Messi stunner sees o� Iran scare

It felt like a phoenix had suddenly risen from the ashes and stung the opponent with venom in its very

� rst sight as Argentine superstar Lionel Messi’s stoppage-time strike broke the Iranian resistance in a last-gasp 1-0 vic-tory in Group F of the Fifa World Cup at Belo Horizonte yesterday.

The stipulated 90 minutes were over, four minutes were added before the game was scheduled to come to

an end and Messi, comparatively be-low-par as per his high standards, was standing patiently in the right � ank in front of a boisterous crowd of 68,000 people. Almost 95 percent of the crowd were Argentinian fans and they never stopped cheering as the game was pe-tering out into a stalemate.

Iran were on the verge of pulling their biggest achievement in history until the prince of modern football had other ideas. Backed on by a romping crowd, the Argentine captain proba-bly needed the last bit of inspiration from the fans to spur himself on. Tire-less right-back Pablo Zabaleta saw his diminutive captain standing alone in

his favourite right � ank and instantly � oated a long ball which was brilliantly

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Taher was said to have seized at least 100 of 169 polling centres the night before the election

Messi most popular in Bangladesh n Tribune Report

Bangladeshi football fans outnumber fans of all other countries in the world when it comes to supporting the dimin-utive Argentine phenomenon: Lionel Messi, who also holds the unique re-cord of being voted world’s best player of the year a total number of four times.

According to the Facebook Fan Map (https://www.facebook.com/world-cup/map), Messi’s fan base in Bangla-desh is even greater than the fan base in his own country, Argentina. Face-book created a new application entirely for the World Cup season known as the

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

3 | NewsMobile courts across the country including the capital have been frequently destroying fruits contaminated with formalin.

4 | NewsCox’s Bazar human tra� ckers use manyremote points of the district’s coastal areasto send passengers to Malaysia illegallyon trawlers, and they often change theroutes sensing a drive of law enforcement agencies.

5 | NewsPeople su� ered immensely yesterday as the low-lying areas of Chittagong city went under

knee-deep water due to the continuous heavy rainfall, which started early Friday.

6 | NationPig rearing has turned out to be a pro� table business for a section of people belonging to the Baishaya caste in the country’s northern region. According to sources, a section of the people of the caste rear pigs for commercial purposes.

8 | WorldSunni � ghters seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier, security sources said on Saturday, smashing a line drawn by colonial powers almost a century ago and potentially creating an Islamic Caliphate from the Mediterranean Sea to Iran.

12 | EntertainmentQueen Elizabeth II is gearing up to visit the Titanic Quarter in Belfast where the studio facility for the HBO smash-hit ‘Game of Thrones’ is located.

INSIDE

7 | THE LONG & SHORT OF HR CONSULTING

20 pages | Price: Tk12SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION

Ashar 8, 1421Shaaban 23, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 82

B1 | BANGLADESH MAY FACE UNEMPLOYMENT 11 | NARROWING NARROW SPACE 

from Brazil

WC MATCHES

Jun 24, 20142am Cameroon vs Brazil2am Croatia vs Mexico10pm Italy vs Uruguay10pm Costa Rica vs EnglandJun 25, 20142am Japan vs Colombia2am Greece vs Côte d’Ivoire10pm Nigeria vs Argentina10pm Bosnia-Herzegovina vs Iran

15

Jun 22, 201410pm Belgium vs RussiaJun 23, 20141am Korea Republic vs Algeria4am USA vs Portugal10pm Australia vs Spain10pm Netherlands vs Chile

Laxmipur police role called into question In last 6 months 40 people killedn Mohammad Jamil Khan,

back from Laxmipur

A series of alleged irregularities and professional misconduct by the police have brought to the fore current slide in law and order situation in Laxmipur district.

Locals as well as a section of politi-cal bigwigs allege that police are being manipulated into realising political ambition of some vested interests.

In the last six months, incidents of killing across the district have been more frequent, with 40 peoplemurdered, according to the crime data of police.

This is most appalling when it comes to police failure to unearth the mystery behind the murders and arrest the mas-terminds and the perpetrators.

The arrests were virtually not made and raid hardly carried out till the in-cumbent Superintendent of Police Shah Mizan Sha� ur Rahman took the charge on May 16.

Additional Police Super Sheikh Sha-riful Islam while working as an acting SP of Laxmipur allegedly kept his eyes shut to criminal activities, taking a heavy bribe, said locals and political leaders.

The police negligence has led to

spring up around 12 criminal groups in the area and the election manipulator cashed in on the situation.

But Sheikh Shariful Islam, former ASP of Laxmipur, refuted the allegation against police.

He went to the extent of saying that if anyone could prove his involvement in any kind of irregularities, he would quit his job.

“This is a baseless claim,” he said. During the Sadar upazila poll, dis-

trict Mayor Abu Taher’s Son Salahud-din Tipu who had been contesting the chairman post allegedly manipulated the election with the blessings of police o� cials.

Taher was said to have driven out his opponent BNP-backed candidate Mahmudul Karim Dipu from the elec-tion area and seized at least 100 of 169 polling centres the night before the election.

Tipu, however, denied the alle-gation against him, saying: “Whyshould we do that when everybody supports us?”

The law enforcers just played the role of silent spectators.

Asked about it, M Alauddin, Laxmi-pur district unit president of the ruling Awami League, told the Dhaka Trib-une he heard about the election ma-nipulation, but that was not done in alarge scale.

In reply to who the people were be-hind the malpractice, he evaded the question.

About police role, he said their role had been mysterious over the last cou-ple of months.

Even the Laxmipur city Mayor Abu PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Bangladesh-born American indicted on terror chargesn Tribune Report

A Bangladesh-born American, Rahatul Ashikim Khan, has been indicted in the US for terror charges.

A Texas court indicted him, said a report by KVUE, an Austin-based tele-vision station located in Texas.

Citing documents released Friday by the US Department of Justice, the KVUE report said a federal grand jury indicted Arafatul, along with Michael Todd Wolfe from Houston.

Rahatul was arrested at his home in PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

Death sentence upheld for Brotherhood menn Reuters, Cairo

An Egyptian court con� rmed death sentences on Saturday against the lead-er of the Muslim Brotherhood and 182 supporters, in a mass trial of Islamists who ruled Egypt for a year but face a � erce crackdown under the new pres-ident, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Mohamed Badie and other defend-ants were charged in connection with violence that erupted in the southern town of Minya following the ousting of the Brotherhood’s President Mohamed

Mursi last July, led by then army chief Sisi. One police o� cer was killed in the violence.

The court’s decision came two months after it referred the case against Badie, general guide of the now out-lawed Brotherhood, and 682 other de-fendants to a top religious authority, the � rst step to imposing a death penalty.

Those preliminary sentences trig-gered outrage among Western gov-ernments and rights groups, with the United States and European Union

PAGE 2 COLUMN 3

Five girls violated in the capitaln Adil Sakhawat

Five girls, four of whom were adoles-cents, were raped in the city yesterday.

The victims are now admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Of the adolescents, one hailing from Sherpur and another from Pirojpur were violated by four sta� members of a public bus service “Labbaik” Pariba-han yesterday in the city’s Mugda area.

Two girls were going to Savar by bus after their daily work in a local fan man-ufacturing factory in Jatrabari area.

As the two did not know the loca-tion, they asked the bus sta� to drop them at right place.

But the bus driver Ahmed Sheikh,

28, and the helper Hasnan, 23, kept the two adolescents in the dark.

Without telling them that they reached Savar, the bus sta� brought the two adolescents back to Mugda and forcibly took them to a workshop where they were violated.

The two other associates of the bus sta� , Shaon and Kuddus, joined them.

One of the victims managed to es-cape using the sanitary pipe of the washroom of the building.

The escapee let the building’s secu-rity guard Mohammad Humayun about this incident and sought his help.

Humayun with the help of locals de-tained one of the rapists trying to � ee and called police.

Mugda police went to the spot and arrested one from the spot. The other two, however, managed to escape.

Md Mosta� zur Rahman, inspector of Mugda police station, said: “We are try-ing to arrest the other culprits.”

In another incident, a 10-year-old madrassa student was violated by an elderly man in Darussalam area in Mir-pur of the city.

The rape incident of another ado-lescent took place in Demra area of the capital. A 14-year-old girl fell victim to such abuse.

In another incident, a garment worker hailing from Jhenaidah was raped by her own brother-in-law

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

Argentina captain Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring the winning goal during their Group F match against Iran at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte yesterday AFP

MATCH STATS Argentina IranGoals scored 1 0Total shots 19 8Shots on target 9 4 Corners 10 6O� sides 0 1 Fouls committed 8 14Yellow cards 0 2Red cards 0 0Ball possession 71% 29%

News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

INDIAN FM’S DHAKA VISIT

Teesta, land boundary pact to be discussed n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Bangladesh will be discussing Teesta water sharing deal and rati� cation of the land boundary agreement (Land Boundary Agreement) during the up-coming visit of Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.

“Bangladesh will raise the issues dur-ing the bilateral talks between the two foreign ministers,” said a senior o� cial of the Foreign Ministry. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj will pay a good-will visit to Bangladesh from June 25-27 at the invitation of her Bangladeshi counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Tariq A Karim met Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati last week, said another o� cial.

“Tariq also met Indian State Min-ister for Foreign A� airs BK Singh and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh last week,” he added.

Teesta water sharing agreement was supposed to be signed during the vis-it of the immediate past Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in 2011 but was not in the face of stern opposition by West Bengal Chief

Minister Mamata Banerjee. The LBA was inked in 1974 and Bang-

ladesh rati� ed it the same year but In-dia is yet to do that on its part. Former Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurs-hid placed a bill to amend the constitu-tion at the Rajya Sabha to pave the way for rati� cation but it is yet to be passed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party during its election campaigns strongly op-posed any move to hastily settle border disputes with Bangladesh.

This will be Sushma’s � rst foreign visit after she assumed o� ce in May.

Foreign ministers of both the coun-tries will have bilateral discussions during the visit. She will also meet President Abdul Hamid and Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina.

The Indian foreign minister will de-liver a speech on June 26 where she will explain the present state of Bangla-desh-India relationship and the future course of action, said an o� cial of the Foreign Ministry.

She will also have engagement with think tanks, chambers of commerce and industry and cultural organisations.

The visit is expected to improve bi-lateral ties between the two neighbour-ing countries. l

REB chief, sta� take oath to cut corruption in power sectorn Aminur Rahman Rasel

With a view to preventing corruption in the government agency, Rural Electri� -cation Board Chairman Brig Gen Moin Uddin in a unique attempt yesterday administered oaths to its o� cers, in-cluding the general managers of Palli Bidyut Samity units under the REB across the country.

Around 800 employees took the oath at the REB headquarters in the capital yesterday when they were tak-ing part at a views-exchange meeting on minimising loadshedding and har-assment of customers.

The initiative came in the wake of reported widespread corruption during the construction of distribution lines

and while giving new electricity con-nections.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid,Power Cell Director General Moham-mad Hossain, REB Member (� nance) Md Ataul Hoque Mollah and Member (engineering) SK Nurul Absar were present.

Nasrul told the programme that there had been political pressure since it is a political government. There is corruption everywhere in the world. “But the employees will have to try to stay away from corruption.

“No government wants corruption in any sector. We have taken steps to stop corruption.”

In reaction to the junior minis-

ter’s comment, an REB o� cial after the meeting told the Dhaka Tribune: “When a minister talks like that, there is no need of take oath. If the high of-� cials supports us and we can work freely [without any political pressure], there will be no corruption.”

Established in 1977 to ensure rural people’s access to electricity, the REB has been working in association with 72 PBSs.

Brig Gen Moin said corruption was rising in the PBSs and “it is tarnishing our image day by day. So, we took oaths with a view to stop corruption.”

To get new connections, the people usually bribe the PBS o� cials to avoid � ling new applications, he told the Dhaka Tribune.

“The REB has set a target of en-suring power supplies to all citizensby 2021.To achieve the goal, it needsto establish about 1 crore newpower connections and extend thedistribution lines by 1.30 lakh kilo-metres.”

Since it would involve huge work to achieve the target, Brig Gen Moin said: “The oath was administered to ensure that all the employees stay away from corruption during the implementation of the scheme.”

He said: “We will publish several lakh anti-corruption posters the village people aware.”

According to the REB chairman, the number of power consumers will rise from 1.02 crore to 2.21 crore by 2021

while the current demand will rise from 3,700 megawatts to 8,500MW, by 230%.

He says the present 2.60 lakh km distribution lines would be increased by 150% to 3.90 lakh km. Currently the number of sub-stations in the coun-try is 477 and it would eventually be increased to 850, while the present capacity of 5,400MVA would stand at 10,400MVA in 2021.

“At present, the REB is running 11 consumer connection projects, esti-mated to end by 2018. Later we will construct 77,386km new distribution lines and build 426 new sub-stations. Then we will be able to provide elec-tricity to 25 lakh consumers,” said the REB chairman. l

Laxmipur police role called into question PAGE 1 COLUMN 2Taher laid blame on the lawmen for the present law and order situation.

In the latest accusation against po-lice, the lawmen allegedly killed Ismail Hossain Khokon, 38, in their custody, according to the victim’s family who also described the killing as preplanned.

The district police authority withdrew ASP Sheikh Shariful Islam, DB police O� cer-in-Charge Abdul Wahid, court police Inspector Moslehuddin and Ko-molnagar police station Inspector Abdur Jabbar in the face of massive allegations.

Khokon’s wife Nahida Akther on June 15 � led a case with Laxmipur court against district Detective Branch of police Sub-Inspector Abul Bashar, Dasherhat Sub-Inspector Kamal, Assis-tant Sub-Inspector Sarwar, Sadar police Sub-Inspector Zillur Rahim and three brothers of khokon – Abul Kashem, Abul Hashem and Manik.

Now, police are allegedly giving her pressure to withdraw the case, while some threatening her to meet the same

fate as her husband. Contacted, Zillur Rahman, sub-In-

spector of Sadar police station, denied the allegation against him.

He rather termed Ismail a notorious criminal, describing that he was killed in a gun� ght between rivalries.

Meanwhile, when locals and polit-ical leaders are counting on new Su-perintendent of Police to bring the law and order situation back to normal, an indiscriminate arrest of individuals is being made.

In a couple of weeks, at least 500 people have been detained while the ring leaders and the masterminds are slipping through the cracks.

In this regard, M Alauddin, Laxmipur district unit Awami League present, said: “It is good that police are taking action but we hope the lawmen will arrest the murder masterminds and ring leaders.”

Contacted, Shah Mizan Sha� ur Rahman, incumbent SP of Laxmi-pur, told the Dhaka Tribune, “I do not know what happened earlier. Since we

launced our operation to rein in the crime in the district, all o� enders re-gardless of their political identities will be brought to book.”

Asked about police negligence, he said he was oblivious of such com-plaints since he had taken o� ce.

About the transfer of four police o� cials, he described it as a matter of routine.

The new SP also branded Ismail as a criminal who he said was killed ina gun� ght with his rival criminal groups. l

Five girls PAGE 1 COLUMN 5Tarikul Islam in Savar, said Sub-Inspector Asaduzzaman of Savar police station. Savar police � led a rape case against the perpetrator.

Dr Bilkis Begum, duty doctor of the DMCH, told the Dhaka Tribune forensic tests of the victims would be done to-morrow. l

Terror charges PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Round Rock of Texas and Michael Todd Wolfe was arrested at George Bush In-tercontinental Airport in Houston on Wednesday.

The duo had been planning to travel halfway around the world to engage in violent jihad.

Federal o� cials say both men have pleaded not guilty to charges of con-spiring and attempting to provide ma-terial support to terrorists.

The Central Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force will not reveal if the alleged crimes these men committed are some-how connected, the KVUE report says.

Both of them may face up to 15 years in federal prison and a maximum $250,000 � ne if they are convicted, ac-cording to the report.

The 23-year-old Rahatul was a college student at the University of Texas at Austin and lived with his family in a Round Rock golf course community.

The FBI says Rahatul was born in Bangladesh and became a US citizenin 2002. l

Messi most popular in Bangladesh PAGE 1 COLUMN 2‘Fan Map’ where Bangladesh is ranked no. 1 for casting maximum votes into the global fan base of Messi while his worldwide fanbase currently stands at a whopping 58,800,000.

Despite failing to participate in the � nals of the world’s greatest festival of football, Bangladesh have always ex-pressed unbound enthusiasm for Fifa World Cup and Argentina has always been known as one of the most loved, adored and popular football teams in this country, and this latest Facebook initiative has just re-authenticated this popular notion.

Messi hits the � eld on Saturday as Ar-gentina’s match against Iran is set for a 10 pm [Bangladesh time]. Being among the � nest footballers, Messi proved his worth once again in Argentina’s � rst match of this World Cup against Bosnia Herzegovina with a spectacular goal which only bodes well for another vic-tory for Argentina today.

For those interested in � nding the

top World Cup sportsmen on Facebook and where their biggest fans are located, this new implementation will keep them well informed of the most popular football player in their region.

This new installment can be found through the search option on Facebook. Facebook users just need to type ‘Trending World Cup’ which will then direct users to the World Cup fan page on Facebook.

Meanwhile, among the ten players Facebook has mapped, the football player with the highest number of fans on the Facebook Fan Map is Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who has a global fan base of approximately 86,300,000. However, according to Facebook statis-tics, Bangladesh is ranked 82 among his fanbase around the world.

The Brazilian footballer Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, commonly known as Neymar and who plays for World Cup 2014’s hosts Brazil, has 26,400,000 fans all over the world. Bangladesh is his 13 largest fan base. l

Death sentence upheld for Brotherhood men PAGE 1 COLUMN 6both saying they were appalled by the rulings.

Since Mursi’s overthrow, which was followed by protests by his support-ers, hundreds of Islamist protesters have been killed and thousands jailed in a crackdown by security forces. Five hundred army and police o� cers have also been killed.

Sisi, who won a presidential elec-tion last month, said in the run-up to the vote that the Brotherhood - Egypt’s oldest, most organised and success-ful political group - was � nished and would not exist under his rule.

Amnesty International described the verdicts as “the latest example of the Egyptian judiciary’s bid to crush dissent”.

There was no immediate reaction on the ruling from the Brotherhood, whose members are either in jail or on the run.

Outside the Minya court compound, around 200 people, mostly relatives of defendants that were freed, gathered to celebrate the ruling. “Long live jus-

tice, long live Sisi,” they chanted.Out of a total 683 defendants,

around 100 are in detention and the rest were tried in absentia. Four were jailed for life while 496 were acquitted, according to judiciary sources. All ver-dicts can be appealed before a higher court.

“Those rulings are a continued farce,” prominent Egyptian human rights activist and lawyer Gamal Eid said on Saturday.

“And the state is still insisting that the judiciary is independent. I don’t know how we can believe that when we see rulings like that. It is against logic and common sense. It is a joke,” he said.

US AidThe United States has said it would be unconscionable for Egypt to carry out mass death sentences against the Brotherhood and that Cairo’s actions would have consequences for resump-tion of suspended U.S. aid.

The U.S. Secretary of State John Ker-ry, who is due to tour the Middle East

this week, is expected to pay a brief visit to Egypt on Sunday, according to local Egyptian media reports.

Egypt, the biggest Arab state, which controls the strategic Suez Canal, has been among the largest recipients of U.S. military and economic aid since its 1979 peace treaty with U.S. ally Israel.

Some of that support was put on hold after Mursi’s overthrow, the lat-est round in a decades-old struggle between Egyptian authorities and the Islamist movement.

The 70-year-old Badie was � rst jailed under President Gamal Abdel Nasser nearly 50 years ago, alongside the Brotherhood’s then leader and ide-ologue Sayyid Qutb who was executed in 1966.

Qutb’s revolutionary writings in jail are believed to have inspired gener-ations of Islamist militants including Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian doctor who succeeded Osama bin Laden as al Qaeda leader, although the Broth-erhood itself has renounced violence decades ago.

The same court that sentenced

Badie on Saturday has already con-� rmed death sentences on 37 Brother-hood supporters in rulings that were part of a � nal judgment on 528 Muslim Brotherhood supporters who received initial death sentences.

In a separate case, a Cairo court re-ferred Badie and 13 Brotherhood sup-porters on Thursday to the Mufti, a top religious authority, on charges of mur-der and � rearms possession related to clashes during the protests last July.

Badie and other senior Brotherhood leaders including Mursi are standing trial in other cases.

Sisi held a brief meeting at Cairo airport late on Friday with Saudi Ara-bia’s King Abdullah whose country, like Egypt, has branded the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, viewing its Isla-mist doctrines as a threat to Saudi dy-nastic rule.

The Egyptian state had in November issued a law that banned protests with-out police permission. Many liberal and Islamist activists have been arrested in the past few months for protesting without a licence. l

War crimes accused Akram sent to jailn Tribune Report

A Dhaka court has sent Khan Akram Hossain, accused of committing crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation, to jail.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mainul Islam Bhuiyan passed theorder after Bagerhat police produced him befor the court yesterday afternoon.

Khan Akram Hossain, 59, was arrest-ed from Rajshahi district on June 19.

He, alleged Razakar commander of village Doiboggohati in Bagerhat, was on the run since the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 1 issued an arrest warrant against him on June 10. l

Messi stunner sees o� Iran scare PAGE 1 COLUMN 5controlled by Messi and thus the un-stoppable run began its full � ight.

Dribbling past his marker with a deft left-foot touch, Messi saw the gap from about 25 yards out and hammered his trademark, curved left-footer past Alireza Haghighi, the superb Iranian goalie who denied the Argentine for 90 minutes but was absolutely helpless from stopping the Messi screamer. It was total heartbreak for Iran while the joy of the Argentinian fans knew no bounds.

The feared Argentine attack com-prising Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel di Maria and Messi failed to stamp their authority upon the sticky and spirited Iranians and the passionate Asian side came agonisingly close to a famous draw but lost to the sheer magic of the magician as the Ar-gentine captain rose to the occasion to save his team.

Earlier, Iran’s compact defence and astounding goalkeeping by Haghighi kept Argentina at bay. In the 13th min-ute, Fernando Gago’s low cross from the right � ank found Higuain, whose

swept � rst-time shot was well blocked by the advancing keeper.

In the 22nd minute, Haghighi de-nied Aguero who curled a shot afterbeing fed by Higuain as the Iranian custodian dived to his right to palm it away.

Iran also sent a chill through the Argentine spine on a number of oc-casions. Jalal Hosseini’s header on an Ashkan Dejagah corner � ew over the crosspiece in the 42nd minute. In the 52nd minute, Dejagah delivered a cross towards the path of Reza Ghoochanne-jad but Argentine goalie Sergio Romero � sted it away to safety. Five minutes before the � nal whistle, Ghoochanne-jad went past Javier Mascherano and was on the receiving end of a forward pass from Jahan Baksh but Romero pulled out another superb save to his left.

When the match was heading to-wards a draw, the magic of Messi was responsible for the collapse of the Ira-nian forte as two-time champions Ar-gentina booked a second-round slot before their � nal group game against Nigeria.

Workers construct a makeshift gate at the Dhanmondi Road 27 intersection yesterday to bear banners celebrating the 65th founding anniversary of the Bangladesh Awami League . Such structures pose risks for both commuting vehicles and creates tailback along the road SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

Formalin detection method ‘wrong,’ drive ‘unethical’Fruit traders on strike as they claim to be the target of corrupt o� cials n Abu Hayat Mahmud

Mobile courts across the country in-cluding the capital have been frequent-ly destroying fruits contaminated with formalin. However, a group of experts and professionals argue that the way of checking fruits does not conform to sci-enti� c standards, and that the method is wrong.

They say although the drives to prevent formalin-mixed fruits from reaching the consumer is praisewor-thy, the “faulty” method is contribut-ing to more wastage of food products and possibly subjecting many innocent vendors to � nes and prison terms.

Chemists, biochemists and chemical engineers at a press conference yester-day termed the formalin-testing meth-od with Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 “wrong.”

The event organised by Bangladesh Fresh Fruits Consumers’ Association (BFFCA), an awareness building organ-isation to ensure sound public health, at the National Press Club was chaired by Dr Abdul Wadud.

Dhaka University’s biochemistry teacher Prof Ishtiaq Mahmud and Prof Nilufa Nahar of chemistry, and Buet’s chemical engineering department teacher Prof Dr Mohidus Samad Khan also spoke at the press conference.

Prof Ishtiaq said: “The ongoing drive against formalin is not based on scien-ti� c standards. The method is not ac-ceptable because the device is not ca-pable of reading properly the amount of formalin present in fruits.

“I am surprised with the govern-ment decision and also concerned over the panic among people over the pres-ence of formalin in food.”

Prof Ishtiaq suggested that the gov-ernment stop the frequent “unethical drives” and take initiative to � nd out the adulteration sources. He demand-ed tracing the persons responsible for mixing formalin, carbide and others toxic chemical in fruits and other food items, and bringing them to book.

Prof Nilufa said: “All traders do not use formalin in fruits, but the mobile courts have been destroying huge amounts of fruit based on the faulty results shown on Formaldehyde Meter Z-300. This tool is incompatible for the task and not acceptable.”

Answering a question, she said there was no speci� c machine in the market for testing formalin limits in fruits.

“Only sample test in laboratories is the only appropriate and acceptable process to assess the existence of for-malin in food items,” she added.

On June 11, the DMP launched a drastic anti-formalin drive in the cap-ital, armed with Formaldehyde Meter Z-300, and has so far seized and de-stroyed a huge amount of contaminat-ed fruits after assessment.

However, the electronic device is meant for testing the concentration level of formaldehyde in the air.

According to agriculturalists and several research institutes in the coun-try including the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, the Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 is an instrument to measure con-centration of chemicals or gases in the air, not in food items.

Even it is not used on food items in the US where it was manufactured.

The manufacturer, Environmental Sensors Company, de� nes the device as a hand-held instrument to measure formaldehyde concentration within a range of 0-30ppm (parts per million) and a resolution of 0.01ppm.

Prof Mohidus Samad said: “We  do not want anybody to use formalin in food but we also do not want  to see anyone subjected to punishment without getting con� rmation. It is not untrue that the ongoing drive against formalin is not based on scienti� c standards.

“The government should stop the drive and take steps towards laborato-ry tests. The sources of contamination should be traced with the help of de-tectives.”

BFFCA Convener Abdul Wadud blamed corrupt bureaucrats and some multi-national juice companies for in-spiring the drive for their � nancial ben-e� ts.

“The corrupt government servants have taken bribes from a company, which is marketing the Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 in our country. The origi-nal price of this device is only around Tk10,000, but the company is charging Tk1.2-1.5 lakh,” he said.

Wadud also urged the government to stop the controversial and unethical anti-formalin drive.

He also announced an eight-point demand to ensure availability of fresh foods and other daily necessities.

Meanwhile, the fruit traders both wholesalers and retailers across the country termed the drive as a means of harassment and demanded that it be stopped immediately.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Fruits Im-port-Export and the Merchants’ Multi-ple Cooperative Society yesterday kept the shutters of their shops down until 2pm in line with a protest programme announced earlier.

The retailers in the capital’s Badam-tali market also formed a human chain on the same issue.

On Wednesday, the Dhaka Metro-politan Fruit Traders Association called an inde� nite strike in the capital pro-testing the ongoing drive. Mango trad-ers and growers in Chapainawabganj extended their support. The strike was called o� yesterday. l

Joy: ICT sector to fetch $1 billion n Tribune Report

The country is expected to fetch $1b export earnings from the ICT sector within next 5 years, prime minister’s In-formation and Communication Technology (ICT) A� airs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said.

Joy, son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has come up with the hope while speaking as the chief guest at a view exchange meeting at Bangladesh Computer Council audi-torium in the capital on Saturday, reports BSS.

“I have received foreign investor’s commitment to $100 million investment in the country’s ICT sector,” he said. Joy hoped that the export earnings from the ICT sector would cross the ready-made garments sector in the future. Referring to the Awami League government’s various initiatives for the greater interest of the people, he said the government has already introduced the third generation (3G) internet service and it would provide the fourth generation (4G) services soon.

“To materialise the government’s vision, all the government services would be digitised by 2021 and the service receivers would be able to � nish their o� cial works from their houses,” he said, adding that the government has also plans to bring all villages under internet service and set up more union information service centres (UISCs) for providing internet services to the people.

Joy said the ministry has taken initiatives to train up freelancers for developing skilled manpower in the sector.

“I will talk to Bangladesh Bank Governor about loan fa-cilities for the freelancers, as Bank usually provides loans on mortgage,” he added.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy said the government has a plan to upgrade all union information service centres (UISCs) to video call centres within the next 5 years. l

Khaleda’s north tour draws people outn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

from Bogra

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is now on her � rst tour to the country’s north since the January 5 national election, with observers saying there is a marked improvement in public support com-pared to the Teesta long march.

