Making up for a misspent youth...
Let's face it: as much as I hate to admit it, I was a pretty good kid. Good enough that my parents never set a curfew for me throughout my entire angst-free teenage existence. So either I was a pretty good kid or my parents were liberal, balanced human beings, and I highly doubt that. Regardless of the rationale, I never experienced a curfew during my youth, which is a good indicator that it was drastically misspent.
But now, at the age of 26 it seems that Bangladesh is keen to make up for my misspent youth and I am living under a curfew for the first time in my life. And an 11pm one at that! Had my parents ever decided that my shenanigans merited a curfew, even they wouldn't have dared demand I be home by 11pm. Thankfully, there's not much on offer in Dhaka at that hour.
Of course, perhaps it's unfair of me to believe that Bangladesh is doing this all just for me. I suppose the fact that the country is in a state of emergency might have something to do with it.
Over the last 2 months I have become used to the fact that the political situation here changes status more often than most people change their underwear (that is to say daily, I hope). But I was still shocked last night when I received a call at 7:30pm to say that the caretaker President had stepped down, announced a state of emergency, deployed the army and imposed an 11pm-5am curfew. Along with this, the freedoms of movement, assembly, association, thought, conscience and speech are suspended.
At the time I was in the middle of packing my bags to go up north for the weekend - the fourth attempted flee of Dhaka to be foiled by yet another metamorphosis of pre-election Bangladesh. It seems someone is determined to keep me in Dhaka. Makes me wonder what they have to hide out there in the countryside...
By the tone of this entry, it should be clear I'm not too worried about this state of emergency we are in. In fact, it could be the first positive movement in an otherwise despondent stalemate of affairs. The date of the elections will now be renegotiated, which of course will involve more frustrating battles between political parties, but there is the small chance that they might actually manage to come to an agreement, making the new election a viable event. A new Chief Advisor to the interim 'care taker' government will also be chosen and hopefully some of the time all of this buys will be dedicated to improving the highly controversial voters list. So, if resolving these issues is what a state of emergency can offer, then I will happily put up with a curfew. For a while, anyway.
The other benefit if a state of emergency is that you get to play 'Emergency Tennis', which sounds even better than the more common 'Hartal Tennis'. Yes, expats in Dhaka find strange ways to amuse themselves...
It's not all fun and games for me today however. I do have to go get a key re-cut. It seems the first time they didn't get it quite right. Surprising, given the high technology used: a file. Perhaps there wasn't quite enough light coming from single bulb dangling in the tea stand next to the key-cutting 'shop' (read: man sitting on wooden platform on the side of the road) last night when I got it done...
But now, at the age of 26 it seems that Bangladesh is keen to make up for my misspent youth and I am living under a curfew for the first time in my life. And an 11pm one at that! Had my parents ever decided that my shenanigans merited a curfew, even they wouldn't have dared demand I be home by 11pm. Thankfully, there's not much on offer in Dhaka at that hour.
Of course, perhaps it's unfair of me to believe that Bangladesh is doing this all just for me. I suppose the fact that the country is in a state of emergency might have something to do with it.
Over the last 2 months I have become used to the fact that the political situation here changes status more often than most people change their underwear (that is to say daily, I hope). But I was still shocked last night when I received a call at 7:30pm to say that the caretaker President had stepped down, announced a state of emergency, deployed the army and imposed an 11pm-5am curfew. Along with this, the freedoms of movement, assembly, association, thought, conscience and speech are suspended.
At the time I was in the middle of packing my bags to go up north for the weekend - the fourth attempted flee of Dhaka to be foiled by yet another metamorphosis of pre-election Bangladesh. It seems someone is determined to keep me in Dhaka. Makes me wonder what they have to hide out there in the countryside...
By the tone of this entry, it should be clear I'm not too worried about this state of emergency we are in. In fact, it could be the first positive movement in an otherwise despondent stalemate of affairs. The date of the elections will now be renegotiated, which of course will involve more frustrating battles between political parties, but there is the small chance that they might actually manage to come to an agreement, making the new election a viable event. A new Chief Advisor to the interim 'care taker' government will also be chosen and hopefully some of the time all of this buys will be dedicated to improving the highly controversial voters list. So, if resolving these issues is what a state of emergency can offer, then I will happily put up with a curfew. For a while, anyway.
The other benefit if a state of emergency is that you get to play 'Emergency Tennis', which sounds even better than the more common 'Hartal Tennis'. Yes, expats in Dhaka find strange ways to amuse themselves...
It's not all fun and games for me today however. I do have to go get a key re-cut. It seems the first time they didn't get it quite right. Surprising, given the high technology used: a file. Perhaps there wasn't quite enough light coming from single bulb dangling in the tea stand next to the key-cutting 'shop' (read: man sitting on wooden platform on the side of the road) last night when I got it done...
posted by ash at 5:54 AM
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