Mohammad Sorowar Hossain
Research Fellow,
National University of Singapore

AIDS/HIV situation in Bangladesh: A Looming Threat
Mohammad Sorowar Hossain
Research Fellow,
National University of Singapore

Recently, a report on the AIDS cases came out in the daily newspaper According to that report, more than 13 thousand people are carrying HIV in Bangladesh and the experts have classified the AIDS situation as concentrated epidemic. Ironically, the government was downplaying the actual AIDS cases, just informing only 282 and taking credit from the international community! But in reality, the actual figure would be far higher than the reported one. Due to stigma and fear of discrimination HIV infected people are so scared to come forward with their diseases and ask for treatment and health care. It can make people hide their HIV status amidst fear of rejection from loved one. HIV testing is another area where discrimination is evident. Voluntary HIV tests and counseling is often limited, not well known, inaccessible or only in urban areas. People may also be deterred from getting tested because of laws that restrict an individual’s confidentiality. So it is impossible to get the exact HIV status in Bangladesh.

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Jute can transform our future
Md. Shah Amran
Yamanashi medical University
Japan

A few days before I was walking through a "hundred yen shop" to buy some small but essential household materials. As similar to American "One dollar shop", in Japan there are "hundred yen" shops almost in every supermarket that sales goods at hundred yen only. In Japanese these are called "hyaku yen mise". In a corner I noticed some jute bags and I rushed to that corner. These were nice woven bags. First I thought these have been imported from Bangladesh and I decided to buy some to offer my Japanese friends as gift. But in the bottom it was written 'made in India'. According to the known statistics Bangladesh is the largest manufacturer of jute but the Japanese supermarkets are filled with the jute goods of India. So I abandoned the desire to buy these bags. Next day after comeback to my laboratory I searched for jute and jute goods. There are thousands of websites from both India and Bangladesh. I selected some from both Bangladesh and India and read these meticulously. I was astonished to see the enormous usage of jute and jute goods. But India is far ahead of us in respect multiple use, plans and future projects. I also browsed the website of "Bangladesh Jute Research Institutes".

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“Malaysia 2020-From Vision to Reality”

Keynote speech By
The Hon Tun Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Saturday, 18 December 2004

I would like to thank the Bangladesh-Malaysia Business Forum for this invitation to talk on Malaysia’s development since independence, and the possibility of achieving Vision 2020 i.e. for Malaysia to become a fully developed country by that year.

2. Much as I would like to take credit for Malaysia’s rapid growth and its transformation from a basically agricultural country to an industrialised country, I would be ungrateful if I do not acknowledge the very valuable contributions of the three Prime Ministers who preceded me. Truly they laid the foundations and the principles which made it possible for the extra push to be made during my tenure as prime Minister so that the development targets are met earlier.

3. Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister lead a unique independence struggle by inviting the three major communities in multi-ethnic Malaysia and to share the fruits of independence. I say it is unique because the indigenous Malays could have gone it alone considering that the treaties with the British involved only Malay leaders, i.e. the Malay Sultans. The Chinese and Indians had no standing or legal rights as citizens except in the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca which had been ceded to the British.

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DR.ENG.Omar Faruk
Research Associate
Institute for Materials Science
Polymer and Recycling Technology
University of Kassel
Mönchebergstr.3
D-34109 Kassel
GERMANY.

Jute - Based Composites: Prospects in Bangladesh

DR.ENG.Omar Faruk
Research Associate
Institute for Materials Science
Polymer and Recycling Technology
University of Kassel
Mönchebergstr.3
D-34109 Kassel
GERMANY.

There is a greater awareness of the need for materials with an expanding population and jute-based composites provide an opportunity to fill this growing need for materials within a cost effective and acceptable environmental framework.

We have used jute fibre for so long in low value products, such as gunny bags, twine, ropes, cords and carpet backing that we tend to consider jute as a low quality resource. We have also limited our thinking that the major use for jute, if not the only use, is for textile applications. We have not accepted the vast potential for the use of jute in fibre-based composites. Part of this may be due to the idea that we have also accepted, or at least, learned to live with, jute fibre limitations, such as rotting, swelling, and burning. Because of these limitations, we have not been able to accept the idea of producing long lasting structural composite materials based on jute fibre.

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