Blogs from Bangladesh, Asia - page 15

Jake and I took a leisurely stroll through our neighborhood a few weekends ago. The humidity wasn't too high and so we decided to walk around for a bit and enjoy Baridhara. The highlights, among other things, were various colourful rickshaws, exotic trees and flowers, strange fruits, the garbage "truck", and a random patch of corn (yes, corn). We took some photos to share with you :) Enjoy!... read more

Initially, my plan for last weekend was to visit the Sundarbans and take a relaxing boat ride through the beautiful Bangladeshi jungle. But due to Cyclone Aila, which killed over 200 people and left thousands without homes or clean water, I knew I could not enjoy being a tourist amidst so much pain and destruction. Looking at the front page of the Bangladeshi newspaper, I grew frustrated that neither the government nor the private sector was doing much to help. Suffering has become such a daily reality for the people that the government no longer bothers declaring the country in a state of emergency. However, I suddenly realized that I was in a unique position to contribute to the relief effort. Rather than getting caught up in the bigger picture of conflict and poverty, I decided ... read more

Biking Through the Tea Estates- 29/05/09 This morning I woke up thinking it would be a mellow day bike riding through the tea estates of Sylhet. However, I am quickly learning that nothing in Bangladesh is easy or relaxing. The bike shopkeeper was supposed to deliver fifteen bikes for the interns at 9 am to the Nirala Guesthouse. Of course, when we walked downstairs in the morning there was no one waiting. Two hours later, after much sweating and negotiation, we had fifteen shoddy bikes and a tour guide who neither spoke English nor knew the area. Heading out to Lowacherra National Park, we rode through lush forests, pineapple bushes, rubber plantations and beadle trees. Stopping at a little shop on the side of the road, I tried the infamous five layer tea. After finishing walking ... read more

Social Business: Last week I traveled with three other interns to visit some of Grameen’s sister companies. We drove five hours to the conservative town of Bogra, stopping first at Grameen Danone. Professor Yunus recently published his book Creating a World Without Poverty about the project with Danone. Basically, the French yogurt company approached Yunus looking for a way to market their company as a global institution that cares about the world’s poor. Yunus proposed the idea of a social business, or a company whose main focus is helping others rather than making a profit. Some of the guidelines include investing all profits back into the business for improvement and expansion rather than solely to the benefit of the shareholders. I find this idea very appealing and so did Danone, for they agreed to sell their ... read more

Today I caught a special on Al Jazeera's "101 East" program--a feature dedicated to investigating the issue of climate refugees and whether more developed nations have a responsibility to those who are displaced by the effects of climate change. The narrative follows a man from the southern coast of Bangladesh--a man who, like the people we met last week in Bhola, has lost everything he owned after his village was washed out. There is now a river where his house once stood. In light of my last blog and the week that Parendi and I spent tracking down "washed out villagers" I thought this was particularly good timing. The program asks some interesting questions, and also shows some footage from Bangladesh (both the coastal region, where villages are washing away every year, and from Dhaka, where ... read more