South Asian Countries Barring Sri Lanka and Maldives Score Low in Sanitation

Except Sri Lanka and Maldives, other South Asian countries are struggling to ensure good sanitation system for its population, and thus, failing to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

WaterAid, an organization working for ensuring sanitation and safe water for the poorest people in every corner of the world, has revealed that 1,027 billion of total 1,595 inhabitants in South Asia are currently not using good sanitation system, and thus, exposing themselves to various health-related problems.

However, the South Asian countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives have improved sanitation system, and the condition in these two countries are far better than its neighbors like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan.

World Health Organization (WHO) has clearly said that a country can ensure a return of $9 for the investment of every US dollar to ensure good sanitation system and safe water for the people. By lowering the death and illnesses of the people caused by the poor sanitation system, a country can lead towards a healthy economy too.

Performance of India in World Cup 2011 and AD Revenue for TV Channels

Indian national cricket team is a hot-cake when it comes to advertising revenue for television channels during a major cricket tournament like Cricket World Cup. Advertisers and television channels are now busy with another 50-over World Cup coming nearer. This time the tournament will take place in South Asia and India is one of the three hosts. So, the craze for cricket is very high in India at the moment.

However, television channels did have a bitter experience in the 2007 World Cup that took place in West Indies. Indian cricket team was knocked out of the tournament at the group stage and their failure to reach the Super Eight round was a crucial blow for the television channels like Set Max, SAB TV and DD as well as for the advertisers. India lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and experienced an early exit from the tournament. Set Max suffered a loss of around Rs 70 to 80 crore as India’s World Cup mission ended just after 3 games.

This time ESPN and Start Sports hold the TV rights of the World Cup and they would try to avoid the fate Set Max suffered 4 years back. However, a lot would depend on the performance of Indian cricket team in the tournament.

World Population Day 2010: It is time to Fight for South Asia

Without any doubt, South Asia is the most densely populated region on earth. It has around 20% of world population and it is increasing. Hunger, poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, unemployment are very natural and direct by products of excessive population in any country. South Asia is not an exception to this. World Population Day 2010 will be observed on 11 July.

India has nearly 1.1 billion people is in the course to slowly overtake China and emerge as the most populous country on earth. Pakistan has now 180 million people and Bangladesh has 160 million. For these 3 countries, excessive population is indeed the largest problem for the economy.

Things are not good for the 3 more countries (Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan) either. Bhutan and Maldives are not suffering from this problem yet.

The theme of World Population 2010 is ‘Everyone Counts’. UNFPA in its press release stated:

"Counting everyone is an integral part of ensuring that we take everyone into account. Good demographic data is critical for planning schools, health systems and public transportation, for designing policies based on future population projections, for monitoring the effectiveness of service delivery and much more."

It is time to really try for South Asia. United Nations Population Fund should allocate some more funds for rural areas of the region.

Excessive population in rural areas is a recipe for future disaster. The same goes for big cities too. There are millions of people living in slums and streets of big cities like Dhaka, Kolkata, Karachi, Mumbai etc. Most of them do not have access to clean water and electricity.

South Asian governments should also come forward and exchange ideas about population control. It is not too late but when it becomes too late then everyone will suffer.

Google Adsense Payment by Western Union Still Missing in South Asia

Google Adsense is surely the most popular thing when it comes to online advertisement. Adsense is very popular among website, blog and forum owners in South Asia just like other parts of the world. Thousands of publishers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are using this program to monetize their website. However, the sad thing is that Adsense Payment by Western Union is still not available for most publishers in South Asia.

A quick look at the list of countries that come under Payment by Western Union Quick Cash category would show that only Pakistan is in that list. In other words, Pakistani publishers can have this facility. So, they can get their earning very fast as with Western Union the money reaches to the receiver within a matter of few hours.

India is the biggest market for Google in South Asia. So, it is not clear why Indian publishers still cannot receive the payment through Western Union. Perhaps, Indian central bank officials should talk to Google about it as the company has strong presence in India. It is notable that a few months ago, there was some problem with Paypal because of change of rules by the Reserve Bank of India. So, it is the Reserve Bank of India that can come forward to talk to Google so that similar problem does not happen if the company gives the facility to Indian publishers in future.

