1] The Awami League government's desire to create a Digital Bangladesh progresses. It has just been announced that a new bill will be introduced that allows people to transfer money via mobile phones from anywhere within the country, even from the remotest regions. The implications for this are enormous and need to be tracked. Further confirmation that the mobile phone has been the most influential new technology in contemporary society.
2] I have just marked an Honour's Thesis about representations of women in Bangladesh, which is quite excellent. Of particular interest is a section on Acid Attack victims. What surprised me is the fact that this vile action is of very recent origin, probably beginning in the 1980s.
3] The other day I found myself taking a short cut on the wrong side of the road to speed up a trip I was making. Other drivers were quite rightly very annoyed and I realised that I was driving like a Dhaka driver. So it was with interest that I read in The Daily Star about the attempts to improve traffic flows in Dhaka. I have always maintained that one of the main reasons for the terrible jams on the Dhaka roads is the Dhaka drivers' utter disregard for the laws of the road. Yesterday's headline was "Driving remains willy nilly". Today (10/12/2009) it is "New traffic rules show some hopes" as drivers begin to obey the rules for fear of penalty. It should have happened years ago!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Satellites
The Awami League government has announced that Bangladesh will join Pakistan and India in having its own geostationary communications satellite to improve the internal and external lines of communication. This can be welcomed on many fronts; Bangladesh is poorly served with international communications. The one fibre optic cable link is regularly dug up by thieves because they think it has value as scrap (in 2007 the service was disrupted 28 times by this means). A number of offers have been made by Indian concerns to end the reliance on a single link and there are Bangladeshi interests eager to enter telecommunications on a larger scale. The mobile phone market has been one of the most rapidly increasing telecommunications markets in the world (over 50% of the population now has access to a mobile phone. In 2006 it was under 20%) and can thus be regarded as a success. Its uptake has been assisted by micro financing from Grameem and BRAC for example and interestingly Bangladesh has a clearly defined telecommunications policy whereas there is still no general communications policy enacted. It is argued that this is because the telecom market is owned by foreign interests (Telnor/Norway and Warid/Saudi Arabia) while the local TV, radio and newspaper sectors are owned and controlled by local interests, most of whom have strong political ties. So where does a satellite fit?
One of the guiding principles of Bangladeshi policy as such has been to protect the state owned institutions - BTC and BTCC - who provide fixed telephony services and international communications access. Launching and controlling a satellite fits with this official stance. However, I'm not sure that the proponents of the medium fully understand what is involved. For example, the issue of censorship springs to mind; it has been stated that satellites remove the need for cable but the most successful services combine the two, which is especially true if you wish to control/censor content. Even with a spot beam it's difficult to control the distribution of images and information but with a cable system you just have to flick a switch or pull a plug. There is also the issue of competition with the well established Indian satellite services. There seems to be a naive hope that Bangladeshis will opt for local product. They don't at the moment with the Indian programs, especially in urban centres, easily out rating the local satellite providers among the young and middle classes.
I'm not opposed to the introduction a a Bangladeshi satellite provider; it is long over due but I am concerned about the form it will take, especially if it remains a government instrumentality. More repeats of Tagore songs and folk dancing is a possibility!
One of the guiding principles of Bangladeshi policy as such has been to protect the state owned institutions - BTC and BTCC - who provide fixed telephony services and international communications access. Launching and controlling a satellite fits with this official stance. However, I'm not sure that the proponents of the medium fully understand what is involved. For example, the issue of censorship springs to mind; it has been stated that satellites remove the need for cable but the most successful services combine the two, which is especially true if you wish to control/censor content. Even with a spot beam it's difficult to control the distribution of images and information but with a cable system you just have to flick a switch or pull a plug. There is also the issue of competition with the well established Indian satellite services. There seems to be a naive hope that Bangladeshis will opt for local product. They don't at the moment with the Indian programs, especially in urban centres, easily out rating the local satellite providers among the young and middle classes.
I'm not opposed to the introduction a a Bangladeshi satellite provider; it is long over due but I am concerned about the form it will take, especially if it remains a government instrumentality. More repeats of Tagore songs and folk dancing is a possibility!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Language and Newspapers
If you combine the population of the Indian state with the population of Bangladesh you have well over 250 million Bengali speaking people, making it one of the world's most widely spoken languages. Two observations here: it is the pull of language that sometimes confuses the issues in Bangladesh, people are not sure whether they are Bengalis first and then Muslims or vice versa. Indeed it was the Language Movement that underpinned the separation from Pakistan in 1971, although its roots are much older and deeper than that. Ordinary people as much as academics have taken great pride in the Bengali language and its literary traditions. Then there is the colonial legacy. English is still the language of the elite and there is a move back to making English more central to education as well everyday discourse as English has moved from being the language of the oppressors to the universal language of international commerce; a tool for entry into the global economy. Which brings me to the newspapers.
Basically there are two types of newspapers; the Bangla papers aimed at the mass market and the English language papers aimed at the elite. Indeed it is the The Daily Star, New Age and The Bangladesh Observer that are perceived to be the influential papers (although the Bangla Prothom Alo, a stablemate of The Daily Starr) is also taken very seriously in important circles. What distinguishes these papers from the others is that have taken an objective stand in regard to politics (at least in Bangladesh context) whereas most other papers are clearly identified with a political party or religious grouping. Like Europe, you can usually identify someone's political affiliations in Dhaka by the paper they read.
One of the things that strikes you about the English language papers is their collective use of English as a medium of expression. At times it seems that English has been frozen in a pre-modern era. I was once talking to a Belgian who made the point it was if they had been written by Charles Dickens. One example will do to illustrate this point; the use of the word "miscreant". All law breakers are universally described as 'miscreants', a word I have become very fond of, but you rarely if ever find it used in the modern Australian press.
All of which leads me to speculate that the study of the usage of English in nations forged from a colonial struggle could make the subject of a fine study.
Basically there are two types of newspapers; the Bangla papers aimed at the mass market and the English language papers aimed at the elite. Indeed it is the The Daily Star, New Age and The Bangladesh Observer that are perceived to be the influential papers (although the Bangla Prothom Alo, a stablemate of The Daily Starr) is also taken very seriously in important circles. What distinguishes these papers from the others is that have taken an objective stand in regard to politics (at least in Bangladesh context) whereas most other papers are clearly identified with a political party or religious grouping. Like Europe, you can usually identify someone's political affiliations in Dhaka by the paper they read.
One of the things that strikes you about the English language papers is their collective use of English as a medium of expression. At times it seems that English has been frozen in a pre-modern era. I was once talking to a Belgian who made the point it was if they had been written by Charles Dickens. One example will do to illustrate this point; the use of the word "miscreant". All law breakers are universally described as 'miscreants', a word I have become very fond of, but you rarely if ever find it used in the modern Australian press.
All of which leads me to speculate that the study of the usage of English in nations forged from a colonial struggle could make the subject of a fine study.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Good News
Normally Bangladesh only ever gets bad press in the Australian media but over the past week things have been a lot more positive, although if I were to do a symptomatic reading I could probably argue that it's not as good as it first appears.
I am referring of course to the separation of the twins Trishna (I think this name is made up for 'poetic' reasons) and Krishna (which suggests the children are Hindus, although again this may be poetic license) who were conjoined at the head. The marathon operation was reported at length in the Australian media and the prognosis looks good.
However, it seems to have taken a long time for this to happen. I can remember the case being discussed in the High Commission Social Club in early 2008 where a number of the AYAs (Australian Youth Ambassadors) were actively engaged in raising funds to get the kids to Australia. Be that as it may, its good that this has happened and one can only congratulate all those involved in bringing it to a happy conclusion.
I am referring of course to the separation of the twins Trishna (I think this name is made up for 'poetic' reasons) and Krishna (which suggests the children are Hindus, although again this may be poetic license) who were conjoined at the head. The marathon operation was reported at length in the Australian media and the prognosis looks good.
However, it seems to have taken a long time for this to happen. I can remember the case being discussed in the High Commission Social Club in early 2008 where a number of the AYAs (Australian Youth Ambassadors) were actively engaged in raising funds to get the kids to Australia. Be that as it may, its good that this has happened and one can only congratulate all those involved in bringing it to a happy conclusion.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Corruption
Another gap - such is life!
I see that Transparency International (TI) has published its CPI for 2009 and Bangladesh has risen in the ranks (or is it declined) from the tenth most corrupt nation in the world to 13th! A cause for celebration one thinks!
There is no doubt that TI does good and necessary work but one wonders whether its indices whereby corruption is measured have any real meaning for the garment workers and rickshaw wallahs in Dhaka, Comilla, Chittagong and so on. Do they take into account the impact the 'landgrabbers' have on everyday life, where canals and rivers are seized, land filled, developed and sold at a profit. The environmental degradation, not to mention health consequences and impact of social living, is significant. The Daily Star has been leading a campaign to reclaim the canals and restore Dhaka to something like its previous state. A nice idea but ultimately futile I suspect. Despite the 'naming and shaming' nobody seems to be punished and the developments remain. I sometime think the most serious problem confronting Bangladesh is bureaucratic apathy, which, when you think about it, is at the heart of corruption.
