It has been more than a year since Covid-19 was first detected in Bangladesh. Much has been, and continues to be, said about the country’s handling of the pandemic.
The words “quarantine” and “isolation” have now become synonymous with the coronavirus outbreak. Social media has exploded with status updates,
The coronavirus outbreak—which seems straight out of the sci-fi thriller Contagion—has led to over 7,989 deaths and 198,736 cases worldwide. As we try to make sense out of truths that seem stranger than fiction, the WHO-declared pandemic has laid bare the fact that in an era where globalisation reigns supreme, infectious diseases no longer simply pose the risk of transnational movement of bacterial and viral infections.
Post-WWII, Bangladesh, along with countries which had been freed from the shackles of colonisation and had gained their independence, embarked upon the journey of “development”.
Going by numerous recent news reports, we have good reason to be worried about the state of food safety in the country.
A particular finding in the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) blows the illusion of GDP growth being the “be all and end all” of development into smithereens.
Contrary to popular belief, it's not entitlement or narcissism or laziness that defines millennials. If anything, it's probably a sense of disillusionment that's a defining characteristic of this generation.
Defiance of the BNBC stems from the ways that it can provide immediate benefit to owners and often the users and the developers of buildings. For example, rules are violated to achieve maximum use of space when land itself is costly.
What are the implications of the recent textbook fiasco? Will the changes in the textbooks foster an educational environment that promotes the analytical faculty of the mind, i.e. do we want youngsters to be able to think critically?
Over the recent backlash of the erroneous content and apparently mysterious changes to the curriculum, the education minister on January 10 stated during a press briefing, “I'm not avoiding my responsibility, but I'm leaving the matter to you whether handing over such a volume of textbooks is a bigger thing than these errors,” to which, the answer is an obvious yes.
With uncontrolled urbanisation (which essentially refers to a “population shift from rural to urban areas enabling cities and towns to grow”) innumerable issues related to the very liveability of Dhaka city have occupied the imagination of activists,
While Alan and Mohammed hail from different countries, the circumstances which led to their premature deaths are very similar, and sadly, all too frequent. Both the Syrian war and the Rohingya tragedy see no end in sight.
Susan Sontag, novelist, essayist and critic, and one of the most intriguing figures of the 20th century, writes in On Photography, her seminal piece of work:
In no civilised society can criminals get away with what we saw occur on Pahela Baishakh in 2015. Given that law enforcers so miserably failed to prevent the sexual assault of women on that unfortunate day, they must leave no stone unturned in arresting and punishing the seven others who have been identified so far. That’s the least they can do.
Because of preconceived romanticised notions of the 'revolutionary intellectual', the role of traditional intellectuals who unflinchingly lent their support to government war efforts and propaganda is often overlooked. It is important to remember that the term 'intellectual' isn't synonymous with a 'force for good'.
"We have to remember that human rights constitute the right to life, right to liberty, right to equality and right to dignity of a person. Cases of involuntary disappearance simply trample upon these basic rights."
There is little doubt that the questionable homegrown commission is simply a tool to temporarily quell the backlash that Suu Kyi is facing as a result of her silence and inaction on the army crackdown in the northwest, resulting in at least 86 deaths and 10,000 fleeing to Bangladesh.
In 1960, three sisters, now famously known as the Mirabal sisters, were brutally assassinated on November 25 in Dominican Republic for their role in opposing the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.
