Organizing for dignity

• Main Author: MUSA, S M
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics; Organizational Behavior and Theory; Race and Ethnicity
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7604; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/8603/viewcontent/musa_2023_organizing_for_dignity_pvoa_cc_by.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Like thousands of other Rohingyas, Aman (pseudonym) had to flee for his life after violence broke out on 25 August, 2017 in the Rakhine (previously Arakan) state in Myanmar. Aman had got married a few months back and had no intention of leaving his home. But there was no other option left. He had to endure a horrific journey from Myanmar to Bangladesh to save his life. Like Aman, most of my informants’ traumatic journeys to the camp overshadow many Hollywood fictions. Many of them still sustain traumas from those days, especially those who witnessed the killing of their friends and family and the burning of their homes. After walking for days, they crossed the Naf River that lies between the two countries, and finally they could breathe without fear of fire and bullets. Crossing the border, they saved their lives but handed them over to the mercy of others. They did not know where to go and what to do, or how to make a living. ‘It was like the keyamot [the apocalypse]’ Aman recalled.