I see that Transparency International (TI) has published its CPI for 2009 and Bangladesh has risen in the ranks (or is it declined) from the tenth most corrupt nation in the world to 13th! A cause for celebration one thinks!
There is no doubt that TI does good and necessary work but one wonders whether its indices whereby corruption is measured have any real meaning for the garment workers and rickshaw wallahs in Dhaka, Comilla, Chittagong and so on. Do they take into account the impact the 'landgrabbers' have on everyday life, where canals and rivers are seized, land filled, developed and sold at a profit. The environmental degradation, not to mention health consequences and impact of social living, is significant. The Daily Star has been leading a campaign to reclaim the canals and restore Dhaka to something like its previous state. A nice idea but ultimately futile I suspect. Despite the 'naming and shaming' nobody seems to be punished and the developments remain. I sometime think the most serious problem confronting Bangladesh is bureaucratic apathy, which, when you think about it, is at the heart of corruption.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Moving On
I didn't realise how long it is since I've posted. I can only offer the usual excuses - friends from the UK, writing, family obligations (baby sitting really) and pure laziness have all distracted me but I have been keeping a log of things I want to discuss. It's too long to develop in depth here so I'll just list them and expand upon them over the next week or so.
The list includes
Corruption - focussing of the issue of 'land grabbing' that The Daily Star has covered in depth over the past month or so.
Student unrest - Comilla University has been closed down but this is only symptomatic of a deeper problem, which allows me to continue to talk about education.
Traffic congestion - friends tell me it's worse than ever, which has prompted the government to offer solutions like a metro and more extensive flyover system to relive congestion. It always strikes me as passingly strange that nobody will ever address the real issue and that is the utter disregard Dhaka drivers have for the rules of the road. When I went down to Calcutta (I'm a recidivist on Indian names) I was immediately struck by the fact that drivers stopped for traffic lights and this in a city that has a reputation for crazy driving!
There have been reports that LeT (Laksher-e-Talibar), the group allegedly responsible for the Bombay massacres earlier this year, has threatened to attack the US Embassy, which is built like a fort anyway. However, there has been no comment on the threats to the Australian High Commission, which led to the closure of the Recreation Club - a real hardship! There are also reports coming out of the AHC of increased crime in the Gulshan area with an increase in muggings of foreigners.
Unrest continues in the garment industry - a lot of reading and work to be done here.
The Copenhagen climate change meeting is very much on the agenda in Australia where there seems to have been a sharp upward increase in the number of sceptics and deniers and a concomitant decrease in the number of people who see it as an important issue - if the polls are to be believed. It seems to me that the implications of climate change for Bangladesh defy scepticism and when you point this out to Australians you are often met with blankness - what's new they almost say. More research and thinking to be done here as well. However, I will say that living in Bangladesh and visiting the Sundarbans post Sidr really convinced us of the need for action on climate change. Maybe the solution is to ship all the sceptics and deniers to the Sundarbans after a cyclone and present them with a vision of the future that will occur if nothing is done.
Hopefully my posts will return to a more regular patter in the future.
The list includes
Corruption - focussing of the issue of 'land grabbing' that The Daily Star has covered in depth over the past month or so.
Student unrest - Comilla University has been closed down but this is only symptomatic of a deeper problem, which allows me to continue to talk about education.
Traffic congestion - friends tell me it's worse than ever, which has prompted the government to offer solutions like a metro and more extensive flyover system to relive congestion. It always strikes me as passingly strange that nobody will ever address the real issue and that is the utter disregard Dhaka drivers have for the rules of the road. When I went down to Calcutta (I'm a recidivist on Indian names) I was immediately struck by the fact that drivers stopped for traffic lights and this in a city that has a reputation for crazy driving!
There have been reports that LeT (Laksher-e-Talibar), the group allegedly responsible for the Bombay massacres earlier this year, has threatened to attack the US Embassy, which is built like a fort anyway. However, there has been no comment on the threats to the Australian High Commission, which led to the closure of the Recreation Club - a real hardship! There are also reports coming out of the AHC of increased crime in the Gulshan area with an increase in muggings of foreigners.
Unrest continues in the garment industry - a lot of reading and work to be done here.
The Copenhagen climate change meeting is very much on the agenda in Australia where there seems to have been a sharp upward increase in the number of sceptics and deniers and a concomitant decrease in the number of people who see it as an important issue - if the polls are to be believed. It seems to me that the implications of climate change for Bangladesh defy scepticism and when you point this out to Australians you are often met with blankness - what's new they almost say. More research and thinking to be done here as well. However, I will say that living in Bangladesh and visiting the Sundarbans post Sidr really convinced us of the need for action on climate change. Maybe the solution is to ship all the sceptics and deniers to the Sundarbans after a cyclone and present them with a vision of the future that will occur if nothing is done.
Hopefully my posts will return to a more regular patter in the future.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Namasudras and Other Things
One of the the real benefits of the web is the cyber-friendships you form. Over the past couple of years I have corresponded with Joanna Kirkpatrick, a retired American academic who taught in Bangladesh in the 1970s and has retained a strong attachment to the country. She has put together one of the best websytes on rickshaws (rickshas) availble. I have listed it before but will do so again as its been updated. It can be found at http://www.ricksharts.com. It contains a lot of excellent photographs plus a list of essential readings. Thoroughly recommended is Metaphor and Motive in Bangladesh Ricksha Arts: A Burkean Reading.
My conversations with Joanna have prompted me to reflect on 'why Bangladesh'? I can remember watching the BBC dispatches in 1971 with a great deal of interest, and horror. As I remember it some of the scenes were very graphic including one where a person walked up to a man and engaged him in conversation and then pulled out a knife and cut his throat. All of this was captured on film, including the death throes of the man as he lay on the ground. Images like this don't ever go away.
In 1972 I returned with my wife and child to Perth after living and working in England and Canada. In 1972 Perth was even more of a backwater than it is today but it provided opportunities not available elsewhere. One of those was return to formal study at the University of Western Australia where I had earlier been an English major undergraduate. When I returned to UWA I checked out the English curriculum and found they had added one book to the syllabus in 7 years. I had been tempted to study at the University of Alberta where I could have studied Poetry of World War 1 (which interested me) among other subjects. The lack of development and choice in English led me to ask 'what do I know least about?. The answer was Asian culture and history, so I enrolled in a history degree and studied Southeast Asian History (Chris Wake), Indian history (Hugh Owen) and Chinese history (Les Marchant). I was extraordinary lucky as UWA then had one of the best Asian history programs in Australia and the South Asian program was outstanding. I was exceedingly well taught and encouraged to go on.
My first dissertation for Honours was the Namasudras of Bengal, an interesting out caste group who followed an unusual path to political empowerment. The usual path for caste uplift was the process of sanskritisation, that is, the lowly caste adopts the practices of the higher Hindu castes. The Namasudras didn't see much future in this and decided to maintain a degree of caste autonomy through education and economic activity. A number of prominent Namasudras became lawyers and then politicians and in 1937, when the British finally allowed a degree of regional, provincial political autonomy the Namasudras supported Fazlul Huq (The Lion of Bengal) and his Muslim party rather than the Hindu dominated Congress. They were rewarded with a number of ministries in the provincial government and for a time exercised power on a regional basis. From 1937 to 1940 the province of Bengal had a Muslim/Namasudra government, which suggested that there were other paths to preferment for the lower castes other than sanskritisation and membership of Congress. In 1947, at partition, the bulk of the Namasudra population chose to stay with Pakistan and it was only in 1971, when they were singled out by Bengali nationalists as a fifth columnists, to closely identified with Pakistan did they leave in large numbers. They are now dispersed throughout the world with quite large communities in Canada and the UK. Interestingly, I am told by a friend of namasudra descent, that this history has largely been forgotten by these communities.
I recently re-read the dissertation and thought it held up rather well although there are two serious lapses. Firstly I didn't pay suffcient attention to the alternative voices in the Namasudra community - those who supported Congress in the Nationalist struggle and the conclusion needs strengthening.
So when the opportunity came to teach in Bangladesh it seemed to me that a certain symmetry was at work!
My conversations with Joanna have prompted me to reflect on 'why Bangladesh'? I can remember watching the BBC dispatches in 1971 with a great deal of interest, and horror. As I remember it some of the scenes were very graphic including one where a person walked up to a man and engaged him in conversation and then pulled out a knife and cut his throat. All of this was captured on film, including the death throes of the man as he lay on the ground. Images like this don't ever go away.
In 1972 I returned with my wife and child to Perth after living and working in England and Canada. In 1972 Perth was even more of a backwater than it is today but it provided opportunities not available elsewhere. One of those was return to formal study at the University of Western Australia where I had earlier been an English major undergraduate. When I returned to UWA I checked out the English curriculum and found they had added one book to the syllabus in 7 years. I had been tempted to study at the University of Alberta where I could have studied Poetry of World War 1 (which interested me) among other subjects. The lack of development and choice in English led me to ask 'what do I know least about?. The answer was Asian culture and history, so I enrolled in a history degree and studied Southeast Asian History (Chris Wake), Indian history (Hugh Owen) and Chinese history (Les Marchant). I was extraordinary lucky as UWA then had one of the best Asian history programs in Australia and the South Asian program was outstanding. I was exceedingly well taught and encouraged to go on.
