Our image abroad

I think it would be useful for you to realise that people will think about what they wish to bother about, and it is not up to anyone else to force others to find interest in something that they don't like. If we make people from other countries think of Bangladesh as a paradise, it won't do anyone any good, my friend! I know that's not exactly the picture you are asking the media to portray, but we are still a staggeringly poor country.

Me, you -- the educated reading The Daily Star-- are a minority in our society. Those scantily clad children are a part of the nation and that's what our majority people look like. Those floods that we are infamous for are a reality which numerous struggling countrymen face every year. We face it, as we do not have the proper resources, ability and motivation, to deal with seasonal flood.

The image of us being stuck in the 1890's with bullocks and carts on the muddy pathways is obviously the one that foreigners have. We, the educated, must concern ourselves with much more important things than trying to force a fictitious idea into foreign minds to further the image of our country.

The fact that we have shopping malls and taxis in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, and some other places might indicate that we are coming out of poverty, slowly but surely. I urge you to face the reality which is Bangladesh. This is our motherland and Bengalees are a nation with a glorious history.

If I have offended you in any way, take the words of Mahatma Gandhi as a message of peace: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."