মুক্তাঙ্গন-এ উপরোক্ত শিরোনামের নিয়মিত এই সিরিজটিতে থাকছে দেশী বিদেশী পত্রপত্রিকা, ব্লগ ও গবেষণাপত্র থেকে পাঠক সুপারিশকৃত ওয়েবলিন্কের তালিকা। কী ধরণের বিষয়বস্তুর উপর লিন্ক সুপারিশ করা যাবে তার কোনো নির্দিষ্ট নিয়ম, মানদণ্ড বা সময়কাল নেই। পুরো ইন্টারনেট থেকে যা কিছু গুরত্বপূর্ণ, জরুরি, মজার বা আগ্রহোদ্দীপক মনে করবেন পাঠকরা, তা-ই তাঁরা মন্তব্য আকারে উল্লেখ করতে পারেন এখানে। ধন্যবাদ।
আজকের লিন্ক
এখানে থাকছে দেশী বিদেশী পত্রপত্রিকা, ব্লগ ও গবেষণাপত্র থেকে পাঠক সুপারিশকৃত ওয়েবলিন্কের তালিকা। পুরো ইন্টারনেট থেকে যা কিছু গুরত্বপূর্ণ, জরুরি, মজার বা আগ্রহোদ্দীপক মনে করবেন পাঠকরা, তা-ই সুপারিশ করুন এখানে। ধন্যবাদ।
৮ comments
মাসুদ করিম - ১ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৫:৫২ পূর্বাহ্ণ)
Return of the Caesars: the making of emperors and dictators
https://www.ft.com/content/b869362f-952a-42cf-9d2b-f97300d235b7
Autocracy is something today’s democracies thought they had left behind, but two books — one focused on antiquity, the other on modern history — shed light on how it is enabled
“Caesars are back, big Caesars and little Caesars, in big countries and little countries, in advanced nations and backward nations. The world seems to be full of self-proclaimed Strong Men strutting their stuff, or waiting in the wings, or licking their wounds and plotting a comeback after their humiliating fall.”
As a snapshot survey of our times, Ferdinand Mount’s opening salvo in his book Big Caesars and Little Caesars is an accurate one. From Washington to New Delhi, from Ankara to Brasília, from Moscow to Budapest, the actual or would-be Caesar struts on to the geopolitical stage. In Mount’s telling, Boris Johnson’s London, too, was a part of this depressing story.
Caesars are also the subject of Mary Beard’s new book, Emperor of Rome. But her focus is on the original ones, the Caesars of antiquity, and the story of the society that brought us not just Julius Caesar, the first “Caesar”, but also his great nephew Octavian, later Augustus, who turned Rome from a republic into an empire. Above all, it describes how the despotism Augustus created, and within which his successor Caesars lived, actually worked.
The two books are very different: Mount’s learned but also journalistic; Beard’s a beautifully written product of a lifetime of deep scholarly learning. But, however different they may be, both shed light on autocracy, a system of government that today’s democracies thought they had left behind forever, and one whose essence is exposed in Beard’s magisterial analysis of the world of the early Roman emperors, who would later be reborn as the tsars, kaisers and emperors of European history.
Mount’s main point is a warning: “We must do our best to head the would-be Caesar off at the pass. We need to be alert to the flaws of an upcoming Caesar: his relentless egotism, his lack of scruple, his thoughtless brutality, his cheesy glitz.” We should put our faith instead in the virtues of the representative assembly, of the messy process of legislation, and of the rule of law. Of course, he is right.
“Caesars are back, big Caesars and little Caesars, in big countries and little countries, in advanced nations and backward nations. The world seems to be full of self-proclaimed Strong Men strutting their stuff, or waiting in the wings, or licking their wounds and plotting a comeback after their humiliating fall.”
As a snapshot survey of our times, Ferdinand Mount’s opening salvo in his book Big Caesars and Little Caesars is an accurate one. From Washington to New Delhi, from Ankara to Brasília, from Moscow to Budapest, the actual or would-be Caesar struts on to the geopolitical stage. In Mount’s telling, Boris Johnson’s London, too, was a part of this depressing story.
Caesars are also the subject of Mary Beard’s new book, Emperor of Rome. But her focus is on the original ones, the Caesars of antiquity, and the story of the society that brought us not just Julius Caesar, the first “Caesar”, but also his great nephew Octavian, later Augustus, who turned Rome from a republic into an empire. Above all, it describes how the despotism Augustus created, and within which his successor Caesars lived, actually worked.
