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I don’t expect that you’ve heard about what is happening in Bangladesh. It’s a far-away Middle Eastern country that doesn’t harbor radical Jihadists, so there is no real reason for the United States media to cover it. But you should know. It’s a big deal, especially if you are a college student and have any interest in social justice. I can’t blame you for being in the dark. After all, it seems only the BBC is covering it. It doesn’t even make the New York Times, much less the University Daily Kansan. No one ever seems to notice a country in utter turmoil halfway across the world, unless the people of that country happen to have white skin and speak Midwestern English. Certainly not the Kansan. God forbid we should question the media gatekeepers who keep us firmly entrenched in our fake American dream.

But enough about the sad state of the media in America. Here is what is happening in Bangladesh right now: In January, after years of corrupt government, a popularly-backed military government was installed in a coup. A state of emergency was declared and all protests and political activities were declared illegal. (Starting to see where I’m going with this one?) But it didn’t take long for the only people allowed to think for themselves, the students at Dhaka University in the capitol city, to realize that yes, we are the only hope of the poorest country on earth and yes, there is something terribly wrong with this situation. There were military barracks on campuses everywhere; big brother was constantly watching. “Students and ordinary people are demanding an end to the state of emergency, an end to this atmosphere of fear,” said Anwar Hossain, secretary general of Dhaka University Teachers Association. (BBC.com) The straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back was a fairly innocuous incident two weeks ago that involved five students being roughed-up by police. But, even in Bangladesh, word gets around fast and students soon took to the streets to protest the military’s presence on the sacred ground of academia.

Student protests quickly turned into full-scale rioting. And, everyone knows, when students riot, the police had better riot back. And they did. In force. Thousands of soldiers with machine guns showed up at campuses across the country. A curfew was imposed on five major cities, and all colleges and universities were shut down, the students forced to leave their dorms. Hundreds of arrests were made, including faculty. You think your life sucks? Imagine that you are sitting in class in Wescoe when the door is kicked in by a National Guard officer (or maybe an ROTC trainee) who then cuffs your 63-year old Professor and shoves him out the door for “conspiracy to protest.” A Kansan photographer who is covering the scene is physically and verbally abused, and when she refuses to leave is arrested herself. Now place yourself in a, no, the, third-world country and imagine that the previous summer has seen some of the deadliest flooding in recent history and your country is run by an army general with dictatorial inclinations who keeps putting off free elections. Is it difficult to imagine? It is for me. This is life in the bubble. We have it too easy.

So who’s to blame for the situation in this far-away country? The British envoy blamed the Bangladeshi opposition party for instigating the students, the students blamed the corrupt military for denying them freedom, and the government blamed the dismal economic and political situation that has been going on in Bangladesh ever since it was partitioned from Pakistan in 1971. Ever-vying for the title of poorest country on earth, Bangladesh redefines the term “impoverished.” Ever heard of George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh? Yeah, it’s the same one.

It is a fascinating situation, and tragic. It jolts us out of our make-believe world in which the worst thing we have to worry about is a midterm or which party to attend next weekend. It also, however, shows the collective power of a group of people, particularly students, when they decide to take a stand against something they see as wrong. It makes me wonder - what might happen if we stood for something? No one really knows what a group of people so populous and stubborn and idealistic and energetic as college students could accomplish if they actually wanted something and did whatever they could to accomplish it. The students in Bangladesh, in their collective will, realized that they held an enormous power in their hands. Their protests are actually threatening to take down a strong military government. It is something that is completely foreign to us in Kansas. Personally I would hope that we would choose do something positive and unique, like eradicating AIDS or global poverty. But there is also a good chance that we will choose to use the power given to us for petty politics, to fight amongst ourselves, to slowly die in a bog of our own narcissism. I have seen it happen over and over. It is up to us to decide if we are going to unite for something positive, and if we will unite for anything at all. It is certainly within our power.

Petterson Prairie Village junior in English.

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