“Egotistical” Bangladeshi professionals living in “home away from home”

WE found the Op-Ed piece "Home away from home" (TDS, May 10, 2015) written by Dr. Fahmida Khatun very interesting. It's interesting not only because it raises some questionable issues, such as Bangladeshi professionals living abroad being "egotistical professionals confined to criticism and cynicism [of their compatriots], instead of attempting to improve the image of their country," but more importantly because it exposes the mindset of the author.

In Bangladesh, generosity, incentive, and bribery have all merged into one; there is no distinction. If someone comes to you and asks you to write a letter of recommendation to your friend or colleague and as a reward that person offers you a small gift, what would you call it, generosity or bribery? It depends on the mindset or the prevailing attitude.

We would like to ask her—will she, as a professional, be prepared to lose her objectivity and give flowery recommendations to an undeserving person, just because that person happens to be her countryman? We wouldn't. Yes, we do recommend Bangladeshis for jobs in academia and other disciplines. But we know them. We know their background, achievements, capability, scholarly output, etc. We advise and recommend students and graduates of Bangladeshi origin for graduate study, faculty positions and post-doctoral work. However, we are objective in our recommendations.

Helping a countryman inappropriately or violating the norms of honest behaviour isn't patriotism,it's corruption. However, if we find our countrymen have been unduly rejected or suffered injustice just because they were black or brown or some other unjust reason, we would protest vigorously and try to remedy the situation as much as we can.  

Networking is one thing, but asking for false recommendations is another. The reluctance to go out of the way to prop up somebody isn't unprofessional, it's quite normal in the Western culture. We feel that we must get away from the culture of sycophancy and wallowing in the culture of presumptuous self-importance. Otherwise, we would only help to perpetuate a culture of corruption, which one can see endemic in Bangladesh.

The writers are a Nuclear Safety Specialist (Manchester, U.K.) and a Professor of Physics (Fordham University, New York), respectively.