Censorship

In the past few weeks there have been three episodes of official, heavy-handed censorship of the media in Bangladesh.

1] The GoB blocked Facebook for a time on the grounds that it was running a competition encouraging cartoonists to mock Mohammad. This brought out the fundamentalists to the streets, something the GoB fears in any circumstances. Facebook was blocked on the grounds that it was offensive to Bangladeshi culture and religious sentiments. It was then revealed that people had also been uploading satirical cartoons published on the site of Sheikh Hasina and Khalida as well. An arrest has been made and the ban on Facebook lifted after negotiations with the management. This episode required mor eresearch.

2] Amar Desh has been banned and its editor arrested on technical reasons. I need to find out more about this as well but I know that 'liberal' and progressive friends are appalled by this move even thought they disagree with the politics of the paper.

3] Channel-1 has been taken off air for technical reasons. Again more research is required.

The thing here is that the Awami League came to power with a thumping majority and a broad appeal that stemmed from its more liberal approach to social and political matters. While it was sensitive to tradition it had a program of modernisation and tolerance. It seems that it has reverted to the time honoured tradition of answering criticism with censorship and closure, which totally undermines its appeal and electoral support among the educated urban middle classes.

More on this shortly.

Rick Stein

Rick Stein is one of my favourite TV chefs, probably because he comes across as a bit of a bumbler. He's certainly no 'jack the lad' like Jamie Oliver anyway. He focuses pretty much on seafood and his French Odyssey and Mediterranean Odyssey remain among my favourite TV cooking shows and I of course have the accompanying books. For these reasons I looked forward to the broadcast of his Far Eastern Odyssey (FEO). The title's problematic but remembering it's aimed at a British audience, for whom anything east of the Channel is exotic, we can live with that.

Somewhere I can remember reading that a focus on food and dining is a soft academic option for reaching an understanding of the other. I'm not sure of that and the raft of books on food from a number of theoretical perspectives supports my scepticism. I learn a lot from programs like FEO. Stein's project, it seems to me, is broadly humanistic; that we can understand other peoples, other cultures through their foods, which can be delicious and nourishing. He even touches upon economic issues at times but there's no deep analysis, but then the program format militates against that - and I suspect politics as such doesn't much interest Stein.

FEO covers all the usual suspects - Thai, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan cuisines - but the real surprise is the Bangladeshi section.

I think much to his surprise Stein enjoyed the Bangla food. He marveled at the subtle use of spices, the availability of fish, particularly fresh water fish, and the manner in which 'ordinary people' prepared their food. He also stated several times that most Indian restaurants in the UK were run by Bangladeshis, mostly from Syllhet and he implies that popularity of the UK curry probably lies in the traditions of Bangladeshi cooking. An interesting thought!

Stein cover all the usual things - the impossible traffic, the density of population, especially in Dhaka, the contrast between the idyllic rural landscape and the urban streetscape, the resilience of the people - with a sense of amazement. This chaos actually seems to work!

For me the really interesting thing was that Stein ended on an essentially optimistic note, rather than the deeply pessimistic tone of most visitors and commentators on Bangladesh. We are keeping the episode to watch again.

Musings

Back home after an enjoyable holiday in Nepal and Bhutan. I'm still trying to digest my time in Dhaka. Has it changed or not? Change, of course, occurs all the time irrespective of human agency. Things are conceived, grow, decay and die without much help from us and if you think of Dhaka as a living organism, quite independent of its inhabitants (although living in a symbiotic relationship with them) then of course its changed. It seems to be in a state of terminal decay. The footpaths are crumbling even more; the holes in the roads are more numerous and larger it seems; the number of beggars, strategically placed at the bottlenecks in traffic flows, seem more numerous; and politicians seem to remain as venal as ever. On the other side of the coin, however, are a lot of pluses. The vitality and dynamism of the place; the confidence of my young students who have just entered the work force, and the generosity and charm of friends are fond memories. More about this theme later.

On Monday (10/05/2010) we attended the opening of the ECU Bangladesh Photographic Project. It was held in an unusual setting - the Northbridge Piazza, an outdoor setting. The photographs are projected on to a large screen to be seen by all. The work of 14 photographers will be screened at 1.00 pm and 6.00 pm daily until the 18 May. Well worth looking at.

The Leaving of Dhaka

Today is our last day in Dhaka and tomorrow we go to Kathmandu and then on to Bhutan, a trip we are very much looking forward to. In the meantime I guess I should be reviewing my stay here and try and record my overall impressions.

