Bush, not Saddam
This is a response to the letter of Mr. Greg Smith published on November 10, 2004. Some of the comments of your letter have caught my attention as those seem to me very interesting. You said, "Americans and the rest of the world still view Bangladesh as third world phenomenon." I don't know whether Mr. Zafar Sobhan is irritated by your negative remark on Bangladesh but as a Bangladeshi I am still not irritated. Do you know why? The very third world phenomenon is actually supporting the US economy in many direct and indirect ways. Thanks to third world phenomenon, US companies are outsourcing jobs in third world countries for a long time to remain competitive in world business. Without the support of cheap labour resources of third world countries, US companies can never gain competitiveness in world market. As third world countries are weak in terms of politics, administrative and judicial system, education and so on, business of natural resources in those countries become very smooth and easy for the US energy giants. US energy companies can easily corrupt and manipulate local political leaders and other influential persons of those third world countries and reap maximum profit (that is absolutely unthinkable in West European countries) disregarding ethical values and environmental issues. Many inexpensive garments products are exported from Bangladesh to the US each year.
I don't know about Zafar Sobhan's preference for Saddam Hossain but I think Bangladeshi people shall certainly not import Saddam Hossain if they ever need a dictator because Bangladeshi people are smarter than you. They shall rather import the person who you re-elected as the president of the US recently. Saddam Hossain is a dictator of a certain country but the re-elected president of the US is a dictator of the whole world! Naming differently is not going to change the fact that Mr. Bush is a mass murderer just like Saddam Hossain is.
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