INTERVIEW WITH BRAC CHIEF

Social mobilisation is a must to reduce poverty: F H Abed

One cannot write Nazrul's biography without mentioning Tagore's name. In the same manner, one mentions nobody but Muhammad Yunus-in order to write or speak about Fazle Hasan Abed. On April 1, 2008 that is what happened at Harvard University while the Nobel laureate Prof. Amartya Sen paid tribute to F H Abed. "In general, people of Bangladesh are enjoying better healthcare facilities because of the contribution of Grameen and BRAC to poverty alleviation and the education and health sectors. The people of many neighbouring countries are still disadvantaged of such facilities," said Dr. Sen while speaking as the chief guest at a reception at Harvard University in honour of Fazle Hasan Abed. "Bangladesh has earned worldwide acclaim for the system of micro-credit pioneered by Muhammad Yunus and the largest non-governmental organisation of the world established by Abed," he added. Today-our interview is with F H Abed.
   Born in Sylhet in 1936, Abed founded BRAC in 1972. It is not merely an organization; it is a movement intended to reduce poverty, improve education, provide house for the homeless, and empower women. In 2007, Yale University cited, while awarding him a doctorate, "With single-minded determination, Abed has given the poor the means to achieve economic independence, always demonstrating respect for the dignity of every citizen. Abed's organisation is now offering hope for developing nations throughout the world." Last year Bill Gates visited him in Bangladesh and pledged support for teacher training through technology. Perhaps he is the most famous Bangladeshi in the world, after Muhammad Yunus.
   In his interview at Harvard University on April 1 with Rashidul Bari, a Bangladeshi born writer based in the United States, Abed talks about BRAC, politics, and Muhammad Yunus.
   Rashidul Bari (RB): We know that you helped support the Liberation War from England. Tell us about it?
   Fazle Hasan Abed: In 1971, I was thirty-five, working as a senior executive for a British oil company-Shell. However, the war radically changed the direction of my life. In the face of the Pakistani military's brutality and torture, I decided to give up the advantage of a corporate executive post. Upon quitting the job, I went to London to devote myself to prop up international consciousness about the Pakistani genocide over Bengalis. I helped initiate a campaign called Help Bangladesh (HB) to organise funds for the war effort.
   RB: In 1971, Muhammad Yunus raised awareness in the world about the Pakistani genocide in Bangladesh from the United States-through a newspaper called the Bangladesh News Letter (BNL). Did you have any communication with him in 1971?
   Abed: I did not know him then. However, now I know that then Yunus was a 31-year-old professor at Middle Tennessee State University and done some noteworthy work as editor of BNL to promote the world awareness against Pakistani genocide.
   RB: You came back to Bangladesh after the independence-and founded the BRAC to help millions of refugees who returned from India to Bangladesh. Why and how did the idea come to your mind?
   Abed: In early 1972-I returned to independent Bangladesh with a big hope and expectation but I found that corruption was everywhere which ruined the economy. Millions of Bangladeshis who lived in India as refugees started returning to the country. They used to pass their days without having any food to eat. I decided to initiate something to help them-which I named BRAC (formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee). This led us to deal with the long-term task of humanising the living conditions of the rural poor.
   
   BRAC covers 110 million poor people
   RB: Why do you believe that the poor cannot be expected to organise themselves on their own?
   Abed: The experience I just mentioned strengthened my belief that the poor cannot be expected to organise themselves on their own because of economic insecurity, illiteracy and general lack of confidence. The process of social mobilisation must be accompanied to get rid of these handicaps. This was why my policy was directed to help the poor develop their capacity to administer and control their own destiny. Thus improvement of poverty and empowerment of the poor emerged as BRAC's primary objectives from the day one. BRAC now works in more than 69 thousand villages of Bangladesh covering over an estimated 110 million poor people in the field of income generation, health care, population control, primary education for children and the like.
   RB: We know that you look at poverty from the historical viewpoint. Tell us about it?
   Abed: Poverty, the way I see, has to be viewed not only in terms of inadequate income or an absence of employment opportunities but also as a complex disorder that manifests itself in many different forms. There is no single anti-poverty solution and therefore, a range of involvement embraces BRAC programmes.
   RB: Recently Muhammad Yunus declared to put poverty in the museum by 2045-but you just said poverty cannot be eradicated without the reconstruction of gender role in the society. Please explain your position?
   Abed: Einstein said, "knowledge is better than education, and imagination is better than knowledge". Muhammad Yunus thinks imaginatively and he understands its importance. Therefore, he likes using imaginary words-although he knows that poverty cannot be fully eliminated because it is a relative thing. However, his imaginary words help us to dream tall. And I also believe that poverty elimination cannot be maximised without a goal. However, Prof. Yunus set the absolute goal-nothing wrong with that.
   
