IN BANGLADESH, as across much of the globe, the rapid rise of short-form video content — those tightly-edited, punchy clips accompanied by music, challenges and original skits — has come to dominate how we consume entertainment and even how we relate to one another. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have popularised these formats...
I HAVE written this article before. In fact, I could write it every year when a new Global Report on Food Crises is published. The report rests on four points: (1) The number of people who are hungry is greater now than last year; (2) the amount of food produced this year is greater than that produced last year; (3) yhere is enough food to feed the total world population...
The concentration of political power in a narrow group of the elite become more than a governance issue. It has raised concern about financial integrity, accountability and democratic resilience. The issue today is how unchecked political domination erodes transparency, weakens institutions and facilitates widespread corruption, effectively transforming political control...
THERE are moments in a nation’s history when silence bears more weight than slogans. In post-uprising Bangladesh, a country navigating political rupture and renewal after the fall of long-standing authoritarian rule, the language of reform rings loudly across press briefings and policy drafts. Yet parallel to this public performance of transformation runs a quieter, more...
I WAS struck, perhaps not entirely surprised though, when Professor Muhammad Yunus recently noted that only one political party is still actively calling for elections in December. It was a sobering reminder of the dismal state of political pluralism in Bangladesh, a country where democratic aspirations have too often been sacrificed at the altar of elite consensus or...
A SMALL Muslim army invaded Sindh as early as the 8th century but arrived as traders in both the Malabar coast and Bengal by the 10th-11th centuries. However, it was only from the 12th that they started arriving as invaders in a big way. Over the...
A COMMON reaction to the criticism of cockfighting is a seemingly unassailable retort: ‘You eat meat, don’t you, you do?’ But eating meat does not invalidate concern for deliberate animal suffering. I wonder what their go-to question for vegans would...
ON MAY 27, Kuala Lumpur played host to the inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Economic Summit — a glossy exercise in diplomacy, anchored in bold declarations and vague promises. In theory, it represents a pivot: away from reliance on an...
ELECTED local government institutions are one of the foundations of democratic governance. Elected representatives face various difficulties in terms of policy, administrative, organisational, legal and financial allocation at different times. In this...
I HAVE written this article before. In fact, I could write it every year when a new Global Report on Food Crises is published. The report rests on four points:...
IS RELIGIOUS and national identity mutually exclusive? Not if their roles are clearly stated. Aeons ago, faith was the primary identity of all societies. State and religion were indivisible. As a result, over a long period, both became corrupt, though at different stages of evolution of each. In the modern age with the birth of nations, state and religion separated with...
