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Creag
The Boar's Rock
- Joined
- May 19, 2009
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by Neil Manthorp, July 14 2015
FLYING into Chittagong is deceptive. It looks green and lush from the air, and the spread of tightly packed buildings provides an impression of success and prosperity. And to be fair, there is a good deal of that here.
It is one of the chief financial hubs of Southeast Asia and the port is one of the busiest in the world. It is home to the largest ship-breaking industry in the world, a trillion-dollar business with a pleasing sideline in curios for visitors.
Hundreds of shops, stalls and shacks sell anything you can ever imagine having once been installed on a ship stretching back well more than a hundred years. Copper portholes, submarine periscopes, pewter crockery … and dials in their thousands from the bridge.
The reality on the ground is variably striking depending on where you are, but foul smells and filth are hard to escape. The concrete ditches on the side of the roads vary from half a metre to 2m wide and are eyebrow-raisingly full of garbage, but not as eye-wateringly as the smell.
During Monsoon season — now — the potholes in the roads are filled with a steaming mixture of muddy water and waste. Combined with the heat and humidity, newcomers can be overcome with dizziness on the briefest excursion beyond the hotel lobby.
But these aren’t even the trickiest challenges facing the uninitiated. Bangladesh is the most densely populated country or territory on Earth, with a size greater than 1,295km². So take the likes of Gibraltar, Hong Kong and Monaco out of the equation, and there is nothing to compare. At about 128,000km² discounting its permanent lakes and waterways, the country would be SA’s fifth largest province — just larger than Limpopo but behind the Northern, Eastern and Western Capes, and the Free State. Yet it is home to just fewer than 150-million people.
It is impossible to walk more than half-a-dozen paces on the sidewalks of Chittagong without being forced to step over something, or someone, or into their path on the road.
Hundreds of thousands of hands belonging to the lame and penniless grope for alms. There are just less than 3,000 people per km².
The UK is said to be overcrowded with 650 per km².
While SA weighs in at 94 people per km².
Such a mass of humanity creates a truly astonishing disparity between the richest and poorest in society. With the right invitation and driver, and provided you pass the private security check, it can be no more than 20 minutes before you’re in a reception room with 16th century Italian armchairs and a white-gloved houseman offering you a glass of Franschhoek’s best bubbly.
Seriously.
Apparently it’s biting into the French market.
The Proteas will experience none of this beyond what they see should they open the curtains in the bus on the way to or from the airport. It is hard enough practising and playing matches in these conditions without attempting to explore on foot.
Having said that, the performance in the second one-day international on Sunday was an inexcusable embarrassment. A squad of 15 travelled here and yet the same (questionable) XI was selected for Sunday’s match despite it starting about 40 hours after Friday’s convincing victory concluded close to midnight.
Having been hammered, it would seem they are now compelled to make changes for the decider on Wednesday but will be reluctant to make too many leaving, in all likelihood, at least two players without a game. If they were all good enough to be selected for a short tour of three games that (let’s be honest) don’t really matter, then they should all have played.
Perhaps, like Chittagong from the air, the green of the Proteas isn’t quite as fertile and healthy as it looks from a distance.
Source: BDLive | http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/col...eas-were-as-poor-as-the-beggars-of-chittagong
FLYING into Chittagong is deceptive. It looks green and lush from the air, and the spread of tightly packed buildings provides an impression of success and prosperity. And to be fair, there is a good deal of that here.
It is one of the chief financial hubs of Southeast Asia and the port is one of the busiest in the world. It is home to the largest ship-breaking industry in the world, a trillion-dollar business with a pleasing sideline in curios for visitors.
Hundreds of shops, stalls and shacks sell anything you can ever imagine having once been installed on a ship stretching back well more than a hundred years. Copper portholes, submarine periscopes, pewter crockery … and dials in their thousands from the bridge.
The reality on the ground is variably striking depending on where you are, but foul smells and filth are hard to escape. The concrete ditches on the side of the roads vary from half a metre to 2m wide and are eyebrow-raisingly full of garbage, but not as eye-wateringly as the smell.
During Monsoon season — now — the potholes in the roads are filled with a steaming mixture of muddy water and waste. Combined with the heat and humidity, newcomers can be overcome with dizziness on the briefest excursion beyond the hotel lobby.
But these aren’t even the trickiest challenges facing the uninitiated. Bangladesh is the most densely populated country or territory on Earth, with a size greater than 1,295km². So take the likes of Gibraltar, Hong Kong and Monaco out of the equation, and there is nothing to compare. At about 128,000km² discounting its permanent lakes and waterways, the country would be SA’s fifth largest province — just larger than Limpopo but behind the Northern, Eastern and Western Capes, and the Free State. Yet it is home to just fewer than 150-million people.
It is impossible to walk more than half-a-dozen paces on the sidewalks of Chittagong without being forced to step over something, or someone, or into their path on the road.
Hundreds of thousands of hands belonging to the lame and penniless grope for alms. There are just less than 3,000 people per km².
The UK is said to be overcrowded with 650 per km².
While SA weighs in at 94 people per km².
Such a mass of humanity creates a truly astonishing disparity between the richest and poorest in society. With the right invitation and driver, and provided you pass the private security check, it can be no more than 20 minutes before you’re in a reception room with 16th century Italian armchairs and a white-gloved houseman offering you a glass of Franschhoek’s best bubbly.
Seriously.
Apparently it’s biting into the French market.
The Proteas will experience none of this beyond what they see should they open the curtains in the bus on the way to or from the airport. It is hard enough practising and playing matches in these conditions without attempting to explore on foot.
Having said that, the performance in the second one-day international on Sunday was an inexcusable embarrassment. A squad of 15 travelled here and yet the same (questionable) XI was selected for Sunday’s match despite it starting about 40 hours after Friday’s convincing victory concluded close to midnight.
Having been hammered, it would seem they are now compelled to make changes for the decider on Wednesday but will be reluctant to make too many leaving, in all likelihood, at least two players without a game. If they were all good enough to be selected for a short tour of three games that (let’s be honest) don’t really matter, then they should all have played.
Perhaps, like Chittagong from the air, the green of the Proteas isn’t quite as fertile and healthy as it looks from a distance.
Source: BDLive | http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/col...eas-were-as-poor-as-the-beggars-of-chittagong