UP | uncultured project

Choosing has always been the hardest part of this project. I’ve tried my best to share all the emotions I’ve had during this project like the joy of helping children in the Hill-Tracts, or the anguish and sense of powerlessness during Cyclone Sidr disaster relief, or the craziness involved in reaching some remote rural village. With this latest video, I’m sharing the toughest reality of this project: being forced to choose.

With this video, there is no wrong answer – only tough choices.

More after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Challenge Poverty (with Save the Children)’

Human compassion should have no borders. The reason why I came to Bangladesh for this project is because: 1) it was the only place I could financially afford to visit and stay for long periods of time, and 2) because there is so much poverty here. With over 150 million people in Bangladesh there are more people here earning less than $2 a day than there are people in all the countries which normally get media attention. That’s more than South Africa, more than Cambodia, more than Malawi, and more than Sudan (and Darfur) – combined.

There is also a distinction between the kind of poverty you see here in Bangladesh from the kind of poverty you might see in the streets of Toronto, Canada (my hometown). Before I came to Bangladesh, I saw a program on The National about a reporter who tried to help a homeless person on the streets of Toronto. He did his best to help him on his feet – work placement, finding a place to stay, etc,. But, in the end, the homeless person wound up back at the same street corner. The point wasn’t that it was hopeless to help the poor in Canada (it’s not) – it’s just that solving poverty in Canada requires a focus on certain areas of the social support system that are quite often neglected (such as treating drug addiction, counseling for abuse, and support on mental health issues).

The poorest of the poor in the developing world don’t have access to clean water, don’t have access to education, and are malnurished. Solving global third world poverty is such low-lying fruit to solve that it is a crying shame it still exists in 2008. Maybe the fact many people think that focusing on problems within’s one’s borders and worrying about domestic issues first is part of the reason global poverty still exists. But – and I’ve said this a dozen times – making the world a better place for others, makes it a better place for us all.

I got this SMS on my phone today, it reads:

“It is safe to eat properly cooked chicken meat and fully boiled or fried eggs even under bird flu situation – Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock”.

There is actually a concerted media effort, on the part of the government here in Bangladesh, to try and reduce the hysteria regarding eating eggs and egg products. I was also listening to Bangla-language radio earlier tonight and the DJ – in between songs – was quizzing people about which temperature people need to cook eggs in order for them to be safe enough to eat. He then gave a number where listeners could SMS their responses. I think there was a prize for a random person who got the answer right.

So what exactly is the bird flu? If anyone has ever lived in a dormitory, you know that when someone gets the flu – eventually everyone gets the flu. The bird flu is kind of like that – it is a very easy to catch and can infect both birds and human beings. The problem is that, unlike the kind of flu that you can easily recover from with some rest, the bird flu can be deadly. In fact, there is a particular strain called the H5N1 virus which is both very contagious and very deadly.

Why is bird flu a threat? Given how contagious and deadly H5N1 can be, many scientists believe that the next global pandemic will be caused by Avian Bird Flu. A global pandemic might be hard to imagine – because it has never happened in our generation. But it has happened quite frequently throughout human history. There was the Black Death caused by the Bubonic Plague in the Middle Ages, “the consumption” (aka tuberculosis) a few generations back, and the Polio Epidemics of the early 1900s.

Why don’t have a pandemic already? The reason we are safe for now is because germs take time to mutate. If you’ve ever wondered why, despite medical technology, we can’t cure the common cold – it’s because the cold virus keeps mutating. You might catch a cold several times during your life – but you probably have never been infected by the exact same virus twice. We have the advantage right now because, even though people can get sick from bird flu, they cannot pass it onto others. It’s not contagious between humans – only between birds and humans.

Why should you care? Bird flu was actually one of the topics that Dr. Sachs talked about during the Notre Dame Forum on Global Health. I talked about it as well – and included some clips from Dr. Sachs – in my video about Super Tuesday. Diseases don’t need passports. They can come into any country -  anywhere in the world. That’s especially true with a disease like bird flu – it can be brought into a country by migratory birds even if a country decides to seal its borders. The threat from Bird Flu dwarfs the threat from terrorism.

What does poverty have to do with this? Even though Bird Flu exists in North America, it is most likely that any Bird Flu pandemic would start here in Bangladesh. Why? Because, unlike North America – there isn’t that big a seperation between the urban and the agricultural. The eggs you buy from the supermarket were probably laid by a chicken over a hundred miles (or a thousand miles) away. In Dhaka, when you buy eggs – you can often see the chicken that it came from. People are in much closer contact to poultry and Bird Flu carrying animals than in North America.

