the above is more or less correct, but this is capitalism as such..... good luck to those in bangladesh fighting back! similar things are taking place over much of the 'third world'. furthermore, this is nothing new. it is obvious to any who have eyes and can see. ( but is hard to see from the west for some reason) this process is not new but has been taking place for hundreds of years, which is why the west is rich and the east is poor. When the british first came to Bengal, Bengal was a rich and did not know the famines now associated with bengal and bangladesh....

let us remind ourselves of machieveli; 'true power is never given it is always taken'. We live in such a world. The method of taking in this instance is historically eurocentric but the assertions of Chinese conglomerates/companies in Africa, most notably, are very reminiscent here. The complicity of western companies is prominent largely because of colonial history, and the capital this has afforded modern western societies, but it is very easy to oversimplify in this area. It seems to me that the residents (former?) of Phulbari are the most exploitable option for Asia energy, that is not entirely the fault of the initator of the process, they are working solely for money and would function ethically if it made them as much money. Locally there must be complicity by some power brokers; government (gangstas?). These people maintain power both through violence, (police shootings) and through the more subtle method of what is best described as hegemony. In the end this system does bare heavy western elements but the exploitation of these people is made possible by the social system that disenpowers the residents of Phulbari from the begining. Empowerment on the ground therefore is paramount and most difficult but ulimately requires social revolution/evolution or a reorganisation of power structures and relationships.
I apologise for the rambling nature of this peice, I find this subject deeply fascinating an the other contributions extremely valuable, it is however important to examine the nature of power in these situations before we can discern quite where and why exploitation and injustice occurs. I also would like to add that I am in no way condoning the behaviour of such companies which can only be described as shameless greed!

I began my career in Electrical Engineering in February, 1976 when I was an Asstt. Engineer in Dhaka Water Supply and Swerage Authority. I know how those local experts had frustrated every efforts of Parsons (consulting engineer) to solve the water supply and swerage problems of the city. It is not the right place to elaborate on that. Later in 1979, we in Black and Veatch (consulting engineer) put cosiderable effort to improve the power system of the country. Again it is the stupidity of those local experts who frustrated every effort. Similar group of people pulled the strings that the gas sector could not be developed by the foreign investments. Now it is coal.
I understand the base load of our electrical power system could be generated from coal at present and later from nuclear energy.
Gas when used in combined cycle power stations generate the most energy efficient electrical energy. But in the case of Bangladesh almost all the base load generators are gas fired steam turbine power stations that are poor in efficiency and reliability. Thus these are actually wasting our gas. We could use high efficiency gas turbines to meet the peak demand only.
Even the existing steam turbine power stations can easily be converted to coal power stations.
Open minining of coal and lignite will provide us with necessary fuel for those existing and future steam turbine base load power stations. This method ensures the maximum possible recovery of coal, is actually in use in the existing lime stone mines of Sunamganj district of bangladesh and is within present readily available technologies.
The question of destruction of agricultural land and human habitat can effectively be compensated. Let us develop the low lying char areas of Greater Dinajpur and Greater Rangpur (i.e. the original british districts) into plain ground above high flood lelvel. Those lands remains under water for several months and can partly be used in agriculture. Essentially those lands remains unutilised. People living in those areas do not eat properly round the year and live a nomadic life away from civilization. The developed ground can be distrubuted among the present inhabitants and those replaced due to mining in districts mentioned above. The people affected be compensated graciously with more lands than those they are living behind for mining. The new land will be good for a three crop farming and be equipped with all modern agricultural technologies that I do not like to elaborate at this stage. These people will get a modern residential areas with furnished house and with modern farming equipment. This new residential area/areas will be connected to the capital city with a high-way and rail link.
The coperation from local inhabitants can be obtained if we can present them with a model of what compensation they can obtain from Asia Energy or for that matter any such interested mining company.
Thanking you.

SHEIKH DIN MOHAMMAD