It surely is a marriage with a difference. To people even in this part of the world where wedlock between two trees or a girl and a tree is not quite uncommon, this Mexican marriage will look outlandish and shocking. The bride in this case is none other than a crocodile. The man who accepts the croc as his wife is Vasquez Roajas, mayor of San Pedro Huamelula. It is a fishing town in southern Mexico, known for its indigenous Chontal Indians who believe that the marriage will bring them a good harvest of shrimp, fish and sea foods.
From the mayor's words, it appears he may not be a member of the fishing community but he has enough respect for indigenous people's tradition, rituals and beliefs. He considered it a privilege to be part of the occasion. To quote him, "Indigenous people have great faith and many beliefs, many myths, especially a lot of mysticism. To be part of that pact between animals, humans, the environment, represented today with the celebration of this marriage, is a privilege that not everyone can have." Not surprisingly, the mayor counted himself lucky for giving him the opportunity to be the toast of the packed gathering of the town's residents.
The bride had a godfather and she in her wedding dress is reported to have danced with her new husband. Pictures of the bride however have shown that the fearsome jaws were fastened with strong ropes during the entire ritual. Had she been allowed the liberty to exchange kisses immediately after declaring the couple as man and wife after western fashion, how she would have behaved is anybody's guess. Even the godfather did not dare take such a risk by allowing the croc this freedom.
However a ritual is a ritual and the mayor had no reservation to be one with the entire community. More importantly he has found virtues in the tradition of the indigenous people who have deep respect for Nature. They are thankful for the bounties they receive from it. Their rituals are in fact an expression of their gratitude for the gift. In fact, it is a way of renewing their bonding with the flora, fauna and the elements constituting the environment all around them.
It is the same with the indigenous people in Bangladesh and anywhere in the world. For centuries they have been traditionally practising methods without damaging the environment. All that they collect from land, forest or sea get enough scope and time for replenishing. Jhoom cultivation in the hills of Bangladesh is a case in point. Ethnic people are often looked down upon but on certain counts such as leaving Nature undisturbed or getting the required supply with the minimum intervention is an art they can teach the more advanced communities.
This wisdom has its relevance for cities in this country as well. Even the views expressed by the Mexican mayor should not go amiss for his counterparts in the Bangladesh capital or its port city, in particular. Out of respect for a community, the mayor of the Mayas civilisation-famed country has married a terrible reptile, how will the two mayors of the capital city and the port city respond to the woes of the inhabitants of the city territories under them?
Water-logging, landslide and traffic congestion have overtaken other problems facing people living in these two cities in Bangladesh. When moderate rainfalls cause knee-deep water-logging and landslide, one cannot help embarking on a mental journey in the past when Dhaka had canals criss-crossing the city, ponds dotting it all over and the river Buriganga had been in good health. In Chittagong hills were intact and canals unobstructed. The cities were allowed to be developed haphazardly and people's greed was responsible for damaging and disfiguring their spatial viability through random grabbing of lands.
Admittedly, the incumbent mayors are powerless to execute any radical plan because their manoeuvrability is limited. There are other powerful authorities which rule the roost. More importantly, today's backlogs are a legacy of past mistakes political leaderships have allowed successively. Had they any knowledge of the danger of tinkering too much with physical contour of places like Dhaka and Chittagong cities, their inalienable relationship with rivers and hills respectively, they would not have allowed the ravages different agencies and powerful players wrought to the two urban locations.
Even if the mayors here were given the choice of accepting a more daunting challenge than marrying a crocodile and they did accept it, they were not expected to right in their tenure the wrongs done over the past decades. But should this mean that the issues of water-logging, landslide, intractable tailback, encroachment of rivers and their unabated pollution be left so unattended? Someone should wage a war somewhere. If the mayors really want to be part of history, they surely have an opportunity to begin a public campaign in order to restore at least a semblance of sanity in the cities' development works.
No matter if the voting was questionable, they are now recognised representatives of the inhabitants of the two cities. The majority of them will express solidarity with the mayors if they really come up with an idea, a plan and a policy for execution of it gradually, if not all at a time. They must have a long view to assign urban planning experts to do the job for them. If political leaders are convinced, well and good; if not, there is no harm. They should go ahead with the campaign to impress upon the reluctant ones and get the job done slowly but surely.
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