Our Newspaper Wall...

Well, let me introduce you to our wall. It stands next to our kitchen and upon our arrival into the house it was bare, and we didn't know what we should do to decorate it. But on the arrival of our subscription to the leading english daily newspaper in Bangladesh - The Daily Star, we had found our decoration solution.

What intrigued us in the first few weeks of living here, and still intrigues us today, are some of the news articles that are featured in the paper. The wall is absolutely packed now, and articles that make the 'cut' are scrutinised even more so now.

In this Blog I just want to give you a feeling of the crazy things that happen here in Bangladesh and also the strange articles that make national news!

Crossfire deaths
The articles that originally initiated the wall, crossfire deaths are deaths where criminals are "accidentally" shot by an elite military policing force called the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). It is well known that a 'crossfire death' is the deliberate murder of a well known criminal (or person against the state). Basically the RAB are judge, jury and executor. I know that many of you will be a gasp of this force, but the Bangladesh people have really taken a liken to them as unfortunately they are the only way that justice can be reached within this corrupt society. Unfortunately in such a gruesome and unjust way. Our wall would include over 30 crossfire deaths, originally there were 2-5 a week but now we would see one a fortnight. Here is a link to all of the references to crossfire on the Daily Star website... totaling 1490 articles!
But I should also mention that the elite RAB force don't have it all their way - Mob beat up 2 Rab men

Biman Articles
Biman is the governments national airline carrier here in Bangladesh, it is famous for not turning up on time and leaving many people stranded. We would maybe have maybe 5 articles about Biman on our wall. Anyone that knows Christina, ask her about her 36 hour delay from Biman! I have heard that their average delayed time is 12 hours! Favourite article is Int'l airports warn Biman of boycott

Obscure murders and deaths
Although not pleasant, these articles are really strange. Some deaths that occur here are beyond belief and if you saw such a story in an Australian paper you would be shocked and in disbelief. Here are just a few of them:
- Schoolboy murdered over cricket match
- 2 biscuits cost child's life!
- Rickshawpuller beaten to death over fare
- Train guard killed on board
And of course there are always the "trampled by an elephant" and "eaten by the tiger" articles every so often.

CNG Blasts
Bangladesh has a massive amount of natural gas reserves, and all cars here run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Every time you fill up it is required that you step out of the car and give yourself 5m's because the tanks are really badly made and will often blow up. We would see the graphic aftermath photos once a month from such blasts. Example and photo

Indian Border Security Force (BSF)
Some of you may have read that India is creating a 1300km fence/wall to keep Bangladeshis out of India. The fence is yet to be finished and the way that they keep the Bangladeshis out is to shoot them. Guaranteed that there will be one killing in the paper each week. BSF, Indian criminals kill 297 in 4 yrs

Earthquakes
Although Bangladesh has made the world news for every natural disaster known to man this year (Floods, Landslides, Cyclone Sidr and Tsunami Alerts) the earthquake is still yet to hit here. Touch wood that Bangladesh never have to deal with a natural disaster that reaps devastation as much as the ones this year, but on our wall there is 5 small articles about a mild tremor hitting the country... articles that are so small that you would only expect to see them in papers in Tokyo and LA. Tremor jolts country (searching mild tremor on Dailystar.net returns 98 results!)

Mass Hysteria
One of my most favourite sets of articles on the wall is from a period around August where there was a disease that was tagged "mass hysteria" by the media that was happening in a multiple of random places all throughout Bangladesh. The disease was targeting female teenagers. What would happen is that one person would feel sick and nauseas and when she fainted it would trigger a domino effect of fainting, there were cases where a school would be affected and 70+ students at a time would faint, followed by the teachers! Here is an example of one of the articles, but to get a better understanding read all these articles!

