Binary Bangladesh

Fans of the God Father trilogies will know about ‘Grey Characters’. Different folks will have different interpretations – in principle, grey characters are those who are generally wrong and do evil, but have their own morals and reasons behind it, or realize their wrong doing and try to rectify it. For me, it’s slightly different. For me, anything which is not totally good or totally bad is grey. Anything that cannot be represented using binary digits is grey. It’s a bit like technology enthusiasts – purist iOS and Android fans fall within the black and white category – people willing to try other platforms, or happy to move between Android and iOS lie within the grey zone.

Now here’s a random thought – since the general population of Bangladesh is always divided in two, why not change our flag to represent this. Behold my proposed new flag of Bangladesh:

Consider the numerous scenarios where this fits in …

Cricket – White for Pakistan and Black for India. Thankfully now we have a grey audience who actually support Bangladesh when we play well.

Football – Real Madrid vs Barcelona or Brazil vs Argentina - whether you understand football or not.

Academics – White for English Medium / Private Uni, Black for Bangla Medium / Public Uni - whether you have any idea of the syllabus or academic methodology or not.

Culture – Black for India, Hindu, Bangla. White for Islam, anti-india - regardless of numerous examples or exceptions, stereotyping rules !!

and of course, Politics – White for BNP, Black for AL (no relation to skin complexion of ex-prime minster or current home minister). It doesn’t stop there; after each national election, we can reverse the colours to show which side the majority of the population is on.

Jokes apart, it actually saddens me. We have far too many people who lack basic judgement – their opinion and attitude towards everything is driven by influence. There is in fact nothing called a thought process – it’s all either pre-built in, or just a matter of joining a band wagon which serves your personal gain. The scientific method of reaching a conclusion requires gathering information, and testing a hypothesis. In our case, we start from a pre-assumed hypothesis, then back track if required. In most cases, we just join the crowd to avoid answering to our opinions – thereby having other take our decisions for us.