[ammark]

No doubt. Canada also had good reasons for the welfare state system. Without welfare, the first thing the people would fall victim to is the cold. Living in Toronto, I often remind myself that this is NOT Canada... Canada is out there in remote places north of Southern Ontario. Its a heck of an easier job for the Canadian govt to deal with 30 million than 140 million, wouldnt you agree? The distances are a b*tch, but Canada is resource rich and has relatively efficiently utilised those resources, and has not been a colonially exploited country.

In Bangladesh's Case we have a small geography, but our first casualties come from the climate, (Cyclones, Droughts and Floods to which some of the immense population is inevitably a victim. To follow Malthus, ideally they should die off rather than be saved... but then the sustenance of human life is our ultimate goal, setting Malthus' talk all topsy turvy with our human intervention to save lives) and then terrain. To address welfare there you MUST have a VERY transparent and highly efficient bureaucracy and welfare providing system. That inevitably we have lacked (and be fully assured that in history, every government has tried), and yes I agree with you that BD must clear up this governance and corruption issue. But whatabout resources? We have terrible internal revenue collection so far, and depend greatly on bank borrowing for state expenditures (which has its high interest rates and costs), next to foreign aid.

I would suggest, however that What bangladesh lacks in a very inefficient welfare 'state' system, - this void is filled entirely by NGOs and other aid programs, both foreign and local. Bangladesh in being an LDC has numerous perks from the WB and and the Developed countries (or used to). You cant deny the work the hundreds of thousands of NGO staff do to genuinely provide 'development' and poverty alleviation, family planning, education, social support services, etc in Bangladesh. Ideally given their success... and just out gut feeling and exasperation with our bureaucracy, inefficient junior officers and 'high powered committees'... ideally I'd want a more laissez-faire approach to macro and microeconomic policy implementation. What NGOs disperse in social welfare, and Businesses disperse in Investment, Income and Productivity.... I'd like to see entirely autonomous, independent bodies of Private citizens running the BTRC and VOIP policy boards and all that.

p.s: Just to set myself clear- not disagreeing with anyone here, and I am genuinely optimistic about BD, but just voicing my concern on whether our growth is positively contributing to the people.