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Showing posts from 2009

RIP M Saifur Rahman

The country's longest serving finance minister M Saifur Rahman who steered the Bangladesh economy toward a free market path and presided over series of economic reforms died yesterday in a car crash. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s(BNP) one of the worthy politicians was travelling to the capital when his car spun out of control after the driver tried to skirt a cow on the busy Dhaka-Sylhet highway. Instead, it fell into a five-feet deep ditch with the 77-year-old leader tied up under a seat belt. Local people rescued the ailing leader unconscious but he was declared dead as his body was rushed to Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital at 3.00pm. He apparently failed to untie his seat belt as he was already in ill health due to prostrate cancer. The United States lauded the late leader's "critical role in improving the lives and bringing prosperity to millions of Bangladeshis by opening Bangladesh's economy and promoting free market reforms". A professiona

Jammie Dodger: Jacuzzi

I have a new colleague at my workplace. He works in a different department within the same floor but we chat occasionally to keep track of each other’s wellbeing. He is of sub-continental origin-born and brought up in London. I call him Jammie Dodger- purely because of his funny but likeable character. Jammie Dodger tells us stories that keep all of us at work going in the difficult times. He loves to share his amazing stories. As I have taken the sombre oath of keeping my blog readers entertained, I hereby will share some of his stories. One of the first stories of Jammie Dodger is of his unique experience at his local gym on the night before his ‘A’ level physics exam. He apparently decided to go to his local gym to use the Jacuzzi to ‘let off’ some steam before the difficult physics exam. So there he was in his shorts ‘letting off’ steam. Then he in his own words ‘nodded off’. After a while he woke up with the sound of giggling all around him. He woke up and found out that there wer

Trousers Island

Bangladesh is becoming the ‘Trousers Island’, if not the Treasure Island, for global apparel importers as local manufacturers are sourcing jeans and other cotton trousers at the cheapest prices and maintaining admirable quality, according to ‘New Age’ of Bangladesh. The industry’s strength has weighed up with Bangladeshi exporters occupying the number-one position in the US market of jeans and other cotton trousers in December, industry insiders told New Age. Quoting the latest report of world’s leading market survey organisation Research & Markets, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association officials said by December Bangladesh controlled 13.82% market share in USA. The market surveyor, quoting US official data, showed that in 2008 US importers’ procurement of cotton trousers from Bangladesh totalled 299.9 million pieces, up 26.3% from that of the previous year. Chinese suppliers lost their position to Bangladeshis as their shipments