This week’s article of the week focused on the issue of the threat of eviction of Dhaka slum dwellers. The government previously announced to the dwellers that they are expanding the road 10 feet on both sides, so the dwellers prepared. Some people even moved back all their belongings to 50 feet away. On one day, the bulldozers began to demolish the slums. To the dweller’s shock, the bulldozers did not stop at the promised 10 feet. The bulldozers kept destroying homes, way beyond 50 feet. Thousands of people were left without shelter, without food and without water. Their only source for survival are NGO who supply them with necessities. Many were injured by the unexpected demolition, and there is a claim that a girl was crushed in the process. Officials state that about half of Dhaka’s population, 12 million, live in slums. If the government evicts all of those 12 million people, then everything would be in chaos.
I had many questions throughout the article. My first one was, why did the government lie to their own people? The government is supposed to protect and make sure their citizens are all right – the exact opposite happened in the article. The government lied, they took away people’s’ homes, and left them with barely anything. Doesn’t the government have to follow the Declaration of Human Rights? If they do, then this surely has to discussed and solved. I think the message of this article is that human rights violations don’t only happen because of evil people or so – it could be by your rulers. Maybe your government is making your life worse and worse by violating human rights – this article matters because it may relate to many of us.
Sadly, when you are involved in such a situation, there is not much you can do. You cannot speak out against them, as they lead you. Rebellion may be fine, but that only leads to war. The only way I think is to let as many people know about your situation. Maybe then, the media will pressure the government to change. As a world, we need to make sure that our leaders respect us, and that they not lie to their own people.
