The sinking of the Costa Concordia raises critical questions about maritime safety. The issue is particularly important in parts of South and East Asia, where millions of people rely on often poorly maintained ferries to get …
Bangladesh
Not Just a Pakistani Problem: India’s Army Chief Challenges His Own Government
Side by side on the front page of today’s Hindu newspaper are two stories about conflict between the Army and the civilian government in two South Asian countries. One of them, of course, is Pakistan, a country whose political …
A Landmark Moment in Bangladesh’s Slow Crawl Toward Justice
In Dhaka, a war crimes tribunal charged its first suspect on some 20 counts, including crimes against humanity. Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a leading figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s most important Islamist party, will now go to court Oct. 30. If you haven’t heard of the case, it’s not your fault — the 1971 genocide in …
India and Bangladesh Erase a Bit of History
Of all the back-of-the-beyond places I’ve visited on the Subcontinent, the most unusual are the so-called “enclaves” along the India-Bangladesh border. They are little parcels of Indian or Bangladeshi territory that are wholly enclosed by the territory of the other country. A little bit of history on how they came into being:
The Raja
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Prime Minister Obama: Would the U.S. Be Better Served by a Parliament?
Over at the GPS Blog, Fareed Zakaria asks a pointed and valuable question: “Does America need a Prime Minister?” Given the paralysis and farce that has gripped Washington in recent months, it’s worth considering. As Zakaria observes, presidential systems never resolve the “basic contest for legitimacy” between the power of the …
Six Things to Watch from Hillary Clinton’s India Tour
President Obama grabbed hearts and headlines with his state visit to India last fall, and there was a lot of talk about bringing the two countries closer together. It’s “a defining partnership of the 21st century” between “natural allies” who have committed themselves to a “strategic dialogue.” What does it all mean? …
Justice Deferred: Why Indonesia Doesn’t Want to Host the ‘Bali Bomber’ Trial
You’d think Indonesia would jump at the chance to try Umar Patek, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali Bombings. But the head of the country’s anti-terror agency, Ansyaad Mbai, says a high-profile terror trial is too much of a security risk. Patek, one of the leaders of the al-Qaeda linked Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah …
Grameen’s Yunus Loses Appeal, But His Fight Continues
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has rejected Mohammad Yunus’ appeal to continue as head of the Grameen Bank. This is bad news for Yunus, certainly, but not the end. Yunus, a pioneer of microfinance and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize, has been under pressure for months, with the Bangladeshi government first floating charges of financial …
Global Briefing, Mar. 7, 2011: War Crimes, People Power and Governments Behaving Badly
Forgotten Genocide: In the New York Times, New Delhi correspondent Lydia Polgreen reports from Bangladesh about the country’s belated efforts to investigate the massacres that led up to its independence in 1971, when over a million people (up to three million, by some estimates) may have been killed by the Pakistani army and its Bengali …
A Twist in Grameen Bank Founder’s Ouster: Not Fired After All?
The case of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank, gets curiouser and curiouser. Earlier today, Grameen announced that Bangladesh’s Central Bank had fired Yunus, apparently because he had stayed on beyond the legal retirement age.That was a surprise in itself. Monday’s board meeting, which was billed as a …
Nobel Laureate Yunus Ousted from Microfinance Bank
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founding father of microfinance, has been pushed out of the Grameen Bank. The board of the bank held an inconclusive meeting on Monday to determine whether he would stay. Apparently, efforts to work out a face-saving exit have failed. The official reason given by the Bangladeshi government, which …
Grameen Bank Founder’s Fate in the Balance
The board of the Grameen Bank is meeting today in Dhaka to decide the future of its founder, Muhammad Yunus. Revered as one of the founders of microfinance, Yunus won a Nobel Prize in 2006 for his work in bringing credit to the world’s poor, beginning in his home country of Bangladesh. He is now caught in a political maelstrom and could …