Last Thursday I attended a stakeholder meeting at the Dhaka Export Processing Zone. It was similar to the one I attended in Chittagong when I first arrived (which seems like eons ago). The first 30 minutes were fairly interesting as it was David (the Solidarity Center's Country Director) last meeting (he is leaving for Cambodia Thursday, a step up in the life style department, which should tell you something about here) so much of it was very friendly between all involved. I kind of got a better sense of the relationship between the Solidarity Center and the government as it currently stands which although strained seems more friendly than I had thought. The government official in charge of DEPZ tried his best to paint a very rosy picture regarding worker's rights and wages in the EPZ zones. The weirdest part of his power point presentation was definitely the scanned thank you notes written by visiting US government officials. Things like, "Had a great time, thank you for showing us around" scrawled by the assistant to the US Trade Representative used as evidence of just how wonderful everything was here.
Once David left the meeting switched entirely to Bangla and apparently nobody felt like translating that day, so I sat there not understanding a word of anything that was said for over an hour. It was, to put it mildly, not a fun experience. It is almost like a nightmare to be the only person in the room who can't understand what it is going on. Add this to my ever-increasing list of bizarre situations I have found myself in.
No comments:
Post a Comment