One month has gone by...

There are so many things that strike me about living in a developing country, particularly Bangladesh of course since I’ve had a chance to observe a lot more and will be here for a considerable period of time.

First of all, the cost of living. It’s incredible and horrifying to absorb the reality that so many people in the West make such ostentatious salaries that they’re not only able to meet the exorbitant Western cost of living but also surpass it by a breathtaking sum which allows them to spend lavishly and take it all for granted in many cases. A person living on a very modest salary in North America or Western Europe could afford many luxuries here. It’s unthinkable. It really does cost very little to feed and clothe people here, the issue lies mainly in rooting out the cause of poverty and teaching the man how to fish instead of providing him with the fish.

Another thing is the media coverage. Never did I think I would get the opportunity to apply the knowledge I acquired in university because back home balance of trade problems are not an issue, SAPs (structural adjustment programs) are not an issue, subsidised western industries are not feared. Here, most newspaper articles speak of development initiatives, mistakes made by the West, UN Summits, Millennium Development Goals and steps people take to alleviate their individual poverty.

There was a very interesting article written in the Daily Star about how the US could easily have mitigated the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe by having more money in the emergency fun rather than in the war on terror fund, how more energy is spent on preventing unlikely deaths (such as ‘terrorist’ bombings and such) than more probable deaths such those caused by illnesses.

Also, one article spoke about how the government’s response to the hurricane will likely hurt the Republican Party at the next elections as a similar incident occurred in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) when a cyclone hit in 1970 causing around 300,000 deaths. Helicopters arrived from a few surrounding countries not really believing it to be a true tragedy and thinking they were seeing animal carcasses washed up on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Up close they realised that those were all human bodies. West Pakistan, where the capital was located, barely acknowledged the situation nor sent any aid, thus aggravating the already-brewing political tension and triggering the Liberation War which eventually led to the creation of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in December of 1971.

An interesting sidenote concerning Hurricane Katrina is that our poverty-stricken Bangladesh has pledged $1,000,000 in aid towards the US relief effort and has even sent help. Even Sri Lanka pledged around $25,000 despite its ongoing recovery from the tsunami!

A third striking detail is the lack of importance placed upon religion despite the Muslim majority and the recent bomb blasts triggered in the name of instituting Islamic law in Bangladesh. When we got here we were very casually told to call Muslim women ‘appa’ and Hindu women ‘didi’ (both meaning sister). The best example of the harmony between the two is at Aungshee, a store owned by the NGO I work for, dedicated to the fair selling of clothing and handicrafts made by local women. The two women who run the store were introduced to us as Appa and Didi. It was too cute. It’s hard to imagine such peaceful communal living between two religions that just next door in supposedly secular India live in conflict in many parts, not to mention Pakistan which Bangladesh used to be part of. It seems as though given Bangladesh’s creation in the name of the Bengali language and ethnicity, that is the unifying factor and religion is merely secondary.

My final thought for today is the speed at which work gets done around here. All those of you who have lived/worked/spent time in developing countries must be smiling knowingly. We were told from the beginning during our orientation in Victoriaville that life is paced differently here and that everyone isn’t scurrying around trying to squeeze out extra time from their packed schedules. And I knew this before as well from what I’ve heard about leisure time in Europe and from what I saw while I was in Africa. But it’s really phenomenal when you’re actually here with the purpose of working. I’m not saying I mind that much, it’s actually quite refreshing, after four years of papers, to not be constantly staring in the face of a deadline. The HR advisor working at the head office is from Holland and has been here for around a year and she told us that one major difference in the way Bengalis do business is that they don’t put you to work right away but they want to get to know you really well first, your mentality, your thoughts, your background, how you feel about them, etc. To survive here you really have to think Bengali and not overworked North American. When we’re at the office we wonder where all the people are, whether anything’s getting done at all, what they could possibly mean when they say they’re so busy. But once again, we have to think in relative terms. In addition there are just so many people on each project that the slower pace is acceptable because a lighter burder is placed upon each pair of shoulders. This creates more employment and more time to chat over tea and biscuits. It all gets done somehow though, and really well too.

New pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=190i8ygb.ajgz9br&x=0&y=2711gf