The two books are very different: Mount’s learned but also journalistic; Beard’s a beautifully written product of a lifetime of deep scholarly learning. But, however different they may be, both shed light on autocracy, a system of government that today’s democracies thought they had left behind forever, and one whose essence is exposed in Beard’s magisterial analysis of the world of the early Roman emperors, who would later be reborn as the tsars, kaisers and emperors of European history.
Mount’s main point is a warning: “We must do our best to head the would-be Caesar off at the pass. We need to be alert to the flaws of an upcoming Caesar: his relentless egotism, his lack of scruple, his thoughtless brutality, his cheesy glitz.” We should put our faith instead in the virtues of the representative assembly, of the messy process of legislation, and of the rule of law. Of course, he is right.
Beard lays out the programme of her book almost at the beginning. “In the chapters that follow,” she writes, “I shall track the emperor down through the intriguing world of fiction and fact — from the imperial dinner table to the military frontiers, from his doctors’ reports to his appearance in jokes, satires and dreams, from his office desk to his last words.”
And she delivers on her promise, starting with the emperor’s “job description”, the challenges of succession (which were never solved), the pleasures and perils of imperial dining, the imperial palaces and the role of freedmen and slaves in the imperial court. Imperial decisions and correspondence, the emperor’s staggering wealth, the role of the gladiatorial games and the Circus Maximus are all details.
Readers are given comprehensive descriptions of the nature of imperial travel, especially Hadrian’s, and attempts at military expansion — temporary (such as Trajan’s conquests in the east) or probably worthless (such as Claudius’s conquest of Britain). Not least, she illuminates imperial propaganda, including the system for spreading identical (and highly idealised) statues of emperors across the empire — invented by that political genius, Augustus, as was almost everything else — as well as the practice of declaring (the right) dead emperors to be divine.
Along the way we learn how Augustus managed to dispose of the republic by keeping its institutional forms, shorn of the reality. The empire was divided into the provinces that contained armies, where he appointed the governors, and the provinces that did not, which the senators could share out.
Beard describes how dangerous it was for even the greatest of subjects to irritate an emperor. But she also shows how dangerous it also could be to be the emperor. Life in imperial Rome was perilous.
Beard lays out the programme of her book almost at the beginning. “In the chapters that follow,” she writes, “I shall track the emperor down through the intriguing world of fiction and fact — from the imperial dinner table to the military frontiers, from his doctors’ reports to his appearance in jokes, satires and dreams, from his office desk to his last words.”
And she delivers on her promise, starting with the emperor’s “job description”, the challenges of succession (which were never solved), the pleasures and perils of imperial dining, the imperial palaces and the role of freedmen and slaves in the imperial court. Imperial decisions and correspondence, the emperor’s staggering wealth, the role of the gladiatorial games and the Circus Maximus are all details.
Readers are given comprehensive descriptions of the nature of imperial travel, especially Hadrian’s, and attempts at military expansion — temporary (such as Trajan’s conquests in the east) or probably worthless (such as Claudius’s conquest of Britain). Not least, she illuminates imperial propaganda, including the system for spreading identical (and highly idealised) statues of emperors across the empire — invented by that political genius, Augustus, as was almost everything else — as well as the practice of declaring (the right) dead emperors to be divine.
Along the way we learn how Augustus managed to dispose of the republic by keeping its institutional forms, shorn of the reality. The empire was divided into the provinces that contained armies, where he appointed the governors, and the provinces that did not, which the senators could share out.
Beard describes how dangerous it was for even the greatest of subjects to irritate an emperor. But she also shows how dangerous it also could be to be the emperor. Life in imperial Rome was perilous.
This is right in the large, but not for individuals. The difference between freedom and autocracy is whether one can hope to live unscathed after one ceases to collaborate. At the moment when most people come to believe they cannot, it becomes difficult to stop the collaboration. And so it was that the Roman republic died and the empire was born and endured.
In the western world, no other republic was as successful as the Roman had been before that of the US in the 18th century. Will that republic perish, too? After the attempted coup against the last presidential election, we may now ask ourselves that question.
Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World by Mary Beard, Profile Books £30/Liveright $39.99 512 pages
Big Caesars and Little Caesars: How They Rise and How They Fall — From Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson by Ferdinand Mount, Bloomsbury £20, 304 pages
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https://www.ft.com/content/b869362f-952a-42cf-9d2b-f97300d235b7
“Caesars are back, big Caesars and little Caesars, in big countries and little countries, in advanced nations and backward nations. The world seems to be full of self-proclaimed Strong Men strutting their stuff, or waiting in the wings, or licking their wounds and plotting a comeback after their humiliating fall.”
