In the news these days...

Well the new semester is underway, and I've got a few new responsibilities that will keep things interesting. Also underway, the new Awami League led parliament is already locked in some pointless bickering with opposition members. Opposition law makers were give four of the nine available seats to the left of the Prime Minister, the remainder sitting in the second row of the parliament room. This, obviously, is a cruel and conniving attempt by the Awami League to silence to already battered opposition law makers. Said law makers have refused to participate in governing this poor, abused, and disintegrating nation until they get their front-row seating! Neither side looks like budging, and the mediator assigned to the dispute recently said that he "doesn't see any way of making both sides equally happy." Once again the theater of Bangladeshi politics triumphs above attempts to make their constituents' lives better.

In other news, police recently beat down on hundreds of student protesters in Old Dhaka, where students were protesting the seizure of their dormitories by, as the article stated "the powerful people, politicians, and criminals"... I think they could have just listed one of these titles and implied the other two. The police used "trudgeons," clubs and tear gas to disperse the crowds. The university has accused the police of attacking women and students uninvolved with the protests, simply trying to get to class. The picture on the front of the Daily Star newspaper was of three police raining down on an unarmed student with clubs. The caption read "police beat up a student protester at ____ University" (no archives online for the Daily Star, and I've forgotten the name!). As I read on, I discovered that the speedy response of the police may have been influenced by the fact that police families had occupied the hostels and apartments designated for student housing.

There were also students protesting the protesters. They claimed that the students were trying to upset the law and order of the university... by trying to get their housing back... by carrying signs and walking around. These students assisted the valiant police officers by causing physical harm to as many of the dislodged students as possible.

It will be interesting to see if these types of uprisings and subsequent responses will become more prevalent without the military government in power. From what I'd seen and read before coming here, I guess I would have assumed that as a military government that seized control of the capital and arrested hundreds of politicians left power, things would become MORE democratic. However, nothing happens as you might expect here, and the truth is that while protests were halted under the military government, this type of abuse is unlikely to stop as those with power to gain from corruption will also no longer have the fear of military arrest. Paradoxically, although the restrictions implemented by the military government hurt rights to free speech and free assembly, though they also cracked down on the abuses of power that are truly hamstringing this country. Hopefully things won't get too ugly in the next five years of Awami League power.

Hong Kong School Trip

At the start of the second semester, my school sends its kids on week long (more like 5 days) trips throughout south and east Asia. This year's trips included Borneo, Thailand, Nepal, and Hong Kong among others. I was on a trip to Hong Kong with 21 sophomores and juniors, along with two other faculty members. The goal of the trip was to get a mix of physical and mental challenges. We stayed in a three building hostel called Bradbury hall on the far North East tip of Hong Kong (about 45 minutes from the city). For the physical challenges, our kids went on a variety of hikes, the most difficult being a sunrise ascent of Sharp Peak (about 1400 feet). The true event of the trip was the "Buddy Program," in which each of our students were paired with a mentally handicapped child from a Hong Kong Buddhist school. The "buddies" performed a variety of tasks together, from general icebreakers and communication games, to kayaking to abseiling and riding a brief zipline.

For many of the students we took, this was their first encountered with mental retardation, and we were a bit concerned about this inexperience going into the week. In the end, this turned out to be no problem. Even the language barrier, all the special needs students spoke only Cantonese, proved to be no serious impediment. A part from a couple moments of serious frustration, our students were open, active, and supportive with their buddies. There was a wide variety of disability so some kids ended up with real active, wily buddies that required plenty of attention and focus. Others were with more docile kids from the Buddhist school, and they're time with their buddies was a little less lively. Similarly, it was undoubtedly the first time that the Hong Kong students had ever had contact with western (at least culturally) children for such an extended time period. After ice-breaking for about four hours the first day (Monday), we spent almost the whole of Tuesday together, the Buddhist school children even slept over that night before leaving at about 4pm the next day.

The night they slept over, the Hong Kong kids performed a brief show for the upcoming Chinese New Year. After a brief attempt at teaching our students some Cantonese ("say with me... "), there was a little lion dance with two kids in a costume, dancing to drummer. Then a couple other kids came out and did some routines with Chinese circus toys. It was really fun, and they seemed to have a great time performing. Our kids gave a couple brief dancing performances, the last one ending in a giant conga line. We hoped that our Buddhist buddies would be wiped out and sleep well in the room above mine... well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. One kid would occasionally bark just like a dog and I heard him running around for a while before I finally collapsed. Luckily teachers from the Buddhist school were on hand to help keep them in line. However the kids all slept together, which was quite the experience for our Dhaka kids. At about dawn all the Buddhist school kids were up and at 'em, making sure that our kids didn't miss any of the new born day.

