Power to the People - kind of

We got to experience our first hartal (general strike) today. It was only a half day hartal called by the ridiculously-long-named National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports or the NCPOGMRPP (doesn’t really roll of the tongue). It was actually the first general strike to occur in since the end of the emergency, which lasted from ’07 until the end of ’08.

The strike was called because a) the government just signed a contract to allow U.S. and Irish oil companies to explore for oil, natural gas, etc. of the shore of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal and b) because the police attacked their last demonstration. It was interesting seeing which organizations and political parties supported or condemned the hartal. The Communist Party, for example, was a major supporter, but the right-leaning BNP also “morally supported” the strike (they are the main opposition party right now). The retail associations, and the Chambers of Commerce, of course did not support it, but neither did the Workers Party.

What all this meant for us though was a rather pleasant commute to Atticus’ school this morning. Usually somewhere along the way we get stuck in a jam either in front of the shopping center or on the one road that connects our neighborhood with the neighborhood that Atticus’ school is in (and which they have torn up and are repairing seemingly entirely by hand). Despite warnings from the U.S. embassy to be careful when out and about today and some rather drastic predictions from the Bangladeshi government, there was no “anarchy” like officials warned there could be. Overall, it was a rather pleasant day, of which I am sure there will be more since different parties and organizations apparently call for hartals pretty regularly here. Maybe one of these days we’ll have to go join one of the demonstrations.

Here is a link to an article about the strike if anybody is interested.