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The common Bangladeshi exporter

SYED NASIM MANZUR
Equally lauded and loathed, cruelly hunted and sometimes the hunter, the common Bangladeshi Exporter or Exportatore Bangladeshini (EB) to give it a scientific name, is a little understood creature native to the deltaic lowlands of East Bengal. In order for us to better understand the EB and reduce its vulnerability to domestic degradation and global economic shocks, let us look at its typical behaviour in its natural habi-tatofBangladesh.
0800: As soon as the EB stirs from its nest, it instinctively downloads emails and text messages accumulated over the night. This reflex action jolts the EB into a state of full alertness, as it is fully apprised of the major catastrophes that have taken place in the six-seven hours. These may include major currency movements, logistic snafus for goods shipped or about to be shipped, and the usual litany of supplier emails requesting higher prices and simultaneous buyer emails requesting lower prices, all for the same logical reasons such as the sun has risen. Recently the environmental degradation has been further compounded by endless messages regarding compliance i.e., audit / charges / pass / failure or some combination of thereof.
0900: the EB begins its daily journey to its primary feeding ground called the 'factory', located in Savar, Ashulia, Mirpur or Kanchpur in Dhaka. This journey is a major alpha male rite of passage, as it must compete for road rights with the rest of the animal kingdom, chief amongst them the truck driver terribilus and the kamikaze bus driver. These two species are the most feared and unpredictable animals in our jungles and have been known to attack even the king of the jungle, the Mighty
Minister, if provoked. The EB traverses a typical distance of anywhere from 10-50 km to reach its foraging grounds but this journey ranges from 40 minutes to 4 hours depending on the herd movements of trucks and buses, time of day and month and the solubility of the roads it must travel.
1000-1500: the EB reaches its factory using a unique and stressful call system called NepCall (never ending phone call) to bring itself up to speed on all the prevailing risks in the factory. The most common danger that stalks the EB is usually the 'Kalke' phenomenon, which manifests itself everywhere. Some examples are:
"Did yesterday's shipment leave on time?
No... kalke because
"Did the materials that have been held up in clearing for 10 days arrive ?
No but kalke because...
“Did we manage to recruit enough qualified people to start the new production line that was imported by air?
No but kalke..."
The insidious danger of this phenomenon is that soon the EB is contaminated as well by this syndrome.
An equal threat to the existence of the EB in its natural habitat is the growing problem of how to generate
enough electricity on its own to be able to work. Due to sustained over-grazing by the highest members of the food chain for the last 10 years, even existing sources of electricity have been dangerously depleted, so the EB has ingeniously devised ways to generate its own. Evolution has brought about the stand-by generator that is in turn morphing into the captive generator. But here also the poor EB is under threat as natural gas - the feedstock of the big generator -has mysteriously vanished in the last five years. Scientists are still working on how what were once alleged to be some of the highest gas reserves in
the world have literally gone up in smoke.
Depending on the time of the month the EB has yet another challenge to face: the unpredictable factory worker. If it is towards the beginning of the month, the EB can expect totally random acts of violence on the roads or inside, stemming from some other factory’ not paying its workers on time or the quality of the lunch served in another factory’. Around the middle of the month, it can also expect large groups of this species to migrate or just not show up at all, till the end of the month. This random migratory behaviour continues to confound the finest human resource minds in our midst. The EB deals with these threats to its sanity by usually blocking out most of it, or equal parts of offensive and defensive actions.
Many EBs also venture onto the factory floor as part of their daily routine, though this is not typical behaviour. Such factor^ floor forays usually involve verbal jousting with the much suffering production manager as to why 'kalke' and quality’ are both unacceptable. The EB is also the favourite prey of the 'mastaan' and MP mastodons'; vicious predators that would swoop on EB at will and without warning extort money, jobs and largesse in return for its security. These mastodons are able to hibernate for long periods with the fat that they accumulate, but often return even more rapacious than before. So next time you see the common EB struggling against extinction, spare it a few thoughts and pledge it a few orders to help fight off its biggest nemesis: the dreaded Buyer'.
The writer is the managing director of Apex Adelchi Footwear Limited and welcomes feedback at nasim@apexadelchi com