Personifying Diarrhoea
Diarrhoea is highly common throughout Bangladesh and there is no surprise that there are quite a few articles on it during the flood season. What I really loved about the articles this year was how diarrhoea has been personified to represent almost an army out there attacking Bangladesh, check out the following headlines:
- 2 killed 300 attacked in three days
- 1.1 lakh attacked by diarrhoea since mid-July
- 35,000 attacked with diarrhoea (I can only visualise an army attacking people with buckets!)
- Diarrhoea killed seven people and attacked 964

Well that's a list is the types of articles that are on our wall, but my 2 favourite articles on there don't fall into any of these categories because they are just so strange and weird. Enjoy

Bull trouble at ZIA
I don't believe I have to comment on this article... you just have to read the first paragraph! (note: Zia is the only international airport in Dhaka!)
A runaway bull wound up being on the tarmac of the Zia International Airport early yesterday. It left the area on its own but not before keeping some 22 security personnel running after it for around two hours.
(I would also like to point out that the bull was never caught "The animal got out of the runway area on its own"

50kg chunk of ice falls from the blue!
This was front page material that day... nothing more ever came out of it.

Mugged by Men with Meat Cleavers...

Not really sure how to do this Blog... but I have had Chrissy in town for a few days and I was taking her to the airport last night where we were mugged by bandits with Shiny Meat Cleavers...
I have got sick of telling the story so... here is my police report!

To the Officer in Charge,

Dhanmondi Police Station,

Dhanmondi Dhaka

Subject: For General Diary Entry

This morning, 21^st January 2008, I had rung for a Navana Taxi Cab (Number 591) to pick me up from House 28, Road 2, Dhanmondi at 2:20am and take me and my Australian friend (Christina H) to the airport. Upon arriving down to the gate of my Apartment block my friend and I waited directly outside for the driver to come. He did not arrive at 2:20am so I gave his mobile number a call and he informed me that he was in Mohakali and was coming right away. He took some time to arrive so I called him again at around 2:30am and he spoke to him in Bangla, he didn't understand where my apartment block was, I tried to convince him to come along road 2 and I would be able to find him. He said that he was at Labaid hospital (which is the corner of Road 3 and Mirpur Rd) and that he wanted me to come there. I refused to leave from outside my apartment block and told him to come to me.

By approximately 2:33 he hadn't come from Labaid hospital (which in my approximations is a 30 second drive) and I was approached by a white aged Toyota Camry (approx 1992 model) which had a rear spoiler. This car approached House 28 from Sat Masjid Rd on the Right hand side of the road and pulled up directly outside where I was standing. Out of the car 3 male youths (aged 22-28) approached me and pulled shiny meat cleavers out of their pants and jackets. Whilst waving these knives at us they demanded my wallet (which had approximately 15000tk in it) and my mobile (value 3000tk), of which they took. My friend got frisked but didn't have her mobile or her wallet on her and they didn't take anything from her. All this awoke our guards but they were not able to do anything as the gate had been locked behind me.

After approximately 30-45 seconds the car had reversed into the driveway of the apartment block and the three men got into the car and drove away towards Sat Masjid Rd. Approximately 1 minute later the taxi driver arrived and I collected some money and departed to the airport. Along the way we pulled over and informed some RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) members of what had just happened. These RAB members were also talking to another person who had also been robbed by these men.

Sorry that the story doesn't have much excitement... but then again there really wasn't too much excitement. The police say that there are a few groups still at large committing hijacks within the area.

The curse of climate change

Well... as one would expect Bangladesh has become a major talking point around climate change.

But one would think that they would be more prepared for the problems that are expected to hit them in the coming few decades. Rather, I was fortunate enough to meet the Bangladesh head of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) - the worlds largest civil society movement against poverty and inequality which basically represents all the non UN and Govt organisations working towards the Millennium Development Goals. She was organising the South Asian Civil Society Consultation on Climate Change that was to be held in Dhaka on the 13/14th January 2007 and allowed me to come along to the conference as a non-participant.

What came clear from the conference was that Bangladesh, nor South Asia are ready to deal with climate change. With countries like Bangladesh, The Maldives and Nepal going to be most effected by these changes one would hope that this region can lead the campaign to get the rich countries to change their behaviour.

With the effects of climate change being so influential here, you hope that this region will be able to lead through example. The effects are best seen through the bangladesh case study:
Expected rise in sea levels over the next century: 50-89cm.
Percentage of Bangladesh landmass <89cm: 25%
Population living within this land mass: 18 million (equiv to the entire population of Australia)
Expected population living within this land mass at the end of the century: >30 million
Side effect of rising sea levels: Increased soil salinity throughout agricultural areas
Effect of Increased Salinity: Decrease in agricultural production
Effect of Decreased Ag Production: Decrease in food consumption per person (exasperated by an increase in population as well) - All of which ends up with a decrease in health quality and a backwards track to development.
Expected Sea level temps increase:1.1°C to 6.4°C over next century
Effects of such levels: Greater number of cyclones and wild storms (eg Cyclone SIDR Nov,2007) which will have even greater destruction.

