The ironies that separate those interested in development and the lives of the poor - Shahidul Alam writes.

Related Links
Shahidul Alam's Musings
The Barren Banana Tree
Bangladeshi Democracy and the American Silence
Kazi Nazrul Islam: The Banga Poet

 
It should not have happened. It should not have been allowed to happen. It is something that should have caused a government's downfall. It is amazing that such things keep happening. Almost daily. And ceaselessly.
 
An elderly man sat 50 feet away from the Rangs building on a second floor veranda of a shopping market. After the innards of the building had collapsed, many workers had taken shelter in this veranda. The elderly man had come to Dhaka early this morning with his son-in-law, in search of his son's body. He muttered something when I asked him if he had spoken to anyone here. I couldn't make sense, and repeated my question. I could barely make out what he said, "They don't give us our dead." He told me he had come from Gaibandha, and I thought to myself, now we can be sure that one of those who have died is from Gaibandha.
 
Tonight I have learnt that 14 coffins have been taken inside. Since then, family members of the workers have refused to leave the area. Many of them think that the authorities will get rid of the bodies. They have come from outside Dhaka, they do not belong here, they have no networks of familial or social support in this city. They can only gather and resist with whatever they have.

Will the authorities really get rid of the dead bodies? Will they not hand over to grieving family members the bodies of their beloved ones? You may think I am jumping to conclusions but it is true that the whole process is shrouded in secrecy and that those in authority are trying to save their skin.

Yesterday afternoon as I stood outside Rangs Bhaban, I could catch the faint smell of decomposing bodies. The smell will get stronger. Fire Brigade workers, who are on standby, do not know when rescue efforts will begin.

I belong to the ranks of the ordinary people, I belong to those who are toothless and clawless. Yet I cannot help but think, those who are guilty must not be allowed to get away. At least, not this time.

Priscilla Raj
1:00 am
Dec 13, 2007

Translation: rahnuma ahmed

Bangladeshi journalists Priscilla Raj and Saleem Samad, who had worked for the Channel 4 team as interpreter and fixer, respectively, were also detained and charged with involvement in "anti-state activities." Raj was released on bail in December 2002.
(http://www.cpj.org/attacks02/asia02/bangla.html)
---------------

We rushed as soon as we received the tip off, sneaking away from our workshop on "Investigative Journalism for Television." Working our way round the devotees praying on Panthapath we rushed to the National Museum. It was a false alarm. The trucks had left, and the artefacts that were still left in the National Museum were safe. At least for the moment. The remaining week, my book launch in Glasgow, the Prince Claus Fund Award ceremony in Amsterdam and the conference "Visible Rights" at Harvard, took me from a sunny afternoon in Scotland to the snow covered streets of Cambridge. There was good news in between. The Rajshahi University teachers being released from prison was a great relief, but the deaths of workers at Rangs Building, and the slum fire in Begunbari reminded me how far my own life was from the reality of workers and slum dwellers of my land.

While the gatekeepers who rule our land remain untouched by the death of the poor. While media houses remain in the hands of wealthy business people. While opulent adverts by Grameen, Banglalink and Warid influence what gets reported in mainstream the lives of  media professionals like Priscilla Raj, Tipu  Sultan, Probir Shikdar and Tasneem Khalil will continue to be under threat, The war criminals assisting the Pakistan Army had killed our intellectuals in the month of victory in 1971. December has another meaning for the workers and the slum dwellers who live under different military rulers.

"They don't give us our dead." was all that the old man from Gaibandha would tell Priscilla.

--
Shahidul Alam
Drik Picture Library Ltd.
http://shahidul.wordpress.com
www.drik.net