Archive for June, 2008
Bangladesh, the Heart of Asia!
Bangladesh has much to offer a tourist, but it does not have the right image. When people think of Bangladesh, they think of poverty, flood and micro credit. This is the image most foreigners see on their television screens. The Bangladesh government has traditionally pushed the sad image of Bangladesh in the media. Who wants to visit a poor, flood stricken and thereby depressing place?
The solution lies in changing the image of Bangladesh like India (“India, Incredible India”), SIngapore (“Singapore, Uniquely Singapore”) and Malaysia (“Malaysia, Truly Asia”) have done. Everyone knows that even the poorest farmer in any village knows how to treat a guest. Bangladeshis are renown for their warm hospitality. So take it and build on it, show the image of Bangladesh as a warm friendly country waiting to welcome visitors from all over the world!
The article below appeared in The Executive Times had some great insights as well.
http://www.exectimes.com/content/june08/con10.asp
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In ancient times, intrepid travellers from Europe defied distance to admire and explore the region now called Bangladesh. With the passage of time technology improved and communication became easy, but the increase in the number of foreign visitors to Bangladesh on average has remained relatively low, especially so compared with the robust growth of the tourism sector in some countries in Southeast Asia – Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, for example. Last year Bangladesh received only about 0.29 million foreign visitors while by contrast Vietnam received more than 4 million.
Bangladesh is rich in both natural and cultural heritage and its tradition of hospitality is a potential additional attraction for tourists and travellers. The pristine beauty of fauna and flora in Sundarban and Bandarban, the world’s longest beach in Cox’s Bazaar, the majestic panorama of sky, sea and sun in St. Martin’s and Kuakata and the lush green in Sylhet are but few of the numerous features that are sure to capture the imagination of the visitor and make a lasting impression on him. With mosques, temples, churches, pagodas and prayer houses of indigenous people galore, the country boasts homogeneity of multi-ethnic cultures – something that testifies to the nation’s openness.
It is true travel & tourism is not an unmixed blessing for every country. Sometimes foreign cultures can be invasive and irreparable damage can be done to historic sites. In Bangladesh there are quite a few World Heritage sites and they remain especially vulnerable but with proper management of the places the threat can easily be averted. As for culture, vulnerability of Bangladesh is out of the question given the enormous strength of the nation’s cultural identity built over the course of hundreds of years. In fact, the benefits outweigh by a huge margin whatever curse there is of tourism, as far as Bangladesh is concerned. The country earned about $9 million in foreign exchange from travel & tourism in 2007 and with vigorous promotional activities it can hope to increase substantially its share of the multi-billion dollar international tourist receipts. Moreover, more tourists and travellers would most likely mean more trade and investment and therefore more growth of the economy.
Challenges It is unfortunate that in the past Bangladesh had to witness political violence, steep corruption and religious fanaticism on its soil but what is more unfortunate is much of the stigma attached to the country’s image resulted from irresponsible reporting by the media. With the new trend set, now it is time to prove the critics wrong-footed. Besides ensuring lasting political stability and social security, Bangladesh needs to put in place the proper infrastructure before it can catch up with the countries in Southeast Asia or even outdo them in terms of tourist and traveller arrivals. Managing tourism involves a long supply chain – from transportation to accommodation to tour operation services – and tourists can be put off at any stage of the chain because of prevalence of any unfavourable conditions. This explains why a synergy of the relevant public and private organizations in Bangladesh is of utmost importance for boosting the tourism sector.
Another area that the service and hospitality sector in Bangladesh needs to be particularly mindful of is savoir faire in interacting with foreign travellers and tourists. An extra sheen in the locution of a hotel employee can make a huge difference in business. Most of the lapses that are complained of are partly due to training or lack of it. Training in communicative and behavioural skills by incompetent trainers is useless, can be counterproductive even, the trainee losing his natural ability to behave better. Agri-tourism In Bangladesh, life in huts hugging vast fields of luxuriant vegetation can hold special charm for those who are out there from far-off places to trace the link to the non-veneered past. The visitor may well experience the thrill of negotiating a muddy rise to get to the yard at the top where stacks of hay hide the view of women tending to the harvested crop. Or his adventure may take him to a slippery causeway across a swamp to see the peasants at the other end sow seeds with their mighty hands. In fact prospects of agri-tourism, hitherto dimly realized, if at all, are enormous in Bangladesh. What is needed is a well worked out policy and a coordinated effort of the ministries concerned to implement it in collaboration with local operators. Videos and film footage should in the mean time be shown overseas through our foreign missions to familiarize foreigners with the rustic agricultural beauty of Bangladesh. Hospitality There is no exaggerating the importance of the role played by hotels, motels and resorts in promoting travel and tourism. Although the hospitality sector in Bangladesh has developed significantly over the years there still remains more to be done in terms of providing suitable accommodation, food and service, especially in remote areas of tourist attraction. However there are a few hotels that can claim to be excellent in their categories by international standards. Pan Pacific Sonargaon: Strategically located between the two most important commercial hubs of Dhaka City – Motijheel and Gulshan — the five-star hotel features some of the most modern facilities with an interior ambience evocative of a cultural Bangladesh. Most of its package tours are arranged in association with designated companies. Sonargaon’s extensive renovation programme ends in about a month’s time from now. Hotel Sarina: The five-star hotel at Banani, Dhaka, has long been a favourite resort for many international tourists and travellers. It offers excellent customer service, it has Sauna Jacuzzi among other amenities, its four different restaurants specialize in different types of cuisine and it arranges river cruises for its guests. Radisson Water Garden Hotel: A conspicuous picture-postcard resort in the proximity of Zia International Airport, Gulshan and Baridhara Diplomatic Zone, Radisson is a landmark in the hospitality industry in Bangladesh. The five-star hotel known for its distinctive customer care tradition boasts Dhaka’s first internationally managed spa – Sundaree Spa – among other state-of-the-art facilities. Its Blaze Entertainment Lounge & Bar where guests can indulge in a game of billiards is another attraction. Dhaka Regency: Relatively new in the industry, the five-star hotel situated in close proximity to Zia International Airport has already achieved fame for the high quality and low price of its food and service. Its rooftop swimming pool and the grandeur of its rooms and restaurants are but some of the features that make it special. The business class hotel offers ‘delegate packages’ of different types. Grand Prince Hotel: Although a 3-star hotel located at Mirpur, Dhaka, Grand Prince preserves a feeling of exclusivity in its category in terms of attracting foreigners. It features a fitness club, sauna and steam bath and a large conference hall, among other amenities. Located in close proximity to Mirpur stadium the hotel receives international football and cricket players on a regular basis. The Peninsula Chittagong: Nestled snugly at a vantage point in the port city, Peninsula is the only 4-star luxury business hotel in Chittagong. It features a rooftop heated swimming pool and Jacuzzi, sauna & steam bath and golf course access among other state-of-the art facilities. Unrivalled in the field of providing customer service and satisfaction, as far as the hospitality industry in Chittagong is concerned, the hotel offers full package programmes for Golfers at Bhatiary Golf & Country Club. Bangladesh Tour Operators Association Hasan Mansur, president of Bangladesh Tour Operators Association, underlines the importance of the government framing a sound and practicable policy for the sector. The country has 92 tour operators and the government should be supportive to them. “Our role in tourism is very important. We work as a key player for tourists. We work as a chain; for example a tourist needs accommodation, transport, food and sight seeing and all these things are done by our tour operators.”
