The Buriganga River flows through southwestern Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, with traffic not too much different than the rest of the city. Small wooden porter boats dodge hulking barges and foghorns blare as children swim off concrete banks. The waters are dark and murky, and the city’s trash washes up on its beaches. The Keraniganj area of the river is dotted by shipyards, squeezed … Continue reading Working between water and steel
In preparing for this trip to Dhaka, our professor Nadia White told us all to “tell it like it is.” We would not be sugarcoating anything, or glazing over the important details. Our reporting would be focused on climate change, specifically related to loss and damages. We were asked to research and prepare to report on a related issue in Bangladesh, where we would “tell … Continue reading Feeling it like it is
By Lauren Reinhart When I got my passport back from the consulate in New York with my visa for Bangladesh, I thought I would not have to worry about it ever again. In short, I was wrong. The trouble all started back in February. I was stressed out when Nadia White, our professor, sent all of the class passports off to New York to get … Continue reading Problem child creating more problems
Today is May 16, 2024, and I’m writing this in a small hotel in Dhaka where we’re waiting for our AirBnB to open up. Two days ago, Clayton Murphy, Maddie McCuddy, Renna Al-Haj and I left Missoula and drove to Seattle to fly out, first to Doha, Qatar, and now Dhaka, Bangladesh. The journey to get here was lively. In Seattle, we had wonderful hosts, … Continue reading ‘Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.’
For decades, Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi intellect and climate activist, urged representatives of poorer countries from the global south to “tell it like it is.” Farmers, politicians, activists needed to make global leaders aware of the nitty gritty of the impacts emissions from richer nations have on the poorest of the poor, he said. At the highest levels of climate diplomacy, he argued that richer … Continue reading See it like it is
UM to Bangladesh 