After the Awami League swept last year's end-December general election, decimating the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and reducing the Jamaat-e-Islami to two seats in the Jatiya Sansad, there were celebrations across the country. Not only had democracy returned with a bang after being kept in a limbo for nearly two years by the military-backed caretaker Government, the Islamists, who had been on the rampage during Begum Khaleda Zia's hugely corrupt rule, had been defanged.
As Bangladeshis danced in the streets, with women leading the celebrations, gloom descended on House No. 6, Shaheed Moinul Road, Dhaka Cantonment, the residence of Begum Zia. Meanwhile, the Jamaat-e-Islami headquarters wore a deserted look, its leaders stunned by Islamists losing their deposits in constituencies which were supposed to be Jamaati strongholds. With nearly 86 per cent turnout in an election certified by international observers and the media as absolutely free and fair, neither the BNP nor the Jamaat could claim the poll had been rigged.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
02/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The USDOD BASE DEFENSE RE-UTILIZATION Office(s) has Militants [humor]???
#2
a very good story indeed.no new information.indian RAW and Bangladesh Awami league point of view-this story is ok.but it is far far from the fact.the fact is -it is proven truth that india was never been a trusted friend of bangladesh.
Posted by: james bond ||
02/27/2009 15:03 Comments ||
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While investors are correctly paying a lot of attention to the programs being put out by the White house this week, just under the radar is the rapidly developing Eastern European situation that is threatening to exacerbate the world banking crisis. Last week Moody's rattled the markets a bit when it said it was considering downgrading a number of European banks because of severe problems with their loans to Eastern Europe. The concern immediately faded to the background, however, as it was overshadowed by the barrage of news coming out of Washington on the stimulus package, the banking situation, the mortgage programs and the proposed budget. We think that it won't be long before the Eastern Europe economic and financial distress will be a major topic on the front pages and cable news.
What's happening is that the economies of the Eastern European nations and ex-Soviet republics are crumbling at a time when they owe vast sums to European banks. On average, GDP in the Baltic countries is down 17% and their stock markets down 70%. Still, they have raised their short rates by 500 basis points to defend their currencies that are plunging, thereby making the economic situation even worse. In Poland, 60% of the mortgages are denominated in Swiss francs and the zloty has plunged against the franc. Their industrial production has declined 14.9%. In the Ukraine, GDP has dropped 20% year-over-year while industrial production has declined 34%. The Hungarian forint is down 30% against the euro, and almost all of their mortgages are denominated in foreign currencies, making them more difficult to service. The Hungarian stock market is down 60% and auto sales are off by 50%. Other Eastern European countries are facing similar situations.
The problem is that the aforementioned group of nations has borrowed $1.7 trillion from foreign countries, with $1.3 trillion of it from European banks. They must pay back or rollover $400 billion this year, an amount equivalent to one-third of the group's GDP. With credit markets frozen, however, this is an impossible task, and without a massive bailout, these countries will blow up. Especially vulnerable are banks in Austria, Sweden, Greece, Italy and Belgium. Austrian banks alone have exposure of $280 billion to emerging Europe, an amount equal to 64% of its GDP.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) estimated that the bad debts of Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet republics would exceed 10% and possibly be as high as 20%. Hans Redeker, Chief Currency Strategist at PNB Paribas said, "We're nearing the level where things can get out of hand". IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn expects a "second wave of countries to come knocking" after prior IMF bailouts of Latvia, Hungary, Ukraine and Belarus. IMF reserves are rapidly running down after a series of aid packages to emerging nations.
Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proll is trying to put together a rescue package before the situation deteriorates further. Der Standard in Vienna said that "A failure rate of 10% would lead to the collapse of the Austrian financial sector". German Finance Minister Steinbruck said that the Western European governments may be forced to bail out Eastern Europe. With Western European economies already in terrible shape, this will not be accomplished without a lot of time and turmoil. It will be exceedingly difficult to get the various nations to agree on a package and the citizens of Western Europe will certainly protest at having to bail out foreign countries when they are having such a rough time themselves. We think this means some more significant downturns for global markets.
#1
The rumour is that Germany will tell the parts of the Eurozone in danger of default to go to hell, no bailouts from us, and effectively withdraw from the Euro.
Leading American supporters of Israel have been quick to embrace a controversial Israeli nationalist who is likely to play a major role in the new Israeli government in an effort to blunt any harm his rise might do to Israels image in the United States.
Avigdor Liebermans party took third in the parliamentary election earlier this month on a platform warning of threats from Israelis Arab minority. The success of his "Israel Is Our Home" party makes him a key player in forming a new government, but he has drawn denunciations from leading figures on the American and Israeli left, who warned that he could endanger a pillar of the U.S.-Israel relationship: the case that the countries share pluralistic, democratic values. Palestinian advocates, meanwhile, say Liebermans popularity exposes an ugly face of Israels relationship with its own Arab citizens.
But Lieberman has mounted a charm offensive, downplaying the harsh stands like a demand that Israeli citizens swear a loyalty oath that many of his supporters found so appealing. This week, he published an op-ed in an American Jewish newspaper, The Jewish Week, claiming that his concept of responsible citizenship is actually no different from Great Britains.