We should learn from the strategies countries like Malaysia, Thailand and India have taken to boost their tourism industry, says Hasan. “Religion and culture won’t be a barrier because the tourist who comes to Bangladesh comes with that mindset. He comes here to see our culture and different religious activities.” What is needed is encouragement for such activities. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation It is often alleged that the performance of the government sector in promoting travel and tourism is lacklustre and the finger is usually pointed at Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC), the government body responsible for the sector. BPC PR manager Parvez A Chowdhuri, however, claims the corporation is now actively engaged in promotional activities. “We are now providing all the facilities to tourists; we guide them on where to go and how to go and we provide transport services and so on. For such information the tourist handbook published by the Executive Times has been very helpful.” Parvez blames the present poor status of the industry on the previous governments’ nonchalance. “Lack of commitment [on their part] was the main barrier to developing this sector.” He informs ET that Parajatan will hold fairs and undertake various other promotional activities in the near future.r |
1 comment June 30, 2008
Destination: Bangladesh
Bangladesh is brimming with Expatriates. All are here working either for a donor country or organization affiliated with a donor country. A few are here on projects with the Government of Bangladesh. Sadly, even they go outside of Bangladesh when it comes to tourism. Is there nothing to see in Bangladesh? Actually there is plenty to see and do in Bangladesh, but Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation has never marketed any of them.
Aside from the obvious Cox’s Bazaar. In Dhaka you have Rajbaris, Temples and ancient architecture. All wonderful points of interest, if well maintained. A short distance away, Sonargoan Village (the original capital of Bengal during the Moghal period). Mainamati, the Buddhist Temple in Comilla. You have the Tea Gardens in Sylhet, Waterfalls in Moulvibazaar with the nearby Shiva Temple. Many of the Old Universities throughout Bangladesh would also have value as tourists spot. Faiz Lake in Chittagong is also of historical importance, thus making it a tourist attraction. I know I have only hit on a few, the possibilities are endless if developed and marketed correctly. We already have places for the children Fantasy Kingdom and Nandan Waterpark. Wonderland in Dhaka and Sylhet. Many children’s parks are also scattered throughout the country.
The challenge is creating a network of Bed & Breakfasts that could provide the quality of service that most foreigners are accustomed to receiving. We also have not caplitalized on the sea beaches with resort facilities or spas. This are destinations of choice for many foreigners.
An effective travel network is also essential. Of late, only Biman Airlines flies within the country to many of the small district airports. Many foreigners are not fond of flying on Biman Airlines, why? They are unreliable. Often times flights are canceled after long delays leaving passengers stranded on the day of travel. This causes many related problems as well.
On arriving in Bangladesh, most foreigner will not know that Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation is the tourism board in Bangladesh. The name says it all. When you come to learn what Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation is, your first reaction is “who came up with that?”.
Of course, the shortage of electricity also poses a problem in this area. Foreigner’s like things to do at night in a safe environment. Even in Dhaka the night ends at 11pm, younger crowds look for dance clubs and coffee lounges among other popular spots to hang out. The argument that Bangladesh is a Muslim country is not a strong one, look at other Muslim countries. They all have these types of places available for tourists.
5 comments June 27, 2008
Pollution and Its Effect on Food Security
This story is startling, not only because of its content, but because its central subject is our neighboring country. That and the fact that other recent news articles also bear out the fact that a traditional staple food of Bangladesh, fish, may be dying out due to the polluting of our lakes and rivers.
In Dhaka you can not walk on many streets with out coming face to face with the pollution (refuse) left by our city dwellers. Some of it is burned, but a lot makes its way into the lakes surrounding the city. The villages outside of Dhaka are a bit better, but not by much. The livelihood of our fishermen relies on fish being in the lakes and rivers, our lives depend on them being safe to eat.
Overall an eye opening article.
http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/06/04/environment.htm
A Global Call
Nader Rahman
‘Awareness’ is a word one can’t seem to dodge these days. From information on cigarette packets to taking care of the world and its resources, people have become more aware of information that could potentially save their lives, the lives of many others and even the world. But in the end it all boils down to what people do with that awareness, if someone merely reads the warning on a cigarette pack and continues to smoke, then the message has not worked.
The main stumbling block behind any informative awareness programme is turning the words into deeds. As Al Gore is aware, many people may realize there is an inconvenient truth that we can’t escape regarding climate change, yet people sit back and wait for someone else to do the real work. Often we are too comfy on our sofas listening and empathizing with the problems of our world and yet we choose to do nothing about it. There is a way out; this year one lucky person could win the chance of a lifetime to speak at the IUCN World Conservation Congress where over 8000 leaders from governments, the United Nations, NGOs, business, scientific associations and community organizations will be present. There is a way to get there and have your voice heard by the movers and shakers at an event that is only held once every four years and the path to that moment begins at a simple website. Where ideas about the environment, the world and what the average person can do to save them is readily available.
The website is suitably named ‘connect2earth’ and in more ways than one it lives up to its name. The simple site is a portal and gallery of sorts where users around the world can log on, post videos, pictures and text about anything that is related to the environment. While there may be many a website that provides information, statistics, photos and even videos what makes connect2earth special is that it takes a bottom up approach to the problem. There are no experts with pictures and diagrammes proving the validity of climate change using satellite imagery and there are no long-winded scientific journal articles that expel a host of simple ideas coated in verbose language. The content of this website is provided solely by its users, their stories, pictures and videos are more compelling than any scientist can hope to be.
A picture submitted by a user from India.
It is one thing to talk about pollution and it is another thing to upload a picture of a lake where all the fish have died due to pollution. This example is straight off the website, where a user from India took a few pictures of a lake near his house that showed how the fish had died to the consistent pollution that flowed into it. The pictures give one a jolt, it is a wake up call, because it was not a scientist, nor a researcher, it was an average person and his story. Immediately it becomes real, the computer screen transports one to a real place with a real person.
A brief look through the website can give one an idea of what is going on in the world, not just what’s wrong with it. It would be incorrect to say that the website simply showcases environmental problems and the downsides of a 21st century way of life. On the contrary there are many images, videos and articles that highlight different environmental projects around the world, from cell phone recycling to everyday tips that could help save the planet. They have also very clearly pointed out what they are looking for as the website says “We’re about providing a space for you to tell the world why you care about the environment and why it should be protected.” The length, breadth and scope of the website is great but like any other project under construction there is still work to be done. A good moderator could edit the English on the comments that people post, while it would also be nice to preview the text that users upload before clicking and being presented with the entire piece. The tags and categories that all the content is posted under work well along with a simple and easy to use layout.
The simplicity of the website is what makes it a joy to use but more importantly it has made it accessible to many people who may have had an idea, or picture that they wanted to share but were too technology shy to try. It starts with a simple from that needs to be filled up and the very next stage is where at the click of a button anyone can upload their text, photos or videos. Tagging them with key words makes them easier to find and also helps to categorize them. Currently there are 10 categories which include among others, global warming, low impact living, local and sustainable food and clean energy. They are all topics of great importance and that fact that people can share their ideas and views on these topics creates the best type of awareness, that which comes from a real source, not just a ubiquitous messages that are fed to us by the main stream media.
The website is combination of two well known global organizations along with a surprising partner. The WWF and IUCN jointly started the website along with Nokia in the hope that it would unite people and give them an opportunity to share their experiences. The mobile giant Nokia seems like the odd one out, but as companies around the world go green, even they have to move with the times and this venture gave them a perfect opportunity to partner with two of the most well respected environmental organisations in the world. The combination of the three provides a wealth of opportunities for the users of the site, as the top ranked item every month is rewarded with a Nokia mobile phone. But over and above the rather simple prize of a mobile phone there lies a reward so great that no amount of money in the world could make up for it.
In October the IUCN will hold its world congress in Barcelona and a panel of international personalities which includes the noted broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough, James P Leape, Director General, WWF international, Julia Marton-Lefevre, Director General, IUCN and Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP and others will select one entry from the website that will be shown at the world congress. It is an opportunity for one person to meet the people who matter, and present his or her ideas. They offer a life changing experience where someone plucked from obscurity could be the next person who makes the leaders of the world stop and listen. This is truly the time to connect to the earth and if things fall in place one could connect with the people who matter, the world congress awaits.
On their website they say that connect2earth is “a community that, most importantly, is willing to express their concerns, frustrations, hopes and successes, online, loud and proud, through words and images and film.” All that is left to be done is to sign up and start changing the world.
