Corruption...

Fantastic article in Time Magazine, "Afghan Corruption a Growing Concern". Very relevant to Bangladesh; the culture of corruption, which is being admirably by UNDP, is widespread, from the building manager of your apartment complex, to the traffic police at the end of the street, to the guy who delivers bottles of water, even the tea boy who brings around morning tea every day.

Unfortunately, that impacts my work as well... for things to run smoothly, I would need to budget triple what I originally intend in order to placate all involved. Of course I won't do that, and thankfully neither does my organisation, so my work necessarily takes much longer, and my options begin to dwindle.

Instead of cash I am therefore required to use my stature, my presence, my yelling and cursing and threatening and posturing in circumstances I would frankly have rather not been in... thankfully this does not happen often, but often enough to serve as a constant threat to my day to day peace of mind...