By Eresh Omar Jamal
May 22 2019 (IPS-Partners)

No matter which approach is used, every method of measurement shows inequality has risen in Bangladesh (at least) over the last 10 years. If we take the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, we see that the country’s Gini coefficient—a measure of inequality—went up (indicating disparity has grown) from 0.458 in 2010 to 0.482 in 2016. From a different angle, a report released by Oxfam towards the close of last year ranked Bangladesh 148th in the world—out of 157 countries—for reducing inequality.

Around the same time, reports were coming out that the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank were forecasting Bangladesh’s economy to grow by 7.5 percent in the current fiscal year—illustrating a somewhat confusing contradiction of inequality rising significantly at the same time as GDP.

While some have since then dismissed this as inevitable, in reality that is far from the truth.

“The economic growth in recent years has been far from inclusive,” according to Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling. And is the result of failed economic policies—time-tested to have proven disastrous.

According to a 2018 Transparency International Bangladesh study, over 63 percent households seek healthcare from the private sector, which shows either a lack of availability of public healthcare facilities, or that they are abysmal—forcing people to seek treatment elsewhere.

And, according to a 2015 study by the health ministry, out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenditure in Bangladesh was 67 percent—the highest in South and Southeast Asia—whereas the global average was 32 percent. Which shows the lack of government control over healthcare costs because the private sector has no meaningful competition from the public sector.

The combination of these two has been devastating. A study by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, found that four to five million people were being pushed into poverty by OOP healthcare expenditures every year. Yet, the government has shown minimal interest in increasing its involvement in providing better healthcare service, even though healthcare is a quasi-public good in the sense that it benefits everyone in the community—and thus where government support should be focused on.

Public expenditure on education and health, which were already low, has declined in recent years. And “such low expenditure does not help…reduce poverty and inequality,” according to Raihan, whose view has been echoed by Zahid Hussein, lead economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office who added that the poor are not “in a position to access privileges that the government gives to particular businesses and interest groups” such as “bailouts”, which have vacuumed away Tk 10,272 crore of government funds as of September last year, that could have gone into providing improved healthcare—not only to offset the aforementioned problems, but because that generally benefits less wealthy sections of society.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

In his book And Forgive Them Their Debts, professor of economics and economic history, Dr Michael Hudson, mentions how one of the first things the Babylonians, who first invented the concept of the Jubilee Year (derived from debt jubilee), realised was that “finance was not a part of the economy, but grew by its own mathematical laws.” Their scribes noted how while compound interest grew “at the equivalent of 20 percent a year, doubling in five years and quadrupling in 10,” their herd population and agriculture grew (GDP of ancient times) as an “S-Curve and tapered off”.

So, every ruler, going thousands of years back into history, knew that debts tended to grow faster than the economy’s ability to pay. Giving rise to the idea of debt jubilee—but with one catch: it was personal debts that were forgiven, not business debts or debts of the criminally rich who made their fortunes by borrowing from the public exchequer with the intention of never paying back.

During the last century (era of neoliberalism), everything somehow got reversed. And debt was turned from being “a balance sheet item to a growth item,” according to financial expert Max Keiser—popularising the perception that “the faster companies could incur debt”, the faster it could be “securitised” to “other banks to create this daisy-chain”, not only making debt “okay” but the “basis of the economy”.

This brought about a historic change because “never in history did people think that the way to get rich was to go into debt,” says Dr Hudson. And yet this was being done by countries “on a national level” to commit “economic suicide”.

What neoliberals failed to see was that money, despite being needed to buy a car or education, was not a factor of production. And that banks, in the process of giving people access to credit—which is an unproductive activity in itself as it produces nothing extra but simply allows someone to acquire what has already been produced—were simply extracting wealth out of the economy for themselves, and not even reinvesting it back into the economy.

Basically, finance became the tool for the ultra-rich to gain their “unearned” share from the “productive” activities of others. And instead of providing tangible services that balance the scale such as healthcare, the service that the government has been providing is the facilitation of this wealth extraction—which, to some extent, is the service of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” essentially.

Similar to every other country suffering from the curse of neoliberalism, parallel to the hollowing out of banks and government-backed extortion of the public exchequer, Bangladesh too saw huge amounts of money fleeing the country during this period.