Google does not have any office in Bangladesh but now a days, many website owners in the country use Adsense for monetizing. Western Union is present in the country for the last few years but Bangladeshi publishers cannot get Adsense earnings through Western Union yet. In fact, Western Union carries out television ads to encourage people to send money to Bangladesh through its service. So, it is time that the company takes the step and makes this facility available for publishers in Bangladesh.

Finally, payment through Western Union was made available to Nepalese publishers in June 2009 and just after one year it was disabled in June 2010. However, it seems that there was no problem from the side of Google but Central Bank of Nepal had some issues and this service was discontinued in Nepal. 

South Asian region would have faster economic growth in 2010-11

On June 7, 2010, World Bank published its first yearly assessment of the economies of the South Asian region. The report said that South Asia would observe a 7 percent growth in 2010 and 8 percent in 2011 which makes it the “second-fastest growing region” after East Asia and Pacific.

In 2011, Sri Lanka would observe higher than 6% economic growth, India 9, Bangladesh 6.4%, and Bhutan 7%. Emerging markets would play a major role in economic growth.

The report said that South Asia’s “particular strengths and forms of global integration” is a major factor behind its resilience following the economic recession of 2008.

Andrew Steer, World Bank Acting Chief Economist for the South Asia Region said, “Over the past fifteen years the region has become much more open-and it appears that the form of openness it has chosen has provided resilience in the face of recent shocks……Financial systems proved to be robust with limited exposures to overseas subprime markets. Remittances, exports of goods and services such as in the IT and garment sectors, and foreign direct investments kept up during the crisis. At the same time, policy response in most countries played a key role in boosting confidence and accelerating recovery."

Ernesto May, Sector Director for Economic Policy for the South Asian Region said that the region is facing a very different global economy over the medium term. He said that out of the current crisis, a “new normal” would emerge as developing countries are saving more and spending less. Countries like Europe and North America are making huge fiscal and financial adjustment. In such a condition, Asia and other emerging markets will play more important part in economic growth.

Blogging has grown Exponentially in most parts of South Asia

Around one-fifth of world population live in South Asia but the number of blogs from South Asia is still not that significant. Blogging in regional languages (Bangla, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu etc) of South Asia could not even make in to the report of The State of the Live Web, April 2007. Rezwan is Regional Editor for South Asia and he has been trying for five years to promote Blogs and Bloggers from the region. He covers South Asian Blogosphere almost on a day to day basis in Global Voice Online. 

Rezwan has a personal blog called The 3rd world view. He recently gave an interview to South Asia Blog about blogging in South Asia and Bangladesh. Here is the interview for the readers:

You are perhaps one of the very first bloggers from Bangladesh. What inspired you to start your own blog in 2003 and kept on blogging until now?
I learnt about blogs from a daily newspaper and started to explore. When I read other blogs from around the world I found that there were huge misconceptions about Bangladesh, mainly due to the absence of Bangladeshi voices on the internet. So I had the urge to comment on those blogs negating those misconceptions. I soon started my own blog and started to provide my opinions about my country and on what is happening around me. 
 
Now looking back to the last 7 years, how would your describe your experience as a blogger? 
During the first few years there were not many strong voices from Bangladesh. So I felt some kind of compulsion to write on burning issues back then. Now a days, there are so many good blog writers around so I feel relieved and feel that those issues are covered. However I tend to write on issues that require publicity or awareness. From mere daily ruminations blogging is for me a way of activism now. I use Facebook or twitter more to jot down my momentary feelings or thoughts.
 
