I am delighted to be returning to Bangladesh in its Golden Jubilee year, and I look forward to celebrating the tremendous achievements of the past half century with friends old and new.
As is known, the current provisions of the EU’s Generalised System of preferences (EU-GSP) scheme are being revised at present in anticipation of the new scheme to be put in place as of January 1, 2024.
Upon reading the news headline for the incident I am about to discuss, I only felt a momentary, dull pain in my gut or thereabouts. Because while it is a shocking incident that would rob you of hope, the elements of the story are all too familiar to us all.
As tensions over the Taiwan Strait mount, everyone needs to think about whether war is inevitable. Ukrainian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once said: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” And if we slip into war by what World War I historian Barbara Tuchman called the March of Folly, can the Great Powers step back from mutual nuclear annihilation?
The year 2020 marked a watershed in global efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030. First, it was because, by 2020, the TB-affected countries aimed to achieve the first set of “End TB” milestones: a 35 percent reduction in TB deaths, a 20 percent
I have been feeling unwell since October 13. After the mayhem in Cumilla, I knew it wouldn’t be the last. With a broken heart, my father-in-law and I, along with my son, decided to continue with our tradition of puja visits and mandap-hopping, yet we were all deeply disturbed, witnessing the carnage unravelling with a helpless rage.
Today, on October 22, we celebrate National Road Safety Day. But why? Not why we care about safety—the devastating toll of accidents makes it clear why it is important—but why call it Road Safety Day? If we are using roads to travel from place to place, and we want to be able to do so safely, why not call it Safe Travels Day?
I was around 10 when I first heard about the idea of, as it was then known, global warming and how Bangladesh will one day go underwater as sea levels rise.
Nepal was the 7th country in the world to recognise the independence of Bangladesh on January 16, 1972.
Bangladesh is an ever-growing hub of business. We see businesses of every kind—from e-commerce businesses such as online shopping
The United Nations Committee for Development Policy (UNDP) recently recommended the graduation of Bangladesh from its Least Developed Country (LDC) status to that of a developing country by 2026.
Bangladesh turns fifty this year, and so do I. I was born and raised in Cambridge, England. For me, this is significant. While living in Western society, I have been steeped in the importance of maintaining my cultural identity.
Even before the passage of the latest stimulus bill in the United States, governments around the world have offered almost USD 12 trillion in financial aid to businesses and households affected by Covid-19, equivalent to 12 percent of global GDP. But how well have they delivered that unprecedented amount of assistance to the intended recipients? And what lessons do these efforts hold for the future?
My generation and others close to it formed the bulk of the Mukti Bahini in 1971. The majority of Dhaka University students of the time were an integral part of it, as it was my distinct privilege.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s date of birth is being commemorated this year with the added dimension of his birth centenary.
Torture, forced disappearance, displacement, chemical attacks, butchery, loss of lives and limbs, death of family and friends, mass murder: the Syrian people have been through it all in the last 10 years.
Poverty is indisputably the worst curse in human life. It reduces human existence to nearly non-existence.
Since Myanmar’s military coup on February 1, the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw, General Min Aung Hlaing, has been working to remake the country’s political landscape by removing the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, detaining its leadership and installing a military junta. But the success of the coup is not guaranteed, given the junta’s lack of control over parts of the state apparatus, population and the spiralling economy.
