The final tally of our crowdfunding goal, US$10,215.

Belinda Meggitt and I liken our relationship with Bangladesh to an arranged marriage — a relationship we did not choose ourselves but learned to love and cherish.

When we first travelled to Bangladesh as development volunteers in 2006, little did we know we were embarking on a life journey with a country that would change our lives over and over again. Today, the results of our deepening relationship of the country have resulted in our second publication Positive Light — our second baby as we like to call it — being released to the world stage.

Preview Positive Light book now

We have always believed in the potential of Bangladesh, especially its tourism potential. We also deeply believe that the economic benefits of this tourism could provide jobs to Bangladeshi people. When we created our travel guidebook in 2009, the tourism market for Bangladesh was non-existent and in a sense we had put the cart before the horse. Today, with the creation and publication of Positive Light, we are working to build the international tourism market for Bangladesh and create a group of non-government organisations and tour operators who believe in the opportunity of sustainable tourism to benefit Bangladeshi people.

If Bangladesh’s tourism earnings were on par with India, the country could reap $6B more in income from the world. There is simply no reason for this disparity other than the misbranded image of Bangladesh

We have Drik to thank for this next step in our vision of a stronger Bangladesh, especially Shahidul Alam, Founder and Managing Director of Drik. Drik is Bangladesh’s premiere institution of photography and hosts Chobi Mela every two years, Bangladesh’s international festival of photography. It is Alam’s faith in this project that has seen it through to its next evolution. Without Drik’s investment in to the publication of Positive Light, we would not have had this opportunity to take Positive Light to the world beyond Bangladesh’s borders.

In return for Drik’s investment into Positive Light, Mikey Leung and the Crowdsourced Travel team has worked for the last two months in putting together our second successful crowdfunding campaign on StartSomeGood, a crowdfunding website where social enterprises and innovators raise the funds they need for world-changing projects. Over 43 days, the team raised $10.2K of purchasing commitments for Positive Light from over 140 backers. After shipping, we will have roughly 75% of these funds left over, which covers approximately 50% of the printing cost of Positive Light. The rest of necessary funds are being raised from sponsorships. From here, we will be shipping books to international warehouses in the US, UK and Australia, where they will be shipped onwards to those who pledged to purchase the book.

This is big news for a relationship that began when we stepped off the plane in Dhaka and took our first breaths of Bangladeshi air. Little did we know that we our hopes and efforts for the country would result in our team of photographers taking their images to the world under the Positive Light banner. In association with our crowdfunding backers, our sponsors and our publisher Drik, we are immensely pleased to see the project take shape.

Thank you for supporting us. From here, you can join the project, purchase a book or join our Facebook page.

by Mikey Leung

That’s why the support of sponsors, especially those who understand and respect the project’s original vision, are extremely helpful. We are very pleased to welcome two new sponsors to the project.

Gold Sponsor: Elite Force

Elite Force is the largest security company in Bangladesh, with over 13,000 personnel, operating in 64 districts and providing the widest range of security solutions with the highest quality and integrity throughout the country. The company has played a pivotal role in creating thousands of job opportunities for the rural youth.

www.elitebd.com

Gold Sponsor: Tiger Tours

Tiger Tours Limited represents the realization of a vision of one of the country’s very senior and effective former civil servants, most recently Executive Director of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, working in countries across the developing world. Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury’s vision is of Bangladesh becoming established as a global tourist destination, especially for those most concerned with the natural environment and interested in innovative works for poverty alleviation and human enterprise and endeavour.

www.tigertoursbd.com

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor of Positive Light, we encourage you to familiarise yourself with the overall vision of the project first, and then we welcome get in touch with us via our Facebook page or via email on mikey [at] crowdsourced.travel.

Want to take a sneak preview of the contents of Positive Light? This preview shows the introduction plus the first five spreads of each section of the book. The original contest was broken down into Culture, History, Place and People.

DO NOT BUY THE BLURB COPY from the link above! We are only using Blurb for preview purposes.

Pledge to buy a copy (or copies!) of Positive Light

Don’t forget, up until 31 March 2013 you can pledge to purchase Positive Light at our pre-sales crowdfunding campaign at this link. Every little bit helps — and more importantly this campaign will help Drik continue its work in social justice in Bangladesh.

We are immensely pleased to announce that proceeds from Positive Light will also support WildTeam’s efforts to protect nature, particularly the Royal Bengal Tiger. Bangladesh has one of the last remaining strongholds of tiger populations. Tigers are an endangered species, which has lost 97 percent of its population over the last century. There are 3,200 magnificent tigers left in the world and these face huge poaching pressure as the demand for tiger parts continues to rise with rising incomes across Asia.

