folks).

The citizens of course filled up with patriotic fervor, even after the rising oil prices, rising prices of goods and necessities, rising taxes and VATs. Though, some channels showed some people on the streets who were not filled up with fervor (almost the opposite).

The WB, to recap, had laid down a few conditions to releasing the money for building bridges approved. We fulfilled many of these, and were staunchly opposing a few others. The sensational of these was the point of removing Mr. Abul Hossain from the ministry while investigators made sure there were no premise for corruption in the execution of this very large project. The government really stood proud behind him and said 'No!'. At one time, they moved him from the Communications ministry to Information ministry to calm WB down, but refused to take him away completely. They loved him too much, even though as a Communications minister he made serious oversight.

There are a few parody newspapers out right now. I know of two - Dainik Motikontho, and Dainik Maghbazar. They had started putting absurd news titles and events surrounding actual events, which really reflected the lunacy of the overall situation. But in recent times, even when I read the real news, from the serious newspapers, I can't tell apart the real and the parodied.

But after months of news and parodies, reality checks and escapes, yesterday it was announced that he might be resigning. This, at the peak of our defiance of World Bank (and ADB).

MP Abul said yesterday:  "আমার শুভাকাঙ্ক্ষী এবং আমি যাঁদের শ্রদ্ধা করি তাঁরা বিভিন্ন সময় আমাকে বলেছেন, তদন্ত চলাকালে আমার মন্ত্রী পদে থাকা উচিত না। আমি সিদ্ধান্তটা নিয়েছি। কার্যকর ব্যবস্থাও নিয়ে ফেলেছি। আমি দায়িত্বে থাকব না।"
He also added: "আমি মন্ত্রী থাকব কি না, সবকিছুই আল্লাহর ইচ্ছে। আর দপ্তরবিহীন মন্ত্রী হওয়ার বিষয়ে আল্লাহ প্রধানমন্ত্রীকে ক্ষমতা দিয়েছেন। তিনিই এ বিষয়ে সিদ্ধান্ত নেবেন।"

These are from Prothom Alo.

Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2012

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May 21, 2012

There is an unrealistic amount of faith that is pitted on the digitization of services (through BAL's much drummed 'Digital Bangladesh' ventures) as a way of relief from corruption by our present government. The Finance Minister admitted recently that corruption has just spread to all nook and cranny of public services and also cited the digitization of services as THE way out. That may be the case in certain areas or aspects, but if anyone has been to public offices with hopes of receiving services, they'll remember those uninterested faces, those blank stares, those lifeless creatures behind the counters and desks who seem quite bothered to have seen you, who state their (unlawful) prices quite frankly, even with anti-corruption posters hanging around them. You cannot expect to digitize everything and there will ultimately be servicemen and women you will have to deal with. The government seem to be suggesting that until we get those software development cycles complete and services up and running - a decade possibly, we keep on going about it the same way. Digitization doesn't happen with the snap of Jewel Aich's fingers!

What I find really lacking is an easy way to report when a public office declines to provide someone a service, fails to provide a service, or asks for unlawful funding from the public (recently, there was an extra charge under "Miscellaneous" for re-issuing my wife's license even after all the due payments have been made). At the point these happen, you are standing at a public office, quite possibly having traveled through Dhaka's usual high traffic, sweating, uneasy, and also having to spend time away from your actual day job, and you may ponder what is the way to get what you came for. I assume the beings behind the counter know these all too well, and that is what gives them the courage and pleasure to put you in a tight spot, where you'd rather pay that extra charge than having to risk not getting the right papers. Imagine driving without a license, or going for that business trip without a passport, or not being able to pick up your Tax Certificate, or not getting to register your new born child!

These officers have too much leverage on the public that they use to their gain, and the way out is to take away that leverage. Digitization IS a possibility for that, but immediately actionable consequences to these officers' way of working is also a quickly implementable counter to it. If those anti-corruption posters had along with those high sounding advice, a hotline that handles complaints for that specific office, and you could launch a direct complaint against the handler, or the office. It could be a mobile court, or there could be an overseeing officer responsible for action against malpractices within that office. Even while writing this, I can see how it falls into a cycle, since somewhere within our systems, we need people we can rely on.


Related:

দুর্নীতি দেশের সব জায়গায়


Posted on Monday, May 21, 2012

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Jul 4, 2011

One of the remarkable things about AL is the iron hand with which it is dealing with protestors of ANY kind. When the opponents try to get out of their party or organization offices to take part in a rally, no matter how peaceful it might have been intended to be, the Police has been playing their devoted roles in breaking them up and inciting arrests, so to speak. It happened last week when BNP tried to go out to protest the dismissal of the Caretaker Government system (don't confuse yourself, but it was put in place by AL in the first place by means of rigorous protests which had the country in a standstill for a looong time back then) which takes care of holding elections. Now, prior to this, the caretaker government held a brief stint in which it tried to bring forward corruption charges against the leading politicians from both camps. There has been a lot of talk about it on the TV talk shows and the newspapers, but all in all we've managed to put our apathetic hats on for the most part.