This tour is seen solely as serving political purposes and has drummed up considerable public support and en-thusiasm in the northern districts.

The Teesta long march – the � rst major programme of the BNP after the national election – failed to draw the public out although it was staged to push the burn-ing national issue of water sharing. BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Is-lam Alamgir lead that programme.

During that programme, this Dhaka Tribune reporter, who travelled along with the long march from Dhaka to Rangpur, saw very few archways, ban-ners and festoons on the roadsides – things that usually characterise similar programmes of the party. However, the supporters in the northern districts are showing much more energy centring the visit of the party chief, says the reporter, who is travelling north once again with the BNP contingent.

Party standing committee member Mirza Abbas is accompanying Khaleda. As is usual with such tours to the north, they are taking a stoppage in Bogra, the hometown of Khaleda’s husband and party founder Ziaur Rahman.

Khaleda is scheduled to speak at a rally in Joypurhat today. Other senior leaders of the party are supposed to join her. l

ATTACK ON SHAMIM Case � led against unnamed criminalsn Kailash Sarkar

It took around 40 hours for the � ling of a case, accusing three unidenti� ed suspects for shooting at former Bangla-desh Chhatra League President Enam-ul Haque Shamim, also an executive member of the ruling Awami League.

Nasir Uddin, uncle of Shamim, also a former vice-president of JUCSU, � led the case late Friday night with the Dhanmondi police station, said Abu Bakkar Siddique, o� cer-in-charge of the police station.

The AL executive member sustained bullet wounds in one of his hands when armed criminals launched a gun attack on his car in Dhanmondi area around 9:30am on Thursday immedi-ately after he came out of his house. He is now undergoing treatment at Dhaka Combined Military Hospital.

Abu Bakkar said the plainti� in the case statement had mentioned that BNP, Jamaat or political opponents of Shamim were among the suspects re-sponsible for the attack.

“The number of the accused has not been speci� ed in the case statement, although the plainti� mentioned that one of the three criminals was riding a motorcycle opened � re on Shamim,” the OC said.

“The OC claimed that they contin-ued the drive to hunt down the crimi-nals involved with the gun attack. l

Palak launches his o� cial application on Google Playn Muhammad Zahidul Islam

State minister for ICT division under Post, Telecommunications and Infor-mation Technology Ministry Zunaid Ahmed Palak yesterday launched his personal android app to “stay connect-ed as always” on the Google Play Store.

In a status on his personal Facebook pro� le, posted on Saturday 2:12am, the junior minister claimed his app to be the � rst personal app in Bangladesh.

“Introducing a personal android app for the � rst time in Bangladesh and stay connected as always,” he said in another Facebook status just before launching his personal app.

However, local android developers and ICT experts have di� ered with his claim.

“There are many personal apps available in the market, such as on Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam even on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, so minister’s claim is not true,” said a leading app developer requesting anonymity.

He, however, said the app may be the � rst where an active politician in the country launched his own personal app.

The app contains Zunaid Ahmed Palak’s life sketch, his latest updates, political resume, achievements, social connections and feedback.

Among others, the app also contains his email address and his contact infor-mation.

The app also claims Pakak to be the state minister of ICT ministry, although

Bangladesh no longer has a separate ICT ministry as it was merged with the telecom ministry in February last year.

Developed by local software � rm Ezze Technology, the app can be down-loaded for free on any android device.

In the app description: the develop-ers said: “Zunaid Ahmed Palak is a Ban-gladeshi lawyer and politician from the Bangladesh Awami League Party and a member of the Parliamentary Treasury Bench. He is the youngest Minister of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from his ancestral area of Singra in Natore of Rajshahi. His vic-tory in the National Elections of 2008 at the age of just 28 resulted in him re-ferred to the as the Youngest Lawmaker of Bangladesh.”

Earlier, popular social networking site Facebook veri� ed the o� cial page of junior minister, making him one of the very few personalities or politicians

in Bangladesh to have a fan page veri-� ed by the Facebook authority.

Meanwhile, the junior minister re-ceived much criticism from his Face-book friends regarding the launch of his personal app.

Terming the app launch Palak’s fo-cus on personal publicity instead of his ministry or party, many Facebook users also criticised the junior minister for not taking any initiative in cutting down internet prices.

When the Dhaka Tribune contacted Zunaid Ahmed Palak, he said: “I just wanted to create something new that is why I did it.”

But when asked over the funding for his innovative idea, the junior minister tried to avoid answering the question and asked this correspondent to call him later. Later, he was found unavailable on his personal phone for further queries. l

Picture depicts an anti Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 poster, held by a protester at the human chain formed by fruit traders in front of the National Press Club, yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

Human tra� ckers active, thanks to lack of monitoringn Adil Sakhawat, from Teknaf

Cox’s Bazar human tra� ckers use many remote points of the district’s coastal areas to send passengers to Ma-laysia illegally on trawlers, and they often change the routes sensing a drive of law enforcement agencies, accord-ing to the Coast Guard, police and local inhabitants.

Investigations by the Dhaka Tribune have found that for safely ferrying the passengers, now the tra� ckers are using the coastal areas of Katabonia, Kochubonia, Hariakhali, Mundar Deil, Paschimpara of Shah Porir Dwip, Bahar Chhara of Teknaf; Mazir Ghat, Madar-bonia, Reju Mohona of Sonar Para, Moricca Bazar Ghat of Ukhiya; Boro Ch-hara, Bahar Chara and di� erent points of Marin Drive Road; Hoanok and Sona-dia of Moheshkhali upazila.

Most of these spots are situated in

remote coastal areas where the law en-forcers cannot reach immediately after getting information mainly because of a poor communication system.

Talking to the local of the areas, the Dhaka Tribune has found the names of many tra� ckers, then cross-checked those with the Teknaf police o� cials and � nally found some names matched.

Police have got some names from the passengers rescued recently from a Malaysia-bound � shing trawler.

The persons directly involved in tra� cking are Dolu Hossain Dolu of Shah Porir Dwip; Sharif Hossain of Naya Para of Teknaf; Aiyub Bangalee of Teknaf; Sabdan, Abdur Rahim Ma-jhi, Amanullah, Amin, Faruq, Farid, Siddique, Moulovi Bashir, Leru and Hamid of Kochubonia; three brothers Alamgir, Jahangir, Shawkat of Katabo-nia; Hasan, Jafar, Mustaru, Bhutto of

Hariakhali; Hakim Majhi, Jamal Majhi, Hasan Ahmed, Mahmudul Hasan of Leda Rohingya Camp; and Nur Alam, Abdul Hafez, Mohammad Ra� que, Kala Hasan of Godar Bill.

A lot of local people and Teknaf po-lice sources alleged that many illegal Rohingya citizens, living in several ar-eas of the upazila, are directly involved in human tra� cking.

Kamrul Azam, second o� cer of Teknaf police station, said: “We have found some names of tra� ckers from others districts too and already in-formed the related police stations to arrest the criminals.”

So far, 126 cases related to human tra� cking have been � led in Cox’s Bazar district accusing 708 people. Of them, 241 have been arrested and others are on the run, according to the Cox’s Bazar superintendent of police o� ce.

Ali Ahmad, former chairman of Teknaf upazila, said: “O� cials in the administration and the law enforce-ment agencies have to act strictly in order to stop illegal human tra� cking. But unfortunately they are not taking any action against the culprits.”

Habibur Rahman, chairman of Sa-brang union in Teknaf upazila, also blamed the law enforcers for assisting the tra� ckers.

Md Ruhul Amin, the deputy com-missioner of Cox’s Bazar, said: “The law enforcement agencies have been ordered to take human tra� cking as a serious crime and prevent the tra� ck-ers.”

Also president of the district’s An-ti-human Tra� cking Taskforce, Ruhul said they were conducting awareness campaigns against human tra� cking so that people could stand against the tra� ckers themselves. l

Hasan Azizul Huq, Afsana Begum bag Gemcon Literary Award 2014n Afrose Jahan Chaity

Hasan Azizul Huq won this year’s Gemcon Literary Award 2014 and Afsana Begum was awarded the Gemcon Tarun Katha-Sahitya Puroshkar 2014. The award giving ceremony was held at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital yesterday.

Hasan Azizul Huq received the award for his novel “Sabi-tree Upakhyan,” and Afsana Begum for her book “Doshti Protibimwer Pashe”.Hasan Azizul Huq received a crest, Tk3 lakh and an honorary certi� cate while Afsana Begum was awarded with Tk75000, a crest and an honorary certi� cate.

Among others, Gemcon Group Chairman Kazi Shahid Ahmed, litterateur Syed Shamsul Haque, Dr Ra� qul Islam, Indian writer Mihir Sengupta, Bangla Academy Director Gen-eral Shamsuzzaman Khan, poet Kamal Chowdhury and many other literary personalities were present at the function.

Hasan Azizul Huq’s award winning novel “Sabitree Up-akhyan” depicts the story of a rape victim who had been raped again and again. The protagonist of the novel Sabi-tree faces the brutal nature of humanity.

Afsana Begum’s “Doshti Protibimwer Pashe” represents ten practical stories of common people and their emotional outbursts. In his opening speech, Gemcon Group Director Kazi Anis Ahmed said the group has been giving away the literary awards to inspire young writers since 2000.

The award giving ceremony started with a musical per-formance, performed by popular musicians, Avi Chowd-hury and Jhumur Ahmed. l

Su� a Kamal’s eldest daughter passes awayn Tribune Report

Amena Kahar, elder daughter of poet Su� a Kamal, died at her Agrabad resi-dence in Chittagong city early yester-day. She was 88.

She was buried at the Garibullah Shah graveyard after Asr prayer yes-terday. She left behind two sons and a daughter to mourn her death.

Amena retired as a director of De-partment of Women A� airs at the re-gional o� ce in Chittagong.

Amena Kahar studied from Lady Bra-bourn College of Kolkata. After complet-ing her studies, she joined as “English Announcer” at Radio Pakistan before the Liberation War. She was also a teacher of Viqarunnesa Girls School in Dhaka. l

RAB resumes patrol in Narayanganj n Ashif Islam Shaon

After nearly two months into the grue-some seven abductions and murders in Narayanganj, the elite force started pa-trolling in the city yesterday.

Though patrolling was one of the regular tasks of Rapid Action Battalion, hardly any such activity had been seen in the city because of their image crisis over the past two months.

The RAB patrol resumed ahead of the Narayanganj 5 by-polls scheduled to be held on June 26.

“The Election Commission has in-structed us to discharge special duty along with regular tasks before and during the poll time,” New RAB 11 Chief Anwar Latif Khan said yesterday.

On April 27, seven people includ-ing panel mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation Nazrul Islam and lawyer Chandan Sarker were abducted from Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road. Three days after their abductions, bodies of six of them were found � oating in Shi-talakkhya River.

Following the incident, � nger of doubt was pointed at RAB 11. l

Two workers electrocuted n FM Mizanur Rahaman,

Chittagong

Two workers were killed after being electrocuted in separate incidents in the port city’s Sadaghat and Akbar Shah area yesterday.

The deceased are Tapos Chawak-robarty, 28, a electrician, son of Dilip Chawakrobarty, resident of Boalkhali upazila and  Md Sakil, 19, a mechanic, son of Sohrab Chowkidar of Shariatpur district.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Pankaj Barua of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) police outpost said Tapos Chakrabarti, 28, an electrician, was electrocuted while he was � xing an electric wire at Al-Arafa Islami Bank, Sadarghat Branch around 1pm.

He was taken to the CMCH, where the on duty doctors pronounced him dead, the ASI said.

On the other hand, Md Shakil, 19, a mechanic, came in contact with a live wire while he was working at a work-shop at Akbar Shah area around 2pm, said ASI Pankaj.

He was also taken to the CMCH, where on duty physicians pronounced him dead. l

Seminar on 'Climate Change' held at DUn Du Correspondent

A daylong international seminar on “Managing the Impact of Climate Change in South Asia” was held at the Nawab Nabab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban in Dhaka University (DU) yes-terday.

DU Vice Chancellor Professor AAMS Are� n Siddique inaugurated the semi-nar, jointly organised by the Bureau of Economic Research (BER) of DU and the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.

Chaired by Professor Dr Barkat A Khoda, chairman of Bureau of Eco-nomic Research while Additional Secretary of Environment and Forest Ministry M A Hannan spoke on the oc-casion as the special guest.

Speakers at the program stressed the need for conducting collaborative research among Bangladeshi and inter-national research institutions especial-ly in the South Asian countries in order

to face the adverse e� ects of climate change around the world.

Professor Are� n said many of the South Asian countries are now in the face of severe threats due to adverse e� ects of climate change.

“If these countries continue their joint research and cooperative outlook to � nd out the ways in which to face the crisis, they will be far bene� ted,” he added.

BER Director Professor Dr Sha� quz-zaman said his institution would con-tinue their support to conduct research on the environment change.

“Bangladesh has limited resources to avert the adverse e� ects of climate change, so experts should increase their eyes on the development of coun-try's resources,” he said.

MA Hannan said the government has generated funds to conduct re-search collaboratively with the others countries. l

BNP: President betrays nationn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

BNP said yesterday the president had betrayed the people of the country.

The party came up with such a re-mark a day after President Abdul Ha-mid told United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that people had accepted the January 5 election and so dialogue would take place after the expiry of the tenure of the incumbent Awami League government.

“President’s remark on dialogue and election have frustrated people [because] people want a credible elec-tion immediately,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of the party, told his party leaders at a train-ing programme held at a hotel in the capital.

He also said: “...there is no room for frustration. Tough movement would be waged to oust the government.”

Fakhrul claimed that the president had lost the con� dence of the people through the remark that people had accepted the election and so dialogue would be held after the tenure of this government expired.

He however hoped that the presi-dent would work for the country and its people rising above partisanship to restore the con� dence.

Later, the party spokesperson at the National Press Club said Awami League leaders had told Ban that the January � ve election would be held for only keeping the continuity of the Constitu-tion. “Now [listening to the president's remark], it seems that the president’s

statement is a version of the Awami League leaders.”

Referring to the government, Fakhrul said: “You (government) are taking taste of power, sending money to Swiss Banks, buying houses in Canada and Malaysia. None wants to leave of-� ce easily and so get ready to be ousted from o� ce through people’s upsurge.”

Regarding the writ petitions of the MPs elected uncontested, he said, “There should not be any nexus be-tween the (court) verdict and politics. Political issues should be settled po-litically. If everything happens as per court order, then Sheikh Hasina could not be the prime minister because the court had termed her wrongheaded. It is not possible to legitimise the January 5 election.” l

Bapex discovers gas � eld in Narayanganjn Aminur Rahman Rasel

A new gas � eld was discovered at Rup-ganj in Narayanganj yesterday, said MA Baki, managing director of state-run Petrobangla’s exploration wing Bangla-desh Petroleum Exploration and Pro-duction Company Ltd (Bapex).

This is the 26th gas � eld discovered-so far in the country, he told the Dha-ka Tribune. Baki said the new gas � eld may have a reserve of 50 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas.

The gas � eld could supply 10-15 mil-lion cubic feet (mmcf) of gas per day to the national grid. According to the calculation, the � eld would be able to supply gas for around 17 years.

The new gas � eld is located in the Purbachal Residential Model City.

Baki said gas was found at a depth of 3,326 metres. “Gas has been found in two zones (lower and upper) of the � eld. The lower zone where gas was found between 3,591 and 3,593 metres; but exploring gas from the zone will not be commercially

viable while gas was also detected 3,326 metres in the upper zone.”

“We are now able to explore gas in 2,100 PSIG [pressure per square inch gas] in the upper zone. Exploring gas from the zone will be commercially viable,” he said. It would need to con-struct 5-6km long gas transmission line to feed it to the national grid.

“We hope that we would be able to supply gas to the national grid within four months.”

Baki said there were also plans to dig several development wells at the � eld.

It is the third discovery of gas during the previous and current tenure of Awami League-led government.

The cost of digging the experimental well under the Rupganj Oil/Gas Explo-ration Well Digging Project was esti-mated at Tk97 crore.

Bapex is currently producing and sup-plying 115 million cubic feet gas to the na-tional grid every day from its six gas � elds in Saldanadi, Fenchuganj, Shahbazpur, Semutung, Sundalpur and Srikail. l

Hasan Azizul Huq (left), Kazi Shahid Ahmed (centre) and Afsana Begum (right) pose for a photograph while attending the Gemcon Literary Award 2014 at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

Ethnic people perform their traditional dance on the occasion of the 159th anniversary of the Santal Revolution Day at Godagari in Rajshahi yesterday AZAHAR UDDIN

WEATHER

5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

PRAYER TIMES Fajar 3:44am Sunrise 5:11am Zohr 12:00am Asr 4:41pm Magrib 6:49pm Esha 8:17pm

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:49PM SUN RISES 5:12AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW31.4ºC 24.4ºCSyedpur Rangamati

SUNDAY, JUNE 22

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 31° 28°Chittagong 29° 26°Rajshahi 32° 27°Rangpur 30° 26°Khulna 32° 27°Barisal 30° 27°Sylhet 28° 25°Cox’s Bazar 30° 26°

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

MoU signed between CU and BSMRMUn CU Correspondent

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Chittagong University and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujubur Rahman Maritime University (BSMRMU) yesterday, said an o� cial

press release.Professor Anwarul Azim Arif, CU

vice-chancellor, signed the MoU on behalf of CU authority, while BSMRMU VC Admiral ASM Abdul Baten signed on behalf of his institution.

The press statement said under the

MoU, CU would co-operate the BSMR-MU to enhance its education levels and exchange development ideas.

Besides, the two universities would jointly arrange seminars, symposiums, conferences and workshops, said the press statement. l

City life troubled by water logging One dies and three injured in wall collapse

n Tushar Hayat and Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

People su� ered immensely yesterday as the low-lying areas of Chittagong city went under knee-deep water due to the continuous heavy rainfall, which started as a shower in the early hours of Friday.

A construction worker died and three others sustained injuries falling under the collapsed boundary wall of an un-der-construction building at Hillview Residential Area under Panchlaish Po-lice Station in the city at around 3:30am.

Fire brigade o� cials said the new-ly-built boundary wall of the un-der-construction building collapsed as the uncovered boundary wall had ab-sorbed the excessive rain water in the last two days.

Panchlaish police station O� -cer-in-Charge Abu Jafor Mohammad Omar Faruk said Aslam, 30, and Md Mamun, 18, Shefajul, 20, and Moham-mad Khokon, 22, were sleeping in a makeshift house close to the boundary wall at about 3am, when it collapsed.

On information, � re brigade per-sonnel rushed to the spot, rescued the injured four workers and sent them to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), said Jashim Uddin, deputy as-sistant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters in Chittagong.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Pankaj Barua of CMCH Police Camp said the on-duty doctors at CMCH declared Aslam dead when he was taken to hos-pital while the remaining three were undergoing treatment at the hospital.

The shower that started in the ear-ly hours of Friday, later turned into a heavy rainfall and continued to fall well into midday yesterday, said Chit-tagong Divisional Met O� ce sources.

The met o� ce recorded 336.4 mil-limetres of rainfall in last 24 hours till 3:00pm yesterday while it was 314.2 millimetres in previous 24 hours, said Mirza Nilufar Jahan, meteorologist of Meteorological O� ce in Chittagong city’s Patenga area.

She said the rainfall might continue for a few more days under the in� u-ence of a low pressure formed in the Bay of Bengal.

Among the low-lying areas in the city that went under water are Bakalia, Na-sirabad, Patenga, Dewanbazar, Chawk-bazar, Agrabad, Halishahar, Kapasgola, Chandgaon, Shulakbahar, Enayet Bazar, Boropol, Muradpur, Sholoshahar, Ba-haddarhat and Probartak intersection.

Motorised vehicles were hardly seen in the areas while rickshaws and vans were seen plying on the city roads.

Commuters, greatly outnumbering the rickshaws, had to su� er quite a lot through � lthy water from over� owing roadside drains. O� ces and di� erent educational institutions-bound people however faced water logging problem mostly.

Omar Faruk, a businessman and res-ident of the city’s Agrabad area, told Dhaka Tribune that he could not use his private car due to water logging on the road and reluctantly, he had to pay

an excessive rickshaw fare. He blamed the poor sewerage and

drainage system of the city for the wa-ter logging.

Bonny Mutsuddy, a resident of the city’s CDA Residential Area, said she could not go to her university as � lthy drain water had � ooded roads because of the nonstop rainfall.

Abdur Rahim, public relation o� cer of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), said some areas had gone under water but the city corporation authorities were working to solve it.

CCC Mayor M Manjur Alam could not be reached on the phone to talk over the matter. It may be mentioned here that the present mayor gave words to port city dwellers to remove water logging problem during CCC election campaign four years ago.

Ship movements at Chittagong Sea Port channel remained halted during the morning shift due to excessive rain-fall yesterday.

Mohibul Haq, director (admin) of

Chittagong Port Authority, told Dhaka Tribune that four vessels which were scheduled to leave the port jetties re-mained stuck in the morning while two other vessels could also not reach jet-ties from the outer anchorage.

“The ship movements at the port channel have been suspended tempo-rarily from 7:00am till the noon due to torrential rain,” he said.

The loading and uploading of the goods at the port jetties and outer an-chorage had also remained suspended during the period because of heavy rainfall, he added.

A special weather bulletin of Ban-gladesh Meteorological Department yesterday said deep convection was continuing over the North Bay and ad-joining coastal areas of Bangladesh due to strong monsoon over the North Bay. Under its in� uence, stormy weather might continue over the North Bay, ad-joining coastal area of Bangladesh and the maritime ports.

Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox’s

Bazar, Mongla and Payra were advised to keep the local cautionary signal number three hoisted. All � shing boats and trawlers over the North Bay were advised to remain close to the coast and proceed with caution till further notice.

Under the in� uence of strong mon-soon over the North Bay, the low-lying areas of the coastal districts of Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Noakhali, Lakshmi-pur,  Feni, Chandpur, Barguna, Bhola, Patuakhali, Barisal, Pirojpur, Jhal-akathi, Bagherhat, Khulna, Satkhira and their o� shore islands and chars are likely to be inundated by 1-2 feet height above normal astronomical tide.

As there was the possibility of a mud-slide in the port city due to heavy rain-fall, the district administration had start-ed a campaign over loud speaker asking the hill-side dwellers to go to a safe place like nearby school building and cyclone centre, said Additional Deputy Commis-sioner (Revenue) Abdul Quader of Chit-tagong district administration. l

Risky hillside dwellers being evictedn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The district administration and Chit-tagong Metropolitan Police jointly con-ducted drives to evict hillside dwellers from risky hills in Chittagong city for the second consecutive day yesterday.

Due to continuous heavy rain since Friday, the authorities started the evic-tion drive as there is a possibility of mudslides and casualties, said district administration and police sources.

Earlier on June 17, Chittagong dis-trict administration decided to conduct eviction drives of the risky hills of Chit-tagong before Ramadan. The eviction started a bit earlier because of recent heavy downpour.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (revenue) SM Abdul Quader, member secretary of Hill Management Com-mittee in Chittagong district, told the Dhaka Tribune that as there was a pos-sibility of mudslides in the city due to heavy rainfall, the campaign was start-ed asking the hill-side dwellers to take shelter in nearby school buildings and cyclone centres.

Dipak Jyoti Khisha, assistant com-missioner of Panchlaish circle of the CMP, said they started the eviction in Motijharna, Batali Hill and adjoining hilly areas around 8:30am. Around hundred policemen and � re brigade personnel took part in the drive and the additional deputy commissioner led the drive.

Besides, eviction programmes was also conducted in Bayezid and Akbar Shah areas, said Mohammad Shahidul-lah, additional deputy commissioner of CMP (North Zone).

He said the eviction would continue till every hill-side dwellers was evacu-ated to a safe place.

Earlier, district administration evicted around 200 families from the city’s Motijharna area, a risky hill slope, and sent them to nearby schoolbuildings.

Mezbah Uddin, Chittagong deputy commissioner, said executive magis-trate and law enforcing agencies were jointly conducting the campaign.

Most of evicted families went back to their risky residences at night,but the authorities forced them to stay at school building to avoid any kind of casualty, said Additional Dep-uty Commissioner (Revenue) AbdulQuader.

The Hill Management Committee of Chittagong district administration had already identi� ed 30 risky hills, while 666 families are detected as most vul-nerable in 11 hills out of the 30 risky hills. l

Check graft in power sectorn UNB

State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid yesterday urged the o� -cials of the Rural Electri� cation Board (REB) to check corruption in power sector.

“If we fail to check corruption and irregularities, all the achievements in power sector will be jeopardized,” he told a meeting with the REB o� cials at the organisation’s headquarter at Ni-kunja of Khilkhet in the city.

He said allegations of irregularities and corruption were tarnishing the im-age of the REB.

The corruption might not come at the zero level, but it must be ensured it is coming down to a tolerable level.

“The success of a political gov-ernment depends on performance of the � eld level o� cials,” he told themeeting.

REB Chairman Brig Gen Moin Uddin and other o� cials of the organisation were also present at the meeting. l

CITY TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Study: Lack of long-term solution creates fresh problems n Abid Azad

Dhaka keeps facing new tra� c and transport problems because of a lack of long-term solution to existing prob-lems, according to a study.

The study done by Buet Professor Dr Md Shamsul Hoque pointed out that the problems could not be solved for a long term without coordination among all stakeholders in the tra� c and trans-port system.

Outcomes of the study were presented at a seminar, organized by the Association of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Alumni (ABUETA), at the BUET seminar hall yesterday.

“The government usually does not supervise Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects as well as the foreign

projects and that is how those projects are � nished. As a result, bodies such as Rajuk, BRTA, Dhaka City Corporation and LGRD work with individual plans and have no idea if a project will con-� ict with another,” said Shamsul.

“We sometimes � nd solutions to big problems but because of a lack of a unitary authority and coordination between di� erent departments, those become unfeasible as long-term solu-tions,” he added.

Professor Shamsul said Mohakhali Flyover was an obstacle to implement-ing some other mega projects in the area, adding that such a situation could have been avoided if the government had properly followed strategic trans-port plan (STP) for Dhaka.

“Water buses were introduced for

people traveling from Aminbazar to Sadarghat but while doing so, the au-thorities concerned did not think how commuters will reach Motijheel from Sadarghat within the shortest possible time,” he said.

Shamsul said: “There are similar problems with rails. A train cannot run fast because of the large number of level crossings it has to pass which also causes tra� c congestion. But if we built an elevated railway, trains could have moved faster without hindering tra� c on the road.

“This way, many projects are taken up or implemented for development but most of those are con� icting with each other, bringing no solution to traf-� c woes in Dhaka.”

“Rather than focusing on the num-

ber of vehicles running on a road, we need to think how many passengers could be provided with transport ser-vice within the least possible time, said the Buet professor.

According to a 2010 JICA (Japan In-ternational Cooperation Agency) study, 19.8% city dwellers walk to their des-tinations, 38.3% travel by rickshaw, 28.3% by public bus, 0.0% by railway, 5.1% by car and 0.1% take waterway.

Director General of Bangladesh Rail-way Engineer To� azal Hossain admitted the problems of too many level crossings, saying: “There are at least 25 crossings in the 16-kilometre rail route from Dha-ka to Narayanganj. If the number can be reduced, trains would run faster and we can also increase the number of trains.”

Addressing the seminar, Communi-

cation Minister Obaidul Quader said: “Everyone is complaining about tra� c and transport problems but there are some factors. Besides, there are lots of bureaucratic problems in the country which force us to work tactfully.”

“A magical transformation is not possible but we are trying our best,” the minister said.

Tra� c control o� cial of Dhaka Met-ropolitan Police Md Shah Abid Hossain said: “Illegal parking, frequent level crossings, motorised and non-moto-rised vehicles running on the same road, unplanned development of residential and commercial areas, lack of tra� c in-frastructure, and erection of shopping centres, houses and schools beside main roads are responsible for tra� c and transport problems in the city.” l

All � shing boats and trawlers over the North Bay were advised to remain close to the coast and proceed with caution till further notice

Low-lying areas of Chittagong city went under knee to weight deep water due to heavy downpour for the past two days. The photo was taken from PC Pole area of Halishaharyesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

A goods-laden truck lies abandoned on the middle of the capital's Mirpur Road yesterday after colliding head-on with a bus on Friday nighy hampering vehicular movement RAJIB DHAR

6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

Pig rearing, a pro� table businessn Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon

Pig rearing has turned out to be a prof-itable business for a section of people belonging to the Baishaya caste in the country’s northern region.

According to sources, a section of the people of the caste rear pigs for commercial purposes.

Besides, the indigenous people of the region also rear pigs for domestic use. In the region indegenous people of Santal and Urao communities rear pigs for domestic purposes.

Cornel Tirky, Joakim Akka ,Ruby Tigga, Anna Ekka at Khochabari area Suru Soren in Thakurgaon College Para Adibasi Polly rear pigs for domestic use and commercial purposes.

