May Day

Happy (belated) May Day Comrades!

Yesterday was May Day, the international celebration of labor (or labour, as it is spelled in this hemisphere); a time for the workers of the world to unite…they have nothing to lose but their chains! Don’t worry Mom. I didn’t make that up, my homey K. Marx did back in the 1800s. When I was in high school, my mother held a deep suspicion that I was in a communist cult of some kind.

Anyway, May Day is a holiday in Bangladesh oddly enough. It makes sense that it would be a holiday in Calcutta (those West Bengalis are Red through and through), but I didn’t think it would be a big deal in Dhaka. Well it was, and I had the day off presumably to ponder the plight of the proletariat. And to eat cookies. Anyway, to celebrate, I have included some pictures of some of the hard working people of Dhaka. I wanted you to get a sense of the kind of employment “opportunities” people have here.

Jobs in urban Bangladesh range from high-level international finance positions to breaking bricks with a hammer for 10 hours a day. It’s heart breaking how desperate people are for work. Often, when people find out I work with BRAC or live in America, they ask me to get them a job. I try to explain that I am a lowly intern and instead of earning I actually PAY money to be in Bangladesh. People with Masters degrees have said things to me like “it doesn’t matter if its physical labor…even if I have to clean toilets, I’ll do any job in America.” Most of the servers at the American club are college-educated people with excellent English, yet many patrons of the club often treat them as if they’re nothing but mindless servants. I actually witnessed a woman snap her fingers at the bartender the other day. It smacks of the jolly old “Days of the Raj” under the British Empire. It makes my blood boil. Anyway, enjoy your May Day. I’m sure being in the blue-blooded USA, you don’t get the day off to celebrate this “commie bastard” occasion, so have a good day at work (ha).

Damn the man,

TKP