It’s not the syndicates, stupid

Prices are skyrocketing, the Trade Minister is a failure, government is incompetent, corrupt businessmen are holding the nation to a ransom — that’s the sense one gets from glancing through the newspapers, or watching the Deshi channels.  The thing is, this whole narrative based on an obsession with ’syndicates’ — unscrupulous businessmen in cahoots with corrupt politicians — is at most a minor, side story.  Much of the price rises we are seeing are likely to be explained by simple interactions of supply and demand.  

And while the media is busy hunting syndicates, talk show pundits are castigating the Trade Minister, and the Trade Minister is busy trying to preach the businessmen to ‘not make excessive profit’, no one is talking about the real danger: monsoon is about to fail across South and South East Asia, and there is a real danger of skyrocketing rice prices in 2010.

What ifs revisited…

My last year’s 15 Aug post formed the basis of a Forum article a few weeks ago.  The big takeaway: we have spent a lot of time imagining our nation when there was nothing inevitable about the way things turned out, but we do have a republic that is up to us to shape. 

This year, let’s have some quick fun with what ifs.  What are the big ‘what if’ questions of the 20th century South Asia? 

কাঁটা তারের বেড়া

Once upon a time, it was Bangladesh that wanted to erect restrictions on travel to and from India.  In 1972, Bangladesh was adamant that the two country should have a visa system between them.  Back then, Bengali Muslim majority of the country feared that Hindus who migrated around partition would return en masse.  That wasn’t the only worry about India.  In the 1970s, most educated Bangladeshi feared an Indian takeover.

How things have changed.  In last year’s election, the centre-right BNP campaigned on ’saving the country’ from, among other things, Indian takeover.  Election results clearly showed, in the words of my friend Zafar Sobhan of Forum, that dog didn’t bite.  Bangladeshis are no longer that paranoid about India.

Across the border, things are probably different.  I say probably because I am not familiar with the Indian zeitgeist, and could be misreading things. 

But I say different when I read this statistic: each year, nearly 100 Bangladeshi nationals are killed by the Indian Border Security Forces (they kill a similar number of their own people along the border.  I say different when I watch a news report like this.  I say different because I see no discussion of this in the mainstream Indian media.  I say different because I see fingers pointed at alleged Bangladeshi connection when there is a terrorist incidence in India.

‘Indians’ Down Under

‘Indian’ students in Australia have attracted a lot of attention lately.  There has been racist violence — see this Economist artcle — as well as fairly dodgy practices in Australia’s education exports industry — see here.  Ironically, much of the violence has been perpetrated not by ‘Anglos’, but by youths of other ethnic groups.  And the students are often ripped off by members of their own communities.

Education is a major service export for Australia, and these scandals pose a major risk to the sector.  That’s why the country’s Prime Minister made formal statements in the parliament promising an end to the attacks, sent a high level delegation to India, and received the Indian Foreign Minister earlier this month with much pomp and ceremony. 

Of course, attackers don’t ask the victims for their passports — they don’t discriminate on which side of the Radcliffe Line their victims comes from: Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi all are ‘fair targets’. 

The number of young Bangladeshis in Sydney and Melbourne run well into five figures, and they too have faced similar troubles.  It’s however difficult to imagine the Australian government reacting that strongly if the attacks were solely against Bangladeshi students. 

I guess it’s about time India’s neighbours benefitted from its hegemony.

Meanwhile, when Lateline, a major Australian current affairs talk show, ran a story on this, they got two people who do not subscribe to any form of the ‘Indian’ identity.

(Cross-posted at A-A-A)

Don’t let them fool you

Spiralling prices, terrorist attacks, blatant attempts to rig the election — the third BNP government’s many failures are self-evident.  And yet, even this incompetent government presided over the fastest growth rate in our history.  But one would be hard pressed to find much good news about that government. 

This is because, in addition to incompetence in general governance, that government was also a disaster in terms of media manipulation and the retail politics of daily news cycle.  In contrast, the current lot is probably the most media savvy in our history. 

It’s therefore vitally important for the independent media — that’s you, dear reader — to be alert.  It’s absolutely crucial that you remain vigilant, and keep the third AL government honest.