I wrote various letters in your esteemed daily in the recent past, scientifically querying the ‘blind bandwagon following’ of climate change adherents, and the purported perils facing the world and Bangladesh from climatologists and economists.
   Well, it appears that Al Gore and others (notwithstanding the Nobel Prize), are wrong and that the Earth (in particular, its seas) has actually been cooling for the past few years. The Leibniz Institute of Marine Science has announced through the world-famous science journal ‘Nature’ that we have no need to worry about global warming for the next decade. There will be a lull, however (to be cautious) there may be cause to worry thereafter! This basic research has shown that warming and cooling of oceans take place on a fairly regular cycle irrespective of ‘carbon footprints’.
    I hope this breathing space will give Bangladesh the opportunity to rationally develop alternative and clean power sources without being pushed into it by a faddish
   frenzy.
   Engineer Shafi Ahmed
   London, UK

Bangladesh has been victim of devastating flood twice in the last year. A severe cyclone (Sidr) swept through Bangladesh in November 2007 which left over 10000 dead and half a billion USD in damage. Yet economic data shows that Bangladesh is on track in its expected growth. That’s almost like a miracle.
   The Export Promotion Bureau in Bangladesh reported that Bangladesh exports in March 2008 have increased by 21.25 per cent from the past year to $1.22 billion. In July to March, the first three quarters of the 2007-2008 fiscal year, export earnings grew 12.4 per cent to $10.16 billion. Export volume increased by 13.93 per cent. Earnings from knitwear garments in the nine-month period grew by 17.34 per cent to $3.9 billion. Exports of woven garments increased 7.54 per cent to $3.8 billion.
   According to the Bangladesh central bank statistics, Bangladesh expatriates sent home a record remittance i.e. US$6.449 billion in the first 10 months of this fiscal year. It got a 31.48 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $800.20 million in April 2008. In March, the remittance was $808.72 million.
   At least 295,155 Bangladeshis found jobs in over 100 countries during the January-April period this year. This is up from 192,725 in the same period last year, according to the Employment and Training (BMET) statistics published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower.
   A recent report indicated that banks in Bangladesh are allowed to open small business centres in Bangladesh. It suggested that Bangladeshi expatriates are now increasingly using banking channels to remit money as banks have become efficient in delivering such money. The Bangladesh Bank recently decided to allow the commercial banks to partner with the non-governmental organisations (NGO) having branches all over the country for disbursement of remittances, particularly in the rural areas.
   In another report published earlier this month, Bangladesh’s central bank said that the economy could grow as much as 6.2 per cent in the current fiscal year, supported by a rebound in agricultural output following natural disasters and a pick-up in exports growth.
   In few recent reports on Bangladesh ship-breaking industries, it has been emphasised that Bangladesh has emerged as a major ship-breaking destination in South Asia. An average of 150-200 vessels are being scrapped in Bangladesh every year, according to one report. Bangladesh is getting a competitive edge over its rival in neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan generate around 4,000 tonnes of scrap steel per vessel, while Bangladesh generates 12,000-15,000 tonnes of scrap steel per vessel, according to the data provided by the report. A high official of the Ship Recycling Industries Association of India have said in a newspaper interview that ‘Indian ship-breakers are losing business to Bangladesh’.
   There are some downsides as well. Bangladesh has been under serious rice shortage and price has climbed as much as 50 per cent in recent months. Bangladesh was seriously affected by the worldwide rice shortage. Being in the list of top five rice-producing countries did not help Bangladesh much. That’s because Bangladesh consumes more rice than it produces since rice is the primary food here. Bangladesh has to import a large sum of rice each year. Natural disasters made this worse. Even living in Silicon Valley, I can feel the heat as my local Costco have run out of rice for weeks. Other shops have also increased the price and put a limit on how much each customer can buy. I can imagine the situation in Bangladesh where 35 per cent people live below dollar-a-day poverty line. Yet the new harvesting season is giving them a hope.
   Government of Bangladesh has just banned export of rice for six months except for aromatic varieties. Official says that the ban came after the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) revealed last week that a group of exporters have cashed in on the government’s free rice export policy by shipping in record amount of the staple this fiscal year.
   Bangladesh factory owners and officials have come into rescue by providing subsidised food to low-paid workers. Workers in Bangladesh are assumed to spend about 70 per cent of their income on food. ‘The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association will provide rice at two-thirds of the market price to a quarter of its 800,000 employees’, a local official said to a reporter.
   The central bank (Bangladesh Bank) reported that Bangladesh’s overall import grew by 24. 37 per cent during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (July 2007-June 2008) over the same period of the previous fiscal. ‘The overall import increased during the period due mainly to higher import of essential items including food grains, industrial raw materials and petroleum products to meet the domestic demand,’ a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank have said to a news reporter.
   Looking over both pros and cons from the reports coming from Bangladesh, it seems that Bangladesh have been passing difficult times. But at the same time, all economic data pointers are suggesting that the overall growth is marching forward in full swing. If only its political leaders now realise the opportunity that lies ahead and abandon the path of corruption and instability like strike, Bangladesh should embrace a promising future. The real question is, will they realise it and come clean?
   GM Solaiman
   Silicon Valley, California, USA

Violence is the norm of reaction on any question in Bangladesh society: they wage war because the government want to give equal rights to women, the students vandalise university campus because they want postponement of their examinations so that they can watch football, political parties demonstrate to tell people their programmes and in the process clash with the police and carnage takes place causing loss of life and destruction of properties. What sort of society do we live in? Are we basically and genetically a mad race? How come on earth that so much insanity took over in the psyche of a large section of people because a jetty was closed? Does it demand so much violence? Could not they meet their demands in any other peaceful manner?
   One can say that the administrative machinery, which the colonial power introduced over 200 hundred years ago and is still functioning greatly intact, may be responsible to a great extent for all these problems. This is time that the government made radical change in Bangladesh administrative system and let local government be empowered. The local government must be given full power, including the power of maintaining law and order, at the local level. Anybody who violates peace, on any pretext, must be dealt with without mercy and responsible individual or the group made to pay in full for all damages done.
   Introduction of Ombudsman system should be another step to cope with and to resolve conflicts between warring factions whether it is local politics, giving equal salary to women or any other social, cultural and political issue. No more violence, please. Let us come to our senses and let prudence replace madness from our individual and national psyche.
   Tayeb Husain
   Lund, Sweden