What do you think is the current condition of blogging in Bangladesh right now?
Blogging has become popular among the younger generations in Bangladesh. Especially they prefer to blog in their mother tongue, Bangla which is understandable. In the near future the government will provide computers to every school in the country. So we will see an explosion in blogging. But we need to channel those interests in right paths. We need to provide them established and cause driven platforms (like environmental blogging) so that they do not get lost or waste time. 
We are also witnessing that the number of bloggers who write in English have decreased. So there is a peril that our voices will not reach the world audience. We need to take initiatives to build the bridge, sites like Global Voices Online can provide that bridge. I hope someday online services like Google will provide translations from Bangla to other languages, which can provide a solution. 
 
If we look at the blogosphere in Bangladesh, we will see that the community blogs like Somewherein, Amarblog, Prothom Aloblog, Sachalayatan (although they don’t call themselves a Community blog) are successful but we do not see personal blogs that are read by hundreds of people every day. What do you think is the reason? How can individual Bloggers in Bangladesh become successful?  
Community blogging is popular in many countries in a big way like Russia and China. In Bangladesh, we are now witnessing theme based closely knit community blogs like Cadet College blog, which is the way forward in my opinion. These can establish a good trend and contribute to the society. 
Now a days, we have so many blogging platforms and it is hard to follow good blog posts. Out of 100 blog posts you might find 5 to 10 worthy of your taste (depending on sites). 
In community blogs, a blogger sometimes feel confined. The community sites also have restrictions on double posting or the nature of postings. So I think it is handy for a blogger to have their own space where all of their writings are archived. It will be easy for his/her readers to follow his works without missing anything. That will also be a measure of popularity and success of bloggers.
 
You have been related to Global Voice Online as the Regional Editor for South Asia for a long time and you are informing the world about the blogs of South Asian Bloggers on a day to day basis. How has blogging grown in South Asia in the last 5 years? 
My efforts at Global Voices are to overcome the language and regional barriers and bridge the local blog voices with the world audience by highlighting, translating and contextualizing. Blogging has grown exponentially in most parts of South Asia as internet is becoming cheap and accessible day by day. But unlike the western world we have seen less politicians or bureaucrats using blogs in their daily affairs. The leader of the opposition in Bhutan parliament blogs. But what about India, Pakistan or Bangladesh?   
 
At this moment, you are attending Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Chile. Can you share some words about the event?
Global Voices consists of top internet activists from different parts of the world. This is a meet of more than 150 bloggers from above 60 countries of the world. This was sort of a mini UN meet where we finally put a face on the familiar names and get to understand each other well.
In the summit we discussed about online freedom, impact of citizen media, censorship, activism, social media's role in conflict reporting etc. You can get details from the summit site (http://summit2010.globalvoicesonline.org/)
 
Who is your favorite blogger in Internet and why? 
I can't answer that question. Because in my rss reader, there are literally a few thousand bloggers from South Asia and across the world listed. I sometime get lost in them and there are simply too many good bloggers/blogs to name.
 
In India, professional blogging has flourished quite a bit but in Bangladesh, blogging has not become yet an income source for most Bloggers. How can we change this scenario? Is it possible for Global Voice Online to take a project to train up Bangladeshi bloggers so that they can earn money from blogging? 
We have got an interesting debate in Global Voices about blogging and money. Our volunteer authors across the world are quite popular and accomplished bloggers in their communities and most of them have their own separate profession. They blog for passion and activism but not necessarily for money. We realized that if we had enough money and could recruit other authors in place of these volunteers, we would not have so much quality content as when it becomes a mere job usually the focus and intensity deteriorates and the quality falls.
 In India there are some citizen media models which offer some amount of money for the citizen journalists' contents. But I must say that those are not the right kind of model that can compensate a really good blog writer comparing to a novice writer. Their models are mere business models but not focused or cause driven. I think to enable Bangladeshi bloggers to earn money we need to have services like Adsense in Bangla, Paypal etc. to start with. In Western world the blogger who gets more than 20,000 visitors a day probably gets enough money from advertisements to sustain his/her living. But in Bangladesh's context, if the medium is in Bangla - will we have that many readers so that one blogger can sustain from advertisement?
 But I see a promising scope for bloggers in Bangladesh. In Western world, there are some professional bloggers who are employed by NGOs, corporations and other institutions to write about specific issues. Our NGOs are sadly much behind in terms of social media. I think the donors can assert that the these NGOs should have blogs and will require to publish the opinions of the end users/recipients in blog posts/podcasts. Then the NGOs will have to recruit bloggers to perform these tasks. This can be a good career opportunity for the budding bloggers in Bangladesh.
Global Voices can certainly help train bloggers but for the earning model the local bloggers should take the initiative. We have projects in different parts of the world (including Bangladesh) undertaken by our outreach arm Rising Voices. We provide small grants to local bloggers who train citizen media techniques to disadvantaged societies. Some of the projects ceased to exist and some flourished - we have produced more bloggers nonetheless. We funded HiperBarrio, a grassroot project in Colombia (http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/category/projects/hiper-barrio/)  which has now become a registered NGO and is carrying on with their training workshops funded by local government and other NGOs.
 
