Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

We talk a lot on the show about unhappy situations, wars, famines, oppression and protests.

You might think that the pandemic would have been an enormous hit to the global average

of happiness. We examine data showing that it hasn't. And just as soon as a

container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal, supply chains the world over started to creak.

Now it seems weeks may be required to get it on the move again. We look at a blockage in a narrow

artery of the global shipping system. But first, today marks 50 years of Bangladeshi independence.

What was East Pakistan declared itself a new country in 1971 as what was left of Pakistan

fought a brutal war to retain it. The fighting has obviously been fierce, the shell holes which

spat at the fields in the area are evidence of that. It was a conflict that may have cost as many

as three million lives. Millions more fled to India or were internally displaced,

drawing the world's attention to what would later be called a genocide.

Every day upwards of 100,000 refugees are making the long journey back from India to Bangladesh.

For many, it's a journey to heartbreak. Devastating as the war of independence was,

in some ways it set Bangladesh on the path to success, as expatriates flooded back to repair

their broken homeland. By many measures, they succeeded, but the economic gains Bangladesh has made

have not been matched by the development of a healthy open democracy. Bangladesh is not quite

leapt from rags to riches in one generation, but it has come a long way in the last half a century.

Susanna Savage writes about Bangladesh for the economist.

Walking around Dacca now, it's really, really busy. It's full of people, you hear

rickshaws and cars. Buses are everywhere, there's a lot of traffic, a lot of fancy cars on the road

...