7 ms·

I think it's worth noting why this is happening. The country has been giving out degrees and jobs to people who instead of working and studying hard, to descend

I think it's worth noting why this is happening. The country has been giving out degrees and jobs to people who instead of working and studying hard, to descendants of veterans in the country's war against pakistan, and this level of nepotism has been going on since the 70s which as you can easily imagine is not great for those who see the value in getting these "basic livelihood for hard work" things. So when people started protesting recently, because for anyone with half a brain this is completely wrong, the people without half a brain who benefit from this completely fucked system responded by killing and raping students and now there's no internet. This is definitely how you drain a country of all its competent people very fast by the way.

esafak 2y ago
People who run a country into the ground are happy to maintain the status quo as long as they're getting their share? Who knew!?
- bilbo0s 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - esafak 2y ago
    It can happen to any country. I do not suggest Bangladesh is special.
  - snowpid 2y ago
    Though I like your humbleness, there are more countries and visitors on HN from other countries than the USA and Bangladesh.
    - mschuster91 2y ago
      Well... the UKs Tories have been a corrupt shitshow for the last decade. Germany's President Steinmeier was involved in the Murat Kurnaz mess (an Afghani dude wrongly imprisoned in Guantanamo), the Chancellor in the Cum Ex tax-cheating scandal, and the opposition parties are taking lessons from Trump in rhetoric tactics. Italy's government is composed of a literal post-fascist party whose youth openly glorifies Mussolini, and then you got the legacy of Europe's most corrupt and creepy politician (Berlusconi). No matter where you look, corruption and unpunished scandals galore in the West. And the general public doesn't care.
      - Rinzler89 2y ago
        >And the general public doesn't care. The general public doesn't care about corruption if it doesn't affect them directly and if their basic needs are met. As long as the valuation of their housing keeps going up and so is their pension, they don't care what corrupt shit those in power are doing. It's the "fuck you I got mine" human mentality.
        inglor_cz 2y ago
        "It's the "fuck you I got mine" human mentality." I would argue that it is more of learned helplessness. My experience from 35 years of democracy in my country is that either you vote for corrupt old crooks, or you vote for outsider rebels who promise to uproot corruption only to become corrupt crooks themselves once they got to the levers of power. Once you witness the same process iterating itself five or six times, you start regarding corruption as approximately as inevitable as aging or bad weather.
      - snowpid 2y ago
        And this comparable to Bangladesh? And these are all countries in the West?
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    >I know here in the US, we can take one look at our own presidential candidates Yeah, the US presidential candidates are either an old senile man and an old xenofobic liar, either not great options, but none of them have run the country into the ground no matter how shit they are. I mean Trump spews complete nonsense and Biden can barely string a coherent sentence together or remember what he said 30 seconds ago, let alone run a country and yet the US seems to be doing fine. Part of me thinks that the US still functions so well no matter the president or political situation is that F500 actually run the US and the president is just for show.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- adolph 2y ago
  Conjecture: there is no exit from despotry because more than deriving happiness from the current state, the despot fears dissolution. A counter-example might be post apartheid South Africa or Idi Amin’s exile, but there are sufficient examples of worse personal and family outcomes to rule out simple projections of psychopaths.
- sagman 2y ago
  I don't know about running a country to the ground. They are economically doing quite well with metrics exceeding those of neighboring countries like India.
- dash2 2y ago
  Yeah, this is really far from accurate, which is absolutely not to justify Sheikh Hasina's antics. GDP has shot up in the 21st century and the trend growth appears to be accelerating. Bangladesh was a very poor country, but it is getting rich fast. https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/BGD?zoom=BGD&highlight=BGD https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/BGD?zo... https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/bangladesh-is-the-new-asian-tiger https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/bangladesh-is-the-new-asian-ti...
david_shi 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Chhatra_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Chhatra_League The ruling party seems to be allied with a student paramilitary to help act as their enforcers. "Chhatra League distributes dormitory seats at Chittagong University instead of authorities. Only those who join Chhatra League after being enrolled, get the chance to stay in the residential halls."
