UP | uncultured project

Today, thousands of blogs around the world are talking about global poverty. Why? Today is Blog Action Day – a day when bloggers around the world unite to talk about this important issue. But you know what? I’m sure a lot of you are in the same situation as me right now – we have a lot of other problems on our plate. And you know what? I’d like to spend today talking about those issues.

After spending a year doing this project in Bangladesh, I come home just in time to witness the biggest global financial crisis of I and my parents’ lifetime. Before my eyes I saw my dad – a loyal company man for decades – turn from someone excited about retirement to someone so nervous about the future he asked my mom to setup her own bank account so we could have extra deposit insurance just in case the bank collapses. With things so bad, is now really the time we need to worry about issues like global poverty?

Since coming back, I’ve also had a lot of time to hang out with my brother. He’s a senior in college now. I took a look at some of the textbooks he needs for his major. Each of those textbooks cost a hundred of dollars or more. With expensive textbooks and tuition rising every semester, a lot of students are finding themselves burdened with crippling student debt. The current economy means that government support for students is being slashed. Who cares about making sure that some children get to go to school in Bangladesh when students like my brother have their own problems?

So why should you care? Because our long term well being – not our well-being for the next semester or the next financial quarter – depends on how we care for the least off among us. Now, more than ever, we need to realize, understand, and embrace the notion that making the world a better place for others makes it a better place for us all.

A year’s worth of textbooks for a Grade Nine student studying in rural Bangladesh cost over 900 taka. Many can’t afford it – and many drop out. In fact, of all the children that enroll in school, only 54% of them are still in school by the age of ten. Individual poverty is a big factor as is the lack of infrastructure and general lack of access to education.

During my latest trip to Tangail District, I got to meet Mohammed Hossain – a Grade Nine student who didn’t have the 900 taka necessary to buy his books for the year. Fortunately, 900 taka is just 13 bucks. And, having liquidated my savings for my Xbox 360, there was more than enough money to buy all the books for him. To show his thanks, after he got his books, he sang a couple of songs for my grandmother and I.

The desk he is examining the books on is the same desk I talked about in this post. We painted it to make it waterproof before donating (thus the paint brush on the table).

There are a couple of more photos on my page on Flickr.