In late January, the Global Financial Integrity released a report ranking Bangladesh second in South Asia for illicit money outflows. And said that some USD 5.9 billion was siphoned out of Bangladesh in 2015 through trade misinvoicing, after a report released in 2017 estimated that Bangladesh lost between USD 6-9 billion to illicit outflows in 2014. What has been the government’s (policy or any other) response? To do nothing—except siphon off more and more taxpayers’ funds and ship them into dying banks that seem to be taking the economy with them, to the grave.

In the process of extracting wealth from the real wealth producers, what these “real dependent” classes are doing is killing the Golden Goose that they rely on, which is why we see such capital outflows as the corrupt set aside their retirement funds before escaping to other countries.

But, have these people looked around properly? Nearly the entire world (especially developed countries) is under the thumb of neoliberalism. And so, those who believe they can profit by leeching off the productive powers of others in this country because of their “position” can only be the feed of others doing the same elsewhere.

Because neoliberalism is the economic and financial ideology that is most akin to that of today’s radicalism, which makes the role of its agents equivalent to that of suicide bombers—whose ultimate destination too is one of complete economic and financial ruin.

Eresh Omar Jamal is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Bangladesh has the potential to become the world’s 23rd largest economy by 2050. In a report released earlier this month, PwC also predicted Bangladesh would be the 28th biggest economy by 2030 in terms of its Gross Domestic Product calculated at Purchasing Power Parity. This may not seem like a big deal given that Bangladesh already has the 31st largest economy in the world in terms of total GDP; however, thinking along that line may be misleading given the bigger picture.

Image: venturebeat

This will put Bangladesh right behind Canada with a GDP of USD 3,100 billion in 2050 having increased the size of its economy nearly five-fold since 2016, whereas the Canadian economy, over the same period, would have only doubled its current size as would the world economy. This amazing potential for Bangladesh to rapidly increase the size of its economy has even been highlighted by PwC’s report which says, “We project Vietnam, India and Bangladesh to be three of the world’s fastest growing economies over this period [between 2016 and 2050]”.

With an average annual growth of about 5 percent, largely because of its “youthful and working age population”, Bangladesh does have the potential to make rapid progress. But as a report by the Centre for Development and Employment Research showed, 25 percent of the population in Bangladesh between the ages of 15 and 29 — numbering around 11 million — are currently inactive, i.e. they are neither in the education cycle nor involved with any economic activity. Moreover, and this to some may seem even more perplexing, “the prevalence of unemployment is greater among the higher educated section of the youth”.

Given that about 40 percent of Bangladesh’s population is comprised of the youth, this is indeed a grim reality. Simultaneously, it is also a classic example of the unfathomably high inefficiency that plagues every sector of our economy. What, after all, could be a better way of wasting, what one could argue, is the country’s most valuable and abundant resource, than to leave the youth out of the mainstream economy? And, that too, the most educated sections of it?

But in order to live up to its true potential, the country quickly needs to change this scenario around. Bringing the youth into the fold will not only help the economy by increasing overall productivity, but will also help lower various external costs which in itself will prove to be of great benefit.

Another point worthy of mention is that in order to realise its full economic potential, similar to other emerging markets, the Bangladesh government, according to PwC, would have to “implement structural reforms to improve” its “macroeconomic stability, infrastructure and institutions”. And this is where the biggest challenge lies.

The amount of corruption in every sector of our country has become so internalised, that reversing this will not be easy, albeit indispensable for growth. Corruption is not only holding development back through the misallocation of resources, delay in project implementation and completion, but is also wreaking havoc in our banking sector.

For example, although the industry’s average default loan is currently 10.34 percent, it is around 25 percent for the state-owned banks. Even the Governor of the Bangladesh Bank has recently had to admit that “It would be difficult to attain a higher economic growth if the rate of default loans remains high”. Though this exact sentiment has been repeated by experts for years now, what we have seen the government do ultimately is to let those responsible for the increase in dubious or bad loans get off the hook scot-free, leaving taxpayers holding the bill.

We have already seen during the 2008 global financial crisis what this can do. We have also seen the eventual outcome of ‘bailing’ banks out. And yet, it seems we have failed to take any lessons from it. Who is to say that a similar liquidity crisis cannot set us back by years if we continue down the same path? The truth is, no one can, as that is the guaranteed outcome down the path we are pursuing.

