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Bangladeshs heavy dependence on foreign aid in those early years made us vulnerable to pressure from aid donors. This was particularly uncomfortable for those of us in the Commission who had for many years criticised the hegemonic influence of the USA and the World Bank in the politics and policy agendas of the Pakistan state through the 1960s.

In the immediate aftermath of liberation, we discovered that Tajuddin Ahmad was even more strongly inimical to restoring any form of aid dependence on the USA and the World Bank.

When Bangladesh was liberated on 16 December 1971, the World Bank had every expectation of capitalising on the positive position it assumed during the war and hoped to establish ready access to the political leadership and decision-makers in Bangladesh. In early February 1972, Nurul Islam received a message from Cargill that the Bank president, Robert McNamara, was keen to use his official visit to India to visit Bangladesh. He offered to fly from Kolkata to Dhaka by helicopter to discuss the Banks possible contribution to reconstructing the war-devastated economy.

The political mood at that stage was highly nationalistic and animated by suspicion towards the USA. The Banks president was regarded as a card-carrying member of the Washington power elite even though he was no longer serving the government.

Furthermore, the Bank had as yet not formally recognised the sovereignty of Bangladesh by accepting us as a member. There was some suggestion led by Tajuddin Ahmad, who was then minister of finance and planning and was particularly hostile to any idea of restoring Western influence over Bangladesh, that we have nothing to do with the Bank or the USA. Bangabandhu, however, took the position that this would be a gratuitous discourtesy but that no great event should be made of McNamaras visit.

He, the president of one of the most powerful international institutions in the world, was coming personally to this destitute, war-shattered country as an angel of mercy anxious to put Bangladesh under the Banks bounty. He expected the overwhelmed government to lay down a red carpet for him and his Bank.

In their long-standing relations with Pakistan, Cargill as vice-president of the Bank had always been received on arrival by none other than the deputy chairman of the Commission and was royally feted by him. The Bank, at the least, expected similar treatment by Nurul. Cargill hoped to renew relations with me on as cordial terms as when he had hosted me at the Royal Monceau hotel in Paris in 1971. Sadly for the Bank, we were both advised to avoid any direct contact with the Bank.

Whilst the encounter was a major blow to McNamaras ego and reflected poorly on the public relations skills of the new regime, it certainly conveyed to the Bank the political mood in Bangladesh and the awareness that Bangladesh at that stage was unwilling to open itself up as a pasture to donor influence.

In this world, I found no socialists and my idealistic attempts to invoke notions of socialist fraternity in negotiating terms were contemptuously disregarded. We should have learnt from our experience, as we are learning today in our dealings with the Chinese version of socialism, that socialism as we understood it was largely a product of the romantic imagination of the Third World and Western intellectuals of a Left-wing persuasion.

It was virtually impossible on visits to socialist countries to find anyone, apart from leaders of the Communist Party, who was at all inclined to discuss the issue of socialism as it applied to their country or as a general concept. The disintegration of socialism in Europe did not come as a great surprise to me though the speed and totality of the process were beyond my imagination.

In Dhaka, we had already noted how some officials from the economic sections of the various embassies from the socialist countries were making private business deals with Bangladeshi middlemen, usually with political connections, and accumulating small fortunes before they returned home. We noted that some of the principal suppliers to stores in Gulshan of duty-free canned provisions, stores and under-the-counter alcoholic drinks originated from the staff of these embassies.

In those early days, those on the Left entertained the belief that because the West had colonised us and was the principal hegemonic force in the world, they must be challenged at all points. The corresponding notion that openings to the socialist world would provide us with compensatory benefits was founded on our imperfect reading of literature. It was only when we came to do business with them that we learnt of the gap between the imagined and the real world in these countries.

Excerpted with permission from Untranquil Recollections: Nation-Building in Post Liberation Bangladesh, Rehman Sobhan, Sage India.

