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.
March is a month that carries special significance for Bangladesh. In March 1971, the country got involved in the Liberation War, which continued for nine long months.
Enough time has finally passed for us to collectively reflect on how much, and in what ways, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed our usual lives. Students, in particular, have encountered a drastic shift in how they experience their education—and as a result, the internet.
I know of Ferdousi Priyabhashini, but I did not know her. We met a few times in Dhaka either at a seminar or a conference, or at the residence of late National Professor Kabir Chowdhury.
My newsfeed on International Women’s Day: “Happy Women’s Day to my superwoman! You got promoted to Vice President at the bank, you are an amazing mom to our kids, you make sure a simple guy like me has his life in order and take care of your parents and in-laws with the utmost care. Salute!”
Elections to the paurashava (municipality) councils are ongoing since December 2020 in phases, and are expected to be concluded by April 2021.
Brick kilns used to be considered the prime reason for air pollution in Dhaka city until a recent report by Dhaka University’s Air Quality Research and Monitoring Center identified black smoke and fumes from run-down vehicles as the top emitter, which is reportedly liable for 50 percent of the air pollution.
According to reports, around February 11, 2021, a fishing boat with around 90 Rohingya refugees onboard set out from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh purportedly with the aim of reaching the shores of Malaysia.
Despite razor-thin majorities in the US Senate and the House—where corralling lawmakers can be as frustrating as herding cats—Biden has managed the near-impossible task of steering through Congress a massive USD 1.9 trillion bill about to profoundly change America.
The footage is harrowing. A speech-impaired girl is pushed off a running bus for not being able to pay her fare. She was wearing a note saying that she did not have any money on her.
Professor Rehman Sobhan turns 86 today. Born in Kolkata into an illustrious family, with connections to the Nawab family of Dhaka from his mother’s side and a reputed Murshidabad family from his father’s side, Sobhan had no business to be a champion of the poor and the downtrodden.
