" ... we are all part of the great human watershed ... " - Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage

(Note: The Control and Reeducate Factors are very heavily at play here.)

December 2, 2004

Indo-Asian News Service [World News]

Washington, D.C. - It was an unusual gathering of students and academics from the U.S. and Bangladesh with one mission -- how to conserve coastlines.

At the U.S. State Department-sponsored ceremony held here to conclude its "Two Bays, One World" project for protecting the coastlines of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland State and the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, the need to manage the vulnerable ecology in these areas was emphasised.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage Tuesday addressed the gathering of ecologists, physicists and students. Listeners included students in Bangladesh keyed into their TV sets and radios at midnight Dhaka time.

The project was launched on April 22, 2004 [NOTE: "Earth Day", which is also Lenin's birthday], by the [U.S.] State Department's Office of Oceans and International and Environmental and Scientific Affairs. It offered middle school students in participating schools a special two-month curriculum focused on these two important bodies of water, their watersheds and the communities that rely on them.

Students in the US listened to expert lectures, went on field trips and had interactive dialogues with students in Bangladesh.

Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, International and Environmental and Scientific Affairs John Turner, a wildlife ecologist, oversaw the programme along with Bangladesh Ambassador Syed Hasan Ahmad, a geophysicist.

Students from Bertie Backus School of Washington, Central Middle School of Edgewater, Maryland, and the William Carey Academy of Chittagong, Bangladesh, were all part of the project with help from the Conservation Fund, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre.

"The Chesapeake Bay and the Bay of Bengal are separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years of culture. American students have had a chance, thanks to Ambassador Ahmad, to appreciate the customs of Bangladesh, to taste the food, to hear the music. And, in turn, you have exchanged letters and photos with your peers in Chittagong (Bangladesh), so they have had a chance to appreciate how you live, as well," Armitage said.

He pointed to commonalities among people living on coastlines and emphasized the need to manage the vulnerable ecology in these areas.

"Just as soil erosion in the Himalayas can cause flooding in the Port of Chittagong or runoff from a stream in New York can pollute the waters of the Potomac, we are all part of the great human watershed where what happens on distant shores can have a direct effect on our lives here at home."