At the same time, corruption is also the biggest hindrance we face when it comes to developing our infrastructure. Clearly the infrastructure we have now is completely inadequate to support businesses and other economic activities on a large enough scale. However, even with massive investments coming in from abroad, the pace at which development is taking shape is still quite slow. In the interest of quickening them and to allow businesses to set up and function competitively, the government urgently needs to introduce many structural reforms and changes.

The fact of the matter is that Bangladesh has all the tools available at its disposal to rapidly move its economy ahead in the years to come. What it does need is to sort out some of the most basic problems which it has failed to address for decades despite the solutions to those problems being quite clear-cut. And the main reason for that has been a lack of political will. If, however, that political will is found, who is to say that Bangladesh cannot become an economic powerhouse, capable of providing a peaceful and decent life for all its citizens? Now, is that not an end worth pursuing?

The writer is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

By now we all know of Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning the entry of citizens from seven Muslim majority countries. According to his statement, it was “about terror and keeping” America “safe”, as his “first priority” is to “protect and serve” America. But simply banning the entry of people from these seven countries cannot guarantee the safety of Americans and will fail to bring an end to, or even minimise, terrorism.

US President Donald J. Trump denounces the US court for blocking the executive order of travel ban from 7 muslim majority countries. Photo: FILE

Sadly, that is exactly what the US and its allies have been doing in Syria and elsewhere, prompting independent journalists en masse, various governments and others, to emphasise the need for the US to stop supporting terrorists who are destabilising the Middle East especially, but other regions too. And in the process, worsening the refugee crisis and increasing terrorism across the world.

The latest amongst those brave individuals is a member of the US Democratic Party and the US Representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district, Ms. Tulsi Gabbard. Having met ordinary Syrians and their president during her visit to Syria, Ms. Gabbard told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that a common question she received from ordinary Syrians was: “why the US and its allies are providing support and arms to terrorist groups like al-Nusra, al-Qaida or al-Sham, ISIS who are on the ground there, raping, kidnapping, torturing and killing the Syrian people.”

She said that every person she spoke to said the same thing, without hesitation, that there are “no moderate rebels”. That “the Syrian people recognise and they know that if President Assad is overthrown, then al Qaida — or a group like al Qaida…will take charge of all of Syria” (Just Back From Syria, Rep. Gabbard Brings Message: ‘There Are No Moderate Rebels’, cnsnews.com, January 26). And that is why “they are pleading with the United States to stop supporting these terrorist groups” and let Syrians decide their own fate.

To honour their request, Ms. Gabbard recently put forth a bill in Congress called the “Stop Arming Terrorists Act”, to prevent the US government from using its taxpayer dollars “to directly or indirectly support groups allied with terrorist groups such as ISIS and al Qaeda in their war to overthrow the Syrian government”. To gain support for her bill, Ms. Gabbard also met with President Trump, who, according to her, responded well to her message.

Now, the best way that President Trump can really fight terrorism is by ending US support to terrorist organisations in attempt to overthrow foreign governments and, instead, back the ‘Stop Arming Terrorists Act’. This, however, will not be easy. According to Ms. Gabbard, she is facing immense bipartisan pressure from both the Democrats and Republicans for her stance against the US’ longstanding policy of instigating regime change in foreign countries. Should Trump decide to follow her advice, there can be no doubt that the same will happen to him.

However, if President Trump is truly sincere about taking a stand against the ‘establishment’, like he said he would during his campaign and in fighting terrorism, this is exactly what he must do. But this alone won’t be enough. He must also convince the US’ allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and others, to not support these extremists groups and to stop directly intervening in countries like Yemen. And if dialogue fails, President Trump must reverse Obama’s policy of providing record breaking quantities of armaments to the likes of Saudi Arabia and others, as without US weaponry, these countries cannot wage their wars of aggression.

During his presidential campaign and after, President Trump also expressed his desire to work with Russia to end the Syrian crisis. All the while the US worked towards bringing about regime change in Syria, Russia valiantly provided support to the Syrian government, humanitarian aid to the Syrian people and tried its best to find a political solution despite being repeatedly demonised for it. Now that he is in office, President Trump should immediately look to work with Russia, rather than against her, as his predecessor’s administration did.

