Bangladesh Railway: see if you can find the train

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]vercrowded? Definitely. Poverty? No question. But look at the exuberant humanity that permeates these images of people dealing with what they regard as customary in their lives, or united in a common purpose—attending some religious celebration, and the cheerful way with which they assume the high risks of transportation by such uncomfortable and dangerous methods. This is so remarkable that we have inserted here not one, but several videos of these occurrences. There's a lesson here for westerners, and it probably has to do with the near infinite degree of patience people have with inept or corrupt governments.

Incidentally, not to rub salt or insult Bangladeshis, Indians or other nationalities in any way, countries that have had more than their share of tribulations, including natural disasters in recent memory, but compare the state of dilapidation of Indian and Bangladeshi rails with China, one of the world's leaders today, it almost makes you cry. What a commentary on the sharp difference between the wages of capitalism and socialism. The comparison is apt because both the Indian subcontinent and China gained freedom from colonial enslavement at around the same time, India formally in 1947, and China in 1949. And both faced the heavy weight of horrid underdevelopment, illiteracy, and a ton of miseries  issuing from inherited wounds and archaic class structures. India, choosing Gandhian idealism,  took the capitalist way, with a light sprinkling of socialism (Fabianism variety). China went for Marxist-Leninism implemented in the Maoist way.  As well, a video compilation of the most dangerous railways in the world (see Appendix 2) shows that every case of dilapidated trains or absurd positioning of tracks (i.e., Thailand's train passing right through a fish market) also occurs in nations ruled by utterly corrupt or reactionary regimes.

No further comment is needed.

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