The real challenge for our students turned out to be living outside of their comfort zone. Multiple girls on the trip refused to eat most of what was available, usually something made by their classmates. The bathrooms, flushing, seat-less, "squatty potties," were unacceptable. As a result a couple of the girls gave themselves upset stomachs by refusing to use the only available toilets. Most of the boys were OK with the conditions, and complained less, but many of the kids really lack a relationship with the outdoors. This is somewhat understandable in Dhaka, where most students live in gated, planned communities for ex-patriots. Driving just outside the city can take hours, and the air quality and lack of parks encourages the wealthy to huddle in their pockets of clean cocoons of modernity.

Being outside all day was probably my favorite element of the whole trip... not that chaperoning 21 16 year olds isn't a reward all on its own. Hong Kong is a city that really loves recreation; parks and basketball courts dot the city and people really take advantage. Many of the walking trails in the unpopulated (and often protected) outskirt islands are paved to make walking easier and prevent erosion. These islands are beautiful, and as the sun stains the fog that rolls in and out in the evening and mornings creates some fantastic views. Also, I got to swim in the old Pacific Ocean a bit... brisk, but refreshing and fun.


The day time temperature was at the precise level at which it is warm enough for a t-shirt in the sun but chilly as soon as you step into the faintest bit of shade. This made pretty good hiking weather though.

The morning hike kicked off at about 4:40am, the world still quite dark. It was a pretty gentle hike for about the first hour, all on concrete trail. The second hour and a half was on a dirt trail that occasionally took us straight up rocky paths that required all four limbs to scale. We eventually split into two groups to allow the fitter, or more ambitious hikers to reach the top for sunrise. As it was, the sun came up about twenty minutes before we summited, but by then we were close, and could see the fog turning orange and pink over the bay below us.

We ate breakfast on top of the mountain and took a break. Unfortunately for me, who had only worn shorts and athletic shirts made to keep me cool, the wind was really whipping off the top of this peak. We made it down in about an hour and a half (not without some feet first slides down some of the steep, unstable parts). From there it was shower, pack, and on to Stanley Market for some much anticipated shopping. For kids with money to burn, there are surprisingly few outlets to do so in Dhaka, so this was a bit of a treat. We finally landed in Dhaka at 11pm local time (I had now been awake for about 21 straight hours) and I was able to crash at home an hour or so later. By then I had seen about enough of high schoolers for a day or two, and thoroughly enjoyed my hot shower, big bed and quiet sleep.

Bangkok Layover

A group of Thai students who interviewed me for their English Language class

As I said a couple posts ago, I ended up in Bangkok for about 36 hours. I spent a day wandering around the city, and was very impressed by a few things. The first is that the city, or where I was anyways, was quite clean and prosperous, especially in comparison to Bangladesh. The other is that Bangkok is a giant tourist eating machine. The entire city is well organized and coordinated to get every last penny out of tourists. The Bangkok people have figured out that the best way to get things from tourists is to make spending money as convenient as possible while at the same time trying to rip them off at every turn.

I was not expecting to have an extra night in Bangkok so I had to book a hotel from the airport. There was a booth just for that purpose that helped me get set up with a nice hotel in the "night life" part of town. She told me that I should pay about 400Baht (about 13 dollars) to get into the city. Yet as soon as I walked away from the desk a taxi service told me that they would drive me for 900. When I said no way, 400 or nothing, he told me that 600 was the cheapest I would find. Well, I just walked away and eventually he took me for 400 Baht.

A similar thing happened later when I was walking down the street outside the Grand Palace. A tuk-tuk driver stopped me and asked if I had been to these Buddhist sites in the area as that day was the second Saturday of the new year. He said that he would take me to three of these sites for only 20 Baht. This worked out to about 30 cents a spot, so I was all for it. We drove to a Buddhist Temple a little out of the way where I met a person going to worship. It was a really nice and calming experience, and I believed that my driver was really hooking me up.

He then told me that he wanted to take me to a tailor and to a jewelry expo center because they had good deals. I wasn't really in the mood but thought I would at least check out the tailor as Bangkok is famous for cheap tailored goods. I soon realized that the driver was getting a coupon for gas for bringing in a tourist. He basically wanted to take me to all the places that would give him coupons, and was charging me so little because the gas was paid for. He acted very disappointed when I didn't want to go to the jewelry place or the kings residence, both places with coupons, and ended up taking me to the pier to ride the ferry back down to my hotel before showing me the third Buddhist temple. By the time he dropped me off I no longer felt like I was getting a great view of the city from a man celebrating his religion, and more like a foolish foreigner letting himself get taken for a ride.

