Dear Thomas,
How would B I help in these conditions? I'm not trying to razz you, just
passing along examples of what I read weekly.
Steve
Thomas: I'll give it a try. First and foremost the population is out of
control - why? Is it religion, cultural beliefs in terms of support for the
aged, promiscuity, no birth control? I don't know, but I seem to remember
that Bangladesh was created as new political entity, though for what
purposes escapes me. Did the start with too much population or was that the
result of political decisions?
": many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone
land: the backgrounder states. Well, if they would have had some kind of
Basic Income, perhaps there would not be so many landless or those who are
landless could have used a portion of the Basic Income to get started in
some urban venture. But with no work, no paycheck, no money, those are not
options.
"limited access to potable water" is often the result of not having the
money to drill deeper than villagers can dig, therefore a Basic Income may
have provided enough surplus to get a well drilled, or conversely someone
could have drilled a well and sold water knowing that it was a basic human
requirement that could be paid for out of the Basic Income.
"Experts say that while Bangladesh's system of embankments may save a few,
it is only making flooding worse for others, and that it may be time for the
country to stop fighting the waters." I would venture that these dikes were
suggested and financed by experts who didn't live there and perhaps even
over the objections of those who did live there. If those people would have
had an economy because there was a constant infusion of funds through a
Basic Income, it is possible they could have lobbied or hired their own
experts to counter the experts who brought in this apparently disastrous
solution.
"Bangladesh, the basin at the foot of the Himalayas, has floods every year.
But never in memory has such a bad flood lasted so long — nearly two months.
Could we suppose, I know it is not proven, but could we suppose that
deforestation to provide an export commodity contributed to the floods?
Could we suppose that other countries near and far who have been pursuing
the capital growth model of exploiting every opportunity to make a profit as
creating situations that are altering the Earth's climate patterns? Could
we suppose that if every citizen of the world had the right to a Basic
Income, that many of them would not voluntarily choose to engage in
destructive practices but are doing so know because if they don't they and
their families may not survive?
Of course I don't have an answer for Bangladesh and neither does any other
economic or political system or it would not be in this mess. My argument
is that money in the hands of the poorest, gives the poorest a resource to
increase their own survival - something they have no hope for under the
current system. I remember as a child how important the family allowance
cheque was to my mother. It was $12 a month supplementary income she could
depend on and with that $12 some small hole in the dike of our family
finances could be covered. Even the smallest Basic Income would alter the
lives of millions of people in Bangladesh, it is when you have nothing that
it seems and often is hopeless.
Respectfully,
Thomas Lunde
Talk about a country on the edge, Bangladesh is having more problems.
It seems a prime example of overpopulation with collapse just a matter of
time.
________ Ed Glaze <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CIA Factbook -- Bangladesh
<http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/bg.html>
Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and
India
Population: 125,340,261 (July 1997 est.)
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Wisconsin
Natural hazards: droughts, cyclones; much of the country routinely flooded
during the summer monsoon season
Environment - current issues: many people are landless and forced to live on
and cultivate flood-prone land; limited access to potable water; water-borne
diseases prevalent; water pollution especially of fishing areas results from
the use of commercial pesticides; intermittent water shortages because of
falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil
degradation; deforestation; SEVERE OVERPOPULATION (emphasis added, last
place listing not)
Bangladesh -- Yahoo search
<http://www.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Bangladesh/Country_Guides/>
----------------------------
<http://wire.ap.org/>
SEPTEMBER 03, 02:30 EDT
Bangladesh Split on Flood Control
by FARID HOSSAIN
Associated Press Writer
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh has seen the waters rush in with a fury
similar to that of the monsoon that has killed more than 600 people this
year.
But that was 10 years ago, when Abdur Rahman's one-story house in Dhaka's
northern Mohammadpur district was submerged.
This year, Rahman's neighborhood remained dry. He thanks a 15-mile
embankment that runs along Dhaka's River Turag. But some of his neighbors
are cursing the 24-foot-high wall of packed dirt wide enough for two lanes
of traffic. Experts say that while Bangladesh's system of embankments may
save a few, it is only making flooding worse for others, and that it may be
time for the
country to stop fighting the waters.
Bangladesh, the basin at the foot of the Himalayas, has floods every year.
But never in memory has such a bad flood lasted so long — nearly two months.
"Because of the embankment the current of the flood waters hit us more
intensely than in the past,'' said Shahid Ali, a farmer in the village of
Kajla, two miles from the Turag levee.
Such complaints, backed by environment activists, have halted a $100 million
World Bank-coordinated project to study the feasibility of buildin more such
embankments in rural areas. The five-year study was launched following the
1988 floods.
According to activists, the embankments displace farmers, reduce the land's
fertility and destroy fish.
Bangladesh, a land of 120 million people crisscrossed by rivers, has a
network of hundreds of embankments that run along the rivers and through the
rice fields like highways.
Many of the embankments — as high as 45 feet and as wide as three-lane
roads — are connected by smaller levees that present the design of a chess
board. Some encircle selected areas.
The main purpose of the embankments was to prevent flooding rivers from
overflowing into fertile cropland, thereby boosting production of rice, the
main diet of Bangladeshis. Bangladesh has doubled its annual food production
to 20 million tons, nearly enough to feed its growing population.
But while the levees and embankments proved high enough to withstand normal
flooding, many of them were too weak to withstand this year's deluge.
"Flooding in the protected areas becomes more destructive as waters rush in
with stronger currents while entering through smaller gaps,'' said Asadullah
Khan, a flood expert at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
This year's extraordinary flooding is blamed on unusually heavy rain that
fell nonstop for nearly a month, and a higher-than-normal tide in the Bay of
Bengal, probably triggered by a series of undersea earthquakes last month.
Some say nature's work was compounded when embankments blocked the flow of
water from the plains out to the sea.
"No doubt, the floods have been caused by too much rain. But we can't ignore
the fact that waters are slow to recede because of obstruction created by
the embankments,'' said Jahiruddin Chowdhury, an expert at the Dhaka-based
Institute of Flood Control and Drainage Research.
Two-thirds of Bangladesh has been under water for 52 days as of Wednesday,
compared to 23 days in 1988. Weather officials see no respite in the rains
in the next two weeks.
"The longer the waters stay stagnated the thinner is the hope for replanting
new crops. This is alarming,'' said Mohammad Mokaddes, a teacher at Dhaka
University's Economics Department.
Facing a possible food deficit of up to 4 million tons, Bangladesh has
sought $879 million in aid to buy food and build new homes for hundreds of
thousands of people flooded out.
Those hardest hit by the floods are estimated at 30 million — one-fourth of
the population.
The embankments, Khan said, compound the flood miseries of the 60 percent of
population who live outside the structures.
"When you build an embankment on one side of the river this means the river
will turn its fury on the other side. The waters must go somewhere,'' Khan
said.
