Feature

BY  SHABBIR AHMED :: The students of history of South Asia know it too well that the partition of India into two nations did not bode well for us, the inhabitants of the then East Pakistan.Punjabi clique ruled our motherland for a long time and that includes the military and the communal forces of Pakistan. These Islam-based communal forces tried ...

By M. Sophia Newman::  This weekend, Bangladesh celebrated Language Martyr’s Day once again. The holiday is one of my favourites – a celebration of the genuinely beautiful thing that brought me to Bangladesh in the first place. Yet I am too afraid to celebrate. In 2011, I came to Dhaka on a scholarship for ten weeks of intensive Bangla-language study. ...

There is no denying that the current political situation in Bangladesh is very grave. The cycle current politically-motivated violence has caused over a hundred deaths so far and many more serious injuries as well as enormous damage to the economy. Naturally, concerned citizens are worried and have recently urged the Honourable President as the guardian of the State to hold ...

We also had many in our own age group to play with. On a hot summer day, before lunch, it was always time for a swim in the Gangina (rivulet) at the outer boundary of the village. That meant taking off all clothes and getting into the fast current of the canal and swimming to our heart’s content. In the ...

Bangladesh has come a long way over the last four and half decades from the maliciously coined phrase, labelled by Henry Kissinger as the ‘basket case of the world,’ to self-sufficiency in food (and even as a net exporter of food) and the healthy gross domestic product (GDP) resulting in significant foreign currency surplus. All this had been achieved under ...

We want an end to the present situation. No more killing, burning and damage to public and private properties. We want to live in peace. We want to live in a civilized democratic society based on human values, equality and justice. We want an effective parliament where national issues will be freely debated and decisions will be taken for betterment ...

As I sit down to write what is on my mind today, I have this odd sense of déjà vu. It seems that I have had these exact same thoughts, felt this very urge to write them down, put together these exact same words. But there is one big difference. Unlike déjà vu, this is not just some mysterious sensation that ...

The inspiration of this piece arrived from Martin Luther King Jr. and his exceptional oratory, “I have a dream.” In the aftermath of Martin Luther King Day in the US, I felt these words would be both timely and appropriate. Martin Luther King Jr., renowned civil rights activist, understood the power of words and the importance of speaking out against injustices ...

Last year we wrote an article entitled ‘National Water Security Index of Bangladesh: What does it indicate?‘ to give an overview on National Water Security Index (NWSI) in the context of Bangladesh. Our article was based on the Asian Water Development Outlook 2013[1], which is a compilation of water resources development indicators in Asia and Pacific region published by the ...

TThe Bangladesh cabinet has endorsed lifting of an embargo in place since independence, on investments in foreign countries by local businesses and individuals, under a liberalised foreign exchange regime. A daily reported that the “preferred sectors in the new investment criteria includes deposits in banks and investments in stocks, real estate and other industrial units in foreign countries.” The report ...