22/07/2024
Dear friends. For almost 4 years now, I have been working close with Najir Ahamed. Najir and his family live in Dhaka in Bangladesh. Four to five times a week, Najir and I have work meetings via Zoom. Over the years, a true friendship has developed that I am very proud of. Apart from being a top WORDPRESS engineer, Najir is a good person. A guy one out of thousands. He will soon become a father and he and his wife are very much looking forward to that. We 'talk' to each other via Zoom, WhatsApp, Email or we call each other when there is WiFi.
Since last Thursday at 15:38, I have not been able to speak to Najir. People in Bangladesh have been 'imprisoned' by their own government and isolated from the outside world. This is how a so-called democratically elected government wants to suppress a student uprising.
I myself try to follow the news through all sorts of channels. CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and India Today TV... The coverage repeats itself and the images are from last Friday.
At the end of November, I was supposed to fly to Bangladesh to shoot a documentary. This was then, after all these years, also a great opportunity to take Najir and his family into my arms. Together with my client, yesterday it was decided to postpone the trip because it is not safe in Bangladesh now. Travelling around with camera flight cases would not be wise because I would be qualified as a journalist and not a Social Anthropological photographer.
Why I want to share this with you? Simply because I want us all to realise how important freedom is. That we too easily take things for granted. Making a phone call, sending an email or facetiming each other for an hour. Just simply sharing an Instagram post with your friends the moment you feel like it. Not in Bangladesh, not in Gaza not in Ukraine...and many other places on earth.
I don't understand. But I don't want to understand it either. Maybe naive but I want to cherish the thought that a government takes good care of its people. But reality tells me otherwise. That makes me sad. Najir,...brother...keep strong!
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