Diplomats and traffic
Re: "Diplomats and traffic," by A diplomat's wife (Sept. 8).
The diplomat's wife is absolutely right when she says: " The cars owned by embassies, and the gas to run them, are paid for by the taxpayers of the home country. The international NGOs pay for their own cars and, so far as I know, they are not subsidised by the government of Bangladesh. If the local taxpayer is paying for any SUVs, it will be the ones owned and operated by their own government. And, I would be willing to bet that these far outnumber the ones owned by the accused foreign diplomats."
All the expenditures incurred by diplomatic missions in Bangladesh are paid by their respective Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates. The same is true about foreign NGOs. If they are indulging in high living, only taxpayers in their countries can complain about them. As a Canadian (I presume that Mr. Shabbir A. Bashar, like myself, has taken Canadian citizenship) can complain about any high living by Canadian diplomats stationed in Dhaka in Canadian newspapers or as a Bangladeshi, he can complain about high living by any Bangladeshi diplomats stationed in Ottawa in Bangladeshi newspapers.
The diplomat's wife is also right about the quality of diplomats posted to Dhaka. Dhaka for most American, Canadian and European diplomats is a hardship posting and many countries reward their diplomats with nice postings like Geneva, Paris, Rome, Washington etc after serving in Dhaka. I know a Canadian lady who was posted to Geneva after serving in Dhaka. As such, the quality of diplomats stationed in Dhaka is not different from those stationed in other countries. In fact, many diplomats and their wives are inspired by the possibility of having an interesting experience by serving in a country trying to come out of poverty and underdevelopment. People like Nobel Prize winning economist Prof. Muhammad Yunus may serve as a beacon to see Bangladesh at close quarters.
She is also right that most SUVs in Dhaka are driven by Bangladeshis. While visiting Dhaka in 2006, I was astonished to see the number of SUVs driven by the nouveaux rich in Dhaka. They are the ones who should be blamed for causing pollution and traffic jam in the city.
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