To travel around the city, I took a ferry up river from the Silom area of my hotel to the Grand Palace. The ferry was only about 30 cents and was a great way to catch a view of the riverside hotels and shanties. The proximity of these palatial tourist buildings and the tin roofed homes was a bit surprising.
The Grand Palace was quite beautiful with intricate mosaics of precious stones lining the columns of the buildings. Built in the 1700s, the grounds houses both the grand palace and the famed Emerald Buddha (which is actually made of Jade). The grounds were relatively quiet and it was a gorgeous sunny day. It was touristy, but ultimately quite beautiful.

That night I went out in the city looking for a last hurrah before going on to alcohol-free Dhaka. Much to my chagrin, the Bangkok was DRY for the 36 hours before the Thai elections. No restaurants or bars were serving alcohol and so I could only find some beer at a food stall on a side street. At least I got some great Phad Kee Mao and had a nice conversation with a British couple named Phil and Jill (actually I can't remember his name but he was the spitting image of Phil Mickelson).

All in all, I think that Bangkok would be a great place to be for a few days, especially if one were looking to go out and have fun at night. From what I've heard from people around school, the real thing to do is go out to the beaches. The atmosphere of the city is a little annoying, hawkers are everywhere and quite standardized. I felt like I kept hearing the same calls and phrases in attempts to lure my attention and money. On the other hand, Bangkok is relatively safe and clean and definitely worth seeing... I just wouldn't plan to spend two weeks there.













Also I got to see this awesome elephant on the street:

Bangladeshi Elections!

This is two weeks late at this point, but on December 29th the Awami League, headed by Sheikh Hasina, won a landslide victory in the Parliamentary elections. By all reports, the election was run quite well and the one-sided results seem incontrovertible. The BNP has, in the past, boycotted parliament after contested elections, but after the thorough and decisive victory, the party will be hard pressed to find legitimate cause for protest.

The election was well monitored and reportedly surprisingly clean. Translucent voter booths were used and voter fraud was lessened by taking over 10million deceased or non-existent names off the books. Villagers who had never voted before came out in droves, as 81 million people voted (about 80% of the eligible population).

Of the 300 parliamentary seats up for grabs, the Awami League now controls 232, the BNP only managed to hold 27 of the 193 seats it held before the military intervened in 2006. There is worry that because the Awami League dominated so thoroughly, the talks of bi-partisanship and inclusivity by both sides would be cast aside at the opportunity to demolish the BNP. The leaders of both parties are quite literally mortal enemies, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

The BNP's position was further weakened when reports surfaced yesterday that leader Khaleda Zia's son has been accused of laundering over 200million dollars through Singapore. A perfect example of the corruption under Zia, her party's position will no doubt be weakened further by this proof. The United States and United Kingdom are performing the duty of recovering the money, free of charge.

While it is unlikely that the election will provide a meaningful change in quality of life, there is some positive momentum in the direction of democratization and hope. In fact, Hasina carried the popular (and apparently effective) "change" banner to victory. The real hope is that food prices will drop, as the inflating price of rice and lentils has created even more hunger and poverty.

My friend Zeb was in town for the election, and even managed to snag some campaign posters that were being handed out in the villages. One had two columns comparing the relative prices of sugar, rice, lentils etc under the BNP and under the Awami League. While this does not take into account global trends, and certainly does not reflect the actual governing ability of either party, it was a stark reminded that rice used to cost about a third of what it does now. He also reported that the street marches were often composed of illiterate but passionate supporters carrying banners that, instead of words, contained symbols. He apparently witnessed two crowds clash, one shouting "pineapple!" the other "rice!"

While I am a bit sorry that I missed the election, few things seemed to have changed in my absence. I imagine that the first thing I will notice is that there is less military security out and about on the streets. Hopefully, the AL will be able to make some important progress and first steps towards prosperity. Expectations seem high, but most in the ex-patriot community are not going to hold their breath. The issues facing this country may be too much for one government, Bangladesh's only hope is a continuing, sustained effort or revolutionize the way the government serves the public. In the country with virtually no slope, there is a mountain of troubles still to solve.

