debris of BD societies

�In the future,� said a fellow Bangladeshi friend of mine, �it seems expatriate Bangladeshis in New York will have to find a place in Dhaka in order to arrange any event.� And he said it more out of concern�a legitimate one�than just to amuse me.

Bangladesh Society, Inc., New York (hereafter, BSNY), said to be the �largest organization of expatriate Bangladeshis� in New York, lately has been heavily fined by New York City for not having cleared and taken care of the dirt and debris in a Public School which they rented a few days ago during the weekend, to hold an election. The news appeared when newly elected representatives were still busy in showing their big appearances along with congratulatory messages through paid ads in local Bangla weeklies published in New York . The City, as a part of punishment, has also decided not to rent any of its schools to BSNY for at least a year. The decision is likely to affect other Bangladeshi organizations as well, if we have to look at the past record. For the same ill record�leaving a venue dirty and full of debris once an event is over� the City already stopped renting Public Schools to Bangladeshi organizations in Jackson Heights and surrounding areas. It should be noted- a Public School to hold any meeting/community event is preferred mainly because, they are cheap, spacious and easy to locate for the people. The grandiose election of BSNY took place not in Jackson Heights but in Astoria for the reasons just mentioned. Now with a fine and restriction on BSNY, it would be probably unlikely that same Public School authority would agree to rent the venue to other Bangladeshi organizations. Hence, my friend made the above comment.

One thing that most Bangladeshis did not forget to bring along to USA from their home country is politics and grouping. For instance, in New York , there are individual associations/organizations for Bangladeshi people of every district, Thana , sometimes even at Union Parishad level. What do they do? Well, those of us living here are well aware of their activities by virtue of about a dozen of Bangla weeklies published from New York alone. The headlines that most of these organizations make in community newspapers are quite amusing. They hold elections with mega sized paid ads in newspapers (frankly speaking, sometimes American congressional district elections do not make as much uproar as these elections do). Post election time, newspapers are flooded with greeting and congratulatory messages to the winners from the so called well-wishers and friends leaving some readers with the question: Is earning dollars in US so much fun for these �friends and well wishers� to pay for such ad? The tale does not end here, rather, begins occasionally. Often, there would be accusations, counter-accusations by the participants in post-election period which occasionally end up with freestyle fights between the winner and the loser, and, of course, their supporters. If unresolved for a while, the conflicts and fights are taken to US courts.

How does Bangladeshi national politics affect expatriate Bangladeshis living in the USA ? Well, expatriate Bangladeshis not only carry out native-styled political activities, they do it in full rhythm and in a unique way. For instance, all major political parties in Bangladesh have their offshoots in the USA ; not only just one, but many even within the same borough. Let me illustrate. Queens is one of the five boroughs in New York City . Jamaica and Jackson Heights are two neighborhoods within Queens . By virtue of their inherent qualities, expatriate Bangladeshis have such political organizations as BNP /Awamileague(AL)/Jatiya Party(JP)/JASAD Jamaica Br.(s).Thus each of these parties has several sub-branches within the same Queens borough. Readers may guess about rest of the boroughs. It should be mentioned, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh , apparently being more shrewd than its counter parts, carry out activities under the name �Muslim Ummah of North America�. Again, what do these AL/BNP/JP leaders and activists do? Mostly their activities are restricted to celebrating party and party leaders� birth anniversaries, greeting central party leaders at airports (JFK/Laguardia) whenever their Excellencies, the central AL/BNP/JP leaders, visit USA and taking part in photo-sessions at airports with the central leader(s) flanked by the local leaders with flower bouquet in hand. Thanks to Bangla weeklies in New York for not depriving us of our due! Looking at these leaders� amusing activities, sometimes an analogy comes into my mind. The numbers of the expatriate Indian community in New York are many times higher and many of them came to US long before we did. Yet can anyone imagine hearing of organizations such as BJP Manhattan Br. /Congress Jamaica Br. Or the like? Of course, there are organizations among expatriate Indians in USA but they, by no way, represent any factions and political divisions among Indians living here. Why is the same not true of us, the expatriate Bangladeshis?