The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest on earth, can hold approximately 400 tigers. This remote corner of India and Bangladesh is a unique stronghold for tigers. Here, WildTeam is working alongside the local people to overcome tiger threats and build a future for tigers in Bangladesh.
The founders of Crowdsourced Travel cannot imagine a world without tigers. And that’s why we’ve committed a part of the proceeds of Positive Light project to raising funds and awareness for Bangladesh’ premiere tiger conservation organization WildTeam.

Positive Light and WildTeam – What a Team!

Mikey Leung and Greg Wilcock, Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh

Launching Positive Light in its full-size version represents a huge milestone for the Crowdsourced Travel project. We’ve finally been able to achieve international recognition of our hard work, as well as create a tool by which the photographers of Bangladesh can be recognised for capturing the beauty that Bangladesh does have to offer.

With the generous support of HE Greg Wilcock, the High Commissioner of Australia to Bangladesh, Positive Light was officially launched in Bangladesh at the Australian High Commission, fresh from Drik’s presses in Dhanmondi.

The project was very fortunate to gain some visibility in front of a compelling crowd, including Svend Olling, Ambassador of Denmark, Lee Yun-young, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, as well as Ragne Birte Lund, Ambassador of Norway.

Winners of the Positive Light photography contest, Rizwan Hasan, Nirlipto Apu (aka Md Huzzatal Mursalin), Nahian Bin Khaled, Greg Wilcock, Mikey Leung, Tourhan Al Nahian, (with apologies: Md. Akhlas Uddin)

Finally, we have also been able to recognise some of our top Positive Light photographers by inviting them to celebrate with us.

Two news articles were published as a result of this event:

BD News 24.com: Positive Light on Bangladesh – 2 March 2013
Daily Star: “Bangladesh Possible Tourism Destination” – 3 March 2013

Here is a sampling of some of the winning photographs:

WINNER: Positive Light by Md Akhlas Uddin

BEST PEOPLE PHOTO: Positive Light by Md Huzztal Mursalin

BEST PLACE PHOTO: Positive Light by Rizwan Hasan

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD: Positive Light by Md Nahian Bin Khaled

“It’s work by Bangladeshi photographers, Bangladeshi designers, it’s being produced in Bangladesh, and it shows Bangladesh in a way you’ve never seen it before,” says Shahidul Alam, Managing Director of Drik. “In fact, you should come visit this country — that’s what it tells you.”

To print a book of this magnitude requires almost of US$20,000 in capital funds. It’s a huge risk for an organisation like Drik, who has taken a bank loan to ensure the printing quality remains top notch. Our initial sponsor commitments, which started the printing process, fell through, leaving us to raise the rest of the funds required to print the book on our own. That’s why Crowdsourced Travel has started a new crowdfunding campaign to ensure that Drik gets the majority of its capital investment back as quickly as possible.

We need your support to see this campaign reach its funding goals. Your support means that you are contributing to the message that people in Bangladesh, who are normally bombarded with negative images about their country, see those who have experienced Bangladeshi culture and believe it deserves a better reputation in the world’s eye.

Visit our crowdfunding site now to pledge your support, and receive a copy of this beautiful book for yourself.

Mikey’s reflections

Doing a TEDx talk is in a word: Intense. You work for weeks, you change it a dozen times as you break down the layers in your personal story and get feedback from friends/spouse/family/speaking coach/hosts, you rehearse it another dozen times over the 24 hours before the event, you get one of those cool headsets and then for 15 nerve-wracking minutes you speak to an audience you can’t even see.

I’ve never imagined myself becoming a public speaker of anything, much less standing on the TEDxDhaka stage. For most of my life I’ve concentrated on figuring out what is the next thing I can do is in order to drive forward my projects and initiatives. It’s only recently that I learned that in order to increase the impact of what I do, I’ve needed to develop the skills of leadership so that others can be inspired and follow my vision in business and sustainable travel. (Big thanks to the Centre for Sustainability Leadership’s media bootcamp for that learning!)

I spent about two solid weeks preparing for the talk, doing the ‘right’ things like figuring out my key messages and deciding on a script. I also decided I wanted to speak with humility and yet authority, without being preachy.

Finally, I also needed to look really deeply at and share the emotions surrounding my choices regarding Bangladesh. I needed to share why I’ve been so moved by what I experienced in the country; Bel and I have spent six years encouraging tourism development in the country, promoting it to all those who would listen and realising that it’s in our blood now, that our actions outside of the country could now bring immense change inside it.