My first dissertation for Honours was the Namasudras of Bengal, an interesting out caste group who followed an unusual path to political empowerment. The usual path for caste uplift was the process of sanskritisation, that is, the lowly caste adopts the practices of the higher Hindu castes. The Namasudras didn't see much future in this and decided to maintain a degree of caste autonomy through education and economic activity. A number of prominent Namasudras became lawyers and then politicians and in 1937, when the British finally allowed a degree of regional, provincial political autonomy the Namasudras supported Fazlul Huq (The Lion of Bengal) and his Muslim party rather than the Hindu dominated Congress. They were rewarded with a number of ministries in the provincial government and for a time exercised power on a regional basis. From 1937 to 1940 the province of Bengal had a Muslim/Namasudra government, which suggested that there were other paths to preferment for the lower castes other than sanskritisation and membership of Congress. In 1947, at partition, the bulk of the Namasudra population chose to stay with Pakistan and it was only in 1971, when they were singled out by Bengali nationalists as a fifth columnists, to closely identified with Pakistan did they leave in large numbers. They are now dispersed throughout the world with quite large communities in Canada and the UK. Interestingly, I am told by a friend of namasudra descent, that this history has largely been forgotten by these communities.
I recently re-read the dissertation and thought it held up rather well although there are two serious lapses. Firstly I didn't pay suffcient attention to the alternative voices in the Namasudra community - those who supported Congress in the Nationalist struggle and the conclusion needs strengthening.
So when the opportunity came to teach in Bangladesh it seemed to me that a certain symmetry was at work!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Photography 2
My technical skills are sometimes deficient! I tried to embed the web addresses of Drik, Pathshala, Chobi Mela and Geoffrey Hiller's photographs in my last post but failed to do so. Still don't know why but will work on it. In the meantime here they are.
Drik - http://www.drik.net/
Pathshala - http://www.pathshala.net/
Chobi Mela - http://chobimela.org/
Hiller's photograph's - http://www.bangladeshproject.com
Drik - http://www.drik.net/
Pathshala - http://www.pathshala.net/
Chobi Mela - http://chobimela.org/
Hiller's photograph's - http://www.bangladeshproject.com
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Photography
For some inexplicable reason there is a strong link between photography and Bangladesh. Compared to other places it is not that photogenic - or put another way it lacks icons such as the Grand Canyon or Great Barrier Reef. In other ways Bangladesh is an incredibly rich tapestry that photographers love to write upon. I have photographs (copies and in books) from nineteenth and early twentieth century that are rich in details and culture. Contemporary Bangladeshi photography owes a lot to Shahidul Alam who set up Drik and Pathshala, the South Asian Media Academy and Institute of Photography . These two institutions epitomise photography and have made Bangladesh, to many people's surprise, a centre for photography in the South. Related to these two is Chobi Mela a biennial festival of photography that attracts all of the great names in contemporary photography.
My interest in photography in this regard is not abstract. My friend and colleague Norm Leslie takes students to Dhaka every year to work at Drik where they learn a great deal about photography and life and Bangladesh and at one time I tried, with Shahidul's encouragement, to bring about a merger between ULAB and Pathshala to create a major degree awarding body for photography in Bangladesh - and one day I may write that story. Suffice to say I regret that it didn't eventuate. But what prompted this meditation on photography was an email from another friend in Dhaka bringing to my attention the recent photographs of Geoffrey Hiller , which are very evocative of the Bangladesh I know and well worth looking at.
And as a disclosure I must add that I proudly own a Shadidul Alam photograph - of a boat on the banks of the Brahmaputra, which my grandkids love.
My interest in photography in this regard is not abstract. My friend and colleague Norm Leslie takes students to Dhaka every year to work at Drik where they learn a great deal about photography and life and Bangladesh and at one time I tried, with Shahidul's encouragement, to bring about a merger between ULAB and Pathshala to create a major degree awarding body for photography in Bangladesh - and one day I may write that story. Suffice to say I regret that it didn't eventuate. But what prompted this meditation on photography was an email from another friend in Dhaka bringing to my attention the recent photographs of Geoffrey Hiller , which are very evocative of the Bangladesh I know and well worth looking at.
And as a disclosure I must add that I proudly own a Shadidul Alam photograph - of a boat on the banks of the Brahmaputra, which my grandkids love.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Fence
Another long break - justifiable!! We have been in Ubud, Bali, taking some much needed R&R, and very enjoyable it was too. Having been to Bali a few times I have decided that Ubud is the place for me. It is a tourist centre but with a difference - it seems to me that the Balinese actually control access to their culture and determine what happens unlike other places whose economy is so tourist dependent. And the food is fantastic!!
I took a lot of reading away with me. One piece was a recent Guardian Weekly where I came across an article by Delwar Hussain on the fence that India has built around Bangladesh to control the flow of population across the ill-defined and porous borders separating the two nations. Few people seem to know too much about this fence, which is surprising as it is more substantial and longer than any other fence built by a nation to separate people for spurious political reasons. The Berlin Wall, the Israeli wall and the US fences designed to keep the Latinos out all pale into insignificance compared to the Indian wall.
It is some 4000 kms long, 2.4 metres high, which as the Guardian points out
cuts villages in two and divides agriculture lands and markets. It separates families and communities, cutting across mangrove swamps, forests and mountains
and it clearly doesn't work! Between 2000 and 2007 over 700 Bangladeshis have been killed on the Indo-Bangladeshi border, mostly by the Indian Border security Force (BSF). This is scandalous, and its a shocking indictment of the level of disinterest in Bangladesh in the west. If such numbers were killed on the US/Mexico borders there would be outrage.
It is alleged that those killed are smugglers, or illegal immigrants. So its OK to kill smugglers? According to Hussain this is not true. Most deaths arise from genuine confusion among the people who have traditionally crossed the border in the pursuit of their livelihood or, and most likely, because the border guards feel they have been cheated in their illegal dealings with smugglers, or various groups of the BSF fail to communicated their deals with the smugglers to other BSF groups. It is not a pretty picture and something need to be done.
I took a lot of reading away with me. One piece was a recent Guardian Weekly where I came across an article by Delwar Hussain on the fence that India has built around Bangladesh to control the flow of population across the ill-defined and porous borders separating the two nations. Few people seem to know too much about this fence, which is surprising as it is more substantial and longer than any other fence built by a nation to separate people for spurious political reasons. The Berlin Wall, the Israeli wall and the US fences designed to keep the Latinos out all pale into insignificance compared to the Indian wall.
It is some 4000 kms long, 2.4 metres high, which as the Guardian points out
cuts villages in two and divides agriculture lands and markets. It separates families and communities, cutting across mangrove swamps, forests and mountains
and it clearly doesn't work! Between 2000 and 2007 over 700 Bangladeshis have been killed on the Indo-Bangladeshi border, mostly by the Indian Border security Force (BSF). This is scandalous, and its a shocking indictment of the level of disinterest in Bangladesh in the west. If such numbers were killed on the US/Mexico borders there would be outrage.
It is alleged that those killed are smugglers, or illegal immigrants. So its OK to kill smugglers? According to Hussain this is not true. Most deaths arise from genuine confusion among the people who have traditionally crossed the border in the pursuit of their livelihood or, and most likely, because the border guards feel they have been cheated in their illegal dealings with smugglers, or various groups of the BSF fail to communicated their deals with the smugglers to other BSF groups. It is not a pretty picture and something need to be done.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Fundamentalism v Militancy
My friend Zaman has a profound interest in the issue of militancy and the media in Bangladesh and he asked me to comment further on my point about language. How fundamentalists in the West become militants in Bangladesh. When you think about it its difficult but nevertheless here are some provisional thoughts.
In the west fundamentalism is a multivalent force. There are Christian, Jewish and Hindu fundamentalists as well as Muslim, although sometimes sight seems to have been lost of this fact and fundamentalism has been constructed along certain rigid visual and behavioral vectors. The fundamentalist dresses in a particular way, believes quite literally in the given text, wishes to impose its view on all and is prepared to kill to see this happen - or so it is claimed.
By contrast in Bangladesh there is only one source of fundamentalism and that is Islam and while some seem prepared to kill to have sharia imposed upon all a sufficient number of their co-religionists are opposed to this agenda. Indeed you can be a devout Muslim and wish to live according to sharia but it doesn't follow that you will kill to impose its introduction. Consequently another word has to be found to describe the behaviour of excess, and that is militancy.
The militants are those who desire to impose a rigid set of rules of behaviour upon all - something that is at odds with the Sufi traditions of Islam in Bangladesh and the inherent pluralism found in Bengali culture.
In the west fundamentalism is a multivalent force. There are Christian, Jewish and Hindu fundamentalists as well as Muslim, although sometimes sight seems to have been lost of this fact and fundamentalism has been constructed along certain rigid visual and behavioral vectors. The fundamentalist dresses in a particular way, believes quite literally in the given text, wishes to impose its view on all and is prepared to kill to see this happen - or so it is claimed.
