It is a matter of research to find out with which country Bangladesh has very stable and dependable relations. This includes political, economic and cultural relations.
   Truly, with none! There is something awfully wrong in our policies adopted by our foreign office. Our foreign office could not keep friendship with our old friends, cannot keep our old market for new exports and cannot keep the trust of very willing and open foreign labour markets. Frankly, we need visionary leadership primarily in politics and secondarily in diplomacy. There is confusion, sluggishness and hesitation in every organ of our government. But nobody asks why?
   Time has come to look for new friends. Time has come to understand realities of geo-politics. Time has come to shake off hesitation and taking bold steps towards improving ties with our neighbouring nations.
   M Ayub Khan
   Ottawa, Canada

In a recent discussion with fellow Bangladeshis, we were asking each one of them to express what in their opinion is the most crying need for Bangladesh, in terms of priority, for the optimum development and rebuilding the nation.
   Interestingly, each one present had a different suggestion. One said we need education before anything else, one said leadership, another said rural development, another law and order, transport, economic growth, foreign investment, etc.
   Of course we need all those, but I asked, what do we need before everything else, before we can implement all those grand visions of development? What do we need desperately right now as a priority before we can see any light? They all said yes, their initial point education or whatever was the crying need.
   Then I pointed out that Bangladesh must unequivocally slice corruption before any other development dreams are made. The country is certainly not short of programmes for development. Billions of foreign dollars are assigned through the government to endless programmes of education, electrification, roads, poverty eradication, rural enterprise, foreign investment, farmer subsidies, border control, environment, aviation, as much as the government can imagine. Unfortunately, 90 per cent of these programmes begin and end at the government offices, and the money is channelled to the wrong hands. Nothing gets implemented, why? Because the funds and resources are either misappropriated or stolen directly from the ministries concerned, or they are abused so grossly that the programmes are totally crippled. Corruption is the disease that Bangladesh must curtail before making any dreams of survival — let alone prosper. Otherwise those goals and dreams, as we see before our eyes, end up as pipe dreams.
   No programme of development whatsoever will come to fruition unless corruption is removed in the first place. Funds, resources and master plans need transparent application. So although poverty is caused by lack of economic growth, the growth of the economy is road-blocked by corruption. Corruption is therefore the direct cause of poverty. The way to reduce poverty and develop a nation is to cut down corruption, and this simple concept is obviously being toned down by the Bangladesh government, politicians and bureaucrats who are wallowing in the world’s biggest hotbed of corruption.
   The outside world can see this glaring disease of corruption on Bangladesh. They politely tell Bangladesh to remove the scab, they try to discipline and encourage Bangladesh with harsh words and even embarrass Bangladesh openly with statistics. Yet Bangladesh and its people appear unconcerned, because they are uninformed and unaware of the damage and extent of corruption in Bangladesh.
   Awareness, that corruption is the root-cause of poverty, is the first step to national development.
   K Gazi
   USA

It is unsafe to work in most Bangladesh garment factories. Most of them are firetraps, they are electrically dangerous and no attention is paid to safety whilst operating a machine.
   Owners do not care about safety, because they think it costs money, and no one is brave enough to complain, and it is easy to bribe a government inspector.
   Women work in crowded conditions, operating machines with exposed pulley belts, waiting to trap them and cut their fingers off. Men carry heavy weights up stairs, risking a fall that could quite easily break a leg.
   Electrical connections are crude and unsafe, just waiting to cause a fire, or electrocute a worker.
   Fire arrangements are pathetic. A few fire extinguishers with dust and cobwebs on stood behind piles of garments, so they can’t be used anyway. No fire practice is ever performed, so in the event of a fire, no one knows what to do, resulting in panic and loss of life.
   Managers are not trained to understand health and safety issues; they have no comprehension of what is needed. Indeed they are under intensive pressure from owners to produce at all cost, with no regard for human safety.
   As China is becoming more competitive, and is willing to design safe factories and implement safety measure, buyers will place orders there.
   They are under pressure from the consumers in the West to buy garments made under ethical conditions.
   Bangladesh beware, the rest of the world knows the conditions in your factories.
   A citizen
   Via e-mail