Fani Roy of Mahishkhocah village under Aditmari upazila of Lalmanirhat district for grazing a herd of pigs came to Dakshin Batina village under Thakur-gaon sadar upazila a few days ago.

In the herd there were 151 pigs and 67 adult swine. The total value of the herd is about Tk10 lakhs. The female swine gives birth twice a year, 10 to 12 pigs each time. In this way the number of pigs increases in the herd.

This correspondent met Fani Roy in Gourypur village a few days ago. Fani Roy told this correspondent that he along with other 5 people set out for di� erent destinations from Mahishk-hocha village before 8 months for graz-ing the herd of pigs.

Day after day, week after week and month after month they had been grazing the pigs in di� erent villages of Rongpur, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts in last 7 months.

Fani and his colleagues are not the owners of the pigs. They are the em-ployees of the owner Atul Chandra Roy, a man of Baishya cast of Mahishkhocha village of Lalmonirhat district.

In total, Atul Chandra has 550 pigs and adult swine. Fani said that for the purpose of grazing they had to pass nights under open sky in the villages.

The owner provides them with tents, clothing, utensils and other es-sentials. Fani and other herdsmen each get salary of Tk6,000 a month. Besides, the cost of daily meals is borne by the owner. The owner sends the cost of meals through B-kash. When they will go home they do not know. Sometimes

the owner transfers the herdsmen from one herd to another.

The pigs eat roots and taro stolon of arum, water lilies (shapla, shaluk), mach alu (a kind of wild potato) and other wild vegetation.

In the process of grazing, the pigs grow old. Sale of pigs is being held di-rectly from the herd. The buyers come from Dhaka to the owner who sends them directly to the herds. The buyers at a time purchase truck-load of pigs.

One female pig is sold at Tk2,500 to 3,000 whereas a big male pig is sold at Tk15,000 to 16,000.

A male pig gives pork of about 2 to 2.25 maunds (40 kg a maund). In Dha-ka there is a market in the Christian community where the Christians and the Indigenous people purchase pork at Tk350 to 400 per kg. Pork also is also sold in the villages among the indige-nous people community. In the villages it is sold at Tk200 to 250 per kg. l

Khaleda arrives in Bogran Our Correspondent, Bogra

BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia arrived in Bogra yesterday night as part of her two-day visit to the northern re-gion.

She will address a rally in Joypurhat today to press home her party’s de-mands including the re-introduction of a care-taker government and putting an end to abductions and murders.

Meer Shahe Alam, organisational secretary of BNP’s Bogra district unit, told the Dhaka Tribune that she ar-rived in Bogra around 10pm yesterday and she would stay at the Bogra Circuit House during her visit.

She would start her journey toJoypurhat after lunch today and is ex-pected to deliver important directives for the forthcoming movement against the incumbent administration at a pub-lic gathering due to be held at 3pm at the Ramdeo Bajra High School in Joy-purhat, Shahe Alam said.

Although Begum Zia has no sched-uled program in Bogra, but the party men and supporters would welcome her today on her way to Joypurhat from Satmatha to Mokamtala of Bogra, add-ed the BNP leader. l

Man found dead n Our Correspondent, Narsingdi

Police yesterday morning recovered the decomposed body of a man from Shekherdhar marsh of Shibpur upazila in the district.

The deceased was identi� ed as Mas-ud Mia, 28, son of Raju Mia of Dargah-banda village in the upazila.

Police and locals said Masud went out of his house on June 12 and had been missing since then. His family

also � led a general diary with Shibpur Model police station after he had gone missing.

His relatives identi� ed the body after police had recovered it from the marsh.

O� cer-in-charge Shibpur Model police station Khandakar Mizanur Rah-man said Masud’s relatives identi� ed the body by examining the clothes.

The body was sent to the sadar hos-pital for autopsy, he added. l

Flood feared in Fenin Our Correspondent, Feni

Around 15 villages are feared to be � ooded as a part of the Muhuri river � ood dyke has got breached at the Ut-tar Sripur village point of Fulgazi upa-zila in Feni.

Among the villages are Uttar Sripur, Goshaipur, Shaldhar, Nilakkhi, Bijoy-pur, Darbarpur of the upazila.

Locals said there had been a strong

� ow of water in the frontier river for a few days due to heavy rains and onrush of water from Indian hills, leading to the dyke’s 30-feet breach.

They said two villages, includ-ing Uttar Sripur, had already been af-fected by the dyke breach as home yards and roads went under knee-deepwater.

People there were moving to and fro, wading through water.

The locals feared that the breach might get bigger if it was not repaired immediately, causing a major � ood in the upazila, but authorities were yet to come up with any initiative torepair it.

Feni Water Development Board Ex-ecutive Engineer Ramzan Ali said they had written to the higher authorities of the breach and hoped it would be re-paired very soon. l

Scientists innovate dam-building technology between hillsn Our Correspondent, Khagrachari

Scientists have innovated a new tech-nology that will help cultivate underu-tilised land all year round in the Chit-tagong Hill Tracts (CHT) by reserving rainwater with building dams between the hills at a very low cost.

The bene� ts of this innovation by the scientists of Hilly Agricultural Research Centre was disclosed at a workshop held at the Ethnic Minori-ties Cultural Institute in Khagrachari yesterday.

Naba Bikram Kisore Tripura, secretary for the Ministry of CHTA� airs and chairman of CHT Develop-ment Board, attended the workshop as the chief guest while among oth-ers, Mike Rebson, representative of International Rice Research institute to Bangladesh, and Abu Hamid Mia, director general of Agricultural Exten-sion Department, were present as the special guests.

The workshop informed its partici-

pants that the current picture of the agricultural activities of the district can be altered by building dams be-tween the hills at a cost of Tk4 lakh only. Around 4,000 hectors of land remain underutilised every year due to the lack of water while half of the land can be made arable using this newtechnology.

It is also possible to utilise the re-served water to bring the adjacent plain and hilly gardens of mixed fruits under irrigation.

Not only that, It makes husbandry of domestic animals like ducks, geese etc and cultivation of � sheries much easier than it used to be earlier.

The entire project would eventually pave the way for the self-employment for many local farmers.

It was also learnt from the work-shop that the dam-building technology would not only accelerate the agricul-tural activities in the CHT but also help ease the crisis of drinking water simul-taneously. l

Mango traders callso� today’s shut-down till June 26n Our Correspondent,

Chapainawabganj

Mango traders in Chapainawabganj yesterday called o� today’s shutdown till Thursday as part of their ongoing protest against the alleged extortion, harassment, and destruction of the

fruits by the law enforcement agencies in the name of formalin testing.

President of Chapainawabganj Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Director of FBCCI Abdul Wahed yesterday announced the decision of the traders to halt their protest pro-grams till June 26 after a meeting with

the district administration on Friday night, said local sources.

Seven professional bodies including Chapainawabganj Chamber called o� the shut-down after the administration decided to issue “Formalin-free Certi� -cate” after testing the mangoes properly.

Deputy Commissioner Sardar Sara-fat Ali said the administration remains vigilant so that mango farmers and traders do not incur loss due to false checking of formalin.

Earlier, Chapainawabganj Chamber along with seven other fellow trade bodies called on today’s shut-down to protest the alleged destruction of fruits by law enforcement agencies worth crores of taka accusing the traders of mixing formalin with mangoes.

Although the leaders of the trade bodies said that the anti-formalin drive launched by the local administration failed to trace the presence of formalin so far in mangoes despite running the drive for 21 days at a stretch. l

Extortion, harassment, and destruction of mangoes on the wayto Dhaka

One beaten to death, two hurt n Our Correspondent, Gazipur

An alleged robber was beaten to death while two people were injured in a clash between robbers and villagers at Dumni village of Sreepur upazila in the district early yesterday.

The victim was Sohel Rana, 35, a res-ident of Jaina Bazar in the upazila. The name of his father, however, could not be identi� ed.

On the other hand, the two villagers were Sudhan Chandra, 42, and Manik Chandra, 35. They were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Villagers said armed with local weapons, machetes and rods, 10 rob-bers attacked the house of Arun Das, an expatriate in Singapore, around

2am. They looted gold jewellery and some essential goods from aroom.

Meanwhile, people in the adja-cent room called the neighbours and informed them of the robbery. The neighbours surrounded Arun’s house and attempted to intercept the robbers, leading to a clash.

Sudhan and Manik were injured when the robbers attacked them indis-criminately with machetes.

Sub-inspector of Sreepur police station Saiful Islam said one alleged robber died on the spot when villag-ers beat him up but his accomplices managed to � ee. The body was sent to Gazipur Sadar Hospital for autopsy, headded. l

Dhaka-Northern region rail link resumedn Our Correspondent, Tangail

Rail communications resumed after the repair work of a pothole had been com-pleted, said divisional railway manager.

Md Afzal Hossain, additional chief engineer (Track), West Zone of Bang-ladesh Railway said: “Rail communi-cations between Dhaka and the north-ern part of the country have resumed after a � ve hour suspension following a crack under the rail track due to the incessant rain.”

He said: “A seven feet pothole has developed under the rail track in Anali-abari area due to heavy rainfall for the last two days.”

“The rail track subsided at 11am and the railway authority decided to keep the railway communication suspend-ed,” Pankaj Kumar Saha, divisional rail-way manager said.

The repairing work of the hole has been completed and the rail communi-cations has resumed, Pankaj said.

Dhaka-bound Silk City service from Rajshahi got stuck at Ibrahimabad sta-tion, the east side of Bangabandhu Bridge, Nilsagar Express, Rangpur Ex-press at Tangail Station, Sundarban Express at Mohera Stattion of Mir-zapur and Ekata Express at Mouchak of Gazipur, Divisional Transportation O� cer Md Sha� qur Rahman said. l

Two killed, two hurt falling o� bus roof n Our Correspondent, Naogaon

Two indigenous men died after falling from the roof of a bus at Chakmayaram of Dhamirhat upazila in the district on Friday night.

The two were Shailen Mumu, 20, son of Ramlal Mumu of Bahadurpur village, and Sanjit Hemram, 18, son Go-lap Hemram of the same village.

The incident, which happened around 11:30pm, also left Ruplal Hem-ram, 30, and Uzzal, 28, injured.

O� cer-in-charge (investigation) of Dhamirhat police station Nazmul

Haque said the four fell o� the roof of the bus after ramming into a branch of a tree as the vehicle was letting an am-bulance pass by.

The bus was carrying people who was returning from Gobindaganj after attending a wedding, he said.

Nazmul said that Shailen had been killed on the spot while the other three were admitted to Dhamirhat Upazila Health Complex in criticalcondition.

Sanjit died yesterday morning while being treated at the hospital, headded. l

A section of people belonging to the Baishaya caste in the country’s northern region rear pigs as the business is pro� table. The picture has been taken from Dakhin Bhatina village under Thakurgaon Sadar upazila DHAKA TRIBUNE

Comilla Stadium Market and its adjacent area in the district has gone under water after a day long downpour yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Hanging body of a housewife recoveredn Our Correspondent, Gazipur

Police has recovered the hanging body of a housewife in West Chandona area of Gazipur in early hours of Friday.

Sub-Inspector Ikramul Haque of Bhogra highway police outpost under Joydebpur police station said fam-ily members of Orpa Akter Kakoli, 21, found her body hanging from the ceil-ing fan of her bedroom around 11pm.

Later, police recovered the body around 1am and sent it to Gazipur Sa-dar Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Locals said Kakoli’s husband Abul Hossain Tipu recently returned to Bangladesh, and alleged that his fam-ily members had been torturing Kakoli mentally. They suspected that Kakoli might have killed herself for not being able to tolerate the torture.

Police said the course of the case might change following the autopsy report. l

4 Indians held with 57 gold barsn Our Correspondent, Jessore

The customs at Petrapole on the Indian side, opposite to Benapole land port, have arrested four Indians with 57 gold bars.

The arrest and recovery were made on Friday, however the information reached Benapole at a later time, said Benapole land port sources.

Nuruzzaman, revenue o� cer, Bena-pole customs check post has con� rmed about the arrest of four Indian nation-als and recovery of 57 pieces of gold bars.

Jahangir Hossain, o� cer in-charge of Benapole immigration police told the Dhaka Tribune that four Indians were held by the Petrapole customs on the other side of Benapole and a total of 57 pieces of gold bars weighing 5.7 kilo-grams were seized, from their posses-sions during checking by the customs o� cial.

“They entered into India from Bang-ladesh through Benapole land port holding Indian passports”, he added. l

Jamaat calls hartaln Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Jamaat-e-Islami unit in Sylhet has called a half-day hartal in the district for Monday protesting the arrest of its act-ing secretary general. Ha� z Miftah Ud-din, publicity secretary of metropolitan Jamaat unit, con� rmed the Dhaka Trib-une about the shutdown programme.

He said the hartal would be ob-served from 6am to 12pm on Monday. l

The language of negotiationsn Career Desk

Alternatives - Oth-er optionsAmplify - Expand; give more informa-tionArbitration - Con� ict that is addressed by using a neutral third party

Bottom-line - The lowest one is willing to goCompensate - Make up for a lossComply – AgreeCompromise - Changing one’s mind/terms slightly in order to � nd a resolu-tionConcession - A thing that is granted or acceptedCon� ict resolution - General term for negotiationsConfront - Present an issue to someone directlyConsensus - Agreement by allCounterattack - Present other side of an issueCounterpart - Person on the other side of the negotiationsDeadlock - Point where neither party will give inDispute - Argument/con� ictEntitled - Be deserving ofFlexible - Open/willing to changeHostility - Long-term anger towards another High-ball - Make a request that is much higher than you expect to receiveImpulse - Quick decision without thought or timeLeverage - (Bargaining power) some-thing that gives one party a greater chance at succeeding over anotherLog-rolling - Trading one favour for anotherLow-ball - O� er something much lower than you think the opponent will ask forReceptive - Open to/interested in an ideaResentment - Anger held onto from a previous con� ictResistance - A display of oppositionResolve - End con� ict, come to an agreementTactics - Strategies used to get one’s goals metTension - Feeling of stress/anxiety caused by heavy con� ictTrade-o� - Terms that are o� ered in return for something elseUltimatum - A � nal term that has seri-ous consequences if not metUnrealistic - Very unlikely to happenYield - To give in to another’s requests. l

BIZVOCAB

7CareerDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

The long and short of HR consultingUnderstanding the approach undertaken by great teamsn Naiian Yazdani and Nakibul Haq

As Brazil and Argentina capture the hearts of the nation, as it does every four years, the de-

bates about Messi and Neymar will fol-low suit. The truth is, the victor of the world cup will rely not solely on one person; rather, it will be the team which ensures that they are greater than the sum of their parts. This is essentially what a modern corporation looks like, each person providing their talents in an environment which pursues suc-cess, and HR consultancies are the ones to help shape the team and all within it.

More than ever before, today’s global organisations are driven by not only pro� t margins and revenue gen-eration but also by sustainability and development. To compete on a global scale Bangladeshi corporations need to become introspective, focusing on employee engagement to ensure that employees are of a high standard as much as the products and services they provide.

This internal focus is an aspect that � ows through multinational corpora-tions which have implemented proven global practices. The approach focuses on creating a sense of belonging and pride, and therefore an obligation to perform to the best of one’s ability for the company. The brand loyalty and success of such an approach is re� ected in the fact that these companies have always topped the list of best compa-nies to work for in Bangladesh.

The way these companies enact such an approach is to instil the idea that everyone can make a direct con-tribution to the company. Entrusting employees and creating a collegiate atmosphere which is conducive to idea sharing and by extension is creating higher quality output. One example is sharing and acknowledging achieve-ments of one team member with the rest of the group. Simple recognition and positive reinforcement helps sus-tain a sense of belonging and creates a positive atmosphere.

While these new customs are slowly encroaching on domestic corporations, the real change needs to come at an executive level. The sentiment exud-ed by those in charge is one resistant to change and one which appears to be based on a narrow prescribed method-

ology. It remains the case that a bot-tom-up approach for building employ-ee loyalty has yet to become pervasive across all spheres of the corporate lad-der. The ingrained processes are rem-nants of a historical context in which human capital is often side-lined in the search for relentless pro� ts. There is no mutuality in relationship; rather it re-mains oriented toward indebtedness to those in positions of authority.

This may have appeared successful in a previous era; however, the reality is that the labour force was not utilised as it may have. While meta-analysis and extensive research is yet to be available on these aspects of organisational prac-tices, it is quite apparent that organi-sations need to develop their human resource in order to function at their maximum potential.

In this brave new world, one in which knowledge is streamed directly from the tips of most intelligent to our computer screen; it is now clear that employee satisfaction and pro� tability are intertwined.

The increasing focus on employees

has facilitated the growth of Human Resource (HR) consultancies special-ising in creating modern workplaces. At Grow n Excel, HR consultancy � rm based in Dhaka, consultants specialise in optimising solutions for corporations through services such as recruitment and selection, implementing HR prac-tices in organisations, organisational restructuring and various other HR ad-ministrative and functional activities.

Mr Zul� quar Hussain, currently the CEO and Lead Consultant at Grow n Ex-cel, believes in unleashing the poten-tial of domestic human capital. Having

worked as the Human Resources Direc-tor in Nestle Bangladesh Limited and Citycell, he founded the company in mid-2008. Grow n Excel represents one out of several HR consultancy � rms o� ering their broad services in the cor-porate sector. As Bangladesh strives to become a middle income nation, the demand for standardised HR consult-ing services will grow as corporations get up to speed with global HR practic-es to make themselves world class in all aspects of an organisation.

The primary focus for consultancies such as Grow n Excel is to diagnose and solve the many human resource issues organisations face every day. This re-quires a deep understanding of both the organisation's internal structure, its outlook and culture. The key is to understand the strength of the bond between perception, reality and the long term visions of the company’s top level management.

Once a clear picture of the people in the business is taken, Grow n Excel works closely with corporate manage-ment. They will make recommenda-

tions about reporting lines, internal programmes and initiatives which can be undertaken.

The aspiration is to create a sustain-able, fully compliant organisational practice in which employees and man-agement work together and towards the long term visions and goals of the company. While HR outsourcing might still be a nascent idea in Bangladesh, there is no doubt as to the fact that as organisations focus more on their core competencies this is one area where companies would like to use less of their time and resources.

One of the most outsourced HR func-tions in recent times has been recruit-ment and selection. Many organisations now recognise the high cost of bringing in new talent and establishing a talent pipeline. This is why they are choosing to engage consulting � rms like Grow n Excel and HR Kites to outsource talent recruitment so that the top manage-ment can focus more on the organisa-tion's core competencies. Throughout rigorous testing procedures, interviews and in-depth assessment, an outside

specialist consultant � rm makes sure that the organisation has the right talent at the right time and place.

To become e� ective consultants in this industry, one needs to possess ex-posure to global HR practices that are highly employee-oriented. Since it is a well-established fact that MNCs are the organisations which have such employ-ee-friendly HR cultures, the HR depart-ments of the top multinational compa-nies are good places to kick start your ambitions of becoming an HR expert.

Looking forward, an issue which grapples with the Bangladeshi percep-tion of value is the di� culty to quantify the bene� t of HR. One simply cannot link human and social capital to pro-ductivity in monetary terms that easily and this requires a change in attitude.

However, as consultancies like Grow n Excel advocate, there is no substi-tute for promoting human resource and employee engagement inside the organisation. After all, an e� ective hu-man capital is what makes world-class organisations like Google achieve the maximum out of their employees while putting a smile on their faces. l

Nakibul Hoq is a research analyst at GradConnect, an international career information and advisory � rm. You can email him at nakib@grad-connect.com and � nd more career information at www.grad-insights.com and www.grad-connect.com. Naiian Yazdani is the director of strategy at GradConnect. You can email him at naiian@grad-connect.com.

The role of power at the workplacen Career Desk

What is the relationship be-tween power and leadership? Does being a leader give one

power? Or, are powerful people simply more prone to becoming leaders?

Leadership and power are directly linked, and not only as super� cially as the paradox mentioned suggests. Peo-ple tend to follow those who are per-ceived as most powerful. Leaders have power for di� erent reasons – the ability to let you o� work early, assign you to your dream project or assign you work you hate, expertise in a given � eld, ad-miration from team mates, etc. Can you recognise di� erent forms of leadership in others around you at work, school or university, or at home? Does your foot-ball coach hold the same leadership role as your boss? How about in your own role to your children, employees, students, teammates, etc?

One of the most notable studies on un-derstanding power was conducted by social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven in 1959. They identi-� ed � ve bases of power, and the study is popularly still referred to as French and Raven’s Five Bases of Power, de-spite Raven having added an additional 6th base in 1965.

By studying the di� erent forms of power, one can deal with people in a position of authority more e� ectively. Following are the six forms of power. Use these categories as a checklist to

determine what forms of power you and others have; it is a common con-ception to assume you are powerless, or have less power than the other per-son.

Coercive powerThis is the power to compel and oblige others to do things against their will. It is often physical, but not limited to it. This is the power exercised by dicta-tors, despots, mob bosses and bullies. Coercion often results in physical and psychological harm, but the wielder’s principal goal is compliance. “Or else” scenarios are often used to illustrate what will happen if compliance is not gained.

Coercion is also the ultimate power of all governments. While the word cer-tainly has a negative connotation, it is also used to keep the peace. For exam-ple, a coercive parent might stop their child from associating with harmful

elements in school because they don’t know any better. The other � ve forms of power may also be used in coercive ways, such as when a reward or exper-tise is withheld or referent power is used to threaten social exclusion.

Reward powerOne of our primary motives to work, to put it simply, is to make the money we need to conduct our lives the way we want to. There are other forms of reward – in fact anything we � nd de-sirable can be a reward, be it a vacation home or someone’s approval. Reward power is the ability to give others what they want, and in exchange ask them to do things for you.

Rewards can also be used negative-ly to punish (a method reminiscent of negative reinforcement) by withhold-ing them. It is essentially “Do this and you will get that” or “Do this or you won’t get that.”

Legitimate powerLegitimate power stems from a per-son’s role – it is “legitimate” under the law of the land. Kings, ministers, police o� cers and directors all have legiti-mate power.

The legitimacy is often meted down from a higher power. A common delu-sion that people in such roles fall into is to forget that people are obeying the role, not the person.

Legitimate power is that based on social rules and can have several dif-ferent forms instead of just being based on position or role.

Legitimate position power: The social norm of obeying people in a superior position.Legitimate power of reciprocity: The norm that we should repay those who help us.Legitimate power of equity: The norm of fair play and due compensation.

Legitimate power of responsibility: The norm of social responsibility in helping others.

Referent powerThis is the power that comes from an-other person liking you and wanting to be like you. It is the power of charisma and fame and is wielded by all celebri-ties as well as social leaders. In want-ing to be like these people, we imitate them hoping some of it will rub o� on us.

Those with referent power often use it for coercion. One of the biggest fears for most people is social exclusion, and all it takes is a word from a social lead-er for us to be shunned by others in the group. School children are very famil-iar with this dynamic, and learn from an early age the pitfalls and politics of popularity.

Expert powerThis is the power of expertise and knowledge, and others being in need of that knowledge. This is a very com-mon form of power and is the basis for a very large proportion of human col-laboration, including most companies where the principle of specialisation allows large and complex ventures to be undertaken.

Expert power may be used by skilled labourers demanding better pay or working conditions. It may be used by a research and development engineer to demand a better o� ce or steep pay rise.

Informational powerThis is the sixth base of power that Bertram Raven added in 1965: infor-mational power. This is providing in-formation to a person that a� ects the way they think or do things. Informa-tion alone is often not enough for this and is thus supported by an argument as to why the information should be believed.

If the information is accepted then “socially independent change” occurs as the person continues to believe this information to be true and acts accord-ingly. l

The sentiment exuded by those in charge is one resistant to change and one which appears to be based on a narrow prescribed methodology

As Bangladesh strives to become a middle income nation, the demand for standardised HR consulting services will grow as corporations get up to speed with global HR practices to make themselves world class in all aspects

Referent power comes from another person liking you and wanting to be like you. It is the power of charisma and fame

BIGSTOCK

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Sunday, June 22, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8

Iraq militants take Syria-border post in drive for Caliphaten Reuters, Anbar, Iraq

Sunni � ghters seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier, security sources said on Saturday, smashing a line drawn by colonial powers almost a century ago and potentially creating an Islamic Caliphate from the Mediterranean Sea to Iran.

The militants, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), � rst moved into the nearby town of al-Qaim on Friday, pushing out security forces, the sources said.

Once border guards heard that al-Qa-im had fallen, they left their posts and militants moved in, the sources said.

Sameer al-Shwiali, media adviser to the commander of Iraq’s anti-terrorist squad, told Reuters that the Iraqi army was still in control of al-Qaim.

Al-Qaim and its neighbouring Syrian counterpart Albukamal are on a strate-gic supply route. A three-year civil war in Syria has left most of eastern Syria in the hands of Sunni militants, including the Albukamal-Qaim crossing.

The Albukamal gate is run by al-Qaeda’s o� cial Syria branch, the Nusra Front, which has clashed with ISIL but has also agreed to localised truces when it suits both sides.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, Rami Abdulrahman, said ISIL has pushed

the Nusra Front out from many areas of eastern Syria in the past few days and their capture of al-Qaim will allow them to quickly move to the Syrian side.

ISIL already controls territory around the Abukamal gate, e� ectively pinching the Nusra Front between its forces in Syria and those in neighbour-ing Iraq, said Abdulrahman, who tracks the violence.

Shi’ites mobiliseWith stunning speed, ISIL, an o� shoot of al-Qaeda, has captured swathes of territory in northwest and central Iraq, including the second city, Mosul. They have seized large amounts of weap-onry from the � eeing Iraqi army and looted banks.

The Shi’ite-led government has mo-bilised militia to send volunteers to the front lines.

President Barack Obama has o� ered up to 300 US special forces advisers to help the Iraqi government recapture territory seized by ISIL and other Sunni armed groups across northern and west-ern Iraq. But he has held o� granting a request for air strikes to protect the gov-ernment and renewed a call for Iraq’s long-serving Shi’ite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, to do more to overcome sec-tarian divisions that have fuelled resent-ment among the Sunni minority. l

Iran says Obama remarks show US not serious in � ghting terrorismn Reuters, Dubai

President Barack Obama’s plan to send advisers to Iraq to help Baghdad count-er Sunni Islamist militants shows the  United States  is not serious about � ghting terrorism, an Iranian o� cial was quoted by o� cial media as saying on Friday.

Obama on Thursday o� ered up to 300 Americans to help coordinate the � ght against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). But he held o� grant-ing a request for air strikes from the Shi›ite-led government and renewed a call for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to do more to overcome sectarian di-visions that have fuelled resentment among the Sunni minority.

“Obama’s recent remarks showed that the White House lacks serious will for confronting terrorism in Iraq and the region,” the o� cial IRNA news agency reported Deputy Foreign Minis-ter for Arab and African A� airs Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying.

Abdollahian said the US “delay” in � ghting terrorism and the ISIL has “fu-

elled suspicions and doubts about the US objectives in Iraq,” IRNA reported.

Another o� cial, Hamid Aboutalebi, who works in the o� ce of President Hassan Rouhani, also criticsed Obama’s remarks.

“The US cannot adopt contradicto-ry policies in the Middle East; to sup-port war in Syria and peace in Iraq or be on the side of terrorists in Syria and against them in Iraq,” Aboutalebi wrote on his Twitter account.

Iraqi forces were massing north of Baghdad on Friday, aiming to strike back at the Islamists› o� ensive towards the capital.

Mohammad Nahavandian, Rouhani’s chief of sta� , said Iran was closely watch-ing developments in Iraq and would give an “appropriate” response to a request from Iraq for intervention to solve its in-ternal problems, IRNA reported.

“We are concerned about the fate of sacred (Shi’ite) sites particularly,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA, echoing a June 18 remark by Rouhani that Irani-ans were ready to go to Iraq to protect such sites if need be. l

Rebel attacks on Ukraine forces put cease� re under pressuren Reuters, Kiev/Donetsk

Pro-Russian separatists attacked Ukrainian posts on the border with Russia and a military base, and tried to storm an airforce base overnight into Saturday, government forces said , putting a Ukrainian unilateral cease� re under pressure.

The fresh action came just hours af-ter the start of a cease� re at 10 pm on Friday by Ukrainian forces, ordered by President Petro Poroshenko as part of his plan to end the rebel insurgency in the east of the country.

A government forces spokesman said the separatists used mortars and sniper � re to attack Ukrainian posts at Izvareno and Uspenka on the border, wounding nine Ukrainian o� cers.

In other incidents, rebels with big caliber machine guns and gre-nade-launchers attacked a Ukrainian military position at Avdiyivka, near the main regional town of Donetsk, as well as a Ukrainian post at Kreminna.

Separatists controlling the town of Slaviansk also attacked Ukrainian forces on Karachun hill overlook-ing the town with mortars and gre-nade-launchers, the spokesman, Vla-dyslav Seleznyov, said.

