19-10-2022

Wednesday, ocTober 19, 2022
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Make easier the
owning of houses
Owning a house or a piece of land in Dhaka city
is probably the greatest aspirations of
individual families who form the city's
current population of over 15 million people. But
some 65 per cent of these families live in rented
dwellings of various types. And the costs of rented
premises have been far outpacing the growth in
income of households.
House rent has only gone on rising sharply
without a pause in recent years. Similarly, land
prices as well as of apartments offered by
developers in the city have skyrocketed in contrast
to a decades ago. Thus, even for those in the middle
class bracket-who earn on average one lakh taka per
month-- owning a house or a piece of real property
has become like chasing an unrealistic ambition.
All of these hard facts of life were stated in a
publication sometime ago by Power and
Participation Centre (PPRC), a non governmental
organization. The gist of it were published in a
report in a daily newspaper although these are
hardly new revelations to the non privileged ones in
the city who are compelled to pay a lion's share of
their earnings on rents only.
No easy solutions are in sight for the problem is
mainly tied up with inflation. The current rate of
officially estimated inflation in Bangladesh is some
7 per cent whereas the private but reliable estimates
are notably higher. Till inflation can be kept on a
leash over the long haul while economic growth,
earnings and savings of people are allowed to
increase significantly over time, this chasm between
the demanded price of real property and the ability
to buy them by ones who are not super rich, will not
be bridged.
Meanwhile, government may opt for some stop
gap measures. It can increase the activities of the
government operated House Building Finance
Corporation (HBFC) to help the extension of its
activities among a larger number of clients. More
important would be HBFC scaling down its interest
rate charged on loans to a substantially lower
amount.
As a government body with public welfare in mind,
it should not be so commercially operated but with
the spirit of functioning only a little above the breakeven
point to maximize not profits but welfare.
HBFC itself can perhaps acquire long term loans at
nominal interests from the World Bank (WB) and
other international agencies for boosting its
resources and lend the same to people by passing on
the benefits of the same to them through charging
lower interest. It should also provide loans to buy
lands.
Government should be also prepared to take some
fiscal measures like decreasing amply taxes to be
paid while transferring ownership of land in order to
help reduce land price. Government's policies
should similarly help the realtors to be enabled to
develop less costly housing units for selling of the
same at relatively lowered or affordable prices to
their buyers.
There are also other things to be done. For
example, the registration fee for real estate is already
considered as very high. The inability to pay such
high fees frustrates many otherwise intending
buyers from buying real estate. REHAB and its
customers say that it should be maximum 5 per cent
to really create a big enough stimulus among the
prospective buyers to press ahead with their buying
plans.
REHAB leaders are of the view that unless a
section of the income tax rules which in the past
provided for not questioning the source of wealth in
relation to buying of houses, if this rule is not
reintroduced, then potential clients will continue to
shy away from buying flats or houses. So, they are
pleading for its abolition.
In the case of cement the import of which is
subjected to restrictions, REHAB has asked for a
withdrawl of such restrictions along with lower
duties on the imported cement so that the housing
and construction sector can benefit from adequate
availability and reasonable price of this basic
building material.
Government provides cash incentives for some
export products to provide incentives to exporters
to export more and earn more foreign currency .
REHAB leaders are for similar giving of cash
incentives to them as they make sales of real
property to Bangladeshis living abroad.
The cash incentives will give a spur to selling real
estate among overseas buyers leading to growth in
the industry. The sales, on the other hand, will also
add to the country's foreign currency reserve.
REHAB has also demanded that government
should explore the ways and means of extending
long term housing loans at nominal interests to
encourage greater housing and construction
activities.
AN important global debate is underway
about the disruptive impact of new
technology. There is no doubt modern
technology has been a force for good and
responsible for innumerable positive
developments - empowering people,
improving lives, increasing productivity,
advancing medical and scientific knowledge
and transforming societies. Technological
developments have helped to drive
unprecedented social and economic progress.
But the fourth industrial revolution has also
involved the evolution of advance
technologies that are creating disruption, new
vulnerabilities and harmful repercussions,
which are not fully understood, much less
managed. A digitalised world is facing the
challenge of cybersecurity as threats rise
across the world. Data theft and fraud,
cyberattacks and breaches of critical systems,
electricity networks and financial markets are
all part of rising risks.