- decremental 2y ago
  [dead]
- TheTr1ckt3r 2y ago
  [dead]
- alephnerd 2y ago
  Slight quibble - the student paramilitary IS part of Hasina's party (BAP). It's the student wing. In South Asia, all party student wings are basically paramilitaries and gangs.
  - david_shi 2y ago
    It reminds me a lot of the Red Guards - the greatest disaster could come from the party losing control of these groups.
    - Karrot_Kream 2y ago
      The original Indian and Pakistani founders had Soviet education and influences. Moreover the Comintern was one of the only fora at the time that was openly in support of decolonization. The similarities aren't coincidental.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - anukin 2y ago
dakiol 2y ago
[flagged]
- xeromal 2y ago
  Can you name a first world country that gives out 40% of the public sector jobs to veterans or their children?
  - jfax 2y ago
    The UK House of Lords has a quota of 92 hereditary peers, descendants of Norman conquerors.
    - TulliusCicero 2y ago
      The House of Lords isn't that powerful, but it's still an embarrassment to have this sort of hereditary system.
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      If that's 40%, the public sector's a lot smaller than I thought.
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    Sure. In Romania, a lot of public sector jobs (the easy, influential or well paying ones) are given out only via nepotism and political connections, usually to descendants and connections of the former communist party high-ups and former members of the military/intelligence services who now own and run lucrative businesses (monopolies for the state) and their kids are usually in charge of the business or in politics cutting the deals to enable them. There's just no explicit quota system like in Bangladesh, but everything is done in the shadows under the table, and the economy and freedom is good enough that people won't bother revolting over it (again), but everyone knows it's happening. I think it's similar all over the Balkans, Former Yugoslav and former USSR countries.
    - alephnerd 2y ago
gadders 2y ago
[flagged]
- esafak 2y ago
  "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
  - gadders 2y ago
    People will admit that for a country, but not a nation.
Drubbard 2y ago
[flagged]
mtalantikite 2y ago
Important to note it wasn't just a 'war against Pakistan', but a war for independence from Pakistan [1], which also included a genocide against Bengalis by Pakistan and their allies [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_genocide
- pmarreck 2y ago
  from that link about the Bangladesh genocide (wow, I never heard of this): > Pakistan's imams declared Bengali Hindu women to be "war booty”;[11][12] and Pakistani fatwa were issued legitimizing Bengali Hindu women as spoils of war.[12][13] Women who were targeted often died in Pakistani captivity or committed suicide, while others fled to India. This is based on a non-contextual reading of Quran 4:24, Quran 8:69, Quran 23:5-6:, Quran 33:50 and various hadiths, which continue to be taken literally (when it is convenient to do so) by belligerents, hundreds of years after they were written. I refuse to cite them here because they are offensive to humanitarian/modern ethical worldviews (and because I do not wish to play a game of moral relativism).
  - Jun8 2y ago
    I’ll provide the links for the two suras cited above for the curious: An Nisa (the women) - https://quran.com/4 https://quran.com/4, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An-Nisa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An-Nisa. In dowry and inheritance matters it’s actually quite advanced for its age. Al Anfal (the spoils of war) - https://quran.com/8 https://quran.com/8, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Anfal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Anfal. These are, of course, orthogonal to our moral values but not more depraved than bounty customs employed hundreds of years afterwards. Prophet Mohammed himself took one fifth of the spoils, including taking women as wives, eg see Safiyya bint Huyayy, who was his tenth wife after her tribe was killed (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safiyya_bint_Huyayy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safiyya_bint_Huyayy). I’m missing your point about adhering to these “when it’s convenient”. This was standard practice for Muslim armies for hundreds of years afterwards (of course others did the same).
jl6 2y ago
Degrees as well as jobs? Are Bangladeshi universities diploma mills?
trilbyglens 2y ago
Country probably entirely underwater in the next 50 years anyways....
- petre 2y ago
  So its inhabitants need to be subjected to injustices for another 50 years?
jtbayly 2y ago
Talking about why it is happening is helpful. I’m just surprised nobody is talking about the reason the government claims it has limited access to information: preventing disinformation. Not a single person here has commented about disinformation, but it is the single most applicable part of this article for Americans. Preventing the spread of disinformation has been the supposed in the last decade reason for the largest censorship campaigns our nation has ever seen.
- amanaplanacanal 2y ago
  Which nation are you from?