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How the World Bank tried to muscle into a newly-liberated Bangladesh but failed - Scroll.in

Submitted Published 4:55 a.m. ET March 21, 2021

Doug and Tammy Wertz are heroes! They did not give up on one of our most valuable gifts - the Mansfield Playhouse. For many, many years I had permanent tickets for Sunday afternoons. I can't believe how much I enjoyed those shows!

I want to thank everyone (and there were hundreds) who put in their time to give us quality, affordable memories. From every prat fall to every tear, we loved our Playhouse times. As a little girl, I even went to church there!

The arts are alive and well in Mansfield, thanks to people like Doug and Tammy. God bless you!

Marjorie Leonard, Mansfield

I don't understand why numerous American citizens can't seem to recognize or care of the many dangers that is happening in our country. The government is leaning strongly toward the United States, a Socialist country, controlled by the Democratic Party, that has very notably turned Socialist.

Is that what you really want and then wait to see what happens next when the wolf knocks down your door?

That, my fellow Americans, will happen if you sit back and allow this to happen. These radicals must be stopped before it's too late. That requires input from you, the American people. Think do you want your children, future generations, and you to live in a government controlled by Socialists?

Ann Burkhart, Mansfield

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Letters to the Editor: Thank you, Socialism - Mansfield News Journal

Socialism not what many believe it isOver the course of the past year or so, I have repeatedly heard and read about how the radical Democrats and their socialist agenda will ruin our country.I am not an enrolled Democrat, but I dont think the Democratic Party has a socialist agenda to pursue. If it does, Id like to have someone identify for me which of the Democrats initiatives are socialist because I suspect that many Americans have little or no idea what socialism entails, and tend to assume it is evil, and equivalent to communism and godlessness.Many area residents may not realize this, but slightly over 100 years ago, Schenectady had a socialist mayor. His name was George R. Lunn.Mr. Lunn was duly elected to the office of mayor on the Socialist Party ticket in 1911 and voters liked his ideas and accomplishments enough to return him to office for a second term in 1915.He later served in Congress and following that became Al Smiths Lieutenant Governor.Mr. Lunn was an ordained Protestant clergyman and described himself as a Christian Socialist. So much for godlessness.And during his tenure, the city did not fall apart. Imagine that. To the contrary, Mayor Lunn enacted several reforms and significant improvements to public health, trash collection, public schools, and was instrumental in creating Central Park.Think about that the next time you hear about the evils inherent in socialism or the so-called socialist agenda of a candidate or political party.Paul DeierleinSchenectady

Women deserve to have claims believedBelieve women. We are your daughters, your mothers, your sisters, your wives.We are your cherished family and your friends.We deserve to be believed about sexual harassment and sexual assault without having to tell our stories over and over again.We dont want to. Its tiring.We just want the men in power to be viewed for who they really are. The entire world should not have to know our lifes story to actually understand that these men are doing wrong.They harm us through their actions, then again, each day when we see their claims that they didnt do anything, that the accusations are unfounded, that they were coerced to leave their posts.They are lying. They did it. Women deserve to be believed without having to come forward and be in the public eye.Why would we make up the worst experiences of our lives?Where were our institutions when this was happening to us? We were left to deal with it alone and we still are on our own.Maybe we are the people with the lawsuits now. Times up.Molly SchaeferSchenectady

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Letters to the Editor Monday, March 22 - The Daily Gazette

There are very few people on the Left who are ready to accept the fact that the Left movement has been facing a crisis of ideology since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and Social Democracy since the 1990s. With the collapse of Social Democracy and the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the Left lost its ideology and its way.

The failure of the Left to develop a new ideology in the last thirty years is the underlying reason for its weakness today. A huge credibility gap exists about socialism and the Left in the minds of the working class. And that is not surprising at all.

The Left failed to respond when its ideology faced a deep crisis in the early 1990s. By then it had become obvious that the Lefts 19th Century socialist ideology had failed when put into practice in the 20th Century.

