[T]here are the same streets and shops and dishes and hotels, the same Star and Zee TV channels, the same moustachioed men in motorbikes and brisk women working behind the bank counters, the same juxtapositions of colonial and modern architecture, the same squalid streets with boys carrying planks on their heads, and the same wealthy babes schooled on satellited repeats of The Bold and the Beautiful who hang around outside pasta restaurants saying: ‘It’s so boring here, Tina. Let’s go to Maxi’s, yaaah?’
June 21, 2007
June 13, 2007
Foreign Adviser’s talk at ANU
Earlier tonight I attended a talk by Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, the Foreign Adviser in the current Bangladeshi government. The talk, titled ‘Evolving Challenges for Bangladesh in South Asia’, was held at the Australian National University, Dr Chowdhury’s alma mater. The audience included academics, Australian government officials and members of the local Bangladeshi community.
June 8, 2007
On term-limits
Reform is an oft-repeated word in our politics these days, and a commonly suggested reform idea is term-limits — restricting the number of terms someone can hold an elected office. The key argument for term-limits is that they help competitive politics. Incumbency always tilts the playing field against the opposition, and term-limits help level the field. Term-limits also allow newer, fresher faces to enter the political contest. In the current Bangladeshi context, term-limits can be used to bar the leadership that brought us the 1/10 impasse. Rather than forcibly exiling leaders or holding kangaroo courts, might it not be better to have term-limits that stop discredited leaders to hold the nation to hostage?
