What drives a father to wake up every morning and push himself out in the world to work? What really drives a mother to go as far as finding a job that no one would imagine doing in their worst days? The thought that the outcome of that job would bring the food home that would enlighten their kids’ faces is enough I think.
I think of the future when I’ll be a father myself, and all I’d ever want is for my child to be happy, well-fed, and safe. I’m quite worried about whether all three of them will be possible in a few years’ time in our beloved city, or our beloved country. If not for me or you, for many others who cannot really find work – not because there is no work, but because there are too many for a few jobs.
I did talk briefly in a previous op-ed about the problems we are facing now, and the long term repercussions we face if we keep stretching it. Dhaka City has become so centralised over the years, that everyone in this country has to come here for something or the other, because most businesses and facilities are concentrated in Dhaka. Of course, there are state owned facilities available in the other divisions, but how many of them have world class universities like there are in Dhaka?
How many of them have state of the art hospitals like there are in Dhaka? How many can really afford to pay for flights and other emergency transportations to come and avail these facilities in Dhaka? Above all, my question is: Having been a free country for so long, why would we have to anyways?
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Every other day when I’m off work and looking for a means to get back home, I meet these men from Rangpur asking for ten bucks to get some food, because they came for work to Dhaka and didn’t get any. Despite having so many construction sites in this city, there is a saturation of men who provide labour for construction, ergo the men from poorer parts of the country coming over with the dream of earning and getting caught up in the web of nothingness.
And there is already a shortage of employment for even the educated lot here, compelling many to resort to the one thing that soothes the soul – drugs! Our problems are becoming more and more intertwined with each other and multiplying faster than cancer cells, and are making corruption look like the fountain of success into which you can dive and never get out.
We can all talk about problems any given time of the day – all you need to do is to go sit at a tea stall and start up a chat with some stranger about anything. I can bet you that almost 90% of the time, if you’re into it, the conversation will end up in politics, what it has been doing to us, and how we are all doomed. Rarely will you find people coming forward with a solution, or people who are willing to get into politics because they want to do something good for the nation.
And we can just let go, because most of the time, we don’t have time to care. But, nonetheless, we need solutions, and we need more people who can actively provide them without hesitation.
The first step, I believe, would be to start working toward decentralisation of our facilities from Dhaka, and spread them all around. Now, I don’t mean that you have to have this here and that there, that would be impractical. But what we can do is begin by planning out the other cities in the other divisions so that we can eliminate the mistakes from the system that have already taken place while building Dhaka.
I’m sure that if the whole nation tries to help our government sustain itself, even the government itself wouldn’t mind. We have somehow forgotten to be united for the benefit of ourselves, and have led ourselves to believe in separate entities so often, that we are always divided into at least two different parties, two different teams, two different values, while we have but one country.
I’m sure you’re realising that while my effort had started up talking about one city, it has now moved on to fixing our country. And when I’m talking about us helping our government in doing so, I need all of you to know that I am in no way affiliated with a party. I am a genuinely concerned citizen like most of you out there, and I, like all you out there, cannot do anything as an individual.
We are what runs the nation and the nation is what drives us, and we need to unite to solve our problems to build that shining future for our children, and ourselves, from this very moment.
We need to have more philanthropists in action. Each can push forth causes of their own, and finance them in their own way, because without the fuel called money, the engine called the nation cannot run. The rich, influential, and famous can help us gather round and join hands with us to resolve issues hindering our development. We have all the resources we need; it’s time to get to work. Are you in?