People also have less access to health care. In order to avoid costly medical and clinic fees, most poor people here don’t go to the doctor unless they are on the verge of death. If they get infected with the Bird Flu (which would feel just like any regular flu) they are most likely going to try and tough it out (or try and treat it themselves). The poor are not only the first victims of global health issues – they are often the unfortunate incubators for diseases to mutate and grow.

It’s not just the health care system that is lacking here in the Third World. When a farmer in North America has a batch of birds which have Bird Flu – they can get reimbursed through insurance and/or government subsidies provided through tax dollars. When a poor farmer who has a few chickens and sells eggs is ordered to kill his birds due to the flu – he has no safety net: he’s out of business. And it’s usually the poor farmers that are at greater risk because they can’t afford all the equipment needed to keep things sanitary and clean.

It’s such a shame that, in a world where the rich countries are often pro-active in trying to eliminate potential threats from terrorism, we don’t often pay enough attention to equally important (or more dangerous) threats to our safety and security. I’m still waiting for a President to say “we have to fight bird flu over there, so we don’t have to fight bird flu over here”.

Literally and figuratively – I am sick and tired of this country’s corruption. Corruption alone maybe what keep this country firmly entrenched in its third world status. Here are five facts that bring my blood to a boil.

Fact #1: Paying the Bills Isn’t Enough.

I was at Notre Dame College the other day. Notre Dame College is a middle school and high school for Bangladesh children that provides education to middle class and extremely poor Bangladeshi children. It’s founded by the same Catholic organization that founded my alma mater in South Bend, Indiana. Some of the staff there used to be Rectors at some of the Halls at the American Notre Dame too. I’ve spent a lot of time there during this trip – makes me less homesick. My last visit there I was surprised to find the phone lines were cut – and it had nothing to do with forgetting to pay the bill.

In fact, the bills were paid on time and in full. It turns out that, in Bangladesh, paying your bills doesn’t get your service. I’ve talked about the corruption at the local water authority. The sad news is that this type of corruption isn’t limited to water. This corruption exists at the phone company and the electricity company too. If your water stops flowing – you need to ask for the water company to send a water tanker to your building. If the phone lines stop working – you need to have a technician come to your place. And, rest assured, every phone technician, water truck driver, and the middleman you need to deal with will be asking for a “commission” (which is just a nice term to legitimize bribery).

Fact #2: People suffer when this happens.

Believe it or not – there are honest people in this country trying to make an honest living here. But, rest assured, they are given a hard time by those a bit more corrupt. This is the Muslim month of Ramadan. For those not versed in Islam, it’s basically as important as Christmas is to Christians. A lot of people are buying and shopping at this time of year. It’s a time when those shopkeepers – who want to be able to survive for the rest of the year – need to be able to do business. This was made impossible for shopkeepers at the Bongo Bazaar in Dhaka (I found this great video of some foreigners shopping in the Bongo Bazaar if you want to see what it looks like). Despite paying their bills, the shop keepers didn’t have access to electricity. This wasn’t like a rolling blackout – that’s quite common here. This was a complete shutdown of electricity. Most of these shopkeepers could not afford backup generators. In much an enclosed and non-ventilated space – even local Bangladeshis couldn’t tolerate the heat there for more than two minutes.

No electricity means no fans. No fans means no shoppers. No shoppers means no business. No business means no income. No income means that it’s impossible to bribe the electricity company so that the power gets put back on. Sometimes I feel Bangladesh does a good job of keeping itself trapped in the poverty cycle.

Fact #3: People get sick when this happens.

In medieval Europe, people would put the contents of their toilet into a bucket (or just use a bucket as their toilet). When it needed to be emptied – they’d go near the window and dump it all out. This is how people lived when indoor plumbing didn’t exist. It’s good to know that corruption helps to keep the medieval spirit alive and well. Because, when there is no water, my neighbors in the adjacent apartments sometimes scoop out their toilets with a bucket and dump the contents out the window. This would be less disgusting if the entrance to the place I’m staying didn’t happen to be where they dump their stuff. Disgust aside – with medieval practices come medieval diseases. It’s no surprise that everyone who lives here has had pink eye, typhoid, and stomach related illnesses.

And like the bazaar that had no electricity, Notre Dame college which had no phone lines, or my residential block which (once again) has no water – this all is happening during the month of Ramadan. A time when people need extra cash to shop and spend on their family. And it just so happens that the electricity, phone line, and water all magically come back when you give the right person the right amount of bribes. Corrupt people need to shop for their families too – but it’s innocent victims that line their pockets.

