Eric's Beijing Diary

This is the third time I have stopped in Shenzhen to visit Linda. The first time I stayed in the dormitory at her company. Last time I stayed with Linda and her brother at their place.But she lives at a factory in a remote area now, and her brother is no longer here. Fortunately, there is a youth hostel in Shenzhen now. Pretty nice place. My roommate is a young engineer from Bangladesh. He told me there are three types of schools in Bangladesh, the Bengali schools (which would be the regular public schools), the Christian schools, and the Islamic schools, which teach Sharia Law.

As a moderate Muslim, he had nothing but disdain for the Islamic schools which imposed Sharia Law (much as an ordinary American Protestant wouldn't have much time for the Ku Klux Klan), and he said the Bengali schools were not very good quality. But he also said the Christian schools like the one he went to were a little too expensive for the average person.

I was in High School when East Pakistan became Bangladesh, and West Pakistan became Pakistan. It actually goes back to the days right after the independence (of India from Great Britain) when the Muslim areas (East and West Pakistan) were separated from the larger Hindu part of India. That's how independence always seems to work. As India, they wanted independence from Britain. But as Muslims, they wanted independence from India. And finally, as Bengalis, they wanted Independence from Pakistan.