1 comment June 27, 2008
Malaysia Eyes Cut in Petrol Subsidies
I came across this article published in April. Bangladesh imports over $200,000USD of Petrol each year, too. Options are available if we but look to our neighbors.
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Cuts eyed to keep prices down for middle income groups and poor. -AFP
Sun, Apr 06, 2008
AFP
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – WITH oil prices near record highs, Malaysia could cut subsidies for higher grades of petrol in order to keep prices down for middle income groups and the poor, reports said.
The government expects to spend 35 billion ringgit (S$15.13 billion) on fuel subsidies this year if oil stays around US$100 (S$138 billion) per barrel, and has already indicated there would be some cuts ahead.
Consumer Affairs Minister Shahrir Samad was quoted saying the bulk of the subsidies would go for a new octane 95 fuel for use in most vehicles, while a higher octane petrol for luxury cars and SUVs would get less state support.
According to the New Straits Times, Mr Shahrir said the government would save costs by mainly subsidising only one type of fuel. It currently subsidises two types, octane 92 and octane 97.
‘The goal is to have subsidies targeted and more focused at those who need it, such as the lower and middle-income group, and giving a choice to the rich on what petrol they want to fill in their tanks,’ he said.
‘The system is a shift in how we price petrol, but it is necessary if we are to lessen the burden on the lower and middle-income groups,’ the paper quoted him as saying.
Malaysia imposed its highest-ever fuel price rises in February 2006, citing the spiralling cost of crude oil. The move was condemned by political and civil groups, arguing it was unnecessary as the country is a net exporter of oil.
The central bank recently said that rising prices of fuel, commodities and food will see headline inflation for the year rise to 2.5 to 3 per cent from 2.0 per cent in 2007.
Add comment June 26, 2008
NRB Conference 2008?
On December 27, 28, and 29th the Dhaka Sheraton opened its doors to hundreds of visiting Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) as the First NRB Conference was hosted by ScholarsBangladesh http://www.scholarsbangladesh.com with the support and participation of the interim Caretaker Government of Bangladesh. The NRB Conference was a three day Conference of ground breaking seminars and book launching ceremonies coupled with art exhibitions and outstanding evening performances. In fact, many great ideas came out of the conference .
The concept while not novel was a great one, “A Non Resident Bangladeshi Conference every year in Bangladesh , which we believe will be the right platform and opportunity for those who have earned recognition in abroad for their achievements and are also interested in contributing towards the development of their country.” The Chief Adviser’s participation and the government’s apparent willingness to listen and address the concerns of those living outside of Bangladesh was uniquely appealing, but now 6 months after the conclusion of this landmark event we have heard nothing of NRB Conference 2008.
So, when will the NRB Conference of 2008 be held, we all are waiting to hear.
Add comment June 24, 2008
Bangladesh and the British Raj
By looking back we gain perspective and in Bangladesh to understand why it’s governments have failed we must look to the British Raj. The structure and foundation of the governmental system that Bangladesh has followed was set into place by the British Raj and Bangobhondu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and, in fact many of the laws passed by the British Raj are still on the law books today.
A bit of background:
British Raj (rāj, lit. “reign” in Hindustani[1]) primarily refers to the British rule in the Indian subcontinent (this includes Bangladesh) between 1858 and 1947.
Geographical extent of the Raj
The British Indian Empire included the regions of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and, in addition, at various times, Aden (from 1858 to 1937), Lower Burma (from 1858 to 1937), Upper Burma (from 1886 to 1937), British Somaliland (briefly from 1884 to 1898), and Singapore (briefly from 1858 to 1867). Burma was directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948. Among other countries in the region, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens, was a British Crown Colony, but not part of British India. The kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, both having fought wars with the British and subsequently signed treaties with them, were recognized by the British as independent states.[5][6] The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a princely state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however, the issue of sovereignty was left undefined.[7] The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1867 to 1965, but not part of British India.
British India and the Native States
The British Indian Empire (contemporaneously India) consisted of two divisions: British India and the Native States or Princely States. In its Interpretation Act of 1889, the British Parliament adopted the following definitions:[8]
The expression British India shall mean all territories and places within Her Majesty’s dominions which are for the time being governed by Her Majesty through the Governor-General of India, or through any Governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India. The expression India shall mean British India together with any territories of an Native Prince or Chief under the suzerainty of Her Majesty, exercised through the Governor-General of India, or through any Governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India.
Suzerainty over 175 Princely States, including some of the largest and most important, was exercised (in the name of the British Crown) by central government of British India under the Viceroy; the remaining, approximately 500, states were dependents of the provincial governments of British India under a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or Chief Commissioner (as the case might have been).[9] A clear distinction between “dominion” and “suzerainty” was supplied by the jurisdiction of the courts of law: the law of British India rested upon the laws passed by the British Parliament and the legislative powers those laws vested in the various governments of British India, both central and local; in contrast, the courts of the Princely States existed under the authority of the respective rulers of those states.[9]
Another good article to look at is found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bangladesh
The question now, is where do we go from here. Bangladesh has enormous potential, but to grasp it reforms are drastically needed. First and foremost is the decentralization of the government. Giving more power to local governments and instituting a check and balance system. Right now the Prime Minister holds the power, the President a mere figure head. Why?
Mujib came to office with immense personal popularity but had difficulty transforming this popular support into the political strength needed to function as head of government. The new constitution, which came into force in December 1972, created a strong executive prime minister, a largely ceremonial presidency, an independent judiciary, and a unicameral legislature on a modified Westminster model. The 1972 constitution adopted as state policy the Awami League’s (AL) four basic principles of nationalism, secularism, socialism, and democracy.
A look at the Westminster System of Government:
Important features of the Westminster system include the following, although not all of the following aspects have been preserved in every Westminster-derived system:[1]
- a head of state who is the nominal or theoretical holder of executive power, and holds numerous reserve powers, but whose daily duties mainly consist of performing the role of a ceremonial figurehead. Examples include the British monarch, the presidents of many countries and state/provincial governors in federal systems.
- a head of government (or head of the executive), known as the prime minister (PM), premier or first minister, who is officially appointed by the head of state. In practice, the head of government is almost always the leader of the largest elected party in parliament.
- a de facto executive branch usually made up of members of the legislature with the senior members of the executive in a cabinet led by the head of government; such members execute executive authority on behalf of the nominal or theoretical executive authority.
- parliamentary opposition (a multiparty system);
- an elected legislature, often bicameral, in which at least one house is elected, although unicameral systems also exist;
- a lower house of parliament with an ability to dismiss a government by “withholding (or blocking) Supply” (rejecting a budget), passing a motion of no confidence, or defeating a confidence motion. The Westminster system enables a government to be defeated, or forced into a general election, independently of a new government being chosen.
- a parliament which can be dissolved and elections called at any time.
- parliamentary privilege, which allows the Legislature to discuss any issue deemed by itself to be relevant, without fear of consequences stemming from defamatory statements or records thereof.
- minutes of meetings, often known as Hansard, including an ability for the legislature to strike discussion from these minutes.
Most of the procedures of the Westminster system have originated with the conventions, practices and precedents of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which are a part of what is known as the Constitution of the United Kingdom. Unlike the unwritten British constitution, most countries that use the Westminster system have codified the system in a written constitution.
However, uncodified conventions, practices and precedents continue to play a significant role in most countries, as many constitutions do not specify important elements of procedure: for example, some older constitutions using the Westminster system do not mention the existence of the cabinet and/or the prime minister, because these offices were taken for granted by the authors of these constitutions.
Bangladesh’s Westminister System is a modified one where the Prime Minister is its own sovereign. The Prime Minister holds too much power. If one could change just one thing, that would be it, create more power balanced system of government in Bangladesh. Thereby there would be less susceptibility to corruption.
