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WINDOW ON ASIA

The Neon Lights of Prosperity Burn Bright

Shahed Latif
T
X hot and humid end of the day, the weather ni unusually cool. Bangkok - the city of Angels - aw. enjoying the air-conditioned tempera ture of 72 degree Fahrenheit on that wry rare December evening.
I mu out for dinner with a friend from Dhaka. Hie first visit east of Chittagong or Sylhet. Hence there were ■rnaaements tn his eyes ' Only two hours flying time from Dhaka yet the difference, are so remarkable — so acutely glaring Indeed. ’ he said Yes. it is true, the neon lights were bright, colourfully glowing ev erywhere, even from the ven dor's trolleys selling noodle soup. It seemed to me, from poverty-stricken Bangladesh that these were the neon lights of prosperity — the new found Aslan prosperity along the Pacific Rim
Bangkok during the last five years have become notorious for traffic congestions (apart from other notorieties) Good thing they have banned rick haws here, my friend thought. But It ts not correct Rickshaws were never banned It simply vanished. With more Income and modernisation, there were rising pressure on time. People could not tolerate such slow-moving transport
while they could afford more cars Every month 25.000 ad dlttonal cars cfog the streets of Bangkok. Moreover the city bus services are excellent. Taxis are available anywhere anytime. A very recent phenomenon has been the dwin dhng number of Tuk Tuk. the so called Baby taxis of Dhaka since taxis, all air-conditioned, are affordable practically by everybody at present. May be very soon, everybody like In the United States would own a car To-day. one out of four families In Bangkok have access to private automobile Taxis would then exist only for the tourists like you ‘ I told my friend
We were strolling up the sidewalk on our stay to the restaurant for dinner. Given our Dhaka standards. It was not yet the time for the evening meal ft was fun time, in the midst of the Bangkokian glory of rising per capita In come, the flood of tourists bringing In huge flow of dollars as well It l» vibranty and bold optimism all around Wc could vividly sense the neon lights of prosperity. More so because we belong to the land of utter depriva tton. of sordid evenings where low voltage lamps flicker against the darkness of cold December evenings. Very soon It may be all totally dark be cure of unpaid bill, and sys-tern loss of the public sector power company How can we
forget Dhaka it is In our blood Therefore dhe rising number of cars on the Mom Road of Bangkok only re minded us of the Dhaka streets clogged with rickshaws only
The economy Is virtually stagnant Per capita Income has remained low at less than one fifth of Thal Income today It was almost half of that Income In the early I 960 s About one million persons sur vlve on I he Income from the rickshaws In Dhaka today Therefore, whik we banned It from the Airport Road so that the road to clear for the VIPs to pass through, it simply vanished from sheer economic pressure in Bangkok
This ts the physical manl testation of growth that Is so painfully lacking tn Bangladesh. More rickshaws and destitutes
mean reverse development. Eliminating them through regulations is simply throwing dirt under the carpet, naive or very simplistic attitudes toward very complex problems Il reminds one of the comic character from the American TV. Alfe. who decided to run for the office of the American President and when the pressmen asked." what will you do with the homeless, his Immediate reply was "every body would build his own home." What about the unem pioyment problem? "No. there will be no unemployment since everybody will be busy building
We reached our Intended place for dinner. It was crowded — no empty chair and the tables full of food fried chicken and steaming soup from where the heads of large size shrimps were sticking out The restaurant had three Doors, all jam packed but we were lucky to find an empty table Just vacated The profu sion of food ts really stagger Ing. On the third floor where we were seated. I counted atlcast 25 large fishes, each weighing 2 to 3 kg. being rapidly devoured by almost all local people There were very few foreigners like us I know from my long sojourn tn this city that there are atleast few thousand such eating places, big and small, and all of them are full of people and food at this hour of the night
Overflow of food in the restaurants and of cars on the streets and everywhere neon! red. sometimes In profusion of
bright cotours. are the surest
and dim There to so much Ute here In this country because they produce in abundance and nmnuforture in plenty White in Bangladesh. scarcity is the hallmark, an enlarging void of
of our dinner The waitress brought us the Chinese tea. She smiled and asked." You tome from which country?" Wtthout hesitating for a moment, 1 replied, "Bhukha (hungry! Bangladesh '
In the midst of all the neon lights of prosperity it seemed that wc have remained holed up in the dark reaches of our mtnd for too tong. Our Inertia and prejudice, dogmatism and Ignorance are constantly pushing us aH the time to strike a compromise with our dismal stale of life and we remain where we are — Inside the black hole of tragedy
A relation of mine who came to Bangkok for medical treatment made the following observation on the neon lights of prosperity "Let them enjoy the prosperity born out of sin. It will be only temporary white tn this world We. for our sufferings, will be in Heaven and live happily cverafter "