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Wherever We Live, There We Are: Echoes From The Other Side Of The World
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
With Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque
When I landed at the Dhaka Bangladesh airport three weeks ago, it was clouded by fog. In fact, four hours previous I was in Dubai when the PA bellowed that the flight to Dhaka was to be delayed. On hearing that, I mentioned to an American man I had met, that there must be fog in Dhaka. As I descended through the clouds that morning, I got a bird's eye view of just how foggy it can get in Bangladesh this time of year.
When the announcement came in Dubai, a woman with a British accent overheard me when I spoke with the American man. She turned and said, "Is this the first time you've been to Dhaka?" She said it in a voice that was kind of condescending, like get real man; this is Dhaka we're talking about. Without judging her voice, I simply retorted, no, this is my fourth visit to Dhaka. On hearing that, you could see, she wasn't expecting that, and she promptly decided to end the conversation. Who knows, maybe I've been to Dhaka many more times than she has.
Whatever she meant in infusing her opinion in my conversation, I don't know. However, on my flight to Dhaka this time around, there were several westerners, unlike the other three times, where I was about the only one. Who knows if that is a measurement of anything? I think in the west we mistake our presence to be some type of economic and social measurement. However, I resist that. When I'm on the other side of the world, I marvel at the dynamism of the place.
For you reading this in Dhaka, Dubai, Delhi or Mumbai, keep in mind I intend no denigration referring to the other side of the world as "the place." However, from my western perspective, once again journeying into the developing world directly opposite North America is always an education for me. In fact, seeing the flight routes for Emirates airlines and spending time in the Dubai airport is a laboratory for learning about what people do "on the other side of the world."
It might be a measure to how truly insular most of us are. For instance on purpose I've hardly mentioned where I've been the last few weeks in my other writing genres. Most of us are ensconced in our work, and when we do that, sometimes we think the world revolves around us. For those of us who can, if we could fly into different parts of the world for a few weeks, I think this world would be so much better and we would be richer for it.
If you are an economics writer in the west, you are programmed to write about "burgeoning Asian economic growth." We've been programmed that way because the high economic growth rates in Asian countries represent huge new markets for western goods. Seeing it up close is always good for my economist soul.
Take Bangladesh for instance. It is the quintessential laboratory for a country "going up the total product curve" as economists would say it. In other words, with incomes rising, this country is set to "take off" to a better economic future. And with that, the west will ultimately benefit.
When I was in Bangladesh you could see burgeoning economic growth everywhere. You can read about my trip by going to http://philipshaw.ca/category/phils-news/. Having taken four trips there over the last 16 years, I can really see things change. So much so, that I think I see it changing even more clearly than my Bangladeshi colleagues. When I was there, everything keeps rising up, whether it's the tea seller near Enamul's house or the Barbeque Tonite open air restaurant, jam packed with patrons.
It is not as if there are no problems or no empty stomachs, because there are. However, the country and the people keep rising up. Ditto across Asia. As I rode with Enamul to Zia International Airport on January 27th for my long plane ride back to snowy Toronto, what I saw brought it home to me again. To this Canadian riding in the back of a car looking out from a Dhaka traffic jam it was striking. There were people everywhere, in fact young people everywhere, and there were a lot of them, everywhere. Whether they know it or not, they are the gears that make Bangladesh move and because of them, their country's future is much brighter.
However, none of this is ever apparent at the time. All of us wherever we live, there we are. I suppose in many ways this column is a way to reach beyond that. Moving ahead, I'm sure I'll be on the other side of the world again someday. It's necessary for me, but in effect, it's necessary for all of us. It's a big world out there, and finding out about each other needs to be a natural priority.
What does good economic growth mean for Bangladesh?
Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque
Phil’s visit to Bangladesh is always something that I look forward to. After my return from Canada in 1991, Phil has visited me 4 times and I have visited him 3 times. It is a friendship that had developed between us since our schooling years at Guelph. He left Guelph after his MSc in 1987, I left Guelph in 1991 but our friendship remained intact. We are often in contact with each other and it has brought us to write this column since 2003. For the past 6 years, we have debated many issues of world politics and our discourses were designed to provide information to all of you, which cannot be processed through the lens of journalists or travel-log writers.
Ever since he landed in Dhaka this time (on the 14th January), we had discussed many issues in order to learn from each other and what I could gather from him is that he was always amazed with the penetration of mobile phone in Bangladesh. We visited a remote place called St Martin’s Island where diesel generators power electricity and it is only on for 6-7 hours a day but our mobile phone was still working. We could maintain the communication between St Martin and Dhaka, and between St. Martin and Dresden regularly too. I was so excited that I decided to call Phil’s parents from St. Martin. You can understand that neither Phil nor I was expecting such a smooth connection from St. Martin.
Six years in Bangladesh is long period of time! So when Phil returned to Dhaka this time, I could imagine that Phil or any other visitor would find a big change in the landscape of Dhaka or Bangladesh. Superimpose this with changes in the lifestyle, amenities and an average growth of population by 1.4 percent; you could see that the supply side of this economy needs serious boost. The domestic market has been growing at a rate of 6.5 percent for the past five years and so it has been difficult to deal with the growing demand. Here lies the opportunity for investment from capital rich countries like Canada.
While many had always considered population being a major problem for countries like Bangladesh, I always thought that it also brings in opportunities for Bangladesh. Development activists, foreign governments, investors, all take the opportunity of our densely populated economy. In fact, efficiency of foreign aid per dollar is the most in Bangladesh compared to others. Investors like mobile phone companies used few structures to link millions of population. Having said this, I believe that governments in Bangladesh never understood the advantage of our population.
For the past four decades, Bangladesh has received millions of dollars in aid and yet our achievement in poverty reduction has only began in the past 10 years. We have been reducing 1% of poor people each year and it was all possible because we boosted up the economic growth to above 5%. However, Bangladesh must also realize that nearly 40% of their populations are still living in poverty and this is the equivalent of nearly 60 million people. I believe that this is important for all of us to understand the growing difficulty of dealing with poverty in developing countries. While a recession is bad for the developed world and a mere 1-2% economic growth is seen as a positive thing for developed economies, an economic growth less than 5% effectively means a "negative" step in terms of dealing with poverty in Bangladesh and for this Bangladesh needs to steer its economy correctly.
East/West is a joint column written by A.K. Enamul Haque and Philip Shaw. Dr. A.K.Enamul Haque Ph.D, is a Professor of Economics at United International University. Philip Shaw M.Sc. is farmer, writer and broadcaster in Dresden, Ontario, Canada. Each month they will bring their uniquely East/West perspectives to specific topics of world interest.
