A Long Grudge

Bangladesh is a parliamentary based democracy, run by the Prime Minister’s office and a President as Head of State. The President and Speaker of Parliament is appointed by parliament.

This half year is an election period. 6 months before a general election is held the sitting ruling party [alliance] steps down and a neutral non-partisan Care Taker Government (CTG) steps in and runs the country until a new government is elected and constituted. The person who becomes acting Prime Minister (titled Chief Advisor to the Caretaker Government) for the interim government is the country’s Chief Justice to the Supreme Court, and this person in turn appoints 10 additional Advisors. This process is provided in the constitution of the People’s Republic and in all fairness looks very good on paper. So far so good.

But that’s where the rout to ‘so far so good’ ends, and a new highway with many detours and speed bumps begin. At present there is a political deadlock in the country and the entire nation is at a standstill. Bangladesh has two main parties, the former ruling party Bangladesh National Party (BNP), and the former opposition party the Awami League (AL). Because of a conflict between the two parties (far to complex to explain in this little blog) that traces back many many many many years the two parties are each other’s sworn mortal enemies (literally).

The only thing the BNP and AL have agreed on is to disagree. But even if this agreement is constant, every time a disagreement occurs both parties seem equally surprised and without further dialogue take their business to the streets. In western classics and few other cliché movies two pissed off people look into one another’s eyes and say ‘I’ll meet you outside.’ The two of them go outside and do –what ever it is they do- and business is settled. Now imagine that Clint Eastwood and Kris Kristofferson say “I’ll meet you outside.” Then imagine that the two of them go home and the rest of the bar goes out and fight. Then imagine that Clint Eastwood and Kris Kristofferson were not at all in the bar (in fact they have not met in over ten years), and only communicated through articles in the press. Now imagine that the people who go out and fight are not thirty drunken people, but over millions (of non-drunken) people combating each other over grudges dating back far too many years.

To be continued...

The Bangladeshi Minute

People speak of a New York Minute, which defined by Dictionary.com as: An extremely short period of time. But seemingly, no one has ever heard of a Bangladeshi Minute. A minute in Bangladesh is not a minute which conforms to our general idea of a clock. It would be more correct to compare this magic minute with the Bermuda Triangle than with GMT set standards. Things, events and time somehow float, drift and fly into an inexplicable (X-file like) phenomenon – and when you least expect it –floats back out (or it infinitely drifts in no-man’s-land). Now that can happen at such a high speed that a New York Minute [converted] is a Bangladeshi Second. The reverse is however also possible, where a New York Minute feels like a Bangladeshi hour.

At points Bangladesh has this breathtaking ability to find positive solutions to negative problems. And at the same time it also holds [in lack of a better word] a talent for having negative solutions for positive problems. And most importantly [perhaps a bit too philosophical]: sometimes the solution is the problem and the problem is the solution.

Main purpose of this blog:

1. Give my friends and family who I constantly mistreat by never being able to keep in touch, an opportunity to glimpse into my world and for me to get a glimpse into theirs.
2. To raise awareness about a country, to whom the international community’s attention for, is limited to cyclones, floods, poverty and over population. –When there is so much more of both “good” and “bad” – and hey, name one country which does not have either of these.
3. To discuss with readers the problematique of “under development” and “over development.”
4. Being able to ventilate my thoughts without representing anything or anyone but myself.

If you have no clue as to what I wrote before the four points above, all I can say is that I am struggling with that idea myself! Which is why I will explain myself more thoroughly in my next entry, when we will enter into the wilderness of the Bangladeshi Minute and Problem Solving Techniques.

Welcome to this humble blog of mine.

Debut

Dear Reader, of which I doubt there are any yet. This is my little space on the net to post comments thoughts and ideas, mainly based upon my current life in Bangladesh. So far I am mainly working on cosmetics of the blog and once that has been more or less finalized I will begin posting things slowly and gently.

Please do return even if you only ended up on this blog by accident.

-Chris.