There is a good reason I have a link to the blog called “The Third World View“. The author of that blog (Rezwan) is one of the hardest working bloggers I know. When it comes to issues about Bangladesh the guy never seems to sleep. And, when it comes to his investigative journalism, he often puts the mainstream media to shame. In fact, his recent investigation has lifted a weight off my chest.
About a week ago, I broke the story that Bangladesh was blocking access to Google and its related web services (like GMail, Blogspot, Blogger, and so on). This ended up becoming the most linked to story I have ever written in my life. But many local Bangladeshis decided to take a “if it’s not true for me – it must be false” approach and contradicted my report both on this site and elsewhere. When access to Google was restored a day or so later – I apologized for being so alarmist and wrote the whole problem off as a technical glitch.
While I was busy apologizing, Rezwan was busy fact-checking my story. First, he was able to get independent confirmation of Google being blocked from other Bangladeshi internet users during the same time. Second, he was also able to verify that this problem existed on even more ISPs than I had originally reported. Finally, he was also able to get independent confirmation that access to some Google services were restored with tools like OpenDNS (which bypass Bangladesh DNS servers) and TOR (which bypasses censorship and filtering).
But what really shows off Rezwan’s investigative acumen is his analysis of why there were conflicting reports about Google being blocked in Bangladesh and why this might in fact have been intentional censorship instead of a technical glitch.
A summary of his analysis after the jump….. Continue reading ‘Google Blocked? An Update.’
Over ten days ago, I asked the question, “what do I have to show for all this?“. Things have been tough here. A few days ago, I waived a family member goodbye at the airport. Having come along to help me with this project, this family member ended up being hospitalized for both Dengue Fever and Typhoid. It was just too risky for her to continue to stay here. I haven’t got sick – but with the Muslim month of Ramadan (a period where Muslims don’t eat or drink any liquids during daylight hours) now in full swing, it is hard to move around the city. Dhaka seems to shut down way too early to really go anywhere.
But, I finally do have something to show for all this. And it starts with this photo:
This is a photo of a single mother of two I met while visiting a rural village in Bangladesh. Her husband died of a stomach related illness. She was not only left with two kids to raise on her own but also was left with loans from her husband’s medical expenses. When I went and saw where she was living – a small straw mudhut – I was taken aback. People in North America have more garage space for their cars than this lady had for her family of three. Not only that – but there was no electricity and only a small window near the floor which only served to prove how dark the inside of the house was.
I wanted to make a difference in her life. I knew I had money and stuff that I could give her that would help her. But making a difference is more than just being a parachute Santa Claus. I started talking to her. How is she doing? How is she paying for her son to go to school? Does she have medical expenses from her husband left over? How can your kids read in such a dark house? I tried my best not to tell her what she needed – and tried to figure out from her what I could do to help to make a difference in her life.
Maybe it’s the Fighting Irish in me, but the first thing that I decided to do was come up with a game plan.
More after the jump… Continue reading ‘One Difference at a Time’
Who has it worse? Me or Notre Dame’s Coach Charlie Weis?
In the past few months, I’ve been harassed (and nearly detained) by airport security in the Middle East and the military police here in Bangladesh during the curfew. I’ve had to deal with flooding which brought flood water and human feces from overflowing sewers into the place I was staying. I had temporarily moved to an apartment of a relative of mine which was on higher ground. But, when I got there I found what maybe the biggest infestation of cockroaches I’ve ever seen. They were coming out of every crack and crevice in all shapes and sizes: from the ones that can fly that are over five inches long (if you’ve never seen one of these guys before check here and here) to the little babies the size of a grain of rice. When I didn’t see them I could hear them crawling through the woodwork.
Coach Charlie Weis, on the other hand, now has to deal with his team’s third straight loss this season. Not even a single offensive touchdown to show for it. There is no competition: Coach Weis has it worse. There are many things I’d rather not deal with – but I can always give thanks that I am not in Coach Weis’s shoes right now. Sheesh.
[IMPORTANT UPDATE: Vonage has recently delisted Bangladesh from their Plan Look-up Table. But, Dhaka landline numbers are still shown as being under the "Call Asia" plan if you manually check a phone number. I am getting conflicting reports as to whether or not Vonage has cancelled their unlimited calling to Bangladesh and started charging 19 cents a minute. Customers such as myself whose family heavily relies on this plan have not received any warning or notice of its discontinuation. This is not how Vonage should be treating their loyal customers. I can no longer recommend Vonage in good conscience. More updates as I get more details.]
