UP | uncultured project

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you know these past few days have been rather stressful. Here’s why:

First, now that a site has been selected for the Pond Sand Filter (which is what you guys voted for by leaving comments and video responses on the video I made called “Challenge Poverty”), the task is now to get this done on-time and on-budget. Save the Children is trying their best of course – but Murphy’s Law is always in-effect for this kind of work

The other big thing I’m stressing about is that it appears that YouTube is now blocked in Bangladesh. This isn’t the first time that Google services have been inaccessible from Bangladesh. I’m not going to jump the gun and say it’s government censorship. But, thus far, I’ve confirmed that YouTube is inaccessible in two different cities in Bangladesh through numerous internet service providers includingL the ISP I use while in Dhaka, GrameenPhone which I use while in the field, and even the internet service that Save the Children uses for its offices here in Bangladesh.

This could be a glitch or a temporary block. But, if indeed the government is restricting access to YouTube, this definitely puts a kink in this project. There are still tons of (legal) ways to make sure I can get new videos onto the UnculturedProject YouTube channel, but this makes everything harder. And YouTube is more than just a place to upload or watch videos – it’s about access to a community. And it’s that community that has been a huge source of support for this work.

Finally, I’ve been stressed a lot lately because, even if everything goes according to plan – there is no such thing as “perfect”. When it comes to providing safe and clean drinking water to rural villages, verything has its pros and cons. A deep tube well has the risk of arsenic, iron, and (depending on where you are in the country) of salt water. A pond sand filter, on the other hand, only works as well as the community that is maintaining it. If they don’t maintain it – it will just gather dust. And even if they do maintain it, they are only designed to last 3 or so years at normal use.

Hopefully I’ll catch a break somewhere: be it restoring access to YouTube or getting this Pond Sand Filter done on-time and/or within-budget.

Yes – I actually felt it. It actually startled me even though it wasn’t anything too serious. It felt like someone was behind me shaking the chair – every part of my body was shaking. Then it stopped.

I actually had a gut feeling/worry as to what it was – so I quickly jotted it down in (of all places) on Twitter so I had the moment logged (how’s that for the importance of twitter?). A few hours later I checked the local headlines to confirm. Unfortunately, I was right.

According to The Daily Star (and confirmed by me in real-time via Twitter) a tremor (measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale) hit Dhaka City just a few minutes shy of 1 am. According to The Daily Star, this quake was felt in places such as Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, Netrakona, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Gazipur, Jessore, Rajshahi, Rangpur and Bogra. Oh – and from my bedroom as well.

Update: AFP now has a story about this as well.

Update 2: Voice of America also has a story now and is reporting this tremor was felt in at least 17 districts.

When I first heard of Twitter, I couldn’t ever imagine myself using it. I already have a blog, so why do I need to go beyond that by posting short messages about what I’m doing at every little moment?

I tended to agree with people who suggested that Twitter is nothing more than “inane twaddle” and more akin to a “glorified messenger service”. But that was before Matt started integrating Twitter into this project.

As Matt explained to me, the internet connection in Uganda is worse than Bangladesh. So, not only is video blogging out of the question, but also even regular blogging is sometimes hard. Each photo he uploads to this site, he told me, takes about half an hour.

That’s how he got involved with Twitter. Thanks to Twitter, I’ve been able to keep track of the ups and downs of his micro-finance project to help over 180 Ugandan grandmothers earn an income. When you guys stepped in by offering to help finance his work, we were able to see how he did things every step of the way – practically in real-time.

After being inspired by Matt, I started to use Twitter myself. Sure, sometimes I do talk about inane things, like the new Star Trek movie posters that came out or the difficulties in making a background layout for the YouTube channel. But, I’ve also been able to share important experiences I wouldn’t have blogged about.

As those following me on Twitter know, I recently came back from a trip outside of Dhaka City that involved an overnight boat ride. Although such boats can be safe, there are also a lot of risks. One of the colleagues I went with, in fact, had lost her cellphone after being robbed at the docks.

If it wasn’t for Twitter, I would never have talked about the warning I got from someone reminding me the importance of locking my cabin door and then – after docking – how I had to stay inside the cabin for three extra hours while we waited for the robbers and thugs along the docks to lose interest.

After Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh, I was one of the few (or perhaps the only person) live-blogging during disaster relief work. Most of the personnel in the field (from various NGOs and charities) simply didn’t have time to do much more than send a quick email or SMS a friend. I could very easily see the importance of Twitter in providing quick, accessible, and important information in a situation like that.

The way I see it, Twitter has a lot of potential – maybe even more than blogs itself. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be “inane” stuff on there. For me, my biggest limitation to untapping that potential with Twitter is the equipment I have. I usually have to pull out my MacBook, boot it up, and then use Twitter. The keypad on my old Motorola cellphone isn’t very Twitter-friendly.

With this project, I’m trying my best to make important issues (like global poverty) accessible to a global audience by using blogs and video blogs in a way that no one has before. I can very easily see Twitter adding another dimension to making this issue accessible to others. And all it would take is an iPhone (or other smartphone) and use of the ubiquituous cellular (but slow) internet that is cropping up here in the developing world.