Top Ten Reasons

1. Top Ten Reasons To Learn About Bangladesh

2. #10 Discover Bangladesh Before the Tourists Come

3. #9 In population, Bangladesh is the 9th largest in the world

4. #8 Bengali Sitar MasterRavi Shankar • Playing with George Harrison, American audiences were introduced to the sitar at the “Concert for Bangladesh” • Shankar’s sitar can be heard during Sir Richard Attenborough’s epic film, “Gandhi” • He played at Woodstock in 1969 • He is Norah Jones’ father

5. #7 “A Moderate Muslim Nation” • “It is not just the U.S. that has changed irrevocably since America’s most horrendous attack on September 11, 2001. The whole world has changed since then, and yet many in the West have little idea of how great the change has been.But a potentially bigger change is taking place in Muslim countries, fuelling fanaticism, strengthening fundamentalist forces and weakening the secular base. Even Bangladesh, which has a long history as a moderate Muslim nation, has not been spared the fallout of 9/11.”

6. Sign posted in a school hallway • Girls at school

7. #6 Economist Mohammad Yunus • Bangladesh is the birthplace of microfinance - giving small loans to the poor • On its 30th anniversary in October 2006, Professor Mohammed Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

8. #5 Iqbal Qadir & Grameen Phone Grameen Phone “opened the world’s eyes to expanding the use of modern telecommunications technologies in the world’s poorest places” Qadir spent his first night in America in a dorm room at Waldorf College, Forest City, Iowa

9. #4Complex River Systems • Imagine creating a transportation system around this river network!

10. #3Complex Human Transportation Systems • Rush hour in Dhaka, Bangladesh

11. #2 Economic Ties • Check your clothing label. Made in Bangladesh? • (right) Soybeans stored in Dhaka will be processed for cooking oil

12. And the #1 reason to learn about Bangladesh….

13. Bangladeshi Hazards: Monsoon Floods Flash Floods Land Slides Tropical Cyclones Drought Arsenic Poisoning Tornadoes River Bank Erosion Iowa Hazards High Winds Winter Storms- Blizzards Tornadoes High Nitrate Levels in Water Drought River Bank Erosion We’re Not Alone:Bangladesh (& Iowa?)“Playgrounds of natural hazards”