EHLatifee, BKMEA favors the 'Charter of Developing-8' to be ratified by Bangladesh

Enamul Hafiz Latifee writes,

It was great indeed representing Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association-BKMEA at the "Inter-ministerial Meeting related to D-8 Charter Ratification" arranged by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh (MoFA) on 06 October, 2016. 

Surely, in such very high voltage meeting, where top-notch officials of a country are present, you have to be very smart to secure your organizational interests in very smart way.

However, the meeting also addressed some ongoing talks related to "#Developing8 Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA)", where Bangladesh could ratify with a reservation.

Well, my opinion concerning the Developing-8, (i.e., multilateral cooperative platform comprising of #Bangladesh, #Egypt, #Indonesia, #Iran, #Malaysia, #Nigeria, #Pakistan, and #Turkey) was as below,

"Dear distinguished attendees, as we know, the Charter of #D8, at it's Article 1, Chapter 1 expresses that, this multilateral economic cooperative forum would promote and enhance joint efforts towards achieving sustainable socio-economic development, would work alleviating poverty, promoting welfare, improving quality of life, and specially, it would eye at strengthening economic, social, technical and scientific ties within the D-8 community, and as if, rest of the Charter contains only Good Contents, I wish, any of us would not give such consent that might restrict us from ratifying it."

Further, when the meeting addressed PTA, and it's harsh Rules of Origin that is proposed to be 40%, my opinion was as below,

"If once, Bangladesh get to be the member of D-8 PTA, then there is way to softening this rule, but if Bangladesh deny now to be the member of D-8 PTA, then, there is no way to change it, and that would make us isolated from the world further."

And in technical cooperation matter, I placed,

"Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturing and Exporting Industry has got very strong backward linkage, that is about 80%-90% within the country, that means, now it is mature enough to pave on Retail Branding, like H&M, Zara, GAP or any other world reputed brands are doing. And you might know, that, a Polo T-Shirt, which we sale at US$ 1.60-2.20 to these brands, they sale it there at US$ 20-25 at their branded stores.

So the main thing- where we have tremendous lacking, is that, we do not have technology to produce completely unique designs. We might know, Turkey have got some very popular brands, which can develop 15-30 unique designs daily.

We are willing to have that expertise and technology, that could be possible under the Task Force on Textile, that got formed on November, 2008 and in it's last meeting held on 26-27 January, 2015 at the occasion of the 4th Ministerial Meeting on Industrial Cooperation, expressed that, cooperation will be accomplished to provide with required training programs, transferring experts, technology and personnel for R&D projects, plus easing and developing the textile trade further among D-8 parties.

Surely, we can grasp these opportunities, mainly in part of human capacity building and  technology transfer, once we start playing proactive role in D-8 forum, and never deny to be member of any of the initiatives taken."

Nevertheless, it felt awesome, after the meeting, when Mr. AFM Gousal Azam Sarker, Director General, MoFA, and, Mr. ATM Abdur Rouf Mondol, Director, MoFA appreciated me specially for the opinions given there. 

The day became happy one, quite after a long time, when I met Mr. Tanvir Ahmad Jummon vai, Assistant Secretary, MoFA at his office room, like always his generosity was a matter of fascination to me. 

~ #EHLatifee

How do Muslims observe Ramadan in places where the sun does not set?

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins at the sighting of the new moon in the ninth month of the lunar calendar. During Ramadan (which starts on July 9th this year) observant Muslims around the world abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset. Because it follows the lunar calendar, Ramadan shifts by 11 days a year in relation to the Gregorian calendar. 

In some places, like Saudi Arabia, that makes little difference to the number of hours a day Muslims must fast. But what happens in northern countries where there can be up to 24 hours of darkness or light, depending on the time of year? What about in Antarctica, where periods of continuous daylight and continuous darkness last several months? How do Muslims observe Ramadan in places where the sun does not set?

This question has become more pressing as Muslims have ventured further afield from their original Arabian homeland, where the shortest day of the year lasts for around 12 hours and the longest for about 15. Islamic scholars have proffered various solutions. 

The strictest interpretation of the Koran, as argued by Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Scholars, maintains that one must always observe local timings as long as night is distinguishable from day, even if that means fasting for more than 23 hours a day in the summer and for just a few hours during the winter. (The photo shows Kaltouma Abakar, a refugee from Sudan's Darfur province, breaking her fast during the four-hour night in Rovaniemi, a city in northern Finland.) In those places where the sun does not set at all, one must observe the times of the nearest place where it does.

