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PRICE OF DISCORDANT DIPLOMACY
Is Dhaka turning into Delhi's client state?
M. Shahidul Islam
Much of the latest diplomatic dancing of the Caretaker Government (CG) is out of tune with the music the nation wants it to follow. Dealings with the USA and India in particular have become too controversial as the government is only giving away too much without taking anything substantive in return...[ FULL STORY ]
Local polls may stem alienation of common people
Sadeq Khan
Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed’s caretaker administration — strongly supported by the army chief Moeen U. Ahmed and his colleagues from the three armed services of Bangladesh, particularly those deployed in the Task Forces —- has so far played in an admirably cool through successive crises faced by the nation state. First and foremost of these crises was civil disorder, accompanied by derailment of the democratic process by political violence and corruption. The avowed intent of the administration from the very outset was adherence to the rule of law for restoration of public order and exemplary actions for decriminalisation of politics. Some erratic steps notwithstanding, unsparing campaign and sustained vigilance by the Task Forces have achieved paramount success in this regard at the present stage...[ FULL STORY ]
Bush regime may be bleakest era in US history
Fazle Rashid in New York
President George Bush’s eight years in the White House will perhaps be treated by historians as the bleakest period in American history. The pains of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are far from finished. Bush’s gambles failed. He inherited a robust economy. But the federal budget has been in the red since he assumed the presidency and now in his waning months in the White House he will have the mortification of witnessing the strongest economy in the world pushed into the jaws of a recession...[ FULL STORY ]
Bangladesh HC asks Pakistani businessmen to increase trade
Jonaid Iqbal in Islamabad
Yasmeen Mursheed, High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Pakistan, during her visit to Karachi asked Pakistani business community to increase bilateral trade with her country. She said the two brotherly countries have good relations with each other.
Mursheed said this while speaking at a reception hosted in her honour by Saquib Ali, the Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner based at Karachi...[ FULL STORY ]
Hillary for redoing Michigan and Florida primaries, Obama hasn't responded
Moinuddin Naser in New York
The democratic presidential candidates Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton are yet to come to any consensus on holding primary in Michigan and Florida...[ FULL STORY ]
Annisul Huq new FBCCI president
Holiday Desk
Annisul Huq, former president of BGMEA and a major entrepreneur, was unanimously elected President on Wednesday of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce Industry (FBCCI) by the board of director for the 2007-09 term...[ FULL STORY ]
HARD TRUTH ABOUT INDIAN JOURNALISM
Proprietors matter, editors don’t
Khushwant Singh
The hard truth about Indian journalism: proprietors matter, editors don’t. There was a time, not very long ago, when our dailies derived credit from the stature of men who edited them. During the British Raj, editors of British-owned national papers like the Times of India and the Statesman had knighthoods conferred on them. Even after India gained Independence and Indians took over as editors, they enjoyed considerable prestige in society. Names like Frank Moraes, Chalapathi Rau, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, Pothen Joseph and Prem Bhatia were known to readers. Dilip Padgaonkar, editor of the Times of India in the ‘80s, was not far wrong in asserting that next to the prime minister he had the most important job in the country. Constructive criticism of the ruling party came not from the opposition political parties but from the free press edited by able, responsible men...[ FULL STORY ]
Raana Haider’s Traveller’s trail
The Holiday starts noted author Raana Haider’s column Travel Trail from this week. A lifelong traveller, she is the author of Paris: A Homage (2007), Fragrance of the Past: A Middle Eastern Itinerary (2007) and India: Beyond the Taj and the Raj (forthcoming 2008); all three books published by Tara Press, New Delhi; in a series ‘Travels with a Nomad.’ Also forthcoming in 2008 is her latest book China: Contrasting Contours to be published by University Press Limited (UPL), Dhaka...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
V. K. Krishna Menon
K. Z. Islam
Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (3 May 1897 — 6 October 1974) while completing his college education in Madras he came in contact with Annie Besant who sent him to England in 1924 to teach in a theosophical school in Letchworth. He taught for a year and in 1925 obtained a London diploma in teaching. From 1925 he studied political science under Harold Laski in the London School of Economics and took a B. Sc. He became Joint Secretary of Annie Besant’s Commonwealth of India League. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1934 at the age 38 when all one had to do was to eat a few dinners in dinner jackets. Actually he never studied law; in London he had no legal practice worth mentioning...[ FULL STORY ]
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