I wish I found this out before my parents spent hundreds of dollars a month calling me in Bangladesh. Vonage – the internet phone company with the annoyingly catchy song in its ads – now offers free calls to Bangladesh as part of its Call Asia international calling plan. My family already uses Vonage – I gave it as a gift to my mom and dad almost two years ago so they could keep in touch with me while I was studying at Notre Dame.
For ten bucks a month more, I just added the Call Asia plan which gives them unlimited calling anytime to all Dhaka and Chittagong landlines (but not any cellphones). I double checked to make sure it works with landline numbers in regions like Baridhara, Shantinagar, and Gulshan (where my relatives live). After setting it up for my dad online – I had him give me a call. The call was surprisingly clear – better than the phone cards my other relatives use. It was even better than many of my local calls to cellphones.
What’s really neat is that Vonage also offers things like free call conferencing. So, after talking for a bit my dad call-conferenced my aunt into the conversation who lived elsewhere in Canada. All of that at no additional cost or per minute charges. I spent most of the conversation going “wow”. This solution is also ten times better than my use of Skype – whose quality is heavily dependent on the bandwidth I get on my end. With Vonage, my family can take full advantage of the DSL line we have back in Canada and just call me on a Dhaka landline instead.
I know I am coming off sounding like a commercial for Vonage. I am not affiliated with them nor am I getting paid by Vonage for this glowing praise. I’m just completely amazed that something like this exists.
Coming to Bangladesh has given me a greater appreciation for all the freedoms we enjoy in America and elsewhere in the Western World. Sometimes I think we forget just how free things are over there. In the United States, if my cellphone wasn’t working and if I couldn’t get online with my computer, I would just assume that I wasn’t getting any reception and that I had a bad internet connection. I could never imagine, as did actually happen here in Bangladesh, that the government would order the shutdown of cellphone networks and internet access gateways.
In America, when I watch 24-hour news programs like CNN, MSNBC or Fox News, I know they can each have their own bias – but they are allowed to say what they want. I could never imagine that the government would forcibly shut down any one of these stations because one of them said something the government didn’t like. But that’s exactly what happened to CSB – Bangladesh’s only 24-hour news network. After airing footage of anti-government protests, the government shut down the station. (I am linking to the CSB entry in Wikipedia because the government not only took the station off the air, but also shutdown their website as well)
Eventually, I’m sad to say, this kind of censorship changes how you react. So, when I and others were consistently unable to access many Bangladeshi blogs hosted on Blogspot – my first reaction was to assume that this was a new form of government censorship. Blocking blogs is not something new – Pakistan and Turkey do it presently for WordPress.com (and, previously, were also blocking Blogspot.com). But, sometimes – as it seems to be in this case – this was just a technical glitch that affected multiple users on multiple ISPs. Unfortunately, governments that choose to limit free speech usually don’t make press releases stating that they are going to be doing so.
Life would be much easier if every government that wanted to censor or limit free speech would make a press release saying “Oh hai! Im in ur internetz – censorinz ur speech” (and if the press release was worded like that, life would also be much cuter).
[This post has been updated - see below after the jump] Bangladesh seems to be apparently blocking access to Google and its related web properties. I noticed this on my own connection about 48 to 72 hours ago. Since then I have been able to get independent confirmation from those using different internet connections. This problem seems to affect Bangladeshis trying to access Google’s services via EDGE, GPRS, and landline based internet connections in both Dhaka and other locations in the country.
More details after the jump along with a way to bypass this blocking. Continue reading ‘BREAKING: Bangladesh Censoring/Blocking Access to Google’
I am probably the last person in the world who should be trying to do a project in Bangladesh.
I realized this from talking to Mikey Leung – a fellow Canadian in Bangladesh. Like me, Mikey is here to try and make a difference in Bangladesh. He works for a charity, raises money for flood victims, and is working as an IT professional in Bangladesh. But, unlike me, he has no extended family in Bangladesh. For me, having family has made this project feasible – I don’t have to worry about spending money for a place to stay, I get great home cooked meals, and I can even bum a ride most of the time. But, more often than not – it means I’m restricted in where I can go and what I can do.
As a kid, I used to resent this overprotectiveness. As an adult, I now realize that this overprotectiveness comes from a family traumatized by their experience in Bangladesh…. Continue reading ‘A Family Traumatized By Bangladesh’
