05-09-2021

SUNDAy, SePTemBeR 5, 2021
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Rising land mass
in the coastal areas
Aleading vernacular daily of the country
focused sometime ago on lands rising from
the sea in the southern coastal area of
Noakhali district. The rate of accretion of new
lands is considered to be some 30 square kilometer
a year. At this rate, new lands roughly the size of
two districts of the country are expected to rise in
the next two decades or by 2030, according the
report. Already, substantial territories have
surfaced in the coastal areas of Bangladesh.
Some of these places have completely surfaced and
have human habitations on them while others
remain submerged during tides and emerge with
the ebbing of the tide. The latter types of accreted
lands are likely to gain in elevation to be
permanently joined to the mainland. Indeed,
much of present day Bangladesh including the
districts of Faridpur, Barisal, Noakhali, Patuakhali,
etc., were formed in this manner over time.
Lands have already emerged from the sea in the
coastal areas and more lands from the sea will
hopefully rise in the future. But the natural process
is a long one. It can be hastened and the technology
for it is not so prohibitive or complex either. For
Bangladesh, it involves only quickening the
process of accretion by establishing structures like
cross dams to speed up the rate of deposition of silt
in areas that have accreted or nearly accreted.
Bangladesh is likely to get a generous response
from the international community in matters of
fund availability and technical supports if it can
show that it is really keen to accrete more lands
and has put the endeavour under a systematic
policy framework. Holland is one country which
has the most experience in getting lands out of the
sea.
It had a situation worse than Bangladesh in the
sense that much of it was so low lying and below
the sea level that even high tides and storms in the
sea led to its severe flooding and continuing
inundation. Today, the Dutch have not only solved
these problems through sophisticated engineering
works, they have permanently reclaimed vast
stretches of lands from the sea and are keeping
them dry for various uses within secure barriers or
sea walls.
Bangladesh may not have to embark on projects
on the same scale as were carried out in Holland
because of its relatively better elevation. It can
use its huge reservoir of cheap manpower to
build simpler projects to get the same kind of
results as were achieved in Holland.
But for this purpose it needs to engage in a timebound
and result oriented framework of
assistance and consultation with that country.
Besides, the government of Bangladesh ought to
also appeal to the international community to
provide funds to it for the purpose.
The developed countries, specially the United
States, are the main contributors to the
greenhouse syndrome which could affect
Bangladesh. Therefore, it would be only
conscionable for these countries to help out
Bangladesh in projects designed to secure its
coastal areas and for their enlargement. The
government needs to appropriately sensitize these
countries about our expectation.
Even if external aid is found not forthcoming
generously, the government can proceed with
initiatives of its own to build dams and other
structures relying on its own resources. The
example of the government of Bangladesh (GOB)
providing a lion's share of the resources to build
the Padma Bridge is a shining one. With its
growing foreign currency reserve, GOB will be able
to likewise progressively channel resources from
the reserve to speed up land accretion in the
coastal areas.
The imperative is to make a start in this direction
right away. Gradually, external cooperation and
assistance in the matter would likely come about.
This project eminently deserves our attention as it
is vitally connected with the longer term security of
the country in all respects. It should be obvious
that Bangladesh as a land short country needs to
put the highest priority on getting new lands.
PAKISTAN has set ambitious renewable
energy targets for 2030 and beyond.
With policy and institutional support in
place, one can assume the country to be in a
reasonably good position to move fast and go
big during its transition towards a greater
share of renewables in its energy mix. Wider
energy sector conversations in the
practitioner, policy, and academic
communities focus on two ends of a spectrum.
At one end is the supply-side: infrastructure
development, institutional capacity, and
customer-centric service delivery. On the
other, the adoption of energy-efficient
practices, techn ologies, and consumer's
behavioural change.
What lies between the two ends ie
operat ion and service delivery of individual
rene w able energy plants (wind, solar) has
seen little deliberation. This leaves this
significant area un-debated, and hence
vulnerable!
Firstly, an acknowledgement that policy
barriers for renewable energy investors in
Pakistan (both foreign and local) remain low.
