never a dull moment

This week. Um right, this week. This is the week. This is the week that decides the fate of the General Secretary and his life in Bangladesh. Well kind of. How should I put this?

The GS is married. Not to me. You knew that right? And he has a daughter. Approximately 12 years old. Well, the GS has been in Korea a long, long time. Long enough to have never met his daughter, and definitely long enough for his marriage to fall apart. Several years ago, he tried to get his wife and daughter to move to Korea. But his mother-in-law wasn't having any of that and they never came. So when it became clear that he wasn't ready to return and his wife wasn't coming here, they decided to call it quits. I think it was pretty mutual, although I, of course, have only heard the story from the GS. So she moved out of his family's home and back into the house with her brothers and mother. That was in October of 2005- when the GS and I were only pals. He seemed tormented about it- not over the possibility of divorce, but over the possibility that he might never get to meet his daughter face to face. At that time, his mother-in-law was merely using his daughter as a bargaining chip- trying to extract whatever money and belongings she could get by dangling a threat over the GS's head. And well, it would have worked except that the GS hasn't held a real job for more than 3 years and there was really no money to be had.

Fast forward to this year. This year, the wife's family decided to sue the GS. For one million dollars. That's right, a million dollars. And we're talking about Bangladesh. A million dollars would've been excessive in America, but in Bangladesh, that's just downright ridiculous.

But that's not all. He's also being charged with spousal neglect. Well, fair enough, I suppose. I mean he has been gone for 12 years. Although frankly, that's common for developing countries where the biggest export is labor. But that's not their problem.The problem is that he didn't turn over a certain percentage of his earnings to his wife. Which I guess is technically true. He was working illegally and Korean law forbids foreigners to send money out of the country unless they can prove that it was earned legally. So he used brokers to send money. Sharks. Who knows how that money gets to Bangladesh, but it definitely isn't by legitimate means. All of that money went to his brother who then distributed it amongst the proper family members. And his wife did live in their house at the time. So, she basically got money, there just isn't any record of it. Tricky.

Anyone know what the penalty for this "neglect" is? Jail time, although we are not sure how much. Could be weeks, months or years depending on the political climate and level of corruption in the courts this week. It might might not be jail time at all. He might just have to work off some absurd debt the good old fashioned way. Whatever it is, we'll know this week. That's right, this week. As in November 7th.

And hey, I'm not saying that the GS was good to his wife. He has made a lot of bad decisions. He has fucked a lot of stuff up. But I do know that he would've never cheated her. And I know that if he had money, he would give it to her, even now. And I know that more than anything, he is afraid of losing his daughter whom he adores even if he's only seen her picture and heard her voice.

The thing about this situation is that so much of it is actually structural. This is where the global economy gets really personal- it is the economy which shaped his decision to come to Korea when his wife was pregnant. And it was for economic reasons that he stayed for so long. And it was because of the injustice of the economy that he started organizing migrant workers trade unions. Now I'm not saying that he has no responsibility in this situation, but so much of it is due to the fact that when you are a migrant from Bangladesh, you are choosing between shit and shit, and even when you stick your nose up in it, it is hard to tell which one smells worse.

We've both been losing sleep over this the last week. Literally. It's really taking a toll on both of us. There are too many possible outcomes in a situation that is totally out of our control. I've had it. If everything doesn't work out this week, I'm not convinced it ever will....

Then where will that leave us? OH jesus am I scared.