Dhaka

(i am not a historian---facts may be wrong--feel free to correct me!)

Its interesting being in Dhaka right now. I feel like I am in the middle of history in the making. The country is going through major changes. Bangladesh has been noted as the world’s most corrupt country. Recently an Anti Corruption Commission (or Coalition—have to check) or the ACC has been put into place. Elections were stopped to challenge the extreme the corruption taking place among politicians. An interim government is in place. All this taking place to meet the demands set forth in order to receive ongoing aid. What does it mean for general public? Well, as always, there are two sides. The good—persons making honest living from black money – they are being put out of business. That means all illegal operations are being annihilated. Illegal VoIP switches were all turned off (internet calling lines created to bypass the gov’t switchboard thus evading taxations) – the bad, its become difficult to make and receive international calls, hawkers on footpaths removed because of no licenses—which means pedestrians can actually walk on the sidewalk instead of dodging cars and being groped on crowded streets. Stores or structures literally being broken if they cannot produce a legal license, drivers being taken to jail if they can’t produce proper documentations –that’s lessened a bit of the congested traffic, even going house to house and breaking TVs if licenses for each TV and cable/dish line is not produced (when u buy a TV through legal means, you receive a license and have to renew it every year—taxes on everything!), and it goes on. Gallons of sweets were strewn on the streets when stores were found guilty of having less than sanitary conditions to make sweets or selling sweets that had spoiled. It goes on and on...in every sector of commercialism…produce to artificial food coloring to cement to asbestos…on and on. It’s a good direction but in the process and the rashness, some people who aren’t guilty are also being thrown in jail. Well, if not guilty they well be proved so in court…but a fair and just legal system is also to be desired in this young country. The ACC have plans to separate the bureaucratic branches but that’s a heavy task.

Bangladesh is a very young country. It is comparable to—say a young man of 15 that sees the world around him, sees wealth, fame and power and wants to have it now—rather than after he is has gone through education, worked hard and earned the wealth and power. That young man wants to bypass and just go straight for the goal. Bangladesh seems like that to me. It worked so hard to gain its independence—the only country in this world that fought a war to have the right to speak its own language—that it’s a shame that it has become known as the world’s most corrupt nation. It has the potential to have a very successful economy and wealth that can be evenly distributed. I just hope that the events occurring now can be driven in a positive direction. That eventually the country will be governed by politicians who are learned and virtuous rather than out for money and power.

A lil anecdote that an uncle passed on the other day:

A villager has come for the first time to the city, Dhaka. He gets on a rickshaw and asks the rickshawallah to take him to the Dhaka Bishobidaloy. The rickshawallah agrees and starts riding and goes all over Dhaka but can’t find the Dhaka Bishobidaloy. The villager is getting irritated and asks if he even knows where he is going. The rickshawallah finally admits that he doesn’t know where the Dhaka Bishobidaloy is. The villager than exclaims, “You don’t know where Dhaka University is!?” The rickshawallah laughs and cries out, “Why didn’t you tell me you wanted Dhaka University is? Its right here!”
(Bishobidaloy is Bangla for University)

My point? Its February. On 21st February every year since independence in 1971, we Bangladeshis, acknowledge the martyrs that sacrificed their lives for the right to speak and write our beautiful language, Bangla.* As a nation, we have become so carried away trying to imitate the West and become so terribly commercial that we have at times forgotten that we as a people had our own ideologies and philosophies to live by. That this land has been always inhabited by peaceful, open-minded, liberal and generous peoples and the land has equally been generous.** The country has produced Nobel Prize winners in Peace and Literature.*** So, I hope the course of events and actions taking place in our country leads us to a fair, just and peaceful way of existence.
*When the British left India, it divided the land. When it was divided, India was flanked by Pakistan on two sides. East Pakistan and West Pakistan. This was done to group together the primarily Islamic states. However, in East Pakistan area, the main language spoken was Urdu which followed the Arabic script. West Pakistan had its own written and spoken language for thousands of years, Bangla. The Pakistan government wanted all Pakistanis to speak Urdu but West Pakistan protested. Thus started the Language Movement. In world history, it is considered a Genocide. The Pakistanis came in and murdered thousands. Starting from the intellectuals of the country and the students. Ditches were filled with bodies piled high. It continued for many long months. To learn more, google “Bangladesh independence”.

**Our national song is Amar Sonar Bangla—our Golden Bangla—which is reference to the fields of abundant golden wheat. A land of plenty.

***Peace Prize: Prof. Yunnus, 2006 & Literature: Rabindronath Tagore -- google it!