Some people, didn't care for that hat last sunday (03/07/2011), when the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports (NCPOGMR) called a strike to protest the deal thats in the making with ConocoPhilips to do some offshore drilling for gas which sleeps underneath us. Bloggers of Bangladesh got out, tearing up their hats, and under the sun and held before them long cloth banners which told of their protest. And the police, faithful to their leaders and not the tax-paying citizens came out piously to break them up and make some arrests. Law and Order, Gentlemen, has been ... er... restored. Educators and bloggers, and non-political citizens who are concerned are now prisoned.

Coming up, is a 4 day strike called by the bigger guns, the political and shaky BNP and Jamaat. I wonder, after their last attempt at a strike was so vividly broken down by the police, what they are planning to redeem themselves. Kinda scary, and at the same time soap-opera-exciting.

That what this is... a political soap opera.

Related:
Interview of an activist of NCPOGMR
Dinmajur Blog
Half Day Hartal (Prothom Alo)
The Wall Street Journal Picks up this story
Our Students in Sweden Protest for the Protestors

Posted on Monday, July 04, 2011

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Mar 1, 2011

Firstly, I am here to discuss the issue of mobility, and not a revolution or politics. Just in case ...

Dhaka's population is now at a very bad size. I don't know the number exact number, but the effect of it is not invisible. The government is taking and pondering drastic and desperate steps, such as not approving any more power lines for new apartments or houses, or gas lines (which would be used for cooking), where as there are many people moving into this city and waiting to move into their new apartments or houses. Construction work all over the city is rampant, since that demand is ever increasing with the movement of people into Dhaka. The roads, transport systems are all insufficient at the moment to support this many people.

Long term plans to avoid a deadlock situation someday in this city is however not clear to me. My feeling is that "labor mobility" could be one answer. Dhaka, as the capital, has justly become the place for commercial enterprise, education, entertainment, etc., and also has the largest international airport.

So far as I can see, any suggestion for industries to move out of Dhaka has meant to move to Gazipur or Ashulia, somewhere adjacent, and not really going that far out of Dhaka. As things are going, those places could one day be part of Dhaka City. I think the government should take a more active effort to develop other parts of the country to specifically serve one or two industries and improve communication to those parts with major cities such as Chittagong and Dhaka.

From the top of my head, two industries come to mind -
1. Education (Honors and higher), and
2. IT

Both these industries could be lured in with simple incentives. The government could scope out land that would be suitable for universities and keep them priced low, provided, that a university will be set up with the proper measures. The land's development could also be controlled by dictating what amount of land goes into playing fields (considering university level development of future athletes, footblallers and cricketers?) and parks, and what into buildings for classrooms, offices and lodgings. This should be accompanied by a ban on further development of universities in the cities of Dhaka and Chittagong. The capital possessed by anyone preparing to invest to build universities in Dhaka should be more than enough to carry on with the phased development of universities elsewhere. Research in those universities should be directed around potential sectors of its locale.

For IT companies, in this day and age, deliverable items are most likely transferrable online. Technology companies need good infrastructure, and the prime one is good connectivity. The government should consider building up a massive region with proper ground up planning of infrastructure considering consistent power and connectivity. Silicon Valley might have gotten its reputation as a place for technology companies by natural turn of events, but Malaysia used it as a learning experience and built Cyberjaya and its Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) from it. The government actively pursued companies to be part of it, and also universities who specialize in technology to go there and set up. Its a beautiful place, with the proper infrastructure, with everything people need in proximity. Being in the IT industry myself, I am pleased just imagining myself living and working somewhere from where Cox's Bazaar is an hour or hour and a half's drive and all the roads to there and Chittagong or Dhaka are so well made and well kept that the drive back to my hometown of Dhaka is a breeze and even enjoyable! If anyone wouldn't be pleased by the thought of that, then I don't know what! I have seen many signs of "IT Park" or something close to that in the city, where its really just one building! I think if we had a whole expanse of land where office buildings (already constructed) or land (for those with the capital to construct their own) was offered up by the government for a real and true "IT Park", it would have to be something like Cyberjaya, possibly scaled down in different aspects.

We obviously have lots of construction companies working in Dhaka now, and an undertakings such as these could utilize a lot of their expertise, and related industries would also flourish in making this a reality. Once complete, other business opportunities would naturally open up around these areas to support both the companies and the population that reside there.

Posted on Tuesday, March 01, 2011

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Jun 2, 2010


Fire-fighters could not start a full-scale rescue operation even three hours into the incident as the lanes around the building are too narrow for rescue vehicles to pass.
Leakage in gas pipes and snapped electricity cables made the rescue work risky, said the deputy commissioner.

(The Daily Star)

Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2010

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