Fact #4: Corruption disproportionately hurts the poor.

I was visiting someone who had an apartment in a region of the city called Baridhara. Baridhara is a diplomatic zone – it has the US Embassy (along with other embassies from other countries) and is the home to many foreigners and rich locals. Many of the apartments there would put most homes in North America to shame. LCD TVs in every room, each room with its own independent A/C, marble flooring and countertops, and all the fancy fixtures and accessories to go along with it. If the power goes out – there is a generator that can power everything for up to a day. If the water goes out – houses and apartments there come with massive reserve tanks. And when bribing is necessary, the apartment building manager pays off the right people and adds the cost to the apartment fees. Bribing for a flat rate – how convenient is that?

The same is true for the stores that cater to the rich. At a local supermarket called Lavender, one of the few places where white customers out number Bangladeshis, a small bag of cookies costs about 8 US Dollars. In local terms thats over 500 of the local currency – or about 4 times the daily income of over 80% of the population. But, unlike the Bongo Bazaar, the shoppers there never need to worry about a lack of electricity for the A/C. The high price of goods helps pay for the bribes. Not every store can be like Lavender and add the cost of bribes to the price of the products.

Fact #5: Corruption is so bad, even aid agencies don’t trust the locals.

One of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals is to stop the spread of HIV, tuberculous, and malaria. To help in this cause there is a Global Fund – literally called the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculous and Malaria. The Global Fund helps many countries – but when they decided to try and help Bangladesh, they decided not to work with the government or most local NGOs. When it comes to purchasing things like mosquito nets, the government and or an NGO needs to place a request to a foreign agency like the World Health Organization. The UN then acts as the honest broker and makes the purchase ensuring that money meant for poor people doesn’t get pocketed by corrupt officials.

I don’t think anyone really understands what kind of corruption this country has until you come and live here. Where is Don Corleone when you need him? The man would be a saint in this country.

[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’

As a Canadian I’m both surprised and sad to report that Bangladesh beats Canada when it comes to cellphone service. I’m writing now from a rural village in Bangladesh (called Madhupur). There is no electricity, no running water, and the diesel generator that was powering a ceiling fan and light bulb died earlier this night. Bangladesh is still a third world country afterall. But, despite all this, I am still able to check my mail, see what’s going on at Digg, and post to this blog.

Bangladesh is one of the few countries in the world that can guarantee each one of its residents can get a cellphone signal – no matter where they are in the country. With a population of over 150 million (over four times Canada’s population) that’s pretty impressive. There are populated parts in the North in Canada that most cellphone service providers don’t bother putting up towers for. Not only can Bangladeshis send and receive calls from anywhere in the country – they can also surf the web on either an EDGE or GPRS network. Part of this has to do with free market competition in Bangladesh and corporate collusion in Canada. Continue reading ‘Bangladesh Cellphone Service Better than Canada’

I actually learned about Notre Dame’s recent football loss from a friend in New Zealand. He was even able to watch the game live in New Zealand. I knew coming to Bangladesh would mean it would be hard to keep up-to-date on American college football. Afterall, the biggest sport is cricket and one of the popular news stations here is Al Jazeera. But it was a huge loss right? I wouldn’t have wanted to been there for that, right? Wrong.

Real fans (especially the students) stick with each game (whether in the stadium or behind a TV set) from the start of the national anthem and don’t leave until the playing of the “Notre Dame, Our Mother” (the alma mater). They stay with the game whether its raining, snowing, freezing cold, blistering hot, or so dark that not a star shines in the sky. It doesn’t matter if the team is shutting out an opponent or if, like this weekend, the team is almost shut out themselves. You don’t often see that kind of dedication in the world.

Call me crazy – but I hope one day the world can show a fraction of that kind of dedication towards issues like poverty, global health, and third world development. The game may not have been broadcast on television here, but with 120,000,000 people here earning less than $2 a day – most couldn’t afford a television. In a country of over 150,000,000 people – only 300,000 (that’s 0.2%) have the luxury of having internet access. In fact, even if this blog were translated and printed in the local language, over 85,000,000 wouldn’t be able to read this as they are illiterate.

My sadness at missing my first Notre Dame football game in two years is tempered by this fact. If any Fighting Irish fans are reading this, I hope they remember – even when we are losing, we still have so much to be thankful for both on and off the field.