Add comment June 24, 2008
Bangladesh Is Set To Disappear Under The Waves
As I post this I ponder how many news articles and reports the government and people of Bangladesh need to read before they begin to act. It saddens me that the potential of this country may disappear before our eyes. What a sad prophecy to leave our children.
Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century – A special report by Johann Hari
Bangladesh Set to Disappear report by Johann Hari
Bangladesh, the most crowded nation on earth, is set to disappear under the waves by the end of this century – and we will be to blame. Johann Hari took a journey to see for himself how western profligacy and indifference have sealed the fate of 150 million peoplewent to see for himself the spreading misery and destruction as the ocean reclaims the land on which so many millions depend
Friday, 20 June 2008
This spring, I took a month-long road trip across a country that we – you, me and everyone we know – are killing. One day, not long into my journey, I travelled over tiny ridges and groaning bridges on the back of a motorbike to reach the remote village of Munshigonj. The surviving villagers – gaunt, creased people – were sitting by a stagnant pond. They told me, slowly, what we have done to them.
Ten years ago, the village began to die. First, many of the trees turned a strange brownish-yellow colour and rotted. Then the rice paddies stopped growing and festered in the water. Then the fish floated to the surface of the rivers, gasping. Then many of the animals began to die. Then many of the children began to die.
The waters flowing through Munshigonj – which had once been sweet and clear and teeming with life – had turned salty and dead.
Arita Rani, a 25-year-old, sat looking at the salt water, swaddled in a blue sari and her grief. “We couldn’t drink the water from the river, because it was suddenly full of salt and made us sick,” she said. “So I had to give my children water from this pond. I knew it was a bad idea. People wash in this pond. It’s dirty. So we all got dysentery.” She keeps staring at its surface. “I have had it for 10 years now. You feel weak all the time, and you have terrible stomach pains. You need to run to the toilet 10 times a day. My boy Shupria was seven and he had this for his whole life. He was so weak, and kept getting coughs and fevers. And then one morning…”
Her mother interrupted the trailing silence. “He died,” she said. Now Arita’s surviving three-year-old, Ashik, is sick, too. He is sprawled on his back on the floor. He keeps collapsing; his eyes are watery and distant. His distended stomach feels like a balloon pumped full of water. “Why did this happen?” Arita asked.
It is happening because of us. Every flight, every hamburger, every coal power plant, ends here, with this. Bangladesh is a flat, low-lying land made of silt, squeezed in between the melting mountains of the Himalayas and the rising seas of the Bay of Bengal. As the world warms, the sea is swelling – and wiping Bangladesh off the map.
Deep below the ground of Munshigonj and thousands of villages like it, salt water is swelling up. It is this process – called “saline inundation” – that killed their trees and their fields and contaminated their drinking water. Some farmers have shifted from growing rice to farming shrimp – but that employs less than a quarter of the people, and it makes them dependent on a fickle export market. The scientific evidence shows that unless we change now, this salt water will keep rising and rising, until everything here is ocean.
I decided to embark on this trip when, sitting in my air-conditioned flat in London, I noticed a strange and seemingly impossible detail in a scientific report. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – whose predictions have consistently turned out to be underestimates – said that Bangladesh is on course to lose 17 per cent of its land and 30 per cent of its food production by 2050. For America, this would be equivalent to California and New York State drowning, and the entire mid-West turning salty and barren.
Surely this couldn’t be right? How could more than 20 million Bangladeshis be turned into refugees so suddenly and so silently? I dug deeper, hoping it would be disproved – and found that many climatologists think the IPCC is way too optimistic about Bangladesh. I turned to Professor James Hansen, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, whose climate calculations have proved to be more accurate than anybody else’s. He believes the melting of the Greenland ice cap being picked up by his satellites today, now, suggests we are facing a 25-metre rise in sea levels this century – which would drown Bangladesh entirely. When I heard this, I knew I had to go, and see.
1. The edge of a cliff
The first thing that happens when you arrive in Dhaka is that you stop. And wait. And wait. And all you see around you are cars, and all you hear is screaming. Bangladesh’s capital is in permanent shrieking gridlock, with miles of rickshaws and mobile heaps of rust. The traffic advances by inches and by howling. Each driver screams himself hoarse announc-ing – that was my lane! Stay there! Stop moving! Go back! Go forward! It is a good-natured shrieking: everybody knows that this is what you do in Dhaka. If you are lucky, you enter a slipstream of traffic that moves for a minute – until the jams back up and the screaming begins once more.
Around you, this megalopolis of 20 million people seems to be screaming itself conscious. People burn rubbish by the roadside, or loll in the rivers. Children with skin deformities that look like infected burns try to thrust maps or sweets into your hand. Rickshaw drivers with thighs of steel pedal furious-ly as whole families cling on and offer their own high-volume traffic commentary to the groaning driver, and the groaning city.
I wanted to wade through all this chaos to find Bangladesh’s climate scientists, who are toiling in the crannies of the city to figure out what – if anything – can be saved.
Dr Atiq Rahman’s office in downtown Dhaka is a nest of scientific reports and books that, at every question, he dives into to reel off figures. He is a tidy, grey-moustached man who speaks English very fast, as if he is running out of time.
“It is clear from all the data we are gathering here in Bangladesh that the IPCC predictions were much too conservative,” he said. He should know: he is one of the IPCC’s leading members, and the UN has given him an award for his unusually prescient predictions. His work is used as one of the standard textbooks across the world, including at Oxford and Harvard. “We are facing a catastrophe in this country. We are talking about an absolutely massive displacement of human beings.”
He handed me shafts of scientific studies as he explained: “This is the ground zero of global warming.” He listed the effects. The seas are rising, so land is being claimed from the outside. (The largest island in the country, Bhola, has lost half its land in the past decade.) The rivers are super-charged, becoming wider and wider, so land is being claimed from within. (Erosion is up by 40 per cent). Cyclones are becoming more intense and more violent (2007 was the worst year on record for intense hurricanes here). And salt water is rendering the land barren. (The rate of saline inundation has trebled in the past 20 years.) “There is no question,” Dr Rahman said, “that this is being caused primarily by human action. This is way outside natural variation. If you really want people in the West to understand the effect they are having here, it’s simple. From now on, we need to have a system where for every 10,000 tons of carbon you emit, you have to take a Bangladeshi family to live with you. It is your responsibility.” In the past, he has called it “climatic genocide”.
The worst-case scenario, Dr Rahman said, is if one of the world’s land-based ice-sheets breaks up. “Then we lose 70 to 80 per cent of our land, including Dhaka. It’s a different world, and we’re not on it. The evidence from Jim Hansen shows this is becoming more likely – and it can happen quickly and irreversibly. My best understanding of the evidence is that this will probably happen towards the end of the lifetime of babies born today.”
I walked out in the ceaseless churning noise of Dhaka. Everywhere I looked, people were building and making and living: my eyes skimmed up higher and higher and find more and more activity. A team of workers were building a house; behind and above them, children were sewing mattresses on a roof; behind and above them, more men were building taller buildings. This is the most cramped country on earth: 150 million people living in an area the size of Iowa. Could all this life really be continuing on the crumbling edge of a cliff?
2. ‘It is like the Bay is angry’
I was hurtling through the darkness at 120mph with my new driver, Shambrat. He was red-eyed from chewing pan, a leaf-stimulant that makes you buzz, and I could see nothing except the tiny pools of light cast by the car. They showed we were on narrow roads, darting between rice paddies and emptied shack-towns, in the midnight silence. I kept trying to put on my seatbelt, but every time Shambrat would cry, “You no need seatbelt! I good driver!” and burst into hysterical giggles.
To see if the seas were really rising, I had circled a random low-lying island on the map called Moheshkhali and asked Shambrat to get me there. It turned out the only route was to go to Coxs Bazar – Bangladesh’s Blackpool – and then take a small wooden rowing boat that has a huge chugging engine attached to the front. I clambered in alongside three old men, a small herd of goats, and some chickens. The boat was operated by a 10-year-old child, whose job is to point the boat in the right direction, start the engine, and then begin using a small jug to frantically scoop out the water that starts to leak in. After an hour of the deafening ack-ack of the engine, we arrived at the muddy coast of Moheshkhali.