First, on a personal level we continue to find the hospitality and friendliness of Bangladeshis overwhelming and in a way quite humbling. We certainly don't treat visitors to Australia with the same degree of commitment. These personal relationships, with students, ex-students, colleagues, friends we have made and just people we meet in the street make our visits to Dhaka memorable. Our social life is pretty good to!

The university goes from strength to strength. In five years the numbers have built up from around 200 to nearly 2000 and the reputation is very sound. Good young faculty have been appointed and the experienced members continue to add lustre and prestige. It's the first convocation on July 1 and I can't make it, much to everyone's regret, because we will be in Portugal. Everyone is excited! One of the oddities of the private university system in Bangladesh is that the President is the Chancellor of each and every university, some 54 and he has to have a new set of robes for each convocation. I think this is a situation that needs to be reformed and the universities should be able to appoint their own Chancellors from among the great and good of Dhaka.

And now for some worries!

1] The continuing chaos on the roads. Everyone complains and various solutions are suggested but nothing really changes. It seems the police are reluctant to enforce the rules because they don't know who the offenders are. If they charge an 'important figure' they could lose their jobs. So law and order remain an important issue. Until the law can be enforced without fear or favour many of the problems confronting Bangladesh will remain.

2] The thugs who control the BCL are causing havoc in the public universities. The Awami League seem reluctant to reign them in and so they continue to intimidate students and faculty alike on the campuses. The effects on education is incalculable.

3] Poverty!!

4] Corruption!!

5] The absolute need to end dynastic, tribal politics which are in reality a form of feudalism.

More later when I have the time and can be a bit more objective. When I write poverty, corruption and politics the anger begins to rise. ordinary Bangladeshis deserve better than they have.

Things

Well. I've failed to maintain a daily blog. Why? For a start the repetition would drive me mad. I can't bring myself to write a daily list of complaints about the traffic, bureaucratic incompetence, xenophobia, poverty and so on. The more things change the more they stay the same. Although I love the vitality of Dhaka and the sheer goodwill of the people I can't help but depressed much of the time as the poor and disadvantaged are screwed more and more and the kleptomaniacs prosper. Money was allocated to provide generators for the 256 water and sewerage pumps that provide an essential service to the city. None has been purchased for 'technical reasons'. And so it goes.

The traffic does remain a problem. You can never judge how long a trip between Dhanmondi, where I live, and Gulshan, the expatriate and diplomatic area, will take. The other night I though the driver of the car in front was consulting his GPS, mounted on his dashboard. I look more closely and realised that he was watching a DVD player as he drove! Only in Dhaka, as they say.

One of the real pleasures of this trip has been meeting up with past students. They are doing so well out there in the 'real world'. Their decision to study Media Studies and Journalism was considered to be at best brave and at worst foolish. Where are the job prospects their parents asked? Well it seems the gang of 2004 - 2007 are ding very well pulling in salaries way above their BBA counterparts in the burgeoning Dhaka small media and multimedia industries. This is cause for optimism.

Finally today, a return to something that has concerned me for a few years; the slaughter of Bangladeshis by the Indian Border Security Forces (BSF). Thirteen so far this year and 836 since 2000. This is scandalous but how to end?

Politics

I've been stretched pretty thinly over the past few days what with one thing and another; preparing for a presentation on Digital Bangladesh (see The Independent, 09/04/2010); working on the book and editing another book on Active Learning for ULAB. Now I've started work on another book, this one on the markets of Dhaka. Actually we are building on the work done by Shahjahan Siraj on the 80plus1 project which can be found at www.80plus1.com.

Basically the idea is to record the markets of Dhaka, especially the older, traditional markets before they disappear. It seems to us that photographers are actively encouraged to photograph the 'eternal' Bangladesh of lush paddy fields, palm trees and setting suns rather than the dynamic, dirty and challenging urban scenes like the market spaces. Alternatively, photograph the disasters!

The political situation is becoming very interesting. Clearly the power, water, gas situation has the government worried. At the hottest time of the year people in the slums can't get any potable water and the middle classes have to do without their AC. A very dangerous convergence of interests is occurring.

The BNP is an ineffective rump that huffs and puffs but can achieve nothing and its wracked by internal dissension, probably between the young new guard and the old guard who cling the memory of Zia embodied in his widow, Khaleda. Given this situation you would think the Awami league would be triumphant, confident and secure in its political actions. I suspect it's not. If I'm reading the signs correctly then the AL is destroying itself internally as the external forces count for little.