By contrast in Bangladesh there is only one source of fundamentalism and that is Islam and while some seem prepared to kill to have sharia imposed upon all a sufficient number of their co-religionists are opposed to this agenda. Indeed you can be a devout Muslim and wish to live according to sharia but it doesn't follow that you will kill to impose its introduction. Consequently another word has to be found to describe the behaviour of excess, and that is militancy.
The militants are those who desire to impose a rigid set of rules of behaviour upon all - something that is at odds with the Sufi traditions of Islam in Bangladesh and the inherent pluralism found in Bengali culture.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Culture and Religion
I have often thought that Bangladeshi culture was retroactive in the way it fetishises Rabrindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam. I have written somewhere else that when you watch state TV in Dhaka (Bangla TV) its as if the local culture is frozen around 1920, and I struggled to explain this.
I have recently acquired Jeremy Seabrook's Freedom Unfinished: Fundamentalism and popular resistance in Bangladesh today (London: Zed Books, 2001), which on one level is about his experiences with Proshika, a major local NGO in Bangladesh. At another level the book helps me understand what I have dubbed the 'fetishisation of culture past'.
Two quotes as illumination.
On the other side, the defenders of the Bengali tradition want to see religion subordinated to an inclusive Bengali identity. They invoke great literary figure - national poet Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore - social reformers such as Begum Rokeya, pioneers of women's education such as Sufia Kemal, as well as fighters in two liberation struggles ...(p.7)
and
The struggle against fundamentalism does not always appear overtly political. Invoking religion, fundamentalists make it a psuedo-spiritual and moral crusade. This creates obstacles for thise who resist the political imp[lications of what appears as a religious movement. But since fundamentalists object to Bengali culture, a main arens of resistance is cultural. (p. 17)
In short it is Bengali culture that is the defence of the secular, the moderate and the humanists in the face of Islamic fundamentalism. But this in turn can cause problems: in discussions, my students often expressed confusion about their identity; whether they were Bengalis first or Muslims first. They were also at great pains to explain that one can be a devout Muslim without being a militant. However, from my perspective, while this is a defence the bifurcation can be a point of vulnerability to the militant attacks. One unavoidable fact in Dhaka is that whenever the cry of 'Islam under attack' is raised the militants come out in force. They are well organised and focused and exert influence well beyond their numerical strength whereas the secularists always seem divided and ineffectual. Invoking Tagore doesn't save you from a prison sentence if you are accused of insulting the prophet!
Finally, you will notice a shift from the term 'fundamentalist' to 'militant' reflecting current usage in the Dhaka English language press. This also needs looking at.
I have recently acquired Jeremy Seabrook's Freedom Unfinished: Fundamentalism and popular resistance in Bangladesh today (London: Zed Books, 2001), which on one level is about his experiences with Proshika, a major local NGO in Bangladesh. At another level the book helps me understand what I have dubbed the 'fetishisation of culture past'.
Two quotes as illumination.
On the other side, the defenders of the Bengali tradition want to see religion subordinated to an inclusive Bengali identity. They invoke great literary figure - national poet Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore - social reformers such as Begum Rokeya, pioneers of women's education such as Sufia Kemal, as well as fighters in two liberation struggles ...(p.7)
and
The struggle against fundamentalism does not always appear overtly political. Invoking religion, fundamentalists make it a psuedo-spiritual and moral crusade. This creates obstacles for thise who resist the political imp[lications of what appears as a religious movement. But since fundamentalists object to Bengali culture, a main arens of resistance is cultural. (p. 17)
In short it is Bengali culture that is the defence of the secular, the moderate and the humanists in the face of Islamic fundamentalism. But this in turn can cause problems: in discussions, my students often expressed confusion about their identity; whether they were Bengalis first or Muslims first. They were also at great pains to explain that one can be a devout Muslim without being a militant. However, from my perspective, while this is a defence the bifurcation can be a point of vulnerability to the militant attacks. One unavoidable fact in Dhaka is that whenever the cry of 'Islam under attack' is raised the militants come out in force. They are well organised and focused and exert influence well beyond their numerical strength whereas the secularists always seem divided and ineffectual. Invoking Tagore doesn't save you from a prison sentence if you are accused of insulting the prophet!
Finally, you will notice a shift from the term 'fundamentalist' to 'militant' reflecting current usage in the Dhaka English language press. This also needs looking at.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Private Universities 2
As I said in the last post, the private universities in Bangladesh are viewed with some suspicion. The reasons for this are many. It is rare to ever find anything positive reported about them in the press. Bangladesh is a conservative country and anything new is highly suspect. The established universities are revered and have a firm grip on educational discourse. Many of the private universities are not very good - and so it goes. Every now and then something approaching reason is uttered but generally the private universities are not held in high regard.
Every year Bangladesh has around 350 000 (3.5 lakhs) sitting for the HSC, the culmination of the high school system. 250 000 of these compete for 24 051 seats in the public universities, with GPAs over 3.00. The National University, a multi-campus school of last resort, seems to mop up the other 100 000 candidates. Not to put too finer a point on this - the present system is designed to fail although it was designed to ensure a high degree of selectivity with only the creme de le creme reaching university. This may have worked in the 1940s to 1960s but since then the social conditions of Bangladesh have changed and a whole new aspirational class has emerged, who like their counterparts elsewhere, expect to go on to university. The private universities came into place to meet this pent up demand.
Despite this expansion only 4% of Bangladeshis go to university. The present government is aware of the problems and has promised the implementation of a new education system across the board - from primary to tertiary education. One can only applaud this initiative but at the same time wonder where the money is going to come from. For example, university lecturers are paid appallingly low salaries leading to academics in the public universities working in one or two of the private universities in order to make ends meet. The improvement of salaries to a level equal to India would cost heaps of money. Again, to cut the story short, it make sense to develop a binary model of tertiary education in Bangladesh, where private and public universities co-exist. However, for this to happen there is also the need for oversight that is transparent and equitable - something I will take up in my next post.
Every year Bangladesh has around 350 000 (3.5 lakhs) sitting for the HSC, the culmination of the high school system. 250 000 of these compete for 24 051 seats in the public universities, with GPAs over 3.00. The National University, a multi-campus school of last resort, seems to mop up the other 100 000 candidates. Not to put too finer a point on this - the present system is designed to fail although it was designed to ensure a high degree of selectivity with only the creme de le creme reaching university. This may have worked in the 1940s to 1960s but since then the social conditions of Bangladesh have changed and a whole new aspirational class has emerged, who like their counterparts elsewhere, expect to go on to university. The private universities came into place to meet this pent up demand.
Despite this expansion only 4% of Bangladeshis go to university. The present government is aware of the problems and has promised the implementation of a new education system across the board - from primary to tertiary education. One can only applaud this initiative but at the same time wonder where the money is going to come from. For example, university lecturers are paid appallingly low salaries leading to academics in the public universities working in one or two of the private universities in order to make ends meet. The improvement of salaries to a level equal to India would cost heaps of money. Again, to cut the story short, it make sense to develop a binary model of tertiary education in Bangladesh, where private and public universities co-exist. However, for this to happen there is also the need for oversight that is transparent and equitable - something I will take up in my next post.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Private Universities
The current Bangladeshi government has committed itself to revitalising education at all levels. This has prompted a flurry of articles in the press, particularly The Daily Star monthly Forum.
A recent piece in Forum by Abdus Sattar Moila (September, 2009) itemises a number of problems confronting education in Bangladesh that cut across all levels;
* divisiveness;
* high drop out rates;
* deteriorating teaching standards;
* lack of opportunity for higher education;
* low pay for teachers;
* dependence of coaching centres
* commercialisation of educational institutions;
* politicisation of students and faculty;
* and so on, In other words too numerous to mention without becoming a litany of defeatism.
I would add to this list the total lack of transparency and quality control on the part of the bodies charged with oversight of education. The criticisms levelled by Moila at education in general apply equally, or more so, to bodies like the Universities Grants Commission (UGC).
I must declare that my interest is in the university sector and disclose that for two years I taught at a private university in Dhaka; something I enjoyed immensely and which gave me some insight into the tertiary education scene.
There is a tendency to demonise the private universities and over value the private university sector. People love to tell you that the University of Dhaka is/or was the Oxford of the east. It may have been but not any longer. With honorable exceptions its faculty and student body have become politically polarised and in many instances programs and faculty have become moribund. My Bangla teacher confessed to me that while they had finished their course of study it would be a year before her results would be made available because the faculty were too busy to mark the papers. One hears many other such stories - and then there are the issues of class jam (where cancelled classes are made up because of earlier closure due to political activity or some such), faculty absence from class and abysmal salaries which lead faculty to over stretch and teach in several private universities at any one time in order to earn enough to live. Despite all of these issues Dhaka University still remains the beacon, the benchmark against which the private universities are measure - and always found wanting.
There is no doubt that some of the 54 private universities located in Bangladesh (mostly in Dhaka) are little more than degree mills, with insufficient resources, inadequate faculty and little infrastructure, who happily take desperate student's money in return for a highly dubious piece of paper. At the same time there are private universities that are honorable in their intent, seeking to give studnets a good education in return for the fees they pay. Thsi confused situation requires clarification -something I will attempt in my next post.
