Bangladesh's government announced this week that it is shortening official working hours for all public-sector employees, closing government offices by early afternoon to reduce fuel consumption for air conditioning and transportation. [1] The decision follows a series of austerity measures implemented since mid-March, including advanced school holidays, university closures, and a 50 percent reduction in fuel allocations for non-essential government vehicles. The country of 170 million people is rationing its way through a war it did not start, in a strait it does not border, between countries it has no alliance with.

Bangladesh imports nearly all of its petroleum. The country has no strategic reserve of meaningful size. When the Strait of Hormuz's effective closure reduced global oil shipments by an estimated 20 percent in mid-March, Bangladesh's fuel supply chain did not degrade gradually -- it snapped. Diesel prices in Dhaka have risen by over 40 percent since February. The government approved a $358 million austerity fund to manage the crisis, but as one X commentator noted, "nobody asked austerity from what." [2]

The shortened workday is the most visible measure, but it is not the most consequential. The reduction in fuel allocations to government ministries has slowed the delivery of agricultural inputs to rural districts during the spring planting season. Bangladesh's agriculture ministry confirmed that fertilizer distribution is running two weeks behind schedule. In a country where rice is both the staple crop and the employment base for roughly 40 percent of the workforce, a delayed planting season carries cascading consequences that extend well beyond the current fuel crisis.

The Fox News liveblog, which has been the most comprehensive running account of the war's daily developments, noted Bangladesh's austerity measures in a single line item on Thursday. [1] No major Western outlet has devoted a standalone story to them. This is consistent with the pattern this paper has been tracking since mid-March: the war's second-order effects on the global south are experienced locally and ignored globally.

Bangladesh joins a lengthening list. The Philippines declared a 45-day fuel reserve emergency. Cuba's electrical grid collapsed for the third time since the war began. South Africa imposed fuel surcharges that added R3.06 per litre at the pump. Pakistan shortened its government workweek to four days. [3] Each country arrived at its crisis through different channels, but the cause is the same: a war in the Persian Gulf disrupted the oil supply on which their economies depend, and no one involved in the war is accounting for the cost.

The war is now measured in shortened hours, darkened offices, delayed harvests, and the quiet contraction of a government that cannot afford to keep its lights on past lunchtime. In Dhaka, the workday ends early. The fuel gauges drop. The planting season waits.

-- Priya Sharma, Delhi