You lived for the last few years in Germany. Now, you are in Indonesia. What are major differences between these two countries that you can find as a foreigner?
Germany is of course a large social welfare state with less people and more accumulation of wealth. The most remarkable thing is that they value their dignity and pride as a nation. A typical German will refuse to take what they don't earn. They are a rule based society and your neighbor will remind you if you break the law. They are a hard working nation and these traits have contributed to their progress. 
I find Indonesia a lot closer to Bangladesh, the only difference is that the Indonesia is a big country and the government has more resources. Rampant corruption, traffic, bad customer service, lazy office staffs etc found here are all familiar to us. In fact I think corruption is far more widespread here than Bangladesh. The irony is that in Transparency International index our country seems to be more corrupt because it is a perception based index. In Indonesia paying bribe to a government official is seen as a part of the culture - its termed as a gift. So in the perception index Indonesia have a better position than us. But I must admit that the people here are tolerant to other culture. Indonesia is really a model Muslim nation and it is evident from how they treat minorities. Most foods have halal certificate (including water :) here and yet there are choices of wine and pork for the other religions in a local departmental store. Indonesians don't bother if two girls are sitting in a bus next to each other, one is wearing a hijab and one is wearing a mini skirt. 
 

A day of Blogging about South Asia

As I am a professional blogger, I have to write about several topics in several blogs. For example, yesterday, I wrote 5 entries in 5 blogs. Today, I am going to write only in this blog: South Asia Blog. Right now, in my city, load shedding (power cut) is at its worst. Yesterday, there was no electricity for 8 hours. I have a laptop but it works only for 30 minutes. I made a very big mistake when I bought the laptop one year ago. I should have gone for a laptop that works for at least 3 hours.

Anyway, I am going to write only in this blog today. So, if you are by any chance reading this entry and visiting this blog now, try to come back later in the day to get some more entries. Hopefully, we can update it a lot today.

By the way, I was listening to this song now in YouTube: Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi

If you have time then listen to it. It is very beautiful. 

Coming back to South Asia after a Global Blogging Tour

Don’t get fooled by the title. I did not go any country but stayed in my own country for most of my life. In fact, the last time, I went to another country was 4 years ago and in the last3 years, I have confined to my own city. So, what this entry all about? What am I trying to say here? Yes, I surely have something to say.

It was March 2006 that I started professional blogging (making a living with it). I started writing for Know More Media Blog network for their blog, SouthAsiaBiz.com. It was a blog about South Asian Business. The blog became successful after 11 months of effort and then I could enjoy huge traffic for the next 10 months, it had over 2.2 million page views. The traffic of the 10 months should clearly tell you that it was a huge success. Then, I started writing in different blogs about different topics. I wrote about sports, movies and laptops in different blogs. I started this blog (South Asia Blog) 13 months ago and I used all my knowledge about blogging to make it successful. It achieved some modest success too. In 13 months, the blog had more than 760,000 page views, 1,600+ Feedburner Subscribers, Google Page Rank 6 and 6 followers. So, it is more or less a successful blog.