esafak 2y ago

People who run a country into the ground are happy to maintain the status quo as long as they're getting their share? Who knew!?

bilbo0s 2y ago
[flagged]
- esafak 2y ago
  It can happen to any country. I do not suggest Bangladesh is special.
- snowpid 2y ago
  Though I like your humbleness, there are more countries and visitors on HN from other countries than the USA and Bangladesh.
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    Well... the UKs Tories have been a corrupt shitshow for the last decade. Germany's President Steinmeier was involved in the Murat Kurnaz mess (an Afghani dude wrongly imprisoned in Guantanamo), the Chancellor in the Cum Ex tax-cheating scandal, and the opposition parties are taking lessons from Trump in rhetoric tactics. Italy's government is composed of a literal post-fascist party whose youth openly glorifies Mussolini, and then you got the legacy of Europe's most corrupt and creepy politician (Berlusconi). No matter where you look, corruption and unpunished scandals galore in the West. And the general public doesn't care.
    - Rinzler89 2y ago
      >And the general public doesn't care. The general public doesn't care about corruption if it doesn't affect them directly and if their basic needs are met. As long as the valuation of their housing keeps going up and so is their pension, they don't care what corrupt shit those in power are doing. It's the "fuck you I got mine" human mentality.
      - inglor_cz 2y ago
        "It's the "fuck you I got mine" human mentality." I would argue that it is more of learned helplessness. My experience from 35 years of democracy in my country is that either you vote for corrupt old crooks, or you vote for outsider rebels who promise to uproot corruption only to become corrupt crooks themselves once they got to the levers of power. Once you witness the same process iterating itself five or six times, you start regarding corruption as approximately as inevitable as aging or bad weather.
    - snowpid 2y ago
      And this comparable to Bangladesh? And these are all countries in the West?
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  >I know here in the US, we can take one look at our own presidential candidates Yeah, the US presidential candidates are either an old senile man and an old xenofobic liar, either not great options, but none of them have run the country into the ground no matter how shit they are. I mean Trump spews complete nonsense and Biden can barely string a coherent sentence together or remember what he said 30 seconds ago, let alone run a country and yet the US seems to be doing fine. Part of me thinks that the US still functions so well no matter the president or political situation is that F500 actually run the US and the president is just for show.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
adolph 2y ago
Conjecture: there is no exit from despotry because more than deriving happiness from the current state, the despot fears dissolution. A counter-example might be post apartheid South Africa or Idi Amin’s exile, but there are sufficient examples of worse personal and family outcomes to rule out simple projections of psychopaths.
sagman 2y ago
I don't know about running a country to the ground. They are economically doing quite well with metrics exceeding those of neighboring countries like India.
dash2 2y ago
Yeah, this is really far from accurate, which is absolutely not to justify Sheikh Hasina's antics. GDP has shot up in the 21st century and the trend growth appears to be accelerating. Bangladesh was a very poor country, but it is getting rich fast. https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/BGD?zoom=BGD&highlight=BGD https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/BGD?zo... https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/bangladesh-is-the-new-asian-tiger https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/bangladesh-is-the-new-asian-ti...

david_shi 2y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Chhatra_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Chhatra_League The ruling party seems to be allied with a student paramilitary to help act as their enforcers. "Chhatra League distributes dormitory seats at Chittagong University instead of authorities. Only those who join Chhatra League after being enrolled, get the chance to stay in the residential halls."

