Living with half-truths

The journey of a nation must be a holistic one. We must all collectively remember that promises need to be balanced with pragmatic route maps; plans need to be properly conveyed; regrets need to be coupled with hope.
8 September 2015, 18:00 PM

THE PIONEER OF DEMOCRACY

As a lawyer, he earned a lot, but at the end, he died a pauper. He was never found lacking in helping workers of his party and friends. He was a man of character and great intellect.
7 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Stimulating the capital market

We need to develop stricter rules and punish the wrongdoers to protect our shareholders, thereby developing a healthy capital market.
7 September 2015, 18:00 PM

An unmitigated humanitarian disaster

Syrian refugees are crossing the Aegean in a bid to get to Europe and safety. They are pouring in through Greece, Serbia and Hungary, and countries that make up the European Union (EU) cannot agree on what to do with this sea of humanity.
7 September 2015, 18:00 PM

The people's law

What is encouraging to note is that this time the government has come forward to break the culture of secrecy. That's why the RTI law has a provision of pro-active disclosure.
6 September 2015, 18:00 PM

When children kill children

The key lies in what a child is exposed to and for how long. It is important for grown-ups to acknowledge that they are responsible for what their children watch or see.
6 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Taliban without Mullah Omar

Pakistan has to undertake some serious confidence building measures with Kabul. President Ashraf Ghani, who is keen to stop the bloodletting, is still not sure whether Pakistan really wants the insurgency to cease or if it has other motives.
6 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Dhaka: A sustainable city?

The annual 'Liveability Index', published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, listed Dhaka as the second least liveable city in the world.
6 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Wither BIMSTEC FTA

Many laypersons may not be aware that what is typically touted as a 'FTA' has often much less to do with free trade and more to do with preferential trade.
4 September 2015, 18:00 PM

How Cow

When India denied us our much-needed legitimate river water, they succumbed to the West Bengal logic that water was in short supply across the border, but stopping migration of excess cows defies all rationality.
4 September 2015, 18:00 PM

A misguided election campaign

Fear of angering the Buddhist nationalists – especially the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion, which is better known by its Myanmar-language acronym Ma Ba Tha, which includes the outspoken monk Ashin Wirathu – convinced the party's leaders to exclude Muslims from their constituency list.
4 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Letter from QANATAR

When I received my marching orders for Egypt, I knew it was meant to be a punishment posting. Based on unsubstantiated allegations of supporting her opponent, the then Prime Minister had decided my fate; I was to go to oblivion.
4 September 2015, 18:00 PM

The lure of extremism

Muslim Bangladeshis living in the UK recently became a focus of interest to all Bangladeshis living home and abroad when the news of some young Muslims of Bangladeshi origin joining the so-called Islamic State in Syria/Iraq struck the front page.
2 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Economics and Emotions

The hackneyed expression “strictly business” would have us believe that business, at its core, is meant to be devoid of emotion.
2 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Withdrawal of reservation

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted in December 1979 as a bill of rights for women. Till date, it has been ratified by 188 countries of the world.
2 September 2015, 18:00 PM

A way out of extremism

After the exhaustive de-Baathification process, disbandment of 300,000 Saddam's Sunni army, and imprisonment of many Sunni leaders, the occupying power, mainly the United States of America, flared up hatred and revenge among the Sunni group that governed Iraq since the Ottoman Empire.
1 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Implications for Bangladesh

Over the past several weeks, the world witnessed the #YouStink anti-government protest in Lebanon popularly known as the 'garbage movement', comprising of people from across the sectarian and political spectrum.
1 September 2015, 18:00 PM

China's political interventions

In the last week or so, stock markets around the world have been hit by an upsurge in volatility, with large price swings confronting traders in New York, Tokyo, London, and beyond. And the entire global financial spasm has been largely blamed on a single culprit: China.
1 September 2015, 18:00 PM

The illusion called home

While our workers sail out to unfamiliar territories and face subhuman working conditions, the foreign lands are, in reality, never home for them. Their identities there are mostly performed and contested.
1 September 2015, 18:00 PM

Celebration of the third gender

Hijras or transgenders have a special place in South Asian history as semi-sacred people and this culture prevails in India, some parts of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
31 August 2015, 18:00 PM