Yamaguchi san is a Japanese girl. 7 years before she first give in Bangladesh. As a working area, she has selected Bangladesh search internet as “the poorest country in Bangladesh”. After getting the name of Bangladesh as first name chosen Bangladesh and started the Bangladesh jute product producer with devotion. She has given great testimony, “Every body feels Bangladesh is a poor country but has great possibility if someone invests for the skill development. Nowadays Ms. Yamaguchi has established a company Motherhouse where year 3 core Tk Bangladeshi jute products sale.
In Bangladesh, where many Internet service providers advertise 20Kbps – 40Kbps download speed as premium high-speed internet, to be able to watch videos on the internet can be a luxury. Facing this challenge Unnayan TV (development TV), an online video channel of Bangladesh, is regularly publishing video contents on development, human rights and educational issues of Bangladesh. The project has been recognized by Stockholm Challenge 2008 and Manthan Award South Asia.
Its founder Shahjahan Siraj, a citizen journalist and multimedia designer, reflects on his visions and experiences at Panorama blog:
As a multimedia designer, along with the numerous opportunity to interact with the professional world, I got the idea of “web and multimedia” as alternative platform for implementing my visions that give me enormous joy and happiness. My media work, plans and messages effectively spread worldwide through internet within the shortest time possible. This usually makes me happy and inspired to go forward.
According to Siraj, videos make him “Global Citizen” and “Active Member” of one world global family. We have recently talked with Siraj and here is the conversation:
* RV: What prompted you to open a video channel in Bangladesh where most internet users do not have access to speedy internet to be able to view videos easily?
SS: In 2001 I first published video content online when I was working with Drik Multimedia. I was strongly encouraged by Dutch web-cultural activist “Alfred Marcle” and “Tetsuya Amono” of IRFF. Later, during my stay in Japan I planned an online documentary titled “Grassroots Voice” on AIDS reality. Gradually my confidence grew and started to publish full documents for online distribution.
Like other pioneers I also faced the challenge of slow internet. But my wife Matsuzaki Misuzu (who produced Bangladeshi content in Japanese language ) gave me courage and Afsan Chowdhury (Prominent Journalist and Development Practitioner in Bangladesh) and Brian Shoesmith have inspired me a lot to open an online video channel. As my target groups were limited to activist, development and media practitioners, I was confident that they will take the trouble to watch my video even in the presence of slow internet speed.
* RV: How many viewers you have on an average?
SS: Every month approximately 47000 people watch our videos.
* RV: How are you funding your documentaries?
SS: There is no official funding for our documentaries. I have to depend on my personal income to produce the documentaries. However I also receive volunteer support from my students and technical support from the mother organization Machizo Multimedia. We have also received a couple of grants – $2500 from Panos South Asia in 2005 and $10000 from Ars Electronica of Austria in 2009 for the 80+1 project.
A photographic video presentation covering 81 markets of Dhaka via 80+1
* RV: How social media impacts your activities?
SS: Social media gives me confidence as it can brake the barriers of the traditional big media. It is a powerful tool for interactivity, and it enables reaching target audience at low cost beyond the censorship limitation.
As a online media practitioner, my motto has been “Multimedia for Development” and being specific: “Local Content, Global Voice ”. I always try to find the way to involve, inspire and encourage the people with media presentation.
I believe, the purpose and voices of the world are same as we are the people of the same world. We may speak different languages but the visual language, desires and expressions for whatever purpose are same and these can be called “Joy and Happiness/peace”. To fulfill the purpose one must unite Information technology with opportunities which can ensure a global understanding with sharing of information, view, idea and experiences.
* RV: Do you have plans to accommodate user generated video contents or participatory videos to cover more areas?
SS: Yes. But considering the reality of new media in Bangladesh, a group of people have to produce the quality local content with basic new media and content production skills. I would like develop such groups through school networking.
* RV: So far you have concentrated on videos for awareness raising and advocacy. Could you please let us know on what other fields video can create an impact especially in the developing countries?
SS: According to my experience there are now a lot of video contents online which are being distributed via social networking sites. Although the quantity is high, the quality is low in most of the cases. It is difficult to get the right videos and information from the sea of junk contents. Moreover, as most of the contents are English based, it is difficult for non English speaking local people to understand. So the requirement is to produce quality local contents in local language with the involvement of local people. Online visual media easily can attract and educate the citizens, particularly the youth.
Being a citizen of a developing nation, I keenly feel the difference between developed and developing nation. People need to be sharp on public maters, public service and public mind. If new media can create the notion, “I am for other”, instead of “other for me” the society can change. Otherwise it would be difficult for a developing nation to be free from misuse of public money, misuse of public property and misuse of public opportunities.