The collapse of social democracy represented the failure of the reformist wing of the socialist movement. The collapse of the Soviet Bloc (the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe) represented the failure of the more radical wing of the socialist movement. These two wings represented the whole socialist project in the eyes of the world's population. The failure of the socialist project raised serious questions on the credibility of the socialist ideology.

Tragically, this momentous defeat was not recognised as such by almost all socialists. And thus, they failed to take the steps needed to reconsider and renew their ideology.

The main challenge before the Left movement was to develop a democratic model of socialism after the failure of the top-down bureaucratic and authoritarian model. But the Left movement failed to develop a democratic model of socialism which guarantees democratic and political rights, freedoms and liberties.

In particular, the Left was unable to see that its old ideology had been missing the vital ingredient of democratic control by the working class. The Lefts emphasis on planning, public ownership and public services had left out the key question of how these institutions were going to be run. How they would be made accountable to their workers, service users, customers etc.

In the absence of any clear programme for participatory democracy in the state and the public sector, these institutions had ended up under the control of bureaucrats or elites. As a result, each attempt at socialist reform or revolution has produced top-down, bureaucratic and inefficient systems. In all the experiments of implementing socialism, there was a common feature the working people were alienated from power.

Experience has shown time and time again that democratic control of society by working people will not emerge automatically. It must be specifically planned for and campaigned on if we are to see it arrive and flourish. Because of this, popular control has to be at the heart of any new democratic socialist ideology for the 21st Century. Not added on as an afterthought. The lack of this is the root cause of the failure of the old socialist ideology.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union and right-wing turn of social democracy, socialism was a viable alternative to capitalism. It was part of the political consciousness of the wider layers of working people around the world. Socialism was a credible alternate in the eyes of millions of working and young people. The Left was a credible political force in society.

But todays reality is different. Even though capitalism discredited itself in the eyes of millions of people around the world in the last three decades, the Left has failed to emerge as a viable alternative. Socialism is no more on the agenda and the Left is not a credible political force in society. The Left has been pushed aside since the rise of the neoliberal capitalist ideology.

Millions of young people, workers, unemployed, small traders, farmers, peasants and women are angry with the existing socioeconomic conditions in which they are forced to live in. They wanted to get rid of inequality, poverty, exploitation, alienation and unemployment. The anger against authoritarian neoliberal capitalism is growing in many countries both rich and poor.

Under neoliberal capitalism, there is a growing level of discontent. The decades of austerity, cuts on social spending, privatization, deregulation, pro-market reforms and attacks on the welfare state have fueled anger against neoliberal policies. Life meanwhile gets harder and more uncertain for most of the working class. Thus, increasingly obscene wealth for a shrinking, super-rich minority starkly contrasts with the falling living standards for the rest of the population. Under modern capitalism, each new generation is increasingly worse off than the one before.

In response to these worsening conditions, we see increasing anger and prejudice, political polarization and degenerating public debate. All reflected in the rising racial, ethnic and religious conflicts that sometimes break into civil war. Looming over everything there is the threat of climate change and the wider destruction of our animals, forests and habitat forced on us by the incessant drive for profit.

But the lack of any alternative to capitalism constantly undermines the consciousness of working people and cripples their struggles. Who can really resist an attack when they can't see an alternative or even the hope of success?

Many people asked why the Left has failed to capitalize on the failures of capitalism. The main reason is the failure of the left movement to develop a new ideology of socialism since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and social democracy.

In the absence of a new credible ideology, the Left is badly fractured. Ideology often acts as the glue that holds a movement together. In its absence, the Left is repeatedly torn by disunity constantly sidelined into potentially disunifying struggles such as identity politics, rather than able to integrate such struggles into the central need to create a democratic socialist society.

In society more generally, the collapse of the Lefts old ideology has left a vacuum into which has rushed not only neoliberalism, but nationalism, racism, sectarianism and all sorts of divisive movements.

