Friday, October 31, 2003
This is funny
Toilet farce causes rush hour chaos!
Thousands of New York commuters were stranded after a man's arm became wedged down a train toilet as he tried to retrieve his mobile phone. Rescue crews had to dismantle the toilet with Edwin Gallart's arm still stuck in the u-bend.
The train was held at New York City's Grand Central Station, which caused severe delays throughout the rail system. ....
....."When his cell phone went down the toilet so did our evening rush hour, so did thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money, and so did our 'on time' performance.
"Everything went down the toilet with it," he said.
Mr Brucker said the rail company was "not particularly interested" in going through the toilet's waste tank to retrieve the lost phone.
Toilet farce causes rush hour chaos!
Thousands of New York commuters were stranded after a man's arm became wedged down a train toilet as he tried to retrieve his mobile phone. Rescue crews had to dismantle the toilet with Edwin Gallart's arm still stuck in the u-bend.
The train was held at New York City's Grand Central Station, which caused severe delays throughout the rail system. ....
....."When his cell phone went down the toilet so did our evening rush hour, so did thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money, and so did our 'on time' performance.
"Everything went down the toilet with it," he said.
Mr Brucker said the rail company was "not particularly interested" in going through the toilet's waste tank to retrieve the lost phone.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Economic news from daily star:
World Economic Forum report
Bangladesh slips in competitiveness
Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh is losing out in global competitiveness, having slipped to 79 in 2003 from 77 the previous year in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that assessed 80 countries.
On the Business Competitiveness Index (BCI), the country has also performed poor, going down from 74th position in 2002 to 75th position in 2003.
The survey identified corruption as the most inhibiting factor of doing business in Bangladesh. Inefficient bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure, poor law and order, policy instability and poor access to financing also affect the country's business environment.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), an independent think-tank, yesterday released the index following a survey on 81 big companies during March-May 2003. The survey was part of the CPD's contribution to the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report.
Ninety-six percent of the respondents in the survey were 'most emphatic about absence of public trust in the honesty of the politicians'.
"It seems over the years, trust in the honesty of politicians is experiencing secular decline (91.1 percent in 2001 and 95.6 percent in 2002)," the survey report, launched together with the WEF's report released in Washington, said.
More than two-thirds of the companies (68 percent) stated that judiciary is not independent of political influences of members of the government and citizens of firms. "The survey suggests that the independence of judiciary has eroded further as comparable figure for 2002 was about 48 percent."
Presenting the study, CPD Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said an increased percentage of companies consider competence of the government sector very poor.
Most companies (87 percent) also stated that administrative regulations are burdensome, 85.2 percent stated that government officials usually favour well-connected firms and individuals while deciding upon policies and contracts and 82.7 percent thought that the competence of public sector personnel are lower than the private sector.
Three out of every four companies stated that unfair or corrupt activities of other firms impose large costs on their firms. Ninety percent of respondents indicated that they made extra payments for getting connections to public utilities like telephone and electricity.
Among 65 respondent executives, two-thirds observed that the frequency of additional payments or bribes has increased significantly and about 75.3 percent thought that organised crimes impose significant costs on their businesses. About 89 percent companies stated unreliable police protection to business.
A decline in cooperative relationship between labours and employers was observed in the study. It was stated that payments to workers are not related to productivity.
World Economic Forum report
Bangladesh slips in competitiveness
Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh is losing out in global competitiveness, having slipped to 79 in 2003 from 77 the previous year in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that assessed 80 countries.
On the Business Competitiveness Index (BCI), the country has also performed poor, going down from 74th position in 2002 to 75th position in 2003.
The survey identified corruption as the most inhibiting factor of doing business in Bangladesh. Inefficient bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure, poor law and order, policy instability and poor access to financing also affect the country's business environment.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), an independent think-tank, yesterday released the index following a survey on 81 big companies during March-May 2003. The survey was part of the CPD's contribution to the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report.
Ninety-six percent of the respondents in the survey were 'most emphatic about absence of public trust in the honesty of the politicians'.
"It seems over the years, trust in the honesty of politicians is experiencing secular decline (91.1 percent in 2001 and 95.6 percent in 2002)," the survey report, launched together with the WEF's report released in Washington, said.
More than two-thirds of the companies (68 percent) stated that judiciary is not independent of political influences of members of the government and citizens of firms. "The survey suggests that the independence of judiciary has eroded further as comparable figure for 2002 was about 48 percent."
Presenting the study, CPD Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said an increased percentage of companies consider competence of the government sector very poor.
Most companies (87 percent) also stated that administrative regulations are burdensome, 85.2 percent stated that government officials usually favour well-connected firms and individuals while deciding upon policies and contracts and 82.7 percent thought that the competence of public sector personnel are lower than the private sector.
Three out of every four companies stated that unfair or corrupt activities of other firms impose large costs on their firms. Ninety percent of respondents indicated that they made extra payments for getting connections to public utilities like telephone and electricity.
Among 65 respondent executives, two-thirds observed that the frequency of additional payments or bribes has increased significantly and about 75.3 percent thought that organised crimes impose significant costs on their businesses. About 89 percent companies stated unreliable police protection to business.
A decline in cooperative relationship between labours and employers was observed in the study. It was stated that payments to workers are not related to productivity.
Just came back from the Career Center. They have become very helpful these days!
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Hello! I have just entered the blogosphere!
