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A love letter to an unlivable Dhaka
How does it feel to live day in and day out in a city where the air is not only heavy with unhealthy particles but bitter recriminations and even a heavier sense of doom and gloom? How do its dwellers—some fated, hapless souls—brave the city, having to breathe its unhealthy air, navigating their way through the unbearable sadness of being?
If you have ever been to Dhaka, you know how odd this sounds. Dhaka is anything but star-crossed and pensive. It is an incredibly feisty city, always throbbing with energy. Dhaka has a very special place in my heart, and this is my love note to the ever elusive city I grew up in, fall out with and yet eventually come back to.
Let me start with a clarification, notwithstanding my strong emotional strings, I’m not in the least in denial. I proclaim my love for Dhaka neither to invalidate its infamous status in the livability index, nor to counter its unhealthy AQI. On the contrary, these baleful statistics make me come back to what I have been trying to grapple with for the longest time, even more deeply—what it is about the city that both repels and attracts, in short, its magnetic quality. It is a city at once bestial and benevolent, unsettling and comforting, beautiful and ugly, a city that surprises you with sudden bursts of harmony in cacophony, order amidst chaos. It is this paradox at the heart of Dhaka that eludes the tight grip of a single, tempting frame of an “unlivable city,” the one-dimensional negation of all else that Dhaka is.
Typologies like megacity, global city, smart city turn the city into an exhibit, a performative site, dynamic but inauthentic, cold at heart. As an exhibit Dhaka may have failed miserably, for it has stepped into the shoes of a megacity by virtue of its huge population, without the adequate support structures. Hence, it is easy to denounce Dhaka as a city gone awry, an urban behemoth, the evil Hyde. “Did you really want to be this?” I wonder. Not everything “mega” needs to be emulated. Some “unloving” is surely in order. Instead of trying to live up to this beguiling ascription that invariably results in the frustration of always falling short, I wish Dhaka could just part ways with the naturalised claim of being mega once and for all and rejoice in its ordinariness and the rare opportunity it provides of encountering the familiar pleasures of small worlds in its crowded streets. If anything, this has become a failed marriage, and Dhaka is doomed to this unhappy togetherness. I cannot but feel you, my dear Dhaka.
I know you are quite a trickster! Take the most recent aggressive invasion of the cityscape by the glaring digital screens hoisted onto every nook and corner, for example. It can easily deceive the uninitiated into believing this to be Dhaka’s blind affirmation of “modern” social forms and practices. Take a careful look at those screens blinking away, and see how they alter our spatial experiences like never before, creating a new rhetoric of space. While it lets the mundane buildings assume a magical lustre, liquefying its solid contours and edges, it creates a new, temporary space between reality and fantasy, making them appear and disappear as if with the wave of a magic wand.
Contrary to popular belief, they don’t help connect with the city better, or make it any more readable. This well-lit phantasmagoria marks a disconnect with the physical city. It is in these indefinite spaces that Dhaka lets you lose your way, and partake in the pleasures of straying. It is this subversiveness in the supposed conformity that is exciting about Dhaka.
A headstrong city, Dhaka resists all controlling, sanitising attempts that can stop it from being real. In fact, Dhaka is too real to be overlooked. The human touch, albeit wicked at times, is never lost. It is a city where when you install new dustbins, they get stolen piece by piece, a city where everything has a value and is reusable, down to the manhole top, everything can be fixed and nothing goes to waste. There is no escape from its quirky sense of place. You don’t choose to enter the city, it slithers in and claims you, but not in a binding way. Like a true, sensible lover, it lets you wander, and wallow in the messier delights it has on offer.
One of the greatest observers of the city, Walter Benjamin, was fascinated by the modern city’s capacity to “shock.” What still flickers strong in Dhaka is exactly this, its erratic nature. You can’t presuppose Dhaka. Even with Google maps, Dhaka will always surprise you. There is a lot more than the anxiety of impending doom that pervades our experience of this “unlivable city.” It is the pleasure of leaving the ordinary world behind, and finding these shallow recesses of the extraordinary, where the true magic of the city lies.
Coming back to the weight of the judgment on Dhaka’s livability, it is alarming no doubt, but proliferating negative discourses doesn’t help. It creates an impasse. You don’t go discussing the lethal effects of cancer to a patient who is afflicted by it, simply because this knowledge alone can’t help redress the circumstances. If Dhaka were a person, would you do the same? We are too much into grieving over a mythical past that many of us have not even experienced. We have to stop treating the present Dhaka with the nonchalance of a lover on the rebound. This quirky, cool Dhaka deserves your better sense and a lot more love.
Tabassum Zaman is a Dhaka enthusiast who teaches at the University of Liberal Arts
Bangladesh (ULAB).
It is a city at once bestial and benevolent, unsettling and comforting, beautiful and ugly, a city that surprises you with sudden bursts of harmony in cacophony, order amidst chaos. It is this paradox at the heart of Dhaka that eludes the tight grip of a single, tempting frame of an “unlivable city”.
Photo: Ata Mojlish
Demystifying the data-governance conundrum
Mimi Onuoha, an artist and adjunct professor at New York University, made an art installation titled “The Library of Missing Datasets”. Her aim was simply intriguing, punctuated by the thought that “wherever large amounts of data are collected, there are often empty spaces where no data live”. Deep down, this depicts our very system,which makes for the preponderance of cherry-picked data while leaving the unpleasant ones unattended. This, in turn, provides pressure groups with the opportunity to shift the blame onto the data-governance system used because sometimes, absence of particular data looks like a deliberate act of omission by the authorities concerned.
