Shame for so much gloom and doom

Christopher is an elderly white American who is now enjoying his retired life after spending his checkered career as an engineer specialised in missile technology. We two have become friends. Almost every alternate afternoon we meet in a nearby mall. It is the first time in his life Christopher has come to learn much about Bangladesh from me. I narrated to him all about Bangladesh: its history, culture, climate, and other beauties.
Christopher earlier had an impression that people in Bangladesh are always hit by floods and cyclones. But now he has realised that our people are brave to face natural calamities, my country has rich heritage and the country has produced people like Professor Yunus, the Noble laureate, whom he holds in high esteem. Thanks to his acquaintance with me, he often browses for news in Bangladesh and discusses with me about anything positive he learns about my country.  He never put me to shame by telling me about the horrible stories that are regularly published online in Bangladeshi English newspapers.
But, on Monday, he could no more resist his temptation to know from me how a police officer in Bangladesh could beat a man before his family and then torture the guy to death. I wanted to hide my face in shame. Then he told me about stories like fake freedom-fighter certificates and other shameful stories. He wondered how the nation would advance if the law and order cannot be controlled by the government! He wondered why people like Professor Yunus did not do something to redress the situation. As a friend he advised me to mobilise public opinion against all such corruption, misdeeds and misrule.
To save my face, I told him such things happen in almost all the developing countries and the newspapers often highlight those bad incidents excessively for commercial gains. To assuage his bad impression about my country, I told him Bangladesh has achieved many successes in areas where many stronger countries are lagging.
It is a shame for all of us that revelation of corruption and wrongdoings has brought about the eclipse of whatever the past glories we used to feel proud of. It is disgraceful and humiliating for a Bangladeshi to meet a foreigner who knows all our gloom and doom. If the trend continues, some people may one day feel hesitant to introduce themselves as Bangladeshis.
Our country is now so steeped in corruption from its head to tail that even an honest person for his survival has to be corrupt. What as a patriotic citizen you can do to salvage the country from its abysmal conditions? Is not it time for you and I to rise to the occasion and voice our protests?
We know today that things are wrong in our country. We realise that cruelty has laid its grasp upon the people, the laws of the land are not abided by the strong and misrule has corrupted the entire landscape of our nation.
People are frustrated; they are running from one political group to another hoping that one of them has the answer.  They become disappointed when they find that after years of protests, nothing has changed and that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. People often think that corruption is "just a way of life".
All the 'hartals', strikes, marching and shouting have done absolutely nothing to cause an effective change in the things that are taking place in our country. People are programmed to believe that if they can get new politicians into office a welcome change can occur; they think if they can cause some sort of disruptions in the systems and procedures that will draw enough attention to get someone of influence to listen and support the changes needed.  This simply has not worked. The type of traditional protest is having no effect on the system as a whole.
The bottom line is protesting could be successful, but only if it were done correctly by all people. No more can we rely only on the political parties and their supporters to do the protests on our behalf.  It is time for all men and women to say "NO" to crimes and corruption. It is time for all of us to get out of our homes and land on the streets. A true protest has only one resolution and that is 'change'. Until the change occurs, the protest must not end.
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