“In all these episodes, the attacks of the (rebel) � ghters were de� ected,” Seleznyov said. “There were no losses to Ukrainian servicemen. The number of dead � ghters is being established.”

Poroshenko, announcing the week-long cease� re on Friday night, urged the rebels to lay down their arms and

warned them that Ukrainian forces would return � re if attacked.

Air baseUkrainian forces also repelled two attacks by around 50 heavily-armed � ghters in the early morning on an air defense base at Avdiyivka, which houses surface-to-air missiles, the defense ministry said separately. No Ukrainian personnel were hurt and rebel losses were being established, it added.

The rebels, who have seized strate-gic points in major towns including Do-netsk and set up “people’s republics,” saying they want to join Russia, said

Ukraine has broken its own cease� re.“I’ve spoken to our command-

er-in-chief, Igor Strelkov. He said that � ghting resumed in the morning. There is no cease� re at all,” Pavel Gubarev, a prominent rebel leader, told Rossiya-24 TV channel.

Either Ukrainian troops were not obeying Poroshenko, or “he is lying,” Gubarev said.

Poroshenko, installed on June 7 as president after seven months of turmoil in the ex-Soviet republic, or-dered government forces to cease � r-ing to allow his 15-point peace plan to take root. The cease� re ends at 10 pm on June 27. l

Syria warns UN: Aid delivery without consent is an attackn Reuters, United Nations

Syria’s government warned the UN Security Council that delivering hu-manitarian aid across its borders into rebel-held areas without its consent would amount to an attack, suggest-ing it would have the right to retaliate against convoys.

As the veto-wielding members of the council – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – negotiate a draft resolution to boost aid access, Syria circulated to the 15-member council a letter from dozens of Arab and Syrian lawyers.

The June 18 letter, obtained by Reu-ters on Friday, argues against a bid by Western states for the resolution to be Chapter 7, which would make it legally binding and enforceable with military action or other coercive measures such as sanctions.

The humanitarian resolution text was drafted by Australia, Jordan and Luxembourg.

“The sole purpose of the initiative is to use United Nations auspices for the delivery of logistical backing to the ter-rorists,” the lawyers wrote in the letter that was sent to the United Nations by Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari.

“Importing aid in coordination with terrorist organisations and with-out consultation with the Syrian state would amount to an attack on the Syr-ian state and on its territorial integrity

and political independence,” the law-yers argued.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday told the Security Council in a report, obtained by Reuters, that the United Nations was ready to put in place “speedy, pragmatic and practical arrangements at critical border cross-ings” to deliver more aid.

“Such arrangements would allow United Nations convoys to cross the border into Syria – in their own vehicles, without the need for speci� c permits or visas – to deliver urgently needed relief to people in need,” Ban wrote in the report.

Amid the resolution negotiations, Russia said on Tuesday it has gained Syrian approval to open four border crossings named in the draft text under a “far-reaching formula.” UN diplomats said this involved using monitors to in-spect convoys.

But Australia’s UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan said on Thursday that the pro-posal “is not good enough” yet.

The lawyers stated that the Syrian government’s refusal to allow aid deliv-eries without its approval “is grounded in and motivated by the Charter of the United Nations, international resolutions and Syrian counterterrorism legislation.

“If anyone describes it as arbitrary, we invite them to provide the legal bases for their novel argument, which amounts to saying that the only way to protect civilians from terrorism is not to � ght it, but to work with it,” they said. l

US-Iran relations: When history isn’t history after alln Jim Gaines

I learned what a trickster history can be 20 years ago at Hanoi airport. After everything the United States gave and lost in Vietnam while trying to keep it safe from Communism, who would have thought you would � nd the lion lying down with the lamb at a business convention? But there it was, capital-ism in capital letters, a billboard adver-tising vietnamerica expo!

Who won that war again?Things like that change how you under-stand the world – if only by teaching you to wonder about even those things you think you know for an absolute fact.

It happened again last weekend. I read something that laid waste one of the most common assumptions of Cold War history: that an expert 1953 CIA co-vert operation in Iran overthrew a dem-ocratically elected prime minister to put the shah back back in control of his country. Ray Takeyh, an Iranian-Amer-ican historian and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues persuasively in the July/August issue of “Foreign A� airs” that President Dwight Eisenhower’s CIA did not actually bring down Iranian Prime Minister Moham-mad Mossadegh after all.

Hunh? There had to be some mis-

take. Could it be that the United States is not the Great Satan the Middle East has made it out to be all these years? That the Iranians embraced the shah all on their own?

Maybe that is the reason why the people of Iran have always evinced more a� ection for the US and its citi-zens than their government does. They knew all along what US historians did not – the truth.

Takeyh can see it clearly. “ he CIA’s impact on the events of 1953,” he writes, “was ultimately insigni� cant.”

This is historic revisionism that cuts deep. The “truth” being revised has been the subject of soul-searching by US presidents from Harry Truman, who refused to authorise covert ops in Iran, to Barack Obama, who, with im-plied contrition, invoked the CIA’s role in “the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government” during his much-covered speech to the Arab world in 2009.

The notion that the US deposed Mossadegh and reimposed the shah on the people of Iran is one of the found-ing myths of the 1979 Iranian Revo-lution and among the most poignant intricacies of the American-Iranian re-lationship-one that is right now poised at a moment of great danger and great potential.

With the region being fractured by sectarian violence, with extremists on the far side of al-Qaeda taking over whole swaths of Syria and Iraq and threatening to carve a radical Sunni heartland out of the desert border-lands now only nominally controlled by Damascus and Baghdad, Iranian and US o� cials actually met this week to discuss cooperation to keep Iraq from blowing up entirely. And while nego-tiations are far from concluded, the outlines of a deal that would contain Iran›s nuclear ambitions are already coming clear.

This makes Takeyh’s rewriting of history of more than academic interest.

His point, in brief, is that while the CIA and MI6 did plot to bring Mossa-degh down, the written record proves that their plotting was ine� ective and that everyone knew it. General Walter Bedell Smith gave the news to Eisen-hower straight. “The move failed,” he wrote. “We now have to take a whole new look at the Iranian situation.”

Only after Western intelligence backed o� was Mossadegh brought down-not by the CIA or MI6, not even by the shah, but by the Iranians them-selves, in a coalition of disa� ected politicians, military o� cers, mem-bers of parliament, and Iranians of all stripes who took to the streets – led by

none other than the most important religious leader in the country, Aya-tollah Abul-Qasim Kashani and fellow Iranian clergy.

“You have to understand that Iran in the 1950s was a di� erent place,” Takeyh said in an interview. “The shah was tentative, deferential, not the megalomaniac he would become in the ‘70s. The clergy was more quietist and moderate than they are now, and apart from a few relatively minor disputes they had very good relations with the monarchy.”

Takeyh’s careful scholarship is bound to be contradicted by historians and politicians in both countries who have published the conventional sto-ry or have an interest in sustaining it, but the evidence for his case is strong, and it comes at a time when the need for a “reset” in US-Iranian relations is compelling.

Though the correction of a 60-year-old mistake is unlikely to produce a breakthrough in Syria, Iraq or nuclear negotiations, it does subtly change one of the negotiators – from helpless vic-tim of the imperialist dog to a country that, however much its leaders may wish to distance themselves from it, shaped its own history. l

This article was � rst publiced by Reuters.

Israel steps up West Bank search for missing teensn Reuters, Ramallah

Israel sent more troops to the occu-pied West Bank on Saturday to search for three missing teenagers it says were abducted by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The army said it had also arrested another 10 Palestinians during its hunt – the latest in a series of detentions and raids that have raised tensions and trig-gered street clashes in the West Bank.

Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel’s existence, has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the dis-appearance of the youths, who went missing near an Israeli settlement on June 13.

Hundreds of troops arrived around the city of Hebron on Saturday, a day af-ter the army declared the area a closed military zone, and appeared to be carry-ing out searches, a Reuters witness said.

The army says it has searched more than 1,150 sites in the West Bank and arrested more than 330 Palestinians, including 10 more on Saturday.

Campaign group The Palestinian Prisoners Club said the army had ar-rested 37 people on Saturday.

Overnight in Ramallah, troops raid-ed the o� ces of a media broadcast and production company that provides ser-vices to a number of outlets, including the Hamas-a� liated al-Quds channel, witnesses said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the soldiers found “electronic devices and magnetic media used for terrorism” that she said belonged to Hamas, with-out going into further detail. l

Relatives and families of members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi react outside a court in Minya, south of Cairo, after the sentences of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and his supporters were announced, June 21. An Egyptian court con� rmed on Saturday death sentences against the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and 196 of his supporters, Al Arabiya TV said quoting a lawyer involved in the case REUTERS

Soldiers of the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ stand guard in front of a statue of Lenin on Lenin Square in Donetsk yesterday AFP

B R O T H E R H O O D M E M B E R S S E N T T O D E A T H

9Sunday, June 22, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World

Tensions mount over Afghan vote, protest held in Kabuln Reuters, Kabul

Protesters gathered in the Afghan capital on Saturday in support of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah’s accusa-tion of vote fraud, and his call for the or-ganisers to stop counting the ballots from the run-o� election held a week ago.

Several hundred people gathered, disrupting tra� c on the main road to the airport, as police were deployed with batons and riot shields to counter any violence.

Tensions have been running high in Kabul since the run-o� between Abdul-lah and his rival Ashraf Ghani, an for-mer World Bank economist.

Abdullah says he no longer trusts the electoral bodies and blames them and interference by President Hamid Karzai for mass fraud. He wants the electoral bodies to halt counting votes and has invited the United Nations to intervene.

The move has imperilled Afghan-istan’s political transition at a critical time, with most foreign troops preparing to leave by the end of 2014, and a Taliban insurgency still raging after 13 years.

Karzai late on Friday – to the dismay of diplomats who want the electoral bod-

ies to be respected and the election pro-cess to completed – issued a statement supporting Abdullah’s call for the United Nations to intervene in the election.

The United Nations has said it needs to hear the details of any proposal, but is ready to support an “Afghan-led process.”

There are fears that street protests could turn violent and take on an eth-nic dimension, as most of Abdullah’s supporters are Tajiks, the second larg-est ethnic group, while Ghani’s sup-porters are mainly Pashtun, the largest group in Afghanistan.

Abdullah’s supporters chanted “we will defend our vote to the last drop of blood,” while blocking the road leading to the airport on the outskirts of the capital.

They also brandished banners with slogans, including “Death to Karzai,” “Death to Ghani.” The Independent Election Commission was similarly tar-geted, with banners that read “Death to the IEC.”

Elsewhere in Kabul, a suicide bomb-er killed himself and a bystander in an attempt to assassinate an advisor to the the High Peace Council, which is seeking reconciliation with Taliban � ghters. l

Police shoot dead 13 attackers in Xinjiangn Reuters, Shanghai

Chinese police shot dead 13 attackers in the restive far-western region of Xinji-ang on Saturday after they rammed a car into a police station and detonated explosives, Xinhua news agency said, in the latest of a series of attacks to worry Beijing.

China has been toughening its re-sponse to violent crime after a spate of attacks around the country, centred on Xinjiang, the traditional home of Mus-lim Uighurs.

China has blamed previous attacks on Islamist separatists in the region, who they say are looking to establish an independent state there called East Turkestan. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for Satur-day’s violence.

“The gangsters drove a truck to ram the building of the public security bu-reau of Yecheng County in southern Xinjiang and set o� explosives. Po-lice shot and killed 13 attackers at the scene,” Xinhua said, adding that three police were slightly wounded.

In 2012, seven attackers were shot dead after killing 13 people in a knife attack in Yecheng, also known by its Ui-ghur name of Kargilik, a remote town on the road leading to China’s moun-tainous border with Pakistan.

China has been on edge since a suicide bombing last month killed 39 people at a market in Xinjiang’s capi-tal, Urumqi. In March, 29 people were

stabbed to death at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming.

The rise in violence has prompted a crackdown on violent crime. Author-ities in Xinjiang have arrested dozens of suspects in recent weeks for spread-ing extremist propaganda, possessing banned weapons and other crimes.

China also executed over a dozen people for terrorist attacks in the region earlier this month and three for an attack on Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square.

Resource-rich and strategically lo-cated on the borders of central Asia, Xinjiang has been plagued by violence for years, but exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say the govern-ment’s own repressive policies in Xin-jiang have provoked unrest, something Beijing denies.

“The crackdown against the Uighur population is making it hard for people to bear,” Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, the largest group of exiled Uighurs, told Reuters by email.

“Opening � re and killing those re-sisting, and accusing them of terrorism while skirting the root causes, this will only lead to the situation in the region becoming worse.”

President Xi Jinping said earlier this year that the Kashgar region, which sits in the far west of Xinjiang, was “the front line in anti-terrorism.” The Silk Road city of Kashgar has been at the centre of much of the unrest. Yecheng is in the Kashgar prefecture, and is more than 1,500 km southwest of Urumqi. l

US says Thailand, Malaysia, Venezuela among worst human tra� cking centersn Reuters, Washington

The United States downgraded Thai-land, Malaysia and Venezuela to its list of the world’s worst centers of human tra� cking on Friday, opening up the countries to possible sanctions and dumping them in the same category as North Korea and Syria.

The three countries were all down-graded to the lowest “Tier 3” status in the US State Department’s 2014 Tra� ck-ing in Persons Report as they did not ful-ly comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of tra� cking.

Thailand, one of Washington’s oldest Asian treaty allies, expressed disappoint-ment. Thai o� cials had expressed con� -dence their country would be upgraded, submitting a 78-page report to the US government in April to make its case.

Acting Thai Foreign Minister Siha-sak Phuangketkeow asked the United States to reconsider its evaluation, saying category three was intended for countries “that have done nothing.”

“It is up them to see whether we have made progress, up to them if they want to continue engaging constructively with Thailand, working together to ensure further progress,” Sihasak told a news conference in Bangkok on Saturday.

“And it’s up to them to consider whether Thailand is an important ally in this part of the world.”

The downgrades could cause some multinational companies to reconsider investments in industries accused of using tra� cked labor such as � sheries, a lucrative business in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter of shrimp.

The countries could also lose US non-humanitarian and non-trade-re-lated aid and face US opposition to help from bodies like the International Mon-etary Fund and World Bank.

The report said the majority of traf-� cking victims in Thailand – “tens of thousands ... by conservative esti-mates” – were migrants from neigh-boring countries “forced, coerced, or defrauded into labor or exploited in the sex trade.” A signi� cant number were tra� cked into the � shing industry, gar-ment production and domestic work.

The State Department cited media reports of “tra� cking-related complic-ity by Thai civilian and navy personnel in crimes involving the exploitation” of Rohingya Muslims who have � ed Myanmar by the tens of thousands over the past year.

Those reports included a Reuters sto-ry in December that documented a clan-destine Thai policy to remove Rohingya from immigration detention centers and deliver them to tra� ckers and smugglers waiting at sea. Many Rohingya were then ferried back to brutal tra� cking camps in Thailand, where some died.

The State Department said that not only had the government “systemat-ically” failed to prosecute tra� cking into the � shing industry, but the Thai navy had also � led defamation charges against two journalists who reprinted reports of complicity of civilian and naval personnel in exploitation of Ro-hingya asylum seekers from Myanmar.

That was a reference to criminal defa-mation charges � led by Thailand’s navy against two journalists at Phuketwan, a small English-language news website based in Phuket, which published ex-cerpts from a July Reuters report.

The Reuters report, based on in-terviews with people smugglers and survivors of boat voyages, revealed how some Thai naval security forces worked with smugglers to pro� t from the surge in Rohingya � eeing religious persecution.

The Thai navy has also � led a crimi-nal complaint against two Reuters jour-nalists, alleging violations of the Com-puter Crimes Act. Reuters has not been charged and stands by its reporting, a Reuters spokesman said.

“We have seen interlocutors who we think are actually trying hard, but of course that gets dragged down by the widespread o� cial complicity,” said US Ambassador at-Large Luis CdeBaca of the O� ce to Monitor and Combat Traf-� cking in Persons. l

US lawmakers seek to honour Modi n Agencies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be invited to address a joint session of US Congress during his visit scheduled for end of September, an honor not ex-tended to every visiting dignitary.

US House of Representative’s for-eign a� airs committee chairman Ed Royce set the ball rolling on Friday re-questing Speaker John Boehner to in-vite Modi to address lawmakers.

“With more than 500 million people voting in the recent Indian election, it was both the world’s largest demo-cratic event and a historic moment for India,” Royce wrote in a letter to Boeh-ner, signed jointly with Congressman George Holding.

“The US must now work closely with Prime Minister Modi to strength-en the important relationship between the two countries.”

Royce also pointed to recent frustra-tion in the US over trade relations with India. “Prime Minister Modi’s commit-ment to cut the red tape that has long plagued our trade relationship gives reason for hope that our economic partnership will � ourish,” he said.

The signatories are both Repub-lican, as is Speaker Boehner. And a group of lawmakers from their party had called on him in Gujarat in early 2013, long before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named him its prime-min-isterial candidate. l

Police smash major World Cup betting ring in Macaun Reuters, Hong Kong

Macau police have busted a book-making racket that allegedly took HK$5bn ($645m) in illegal bets – in-cluding a single HK$40m bet – on World Cup football matches in a week, the South China Morning Post reported on Saturday.

Police have arrested 22 suspects from what they say is the biggest illic-it soccer-betting ring uncovered in the gambling haven following a raid of a hotel on Thursday, the newspaper said.

The syndicate, operating out of three rooms in the hotel, took online bets and telephone orders from around the world, the report said.

Initial investigations showed that about HK$5bn in World Cup bets had been taken and o� cers had found ev-idence of a single HK$40m bet on one match, it cited Macau police spokes-man Suen Kam-fai as saying.

Investigators seized more than HK$2m in cash, along with 17 com-puters as well as more than 10 mobile phones and betting slips from the rooms, the paper said.

Authorities in Macau, the world’s largest casino market, Hong Kong and the neighbouring province of Guang-dong have been collaborating to crack down on illegal soccer betting in south-ern China since the World Cup kicked o� in Brazil last week. l

S Korea ferry disaster: Prime suspect’s wife arrestedn Reuters, Seoul

The wife of South Korea’s most wanted man, a businessman linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds of school children drowned, was arrested on Saturday, prosecutors said, as the net tightens around the fugitive’s family.

Police and prosecutors arrested Kwon Yoon-ja, 72, on suspicion of em-bezzlement after chasing her for more than 20 days, an o� cial said.

Prosecutors and police are seeking Yoo Byung-un, 73, who has eluded one of the country’s biggest manhunts for more than a month. The husband of Yoo’s younger sister, a former ambassa-dor to the Czech Republic, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of helping Yoo escape arrest.

Yoo is wanted on charges of embez-zlement, negligence and tax evasion stemming from a web of business hold-ings centred on I-One-I, an investment vehicle owned by his sons that ran the shipping company, Chonghaejin Marine.

Chonghaejin owned the Sewol, which sank o� the southwest coast on April 16 killing more than 300 people, many of them school children, on a routine journey from Incheon on the mainland to the southern holiday is-land of Jeju. l

Indian activists from the Social Unity Center of India (SUCI) shout anti-government slogans as they burn a poster symbolising new railway fares during a protest in Siliguri on June 21. Angry demonstrators blocked railway tracks and burned e� gies of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to protest a steep hike in train fares, seen as the government’s � rst tough step towards reforming a sluggish economy. Modi’s government, which came to power a month ago after overthrowing the ruling Congress, has pledged to revive the economy after it grew at just 4.7 % last year – the lowest in nearly a decade. The hike is seen as the � rst dose of the ‘bitter medicine’ that Modi recently warned was needed to revive the economy, Asia’s third-biggest AFP

Indonesian customers come in World War II motif military uniforms, one bearing a Nazi’s swastika insignia while a portrait of Adolf Hitler hangs in the background, at the reopened SoldatenKa� ee in Bandung city, western Java island on June 21. The Nazi-theme cafe in Indonesia that sparked international outrage and closed shop, has reopened with its walls still bearing swastikas and a large painting of Adolf Hitler AFP

H E I L H I T L E R ! I N D O N E S I A O P E N S N A Z I S T Y L E C A F E

T H E I N D I A N R A I L W A Y F A R E W A R

Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

CODE-CRACKER

ACROSS1 Common white or colourless mineral (6)4 Deity (3)7 Sheeplike (5)8 Whole (6)11 Mirthful sport (3)12 Appendage (4)13 Successes (4)15 Kind of wheat (5)16 Marine growth (5)20 Daybreak (4)23 Bait (4) 24 Male sheep (3)25 Prepared for publica-tion (6)26 Field of con� ict (5)27 Japanese currency unit (3)28 From that place (6)

DOWN1 Hulled and coarsely ground grains (5)2 Bird (7)3 Destructive insect (4)4 Present (4)5 Burden (4)6 Lair (3)9 Short sleep (3)10 Neckwear (3)14 Worship (7)17 Groove (3)18 Land measure (3)19 Shelf (5)20 Venture (4)21 Prayer ending (4)22 Tidy (4)24 Narrow beam (3)

CROSSWORD

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

SUDOKU

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 1 represents B so � ll B every time the � gure 1 appears.You have one letter in the control grid to start you o� . Enter it in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

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Shameful Shakib beats spectator!June 16

pls change your careerIf someone is harassing your wife, are you just going to watch them do it and let them continue? How can you call this act shameful?

GoneCrayDon’t be crazy. He needs to be commended for having a functioning set of balls.

Tasnim chowdhuryProtecting one’s own wife is shameful? Wow, I didn’t know that. No husband should resort to this kind of violence.

Imzy Tasnim chowdhury: Protecting someone from physical violence is � ne, but if the spectator was just saying bad things about them, it doesn’t give Shakib the right to beat him. But then again, that’s the state of Bangladesh and Bengali culture isn’t it?

WhateverSo now it is a “shameful” act to defend one’s wife’s honor in public, eh?

Tamim Whatever: Very shameful, even if someone com-ments on your wife’s private parts.

Ehsan AbdullahWell, if that is shameful, then insulting/� irting/annoying etc another man’s wife should be termed “brave”??

Bangla CheleShakib should be charged for assault. I don’t care who he is, or who verbally provoked him into action. He has no right to physically beat somebody. He was not even on site when the alleged provocation happened.

Shakib Al Hasan has become too big for his boots. He now thinks he is above the law. I hope, one day soon, he gets the kicking he deserves. He thinks he is better than he is. In truth, he is an over-hyped mediocre man who got lucky because he happens to be born in, live in, and play cricket in a country lacking talent.

SomeoneThe media and the fans are guilty, in their own ways, in idiotically in� ating, out of all proportion, Shakib’s estimation of his own talents and importance to the team. This conceited rogue needs to have the book thrown at him for his repeated indefensible misdemeanors. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings, in the slightest, to see Shakib banished from the team, till he gets his act together, both on and o� the � eld.

Finally a Shakib fanShabash Shakib! Now you are truly a “bagh!”

ShaukatAfter playing for KKR, he has become arrogant.

Tamim Shaukat: It seems he is interested more in playing for KKR than Bangladesh.

3 Muslims killed in Sri Lanka ethnic clashesJune 16

Buddhika LokubandaraThe world should know that the attacks on Muslims in Sri Lanka are government-spon-sored. There have been allegations aplenty that it is not only the defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapakse, the brother of the president, but the president is also involved and have given a free-hand to insult, den-igrate and attack the Muslims. Their main aim seems to be to destroy Muslim busi-nesses and reduce the Muslim community to abject poverty.

Rokan: Elected unopposed is not unconstitutionalJune 17

truthfuloneoneA goon of opportunists, Rokan cannot say otherwise. If the judiciary cannot dictate the parliament, then how were the 15th Amendment to the Constitution passed, citing the direction of the Supreme Court? And Rokan challenged the verdict which is responsible for bringing so much blood-shed into the country?

A higher standard for food safety

The initiative taken by the government to crack down on the use of formalin in fruits is a welcome move. However, the drive has been lacking in the organisation and rigourous scienti� c stand-

ards required of such an operation.Experts have argued that the method being used to check the

amount of formalin in fruits does not conform to scienti� c standards, and is simply adding to the wastage of food products. Moreover, this system is subjecting many innocent fruit vendors to undue har-assment and punishment.

After the tardiness shown by the government in initiating such a drive – despite the alarming degree of food adulteration in the country – it is concerning that the operation does not even have a team of experts to oversee it. The ine� cien-cy with which this project is being conducted not only allows for wastage of food and undue penalties, food prices have reportedly soared as a result.

This lack of scienti� c standards will only work as a counterproduc-tive element in an initiative meant to serve the public good. Ensuring food security is one of the foremost responsibilities of the govern-ment, and this includes the duty of providing knowledge about the e� ects of chemicals in foods and how to detect them.

We hope the authorities will take into account the scrutiny the ongoing anti-formalin drive is generating, and modify the operation to hold food safety to a higher standard.

More progress needed on child labour

At an event for the World Day against Child Labour recently, it was indicated that the government has no current plans to conduct a fresh child labour census.

The Labour Ministry which had previously undertaken to conduct a fresh survey, is focusing funds on projects to eliminate the most hazardous forms of child labour.

While limited funding makes it appropriate to prioritise projects for children engaged in the most hazardous jobs, the lack of a survey is concerning.

Child rights groups are correct to say that a census is needed to update and improve imple-mentation of the country’s framework for eliminating child labour. According to the last full survey conduct-ed in 2003, over 3 million children, aged between � ve and 17, were engaged in active labour, with over a third identi� ably involved in physically hazardous jobs.

Most experts are of the view that there has been no signi� cant change in the situation over the last decade.

Although programs which provide non-formal education and skills training, have some success, collectively they have not been e� ective in ending the cycle of child labour.

In part, this is down to the high rates of poverty in the country. However, the government and campaigners also need to reform

social attitudes to root out the practice, and allow all children equal access to education.

The scandalous persistence of child labour only helps reinforce cycles of poverty, and undermines the progress which the country is making in increasing education enrollment rates.

A census is needed to improve implementation of the framework for eliminating child labour

This lack of scienti� c standards will only work as a counterproductive element

BNP wants ‘meaningful dialogue’June 18

Tangled Abstract FallacyYeah, BNP should have a proper dialogue with Jamaat/Shibir/Al-Badr/Biharis. They are � nished for good in Bangladeshi politics! Mark our words and the solemn resolve. The days of anti-liberation forces in Bangladesh are numbered!!

RonnieI reiterate that it’s naive of BNP to expect the govern-ment to be too interested or serious about “dialogue” with them, on election-related issues. Instead, BNP needs to begin properly mobilising the public, coun-trywide, to � nally compel the ruling party to ditch its hubris, and willingly and wisely meet BNP at the negotiating table. Appeals to a government that is presently heedless of the will of the people is pretty pointless. A genuine political movement backed by robust public support is the key to end the status quo. It’s up to BNP to muster the required resolve and strategy towards achieving that.

Chances of exploring 2 deep-sea blocks � imsyJune 17Vikram KhanI did not hear or read anything about a study (in-dependent or not) about the impact on the fragile ecosystem and aquatic system in the Bay of Bengal, as to whether o� shore drilling will go ahead. Looks like another environmental disaster in the making.

‘I was adamant to wear Punjabi at Cannes red carpet’

June 16

MZIf he is a true, proud Bengali, he wouldn’t call it a

punjabi, it is a shalwar kameez. Calling it a Punjabi is signifying that it’s a Punjabi form of dress, ex-

clusively, and is yet more evidence of the cultural colonialism many Bengalis perpetuate today.

TamimOnly Punjabi. What about calling it a pantaloon?

Miserable tigers collapse for 58June 17

RealMoghulGet rid of Tamim Iqbal. That’ll be a good start.

Disgruntled FanTamim should be replaced. And any underper-

former likewise will be put on notice. And the ones with perennial learning di� culties (of Cricket 101)

should be gotten rid of. There are talents among the young, where we should focus on. Absolutely

disgraceful batting performance.

No Zuckerbergs hereJune 17

Mahmudul IslamThis is a top-notch write-up. Small but carries a

very profound message. It’s not how you look but how you think that makes all the di� erence.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

n Khawaza Main Uddin

Flattery is one of the most useful means to win a heart quite cheaply. Still, the o� ering has to

be in unison with the feelings of the recipient for building a partnership. But when a relation is in question, it’s hard to work out a suitable way to keep it going smoothly.

Dhaka today, as cynics say, is cir-cumscribed by such a sense of uncer-tainty among the rulers. And how have the outsiders come to know of the “fear of tiger” in the prime minister’s mind?

An Indian media report said the recent arms haul in Satchhari and Habiganj was “an act of crookedness” by the Sheikh Hasina administration in order to draw the kind attention of the new government in New Delhi. The report pointed out a mismatch between the weapons and the lea� ets recovered from the scene.