As well as the rising sea levels, Bangladesh has to deal with being the drain of two of the biggest rivers in the world (Ganges and Brahmaputra) and an increase in the melting of the Himalayan Glaciers will lead to great flooding and erosion within Bangladesh. The problems are endless, basically if there is a problem caused by Climate Change, Bangladesh will be effected by that problem and the effects will be extreme.

For a country that pollutes so little, it is going to be effected so greatly... Bangladesh now needs to lead the Climate Change campaign for if it doesn't it will be effected most.

"The poorest Billion's carbon footprint is 3%, USA's carbon footprint is 25%"

Finding (or not finding) religion...

guys... a bit off the usual blog entries just an article I threw together after an interesting plane flight... this is by no means meant to be critical of any Religion, rather it is an internal reflection. Apologies if this insults anyone.

After a recent trip to India I was flying back into Bangladesh, the beautiful Islamic country that I now call home. On the flight back into Dhaka I was seated next to a rather conservative Muslim (well at least for Bangladesh standards) who murmured texts of the Koran before and during take off. Not perturbed by his behaviour, I engaged him in basic conversation – where he was from, why he had been overseas… the usual aeroplane chit-chat. He happened to notice that I was reading Mother Teresa’s biography and engaged me in conversation about my religious beliefs.

During my time in Bangladesh I have been often asked about my religion and whether I am Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist etc. I have often tried to not engage in conversation with the questioner as I find it too hard to explain to them how I am Agnostic. This behaviour of mine is because not having any beliefs or a God totally perplexes the devout Bangladeshis but also because I often do not have an answer as to why I never followed the mass of Australian population to find the Christian God.

This time was different, I had a 3 hour flight and I felt it time that I not only answered his questions about why I wasn’t a Christian, but also time for me to understand my rationale for never throwing myself into Christianity. The conversation went down the usual path – “you have to have a religion” and “how can you not have a God?” I tried to explain to him that I have doubts about some of the Christian teachings and that I require a solid rationale backing my beliefs, I cannot just have blind faith. I am not sure if it was our English-Bengali language differences, but somehow these ideas of mine were out of comprehension for my Muslim friend.

Subsequently, I asked him how he knows that the word of Islam is correct for him and that other religions are such not correct. He answered “that the true Prophet, Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon Him), came down as the messenger of Allah… ” although I cannot remember exactly what he stated, it unfortunately did not answer to me why other religions were not correct. I then informed him that even though I have tried my hardest during my time in Bangladesh to understand Islam, I had not learnt enough to say that his Islamic beliefs were not the correct beliefs for me, therefore how could I say that any of my religious beliefs were correct?

This conversation had finally given me the answer to my religious identity. An issue that I had not only struggled with whilst living in Bangladesh, but also growing up as a kid in rural Australia and living in a Christian college whilst at university. Later, whilst I thought more about this conversation I realised that a lack of understanding about each others religions was not just restricted to me and my new Muslim friend 3000 feet in the air, but such lack of understanding exists the world over and is the reason for so much division and hostility.

What was worse was that such ignorance exists in my own country, within a highly educated and multicultural community. I had friends throughout school and university who, at such a young age, would happily walk blindly into Christianity without ever investigating what other religions were available and questioning whether such a religion was the right fit for them. I could never imagine these friends stepping into a lifetime marriage without posing these 2 questions, so how could they commit to a more important relationship with their God without considering them?

What is most important is not what religion I am, it is whether I love thy neighbour and treat all my fellow brother and sisters equally, regardless of religion or any other factor that might differentiate us. Remember it was Mother Teresa, whom a devout Catholic, demonstrated to the world that no matter if we are Hindu, Islamic or any other religion; we are all children of God. Whether that God is Vishnu, Allah or even Mother Nature, it does not matter as we are all fellow human beings.

Bangers gets Bashed... AGAIN...

Hi all...

I know that I have been lazy in keeping this Blog up-to-date, but I will get Burma and Cricket in India posts up soon.

