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After my latest video got featured on the YouTube homepage, there were so many people leaving comments about how fat I was, how I talked, or just leaving racial epithets, that I was resigned to the fact that my message had been lost among all the hateful messages. Then, something really amazing happened. A group of well-spoken, intelligent, and considerate group of commenters appeared. And, for the first time since being featured, a real conversation emerged.

Of course, as with any discussion, we didn’t all end up agreeing. But at least we addressed some important issues. Here is a summary of some of the topics that were touched upon:

Continue reading ‘A REAL Conversation about Poverty’

What does Bangladesh have to do with Super Tuesday? Just some friendly (non-partisan) words of advice:

I’d write more but, much of what I said I have already written up earlier when I was giving my take on the Davos Question.

My biggest surprise since coming to Bangladesh has been that it’s more difficult for me to raise awareness about the problem of poverty to local Bangladeshis than it has been for me to raise the issue with Bangladeshis living abroad.

While 80% of this country earns less than $2 a day, those who are able to afford chauffeurs, maids, and satellite TV are hard pressed to admit that Bangladesh is a “poor” country. No one has been more vocal about this issue – and more critical of my work here – than my uncle on my mother’s side of the family. He is a judge on the High Court Division of the Supreme Court. According to him, “Bangladesh is not a poor country” and, therefore, I couldn’t possibly be here to help the poor.

The first criticism came before anything had even been distributed to the poor. “You want to hand someone a straw [referring to the LifeStraws], take a picture, and call it poverty alleviation?” he laughed. Even after distributing some items – his criticism had only got worse. “You’ve done nothing,” he explained to me referring to the over fifty mosquito nets I’ve distributed to rural villagers “these things cost 100 taka – anyone can buy them” (the nets actually cost much more than that – but why quibble?).

What has been particularly shocking to me has been when he suggests that the poor don’t even deserve some of the items that I’ve been giving out. If you saw episode one or read this blog earlier, you might have seen the poor rural village boy who I gave a wind-up flashlight. This kid is trying to stay in school but cannot afford electricity – or even candles. This flashlight is perfect for reading at night without the need to buy batteries (which he couldn’t afford). When I told my uncle about this boy and how he was going to use this to study at night – he rolled his eyes and said “yeah right”.

Whenever my uncle sees the stuff I’m planning on giving away – be it a wind-up flashlight, mosquito net, or a water purification straw – he always asks for one. “I’m giving these to those who need them” I repeatedly tell him. “I NEED THEM! The poor are just going to sell them off anyways.” he would say – followed by “I’ll just have to buy them off whoever your distributing them to instead”. The tragedy that was Cyclone Sidr had temporarily silenced this criticism – but only temporarily. Upon my return from aid work in the disaster area, my uncle saw my latest YouTube episode only to say: “you’re just doing this for the publicity…. there is no altruism here”.

It hurts. But, at the same time, I see where he is coming from. His view is no different than the much of the successful well-to-do Bangladeshi community in Dhaka. These people are in a better position to help the poor of their own country than some unemployed former graduate student coming here on his personal savings and family donations. Yet, I seem to be doing more than most of them have. For some people – like my mother’s side uncle – their reaction is to try and rip me a new one. For other’s – like my father’s side uncle – their reaction is to try and outdo me and give even more than I have.

If for every relative that critiques me, I inspire another relative – I can call it a win. But, that doesn’t make the harsh criticism any easier to hear.

Canada maybe a “first world” developed country, but when it comes to cellphone service, it’s got nothing when it comes to Bangladesh. Don’t believe me? Ask Piotr Staniaszek – who recently got a bill for over $85,000 from Bell Mobility. What was his crime? He used his cellphone as a modem so that his computer could get on the internet. He downloaded some high-definition video and transferred a lot of large files which, as the BBC put it resulted in “massive extra charges”.

You know what’s so funny? I do the same thing but it costs me only $20 a month. I seriously give my cellular provider a run for its money. I’ve done over 2 gigabytes of activity in the past few weeks alone. The latest episode of The Uncultured Project on YouTube took me 300 megs alone. But, unlike Canada, the cellphone providers here don’t care how much you use or whether you are using the internet on your phone or connecting your phone to your computer. Plus they have a feature so that prevents you from accidentally incurring excessive charges.

