Hasina fears Arab Like Uprising?

An April 20th 2011 and interesting The Econimist reports:

WHEN the Arab spring was in its infancy something unusual happened in the world’s second-largest Muslim-majority democracy. Following violent protests, Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, scrapped plans for a new airport near the capital, a pet project to be named after her father, Sheikh Mujib Rahman. A former Bangladeshi diplomat said he could remember no occasion on which an elected leader had reversed an important decision so quickly. He attributed the change of mind to what was happening in Egypt.

Indeed, there are other issues besides naming- that the government and the top leader ship of AL and BNP should consider rethinking- which the article kept silent about. One is the introduction of genetic democracy- which indeed sparked the Egyptian uprising.

In western democracies it is not common for PM's family members to get involved in politics except ceremonial presence of the spouse. But, the current and past PMs both are grooming their sons to succeed them. They have already been made involved in many state affairs with blatant disregard to democratic norms. Much like Gamal Mubarak and Saif Ghaddafi. Read more about the similarities in RealTime blog.

NASA Funds Indiana University Geoloists To Study Impact of Climate Change on Sundarban

Two researchers, Faiz Rahman and Rinku Roy Chowdhury from Indiana University Bloomington are receiving a $637,000 grant from NASA to study mangrove forests in Bangladesh and their role in climate change. The project is a collaboration between scientists from IU and the U.S. Forest Service. The project is the only one this year that targets a mangrove ecosystem outside of the United States. Reports IU university news:

"This is the first time in NASA's Carbon Cycle Science Program that there is a social science aspect to ecosystem carbon studies," said Roy Chowdhury, who is involved with the human dimensions of the study. "We want to provide a complete picture of how nature and society interact to affect the mangroves, and how mangrove changes in turn impact local livelihoods."

Listen to Faiz Rahman.