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So for the time being, here are some other great links to check out. It appears that I am not a good Muslim during this holy time of Ramadan. As they say, sex and drugs sells..

Getting a Drink in Bangladesh, according to Gridskipper

But be careful, Illegal alcohol could kill you

Palash Khan, an interesting photographer:
Palash Khan is a Bengali photographer with some great photographic work. It’s worth checking out his site and its unobstrusive use of flash graphics. I’d like to see more of his work…

The darker side of the Desh.

I’ve long been watching the work of Shahidul Alam, an acclaimed Bangladeshi photojournalist and head of the Dhaka-based DRIK Photo Agency.

The agency uses the benefits of technology to broadcast its messages to the world audience. In a vivid contrast to the dormancy being displayed by Bangladesh’s mainstream media, blogs and other online media have been more vocal than ever in highlighting human rights issues in Bangladesh and the plight of its poorest people.

On Tuesday, September 4, DRIK will open a new photographic exhibition called “Bangladesh Now,” which will present some strikingly poignant images presenting the appalling conditions many people suffer under because of the caretaker government’s misdeeds. See this link for some of the best in online photojournalism.

I’ll be at the opening tomorrow at 5pm. See you there?

Drik Gallery
House 58, Road 15A (New), Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh
Tel: (880-2) 9120125, 8123412, 8112954, Fax: (880-2) 9115044
http://www.drik.net

Padma River – Floods, originally uploaded by Mikey Leung See more photos here.

Remember the movie Waterworld, starring Kevin Costner? Today the unearthly vision of that movie rings true in Bangladesh.

I didn’t really know how bad the flood situation actually was until my phone rang late in the evening two nights ago. It was an old friend of mine from Canada, ringing to ask me for a hit on the afternoon news in CBC Calgary. Because I was on the road I wasn’t following the latest in Bangladesh, namely the fact that 40 of its 68 districts were now underwater because of heavy monsoonal rains. As of this moment, Sunday night, over 120 have died in Bangladesh because of the flooding.

Today we made the trip back from Khulna, and for a solid hour before and after a ferry crossing over the Padma river, we saw life struggling onwards despite the inundation they were suffering. My most vivid image (not on camera) stuck in my mind is that of a rickshaw wallah struggling to pull his vehicle through chest-high waters, seen from the highway.

Of course, for my family and friends out there who might be wondering about the situation here, I am fine and safely tucked away in my fifth floor Dhaka flat, and most highways, despite being inundated on both sides of the road, do still support traffic flows around the country in most regions. Where there is no road, there are now scores of boatmen waiting to ferry you around.

The real concern is with the poorest and most remote people of Bangladesh, most of whom already lack the fundamental basics of the broader society. When their wells go underwater, they no longer have access to potable water. They must then rely on water purification tablets from the government—very slow in coming. Others are telling me that if you’re a rich person and your house goes under, you simply move to a hotel.

From what I understand, this flooding is not nearly as bad as it has been in previous years, and in the northern parts of Bangladesh the water levels are slowly beginning to move down again. However, this doesn’t mean that the flood waters will recede immediately. I read on the news that poorly maintained flood embankments—some of which broke and let floodwaters in—will also have the reverse effect of not letting the waters recede very quickly. Some areas could spend the next two weeks underwater, giving rise to waterborne diseases. The ICDDR,B, an international-level local hospital known as the “diarrhea hospital” for its work on cholera, is now setting up more facilities to treat incoming patients.

More news to come as I find it..

I’ve been organizing my photos at Larry into easier to browse groups. All the VSO photos are in one place, and I’ve also grouped the travel photography in to one place. I’ve been pretty lucky to see as much as I have in the past few years… I invite you to browse the pictures for more.

I was in Dinajpur’s Parjatan Motel, and there it was. I finally saw this poster on the wall, and what can I say really, it’s true! You should visit Bangladesh before the tourists do. It is an experience you will never forget.

research and story by Neeti Gobeshona Kendro. Republished with permission.

Anisur remembers his first day pulling a rickshaw well: it was only five months ago but he already has many of the traits of a rickshaw puller of much more experience. He has lived his whole life surrounded by rickshaws – he was born 12 years ago in the rickshaw garage where his father worked and still lives there in a small room with his mother and father and six siblings. Conditions are cramped.

Against his father’s wishes, Anisur learnt to pull a rickshaw from another garage puller. One day he took a rickshaw out and was riding when a middle aged passenger got up and asked him to drive to Adabor town hall. When he got there he was given 12 Taka. It was his first fare, a taka for each of his years. That day he earned 80 Taka, his first income.

