AP Features, November 25th, 2007
The cyclone that ravaged Bangladesh's coast has left the country reeling, but it's only the latest addition to this unlucky nation's list of plagues.
There's the grinding poverty that forces some 60 million people to live on less than US$1 a day.
There's the overpopulation that has made nearly 150 million crowd into a country the size of the U.S. state of Iowa, where 3 million people live.
There's the rampant corruption, the political state of emergency, the power shortages in the teeming cities and the annual floods on the low-lying coast.
Some plagues are exotic — the man-eating tigers of the mangrove forests — and some are mundane — the thick-as-soup pollution in Dhaka, the impossibly congested capital.
"Sometimes," said Anwara Begum, a villager who lost her home and cattle in last week's cyclone, "it feels like Allah is not with us."
Whether it's in a village of bamboo huts or a city of honking traffic, life in Bangladesh is lived on the edge, and the smallest push can lead to disaster.
"I feel helpless," said Mohammed Abdur Rashid, 26, a sidewalk book vendor in Dhaka. "I'm a small man. I can't change the system."
It's a system that's stacked against ordinary people, one where the government is largely ineffective and bribes are necessary for everything from getting a driver's license to opening a vegetable stand.
Despite the myriad problems, recent political and economic developments are encouraging, showing that incomes are rising, infant mortality is falling and the economy is growing.
Still, Bangladesh is perennially ranked among the world's most corrupt nations, according to the Berlin-based watchdog group Transparency International. About 2 percent to 3 percent of its economy, or around US$1.5 billion (euro1 billion), is estimated to be lost annually to corruption.
"Having gotten elected, the politicians forgot the people and tried to do whatever they could for themselves," said Mizanur Rahman Shelley, head of the Dhaka-based Center for Development Research, Bangladesh.
The Muslim country has been troubled since it won independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The first prime minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated by army officers in 1975. His successor, Gen. Ziaur Rahman, was killed by soldiers in 1981.
In the decades since, leaders have contended with Islamic militants who aim to topple the government and install religious law.
The political instability has helped keep Bangladesh one of the world's poorest countries, but there are signs of hope in the disaster-prone land.
Bangladesh's military-backed government has launched a campaign to crush corruption that has won praise from all corners of the country.
In a series of astonishing moves, the interim government has gone after the biggest fish, jailing two of the country's former prime ministers on corruption charges, as well as a host of their associates and family members.
"At last, something is being done about corruption," said Syed Manjurul Islam, a professor at Dhaka University. "But this should have been done 30 years ago."
The imprisoned former leaders, Sheikh Hasina and her archrival Khaleda Zia, kept the country in a chokehold for 15 years as they traded the premiership back and forth, allegedly embezzling vast fortunes along the way and stymieing the political process with their deep enmity for one another.
Hasina is the daughter of Rahman, the first prime minister, and Zia is the widow of the second.
The changes are felt on the crowded streets.
Mohammad Haroun, a sidewalk fruit seller in Dhaka, used to have to pay a policeman 10-20 taka (15-30 U.S. cents) every day for his slab of pavement.
Since the interim government came to power in January, he said the police no longer demand bribes.
The country's economy has also improved dramatically in recent years, largely thanks to a booming textile industry. The economy grew 6.5 percent during the 2007 fiscal year and 6.6 percent the year before, according to the Asian Development Bank.
"I see change everywhere," said Islam, the professor. "I see more enterprising people, more young people with ambition. I don't think we will maintain the status quo."
The World Bank said in a report earlier this month that Bangladesh could almost double its per capita income to US$870 (euro585) by 2016 if corruption is curbed and the economy continues to grow.
In another promising sign, the infant mortality rate has fallen from 574 deaths per thousand births in 1990 to 66 in 2007, according to the World Bank.
Islam is guardedly optimistic about the country's future and despite the country's plagues, he said, "People have been working hard — they still are."
But for many, working hard isn't enough.
Juddistir Chandar Das, 45, a day laborer and fisherman on southwestern Bangladesh's coast, was barely able to feed his family before Cyclone Sidr destroyed his home on Nov. 15.
In the days since, things have only gotten worse.
"Sometimes I think death is better than this life," Das said.