The only regret I have is that I did not totally try for it. I tried t spread myself too thin and as a result, this blog did not get enough attention and effort from me. I was thinking today that it could have had more than 2 or even 3 million page views in the last 13 months. It could have more than 10,000 Feedburner subscribers. After all, South Asia is the topic that I enjoy and love to write more than any other thing. When there is good traffic then there is good money too. Thus, I would not have to worry about money either.

My long illness has perhaps helped me but more than that it was my wife who asked me to come out the pressure of managing a small blog network and start to write for fun and enjoyment. Then, I thought that which blog could give me this thing? I did not need to think more than one minute. The answer was South Asia Blog or this blog. I always enjoy writing abut South Asia. This is the field that I feel very passionate and in the past, I could make another two blogs on the same topic very successful. So, why not dedicate my entire time, effort and energy for this blog? After all, I know very well that I can create useful content on South Asia easily.  

I am going to do that from now on. I am going to work on this blog only and totally try to make it successful. Of course, I cannot do it alone and I need all the support from all of you. Please, try to visit this blog on a regular basis and whenever possible please comment on the entries. Feel free to criticize me whenever you want.

Thus, I feel that after a long and exhausted global tour, I am coming back to South Asia for peace and comfort. 

India Expecting a Rise in Oil and Gas Output

Murli Deora, the minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has revealed that India’s output of crude oil will increase by 9.6% to around 734,000 barrels per day. The minister has also said that gas output could also reach at 50.21 billion cubic meters, a 53% increase.

Wall Street Journal reported:

The crude oil output total will be boosted by Cairn India Ltd., a unit of Cairn Energy PLC, which began output at its Mangala oil field in the northwestern state of Rajasthan at the end of August, Murli Deora told reporters.

India’s gas output will be increased mainly because of the increased production at the Krishna Godavari basin, located at the east coast of the country.

Gold Price Reaches a New High Following IMF Decision to Sell Gold to India

Prices of Gold and other precious commodities have been increased with investors becoming increasingly reluctant to US dollars. However, gold price has reached an all-time high recently following IMF’s decision to sell 200 tonnes of gold to India. India has comparatively little gold compared to their huge foreign exchange reserve. IMF would sell further 200 tonnes of gold over the next few years, but it is not yet clear who would be the buyer.

BBC reported:

"The question now is, who buys the rest of the IMF gold?" Bart Melek at BMO Capital Markets said in a note to clients.

"We suspect it may be China, other Asian countries, Russia or even India again, as they hold relatively little gold relative to their very large foreign exchange reserves, and may want to diversify away from US dollars."

It is pretty much naturally that gold price would increase because October-December is the festival season in most part of the world due to Christmas and in India because of Diwali festival. Now, let us see if it the gold price would come down in the coming weeks.

A Day of Sporting Action for The Fans

Tomorrow is Sunday, 25 October 2009. If you are a sports fan in India then it is perhaps your day. At first, there is India vs Australia 1st ODI 2009 (starting time is 9:00 AM India time) and then Liverpool vs Manchester United match (kick off time is 13:00 GMT). The day being a Sunday is a holiday in most parts of South Asia (except perhaps Bangladesh). There is another EPL football match West Ham United vs. Arsenal. There are many fans of EPL clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in South Asia. On the other hand, for cricket fans in India, the first ODI is of huge importance.

Last month, India suffered an early exit from Champions Trophy 2009 organized by ICC. It caused too much in the heart of all the fans in the country. On the other hand, Australia became champion in this event. Thus, it was like an insult to injury. Indian fans are sick tired of Champions League T20 arranged by BCCI. They want international action and from the Sitemeters of my two blogs, I can realize that this ODI series has generated a lot of interest among the fans.

Thus, as you can see that there are 3 matches to enjoy tomorrow. You can watch them live in different TV channels. So, what match are you going to enjoy tomorrow? 

India Planning to Build 50 Weather Stations in the Neighboring Countries

In order to observe the climatic changes and variations, India is now going to build 50 weather stations in the neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. SAARC environment ministers have agreed on the plan during a meeting held in New Delhi on 20 October 2009. Some other important decisions were taken ahead of December’s Copenhagen climate summit where SAARC countries are going to raise awareness among the global community about the climatic change and its devastating effect on the countries of this region.

