by: Cheryl Daytec
My friend Gina Dizon has been in Kagrachari, Bangladesh for three years doing humanitarian work for the indigenous peoples there. Most of them belong to the Chakma tribe.
The situation of our indigenous brothers and sisters in Bangladesh is so heartbreaking. One Bangladeshi activist told me that every waking moment is for them a miracle because it means they are still alive.
Their problems include displacement from their ancestral lands. To IPs, the land is their life. Once it is taken away, everything else- culture, economic livelihood, even their very existence- goes. The government of Bangladesh has resorted to militarization as a weapon of development aggression. Every day, the IPs stare at the face of terror.
And yet amid all their pressing problems, there is still beauty around. Gina took some really beautiful pictures of the Kagrachari sunset.
My friend Gina Dizon has been in Kagrachari, Bangladesh for three years doing humanitarian work for the indigenous peoples there. Most of them belong to the Chakma tribe.
The situation of our indigenous brothers and sisters in Bangladesh is so heartbreaking. One Bangladeshi activist told me that every waking moment is for them a miracle because it means they are still alive.
Their problems include displacement from their ancestral lands. To IPs, the land is their life. Once it is taken away, everything else- culture, economic livelihood, even their very existence- goes. The government of Bangladesh has resorted to militarization as a weapon of development aggression. Every day, the IPs stare at the face of terror.
And yet amid all their pressing problems, there is still beauty around. Gina took some really beautiful pictures of the Kagrachari sunset.
Gina swears none of the pictures is digitally enhanced! How stupendous is the beauty Gina was fortunate to witness. All we can can experience is vicarious, and yet we can still appreciate the beauty as though we were there watching as the sun set in the western sky.
The oppressors may use force to take the IP's ancestral domains. But how can they ever take away the beauty of the sunset?