Common Law

One of the interesting things that came up this last week in Bangladesh was in a discussion on gender issues. In Bangladesh, inheritance laws are based on religion. If you are a Muslim, then your estate gets broken up by the laws for Islamic people. If you are Hindu, your estate gets broken up by the laws that govern Hindus. If you are Christian, your estate gets broken up according to Catholic laws (sorry everyone else, they were the largest sect of Christianity when the laws were written). If you are Buddhist you get your estate broken up according to Buddhist traditions.

The interesting part from what I understand is that there are no provisions for any other religions or lack thereof. Good luck being an atheist here! For the common Bengali, that is not even a concept they comprehend.

Bangladesh is not like the US where there is a common law that governs and this division goes beyond just inheritance laws. For instance, Christians are not permitted to divorce since this goes against official Catholic church traditions.

Feel free to use this information to make yourself appear smart and cool at all your upcoming Christmas functions! I am allowed to mention Christmas now that Thanksgiving is over right?

Last week Dengue, this week a new job...

So the reason I didn't post last week was because I had dengue. Dengue is a viral disease that you get from mosquitoes much in the same way you get malaria. It is nicknamed the "bone breaking" disease. They call it this because it makes your body ache all over. Luckily, my case was a seemingly mild one and I got away without too much pain. I didn't however get away from the energy sapping portions of it. There is no treatment or cure for dengue. You just have to wait it out and even now, 2.5 weeks after it started, I still feeling tired from it. I am slowly regaining energy but physically and mentally I'm drained by about 8 each night which is quite an improvement from a week ago when reading a book would exhaust me within minutes. That my friends is my excuse for not posting last week.

In other news, I have had a job change as well. I have been asked if I would be willing to take on the role of F&SS administrator. F&SS stands for Financial and Support Services. I have accepted this role and will be moving to Dhaka. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this job. On one hand, I hate to leave Bogra but recognize that I would be doing that in 7 months anyway as a result of getting married. It will also be more work and responsibility at the same pay! Lol, I find it amusing that I even think about pay. On the other hand, I recognize that there is a need for someone to do the job and it is a very good opportunity for me to get some management experience. The end result is this, I told the powers that be that to be the F&SS administrator is not my ambition in life and should such a time arise that I'm not needed in that role, they could feel free to ask me to step aside with zero hard feelings. The fact that my timeline should force me to choose a new direction in 1.5 years actually is one of the reasons I work out for this position to begin with. As far as I can tell, it is a match for both sides that has to do with taking advantage of opportune situations. I guess that's all most people really ever hope for in life...

Sacrifice Eid

People aren't very good at following directions in Bangladesh...

The Eid sacrifice makes the lake run with blood. I thought of the biblical story of the Nile turning to blood in this situation. What you can't see clearly here is enormous amount of fish swimming around in the bloody water. They were having a hay day munching on whatever fish munch on in blood.

Trick or treat anyone? This lady was taking her two children around with bags to collect beef scraps from the local wealthy people who were able to sacrifice a cow. The street are filled with poorer people doing this on Eid afternoon. I've heard that rich people may even give out money with the meat.

This weekend was Eid-al-Adha. This is the sacrifice Eid. Everyone leaves to go to their village home and those who stay in Dhaka are either too poor to have a village home or rich enough to have a home in Dhaka. This creates a very empty Dhaka with what supposedly was 400,000 cows to be sacrificed. The cost of cows doubles or triples at this time of year and from my understanding wealthy families are expected to buy and sacrifice one if they are able. They are then to distribute 1/3 to the poor, 1/3 to their neighbors, and 1/3 goes to their extended family. It is kind of a big deal here.