As a snapshot survey of our times, Ferdinand Mount’s opening salvo in his book Big Caesars and Little Caesars is an accurate one. From Washington to New Delhi, from Ankara to Brasília, from Moscow to Budapest, the actual or would-be Caesar struts on to the geopolitical stage. In Mount’s telling, Boris Johnson’s London, too, was a part of this depressing story.
Caesars are also the subject of Mary Beard’s new book, Emperor of Rome. But her focus is on the original ones, the Caesars of antiquity, and the story of the society that brought us not just Julius Caesar, the first “Caesar”, but also his great nephew Octavian, later Augustus, who turned Rome from a republic into an empire. Above all, it describes how the despotism Augustus created, and within which his successor Caesars lived, actually worked.
The two books are very different: Mount’s learned but also journalistic; Beard’s a beautifully written product of a lifetime of deep scholarly learning. But, however different they may be, both shed light on autocracy, a system of government that today’s democracies thought they had left behind forever, and one whose essence is exposed in Beard’s magisterial analysis of the world of the early Roman emperors, who would later be reborn as the tsars, kaisers and emperors of European history.
Mount’s main point is a warning: “We must do our best to head the would-be Caesar off at the pass. We need to be alert to the flaws of an upcoming Caesar: his relentless egotism, his lack of scruple, his thoughtless brutality, his cheesy glitz.” We should put our faith instead in the virtues of the representative assembly, of the messy process of legislation, and of the rule of law. Of course, he is right.
মাসুদ করিম - ৫ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৪:১৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)
Workers could be the ones to regulate AI
https://www.ft.com/content/edd17fbc-b0aa-4d96-b7ec-382394d7c4f3
As tech titans and lawmakers argue, the Hollywood writers’ strike has shown how employees can set the rules
The debate about who should regulate artificial intelligence has been very top down. Tech titans say they want elected officials to set limits. But Washington had a hard enough time keeping up with targeted advertising and surveillance capitalism. Individual US states have AI regulatory proposals — often corresponding to the big industrial use cases in their areas. European and Chinese authorities are working on ideas, too.
Nobody fully understands the capacities of the new technology, though, which makes it difficult to find the perfect, purpose-built solution.
But one group has just made big progress on constructing some new guard rails — the Writers Guild of America, which represents those striking Hollywood writers who just cut a deal to go back to work. Along with higher wages and residuals and staff minimums, the writers got something arguably even more important: new rules around how the entertainment industry can, and can’t, use AI.
The rules apply to any project using union writers, who get to decide whether they want to use AI in writing or not. Studios also have to disclose to writers if any of the materials given to them were generated by AI — which can’t be used to undermine a writer’s own intellectual property.
This is a very big deal. First, it shows that AI can, in fact, be regulated. While technologists love to act as though they are begging for Washington to step in so that their new products and services won’t blow up the world, the truth is that they spend billions trying to craft a regulatory line that gets them as much legal cover as possible for problems that might occur, while also allowing them to move ahead with innovation. Stakeholder concerns are far less important to chief executives than keeping up with peers in Silicon Valley as well as China.
The second reason the deal is important is that these new rules aren’t being imposed from the top down, but rather the bottom up. Workers who have an everyday experience with the new technology are in a good position to understand how to curb it appropriately.
“Workers know stuff,” says Amanda Ballantyne, director of the AFL-CIO Technology Institute, whom I discussed the developments with at the Code conference on AI last week in southern California. “There is a long history of unions leveraging the knowledge of working people to make better rules around safety, privacy, health and human rights and so on.”
She points out that unions were crucial to the rollout of other transformative technologies, such as electricity, helping to shape new industrial systems to increase safety but also productivity. The Tennessee Valley Authority project of the 1930s was successful in large part because of input from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which had developed in tandem with the new technology. The union made a series of proposals to government about how best to organise the massive project to electrify a chunk of the rural south. Unions were also key to successful industrialisation efforts in the second world war — and developing some of the factory standards that followed.
The idea that workers “know stuff” comes as no surprise to the Germans or Japanese. Both countries used a more collaborative labour model to grab market share from the US auto industry in recent decades. Detroit is often blasted for not incorporating Asian-style lean manufacturing methods early on, but these systems rely on minute-by-minute collaboration between workers and managers, which requires trust — something that’s often lacking in America.
Collective bargaining in the US is contentious, and in some ways, corporate America has the system it deserves — early on, companies opted to simply negotiate around pay, resisting production methods that involved sharing power. But relations between workers and bosses making decisions about new technologies such as AI don’t have to be. In fact, there’s a strong argument that management should be interviewing workers about new technologies as they roll out, to get their sense about what’s helping productivity, undermining privacy, or creating new opportunities and challenges.
