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MDGs & doubling of aid
   At the UN Millennium Summit held in September 2000, New York more than 180 countries unanimously agreed to reduce the global poverty by half by the year 2015. They agreed to implement a set of key development targets called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce poverty and improve people’s economic and social prospects in developing countries. The goals were to reduce global hardcore poverty by half and substantially improve other social indicators under the MDGs by 2015.
   Although the UN takes the responsibility for monitoring the progress of the MDGs globally, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have also adopted it as a part of their own poverty alleviation programme by scaling up their investment level. The UNDP, which has its own office in most of the countries is monitoring the progress relating to the MDGs and publishes an annual report each year to keep the world informed. The World Bank Group, however, does its own monitoring work and has just published its second annual report the other day. The report entitled ‘Global Monitoring Report: MGDs: From Consensus to Momentum,’ has just been launched in Washington DC with an introduction from the outgoing World Bank President James Wolfensohn.
   The 2005 Global Monitoring Report is part of a five-year stocktaking effort to monitor progress towards achieving the Millennium Goals. The finance ministers, central bankers, and development ministers in Washington at the spring meeting of the World Bank-IMF will discuss the report. It will also serve as an important input into the next G8 heads of state meeting schedule in UK in July next and the UN Summit on the MDGs in September in New York.
   A joint press release issued by the WB-IMF on the second annual report on MDGs in Washington DC says that it has outlined a five-point agenda designed to accelerate progress, emphasizing on doubling of official development assistance (ODA) in the next five years. While introducing the report, Wolfensohn pointed out: ‘The credibility of the entire development community as at stake as never before.’ Says he: ‘Rich countries must now deliver on the promises they have made in terms of aid, trade and debt relief, and the developing countries – especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa – need to aim higher and do better in terms of their own policies and governance and to make more effective use of aid.’
   The five-point agenda outlined by the 2005 Global Monitoring Report for achieving the MDGs globally are: a) ensure that development efforts are country-owned (Scale up development impact through country-owned and led poverty reduction strategy; b) improve the environment for private sector-led economic growth (Strengthen fiscal management and governance, ease the business environment, and invest in infrastructure); c) scale up delivery of basic human services (Rapidly increase the supply of healthcare workers and teachers, provide larger and more flexible and predictable financing for these recurrent cost intensive services, and strengthen institutional capacity); d) dismantle barriers of trade (Through the ambitious Doha Round, including major reforms of agriculture trade policies – and also increasing ‘aid for trade’); and e) double development aid in the next five years (In addition, improve the quality of aid, with faster progress on aid coordination and harmonization).
   
   South Asian example
   The 2005 Global Monitoring Report pointed out that with just a decade left to go, progress toward the MDGs has been slower and more uneven across the region than originally envisaged, with Sub-Saharan Africa falling far short. However, while comparing progress made in the South Asian region in terms of MDGs its observation was interesting and unusually flattering to Bangladesh.
   It says that with income per capita in the order of US$460, the eight countries of South Asia (it includes Afghanistan in addition to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) are home to nearly 40 percent of world’s poor living in less than a dollar a day. Elaborating it said: ‘Three places in the South Asian region stand out as having good MDG indicators for their income levels. Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Kerala have an established pattern of good performance (more consistent with high income countries) that reflect the priority successive post independence governments (and even pre-independence governments) have given to investments in human development. Bangladesh has shown remarkable progress with many of the MDGs, despite its low-income level and high incidence of poverty (second only to Afghanistan in the region), adverse initial conditions, high population density, contentious politics, and vulnerability to natural disasters.’
   While pointing out that reducing poverty remains a challenge for South Asia, but with continued high economic growth raising incomes the poverty MDGs is within reach. But to sustain rapid economic growth will require continued improvements throughout the region in the investment climate, basic infrastructure, and effective delivery of basic services within a framework of macroeconomic stability.
   Besides, a number of other MDGs are also within the region’s reach if access for poor people and effective delivery to them improve. However, problems remain as despite substantial public expenditures, some countries and states (in India) continue with services in health, education, and water and sanitation that fail the poor people. This happens due mostly to ‘fragile accountability between users, providers, politicians and policymakers caused by ineffective public institutions, poor focus on outcomes and incentives, political clientelism and patronage, and difficulty of monitoring and supervision.’ The report, however, expressed some optimism in that with democracy taking roots in the region and gradual decentralization of the administration and devolution of political power, situation would change for better. With local communities becoming responsible to provide services, the delivery system is bound to improve.
   
