Category: Bangladesh 2009-12

A year or so ago, I was listening to my iPod in an auto-rickshaw when I heard this song by Jimmy Cliff. I felt it resonated with some of the sad sights around me, and I often left it on repeat. Then I decided to make a video.

“You could find L’Oreal shampoo, but there would be something completely different inside the bottle. Tissue boxes were taken off aeroplanes and then sold in the markets. Newspaper was stuffed up the bottom half of a tissue box to make it look full."

Sabiha’s day starts at 5am. She said, “I wake up early to prepare breakfast and lunch for everyone. After dropping my son off at my mum's house, I start attending classes from 8am.

“My sister was crying as she watched me pack a year’s supply of tampons. She couldn’t imagine why I wanted to go and live in Bangladesh,” said Kansas-born Susan Elahi.

An unauthorised roadside fish market is causing problems for students and staff as they walk between the two campuses at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.

With all due respect to my family’s deceased golden retriever, I’ve discovered that the Deshi dog outsmarts the likes of “Clancy” by a mile.

During a three day visit to Bangladesh, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick advocated her belief that, “Investing in women will have a greater impact on the global economy than almost anything else.”

A report documenting human rights abuses throughout the month of November has been published by human rights organisation Odhikar.

Dhaka City Corporation has been split into two parts - Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation, with Dhaka's mayor to be replaced by two government appointed administrators heading one half of Dhaka each. The bill’s purported aim is to improve the woefully inadequate services and amenities provided to residents. Yet the world has but a tiny handful of “divided cities” – none of which can be reasonably deemed a success.