This article is a real head-scratcher. It is published in something called the New Nation and is entitled “Using the media to communicate environmental risk.” First its interesting to note that there are environmental activists in Bangladesh. Maybe my view of that country is skewed but I envision it as a nation of poor people just struggling to survive. Usually concern for the environment is considered a luxury in the third world and is a sign of increasing affluence.
But, here is a long paragraph from this opinion piece which ends with a curious comment. After listing all the forms of environmental pollution the writer includes Rohingya Muslim refugees in the list.
Environmental risks, more or less, are now touching every sphere of our life. At a quick glance, more glaringly manifested environmental risks that could be easily identified in our country are: water pollution, misuse of agro-chemicals, unhygienic human habits, lack of sanitation facilities, effect of Farakka Barrage, recurring cyclones and floods, silting of river beds, large scale deforestation, etc. Moreover, there are other areas where environment hazards are present in different degrees. Those areas are: effect of shrimp cultivation, increase of salinity in the coastal belt, water logging in different areas, effects of wrongly built embankments, afforestation with exotic varieties instead of local variant of trees, downward trend of underground water level, threat of mangrove forest, industrial waste disposal in rivers, unhygienic situation in tanneries, noise pollution, presence of arsenic in underground water, growth of unplanned bus stations in the urban areas, emission of smoke from mechanised vehicles, brick-fields, mills and factories; presence of large number of unhealthy derelict ponds, continued presence of Rohingya refugees in our land, etc.
So, after dirty factories and ponds we have Rohingya? Huh? Then no further mention of how Rohingya are polluting Bangladesh. One can only assume that the illegal immigrants, in this case the Rohingya, help degrade the environment. Makes me wonder how big US environmental groups like the Sierra Club are incapable of noticing the same thing here. See my post this morning on population increases in the US due to immigrants.
We have a whole category on Rohingya Muslims here. This is one of the first posts I did on Rohingya. They are actually from a region in Burma and are spreading out in Bangladesh, Thailand, and Pakistan. Rohingya are also being resettled in the West, New Zealand and Australia. They want to come to the US too and may already be here.