In Bangladesh, the Plagues Are Many*

By SAM DOLNICK
The Associated Press
Saturday, November 24, 2007; 3:11 PM

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- The cyclone that ravaged Bangladesh's coast has
left the country reeling, but for many here already weary of hardship it
just seemed like the latest in a series of plagues afflicting the nation.

There's the grinding poverty that forces some 60 million people to live
on less than $1 a day.

There's the overpopulation that has packed nearly 150 million people
into a country the size of Iowa, where just 3 million people live.

There's the rampant corruption, the political state of emergency, the
power shortages in the teeming cities and the annual floods on the
low-lying coast.

Some plagues are nature's design _ the man-eating tigers of the mangrove
forests _ and some are man-made _ the thick-as-soup pollution in Dhaka,
the impossibly congested capital.

"Sometimes," said Anwara Begum, a villager who lost her home and cattle
in last week's cyclone, "it feels like Allah is not with us."

Whether it's in a village of bamboo huts or a city of honking traffic,
life in Bangladesh is lived on the edge, and the smallest push can lead
to disaster.

The government is largely ineffective and bribes are necessary for
everything from getting a driver's license to opening a vegetable stand.

Still, some recent political and economic developments are encouraging:
incomes are rising, infant mortality is falling and the economy is
growing. Bangladesh's military-backed government has launched a campaign
to crush corruption that has won praise from all corners of the country.

Bangladesh is perennially ranked among the world's most corrupt nations,
according to the Berlin-based watchdog group Transparency International.
About 2-3 percent of its economy, or around $1.5 billion, is estimated
lost annually to corruption.

In a series of astonishing moves, the interim government has gone after
the biggest fish, jailing two of the country's former prime ministers on
corruption charges, as well as a host of their associates and family
members.

Mohammad Haroun, a sidewalk fruit seller in Dhaka, used to have to pay a
policeman 15-30 cents every day for his slab of pavement.

Since the interim government came to power in January, he said the
police no longer demand bribes.

The imprisoned former leaders, Sheikh Hasina and her archrival Khaleda
Zia, kept the country in a chokehold for 15 years as they traded the
premiership back and forth, allegedly embezzling vast fortunes along the
way and stymieing the political process with their deep enmity for one
another.

Hasina is the daughter of Rahman, the first prime minister, and Zia is
the widow of the second.

"At last, something is being done about corruption," said Syed Manjurul
Islam, a professor at Dhaka University. "But this should have been done
30 years ago."

The country's economy has also improved dramatically in recent years,
largely thanks to a booming textile industry. The economy grew 6.5
percent during the 2007 fiscal year and 6.6 percent the year before,
according to the Asian Development Bank.

The World Bank said in a report released earlier this month that
Bangladesh could almost double its per capita income to $870 by 2016 if
corruption is curbed and the economy continues to grow.

In another promising sign, the infant mortality rate has fallen from 574
deaths per thousand births in 1990 to 66 in 2007, according to the World
Bank.

Islam, the professor, is guardedly optimistic about the country's future
despite the country's ample misfortunes.

"I see change everywhere," Islam said. "I see more enterprising people,
more young people with ambition. I don't think we will maintain the
status quo."