At its best, this could develop into a kind of digital kaizen, in which workers and management make incremental changes, slowly but surely growing their understanding of AI together.
Most people understand that if AI isn’t human-centred, and ultimately human labour-enhancing, we’re in for some very ugly politics. One recent academic study found that 80 per cent of the US workforce would have at least some of their work tasks changed by AI. That’s another reason to take a bottom-up approach to managing the new tech. Labour, with day-to-day experience on the front lines of using AI, can help inform the best kind of skills training needed to make sure new tools are a win-win.
And union-led AI regulation looks likely to spread. SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents striking actors, is looking carefully at the AI deal by writers, as are other labour organisations. All of this informs a larger conversation about unions as potential data stewards, protecting the interests of workers and citizens. In both areas, labour could be a useful counterbalance to both Big Tech and the big state.
rana.foroohar@ft.com
মাসুদ করিম - ৬ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৬:৫৯ অপরাহ্ণ)
Where to start with: Jon Fosse
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/05/where-to-start-with-jon-fosse
Having long been tipped as the next Nobel laureate, the Norwegian writer has this year been awarded the prize. For those new to the acclaimed playwright and novelist, here are some good ways in
Where to start with: Jon Fosse
Having long been tipped as the next Nobel laureate, the Norwegian writer has this year been awarded the prize. For those new to the acclaimed playwright and novelist, here are some good ways in
Jon Fosse wins the 2023 Nobel prize in literature
Catherine Taylor
Thu 5 Oct 2023 18.15 BST
First published on Thu 5 Oct 2023 18.14 BST
33
The novelist, playwright, essayist and poet Jon Fosse, 64, is this year’s winner of the Nobel prize in Literature. He is now set to become the world’s best-known Norwegian writer of contemporary fiction, perhaps even overtaking his former student, Karl Ove Knausgård. In his career as a playwright, Fosse has been hailed as “the new Ibsen” – borne out by the fact that his plays are the most widely performed in Norway after Ibsen’s own. Despite years of international acclaim, however, it is only relatively recently that Fosse’s books have begun to reach the mainstream of English translation publishing – so here’s where to begin.
The entry point
Fosse’s powerful (and frequently very short) stories in the collection Scenes from a Childhood span Fosse’s literary career from 1983 to 2013. They serve as an introduction to the central themes of his work – childhood, memory, family, faith – coupled with a strong sense of duality and of fatalism. Fragmentary, elliptical, at times deliberately simplistic, they mark life’s journey from extreme youth to old age. Standouts include Red Kiss Mark of a Letter, And Then My Dog Will Come Back to Me.
If you only read one
In Fosse’s 2023 novella Aliss at the Fire, an old woman, Signe, lies by the fire at her house next to a fjord, dreaming of herself 20 years earlier and her husband, Asle, who rowed out one day on the water in a storm and never came back. It is typical of Fosse – bleak, with a grand use of a repeated central image, that of blackness, and structured around the grip of ancestral history (the Aliss of the title is Asle’s great-great-great-grandmother), doubles and repeated actions: Asle’s grandfather had the same name as him and met the same fate by drowning. Hypnotic and mysterious.
If you’re in a rush
Published in 1989, The Boathouse is the closest thing Fosse has written to a crime novel. The 30-year-old narrator seems to have failed at everything in life – he lives with his mother, is a virtual recluse, doesn’t seem able to do basic things for himself. His most important achievement lies in his past – the rock band he had with his childhood friend Knut, with whom he has lost contact. Yet one summer a chance encounter with Knut, now married and relatively successful, will lead to a devastating denouement. Parallel to this, the narrator is also writing a novel that is an acute observation of every instance of his “restless” existence: a perfect example of the “write, don’t think” maxim as Fosse instructed his students in the late 80s in Bergen, when this book was in the making.
The play
“I can’t help wondering if the cultural gulf between Fosse’s world and our own is too wide,” wrote the Guardian critic when his 1999 play Dream of Autumn had its English language premiere in Dublin in 2006. Much has changed in Europe and the rest of the world in the intervening 17 years, however. The drama’s premise is simple, the undercurrents are not: a man and a woman meet in a graveyard and begin an affair – perhaps they knew one another in a past life. As they leave the graveyard the man’s parents arrive for a funeral and, as is common with Fosse, time leaps forward by years, in a lingering, longing dance of intergenerational circularity.