Communication technology now
dominates our lives like never before. It
brings untold benefits but also presents new
dangers. The phenomenon of fake news for
example is not new. But its omnipresence
today has much to do with digital technology,
which has produced a proliferation of
information channels and expansion of social
media. Online platforms have become
vehicles for the spread of misinformation.
Fake news easily circulates due to the
magnifying power of social media in a mostly
unregulated environment. Anonymity in
social media platforms gives trolls and
purveyors of false stories the assurance they
will not be held accountable for their lies or
hate messages. So fake news is posted on
social media without fear of retribution.
'Deepfakes' - doctored videos using artificial
intelligence (AI) - are now commonly used to
THE Intergovernmental Science-Policy
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services was established in 2012 to
perform regular and timely assessment of
knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem
services and its contribution to people, as well
as actions to protect and sustainably use vital
natural assets. To date, eight IPBES
assessments have been completed.
Equilibrium in nature, essential for human
life, is being altered by multiple human
drivers. The rapid decline includes significant
changes in 75 per cent of land surface, 66pc on
oceans and loss of over 85pc of wetlands.
Around a million species are facing the threat
of extinction. Urgent action is required to
reduce the intensity of the drivers of
biodiversity loss.
The Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD), the Rio sister convention to the
UNFCCC, is due to conclude negotiations on a
new global framework for biodiversity
conservation and sustainable use in
Dece m ber after delays. Originally
planned for Kun ming, China, in 2020,
COP15 was postponed due to Covid-19 and
split into a two-part event. The first was held
in Kunming in 2021 and produced the
Kunming Declara tion; it was where China
also launched the Kunming Biodiversity
Fund. The second, scheduled to be held in
Montreal (Dec 17-19) will finalise the post-
2020 global biodiversity framework for 2022-
2030.
This once-in-a-decade opportunity to land
an ambitious global deal for nature will need
Last year, Iraqis took to the polls in
renewed hopes of charting a new
path to a prosperous, stable and
secure future for their country. It was a
hard-fought opportunity by an
exhausted, wary Iraqi public left with
little recourse but to take to the streets in
a bid to apply pressure on a gilded
political elite in Baghdad. Tragically, at
the peak of the nationwide protests,
several hundreds of young Iraqis would
lose their lives, with thousands more
injured. Worse yet, like other troubled
post-conflict transitions in the Arab
world, this hard-earned reaffirmation of
democracy was quickly followed by
divisive politics, generating bitter public
disillusion and worrying signs of a return
to armed conflict as the clock ticked on.
The protracted political crisis has
already fueled so much instability and
acrimony at levels not seen since the
U.S.-led invasion nearly two decades
ago. A striking testament of Iraq's
troubled year-long post-election phase
was the barrage of rockets that rained
down in the Green Zone in a bid to
prevent lawmakers from heading into
parliament to finally select a new
president. The attack wounded at least
10, including four civilians, an all-too
familiar consequence of the perpetual
cycles of violence sparked by prolonged
The trouble with technology
mislead and deceive. The profit motive and
business model of social media companies
prevents them from instituting real checks on
divisive and sensational content irrespective
of whether it is true or false. That means
'digital wildfires' are rarely contained. Digital
technology is also being abused to commit
crimes, recruit terrorists and spread hate, all
of which imperil societies. This presents
challenges to social stability in what is now
called the post-truth era.
Digital technology is also fuelling
polarisation and divisiveness within
countries. Studies have pointed to its
disruptive impact on political systems and
democracy. In an article in the European
Journal of Futures Research in March 2022,
the authors wrote that "In times of scepticism
and a marked dependence on different types
of AI in a network full of bots, trolls, and fakes,
unprecedented standards of polarisation and
intolerance are intensifying and crystallising
with the coming to power of leaders of
dubious democratic reputation". The
connection between the rise of right-wing
populist leaders and their cynical but effective
deployment of social media is now well
established.
New technologies present opportunities
and dangers for nations and people.
high-level political attention and powerful
voices from civil society, media and businesses
to amplify the need for a shared call for
ambition to ensure COP15's success. As hosts,
China and Canada will play a crucial role by
investing diplomatically ahead of the event for
a successful outcome.
Over half the global GDP is at risk due to
nature loss.
