THE OVERTON WINDOW
Opinion / Principles, party, power or politics?
The student movement’s ability to inspire people to stand up to a vicious oppressor was truly remarkable.
The irresponsible remarks of our responsible persons
History and ordinary people in general will remember very well what happened over the last week or so.
What options are left for us to fight unbridled corruption?
Unfortunately, all the mechanisms meant to address corruption seem to have been weakened, if not completely destroyed, one after another in recent decades.
Opinion / We need humility, not hubris, to turn the economy around
While a privileged minority, sitting in their high castles, continue to enjoy a larger and larger share of the fruits of “development,” it is becoming obvious that the vast majority are increasingly struggling.
Fear and loathing surrounding India’s election
After the first phase of voting, Modi seems to have changed his campaign strategy, focusing more on firing up BJP's Hindu base.
Should social media be our new public square?
Aside from posting, social media has become the go-to place for many to get their news, views and overall information, and for communicating them.
CAA and its effects on Indian secularism and regional stability
The Act, clearly, is a step in the wrong direction.
Roadmap for banking reforms: Old wine in a new bottle?
In February 2019, the central bank lowered the timeframe to three years from five years. And what has that achieved?
Official version of our human rights and what the reality is
Having acceded to the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) on October 1998, Bangladesh was obligated to submit its initial State Report under Article 19 of the UNCAT to the UN’s Committee against Torture (CAT) by November 4, 1999. But it took Bangladesh 20 years to comply—and only after the CAT sent a letter to the Bangladesh government on December 10, 2018, reminding it of its overdue initial report and about the possibility for the Committee to proceed with a review in its continued absence.
Jobs are the reason ‘it’s the economy, stupid!’
Bangladesh’s economy has made massive strides since 1971. After independence, the initial challenges that the economy faced were enormous. And while Bangladesh managed to overcome most of them, many new challenges emerged in the years that followed.
What it means to live in a surveillance society
If you said pre-2013...that the most private moments of your lives were being watched and recorded...people would call you a conspiracy theorist.” – Edward Snowden
How black money can and cannot be reduced
Moving against the current of expert opinion, the government, in the budget for FY2019-20, opened up a five-year scheme to convert black money into white.
Budget proposal not aligned with AL’s election manifesto
The Tk 5,23,190 crore budget proposed by the government, which is the biggest in our country’s history, was somewhat of a letdown. Governments sometimes struggle to fully make use of their budgetary plans in electoral democracies because the party in power may
An important answer to look for in the budget
One of the best instruments the government can use to serve those it works for—presumably the citizens—is the national budget. Unfortunately, if one was to ask ordinary citizens, independent analysts and experts to rate how successfully the government implemented
Poverty, policy and economic ruin? The true folly of neoliberalism
No matter which approach is used, every method of measurement shows inequality has risen in Bangladesh (at least) over the last 10 years. If we take the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, we see that the country’s Gini coefficient—a measure of inequality—went up (indicating disparity has grown) from 0.458 in 2010 to 0.482 in 2016. From a different angle, a report released by Oxfam towards the close of last year ranked Bangladesh 148th in the world—out of 157 countries—for reducing inequality.
Rise of the executive and the decline of civil liberties
In the last decade at least, we have seen two things happening side-by-side globally. One is the rise of the executive branch of government—the significance of its role in the workings of government and society at large. The other is the decline of civil liberties—some of which, such as the right to privacy and free speech, people are now “willingly” compromising on, or no longer view as inalienable even.
Martyrdom of Assange or death blow for journalism?
Aside from being nominated multiple times for the Nobel Peace Prize, including in 2019 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguir, Julian Assange has won countless awards for journalism
The biggest barrier to our industrialisation
While inaugurating the first national industrial fair in the city, the prime minister, at the end of last month, said she wanted to discuss how to reduce the interest rate of bank loans which she thought had become the biggest barrier to the country’s industrialisation.