The one worth perservering with
In Melancholy I and II, Fosse takes us deep into the tortured mind of the 19th-century landscape artist Lars Hertervig, who died impoverished in 1902 in his early 70s, and whose life was blighted by the hallucinations and delusions that made his paintings appear so dreamlike, so sublime. Hertervig first became psychotic as a student at art school in Düsseldorf and, as well as an often terrifying examination of mental illness, the novels (originally published separately but now as one volume) are most significantly about what it means to be an artist. Melancholy I details the young Hertervig’s obsessions, anxieties, and eventual breakdown during one terrible day; Melancholy II acts as a coda, with different narrative perspectives – including that of a would-be fictional biographer – many years after Hertervig’s death.
The masterpiece
The seven books of Fosse’s Septology I-VII (helpfully compressed into three volumes comprising The Other Name, I Is Another and A New Name) centre on Asle, an ageing artist living in remote south-west Norway. A Catholic convert, like Fosse himself, Asle is grappling with time, art and identity. It is an extraordinary work of existential crisis, of memory loss, and persistent doppelgangers, either real or imaginary – the life lived, and the life that might have been lived, in the person of the shadowy other. It’s a frightening and intense read, which is rendered without a sentence break, so that the reader is essentially living Asle’s life with him. Septology is also a work of deep religious faith in which a man, an artist, and a human being, above all, in the end comes full circle: “It’s definitely true that it’s just when things are darkest, blackest, that you see the light.”
মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৬:৪৩ অপরাহ্ণ)
Louise Glück, Nobel-Winning Poet Of Candid Lyricism, Dies At 80
https://www.outlookindia.com/international/louise-gl%C3%BCck-nobel-winning-poet-of-candid-lyricism-dies-at-80-news-324549
A poet of unblinking candor and perception who wove classical allusions, mythology and nature to explore themes of love, loss and survival, Nobel laureate Louise Glück passed away on Friday, aged 80.
Her work was often deeply personal, drawing from her own struggles and seamlessly weaving them with struggles that are universal. With over more than 60 years of published work, Glück forged a narrative of trauma, disillusion, and longing, spelled by moments of ecstasy and contentment.
While awarding her the literature prize in 2020, the first time an American poet had been honored since T S Eliot in 1948, Nobel judges praised “her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” Glück’s poems were often brief, a page or less in length, but exemplars of her attachment to “the unsaid, to suggestion, to eloquent, deliberate silence.”
She was also a recepient of the Pulitzer prize in 1993 for Wild Iris, a book of poems that dealt with themes of suffering, death and rebirth. Her other published works include the collections The Seven Ages, The Triumph of Achilles, Vita Nova and the anthology Poems 1962-2012.
Influenced by Shakespeare, Greek mythology and Eliot among others, she questioned and at times dismissed outright the bonds of love and sex, what she called the “premise of union” in her most famous poem, “Mock Orange.”
“The advantage of poetry over life is that poetry, if it is sharp enough, may last,” she once wrote.
Here is one of her poems titled ‘Crossroads’ from A VILLAGE LIFE
My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer
I begin to feel a new tenderness toward you, very raw and unfamiliar,
like what I remember of love when I was young—
love that was so often foolish in its objectives
but never in its choices, its intensities.
Too much demanded in advance, too much that could not be promised—
My soul has been so fearful, so violent:
forgive its brutality.
As though it were that soul, my hand moves over you cautiously,
not wishing to give offense
but eager, finally, to achieve expression as substance:
it is not the earth I will miss,
it is you I will miss.
মাসুদ করিম - ১৯ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৫:০৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)
Rise of co-working spaces in Dhaka
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/youth-and-entrepreneurship/rise-of-co-working-spaces-in-dhaka
In the bustling heart of Dhaka, a new work culture is emerging, transforming the way freelancers, entrepreneurs, self-employed professionals, remote workers, and even students and researchers approach their workdays. With the rapid surge of these diverse professionals, co-working spaces have become the go-to solution, offering a unique blend of flexibility, community, and productivity.
Who can utilise co-working spaces: In this dynamic city, co-working spaces cater to a broad spectrum of professionals. Startup entrepreneurs managing small or remote teams, remote workers seeking an office-like environment, growing small companies, freelancers, and even part-time professionals juggling work and studies find refuge in these shared spaces. For researchers collaborating with multiple offices across the country, co-working spaces provide a seamless and professional environment.
Why opt for co-working spaces: The allure of co-working spaces in Dhaka is multifaceted. For those with home offices, co-working spaces offer a respite from the distractions of domestic life, especially crucial for individuals with children. Professionals desiring a focused work environment, away from the temptations of home, find solace in these communal hubs. Kamrul Arefin, working for an international NGO, located outside of Bangladesh said, “I am currently using co-working space for my remote job as it gives a feeling of being connected to the community and makes me more productive.” Freelancers, yearning for meaningful connections, appreciate the opportunity to interact with like-minded individuals. Additionally, startups and small businesses, aiming to minimise costs associated with establishing and managing physical offices, turn to co-working spaces as a cost-effective alternative.
