John Openshaw

NAVIGATE

DATE: March 2013

NAVIGATE NOTES

A Potential Disaster: Initial Impressions of HIV in Bangladesh

It’s very difficult to truly grasp the scope of the HIV epidemic in Bangladesh. The first case of HIV in Bangladesh was detected in 1989 and by all accounts the numbers of infected individuals have been rising since that time...

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Long Weekends and Protests

The last week has been marred by political disruption and violence as protests and rallies continue to sweep across Bangladesh. Since the war crimes tribunal sentenced an Islamic leader to death last week, tragically, at my last check of news outlets, over seventy people have been killed.

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RECENT

Causing Havoc Downstream

There has been much alarm today in regards to the discovery of some 1,200 dead pigs in the Songjiang section of the Huangpu river in China...

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Slideshow: Tracing Paper

Exploring the honeycomb of markets and stalls throughout Old Dhaka, one can trace the route of paper from the press to the wall to the scrap heap and, finally, to musty rooms where it is shredded and collected for recycling.

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Life in Dhaka's Dilapidated Palaces

It’s hard not to notice the rotting old 18th and 19th century fronts of Dhaka’s old town. Ghosts of a bygone era, the neoclassical facades provide a reminder of the city that Dhaka once was. Now the palatial buildings — victims of political strife and poverty — stand in stately disrepair.

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Slideshow: Water Quality

This set of pictures is dedicated to water use and water quality around Dhaka: from the modern to the historic. I wanted to start with the usual state of the water coming out of the faucet in my bathroom. I’ve placed a plastic cup to catch the water so you can see that it’s not exactly clear...

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Virus Hunting: Where to Search?

In our search for new zoonotic viral diseases (viruses that spread from animals to people) over the last few months, perhaps one of the most difficult questions has been where to look. It would probably be best to find a place where animals and people live in close association...

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