A recent piece in Forum by Abdus Sattar Moila (September, 2009) itemises a number of problems confronting education in Bangladesh that cut across all levels;
* divisiveness;
* high drop out rates;
* deteriorating teaching standards;
* lack of opportunity for higher education;
* low pay for teachers;
* dependence of coaching centres
* commercialisation of educational institutions;
* politicisation of students and faculty;
* and so on, In other words too numerous to mention without becoming a litany of defeatism.
I would add to this list the total lack of transparency and quality control on the part of the bodies charged with oversight of education. The criticisms levelled by Moila at education in general apply equally, or more so, to bodies like the Universities Grants Commission (UGC).
I must declare that my interest is in the university sector and disclose that for two years I taught at a private university in Dhaka; something I enjoyed immensely and which gave me some insight into the tertiary education scene.
There is a tendency to demonise the private universities and over value the private university sector. People love to tell you that the University of Dhaka is/or was the Oxford of the east. It may have been but not any longer. With honorable exceptions its faculty and student body have become politically polarised and in many instances programs and faculty have become moribund. My Bangla teacher confessed to me that while they had finished their course of study it would be a year before her results would be made available because the faculty were too busy to mark the papers. One hears many other such stories - and then there are the issues of class jam (where cancelled classes are made up because of earlier closure due to political activity or some such), faculty absence from class and abysmal salaries which lead faculty to over stretch and teach in several private universities at any one time in order to earn enough to live. Despite all of these issues Dhaka University still remains the beacon, the benchmark against which the private universities are measure - and always found wanting.
There is no doubt that some of the 54 private universities located in Bangladesh (mostly in Dhaka) are little more than degree mills, with insufficient resources, inadequate faculty and little infrastructure, who happily take desperate student's money in return for a highly dubious piece of paper. At the same time there are private universities that are honorable in their intent, seeking to give studnets a good education in return for the fees they pay. Thsi confused situation requires clarification -something I will attempt in my next post.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Return
Another long break since I last posted. The gap is due to my lack of discipline and distractions; I have has a cold or flu that has lasted six weeks and has left me very deaf. Being cut off from the aural world is very disconcerting. All sound seem to be filtered through a great wad of cotton wool, blurred and indistinct, and my grandchildren can creep up behind me and yell and I don't hear them, to great merriment.
Shahjahan Siraj and i have completed the 80+1 project on Dhaka markets, which Siraj is turning into an e-book. More details soon.
I read The Daily Star, Dhaka's leading English paper,regularly although when I'm in Dhaka I tend to read New Age. It keeps me in touch with things. The Daily Star tries to be neutral although it clearly supported the Interim Government between 2007 and 2008 and probably leans more towards the AL than the BNP. Nevertheless its not a bad paper and it covers things in some detail. Its websyte also includes access to its weekly magazine and the monthly Forum.
Issues that have been prominent have been
*a campaign to rescue Bangladesh's rivers from the encroachments of the developers;
*education;
*swine flu.
Education is the issue that really interests me. There is an ongoing debate about the 54 private universities in the country. There is no doubt that some of them are awful, little more than degree mills where students pay a fee and receive a piece of paper. Others on the other hand are trying to offer a quality education in difficult system. The problem is not so much the universities themselves but the education system in general. But more of this in the next post.
The other issues also reveal something of the problems facing Bangladesh. Clearly the developers are used to a corrupt administration and find any impediment put in their way as unacceptable and they fill the rivers and canal without concern for the future.
The hospitals are not capable of handling a major flu epidemic - and so it goes.
Reading The Daily Star I also notice that Biman has at long last posted a profit and at the same time the UN have designated it as an airline to be avoided at all costs.
Finally, there is a rule of thumb which says that the Western media only carry a story about Bangladesh if it is about disaster or mayhem. Recently the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Foreign Correspondent carried a story about acid attacks (a vile and despicable act) on women and children. While it tried to convey a message of hope and courage it nevertheless conformed the overall approach to Bangladesh - show the baser side of human nature.
Shahjahan Siraj and i have completed the 80+1 project on Dhaka markets, which Siraj is turning into an e-book. More details soon.
I read The Daily Star, Dhaka's leading English paper,regularly although when I'm in Dhaka I tend to read New Age. It keeps me in touch with things. The Daily Star tries to be neutral although it clearly supported the Interim Government between 2007 and 2008 and probably leans more towards the AL than the BNP. Nevertheless its not a bad paper and it covers things in some detail. Its websyte also includes access to its weekly magazine and the monthly Forum.
Issues that have been prominent have been
*a campaign to rescue Bangladesh's rivers from the encroachments of the developers;
*education;
*swine flu.
Education is the issue that really interests me. There is an ongoing debate about the 54 private universities in the country. There is no doubt that some of them are awful, little more than degree mills where students pay a fee and receive a piece of paper. Others on the other hand are trying to offer a quality education in difficult system. The problem is not so much the universities themselves but the education system in general. But more of this in the next post.
The other issues also reveal something of the problems facing Bangladesh. Clearly the developers are used to a corrupt administration and find any impediment put in their way as unacceptable and they fill the rivers and canal without concern for the future.
The hospitals are not capable of handling a major flu epidemic - and so it goes.
Reading The Daily Star I also notice that Biman has at long last posted a profit and at the same time the UN have designated it as an airline to be avoided at all costs.
Finally, there is a rule of thumb which says that the Western media only carry a story about Bangladesh if it is about disaster or mayhem. Recently the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Foreign Correspondent carried a story about acid attacks (a vile and despicable act) on women and children. While it tried to convey a message of hope and courage it nevertheless conformed the overall approach to Bangladesh - show the baser side of human nature.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Things
The flight time between Kolkata and Dhaka is 35 minutes. One January my wife and I visited India - Goa, Cochin, rice boat on the Kerala backwaters and things like that - and had to return to Dhaka via Kolkata. The trip was planned carefully and we anticipated a 2 hour wait at Kolkata before returning home on a Biman flight. 24 hours later we managed to get a plane and arrive back in Dhaka. I notice today that all 5 Biman planes dedicated to international flights have broken down and delays are expected. Clearly nothing has changed since 2006, even after the purging of the inflated number of employees.
One thing all political parties in Bangladesh could point to as a success was the apparent removal of the spectre of famine in the country. Yesterday I read that the World Food Organisation has placed Bangladesh on its list of 31 food deficit nations. One wonders what has gone wrong. Maybe its to do with land management, the increasing spread of arsenic contaminated paddi, the shift from the mofussil areas to the cities by destitute peasants seeking a livelihood and the ever-increasing population. Of all the problems confronting Bangladesh this is possibly the most serious given the volatility of the country and the fact that the fundamentalists have a strategy of 'colonizing' rural areas where the food is produced.
One thing all political parties in Bangladesh could point to as a success was the apparent removal of the spectre of famine in the country. Yesterday I read that the World Food Organisation has placed Bangladesh on its list of 31 food deficit nations. One wonders what has gone wrong. Maybe its to do with land management, the increasing spread of arsenic contaminated paddi, the shift from the mofussil areas to the cities by destitute peasants seeking a livelihood and the ever-increasing population. Of all the problems confronting Bangladesh this is possibly the most serious given the volatility of the country and the fact that the fundamentalists have a strategy of 'colonizing' rural areas where the food is produced.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Water
One of today's headlines in The Daily Star Tipaimukh dam: Trust, but verify. I think this is the first time I have ever seen the word trust in a headline in Bangladesh, or indeed the Bangladesh political context.
The article goes on to points out in relation to the Farakka Barrage
'One of the devastating impacts of the FB is the vanishing of a large village, Akheriganj of Bhagabangola, rendering 23,394 people homeless and raising tensions between India and Bangladesh. Besides, the barrage has turned parts of northern Bangladesh into a desert, raising salinity, affecting navigation, and adversely impacting the environment, agriculture and fisheries.'
I think Bangladesh has legitimate concerns re the possible impact of the Tipaimukh Dam.
Also today it was announced that the BDR will become the BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) with a new chain of command, new uniform and new conditions.
The article goes on to points out in relation to the Farakka Barrage
'One of the devastating impacts of the FB is the vanishing of a large village, Akheriganj of Bhagabangola, rendering 23,394 people homeless and raising tensions between India and Bangladesh. Besides, the barrage has turned parts of northern Bangladesh into a desert, raising salinity, affecting navigation, and adversely impacting the environment, agriculture and fisheries.'
I think Bangladesh has legitimate concerns re the possible impact of the Tipaimukh Dam.
Also today it was announced that the BDR will become the BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) with a new chain of command, new uniform and new conditions.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Ethnicity and Identity
I have just re-read Gezim Alpion's Encounters with Civilization and written a review. Alpion has some very interesting things to say about ethnicity, identity and location. He is an cosmopolitan Albanian who has single handedly decided to ressurect the reputation of Albanians after their collective trashing in English popular culture and the tabloid press. He hasn't yet look at the USA but should. In Wag the Dog (D: Levinson, 1997) war is manufactured against Albania simply to deflect press attention from the Presidents sexual activity. Why Albania a character in the film asks. Because it is small, obscure, powerless and nobody knows where it is, was the reply. Good sociology always looks at the margins to illuminate the centre and this is precisely what Alpion does. With regard to the Wag the Dog; it certainly resonated in the Clinton era as it prefigured the Lewinsky affair. Who said politics doesn't imitate art?
