By Melody Zavala and Sukla Dey

Melody Zavala is The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia Program Director. She can be reached at mzavala@asiafound.org. Sukla Dey manages the Foundation’s books program in Bangladesh.  She can be reached at sdey@asiafound.org.

Dhaka University has one of the oldest and most respected law programs in Bangladesh; its graduates go on to become champions of justice and equality in a country where both are in short supply. As Bangladesh’s largest public university, its students arrive from all corners of the country – from thatched houses in rural villages to the bustling apartment blocks of downtown Dhaka. Yet, despite its national prestige, the university lacks sufficient resources to provide its students access to critical, contemporary legal reference books. Without a lending library, the university’s 900 law students vie for a limited supply of outdated texts in a cramped reading room, which allows for only a modest round table and 12 chairs. 
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By Chris Plante

Chris Plante is The Asia Foundation’s Director of the Environment Program. He can be reached at cplante@asiafound.org. Recently, he participated in a panel discussion titled “Water Worries: Balancing the Water We Need with the Water We Have” aired on City Visions Radio.

Thinking about World Water Day this Sunday, March 22nd, and the 2009 World Water Day theme of Transboundary Water, “sharing water, sharing opportunities,” I am reminded of “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost’s 1914 poem in which he asks why two neighbors must rebuild the stone wall dividing their farms each spring. Today, the unwritten rule – that good fences make good neighbors – makes plenty of sense to most of us. Our cities and suburbs, farms and factories, power plants and parks, and roads and rivers share common geography, boundaries, and neighbors.
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By Seema Khan

Seema Khan is a Finance Associate with Give2Asia. She can be reached at skhan@give2asia.org. The below was originally printed in Give2Asia’s blog, Giving Forum.

The toxic effects of arsenic contamination have been affecting the health of millions of people around the world, including in India, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and even the United States. In Bangladesh, where roughly half the population drinks contaminated water, this issue is a particularly heavy concern. The problem arose in the 1970s during efforts to provide an alternative to surface water, which is often highly contaminated with bacteria. Millions of tube wells were built in hopes of bypassing the bacteria-contaminated surface water and by accessing what was thought to be clean water. Unfortunately for the millions of Bangladeshis relying on tube wells for their water supply, many of the wells were found to have unearthed water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic. Read more about this issue on Give2Asia’s blog.

By Jeremy Gross

Jeremy Gross is the Foundation’s Election Program Manager based in the Indonesia office. He can be reached at jeremy@tafindo.org.

Seminal elections in a country’s history, such as those after a period of civil war, military rule or at the demise of an authoritarian regime, are invariably marked by the arrival of troupes of international election observers; their duty: to comment on the overall election environment and whether or not the elections held are free and fair.

There are numerous examples of this from the Asia region, including Cambodia in 1993 and Indonesia in 1999. In 2008, both Nepal and Bangladesh held milestone elections, the former after the then-government and Marxist guerillas signed a peace accord, the latter to end two years of rule by the military-installed Caretaker Government.

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By Jeremy Gross

Jeremy Gross is The Asia Foundation’s Elections Program Manager in Indonesia. He provided technical assistance to the Foundation’s Bangladesh office to support their elections program. He can be reached at jeremy@tafindo.org.

On December 29, 2008, Bangladesh held its most credible and most peaceful elections to date. They were free, fair, and without the usual violence and disruption that has accompanied most elections in Bangladesh. Voter turnout hit 88 percent, a remarkable figure for a country with a history, albeit interrupted, of regular elections.

These elections differed from years past. Both the orderly management of the elections and a belief that a new style of politics was being ushered-in in Bangladesh, gave the public a renewed sense of confidence in government. The run-up to the cancelled January 2007 elections was marred by street violence and accusations of manipulation of the voter list. In February 2007, the new members of the Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) worked tirelessly to ensure that the December 2008 elections would be a success, and faced few of the criticisms and complaints brought against its predecessors.
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By John Brandon

John Brandon is The Asia Foundation’s Director for International Relations programs. He can be reached at jbrandon@asiafound-dc.org.