Navigating the co-working etiquette: Amidst the shared desks and vibrant energy, observing certain etiquettes ensures a harmonious co-working experience. Respecting others’ space and privacy takes precedence. Minhaz Amin, a web developer working as a freelancer, said, “Most often people using co-working spaces don’t understand that their behaviour might cause disturbance to others, that’s the problem.” Maintaining cleanliness, refraining from loud conversations or gossiping in shared areas, and approaching fellow coworkers for help while respecting their boundaries are fundamental principles. Embracing a healthy balance between focused work and social interactions fosters a collaborative atmosphere.
Co-working spaces in Dhaka: Dhaka has more than 10 actively managed co-working spaces in different parts of the city. Most of the spaces provide daily, monthly, and group package offers, accessible meeting rooms, and business addresses. Moar, located in Banani, Dhanmondi, and Gulshan Link Road, offers Tk 150 per hour service. Per person seat can be taken for Tk 10,000 for a full month. Other packages include 45 hours in a month for Tk 3,000 and 120 hours in three months for Tk 8,000. Co-space located in Banani offers a full month seat for a person for Tk 6,000 and has other packages for teams. Locus, located in Banani and Uttara, offers an hourly rate of Tk 150 per person. They also have daily rates, group offers and many other modest packages suited for different team sizes.
The Business Center located in Gulshan offers various solutions for private offices, co-working spaces, corporate solutions, etc. Akota Co-working is another space located on Gulshan Avenue that offers exciting packages and ambiance including a cafe. The daily rate is Tk 1,500 and the hourly rate is Tk 350 per person. If someone takes monthly packages the costs will go down. Shareon Dhaka is another option for people trying to work from Banani that offers affordable rates. Shoho Studio located at Niketon offers a full-day seat for a person for Tk 450 and a monthly seat for Tk 8,000 among other packages.
People working from Mirpur can opt for Impacthub Dhaka which offers a monthly seat for Tk 9,000 with other available packages. Another one in Dhanmondi is Oasis Co-working Space which offers an hourly rate of Tk 150 and a monthly rate of Tk 10,000 for fixed desks among other packages. Moreover, there are at least three spaces around Badda area in Dhaka namely- Bonik Coworking, Corisers Limited and Shuru Campus that offer modest rates.
While Dhaka’s soaring real estate costs might make traditional office spaces seem unattainable, co-working spaces bridge this gap. Although some view them as expensive, these spaces offer a plethora of amenities. From essential services like printing and scanning to high-speed internet, locker facilities, and a constant supply of tea and coffee, co-working spaces create an atmosphere conducive to productivity and growth. Additionally, these spaces often provide meeting rooms, allowing professionals to host clients and partners in a professional setting.
As Dhaka evolves into a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, co-working spaces stand as symbols of this transformation. They provide not just physical workspaces but thriving communities, fostering collaboration, creativity, and success. In a city where every moment is precious, these shared spaces offer the gift of time-time saved from the hassles of office management, allowing professionals to focus on what truly matters: their work and their dreams.
মাসুদ করিম - ২৬ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৪:১০ পূর্বাহ্ণ)
WTO members to extend trade preferences for graduating LDCs
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/economy/wto-members-to-extend-trade-preferences-for-graduating-ldcs#google_vignette
The General Council (GC) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday reached an important milestone in the global efforts to help the least-developed countries (LDCs) on the path to graduation from LDC status.
The GC adopted a decision on the extension of support measures for graduating countries as senior officials gather at the WTO secretariat in Geneva on 23 and 24 October for a meeting aimed at making preparations for the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13), scheduled for February 2024 in Abu Dhabi, according to a press statement of the WTO.
LDC graduation refers to the point when an LDC meets certain United Nations (UN) development criteria and is no longer defined as an LDC. As the most vulnerable members of the international community, LDCs are accorded special treatment at the WTO, such as enhanced market access opportunities and flexibilities in adopting WTO rules, added the press statement.
The decision encourages WTO members that remove countries from their duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) preference programmes upon graduation from the UN LDC list to provide a smooth and sustainable transition period for the withdrawal of these preferences after graduation.
It marks an important contribution to the implementation of the Doha Programme of Action for LDCs for the period 2022-2031, the statement added.
Welcoming this achievement, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said: “LDC graduation is an important sign of development progress. Today, WTO members reaffirmed their commitment to helping smooth this process for graduating LDCs to prevent any loss of the economic growth and development momentum that had propelled them to graduation. This decision is a significant step towards addressing the particular challenges graduating LDCs face, and will help people from these countries tap into the opportunities that international trade brings. It also is another welcome sign that the wider WTO membership is responding to LDC priorities.”
