Two years ago I made a video about Botswana and how they managed to go from one
of the poorest countries in the world to the wealthiest in Africa in just a few years while
also not being a dictatorship or repressive or anything.
I thought it was a cool story, whatever.
But a lot of people pointed out that Botswana was able to get where it was because it was
sitting on a literal diamond mine.
And while I would argue that shouldn’t disqualify Botswana’s success – many African countries
are rich in natural resources but are still dirt poor – I figured it was time to follow
up the story of Botswana with a similar story; the story of Bangladesh.
In proportion to population, Bangladesh is one of the least reported-on countries in
the western world.
They have more people than all of these countries combined, but when was the last time you heard
anything about Bangladesh other than some chemical spill or sweatshop fire that kills
a thousand people?
Like Botswana, Bangladesh is now a rapidly developing nation and living standards have
increased dramatically since independence in 1971.
But this time, Bangladesh did so without relying on natural resources.
Bangladesh had nothing going for it, and arguably started life as a country worse off than Botswana.
How did we get here?
In the times of the British Raj, the whole region was governed as India, but split into
many provinces among religious lines; some were Muslim majority, others were Hindu majority.
The territory that would become Bangladesh was called the Bengal Presidency, and was
Muslim majority.
Hindus outnumbered Muslims by a significant margin and held all of the top jobs in government.
In the run up to independence in 1947, many Muslims were worried that in the new Indian
state, they could be marginalised by the Hindu majority because there was no neutral third
party to settle religious disputes.
Indian Muslims, lobbied the exiting British to set up a separate state for the Muslim-majority
provinces, which they agreed with.
Pakistan on the left, India in the middle, and...Pakistan again on the right.
The two were lumped together on account of religion, despite not speaking the same language
and having over a thousand miles between them.
As expected, this was immediately a disaster for the people of “East Pakistan”.
The borders of these new countries weren’t even drawn up until six weeks before they
were supposed to be in effect, and were extremely complicated.
There were over 190 enclaves and exclaves all across the border, cutting off entire
communities from police, schools, hospitals, banks, or post offices.
And the border with India was not open, effectively trapping these residents inside their city
blocks with no way to receive help.
India was officially the successor state of the Raj, and therefore got all of its institutions,
armed forces, courts, and financial systems.
Pakistan received nothing.
The East Pakistani government was initially run out of an All Girl’s Boarding School
because there weren’t any other buildings in the entire province with enough rooms.
Despite having more people than West Pakistan (44/78m), East Pakistan received far less
attention and funding from the central government in Karachi.
West Pakistan’s official language of Urdu was selected as the official language, despite
only 3% of Pakistanis understanding the language.
East Pakistan generally voted for the left wing, secular, reformist Awami League, West
Pakistan voted for the religious and right wing Muslim League.
Whenever an East Pakistani became Prime Minister, their government was dismantled by the West
Pakistani political class at the earliest opportunity.
And when two West Pakistanis executed a coup of the country in 1958, no region was more
repressed than the East.
But the trigger point didn’t come from any of this.
The straw that really broke the camel’s back was the weather.
The Bhola Cyclone was one of the most devastating natural disasters in history, killing up to
half a million people in mainly Bangladesh.
The military government in West Pakistan did barely anything to help the East recover from
the disaster.
Only one military aircraft and three cropduster planes were requisitioned to airdrop supplies
to survivors, . Aid from India and the United Kingdom arrived before any from the central
government of Pakistan.
This was it for the East Pakistan leadership.
With all other options exhausted, Bangladesh declared their independence on the 26th of
March 1971.
In response, the Pakistani military commenced Operation Searchlight, a pointless and unproductive
military campaign designed to crush Bengali nationalism through fear.
Slums were indiscriminately burned and thousands of people were killed fleeing.
Awami League president Sheikh Mujib Rahman was arrested and imprisoned.
Estimates for the number of people killed range from 300,000 by most western academic
sources, but up to 3 million by the government of Bangladesh.
In Pakistan, the figure is 26,000.
Eventually, in December, the superior Indian military intervened on the side of Bangladesh,
and within two weeks, Pakistan had surrendered.