I enjoyed it immensely and have nothing but gratitude for the organising team, whose teamwork showed and culminated in a very memorable and moving event full of inspiration, laughter and beauty. Thank you TEDxDhaka for having me, and for helping me get my positive message out to the world!

A tremendous special thanks to Luke Hockley at Midnightsky and Victoria Spence, Cal Jahan and Lisa Howell for the last minute public-speaking coaching that helped get this talk into shape.

Background

Bangladesh: The Bradt Travel Guide 2nd Edition

In 2011, Leung and Meggitt also decided to create a new social enterprise which works at promoting sustainable travel in Bangladesh. The first project of this country was to launch the Positive Light project, which aims to show a positive story of Bangladesh through photography. In late 2012, Leung was invited to speak at TEDxDhaka about the project.

Full speech transcript is available by clicking here.

This is the image of Bangladesh in the mainstream Western media.

Is this a country you would travel to?

And what if this was the image of Bangladesh?

Is this a country you might like to see?

Those negative images are what we have to fight against, if we’re going to drive investment, tourism and a fascination for Bangladesh.

What if we could use images to inspire curiosity? To create jobs? To empower the lowest rungs on our economic ladder through sustainable tourism?

What if we could inspire a new narrative of Bangladesh?

Before I came to Bangladesh, I’d been travelling for a number of years already. I’d seen the temples of Angkor. I’d climbed the Great Wall. I’ve ticked the right boxes and followed the lonely planet’s trail. Not only that, I was getting paid to do this as a tour guide. I was one lucky dog, right? But then something happened. I met someone very special. And she told me she was coming to Bangladesh to work as a volunteer. I’m ashamed to say this, but my next question was “Where on Earth is Bangladesh??” It’s been my experience that when most people first hear of Bangladesh, their reaction was just like mine.

If they have heard of it, it’s probably just the bad stuff. Stuff like this:

Bangladesh cyclone death toll hits 15,000.

Dozens dead after ferry capsizes in Bangladesh.

Let’s look at this differently. Have you ever searched Bangladesh on Google images?

First we get flooding. Then poverty. Followed by tea – that’s good! And my personal favourite sport – Bangladesh politics. 

Now remember the negative images I showed you at the beginning? I call these negative images ‘poverty porn.’

They’re perpetuating a negative image of the country.

They pull on the world’s heart strings to create guilt to get donations. Although these images benefit one sector of Bangladesh, the impact on the rest of the country is far more profound.

Now, I believe that the aid sector has done tons of great work for Bangladesh. Health and education are critical infrastructure needed to grow a country.

But this image of Bangladesh only shows one side of the story.

I came to Bangladesh because I wanted to do something about the poverty. I saw a country that looked ugly on the surface and I wanted to be the change.

It was October 2006; I got a volunteer posting as an IT support technician in the Dhaka office of an international NGO.

And it was only when I finally got here that I started to see the real beauty of Bangladesh.

The man on the left is Hobu. Hobu was a rickshaw wallah. He stayed outside one of Dhaka’s expatriate clubs waiting for passengers.

For a person with very little formal education, Hobu was street smart. He taught himself English and he knew Dhaka inside out. Not only was he a strong rickshaw puller, he was crafty. He knew every single shortcut and how to avoid all the traffic police in Gulshan, stuff that other rickshaw pullers hadn’t event dreamed of.

One of the first things I learned about Bangladesh from Hobu is that Bangladeshi people are extremely hospitable. Once we became friends, he repeatedly invited me to visit his home and meet his family. But at first I was non-committal, even uncomfortable. Did I want to see Hobu’s life up close? Was I willing to connect with his reality? Wouldn’t that make me uncomfortable?

Well, Hobu also taught me that Bangladeshis are patient and persistent. One day I said yes and off we went to Gazipur. At his home, I discovered a humble but immaculately clean single room. Hobu had a wife and two young children. His room was in a small compound shared with several other families.

I’ve driven a rickshaw before. It’s hard, physical work, especially in the hot weather. Rickshaws are inefficient, heavy contraptions with terrible brakes. But today none of that mattered.

Hobu and his wife had prepared a gigantic feast for me. There was fragrant pulao, giant bowls of shobji and several heaping bowls of murghi – chicken. There was no way we could finish all the food he prepared, and moreover, it was delicious in the way that only a home-cooked meal can be. I’m sure this gesture represented a few days’ wages for him. I left with a full belly, but more importantly I realised that my ‘poverty porn’ stereotype was wrong.