The Bangladesh Chhartra league (BCL or AL student wing)) is basically out of control in some areas intimidating its opponents as well factionalising along splits based on personalities. It is also competing with the the Jumma League (the AL youth wing) for influence but also the control of markets and land. Pitched battles are fought on university grounds around the country and in the streets and people are clearly not impressed. The view is that the BCL and JL have been captured by thugs and petty criminals who use their control of the organisations and their institutional links as the basis for criminal behaviour. If the party can't control its own how can it be expected to govern the country. Moreover, local AL functionaries are using their positions to engage in criminal behaviour. Maybe the observation that the BNP can do nothing, just wait and let the AL implode in order to regain power is pretty astute.

I met a Canadian Human Rights lawyer, working for an American union based organistion, the other night. He focuses on three areas; the economic free zones, the shrimp industry and the retail garments manufacturing industry. Some success in the first two but not the latter, which seems to be a law unto itself. Last month twenty-two young women died as a result of a factory fire. They were locked in the top floor of the factory and died of smoke inhalation. Will the owners be punished? Unlikely!

I watched a TED program on slavery the other day. At the heart of the argument was the need for the rule of law. When the law can be applied without fear or favour then human rights violations can be prosecuted and criminals punished. Although Bangladesh has an elaborate legal system inherited from the British with a Supreme Court and a High Court supported by an extensive apparatus of lawyers and pleaders, it's questionable as to how effective the rule of law is in Bangladesh. The police are reluctant to stop and prosecute the drivers of the Pajeros and Lexuses because they may (almost certainly do) belong to someone with political links who will invoke them and have the policeman dismissed. So the police persecute the rickshaw wallahs and ignore the offending car drivers. People are reluctant to challenge the BCL and JL thugs because of their political links. The law is seen as partial, supporting the political power of the moment and its cronies and hangers on. Until the law is perceived to be impartial then the problems multiply. (I'm so naive as to think the law is perfect in the west. It's not - but you have a better chance of impartiality there than a rick shaw wallah does in Bangladesh).

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to a blog by a young Australian journalist, Jessica Muddit working on The Independent and newspaper here in Dhaka. Top stuff!

Iconography

I think I may have mentioned this before but there have been some changes in political iconography since I was last in Dhaka. This is especially true of the Awami League, who are definitely moving towards a cult of the personality with posters redolent of China and Mao in the 1970s, although a little less severe in their portrayal.

History again!

Firstly, it's happened, I've worked out, with a little bit of help, how to upload photographs. This one was taken by a Czech friend on one of our walkabouts and captures something of the nightlife in the area of Elephant Road.

I keep referring to van Schelden but his book is really very good. He never resiles from criticisms and lists the problems quite clearly - corruption, aid dependency, greed of the middle classes, incompetence of the bureaucrats and so o - but he manages to remain optimistic and is clearly very fond of both Bangladesh and its people. He says quite unequivocally that Bangladesh is not a failed state. In fact it has transformed itself since 1971 - it's just hard to know how much when you're on the streets of Dhaka in the heat.

Yesterday I has a small reunion with the first batches of students I taught at ULAB in 2006. They have graduated and gone on to great things. It was a great pleasure to meet and talk with them.

History

I notice in today's New Age (I haven't got to the Daily Star yet) says the PM has told bureaucrats and AL politicians to forget development projects. In other words she or her advisers have seen the problems in the earliest call for bid. I'm reading Yunis' autobiography at the moment, which is interesting in many respects although a bit too much puffery for Grameem, but what he has to say about the pitfalls of development remain true, or it seems to me. Its fundamentally a trap.

I'm also reading van Schendel.s History of Bangladesh, which continues to impress me. His take on development is much the same as Yunus although he places it in an historical context.

Yesterday I attended briefly a reading of a story about the Biharis by Mahmud Rahman from his book Killing the Water, the second recent book published by Penguin India by a Bangladeshi author writing in English. Interestingly another diaspora writer for whom Bangla is a challenge. Nice story but it contained an unusual use of language. A triadic relationship exists between the barbarians, us and the indeterminate. The us is the Bengalis, the uncommitted are the Biharis and the barbarians are the Westerners. My immediate reaction was, how are we involved? what have we done wrong this time? and then I realised the westerners referred to the Pakistanis. Interesting, guilt ridden reaction on my part but also an interesting warning about assumptions, context ad language.

