Dhaka, Jan. 2 -- Globalisation means, in simple terms, opening up to the trends of the world.
Be it good or bad, if the world benefits from a certain trend, a country, no matter in which bracket in falls: developed, developing or least developed, it will feel the good trickle into its existence and, the same goes for the bad impacts. Today, as we are on the technology roller coaster, we are in no way isolated from the world that is dependent to a large extent on technology and, though in a majority of cases, the result of this is positive, there needs to be solemn agreement that with the flow of positivity come the darker sides.
Not surprisingly, a recent observation by IGP brings to the forefront the not so redeeming dimension of globalisation and its manifestation in the local crime scene.
The chief of police rightly said that with globalisation fuelling a lot of social and economic trends in Bangladesh, foreign criminals and crimes that were so far confined to distant lands are now very much common within our society.
In fact, to comprehend the significance of what the IGP said, one has to look at how our urban crime scene has evolved in the last decade. Among the first signs is the diversification of crime in the city with the inclusion of women in well chalked- out deception schemes.
Women were never part of our crime scene in the past and at the end of the last decade, the only reports of wrongdoing by women that came in the papers were those relating to extra marital affairs and elopement. Today that picture has taken a diabolical form. The inclusion of women in crime began about seven to eight years ago when the first false marriage matchmaking organisation was busted by the police. Using the lure of foreign citizenship, a syndicate with the assistance of an attractive young woman duped several men into paying an advance sum to marry the said woman holding a foreign passport. In certain cases a sham marriage was even arranged and to add veracity and trust in the whole process the woman also spent time with the unsuspecting men. Now here we see fraud with total disregard for fundamental moral values.
But false marriage centres were just the tip of the iceberg because soon we saw women acting as part of hijacking rings in which the web of deceit placed the woman as a helpless person in need of help in the city. Out of chivalry men approached and found themselves entangled in con trick.
About three years ago a Dhaliwood actress, ousted for vulgarity in films, was caught by the police because she was the mastermind behind a con scheme that involved gathering information of foreign based relatives of families living in Dhaka and then going to those families and using that information cleverly to make quick money.
Only a few weeks ago we came across the death of a young woman whose life ended after she took a medicine given to her by another woman claiming to be a voodoo healer.
So as we see more presence of women in the crime scene the traditional image that society has regarding the opposite sex is being challenged. In fact, women who are out to defraud people know that society doggedly hangs on to and propagates myths that present the opposite sex as being impervious to criminal instincts and, regrettably, this naive belief is monopolised to the hilt.
The globalised crime scene also has a wide fertile space in the virtual world and Bangladesh is now a very appetising field for virtual criminals because we are in the process of becoming Internet dependent very soon.
Credit card fraud, one of the biggest crimes in the west, has yet to make a big blow on Bangladesh but the fact that such a mishap has not happened does not guarantee a safe future. If we go back few years, we will remember that a group of foreigners were apprehended in Bangladesh while trying to spend on stolen cards.
Then there is the possibility of crime being committed by foreigners who come into Bangladesh on a variety of reasons from sport to employment. Only for playing football, hundreds of young men come from different destinations in Africa and as we open our hospitality to the genuine players, we must also be wary of those who are part of international crime syndicates.
Bangladesh is a new kid on the globalised block and we are gullible, often having a one hundred per cent trusting attitude towards foreigners. This will be used against us because today crime is not confined within a certain boundary; it transgresses borders and becomes truly global. So, a criminal committing a major crime can easily come to Bangladesh, stay low and while remaining here plan to use Bangladesh as his/her next playing field.
Automatically, with the mention of international crime the issue of terrorism steps in and we cannot dismiss the possibility of Bangladesh being used as a planning stage headquarter for major terrorist plots.
However, everything said and done the plus side is that since we have entered the global race later than others, we can learn from their mistakes and take precautions beforehand. At the same time, being a global citizen we also need to look at the world without the glasses of idealism. Yes, this sounds harsh but that is how it is. One cannot be global and remain untouched by the darker spots of globalisation and the trick is to enjoy all the perks of a fast life and taking life and all that is happening around us with a pinch of salt. The end result of this will perhaps leave us very detached as individuals but that is the price that the west has paid. We are on the roller coaster and there is no way back! It's like Hotel California: you can check in anytime you like, but you can never leave it! We jump to its best bits but we must also accept the fact that globalisation takes away much of the humanity in being human.