Small-scale bribery hampers this industry.
A recent study by a team of energy policy
experts from the universities of Oxford,
Amsterdam, and John Hopkins, for example,
compared renewable energy power projects
under the Belt and Road Initiative in
Indon esia and Pakistan. A remarkable
finding was that renewable energy project
developers in Indonesia encountered far more
policy barriers than in Pakistan! The
researchers agreed that BRI-associated
Energy transition
renewable energy power projects in Pakistan
took place "under the purview of highly
institutionalised governance regime … the
formulation and implementation of project
plans occurred through … (a structured
process)".
Formal institutional arrangements with
clear remits (the Alternative Energy
Development Board, Nepra, Central Power
Purchasing Agency [Guarantee], etc.) have
been widely known to not only facilitate
market entry, but also to reduce long-term
uncertainties for renewable energy private
players. They also reduce project setting-up
time and transactional costs. Now, if one sees
Indonesia's renewable energy landscape, the
country is developing the world's largest
floating solar farm and power storage system
(cost $2 billion) on the island of Batam. The
2.2GW megaproject with a 4,000 mWh
energy storage system will potentially offset
over 1.8 million metric tons of carbon a year!
One wonders that if a country with weaker
renewable energy institutions than Pakistan's
can undertake projects of this scale - what
ZeHRA WAHeeD
DAOUD KUTTAB
could a country with huge wind and solar
potential and a solid institutional/ regulatory
framework such as Pakistan achieve. The
reality of our renewable energy transition,
however, is less promising. While numerous
system-level factors remain, those pertaining
to the operational lives of renewable energy
projects tend to be vastly ignored. One
challenge that became evident on my recent
visit to Jhimpir was small-scale corruption
affecting the establishment and operations of
renewable energy plants.
Anyone who has been to the Jhimpir wind
corridor can testify to miles and miles of silent
wind turbines spread across dozens of wellkept
wind farms - making it a place of
immense beauty. Hundreds of towering,
majestic, 25-metre beasts stand elegantly
among inundating hills of sand, rocks and
tough desert shrubs. The space is simple and
elegant in its entirety - simple folk, harsh
unspoiled landscape, and towering wind
turbines. During my stay, plant operators
shared some experiences of local innovation,
community development, responsible and
inclusive business models, and technology
indigenisation. But what also came out were
tales of operational frustration - of casual
favours and bribery expected by local
inspectors and agencies at every step.
In the context of emerging countries, there
has been an adequate amount of discussion
related to large-scale corruption (usually
kickbacks, theft, collusion and bid-rigging).
However casual, small-scale, routinised
bribery (expectations of 'benefits' for every
signature and legal approval) remains
generally unidentified. In our context, it
appears to be regular practice faced by wind
producers in the corridor. A nice group of
electrical engineers and plant managers I met
humorously termed this the 'four-khaadisuits-phenomenon'(an
official casually
requesting that 'presents' be placed in the car
before his departure in exchange for his
signature on a document - the absence of
which could halt a perfectly legal matter for
weeks at end). Small-scale bribery that
hampers the industry exposes the huge need
for cultural change in institutions and
departments that operationally support the
renewable energy sector. While we may
remain gleeful that Pakistan's ease of doing
business index has improved, the reality
remains that the Index (and other
acknowledgments of institutional maturity)
will never really be representative of our
situation until the stories from the ground
state otherwise.
Source: Dawn
The horrendous record of Ebrahim Raisi
EBRAHIm
Raisi holds a press
conference in Tehran on June 21,
2021, after winning the presidential
election. Photo: AFP / Shota mizuno /
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Amid a record low voter turnout and
widespread reports of electoral
malfeasance, Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline
conservative cleric and former student of
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been
elected as president of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, an outcome that has
provoked outrage and condemnation
internationally.
Raisi has been described by the Center
for Human Rights in Iran as "a pillar of a
system that jails, tortures, and kills people
for daring to criticize state policies." Agnès
Callamard, a former United Nations
Special Rapporteur and the current
secretary general of Amnesty
International, issued equally incisive
criticism against the new president.