Given the possibilities, the good news is that President Trump can do a lot to end terrorism, ensure security for Americans, all the while saving the US a lot of money that would otherwise be wasted on foreign incursions. The bad news, he will have to take on the entire US government-industrial-complex to succeed and even if he has the courage to take on that challenge, there is no guarantee of success, given the power that it wields. But that aside, the most important question for now is, is he going to follow through with his promise of taking on the establishment, and stop waging “stupid wars”?

Whatever the answer is, will be the most important determinant on how successful President Trump is in saving American lives and, also very importantly, the lives of many others.

The writer is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

On December 18, as appointed by the United Nations General Assembly, the international community recognises and celebrates the rights of migrants around the world. This date was chosen because the General Assembly had adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (resolution 45/158) on December 18, 1990. Thus, by building on the rights of migrant workers, the UN, with the aid of other organisations, incorporated successfully, the idea of upholding the rights of all migrants.

Yet, that ‘idea’, despite being a commendable one, seems to have remained only that – an idea; never really materialising beyond it fully. And this has, perhaps, never been more evident than today. Nor the misfortune humanity has had to endure because of this failure, been more glaring.

In the case of Bangladesh for example, the rights of its workers abroad still remain elusive to this day. Just prior to Bangladesh holding the Global Forum on Migration and Development between December 10-12, a Middle East women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, “Bangladesh is hosting an important global conference on migration, yet has an abysmal record protecting its own citizens” (‘Improve protections for migrant domestic workers’, The Daily Star, December 9).

Newspaper articles have been written, conferences held, slogans repeated, yet, successive governments have failed time and again to protect the rights of the thousands of men and women who leave everything behind to travel abroad in the simple hope of building a better future for themselves and those they hold dear – a hope, I assume, all of humanity has in common.

This hope, of course, is nothing new. The UN website states, “Throughout human history, migration has been a courageous expression of the individual’s will to overcome adversity and to live a better life.” That dream of a better life, for many migrant workers, however, often fails to transform into reality.

Despite their remittances significantly helping the country’s economy by increasing its foreign currency reserves, reducing the Taka’s devaluation, helping infrastructure investments and assisting the repayment of foreign debts, migrant workers are frequently exposed to mistreatment abroad, followed by refusal from our government to acknowledge such mistreatments, or even listen to their grievances for various political or geopolitical reasons.

Such grievances of women Bangladeshi workers include the denial of their full salaries, adequate food and living conditions, forcibly being worked for excessively long hours without breaks or days off, physical assault and even sexual abuse. In fact, according to a HRW report issued in July, “Bangladeshi workers’ accounts of abuse were among the most extreme [of all] documented in Oman… [including] forced labour and trafficking.”

To summarise the general condition of most migrant workers irrespective of gender and nationality: according to the most recent survey by the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation conducted in the Asia-Pacific and Gulf regions, “More than 75 percent of migrant workers said they received wages lower than what they were promised before they left their home countries, or experienced unforeseen deductions” (’75pc of migrant workers received lower wages than promised: survey’, The Daily Star, December 8). Moreover, 14.5 percent respondents said they did not receive wages on time and 25 percent had no days off in a week.

If we take the other end of the migrant spectrum—those fleeing one form of persecution or another—the outlook not only fails to get any better, but actually worsens. A UN Refugee Agency 2015 report revealed the number of people displaced to be at its highest ever—surpassing even post-WWII numbers.

65.3 million people in total were displaced at the end of 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And just to put that into perspective, that is one out of every 113 people on earth. I do not know if that includes the men, women and children who have drowned at sea in their attempt to find something better than what they were fleeing, or those who were lost to us in some other way. But that figure itself must be in the thousands.

Meanwhile, it is important to remember that the migrant crisis really started to blow out of proportion after Europe meddled in the affairs of the then richest country in Africa — Libya — though a large part of it was also prompted by American (Western in general) interventions in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and elsewhere. As Dr. Curtis Doebbler — international lawyer and professor of international law — wrote, “In almost every case, the African and Middle East migrants are fleeing wars, violence, or exploitation caused by Europeans, Americans and their allies” (‘The European Migration Crisis’, CounterPunch.org, April 24, 2015).