The CBD COP15 provides an opportunity
for delivering on a global deal for nature
similar in significance to the Paris Climate
agreement. At stake is the future of human life
and the ecological assets that support life. An
estimated 23pc of global emissions come from
agriculture, forestry and land use. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
found that boosting the area of the world's
forest, woodlands, and woody savannahs
could store one quarter of the carbon
necessary for limiting global warming to 1.5
degrees Celsius.
Biodiversity conservation has not received
the same attention as global warming
although it plays a huge role in food security.
Iraq - Is there hope at last ?
inaction, sectarianism and intransigence.
Similarly, endemic corruption, rampant
unemployment and decaying
infrastructure have also contributed to
the decimation of Iraqi lives and
livelihoods. Unfortunately, despite the
relentless efforts undertaken in the past
weeks and months for Iraqi politicians to
engage, cooperate and commit to a
credible path towards much-needed
political stability, Baghdad never
managed to achieve a single milestone or
critical success. Granted, highly contested
polls in post-civil war contexts often lead
to a prolonged interim period between
when results are announced and eventual
government formation, or in Iraq's case,
achieving a quorum in its parliament (The
Council of Representatives) to elect a new
president.
However, a year after the last general
election, Iraqi politics became paralyzed
by endless squabbling, needless
brinksmanship, increased insecurity and
escalating violence engulfing the country
in chronic instability that Barham Salih's
caretaker administration was severely illequipped
to handle. It was no surprise
that the two-decades-long chaos in
Baghdad's corridors of power began
fueling a nostalgia for the pre-2003 era
given the corruption, nepotism, escalating
sectarian violence and a shrinking
Maleeha lodhi
Nature positive
aisha Khan
haFed al-GhWell
Artificial intelligence or machine
intelligence presents many dangers such as
invasion of privacy and compromise of
multiple dimensions of security. The biggest
threat posed by autonomous weapons
systems is that they can take decisions and
even strategies out of human hands. They can
independently target and neutralise
adversaries and operate without the benefit of
human judgement or thoughtful calculation
of risks. Today, AI is fuelling an arms race in
lethal autonomous weapons in a new arena of
artificial intelligence or machine intelligence
presents many dangers such as invasion of privacy
and compromise of multiple dimensions of security.
The biggest threat posed by autonomous weapons
systems is that they can take decisions and even
strategies out of human hands.
superpower competition.
The book, co-authored by Henry Kissinger,
Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher, The
Age of AI: And our Human Future, lays bare
the dangers ahead. AI has ushered in a new
period of human consciousness, say the
authors (Schmidt is Google's former CEO),
which "augers a revolution in human affairs".
But this, they argue, can lead to human beings
losing the ability to reason, reflect and
conceptualise. It could in fact "permanently
change our relationship with reality".
Their discussion of the military uses of AI
and how it is used to fight wars is especially
instructive. AI would enhance conventional,
nuclear and cyber capabilities in ways that
would make security relations between rival
powers more problematic and conflicts
More than half the world's GDP ($44 trillion)
is at immediate risk due to nature loss.
Globally, food production uses about 40pc of
available land and 70pc of freshwater
withdrawals, with agriculture responsible for
75pc of all deforestation. A recent study by a
consortium of scientists concludes that
conserving strategically located 30pc of the
world's land would safeguard more than 62pc
of the world's vulnerable carbon and 68pc of
Wrapped in issues of sovereignty and finance, the digital
sequencing of information (that refers to data derived from genetic
resources) for access and benefit sharing will be a key political
sticking point that will require a compromise resolution so as not to
impede progress across the rest of the framework.
all freshwater, while ensuring that over 70pc
of all terrestrial vertebrate and plant species
are not threatened with extinction.
The impact of biodiversity loss on Pakistan
will be no less than vulnerability associated
with climate change. Both are inherently
interconnected. As a signatory to the CBD,
Pakistan should try to ensure that financial
and implementation mechanisms are agreed
upon to avoid the risks of targets being set and
not met. Resource mobilisation will be a
critical issue at the negotiations and
significant investments will be needed to
develop trust between developed and
developing nations. Lack of consensus will
economy despite record windfalls from
crude exports.
Continued failures, deliberate or
otherwise, to seat a new head of state
and begin a painstaking government
formation process would have resulted
in a repeat of the Afghanistan debacle.