I have no doubt that the western press have caught onto the mass destruction that has been caused throughout the country. Fortunately I and the majority of Dhaka remained relatively unscathed.

Instead it was again the less developed rural areas that bore the brunt of cyclone SIDR. Many villages were not only blown over by the 15o mph winds but the storm surge that accompanied the winds was reported to be up to 15 feet, washing away many of the low-lying coastal villages. Fortunately, if any fortune can come out of this event, the cyclone crossed land within the Sundabans Nature Reserve which is a massive (relative to Bangladesh land size) uninhabited mangrove forest. If it had crossed in a more densely populated area of Bangladesh (read: anywhere else) the death toll and destruction would have been much much worse.

Please offer any support that you can to this country, it needs all the support it can get during this troubled time.

A Rickshaw Adventure...

Ok, where do I begin…

Many of you would know that I had invested in a Rickshaw for a young boy, Ani, who had been riding me around Dhaka every so often. The agreement that we had come to was that I would make the initial capital investment into the rickshaw (8000 tk) and that he would continually work for me (be there for me 24 hours a day – as he said at the time!) for 3 months and that the rickshaw would be his.

What I thought would be a good idea. A bit of a win-win situation for us both, he provide me with a service that I require everyday to get to and from work as well as when I go out socially and I provide him with an interest free micro-credit loan that he would pay off in kind and also remove him of the burden of having to pay 100tk per day to hire his previous rickshaw.

After informing many of my friends back home via email, I got a lot of well wishes from them hoping that it all works out well. Almost like they could tell from their distance that this relationship was going to be a problem. Little did I realize this at the time.

It all started out rather smoothly, he would catch the bus to my house and pick me up at 830am, work throughout the day and then pick me up at 5pm to take me home. Easy really. The first bump we came to was the need for a rickshaw license. How much? I enquire. Twenty Thousand Taka he responds! What? Why had you not told me about this hidden cost beforehand? Probably because he knew that I would say no. Anyway, I told him I couldn’t manage that money for this license… so against my morals he buys one on the black market for 1000tk, of course with my money!

In week 2 of our relationship, I am left standing outside my house for 2 consecutive mornings at 845 with no rickshaw, or wallah in sight. No call, nothing! Later those days he rings me at 2pm to inform me that he is sick. I tell him that if so he needs to call me at 8am to tell me. No problems, I promise he says.

In week 3 not only does one of our wheels break on the rickshaw (300tk) but the kid continually begs for a mobile phone. An idea that sounds interesting for me, as now I will be able to contact him rather than waiting for my daily phone calls from him to tell me that he cant make it. I provide him my old mobile on the proviso that he pays me back 50 tk a day until he pays 2000tk. He promises 50tk a day.

Also around this time he asks if he can borrow my bicycle so that he can ride to and from my place rather than having to pay for the bus, I don’t see the problem with this, as by this time I had started riding the rickshaw around the area when I needed to do things, so as long as I have one of the bikes I am happy. The agreement with him using the bike was provided that he kept upkeep and maintenance of it.

All of a sudden one week I just don’t see him or rarely hear from him, and when he does call it sounds like the voice I put on when ringing my manager to pull a sickie. I try calling him and there is no connection, what is he up to or what has happened to him? Either way, why wont he be honest to me about it?

I had become really annoyed with his lack of work or communication. The following week, he has bruises and scars over his body, not sure if they are self inflicted. Tells me that he got mugged and bashed and the bike was damaged and that he was fixing it. I was more worried about his welfare than the bike; we agreed that we would go to the police with the problem but he never followed me up on that. During this time he also informed me that his brother in law had taken the mobile phone for a few weeks and that it would return soon. He had also stopped paying the 50tk a day for it claiming that he had been sick and not worked and therefore couldn’t pay me!

Things kinda continued the same, he would turn up 3/5 days a week and he never had the mobile or rode the bike to my place. I eventually gave him an ultimatum – he produce the mobile and bike or we would be finished.

During this time the rickshaw seat broke and we agreed that we would fix it… I somehow, stupidly in hindsight, gave him 2000tk to head off and fix it. He had sold me on a story that he would pay 4000tk of it and me 2000tk. Where was the guy going to get 4000tk from???? He wasn’t even paying back the mobile! Little surprise that the seat never got fixed did it!

