Bangladesh 2013 Part 1

Bangladesh is a friendly but frequently misunderstood country. It usually only gets a mention by western media when a disaster occurs. Few tourist go there, which is good for those that do, but not so for the Bangladesh economy. This is the first of a series of videos shot on a visit I made in January 2013. Part one starts with a visit to the spectacular and surreal ship breaking yards on the beach north of Chittagong. Hundreds of ships are dismantled here each year using mostly manual labour, very little mechanisation is employed. The work is hard, dirty and dangerous but it gives thousands of men employment and wages to feed their families. Change must take place, but not at the expense of creating starvation conditions for these people. It took Great Britain over two hundred years to create safe industrial practices and provide the workforce with good working conditions, we cannot expect Bangladesh to achieve these changes overnight. Following the shipbreaking sequence there are some scenes at a station near Chittagong. Then video shot during a daylight journey from Chittagong to Dhaka on the Sudarna Express. Note the many snack vendors, there is no need to go hungry on a Bangladesh train! The 320km line is currently being doubled throughout to increase capacity and shorten journey time.