This was a lesson that I experienced over and over and over again in Bangladesh.

I learned that ‘people in poverty’ don’t measure wealth in material terms.

They measure it in terms of generosity and kindness.

Richness of culture.

In Bangladesh, hospitality means asking ‘how much can I give my guest?’ not ‘how much can I get from them.’

This realisation stunned me and changed my life.

Back home it seemed that my identity was being driven by how much I owned, what shoes I bought, or what kind of car I drove. In the west we walk around in our cities and we barely even look at one another. If we talk to strangers it’s seen as confronting. This way of life isn’t sustainable. It’s consuming the finite resources of the planet we all share, and it’s creating isolation within our communities. Finally, it’s cluttering our lives with stuff that doesn’t actually matter.

People like Hobu were teaching me what was really important in life.

This lesson was so powerful for me that after my volunteering finished, I decided to stay and write a whole new travel guide for Bangladesh.

I experienced the beauty of the Bangladesh’s monsoon, when the landscaped is capped with stunning cumulus clouds and painted with pastel colours.

I went to the few precious wild natural places left in this country including the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to the precious Royal Bengal Tiger.

I learned how Buddhism’s ancient roots are buried under the land and there remains so much more to be discovered under the shifting sediments of the Ganges, the world’s largest river delta.

Finally, I was utterly flabbergasted by the strength and resilience I saw in you, the Bangladeshi people.

I learned how on the shifting river islands of the Jamuna basin, thousands of people live and die by their creativity and willingness to survive. I also discovered how climate change was potentially making these conditions even worse.

Everywhere I went, I saw creativity and resilience. 

Pride and culture. 

I experienced human connection through the incredible hospitality of Bangladeshi people.

I saw how little people actually need in order to live, and dare I say, be happy. 

Each day, people like these were inspiring me to look at my life differently.

I really struggled with this question that just because I grew up in Canada I got access to the health care and education I needed to make my way in the world.

But because people lacked these opportunities here, I saw so much potential… unfulfilled.

Ultimately, I was inspired enough to ask myself – what can I do to give back to the people of Bangladesh?

That’s why I decided to create the Positive Light photography project.

Using a website, I asked photographers of Bangladesh to send us photos I could use to promote the country to the world.

All the photographs I’ve shown you today are from this project. I used crowdfunding to help me raise the money I needed to put my professional creativity into this.

130 photographers contributed over 700 images. All of the photographs are licensed for use under the creative commons, which means that anyone anywhere can use them online as long as they credit the original photographer.

Well-managed sustainable tourism can be a positive economic force to be reckoned with.

It can create jobs, promote cultural exchange and protect nature. 

Bangladesh is the perfect place to promote this kind of tourism. And to create it we need to share a new positive story of Bangladesh. 

A story of dignity, not despair.

A story of potential, not pity.

How much potential? In 2012, tourism in India represented an estimated 10 per cent of its GDP. In Bangladesh it is about four percent.

That means if we were on par with India, we could create six billion more dollars in tourism income, far more than any aid and development project combined.

Bangladeshi people – people like Hobu — deserve this opportunity to participate in the world tourism market.

By promoting a positive image of Bangladeshi people, we would create value in the minds of our potential visitors and pride in our own hearts.

Finally, I want to end with this. Many of you might still take your holidays outside Bangladesh. And the rest of the world probably isn’t going to change how it travels tomorrow.

What I’m asking you today is to discover the every day people inside the places you travel. By supporting small scale tourism initiatives, those who need your tourism dollars are more likely to benefit. It’s definitely not the easiest option but Bangladesh taught me that it was way more meaningful to travel this way.

Now indulge me for one moment. Say that you did choose to take your next trip within Bangladesh. Yes, you’d be creating jobs and contributing to the economy. But more importantly, you’d be connecting with the humanity within Bangladeshi people, and that matters.  Everything we need for sustainable, small scale, high value tourism is in Bangladesh already. You just need to be adventurous and open-minded.

Travelling in Bangladesh was a gift to my life – it can be yours too. So I implore you to treat yourself by travelling here and then sharing your incredible journeys with others.

And if you did this, I can guarantee you, you will feel more connected to the things that actually matter in life. Thank you.

Lost among the vast mustard fields of Bangladesh, smile little princesses. They jump, they play, and they talk all day long. They are the real beauty of our country, Bangladesh.

