History

I notice in today's New Age (I haven't got to the Daily Star yet) says the PM has told bureaucrats and AL politicians to forget development projects. In other words she or her advisers have seen the problems in the earliest call for bid. I'm reading Yunis' autobiography at the moment, which is interesting in many respects although a bit too much puffery for Grameem, but what he has to say about the pitfalls of development remain true, or it seems to me. Its fundamentally a trap.

I'm also reading van Schendel.s History of Bangladesh, which continues to impress me. His take on development is much the same as Yunus although he places it in an historical context.

Yesterday I attended briefly a reading of a story about the Biharis by Mahmud Rahman from his book Killing the Water, the second recent book published by Penguin India by a Bangladeshi author writing in English. Interestingly another diaspora writer for whom Bangla is a challenge. Nice story but it contained an unusual use of language. A triadic relationship exists between the barbarians, us and the indeterminate. The us is the Bengalis, the uncommitted are the Biharis and the barbarians are the Westerners. My immediate reaction was, how are we involved? what have we done wrong this time? and then I realised the westerners referred to the Pakistanis. Interesting, guilt ridden reaction on my part but also an interesting warning about assumptions, context ad language.