"That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the
presidency instead of being investigated
for the crimes against humanity of
murder, enforced disappearance and
torture is a grim reminder that impunity
reigns supreme in Iran," Callamard said.
Over the course of his 40-year career as
a prominent member in Iran's judicial and
political bodies, Raisi has been directly
involved in the brutal suppression of
peaceful pro-democracy protesters and
dissidents who have sought to challenge
the Iranian regime. He is responsible for
facilitating the arrests of political
dissidents and for justifying the torture
and imprisonment of thousands of
Why apathy on Palestinian injustice will backfire
IT is often difficult to analyze the real
results of a summit based on the
public statements before and after the
meeting, but the latest talks between
Israeli Prime minister Neftali Bennett and
US President Joe Biden are easy to
examine. The one-day delay caused by the
terrorist attack at Kabul airport threw the
observant Jewish leader's schedule off
because of the impracticality of returning
before the sabbath. It was a reminder that
despite the usual US broken record of
"shared values" and total support for
Israel, there are many other issues more
important to Washington than Israel.
In the limited time that a press briefing
provides, the new Israeli prime minister,
who grew up in New Jersey, managed to
talk about using Amtrak trains (a favorite
subject for Biden, who used the train for
years to commute from Delaware to DC),
but couldn't muster a single word on the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He even found
time to mention the third COVID-19
booster shot and, of course, the Iranian
issue, but there was not a single mention
of the decades-long occupation and the
colonization of millions of Palestinians.
The mood at the White House and
apparently throughout the US capital
reflected the fact that after years of having
to deal with the Netanyahus - their lies,
their quirks, and even their dirty laundry -
a more stable political leader from Israel
was making the rounds in Washington.
What lies between the two ends ie operat ion and service
delivery of individual rene w able energy plants (wind,
solar) has seen little deliberation. This leaves this significant
area un-debated, and hence vulnerable! Firstly, an acknowledgement
that policy barriers for renewable energy
investors in Pakistan (both foreign and local) remain low.
human-rights activists, minorities, and
students.
Given this history, Raisi's abysmal
human-rights record should come as no
surprise. In 1988, Raisi orchestrated one
of the most extreme displays of rights
violations in modern times. Acting under
the orders of the deputy supreme leader of
Iran at the time, Hussein-Ali montazeri,
Raisi spearheaded the state-sanctioned
persecution and execution of thousands of
dissidents and political prisoners.
Under Raisi's watch, security forces
arbitrarily sentenced thousands of
Iranians to enforced disappearance,
torture, and execution. Raisi's
extrajudicial terror campaign targeted
progressive political factions, student
movements, and ethnic and religious
minorities.
While detailed records of the victims of
this purge are scarce, initial estimates
from Amnesty International placed the
number of executions at between 2,800
and 3,800. However, reports from Iranian
defectors have led some scholars to argue
that the true number of executions was
more than 33,000.
While the Israeli leader said nothing on
the Palestinian issue, Biden did - both in
his public remarks and, according to
leaks, in the tête-à-tête with Bennett.
President Biden noted before the meeting
that he and his Israeli guest "also are going
to discuss ways to advance peace and
security and prosperity for Israelis and
Palestinians." Biden privately pressed
Bennett on the threatened eviction of
Palestinian families from their homes in
the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of
Jerusalem to make way for Jewish
settlers, and on the need to reopen the US
consulate in Jerusalem.
While Bennett made no mention of
Palestinians in his public statements, both
he and the US president apparently talked
about the repeated Israeli calls for a visa
waiver for Israelis wishing to visit the US.
Biden said: "We're also going to direct our
teams to work toward Israel fulfilling the
requirements of the visa waiver program
and get that done." However,Israel's
ZANA GHORBANI
Reports from detention facilities during
this period reveal that Raisi was
particularly ruthless when dealing with
students and women. Because most
members of Iran's major student
associations were supporters of a national
democracy movement, Raisi sent
thousands of young men and women
(including several pregnant women) to
the notorious Evin Prison, whereupon an
untold number of student activists were
tortured, raped, or executed.