Critics at home may not be fully aware of any advice the incumbents presumably received to stick to a single direction – Delhi. It was the Congress government which duly lent

support to the controversial January 5 elections. The antagonists rather took a disturbingly unsympathetic view of the Awami League’s awkward position following Congress’ humiliating defeat to the BJP.

Thus, Team Hasina looked pre-sumptuous in appeasing the Narendra Modi-led government. After all, it is a question of AL’s survival in o� ce. Only those who fail to appreciate the com-pulsion to prove its relevance to Delhi, in addressing issues like insurgency by undertaking � shy steps, may term it as being a subservient policy.

It’s not new to take help from the

intelligence for political gain. Ayub Khan did it, and so did Indira Gandhi. The use of the National Security Agen-cy for surveillance by Washington also back� red for excesses committed by powerful quarters from within.

We are yet to be informed on whether the Hasina regime used the intelligence to act on certain issues, or of the intelligence dictated it to follow guided policies. In any case, however, the goal is the same: To perpetuate the AL’s stay in power. There’s no need for accountability in making a tactical

shift from recovery of “Jihadi Qitab” (books) to the insurgents’ arms haul. Why should the “powerful people” care about anything else than consoli-dating power?

Beyond the territory, they see, though not with own eyes, a di� erent world — the emerging polarisation in international politics. The sim-plistic, but still somewhat imagined, line being followed by Dhaka, is the Russia-China-India axis when the West and the Middle East were not so friendly to them. Pragmatists must acknowledge that originality is not required for such foreign policies.

Premier Hasina alone shouldn’t be blamed for any con� icts of interest between India and China, surrounding Bangladesh’s geo-politico-economic interests. She maintains closer ties with Russia and has tried to coax Ja-pan into being a development partner. She visited China and made assuranc-es to facilitate Chinese business.

The head of the government isn’t supposed to study the chemistry of relations between the big powers of the “axis” outside of America’s global hegemony. Both China and Japan have kept Dhaka engaged in upholding their economic interests – why should they lose the Bangladesh market to India?

The Indian media report ventilated certain concerns of Delhi over a widely speculated move to award the deep sea port project to China. We have yet to know if Sushma Swaraj would blackmail the o� ce-bearers in Dhaka, who have a de� ciency in legitimacy.

Of course, they dare to ignore the miscalculation of depending merely

on external forces, in fact, only one power, rather than placing trust in do-mestic factors of democratic politics. Ours are an exception to world leaders who cannot a� ord to stoop to under-mining national dignity and internal harmony.

Sheikh Hasina has proven her statesmanship in the electoral walk over designed to duck the public opinion apparently hostile to her party. Some analysts privately praise her for outwitting her rivals. Is it not a matter of regret that she is being deprived of their valuable services to justify evil designs and her clinging to power?

Even the bene� ciaries are not show-ing any guts to speak in her favour publicly. Some of them tacitly support her policy of giving priority to regime interests over everything. Such unwill-ingness is tantamount to betrayal with their paramount leader, who is solely exposed to public wrath. Whatever has been discussed, an adamant leader is enough to implement the gameplan at hand, be it right or wrong.

In shorter-version cricket, some batsmen waste balls to retain wickets to face the task of scoring adven-turously later. If I may use a simile, Hasina has occupied the crease playing too many “dot balls” and now seems bound to heave every ball from here on in. Who can predict if she may hit a six or four, or get caught at long-on or behind the wicket, be adjudged LBW, or even clean-bowled? l

Khawaza Main Uddin is Executive Editor, ICE Business Times.

11Op-Ed Sunday, June 22, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Iffat Nawaz

Narrow me down to a drop of monsoon and paint me happy. That’s what I have done, I think when I look at my Facebook pro� le.

Happy images, hidden thoughts, the in-between lines, the protocols of the average likes and comments. What image do I want to put out there, how important are my status updates, and are we narrowing ourselves down to what we think our best selves are on the platforms of social network.

Of course we are. And that is what we do. We are people driven by our communities, even the loners here have communities of our own. We too Facebook, we too Instragram. Our communal mentality gets us to increase our connections everyday but it’s not really all about connections, it’s also about the perfect worlds we put out there to remember our lives in a way which may or may not represent a good percent of the reality. 

Anyone with the dream of being an artist can share their work, the ones with over� owing opinions can express themselves through other’s words and

their own. And the rest of us can read it and say: “Oh, he thinks like that!” Or: “She dresses this way!” Hot news becomes hotter and important details become less front and centre. 

The exclusivity of lives shared, the “no pass” to enter certain zones which you can only wish or not wish to be a part of, the consumerist deal of it all, is it doing us good or bad, I do not know. Neither do I want to really analyse it to a great extent. Like all things, Face-book too will die down one day when another platform will take over with more force. But for now, Bangladesh has over 3 million Facebook users, and that is not a number to ignore. 

In our over-populated country, we get the illusion of space when we cre-

ate a Facebook pro� le. Then we take the liberty to imagine we have a space of our own. And what are we doing with this space? Many of our pro� les are as good as television serials, with

guest appearances, falling out and falling in. The popularity contest, the pressure of being cool, cooler, coolest, how do we control it all? And how much volunteer encroachment do we welcome? 

The smart ones post internation-al articles on politics and art, the thoughtful ones post re� ections of their days in poetic words, and the ones in search for virtual partners add and subtract people according to interest of the other parties. It’s a game that we pledge to be a part of until we

become wise enough to discontinue.Our lives cannot be summed up

online. But we still try to package our-selves as best. The girls, the boys, the women and the man, dogs and cats, and vacation photos – how do these images a� ect us, in� uence us in our daily lives?

In a country where standards of modernity are constantly evolving, a place which is so in-between, can we really grip on to Facebook and our life’s expressions so tightly or loosely? The click within a click within a click. How narrow are we making our space, and who do we make room for in those lives? Should we write the script � rst, or should the script be written as we become Facebook personalities, exclu-sive, inclusive and the forced push for perfection? No voices speak, no words last, and we keep going, thinking we are learning more about each other and the world, when the real world keeps moving in parallel, but con� ned to the computer screen we hide to remember what we thought we were once, and what we wanted to be. l

I� at Nawaz is Acting Editor, Arts & Letters, Dhaka Tribune.

n Garga Chatterjee

Now that the � reworks have ended, the stars have gone home and people have moved

on to other sports, it is probably a good time to talk about certain things. The richest “team” in the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket tournament won. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is also the IPL franchise that has generat-ed the maximum pro� t.

This franchise represents Kolka-ta at the IPL. In a subcontinent that abounds with self-appointed thika-dars, from neighbourhood to religion, KKR has received the thikdadari of the brand called Kolkata. Let us not mix up that private brand with the very public urban agglomeration, the capital city of West Bengal, which goes by the name Kolkata. Inhabitants of Bengal typically don’t prefer red chillies with their rice, but green ones. Such thikadaris have also been given for brands named Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, etc.

KKR won the tournament and Rs15cr in prize money. Just after this was announced, an unveri� able Internet meme went viral. It claimed that Shahrukh Khan had donated Rs15cr for cancer-care in Kolkata and Mumbai. Like most internet memes, this nugget of benevolence could not be veri� ed. The most veri� able and substantial thing that connects the city of Kolkata with the branded franchise Kolkata Knight Riders is the stupen-dous amount on unpaid taxes that the owners of KKR owe to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

KMC’s deputy mayor let out the simple mathematical truth – KKR had not paid Rs1.16cr in taxes owed from the last three years, as of May 20, 2014. This just goes to show that at the end of the day, the owners of KKR are running a business. And if the business strategy involves not paying taxes, so be it. Incidentally, the tax money that KMC collects is used to clean and maintain sewers, run health centres, maintain roads, and provide drinking water to the thousands in Kolkata who were cheer for the knights of the Shahrukh order.

So much for the periodic “love” for Kolkata and its people that is declared by the KKR and its owners. If I owed someone more than a crore and that person cheered me instead of pres-suring me for payment, I would love him. I would dance for him, wher-ever, whenever, for free. If he had something to sell, I would promote it for free. There must be “something di� erent” about any place where I am publicly felicitated when I actually owe huge amount of tax money to it.

With things so alien like a Corin-thian helmet being the emblem of a bunch of “knights” in the land of leth-els (lathi-warriors), it is not surprising that the closest thing to Kolkata that � gured in the T20 � nal was Shakib Al Hasan. At a time when talk of illegal Bangladeshis is doing the rounds in imperial metropolis of Delhi, the legal Bangladeshi in the KKR team in the form of Shakib Al Hasan was the sav-ing grace for Kolkata and Suba Bangla.

I wonder how this IPL thing is received in the cricket-loving quar-ters who revel in thrashing people for supporting foreign teams. If it is not anti-Kolkata or anti-West Bengal to recruit alien players for a team built by a private entity (KKR), how does a sup-porting or not supporting a team built by another private entity (BCCI’s Team India) become some test of loyalty, citizenship, tricolour and all that?

Or conversely, if it is about “swadeshi,” then supporting the team with even more ethnic and cultur-al consonance with one’s “desh” is better, I suppose. There should be no problem if some West Bengalis start supporting the cricket team from

Bangladesh against the BCCI team that has few if any Bengalis. Or say Gurkhas of the Indian Union supporting Nepal in a football match with the Indian Union. What makes one private entity using a nation-state (India) as a brand more authentic in any way than KKR that uses the name of a city (Kolkata) that is older than the nation-state of India?

In the meantime, the media bom-bardment will ensure cheerleading from metro-based “Bongs” for “their” side – the charming thing that is post-1990 market deregulation driven “Bong” pride. It is domesticated enough to only do korbo, lorbo in front of their TV sets.

In the People’s Republic of Bangla-desh, the presence of any kind of IPL phenomenon is rather unfortunate. Internationalism is all good, but the sad bit is that it is the poorer and the darker peoples of the world who always have to prove their internation-alism by opening up to phenomenon elsewhere.

That some Bengalis in the East are excited about a private commercial project like IPL that is funded primar-ily by Indian banias and executed by mercenary sportspersons underlines the triumph of corporate globalisation. It generates in its clientele an inferior-ity complex as well as a pathway to be included in the happening global class. The empire wants the periphery to the extent that in generates revenue. Make no mistake. Bangladesh generates rev-enue for IPL in more than one ways.

How consciousness gets fashioned, how prototypes are created, how some newer loyalties are celebrated and some older loyalties are conveniently forgotten – all this is the stu� of collective myth-making and how power casts its long shadow on the people. Kolkata’s KKR is in many ways similar to the British Indian Army. Fighting ostensibly in the name of cheering, happy brown people, the owner is a distant king man whose god on earth status has been constructed.

And yes, the browns foot the bill of the battles, the revelry and all that. They always have. There is a more sinister element to this, especially for us Bengalis. During the Second World War, Britain deliberately caused the death of 3 million people in Bengal by starving its populace so that its impe-rial war e� ort could be well fed. None of the people who served in the British Indian Army during the Second World War, remaining loyal throughout to a man-eating boss called Britannia, lost their job.

The long-range result of that level of Anglophilia, continuity and alienation is rather clear. When todays Bengalis remember genocide in the Second World War, they remember Jews, gays, and Gypsies. 3 million hap-less Bengalis don’t � nd a place in that list. Zainul Abedin, Chittaprosad Bhat-tacharya and many others chronicled those millions that Britain murdered. But today’s Manchester United fan from Dhaka has not heard about Chit-taprosad, the Chelsea fan from Kolkata has not heard about Zainul. These are signs of dangerous times – of a slowly progressing ice age, starting from the tropics. l

Garga Chatterjee is a freelance contributor.

Out of your league

Narrowing narrow space S A L T A N D H O N E Y

Should we write the script � rst, or should the script be written as we become Facebook personalities?

In Bangladesh, the presence of any kind of IPL phenomenon is rather unfortunate

Hasina alone shouldn’t be blamed for any con� icts of interest between India and China

Parody of diction

We express ourselves with clicks BIGSTOCK

BCCI

Queen Elizabeth to visit Game of Thrones setn Entertainment Desk

Queen Elizabeth II is gearing up to visit the Titanic Quarter in Belfast where the studio facility for the HBO smash-hit “Game of Thrones” is lo-cated. During her Ireland-tour next week, the 88-year-old monarch will be accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as she treads on the ground where the much-awaited Season 5 of the series will be shot.

Announcing her visit on the social media soon after the Season 4 � nale aired on HBO and broke all piracy re-cords, the British Monarchy’s o� cial Twitter account stated:

“As part of the visit to Northern Ireland The Queen and The Duke will tour the @GameOfThrones set in the Titanic quarter,” concluding the mes-sage with a #GoT hashtag like any true blue fan of George RR Martin’s saga on Twitter-verse.

The ongoing HBO series, which was recently renewed for Seasons 5 and 6, is reported to be the biggest TV production in Europe that has boost-ed the economy of Northern Ireland

by nearly $140m.Meanwhile, it is believed widely

among critics and enthusiasts alike that the character of Daenerys Tar-garyen, portrayed by Emilia Clarke, is inspired by Queen Elizabeth I. l

Spinning Tales ofa Shadowist

n Shadma Malik

A solo exhibition titled “Spinning Tales of a Shadowist and Others” by Md Ashikur Rahman Turja is going on at the Dhaka Art Centre (DAC) and will remain open until June 26.

The exhibition is a display of Turja’s aca-demic and experimental work during his BFA and MFA terms at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Uni-versity of Dhaka. The artist’s primary medium of expertise is printmaking but he has also dis-played his skills on woodcut, etching, acquaint, dry paint and lithography.

This is Turja’s � rst solo exhibition and many of his artworks depict spintop toys. According to the artist, he has highlighted top as an object of self depiction.

With the theme that is mysterious in nature, many of his pieces show hands in blurry shades, depicting an existence of a citizen in the midst of a socio-economic complexity prevailing through the decay of morality in the society.

His artwork “Reduction of the Magnetic” is about the complexity of social structures and their con� icting natures. “Journey” is associat-ed with the sense of nostalgia. “Spinning Tales” re� ects memories of a carefree play-tool.

Through his work titled “Steering System,” done once again in blurry shades, the artist explains how coming from a middle-income group in� uences his art and at the same time how � nancial restraints control an artist’s cre-ativity and freedom of thought. l

EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 201412

FilmX-Men: Days of Future PastThe Amazing Spider-Man 2 (3D)Pompeii 300 Rise of an EmpireTarkataTime: 10am – 10pmStar Cineplex, Level 8, Bashundhara City

Theatre RarangBy AranyakTime: 7pm – 9pmExperimental Theatre HallShilpakala AcademyShegun Bagicha

Exhibition Artistic Musings of Great Collector Nasir Ali MamunTime: 12pm – 8pmBengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Road No 16, Dhanmondi Time LineTime: 11am – 8pmGalleri Kaya

TODAY IN DHAKA

Apu Biswas on rocky groundn Entertainment Desk

Gone are the days when Apu Biswas got out-standing response for the her debut � lm “Koti Takar Kabin” in 2006. Apu has ruled the � lm in-dustry with her acting for over eight years and the role of Parvati in “Devdas” has earned her much fame. But in recent times, the actor has failed to generate commercial success at the box o� ce and seems desperate to remain in the limelight even though she has not bagged any big projects. According to the analysts, Apu's demise from stardom is due to her dependency on Dhallywood megastar Shakib Khan. Rumour has it that the actor is now charging as low as Tk 300,000 to 400,000 and might turn into a pro-ducer in order to remain in the � lm industry. l

A group dance recital was performed with the rendition of the song ‘Dhoronir Gogoner Miloner Chhonde’ as a part of Chhayanaut’s programme welcoming monsoon on Friday evening. The programme also marked the 103rd birth anniversary of Su� a Kamal, poet and cultural icon. The event featuring a number of timeless Bangla songs that narrate the splendour of the unique season was attended by a houseful audience SADIA MARIUM

Pavillion airs on Channel 9 today

n Entertainment Desk

New drama series “Pavillion” will be aired today on Channel 9 at 8:30pm. Directed by Ishtiak Ahmed Rumel, the cast of the series includes Masud Ali Khan, Laila Hasan, Toukir Ahmed, Jenny and others. The soap tells the story of two brothers, Mazharul Islam and Kamrul Islam, living in the same building despite having a strained relationship. Having retired recent-ly, Mazhaul, the elder of the two, lives happily with his wife Kamrun Nahar and the rest of his family. His eldest son Rahat lost his job at a private � rm which caused a rift with his wife, Jenny. His only daughter, Toma, is seemingly an “ideal” girl. She is able to please her family and maintain a secret relation-ship with her cousin at the same time.

The other son Kamrul Islam lives with his wife, Munira Mithu, portrayed as an ideal mother. His son Are� n is a DJ by profession but is best known as the son of Kamrul Islam. His eldest daughter Rakhi is very calm in nature and tries her best to assist her mother in solving family crises. His other daughter Tisha works to sustain herself and the youngest one, Ankhi, is a university student, and often the main cause of the family’s problems, even when she is not at fault.

The peace in Kamrul’s home is continually disrupted by his brother-in-law Montu, whose only aim in life is to get mar-ried. The drama is centred around the many problems faced by the members of the two families. l

Tom Cruise to shoot inside British parliamentn Entertainment Desk

Actor Tom Cruise will reportedly shoot scenes for the next installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise inside Brit-ain’s Houses of Parliament.

A source tells Britain’s The Sun newspaper: “Mission: Im-possible 5 will feature numerous well-known locations in London, but the Houses of Parliament is clearly the biggest coup... The writers are excited about what stunts they could pull o� inside the Commons.”

The news comes shortly after Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan’s new movie “Su� ragette” became the � rst com-mercial feature � lm ever to be shot in Britain’s Houses of Parliament earlier this year. l

Charges � led against new Transformers movien Entertainment Desk

Just days before “Transformers: Age of Ex-tinction” debuted in China, Beijing Pangu In-vestment, a prominent sponsor of the fourth installment to the “Transformers” movie se-ries, has terminated its sponsorship deal with the production, claiming producers of the � lm failed to meet the terms of the agreement.

According to a report published in the Hol-lywood Reporter, the investment company provided � nancial resources to the production, and in exchange, Paramount Pictures agreed to feature Pangu Plaza Hotel, the company’s � ag-ship building, in the � lm.

But Beijing Pangu Investment accused the � lm studio and its Chinese associate partners this week that they failed to give them the “full value” of showing the building in the much-awaited Mi-chael Bay � ick, according to The Wrap.

In a statement sent to The Hollywood Re-porter, a spokesman for Paramount said: “Pan-gu Plaza has a prominent placement in ‘Trans-formers 4’ and it looks beautiful onscreen. We regret that Pangu is not currently satis� ed with certain aspects of our collaboration and are working to resolve its concerns.”

Following the termination of the contract on June 15, Beijing Pangu Investment has asked Paramount to remove its licensed content (company’s image, logo, or views of the build-ing) from the movie’s marketing materials as well as from the � lm itself.

The company has also � led a lawsuit con-cerning its complaint and alleged loss of repu-tation and money.

The “Transformers” saga has a huge fol-lowing in China. The third installment of the franchise, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” grossed $177m in the country in 2011. l

Cake Boss airs tonight

n Entertainment Desk

Watch out for the master baker and chef Buddy Valastro in his own TV show “Cake Boss” which will air on TLC tonight at 10:30pm.

Buddy Valastro is one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the United States. He is the head of Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey.

He supervises a team that includes his mother, four older sisters and plenty of cousins, second cousins and brothers-in-law. When you’re working with family on a daily basis, there is bound to be a lot of drama. The Valastros know drama, but at the end of the day, they also know love.

“Cake Boss” chronicles Buddy’s over-arching desire to achieve his late father’s dream of making Carlo’s Bake Shop a household name with or without the help of his family. l

Sunday, June 22, 2014

from Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Shakib claims to be unaware of dressing-room protocol

Bangladesh national all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan appeared for a hearing called by the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s dis-ciplinary committee yesterday. The half hour hearing was related to the brawl involving Shakib at the general viewing stand of Sher-e-Bangla Nation-al Stadium during the rain-a� ected � rst ODI between Bangladesh and India.

According to Jalal Younus,the BCB director and also the chairman of the media committee, it will take around � ve more days to reach a conclusion regarding the issue.

“We heard Shakib’s version of the bust-up. We are only concerned about how Shakib managed to enter the gen-eral viewing area during the game,” in-formed Jalal.

The BCB director explained that the board cannot deal with an issue such as this where Shakib raised hand on spectators because it has now become court’s concern now after Shakib � led a case against the group of spectators.

“We cannot do anything with the part where it is mentioned that he (Shakib) had a � ght with the spectators as the is-sue is in the court now,” said Jalal.

Jalal also added that the disciplinary committee would talk to others related to the issue if needed and they were still waiting for a report from team manager Khaled Mahmud Sujon.

However, Shaikb, one of the lead-ing all-rounders of world cricket, de-nied of raising hands on the spectators although he confessed that he had breached the code of conduct of both

the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the BCB by leaving the dressing room without permission during the game. But Shakib stunned a majority of those present at the hearing when he admitted that he was not aware of the rules and regulations.

Questions were asked and eye-brows were raised as to how a former national skipper and a cricketer who participates in tournaments around the world could be unaware of the regula-tions. It was also unfathomable as to how an experienced cricketer of the team, especially against the backdrop of the recent end to the ignominious BPL match-� xing a� airs, could be so callous of entering the general view-ing area of the stadium during a game which again has made country’s cricket the headline for a negative reason.

This reporter of the Dhaka Tribune

came across another version of the bust up in question. It has been report-ed since day one of the incident that Shakib charged the group of spectators after he learned of his wife Ummey Ahmed Shishir being teased. However, the other version of the bust up accord-ing to a BCB security personnel paints a di� erent picture which puts Shishir’s innocence under threat as she is the one who actually sparked the whole a� air which was later blown out of pro-portion by Shakib.

According to the BCB security re-questing anonymity, the group of spec-tators was making ill comments on Bangladesh cricketers and was doing so amongst themselves only. Shishir, sitting near to the group, protested against their comments which then diverted the group’s attention towards the star-cricketer’s wife.

Meanwhile, Shakib, who � led a case against one Rahib Rahman Khan under the Prevention of Repression against Woman and Children act, has informed of continuing the legal battle. Rahib was arrested by police and was later granted bail by the judge of Tribunal 5.

Shakib was surprised to see Rahib getting bail as he has always known cases under Repression against Woman and Children act is non-bailable.

However, Rahid’s lawyer Masud Ahmed also had told the media that the case was non-bailable but he did man-age to secure it for his client by arguing that the case � led by Shakib did not fall under Clause 10 of the Prevention of Repression against Women and Chil-dren 2003 (Amended) Law. l

Queiroz’s hunger still the same

Despite previously guiding South Af-rica and Portugal to the 2002 and 2010 World Cup respectively, Iran coach Carlos Queiroz’s hunger has not dimin-ished one bit as he is currently experi-encing his third stint as a trainer in the greatest show on earth.

The 61-year old Portuguese tactician is an admirable name in world football with his career decorated with spells at di� erent football giants. Queiroz earli-er managed the high-pro� le Galacticos at Real Madrid, served as a successful assistant coach to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and guided the Por-tugal Under-20 side to consecutive Fifa U-20 World Cup titles in 1989 and 1991. Not only that, several players from that triumphant youth team went on to play for the senior side and helped to form the golden generation that the Portu-guese national team was widely known as. Some of the names on that list are Luis Figo, Rui Costa and Abel Xavier among others.

An extremely likeable personality, Queiroz is � uent in both English and Portuguese and often pauses between his words. He was sacked by the Por-tuguese Football Association in 2010 following their narrow 1-0 defeat to eventual champions Spain in the round of 16. Despite a stalemate against Ivory Coast in the group stage, some of Que-iroz’s successes include the draw with Brazil and the 7-0 rout over North Ko-

rea. But deep inside his heart, he was craving for one more challenge, hence the decision to coach Iran, also referred to as Team Melli. “I dreamt of being in Brazil as a coach. Iran o� ered me and I accepted it. I am happy to be here,” said the Portuguese.

Every coach has a formula for suc-cess and Queiroz is no exception. In order to motivate the Iranian players, Queiroz has chosen the most essential word often used in football, “Sacri-� ce”. “Sacri� ce means putting the best for the country, for the people against the top brass teams of the world. You have your ability and you have to sacri-� ce for the success that will make you a star and bring a smile to the face of the people who expect the best from you, that’s sacri� ce,” said Queiroz.

Upon being asked to comment over England’s � rst-round exit from Group D, Queiroz’s reaction was quick and witty. “They said it was the group of death. And it was materialised by a team (Costa Rica) that nobody thought would win. No match is won before be-ing played. That’s the beauty of football and the World Cup,” said Queiroz.

He refused to reveal his destination following the conclusion of the 20th edition of the World Cup. The Iranian Football Federation has requested him to extend his tenure while one journal-ist even asked whether he has received any o� er from a Brazilian club. “Every-thing in life, that has a start also has an end. I am only focused with the World Cup now, I can’t say anything more,” concluded the dead-faced 61-year old. l

Brazil’s Thiago Silva (L) and David Luiz pose for photos after a training session in Teresopolis near Rio de Janeiro on Friday REUTERS

Yesterday I realized that all my remaining twenty or so articles for the World Cup could be about how amazing Steven Gerrard is, but my Editor, the fascist Manchester United supporter that he is, refused to let me entertain such wonderful thoughts. He in fact threatened to end me and my family if I wrote one more article about Liverpool or Gerrard. Okay well that’s not true. But what IS true is that my editor is a Manchester United fan and has been since the year of my birth, and therefore all that I have written will most likely BECOME true at

some point in our lives. It’s a prescient cautionary tale. Today’s article, however, is not about Liverpool nor is it about how horrible Manchester United fans like my editor, and “friends” To� ael Rashid and Aneek R Haq are. Today’s article is about co� ee. Co� ee, if you don’t know and it is perfectly okay if you don’t (after all co� ee’s ubiquitous greatness is nowhere close to Gerrard’s), is a beverage made from co� ee beans that can be served either hot or cold, and is a vital ingredient for cheap “White Rus-sians”, a beverage not a xenophobic slur. It turns out that Brazil is in fact the largest producer of co� ee in the world. That pos-sibly explains why the Brazilians display more energy supporting France than the French do. Among the nations represent-ed in the World Cup, the Netherlands has

the highest per capita consumption of co� ee. In light of this fact, it is no great surprise that De Jong runs around and tackles like Gennaro Gattuso on crack cocaine. The most interesting piece of information about co� ee and World Cup nations, how-ever, is that Costa Ricans feed their infants co� ee. I am not making this up. They really do put co� ee in the milk feeders of one year olds. Google it. Search “co� ee, infant, costa rica”, or “babies, costa rica, co� ee”, or any two of the three words. I suspect that co� ee has a latent impact on one year olds. After all we have not heard of any Costa Rican infants tackling like De Jong. And I also suspect that this practice of giving co� ee to humans barely young enough to smoke (Costa Rica also has one of the highest per capita consump-

tion of cigarettes in the world though I have not come across any information regarding infants and smoking) started around twenty-six years ago. That is the average age of the Costa Rican squad in this World Cup. Now the co� ee has kicked in. And the rest is history. Other than Suarez’s knee and Prandelli’s bizarre decision to change the formation that worked so well against England and play Motta in the starting eleven, I have found no other explanation for how Costa Rica has taken the World Cup by storm, and broken English hearts. They had just won just one international friendly in 2014. Clearly Suarez’s absence and Prandelli’s brain breeze are side notes. The real news is, as of June 12th, 2014, the Costa Rican beans have started taking e� ect. Be afraid world. Be VERY afraid. l

Ireshional Thoughts

A bit of the strong stu� , in one-year olds

Brazil training questioned, players must improve

Brazil’s � rst team have not trained as a unit since Tuesday’s draw with Mexico, prompting concerns over the lack of urgency in a side that

were disappointing in their opening two World Cup games.

Manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has long known his starting 11 and that team beat Croatia 3-1 in the tournament opener. He made one change to the side that drew 0-0- with Mexico, bring-ing in Ramires for Hulk, who had been su� ering with a thigh injury.

Scolari led a technical training ses-sion on Friday, at which players prac-tised drills as separate defensive and attacking units.

The squad had a day o� after the scoreless draw in Fortaleza and the � rst team were spared training on Thursday because of heavy rain.

The host nation are seeking to se-

cure � rst place in Group A against Cam-eroon to secure a last 16 encounter with the loser of the Group B match between the Netherlands and Chile. Brazil top the group with four points, ahead of Mexico on goal di� erence.

“We have to improve a few things, of course, but we do that (by) playing,” said left back Marcelo. “Now we have a game against Cameroon to improve things.”

Centre half David Luiz said the play-ers were still adjusting to a more com-petitive level after the Confederations Cup and a year of friendlies. As host nation, Brazil quali� ed automatically for the 2014 World Cup.