And so, on the 16th of December, 1971, Bangladesh became an independent country.
Sheikh Mujib was sworn in as the first President and the conflict was over.
To recap; The poorest region of British India became
the poorest part of Pakistan, then was hit by the deadliest typhoon, a famine,
four coups and a civil war.
Henry Kissinger, who is unfortunately not dead yet, famously called it a “basket case
nation” that is “doomed to fail”.
And how wrong he was.
Time lay down the stats.
Today, Bangladesh is unrecognisable from the poverty-stricken wasteland of the 1970s.
98% of people finish primary school, 96% are vaccinated against deadly diseases like diphtheria
tetanus, life expectancy is now 72, up from 46.
Poverty – down, infant mortality – down, malnutrition – down, mothers who die in
childbirth – down, down, down.
Speaking of mothers; Nobody has benefited more from development than Bengali women;
the percent of women who can read has quadrupled since the 70s, women make up the majority
of students, and better education means women are having fewer children and can take care
of them properly.
And the economy is doing pretty well too.
Between 2011 and 2019, Bangladesh’s exports grew at 8.6% every year, compared to the world
average of 0.4%.
Their economy is now growing faster than Pakistan, India, and China.
So how did they do it?
Fifty years is a short period of time to make that much progress.
Well, Bangladesh began a tried and tested method of getting rich quick.
They make clothes.
That’s the secret.
Seriously.
The secret is that there is no secret.
They make clothes.
After food and shelter, the most important thing humans need is clothes.
But unlike food and shelter, clothing is one of the easiest statements of wealth, fashion,
and personal identity.
It’s also very easily broken and needs replacing often.
This puts fabric in high demand the world over, forever.
When you realise this, a lot of history after the industrial revolution just clicks into
place; Why did the British take over India?
For cotton to make clothes.
How did the Ottoman Empire modernise?
Growing cotton in Egypt.
Why did the Confederacy need slaves?
To pick cotton to make clothes.
The USA’s largest export at the time?
You got it.
Textiles.
In 1862, 2% of everyone in the entire world worked in the garment industry.
Throughout history, developing industrial nations make clothing as a get rich quick
scheme and the same worked for Bangladesh.
...and boy did Bangladesh commit to it.
In 2020, the top exports from Bangladesh were; 45% knitted clothing
42% non-knitted clothing uhhh 2.4% shoes
2.2%...miscellaneous...clothes.
1.3% w-woven fabric… 1.2%...fish.
Half of Bangladesh’s workforce are employed in the garment industry, and most of them
women.
These garments are, of course, sold to the west.
Check your underwear, your jacket, your shirt, or your jeans.
All of them probably made in Bangladesh.
Or Myanmar.
Or Vietnam.
I really can’t overstate how easy it is for countries to get rich through making clothes.
And the money these factories make from Bangladesh stays in Bangladesh; 95% of garment factories
are owned by Bengalis.
People will always need clothes, the demand is always there, and so Bengalis will always
have a stable income.
There is an obvious downside though, which I’m sure everyone is aware of; the conditions
in these factories are appalling.
They’re nicknamed “sweatshops” for good reason.
Cramped, overcrowded, and with temperatures hitting 45 Celsius, these are not fun places
to be.
Safety regulations are non-existent, and so accidents are very common.
Due to the lack of proper building codes, fire and electrical faults are two of the
biggest killers as there aren’t enough fire exits and when these factories go up in flames,
they can kill hundreds if not thousands.
The Buriganga River, which flows through the whole country and provides drinking water
to millions of people, is used to dispose of industrial waste.
So much so that the river is now pitch black.
Workers must put in long hours of overtime in order to make ends meet with some finishing
work at 3am to begin work four and a half hours later at 7:30am.
There is no unemployment insurance.
There is no maternity leave.
There is no injury compensation.
There is only work.
Obviously, something has to be done about this, and the cure for sweatshops is, historically,
the sweatshops themselves.
Garment factory work wages is pretty low by western standards, but it’s double the national
minimum wage in Bangladesh.
With this new disposable income, the workers are able to afford trade union membership,
bargain for better conditions, afford an education to get better skills and move on to more fulfilling
work, or invest in their family.