When I visited Dhaka last weekend, I arrived a few hours prior to the last prayer of the “Biswa Ijtema,” the world’s second largest annual Muslim congregation after the “Haj” in Saudi Arabia. Two million Muslims attended the three-day assembly where devotees primarily prayed for the welfare of the Muslim community. However, the final prayer called for global peace, prosperity, and an end to worldwide conflict. The prayers and sermons delivered were spiritually uplifting and were neither political nor inflammatory.

Although the great majority of the congregation was from Bangladesh, there were 10,500 pilgrims from 105 nations, including India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. On my flight home from Dhaka, via Dubai, the great majority of passengers were congregants returning to the Middle East. This gave me the opportunity to chat at length with one traveler, Anwar.
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By Kim McQuay

Kim McQuay is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Bangladesh. He can be reached at kmcquay@asiafound.org.

The military has no intention of returning power to an elected government It will take five years to produce a proper voters’ list with photographs Bangladeshis will vote as they always have, with no expectation for change The election will be meaningless as a deal has already been cut with the major political actors for a government of national unity Domestic election observers cannot be trusted to observe their own election without political bias.

Throughout the day on December 29, as Bangladesh went to the polls for the long anticipated and frequently doubted Ninth Parliamentary Election, these and other articles of conventional pessimism borne of the past two years flashed through my mind.
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By Julia Sable

Julia Sable is a consultant with The Asia Foundation who joined the Dhaka office as an Election Program Specialist for the recent national election in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshis are rightly proud of their accomplishment on December 29, when huge numbers of voters participated in a historic election widely lauded as free and fair. As icing on the cake, sixteen senior election officials from neighboring South Asian countries were on hand to witness Bangladesh’s triumph.

On December 27, senior election officials from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal arrived in Dhaka to participate in a four-day election study and observation program hosted by The Asia Foundation, on behalf of the Bangladesh Election Commission. They were joined by two Members of Parliament from the United Kingdom, and a London town councilor from a predominantly Bangladeshi neighborhood.
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By Kathryn Bodle and Matthew Pendergast

Kathryn Bodle and Matthew Pendergast are Producers in The Asia Foundation’s Digital Media Department. You can reach them at kbodle@asiafound.org and mpendergast@asiafound.org.

As Americans catch their breath from a marathon-long election season, the people of Bangladesh are just weeks from casting their ballots in their own historic, long-awaited election.  And just as Americans were glued to newspapers, computers, and televisions in the days preceding our polling day, Bangladeshis are similarly engrossed in local media coverage of national politics, poring over every breaking report on their candidates, issues, and events in anticipation of the December 29th election. 
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By Kim McQuay

Kim McQuay, a long-time resident of Dhaka, is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Bangladesh. He can be reached at kmcquay@asiafound.org.

Last Wednesday morning, November 5th, I was leaving a gathering in Dhaka that featured big-screen television coverage of the U.S. election, when a cycle rickshaw driver drew up alongside me. I assumed that he had slowed to offer me a ride, but in turning toward him, I found his face lit with excitement. With a wide grin he declared, “Brother, your American election is very good.  Barack Obama President.  I am too much happy.”

This captured the near-universal reaction of the people of Bangladesh, who observed the U.S. electoral process and outcome with keen interest. Local Bangladeshi media coverage of the U.S. elections began in 1992, when Bangladeshi television broadcast evening excerpts of CNN reporting. At the time, Bangladeshis were especially struck by the presidential candidate debates between President George H.W. Bush and Governor Bill Clinton. The concept and images of rival American candidates thoughtfully debating issues of substance and then shaking hands at the close of the debate offered an enticing glimpse of a kind of political culture unknown to Bangladesh”at a time when partisan tensions were starting the bitter course that would ultimately extend to every corner of society, dividing the nation along sharp political lines.
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