Following that logic, it is the moral responsibility of both Europe and America now, to do everything in their power to help these helpless people that they are mostly responsible for turning homeless and landless in the first place. The UN too, despite its good work in many areas, has failed these people miserably by being unable to prevent such interventions, many of which have blatantly violated international laws, put in place, largely, by the UN and Western nations themselves.

And the saddest part is, refugees fleeing war zones, persecution, poverty and intolerance, are the least welcome in these countries. A report released by Amnesty International in July 2015 said, “Migrants heading for Europe face abuse and extortion in the Balkans…at the hands of the authorities and criminal gangs” (‘Migrants heading for Europe facing abuse and extortion in the Balkans’, amnesty.org.uk).

According to the then Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia deputy director Gauri van Gulik, “Refugees fleeing war and persecution make this journey across the Balkans in the hope of finding safety in Europe only to find themselves victims of abuse and exploitation and at the mercy of failing asylum systems” (‘Europe’s Horrific Mistreatment of Migrants, the Victims of America’s Wars’, Centre for Research on Globalisation, August 21, 2015). Reports of torture and other forms of abuse coming out of many refugee camps and asylums in the UK, Australia and others have been so horrific, that some migrants, after risking their lives to escape whatever nightmare they were going through, tried to commit suicide there (‘Horrific Mistreatment of Migrants’, Stephen Lendmen, August 20, 2015).

Is this how human beings are supposed to be treated? Again, as Dr. Curtis Doebbler writes, “If Europe and the United States really want to deal with the so-called ‘European migration crisis’ they will need to start by admitting to themselves, and the world, that they are the cause of it…[and] engage in an open and transparent manner with the aim of achieving cooperation to address the root causes of the crisis, not merely the temporary manifestations.”

And the same applies for the rest of the world. If we truly want to respect the rights of migrants, the UN and the international community must work together to prevent such gross violation of international law, which not only destabilises the country migrants are coming from, but also the rest of the world.

Also, we must stop separating people along racial, religious and other invisible lines and accept that we are all human beings, whose rights must be protected, regardless of the country of our origin. Otherwise, as is quickly becoming clear, with the creation of migrants and the denial of their rights, the whole world will continue to suffer together. And this is where world leaders, civil society members, academics, and other influential individuals have failed us till now. However, those who find their failures unacceptable must continue to fight the fight that is needed to bring policymakers back on the right track. For not only are the rights of migrants at stake, but, quite clearly, so is the humanity within us. And it is only by answering the call of humanity that lies within us that we can overcome the great crisis currently facing us.

The writer is a member of the Editorial team at The Daily Star.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Infograph: Rahin Sadman Islam

By Eresh Omar Jamal
Sep 21 2016 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Today, the world is celebrating the International Day of Peace. It is inaugurated by ringing the United Nations Peace Bell at the UN Headquarters. An inscription on its side reads, “Long live absolute world peace”. Unfortunately, however, 34 years since its inception, we now live in a world absolutely opposed to that vision — a world that is anything but peaceful.

According to the Global Peace Index, there are now only 10 countries in the world that are actually free from conflict and we are now further away from world peace than at any other time in the past 10 years (Global Peace Index 2016: There are now only 10 countries in the world that are actually free from conflict, The Independent, June 8). And why would we not be? When, instead of making progress towards peace, the only progress we are making is in inventing more and more sophisticated ways of causing more and more violence to fatten the pockets of vested interests — namely arms manufacturers.

This has led to the number of people displaced by conflict being at the highest level ever recorded, says the UN refugee agency (Refugees at highest ever level, reaching 65m, says UN, BBC News, June 20). It estimates that 65.3 million people were either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced at the end of 2015, which, shockingly, represents one in every 113 people on the planet. On the flipside, if we look at battlefield deaths, they are up at 112,000 a year — a 20-year high. Such has been the scale of violence we have perpetrated.

Neither have we spared, to our shame, children, from the horrors of war. Nearly 50 million children worldwide, according to another UN report, have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced by conflicts (Conflict and Poverty Have Uprooted Nearly 50 Million Children, U.N. Says, The New York Times, September 6). We see illegal foreign interventions — without the necessary UN Security Council authorisation — raging from Yemen to Iraq, civil wars being fought from South Sudan to Ukraine, extremist attacks being perpetrated by Boko Haram and ISIS, without much of a peep from the world media except, of course, when convenient.

