From Sardah to Sudbury: An Intellectual Journey Sadequl Islam
Initially, I wanted to write an ode to Rajshahi Cadet College (RCC), my alma mater. However, because I lack poetic impulses and skills, in this write-up, I am providing a smorgasboard of my reminiscences , thoughts, and experiences.
Overall, Our alma mater ( Rajshahi Cadet College at Sardah, Rajshahi) provided an excellent education to us. We used to have a session on “current Affairs,” which inculcated a life-long curiosity about world affairs. Another event that I remember was the After Dinner Literary Activities (ADLA), held on Saturday evenings. Several major dramas were organized; for example, Hamlet and Bishop’s Candlesticks. Probably, Hamid (1/1) played the role of Hamlet. We enjoyed memorizing the famous Hamletian soliloquies . Bishop’s Candlesticks is a dramatization of part of the great French writer Victor Hugo’s epic novel Les Miserables. Shah Alam (1/16) played magnificently the role of Jean Valjean, the convict. Tasleem (1/7) also became famous for playing the role of Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
Required readings for the English course at the HSC level included an essay on happiness by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Probably, this essay was part of Russell’s book The Conquest of Happiness. According to Russell conquest of happiness requires concentration on larger causes beyond the “prison of self -interest.” At RCC, we were impressed by the witty remarks of the famous writer Syed Muztaba Ali, father of Firoz (2/50), who visited RCC a few times.
In Grade 11, I switched from Science to Arts , as I decided to study economics, following the advice of my eldest brother who was always my mentor. As my HSC results were reasonably good ( first in the Board in Arts), I enrolled in the Department of Economics at Dhaka University. However, in December 1970 , I got an “Inter-Wing Scholarship” and left for Lahore. I returned to Bangladesh on March 23, two days before the liberation war started. I have described my experience in then West Pakistan elsewhere ( bdnews24.com, March 26,2016).
I studied at Dhaka University during the tumultuous post-liberation period (1972-77). I resided in Surjya Sen Hall, which became a hotbed of radical politics. Violence on the campus was normalized. In the nearby Mohsin Hall, one night, seven students were murdered because of intra-party feuds. Classes were held despite frequent outbursts of rudimentary bombs and even guns.
During the post-liberation period, there was famine in certain parts of Bangladesh; for example, Rangpur. In our Hall, the quality of food was terrible, thanks to smelly or “plastic” rice. At one time, chappati was introduced; however, that policy was discontinued after massive student protests and slogans: “ We have liberated Bangladesh not for chappati but for rice.” I wrote a 55-page letter describing the economic and political situation in Bangladesh to Shah Alam (1/16), my cadet college friend who ,was studying in Russia.
Just a few months before my final B.A. (Honours) examination, a tragedy struck our family. My brother, a chemical engineer, along with several engineers, was severly injured in a major explosion at Ghorasal Fertilizer Factory. This happened just a few months before my brother’s marriage. Several engineers lost their lives. For more than two months, I virtually lived in Holy Family Hospital in Dhaka to take care of my brother. My father , recovering from a stroke, was emotionally shocked by my brother’s ordeal and died within a few weeks. Daniel Coleman had not yet written the book Emotional Intelligence; there were no self-help books from where I could learn how to handle this double tragedy. In retrospect, it was a great moment of learning, patience and perseverance in my life. I consider myself lucky that I got an opportunity to serve my elder brother.
Hard work paid-off later. At the Masters level, I ranked first class first in economics. The same year (1977), I got the Chancellor’s Gold Medal of Dhaka University for writing the best essay in English on “ the Problems of Higher Education In Bangladesh.“ Still, I raise a question :
What is the ultimate value of high marks, or academic success? Not much. Our society is hyper-obsessed with academic success, based on cognitive skills and material success. Great philosophers, reformers, innovators, leaders usually have other vital skills including non-cognitive skills.
After working for a few months at Bangladesh Bank, I left for Canada to pursue graduate studies in Economics at the University of Manitoba. I enjoyed my five years at that University, enduring cold winter and hard work and obtained an M.A and a Ph.D in economics.
During my first sabbatical leave from Mount Allison University, I embarked on several trips. With a group of American scholars, in 1989, I went on a three-week tour of the former Soviet Union. We visited Moscow, Leningrad ( now St. Petersburg), Volgograd, Odessa, and Kiev. Despite Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glasnost, it was obvious to us that the economic system was crumbling. In Leningrad, we visited the world-famous painting museum, the Hermitage. We also visited the enormous Piskaryovskoye Cemetry where about half a million victims of the Siege of Leningrad during the Second World War were buried. It was the defeat of the Nazi army by the Soviets that led to the collapse of the Hitler regime. Several years after my Russian trip, I realized that I could have explored whether It would have been possible to visit the settings of Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment in St.Petersburg and Tolstoy’s house museum Yasnaya Polyana, and Anton Chekov’s house, south of Moscow.
During the same year, I spent a few months , as a visiting scholar, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and at El Colegio de Mexico, a prestigious institution in Mexico City. At El Colegio de Mexico, I gave two public lectures on South-East Asian countries. From Mexico, I visited Nicaragua where I took an interview of the former education minister of Nicaragua to learn about the successful mass literacy program in Nicaragua. In Managua, I met with some team members of the radical newspaper La Barricada, the mouthpiece of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). The team included some young American radicals including a daughter of Noam Chomsky, the world famous linguist and political activist. From Nicaragua, I went to Cuba where I could easily see the visible signs of a dilapidated economy. Yet, even the critics of the Cuba’s regime admire its healthcare system. On several health metrics, Cuba outperforms not only developing countries, but also developed countries. Near Havana, I visited Finca la Vigia, the house of the famous American writer Hemingway who wrote , in Cuba, some of his great novels including the Old Man and the Sea.