The writer is a freelance journalist.

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Crisis of the left - The News International

On COVID, ask why

Cost, losses beyond belief | March 14

The toll of COVID-19 staggers and saddens. However, what I find beyond belief is that we persist with accounting and resist accountability. Vaccination appears to be denting death rates among those with the highest vaccination rates. This is a pandemic which will be suppressed, but not eradicated. There is much, besides pursuing herd immunity, which we should have done and which we still should do to spare life.

To obtain this reset, we must transition from describing the sensational what happened to asking the still vital why it happened. Apply the average death rate of 193 other nations to the United States and COVID-19 ought to have killed about 94,000 Americans, instead of 534,315. Or the virus should have killed 22,122 had we performed as well as several top tier countries, or about half of our actual casualties had we merely matched the rates of Canada, Germany and a number or merely average pandemic managers.

Several studies have shown that up to one-third of the excess mortality over the past year may be attributable to the effects of the measures used to combat the pandemic, rather than the disease itself. The costs were not simply economic, educational and social. When one is manifestly on the wrong route, it is time to stop and ask directions.

Pat Byrne, Largo

Tim Scott is doing the Republican Party a huge favor. The rest of us, not so much | Column, March 13

Columnist Leonard Pitts capacity for deductive reasoning is sorely lacking. Not only does he fail to understand what woke supremacy is political correctness on steroids he fails to recognize its significance.

I did not see the MSNBC interview in question, but when I read Pitts column I knew immediately what Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., meant. I applaud his courage in making the statement. We need more men and women of like mind to speak out and lower the heat of the cancel culture gripping both left and right before it boils over again. We do not need another January 6th capitol invasion.

Daniel J. Hill, Tampa

Want to know what socialists really think? Ask one | Letters, March 15

A recent letter writer seems to think that socialism is Medicare for all, tuition free college, and an end to forever wars. That does not sound like socialism to me. The textbook definition of socialism is a place where the state owns the facilities and all the workers are government employees. In the United Kingdom, for instance, medical facilities are owned by the government and the medical and administrative staff work for the government. Medicare for all is just government insurance for all, not socialism. As long as you can choose a private insurer, then I dont see the problem.

Do we have socialized medicine in the U.S.? Of course we do. Its called the veterans health care system and the military health care system. The facilities are owned by the government and the medical and administrative staff are government employees. Does it work? The vast majority of veterans (like me) and military personnel think so. Would it work for everyone else? I doubt it, and I would be against it, but lets be careful about how we define socialism.

Ron Scoggins, St. Petersburg

What to know about Floridas 2021 legislative session | Feb. 25

In Florida, when I stare at the beautiful coast, I often see it littered with all types of plastics. What upsets me is knowing that other people have the same thoughts, and we have the ability to change this, but forget our voices. To start finding that voice, we must re-address this to our government, who play a critical role in alleviating the single-use plastic pollution problem. It starts with telling our representatives and senators to cosponsor state House and Senate bills like HB 6027, HB 1563, SB 594 and SB 1348. These either focus on repealing the preemptions on single-use plastics, or tell the state Department of Environmental Protection to update its plastic bag report. It is time to rise-up, and use our voices, since taking care of the environment is ensuring all of our futures. We need to tell our legislators to rise above and break free from plastics.

Sanaa Ali, St. Petersburg

Florida senators advance bill eliminating drop boxes and limiting vote by mail | March 10

So Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, an undertaker who thinks he knows everything about creating a successful career, wants to penalize high-achieving college students who seek insight, discernment and communication skills by studying the arts and humanities. Of course he does if only to limit the number of broadly educated voters who can see through his empty rhetoric and self-serving schemes. Voter suppression is already a strategy of todays Republican party. Apparently, educational suppression is not far behind.

Jim Harper, Tampa

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On COVID, its time for a hard accounting of what went wrong | Letters - Tampa Bay Times