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How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea
- zaroth 9y ago“In Matlab, a part of Bangladesh with good data, deaths from diarrhoea and dysentery have dropped by about 90% since the early 1990s (see chart).” I just kept reparsing and trying to error correct that sentence over and over until it finally sunk in that yes, they are saying Matlab is actually the name of a place in Bangladesh.
- chimeracoder 9y ago> I just kept reparsing and trying to error correct that sentence over and over until it finally sunk in that yes, they are saying Matlab is actually the name of a place in Bangladesh. I'm Bengali, and I looked up the spelling of the name. It looks like it's spelled মতলব, which means it's pronounced more like "Motlobe" (the second "o" is halfway between "lob" and "lobe"). It means "plan" or "project", which I'm guessing refers to some attempt at creating a township at some point (or being named after a place that was). For reasons, Bengali words are often transliterated in the Sanskrit form, which means that the spelling doesn't really always represent their actual pronunciation. (This is why people often have a harder time pronouncing my name when they see it spelled out in English, because the final syllable is transliterated according to Sanskrit, but pronounced differently. It's sort of like -ough as a suffix in English.)
- NPMaxwell 9y agoAnd I can imagine a small techie tourism trade for people who want to say, "Yeah. I've been to Matlab. For two weeks, I breathed it, ate in it, and slept in it."
- ainiriand 9y agoI came back just to say the same! It is fascinating.
- jacobush 9y agoAnd Matlab has access to good data.
- goldenkey 9y agoWell of course it does, it's a lab!
- omeid2 9y agoMore interesting, I believe it is the Arabic word (متطلب) which means Requirement, or possibly Farsi مطلب which means Subject or Question. https://translate.google.com/#ar/en/%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A8 https://translate.google.com/#ar/en/%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B7%D9%84... https://translate.google.com/#fa/en/%D9%85%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A8 https://translate.google.com/#fa/en/%D9%85%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A8
- blinkingled 9y agoConversationally it's used more like Meaning. https://translate.google.com/#hi/en/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%AC https://translate.google.com/#hi/en/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4...
- omeid2 9y agoIn Farsi, it is used similarly, as in Subject Matter/Topic.
- squarerootof-1 9y agoIn Urdu, matlab can mean intent or purpose, probably derived from Farsi.
- smoyer 9y agoI saw the same sentence and immediately thought it was funny (because Matlab with bad data produces poor results). I'm sure that the reporter has no idea there's a software product by that name and so including the fact that this city has good data didn't seem odd at all.
- nhorob67 9y agoA similar story is detailed in a booked called The Power of Moments. In particular, they focus on the shaming that they do to change behavior
- cjbenedikt 9y agoInteresting that the article doesn't mention Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus. In order to be eligible for his micro loans people had to commit to building a toilet/WC/loo amongst other things. Given that approx. 140 mio people in Bangladesh borrowed micro loans from him he must have had some influence on it.
- rubayeet 9y ago> Given that approx. 140 mio people in Bangladesh borrowed micro loans from him he must have had some influence on it. That's a little far fetched. I am one of the 140 mil and I do not recall borrowing from him (or anyone I know). As novel as the idea of micro financing is, realistically it has little impact on poverty reduction in Bangladesh, the RMG and manpower export sector has more stake in the claim. The sanitation revolution can be attributed to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed[0], the founder of BRAC[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazle_Hasan_Abed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazle_Hasan_Abed [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAC_(organization) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAC_(organization)
- cornholio 9y agoThe approach to build latrines for the poorest people then shame the "rich" into building ones for themselves is marvelously devious. According to the article, even marriages were canceled after it was revealed that the family of one of the newly weds is without this essential status simbol.
- sharpercoder 9y agoA relative traveled to African villages. Currently, farmers shame neighbors who do not have neat & clean fields after harvest. His organization tries to turn that around; yields are better when harvest waste "fertilizes" the field. They are now "shaming" the farmers that cleanup their fields to raise the yield of the field. > Mushfiq Mobarak, an economist at Yale University who has researched sanitation decisions, suggests that better-off people may be more likely to copy poor people than the other way round. If a wealthy person has something, you do not necessarily feel ashamed not to have it. So the key is in shaming all but the absolute poorest. Interesting insight!
- rangibaby 9y agoAbout 100 years ago in New Zealand my great great grandfather was very proud of his “WC”. Of course only guests were allowed to use it!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- kchoudhu 9y agoWhen I was growing up in Bangladesh in the early 90s, the only channel on TV had continuous ads for Orsaline (Pedialyte in the US) and what to do if you didn't have (or couldn't afford) it when your child was ill. I have long since left Bangladesh, but it warms my heart to see that the the grassroots campaign paid off in droves.
- FractalLP 9y agoCan someone summarize? I could only read the 1st paragraph before ads froze up my browser.
- fein 9y agoThey built outhouses so people weren't defecating wherever else they were before.
- NPMaxwell 9y agoMisc: Bangladesh is a leader in health technology. There is a place in Bangladesh called "Matlab" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matlab_(Bangladesh) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matlab_(Bangladesh) ). Bacteria from a pit toilet travel less than 10 feet through dirt. An organization called "BRAC" (http://www.brac.net/ http://www.brac.net/) deserves a Nobel prize. More about BRAC: https://www.smu.edu.sg/perspectives/2012/06/26/tale-two-ngos-bangladeshs-grameen-bank-and-brac https://www.smu.edu.sg/perspectives/2012/06/26/tale-two-ngos...
- known 9y agohttp://archive.is/CXkTA http://archive.is/CXkTA
- smt88 9y agoThis extension is excellent and works on mobile if you have Android Firefox: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock If you're on iOS, Brave has an ad blocker built in.
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- bullen 9y agoCan we get a flag for pay-walled/register only content on posts and a checkbox in settings on our profile to hide these posts?
- DoofusOfDeath 9y agoNot sure why you got downvoted. It seems like a very pragmatic and helpful feature.