In this ever-evolving world, intertwined by terms like big-data, data analytics, data crunching and what not, we are literally swimming in an ocean of data. However, while navigating the tricky path of data on myriad fronts, finding appropriate data appears to be a major challenge coupled with its accessibility, relevance, and quality. This situation is amplified when it comes to the developing world and Bangladesh is no exception in this regard. Moreover, it acts as an overarching reminder that sometimes the vulnerable aspects in a socio-economic setting can be near-invisible to policymakers because data pertaining to those aspects do not always provide statistical comfort and thus, they remain missing in efforts to quantify.
Coming back to Bangladesh, inadequate and sometimes contradictory data on important indicators dent stakeholders’ confidence, and such contradictions lead to mistrust. Additionally, data from sources other than that of the government are being largely overlooked. Moreover, existing data generation and target-setting principles are believed to lack acceptable standards and practices. Therefore, stakeholders often face challenges in agreeing upon what sources to follow and what data to accept. Eventually, this confusion often ends in a cul-de-sac .
All of us might be aware of the fact that the government of Bangladesh started its policy planning with an agreed principle to see its formulation through an ‘SDG lens’. The United Nations stated that data will be crucial to tracking the progress of SDGs and in formulating a monitoring and evaluation framework for the implementation of the SDGs. However, Bangladesh is already facing a significant data gap for tracking the SDGs, as statistics on two-thirds of the indicators are either partially available or not available at all, according to a report titled “Data Gap Analysis for SDGs: Bangladesh Perspective” conducted by UNDP Bangladesh. The study underscored that there are 241 indicators to monitor the 169 targets under 17 SDGs, but data of only 70 indicators are readily available, 108 partially available and 63 not available at all.
However, the data gap situation seems to have improved a bit when Bangladesh published its first progress report on the SDGs. According to the report, around 30 percent of indicators had readily available data, while 47 percent had partial data or required further analysis of raw data to reach useful conclusions on respective indicators. Maybe, inclusion of the UN system and other international agencies as data providers have helped in curtailing some data gaps.
The data-gap issue is prevalent in other areas too. For instance, a large gap in the total tax revenue collection data between the National Board of Revenue and the Controller General of Accounts office puzzles the government every year. This prompted the authorities concerned to establish an institutional partnership for addressing the discrepancy in revenue collection data. Additionally, areas like trade, investment, manufacturing, financial markets, informal sector, poverty, employment etc. all come up with contradictory data.
We must understand that in any setting, data sits in multiple systems, separated by technical and functional boundaries. The principle strategy to complement this setting will be to undertake collaborative reforms and implement a comprehensive set of activities to enhance the capacity of relevant agencies to produce data within their boundaries. This collaboration would lead to opportunities for evidence-based policy making and implementation. Moreover, regular interactions between researchers and policymakers and sharing each other’s perspectives is imperative. It is evident that by contextualising research within the development landscape and by translating data into evidence, researchers help policymakers embrace research-backed policy actions for greater impact.
However, mainstreaming researchers in to policy planning depends on the way government, relevant stakeholders, and the civil society understand the dynamics of research and researchers. Apparently, researchers are often perceived as thought-leaders speaking in a language only understood by their peers and thereby, they are often seen isolated from the wider development conversation. This results in a situation where their efforts are not necessarily translated into evidence for the decision-making hierarchy and thus fails to create impact commensurate to its true potential. Moreover, the very apparent industry-academia gap is another stark reality prompting data discrepancy.
Additionally, there is an urgent need to map institutional expertise and capacities for better collaboration and resource use, since different agencies are seen working on the same resources using the same technology, meaning overlapping efforts and waste of resources. Moreover, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the national statistics agency, along with several other agencies such as NIPORT, DoE, DAE, BFD, BANBEIS, BB, EPB, NBR, DGHS etc., require tailor-made support for dealing with new types of data analytics as well as for embracing allied technologies.
“Data Governance” is a happening term right now and good data does matter to get a grip on this. Harnessing the true potential of data by translating it into evidence can not only further its impact, but also help in defining holistic development.
Sabbir Rahman Khan is a Research Associate at the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI)
Bangladesh is already facing a significant data gap for tracking the SDGs, as statistics on two-thirds of the indicators are either partially available or not available at all. A study conducted by UNDP Bangladesh underscored that there are 241 indicators to monitor the 169 targets under 17 SDGs, but data of only 70 indicators are readily available, 108 partially available and 63 not available at all.
CROSSWORD BY THOMAS JOSEPH
ON THIS DAY
IN HISTORY
ACROSS
1 Most pleasant
7 Dress in
11 Source of answers
12 Like a desert
13 NHL team
15 Poker payments
16 Big gulp
18 Dollops
21 Wound reminder
22 High-collared jackets
24 Chest muscle, for short
25 Take to court
26 Lingerie item
27 Short sock
29 Singer Laine
30 Frog’s cousin
31 “That was close!”
32 Opera’s Callas
34 NBA team
40 Rotate
41 Arises
42 Aid in crime
43 Like some winter days
DOWN
1 Silent assent
2 Lyricist Gershwin
3 “East of Eden” brother
4 Bakery treat
5 Informal talk
6 Ordeal
7 Holmes’s helper
8 Important time
9 Ventilate
10 Hwys.
14 Musical transition
16 Fragrance
17 Loony
19 Sermon volume
20 Threaded fastener
21 Relaxing retreat
22 Noted pharaoh
23 – Paulo
25 Car type
28 Bemoan
29 Pure
31 Screen dot
33 Equips
34 Sch. support group
35 Wheel part
36 Lode material
37 Employ
38 Squirrel’s snack
39 007, for one
JANUARY 21, 1976
First commercial Concorde flight
Generating a sonic boom as it traveled through the atmosphere at supersonic speed, the Concorde, a commercial aircraft built with funding from the British and French governments, began regular service on this day
in 1976.
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