Power

When we talk of power we are usually referring to that quality that governments, authorities and individuals have that invests them with the ability to make decisions. It can be arbitrary, corrupt even incompetent. Today Dhaka conversations about power are almost certainly confined to electricity, or more accurately the lack of it. Power shedding and outages have become the norm and today the government announced that it ad banned the use of AC from 6 to 11.00 pm each night in an attempt to conserve power for irrigating the boro crop (the winter planting). The lack of electricity affects all but the lack of AC is a particularly middle class problem. In either case it doesn't help the government popularity and makes me think that the diagnoses that the BNP only has to sit back and let the Awami League continue to stuff up if they want to return to power make be an accurate one. There's certainly an air of despondency around that can only get worse as it gets hotter. The issue of electricity needs looking at more closely but indicative of the problems was an announcement that the Khulna generator would come back on line after four years of failure to make good the repairs begun in 2006. Clearly incompetence and corruption are at work here.

Yesterday the New Age ran a front page story saying the government had asked all MPs to include development proposal in the budget claims 'irrespective' of whether they were practicable or not. Surely an invitation to pork barreling or corruption if ever I heard one.

Obviously I'm having a bad day! Very hard to remain optimistic despite reading Yunus' autobiography. Yesterday I went to a quiz night attended by the young, rich and foreign educated. The booze flowed and people enjoyed themselves but it was like living on another planet and difficult to reconcile with the poverty that confronts you as you drive through the slums in your nice air conditioned car!!

Violence in Bangladesh

The stand off over Crossfire continues with the police still preventing entry to Drik and the lawyers issuing writs against the police. Human Rights Watch has become involved and in general there is disquiet amongst the intelligentsia of Dhaka over the event. As Sir Humphrey would have said, 'it's the thin end of the wedge'. If the police are prepared to take such heavy-handed action over something as seemingly innocuous as Crossfire, then where does it end. Moreover, there a raft of issues that are much more in need of policing than Crossfire and Drik, and everyone is aware of this.

It seems that 129 people were killed in crossfire in Bangladesh in 2009. Crossfire is a euphemism for extra -judicial killing. RAB and the police summarily execute people, allegedly criminals, who it is alleged, get caught in the crossfire; the exchange of gunfire between RAB and the criminals. Few people accept this explanation but on one level there is a degree of toleration of the police actions as it is one a way of controlling the crime that is blighting Dhaka at the moment. This was certainly true when RAB was first formed as a means of combating the 'godfathers' of Dhaka crime who had emerged in the early 2000s, and who seemed to control the streets.

However, to claim that the Crossfire exhibition will encourage 'unrest' and 'anarchy' seems excessive and is indicative of how sensitive the issue is. It also highlights the level of violence that is actually happening in Dhaka, and Bangladesh, at the moment. Some examples:
1] The papers often print accounts of lynchings where people summarily kill muggers and thieves in the street. Nothing ever seems to be said about the lynchers; whether they apprehended and prosecuted, or whether it is all too hard and they are allowed to get away with their violent act.
2] There are frequent reports of businessmen being shot during robberies or over business disputes but rarely reports of successful prosecutions of the perpetrators.
3] I regard the behaviour on the roads as a form of violence. There are also reports of bus and truck drivers being lynched after a fatal accident.
4] There are the acid attacks, mostly on women.
5] There are also reports of unjust attacks on domestic servants, particularly young girls.

All societies live with undercurrents of violence so I'm not claiming that Dhaka is more violent than anywhere else, just that it is becoming more noticeable and I think that it is related to the intolerable pressure urban expansion and population growth are placing on normal everyday life in the city.

Finally, there is one other aspect of violence in Bangladesh that can't be ignored and that is the outrageous behaviour of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) and the manner in which it continues to kill Bangladeshis who stray across the border. I have raised this matter with some police advisers here in Bangladesh and their response was; they're probably smugglers! So, you deserve to die if you smuggle? I think not. There have been recent discussions between India and Bangladesh on the issue but the BSF still seems to be quite happily shooting people that cross the border, and this is in areas where the border is ill-defined or arbitrarily drawn across villages and communities. In other jurisdiction this situation would be condemned.