I wrote my first book, The Textile and Clothing Industry of Bangladesh in a Changing World Economy, while I was a visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka. Since then, the garment industry has remained a permanent research topic for me. In my town (Sudbury), in 2014, I organized a rally in memory of the victims of the Rana Plaza disaster.
In August of 2005, I along with my family, visited several cities in Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, and Hiroshima). I taught a course on the Japanese economy, and admired the unique characteristics of the Japanese society, economy, and culture. From Japan we visited Beijing and Shanghai and were impressed by the pace of development in China ( described in details in Bdnews24.com, February 6, 2019).
In 2006, on our way to Bangladesh, I along with my family, visited Delhi, Agra, and Kolkata. While visiting the Gandhi memorial at Rajghat, it came to my mind the reason why Sir Richard Attenborough decided to make the movie “ Gandhi.’ In a café, while Attenborough, was reading a book on Gandhi found a sentence attributed to Gandhi: It’s a mystery to me why a human being finds pleasure in humiliating another human being. That sentence prompted Attenborough to make a decision about making a movie on Gandhi. In Kolkata, we visited the Mother House where Mother Teresa was buried and Tagore’s house at Jorasanko.
Growing literary and historical interests, led me to visit, in 2010, along with my family, Paris, Versailles, London, Runnymede (the birth place of Magna Carta) near Windsor Castle, and Stratford-Up-on Avon (Shakespeare’s hometown). In London, at 48 Doughty Street, we visited the museum of Charles Dickens, one of my favourite novelists, while in Paris we visited the houses of Victor Hugo and Balzac.
In recent years, Vietnam has made rapid economic progress. In 2012, I got an opportunity to attend a conference in Hanoi. In Ho Chi Minh city, I visited the War Remnants Museum which meticulously displays the horrific images of the Vietnam war during which about two million Vietnamese died.
In 2014, I went to Colombo, Sri Lanka to present a paper at an international conference. I also managed to visit an elite primary school ( Bandernaike School). I was extremely pleased to see the high quality of education, including the artistic dimension ( music, drama, and drawing) in this school.
Three countries in Europe that impressed me are Finland, Switzerland, and Germany. I admire Finland’s education system which has attracted world-wide attention. In 2011, I met with one officer of Helsinki’s education department to know more about the education system in Finland. In 2016, after attending a conference in Poznan, Poland, I stayed in Berlin for two days and visited some museums including the Topography of Terror. I was impressed by the ways Germany depicted its dark past to its own citizens and foreigners. The recent rise of ultra-right populism in Germany however, indicates that the process of “vergangenheitsbewaltigung ( the overcoming of the past) is becoming more complicated.
In 2015, I along with my family, visited several cities in Switzerland by train. Its captivating mountains and natural beauty have attracted hundreds of celebrities, writers, political fugitives, and scientists. Furthermore, without natural resources, it has managed to achieve one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. Of many factors that determine the success of a country, I highlight two: the quality of human resources and the quality of economic and political institutions.
In 2017, on our way to Bangladesh, we stayed three days in Dubai. I got an opportunity to visit some labour camps where Bangladeshi workers lived. The narratives I heard in Dubai echo the narratives I heard in Abu Dhabi and Malaysia: Compared to their counterparts from other South Asian countries, Bangladeshi workers face double exploitation: they pay more initial fees ( about two lakh takas) and get lower wages. Many of these workers, under the Kafala system, live and work like modern slaves.
Last year, while I was in Bangladesh, I, along with Tasleem and two other friends ( Fouzul Kabir Khan and Mahfuzul Haque) visited Rohingya camps in May and was overwhelmed by the tragedy of Rohingya refugees. In the month of June, we organized a seminar on Rohingya refugees in Burlington, Toronto. In the First week of July, Tasleem and I participated at an international conference on Rohingya refugees at the University College London. From London, I , along with my family members went to Milan, Italy, and stayed six days in Greece. In Greece we visited historical places in Athens and some exotic islands including Santorini. In Athens, I interviewed some Bangladeshi workers. A young Bangladeshi worker gave a harrowing account of his journey from Lebanon to Athens. He also took me to a big room where 35 illegal migrants lived. From Athens we went to Basel, Switzerland where I attended an international conference on health economics. From Basel, we went to Leiden, the Netherlands where I presented a paper at the International Convention of Asia Scholars.
While I learned a lot about history, culture, and economies of many countries, no country is more fascinating to observe and visit than our beloved motherland. During the last 15 years, my interactions with students and people in my rural area in Bangladesh have increased my stock of knowledge and wisdom. I get enormous satisfaction from visiting and helping elementary and secondary schools, and the health clinic in my village area. I have organized mathematics competition in these schools, organized an event to prevent early child marriages ( Bangladesh has one of the highest child-marriage rates in the world.) The enthusiasm of children in learning, drawing, and sports in these schools is incredible.
I end this write-up with a quotation: “There are two options in life: Make a better place for yourself and your future generations in this world or make this world a better place for others if not for all. The first brings happiness in the short-run, but the second brings true happiness in the long run.” I am not sure who coined this somewhat clumsy quotation- probably, myself.