Don’t take it from me though.
Take it from the chairwoman of the largest trade union for garment makers in the country;
“Bangladesh’s booming garment industry has helped to improve women’s welfare.
Their work earns them economic freedom and dignity at home and outside”.
Pretty clear what they think.
Design a better website though what the fuck is this.
This has happened throughout industrial history; first in Europe and North America during the
1800s, and more recently in places like China, South Korea and Taiwan.
Now it’s Bangladesh’s turn to bite the bullet and head on the quest for modernity.
But unlike before, Bangladesh isn’t doing it alone.
Trade agreements with the west can also force the Bengali government to improve labour standards;
like this one between Bangladesh and the European Union in 2013.
After the Rana Plaza factory disaster that same year, where over a thousand workers were
killed in a fire and building collapse, western retailers strong armed Bengali factory owners
into letting independent safety supervisors into the factories to assess fire hazards
and structural integrity.
Since then 144,000 hazards were discovered by inspectors and nearly all of them were
fixed, saving countless people from potential injury or death.
93% of factories in the Accord now meet the required regulations, allowing people to make
a living in safety.
And when the Accord expired earlier this year, the factories signed on to an even more comprehensive
agreement to replace it.
All this hard work has paid off massively; the average Bengali citizen is now richer
than the average Indian citizen.
In 1971, Pakistan was 70% richer than Bangladesh; today, Bangladesh is 45% richer than Pakistan,
with Pakistani economist Abid Hasan stating; “it is in the realm of possibility that
we could be seeking financial aid from Bangladesh in 2030.”
hahahahahahaha.
They also fixed the border problem with India, that’s cool.
The road ahead is going to be rocky; Bangladesh suffers from success and will soon no longer
qualify for trade agreements designed for the poorest countries to sell things to rich
markets.
As the economy modernises, mass production of garments and simple products will no longer
be appropriate for an educated and wealthy populace – finding something to replace
that will be tricky.
Their reliance on clothing has also stolen the limelight from other industries that could
be used to fill the void, like electronics.
Climate change continues to pose a threat, because much of the industry is built along
the large rivers bisecting the country and along the coastal areas, as well as all that
pollution we talked about earlier.
But the biggest problem to Bangladesh’s long term stability is probably politics.
Despite this increase in living standards, economic stability and strong growth, Bengali
politics is absolutely insane.
There isn’t much ideological difference between the Awami League and their main rival,
the Nationalist Party.
Sure they pay lip service to the economy and whatever, but these parties mostly a vehicle
for two women who hate each other to settle a personal dispute.
In a bipartisan move that would be the envy of Republicans and Democrats, they’ve worked
to insulate the economy from politics just so that they could continue their stupid family
feud without disrupting the lives of everyday citizens.
The current prime minister is Sheik Hasina of the Awami League, who is the daughter of
first president Sheik Mujib.
She was the Sheik family’s only survivor after a 1975 coup because she was on holiday
in Germany at the time.
Opposing her is Khaleda Zia, who is the wife of the man behind the coup, Ziaur Rahman.
And he did the coup because, get this, the army were bored after the Liberation War and
felt like Indian military intervention had robbed them of a glorious people’s victory.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Because after more than 20 coup attempts, they were able to kill Ziaur, which accidentally
brought in an even more repressive dictatorship, and of course that wasn’t gonna last because
nobody oppresses the other family except me.
So they worked together to get rid of the dictator.
And since the 1990s, these two women have been battling it out, finding more and more
dumb reasons to put each other and their supporters in jail every time they get elected.
They’re so corrupt that they spend nearly as much paying bribes than they do on the
health budget.
So when Kissinger called Bangladesh a “basket case nation”, maybe he was half-right.
Because despite the revolutions, counter revolutions, coups, and see-sawing
between two insane political dynasties, life has consistently been improving for the 150
million people in the most densely populated country in the world.
They are simply going through a period of development that nearly every other country
has been through.
It’s gonna take a while before Bangladesh is on par with the rest of the developed world,
but at least now you know a little bit more about the country that went from rags to stitches.