There was a makeshift wooden pier, where men were waiting with large sacks of salt. As we climbed up on to the fragile boards, people helped the old men lift up the animals. There were men mooching around the pier, waiting for a delivery. They looked bemused by my arrival. I asked them if the sea levels were rising here. Rezaul Karim Chowdry, a 34-year-old who looked like he is in his fifties, said plainly: “Of course. In the past 30 years, two-thirds of this island has gone under the water. I had to abandon my house. The land has gone into the sea.” Immediately all the other men start to recount their stories. They have lost their houses, their land, and family members to the advance.
They agreed to show me their vanishing island. We clambered into a tuc-tuc – a motorbike with a carriage on the back – and set off across the island, riding along narrow ridges between cordoned-off areas of sand and salt. The men explained that this is salt-farming: the salt left behind by the tide is gathered and sold. “It is one of the last forms of farming that we can still do here,” Rezaul said. As we passed through the forest, he told me to be careful: “Since we started to lose all our land, gangs are fighting for the territory that is left. They are very violent. A woman was shot in the crossfire yesterday. They will not like an outsider appearing from nowhere.”
We pulled up outside a vast concrete structure on stilts. This, the men explained, is the cyclone shelter built by the Japanese years ago. We climbed to the top, and looked out towards the ocean. “Do you see the top of a tree, sticking out there?” Rezaul said, pointing into the far distance. I couldn’t see anything, but then, eventually, I spotted a tiny jutting brown-green tip. “That is where my house was.” When did you leave it? “In 2002. The ocean is coming very fast now. We think all this” – he waved his hand back over the island – “will be gone in 15 years.”
Outside the rusty house next door, an ancient-looking man with a long grey beard was sitting cross-legged. I approached him, and he rose slowly. His name was Abdul Zabar; he didn’t know his age, but guessed he is 80. “I was born here,” he said. “There” – and he points out to the sea. “The island began to be swallowed in the 1960s, and it started going really quickly in 1991. I have lost my land, so I can’t grow anything… I only live because one of my sons got a job in Saudi Arabia and sends money back to us. I am very frightened, but what can I do? I can only trust in God.” The sea stops just in front of his home. What will you do, I asked, if it comes closer? “We will have nowhere to go to.”
I was taken to the island’s dam. It is a long stretch of hardened clay and concrete and mud. “This used to be enough,” a man called Abul Kashin said, “but then the sea got so high that it came over the dam.” They have tried to pile lumps of concrete on top, but they are simply washed away. “My family have left the island,” he continued, “They were so sad to go. This is my homeland. If we had to leave here to go to some other place, it would be the worst day of my life.”
Twenty years ago, there were 30,000 people on this island. There are 18,000 now – and most think they will be the last inhabitants.
On the beach, there were large wooden fishing boats lying unused. Abu Bashir, a lined, thin 28-year-old, pointed to his boat and said, “Fishing is almost impossible now. The waves are much bigger than they used to be. It used to be fine to go out in a normal [hand-rowed] boat. That is how my father and my grandfather and my ancestors lived.
“Now that is impossible. You need a [motor-driven] boat, and even that is thrown about by the waves so much. It’s like the bay is angry.”
The other fishermen burst in. “When there is a cyclone warning, we cannot go out fishing for 10 days. That is a lot of business lost. There used to be two or three warnings a year. Last year, there were 12. The sea is so violent. We are going hungry.”
Yet the islanders insisted on offering me a feast of rice and fish and eggs. I was ushered into the council leader’s house – a rusty shack near the sea – and the men sat around, urging me to tell the world what is happening. “If people know what is happening to us, they will help,” they said. The women remained in the back room; when I glimpsed them and tried to thank them for the food, they giggled and vanished. I asked if the men had heard of global warming, and they looked puzzled. “No,” they said. We stared out at the ocean and ate, as the sun slowly set on the island.
3. No hiding place
Through the morning mist, I peered out of the car window at the cratered landscape. Trees jutted out at surreal angles from the ground. One lay upside down with its roots sticking upwards towards the sky, looking like a sketch for a Dali painting. Shambrat had spat out his pan and was driving slowly now. “There are holes in the ground,” he said, squinting with concentration. “From the cyclone. You fall in…” He made a splattering sound.
It was here, in the south of Bangladesh, that on 15 November last year, Cyclone Sidr arrived. It formed in the warmed Bay of Bengal and ripped across the land, taking more than 3,000 people with it. Like Americans talking about 9/11, everybody in Bangladesh knows where they were when Sidr struck. For miles, the upturned and smashed-out houses are intermixed with tents made from blue plastic sheeting. These stretches of plastic were handed out by the charities in the weeks after Sidr, and many families are still living in them now.
There have always been cyclones in Bangladesh, and there always will be – but global warming is making them much more violent. Back in Dhaka, the climatologist Ahsan Uddin Ahmed explained that cyclones use heat as a fuel: “The sea surface temperatures in the Bay of Bengal have been rising steadily for the past 40 years – and so, exactly as you would expect, the intensity of cyclones has risen too. They’re up by 39 per cent on average.” Again I circled a cyclone-struck island at random and headed for the dot.
The hour-long journey on a wooden rowing boat from the mainland to Charkashem Island passed in a dense mist that made it feel like crossing the River Styx. The spectral outline of other boats could sometimes be glimpsed, before they disappeared suddenly. One moment an old woman and a goat appeared and stared at me, then they were gone.
The island was a tiny dot of mud and lush, upturned greenery. It had no pier, so when the rowing boat bumped up against the sand I had to wade through the water.
I looked out over the silent island, and saw some familiar blue sheeting in the distance. As I trudged towards it, I saw some gaunt teenagers half-heartedly kicking a deflated football. From the sheeting, a man and woman stared, astonished.
“I was in my fields over there,” Hanif Mridha said. “I saw the wind start, it was about eight at night, and I saw everything being blown around. I went and hid under an iron sheet, but that was blown away by the wind. The water came swelling up all of a sudden and was crashing all around me. I grabbed one of my children and ran to the forest” – he pointed to the cluster of trees at the heart of the island – “and climbed the tallest one I could reach. I went as high as I could but still the water kept rising and I thought – this is it, I’m going to drown. I’m dying, my children are dying, my wife is dying. I could see everything was under water and people were screaming everywhere. I held there for four hours with my son.”
When the water washed away and he came down, everything was gone: his house, his crops, his animals, his possessions. A few days later, an aid agency arrived with some rice and some plastic sheeting to sleep under. Nobody has come since.
His wife, Begum Mridha, took over the story. Their children are terrified of the sea now, and have nightmares every night. They eat once a day, if they’re lucky. “We are so hungry,” she said. The new home they have built is made from twigs and the plastic sheet. Underneath it, they sleep with their eight children and Begum Mridha’s mother. The children lay lethargically there, staring blankly into space over their distended bellies.
Begum Mridha cooks on a lantern. They eat once a day – if that. “It’s so cold at night we can’t sleep,” she said. “The children all have diarrhoea and they are losing weight. It will take us more than two years to save up and get back what we had.”
If cyclones hit this area more often, what would happen to you? Hanif looked down. He opened his mouth, but no words came.
4. Bangladesh’s Noah
In the middle of Bangladesh, in the middle of my road trip, I tracked down Abul Hasanat Mohammed Rezwan. He was sitting under a parasol by the banks of a river, scribbling frenetically into his notebook.
“The catastrophe in Bangladesh has begun,” he said. “The warnings [by the IPCC] are unfolding much faster than anyone anticipated.” Until a few years ago, Rezwan was an architect, designing buildings for rich people – “but I thought, is this what I want to do while my country drowns? Create buildings that will be under water soon anyway?”