For those with an amateur, professional or hobbyist interest in travel photography, we can’t emphasise enough that Bangladesh is a spectacular photographic destination, full of people, human landscapes and photogenic stories that have scarcely been told in the travel media around the rest of the world.

To start with, people in Bangladesh are incredibly eager to be photographed and are scarcely burdened with concerns over privacy. This is because people who live in the most densely populated nation in the world have, unsurprisingly, very little sense of privacy and are therefore mostly open and enthusiastic having their image taken. Cameras, small or large, are often a cause for stir and attention; this often means that people photographers need to usher their subjects carefully and even shoo bystanders out of the photos if required (working in teams or two or more is helpful in this regard).

In terms of human landscapes, south Asia has always been a destination of choice for photographers seeking to tell ‘people stories’, tales that involve the fundamental elements of that which makes us human and how we interact with the Earth. In particular, Bangladesh’s riverine and rural landscapes are incredibly beautiful, especially during the monsoon season where anvil-shaped cumulus clouds cap the pan-flat landscape.

Finally, those seeking to improve their portfolio of people stories will find plenty of opportunities and organisations to work with. It is advisable here to take the advice of local photographers whenever possible, so that the local conditions and stories can firstly be told more effectively, but secondly so that Bangladeshi culture is respected. In particular, we recommend the photographic guiding services of Map Foto Bangladesh (159 East Tejturi Bazar, 4th floor, Tejgaon Railgate; [mobile]  01715 759463 (Mahmud), 01819 223508 (Kiron), 01711 664254 (Sujan); [email] info[at]mapfoto.com.bd; www.mapfoto.com.bd). This small photographic collective has published over a dozen books between them all and will work as photographic guides on commission or even host photographic interns. Serious students might also want to network with DRIK, a multimedia organisation with a local photographic school (Pathshala) and much deeper connections to Bangladesh’s photographic community. In 2012, the DRIK gallery hosted the 2012 World Press Photo Exhibition, one of the world’s premiere exhibitions of journalistic photography, of which Bangladeshi photographers have won various prizes over the years.

Positive Light

For all the enthusiasm as to the calibre of images created in Bangladesh, there is a darker, deeper story regarding photography’s role in this country. Because of Bangladesh’s recent history as a war-torn nation and pauperisation at the hands of the British colonialism, an incredibly deep poverty still grips a great majority of the population. As a result there are several associated stories of depravity and injustice, ultimately stemming from poverty. Many photographers, both local and foreign, have made significant careers out of capturing this.

While we wholeheartedly agree that journalistic photographers have a responsibility to point out social injustice anywhere in the world, this unbalanced image of Bangladesh as beggar has deeply blunted the potential of the country and kept it off the radar of direct foreign investment for years: Bangladesh’s ‘brand’ has never been one people wanted to buy, although there are signs that this is slowly changing, despite unfathomable hindrances inherent in the political and economic system.

Despite these challenges, the authors of this guide have undertaken a new initiative that seeks to balance the image of Bangladesh worldwide and create an avenue by which photographers both Bangladeshi and foreign can publicise the images of the passion they feel for the country.

We have called this initial project ‘Positive Light’ and published two photography books and programmed a website for the collection and distribution of images, which we hope will balance the story. All images published here become available under Creative Commons licenses, which means that anyone, anywhere can reuse these images online at no cost. At the time of publication about 150 photographers had joined this network and there were about 750 images in stock already, however we would like to see this project move further ahead.

If you have an interest in travel photography in Bangladesh, and would like to join a movement helping to show the potential you see within Bangladeshi people, please join us at our website or Facebook page.

Calling all photographers — an opportunity has come our way to advertise a unique opportunity to have your images seen by Bangladesh’s Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism. There are no cash prizes specified for this event although the organisers will be paying for printing and exhibiting the photos at the Shilpakala Academy Art Gallery. It might be a good opportunity — we’re not sure.

We suggest contacting the organisers to ask any questions you have before submitting your images. Contact information below.

Bangladesh Foundation for Tourism Development Photography Competition 2012

Bangladesh Foundation for Tourism Development is organizing Photography Competition from 6 April to 7 April 2012 at Shilpakala Academy Art Gallery.

The subject for this competition would be the natural beauty & culture of Bangladesh. The Honorable Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism will inaugurate the event.

Interested candidates are requested to submit their ten (10) photographs within 25th March 2012 to the following email address:
info.bftd[at]gmail.com or, House # 25, Road # 04, Block – F, Banani, Dhaka – 1213 for selection.

For more information please call +88-01841-200632 or, +88-01712-200632