I used to think that Canada, having the status of a “first world” country meant that it did everything better than “the third world”. I guess, when I hear those terms, I imagine it as an analogy of a race. But, whenever I look at my cellphone here – I’m reminded that there are some things Bangladeshis do better than Canucks. I feel sorry for my friends in the Frigid North.

I wrote an article about this on NowPublic.com. It’s after the jump. It’s the same thing that I said here though – just more news-ish sounding.

Continue reading ‘Cellphone Plans and Service: Bangladesh Beats Canada. Period.’

• Myth #1: Extreme poverty has always existed in human history and will always exist.
• Myth #2: Anyone claiming global poverty can be eliminated is asking for “communist” or “socialist”-style massive economic redistribution.
• Myth #3: People living in Muslim-countries hate America.

Hopefully this new episode I uploaded to YouTube will provide some hope that these beliefs are just myths. At the very least, watching the video you can find out what happens when you show off an American flag near a Mosque while the call to prayer is being broadcast (Spoiler alert: I don’t get shot).

You can watch it here:

In a country like Bangladesh, its hard to tell where the corruption ends and the legitimate difficulties begin.

Take this recent water crisis in Dhaka. I wanted to wait a couple of days to be sure, but it seems that – for those living around me – the water shortages are over. Both my house and the neighboring apartments have had continuous access – without interruption – to city water for over 48 hours. But here’s the thing: no pipes needed to be replaced, no pumps needed to be repaired, and no city capacity had to be increased in order for this to happen.

In fact, the only thing that happened was that I showed up at the Water Authority with a camera and started asking some questions.

Click the jump for more of on this including a picture of one of the city’s tube well stations….. Continue reading ‘Dhaka Water Crisis: Corruption in the Pipes?’

God knows I love Notre Dame. But, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have pet peeves about the place. Recently, since coming to Bangladesh, one of my pet peeves has turned into an issue that boils my blood. Notre Dame has a beautiful, lush, and green campus. They need to water it to keep the place green, of course. In that effort, there are over 65,000 sprinklers on campus that are dedicated to doing just that. I can understand the need to water all that grass. What I can’t understand is the need for the sprinklers to water all the sidewalks too.

When the sprinklers pop up, there doesn’t seem to be an inch of sidewalk that is left dry. I am not the only student who has noticed this either. On the Notre Dame Facebook network, the group “ND Students Who are against Watering Sidewalks” currently has 97 members while a group that asks the simple question “Why are we watering concrete?” has nearly 500 members. On campus, watering sidewalks is something I would laugh at off as either a product of some efficiency study or just part of a plan to make sure no student arrives dry to class. But, since coming to Bangladesh, this has been less and less of a laughing matter to me.

For the past 6 hours, I haven’t been able to flush my toilet because I don’t have running water at the moment. When I’ve needed to wash up, I’ve had to do so using buckets of water I had saved from earlier in the day when there was some running water. Saving water and washing up from a bucket has become a routine for me and is a daily fact of life for many people living in Bangladesh. That is if you are lucky enough to have running water in your home at all. By the turn of 21st century, just over half of the people in Bangladesh had access to clean water and sanitation. That means that – as bad as I have it now – over 70 million people in this country are much worse off. Globally, one in five people don’t have access to clean water. Thankfully, this number has been lowering in recent years.

I know that the problem of water in Bangladesh doesn’t get magically solved if Notre Dame stops watering its sidewalks. But, this kind of useless consumption of resources seems to betray the ideals of that Notre Dame seeks to uphold. Afterall, this is the university that inspired me to fly thousands of miles to try and make a difference – all while having to live in a place where I have to wash my hands out of a bucket and schedule when I can flush the toilet. Right now, I’d give my left arm for the same access to water that our campus sidewalks are getting at this moment.

[Update: Looks like the facebook group "Why are we watering concrete?" is now over 500 members and climbing. Big thanks to Jessica Kim for the pic.]