Inequality has been named as a culprit in the populist incursions of 2016 and 2017. But what is inequality, and what role does it play in inhibiting or encouraging growth, or in undermining democracy? Does inequality kill, say, by driving people to suicide or to “deaths of despair”? Or is inequality a necessary evil that we must tolerate at certain levels?

IT is customary for the government and indeed a large part of Bangladeshi society to meet news of violence against minorities either as acts committed by fundamentalist or extremist groups or as individual isolated cases.

THE year 2017 will be remembered for many reasons but the most significant of these is perhaps the Rohingya crisis.

ALTHOUGH tragic, it is understandable why the youth of today, especially those unacquainted with history, find it so difficult to comprehend fully the glorious past of Bangladesh's youth (student) politics.

2017 has just ended. The impending closure gives citizens an opportunity to take stock of the achievements and challenges they faced during the course of the year.

In Bangladesh, cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in women. It is estimated that every year 11,956 new cases of cervical

Bangladesh government has embarked on several big construction projects such as Padma Bridge, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Payra Port, Dhaka Elevated Expressway and Metro Rail, etc.

Bangladesh has been achieving seven-percent-plus economic growth for the last two consecutive years, averaged at over six percent for over a decade.

Indeed, Bangladesh is making tremendous economic progress. Infrastructural development will play the most important role if our economic development is to continue and our growth maintained.

Bangladesh is expected to be a middle-income country by 2021. To cater to the increased demand of a larger economy, the country's infrastructures need to be developed, operated and maintained adequately.

It was March 1970. My husband, Aminul Islam, came to Islamabad on a posting to Pakistan Central Secretariat. I accompanied him with our two sons aged 15 and 13 and daughter aged 10. It was a comfortable living in Islamabad and we were all happy. But little did we know then that we had to be literally smuggled out of Pakistan to freedom in less than three years' time.

Feni-Belonia is an enclave of Bangladesh that penetrates the Indian territory, a narrow finger-like strip about 16km-long and 4-6km wide in area. A metre gauge railway track connects Belonia Border Outpost with Feni and two semi-

Like thousands of other people in East Bengal, he had made the mistake, the fatal mistake of running within sight of a Pakistani army patrol. He was 24 years old, a slight man surrounded by soldiers. He was trembling, because he was about to be shot.

The footages, along with transcripts of ABC, CBS and NBC prime time news from March 25 to December 25, 1971, perhaps characterise the then US administration's stance on the Liberation War of Bangladesh, and show the response of the powers involved in the war and US media. However, the focus of this short write-up is how these three US television news channels represented the Liberation War in 1971.

It has neither been possible, nor even desirable, for me to write about 1971. The reasons are fairly simple. First, while my engagement in the war was early and sincere, my actual contribution to it was rather flimsy and dull.

Bangladesh stands at forty six today and while we celebrate it, we need to take time to introspect as we observe our Victory Day. The winds of freedom blew across the land, across the villages and towns, but we paid a very dear price. There was bloodletting,

A soldier's oath is to lay down his or her life for their own country. In 1971, the Government of Bangladesh

From December 10, 1971 with active support of the Pakistan Army the young members of Al-Badr, the secret killing squad of Jamaat-e-Islami, started its operation to pick up the leading intellectuals of the country and confine them in

Henry Kissinger meticulously evaded the tragic events of the then East Pakistan. His strange diplomatic move deferred and delayed the surrender of Pakistan Army, and paved the way to the brutal killing of intellectuals on December 14, 1971.

That was the moment when I embarked into the college life leaving the high school years. My everyday mode of transportation for the long and wearisome road was rickshaw.