Analysis, Side Feature

Views on the News – 4 July 2018

Headlines:

  • Trump orders Saudi to Increase Oil Production
  • Militant Laws for Muslims in Denmark
  • New Syllabus to include Hasina’s Speeches

 


Trump orders Saudi to Increase Oil Production

US President Donald Trump tweeted June 30 that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman had agreed to increase oil production “maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels” to offset production from Iran and Venezuela. The Trump administration is pushing countries to cut all imports of Iranian oil after the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. The administration has been counting on Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to offset the lost Iranian exports and prevent oil prices from rising sharply. Last week, OPEC agreed with Russia and other oil producers to raise output by about 1 million barrels per day.

 

Militant laws for Muslims in Denmark

Denmark’s government is introducing a new set of laws to regulate life in 25 low-income and heavily Muslim enclaves, saying that if families there do not willingly merge into the country’s mainstream, they should be compelled. Danish leaders are focusing their ire on urban neighborhoods where immigrants, some of them placed there by the government, live in dense concentrations with high rates of unemployment and gang violence. Politicians’ description of the ghettos has become increasingly sinister. In his annual New Year’s speech, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned that ghettos could “reach out their tentacles onto the streets” by spreading violence, and that because of ghettos, “cracks have appeared on the map of Denmark.” Politicians who once used the word “integration” now call frankly for “assimilation.” Of 22 proposals presented by the government in early March, most have been agreed upon by a parliamentary majority. One measure under consideration would allow courts to double the punishment for certain crimes if they are committed in one of the 25 neighborhoods classified as ghettos, based on residents’ income, employment status, education levels, number of criminal convictions and “non-Western background.” Another would impose a four-year prison sentence on immigrant parents who force their children to make extended visits to their country of origin — described here as “re-education trips” —in that way damaging their “schooling, language and well-being.” Another would allow local authorities to increase their monitoring and surveillance of “ghetto” families.

 

New Syllabus to include Hasina’s Speeches

A compilation of 100 of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s speeches has been compiled into a supplementary book—and added to the syllabi of schools, colleges, and universities, according to a recent directive signed by Assistant Director of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) Shakhawat Hossain Biswas (Intermediate-1). The directive stated that 100 of the prime minister’s speeches, between 2014 and October 2017, on topics such as: agriculture, industry, education, infrastructure improvements, and women’s empowerment, had been curated for the collection. The book would give readers a taste of her so-called strong and dynamic leadership—and a sense of the alleged development the country has enjoyed as a result.

The roughly 550-page book has been published by Genius Publication and will be used in all government and non-government schools, colleges, and universities as a reference or supplementary text.