Anyway the deal was that he had to continually work for me and if he was not going to make it in the morning he had to call and have a darn good excuse. He went well with the first week and I thought that he might have turned the corner… but he didn’t turn up for two days in a row. That’s when I called it quits and told the guards that he wasn’t allowed into the house to pickup the rickshaw anymore.

One weekend when I was out, he came over and the guards refused him. He complained and complained to them but also my flat mates that they let him in and I would sort him out when I got back in an hour. Anyway, somehow the guards let him leave with the rickshaw! I got a call from him that night as one of his friends had caught him trying to sell the rickshaw, I went across town to where he was and found out the true story of what he had been up to…

I was informed that the kid had a gambling problem and had gambled himself into massive debts so much so that he had lost my mobile and my bicycle in the games that he had been playing. I never found out how much trouble he has got himself into, but realize that I have done all I can to try and give this kid a chance in life and he has just thrown it back in my face. I continually got promises after promises about what the money, the bike and the phone. I had lost so much money on trying to help him and all he did was lie to me and cheat me.

As hard as it was to say no to a guy that has a gambling debt, I had to cut ties. For now it is time to look for a new wallah to ride my rickshaw… maybe Mohammad Yunis is onto something with lending micro-credit to women only… if only there were women rickshawallahs!

Did I have bad karma today???

Whenever friends ask how things are going here in Dhaka, the answer usually comes back in the positive. Even if there has been a few negative things going on that day, the positives usually outweigh these negatives... except for today, where I felt karma was against me.

Today... 1 week away from my 3 and 1/2 week adventure in India and Burma, I thought it time to finally sort out my ticket over to India (yes, I am as organised as ever!). I headed off to the Air India offices (had given up on the travel agents here... as you would say here - couldn't organise a farting comp in a downtown curry house!) I get there and find that I need to have my passport to finalise my ticket, quickly remember that my passport isn't at home, rather waiting for me to pick it up at the Burma Embassy! Ok, not probs... get in a CNG (tuk tuk), go to the embassy, pick it up and come back and pay for my ticket that is cancelling tomorrow.

No CNG's would go on the meter... so I paid double! A usual 1/2 hour, 10km trip up to the embassy, took well over an hour. Upon arriving at the embassy, I was informed that I had to come back at 4pm, during pick-up hour! Ok, back into the CNG - back home to complete more errons. Four kms into the journey we hit a massive traffic jam, another 20mins and 500m's further and my CNG runs out of gas. With no other CNG's around, it must be quicker to walk... hmmm that's what I thought - somehow the jam clears, but I am committed to walking!

Anyway, walk 5kms back home. Do a few errons... some positives for the day! Get a rickshaw home 2kms, this time make it one km and hit another jam! This time the wallah tells me in broken English "big jam". Ok back on foot. Reach home, but then have to leave to the embassy straight-away in order to beat the post 3:30pm work Ramadan rush home so all the crazed and rushed commuters can break their fasts on time.

Luckily, walk out the front door and hail a CNG straight away. Unluckily this CNG breaks down within 1km! Half hour wait and we get a push start from another CNG... fingers crossed. Again, "big jam" was ahead of us. Did the trip in 50 min after the push-start. Off to the embassy, they ask me for money for my passport. But I had paid! After a few heated words, the guy that i paid came out and sorted it for me. Ok, last trip back down to home. Surely it cant get worse!

It amazingly did! I fought with others for CNG's and got a extortionated price of 100 taka, a price that a local would never pay to head on my journey. All I cared is that I got a CNG home and the CNG not break down. Fortunately it didn't break down, well at least not for an extended period of time! But the roads were total gridlock... my driver took me through every nook and cranny that he knew! The journey went for ages, I even resorted to napping on the really uncomfortable hard seats, calling my parents... I did everything I thought possible to entertain myself for this time. My frustration levels had burst, I was starting to getting really agitated with the many beggars along the way, how could I explain to them that the multiple CNG drivers for the day had all of my money... I was out of any loose cash!

Anyway, I finished the day with a triumph. The CNG driver had started the trip with a fresh meter and amazingly in our 2 hour trip home (which inc over an hour of stationary waiting) the meter had made it over the 100 taka we had agreed on!

But unfortunately still no ticket to Delhi! I have achieved nothing but to sit in multiple CNGs for a day!