There is the need of a ethical , “Good Citizen” online platform where videos containing the story of the vision and efforts of the people of the developing world will be published.
Once the Shankhari Bazar was famous as the place of art. The traditional Shankha industry is now struggling for survival.
* RV: What are your future plans?
SS: My plan is to launch the full phase of “UnnayanTV” online local video sharing Bangla Channel. I would like to arrange countrywide workshop on “Video Blogging, Local Content and Citizen Media” which will be the core base of a countrywide video blogging network on different educational and development issues.
* RV: How Rising Voices can help you in achieving your goal and how you can contribute to the community for citizen media outreach?
SS: It would be a great opportunity for implementing the project if Rising Voices can join as partner. I am looking for a seed fund for starting the project.
The world now is getting interest to the peace issue through the “mind and body” unity. Along with meditation nowadays the different method of physical fitness are very popular.
Jung Da Yeon, is one of the most popular physical exercise master in Korean. She also popular in Japan, particularly to young generation.
Jung Da Yeon once was 74 kg in weight. The bulk body was not so good looking. He started exercise and reduce weight by own invented method, “Figurerobics”. Nowadays is the most popular physical exercises trainer.
She released CD and Book with her practical experiences and method. This is available in Amazon as well.
My wife brought from Amazon for me, as I am now 74 KG. I have must reduce my weight to control my diabetics as well. I have taken challenge and practicing each afternoon together wife my wife. I am enjoying.
Note: the DVD, CD and Book of Figurerobics are available in Amazon Japan. However, has option of international distribution?
DHAKA, Dec 22 (NNN-AMIC) — There are more than seven million people from Bangladesh who are working abroad, a significant portion of them unskilled people, mainly men, who face many problems while overseas.
The Bangladesh government it seems does not have any safety nets to help them out when they are in trouble overseas, especially with non-payment of wages and debt burdens resulting from hefty placement fees charged by recruitment agents.
“What is the reason for this problem ? That is the main reason indeed we have to identify,” says Hazrat Ali, the Assistant Secretary of the Labour Ministry. “The people who are not skilled, they are facing problems.”
“If these people remain in Bangladesh they would have been unemployed and the government would have to take the responsibility for them for their feeding, livelihood and all the other things. But as they are migrating to other countries they are taking on their own responsibility and with this migration, neither the government or the civil society are supporting them,” notes Shifa Hafiz, the Director of Gender Justice, Diversity and Advocacy, at the non-governmental organization (NGO) BRAC.
“It is mostly through the recruiting agencies they are migrating. (These) recruiting agencies are exploiting them.”
Remittances have emerged as the key driver of economic growth in Bangladesh, increasing at an average rate of 10 per cent annually for the past 30 years. Revenues from remittances now exceed foreign exchange inflows of both official development assistance (ODA) and net earnings of exports.
The bulk of these remittances are sent by migrant workers, working especially in the Middle East, under harsh conditions.
There have been widespread allegations of ruthless exploitation of these migrant workers by recruitment agents both in Bangladesh and overseas, yet, though they are the major foreign exchange earners for the country, the Bangladesh government has not been in the forefront in helping them out.
Tahmina’s story is testimony to this fact. She is a poor rural woman from the Dinajpur district whose husband died 17 years ago and she was left with three sons and a daughter to support. Unable to feed them, she decided to go overseas to work.
“It was very hard to live and we could not have proper meal, so we came to Dhaka. I was doing household work there and my elder son worked in a stall. After some time I joined a garments factory. I had a neighbour, Ruston Ali, who said I should go abroad for a better life. He told that his wife work in Dubai and he would help me to go there. I had to pay 80,000 Taka (about 1,135 USD),” she explained.
“I said it is a very big amount for me. But he said try hard if you can manage the money to go there, after few days you can take your son there. Then he got me a passport and medical tests were done. He said, that if I try to manage the rest of the money my visa will come soon. Then after one month he said my visa has come and demanded the rest of the money. I had to take a forty thousand Taka loan from a person at 10 per cent interest and give him the money. Then after 15 days he came to me and said today is your flight. When I had reached the airport he told me that I am going to Lebanon. I said I will not go to Lebanon, but he convinced me and said that I will get good salary, near twelve thousand taka (USD 170) a month.”