That briefly gives some idea about what preoccupies the productive (!) minds of many of our countrymen in New York . There is no reason to think that, outside New York , the situation is any better (a few weeks ago, more than one FOBANA congregation was held within the same Atlanta city of Georgia , USA ). What is uniquely pathetic is, wherever Bangladeshis have stepped in, not even religious institutions are free of narrow politics. In Astoria , New York , across the same street, are located two mosques named Shahjalal Mosque and Gausia Mosque, built and maintained by the local Bangladeshi community. Initially it was the Gausia mosque that later split up, creating another mosque. Sometimes the news of internal groupings, conflicts of Bangladeshi political organizations in New York compete face to face with that of committees of the several Bangladeshi mosques in New York .

That said, some readers may think, I am being unfairly critical. Some even may ask, doesn�t even a single organization stand out among all Bangladeshi organizations, which is non-political, dedicated to social-cultural causes only and promotes the interests of the Bangladeshi community here? Yes, there are, but too few to be significant. Almost all of them are infected with the disease of factions, politics and self-publicity.

I just learned that Bangladesh Society, Inc., New York spent nearly half a million US dollars in recently held elections (forget, for the time being, that they couldn�t take care of debris on the spot). That�s like almost 3 crores of Takas in Bangladeshi currency. Add to that the cost of holding elections, publicity, meetings of those district/Thana based Bangladeshi associations and those of AL/BNP/JP, etc. Now imagine, with only a quarter of that money, we could help our people out here and those back in Bangladesh by undertaking works/projects such as-

In USA :

v To conduct orientation classes for all newly arrived Bangladeshis (students/non-students) on how to find a job, how/where to go for free English (ESL)/Computer lessons, what to do in case of an emergency, how to use Subway system (wherever applicable) and more.

v Newly arrived Bangladeshi women are especially in the need of the above info.

In Bangladesh :

v Helping out poor meritorious students in each Thana financially under a board that would monitor students� performance from time to time.

v To establish a small but well equipped training center for unemployed youths in each district that will provide short training (crash courses) mainly in two areas: IT manufacturing and English as a Second Language (ESL). We have a good number of expatriate Bangladeshi IT professionals of high rank in the USA/Europe who could help us in getting contracts from the USA under outsourcing. In the US, we know it is not surprising that when dialing a AOL or AT&T customer service from New York , the recipient on the other part is sitting in Philippines , Madras , China , etc. Why NOT Bangladesh take advantage of it ? Are our youths inferior in talent to those Indians/Filipinos? To have a first hand experience, trainee youths could be sent to neighboring Bangalore/Madras in India for a study tour. Someone like Dr. Jafar Iqbal could be requested to take the lead of such projects.

v In rural areas in each village, a professionally trained nurse could be hired who would stay and work with local women and teach them about basic health needs such as how to deal with pregnancy, labor, raising a healthy child, etc.

Please note, I am NOT the first person to have made the above proposals. I am sure, many patriotic fellow Bangladeshis have already thought about it. I am just adding to their thoughts. I believe, achieving such a goal is NOT impossible if we, the expatriate Bangladeshis, put our country�s interest before narrow political and regional interests and work together. No, I am not proposing the formation of another association/organization. Associations already in existence for the people of individual Thanas/districts in USA/Europe could take the initiative to materialize the above projects.

Lastly, I have a personal request to make before my fellow expatriate Bangladeshis, particularly those with an obsession to carry out deshi-style politics in the USA/Europe: ask yourselves, is it worth your time and hard earned money to practice deshi politics abroad? Will party leaders recognize you in Dhaka once they hold office and power? What does experience tell you? Isn�t it true that expatriate Bangladeshis still do NOT have the right to take part in their country�s general elections despite they being the top contributors to the country�s foreign currency reserves? Party politics has created factions and divisions among us, even outside Bangladesh . Instead, if you really have an inclination toward politics, why not join mainstream politics in the US/Europe? Holding even a small position such as a primary member of a mainstream political party would help you more to promote interest of your community in a much more efficient way than holding a position such as the so called President of AL/BNP in the USA/Europe. If, for any reason, you think you�re not competent or capable to join mainstream politics, you can still do something which, to the best of my judgment, is a better option: spend time attending to your kids� homework and Parents-Teachers meetings which every school holds once/twice a month. Trust me, that is still a far better work than doing deshi-style politics.

_________

New York

October 1, 2006

About the author: Jahed Ahmed is the co-moderator and editorial board member of www.mukto-mona.com, an online network of South Asian Humanists.