Samaylive reported:

The eight countries that form the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)-Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka-also decided they would form a bloc at the Copenhagen climate summit this December to make a statement and hold an event there "to highlight our vulnerabilities to climate change and the actions we are taking", Ramesh said.

The recently-held two-day meeting also brought out some other important decisions. Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh has declared that India is going to pay $1 million for the SAARC forestry centre located in Bhutan and $1 million for the SAARC coastal zone management centre in Maldives.

Maldives Government Held a Cabinet Meeting under Indian Ocean to Create Awareness about Global Warming

We know that Maldives is facing a huge threat for its survival in the near future as sea level rise caused by global warming could submerge the country. Many things have been written and said about this issue. Even, global community also raised their voice against global warming, showing their unity with the island country. Recently, Maldives government has taken an unprecedented initiative to create more concern about the issue.

Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed has recently held a special cabinet meeting with eleven of his cabinet ministers under the Indian Ocean. It has been one of the many attempts taken by Maldives government to create awareness among the global community about global warming and the volatile future of the country which is the lowest-lying nation in the world.

Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009 is coming up next and there is no doubt, Maldives government is trying to attract the attention of global community regarding the condition of the country by taking this recent initiative. Now, let us see if the latest attempt can make a significant effect on Maldives battle against global warming.

If you are an ardent football fan, then you could enjoy an article written on tomorrow’s Champions League match between AZ Alkmaar and Arsenal.

Related article:

democracynow

Infosys CEO to Participate in a Summit in Washington

The National Energy Summit & International Dialogue will be held in Washington later this month. S. Gopalakrishnan from India is going to take part in the summit and has been included in the panel of speakers who would give their speeches in a dialogue titled The Business Case for Pursuing Sustainability Strategies. All other speakers in the panel are from very distinguished business background.

S. Gopalakrishnan is one of the founders of Infosys Technologies Limited, one of the leading IT companies in India. He was instrumental behind the success of the company through his excellent leadership skill. He will highlight the advantages of sustainable business practices in his speech that he would present at the council.

Related article:

Reuters

Business Relation between India and Sweden Getting Stronger

A report released by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) claims that India-Sweden business bond will get stronger in the years to come. The bilateral trade between the two countries was worth $2.7 billion until 2007-08 business year, a four-time increase since 2002-03 business year. It is expected that the bilateral trade between India and Sweden would double within next 5 years as there are a number of potential sectors including electrical and electronic equipment, environment, food processing and infrastructure where business between the two countries can grow over the next few years.

In the space of nine years, ranging from April 2000 to May 2009, Swedish investment in India increased to $500 million and there is every possibility it could grow in the coming years. There is also an indication of increase in Indian investment in the Scandinavian country in the sector of IT and pharmaceutical.

Anand Sharma, the Commerce and Industry Minister of India, would tour Sweden very soon and the report of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will be released in Sweden during his visit. Mr. Sharma, along with his other members of the Indian delegation, would hold several meeting with Sweden’s Trade minister Ewa Bjorling. Industry leaders of both the countries would also hold talk regarding potential sectors where business can grow in future.

Related article:

thaindian

Economic Recession: 10 Similarities Between America and South Asia

South Asia is one of the poorest regions of earth and I live here. It has nearly 1.5 billion people living in 8 countries and India alone has over 1 billion people. Then there are Bangladesh and Pakistan with 150 million people each. South Asiais also home to the largest number of poor people on earth and for millions of people, life is like a struggle for getting 3 meals a day. Now, USA and other western countries are suffering from economic recession and today, I was thinking that this ongoing economic recession is bringing some changes in the life style of rich countries like USA and Japan. I felt that these changes in the rich countries may bring the people closer to South Asian people. I have made a list of 10 things in this regard.