The chair of the General Council, Ambassador Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana, said: “I would like to congratulate all members, in particular the LDCs, on this successful outcome. Let me also express my appreciation to all members, as well as the current and former LDC Group Coordinators and the Focal Point for LDC Graduation, for their tireless efforts and pragmatism to bring this issue to a close. This is commendable and inspiring, and hopefully puts the work and discussions that lie ahead of us, today and tomorrow, on a positive trajectory.”
Ambassador Kadra Ahmed Hassan of Djibouti, Coordinator of the WTO Group of LDCs, said that the decision will provide “some measure of predictability and trust for those of our members on the road to graduation and further integrating into the trading system.” She further added: “We also hope that we will be able to replicate and emulate what we are about to do with this decision on LDCs to negotiate and to not wait for Ministerial Conferences to have agreements.”
While graduation from LDC status represents an important milestone in their development, LDCs have underscored the challenges they face trying to integrate into the global economy while international support measures are being phased out. Over the past three years, the WTO’s LDC group has been pursuing a smooth transition mechanism in the WTO to extend LDC-specific preferences and provisions in WTO agreements after graduation. Discussions are ongoing in the WTO Sub-Committee on LDCs on other elements of the LDCs’ requests relating to special and differential treatment.
The Coordinator of the LDC Group, Ambassador Kadra Ahmed Hassan of Djibouti, said: “LDC graduation has been a key priority for the WTO LDC Group. This decision provides greater predictability and confidence to countries on the path to graduation and to further integration into the multilateral trading system.”
There are currently 46 LDCs, of which 16 are at different stages of the graduation process. Of these, ten are WTO members (Angola, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Djibouti, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Senegal, Solomon Islands and Zambia) and four are negotiating their terms of entry into the WTO (Bhutan, Comoros, Sao Tomé and Principe, and Timor-Leste). The other two LDCs on the graduation path are Kiribati and Tuvalu.
The Doha Programme of Action for LDCs calls for 15 more LDCs to meet the graduation criteria by the end of the decade.
মাসুদ করিম - ২৬ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৪:১২ পূর্বাহ্ণ)
Bangladesh opts for yuan loans for cost savings
https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/bangladesh-opts-yuan-loans-cost-savings-726790
The Bangladesh Bank has given its consent to proceed with Chinese loan offers in its own currency, the yuan, as a cost-saving alternative to dollar-denominated financing.
The decision follows the finance ministry’s request for the central bank’s assessment of the pros and cons of Chinese loans in yuan versus the traditional US dollar, according to sources of the finance ministry.
In August this year, the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China proposed to finance Preferential Buyer’s Credit-funded projects in its own currency. The proposal emerged in response to the volatile exchange rate of the US dollar, which had depleted the foreign exchange reserves of many countries.
The Chinese government typically extends two types of loans: Preferential Buyer’s Credit (PBC) in US dollars and Government Concessional Loan (GCL) in its own currency. In light of the scarcity and high costs associated with the dollar in the global market, China’s Exim Bank recommended that Bangladesh consider taking PBC loans in yuan.
A senior official at the central bank pointed out that the US Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates to combat inflation. He said if Bangladesh takes loans from China in dollars, the interest rate would be nearly 6%.
In contrast, yuan-denominated loans would cost only 2.5%, offering a significant interest rate advantage, he added.
One Chinese Yuan equals USD 0.14 on 25 October 2023 rate. In other words, $1 is equal to 7.30 Chinese Yuan.
Also, the Bangladesh Bank clarified that Chinese loans do not impact the country’s foreign exchange reserves as these are typically used to purchase goods from China, and the import payments are made directly by the lending bank to the supplier’s bank in China. The central bank official explained that opting to repay in yuan instead of dollars could result in an exchange gain, further enhancing the financial benefits of this decision.
What experts say
MA Razzaque, research director at the Policy Research Institute, told The Business Standard that Bangladesh typically repays loans in US dollars. However, since the interest rate on yuan-denominated Chinese loans is lower, the country could save money by purchasing yuan from its reserves and using it to repay the loans. This would also reduce the depletion of its reserves.
“When importing goods, we should compare prices with those of other countries. If the price from China is lower or equal, then it is beneficial for us,” the economist said. “We must use Chinese loans in a way that increases our export earnings. If we spend these loans on infrastructure, the output from those projects may be low, which will put pressure on our loan repayments.”
