Sun 29 May 2005
It has almost been 30 years since I left Dhaka for the first time, headed towards New York City. New York has changed a lot in the last 30 years. Dhaka has changed a great deal more. And I have changed the most - ‘transformed’ is a more appropriate word!
There are many others who must also have experienced such a transformation. Some more and others less, but each, living an existence today that we would not have been able to imagine or comprehend when we left Bangladesh. We live in different cities - although often concentrated in popular urban centers, work in different fields - although concentrated in things related to technology and higher education, and have different family situations - although most have young families to provide for.
But what we lack is an ability to harness the collective power that we might be able to yield and the collective knowledge that we may be able to offer. Networking! Not in the new sense of the word but in the OLD sense of the word! Think smoky back rooms where deals are quietly made and sealed with a handshake and a drink (make that a cup of decaf coffee for me). For once I would like to read about a group of Bengaliss who have been able to wheel and deal and accomplish something big and momentous and positive - not just for one or two individuals but for a whole bunch of them!
So how do we do it? How do we wield our COLLECTIVE STRENGTH to determine and accomplish our COLLECTIVE WILL? How do we pool and align all our strings together so that we can have a robust braided rope where the individual ‘pulls’ result in a mighty tug that can move mountains?
May 30th, 2005 at 11:43 pm
The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) could be a good role model for focusing on entrepreneurship and new ideas, but our community is yet to reach that criticial mass. For a moment back in the boom days I thought Tech Bangla could do something similar in the technology fields, but an annual conference is too far apart to be of any real use.
Obviously leveraging the internet would be key. Inserting a virtual “Deal Room” into every chapabaji Bangladeshi e-forum?
May 31st, 2005 at 6:50 am
It is probably true that we do not have anywhere near the critical mass of TIE. But we don’t have to start big. We just have to start! Nor do we have to be an exact imitator. Here’s a thought/query, affinity credit cards: they are all over the place!
Do we have someone with sufficient marketing/banking experience or affiliation to set up a program where we encourage ex-pats to obtain and use a BANGLA VISA or a BANGLA MASTERCARD? Can we set it up so that the co-marketing rebates come to a general welfare fund (perhaps run by Drishtipat and a rotating board) where ALL support work is done by volunteers and ALL funds are used for specific aid requests?
I imagine that there are many of us who spend/charge over $1,000 per year on our credit cards - some considerably more. Would it be so bad if 1% of that amount is kicked back as an affinity program credit? Surely it will take time to grow - but is it possible that some day we can have 10,000 cardholders? 50,000? The world is a big place and just the US and UK can be a start!
So do we have anyone out there with some experience in this area?
May 31st, 2005 at 7:01 pm
There are many things that can be done. But like many other things it needs a sustained effort. If we learn to follow up and keep working on an issue until it is obtained, we can be there.
Muhit bhai, I will take your proposal one step further. With the money earned from the scheme, it will be used as seed money to start up an infrastructure bond for Bangladesh. These bonds can be bought by the expats as a means to invest money in Bangladesh. The money will spent on creating bridges, commnication network etc and profit comes back to the fund to be reinvested or partly for welfare.
May 31st, 2005 at 11:52 pm
Aren’t there a bunch of infrastructure dev bonds already available for NRIs? I like the affinity card idea.
btw on a tangentially related item, some donors have requested a way to make monthly donations to a general DP fund - similar to what they are doing for other non-profits like UNICEF, CARE, etc. A general DP fund, with clearly defined goals for disbursements, could be a good target for the 2nd half of this year - and if you can eventually mass market it through channels like the Affinity card, monthly ACH debits, etc - all the better.
We also talk about zakat funds about a dozen times each year. There are obviously rules around that, but it’s another option. I think the fundraising would be much easier if we had more concentrated focus - and because that focus has been hard to find, perhaps we should look into outsourcing it?
ps what does infrastructure develoment have to do with “human rights”? I know you can make a case that it does. But many will argue that DP should maintain its focus on rights related issues, even if supporting parallel but distinct efforts to raise and channel funds for social good type of projects. Maybe we have been trying to hard to make a distinction… if you want to scale perhaps the line should be blurred a bit.
June 1st, 2005 at 12:05 am
to not lose track of Muhit bhai’s last question, how much experience is needed - I know people who have worked at GE Capital’s credit card division eg - don’t know if they can set up an affinity program with VISA. etc from scratch. Can find out.