   Education can eliminate poverty
   RB: Tell me what have you done so far through BRAC to reduce poverty, and uplift education?
   Abed: BRAC now works in the field of income generation, health care, population control and primary education for children. Based on my confidence, that education is a basic human right and is essential to eliminate poverty; BRAC started its Non-formal Primary Education Programme in 1985 with 22 one-room primary schools with 30 students in each school. More than 3.7 million children from poor families have graduated from BRAC primary schools and over 1.5 million children, over 65 per cent of whom are girls, are studying in the 52,000 BRAC primary and pre-primary schools spread all over Bangladesh. This success led us to BRAC University (BU), which was launched in April 2001. BU was set up not only to impart knowledge, but also to act as a center of excellence in knowledge creation through research that connects with practice.
   RB: Dr Yunus says that he is no longer interested in creating a political party (Nagorik Shakti) in Bangladesh. Do you think this is a good idea?
   Abed: Perhaps Professor Yunus is tired of our corrupt political environment. There used to be and still there is a deep distrust between the two major parties and their leadership. Prof. Yunus' involvement as a non-politician was just to set a role model. And of course, Prof. Yunus cannot clean up anything unless people support him. I hope that will be the case someday.
   RB: There is a rumour that you are winning Nobel Prize soon. Tell us how soon?
   Mr. Abed: I don't know anything about this rumor.
   RB: Please tell us about the political corruption in Bangladesh - and how we can abolish it.
   Abed: I believe right now focus should be on one thing-and that is corruption. No nation can be successful as long as they have corrupt politicians.
   Like individuals, nations must ultimately decide upon how they wish to conduct themselves, on how they wish to be thought of by those with whom they live. And later, they must decide how they wish to be judged by history.
   Like every individual, man and woman, nations must decide whether they are prepared to rise to the occasions that history presents them with. We have always been a people of youthful energy and daring spirit. And at this historic moment we are experiencing here at Harvard, as freedom is spreading throughout the world, as a global economy is taking shape before our eyes, Bangladesh has called to abolish corruption. And now it is up to us-150 million Bangladeshis whether to do away with it.
   Rashidul Bari, Biographer of Muhammad Yunus, is a Bangladeshi-born writer based in the United States. His website is: www.rashidulbari.info

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Miscarriage of Justice?

Rayyan Kamal

The theatre of the Democratic Race took a backseat at Yale during the last two weeks as we had our own scandal to keep the newspapers busy: one art major's senior art project. Aliza Shvarts had artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible," according to a Yale Daily News (YDN), supplementing these pregnancies with regular doses of abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages.
   The project, slated to be on display from April 22nd to May 1st, was to feature film footage of and blood from the miscarriages. More specifically, there would be a large cube hanging from the ceiling of a room in the gallery. Hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting would be wrapped around this cube and the blood would be placed between the layers of this sheeting. The blood would be mixed with Vaseline in order to keep it from drying and to cause the blood to be extended throughout the plastic sheeting. Shvarts planned to project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. They would show her undergoing miscarriages in her bathroom tub while wearing headphones and listening to music. Similar videos would be cast onto the walls of the room.
   According to the YDN, Shvarts said she was hoping her project would "inspire some sort of discourse." She knew some people would be "upset with the message," but added that it was not her goal to "scandalize anyone." Well, it scandalized everyone. Not only was it the most hotly debated topic on campus, but even the national media picked it up. Pro and anti-abortionists alike were quick to condemn her project. Even those who were not concerned about the unborn babies she was killing wondered how or why she would willingly inflict such harm on her own body. Others wanted more details about the sperm donors. (According to the YDN, "the 'fabricators,' or donors, of the sperm were not paid for their services, but Shvarts required them to periodically take tests for sexually transmitted diseases.") On my way back to my dorm after classes one day, I saw tens of students protesting the administration's endorsement of this project outside the President's Office.
   The national media had a field day too. How could a respectable institution like Yale endorse a project as tasteless and offensive as this, some asked. Others were quick to shift part of the blame to Shvartz's art project adviser, Pia Lindman, a controversial artist herself. Lindman's resume included working on a public outdoor sauna in New York City to recording herself mimicking the grief-stricken expressions of suffering war victims. Perhaps she saw a reflection of herself in Shvartz.
   As reverently as it tries to uphold free speech, the University also realized that its reputation was at stake here. It released a statement saying that Shvartz had confessed to the fact that she had "never impgregnated herself and did not induce any miscarriages." However, the drama only got better later that day, when Shvarts called that statement "ultimately inaccurate."
   The result? Shvarts exhibit did not go up on April 22nd as planned, as the University said it would allow her to put it up only if she first released a public statement confirming what she had apparently told the administration. This has yet to happen. An art major friend lamented that the sad thing is that this girl will probably get into any art school she applies to now. Even if the whole project was a fake from the beginning.
   Rayyan Kamal is a sophomore at Yale University.

