“Love in the First Person” May 3, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in IUB, Media Classes, My Students, Technology.7 comments
Photo: Matt Eich
As part of the final exam today my students wrote an essay about their favorite multimedia project of the semester. I showed a variety of work including some of the classics like “Becoming Human” and several of the Magnum in Motion projects.
In the beginning of the semester we saw “Love in the First Person” (by Matt and Mellisa Eich produced by Media Storm) that turned out to the clear favorite. The class was moved by the raw honesty of the piece and really identified with Matt and Mellisa who are about the same age as most of the students. This comment from Monica sums it up: “From my point of view the word love is a gift of God but depends on the kind of person you are in love with. Love is all about caring and having faith and this exactly what I saw in Matt and Melissa’s relationship. They were young but mature enough to make the most important decision of their life.” Life is beautiful but as Matt stated “nothing good comes without struggling.”
Interesting comment especially in terms of the differences between East-West, and Muslim-Christian cultures. After all, for many in Bangladesh arranged marriages are the norm. It’s clear, we need more work like this that skillfully portrays our real- life stories.
Shibu Jose April 27, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Daily Life, Friends, IUB.add a comment
When Shibu Jose (pronouced Joes) emailed me six months ago I had assumed he was from Latin America. It turns out that he’s from Kerala, India and is the other Fulbright scholar in the Environmental Science department at IUB this semester. Shibu is an Associate Professor of Forest Ecology with the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He attended Purdue University, the same school my father in law taught at.
We live in the same guest house here in Dhaka and have been sharing countless meals together since his arrival in January. It’s been great getting to know him. Always nice to have someone to commiserate with during the frequent power outages. Shibu is the one who suggested that I read “The White Tiger”, an excellent novel about modern day India. So much of that book describes what I’ve been seeing in Bangladesh these past nine months.
Daily Star Article April 26, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Daily Life, IUB, Photography.add a comment
Young girl on her way to school
The Daily Star, Dhaka’s English language Newspaper ran a nice article about the photography workshop I recently gave at IUB. Plans are now in the works to exhibit some of the work on campus. Thanks again to Shams Bin Quader, IUB faculty and staff for helping make this happen.
IUB Photography Workshop April 12, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Daily Life, IUB, Media Classes, My Students, Photography.add a comment
Photo © Mohammad Zakir Hossain
I just wrapped up a four day Photography workshop at IUB and wasn’t so sure that it was going to come together until the last minute. On the last day as I was showing the students how to construct a multimedia presentation we had power cuts- they call it load shedding here- almost every other hour on the hour. For some reason the IPS back up power supply didn’t work either. Some guy, or maybe a woman, decides which neighborhood get turned off. IUB is located in Baridhara, the wealthiest part of the country. Lack of electricity and water are much more severe in other parts of the city.
Photo © Asif Khan
Bangladeshis are extremely resourceful and pull together when they have to. When the power finally returned, we made a final edit, sequenced the photos and made a couple of title images. With only a few minutes left we changed locations and presented our work to an enthusiastic audience. I better post this now before the power goes out again.
Tweet, Tweet, Tweet March 18, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in IUB, Media Classes, My Students, Photography, Technology.add a comment
Rickshaw art, Dinajpur, North Bengal
Yesterday I introduced my students to twitter. It hasn’t taken off yet here in Bangladesh. Most were skeptical but today I noticed quite a few of them “following” me:) Thanks to Mindy McAdams for the reminder.
Speaking of photography, I posted forty full screen images from Bangladesh on www.hillerphoto. com.
IUB students write about Feburary 25th March 15, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Feburary 25th, IUB, Media Classes.3 comments
Army tanks roll into Dharmondi, Photo © Salman Saeed
As part of their midterm assignments I had my students write a post about what happpened on Feburary 25, 2009. These essays are a powerful testimony to the “decade zero” generation of Bangladesh- those coming of age in the early part of the twenty- first century. They are eloquently written, in the student’s second language no less. I’m proud of you. Take a look here, here, here and here.
Return to Dhaka-Two Worlds March 10, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Daily Life, IUB, Inspiration, My Neigborhood, Travel.add a comment
Bangladeshi workers returning home from the Mid East, Dubai
The majority of the passengers flying from Dubai to Dhaka were single men returning home from working in the Mid-East. The ones I spoke with were coming from Kuwait. With the global economic downturn I’m sure the situation isn’t good for them. The author James Novak in his book on Bangladesh “Reflections on Water” got it right 15 years ago and the situation hasn’t changed much since. On the first page he describes the middle aged expat NGO types flying into Dhaka for their meetings and conferences escaping the winter months of the USA and Europe. There were a few of them on my flight too.
The gate from Baridhara to the other Bangladesh
The taxi ride back into town felt strangely familiar. The local tea stall owner and rickshaw drivers in my neighborhood were in the same place as when I last saw them three weeks ago. Things appear chaotic at first glance but there is an hidden order to it. People have schedules and follow them to say nothing of all their hard work. Most of us would go off the deep end if we had to live that way for one hour.
Last weekend I went on a field trip with the art class from IUB led by professor Nazir Ahmed. He took over 70 students to the National Art Museum and a few other galleries. I love the creative projects he has done with students such as painting murals and launching exhibits on campus. Nazir studied in Norway and shares my taste for eclectic music. The permanent collection of paintings at the National Museum was a huge inspiration. World class artists with a variety of styles. Some even looked African influenced. I had never heard of these artists but am sure some of their work is in European museum collections.
New Student Blogs March 8, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in IUB, Technology.2 comments
Martyrs of the 1971 Liberation War, Dhaka University
Students in my Interactive Media class are creating some excellent blogs this semester on topics such as: The Environment, The 1971 Liberation War, The influence of Indian culture on Bangladesh, Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore and the Lost professions of old Dhaka. I’ve also included more in the student blog links on the right column. Take a look. If something strikes your interest feel free to comment.
