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needs to import oil. Bangladeshi oil needs to be blended with oil from the United Arab Emirates in order to meet Bangladesh’s energy needs. One oil is too sulphurous, the other too viscous (thick and sticky). Mixing the two together creates the perfect blend.
    The water in the Bay of Bengal is slowly turning brown, but not from contamination with crude oil. It is from India’s great rivers bringing their brown waters deep into the bay. Bangladesh is located in the centre of three large rivers, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna. Over centuries, the place where the three rivers meet has forced the silt they carry to build up and extend the land further and further out to sea. This land is very fertile, but liable to flooding and hurricanes. Chittagong is Bangladesh’s only sea harbour and is situated east of the river delta on the Karnaphuli River.
    Long before the Madras reaches the harbour, it sails past many much older ships. They are obsolete oil tankers, cargo ships and ferries waiting to be dismantled on Chittagong’s beach. In the ship breaking zone, most of the boats are taken apart by hand. Last year, Captain van der Valt wanted to take a closer look at the area, and took a taxi down to the beach. “We used to swim here,” the taxi driver told him. Nowadays, the whole beach is covered in black, sticky oil.
    Half submerged and half on land, the huge ships lie around like beached whales. A cargo ship is having its bow cut away, while the stern of a tanker lies next to it, the rest of its superstructure remaining in the water. There is nowhere to dock, and no wharf where the back-ends of ships can be placed above the water line. A huge crane moves around, swaying to and fro, transporting heavy pieces of iron. Everything else is done by hand using basic hand tools, welding irons, screwdrivers and chisels. The workers look very small next to these vast ships, and very vulnerable.
    “A lot of accidents happen here,” one of the workers told Captain van der Valt. “But our employers just don’t want to know.” Oil and grease from the ships’ machinery and tanks isn’t pumped out into a collecting reservoir. Instead, it is left on the beach.
    The city of Chittagong is not directly on the beach, but is further inland on a wide river called the Karnaphuli. The river, however, is only six metres deep, which is why Chittagong’s oil harbour is at the mouth of the river, at the end of a long spit of land, far out to sea. As soon as the Madras arrives at the oil harbour, the crude oil is pumped out of the ship into huge tanks. The tanks are already half full with crude oil from the Bangladeshi oil reservoirs. The combination of the two oils will be better for processing. After the Madras has been emptied, its tanks are thoroughly washed out with water. Then the ship goes through a rigorous safety check. A team of experts climb on board and swarm all over the ship, checking the electronics, pipes and valves. They even climb into the oil tanks. Crude oil, saltwater and oxygen irritate the walls of the ship. Although the walls are always sprayed with a protective coating, the combination of oil, saltwater and oxygen will eventually burn through and attack the metal below, making it rust. Only once the experts have worked through their entire list can the ship leave. Time is of the essence, as always. After all, renting the Madras costs $50,000 US dollars a day . . .

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    A General Strike in Chittagong: Bangladesh Hangs By a Thread
    23/24 August 2005
    It’s late at night in one of the slums of Chittagong. In the darkness, Mohmin and his young neighbour Kholil are discussing strike demands with their colleagues. The electricity network is down again so they have to finish their banner, made from a bed sheet and two poles, by the light of a petrol lamp. They are still undecided about what to write on the banner. They want better pay, that’s for certain . . .
    Mohmin works at the polyester factory, and Kholil