Lalmatia
Whilst Gulshan – with its Pizza Hut (www.pizzahutbd.com) – has all the modern amenities and conveniences servicing Bangladesh’s upper crust, consider basing yourself in the local enclave of Lalmatia (Bangla for ‘Red Earth’) for a far less sterilized experience of the capital city. Many Bengali non-government organizations situate themselves in this part of the city, with a (good) lot of them offering accommodation at excellent value. You can rest assured knowing your cash is supporting local development agencies.
Besides being close to major city sites, it is the maze-like nature of Lalmatia that makes it a great area to get lost in on morning strolls. Its sounds are vibrant: Vegetable sellers ply the streets, calling their wares to the low-rise apartment blocks, while ubiquitous construction buzz and rickshaw bells add a rhythmic baseline. In the evening, vendors take their candle-lit carts into the streets, selling tasty snacks like chanachur (a mix of peanuts, crunchy noodles and spices) and fushka (a delicious mashed potato and chickpea mix served inside a crispy shell, topped with finely chopped onions, tomatos and green chillis). Finally, the density of mosques here is extraordinarily high: the pre-sunrise prayer call rolls over the neighbourhood like a late-night karaoke competition. By the third day, you should be used to it and sleeping normally again!
Lalmatia’s location also makes it a good location for exploring the city’s more well known sites. You are within walking distance of Bangladesh’s National Assembly building, a uniquely modern Louis Kahn design reflecting the relative youth of Bangladesh as a nation. During the last few years, severe political instability has meant the magnificent building has been terribly underused. Behind parliament you’ll find Zia Uddyan, the mausoleum of Bangladesh’s leading freedom fighter and one of its early presidents, Zia Rahman (or General Zia as he is more popularly known). The Uddyan, or garden, is a rare bit of green space in an otherwise crowded city. During the evening, you’ll see many young couples sitting romantically close together in what is an outwardly conservative culture.
Great shopping is also accessible. At Prabartana, only female customers are allowed to sample the custom tailoring (men can accompany women but men cannot come alone). Aarong, situated just at the edge of Lalmatia, offers quality handicrafts produced by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC, www.brac-aarong.com). Finally, New Market is just a rickshaw ride away, by far and away the city’s biggest and most chaotic shopping bazar. You will find rickshaws all over Lalmatia, but to catch a baby taxi or regular taxi you must make your way to a main road.
Finally, a brief word of caution: Muggings have occurred around the nearby Mohammadpur Market mostly after 23.00. As with any big city around the world, it is unwise to wander the streets after this time.
Hotels
- Roudrachhya (10 rooms) 1/2 Asad Avenue, Block-A, Asad Gate, Mohammadpur; tel: 02 812 3021; email: hasab@bdmail.net; www.hasab.org. Spartan yet inexpensive guest rooms of the HIV/AIDS and STD Alliance Bangladesh (HASAB) offer the chance to learn about development work whilst supporting a local Bengali NGO. Close to major transport and the National Assembly. Tk300 for standard double with bath.
Restaurants
- Shad Tehari Ghar House 2/4, Block C, Lalmatia; tel: 02 911 8695. Lalmatia’s best-kept secret. Kababs, naans and snacks at excellent prices (come at dinner when full menu available). Distinctly hard to find: keep asking your way there. Inexpensive; mains Tk50-80. Open Sun–Sat 11.00-22.00.
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Facing the Challenges of HIV/AIDS
Around the world, more than 47 million people are now infected with the HIV/AIDS, It is now a weapon of mankind destruction. It has killed more than 30 million people worldwide according to UNAID and WHO reports since the 1st of December 1981 when it was first recognized. This makes it the worst recorded pandemic in the history of pandemics against mankind. In 2006 alone, it was reported to have killed between 2.5 to 3.5 million people with more than 380000 as children. The large number of these people killed is from the sub Saharan Africa. In some Sub-Saharan African countries, HIV/AIDS is expected to lower life expectancy by as much as 25 years.
AIDS is no longer a problem of medication. It is a problem of development. It is not just an individual hardship. It also threatens to decimate the future prospects of poor countries, wiping away years of hard-won improvements in development indicators. As a result of the disease, many poor countries are witnessing a worsening in child survival rates, reduced life expectancy, crumbling and over-burdened health care systems, the breakdown of family structures and the decimation of a generation in the prime of their working lives.
Bangladesh’s socio-economic status, traditional social ills, cultural myths on sex and sexuality and a huge population of marginalised people make it extremely vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Everyone buying sex in Bangladesh is having unprotected sex some of the time, and a large majority don’t use condoms most of the time. Behaviors that bring the highest risk of infection in Bangladesh are unprotected sex between sex workers and their clients, needle sharing and unprotected sex between men.
Though the country overall has a low prevalence rate, it has reported concentrated epidemics among vulnerable population such as IDUs. There are already localized epidemics within vulnerable groups in, and the virus would spread among the IDUs’ family or sexual partner.
In many poor countries, commercial female sex workers are frequently exposed to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs/STDs). Where sex workers have poor access to health care and HIV prevention services, HIV prevalence can be as high as 50-90%. Evidence shows that targeted prevention interventions in sex work settings can turn the pandemic around.
Bangladesh is a high prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly among commercial sex workers; there are available injection drug users and sex workers all over the country, low condom use in the general population. Considering the high prevalence of HIV risk factors among the Bangladeshi population, HIV prevention research is particularly important for Bangladesh. It is very awful, several organization in Bangladesh are working only to prevent HIV/AIDS but few of them like as ‘Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation’ try to develop proper strategic plane, so should increase research based organization recently.
Poverty in Bangladesh is a deeply entrenched and complex phenomenon. Sequentially, the HIV/AIDS epidemic amplifies and become deeper poverty by its serious economic impact on individuals, households and different sectors of the economy. Poverty is the reason why messages of prevention and control do not make an impact on a vast majority of the vulnerable population.
Sources: World Bank, UNAIDS, UNICEF.
Kh. Zahir Hossain
M & E Specialist (BWSPP)
The World Bank
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mobile: 01711453171
Zahir.hossain@gmail.com
[...] first we first strolled around in Lalmatia, and then peered into Dhanmondi from a rickshaw. We padded around Banani and did a cursory search [...]
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Lalmatic Rocks!
somebody put some more pictures of Lalmatia, speacialy block c.