In a January 29, 2019 piece in the Daily Manabzamin—which was retweeted by democracy activist and noted physician Dr Pinaki Bhattachariya—a tale of sadism emerged that rivals in specificity, if not in scope, the depredations of the Iranian junta. Mary, a young woman activist in the pro-democracy Opposition movement, was blinded when the junta’s police opened fire on a demonstration seeking a halt in the overnight ballot stuffing the ruling party cadres were engaged in as a prelude to the December 30 joke of elections. What happened next was straight up Orwellian: the junta’s police and prosecutors charged the maimed woman in a case of ‘anti-state’ activity and have now issued a warrant for her arrest.
This is the stuff of diabolical legends, except it is true. To make it worse, no major media outlet dare report it for fear of further enraging a one-party dictatorship already hell bent on seeking vengeance. This is the regime, by the way, for which the Trump administration is asking almost $ 200 million in US taxpayer funded aid, the Canadians about $ 120 million, the Europeans almost $ 600 million. Is this the regime Americans, Canadians, the French, the Germans, and the Scandinavians want to support with their citizens’ money?
As we have discussed before, the money is not for the regime, it is for the poor, the people most oppressed by the regime. Yes, it is *quite* true that the powerful take their cut. Should we then abandon the poor to punish the powerful? I am not yet convinced that it would do a thing to forward the cause, as there are other, far less democratic and far more demanding governments waiting to step in, who will care far less about the size of the cut or whether the poor get anything at all.
So, yes, we keep sending the aid, because it means village children have schooling options that are not Saudi-funded madrassas, rural mothers get some basic pre-natal care, victims of acid attacks have a way to earn a respectable living when they are abandoned by their families, disabled people can support themselves in some less painful way than begging, and if a few lives are improved, a few minds opened even a little, that’s progress, however slow.
Because there are so many more people than those power elites in the sorry place that is Bangladesh and, yes, they *are* the people this taxpayer wants her money to reach, even if the politicians get their cut. Should I abandon the injured dog because he was injured by another, bigger dog? How much more, then, should I care about the injured human?
Remember that the thing about the Good Samaritan was not that he helped, but that he was a Samaritan, a despised follower of a much older, ‘out-of-date’ version of Yahweh worship. If he could help across that divide, how can I refuse over this one? Revolution most often occurs in a period of rising expectations. So, here’s my cash, kids: start expecting. Before your bosses turn to other nations that will crush those expectations once and for all.