May 02, 2007

Some facts about Bangladesh

A VSO volunteer compiles today's statistics on Bangladesh (source: UNICEF, UN MDG, UNDP, World Bank). Some quoted here with my comments in parentheses:

… 100 children died from diseases relating to a lack of clean drinking water (Recent heatwave is responsible)

… 3 people were killed extrajudiciarly by the Rapid Action Battalion in ‘crossfire’ incidents (No comment)

… the caretaker government arrested 1000 people with no hope of trial (No comment)

… 5 children were killed in road traffic accidents (In a nation of 140 million people figure out the percentage and compare with other nations)

… 30,000 new Bangladeshis were born (ditto)

… 2,000 of them will have died on the same day (ditto)

… 120 of their mothers also died (ditto)

… 85% of people earned less than $2 ($2 equals 140 Taka more than the daily minimum wage of Bangladesh. In rural area people can sustain with much lower income)

… half of all children under five remained malnourished (Because reducing poverty is being neglected in countries politics)

… $5.5 million of national debt was paid off (Still more left but Bangladesh is paying back)

… 160 women and girls were illegally trafficked out of the country to become sex workers in India (This is a Global problem)

… 75 million people did not have a toilet to use (I doubt the statistics. What defines a toilet here? I may ask. In rural areas people use makeshift ones which are of course not hygienic and are not deemed a toilet in the statistics)

… 6 million people were more than 1 kilometer from any form of water supply (Water water everywhere but not any drop to drink)

… 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted (US emission in 2005 7147.2 million metric tonnes)

"If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don't get all the facts, it can't be right."

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