Boat Trip

This is another picture from our Rajshahi trip. Here is Salma and I with Rosy, Shammi's fiance Nouresha and her sister, Rosy's friend, and Nil on a boat ride in the Padma river! This is Salma's and my first boat ride in Bangladesh. We had fun! The boat had an engine on it and could pick up some pretty good speed. The way they build it is pretty smart: there are bamboo slats on top with lots of space on the bottom for the water to collect. That way you don't get wet!

Shammi's Fiance Nouresha

I just got back from a five-day trip to Rajshahi. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was that I got to meet Shammi's fiance Nouresha. They're getting married in about a month--around the beginning of March! She's very sweet. I can't wait to go to their wedding to see my first Bengali marriage ceremony!

Pintu & Rumi

I thought I'd introduce some more of the family. Here is Azfar's sister Rumi and her husband Pintu. I've already introduced Rumi in an earlier post. Pintu works in the sales department of a coffee/tea company here in Dhaka. Just last week I went to meet Pintu's mother in a village outside of Rajshahi. His mother was very sweet! It was also quite interesting going to the village. Of course everybody in the village was curious to meet this "Bideshi beau" (Non-Bengali wife). We had a whole crowd around the van, peering in to see Salma and I! They were impressed with my Bangla, broken as it is.

The Phulbari Movement: The People's Small Victory

All the photos I've posted so far are my own, but I couldn't resist posting this photo, taken from someone in the Pulbari movement. I just had to tell this story--a story of a small victory for the poor people in Bangladesh. The Asia Energy Company was planning to undertake an open pit mining coal project in the Phulbari region, a project which would devastate the land, plunder the local coal resources for the sole profit of a multinational company, and displace 100,000 poor people. The people rose up against the company, demanding that it give up its project. And although several people lost their lives in this fight against a huge corporation, a few months ago (in October) the people won! Asia Energy Company has given up its project in Phulbari and the peoples lives and livelihoods and the natural resources have been preserved. You can read more about it on an excellent online forum (one that I also contribute to): www.meghbarta.com. Check out, for instance, this article by Anu Muhammad: http://www.meghbarta.org/nws/nw_main_p01b.php?issueId=6§ionId=19&articleId=162. Anyway, I just couldn't help sharing this news.

Dilara & Rashida

This is Dilara (left) and Rashida (right), two young girls who are working for Azfar's parents as domestic helpers. Dilara is an orphan, and the family has taken her in. Rashida is from a village in Rajshahi, the northern district of Bangladesh. Her mother has sent her to Dhaka to earn some money to help support the family. They are both very sweet girls, and I'm really fond of them. In Bangladesh, many people in society have domestic helpers, not just the rich. And in Azfar's family Dilara and Rashida are treated as part of the family.

More Students

Here's another shot with some more of my students at our New Year Party.

My Students

Here's some of my students who came over to our place for a New Year party. These students are all from my composition course. We had a full house, tons of food, and lots of fun. As usual, Salma was the the highlight of the event. My students decided she is officially the cutest baby they have ever seen. Of course, I had to agree.

Check Out Our Newspaper Articles

Azfar and I have both been writing for The New Age newspaper in Bangladesh. Here's some links for some of our articles, if you want to read them.

My articles:
- "Going Places: US Imperialism Gone Global"
- "Women and labour in the twenty-first century: some questions and concerns"
- "The Birth of a Revolutionary: Film Review of Fidel"

Azfar's articles:
- "Micronarratives, Sequence Seven: Of Words and Works and Worlds"
- "Dirty theses from the streets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America: Imperialism Again"
- “Micronnaratives, sequence 3: How Flexible is ‘Monsieur le Capital’?”
- “Contemporary Poems by Palestinian Women”
- “‘Dem accuse me of assault on de Oxford dictionary’: Talking b(l)ack in Caribbean poetry”
- “Theses on Place”
- “Dhaka and Dirty Dialectics: A Prose Poem in Seven Microcantos”
- “Money and language: transaction, translation, and tension”
- “El Fisgon’s political cartoons and visual activism: history and humour”
- “Meeting Slavoj Žižek: Coffee, Chocolate, Coke, and Colonialism”
- “Contemporary Latin American poetry: when you rub those words, they catch fire”
- “Three Poems”

By both of us:
- "We Say No to Bayonets, Bullets, and Bombs: Three Rally Poems"

Azfar writes articles for the The New Age newspaper every Friday. You can check out his stuff by clicking on the "Literati" link on www.newagebd.com.

Protest Marches in Dhaka

For those of you keeping up on the news, I'm sure you're fully aware of the political turmoil in Bangladesh right now. The two main political parties, the Awami League, and the BNP are fighting and as the (supposed) election date (January 21) approaches, tension and violence continue to grow. There are oborods (country-wide blocades where traffic is halted) and hartels (where the whole country is shut down--offices closed, etc.) at least a few times every week. I caught a few shots of an Awami Leage march that was on the street right outside of Azfar's parents' house. They were marching to protest the corruption of the interim government who is mostly sold out to the BNP. If you ask me, I see no real difference between either parties. Both are full of corrupt politicians claiming to serve "the people." But we are all holding our breath and hoping the elections will happen soon so we can get back to a relatively more stable life.

Garment Workers made an impact...

Remember my earlier post about the garment workers setting fire to the cloth hanging over the broken building? Well check this out! Apparently it made an impact...the exposed wall got fixed. But garment workers continue to have regular protests in the streets. Just yesterday a garment worker was killed by a brute squad in one of the factories and the body was hidden in the factory (the worker was trying to organize other workers into a union). So hundreds of workers came out into the street, burning vehicles and tires in the streets and breaking windows.

Proof of the Monkey

Told ya there was a monkey up there! There he is!