1. Living with parents: I was reading this earlier today: Daughter’s job loss brings her home

Dear Harriette: My 24-year-old daughter recently lost her job and asked if she could move back into our family home. She has lived with her boyfriend for the past three years, and he is not working, either. Her plan is that they will share her childhood bedroom. Under my roof? I know she has lost her mind! — Diane,E. Lansing

This looks like a shocking thing for both the mother and the daughter in a country like America. However, for millions of young people in South Asia, it is a part of life. We live with our elders in most cases. This is still not shocking in any society of South Asia. I guess that some American young men and women will perhaps be forced to be like us at least for the time being.

2. Turning to Religion: In South Asia, people turn to religion in times of despair. They pray a lot. They visit shrines with the hope of getting heavenly blessing. In the Western countries, people are much less religious compared to South Asian people. Today, in BBC or CNN, I watched a report that in Japan, many people are now visiting religious shrines and donating money with the hope that it can help them. You can read this too: Americans find hope in religion

3. Unemployment: South Asia is famous for high unemployment rate. You can find many people living in the streets in the big cities. You can find many people without land in the rural areas. Well, things are not so bad in the western countries but still, many people in USA and Europe are losing jobs. Just read the two reports:

Indian Exporters May Cut 10 Million Jobs

2008 Job Losses Probably Worst Since 1945

4. Less Consumption and less Luxury: I live in Bangladesh and I belong to Middle Class income group here. My family does not own a car. We have no washing machine, just one refrigerator, no Oven. We cannot dream of going to a foreign country even once in a decade. Going to movies is like an annual event rather than weekly entertainment. I still could not get a laptop and buying a laptop is like a dream for me. The on going economic recession is forcing people in the west to spend less money. At least, car sales figures showed a significant drop.

5. Government bailout and subsidy: Let us turn our attention to politics and economy. Western government officials often prescribe to third world countries that they should eliminate economic subsidy and should not bailout any sick industry. In the last few weeks, we have seen governments in USA and Europecoming out in support (bail out) of some big banks and auto industry.

6. Budget deficit: All over South Asia, two organizations suffer a lot of criticism- World Bank and IMF. These two organizations are strong supporters of free market economy and capitalism. They are also against any kind of budget deficit. Now, in USA, Budget deficit to reach $1.2 trillion. Still, US government perhaps cannot afford to listen to the prescriptions of IMF and World Bank because of growing pressure from the ordinary people. The same thing happens in South Asia too.

7. Seeking Second Job: In my city, house rent consumers a major portion of monthly salary for most people. For example, for many years, I worked for 30 days and got the salary or wage on the first week and then brought the money to home and gave it to my landlady. Then, work for the next month and repeating the same ritual. I felt lucky when I could find a second job/project. This is a common story for many of my friends and relatives. Now, it seems that similar thing is happening in the US too: Many seek second job in recession.

8. Social Unrest: This is nothing new for us in South Asia. We are used to seeing people going to the street and violence taking place. One of the common reasons for social unrest is poverty and unemployment. Fortunately, it has not happened in America or in Europe yet but it may happen sooner rather than later if the on going economic term oil continues for a long time.

9. Uncertainty: In all the big cities of South Asia, thousands of people live in the streets. Even many middle class people cannot dream of buying a home or even an apartment. Our life is always full of uncertainty. Just a big disease is enough to make us very poor as health insurance is not that much common. On the other hand, people in the Western countries have social security and stability in life. The death of a father does not result in the end of education for the children. The economic recession has been able to bring some kind of uncertainty for them.

10. Difficult Loan: People living in rich countries have no idea how difficult it is for us to get any kind of loan from bank. Most of us do not have any credit card. So, we are often at the mercy of fate to pass on difficult times. I see that Americans are finding it difficult to get easy loan too: Mortgage rates are low, but loans difficult to get

I wish that the economic crisis finishes within the next few months but I see hardly any scope to be hopeful. If you are from a rich country then remember that millions of people living in South Asia have even worse condition than you.

(This entry was first published in January 8, 2009. Because of a technical problem, the entry had to be deleted and I am reposting again now.)