He considered dedicating his life to building schools and hospitals, “but then I realised they would be under water soon as well. I was hopeless. But then I thought of boats!”
He has turned himself into Bangladesh’s Noah, urging his people to move on to boats as the Great Flood comes. Rezwan built a charity – Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, which means self-reliance – that is building the only schools and hospitals and homes that can last now: ones that float.
We clambered on to his first school-boat, which is moored in Singra. In this area there is no electricity, no sewage system, and no state. The residents live the short lives of pre-modern people. But now, suddenly, they have a fleet of these boats, stocked with medicines and lined with books on everything from Shakespeare to accountancy to climatology. Nestling between them, there are six internet terminals with broadband access.
The boat began to float down the Curnai River, gathering scores of beaming kids as it went. Fatima Jahan, an unveiled 18-year-old girl dressed in bright red, arrived to go online. She was desperate to know the cricket scores. At every muddy village-stop, the boat inhaled more children, and I talked to the mothers who were beating their washing dry by the river. “I never went to school, and I never saw a doctor in my life. Now my children can do both!” a thin woman with a shimmering heart-shaped nose stud called Nurjahan Rupbhan told me. But when I asked about the changes in the climate, her forehead crumpled into long frown-lines.
I thought back to what the scientists told me in Dhaka. Bangladesh is a country with 230 rivers running through it like veins. They irrigate the land and give it its incredible fertility – but now the rivers are becoming supercharged. More water is coming down from the melting Himalayan glaciers, and more salt water is pushing up from the rising oceans. These two forces meet here in the heart of Bangladesh and make the rivers churn up – eroding the river banks with amazing speed. The water is getting wider, leaving the people to survive on ever-more narrow strips of land.
Nurjahan took me up to a crumbling river edge, where tree roots jutted out naked. “My house was here,” she said. “It fell into the water. So now my house is here –” she motioned to a small clay hut behind us – “but now we realise this is going to fall in too. The river gets wider day by day.”
But even this, Nurjahan said, is not the worst problem. The annual floods have become far more extreme, too. “Until about 10 years ago, the floods came every year and the water would stay for 15 days, and it helped to wet the land. Now the water stays for four months. Four months! It is too long. That doesn’t wet the fields, it destroys them. We cannot plan for anything.”
When the floods came last year, Nurjahan had no choice but to stay here. She lived with her children waist-deep in the cold brown water – for four months. “It was really hard to cook, or go to the toilet. We all got dysentery. It was miserable.” Then she seemed to chastise herself. “But we survived! We are tough, don’t you think?”
We sat by the river-bank, our feet dangling down towards the river. I asked if she agrees with Rezwan that her only option soon will be to move on to a boat. He is launching the first models this summer: floating homes with trays of earth where families can grow food. “Yes,” she said, “We will be boat-people.”
I clambered back on to one of the 42 school-boats in this area. Young children were in the front chanting the alphabet, and teenagers at the back were browsing through the books. I asked a 16-year-old boy called Mohammed Palosh Ali what he was reading about, and he said, “Global warming.” I felt a small jolt. He was the first person to spontaneously raise global warming with me. Can you tell me what that is? “The climate is being changed by carbon dioxide,” he said. “This is a gas that traps heat. So if there is more of it, then the ice in the north of the world melts and our seas rise here.”
I asked if he had seen this warming in his own life. “Of course! The floods in 1998 and 2002 were worse than anything in my grandfather’s life. We couldn’t get any drinking water, so the dirty water I drank made me very sick. The shit from the toilet pits had risen up and was floating in the water, but we still had to drink it. We put tablets in it but it was still disgusting. What else could we do?”
Mohammed, do you know who is responsible for this global warming? He shakes his head. That answer lies a few pages further into the book. Soon he, and everybody else on this boat, will know it is me – and you.
5. The warming jihad
What happens to a country’s mind as it drowns? Professor Philip Jenkins of Pennsylvania State University believes he can glimpse the answer: “The connection between climate change and religious violence is not tenuous,” he says. “In fact, there’s a historical indicator of how it could unfold: the Little Ice Age.”
Between the ninth and 13th centuries, the northern hemisphere went through a natural phase of global warming. The harvests lasted longer – so there were more crops, and more leisure. Universities and the arts began to flower. But then in the late 13th century, the Little Ice Age struck. Crop production fell, and pack ice formed in the oceans, wrecking trade routes. People began to starve.
“In this climate of death and horror, people cast about for scapegoats, even before the Black Death struck,” he says. Tolerance withered with the climate shocks: the Church declared witchcraft a heresy; the Jews began to be expelled from Britain. There was, he says, “a very close correlation between the cooling and a region-wide heightening of violent intolerance.”
This time, there will be no need for imaginary scapegoats. The people responsible are on every TV screen, revving up their engines. Will jihadism swell with the rising seas? Bangladesh’s religion seems to be low-key and local. In the countryside, Muslims – who make up 95 per cent of the nation – still worship Hindu saints and mix in a few Buddhist ideas, too. In the Arab world, people bring up God in almost every sentence. In Bangladesh, nobody does.
But then, as we returned to Dhaka, I was having a casual conversation with Shambrat. He had been driving all night – at his insistence – and by this point he was wired after chewing fistfuls of pan, and singing along at the top of his voice to the Eighties power ballads. I mentioned Osama bin Laden in passing, and he said, “Bin Laden – great man! He fight for Islam!” Then, without looking at me, he went back to singing: “It must have been love, but it’s over now….”
I wondered how many Bangladeshis felt this way. The Chandni Chowk Bazaar – one of the city’s main markets – was overcast the afternoon I decided to canvass opinions on Bin Laden. I approached a 24-year-old flower-seller called Mohammed Ashid, and as I inhaled the rich sweet scent of roses, he said: “I like him because he is a Muslim and I am a Muslim.” Would you like Bin Laden to be in charge of Bangladesh? “Yes, of course,” he said. And what would President Bin Laden do? “I have no idea,” he shrugged. What would you want him to do? He furrowed his brow. “If Osama came to power he would make women cover up. Women are too free here.” But what if women don’t want to cover up? “They are Muslims. It’s not up to them.”
A very smartly dressed man called Shadul Ahmed was strolling down the street to his office, where he is in charge of advertising. “I like him,” he said. “Bin Laden works for the Muslims.” He conceded 9/11 “was bad because many innocents died,” but added: “Osama didn’t do it. The Americans did it. They are guilty.”
As dozens of people paused from their shopping to talk, a pattern emerged: the men tend to like him, and the women don’t. “I hate Bin Laden,” one smartly dressed woman said, declining to give her name. “He is a fanatic. Bangladeshis do not like this.” As the praise for Bin Laden was offered, I saw a boy go past on a rickshaw, stroking a girl’s uncovered hair gently, sensuously. This is not the Arab world.
The only unpleasant moment came when I approached three women selling cigarettes by the side of the road. They were in their early thirties, wearing white hijabs and puffing away. Akli Mouna said, “I like him. He is a faithful Muslim.” She said “it would be very nice” if he was president of Bangladesh. Really? Would you be happy if you were forced to wear a burqa, and only rarely allowed out of your house? She jabbed a finger at my chest. “Yes! It would be fine if Osama was president and told us to wear the burqa.” But Akli – you aren’t wearing a burqa now. “It’s good to wear the burqa!” she yelled. Her teeth, I saw, were brown and rotting. “We are only here because we are poor! We should be kept in the house!”
I wanted to track down some Bangladeshi jihadis for myself, so I called the journalist Abu Sufian. He is a news reporter for BanglaVision, one of the main news channels, who made his name penetrating the thickets of the Islamist underground. He told me to meet him at the top of the BanglaVision skyscraper. As the city shrieked below us, he explained: “In the late 1980s, a group of mujahideen [holy warriors] who had been fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan came back to launch an Islamic revolution here in Bangladesh. They tried to mount an armed revolt in the north and kill the former Prime Minister. But it didn’t come to much.”