   MDGs: India and Bangladesh
   The WB-IMF 2005 Global Report will probably cause some furor in India for giving Bangladesh relatively better marks in the progress in terms of reaching the MDGs. While giving good marks to the countries of South Asia in general in terms of reaching the MDGs, the report said that two remarkable exceptions are Pakistan, ‘where poverty has stagnated at around one third of the population, and Afghanistan, which is emerging from decades of conflict.’
   However, the report while suggesting, ‘three places in South Asia region stand out’ included Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Kerala, not mentioning the rest of India, and Bangladesh as having done better than rest of the region could become controversial. Besides, the conclusion could become even more contentious. It says: ‘Against this backdrop, the universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality and major disease MDGs would appear within reach of most of the countries in the region, with only Pakistan, Afghanistan and the poorer states of India remaining off track unless progress quickens substantially.’
   This appears quite contrary to what the Indian bureaucracy and political leaders think about their own country and would certainly hurt New Delhi’s self esteem. For example, only about two months ago Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran issuing a major foreign policy statement bluntly told India’s South Asian neighbours: ‘India is today one of the most dynamic and fastest growing economies of the world. It constitutes not only a vast and growing market, but also a competitive source of technologies and knowledge-based services. Countries across the globe are beginning to see India as an indispensable economic partner.’
   This is, of course, real and there is nothing wrong with the assertion, except the veiled threats to New Delhi’s smaller neighbours. The 2005 Global Report’s analysis based on realities is also a fact and a more realistic picture will emerge only when the Indian policymakers would be able to dispassionately review both and arrive at the right conclusion. The right conclusion, of course, varies depending on position as well as perception.
   
   Human rights violations: US style
   Associated Press, America’s pro-establishment news agency in a story released last week datelined Washington said: ‘In a development the Bush administration had hoped to avoid, the stories of about 60 detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base have spilled out in court papers.’ This was one of those news items on the continuous human rights abuse in the United States in general and in the US prison in particular is getting mentioned in the US media in monotonous frequency. The story pointed out that the government was ‘holding about 550 terrorism suspects at the Navy base in Cuba. An additional 214 have been released since the prison opened in January 2002 — some into the custody of their home governments, others freed outright.’
   It was also pointed out in the news agency story that little information about those victims has been released through official channels. But stories of 60 or more are spelled out in detail in thousands of pages of transcripts filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, where lawsuits challenging their detentions have been filed. Omar Rajab Amin, a Kuwaiti who graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1992 and one of the victims, wanted to see the evidence. The tribunal president — the de facto judge for the proceeding — said he could review only unclassified evidence. In another transcript, the unidentified president of a U.S. military tribunal bursts out: ‘I don’t care about international law. I don’t want to hear the words ‘international law’ again. We are not concerned with international law.’ The AP story concluded: ‘Expressing defiance in some instances and stoic acceptance of their fate in others, the once-nameless and still-largely faceless detainees appeared last year before tribunals that, after quick reviews, declared they were unlawful enemy combatants who could be held indefinitely.’
   This is how the US administration, which is fighting to prevent the abuse of human rights all over the world and especially in the third world countries, is treating its own prisoners who were detained on suspicion without any proven charge. This is not propaganda but cold news stories written by the free US media based on facts.

For the past decade, arsenic pollution of groundwater has been identified as one of the greatest crises facing the health of the populace of Bangladesh. What arsenic does to health has already been discussed countless times and poignant pictures splashed on the front pages of our newspapers. This toxic element occurs naturally in deltaic and alluvial sediments. The first official detection in Bangladesh was in 1993 and subsequently it was confirmed that numerous shallow and deep wells in various parts of the country have dangerous levels of arsenic in them. 85% of the land area of Bangladesh has been deemed to be at risk. To give an idea of the severity of the crisis, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed it as the largest mass poisoning in the world.
   Ironically, the arsenic problem in Bangladesh arose out of the good advice of the government and health professionals. Given our high rates of water-borne diseases, governments in the past encouraged everyone to dig wells and use the groundwater stored underneath, as it was deemed less polluted than surface water. The propaganda converted almost all of the village populace, who became converts to the belief that tubewell water was much safer to use. Unfortunately, Bangladeshi groundwater is laced with arsenic, a fact which those 9000 unfortunates who contracted arsinocosis, the extreme form of arsenic poisoning, learned to their cost. One of the problems is that it is a silent killer; it might take almost a decade for the affects to manifest themselves. Nowadays, aid agencies and NGO’s are working to provide clean uncontaminated water to the villagers, and the Government helps in any way it can. But given the problem, it is a growing crisis. Bangladesh still tops the list as the most affected of 23 countries of the world
   People are again increasingly using surface water, but the water that comes out from tubewells looks so much clear and unpolluted, that many are still not recognizing the dangers. Although efforts have been made, it is felt that more could have been done or should be done to educate people of the dangers until it is too late. Whatever the Government’s efforts, it has been criticised by the international bodies for not taking all possible steps and not being sufficiently cognisant of the dangers. Millions of Bangladeshis are still drinking this water, and exposing themselves to the risk of cancer and other skin lesions.
   Many studies throughout the world have been undertaken on how to combat this. It is possible to remove arsenic from water with present methods. The most common way uses a type of filter with iron fillings. Unfortunately these have to be replaced frequently, some are expensive, and in some cases the raw materials are not readily available. The problem is so acute, and such a widespread area of our country is being affected, that the search for new and cheaper ways goes on in universities around the world.
   Recently, a British-Bangladeshi scientist, Dr. Parvez Haris, of De Montfort University in Leicester, published a paper in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring. He suggested that the common pest of our rivers, the water hyacinth plant, could be used for the task of filtering out arsenic.
   Anyone who has been on the waterways of Bangladesh knows how this weed, originally from South America, introduced to our country as a decorative plant at the beginning of the twentieth century, has generated itself over the past decades, and now manages to clog all but the swiftest moving streams. The plant is known as the “green plague” because it flourishes as a weed in ponds, lakes and rivers in hot climates and can double in size within weeks. But now this weed may actually prove to be a great implement in fighting arsenic contamination.
   After completing his PhD at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine under the supervision of Professor Dennis Chapman FRS in 1989, Dr Haris continued as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Royal Free until 1996. He took up a lectureship position in Biochemistry at De Montfort University, Leicester in 1996, and is currently a Senior Lecturer there. His research studies involve structure-function relationship in peptides, proteins and biomembranes. He and his team recently carried out experiments that suggested that the dried and powdered roots of the water hyacinth plant might be quite effective in reducing the arsenic level in contaminated water to below the safe limit of 10 micrograms per litre. This happens to be the designated safe limit. Experiments showed that even where initial concentrations were 20 times higher than the above limit, arsenic was reduced to below the safe limit within minutes of the powder being applied to the water. An explanation has been offered that arsenic compounds are probably binding to sugar compounds in the material.
   The team has not yet tested whether the treated water is safe to drink. Further research is needed until it can be commercially applied, but Dr. Haris and his group are optimistic. He thinks that it can actually be immediately applied to treat water used for irrigation, halting entry of the toxin into agricultural lands. If this comes about, and if the treated water is found to be quite safe to drink, then it will certainly prove to be a great boon for the people in arsenic contaminated lands all over the world.

