#SaveBangladeshiStudents #QuotaReformMovement
This is about Bangladesh. Please, please, read about what is happening. Wikipedia is a good starting point.
It is truly quite cowardly that I am so far away from everything that's happening but I am pretending like I am doing the most.
It is extremely embarrassing that I claim to be patriotic and that I would lay my life down for my country, but I'm a million miles away as people get shot and killed.
People my age. The best and brightest minds in the country. They're being murdered.
And I am watching that happen through my 13" screen, from the comfort of my home.
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This started off as Bangladeshi students protesting the quota system that we have in place for government jobs in the country. Currently, I believe 30% of the jobs have been allocated to the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters, 10% to women, 10% to those from underrepresented districts, 5% to the Indigenous community and 1% to the disabled. This leaves only 44% of the jobs for those competing solely based on merit. That's not really a true number, because corruption is a real thing and you can buy these jobs.
Where does the general population go then? Who the fuck knows.
Students are graduating from all these incredible universities and remaining unemployed because you have an insane number of people competing for less than 50% of the jobs. That isn't fair.
So we start protesting. Peaceful protests, too. Met with violence by law enforcement - people who are supposed to be protecting us. We have the BGB, RAB, police and any other person you can think of being unleashed upon us, with orders to shoot on sight. I watched a video of a law enforcement car running over the general population. That's what we're dealing with here.
Not only that, but people are throwing acid on the faces of people. Women are being r*ped and kidnapped. They're going into residential halls and hospitals and beating people up. Sticks, stones, rubber bullets, actual bullets, swords, machetes - being used by EVERYONE to kill students. The youth wing of the ruling party is assisting in the murder of these students. Someone that was 17 years old was killed. That is younger than my sister.
And then they shut down all internet communication. No wifi, no mobile data. Ok cool, we will call people's numbers directly instead. Jokes, because now the mobile network is down too. I got through to my dad over a rickety connection where he was barely audible, then got cut off. He's fortunately safe, and so is most of my family (I think, I haven't really been able to speak to many people), but people are dying. Those are my countrymen that are being killed. Their blood stains our land.
It's almost like all the wars that we fought, all the times that my people fought for their freedom - all of that was for naught.
1952, 1971, 2024.
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I don't like this, obviously. I've watched this unfold in a billion different countries a gazillion times, but I don't think you're ever able to comprehend just the sheer magnitude of how unfair and horrendous it is until it happens to you. I don't think I'm able to fully grasp it yet either, because I'm so far away from my motherland. It makes me want to cry and scream and yell, but what is any of that going to achieve?
If I could, I would go back and take over. I would lead and I would overthrow this government and revolt and stand beside my people as they take charge of their country. Unfortunately for me, I'm too much of a coward to do any of that. All I can do is post a bunch of dumb stories and message a bunch of people telling them about what's happening. That's my way of protesting.
Is it working? I don't know. I don't see many lives being spared.
It's not fair that I'm able to continue my life normally when my brothers and sisters aren't able to do that. I abandoned my country in its time of need, and for what? Education? Opportunities? Privilege?
What's the point of any of this when my country continues to bleed? What's the point of any of this if it never benefits anyone other than me?
I said that I wanted to do something for my people. I said that I wanted to use my education and my privileges and all these things that I'm good at for the betterment of my country. I never lied, but when the time has come to practise what I preach, I'm hiding.
It's embarrassing. It will always be embarrassing.
I pray for the safety of all my people. Not just the people that I am related to by blood, but even the ones that I am related to by virtue of being Bangladeshi. I was, am, and will forever be Bangladeshi through and through.
I don't even know how to end this.
লাখো শহীদের রক্তে কেনা দেশটা কারো বাপের না।
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