Being a rickshaw puller is hard, but being a child as well is harder: ‘I can’t pull lots of people as I am not strong enough. They don’t look at my age but demand I take three people’. Some passengers do show sympathy because he is a child but many more exploit this and undercut the fare. Others will shout at him and beat him for driving slowly, seeing him as just a puller, not a child.

‘They should not use bad words’ he says. ‘Rickshaw pullers have no respect in society’ but Anisur thinks that as human beings they deserve to be respected: ‘A rickshaw puller pulls to earn money. It is not a crime, but their fate’.

When he is not pulling a rickshaw Anisur likes to play football with his friends near his house, finding the energy despite the long mornings driving through Dhaka (his father takes out the same rickshaw in the afternoon). He looks after his brothers and sisters whilst his mother does housework: ‘I like to play with them’.

Anisur is one of just 6% of rickshaw pullers who have followed their father into the role. His father is very angry that Anisur drives a rickshaw and wants him to go to school, but Anisur likes having money rather than an education.

Anisur’s dream is to buy a house for his parents. They have no land. Once, his grandfather had a great deal of cultivable land in the north of Bangladesh, but after his grandfather died his father lost the land through gambling. The house was washed away by the river, leaving the family destitute. This is why he wants to buy a house, to bring the family back some of their lost status.

This dream is a long way off however: already Anisur has had a rickshaw stolen which his father is paying for at 50 Taka a day. They still have 1000 Taka left to pay back, but he says that the garage owner is good and keeps an honest ledger with him, helping save the money to try to meet his dreams.

Adapted from ‘Driving with Dignity: The Rickshaw Pullers of Dhaka, a participatory photographic exhibition by Neeti Gobeshona Kendro. See Tom Wipperman’s blog for more info.

Chittagong – Hillside Kids at Dusk, originally uploaded by Mikey Leung.

It was October 2006, and I’d been in Bangladesh for all of two weeks. As a VSO volunteer, part of our introduction to the country included a weekend exposure visit to volunteers located outside of Dhaka and I settled on Chittagong as my choice.

Bel was there waiting for me on the other end at the bus stop, wearing the same ebullient smile she greeted me with when I’d landed in Dhaka—my journey to see her again was complete. I’d packed light, so instead of heading home we decided to wander off into the back streets of Kulshi, one of Chittagong’s hilly areas.

Eventually we reached the end of a road that became a rough footpath into the hills and into a small slum area of the city. For a moment I hesitated—where were we going? Bel hadn’t wandered here before and I didn’t have confidence in my ability to get around yet.

But I’m glad we didn’t stop. We went over the hill and came into an area with several tin shacks and I immediately felt relieved. Women in colourful saris came out to greet us, holding up their gorgeous babies for the camera, while curious kids followed us around with the normal battery of questions. We came to another hill which took considerable effort to climb up, given there were no steps and recent rains made the hillside more sllippery than I liked given the fact my DSLR was slung around my neck. But in the end we were rewarded with some great views and a memorable Bangladeshi afternoon.

Because of this experience, it makes me entirely sad to hear recent news that over 100 people died in Chittagong due to mudslides caused by monsoonal rains. I’m left wondering if the kids in the above photo are still alive or if their house was completely buried by mud. Experts quoted in the Daily Star attributed the hillslide disasters to indiscriminate hill cutting practised by construction and logging companies. Whatever the reasons, the deaths were of course, entirely preventable. More information resides here. Be warned—the pictures at this link are graphic.

Some of my other, more uplifting pictures from the day can be found here.

Dhaka – Improvised Raincoat, originally uploaded by Mikey Leung.

Monsoonal rains don’t keep the city’s hardworking rickshaw wallahs from their work. In fact you have to respect their creativity in getting the job done!

As I wrote in a previous post, the trusty Hobu got a friend and I back to Lalmatia yet again, but this time as the streets were absolutely flooded with monsoonal rain. Again, my hat is off to the hardworking men of this country who keep its passengers moving with little more than their own two legs.

In other news, a good friend of mine has achieved some serious successes in publicizing the plight of rickshaw wallahs in Bangladesh. Tom Wipperman is another VSO volunteer who despite some challenges at his organization, put together a participatory photo exhibition featuring the rickshaw wallahs of Dhaka. Unfortunately the exhibition photography isn’t online yet, but the photographs were displayed for three days at the Russian Cultural Institute last week.

Please do take a moment to browse Tom’s blog about the exhibition launch, and learn more about the incredible stories these men have to share.

Dhaka – Lalmatia’s Minar Masjid, originally uploaded by Mikey Leung.

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.