But other scholars argue that this makes for confusion over which city to follow, and that it is anyway unreasonable and not in the spirit of Islam to require people to fast for such long periods. Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, one of the world’s most respected Islamic institutes, has ruled that Muslims should not fast for more than 18 hours a day. “We are not supposed to starve to death,” says Salman Tamimi, head of the Muslim Association of Iceland. 

Some communities, like the 1,000 or so Icelandic Muslims, therefore follow a fatwa (Islamic ruling) which recommends observing the fast times of the 45th parallel. Others, in Alaska and Sweden for example, instead observe the times of Mecca, since that is the place to which the Koran’s verses originally referred, a ruling backed by the European Council of Fatwa and Research. Yet another group of scholars suggests fasting for 12 hours irrespective of the time of year, because an average day offers 12 hours of sunlight.

And what of observing Ramadan from low-earth orbit, where each period of daylight lasts just 45 minutes? In 2007, when Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian astronaut, became the first observant Muslim to go into space during Ramadan, Malaysia’s government published a 20-page booklet of guidelines, confirming that astronauts should follow the same prayer and fasting times as the location from which their spacecraft lifted off—in this case, the Baikonur launch pad. “There is no monolithic standard,” says Imam Abdullah Hasan of the Neeli mosque in Greater Manchester, Britain. “The beauty of Islam is its flexibility.”

Main Article: How do Muslims observe Ramadan in places where the sun does not set?

Mosharraf: The Man behind the Boost of Man Power Export

 The present Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, has not only been able to raise the number of jobs-seeking workers going abroad but also brought about a groundbreaking change in the manpower-export system.

People have been defrauded and have returned home without a penny. They now have to spend much less through the government-to-government arrangement which ensures their jobs abroad, he said.

This government has been sending workers to 157 countries though the previous governments had sent workers to 75 countries.

The minister further said the present government has so far sent 21, 49,466 people with jobs to different countries during January 2009-March 2013 period

A total of 10,50,827 people had been sent abroad with jobs during the regime of the BNP-Jamaat alliance.

The minister spoke about the changes while talking to daily sun Tuesday on issues regarding the manpower export to different countries across the globe.

He said, “When I took over the charge of this ministry, the migration cost was Tk 70,000 for the Middle East countries and Tk 84,000 for Malaysia.”

“But a worker earlier went to Malaysia at a cost of Tk 4 lakh and to an Arab state at a cost of Tk 3 lakh through recruiting agencies.”

“I asked many workers about their migration costs, but no body dared to speak the truth in fear of recruiting agencies lest they lose their jobs abroad. But I found the anomalies and malpractice in the recruiting agencies.”

The minister also said many poor workers have come home losing their jobs abroad.

“I cancelled the licenses of 65 recruiting agencies for issuing fake visas and fined them Tk 20 for the shake of our workers.” 

The ministry’s officials and even the Prime Minister had given directives to stop the malpractice of the recruiting agencies to ease off sufferings of migrant workers.

Then I took some initiatives to send workers abroad for jobs under the state-to-state protocol. 

“I started pragmatic initiatives in sending workers abroad. Bangladesh government signed MoU with Malaysian which assured us of taking 30,000 workers gradually under the protocol without middlemen’s interference.”

For the first time in Bangladesh, those interested to do jobs in Malaysia were asked to do their registrations on online at the Union Information Centres.

The same process was adopted by the government for female workers of Bangladesh. 

The minister firmly said, “I declared the migration cost will be least for the poor workers and I am happy I finally had been able to maintain it.”

“We have trained 10,000 job-seekers for Malaysia. Around 200 people have already left for Malaysia at a cost of Tk 33,550 each.”

He further said more female workers will go to Hong Kong, Oman, Mauritius, Singapore and Arab sates by spending Tk 20,000 to Tk 30,000 each. 

“Total migration cost of each worker will be between Tk 20,000 to 50,000 for jobs in any country of the world. And I will be able to send all registered 14 lakh people to different countries as many new job markets will open within the next two months,” the minister assured.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and other gulf countries have already shown interest in taking workers from Bangladesh under the protocol.


News Link: Mosharraf makes radical change in manpower export system

What am I, actually?

Schizophrenic

If you are too Slow to do any work,
You are called Lazy.
If you are too Fast,
Then you are called Crazy.

If your Imagination eyes not so far,
You are known as Dull.
If your Creativity knows no bound,
You are absolutely renown as Schizophrenic.

Man, what to do at next?
I am really afraid of!
Are we really at an Absolute Equilibrium?


© Enamul Hafiz Latifee
e- mail: enamul.hafiz.sust@gmail.com