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Damage done to Bangladesh

7 February 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Kabir Mia New York, US
7 February 2005, 18:00 PM
Those Bangladeshis who agree with the contents of Ms. Eliza Griswold's anti-Bangladesh article, "The Next Islamic revolution," published in The New York Times on Sunday, January 23 should realise the magnitude of the damage that the article has caused to Bangladesh. Many Americans, we know, were horrified after reading the article and have asked us if Ms. Griswold's dire predictions will come true. Anything published in The New York Times is widely read, especially on Sundays, and believed as fact.

While the rest of the world considers Bangladesh, with its democracy, fast development and women's empowerment, as a success story, Ms. Griswold portrays Bangladesh solely as an Islamic-fundamentalist, semi-terrorist and failed state. The immediate effect of Ms. Griswold's error-filled article will be to dampen the enthusiasm of investors who want to invest in Bangladesh. Investors from India, Malaysia and France have recently expressed interest in investing in Bangladesh. Investors will never invest in a country which they believe could be taken over by a Taliban-like regime.

A Bangladeshi American entrepreneur we know, who was thinking of investing in Bangladesh, is having second thoughts after reading Ms. Griswold's article. It saddens me when I see expatriate Bangladeshis in America siding with foreign journalists who wish Bangladesh no good.

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