June 1st, 2005 at 6:04 am
Spending the money - whether on infrastructure or on human rights development will be easy. Getting the money is a bit harder. One time appeals work very well (as the recent success of the Palashbari fundraising and prior appeals go to show) but they don’t easily lead to planned improvements.
I have found that projects work well when you find a core group of a few people (three to six) who are interested in furthering the project and empower them to get it done. As such, if the affinity card is an interesting enough idea (I would really like to hear some more voices on the topic) and no one comes up up with serious objections, perhaps there is someone who will ‘volunteer’ to lead the project. Rafiq?
June 3rd, 2005 at 1:19 pm
I like Muhit’s idea of an affinity card in principle. Besides the logistics of actually setting it up, which I don’t know much about, I am not sure how to get past the barrier of mistrust. I am not worried about those who know of Drishtipat and its good work. But to get anywhere near 10,000 people to sign up any time soon, it would require more trust than typical Bangladeshis usually have towards each other.
It could probably work over a longer run when people learn from each other that this is no scam and they have little to lose and everything to gain. The question is how long can one wait to get to the critical mass needed for a viable project.
June 3rd, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Tanveer Bhai, I am still waiting for someone amongst us to offer to take the lead on finding out the answers and more. But in general, affinity cards are run directly by the issuing bank. The only contact points are any marketing help (such as access to mailing lists, word of mouth, etc.) that we can give them, the design/appearance of the cards and finally, the account where the ‘affinity rebate’ is sent. From a user’s point of view, the relationship would be exclusively with, for example, Citibank or BankOne or CapitalOne and there would be no need to trust anyone in particular.
The issue of critical mass is important. I don’t know what is the number of accounts (or adoption rate) that would interest one of these issuers to take on the project. That is where we need some expert help!
So once again, all you Bengali ex-pats out there, could we have some experts shine some light on the topic?
June 5th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Not sure how good this program is:
http://www.thegivingcard.com/tgc/default.aspx
June 5th, 2005 at 9:13 pm
Interesting program - it is independent from affinity cards. But I couldn’t get any sense of how deep their merchant base is. It appears to me (from the lack of any statements such as “we have over 10,000 merchants” etc.) that they may be at an early stage where they are busy signing up people (or trying to!). IT is the classic chicken and egg problem: if they have a lot of merchants, folks will likely sign on. And if they have a lot of registered members, merchants will probably join! But how to get it going!
Let’s keep looking. I still would like to find an ex-pat with a little bit of time (and lots of initiative) on his/her hands to spearhead this project. I can give significant guidance but do not have the time to do the legwork or follow thru at this point …! Volunteers, anyone?
June 6th, 2005 at 12:21 am
I’m waiting to hear back from a couple of people who may have some experience…
The Giving Card looks like it relies on the merchant’s marketing dollars to be applied towards the rebate. Since it is not an affinity card but uses the cards people already have, it may be easier to sign up members than to get the merchants. The beneficiary non-profit would have to pitch the idea to merchants who are likely to see BD-origin customers as a large enough target group worth getting into this program for.
June 16th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
This is a delayed response - I am currently in Dhaka - one of the potential drawbacks ith the Giving Card is that it is not yet clear how strong or effective the organization is. Yet it requires individuals to hand over their credit card information to them - a definite security issue.
The traditional affinity card is administered totally by the originating bank and no confidential information is shared with anyone else. Much more secure (and therefore, possibly an easier sell?)
March 16th, 2006 at 7:47 am
[...] for Bangladesh Posted by Administrator under Rights as we don’t know it Last year there was a thread that discussed the possibility of a affinity [...]
March 16th, 2006 at 8:55 am
the people I trust: http://www.ethicalinvestors.co.uk
the people I have an account with: The Cooperative Bank (UK)
Not willing to compromise by dealing with CapitalOne or any other suspect financial institutions.
March 16th, 2006 at 11:14 am
I have reason to be very familiar with certain aspects of setting up (the actual infrastructure, criteria, legal implications, hurdles in developing countries) something akin to an affinity card….if there is still interest in pursuing the idea, maybe a small group of us can meet over coffee and see if there is enough feasibility and sufficient knowledge-based information to get going….let me know!
June 8th, 2006 at 5:36 am
Hi guys: We never got as far as our telephone call! I am still waiting to hear from you all about a time that is convenient. If the telephone is not so easy, does it make sense to advance things a bit via e-mail?
Best,
Muhit