Henry Kissinger in 1971 remarked Bangladesh is the "basket case". Fast forward to 2008, Iceland, as a country, is threading on shaky ground after the sub-prime mortgage fallout. While I am not celebrating this news, I would like to remind everyone Bangladesh's accomplishment in preventing this type of 'basket case' scenario.Clearly the laws of nature are against Bangladesh where we have been bombarded with every natural calamity possible. But bankruptcy is a man-made disaster and by the gesture of not acting (or doing anything) we have succeeded remarkably. We lack the financial instruments, the financial maturity and the financial knowledge that are being used in other developed countries. But even with this lack of knowledge our banks and financial institutions did not invest in "asset backed securities". Thereby avoiding a larger man-made disaster than puts some natural ones to shame. Congratulations.
