The economic volcano
The volcanic eruption in Iceland has resulted in dark clouds all over the European continent; as hundreds of air flights stood cancelled day after day.
The economic fall-outs are enormous and long lasting for the rich industrialised countries in the West, compared to the man-made environmental pollution (we are toying with the Greenhouse Effect). Daily, millions of US Dollars are lost in transportation, travel, trade and business non-transactions.
Whom to charge-sheet for this volcanic pollution? Wealth cannot buy everything (depending blindly on Capitalism). The four billion people in the Third World countries must be wondering about this volcanic sign. How is the EU going to recover economically? In the US, the dollar is limping, and there is no magic quick cure.
It is the sine wave working globally --- life is never on a straight line. There are signs for smaller nations like Bangladesh: for exports, do not put all the eggs into one basket. Start planning diversification of the RMG and other exports. Japan and S Korea to day are limping for this weakness - concentrated exports mainly to Europe and USA. Our RMG has a huge market in the LDCs (especially the cheaper factory rejects, as sold in Dhaka's footpaths by the hawkers).
Dhaka is weak in long-term plans (note the shortage of energy and water, and traffic jams). Bangladesh is geographically sandwiched between India in the E and W, the Himalayas in the N. and the Bay of Bengal in the South. We have lost connectivity, with communication gaps amongst the neighbours in the region (the Saarc is in limbo). Long-term visions are urgently needed; but this cannot come from political leadership bent on self-survival exercises.
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