decremental 2y ago
[dead]
TheTr1ckt3r 2y ago
[dead]
alephnerd 2y ago
Slight quibble - the student paramilitary IS part of Hasina's party (BAP). It's the student wing. In South Asia, all party student wings are basically paramilitaries and gangs.
- david_shi 2y ago
  It reminds me a lot of the Red Guards - the greatest disaster could come from the party losing control of these groups.
  - Karrot_Kream 2y ago
    The original Indian and Pakistani founders had Soviet education and influences. Moreover the Comintern was one of the only fora at the time that was openly in support of decolonization. The similarities aren't coincidental.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - anukin 2y ago

dakiol 2y ago

[flagged]

xeromal 2y ago
Can you name a first world country that gives out 40% of the public sector jobs to veterans or their children?
- jfax 2y ago
  The UK House of Lords has a quota of 92 hereditary peers, descendants of Norman conquerors.
  - TulliusCicero 2y ago
    The House of Lords isn't that powerful, but it's still an embarrassment to have this sort of hereditary system.
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    If that's 40%, the public sector's a lot smaller than I thought.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  Sure. In Romania, a lot of public sector jobs (the easy, influential or well paying ones) are given out only via nepotism and political connections, usually to descendants and connections of the former communist party high-ups and former members of the military/intelligence services who now own and run lucrative businesses (monopolies for the state) and their kids are usually in charge of the business or in politics cutting the deals to enable them. There's just no explicit quota system like in Bangladesh, but everything is done in the shadows under the table, and the economy and freedom is good enough that people won't bother revolting over it (again), but everyone knows it's happening. I think it's similar all over the Balkans, Former Yugoslav and former USSR countries.
  - alephnerd 2y ago

gadders 2y ago

[flagged]

esafak 2y ago
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
- gadders 2y ago
  People will admit that for a country, but not a nation.

Drubbard 2y ago

[flagged]

mtalantikite 2y ago

Important to note it wasn't just a 'war against Pakistan', but a war for independence from Pakistan [1], which also included a genocide against Bengalis by Pakistan and their allies [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_genocide

pmarreck 2y ago
from that link about the Bangladesh genocide (wow, I never heard of this): > Pakistan's imams declared Bengali Hindu women to be "war booty”;[11][12] and Pakistani fatwa were issued legitimizing Bengali Hindu women as spoils of war.[12][13] Women who were targeted often died in Pakistani captivity or committed suicide, while others fled to India. This is based on a non-contextual reading of Quran 4:24, Quran 8:69, Quran 23:5-6:, Quran 33:50 and various hadiths, which continue to be taken literally (when it is convenient to do so) by belligerents, hundreds of years after they were written. I refuse to cite them here because they are offensive to humanitarian/modern ethical worldviews (and because I do not wish to play a game of moral relativism).
- Jun8 2y ago
  I’ll provide the links for the two suras cited above for the curious: An Nisa (the women) - https://quran.com/4 https://quran.com/4, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An-Nisa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An-Nisa. In dowry and inheritance matters it’s actually quite advanced for its age. Al Anfal (the spoils of war) - https://quran.com/8 https://quran.com/8, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Anfal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Anfal. These are, of course, orthogonal to our moral values but not more depraved than bounty customs employed hundreds of years afterwards. Prophet Mohammed himself took one fifth of the spoils, including taking women as wives, eg see Safiyya bint Huyayy, who was his tenth wife after her tribe was killed (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safiyya_bint_Huyayy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safiyya_bint_Huyayy). I’m missing your point about adhering to these “when it’s convenient”. This was standard practice for Muslim armies for hundreds of years afterwards (of course others did the same).

jl6 2y ago

Degrees as well as jobs? Are Bangladeshi universities diploma mills?

trilbyglens 2y ago

Country probably entirely underwater in the next 50 years anyways....

petre 2y ago
So its inhabitants need to be subjected to injustices for another 50 years?

jtbayly 2y ago

Talking about why it is happening is helpful. I’m just surprised nobody is talking about the reason the government claims it has limited access to information: preventing disinformation. Not a single person here has commented about disinformation, but it is the single most applicable part of this article for Americans. Preventing the spread of disinformation has been the supposed in the last decade reason for the largest censorship campaigns our nation has ever seen.

amanaplanacanal 2y ago
Which nation are you from?