ces, anyone has thought of working out the algebra of political change.
Meanwhile the liberation goes sour. The early pretence that politics has something to do with the people is thrown to the winds. The efficient bureaucrats arid army officers soon rule the roost. The living standards (or, shall we say, dying standards) of the people continue to go down, with the difference perhaps that you can no longer discuss such ugly subjects. The interesting thing about political power in such situations is that it does not grow from the barrels of guns; instead, it meekly follows them! That is how the liberation has gone sour in Bangladesh. That having happened, the international system has naturally turned its eyes towards that country. It is a futile exercise to speculate which powers would be interested in the happenings in Bangladesh. All powers who have anything to do with Bangladesh would be. Big powers always fish in the stagnant waters of the underdeveoped world. They cannot do so in the troubled waters of the liberation movement. But once the liberation, or whatever went by that name, is over, once the stagnation (often euphemistically described as 'stability') becomes visible, they act. All the inte- THE ministerial conference to be held in Paris in mid-December follows in the wake of a series of international conferences, One year ago the UN General Assembly framed the Declaration of the Establishment of a New International Economic Order and a Programme of Action to implement it. This was adopted at the sixth special session and was followed by the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States promulgated at the twenty-ninth regular session of the UN General Assembly. Thus, on the international front a comprehensive mandate was given for the dismantling of the archaic structures that are woefully inadequate to further the cause of international co-operation and for the construction of a new system more responsive to the aspirations of the third world. Discussions that are taking place in inter- rested powers act.