Bangladesh Mourns March 5, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Dhaka, IUB, Military Mutiny, My Students.add a comment
Memorial to slain military officers outside of my office at IUB
In the two days since I’ve returned to Bangladesh I’ve met with four colleagues from the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB) who have lost family and friends in the BDR attack inside of a military compound in Dhaka last week. Still completely shaken one of them was on the scene a few days ago with family members searching for the bodies of the missing. Yesterday students made this memorial titled “Heroes Never Die.” How and why can such a thing happen? Many theories are being discussed and some are calling it a planned massacre rather then a mutiny. It clearly wasn’t a random attack.
Military on alert in Dhaka, Feb 26, 2009. Photo © Salman Saeed
For two days last week parts of Dhaka looked like they were under siege. Over 80 army officers were murdered by lower rank BRD border patrol soldiers. Jessica Lim, a photographer friend who was on the scene last week had this to say; “There is something more to be said about the crowd. First of all – since when did people walk towards the sound of gunfire rather than away from it? Sure, they ran when it got too loud, too close. But they ran with smiles and laughter. They ran off till it was quiet, and then regrouped and came forward again. I don’t understand this. Did they not know that people had already been killed by the misfires? Was this a game to them? The worst thing was that I couldn’t tell where the guns were from, or what they were aiming at. I didn’t know where to hide my very not-bulletproof body.”
The World’s Happiest People? February 11, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Culture, Daily Life, Dhaka, Family, Friends, IUB, Inspiration.7 comments
Street vendor, Old Dhaka
I will leave you for a short break with a collaborate post. A local correspondent for the BBC radio here in Dhaka told me about a recent poll that claims Bangladeshis are the happiest people in the world. How on earth could that be? We have all heard the numbers and become desensitized by now. Most people surviving on a dollar a day. A country plagued by environmental disasters, lack of infrastructure, health and education, the list goes on.
I decided to ask some friends and colleagues, all from Bangladesh, what they thought the reasons were for this self contentment. As far as I know people here aren’t taking Prozac. Interesting also that no one mentioned the influence of religion.
Taking tea
“People here value strong family ties – kids live with their parents until they are married, and are expected to take care of their parents when they get old. You won’t see too many nursing homes here, although the trend is emerging.”
“With life being harder here, there are lower expectations. People ask for less because they know they can’t afford it. I think the relative hardships one faces here, in terms of poverty, natural calamities, etc, has led to a greater appreciation of the smaller joys in life. A while back, we had two flash floods occurring in the same year, one after the other. People living in the slums near Gulshan- an upper class neighborhood- were reduced to squatting in makeshift tarpaulin tents on the pavements near our home. You would expect these people, who had literally lost their homes and much of their belongings, to be miserable. Every evening, on my way back from work, though, I’d be the one grumbling about the rising floodwater’s lapping at the tires of our car, while the squatters took time to live, laugh and enjoy. As the sun went down, the oil lamps came on, and the rickshaw wallahs would line up their vehicles and join their families. Someone would play the flute, children would sing and dance; and everyone would celebrate just being alive. It looked like something out of a Dickens novel. They certainly taught me a thing or two about human resilience.”
- Sabrina Ahmed, Journalist, Writer and University Faculty Member
“I think people in Bangladesh are the happiest because of the family bonding that we share, we take care of one another, it doesn’t matter whether we are 13 or 30 we live together with our family. The girls only leave when they are married. Another thing is, it takes very little to make us happy and our food is the best in the whole world.”
- Limana Solaiman, Student
“I have grown up hearing that Bangladeshi people are very easy to satisfy and that is why many think that they are happy people. The poor are happy if they have a roof over their head and three meals a day. They don’t worry about equity or want to fight for their rights. As long their stomach is full they think that life is good.”
“Also due to strong family ties and bonding people find happiness in other people’s happiness and success. For example, even if a person is not very successful but has a cousin who is a prominent person he will be ecstatic about it tell everyone that he knows that prominent figure. So as they find achievement in other people’s achievements that may also be a reason that Bangladeshi people are so happy. This is my personal view but I always hear people say that the reason we are happy people is because most of us don’t have unending wants and are easily satisfiable.”
- Tabassum Amina, University Faculty Member, Sociologist
“The main reason is poverty. Because of poverty most of the people’s expectations are low. In Bangladesh poverty is responsible for the lack of education. That is ultimately why our expectation level is low. In Bangladesh, most of the people’s primary concern is only for food and shelter. When that is taken care they feel happy. You should also remember that urban and culture is not so strong in Bangladesh. Rural life is a significant part of Bangladesh. That is why most of the people are free from alienation and fear of isolation. That is why most of the people can be optimistic and are happy with their life.”
- Shoma Afroja, Journalist and TV Anchor
“I can share one experience of mine. It was about a year ago. On the 19th November 2007…. just two days after the SIDR cyclone hit Bangladesh I went to Char Montaj which was devastated, and was shocked to see such a scare from a natural disaster. I went there to assist with relief activities with the NGO Action Aid. At ten in the morning I found a girl who was barely 17, but already the mother of three kids. She was playing with her three month old child in an open place…no proper shelter… just under a tree…and her other two kids were playing beside her. When I asked how she was all she said was that “a number of bad things had happened but we were alive….what else can we do?”
“Maybe it’s the climate in this tropical zone. People in the countryside do not have to struggle that much. They do not have big dreams either. Whatever they receive they take it as a bonus.”
-Sifat Azam, University Faculty Member, Development and Environmental Studies