A former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, has been trying to smooth and soften Liebermans profile with nervous American Jews. Since there was no good answer by the Israeli left to the rise of Lieberman, they began all this name-calling fascist, racist, not democratic, said Ayalon, who served in Washington from 2002 to 2006.
On the stump during the election, Lieberman seemed to suggest that Israeli Arabs, many of whom tell pollsters they sympathize with Hamas, could be stripped of their citizenship. Without loyalty, there can be no citizenship, he said. Lieberman is also known for an undiplomatic tone: He has been quoted saying everyone from disloyal Israel Arabs to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak can go to hell.
But Ayalon said Liebermans words had been misinterpreted and that a loyalty oath would be required only for government positions. Nothing is further from the truth," he said. "Nobodys going to be kicked out of here or anything like that. Stripping citizenship is really something which is not a good idea and this is not what we would like to see."
Lieberman will visit the United States after Israels new governing coalition forms, Ayalon said, though he has already begun reaching out to American Jewish leaders. The party leader addressed a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at a hotel in Jerusalem last week a meeting at which he did not bring up the loyalty oath. He also met Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) in Jerusalem last week.
His allies make the case that hes not really that conservative he supports a two-state solution, though he would reach it in part by bargaining with Palestinian leaders using land that includes Israeli Arab populations and that hes avowedly secular. And American Jewish leaders, who had initially taken a standoffish posture amid fears that Avigdor Lieberman would damage the U.S.-Israel relationship, are now publicly making the case that hes not so bad. There is nothing in his speeches that indicates someone who would threaten the shared values that we have, said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Hes a politician who got elected on a populist theme on the issue of loyalty, citizenship it was more of a political theme to play on the issues of insecurity out there. He hasnt suggested any specific legislation.
There a lot of exaggeration and hype about who he is, said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents, who noted that Jews as well as Arabs would be bound by any proposed loyalty oath. Its really a much more nuanced picture than people have jumped on here in creating a straw man. The fact is he built a party, and he appeals to a significant portion of the population.
I dont think it is a blot on Israeli democracy for an Israeli minister to say, We have a real problem if 20 percent of our population is in fact not loyal to the state and wants the state to disappear, said Elliott Abrams, who was a National Security Council official under President George W. Bush. It is not right to say that by raising this issue Lieberman somehow damages Israeli or puts himself out of polite company.
Those voices and others are seeking to calm the waters after harsh attacks on Lieberman from the left. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, denounced Lieberman for running an outrageous, abominable, hate-filled campaign, brimming with incitement that, if left unchecked, could lead Israel to the gates of hell. He called on American Jewish leaders to denounce Lieberman. If we are silent or speak the language of equivocation, we will weaken rather than strengthen Israels cause. The group Peace Now has taken out ads in Jewish newspapers, asking, Where is the outrage?
Weve always been able to relate to Israel based on the principle of democracy, and the minority Arab population being given democratic rights, said Jeremy Ben-Ami, who heads another left-leaning group, J Street. Its very important that Israeli never go down that road of abandoning basic democratic values and principles.
Palestinian advocates, meanwhile, see Lieberman as embodying Israels worst failings. Lieberman's politics are truly odious, racist and incompatible with any notion of democracy and equality in a modern state, said Ali Abunimah, a fellow at the Palestine Center in Washington. He added that much of the anti-Arab racism he expresses publicly is deeply embedded in Israel's society, economy, and political system and tacitly endorsed by all the other major Zionist parties.
Lieberman's and his American allies' efforts to clean up his image have met, so far, with mixed results. Top officials of the American Jewish Committee, which publishes the Jewish Week, felt obliged to publish a rebuttal to Lieberman's claims of moderation in his own op-ed.
Liebermans impact on Israels image may largely depend on his role within the new government. While Ayalon said the foreign affairs ministry is likely, a lower-profile job could keep him out of the spotlight. Others argue that he could be a useful foil for Benjamin Netanyahu, allowing the new prime minister to better cast himself as a centrist.
Already, though, Lieberman has begun to audition for the foreign minister slot with his high-profile meeting with Sen. Lieberman in Jerusalem on Sunday. In a sign of continuing American skittishness, the senator, a congressional staffer said, kept his distance.
It does not take any great leap of imagination to realize that Sen. Lieberman has very different views on many of these issues than Avigdor Lieberman, said the staffer, who described the meeting on the condition of anonymity. It was made very clear during their interaction that they dont see eye to eye on many, many things.
#1
In January 2009, during Israel's military operation in Gaza, Lieberman argued that Israel "must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II. Then, too, the occupation of the country was unnecessary."
Sounds like a plan! Little wonder our esteemed congress has little use for the man.
#1
Since 2004, California has lost about a million and a half people from taxpaying households. At the same time, the state has taken in two million people, mostly non- or minimal taxpayers who are newborns or immigrants, legal and illegal.
#2
For a Donk, one dependency vote to keep them in power has just as much value as one that leaves to make a real living. To paraphrase Milton - 'Better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven'.
#3
Trouble is that California ex-pats move somewhere and whine about it not being like California. Then try to recreate the same the same environment that ultimately drove them out of CA.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Zardari Government is making peace with the Taliban which is hanging amputated bodies from electric poles.
Leading American supporters of Israel have been quick to embrace a controversial Israeli nationalist who is likely to play a major role in the new Israeli government in an effort to blunt any harm his rise might do to Israels image in the United States. 
