Civil unrest in this day in age are far from uncommon, stretching from Palestine to Greece and from Missouri to Venezuela. This is no different in the small, South Asian country of Bangladesh, where 31 have been killed in mass, violent protests in support of fresh parliamentary elections.
The majority of these dead were killed in arson attacks on buses, unlike the two most recent victims who died in the hospital as a result from injuries received by a bomb attack.
These oppositions are lead by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party allied with 19 other political parties, and call for the nationwide protest and blockade of roads, railroads, and river transport. The now-passed elections were boycotted by the BNP and the former Bangladeshian Prime Minister Khaleda Zia who said the elections were going to be inevitably rigged by the
government, and demanded the elections be conducted by a neutral party.
This system of neutral care taking was the method of choice until it was scrapped by the governing Awami League in 2010. This change, along with the Awami leader, Sheikh Hasina, refusing to meet the B.N.P.'s requests, lead to more than one-half of the 300-seat parliament going unchallenged in the election.
To most citizens in the United States and other non-involved countries, this may simply sound like another headline that drifts across a news anchor's monotone voice, but to 31 families this is the definition of true tragedy.
That is all I have to say today, but I'll be back Monday.
"There are all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice." -F. Scott Fitzgerald
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