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Can Sundarbans be developed as an alternative energy source?

Nehal Adil

Our country is rich in oil, gas, coal and uranium in an energy starved world. But do we know that our Sundarbabns, the world's largest mangrove forest could turn Asia's power house in alternative energy?
   No, not nearly. We have coal, gas, oil and uranium, this was kept a closely guarded secret by our colonial masters, who did not want our region prosper so that we could break away from Pakistan. The then East Pakistan governor Azam Khan disclosed this in a conversion with us, the then Dhaka College students, and when I wrote about it in a journal, all the journalists and intelligence people ran after me as if I got it from India. Governor Azam Khan loved East Pakistan and his "Jeley bhais and Chashi Bhais". His fellow generals did not like it. Like the present descendents of seventeen horsemen myth, the Pakistani generals believed they were of superior blood and the Bangalees (no body used to say Bangladeshis, because Bangladesh did not exist at that time) should be kicked out of Pakistan. General Niazi in his book 'Betrayal of East Pakistan', brutally brought out that point. Today we are not fully utilising our oil, gas and uranium, though we know they exist. Imagine if we could do it fifty years ago, what could be the shape of our country.
   Azam Khan also knew we had same iron ore in Bogra, Rangpur and Dinajpur in the red soil that India had to build their world class steel mills in Bhilai and Durgapur and we had coal in that region . We have not still built an ore based steel mill and we are known as world's scrap eaters since we take scrap ships from world over to meet our steel needs.
   Possibly fifty years later, when the world will function with alternative bio energy, we would forget that we had ignored that Sundarbans could provide us with biofuel without taking cultivable land out of food production.
   The Sidr has destroyed much of the Sunderbans and its bio-diversity. But it has opened up new possibility. If we resort to mangrove tree plantation with high energy potentiality the world's largest mangrove forest could turn into our greatest asset. This could provide enough energy to Khulna- Mangla region to industrialise at the scale of Kolkata and its surroundings.
   In fact, India was partitioned leaving us, the marshy swamps of East Bengal, deserts of Baluchistan and Sind and the mountains of North West Frontier Province. Only around the Indus-Jhelum chunk in West Punjab and the Chittagong Division in East Bengal had cultivable flood free land.
   Jessore Road in western part of the province and Arakan Road in the East were the only paved roads in the newly formed Eastern Pakistan. But we made miracles, making a national road net work and bridges. We set up new industries like textile and jute mills and near self reliance in food. The World's largest factory, the Adamjee Jute Mills employing fifty thousand people - more than the Seattle-based Boeing company - was one of those miracles. Yet we were afraid of our-selves and refused to recognise our potentialities and resources fearing that somebody would take them away. We feared no body but ourselves. For everything we look for the opinion of the foreigners. And this is clearly visible in the absence of an elected representative government. The foreign embassies are shamelessly writing the prescriptions.
   But should we need the foreigner's recipe for rebuilding the Sidr damaged Sundarbans. What has happened to the money that we received as Sidr aid both from abroad and home. Can we not use to reshape Sundarbans as Asia's power house?
   It is not only the question of bio-fuel, the wind and the fast flowing river currents of Sundarbans can also be source enormous energy.
   To build a better future for the nation we must look forward to utilise all our potentialities.
   The Sundarbans provide one such possibility. From Swarankhola to Kotka, in the post-Sidr Sundarbans we have only one possibility - to move forward.
   We should set up the Sundarbans bio-energy exploration task force and mobilise all our scientific potentialities. This is no less important for us than gas and oil in the high seas or uranium in the sands.
   Sundarbans, the forest of beauty, is spread over an area of 10,000 squire kilometres. The Sundari trees that grow here were taken to Brazil by the Portuguese pirates. The Sundari wood is very hard. It was used for the building of railway cars by the British. Luxury auto could be built with this wood. But nobody has so far bothered to utilise that.
   If in place of Sundari woods we plant fast growing high energy plants, may be we will lose our historic forest?

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