Islamic fundamentalism is hobbled in Bangladesh, because it is still associated for most people with Paki-stan – the country Bangladesh fought a bloody war of independence to escape from.
But Sufian says a new generation of Islamists is emerging with no memory of that war. “For example, I met a 21-year-old who had fought in Kashmir, whose father was a rickshaw driver. He said it was his holy duty to establish an Islamic state here through violence. Most were teenagers. All the jihadis I met hated democracy. They said it was the rule of man. According to them, only the rule of God is acceptable.”
He said it would be almost impossible to track them down – they are in prison or hiding – but my best bet was to head for the Al-Amin Jami mosque in the north-west of Dhaka. “They are fundamentalist Wahhabis, and very dangerous,” he said. Yet when I arrived, just before 6pm prayers, it was a bright building in one of the nicer parts of town. Men in white caps and white robes were streaming in. An ice-cream stall sat outside. I approached a fiftysomething man in flowing robes and designer shoes. He glared at me. I explained I was a journalist, and ask if it would it be possible to look inside the mosque? “No. Under no circumstances. At all.”
OK. I asked a few polite questions about Islam, and then asked what he thought of Osama bin Laden. “Osama bin Laden?” he said. Yes. He scowled. “I have never heard of him.” Never? “Never.” I turned to the man standing, expectantly, next to him. “He has not heard of Osama bin Laden, either,” he said. What about September 11 – you know, when the towers in New York fell? “I have never heard of this event, either.” Some teenage boys were about to go in, so I approached them. Behind my back, I can sense the Gucci-man making gestures. “Uh… sorry… I don’t think anything about Bin Laden,” one of them said, awkwardly.
I lingered as prayers took place inside, until a flow of men poured out so thick and fast that they couldn’t be instructed not to speak. “Yes, we would like Osama to run Bangladesh, he is a good man,” the first person told me. There were nods. “He fights for Islam!” shouted another.
The crowd says this mosque – like most fundamentalist mosques on earth – is funded by Saudi Arabia, with the money you and I pay at the petrol pump. As I looked up at its green minaret jutting into the sky, it occurs to me that our oil purchases are simultaneously drowning Bangladesh, and paying for the victims to be fundamentalised.
After half-an-hour of watching this conversation and fuming, the initially recalcitrant man strode forward. “Why do you want to know about Bin Laden? We are Muslims. You are Christian. We all believe in the same God!” he announced.
Actually, I said, I am not a Christian. There was a hushed pause. “You are… a Jew?” he said. The crowd looked horrified; but then the man forced a rictus smile and announced: “We all believe in one God! We are all children of Abraham! We are cousins!” No, I said. I am an atheist. Everyone looked genuinely puzzled; they do not have a bromide for this occasion. “Well… then…” he paused, scrambling for a statement… “You must convert to Islam! Read the Koran! It is beautiful!” Ah – so can I come into the mosque after all? “No. Never.”
6. The obituarist?
In a small café in Dhaka, a cool breeze was blowing in through the window along with the endless traffic-screams. The 32-year-old novelist Tahmima Anam was inhaling the aroma of coffee and close to despair.
She made her name by writing a tender novel – A Golden Age – about the birth of her country, Bangladesh. When the British finally withdrew from this subcontinent in 1948, the land they left behind was partitioned. Two chunks were carved out of India and declared to be a Muslim republic – East Pakistan and West Pakistan. But apart from their religion, they had very little in common. The gentle people of East Pakistan chafed under the dictatorial fundamentalism imposed from distant Islamabad. When they were ordered to start speaking Urdu, it was enough. Her novel tells how in 1971, they decided to declare independence and become Bangladesh. The Pakistanis fought back with staggering violence, but in the end Bangladesh was freed.
Now Anam is realising that unless we change, fast, this fight will have been for the freedom of a drowning land – and her next novel may have to be its obituary.
Anam came to Bangladesh late. Her Dhaka-born parents travelled the world, so she grew up in a slew of international schools, but she always dreamed of coming home. Her passion for this land, this place, this delta, aches through her work. About one of her characters, she wrote: “He had a love for all things Bengali: the swimming mud of the delta; the translucent, bony river fish; the shocking green palette of the paddy and the open, aching blue of the sky over flat land.”
“You can see what has started to happen,” she says. The vision of the country drowning is becoming more real every day. Where could all these 150 million people go? India is already building a border fence to keep them out; I can’t imagine the country’s other neighbour – Burma – will offer much refuge. “We are the first to be affected, not the last,” Anam says. “Everyone should take a good look at Bangladesh. This story will become your story. We are your future.”
It is, she says, our responsibility to stop this slow-mo drowning – and there is still time to save most of the country. “What could any Bangladeshi government do? We have virtually no carbon emissions to cut.” They currently stand at 0.3 per cent of the world’s – less than the island of Manhattan. “It’s up to you.”
Anam is defiantly optimistic that this change can happen if enough of us work for it – but, like every scientist I spoke to, she knows that dealing with it simply by adaptation by Bangladeshis is impossible. The country has a military-approved dictatorship incapable of taking long-term decisions, and Dutch-style dams won’t work anyway. “Any large-scale construction is very hard in this country, because it’s all made of shifting silt. There’s nothing to build on.”
So if we carry on as we are, Bangladesh will enter its endgame. “All the people who strain at this country’s seams will drown with it,” Anam says, “or be blown away to distant shores – casualties and refugees by the millions.” The headstone would read, Bangladesh, 1971-2071: born in blood, died in water.
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Add comment June 22, 2008
The Challenge for Bangladesh
The challenge for Bangladesh is to shake off the remains of its British Colonialism and enter into the 21st Century. The photo below is typical of most government offices in Bangladesh. We all wonder why is there a towel on the chair. What is it’s purpose?
I know the towel may not be reflective of the British Colonialism rut that most Bangladesh Government Officials are stuck in, but in every news cast we are forced to see this site. I can’t imagine what citizens of other countries think when they happen to see a photo or news clip taken from a Bangladesh Government Official’s office when watching the news.
Add comment June 19, 2008
The fight is a Political One – New Age May 31, 2008
The climate of Bangladesh is already changing. This article from New Age Newspaper in Bangladesh tells the story from the farmers observations. A pretty clear picture of what is happening.
http://www.newagebd.com/2008/may/31/climatechange08/climatechange08.html
As the issue of climate change has steadily risen on the global agenda, armed with the scientific legitimacy of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year, Bangladesh has become a poster child of the climate action cause. The scientific predictions for climate change in Bangladesh are quite depressing: rising sea levels along the coast, an increased frequency and intensity of floods and tropical cyclones, variations in rainfall patterns, and prolonged droughts.
Meanwhile, the lumbering response to mitigation efforts in the countries of the industrialised North and the adaptations efforts in the countries of the South that are victims of climate change are predictably flagging after a rousing crescendo in 2007. In many cases funds pledged by the countries of the North for adaptation measures in countries like Bangladesh have been dogged by bureaucracy and strings attached, if they were delivered at all, while the legitimate claims of the climate change victims for compensations still remains ignored by the political powerhouses of the North, perpetrating the crime.
We are told about a sense of guilt being generated in the West as regards its role in wreaking havoc on the climate, we also hear about a series of mandated actions to mitigate carbon emissions, particularly in the context of a post-Kyoto era, but its proclaimed commitment to adaptations measures continues to remain abysmally poor – not to mention its indifference to the demand for compensations. We want to underscore the importance of forward looking measures which seek, in the least, to mitigate emissions by the industrialised world, side by side with adaptations research and funding that provides relief to the millions who are already bearing the brunt of climate change.
