Blogs from Dhaka, Bangladesh, Asia - page 7

For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com Upon hearing ‘Bangladesh’, most people will naturally ponder various images, which come to them primarily from the media. I did once too. Natural catastrophes that take tens, even hundreds of thousands of lives, over, and over, and over again. The most crowded nation on earth. One of the poorest too. The country is viewed essentially as a write-off by much of the world, a forgotten land where human and natural suffering exist on a scale so grand that few of us can handle the burden of even imagining that we could in some way help, or even worse, actually want to go there. But I want to ignore those ideas, tell you a few things that you probably don’t know about the ... read more

It's been a while, so let's start with a couple of announcements since we last spoke. I've received a fair amount of comments recently, in various forms. Firstly, it has been suggested that my blogs are a becoming a bit long - not so easy to read in a sneaky spare minute at work. But bear in mind, they are written with the sole intention of being “toilet reading”. Designed to be printed out and read in one comfortable sitting, and I would feel honoured to contribute to such moments. As a word of warning, I only recommend this if you have a western throne toilet, not a hole-in-the-ground. Unless you can convince a friend to hold it for you? Secondly, my last blog seemed to cause a bit of upset in the pro-Tibetite camp, inciting ... read more

What initially drew me to Grameen Bank was the potential of micro-credit to challenge traditional attitudes towards gender equity. The goal of the micro-credit summit campaign was not simply to reach women but empower them. This meant developing micro- and macro-level strategies to achieve gender equality in power, rights and resources. Yet, empowerment is a culturally specific word. A young female receiving a liberal arts education in the west has a much different understanding of empowerment as compared to an uneducated woman growing up in a rural village. Therefore, until I could answer the question does access to credit necessarily lead to economic, social and political empowerment, I first needed to learn how both Grameen and its borrowers understood the concept. First, I came up with my own working definition. I see economic empowerment as access ... read more

I was talking to one of the employees of Grameen over tea about how interns always seek information about the problems with the banking system. Before recognizing the successes, they immediately want to discuss the challenges. I explained that this was part of Western culture. We are taught in school to be critical of everything brought before us and to deconstruct all arguments. I also think it partly has to do with the egocentric notion of the East needing the West’s help. However, after attending my first borrower’s meeting in a rural village today, I realized that while Grameen may not be perfect, it has done a great deal to aid struggling women and the people in charge really care about each borrower individually. The village was located an hour and a half west of Dhaka ... read more

Day 2 I watched as a bus smashed into the side of a rickshaw today. The first thought that crossed my mind was whether or not the man was harmed and then to how the driver would survive without his source of livelihood. It is disheartening to think that all of one’s possessions could be so easily destroyed. My Indian friend Daashan asked me earlier that day if I would like to take a rickshaw to the downtown area. I hesitated, explaining my discomfort in having someone peddle me around and explained that in America, this would be seen as a human rights violation. He appropriately reminded me that if I did not support this man’s business, essentially he would end up a beggar. This is also the attitude Grameen shares. Rather than giving loose change ... read more