Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

When I first met Princess, she was sitting cross-legged on the floor of a tiny concrete room in Davao City on Mindanao island in southern Philippines, her notebook open to a page covered in neat rows of Japanese hiragana.

Beyond its tragic human cost, the Bhola Cyclone likely had political consequences—within a year, a new nation was born.

As we commemorate the first anniversary of the July Mass Uprising—a powerful expression of the frustrations and aspirations of Bangladesh’s youth—one core grievance that ignited that movement still demands urgent attention: the crisis of unemployment among the youth population.