Hartel

On Sunday 14th of November 2010 there was a Hartel in Bangladesh. A Hartel can be described as a country wide strike and results in no traffic in Dhaka or on the other roads in the country.
The government pronounced the Hartel in the newspaper and on the radio. A Hartel can be compared to a ‘car free Sunday’ in the Netherlands. The difference is in the fact that people stick to the idea of no traffic in fact they are afraid that there car will be set on fire.
The reason for this Hartel was that the old government gave one of the (old) ministers a second house for just one taka. So actually he gave himself a second house for just one taka. This house is built a very big piece of land. The new government would like to build apartments on this piece of land since there is a housing shortage in Dhaka. But the old minister won’t give up his second house and that is why there is a Hartel. To convince the old minister that he needs to give up his second house.