The Saudi-led war grinding on in Yemen since March 2015 is a case in point. The latest death toll estimate in Yemen, according to the UN, now stands at 10,000 with Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator, admitting that “[the UN] know the numbers are much higher but we can’t tell you by how much” (UN: At least 10,000 killed in Yemen conflict, Al-Jazeera, August 31). Yet, how often do we see the media reporting on it? Moreover, the conflict has already displaced three million Yemenis, forcing 200,000 people to seek refuge abroad. Meanwhile, 14 million of Yemen’s 26 million people need food aid and seven million are suffering from food insecurity.

Even the world’s newest country South Sudan, which came into being in 2011 after a long period of crisis, again exploded into civil war in 2013, and has had more than 2.4 million people displaced and tens of thousands killed (10 Conflicts to Watch in 2016, Foreign Policy Journal, January 3). In Ukraine, at least 9,160 are estimated to have died since the conflict started in April 2014, by the UN (Death Toll in Ukraine Conflict Hits 9,160, U.N. Says, The New York Times, March 3). Then there is of course all the deaths being caused by radicals of every shape and size across the world, reaching a point where keeping a body count is near impossible. Concurrently, the dissensions in Iraq and Libya continue unabated, leading to unending sufferings for its peoples.

Another country that has been mired in crises is Afghanistan. With more than 80,000 people displaced in the first three months of this year already, the Afghan conflict continues to affect lives in record numbers (Civilian Casualties in Afghan War Are Unabated in 2016, The New York Times, April 17). Furthermore, according to the United Nations human rights director in Afghanistan, “almost one-third of civilian casualties [in the first quarter of 2016] were children” — an all too familiar trend worldwide.

Yet, amidst all these crises and more, none that we know of perhaps comes anywhere close to the magnitude of violence and sufferings Syrians are experiencing. In what has been dubbed as the deadliest conflict of the 21st century, more than a quarter of a million Syrians have been killed and almost 11 million — about half the country’s population — displaced in or outside the country. The death toll has been so high that the UN, after estimating 250,000 fatalities, stopped counting Syria’s dead early in 2014. According to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, however, fatalities caused by the war, directly and indirectly, amount to 470,000, with 11.5 percent of Syria’s population being wounded or killed since 2011 (Report on Syria conflict finds 11.5 percent of population killed or injured, The Guardian, February 11).

In Syria’s case what is also concerning, is that with arms pouring into the country from every nook and corner, and with the entry of regional as well as global, nuclear powers, into the mix, the Syrian crisis can turn into a much bigger global crisis in a matter of minutes. Tensions are already running high. And amidst all these wars, although one would expect to hear calls for peace, what we see the most militarily powerful nations in the world do, is prepare for more war.

Earlier this year, we saw NATO and its partner countries hold the largest war games in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War in what was clearly a show of strength against Russia (Nato countries begin largest war game in eastern Europe since cold war, The Guardian, June 6). And in case it was not, the Russians clearly saw it that way. And in response, held one of its largest ever military drills in Crimea (Russia Holds Biggest Military Drill Yet in Annexed Crimea, NBC News, September 11). Asia too seems to be simmering. With tension between North and South Korea rising, Seoul holding its largest ever artillery drill and Washington’s pivot to Asia, China and Russia just held the largest military drills ever by the two countries’ navies together, in the hotly contested South China Sea (China, Russia naval drill in South China Sea to begin Monday, Reuters, September 11).

Hence, on the International Day of Peace, it is peace which remains most elusive. During this year’s Peacebell Ceremony to commemorate the day, the UN Secretary General remarked, “Peace is not a gift. Peace is something we must all work for, every day, in every country.” Over the years, it is perhaps this message which we have failed to heed the most.

For among the ringing peace-bells, while much of the world turns into outstretched graveyards, the majority, which claims to be against wars, and those who are celebrating International Day of Peace, as a display of their support for peace, remain as quiet as the grave to most of the injustices that are being brought to millions of people around the world, courtesy of wars being waged, in most cases, under false pretences. While the only sound that has any significant bearing on human lives, are the war drums, constantly being beaten, louder and louder, everyday. And the global media, especially the more powerful sections of it, continue to subscribe to people’s ignorance through their selective coverage of conflicts, contributing to the world moving further and further away from peace, than at any other time in the recent past.

The writer is a member of the Editorial team.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh