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Sony’s got a lock on the Bangladesh market

Seriously, the squat toilet that I balance over daily is branded “Sony.” And that’s about as minor an example of the weird, wonderful world of Bangladesh that I can think off. Pics follow after the main post, all are from flickr, click to expand…

I’ve been here a mind-blowing two weeks now, and have navigated Dhaka, done an overnight paddlewheel voyage down a river, moved into a bunk bed in volunteer barracks in Rayenda, and have helped build two houses and a school. Bangladesh is such a mish mash that I’m just going to throw stuff out in point form:

1. Dhaka is crazy. Its the capital city of Bangladesh, comprised of around 12 million Bangladeshis. Its polluted like you’ve never seen - day or night, the sky is gray haze, and visibility is limited to a few kilometers (keeping in mind that Bangladesh is laser level flat). The people are perennially friendly, and never does one feel threatened. And there’s grocery stores that sell $1 knock-off DVD’s - perfect for relaxing in the island of calm that is your hotel room.
2. If you ever need to travel within Bangladesh, take the Rocket - that’s the big paddlewheel river steamer network. Its slow (it took us 24 hours), but infinitely more comfortable and relaxing than the 9 hour bus ride would have been. Consider: the roads are horrible and pitted, making bus rides extremely bumpy; the bus seats are built to Bangla-scale - way too small for the average Westerner; and they’re rather harrowing - two friends texted us today to say that their bus hit and killed a boy, and then peeled out of there to avoid the bus driver being mobbed and killed. Then again, the Rocket liners have a habit of sinking.
3. Rural Bangladesh is a wonderful, fascinating place. I’m woken up every morning by a succession of dog packs barking, cats fighting, roosters crowing, and mosques broadcasting calls to prayer. After a day or two, it seems entirely natural.
4. Anyone not Bangla is Elvis. Seriously, when my wife and I go into the bazaar, there’s 50+ people following us around in a big group, shouting stuff about whatever were buying, asking out names, and where were from. As odd as it may sound, this too becomes natural very quickly, and its actually disconcerting to wander around alone.
5. There’s a profound disconnect between state of existence and state of mind here. The most destitute people here live in the “landless zone” - a squatter village for those who don’t own land. There’s no electricity, no running water, no police, no healthcare, no services of any kind. And life consists of backbreaking fishing and manual labor, followed by carving a home out of mud, bits of lumber and tin. And in the middle of all of this, smiling crowds will pile around you, drag your around to their home, their friend’s home, the river bank or wherever, and generally have a great time. Perhaps its easy to maintain a cheerful disposition when you’ve never known anything else.
6. Were in a town of 50,000 people. There is not a single bank. In fact, the closes bank is 3-5 hours away in Khulna. Consider the implications for the economy, the financial services infrastructure and everything else - its wild how cut off from the world we know this place is.
7. I’m writing this post on my laptop, connected to a cellphone, which is connected to the Internet with unlimited bandwith for $15/month. The cell network never goes down, in a town where the electricity outages regularly outlast my laptop battery. This is the essence of leapfrogging, and I wonder what the social implications will be from the penetration of technology into a people who haven’t had any chance to acclimatize to it.
8. Volunteering is a wonderful experience. There’s nothing more satisfying than falling into bed after a day of spinecrushing manual labour under a sweltering bangla sun, helped on by a beaming family.

That’s it for the moment, but thank goodness I’ve finally got this internet connection hooked up - its great to be back online, and profoundly satisfying be so connected from such a remote place.

bangladesh volunteering

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Tin Whiskers and the coming Electro Armageddon

Sounds like a death metal band right? Unfortunately for all of us, its not - instead, its referring to a phenomenon know as “tin whiskers” in which soldered joints in electronics grow minuscule metal stalactites that eventually even short out the device in question, or explode and physically disable it. Tin, if you didn’t know, is the primary material used to solder the wiring joins in your computer, car, iPod, phone, etc. Without lead being mixed in with the tin solder, whiskers abound.

At the core of the issue is the industry-wide switch to lead-free solder, ostensibly for health reasons. Lead, as Robert Cringley explains, is the only way to stop tin whiskers, and do-good “green” legislators have done away with it.

As commenter D. McCorvey points out on Robert’s post…

The only way to prevent tin whiskers reliably is to add lead to solder and use no tin anywhere else in electronic assemblies. Even the ‘lead free’ solders such as tin-silver-copper have been shown to grow whiskers over time.

So, a few months ago, my 2 year old Casio Exilim started falling apart. It lost the ability to read/write SD cards, then the CCD crapped out such that all it could show was a varicolored blur. Is this unwarranted, mysterious failure a result of tin whiskers? I don’t really know, but I question any legislation that guarantees a limited lifetime, followed by interminable landfill decomposition, for electronics. As Cringley’s post title notes, “sometimes going hurts more than it helps.”

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Off to Bangladesh!

Were on our way shortly to Bangladesh - leaving within hours! A bit of nerves building, but I think were pretty well set up. Were flying “Biman” - the Bangladesh national carrier - from Singapore direct. Its actually a four hour flight - the distances around Asia can be deceiving (or the planes are slow!). We’ll arrive likely around 1:00AM, when we’ll (hopefully) get picked up by our B&B - the Green House. Were splurging - will be around 40-50 USD per night, but the airport pickup makes it worth it. Additionally, it comes recommended by another volunteer who just shipped out to Rayenda (the town where our volunteer group is based) - apparently the b&b staff were instrumental in getting transporation, mobile internet access, and everything else - so we don’t mind paying a bit for the help.

So - Saturday, we’ll figure out how quickly we can get on the road for Rayenda. We’ll do the first leg of the journey (24 hours!) on a Rocket Steamer - which is essentially like the Paddlewheel queen with private sleeper cabins. When we get into our transfer point the next day, its either a bus or a tramp steamer to get to our final destination. Then - a 20 minute walk across town, and were home for the next two months! That walk should be interesting - apparently foreigners attract large crowds wherever they go once you’re outside of Dhaka. However disconcerting the crowds may be at first, they’re just friendly and curious, and apparently one becomes used to them very quickly.

Below is a map of Bangladesh - see Barisal? Apparently Rayenda (which is too small at 50,000 people to show up on the map) is somewhere around there:

View Larger Map

The weather in Rayenda is surprisingly cool - it seems to be topping out around 25 in the day, going down to 10 at night. Believe it or not, I’ve actually packed long johns to sleep in - not ordinarily something one packs for south east Asia!

Anyway - if you’d like to know more about what we’ll be up to in Bangladesh, you can read all about it on the Hands On Disaster Response website, and check out their Flickr stream.

Alrighty - there’s packing to finish, so I’m off - next writing from Bangladesh!

bangladesh, dhaka, hodr volunteering

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PSP Outnumbers Nintendo DS Twenty to One

Its a funny thing to be disabused so thoroughly of a notion that you’ve got stuck in your head. In North America, Sony’s PSP is certainly playing second fiddle to Nintendo’s DS, but in Singapore at least, the situations are completely reversed. The PSP dominates here. Every train ride I’ve taken has multiple people banging away on their PSP’s - young, old, professional, student, solo, or group - its eclipsed only by the number of people with mobiles.

So far, I’ve seen about 40 PSP’s on the train, and a total of two DS’s. Perhaps the PSP’s layout is friendlier to train riders than juggling a stylus or tapping at the DS’s stacked screens, or perhaps the more expensive PSP is a conspicuous status symbol - who knows. But when I went out for dinner tonite, I noted a bank giving away PSP’s for opening an account - branding it as both desireable and mainstream - a powerful market position.

nintendo, singapore sony

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Hello from Singapore!

Sometime when I was in the air, Microsoft got all crazy and made a bid for Yahoo - insanity. I haven’t had a chance to read up on it yet, but I’m still astounded that Ballmer actually pulled the trigger.

Anyway - Singapore is gorgeous - yes, Zoli, its pretty familiar, but just different enough to be exciting (Little India was great last night), and a nice transition for us asia-neophytes. Next destination at the end of the week will be Melaka (resort town) in Malaysia, then its off to the wilds of Bangladesh…

You can follow along on our Flickr photostream, btw! Enjoy

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