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
BDR
I was scheduled to return to Dhaka last February when the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny broke out (the BDR are the paramilitary border security force). I was deluged with emails, phone calls and SMS advising me not to go to Dhaka. I arrived one week after the event and there was still a palpable buzz around the campus, with crowds still gathering around the entrance to the BDR cantonment at the top of Satmasjid Rd, next door to Rifle Square, the premier middle class shopping mall in Dhanmondi.
One of the reasons my colleagues were still agitated about the mutiny was the fact that much of it was played out just outside the university itself. Faculty and students had to be evacuated from the premises by a convoluted route because they were in danger from the bullets whizzing straight down Satmasjid. A student was killed just outside the building (fortunately not one of ours) and there were bullet holes in nearby buildings. Things had calmed down by my return but the mutiny was a reminder of how volatile Dhaka can be. The Australian High Commission frequently sends out reminders to Australians resident in Bangladesh about the volatility and how demonstrations should be avoided.
By this time I had given up my/our lovely apartment on Road 12A and was staying at the very pleasant guesthouse called Ambrosia. I met Philip Blenkinsop, the well known Australian photojournalist resident in Bangkok, there who has covered most Asian conflicts of the past 20 years. Philip made the point that in his experience whenever bullets began to fly people fled or took cover. This was not the case in Dhanmondi. In a sense the the mutiny became street theatre and attracted a huge crowd, who formed a fan around the entrance to the barracks, leaving sufficient room for the bullets to fly down Satmasjid Rd. The troops called in to suppress the mutiny then had to negotiate their way through the crowds. In Philip's view it was astounding that more people were not killed.
The mutiny was put down and large numbers of BDR sepoys arrested. Subsequently a number of these have 'died' whilst in custody, which is a scandal in the making. The reasons given for the mutiny are confused. There is no doubt that there were flaws in the chain of command and the troops had genuine grievances but beyond that it is murky. One popular interpretation is that external forces (India or Pakistan - take your pick) engineered the event to destabilise the new Awami League government.
This view has been given some credibility with the announcement from the new commander of the BDR saying that 'foreign enemies got benefited' by the event (today's lead story in The Daily Starr). I have friends who are convinced that India is planning to takeover Bangladesh and others that the ISI, Pakistan's notorious intelligence agency routinely sets out to de-stabilise the country as a pay back for 1971. When you point out the unlikelihood of these interpretations you are dismissed. From my perspective the idea that India wishes to add 160 million Muslims to its citizenry verges on the preposterous.
But then the question remains - why did the BDR mutiny? Well there is a tradition of military revolt in Bangladesh. The army has assumed power twice in the past 38 years and there is general acceptance that the army underpinned the Interim Government, 2007 - 2008. May be the explanation is as banal as that - they were acting according to local traditions to solve grievances. But which ever way you look at it Bangladesh has been left with a pretty serious problem to solve - what do you do with a security force you can't trust?
One of the reasons my colleagues were still agitated about the mutiny was the fact that much of it was played out just outside the university itself. Faculty and students had to be evacuated from the premises by a convoluted route because they were in danger from the bullets whizzing straight down Satmasjid. A student was killed just outside the building (fortunately not one of ours) and there were bullet holes in nearby buildings. Things had calmed down by my return but the mutiny was a reminder of how volatile Dhaka can be. The Australian High Commission frequently sends out reminders to Australians resident in Bangladesh about the volatility and how demonstrations should be avoided.
By this time I had given up my/our lovely apartment on Road 12A and was staying at the very pleasant guesthouse called Ambrosia. I met Philip Blenkinsop, the well known Australian photojournalist resident in Bangkok, there who has covered most Asian conflicts of the past 20 years. Philip made the point that in his experience whenever bullets began to fly people fled or took cover. This was not the case in Dhanmondi. In a sense the the mutiny became street theatre and attracted a huge crowd, who formed a fan around the entrance to the barracks, leaving sufficient room for the bullets to fly down Satmasjid Rd. The troops called in to suppress the mutiny then had to negotiate their way through the crowds. In Philip's view it was astounding that more people were not killed.
The mutiny was put down and large numbers of BDR sepoys arrested. Subsequently a number of these have 'died' whilst in custody, which is a scandal in the making. The reasons given for the mutiny are confused. There is no doubt that there were flaws in the chain of command and the troops had genuine grievances but beyond that it is murky. One popular interpretation is that external forces (India or Pakistan - take your pick) engineered the event to destabilise the new Awami League government.
This view has been given some credibility with the announcement from the new commander of the BDR saying that 'foreign enemies got benefited' by the event (today's lead story in The Daily Starr). I have friends who are convinced that India is planning to takeover Bangladesh and others that the ISI, Pakistan's notorious intelligence agency routinely sets out to de-stabilise the country as a pay back for 1971. When you point out the unlikelihood of these interpretations you are dismissed. From my perspective the idea that India wishes to add 160 million Muslims to its citizenry verges on the preposterous.
But then the question remains - why did the BDR mutiny? Well there is a tradition of military revolt in Bangladesh. The army has assumed power twice in the past 38 years and there is general acceptance that the army underpinned the Interim Government, 2007 - 2008. May be the explanation is as banal as that - they were acting according to local traditions to solve grievances. But which ever way you look at it Bangladesh has been left with a pretty serious problem to solve - what do you do with a security force you can't trust?
Monday, August 17, 2009
Markets
I am working on a web project on the markets of Dhaka with my friend Siraj Shahjahan. We are contributing to the 80+1 initiative that comes out of Austria. Siraj has identified 80 markets in and around Dhaka, which he then videos and passes on to me his notes to be written up. It seems to be working and I've certainly learned a lot about markets.
In a sense you can argue that old Dhaka and markets are one and the same thing. The community revolved around the market, which not only met their material needs but also their spiritual needs as well. If it was a predominantly Muslim market there would be a mosque attached. The Hindu markets, like Shankhari, had temples attached, or rather integrated into the functioning of the market. Even as late as the 1960s markets were being established with mosques integrated into their design and functionality.
As Dhaka expanded there was separation of function; the shopping malls became solely commercial in their orientation with mobile service centres replacing the mosque as a gathering point for the community!
At this point I think the secular/religious binary is one of the more important points to consider when we are discussing the role of the market in the community. Interestingly, markets that contain mosques, such as New Market, remain very popular with consumers!
There's a lot more work to be done here but I'm beginning to sketch out our first paper on the markets of Dhaka and Siraj is scripting a documentary. Ultimately we plan to have a full array of products relating to the topic - film, multimedia presentation and book.
In a sense you can argue that old Dhaka and markets are one and the same thing. The community revolved around the market, which not only met their material needs but also their spiritual needs as well. If it was a predominantly Muslim market there would be a mosque attached. The Hindu markets, like Shankhari, had temples attached, or rather integrated into the functioning of the market. Even as late as the 1960s markets were being established with mosques integrated into their design and functionality.
As Dhaka expanded there was separation of function; the shopping malls became solely commercial in their orientation with mobile service centres replacing the mosque as a gathering point for the community!
At this point I think the secular/religious binary is one of the more important points to consider when we are discussing the role of the market in the community. Interestingly, markets that contain mosques, such as New Market, remain very popular with consumers!
There's a lot more work to be done here but I'm beginning to sketch out our first paper on the markets of Dhaka and Siraj is scripting a documentary. Ultimately we plan to have a full array of products relating to the topic - film, multimedia presentation and book.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
War Criminals
I was beginning to think that I had run out of steam, with nothing more to say, My silence has been induced by illness though. Without going into gory details I suffer from gout. Suffer is the operative word. It's not just the pain but also the general misery that gets you down. The pain can be unbearable - exceeded only by childbirth I am told. But what has this got to do with war criminals?
Even when I'm ill I read. One thing I read with interest over the week was a paper by my friend and colleague Asiuzzaman, currently doing a PhD at Monash. Zaman, who was a journalist is trying to make sense of the landslide win by the Awami League in the 2008 election. His thesis, which I think is very plausible, is that the media and concerned groups ran a well organised 'anti war criminal' campaign in the months leading up to the election that reinserted Bangladeshi nationalism as a political factor in the debate. The Awami League is the party associated with nationalism, despite the name of the BNP, especially by the young, most of who were born after independence in 1971. At the heart of the campaign were the calls to punish the 'war criminals'.
For an outsider there is a problem here; who are the 'war criminals' and why are they still hanging around 38 years after independence? If they are war criminals why haven't they been caught and punished.
The simplistic explanation is that they are members of the Bangladeshi Ismlamicist organisations (such as Jamaat - e-Islami, Jamaatul Mujahudin, Jamaatul Muslemin, or Majlish-e-Tasmuddin) who are well organised and generally affiliated with the BNP. Through their political clout they have managed to avoid prosecution. It is alleged that members of these organisations, and others like them, actively worked for the Pakistanis during the struggle for independence for a complex range of reasons. For these people Islam was the over-riding issue and them did not wish to fracture the umma, nor support a secular state. Some were so out of step that they supported the Pakistani drive to make Urdu the national language over Bengali. The Language Movement, that is the institutionalisation of Bengali as the language of East Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh, was the ideological lynch pin of independence. Not to support language movement was to fly in the face of reason!