“We know that we can get better, that we can grow, but we also know what we’re up against,” Luiz told re-porters at Brazil’s training camp out-side Rio de Janeiro.

“When you compare the Confed-erations Cup with the World Cup it’s not the same, all the teams are very prepared for the World Cup. The level today is very high.”l

Iran exhibits spirited display

Till date, Iran have won only one game in 10 matches of the Fifa World Cup and that famous victory was achieved against the

United States on June 21, 1998, exact-ly 16 years from yesterday’s Group F tie between the top-ranked Asian side and powerhouses Argentina led by the wonderful Lionel Messi. This time the Iranians were on the threshold of an-other magni� cent result but a moment of sheer magic broke their hearts.

Nearly 5,000 Iran supporters were egging their team on amongst a vocif-erous crowd of 68,000 people at Belo Horizonte. With the vast majority of the crowd cheering on Argentina, Iran faced a strong challenge both o� and

on the � eld but the stocky and brave Western Asian side refused to go down without a � ght. The physique of the Iranian footballers undeniably posed problems for the Argentine attackers and the unfancied Asians fought brave-ly producing a good tactical perfor-mance, especially in the second half. The tall Iranian defenders did not allow any aerial superiority to their oppo-nents while the park-the-bus strategy adopted by the Iranian defence did not allow any free space for the reputed Ar-gentine attacking line.

However, the standard of Asian foot-ball once again fell short of the world standard as the depth of their crosses, free-kicks and long balls lacked the re-quired venom. Iran though gradually grew in con� dence, especially in the second half, and were the better side from the 65th to the 80th minute. Ar-

gentine coach Alejandro Sabella had to play all of his � ve forwards in di� erent points of the game which is a clear in-dication as to how tough the game was for the South American giants. Sabella had to pull out Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero and inserted Ezequiel Lavezzi and Rodrigo Palacio in search of the alluding goal, which did not ar-rive before the 92nd minute.

The curved shot thumped in by Li-onel Messi was too powerful for Iran custodian Alireza Haghighi, who stood like a stonewall in front of the oppo-sition for the entirety of the game. Haghighi rightly anticipated it but the ball curved in and beat him in the air by a second or half.

It was not that Iran did not get a chance themselves to pilfer the game away from the Argentinians. First, Reza Ghoochannejad forced an excellent re� ex save from Argentina keeper Sergio Romero after Pejman Montazeri had exploited space down the left � ank. Moments later, Askhan Dejagah was convinced that he should have been awarded a penalty when he went down under a challenge from right-back Pablo Zabaleta. Replays suggested that the Manchester City defender had just made the faintest of contacts with the ball. Romero again palmed away a dangerous header of Ghoochannechad in the dying stages of the game. Soon, Dejagah’s powerful header from close range was tipped just over the bar by Romero. “We know that it would be a di� cult, tense match,” Romero said. “Thank God I could get my hand on the ball and it didn’t go in. Messi then rubbed his magic lamp and we won.” l

Messi saves bettor $350K

A bettor walked into the Tuscany Casino in Las Vegas on Thursday and bet $231,676 in cash for Argentina to beat Iran straight up. It was the largest World Cup wager made at the 100 William Hill sportsbooks in the state of Nevada, con� rmed compa-ny spokesman Michael Grodsky. Argenti-na was such a prohibitive favorite that if the team won, he would only win $20,000 so the bettor dropped another $120,000 on the same bet on Friday to win another $10,000 if Argentina prevailed.

Well, the guy had to sweat. He was four minutes of stoppage time away from losing more than $350,000. l

Argentina graced by Maradona’s presence

Argentine legend Diego Maradona was present in the Belo Horizonte stadium during his country’s Group F encounter against Iran in the Fifa World Cup yesterday.

The Argentinian fans were concentrat-ing towards the players on the � eld but all of a sudden their attention shifted to-wards the VIP section where all the peo-ple surrounding the area started to � ash their cameras upon catching a glimpse of arguably the best footballer of all time.

However, the Argentine legend did not watch the full game as he left his seat in the 41st minute of the � rst half and it was learned that he had to leave in or-der to attend a special interview session with a television channel afterwards. l

Iran’s fans celebrate on Vanak Square, in the capital Tehran, yesterday, despite their national team’s narrow defeat to Argentine in the World Cup in Brazil AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE 13Sport

DHAKA TRIBUNE14 Sp rt

Sunday, June 22, 2014

French press: France ‘breathtaking’

The French press hailed their coun-try’s “breathtaking” performance after they recorded their second consecutive victory at the 2014 World Cup, beating Switzerland 5-2 on Friday.

Following their 3-0 victory over Honduras in the � rst round of matches, Les Bleus blew away their neighbours Switzerland in a match which L’Equi-pe described as a “magical display” and featured a side which “has all the weapons to become one of the star teams at this World Cup.”

The victory came four years to the day after the French World Cup squad went on strike in South Africa and puts them on the brink of quali� cation for the second round. For L’Equipe the French team’s triumph was “breathtak-ing” and “marked the anniversary by burying (the memory) once and for all.”

“The euphoria that they have creat-ed is proportional to what they showed with their desire, commitment, gener-osity, enjoyment and audacity,” wrote Fabrice Jouhaud in the French sports daily. “Make the most of this moment,” he added, as “France played in a way we have so rarely seen in the last 10 years.”

Switzerland conceded just six goals in their quali� cation for the � nals, but the paper’s front page said that Swit-zerland were blown away by the “at-tacking verve” of the French side.

“Until now,” argued columnist Vin-cent Duluc, “everything has gone well. Very, very well.”

“Impressive” was the verdict of Le Parisien, who claimed that France “had opened up new horizons,” claiming that “we have not felt such enjoyment since 1998,” when Les Bleus won the competition on home soil.l

Valencia double gives Ecuador new life

Ecuador moved into second place in World Cup Group E as two goals from Enner Valencia handed them a 2-1 win over Honduras in Curitiba on Friday.

Honduras had looked on course for their � rst ever World Cup win when Carlo Costly � red them in front on 31 minutes, but Valencia levelled from close range just three minutes later.

And the Pachuca striker moved alongside Karim Benzema, Robin Van Persie, Thomas Mueller and Arjen Robben as the tournament’s joint top scorer on three goals when he headed home the winner from Walter Ayovi’s

free-kick 25 minutes from time.“Scoring at a World Cup has been

something I have dreamed of since I was a child and thanks to the coaching sta� and my teammates that has come true,” said Valencia.

“The golden boot is not something I am thinking about. The most import-ant thing is qualifying from the group and if that comes thanks to more goals from me then all the better.”

Ecuador now lead Switzerland on goal di� erence with both sides locked on three points after two games behind group leaders France on six.

However, Honduras can also still qualify despite losing both their games

so far should they heavily defeat the Swiss and Ecuador lose to France.

And Honduras boss Luis Suarez in-sisted they have to believe anything is possible against Switzerland.

“It would be worse if we were elim-inated and this game didn’t mean any-thing. This chance still exists and we have to try,” he said.

“Now more than ever we have to � ght for the country. If a victory means quali� -cation then great, but if it doesn’t at least we have given everything until the end.”

After a nervy opening from both sides the game began to open up mid-way through the half and Honduras felt they had a strong penalty appeal waved

away by Australian referee Benjamin Williams when Costly went down un-der pressure from Juan Paredes.

Moments later it was Ecuador who should have taken the lead as Valencia timed his run onto Frickson Erazo’s long ball forward perfectly but couldn’t � nd the target when left with just Noel Val-ladares to beat. After the break it was Ec-uador’s turn to feel aggrieved with ref-eree Williams as he again was unmoved when Felipe Caicedo tumbled under a challenge from Maynor Figueroa.

However, that decision mattered little in the end as Valencia netted the winner when he rose highest to meet Ayovi’s sweet delivery. l

Rooney says sorry for World Cup � op

Wayne Rooney on Saturday apologised to England fans for the country’s disas-trous exit from the World Cup after two defeats.

The 28-year-old Manchester United striker said on his Facebook page that he was “absolutely devastated” and “gutted” by the losses to Italy and Uru-guay in Group D.

Costa Rica beat Italy 1-0 on Friday, snu� ng out any remaining hope for England.

“Sorry to all the fans that travelled and at home that we haven’t done bet-ter,” said Rooney, who did manage to get his � rst World Cup � nals goal in the Uruguay game.

“Going into each game we had great belief in ourselves but unfortunately it hasn’t worked out,” he added.

Mid� elder Jack Wilshere sent the same message to England fans.

“Gutted doesn’t come close to how I am feeling right now. Sorry to all the fans who came out and supported us, and everyone back home,” the 22-year-

old Arsenal player said on his Twitter account.

England have faced withering crit-icism from the media. But the English Football Association has insisted it will stick with coach Roy Hodgson for the Euro 2016 quali� ers. l

“Liberté, égalité, fraternité” was fa-mously the rallying cry of the French Revolution but it was the “unité” on display in the 5-2 rout of Switzerland on Friday that could be the most sig-ni� cent factor in how far France ad-vance at the World Cup.

Coach Didier Deschamps admit-ted he had not selected the best 23 players when he � nalised his squad for the tournament and the omission of creative mid� elder Samir Nasri was explicitly for reasons of squad cohesion.

While it was an understandable decision given the scandal of the South Africa campaign in 2010, it was still controversial and World Cup winner Patrick Vieira was among those who suggested he might live to regret it.

Four years after the strike on the team bus that presaged their depar-ture from South Africa winless and a national disgrace, they took apart a Swiss team who had lost only once in the last two years to all but book a place in the last 16.

Vieira was unstinting in his praise for the team ethic that Deschamps - his captain when France won the World Cup in 1998 - had instilled in the squad.

“Didier Deschamps did a fantas-tic job bringing the players together, their collective will was unbeliev-able,” he told ITV.

“What I really liked today was how they could � nd team mates who were in a better position to score.”

And score they did, twice through Olivier Giroud and Blaise Matuidi in little over 60 seconds inside the � rst 20 minutes in Salvador to put the Swiss on the canvas and again through Mathieu Valbuena after a sweeping counter-attack just before halftime.

Forward Karim Benzema, who had a penalty saved in the � rst half, � nally got reward for his inspiration-al e� orts with the fourth in the 67th minute to bring his tally for the tour-nament to three goals, before Mous-sa Sissoko grabbed the � fth.

“Things are going excellently for us,” striker Giroud, whose lung-bust-ing run up the left � ank set up Val-buena’s goal, told German TV.

“We’ve got a great team spirit. We gave up two strange goals. But the important thing was the win over Switzerland.”

Combined with the 3-0 victory over Honduras, the result means France are almost assured a place in the knockout rounds before their � -nal Group E match against Ecuador.

More important, perhaps, was the sight of French footballers playing for their country with such focus and pleasure.

“It is the same thing that we saw in 1998,” said Deschamps.

“Of course we can’t compare each changing room. I have a very focused group at present, they have a mind-set that they want to maintain, even those who play less, there is a force that is rising.”

It was that very lack of rancour from the squad players that Des-champs had identi� ed as the key fac-tor in leaving Nasri at home.

If Deschamps lifting the World Cup on home soil marked the high point of France’s relationship with their national team, South Africa was the nadir.

It was by no means the end of the problems, though - the Euro 2012 campaign was nothing to write home about and it is easy to forget after the rampant display in Salvador that France so nearly missed out on qual-i� cation for Brazil.

“Respect”, a word that had not been associated with the France team for several years, was the L’Equipe headline after they overturned a two goal � rst-leg de� cit to beat Ukraine in a playo� and book their spot in the tournament. l

France coach Deschamps vindicated by Swiss rout

Prandelli warns Azzurri ahead of Uruguay decider

Italy must step up the pace against Uruguay or face a second consecutive World Cup exit at the group phase, coach Cesare Prandelli warned Friday after his side’s shock defeat.

Costa Rica’s 1-0 win over the Italians left them needing at least a point against Uruguay in their � nal Group D game to avoid a repeat of their � rst round exit at the South Africa World Cup in 2010.

Italy started with a solid 2-1 defeat of England, but Prandelli is now worried.

He rejected claims that the heat and humidity in Recife had played a factor in the defeat. “It was no excuse,” said the 56-year-old.

“We had the wrong approach, our pace was too slow. It wasn’t the best approach,” added Prandelli.

“Costa Rica were well organised, quick and good at winning the ball. After we conceded the goal, we just couldn’t get back into it.”

Prandelli added: “I’m sure we are going to step up a notch (for Uruguay).

We have to, otherwise we are out.”Striker Mario Balotelli missed two

� rst half chances set up by mid� elder Andrea Pirlo, who was marked close-ly throughout as Costa Rica shut out through balls to the forwards.

“If we’d have scored those two goals, we’d have been looking at a dif-ferent game,” Prandelli said.

But two minutes after seeing strong claims for a penalty waved away, Costa Rica stunned the Italians.

Prandelli made a series of changes, with Antonio Cassano and Lorenzo In-signe notably replacing Thiago Motta and Antonio Candreva.

But it did not spark the Italians, who had to charge back to thwart Ruiz and late substitute Marcos Urena from add-ing a second goal.

Before Tuesday’s decider in Natal, Prandelli says he will be working to help the team get over the shock of defeat and to strengthen them physically to take on a Uruguay side that stormed to a 2-1 win against England on Thursday.

“It’s going to be an especially chal-lenging match,” said Prandelli. “We played them last year in Confedera-tions Cup and after we played well for 35 minutes, they took over.

“But right now, we have to chase all negative thoughts away. We have to prepare from a mental and psycholog-ical point of view. And we need to re-cover our energy and spirit.”l

MATCH STATS Ecuador HondurasGoals scored 2 1Total shots 8 16Shots on target 5 9 Corners 12 4O� sides 1 1 Fouls committed 17 15Yellow cards 3 2Red cards 0 0Ball possession 51% 49%

P W D L GF GA Pts France (Q) 2 2 0 0 8 2 6 Ecuador 2 1 0 1 3 3 3 Switzerland 2 1 0 1 4 6 3 Honduras 2 0 0 2 1 5 0

GROUP E

Ecuador’s Enner Valencia (R) celebrates with teammates after scoring in their World Cup Group E match against Honduras at the Baixada Arena in Curitiba on Friday AFP

P W D L GF GA PtsCosta Rica (Q) 2 2 0 0 4 1 6Italy 2 1 0 1 2 2 3Uruguay 2 1 0 1 3 4 3England 2 0 0 2 2 4 0

GROUP D

1. TOO MUCH, TOO YOUNG

- Manager Roy Hodgson received praise for � ooding his squad with young, creative players, but England looked unbalanced in their defeats against Uruguay and Italy. Aligning pure attackers such as Raheem Sterling, Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney on the � anks left the full-backs exposed, as demonstrated by the ease with which Anto-nio Candreva beat Leighton Baines en route to setting up Mario Balotelli for the decisive goal in England’s opening game against Italy. Sterling, 19, shone in a central role against Italy in Manaus, but could not free himself from Uruguay’s shackles in Sao Paulo, while 20-year-old Everton starlet Ross Barkley was unable to make a telling impression as a substitute in either game.

2. IMPRECISE TACTICS

- While Hodgson’s 4-2-3-1 formation was well established, England’s approach in Brazil has felt approximative. Although Sterling, Welbeck, Rooney and Daniel Sturridge roamed around the pitch to useful e� ect in the loss to Italy, their attacking endeavours against the tough-tackling Uruguayans felt desperate rather than

methodical. As former England right-back Danny Mills, now a BBC pundit, observed during the Uruguay game: “There is no set pattern to England’s play.”

3. DEFENSIVE ERRORS

- All the goals that England have conced-ed in Group D have been down to basic defensive mistakes. Inattention at a corner allowed Claudio Marchisio to � re Italy ahead in Manaus, while Baines was found wanting in the build-up to Balotelli’s headed winner. Against Uruguay, Edinson Cavani was able to pick out Luis Suarez for the opening goal despite England having six players back, with Phil Jagielka responsible for letting his man ghost into space behind him. Uruguay’s second goal was a disaster

from an English perspective, as a route-one punt from goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was allowed to reach Suarez, who had the freedom of the England box to � re past Joe Hart. Former England centre-back Rio Ferdinand described the defending as “schoolboyish”.

4. LACK OF MIDFIELD COMPOSURE

- England dominated possession against Uruguay and saw plenty of the ball against Italy, but too often technical de� ciencies and unnecessary haste betrayed them. With a team geared exclusively towards attacking at pace, England lacked players capable of drawing the sting from the match by putting a foot on the ball and slowing the pace. At 1-1 against Uruguay, England’s inability

to control the game’s tempo proved their undoing. “I just thought when we got the equaliser, we just needed to be a bit more clever, a bit more cute, and a bit more di� cult to beat,” admitted Steven Gerrard. “Maybe we should have accepted that going for a point might have been the best option.”

5. GERRARD OVERWHELMED

- After an emotionally and physically draining season with Liverpool, Gerrard has looked o� the pace in Brazil. Used to playing alongside two central mid� elders with Liverpool, the skipper had only club-mate Jordan Henderson for company in England’s � rst two games and the extra exertion seemed to take a toll. He was culpable in the build-up to both of Suarez’s goals for Uru-guay, tamely conceding possession before the � rst and inadvertently heading the ball straight into his Liverpool team-mate’s path for the second. “You’ve got to say Steven Gerrard, in both England’s group games, hasn’t looked sharp,” said former England winger Chris Waddle. “He has not dictated the games.”

–AFP

Italy’s 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica on Friday condemned England to their earliest World Cup exit since the 1958 tournament in Sweden.

Despite striker Wayne Rooney’s assertion that his side would have “no excuses” for a premature departure in Brazil, England were eliminated before the squad had even � nished their course of anti-malaria tablets.

After the latest in a long list of disappointments at major tournaments, AFP Sports identi� es � ve areas where England came unstuck this time:

FIVE THINGS THAT WENT WRONG FOR ENGLAND

DHAKA TRIBUNE15Sp rt

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Sunday, June 22, 2014

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Dhaka

Belgium

VBELGIUM RUSSIA

Maracanã, Rio De Janeiro22 JUN 2014 - 13:00 Local (10:00PM BST)

Possible teams:

Belgium1-Thibaut Courtois; 2-Toby Alderweireld, 4-Vincent Kompany, 5-Jan Vertonghen, 15-Daniel Van Buyten; 7-Kevin De Bruyne, 22-Nacer Chadli, 6-Axel Witsel, 19-Mousa Dembele; 10-Eden Hazard, 9-Romelu LukakuRussia1-Igor Akinfeev; 14-Vasili Berezutskiy, 4-Sergey Ignashevich, 22-Andrey Eshchenko, 23-Dmitry Kombarov, 18-Yury Zhirkov; 8-Denis Glushakov, 19-Alexander Samedov, 20-Victor Faizulin, 17-Oleg Shatov; 9-Alexander KokorinKey facts:

Though only playing in their � rst � nals since 2002, Belgium came to the tournament as bookmakers’ � fth favourites behind Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Spain.

Belgium � nished top of their group in European qualifying and were unbeaten - winning eight games and drawing two to � nish nine points clear of Croatia.

After the break up the Soviet Union, Russia have appeared at two World Cup � nals, failing to make it out of the group stage in 1994 and 2002.

Russia won seven of their 10 quali� -ers to � nish above Portugal in their qualifying group.

Previous meetings: The pair have met eight times, in-cluding matches involving the Soviet Union. Russia lead the series 4-3, with one match drawn.

This is their � fth meeting at the World Cup, where each side has claimed two victories apiece. The � rst two meetings were won by Russia (then Soviet Union), 4-1 in the group round in 1970 and 1-0 in the second group round in 1982. The Belgians clinched the next two matches, 4-3 after extra time in the Round of 16 in 1986 and 3-2 in the opening round of the 2002 edition.

Belgium coach Marc Wilmots is his country’s all-time top scorer at the World Cup with � ve goals. The former mid� elder’s last strike came against Russia in that 3-2 win in 2002.

FACT BOX

Probable teams:

United States1-Tim Howard; 23-Fabian Johnson, 6-John Brooks, 20-Geo� Cameron, 7-DaMarcus Beasley; 15-Kyle Beckerman, 4-Michael Bradley, 13-Jermaine Jones, 11-Alejandro Bedoya; 8-Clint Dempsey; 9-Aron JohanssonPortugal12-Rui Patricio; 21-Joao Pereira, 13-Ricardo Costa, 2-Bruno Alves, 19-Andre Almeida; 4-Miguel Veloso, 8-Joao Moutinho, 16-Raul Meireles; 7-Cristiano Ronaldo, 23-Helder Postiga, 17-NaniKey stats:

Unites States beat Portugal 3-2 in the only competitive meeting between the two sides, the result helping them advance to the last 16 in the 2002 World Cup at the expense of the Portuguese.

United States coach Juergen Klins-mann was in charge of his native Germany when they beat Portugal 3-1 in the 2006 tournament’s third-place match.

Portugal su� ered their worst World Cup defeat in the previous 4-0 drub-bing by Germany.

Portugal have twice reached the semi-� nals in their � ve previous World Cup appearances.

Previous meetingsThese two teams have met � ve times, winning two games each while one ended in a draw. Four of them were friendlies and they are also level on � ve goals apiece overall.

FACT BOX

WC TV coverage breaks records: Fifa

Japan’s clash against Ivory Coast was one of the most viewed games of the 2014 World Cup so far as television cov-erage shattered a host of records during the � rst round of group matches, Fifa said on Friday.

As many as 34.1 million viewers in Japan watched the team’s 2-1 defeat by

the Ivorians on the NHK channel at 10 a.m. local time, while 42.9 million in Brazil saw the hosts beat Croatia 3-1 in the tournament’s opener on TV Globo.

The match between the U.S. and Ghana was watched by 11.1 million on ESPN in the United States, setting a new record for ESPN coverage of a men’s World Cup match.

“These record-breaking � gures show

just how popular football and the FIFA World Cup is across the world, from Japan to Argentina,” said Fifa TV director Niclas Ericson. England’s 2-1 defeat by Italy in the Amazon city of Manaus attracted 14.2 million on BBC 1 in the UK and 12.8 mil-lion on RAI 1, the highest TV audiences in both countries in 2014. Germany’s ARD channel had 26.4 million watching the country’s 4-0 win over Portugal. l

Algeria eye to turn goal trickle into � ood

Algeria scored their � rst World Cup goal in 28 years in their opener and

will hope the o� ensive � oodgates have opened in a crucial Group H match against a leaky South Korea on Sunday.

With dark horse Belgium sitting atop the group standings and Russia and Korea joint second after an opening 1-1 draw, Algeria will be � ghting for their World Cup lives on Sunday at Porto Alegre’s Beira Rio stadium.

Back in the World Cup for the fourth time, the ‘Desert Foxes’ have never made it past the � rst round and will need a result against the Koreans if they are to extend their stay in Brazil.

The only Arab nation present at the tournament, the Algerians arrive at this gritty port city believing a place in the last 16 is within their reach after going down 2-1 to highly rated Belgium.

Con� dence and mood, however, will not be as high in the South Kore-an camp after sloppy play in their back end cost them a victory against Russia.

After yielding 11 goals in � ve World Cup warm-ups, the Koreans again looked vulnerable at the back in their opener and Algeria’s coach Vahid Halil-hodzic will be plotting to add to their woes.

When So� ane Feghouli converted a spot kick to give Algeria a 1-0 lead over Belgium, the Arab nation celebrated their World Cup � nals goal since 1986 and were on course for a famous upset until the Europeans struck twice in the last 20 minutes.

“We could have won,” lamented Halilhodzic. “We were heroic in the

� rst half. At half-time I was sure we would make it. We’ve missed a major opportunity. But I don’t want to blame anyone. You can say I am the one to be blamed, as usual.

“Belgium is one of the best teams in Europe. My team gave as much as they could in the present time.”

South Korea, fourth place � nishers in 2002 on home soil, also see the con-test as a must-win with group favour-ites Belgium looming on the horizon.

“We have to defeat them to get to the round of 16,” said Korean mid� eld-er Koo Ja-cheol. “We’ll concentrate on doing whatever it takes to win.”

Korean coach Hong Myung-bo, the elegant sweeper who led Korea to the 2002 semi-� nals, will want to see a bet-ter e� ort defensively but is also consid-ering his attacking options.

A team that plays with plenty of of-fensive � air and ambition Hong could keep Park Chu-young as his main strik-er against Algeria or bring in Kim Shin-wook or Lee Keun-ho, a sergeant serv-ing in the South Korean military who earns less than $150 per month. l

Ronaldo key to Portugal recovery as US clash looms

A wounded Portugal, still smarting from a 4-0 defeat by Germany, are fer-vently hoping that talismanic forward Cristiano Ronaldo is � t when they take on the United States in their second World Cup Group G game on Sunday.

The thrashing was the biggest ever loss the Portuguese have su� ered at a World Cup and their misery deepened as central defender Pepe was sent o� while Ronaldo struggled for form as he battled a knee injury.

The world player of the year will need to be

back to his best for the clash with the Amer-icans, who

s u r p r i s -ingly beat Ghana 2-1 in

their open-ing game.

R u m o u r s about Ron-

aldo’s condi-tion have been

swirling across the internet

and o� -

cials were forced to deny reports that his personal doctor had advised him to quit the tournament.

A few days’ rest seem to have helped and his team mate Miguel Veloso said the player appeared to be in good shape.

“I’m not a doctor but from what I see, Ronaldo is � ne,” Veloso told reporters after a training session in Campinas.

“He is training, he is jumping and he is shooting. There is not much else to say.”

Ronaldo, who was su� ering from tendinosis in his left knee several weeks before the 32-nation tourna-ment, was photographed walking out of Wednesday’s training session early with an ice pack on his left knee.

Also of concern to coach Paolo Ben-to is the need to � nd the right replace-ments for the suspended Pepe and in-jured left back Fabio Coentrao whose involvement in the tournament is over.

Goalkeeper Rui Patricio and strik-er Hugo Almeida were also nursing knocks but have been ruled � t to play, although the latter could be dropped for Helder Postiga after a lacklustre per-formance against Germany.

INSPIRED DISPLAYThe United States will hope to re-

produce the inspired display from the 2002 World Cup when they beat Portu-gal 3-2 in the group stage, a win which helped them advance to the last 16 at the expense of their rivals.

Coach Juergen Klinsmann, who was in charge of his native Germany when they beat Portugal 3-1 in the 2006 tour-nament’s third-place match, said he ex-pected Ronaldo to � re on all cylinders in the hot and humid city of Manaus.

Klinsmann also hopes that his walk-ing wounded recover, in particular Clint Dempsey who broke his nose after taking a boot to the face against Ghana shortly after scoring inside a minute.

“Now (Portugal) are going to come into Manaus pretty angry and I don’t know how Ronaldo is going to perform when he is angry. We need to show Por-tugal how good we are,” he said.

Klinsmann might ponder whether to start John Brooks, who scored the winner against the Ghanaians on his World Cup debut after coming on as a substitute for Matt Besler, while striker Aron Johansson is set to replace the in-jured Jozy Altidore. l

Russia in Belgium’s path to round of 16

Having come from behind to beat Alge-ria in their opening game, Belgium can reach the World Cup knockout phase by beating Russia at Rio de Janeiro’s fa-bled Maracana on Sunday.

Marc Wilmots’s ‘golden generation’ looked destined to make a meek en-trance into the tournament after falling behind to a So� ane Feghouli penalty in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday, but late goals from substitutes Marouane Fel-laini and Dries Mertens got them o� to a winning start.

With Russia having been held 1-1 by South Korea in their Group H opener, the last 16 is already within sight for Belgium, who are seen as dark hors-es to win the tournament after going through qualifying unbeaten.

Belgium centre-back Nicolas Lom-baerts, who plays for Russian side Zenit Saint-Petersburg, knows better than most what to expect from Fabio Ca-pello’s side, and he expects his team-mates to have a physical edge.

“Capello places lots of importance on organisation,” said the 29-year-old, whose side are appearing at a � rst ma-jor tournament since 2002.

“We’ll have to pay attention on the turnovers. Russia are not very physical. Our size should be an advantage.

“They’ve only got two players taller

than six foot. They’ll try to hurt us by keeping the ball on the ground.”

Lombaerts is on standby to play in case Belgium captain Vincent Kompa-ny is unable to shake o� a minor groin complaint. The Manchester City de-fender missed training on Thursday and Friday, but Wilmots is con� dent that he will be able to take part in Saturday’s eve-of-match session at the Maracana.

Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard, creator of Mertens’s winning goal against Algeria, is also expected to be � t despite sustaining a bruised toe during that game.

Should Russia lose, Capello’s side would � nd themselves on the brink of elimination ahead of their � nal game against Algeria on Thursday.

“We should forget the � rst game be-cause it’s in the past and we have to focus on the game against Belgium,” he said.

“We have a huge responsibility on our shoulders, so we have to try to do our best to get the three points to get a chance to qualify.

