Whistleblowing, Blow the Whistle

থাক! বল্লামনা।

আমি কিছু বলতে চাইনা।

রুচিতে বাধে।

We've been through a lot, a nation who stood its ground in '71 to gain independence. However, since inception we've failed to really create any single period of time or a continuous number of years when we've been able to put down an even rule of law. Laws are made, but a lot are visible running away having broken it. Presidential pardons or partial treatments are also not unknown to us. Through all this, I fear one thing when you don't see people quitting the parties that propagate such sickness with a bold statement that puts the blame in its rightful place. We lack whistle-blowers or have successfully swept them under lavish carpets pretty quickly. I welcome other good explanations.

I watched a movie named "The Whistleblower" which was based on true events, about a Kathy Bolkovac, a policewoman who while serving on a UN mission uncovers some really sickening and illegal operations. However, as the movie ends with some notes about what happened to Kathy in later life, it was mentioned that she couldn't get a job in the security industry, the industry for which she possessed the right skills and experience!

I feel we've always been a careful nation, where most would deny to get into a 'situation' by starting a confrontation. This probably is truer for those with a lot to lose, things like reputation or social standing, or their livelihood. The conscience doesn't haunt at the level that one would be overpowered to not care for those aspects of the self. And then there are those who took brave strides and faced discouraging outcomes like Kathy, and even faster (driver of the bus who revealed Suranjit Sengupta's black cat?). Edward Snowden, and Julian 'WikiLeaks' Assange?

However, I feel that our lack of whistleblowers or whistleblowing has helped lead us the wrong way. I wish more people would blow the covers off matters causing a serious rot.

Related:
Whistleblower Forms Party
List of Whistleblowers in History

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Paris, Cafe

This post is inspired by the book Manob Sagor Teer-ay, by Shankar (মানব সাগর তীরে/শংকর) about france, the french and often about how different of similar they are to Bengalis, or the rest of the world. Insightful and funny accounts from 1990.

If the Parisians invented sitting around in a cafe and doing nothing, maybe its not that apparent these days since it has caught on so much worldwide. As I am reading Shankar's account of Paris, I am beating myself up about my own trip there, which now in comparison seems much less interesting. Shankar's friend Pachuda is taking him around the city right now, first they bought bread from a shop where people love it so much, they queue up for it (I think its this one), and then they are about to go to a cafe, while all the way Pachuda is telling him the history of the love affair between coffee and the French. It struck me to look for something similar on YouTube, and this is what I found - However, one walk around any area in Dhaka, you're bound to find a tea stall, or a tea stand, and lots of people around it or in it. You may not find anyone reading a book there or sitting quietly, but, definitely you'll find the other thing that makes us tick - ADDA - or chatting.

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Fighting Corruption: What are our Tools?

There is an unrealistic amount of faith that is pitted on the digitization of services (through BAL's much drummed 'Digital Bangladesh' ventures) as a way of relief from corruption by our present government. The Finance Minister admitted recently that corruption has just spread to all nook and cranny of public services and also cited the digitization of services as THE way out. That may be the case in certain areas or aspects, but if anyone has been to public offices with hopes of receiving services, they'll remember those uninterested faces, those blank stares, those lifeless creatures behind the counters and desks who seem quite bothered to have seen you, who state their (unlawful) prices quite frankly, even with anti-corruption posters hanging around them. You cannot expect to digitize everything and there will ultimately be servicemen and women you will have to deal with. The government seem to be suggesting that until we get those software development cycles complete and services up and running - a decade possibly, we keep on going about it the same way. Digitization doesn't happen with the snap of Jewel Aich's fingers!

What I find really lacking is an easy way to report when a public office declines to provide someone a service, fails to provide a service, or asks for unlawful funding from the public (recently, there was an extra charge under "Miscellaneous" for re-issuing my wife's license even after all the due payments have been made). At the point these happen, you are standing at a public office, quite possibly having traveled through Dhaka's usual high traffic, sweating, uneasy, and also having to spend time away from your actual day job, and you may ponder what is the way to get what you came for. I assume the beings behind the counter know these all too well, and that is what gives them the courage and pleasure to put you in a tight spot, where you'd rather pay that extra charge than having to risk not getting the right papers. Imagine driving without a license, or going for that business trip without a passport, or not being able to pick up your Tax Certificate, or not getting to register your new born child!

These officers have too much leverage on the public that they use to their gain, and the way out is to take away that leverage. Digitization IS a possibility for that, but immediately actionable consequences to these officers' way of working is also a quickly implementable counter to it. If those anti-corruption posters had along with those high sounding advice, a hotline that handles complaints for that specific office, and you could launch a direct complaint against the handler, or the office. It could be a mobile court, or there could be an overseeing officer responsible for action against malpractices within that office. Even while writing this, I can see how it falls into a cycle, since somewhere within our systems, we need people we can rely on.


Related:

দুর্নীতি দেশের সব জায়গায়

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Politics of Love

Three campaigners sit by a bar at the end of a day, and discuss how their campaign efforts are not working out. One of them says its always a politician's need to be loved that propels them to presidencies. Those that do not have that need, do not become presidents.

This is the scene out of a movie called Game Change, which is adapted from a book by the same name. The movie goes through the US Republican camp's desperate efforts to rise above the Obama-mania of the time by hiring the "mavericky" Sarah Palin.

I am very interested in the psyche of politicians, especially, being where I am, where every 5 years, the definitions of heroes and villains are almost drastically reversed. Like a bad soap opera, the drama never ends and couples are breaking up and then making out once again! That need to be loved, however rings true. And sometimes you see this aspect depicted in Disney movies like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where the Queen takes the counsel of a magic mirror who assures her that she is in fact, the 'fairest' of them all. One time that mirror said she was not, the queen was ready to go to the point of murder, to get her position back.

Not so much a fairy tale.

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