I
grant you, many days of the year are not patriotic holidays in
Bangladesh. But November 7 used to be celebrated under the
grand name “National Revolution and Solidarity Day.” This holiday
commemorated an uprising in 1975, and it was celebrated until 2007.
Now some people denounce the uprising as the killing of freedom
fighters—and the national holiday is on the scrapheap of history.
Yet
I still found “National Revolution and Solidarity Day in
Bangladesh” on several lists of worldwide holidays on the internet.
There was no little asterisk explaining that it WAS a holiday but is
no longer a holiday, no nuanced explanation that the day might not
have had anything to do with solidarity (a movement of unity within a
group or nation) in the first place, no warning that today's visitors
in Bangladesh shouldn't expect parades and fireworks!
Once
again, I re-realize that, although there is a lot of information on
the internet, there is also a lot of misinformation. And the
misinformation seems likely to be true because it is repeated on so
many different websites, put out by so many different people. It
takes some time and effort to realize that many people just
copy-paste stuff without checking it out—and so the misinformation
is as likely to be copied and repeated as the information.
On
to Bangladesh!
Bangladesh
is in South Asia, next to India. It used to be part of Great
Britain's Indian Empire, but in 1947 Britain gave up and carved
up its former colony into India, Pakistan, and East Pakistan. It was
East Pakistan (sometimes called East Bengal) that is now the
independent nation of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh
is a low-lying country on the Ganges River delta, and it is warm and
rainy, prone to cyclones (which are the same as hurricanes) and
flooding. Another low-lying nation, the Netherlands, is helping to
fund a project to build “cross dams” and allow silt to build up
and create new, fertile land.
Bangladesh
suffers, not just from storms and floods, but also from poverty,
overpopulation, and corruption in government. Still, a lot of
progress has been made there. For example, life expectancy has
increased by 23 years (from 47 years to 70 years). That's a pretty
big jump!
Check
out some of the beauties and interesting sights of Bangladesh in this tourism video.
For
more on Bangladesh, check out this earlier post.
Also
on this date:
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