Glushakov’s position in the team is under threat from Dynamo Moscow mid� elder Igor Denisov, while Kerzha-kov’s goal in Cuiaba has strengthened his claim to a starting berth.

Russian media reports, meanwhile, suggest that CSKA Moscow playmaker Alan Dzagoev will replace Zenit’s Oleg Shatov in the number 10 role. l

THE BIG MATCH

VUSA PORTUGAL

Arena Amazonia, Manaus22 JUN 2014 - 18:00 Local (4:00AM BST)

VKOREA ALGERIA

Estadio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre22 JUN 2014 - 16:00 Local (1:00AM BST)

The only Arab nation present in Brazil, Algeria scored their � rst World Cup � nals goal in 28 years in a 2-1 loss to Belgium in their tournament opener. So� ane Feghouli converted a spot kick in the 25th minute to notch Algeria’s � rst since a 1-1 draw against Northern Ireland in the 1986 tournament.

Algeria were the last African qual-i� ers, beating Burkina Faso 1-0 in the second leg of their play-o� to advance on away goals after a 3-2 � rst-leg defeat.

South Korea’s best � nish at a World Cup was fourth place in 2002 on home soil. They became the � rst Asian side to reach the semi-� nals after a run that saw them defeat Por-tugal, Italy and Spain before falling to Germany in the last four.

This is the 30th World Cup match contested by South Korea, who have made more appearances in the event than any other Asian team.

South Korea are undefeated against African teams in the World Cup, having beaten Togo 2-1 in 2006 and drawn 2-2 with Nigeria four years ago.

KEY STATS

Monday, June 16, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

16 DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com

Germany Ghana Goals scored 2 2 Total shots 11 20 Shots on target 6 10 Corners 7 3 O� sides 1 5 Fouls committed 11 17 Yellow cards 0 1 Red cards 0 0 Ball possession 59% 41%

MATCH STATS

Sunday, June 22, 2014

13 1514 Ronaldo key to Portugal recovery

Rooney says sorry for England � op

Shakib claims to be unaware of protocol

Germany’s Miroslav Klose celebrates scoring the equaliser against Ghana in their Group G World Cup match at the Castelao Stadium in Fortaleza yesterday AFP

Argentinian fans most passionate of the lot

For their passion, spirit and commit-ment towards the national team, the Argentine fans can be declared the champion of the roads even though the

crown of o� cial champions will not be decided before July 13 which is still three weeks away. Scrutinised thor-oughly by the Brazilian police wher-ever they go, the Argentine fans have appeared the most colourful besides being a little volatile too during the on-going football extravaganza.

The English fans were dubbed as an attacking brand but this time they were not seen in their traditional mode and subsequently replaced by the Argen-tine fans who have � ooded the Ma-racana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro when Argentina beat Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 15. Only the Argentine fans were seen in di� erent match venues prior to the matchday. They crowded the en-trance of the Maracana Stadium shout-ing “Ole, Ole, Argentina” and “Ole, Ole, Messi” and di� erent other chants. It was a continuous process and at the same time gulping endless bottles of beer was also a simultaneous process.

The Argentine fans have decorat-ed themselves with wigs and t-shirts boasting pictures of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. They carry guitars, drums and other ceremonial objects with them and take great pride in

chanting di� erent patriotic anthems. Everything is done through a com-bined e� ort.

Argentina were scheduled to kick-o� their match against Iran at 7pm at Maracana yesterday but their fans

started crowding the stadium from 8am, almost 12 hours in advance and the dance, the chorus and the endless “Ole, Ole” will go on till the end of the game. It was also observed that one group sometimes threatened the other and a � ght was about to begin but ap-parently some leaders, who like to be referred to as the football gang “Barras Bravas”, quickly intervened and the opposing parties obeyed their words. The same scenario prevailed at Belo Horizonte yesterday.

Brazil have reportedly banned 2,100 Argentine hooligans from entering the country during the World Cup, accord-ing to the Brazilian federal police de-partment.

Brazil though are yet to ban fans from any other countries. Prior to the World Cup, Brazil requested that Argen-tina share information on its football hooligans’ criminal records. As a result 650 members of a group called “Barras”

belonging to the United Argentine Fans (HUA) have taken a case to the court to stop the government from handing over information. Over the years hooli-ganism in football was on the rise and the Argentine Football Association last season banned away fans in league matches after a fan was killed.

It was also learned that in the last Group F match between Argentina and Nigeria, dozens of Argentine police o� cials in plain clothes jointly scru-tinised the scenario alongside the Bra-zilian police.

The � amboyant Argentine support-ers’ passion towards their national team is unmistakable and Messi and co. will no doubt take inspiration from their die-hard faithful. If Argentina clinch their third world title, and they are more than capable of it, the fans will no doubt bask in the glory and savour one of the greatest journeys they have undertaken. l

from Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Football-mad Indian couple o� to 9th World Cup � nals

Their World Cup love a� air began more than three de-cades ago in Spain. Now 81-year-old Pannalal Chatterjee and his wife Chaitali, 72, are once more heading from cricket-mad India to the ultimate football � esta.

“This may be my last one, but I am so happy at getting the chance to watch a tournament in Brazil,” Pannalal said during a stopover in Singapore on his way to what will be the couple’s ninth World Cup.

“It’s always been my dream to watch the World Cup in Brazil. It’s the Mecca of football,” he told AFP by phone.

The Chatterjees, who live in the eastern city of Kolkata, are life-long football fans and Pannalal has been involved as a volunteer administrator for the sport in eastern India since the early 1970s.

They got their � rst taste of top-level football in 1982 when a friend whom they were staying with in London got them tickets for the tournament in Spain, when a young Diego Maradona � rst garnered global attention. l

Pannalal Chatterjee and his wife Chaitali showing mementos of their participation in last eight World Cup football tournaments

Record-equalling Klose salvages draw for Germanyn Reuters, Fortaleza

Germany striker Miroslav Klose came o� the bench to score a record-equal-ling 15th World Cup goal and salvage a 2-2 draw against Ghana in a pulsating Group G game on Saturday.

Klose, with his � rst touch of the game, poked home at the back post from a corner in the 71st minute to move level with former Brazil striker Ronaldo.

Ghana, who trailed to Mario Goe-tze’s goal early after the break, stormed back to level through Andre Ayew and take the lead when Asamoah Gyan lashed home but Klose secured a point to leave Germany top of the group on four points from two games.

After a cautious, evenly-balanced � rst half, the match came alive in the 51st minute with Goezte putting the Germans ahead with a downward head-er that came o� his knee before beating Fatawu Dauda in the Ghanaian goal.

But the Africans hit straight back, Andre Ayew outleaping the towering � gure of Per Mertesacker in the German defence to head his side level on 54.

Nine minutes later, Ghana took the lead with Gyan breaching the German back line and � ring a right foot shot past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Germany coach Joachim Loew turned to experience, throwing on Klose and Bastian Schweinsteiger and it proved an inspired switch with Klose netting the goal that keeps the Germans in con-tention to reach the second round for a remarkable 16th consecutive World Cup.

Ghana sit third in the group on one point with United States (three points), playing bottom side Portugal on Sunday

This was the 800th match in the his-tory of the World Cup and was a � tting tribute to the tournament. It marked Mertesacker’s 100th German cap and also saw the Boateng half-brothers face each other for the second World Cup in a row. Jerome played the � rst half for Germany while Kevin-Prince played for Ghana. l

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Bangladesh may face risks of middle-income trap and jobless growthEconomists fear as they suggest reversing the country’s growth strategy n Kayes Sohel

Bangladesh may face the risks of mid-dle-income trap and jobless growth unless the present pattern of growth is not reversed, economists fear.

They said traditional problems like energy and land crisis should be re-moved while eliminating corruption and establishing rule of law are among the immediate challenges for acceler-ated and sustainable growth.

A galaxy of renowned economists raised the concern at a session titled “Growth Strategies And Macroeco-nomic Stability” of the “First BEF (Bangladesh Economists’ Forum) Con-ference” at a hotel in Dhaka yesterday.

Economic Adviser to the Prime Min-ister Mashiur Rahman moderated the session on the � rst day of the two-day conference.

Former director of UN IFAD Mohi-uddin Alamgir in his presentation said the situation Bangladesh is likely to face on its way to prosperity would be to face the consequence of the Philip-pines – record growth with little or no employment growth.

This is because the country’s pro-ductivity growth is induced by new technology, which seems to have re-duced employment growth. Second, worker/employment shifts from low productivity to high productivity sec-

tor pushed by rural-urban migration is having the same impact on growth of employment.

Alamgir found two immediate chal-lenges to overcome – the so called mid-dle-income trap and jobless growth. “The latter is an emerging phenome-non faced by countries like the Philip-pines, high growth rate accompanied by sustained high rate of unemploy-ment.”

Bangladesh could conceivably move to a higher trajectory of accelerated growth but should then grow at a rapid pace avoiding the middle-income trap like Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Thailand, and escaping the current fate of the Philippines of job-less growth, the paper noted.

“Beyond the middle income trap and jobless growth which represent structural limitations to growth, Bangladesh will have to deal with a number of other constraints to longer term.”

World Bank lead economist Zahid Hussain, however, sees political stabil-ity, enhancement of ability to enforce rule of law and equability, and to en-courage business community to seek pro� ts from improving productivity, learning e� ciency rather than park-ing savings in the o� shore are the key challenges for higher growth and eco-nomic development.

He said capital accumulation is beyond dispute for accelerating the growth. Macrocosmic scenario is good but private investment scenar-io, a pre-requisite for the sustainable growth, is not in good shape in Bangla-desh. However, Bangladesh had done well but it falls short of well behind in Asian economics, he said.

In his presentation, vice chairman of Policy Research Institute Sadiq Ahmed said under the high growth scenario, Bangladesh would attain middle income status comfortably by 2021 and move on to $2,500 per capita income in 2030.

“If growth rate stays at the present level, Bangladesh still attains middle income status by 2021. However, if growth slides to the low case, the at-tainment of middle income status by 2021 will likely become questionable.”

The high growth scenario causes per capita GDP to almost triple in 16 years, from a low of $882 in 2014 to $2,500 in 2030. As compared to this, per capita GDP reaches $1867 under the base case and only $1601 in the low case, he said.

“The gap between the low case and high case is strikingly large and is in-dicative of the importance of paying attention to the growth strategy.”

The most important growth driv-ers are: the accumulation of capital, the growth of labor force, quality of

labor force, and the contribution of the growth of total factor productivity (TFP).

In the past two years, the invest-ment rate seems to have stagnated, es-pecially the private investment e� ort. The fact that the national savings rate exceeds the domestic investment rate is suggestive of an incentive problem and other demand side constraints that require proper investigation and resolution, the paper said.

“If Bangladesh is unable to expand its investment e� ort substantially in the coming years, this traditional source of growth will be jeopardized. This presents a major policy chal-lenge.”

It said the income of Bangladesh was not much di� erent from that of China. Bangladesh has achieved considerable success in securing higher rates of GDP growth, but this performance falls short of the aspirations articulated in the government’s Vision 2021 and the Perspective Plan 2010-2021.

These growth rates also fall short of growth achieved in the dynamic East Asian economies of South Korea, Ma-laysia and China and these countries have moved far ahead of Bangladesh, according to paper.

MG Quibria, professor of depart-ment of economics at Morgan State University, Maryland also spoke. l

‘Market crash will happen again’n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman and

Jebun Nesa Alo

Market manipulation is one of the causes of capital market instability in Bangladesh.

This issue was investigated by for-mer deputy governor of the Bangla-desh Bank Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled and his report cited market manipula-tion behind market instability, said for-mer caretaker government adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam.

He was speaking at a conference of Bangladesh Economists’ Forum in the city yesterday.

In his presentation, the former SEC chairman suggested increasing the number of initial public o� erings.

More shares will bring balance be-tween supply and demand, and give more options to investors, he said.

He, however, said: “The promised o� -loading of shares of 26 state-owned enterprises has not been materialized.”

Centre for Policy Dialogue Execu-tive Director Mosta� zur Rahman said unless the manipulators are remained untouchable, the market would not operate in its normal course. “Market crash will happen again.”

Former � nance minister Saiduz-zaman said there is a lack of coordi-nation between regulators including Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Se-curities and Exchange Commission.

Despite having lower savings rate in the banks, depositors are reluctant to move towards the share market for lack of con� dence, economists told at an earlier session.

Banks are though o� ering lower in-terest rate on deposit due to excess li-quidity, but depositors still rely on the banks than share market, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune on the sidelines.

This is because the bank clients get proper judgment against the fraud in the banking sector, he added.

Addressing a session, he suggested entrepreneurs to mobilize fund from the stock market as the banks do not lend for a long period of time as the banks’ deposits are of short term nature.

“It’s not possible for banks to give loans for 10-year term … the country’s economy would have been more rich if banks could provide long term loans,” he said.

The governor said there is a lack of good governance in the banking sector mainly in the state-owned ones. “We are trying to overcome the problems and establish digital system to ensure transparency.”

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Ka-mal said there is no positive re� ection of economic progress in the share mar-ket due to lack of con� dence of general investors.

He said the market could not yet recover the investors’ con� dence after three years of debacle in 2010. l

State banks likely to see ‘tougher policy’ on directors n Asif showkat kallol

Finance Minister AMA Muhith will sit today with three secretaries and NBR chairman to discuss about strategies to bring back discipline in the country’s scam-hit state-owned banks.

He will also discuss about formulat-ing a tougher policy to appoint chairmen and directors for the state-owned banks.

The meeting will be attended by Banking Division Secretary Dr M Aslam Alam, Planning Secretary Bhuiyan Sha� qul Islam, Economic Relations Division Secretary Mohammad Mejba-huddin and National Board of Revenue Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain at the � nance minister’s secretariat o� ce.

State-owned Sonali Bank and BASIC Bank su� ered large loan scams like those of Hall-Mark and Bismillah Group.

The state-owned banks have so far seen appointment of chair-men and directors loyal to the rul-ing party.

“The existing policy is not strong to prevent politically a� li-ated being appointed as directors and chairmen.”

“We have already taken steps to make state-owned banks’ in-ternal auditing system sturdy af-ter the large Hall-Mark scam,” he said.

Dr M Aslam hinted that the BASIC Bank Chairman might be removed be-fore expiry of his tenure.

Sonali Bank’s Hall-Mark loan scam involved an amount of Tk3,547 crore while the Bismillah Group scam in-volved over Tk1,175 crore.

The central bank investigations un-earthed irregularities involving loans worth around Tk4,500 crore in the last three years.

Besides, the meeting will try to seek solutions to di� erent problems like revenue generation, foreign fund dis-bursement and increasing implemen-tation rate of Annual Development Programmes (ADP).

About the today’s meeting, o� cials

said it would further discuss about rev-enue matters related with NBR in next � scal’s budget and the streamlining the country’s banking sector.

Coordination among the ministries and divisions will also be discussed to ensure implementation of budget, said an o� cial.

Topics like purchase and implemen-tation capacities of the ministries and divisions and � nancial process of bud-get will also come up, sources said.

Besides, talks will be about intro-ducing a new presentation style of the budget from FY2015-16.

The style will accommodate rev-enue and development budgets like many other countries in the world. l

Bangladesh labour productivity slidesn Jebun Nesa Alo

Labour productivity has slowed down signi� cantly in Bangladesh during the last decade (2001-2012) because of slower growth in domestic savings and persistent high-level of household consumption, a conference was told.

Moreover, the country’s GDP growth continues to grow at a slower rate than major trading partners.

The average growth rate of GDP per worker fell from 3.4% during 1990-2000 to 2.4% during 2000-2011 while the growth rate of GDP per hour worked fell more sharply from 3.3% to 1% during the same period.

The country registered an average GDP growth rate of 4.8% during the pe-riod of 1981-2012 as compared to 5.9% during 2001-2012.

Hamid Rashid, Senior Adviser for Macroeconomic Policy UN Depart-ment of Economic and Social A� airs, New York, came up with the observa-tion while presenting his report titled ‘’Stimulating Productivity Growth for Achieving Sustainable Middle-income Status,” at a session of Bangladesh Economist’s Forum (BFF) conference at a city hotel yesterday.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Ka-mal, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman, however, intercepted the presentation of the session, disagree-ing with the � ndings. In response, Ha-mid Rashid informed the meeting that the � gures were compiled from the available published data.

He said productivity growth is a key determinant for achieving conver-gence with meddle and higher income countries. But productivity growth slowed in Bangladesh due to weak growth in domestic savings, persistent investment-savings gap, inadequate tracking and monitoring of productivi-ty growth and absence of an over-arch-ing industrial policy for productivi-ty-led economic growth, he said.

“As the major consumption of peo-ple goes to the food due to high in� a-tion, growing dominance of short-term � nance in the economy and lack of

appropriate savings instruments also among the factor of lower productivi-ty,” he added.

According to his report, household consumption of Bangladesh was 77.8% against the country’s total investment of 25.1% in 2011.

The report also painted a grim pic-ture of house hold consumption and then investment in the neighbouring Asian countries while India was 63.5% and 31.7%, Pakistan 81.2% and 14.1%, China 36.4% and 47.6%, Vietnam 68.5% and 29.7%, Cambodia 82.3% and 17.1% and Indonesia is 56.6% and 33%. l

Prominent economists are addressing the inaugural session of the ‘First BEF (Bangladesh Economists’ Forum) Conference’ at a hotel in Dhaka yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

Muhith for serious e� orts on land use to improve productivity n Tribune Report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yester-day put emphasis on best use of land for increasing the productivity.

“Plan for the best use of land is im-portant at the upazila level. The land management is so poor in Bangladesh. I think, we should work seriously regard-ing this,” Muhith said, opening the two-day conference of Bangladesh Econo-mists’ Forum (BEF) at a city hotel.

More than 500 economists, re-searchers, experts, policymakers and journalists are taking part at the con-ference to discuss a series of issues re-lating to growth, macro and � nancial policies, � scal policy and capital mar-kets, trade, aid and infrastructure, pov-erty reduction, human development, sustainable development and public policy-making and institutions.

Muhith said Bangladesh is a land of impossible attainment as it moves up despite many impediments. “You will be successful here in every � led as the people is capable despite many imped-iments.”

He admitted the fact that political instability and infrastructure bottle-necks were the barriers for boosting the economic growth. “Bangladesh is facing serious infrastructure de� cit. We need huge infrastructure develop-ment,” he said. Reiterating to revive the private investment, the � nance minis-ter said the government is focusing to encourage the private investment for meaningful growth.

Chairman of Centre for Policy Di-alogue Rehman Sobhan emphasised the need for political stability for faster economic growth. “It can be division in politics, but in economy there should be no division among the political parties.”

While presenting the keynote paper titled “Farming, fertility, food: why has Bangladesh done better than expect-ed? Can it continue to do so?” Professor at University of Sussex Michael Lipton called for redistributing farmland for e� ective use of land.

“Top 5% own 26% land, but their farm size average only 5.3 acres! Its re-form may be counterproductive unless ownership ceiling is enforced,” he said.

He said Bangladesh is doing well in its economic arena especially in farm-ing, fertility and food sector, and it would continue this trend in future.

Lipton said Bangladesh has reduced poverty, gender discrimination, en-sured food security and done well in the health and education sectors from 1990 to 2014.

“This success is better in compar-ison with India,” he added. He hoped that Bangladesh would continue to make successes by reducing political violence and arrange dialogue about forming policy. l

77.8

63.5

81.2

36.4

68.5

82.3

56.6

25.1 31.7

14.1

47.6

29.7

17.1

33

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Bangladesh India Pakistan China Vietnam Cambodia Indonesia

Net Export Investment Government Consumption Household Consumption

SOURCES OF GDP GROWTH BY FINAL DEMAND IN 2011 (%)

B2 Stock Sunday, June 22, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

Weekly news from trade serverDELTALIFE: The Board of Directors has recommended 11% cash dividend and 25% stock dividend for the year ended on De-cember 31, 2013. The board has also decid-ed to amend certain clauses of the Articles of Association of the Company to conform to the Insurance Act, 2010, Insurance Rules and the judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh dated 20.06.2013 and other relevant laws subject to the approval of the shareholders in EGM. Date of AGM and EGM: 20.07.2014, Time for AGM and EGM: 9:30 AM and 10:30 AM respectively, Venue: Delta Life Tower, Plot# 37, Road# 45 (south) & 90 (north), Gulshan Circle-2, Dhaka-1212. Record date for AGM and EGM: 25.06.2014.Audited/unaudited Financial Reports:PENINSULA: (Q3): The Company has reported its pro� t after tax Tk. 45.29 million and basic EPS Tk. 0.78 for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 (Jan 2014 - March 2014) as against pro� t after tax of Tk. 38.65 million and basic EPS of Tk. 0.67 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that basic EPS has been calculated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up number of shares i.e. 58,016,000 shares both for 2014 and 2013. However, considering Post-IPO 113,016,000 number of shares the Company's basic EPS for the 3 (three) months ended on 31 March 2014 would be Tk. 0.40. For the period of 9 (nine) months (July 2013 to March 2014) ended on 31 March 2014 pro� t after tax was Tk. 112.40 million and basic EPS was Tk. 1.94 as

against pro� t after tax of Tk. 107.63 million and basic EPS of Tk. 1.86 for the same period of the previous year. It is to be noted that the said EPS has been calculated based on weighted average Pre-IPO paid-up num-ber shares i.e. 58,016,000 both for 2014 and 2013. However, considering Post-IPO 113,016,000 number of shares, Company's basic EPS would be Tk. 0.99 for 9 (nine) months ended on 31 March 2014 (July 2013 to March 2014) and NAV per share would be Tk. 32.37 as on 31 March 2014.Fixed Assets/Right/Investment:DACCADYE: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has passed the following resolutions: 1) has decided to go for commercial production of knit dyeing (a new product line) from June 15, 2014 with a capacity of 2 lac kg per year in addition to its existing capacity of woven dyeing. The said product line has been implemented from Company's own source. It is mentionable that the Company has printing capacity for the kinted fabric since before; and 2) has decided to install high quality yarn dyeing plant (another product line) with a capacity of 20 lac kg per year. The � nance in connection with that production line will be meet up from its own source.Credit Rating:EMERALDOIL: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has an-nounced the entity rating of the Company as "BB1" based on audited � nancial state-ments of the Company up to 2013, bank liability (30 June 2013) and other relevant

quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.BANKASIA: Credit Rating Agency of Ban-gladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the surveillance rating of the Company as "AA3" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 De-cember 2013 and other relevant quantita-tive as well as qualitative information up to the date of rating declaration.STANDBANKL: Credit Rating Agen-cy of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the surveillance rating of the Company as "AA3" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.DUTCHBANGL: Credit Rating Agen-cy of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has announced the surveillance rating of the Company as "AA1" in the long term and "ST-1" in the short term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.UTTARABANK: Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh Limited (CRAB) has rated the Company as "AA3" in the long term and "ST-2" in the short term based on audited � nancial statements of the Company up to 31 December 2013 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.

Bearish spell sweeps over stock market last week n Tribune Report

Bearish spell swept over the stock markets in the past week, as inves-tors were worried over immediate rebound of the market.

The week featured all � ve trading sessions and four of them su� ered lossess while one session closed � at in green.

In the week that ended Thursday, the benchmark DSEX was down 80 points or 2% to close at 4,328, which is lowest in � ve months.

The comprising blue chips DS30 Index lost 34 points or 2% to 1,603. The DSE Shariah Index, DSES, de-clined 25 points or 2% to 993.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, dropped 145 points or 1.8% to close at 8,265. The week’s daily turn-over averaged Tk279 crore, register-ing a decline of over 33% over the previous week.

“Coupled with substantial pro� t booking and erosion in con� dence among investors, the bourse faced signi� cant downtrend last week,” said IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis.

It said some positive news, espe-

cially Padma Bridge contract signing, could not lure investors much. Par-ticipation receded day by day and av-erage daily turnover declined by over 33%, it said.

“Overall market level sentiment deteriorated, signi� cantly and put investors in a tight spot of indecisive-ness.”

LankaBangla Securities said inves-tors continued to be in bearish mood and there is no apparent buying in-terest. It said market sentiment has become very shaky after the budget for 2014-15 proposed some anti-cap-ital market measures.

The provision for 10% tax rebate for companies declaring more than 20% dividend has withdrawn which will increase e� ective tax rate by 275 basis points. All the MNCs pay high dividend, so their e� ective tax rate will rise, it said.

They will have to keep higher pro-vision for tax, for both the second quarter (April to June) as well as the � rst quarter (January to March). Most of the multinational companies’ stocks got highly corrected last week, said the stock broker.

Except for banks, all the major sec-tors ended lower in the week. Banks gained marginally. Fuel and power was the biggest loser which went down by 4.5%. Pharmaceuticals and food retraced 3.5% and 2.7%. NBFIs lost 1.6% while telecommunications closed almost � at in red.