There, the collapse of an imported and
flawed democracy ultimately paved the
way for the return of a once-proscribed
Taliban that quickly busied itself with
dismantling America's woeful legacy
with acts of brutality and unmitigated
violence against fellow Afghans. In Iraq,
the revival of Saddamist tendencies in
recent years speaks to a still active,
organized and emboldened Baathist
political force garnering even more
support with its counternarratives for
the repeated failures of Baghdad's hardfought
yet still fragile democratic
institutions.
The stakes could not be higher prior
to the highly anticipated parliament
session on Thursday that resulted in
the election of Abdul Latif Rashid, a 78-
year-old Iraqi Kurd nominated by the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), as
head of state. More than two dozen
candidates had put themselves forward
but Rashid, a former water minister
and presidential adviser, won by more
than 160 votes to 99, signaling the
harder to limit. The authors say that in the
nuclear era, the goal of national security
strategy was deterrence. This depended on a
set of key assumptions - the adversary's
known capabilities, recognised doctrines and
predictable responses. Their core argument
about the destabilising nature of AI weapons
and cyber capabilities is that their value and
efficacy stems from their "opacity and
deniability and in some cases their operation
at the ambiguous borders of disinformation,
intelligence collection and sabotage …
creating strategies without acknowledged
doctrines". They see this as leading to
calamitous outcomes. They note the race for
AI dominance between China and the US,
which other countries are likely to join. AI
capabilities are challenging the traditional
notion of security and this intelligent book
emphasises that the injection of "nonhuman
logic to military systems" can result in
disaster.
Advanced new generation military
technologies are a source of increasing
concern because of their wide implications for
international peace and stability. The remotecontrol
war waged by US-led Western forces
in Afghanistan over two decades involved the
use of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.
This had serious consequences and resulted
in the killing of innocent people. The use of a
cyberweapon - the Stuxnet computer worm -
by the US to target Iranian facilities in 2007 to
degrade its nuclear programme was the first
attack of its kind. More recently, Russian and
Ukrainian militaries are using remotely
operated aerial platforms in the Ukraine
conflict. Reliance on technology can confront
countries at war with unexpected problems.
The writer is a former ambassador to the
US, UK & UN.
hinder progress across the whole framework.
The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action
Plan must be fully integrated with climate
planning processes such as the
Na t i o nally Determined
Contributions and National Adap ta tion
Plan. Cou n t ries and IFIs must
demonstrate how they will close the global
biodiversity financial gap through public and
private finan ce and domestic policy
reforms.
Wrapped in issues of sovereignty and
finance, the digital sequencing of information
(that refers to data derived from genetic
resources) for access and benefit sharing will
be a key political sticking point that will
require a compromise resolution so as not to
impede progress across the rest of the
framework.
The signal that there might be no leaderlevel
event ahead or at COP15 and the
leadership deficit from China can significantly
dilute the outcome. It is very important that
leading voices in the negotiations are heard
and ministerial ambition is translated into a
negotiating mandate.
COP15 needs to be seen as a globally
important moment to tackle the loss of
biodiversity with visible public and political
pressure and space for leader-level
attendance. COP27 can be used as a
springboard to increase the visibility of COP15
and send a strong message that without action
to protect and restore nature, the world will be
incapacitated to meet its commitment to the
Paris Agreement and keep 1.5 alive.
parliament's preference for a grizzled
veteran that was more than capable of
navigating the perennially fractious
politics in Iraq's capital.
Despite credentials as 'compromise'
candidate that would appeal to hyperpolarized
Baghdad political elites,
President Rashid is relatively an
unfamiliar face to a populace in which
nearly 60% are under 25 years old. In
other words, Thursday's parliamentary
session might just be Iraq's long-sought
watershed moment-a veritable last
chance to address the country's
mounting woes by transforming dialogue
into meaningful action instead of
preserving a woeful status quo. Yet, the
appointment of a subdued Rashid who
lacks nationwide name-recognition is a
worrying development since Iraq
predicates the success of its politics and
future of its democracy on the buy-in,
sustained engagement with and enduring
participation of its young population.
Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and
executive director of the Ibn Khaldun
Strategic Initiative at the Foreign Policy
Institute of the Johns Hopkins University
School of Advanced International Studies in
Washington, DC, and the former adviser to
the dean of the board of executive directors
of the World Bank Group.