Bangladesh: “The basket case of the world”

“You’re going to Bangladesh?”, inquired my neighbour in the plane that was taking us to Dakha. “This country is the basket case of the world. It has nothing and is even forced to import the stones it needs to build roads! And after these floods”, he carried on, “Bangladesh is on the verge of bankruptcy. I should know, I am the vice-President of the World Bank …”

Looking at the Gulf of Bengal from a height, it seems as if the sea had overflowed onto the land: water, water everywhere, miles and miles of endless stretches of water, scintillating in the light of the rising sun. And from time to time a few trees or a cluster of houses seeming to float on this infinite, calm sea. Where is Bangladesh? ...

Bangladesh was born in 1971, when, with the help of India, it split from Pakistan. (The creation of Pakistan in 1947 was, apart from its other implications, a geographical absurdity; for Eastern Pakistan – today’s Bangladesh – was separated from Western Pakistan by more than 1600 miles of Indian territory). From then on, its history has been, sadly, a series of natural calamities and bloody military coups ...

All the mighty rivers of China, Nepal and India flow through Bangladesh, before ending in the Gulf of Bengal. Unfortunately, there are no mountains to speak of in this nation of 110 million people, and the average elevation above sea level is eight metres. Which means that every year, during the monsoons, the great rivers, lacking the necessary elevation to flow quickly into the sea, overflow onto the countryside. This, as in the case of the Nile in Egypt, is indispensable to the fertility of the Bangladeshi soil. But for the last 30 years, the massive deforestation that has taken place in the Himalayas has eroded the soil, and so the Ganges and the Brahmaputra carry onto Bangladesh enormous amounts of silt, which raise the beds of the rivers and provoke the type of massive floods which we witnessed this year …

Since its birth, Bangladesh has never stopped to cry to the world for help. And the world has always answered generously. There are literally hundreds of humanitarian organisations based in Dhaka: the Red Cross, the Blue Cross, the Green Cross, the World Bank, Unicef, Liveaid ... Many of these groups do wonderful jobs in Bangladesh, and some of them, such as the Swiss-based Terre des Hommes, are saving now thousands of little starving children, who look like walking skeletons (I know, I have seen them!). But the unending stream of international aid has created a phenomenon, which could be called “The Bangladeshi Syndrome”. This means that the military Government of President Ershad is propped up by this money (though, in all fairness, it must be stated that it is thanks to the army that millions of stranded people were fed last month). Then there are the grants that never reach the people, or end up in the pockets of the 200 families which own the country. One also gets the impression that the Bangladeshis do not help themselves and are content to let the foreigners do the work. The international organizations should try to get together, forget their political (the Americans) or commercial (the Japanese) interests, and try to involve the Bangladeshis more by giving less aid and more technical training and education (how to dredge their rivers every year for instance.) But are they willing to do that? ... 

For the moment, this wonderful country – which has an extremely fertile soil, if properly protected, and warm-hearted people – must be saved from famine; for the floods have affected millions of Bangladeshis.

And then, what is the future of Bangladesh? For a number of reasons, one of them being flood control, its destiny is inextricably linked with India. In the Mother’s words: “India and Pakistan MUST become one again, for this is the truth of their being”. (Pakistan included Bangladesh at that time.)