April 18, 1930 is a red-letter day in the history of India’s struggle of freedom from the British. Seventy five years ago on this day a group of only 64 freedom fighters led by Surya Sen alias Masterda successfully invaded the Chittagong Armoury in the darkness of the night. The plan, executed meticulously and with great secrecy, comprised a programme of the setting up of a provisional government that would emancipate Chittagong from the British occupation. Also, it would serve as an example before the people of India through causing a demoralising the British in their colonial rule. To free all of India was not the immediate goal.
   The freedom fighters met little resistance from the British occupation forces who were guarding the Armoury. While a British officer, Sergeant-Major Farrel was killed, the revolutionaries did not touch his family members who lived nearby as Masterda had strict instructions not to kill innocent persons. At the same time the freedom fighters   snapped the telephone and railway lines. Later that night the freedom fighters gathered at the police armoury to set up the Independent Provisional Revolutionary Government in Chittagong with Masterda Surya Sen as its head and the national flag of independence was hoisted. Masterda was fully aware of the repercussions that were to follow and left with all his troops and the captured guns to the nearby Jalalabad Hill before dawn. Four days later, thousands of British troops converged on and surrounded Jalalabad Hill. But the freedom fighters managed to escape after putting up a heroic fight that left 83 British soldiers as well as twelve of their own comrades dead.
   There was a strategic mistake in the plan of attack as the revolutionaries could not get all the ammunition from the raid.   It had an impact on the subsequent armed struggle that the revolutionaries were to launch against the British. Masterda had decided to take recourse to guerrilla warfare against the British, a struggle that continued for another three years. On September 23, 1932, Masterda assigned the woman revolutionary Pritilata Waddedar to lead an attack on the Pahartali European Club of Chittagong, which used to display the hateful sign ‘Dogs and Indians not allowed’. The raid was successful but Pritilata could not escape. She preferred death by swallowing a cyanide pill rather than being captured by the colonial occupiers of the land, thus immortalising herself as one of the greatest freedom fighters of all times.
   On February 16, 1933 Masterda became a victim of treachery and was captured by the British rulers who mercilessly tortured him in prison and finally hanged him to death on January 12, 1934. Masterda’s body was not handed over to his relatives. It was thrown into the Bay of Bengal, a few hundred miles away from the coast.
   According to British records, the Chittagong Armoury Raid constituted the ‘most spectacular and successful’ underground action ever undertaken by any revolutionary teams in India during the colonial rule. The success of April 18, 1930 not only stunned the British occupiers but its reverberations also swept an entire India. The British colonialists branded Masterda as a ‘terrorist’ while in reality it was they who had terrorised and plundered Bengal for 190 years.
   The legacy of Masterda is very much relevant even today as the British government has   revived the path of colonialism, which is evident from its recent occupation of Iraq carried out under a pretext of lies. By dumping Masterda’s body into the Bay of Bengal the British rulers believed that his sprit would be drowned with his body. That did not happen. Not only Masterda does live for ever in the hearts and minds of the people of South Asia, his immortal soul also inspires all those across the globe who are striving for freedom from colonial occupation.