Her first week in Lebanon went smoothly, but after that troubles started. “They were very cruel to me,” Thamina recalled. “They didn’t give me proper meals. They tortured me physically and mentally. For six months I didn’t eat rice. I was very ill in that time then one day my son called me. I told him everything, and said that please save me from here. He went to Rustom Ali. He demanded 70,000 taka more to bring me home. My son didn’t have the money but he was trying. Then suddenly he found BRAC and BRAC rescued me from Lebanon.”
Such exploitation happens because some people are made to believe by recruitment agents that in the Middle East, the streets are virtually paved in gold. So they sell all their assets to go overseas to reach that pot of gold only to find later that they have been misled.
This is another of such stories as told by a former migrant labourer who went to Saudi Arabia, who did not want to be named.
“I went to Saudi Arabia with the help of a relative after paying 400,000 taka. I worked there as a caretaker of sheep but my boss didn’t give me any money,” he said, adding, “They didn’t even give me proper food. My boss came some time in a while and he brought chicken for us. But when I demanded my salary he became very angry and beat me. Eleven months I didn’t get any salary.”
Since he was not paid he left the job and went first to work in Mecca, where a Bangladeshi gave him a job and paid him 49,000 taka after two months. “I requested one of my co-worker to help me to send the money to my family. He took all the money and called the police. Then the police arrested me and put me in jail. The police destroyed all of my documents and took the little amount of money I had,” he explained. “I wasn’t able to get any help from anyone. I was one month in the Jail and then senr back to my country.”
Before he went to Saudi Arabia he had a farm in Bangladesh with almost 900 ducks. “I had sold the farm and also sold some of the land to go to Saudi Arabia. Now I work as a day labourer and my wife works in a garments factory,” he said.
The Bangladesh government is well aware that their workers are being exploited like this but argues that they cannot stop people from going abroad. As Hazrat Ali explains, “We cannot stop it because the people of our country always think that if they can go abroad they will get something like a golden dear.
“But, shouldn’t the government take responsibility to educate the people? Even change their mindsets? They have been cheated through the recruiting agencies, middle man (because) they don’t have any proper information,” argues Saiful Haque, the Chief of WARB Foundation.
“There should be a regulatory framework where the recruiting agencies and the middleman can go through some of the regulatory process where they cannot cheat the migrant workers. There is not much law in our country (to protect) migrant workers, but the recruiting agencies have their business protection.
“The government has set up vocational training centres to send out more skilled workers overseas with the hope that they will earn more and remit home more. But, they have not moved, even though legislation exists, to crack down on unscrupulous recruitment agents who exploit the migrant workers.”
Shifa Hafiz of BRAC argues that labour migration in Bangladesh should be seen as a human rights issue. “Most often when the labor migrants enter the aircraft they are becoming undocumented. The documents are mostly kept by the recruiting agency, particularly in case of female migrants, they are taking the female migrants outside of the countries and once they are outside these female migrants have no address, no connection with the outside world even with their own family. So whenever they are either sick, ill, pregnant or even if they are dead they have no identification. So migration is very much a violation of human rights in this country,” she observes.
“Nobody is taking the responsibility for the poor migrants who are earning currency for the country and totally sacrificing their life for the livelihood for their families.” — NNN-AMIC
Centering on New Year celebration there is held huge number of events worldwide. This evening I have spent in Internet to know the diversity of English New Year celebration. Welcome lightening, fireworks, wine, sing song, dancing and chattering with bosom friends are the common mode of celebration. Bangladeshi particularly urban youth are not beyond this popular culture. However, I have got different event in the Japanese celebration. In the New Year eves along with Western practices, the Japanese society still practices three traditions. They do osojiToshikosih Soba Noodle Eating and Joyano Kane. The osojirefers to complete cleaning of house for welcome New Year and Joyano Kanemeaning hitting 108 times in the big bell for releasing from 108 sins. According to Buddhism, human being has 108 sins. Japanese people believe by hitting the big ball ( generally bell weight 8-10 tons ) they can be sinless in the new-year. My practical experience, Japanese people are not serious about religion but have high dignity about practicing social norms and religious teaching. At a time one person, follow two religions, Shintoism and Buddhism. This may only one example of the world. I am impressed with this Japanese popular culture. I think, today world need to learn from the Japanese society. My love and pray, in the year 2011 will reduce conflicts. We will move forward to establish a pluralistic world in 2011 centering on true love!
On the eve of victory day on the bank of Dhanmondi lake of Dhaka sits a fair where widely sales toy and Bagladeshi traditional instruments as toy form. I brought the toys for Coronet and Anika as they liked. They were very happy and arrange a mini festival in Dhanmondi hou
