PLEASURE IS ALL MINE
An avoidable mayhem
Last Tuesday, from the northerly Himalayas, a blustery wind cascaded down to Haripur area of Thakurgaon leaving a patch of ruins in
Uprooting corruption: We can do better
The seasonal discussion on corruption is back in full swing following the release of Berlin-based Transparency International's global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), 2018.
Which way is pluralistic democracy headed?
We have known democratic pluralism, pluralistic democracy and multi-party system to be synonymous terminologies. But is it as simplistic as that? Conceptually and ideally, it is; but in practice and real-world situations, it may not be so!
Change of style or substance?
With at least 27 new faces and only a few septuagenarians around, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was greeted on her re-election to a record fourth term at Gono Bhaban on Tuesday.
Sheikh Hasina's fourth term
It is the huge gaps in the numbers of votes polled by the winners and the losers in the 11th national election that apparently unveiled a “controlled and patterned” nature of the process of polls.
Wintry mist from a non-level playing field!
If almost every past election in Bangladesh had been a test case for democracy, the one the nation is going to in two days' time is a veritable litmus test for the country's democratic future.
Nomination cauldron bubbling away, electioneering heat awaited
It was for the BNP leaders “a strategy” of filing multiple sets of nomination papers to cover the contingency of rejections. This came in the way of 141 party nominees out of 696 who had applied to the EC for a go-ahead.
Annisul Huq: A potential unfulfilled
Annis had embarked upon his first wave of infrastructural improvements. A childhood friend of his calls him seeking his help for a cancer patient, the mother of an army officer.
Aftermath of a ghastly attack
The attack on Zafar Iqbal has been profoundly appalling but not surprising. He has been stalked for a few years since being put on the hit list by elements fed on a dogmatic diet to finish those off who didn't fit into their narrow view of life.
Can't we outsmart the corrupt?
We need to outwit the graft-taker, outsmart him. In fact, we should try to be one step ahead of him so we can beat him in his own game! The reason why I am suggesting such an unconventional, even a little surrealistic method is simple and easy to understand.
Honing social skills
Our social skills have somewhat blunted over time. Virtues that we had taken for granted in the past almost sound like pipe dreams today. Tolerance, live-and-let-live, mutual, professional respect between men and women, consideration for the elderly, civility, courtesy, compassion, and hospitality—once the markers of social behaviour—have turned utopian, unattainable!
Clarity of thought and action for a livable Dhaka
Traffic congestion has become synonymous with dwindling livability and quality of life in Dhaka.
Values tumbling like a can of worms
We have a shiny sheen of socio-economic indicators, compared to those of most other South Asian countries—Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen never ceases to mention this.
Soft underbelly of connectivity projects?
One would have thought that the much-heralded plans for regional, sub-regional and inter-regional connectivity projects should have added up rather than subtracted from each other.
The cold facts
There are quite a few things to be noted about the on-going cold wave. Of them, two are obvious. For one thing, it has been relentless in its pattern, and therefore, cumulative and gripping in its chilling effect.
Assam is not Rakhine
THE Indian state of Assam is engaged in the process of creating a database of its citizens. It is going beyond the demographic details that were available in the national census report to make use of. No other state of the Indian Union is undertaking such an exercise, and that's where the catch is.
Elections and the Ershad factor
Contrasting speculations linger over the Rangpur mayoral election results. Was the poll “stage-managed” or was it a “calculated game”? Awami League and Jatiya Party, having been broadly on the same side of the political spectrum
Child heroism, mother's loss, deaths in stampede!
Three human stories hogged news headlines last Monday and Tuesday touching the deeper chords of our sensibilities. Evocative of