Fraud NGO's and the poverty eradication scam
A few weeks ago there was a sudden demand for golden one Taka coins in the market which was spurred by a rumour that the coin carried copper and since copper price rose in the international market, an organised syndicate was colleting such coins for exorbitant rates.
Naturally, the story spread like wild fire and like many urban fascinations that are simply flashes in the pan, it died out, but this coin frenzy also inspired a cartoon which showed armed goons hijacking coins from road side beggars. It was funny but at the same time had a profound underlying message: for profit, ethics can easily be sacrificed. And once more we face the decay of morality when we see that another NGO, this time in Sherpur, has swindled potential beneficiaries of Tk20 lakh and has disappeared without trace.
The NGO in question called Palli Naari Jagoron Shangstha started operation in Jhinaigati upazilla in Sherpur within rented premises and then employed educated local youth to go from house to house to get membership. Unsuspecting villagers were lured by promises of large loans against a certain amount of capital and once the NGO accumulated a considerable sum, the masterminds disappeared.
A very old trick but one that is still carried out with confidence and a certain level of immunity because there isn't a mechanism to guard the poor people from it!
If we take this whole event into consideration and look at it practically we will find several gaps that allowed such trickery and deception to go unnoticed. Firstly, the NGO was not registered and the upazilla authority did not see it necessary to check the credentials before allowing it to operate. In a country where NGO business has taken off with a vengeance it's always likely that within all these - to use the NGO jargon - pro poor development oriented bodies, there are some that are only in it for the gain.
And not surprisingly, this is not the first time such a scam has happened. To mention Jubok, a large organisation which started with the extravagant vision to infuse hope within the young across the country, would be appropriate because its pledges of development and the subsequent exposure of its fraudulent activities are still vivid in the minds of people.
Interestingly, we still do not know what punishment was handed out to the Jubok authority which engineered such a large scale con operation.
And we now face a similar case, though smaller in size, in a rural part of Bangladesh. Of course, understandably, it's always easier to carry out such deception in the rural areas because of the scarcity of educated people to raise questions.
Coming back to the Sherpur NGO, we know that the local administration has a very opaque idea about the whole issue and now that the deceivers have vanished with the money taken from the locals, the issue has come to the limelight.
Some responsible newspapers have reported it, ran editorials denouncing such fraudulent activities that exploit the ignorance and the gullibility of poor people, but if the reaction ends there then the perpetrators of this scam will leave unharmed. And, we shall be naive in thinking that they will not replicate such a scheme elsewhere in Bangladesh after a hiatus and after the current debate about fraud NGO's die down.
The main masterminds behind this treachery need to be tracked down and the government must step in.
The whole criminal operation was carried out by employing other people and, it is safe to speculate that since the NGO took deposits from potential clients, it ran a bank account and even used mobile phones. So, if a blanket operation is launched then there is no way, the criminals will escape. However, nabbing them will only be possible if there is a genuine desire from the authority.
On another note, on the social front there needs to be a discussion as how effective so many NGO's have been in eradicating poverty and hunger in Bangladesh. Have they played a pivotal role in making lives better or has the issue of helping the poor been used as a business tool to attract foreign donation and funds?
Against the backdrop of countless social development bodies, such a discussion has become essential because even if many NGO's are not directly defrauding people, their main aims maybe making profit by superficially appearing to be working for the good of society.
The problem is that we Judge an NGO by the yearly report it produces and usually, these are embellished with inflated figures. Holding of seminars at posh hotels where statistics are given out to the press is another common approach but if the media decides to go to the field and gather the real information and then present it before us, we will get a chance to know what is working and what is not.
But everything said and done, it's also the responsibility of the MP of a certain area to ensure that all development organisations working in his/her area are one hundred per cent legal and are making noteworthy difference to the lives of the deprived. Just because NGO's are involved in development should not exclude them from being answerable. In the case of the Sherpur event, if the local administration had followed the activities of the NGO then today, a section of people would not be blaming their fate. Perhaps as a deterrent against such events recurring, a practical step would be to have photos and relevant information of all NGO people taken at the local police station.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Dhaka Courier.
For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
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