With the special issue on climate change at hand, we have tried to simplify the debate so that it can once more be taken a little beyond the realms of academia and placed in the context where it belongs: that of the affected millions. The testimonies that follow have been gathered from the thirty different agro-ecological zones that comprise Bangladesh, and they tell the story in the words of ordinary people who are struggling to cope with untimely rains, frequent floods, increased pest attacks, and long stretches of drought that are all confounding our traditional calendar of agriculture. On its own, each of these stories provides mere anecdotes only. But taken together, they are an indictment of the ecological damage that the industrialised nations have wrought on the world, and carries on to this day.
For us, climate change is not merely an environmental issue. It is not just a social or economic issue either. It is all of those, and more. The fight to see action by the industrialised north on climate change is a political one, which cannot be fought, and won, by the NGOs and/or the scientists alone. People at large have to be at the centre of the struggle, while it has to be fought both at the national and the international levels, and that too simultaneously. It is time, the standard bearers of climate change across the world realise that it is a political fight and start mobilising mass support for mitigation, for adaptation, and last but not least, for compensation.
Nurul Kabir
Osman Gani, 28, Farmer, Parkunda, Ranishankhail, Thakurgaon
OSMAN Gani and his father work their 113 decimals between themselves. They cannot afford to hire hands even during the peak seasons when the job has to be done in a few days if not hours. ‘That’s especially the case when we find water levels rising and the paddy is ready to harvest or when the weather is just right and plants must be sowed. But we try and work hard.’
The problem with farming is that the cost of inputs are gradually increasing, not just in monetary terms but also in volume, says Osman. ‘There were times when we could grow almost the same amount of paddy with almost no fertilisers. Now I end up spending thousands for urea and other inputs. Irrigation costs are also rising. The land seems to require much more water now, so the winter crops become extremely costly. But if I consider the full costs of our labour, then the market prices would appear rather low.’
About floods, Osman says, the problem is more with the stagnant water. ‘Generally flood waters will subside in a few days and despite the losses it is tolerable. Of course the fear of floods is always there. But when the water stays for say weeks or even months, it wipes out everything and we lose the entire season doing nothing.’ Almost every year, Osman says, and it is becoming more regular, between mid June and mid August rain water is almost stagnant and most of his land remains submerged throughout that time. ‘Those months are the ones when I would not need irrigation as there is enough and if I cannot grow anything at that time, it only means we get less food from the land. With the rising food prices it has become a real worry.’
Osman’s father Entajul Gani says the weather pattern is changing so much that old methods and times do not really apply. ‘Winters used to be fairly dry but they are becoming wetter and milder by the year. There are more frequent cold waves and the temperature fluctuates, which is not good for the crops.’
ZONE
Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain
CHANGES
* Changes in rainfall pattern (increased in monsoon and decreased in winter)
* Increased temperatures in monsoon and winter
* Increased humidity
POTENTIAL IMPACTS
* Flood
* Drought
* Short lived water logging
* Cold wave
Shahida Begum, 45, Farmer, Shakrail, Saturia, Manikganj
THE most disturbing thing that agonises me is that kal baishakhi storms (Nor’westers) are no longer arriving from the usual ishan kon (northeast) direction for the past five years at least. This is how our ancestors have known it – why is it changing?’ asks Shahida Begum who owns 35 decimals of land at the border between Saturia and Gorpara areas of Manikganj.
‘Nowadays, we cannot cultivate rice like before as there is no water for irrigation. Planting tobacco is fetching more money. The soil here, which undergoes land erosion every now and then, is also less fertile for rice cultivation, due to the usage of excessive fertiliser and tobacco farming. Therefore, we cultivate two crops here – tobacco, followed by corn,’ Shahida says.
Shahida says that the people of her area look at floods as blessings as they bring nutrient rich sediments to topsoil damaged by tobacco crops. ‘Sometimes, we harvest Aman rice crop in the rainwater crammed paddy fields but it never does well.’
She explained that since there is less and less rain over long spells it causes rice paddy diseases so instead of taking the risk, the local people opt for tobacco plantation. She also stated that the irregular rainfall and at times, excessive flood over the past three to five years are making them concerned about what is happening. ‘Even three to four years back, the temperature was much cooler but the heat now is extreme all of a sudden and especially this year,’ she says.
She adds that the rivers are drying up so fast that it is definitely an alarming situation. Many ponds she saw during her childhood are totally dried and fish harvests have dropped.
The groundwater level has greatly decreased in Shahida’s area and now almost seven pipes have to be installed for one tube well which must reach 90 feet to extract the groundwater level. ‘Even then, we are not getting water properly,’ she says.
Add comment June 15, 2008
Wiping Bangladesh off the Map
One last contribution for the weekend that bears consideration, again this is taken from The Daily Star weekend Magazine.
http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/06/02/exhibition.htm
Hana Shams Ahmed
Photo by Shaiful Chowdhury
Last year Bangladesh faced a double blow of environmental disasters. The monsoon season flood stayed much longer than anticipated. The North, which was just recovering from the monga (near famine), was washed away. Then came Sidr. People in the coastal areas, used to getting danger signals intermittently, didn’t take this one seriously enough. Even if they had, there was not much they could have saved. Sidr was more ferocious than any cyclone in recent history. There are still remnants of its fury in the form of broken trees and houses in many areas in Patuakhali, Kuakata and Shoronkhola. In addition every year the major rivers and their tributaries gorge, overflow and flood the banks. Homes, crops, schools, markets and roads get washed away forever. A study report of the Center for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) predicted that river erosion could make 29,000 people homeless within a year.
Floods, cyclones, river erosion, thick fog, extreme heat and extreme cold temperatures — one comes after the other in this small country of 147,570 sq km. A relatively small space in the world map. Yet this country is home to nearly 150 million people, one of the most over-populated countries in the world. According to International Institute for Environment and Development’s (IIED) Climate Change programme, tens of millions of people are set to be displaced by global warming in Bangladesh through rising sea levels and droughts. With global warming, where surface temperature of the earth could rise by about 1.8° to 6.3°C by 2100 Bangladesh would be the worst hit by any rise in sea levels.
FK Bangladesh Network recently launched an event on Climate Change in order to raise awareness about the causes and effects of climate change in Bangladesh. Drik and Ain O Salish Kendra arranged a photo competition. 164 photographers submitted a total of 604 entries. Apart from the gallery version of this exhibition, there will also be mobile versions on five rickshaw vans. The rickshaw vans will be traveling to places in Netrokona, Gaibandha, Pabna and Sirajganj districts.
Photo by Saiful Huq Omi
Each of the photos at the exhibition are a moving tribute to the people, whose homes have been uprooted, sources of livelihood taken away and lives changed forever. The first prize went to Shafiul Chowdhury who documented last year’s unnatural rainfall in Chittagong. Floods resulting from the rains inundated the city and normal life came to a standstill. The photo shows a flurry of activity by people to get to dry ground. Khaled Hasan’s photo of a man’s bare back looks at two interesting aspect of climate change — the suffering of the ordinary worker in extremely hot conditions and in the background the mindless pollution from brick kilns that take place all over the country. It won the second prize at the competition. Saiful Huq Omi’s representation of river erosion, which won third prize, shows a man standing dangerously close to the sea, watching his land being eaten away. Munem Wasif’s work, which received special mention, puts in a nutshell what Sidr did to the South. A broken boat, one man’s livelihood, destroyed forever. In the background, debris of trees and homes shows the devastation.
Apart from global warming, side effects from industrialization is adding to Bangladesh’s climate woes in a big way. Toxic materials in a ship-breaking yard, deforestation, air pollution from vehicles, destruction of natural habitats, population growth and migration towards the cities are just some of the ways we are destroying the planet. All this and more are depicted in the works displayed at the exhibition. A man carrying the body of his dead grandchild after Sidr is a poignant image of nature’s fury.
Climate change is happening. There is no turning back. Only through awareness at all levels can we hope to, at the least, delay its devastating effects.
Clockwise from Top-Left: Photo by K M Asad, Photo by Saiful Huq Omi, Photo by Khaled Hasan and Photo by Munem Wasif
Add comment June 14, 2008
