The year 2013 has been both good and bad for Bangladesh. The bad, however, managed to overshadow the few good events causing us to end the year with a bitter aftertaste.
Quite a few events occurred this year. Bangladesh has been able to double its capacity for power generation to over 10,000 MW which is quite a leap both in terms of progress and quality of living. Bangladesh has also sealed a deal with Russia on the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant in Rooppur, where a foundation stone has been laid. Then there was the formation of the Gonojagoron Moncho in Shahbagh demanding death sentence of Abdul Kader Mollah, a war criminal, which caught everyone’s attention. Mollah was found guilty by the special tribunal in February of wartime killing and atrocities during the independence war. He was sentenced to life in prison, but the Supreme Court changed that to a death sentence in September, a move that can be attributed to Shahbagh’s success.
However, the Rana Plaza tragedy and the bevy of pointless oborodhs (blockades) and hartals (shutdowns), which have brought the nation down to its knees, set the mood for the rest of the year. The collapse of the nine-storey building that housed five garment factories, a commercial bank and several retail shops left over eleven hundred people dead and more than two thousand people injured. Newspapers and television screens were flooded with haunting images of the disaster. This incident triggered a series of compliance checks exposing serious shortcomings in the safety and labour standards leading to several international buyers switching to other countries and the United States suspending trade facilities for Bangladesh, bringing back tariff on its exports.
As if that is not enough, the constant hartals or shutdowns have brought the country to a state of coma while its people who are struggling to survive are in perpetual fear of violent outbreaks. As the cherry on top of the pie, the nation is mortified as the government and the opposition unabashedly engage in mud wrestle with the entire world watching as the upcoming elections loom ahead.
In the words of Nelson Mandela, a gem we lost in 2013 “A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that in the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.”
We can only hope that in the New Year our leaders will rise above all pettiness and have an epiphany that they are destroying the very country they intend to govern. We hope that in 2014 the world will perceive Bangladesh as a country that holds much promise and cannot be ignored.
Quite a few events occurred this year. Bangladesh has been able to double its capacity for power generation to over 10,000 MW which is quite a leap both in terms of progress and quality of living. Bangladesh has also sealed a deal with Russia on the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant in Rooppur, where a foundation stone has been laid. Then there was the formation of the Gonojagoron Moncho in Shahbagh demanding death sentence of Abdul Kader Mollah, a war criminal, which caught everyone’s attention. Mollah was found guilty by the special tribunal in February of wartime killing and atrocities during the independence war. He was sentenced to life in prison, but the Supreme Court changed that to a death sentence in September, a move that can be attributed to Shahbagh’s success.
However, the Rana Plaza tragedy and the bevy of pointless oborodhs (blockades) and hartals (shutdowns), which have brought the nation down to its knees, set the mood for the rest of the year. The collapse of the nine-storey building that housed five garment factories, a commercial bank and several retail shops left over eleven hundred people dead and more than two thousand people injured. Newspapers and television screens were flooded with haunting images of the disaster. This incident triggered a series of compliance checks exposing serious shortcomings in the safety and labour standards leading to several international buyers switching to other countries and the United States suspending trade facilities for Bangladesh, bringing back tariff on its exports.
As if that is not enough, the constant hartals or shutdowns have brought the country to a state of coma while its people who are struggling to survive are in perpetual fear of violent outbreaks. As the cherry on top of the pie, the nation is mortified as the government and the opposition unabashedly engage in mud wrestle with the entire world watching as the upcoming elections loom ahead.
In the words of Nelson Mandela, a gem we lost in 2013 “A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that in the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.”
We can only hope that in the New Year our leaders will rise above all pettiness and have an epiphany that they are destroying the very country they intend to govern. We hope that in 2014 the world will perceive Bangladesh as a country that holds much promise and cannot be ignored.
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