International Traveling

One of the pitfalls of living in Dhaka is that, because there is essentially zero tourist industry, it is hard to get in and out of the country. Most airlines only fly into the country a few times a week, and British Airways just canceled their non-stop from London to Dhaka for lack of interest. 10 days before I was scheduled to leave Dhaka in December, Thai Airways decided to cancel all flights on Tuesday and Fridays in and out of Dhaka. As a result my flight was canceled and I had to be re-routed through Hong Kong. I almost missed my flight because United had botched the re-ticketing, and I had to buy a new, very expensive ticket. Luckily United refunded me, but a special surprise was waiting on the back end when I handed my ticket information to the agent in Bangkok when I was returning to Dhaka. Apparently United had also rescheduled the back end without telling me, so I missed the first day of school, arriving a day later than planned.

In both cases, the turmoil produced some good sightseeing opportunities for me. I ended up with four hours in Hong Kong to explore the Central area and get my first world jitters out of the way. I won't soon forget the simple amusement I felt, walking the clean streets of Hong Kong's posh hillside area, smelling fresh produce, seeing the serious business people in their suits and dresses, headed down hill for work.

I recommend Hong Kong to anyone, it gave me the feel of New York, San Francisco and London smashed together with a distinct Chinese flavor. There is a great combination of pastel colored skinny apartments rising into the sky and hyperfuturistic office and public buildings. Here are some pictures:

That magical market where I first smelled fresh food, not trash and filth!

Hong Kong is all canyons, the tight streets walled in by apartments buildings stacked together

A bleary-eyed traveler outside an acupuncturist

Some Catching Up... A December Village Visit

The weekend after "goat Eid" as it's known in the ex-patriot community around here, I got a chance to get out to a village in the northwest of Bangladesh (Rajshahi Division) called Nator.

My friend Jason's cook Thomas is from there, and his family still lives there. Thomas and his son live in Dhaka (his son is a student and works in the city), and Thomas travels back home for five days at the end of each month. Jason, Thomas, his son, Thomas's nephew and I took off for Nator at about 6:30 in the morning for the three hour drive. Jason, Thomas's son and I crammed into the back seat, but at least I didn't have to sit in the middle. Thomas's nephew wore a hilarious red turtleneck-black blazer combination the whole day that reminded me of some westerner caricature I couldn't quite place.

This was a great example of a time I was unhappy to be doing something but realized that I had to go in a sense. Early in the morning. Squished against my fellow passenger. But I was going to see something special, I had to believe, because I try to push myself to do stuff like this even when I am not in the mood, aware that there are only so many days to see everything I can in this country.

Once we got to the village we had a really great time. The village was clean and seemed relatively prosperous, definitely a middle class place. It had been a Christian enclave for about 60 years, and Thomas's family had lived there for a few generations. It is always interesting to see how Christianity is integrated into Bangladeshi lifestyle. In this case, there was a poster of the last supper in Thomas's son's room, a few crosses here and there. In his cousin's house, there was a great "Merry Christmas" banner above her door with a picture of the Lamb.
Thomas had a two building property, one for sleeping and one for work and cooking. Behind the living house was a small plot of rice that supplemented, but did not provide a full measure of their rice supply. Everyone in the village was extremely friendly and a little curious, and Thomas's family impressed me by not trying to "show us off" as many Bangladeshis will do when a westerner comes to their village.

We ate breakfast and lunch cooked by Thomas's wife, both quite delicious. Before lunch we tried to do some net fishing in Lungis, but were unable to catch anything. The technique is pretty tricky, it's hard to throw the net so that it opens up as much as possible. I got a couple of good tosses but only caught a little frog. A villager snagged a bunch of fish, and we ate one of them for lunch. It was amazingly tasty but full of bones.

I was wearing a Lungi from Thomas's son, and still getting the hang of tying it and wearing it. While fishing in the pond, the trick it to get it tied up through your legs diaper-fashion to make you both more mobile and keep it from getting wet. One particularly helpful and 8-toothed villager took it upon himself to assist me with this tying, essentially applying one of the most vicious wedgies I have ever received, and sticking his hand down the back of the lungi to secure the tie. This was a bit awkward for me, but he seemed pretty as ease with it so, you know, I just went with it.

Being out in the village was a really peaceful experience. I had been in the city for a maybe a month without getting out, and especially after Eid I was ready to get out. It was so quiet and calm and pleasant. It was a little sad to leave, but we had very long drive ahead of us, one that would be made only more nerve wracking by the failing daylight.





Here are a few more pictures:

The lunch spread and our friend in the turtleneck with Thomas and his wife

A village kid, notice that blade in his right hand.

Jason and I getting ready for some fishing

My best toss; we had drawn a little audience by then.

Thomas and his wife really seemed like a happy and loving couple