"No Good Deed..." - The Trouble of Raising Awareness in Bangladesh

As soon as I saw the look on his face, I knew something was wrong.
I was in a DHL shipping office in Dhaka City. Just outside was a dusty
back-alley full of the pungent aroma that can only be caused by the
mixture of open sewers and rotting garbage. Inside, however, was an
office that wouldn't seem out of place in any major modern city -
complete with porcelain white walls, fancy computers, and various
scanning equipment. The contrast was quite surreal. It was only the
look on the DHL guy's face that reminded me just exactly where I was.



"Umm.... what is this?" he asked as he picked up and examined
what I had just put on the counter. Now, I was the one with a confused
look. Even across the counter, I could still see the object - clearly
labeled: 'SONY DV Tape'.



"It's a tape" I answered.



"A tape of what?" the DHL guy asked. Taken somewhat aback by the question, I answered, "an interview".



"An interview of what?" the DHL guy asked. This exchange continued back and forth in ever increasing personal questions (what's it for? why are you sending this? what's it going to be used for?) until finally the DHL guy said "Sorry, we can't ship this".
In hindsight, I probably would have got hassled less if I had been
asking to ship a pound of cocaine and a loaded gun. Because, in this
small South Asian country, one of the most controlled and restricted
items for export is video footage.



For the average visitor to this country, Bangladesh seems like a fairly
open country. Most people can come off a plane, go through customs, and
vacation in places like Cox's Bazar (the world's longest unbroken
beach) with relatively little hassle (and take their tourist videos
back home with them). But, for those trying to make a difference here -
whether it be helping the poor or raising awareness about poverty - the
government of Bangladesh makes it as hard as possible. The only reason
I've been able to do what I'm doing without interference - for the most
part - is because I've been able to be small scale enough to stay under
the radar.



But this was one of those times I had bumped into some hurdles. It all
started with my recent trip to Jalchatra, Bangladesh where I
encountered a Catholic priest who got infected by malaria. He got
infected not once, not twice... but nearly forty times during an eleven
year period. Two of those infections were cerebral malaria
- a disease so dangerous it can cause death in just under a week. I
interviewed him on camera (which I'll put on YouTube in the future) but
I also thought this might be footage worth sharing on a global scale
for World Malaria Day
this coming April. A contact of mine in Switzerland, was more than
willing to take a copy of the raw footage and use it as part of their
global awareness campaign.



Unfortunately, getting this footage to him is proving to be next to
impossible. Unless I can pass this tape onto someone who is flying out
of the country (so they can put it in their carry-on as tourist
footage) than this tape will never reach Switzerland. I'd like to say
that this problem is just an unintended consequence of a draconian law.
But, in reality, it's footage like this that the Bangladesh government
wishes to stop. Journalists and aid workers are among the most
scrutinized people in the country. While poverty in Bangladesh is no
secret, some of the regions with the most suffering (such as the
Chittagong Hill-Tracts, where this priest was repeatedly infected by
malaria) are closed off to foreigners without express written
permission.



This also isn't the first time I've run into trouble with customs while trying to do my independent aid work. In one of my YouTube videos,
I briefly touch upon the fact that some of my aid items were being held
in customs despite being legal items of shipment. I eventually was able
to retrieve these items after giving over $100 USD in bribes (aka
"commissions" as the bureaucrats call them). The more time I spend on
the ground in Bangladesh, the more I am convinced that ending poverty
not only requires mobilizing governments abroad into action - but also
ending the intentional immobilization caused by the local governments right here in the developing world.

Update: I just thought I should clarify. I actually went to other couriers after DHL refused to accept shipment. Although they asked less questions - the result was the same. There is a government policy in place which makes it very difficult to export video footage. News crews may not have this problem because they either take their footage back via plane or upload it by satellite (or internet). In hindsight, those affected the most are those wishing to share their footage but are too poor to fly out of the country and/or too poor to share their footage over the internet.

Stiffled but still reporting from Bangladesh - NowPublic.com Member Uncultured

I also run a blog and a YouTube channel.