Good food, good time, great people

Abdullah Mohibuddin (Flt Engr) My favourite breakfast is a hot & crispy croissant with set honey and a cup of Coffee Latte. Of course it is during reading the newspaper - Financial Express online. Coffee Latte is an Italian coffee (milk is being stirred to make as cream). Croissant is a French bakery product. Set honey is also invented by the British. This is Canada - a blend of multi-national people and different cultures. It is made to one nation and one great country - that is CANADA. When I was reading this newspaper online, various web-based links started blinking. The famous Rogers drew my attention and that is about the TVcable connection and surprisingly the Bangladeshi TV channels - ATN Bangla, Channel i and NTV were available. I did not waste my time, I called Rogers company and they set up the cable TV, home telephone, wireless phone (cell phone) and internet in my condo (apartment). Now, I am being benefited from their prompt services, but ultimately, who gets the maximum business benefit? Definitely, it is the Rogers company by giving ads to the Bangladeshi newspaper - The Financial Express. I am not the only customer of Rogers, the company has thousands of ethnic customers like me. Thanks to The Financial Express which has brought close relations between Bangladesh and Canada. Recently, I went on a day trip to Niagara Falls. I visited Niagara Falls several times in the past. But after 5 years of break, this time I observed different things. Before approaching Niagara Falls, I saw several vineyards on both sides of the roads. Now, wine is being manufactured from these vines. Germans and Belgians are the people behind this project. Maybe one day, Canada will export wine. The people from various countries came to Canada as immigrants and have settled here as Canadians. Just to say in short, Canada has three levels of government - Federal, Provincial or Territorial, and Municipal. Canada has ten provinces and each has its own government and Premier. But the interesting story that I am going to share with you is about the provinces - the Canadian Prairies. The Canadian Prairies are a region of Canada, specifically in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are largely covered by prairie. In a more restricted sense, the term may also refer only to the areas of those provinces covered by prairie. Nothing grows except wheat in the prairies. They have vast land which was made as agricultural land. The people who were living there, used to cultivate wheat only. In order to transport this wheat, the Federal Government connected these provinces with railway link to the seaport. Several years passed by like this and even the Government subsidised the farmers to help them export wheat. Then a good government came by the end of 1990s. They felt the need to reduce its overall budget deficit and to begin to eliminate subsidies in agriculture to make that sector more economically competitive in a world of free trade. To reduce the transport costs, farmers were keen to sell the produce locally, and this sharp reduction in the cost of grain supply spurred an increase in beef cattle production from 1998 onwards. Although it was initially a hue and cry there by the opposition and provincial government, it was worth it. The production of beef cattle has now become a fundamental force restructuring Prairie agriculture. As a matter of fact, the reshaping of the Canadian beef-processing industry into an 'agribusiness' has been underway for some time and is making profit without any subsidies. In Ontario province, the provincial election will be held this week (October, 2011). Most of the candidates are talking about health care, green energy and taxes. As per the recent census (www.census.ca), the baby boomers will retire within 3-4 years. There will be a huge shortage of manpower. Canada is interested to bring 1.9 million young people over next 10 years. Without immigration, Canada's population would be both smaller and older. And the country would face great difficulties funding the impeding retirement of the baby boomers. Those people from Bangladesh who wish to come to Canada, must do some research on Canada and its provinces and city where heshe plans or hopes to live. Here are some useful web sites (www.cic.gc.ca, www.goingtocanada.gc.ca and www.buildingfuturesincanada.ca). People here are very helpful and so are the government agencies. I wanted to change the old airconditionheater controller to new energy saver and all it took was a phone call (suggested by one Canadian-Indian friend) to Waterloo Hydro office (you can call DESCO in our country). Immediately, the office supplied it and installed it free of cost and on top of it, they provided me $50 as incentive for installing this controller. But in our country, it will be a big question (as I am trying to increase the electric load to my apartment in Dhaka for the last 6 months). In the globalised world, the economic growth of our country which is called a developing country (now called a periphery country) is not going as per our expectation, whereas the core country like Canada is growing rapidly. We in Bangladesh can do a lot to improve our standard of living, but we need to understand what is good for us and our country. We must do mature politics - the building of Bangladesh (by both government and opposition parties). Bangladesh can get a lot of opportunities to work together with Canada in the fields of : * aviation and transportation (the Bombardier company can help in these sectors) * setting up of recycling plants both in Dhaka and Chittagong cities * marketing of the products from Bangladesh (apparels, tea and processed foods and other products by holding yearly fairs in major cities of Canada. Export Promotion Bureau should start working now.) * sending experts in agribusiness - agriculture and food processing industries and lastly * allowing students to study here. (After finishing their studies, they will help further economic ties between Bangladesh and Canada.) (The writer is a retired DC10 Flight Engineer of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, now living in Waterloo, Canada. He can be reached at E-mail: abdullahmohibuddin@gmail.com)