Reading

There are none of the distractions of home in Dhaka so I can concentrate on things. Current projects are a book (collection of essays by colleagues) on the Bangladesh media. Surprisingly (may be not) there's nothing out there apart from a few attempts to promote development communication and a few dispersed essays, so we have high hopes. A second book is also being worked, which is much more polemical- an attack on the dominant development communication paradigm that is so popular with NGOs here in Bangladesh. I'm also toying with an idea for a coffee table book on the markets of Dhaka with Shahjahan Siraj. More of these later.

I als get the opportunity to read a lot and have just finished Shazia Omar's Like a Diamond in the Sky(Penguin India), which is a young persons' novel about the rich brats of Gulshan and Banani, who drink, take drugs and have sex -frequently in all cases - and generally behave as another species. It's certainly difficult to relate them to the poor you see in the street or the students I teach although I'm reliably informed Shazia reports pretty accurately a stratum of Bangladesh society few people know about. Its a sharp reminder that you can't generalise about Bangladesh as there's too much diversity. It's also a sharp reminder of the discrepancies that exist; between the very rich and the abject poor. What's interesting is that the most attractive and positive character in the book comes from the poor and its not a saccharine portrayal; Lalliana, knows her place, recognises the injustice but gets on with it anyway. I can't say I felt much empathy with the rich kids or really enjoyed the book but it is an interesting take on contemporary Dhaka that avoids the earnestness of much contemporary Bangladeshi writing.

The other reading is Willem van Schelden's History of Bangladesh (Cambridge). Brilliant!

Dhaka

Well I promised a daily post once I returned to Dhaka but that hasn't happened and as always there are reasons/excuses. First I was overwhelmed by the impact of the city on my senses. How to adjust to the noise, traffic, masses of people and so on. And then I was ambushed by all of the little germs of Dhaka, just waiting for me to arrive and infect me. Fortunately I'm recovering but I've felt pretty awful for most of the past week.

A few things today and then tomorrow I will begin properly.

I'm staying at the Ambrosia, an old-fashioned guesthouse in Dhanmondi, that has seen better days but remains gracious and popular among Bedeshis. The guys that work here are helpful and obliging, the food is excellent and the rooms quite spacious and clean. What more could you ask for?

I arrived on Saturday. On Sunday I went for a walk to Dhanmondi Lake, which provides a nice shaded walk during the day. I hadn't been to this particular part before and I was taking photographs. Suddenly a man jumped up and started shouting at me in Bengali. I looked around and realised there was an army presence as well as police presence and the roads were barricaded. I had stumbled on the edge of the area where Sheikh Hasina lives and thus out of bound to the likes of me.

Today I was invited to the opening of Shahidul Alam's photographic exhibition Cross Fire, which would be held in conjunction with the launch of the new Pathshala: South Asian Media Academy being built in the Drik compound. Aswe approached Drik we noticed a fairly large crowd milling outside the gates and then we noticed the 50 or 60 police standing in front of the gates. Nobody was allowed in so the inauguration occurred in the street. It seems that somebody in the government had taken exception to the topic and ordered its closure. Foolish move given the amout of press coverage, the number of Bedeshis there and the probable arrival of the Dutch Ambassador. After a whil it was clear the police would not budge and although storming the barricades was jokingly referred to nobody was in the mood to provoke the police, so we left.

It's interesting that in one week I've had two brushes with the police. This needs to be reflected upon.

Why is Crossfire such a sensitive issue? The term refers to the announcemnts in the press that such and such was 'killed in the crossfire' as the RAB (Rapid Action Battalion, all dressed in black and licensed to kill) fight he goondas and others. Shahidul can be provocative but without seeing the images its difficult to know why the authorities are so upset. Hopefully it will be open tomorrow and then I can comment further. And yes, the RAB are pretty scary!

Finally, there are more political posters up than ever before (as far as I can recall) particularly from the AL; images of Sheikh Mujiba Rahman and Sheikh Hasina striking herois poses. Very redolent of soviet socialist art, Mao and the cult of personality. I have to learn to upload photos.

The Lapse

I can apologise for the long delay between postings. This doesn't mean that I've lost interest in Bangladesh, far from it, but I have had other things to occupy my mind since Christmas. However, I'm happy to announce, I'm back and that I will be returning to Dhaka on Saturday (13th March 2010) so expect daily postings.

In the meantime I continue to read the Daily Star. At times this blog could be seen as a running commentary this paper, which is after all the pre-eminent English language newspaper in the country. But I hope not.

More later, but I will leave you with an observation of a friend on the political situation: nothing has fundamentally changed! Make what you will of that.