BLOOD SPLINTER OF JUTE / STONE WORKERS OF JAFLONG (Bangladesh, 2008)

Bangladesh is a country with massive problems and challenges. Overpopulated and vulnerable to recurring floods, it lives on the front line of social-economic issues and climate change. Munem Wasif spotlights two aspects of modern Bangladesh in the series selected: BLOOD SPLINTER OF JUTE and STONE WORKERS OF JAFLONG. The first looks at the loss of the jute industry, once the driving force in the economy. Jute factories have been closed, often under pressure from the government, with all the consequences that has for communities that were dependent on jute pro-duction. The second series deals with workers who extract stones from the bed of the Piyain river, where they have been carried down by the current. The stones are needed to supply the flourishing construction sector with materials. While the stones are used to build villas in Dhaka, the workers – among them many women and children – earn less than two dollars a day.