Lafarge Surma Cement dominated the week’s top turnover chart, fol-lowed by Grammeenphone, BSRM Steel, Peninsula Chittagong and Square Pharmaceuticals. l

CSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Wata Chemicals -A -22.77 -22.84 281.90 281.90 298.00 271.30 0.511 6.24 45.2Continental Insur. -A -9.58 -5.61 21.71 21.70 24.00 21.70 0.025 3.00 7.2Power Grid Co. -A -9.30 -9.23 40.03 40.00 42.70 39.90 0.268 2.13 18.8MBL 1st M. F.-A -8.93 -7.94 5.10 5.10 5.30 5.10 0.152 1.44 3.5Mercantile Bank -A -8.70 -7.74 14.91 14.70 16.50 14.70 3.869 1.16 12.9Anlima Yarn -A -8.68 -8.56 22.10 22.10 22.10 22.10 0.011 0.80 27.6Popular Life Insu. -A -8.68 -8.70 197.65 197.70 197.70 197.60 0.198 17.00 11.6Asia Pasi� c Insu. -A -8.64 -7.58 20.12 20.10 21.50 20.00 0.133 2.48 8.1DBH 1st MF-A -8.62 -7.89 5.37 5.30 5.70 5.30 0.269 0.81 6.6Central Insur -A -8.55 -8.04 24.60 24.60 26.90 24.20 0.206 3.64 6.8

DSE LOSERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

Renwick Jajneswar-A -12.83 -14.22 247.85 248.10 288.00 242.10 14.914 3.92 63.2Wata Chemicals -A -12.48 -10.89 268.33 263.80 327.70 0.00 93.510 6.24 43.0 Argon Denims Limited-A -11.82 -11.72 47.32 47.00 52.90 0.00 18.163 4.04 11.7Meghna Con. Milk -B -10.71 -9.47 7.65 7.50 8.90 7.50 0.553 -4.85 -veJute SpinnersA -10.59 -10.37 53.33 53.20 56.90 52.50 0.172 -43.81 -veMarico BD Ltd-A -10.42 -10.46 964.52 965.10 1050.00 954.00 5.628 43.99 21.9Sa� o Spinning-A -9.57 -10.32 19.03 18.90 22.00 17.30 5.173 1.08 17.6Agrani Insurance -A -8.96 -8.95 18.31 18.30 21.80 0.00 2.609 1.83 10.0MJL BD Ltd.-A -8.81 -9.47 82.89 82.80 90.80 0.00 278.970 4.72 17.6GPH Ispat Ltd-A -8.59 -8.28 51.43 51.10 58.00 0.00 148.422 2.42 21.3

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

HeidelbergCement -A 419,200 217.89 17.40 503.70 0.34 502.00 529.00 496.10 504.23The Peninsula CTG.-N 3,323,000 121.31 9.69 34.50 0.00 0.00 45.00 34.20 34.43LafargeS Cement-Z 991,500 85.20 6.81 81.10 -2.76 83.40 91.90 80.20 81.66BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 3,169,314 82.62 6.60 26.70 8.98 24.50 27.80 23.30 26.89Grameenphone-A 206,600 62.75 5.01 302.30 1.10 299.00 312.00 295.40 301.10BSRM Steels-A 650,860 59.20 4.73 86.10 -5.07 90.70 95.00 85.00 86.81UNITED AIR-A 3,142,153 35.89 2.87 11.80 1.72 11.60 12.00 10.20 11.76BD Submarine Cable-A 144,253 26.13 2.09 179.00 -4.28 187.00 185.70 178.00 178.95Appollo Ispat CL -N 907,200 24.96 1.99 27.00 -6.25 28.80 28.80 26.90 26.99Delta Life Insu. -A 124,650 23.11 1.85 184.90 -4.84 194.30 200.10 176.90 184.14

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume shares

Value in million

% of total turnover

Weekly closing

Price change

Weekly opening

Weekly high

Weekly low

Weekly average

LafargeS Cement-Z 13,618,515 1165.24 8.34 81.70 -0.97 82.50 91.70 81.30 82.14Grameenphone-A 3,680,921 1117.74 8.00 300.10 0.27 299.30 312.00 0.00 298.97BSRM Steels-A 8,193,705 748.40 5.36 86.00 -5.08 90.60 95.00 0.00 86.97The Peninsula CTG.-N 15,449,000 569.88 4.08 34.30 0.00 0.00 45.00 34.10 34.42Square Pharma -A 1,688,049 472.32 3.38 277.60 -2.08 283.50 284.50 0.00 277.28BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 16,462,849 430.72 3.08 26.90 9.35 24.60 27.90 0.00 27.04HeidelbergCement -A 661,100 341.63 2.45 504.20 0.66 500.90 531.00 0.00 505.76BD Submarine Cable-A 1,678,887 303.57 2.17 178.90 -4.38 187.10 187.20 0.00 178.65Delta Life Insu. -A 1,613,155 298.93 2.14 185.60 -4.28 193.90 199.50 170.00 184.43MJL BD Ltd.-A 3,197,250 278.97 2.00 82.80 -8.81 90.80 90.80 0.00 82.89

CSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 8.98 12.28 26.89 26.70 27.80 23.30 82.622 0.59 45.6Paramount Insur-A 8.94 9.06 19.50 19.50 19.50 17.70 0.037 1.64 11.9Islami Ins.BD-A 7.93 7.22 24.34 24.50 24.50 24.00 0.036 1.92 12.7Pragati Gen. I -A 7.32 7.29 44.00 44.00 44.00 41.00 0.045 2.52 17.5AB Bank - A 6.69 7.77 25.80 25.50 26.50 23.00 16.388 3.12 8.3Bangas -A 6.07 5.30 517.06 522.20 526.00 490.10 2.200 5.87 88.1Beacon Pharma Ltd.-Z 5.88 5.42 14.40 14.40 14.60 14.00 3.118 0.04 360.0ACI Limited- A 4.81 3.89 259.95 261.70 262.00 240.00 10.151 5.28 49.2Berger Paints-A 4.45 4.45 1149.00 1149.00 1149.00 1099.00 0.222 57.68 19.9LankaBangla Fin. -A 4.18 2.61 42.00 42.40 42.70 39.30 17.147 1.24 33.9

DSE GAINERS

Company Closing (% change)

Aver-age (%

change)

Closing average

Weekly closing

Weekly high

Weekly low

Turnover in million

Latest EPS

Latest PE

BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 9.35 12.15 27.04 26.90 27.90 - 430.723 0.59 45.8ICB Islamic Bank-Z 8.00 9.80 5.49 5.40 5.60 - 9.020 -1.12 -veBeacon Pharma Ltd.-Z 6.62 5.62 14.46 14.50 14.90 - 26.270 0.04 361.5AB Bank - A 6.30 7.83 25.75 25.30 27.00 - 215.202 3.12 8.3Northern Jute -Z 5.69 5.69 130.00 130.00 130.00 117.00 4.264 -11.08 -veICB AMCL IslamicMF-A 5.68 3.86 18.58 18.60 19.30 17.40 1.839 2.33 8.0GeminiSeaFood-Z 5.39 5.39 135.00 135.00 135.00 127.00 0.142 -11.90 -veMonno Sta� lers -A 4.91 4.95 324.35 326.80 334.00 299.00 8.738 1.12 289.6Bangas -A 4.84 3.38 512.50 517.80 524.00 485.00 80.641 5.87 87.3Provati Insur.-A 4.50 4.69 21.00 20.90 21.50 - 5.941 2.24 9.4

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 1349.56 9.66 103.66 7.08 1453.22 9.42NBFI 377.17 2.70 30.97 2.11 408.14 2.64Investment 177.97 1.27 8.63 0.59 186.60 1.21Engineering 1709.67 12.24 138.84 9.48 1848.51 11.98Food & Allied 571.76 4.09 50.51 3.45 622.27 4.03Fuel & Power 1157.68 8.29 87.54 5.98 1245.23 8.07Jute 10.48 0.08 0.00 0.00 10.48 0.07Textile 1393.05 9.97 123.49 8.43 1516.54 9.83Pharma & Chemical 1593.73 11.41 70.54 4.82 1664.27 10.78Paper & Packaging 0.64 0.00 60.99 4.16 61.64 0.40Service 245.24 1.76 11.78 0.80 257.02 1.67Leather 185.76 1.33 65.17 4.45 250.93 1.63Ceramic 44.21 0.32 4.84 0.33 49.04 0.32Cement 1701.46 12.18 328.29 22.41 2029.75 13.15Information Technology 62.74 0.45 6.12 0.42 68.86 0.45General Insurance 122.60 0.88 3.03 0.21 125.63 0.81Life Insurance 468.52 3.35 24.78 1.69 493.31 3.20Telecom 1421.31 10.17 88.88 6.07 1510.19 9.78Travel & Leisure 795.18 5.69 161.23 11.01 956.41 6.20Miscellaneous 579.06 4.15 95.44 6.51 674.49 4.37Debenture 2.15 0.02 0.16 0.01 2.31 0.01

Weekly capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 4328.40667 (-) 1.82% ▼

DSE - 30 Index : 1603.46267 (-) 2.11% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 13381.4335 (-) 1.77% ▼

CSE - 30 Index : 10970.1005 (-) 1.40% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8264.8816 (-) 1.73% ▼

DSE key features June 15-19, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)

13,969.93

Turnover (Volume)

300,367,739

Number of Contract 385,924

Traded Issues 304

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

52

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

250

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

2

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,252.66

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

27.31

CSE key features June 15-19, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 1,282.39

Turnover (Volume) 31,299,001

Number of Contract 55,821

Traded Issues 244

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

49

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

189

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

5

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,178.42

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

26.41

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

ANALYSTMarket sentiment has become very shaky after the budget for 2014-15 proposed some anti-capital market measures

'Coupled with substantial pro� t booking and erosion in con� dence among investors, the bourse faced signi� cant downtrend last week'

B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

Western automakers embrace aluminium, Asia still welded to steeln Reuters, Seoul

About four years ago, Hyundai Mo-tor considered shifting from steel to aluminium body parts for its Genesis sedan to make it lighter, more fuel-e� cient and more competitive with German luxury marques, two people familiar with the matter said.

Its a� liate Kia Motors made a simi-lar move, building test versions of its premium K9 sedan, called K900 in the United States, using aluminium in body panels including the door, hood and trunk lid, two other people told Reuters.

But the South Korean duo, which together rank � fth in global auto sales, opted for steel instead, deterred by the cost and, according to two of those in-dividuals, hamstrung by close ties with sister steelmaker Hyundai Steel Co.

As western carmakers such as Audi AG and Ford Motor Co lead the way in using aluminium, which is lighter but more expensive than steel, their Asian rivals are reluctant to invest in the cost-ly retooling required that would dis-rupt existing manufacturing processes and supplier relationships.

“A really big challenge at the mo-ment for the Asian companies is to � nd out how they should behave in this context of vehicles coming under more pressure to be lighter,” said Truls Thorstensen, president and CEO of EFS Business Consultancy.

Automakers in Asia often prefer evo-lutionary upgrades that enable them to use existing plants and make multiple models on the same assembly lines; western rivals tend to make wholesale product changes that require re-engi-neering of factories. That’s forcing Asian car companies to � nd other ways to cut weight and emissions as tighter US and European fuel economy and emissions rules drive a push for lighter cars.

“If you are free to do whatever you want, the decision might be easier to go in the direction of aluminium or light weight,” Thorstensen said.

Hyundai declined to comment on what materials it considered in product development. At Kia, a spokesman said the company did not use aluminium body parts in K9 test versions, and de-

clined to comment on whether it con-sidered using the material during the car’s development.

Rising demandAluminium demand by Asia’s auto in-dustry is expected to rise 71% by 2016, far below a projected � ve-fold jump in North America, according to an inter-nal forecast by Atlanta-based Novelis Corp, the biggest maker of � at-rolled aluminium and a unit of India’s Hindal-co Industries .

In 2016, Asia will account for less than a tenth of total auto industry aluminium consumption, while North America and Europe will have about 45% each, Nove-lis predicts. That’s despite expectations that Asia will continue to account for over half of global vehicle output, ac-cording to IHS Automotive.

“This substitution from steel is being driven mainly by strict emis-sions regulations, especially in North America, and is a game changer for the aluminium rolling sector,” said Char-lie Durant, senior consultant at CRU, a

metals consultancy. “In Asia, the emis-sions regulations are less stringent and vehicles tend to be much smaller.”

“The relative cost of aluminium sheet is seen as a prohibitive factor, so it’s in regions with the most stringent legisla-tion ... that this material will be most widely adopted,” he added in emailed comments to Reuters for this article.

European luxury brands such as Volk-swagen AG’s Audi and BMW AG are ex-panding their use of aluminium in high-end, high-margin cars. Ford will begin building its � agship F-150 pickup with an aluminium body later this year, making it the � rst such mass-market vehicle.

Hyundai, Toyota Motor Corp and oth-er Asian automakers, however, mostly produce mass-market cars on highly e� cient assembly lines that are often decades old. They don’t sell luxury cars in high volumes and can’t demand the sorts of prices that Audi and BMW can.

Aluminium can cost some four times more than steel, although aluminium is up to 30% lighter than conventional steel and 15% lighter compared to ad-

vanced, high-strength steel, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie. A switch to aluminium increases not only materials costs but requires heavy in-vestment to overhaul production lines.

“If you start making a completely di� erent architecture for Lexus from Toyota or In� niti from Nissan, you will get into a cost problem because the numbers sold and the premium price they get is not similar to the Germans,” Thorstensen said. “All manufacturers in Asia face that same problem. They can’t get the premium price so they have to be much more careful.”

Stronger steel Instead of embracing aluminium, Asian automakers are working with steelmak-ers to develop lighter, stronger steel, while taking other measures to improve fuel e� ciency including upgrading conventional engines and parts without having to make heavy modi� cations to manufacturing facilities.

“Hyundai Motor is under enor-mous pressure to cut costs since it’s

a volume, mass-market carmaker,” Woo Yoo-cheol, president and CEO of Hyundai Steel, told Reuters. “The most important thing is to stay competitive in the market. They believe it is much more competitive to use steel for their � agship models.”

For now, Japanese carmakers limit aluminium mostly to parts of hybrid and premium vehicles, such as Toyo-ta’s Lexus IS. Honda Motor has devel-oped technology to combine alumini-um and steel for select parts in the US versions of its Acura RLX and Accord. “When we consider mass production, all-aluminium is still di� cult,” Honda spokeswoman Yuka Abe told Reuters.

Nissan Motor last year announced a plan to expand the use of high-tensile steel, which is stronger and lighter than conventional steel, in up to 20% of parts installed in its new production models starting in 2017.

“We continue to use aluminium in vehicle areas such as hoods, doors and trunk areas on certain models - such as the GT-R and 370Z high-performance sports cars. Going forward, more high-strength steel will be used in key struc-tural areas,” said Chris Kee� e, a spokes-man for Nissan.

Steel surplusAsian automakers stick with steel in part because it is plentiful, with two-thirds of global supply made in the region.

Novelis will complete an auto sheet plant in China late this year and is get-ting plenty of inquiries from Asian au-tomakers about using aluminium, al-though it will take 4-5 years for Chinese automakers and 2-3 years for Korean and Japanese � rms to use it in signi� -cant amounts, said Je� Wang, its Asia automotive sales director. He predicted western automakers using aluminium in China-made cars would spur Asian rivals to follow suit.

Wood Mackenzie said it was not cer-tain that aluminium body sheet would � nd its way into mass-market cars.

“Suppliers of automotive steel parts will � ght back with attractive innova-tions and pricing as this is a market that steel producers are unlikely to give up readily,” it said. l

Hyundai Motor's sedans are assembled at a factory of the carmaker in Asan, about 100 km (62 miles) south of Seoul REUTERS

Introducing e-traceability in � sheries sector stressedn Tribune Report

Speakers at a seminar in Dhaka yester-day underscored the need for introduc-ing e-traceability to replace the existing paper-based programme to improve the image and reputation of Bangla-

desh � sheries products in global mar-kets as well as to enhance food safety and quality management.

They came up with the recommen-dation while addressing a seminar ti-tled “Present Status and Transition plan to E-Traceability” jointly organised by

BEST Project-Better Fisheries Quality, Department of Fisheries and United Na-tions Industrial Development Organisa-tion (UNIDO) at a city hotel.

Speaking as chief guest, Shelina Af-roza, secretary of the ministry of � sher-ies and livestock, emphasised the need

for enforcing quality management sys-tem including piloting of e-traceability in the shrimp value chain.

“Both the government and the BEST-BFQ (Better Fisheries Quality) are working together very closely for the improvement of food safety and

quality management,” she added. Utilising electronic traceability (e-

traceability) with data intelligence can help the industry to digest and manage the vast volume of data and move to a proactive paradigm, said Md. Kamal of BEST-BFQ while presenting a key-note speech.

The speakers stressed on the in-creased pressure from importing coun-tries for � sh processors to establish e� ective quality assurance systems in their plants and its supply chain.

The successful introduction of e-traceability over the existing paper-based programme would help improve the image and reputation of Bangla-desh � shery products in the global market through transmitting the mes-sage of compliance among di� erent sectors, stakeholders and donors, they opined. l

Publication ceremony of 'Hand Book of Entrepreneurship Development' heldn Tribune Report

Publication ceremony of the book ti-tled “Hand Book of Entrepreneurship Development” was held in the capital yesterday.

The book has been written and pub-lished by Md Sabur Khan, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Da� odil Inter-national University (DIU) and former president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman attended the function as the chief guest.

The governor said: “Developing more and more new entrepreneurs is essen-tial for the overall development of Ban-gladesh. 55% of the total population of the country is young. So we have creat-ed a fund amounting to Tk100 crore for the small and medium enterprise own-ers and we will distribute these amount among the young entrepreneurs after training them through a jury board.”

Sabur Khan said the book would help new entrepreneurs as a guideline to knowing the ins and outs of forming a new company or initiate a new busi-ness.

He also said the amount earned from the sale of the book would be donated to forming “Innovation Center” to de-velop entrepreneurs and the students would get 50% discount on purchase of the book.

The function was also attended by Professor Dr Golam Rahman, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social science of DIU, Executive Directors of Bangladesh Bank Ahsan Ullah, and Nirmal Chandra Vakta; and General Managers Asaduzzaman, and Masum Patwary. l

People show control numbers queue to enter the Spanish clothes chain Zara store in Caracas on June 18, 2014, which reopened with the new season collection after months of working with reduced hours and empty shelves AFP

The Watches World, authorized distributor of Fossil watches has recently opened its � rst outlet at Bashundhara City, a shopping mall in Dhaka

The launching ceremony of an exclusive showroom named Burhan Electronics for selling Marcel products has been held at Shapla Chattor Kushtia recently. The company’s brand ambassador, � lm actor Amin Khan inaugurated the showroom at the presence of Haji Abul Kasem, president of Kushtia Chamber of Commerce and Humayun Kabir, the company’s executive di rector for media

Professional Advancement Bangladesh Limited (PABL) recently organised a day-long workshop on anti money laundering for Green Delta Insurance Company Limited employees in Dhaka. Nasir A Choudhury, the insurance company’s advisor was the chief guest of the workshop while Md Quddus Khan, member of the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority was the guest of honour

Young Woman’s Christian’s Association and Ayesha Memorial Hospital have recently arranged a green rally for celebrating world environment day. The minister of woman and child a� airs, Meher Afrose Chumki led the rally

Brothers Furniture Limited recently held its 2nd annual conference for associates at a hotel in Dhaka. The company’s chair Habibur Rahman Sharkar and managing director Md Elias Sharkar were the chief guests at the event

Bangladesh Bank recently decided to confer the “Bangladesh Bank Award 2013” (posthumous) on Professor Dr Muza� er Ahmad and Dr Swadesh Ranjan Bose for their distinctive and remarkable contributions in the � elds of economics. The government of Bangladesh has previously awarded Professor Dr Muza� er Ahmad with Ekushey Padak 2008 and Dr Swadesh Ranjan Bose with Independence Day Award 2013

Professor Dr Muza� er Ahmad Dr Swadesh Ranjan Bose

'Both the government and the BEST-BFQ (Better Fisheries Quality) are working together very closely for the improvement of food safety and quality management'

Sabur Khan said the book would help new entrepreneurs as a guideline to knowing the ins and outs of forming a new company

B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Sunday, June 22, 2014

DILBERT

Power of Microsoft’s Bing an open question in search industryn Reuters, Seattle

Microsoft Corp’s new chief executive, Satya Nadella, likes to boast that Bing is growing and powers 30% of the Inter-net search market, making it a worthy competitor to Google Inc.

But within the advertising and re-search industries that measure and manage search as a business, Micro-soft’s strength is an open question.

The � gures quoted by Microsoft, which include searches by partner Ya-hoo Inc, are much higher than the rate at which people actually click on the links that a search returns, according to new studies by industry researchers.

The new search data calls into question Bing’s e� ectiveness for ad-vertisers. It also lends support to the argument from some investors that Mi-crosoft should sell Bing.

Microsoft has been in the Internet search business since 1998, and Bing - � ve years old this month - is its lat-est and most intense e� ort to unseat market leader Google. The company initially assumed that its world-class engineers and the sheer scale of its Windows user base would sweep away competitors, but Google has not relin-quished any share.

To measure its progress in the search business, Microsoft prefers to cite market share numbers from com-Score, which established itself as the prime source for Internet data a decade ago, when reliable numbers were hard to come by, and has long been consid-ered the gold standard.

ComScore said Google sites had 67.6% of US searches in May, compared with Microsoft’s 18.8 percent and Yahoo’s 10%, which are both powered by Bing.

ComScore bases its calculations on desktop computer Internet searches by about a million anonymous people in the United States. It does not measure searches on mobile phones or tablets, which are dominated by Google, but it does count searches within the big MSN and Yahoo portals, factors which help explain why Bing has such a sig-ni� cant share.

Clicks countBut advertisers are less interested in searches than what users do with search results. They want tra� c to their sites; they care what search result links

users click and what sites they visit. In recent years, technology has made that behaviour much easier to track.

“Clicks are important because they tell us how well we are capturing (search users’) demand, and of course advertis-ers pay based on clicks,” said Jason Hart-ley, group media director at search mar-keting � rm 360i, whose clients include brands such as Coca-Cola and Verizon. ComScore data “can lead you down the wrong path, or it doesn’t give you as much insight as you’d like,” he added.

A study published last month by Conductor, a company that advises marketers on how to stand out in Web searches and social media, showed Google accounted for 85% of tra� c to websites from search engines, with only 5% from Bing and 7% from Ya-hoo. The study was based on 100 mil-lion visits to 63 websites from clicks on search links - not counting ads - includ-ing from mobile devices.

Ireland-based StatCounter, which gets data from more than 3 million websites, found Google accounted for

80% of search engine-supplied US traf-� c in the last three months, Bing 10% and Yahoo 8%. Search marketing � rm De� ne Media Group came up with sim-ilar � gures based on 1.4 billion visits from search engines so far this year to 125 websites.

Advertisers make the same point with their spending: web marketing � rm IgnitionOne estimates that Google gets about 77% of web search ad dol-lars against 23% for Yahoo/Bing. Design software maker Autodesk told Reuters that it generally splits search ad spend-ing 80/20 in favour of Google with its “signi� cantly larger pool of users”.

The does not mean comScore’s data is faulty. Rather, many in the search industry say it doesn’t measure what advertisers and website owners want to know, the web tra� c generated by a search.

“Their current methodology is likely to mislead those who take it at face val-ue,” said Rand Fishkin, a well-known pioneer in the search engine optimiza-tion � eld and co-founder of search ad-

visory � rm Moz. ComScore stands by its � gures. Vice

President of Marketing Andrew Lipsman said the data is not designed to measure where Web tra� c goes, only the search-ing behavior of consumers. He added that comScore is working on integrating mobile device results into its data.

Microsoft said it had no reason to doubt comScore’s � gures. It added that it is committed to Bing, which is a core part of Microsoft’s game console Xbox and its coming voice assistant on Win-dows phone. Bing also powers other companies’ sites and devices, including Apple Inc’s Siri and soon Apple desktop search. Bing is integrated into transla-tion features on Facebook and Twitter.

Microsoft search advertising rev-enue rose 38% last quarter, helped by higher prices and more searches, it said in its last quarterly report, without dis-closing dollar � gures.

Microsoft’s online services unit, which includes Bing, lost more than $14bn in Bing’s � rst four years, includ-ing the cost of a failed acquisition.

Last year, Microsoft put Bing in a new reporting group so its � nancial perfor-mance is obscured, but many on Wall Street assume Bing is still losing mon-ey.

Craig Beilinson, director of con-sumer communications at Microsoft, said it “continues to gain traction” as a standalone search engine and power-ing other companies’ products.

While Bing has grown, that improve-ment has come mostly at the expense of Yahoo, according to comScore � g-ures. The combined share of Bing and Yahoo has risen less than one percent-age point in � ve years, taking share from smaller competitors Ask.com and AOL Inc, not Google.

Some search marketers say they like having an alternative to Google, and that Bing/Yahoo can be a good invest-ment for some clients.

“Clients that have an older demo-graphic, we sometimes do better on Bing or Yahoo,” said Pauline Jako-ber, founder of Group Twenty Seven, which advises mid-sized clients on paid search ad campaigns. Business-to-business, like janitorial or industrial types, could do well on Bing, while tech clients might not even want to adver-tise on Bing, she said.

But Bing has drawn criticism from some investors because it is expensive to operate, requiring resources from engineers to server farms.

The new search data called into question Bing’s usefulness, said Todd Lowenstein at HighMark Capital Man-agement.

He and other investors believe Mi-crosoft should focus on products that businesses pay for, such as the O� ce suite of products and the Windows op-erating system.

“Microsoft would be better served selling Bing to another player who can use the asset,” he said. Ironically, Google does not highlight this weak-ness any more than Microsoft.

“Google loves the fact that anybody other than Google looks like they are doing better,” said Danny Sullivan, longtime industry observer and editor of the Search Engine Land blog. “It’s a very handy tool for them to go out and say you don’t need to be regulating us, look, the market’s strong.”

Google and Yahoo declined com-ment on the comScore data. l

A employee stands in the Microsoft booth during the 2014 Computex exhibition at the TWTC Nangang exhibition hall in Taipei REUTERS

After eurozone crisis, IMF rethinks rescuesn AFP, Washington

The International Monetary Fund is rethinking bailouts in the wake of the eurozone crisis, with an eye to giving governments near default better op-tions to stabilis e their � nances.

To date the world’s crisis lender has had two choices to help out a country struggling to pay its debts: o� er funds to keep it a� oat while it adjusts policy, or, if the crisis is too deep, � rst require its creditors to write o� some of the debt.

But the eurozone crisis showed that that was too in� exible, given the dif-� culty of assessing what is needed to ensure debt “sustainability” - when a country can continue to service its debt while making necessary governance adjustments and reforms.

Taking the harsher approach of writeo� s to ensure sustainability, the IMF concluded, risks not only the coun-try perhaps unnecessarily losing access

for a long time to capital markets, but also contagion, causing further damage to the broader � nancial system.

That was the case with the bailouts of eurozone countries. The restructur-ing of Greek debt especially damaged holders of its bonds around the euro-zone, including banks, and sparked sello� s of the bonds of other at-risk countries, pushing them toward crisis.

“No matter how orderly a debt re-structuring operation is, it will impose costs... (which) may include any spill-over e� ects to other sovereign bonds or asset classes,” said the IMF study.

“From the perspective of global � -nancial stability, there is also the risk of contagion.”

The IMF study suggests a third way: if the country can still pay its debts but faces the possibility of default because it has lost access to markets, the IMF will push the bondholders to stretch out the payment terms of their bonds,

rather than take writeo� s, to help sta-bilize the government.

The IMF would then provide funds to the government, along with a re-quired program of reforms, aimed at helping it restore access to capital mar-kets more easily.

It could also avoid going through the lengthy process of negotiating a debt restructuring, which allows creditors time to dump their bonds, complicat-ing the broader rescue program.

Such a “repro� ling”, rather than a full debt restructuring with write-downs, “will generally be less costly to the debtor and creditors -- and thus to the system overall,” it said.

“Relative to a bailout, the � nancing that will be provided through the re-pro� ling could allow for more gradual adjustment paths, which would help growth, reduce economic dislocation and facilitate successful program im-plementation.” l

Google’s Nest to buy Dropcam for $555mn AFP, Washington

Google’s Nest Labs said Friday it was buying video monitoring startup Drop-cam for a reported $555m in cash.

The deal comes amid huge growth in the smart home sector. One such ex-ample is Nest, which began as a smart-thermostat startup and Google bought in January in a deal valued at $3.2bn.

“This is a Nest Labs deal, not a Google deal,” Nest co-founder Matt Rogers told The New York Times, which reported on the deal’s value. But Rogers declined to detail future plans for the two companies.

In announcing the deal, Nest said “Dropcam has the best products, ser-vices and customer experience in the business.” It did not con� rm the value of the transaction on its blog.

Nest said the general plan was for the two � rms to “reinvent products that will help shape the future of the conscious home and bring our shared vision to more and more people around the world.” l

India sees no impact on fuel supplies from Iraq con� ictn Reuters, New Delhi

India’s domestic fuel supplies will not be a� ected by fallout from the ongo-ing con� ict in Iraq although state-run re� ners have been asked to draw up a contingency plan, the oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Iraq, the second-biggest crude oil supplier to India after Saudi Arabia, met around 13% of the South Asian nation’s overall import needs last year, it said.

State-re� ners are aiming to buy 388,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iraqi oil this year.

Two of the state re� ners, Indian Oil Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, together aim to buy 374,000 bpd from Iraq in 2014, it said.

Crude supplies from Iraq come from the Basra oil� elds which are situated well away from the � ghting in north-eastern Iraq.

Ship loading from the Basra oil ter-minal, continued normally, it said.

The government has also asked state re� ners to diversify resources for the import of crude oil to minimise the im-pact of any geo-political instability in the Middle East. l

Google, Microsoft to add smartphone ‘kill’ switchesn AFP, Washington

Google and Microsoft said Friday they plan to join Apple in o� ering theft-de-terring “kill switches” in their smart-phone operating systems, as part of an agreement with mayors and police agencies.

The companies con� rmed the com-mitment which was noted in a report Thursday by the “Secure Our Smart-phones Initiative” led by the New York state attorney general with o� cials from San Francisco and London.

The coalition of more than 100 elected leaders and law enforcement o� cials from major cities said the agreement means the three main smartphone platforms would soon add the feature as part of an e� ort to curb an epidemic of thefts.

The report said Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone would add

the feature - enabling a user to deacti-vate a stolen handset - after Apple in-cluded this last year.

Google con� rmed the news Friday without providing a date for the new feature.

“Yes, the next version of Android will include a factory reset protection solution to help deter smartphone theft. We will be releasing more details shortly,” a spokesman told AFP in an email.

Microsoft said in a separate state-ment it would introduce the feature ahead of the mobile industry target date of July 2015.

“The new theft deterrent features will be o� ered as an update for all phones running Windows Phone 8.0 and newer, though availability is sub-ject to mobile operator and phone manufacturer approval,” said Microsoft vice president Fred Humphries

New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the commit-ments show the initiative to use tech-nology to deter theft is making prog-ress.

“In just one year, the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative has made tre-mendous strides towards curtailing the alarming trend of violent smartphone theft,” he said in a statement.

“We will continue the � ght to ensure that companies put consumers’ safety � rst and work toward ending the epi-demic of smartphone theft.”

The report noted that preliminary data following Apple’s adoption of its “activation lock” feature found that in the � rst � ve months of 2014, theft of Apple devices fell by 17% in New York, while thefts of Samsung products in-creased by 51% from the same period in the previous year.

In the six months after Apple intro-duced the feature, iPhone thefts fell 24% in London and robberies fell 38% in San Francisco, while thefts of other popular mobile devices increased, the report said.

The report cited studies that showed 3.1 million mobile devices were stolen in 2013 -- nearly double the levels of 2012, and one in three Europeans ex-perienced the theft or loss of a mobile device last year.

In 2013, a mobile device played a role in roughly half of all robberies in New York City, San Francisco and Lon-don, the report said.

“We can make the violent epidemic of smartphone theft a thing of the past, and these numbers prove that,” said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.

“It was evident from day one that a technological solution was not only possible, but that it would serve as an e� ective deterrent to this growing threat. This past year we successfully held the wireless industry’s feet to the � re and it’s already having an impact for consumers.” l

An exhibitor shows rugged smartphone maker RugGear's new Rugpad RG900 tablet with a 7-inch touch screen, during its launch at the CommunicAsia Conference and Exhibition in Singapore on June 18, 2014. The event is one of Asia's largest telecommunication fairs which takes place from June 17 to 19 AFP

We can make the violent epidemic of smartphone theft a thing of the past, and these numbers prove that