When asked whether borrowing in yuan would have any geopolitical implications, he replied, “If China’s loans are used to finance exports, I don’t see any geopolitical problems. However, if these loans are used to fund projects that increase China’s influence, geopolitical concerns may arise.”
MA Razzaque said the central bank has carefully reviewed the overall feasibility of Chinese debt, adding, “If we clearly discuss the terms and conditions with all stakeholders before taking yuan loans from China for future projects, there will be no geopolitical implications.”
Finance ministry’s views on yuan loans
The finance ministry’s review found that, under China’s loan rules, Preferential Buyer’s Credit loans can be used to purchase 65% of construction materials and 40% of electronics materials from outside China, but the outward import bills must be paid in yuan. This requires Bangladesh to convert US dollars into yuan, which introduces currency conversion risk and could increase the actual cost of the project.
It also noted that Bangladesh’s export income from China is $1 billion, while its import expenditure is around $16 billion. This trade is conducted in US dollars, which limits the opportunities for Bangladesh to obtain yuan.
What central bank says in its reply to finance ministry
The Bangladesh Bank wrote to the finance ministry that due to the US Federal Reserve’s high policy rate, global interest rates on US dollar loans have increased significantly. The country’s foreign exchange market faces several challenges in terms of US dollar demand and supply. Currently, taking loans from China in yuan instead of the dollar would result in lower interest rates, exchange gains, and the need to purchase yuan with dollars. In that case, China’s debt could be accepted in yuan.
The Bangladesh Bank has expressed its preference for yuan-denominated loans, citing China’s central bank’s ongoing policy of reducing interest rates as a part of its expansionary monetary strategy aimed at stimulating GDP growth. As an example, last August, the one-year loan prime rate saw a 10-basis-point reduction to 3.45%. Consequently, the yuan is anticipated to weaken against the US dollar.
When asked if Bangladesh is inclined towards yuan-denominated loans, Mezbaul Haque, spokesperson for the central bank, declined to comment, stating, “I am not informed about this matter.”
The central bank said since 2016, the yuan has been included in the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket. It also said Bangladesh has paid a total of 3.66 billion yuan from 2018-2023 against the yuan loan received from China. As a result, there will be no problem with repaying debt in yuan in the future.
Chinese loan status in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has received 17 billion yuan (equivalent to $2.5 billion) in yuan loans, of which 3.2 billion yuan has been repaid in principal and interest, according to data from the finance ministry.
Bangladesh currently has 10 projects in the pipeline with Chinese financing. Of these, Bangladesh has already agreed to receive 9.49 billion yuan (equivalent to $1.32 billion) in yuan for six projects. China has now proposed to provide $2.87 billion (equivalent to 20.65 billion yuan) in yuan for the remaining four projects. If Bangladesh accepts these loans in yuan, its total debt in the Chinese currency will amount to 45.84 billion yuan.
মাসুদ করিম - ২৯ অক্টোবর ২০২৩ (৪:৫৪ পূর্বাহ্ণ)
Eminent climate expert Prof Saleemul Huq passes away
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/329352/eminent-climate-expert-prof-saleemul-huq-passes
Professor Saleemul Huq, eminent climate change expert and director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), passed away in Dhaka on Saturday night. He was 71.
He died due to a massive cardiac arrest around 10pm at his Gulshan residence, according to family sources.
His namaz-e-janaza will be held after Asr prayers at Gulshan Society Mosque.
Apart from being a director of ICCAD, he was a professor at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB).
In a Facebook post, ICCAD wrote: “A visionary leader who was not only the torch bearer for Bangladesh’s fight against Climate Change but for the entire global community, his unmatched legacy will remain as a shining example for years and generations to come.”
Climate scientist Saleemul Huq was chosen as one of the top ten scientists of 2022 by Nature, the leading international science journal.
Born in 1952, Dr Saleemul received his early education in Germany, Indonesia, and Kenya.
He later went and received BSc in Botany from the Imperial College at London University in the United Kingdom in 1975, and a DIC as well as a PhD in Botany from the same university in 1978.
He was an expert in the field of climate change, environment and development. He worked extensively in the inter-linkages between climate change mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development, from the perspective of developing countries, particularly in the least developed countries (LDCs).
He was a lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and was one of two coordinating lead authors of ‘Inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation’ in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (2007).
Dr Huq attended all sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
He had been actively engaged as an adviser on adaptation, loss and damage and climate finance to the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in the UNFCCC and provided training to LDC negotiators.
He had also been involved as a board member of Climate Vulnerability Forum under UNFCCC.
He was awarded the 2020 National Environment Award by the Government of Bangladesh for his contribution to the development of the environment.
Huq was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to combating international climate change.