Surviving accounts from these labor
Surviving accounts from these labor camps paint a horrific picture
of degrading treatment of prisoners, unending psychological
abuse, and callous disregard for human dignity. Raisi is believed
to have personally observed the torture of several prisoners, with
some reports suggesting that the current president of Iran
observed the proceedings while eating from a tray of pastries.
camps paint a horrific picture of
degrading treatment of prisoners,
unending psychological abuse, and
callous disregard for human dignity. Raisi
is believed to have personally observed the
torture of several prisoners, with some
reports suggesting that the current
president of Iran observed the
proceedings while eating from a tray of
pastries.
Equally disturbing is Raisi's longstanding
role in the repression of women's
rights. During his tenure as head of Iran's
judiciary, Raisi repeatedly issued support
for laws criminalizing certain sexual
request has been regularly rejected
because of the country's discriminatory
policies. There is a huge file of
documented cases in which Israel has
discriminated against Americans of Arab
origin, especially American
Palestinians,at the various border
crossings. It wasn't clear if Bennett made
any gesture on the Israeli security service's
regular profiling of Americans of Arab
origin - although the issue is currently
moot, since no foreigners are allowed to
visit Israel because of COVID-19
restrictions. If ever there was a time for
As has happened before, however, such short-sightedness will
inevitably backfire, because the tension in Gaza will blow up
again if the illegal Israeli blockade is not lifted. The Abbas government
in Ramallah is also in bad economic shape; it is running
out of money because Israel is withholding a chunk of the
taxes and customs it collects on goods destined forPalestine.
Palestinian national unity and a
reassessment of the Palestinian national
liberation strategy, that time is now.
While Washington is not in agreement
with the Bennett administration on
sidelining the Palestinian issue, there does
appear to be some convergence on
avoiding any major political or diplomatic
effort at present. The Biden
administration has publicly said that it is
practices and curtailing access to
contraceptives and abortion procedures.
As a cleric, Raisi's treatment of women
in Iran is similarly well documented. He
has consistently promoted the
enforcement of a strict interpretation of
Islamic law, which in practice means that
women are not allowed to work outside
the home, make their own legal decisions,
or choose their own husbands.
Through the lens of geopolitics, Raisi's
track record is just as appalling.
At the same time, Raisi has
demonstrated a knack for cravenly
appeasing the West and has made a
number of overtures to the US and the
European Union in the hopes of
improving his country's relations with the
international community.
As the international community
attempts to revive and revamp a nuclear
deal with Iran, Western leaders must not
only ensure that Iran does not acquire a
nuclear weapon, but also that the regime
is held accountable for its abhorrent
human-rights record.
Ebrahim Raisi is among the most
prominent personalities in a regime that
has committed, and continues to commit,
serious violations of human rights. As
such, Raisi's election to the Iranian
presidency is not only a threat to stability
within the middle East and the wider
international community, but it is also a
profound affront to the core principles of
the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
Source: Asia times
not a high priority for Washington, and
apart from a short period in may when
Gaza-Israel violence escalated, the US
appears to have stayed on course in
downgrading the Palestine issue.
Biden is under pressure from
progressives in his own Democratic Party
to reopen the Palestinian mission in DC
and the US consulate in Jerusalem, and to
put an end to the high-profile house
demolitions and evictions, but other than
that it doesn't appear that the US will do
much to get the Palestinian-Israeli talks
back on track. Overall, Israeli and US
apathy over the rights of Palestinians
could not have been more clearly
illustrated than in that Biden-Bennett
summit.
As has happened before, however, such
short-sightedness will inevitably backfire,
because the tension in Gaza will blow up
again if the illegal Israeli blockade is not
lifted. The Abbas government in
Ramallah is also in bad economic shape; it
is running out of money because Israel is
withholding a chunk of the taxes and
customs it collects on goods destined
forPalestine. The EU, which made a rare
strong statement against the Palestinian
security crackdown on peaceful
demonstrators, has been the main
financial backer, covering most of the
salaries of Palestinian public servants.
Source: Arab news