Listening to yourself think

I've recently been revisiting some briefing documents I wrote shortly after arriving here, summing up the history of Bangladesh.

Obviously, a few months into this kaleidoscopically smoggy sensory overload, I had no idea how to write this place down (as you will see if you read the archives from late 2009), so I took a lot of advice. The short history I wrote then ended in 1991.

This time I've spent two years here, so I have enough savvy to attempt a draft of my own, and I tried to update the story of the last two decades (from a rather conventional perspective on the high-level politics of Bangladesh). The first thing that spilled out of my cursor was about political riots and widespread corruption. I looked at it, but found I couldn't honestly sum it up better than that.

There is (woefully) nothing new about violent politics and corruption, but it was an illuminating way to sneak up on myself and find out what I think of when I think of power-politics in Bangladesh.

I think of violence, and clientelism, and entitlement, and the effective alienation of millions. The voice of those who do not hold positions of influence in the government or the economy is heard only when it is tightly controlled and directed by patrimonial elites. Money is might and might is right. It's all rather sad.