Much of the feeling of the events around the late 1960s and early 1970s is caught in the films of Tareq and Catherine Masud. Their most recent, Noroshundor (The Barber) (2009) deals specifically with this issue. Norosh is a brief film (17 minutes) that tells the story of young man on the run from the Pakistani army. He is denounced as a secularist and miscreant by a religious person. He escapes but his parents are tortured and the doctor who treats the injured father is also arrested by the army. In the meantime the young man hides in a barber's shop. Much is made of cutthroat razors and mirrors to build up tension until the army arrives. When they ask about the 'miscreant' the proprietor of the shop proclaims that all present are good Pakistanis. The army leaves and the young man escapes, temporarily at least.
The irony, obvious to all Bangladeshis watching the film, is that the barbers are Biharis, displaced Urdu-speaking Muslims who came to East Pakistan at the time of Partition. In the popular imagination the Biharis are frequently seen as fifth columnists and not true Bangladeshis and the expectation would be that the barbers would betray the young man. Like other films by the Masuds (The Claybird, Muktir Gaan), the independence era is more complex than the popular myths and I think they make the point quite nicely in the film.
Two observations about the film: at 17 minutes it seems like a fragment, possibly a segment of a portmanteau film and Urdu is used widely, something not common to other films, even if they about the War of Independence.
Today's Daily Star carried a short article on the Biharis. They are the subject of a documentary, Swapnobhumi (The Promised land) (D: Tanvir Mokammel). There are still 160 000 Biharis living in 116 camps all over Bangladesh, although the majority in Dhaka live in Mirpur, As I understand it they do not have Bangladeshi citizenship nor do they have any rights beyond those normally applied to refugees.
As I see it all of these are related to issue of nationalism and national identity in Bangladesh and when you begin digging, even superficially, things become more complex than the popular accounts allow. I still find it hard to identify the war criminals and even more difficult to understand why 38 years down the track the issue can still have such enormous electoral appeal. But then, as my friends and students point out, I'm not a Bangladeshi.
Even when I'm ill I read. One thing I read with interest over the week was a paper by my friend and colleague Asiuzzaman, currently doing a PhD at Monash. Zaman, who was a journalist is trying to make sense of the landslide win by the Awami League in the 2008 election. His thesis, which I think is very plausible, is that the media and concerned groups ran a well organised 'anti war criminal' campaign in the months leading up to the election that reinserted Bangladeshi nationalism as a political factor in the debate. The Awami League is the party associated with nationalism, despite the name of the BNP, especially by the young, most of who were born after independence in 1971. At the heart of the campaign were the calls to punish the 'war criminals'.
For an outsider there is a problem here; who are the 'war criminals' and why are they still hanging around 38 years after independence? If they are war criminals why haven't they been caught and punished.
The simplistic explanation is that they are members of the Bangladeshi Ismlamicist organisations (such as Jamaat - e-Islami, Jamaatul Mujahudin, Jamaatul Muslemin, or Majlish-e-Tasmuddin) who are well organised and generally affiliated with the BNP. Through their political clout they have managed to avoid prosecution. It is alleged that members of these organisations, and others like them, actively worked for the Pakistanis during the struggle for independence for a complex range of reasons. For these people Islam was the over-riding issue and them did not wish to fracture the umma, nor support a secular state. Some were so out of step that they supported the Pakistani drive to make Urdu the national language over Bengali. The Language Movement, that is the institutionalisation of Bengali as the language of East Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh, was the ideological lynch pin of independence. Not to support language movement was to fly in the face of reason!
Much of the feeling of the events around the late 1960s and early 1970s is caught in the films of Tareq and Catherine Masud. Their most recent, Noroshundor (The Barber) (2009) deals specifically with this issue. Norosh is a brief film (17 minutes) that tells the story of young man on the run from the Pakistani army. He is denounced as a secularist and miscreant by a religious person. He escapes but his parents are tortured and the doctor who treats the injured father is also arrested by the army. In the meantime the young man hides in a barber's shop. Much is made of cutthroat razors and mirrors to build up tension until the army arrives. When they ask about the 'miscreant' the proprietor of the shop proclaims that all present are good Pakistanis. The army leaves and the young man escapes, temporarily at least.
The irony, obvious to all Bangladeshis watching the film, is that the barbers are Biharis, displaced Urdu-speaking Muslims who came to East Pakistan at the time of Partition. In the popular imagination the Biharis are frequently seen as fifth columnists and not true Bangladeshis and the expectation would be that the barbers would betray the young man. Like other films by the Masuds (The Claybird, Muktir Gaan), the independence era is more complex than the popular myths and I think they make the point quite nicely in the film.
Two observations about the film: at 17 minutes it seems like a fragment, possibly a segment of a portmanteau film and Urdu is used widely, something not common to other films, even if they about the War of Independence.
Today's Daily Star carried a short article on the Biharis. They are the subject of a documentary, Swapnobhumi (The Promised land) (D: Tanvir Mokammel). There are still 160 000 Biharis living in 116 camps all over Bangladesh, although the majority in Dhaka live in Mirpur, As I understand it they do not have Bangladeshi citizenship nor do they have any rights beyond those normally applied to refugees.
As I see it all of these are related to issue of nationalism and national identity in Bangladesh and when you begin digging, even superficially, things become more complex than the popular accounts allow. I still find it hard to identify the war criminals and even more difficult to understand why 38 years down the track the issue can still have such enormous electoral appeal. But then, as my friends and students point out, I'm not a Bangladeshi.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Weekend
Too much sport and too many newspapers to read and not enough time to do anything else.
Australia beat England at cricket.
South Africa beat Australia at Rugby Union - due in part to some dreadful refereeing.
West Coast Eagles beat Western Bulldogs away from home - almost unheard of!!
Last but not least, the Freo Dockers played magnificently to defeat Port Adelaide - lifting the spirits and bringing the weekend to a satisfactory conclusion. I will write something on sport and spectatorship soon.
Australia beat England at cricket.
South Africa beat Australia at Rugby Union - due in part to some dreadful refereeing.
West Coast Eagles beat Western Bulldogs away from home - almost unheard of!!
Last but not least, the Freo Dockers played magnificently to defeat Port Adelaide - lifting the spirits and bringing the weekend to a satisfactory conclusion. I will write something on sport and spectatorship soon.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Rickshaws
Rickshaws and Dhaka were made for each other. Dhaka is the flattest city I've ever encountered. There are simply no hills, although there is a small dip in the road on the way to Mirpur. Dhaka is also one of the fastest growing cities in the world. At present the population is put at 12 million, although that seems an underestimate to me, and the projections are for 30 million people within the next decade. How the city will cope with this increase is difficult to imagine and this is where rickshaws come into play.
They are environmentally friendly, colourful, efficient and employ lots of men. Its a difficult life but when we interviewed a number of rickshaw riders for a brief documentary we made in 2006/2007 we found them fully aware of their plight and entirely rational about why they pulled a rickshaw. After their rent (it is said that the police own many of the rickshaws) and other expenses a rickshaw drive can still earn more per day than if he worked in construction. Moreover, to a certain extent they are their own boss; they can stop for a char and a smoke if they like without a foreman chastising them.
All rickshaws are licensed by the Dhaka City Corporation and there is a provision for 60 000 for the city. At the moment there are 600 000 or so; that is 540 000 illegal rickshaws. They cause congestion, can be dangerous and are fair game for the increasing number of motorists on Dhaka roads. I have, I admit, kicked out at cars that willfully cutoff my ricksha in order to gain an extra centimetre on the crowded roads. Rickshaws are a problem in this sense but given the future a rational plan for there continuance should be devised, but it's not. Rather the authorities are looking for ways of getting rickshaws off the roads, which seems to me to be a shorted sighted policy. A number of major roads have already been designated 'ricksha free zones' and the number is set to increase. All os which means greater pollution as the number of cars increase, no end to congestion and more accidents. On7 August 29 people died on Bangladesh's roads (The Daily Star).
Rickshaws are a colourful addition to the sometimes bleak Dhaka landscape. There is a vibrant sub culture surrounding rickshaws - their art, the aura of criminality associated with them, plus the urban myths.
If you're interested in rickshaws have a look at Joanna Kirkpatrick's The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh (http://www.artricksha.com) or Siraj Shajahan's UnnayanNews (http://www.unnayannews.net).
They are environmentally friendly, colourful, efficient and employ lots of men. Its a difficult life but when we interviewed a number of rickshaw riders for a brief documentary we made in 2006/2007 we found them fully aware of their plight and entirely rational about why they pulled a rickshaw. After their rent (it is said that the police own many of the rickshaws) and other expenses a rickshaw drive can still earn more per day than if he worked in construction. Moreover, to a certain extent they are their own boss; they can stop for a char and a smoke if they like without a foreman chastising them.
All rickshaws are licensed by the Dhaka City Corporation and there is a provision for 60 000 for the city. At the moment there are 600 000 or so; that is 540 000 illegal rickshaws. They cause congestion, can be dangerous and are fair game for the increasing number of motorists on Dhaka roads. I have, I admit, kicked out at cars that willfully cutoff my ricksha in order to gain an extra centimetre on the crowded roads. Rickshaws are a problem in this sense but given the future a rational plan for there continuance should be devised, but it's not. Rather the authorities are looking for ways of getting rickshaws off the roads, which seems to me to be a shorted sighted policy. A number of major roads have already been designated 'ricksha free zones' and the number is set to increase. All os which means greater pollution as the number of cars increase, no end to congestion and more accidents. On7 August 29 people died on Bangladesh's roads (The Daily Star).
Rickshaws are a colourful addition to the sometimes bleak Dhaka landscape. There is a vibrant sub culture surrounding rickshaws - their art, the aura of criminality associated with them, plus the urban myths.
If you're interested in rickshaws have a look at Joanna Kirkpatrick's The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh (http://www.artricksha.com) or Siraj Shajahan's UnnayanNews (http://www.unnayannews.net).
Friday, August 7, 2009
Writing and Research
I'm currently working on three projects dealing with various aspects of Bangladesh.
1] I'm helping Shamsul Islam and Asiuzzaman, both at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, edit a book on the Bangladeshi media. There is surprisingly little work available on this topic. Much of what exists is firmly fixed in the dev com imperative and ignores the fact that much of the Bangladeshi media work within a commercial framework, even transnational framework, and needs to interpreted accordingly. Academics from ULAB, University of Dhaka, Malaysia and local practitioners are contributing.
Shameem Mahmud (UoD) is writing a chapter with me on the drive by the AL government to create a Digital Bangladesh.
2] Shameem Reza, also of Dhaka and University, and I are working on a book on trust and development in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a culture which largely appears to be distrustful of most institutions outside of the immediate family. This has had an enormous impact on development, or so it seems to us, and has been little investigated. More on this topic later.
3] Siraj Shahjan, creator of multimedia webzine http://www.unnayannews.net and Unnayan TV, and I are working on a project on Dhaka markets for (http://www.80plus1.org) which we plan to turn into a book chapter for a collection on Islamic markets and later, a book.
1] I'm helping Shamsul Islam and Asiuzzaman, both at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, edit a book on the Bangladeshi media. There is surprisingly little work available on this topic. Much of what exists is firmly fixed in the dev com imperative and ignores the fact that much of the Bangladeshi media work within a commercial framework, even transnational framework, and needs to interpreted accordingly. Academics from ULAB, University of Dhaka, Malaysia and local practitioners are contributing.
Shameem Mahmud (UoD) is writing a chapter with me on the drive by the AL government to create a Digital Bangladesh.
2] Shameem Reza, also of Dhaka and University, and I are working on a book on trust and development in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a culture which largely appears to be distrustful of most institutions outside of the immediate family. This has had an enormous impact on development, or so it seems to us, and has been little investigated. More on this topic later.
3] Siraj Shahjan, creator of multimedia webzine http://www.unnayannews.net and Unnayan TV, and I are working on a project on Dhaka markets for (http://www.80plus1.org) which we plan to turn into a book chapter for a collection on Islamic markets and later, a book.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Music
One of my real interests is World Music. I know about the arguments that say this music traduces indigenous forms for the consumption of white middle class poseurs but that doesn't particularly bother me. I like what I like.
The other night I watched The Spirit of the Grain, a French/Tunisian film about a man's attempt to maintain his dignity and self-respect in the face of a disfunctional family and increasing old age. One of the delights of the film was its soundtrack, supplied by a troupe of elderly musicians who were characters in the film.
On the theme of music; I have just come across Mark LeVine's Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam (2008, Three Rivers Press). LeVine is careful to point out that modern popular music is not homogenised across Islam but that different Islamic societies have their different preferences and that in these different societies the performers and the audiences, while all young, come from different classes. Nevertheless, given the demographics of the Middle East, the music competes with Islam for the attention of the young. But, as he says "[T]he real question is whether they (the musicians) can reach, a large enough audience, and find a big enough stage to play on, before the toxic combination of government oppression, media manipulation, and violence, intolerance and war drown out the rowdy, liberating new soundtrack of the Muslim world in a sea of hatred and blood.
(see his summary in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/7/2009: http://chronicle.com)
Today is the 68th anniversary of the death of Rabindranth Tagore. This is widely celebrated in Bangladesh, with official concerts, and much airtime on TV. In fact Tagore, although a secular Hindu, has great status in Bangladeshi elite culture. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking Bengalimusical and poetic culture froze sixty-eight years ago and not much else has happened since. You would be wrong to think this. Like the Islamic cultures studies by LeVine Bangladesh has a strong youth music culture with bands covering all of the western genres. There's also a strong influence from diasporic Bangladeshis who visit 'home' and bring with them the latest in music styles and forms that are quickly picked up by the local young performers. One of the most interesting of these is Ornob, who does fusion music, and yes draws on Tagore, but fuses it with interesting middle eastern and western rhythms and melodies. Highly recommended!
A good syte to keep track of recent Bangladeshi pop is (http://amadergaan.com). The latest post on this syte (7/8/2009) announces that the 'Friendship Week Celebration Concert has been postponed because of permission problems from the Home Ministry'. You can also purchase CDs and download tracks at a very reasonable price on this syte.
The other night I watched The Spirit of the Grain, a French/Tunisian film about a man's attempt to maintain his dignity and self-respect in the face of a disfunctional family and increasing old age. One of the delights of the film was its soundtrack, supplied by a troupe of elderly musicians who were characters in the film.
On the theme of music; I have just come across Mark LeVine's Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam (2008, Three Rivers Press). LeVine is careful to point out that modern popular music is not homogenised across Islam but that different Islamic societies have their different preferences and that in these different societies the performers and the audiences, while all young, come from different classes. Nevertheless, given the demographics of the Middle East, the music competes with Islam for the attention of the young. But, as he says "[T]he real question is whether they (the musicians) can reach, a large enough audience, and find a big enough stage to play on, before the toxic combination of government oppression, media manipulation, and violence, intolerance and war drown out the rowdy, liberating new soundtrack of the Muslim world in a sea of hatred and blood.
(see his summary in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/7/2009: http://chronicle.com)
Today is the 68th anniversary of the death of Rabindranth Tagore. This is widely celebrated in Bangladesh, with official concerts, and much airtime on TV. In fact Tagore, although a secular Hindu, has great status in Bangladeshi elite culture. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking Bengalimusical and poetic culture froze sixty-eight years ago and not much else has happened since. You would be wrong to think this. Like the Islamic cultures studies by LeVine Bangladesh has a strong youth music culture with bands covering all of the western genres. There's also a strong influence from diasporic Bangladeshis who visit 'home' and bring with them the latest in music styles and forms that are quickly picked up by the local young performers. One of the most interesting of these is Ornob, who does fusion music, and yes draws on Tagore, but fuses it with interesting middle eastern and western rhythms and melodies. Highly recommended!
A good syte to keep track of recent Bangladeshi pop is (http://amadergaan.com). The latest post on this syte (7/8/2009) announces that the 'Friendship Week Celebration Concert has been postponed because of permission problems from the Home Ministry'. You can also purchase CDs and download tracks at a very reasonable price on this syte.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
India
Following on from the last post: India sees the South Asian political architecture thus
India - stable democracy and emerging super power in addition to its regional power status, surrounded by
Pakistan - in crisis;
Sri Lanka - at war with itself;
Bangladesh - unstable return to democracy, with the army waiting in the wings;
Nepal - uncertain of its political future;
Burma - repressive and totalitarian.
Not sure how Bhutan (Grand National Happiness as foundation for development) and Maldives fit in this schema, but India seems to deflecting scrutiny from its own problems.
See Meenakshi Ganguly Indian and Burma: Time to Choose, Open Democracy http://opendemocracy.net
India - stable democracy and emerging super power in addition to its regional power status, surrounded by
Pakistan - in crisis;
Sri Lanka - at war with itself;
Bangladesh - unstable return to democracy, with the army waiting in the wings;
Nepal - uncertain of its political future;
Burma - repressive and totalitarian.
Not sure how Bhutan (Grand National Happiness as foundation for development) and Maldives fit in this schema, but India seems to deflecting scrutiny from its own problems.
See Meenakshi Ganguly Indian and Burma: Time to Choose, Open Democracy http://opendemocracy.net
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Beginnings
This is my second attempt at blogging. The first failed because of a lack of discipline and too many other things to do. In this blog I will record what I read, watch on TV or the web and my responses to them. It is essentially an aide memoir for my writing. There will be some consistent themes explored here, including Bangladesh, dependency and trust, democracy and the media. In addition there will be notes on things that catch my eye that may be useful in the future e.g. today I read that Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister, regards India to be surrounded by failed states but chooses not to interfere in the affairs of its neighbours because it does not wish to be seen as the regional bully. I know that Bangladeshis don't quite see it that way. I am frequently told that India has numerous 'spies', moles, informants (what you will) who actively try to interfere in Bangladeshi politics. This may be paranoia but on the other hand the number of Bangladeshi 'cattle traders' shot on the border by the BSF is scandalous, and very much the action of a regional bully, as is the fence that the Indians have built around the Indo-Bangladeshi border.
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