Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed

A milestone report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned the global community of the expository risks our planet faces, if international stakeholders fail to portray environmental protectionism front and centre in their policy programmes.

The Bangladesh government proudly promotes the notion that the country is going through a rapid spell of socio-economic development—encapsulated by real GDP growth rates of over seven percent since 2016.

Recent reports in the media have suggested that retail giant Walmart and e-commerce heavyweight Amazon are expected to enter the Bangladeshi market in the next couple of years.

Toronto is a city which wholeheartedly accepts inclusivity, diversity and progressive thought as the foundational norms of its everyday journey. This Canadian cosmopolitan city posits a wide array of multicultural settings—from the famous Danforth-Victoria Park region which houses a high number of Bangladeshi immigrants, to the globally acclaimed financial district in Downtown Toronto.

Education remains the cornerstone of success for societies around the world—with the recent quota movement in Bangladesh showcasing some of the ensuing tensions between various stakeholders within our growing economy.

Bangladesh celebrated its 48th Independence Day recently, and today we stand proud to be able to call ourselves a sovereign and independent nation. Yet, one questions whether we successfully practise the spirit of our liberation movement, imbued in the ideals of Mujibism as it was called. Socialism, secularism, nationalism and democracy are, in reality, big words which most have no idea about.

Unfortunately, leftist leaders in our country remain in the periphery of such TV talk shows, and unlike the traditional reach of the two major parties across the Bangladeshi diaspora, the reach of the Left remains low and unconvincing.

In 2016, OXFAM released a report that categorically stated that the wealth of the richest 1 percent of individuals was equal to that of 99 percent of the global population.

When one is a soon-to-be graduate of a university, they rush around from place to place, website to website, seminar to seminar, and people to people, to figure out a career path.

As the incumbent Awami League government gears up for crucial parliamentary elections to test its popularity, it continues to face numerous questions about its administrative successes and failures.

My 24-hour journey from Canada to Bangladesh comprises of an eight-hour transit in Dubai, where the anticipation of going back home supersedes any and all expectations of sleep, food, shopping or moving around the city. Hence, I sit and wait for that Emirates flight to take me back home.

Given the natural tendencies for middle-income countries such as Bangladesh to inherit or adopt architectural public policy designs from the West, domestic stakeholders in our country must surely push the state towards creating a holistic academic environment, catered solely towards and for the younger generation of our country.

The media in Bangladesh has traditionally played a pivotal role in all of our great national movements.

As Bangladesh gears up for what may very well turn out to be the most crucial political exercise in its history, questions have arisen about the level of youth participation in electoral politics.

Our society has quantified the education process so enthusiastically that we have forgotten to consider the risks of the regressive models of rote memorisation and lack of conceptualisa-tion across almost all subjects being taught at public schools.

Overeignty is sometimes an overused yet largely exploited concept in the world of international relations. In its truest sense, sovereignty is a fundamental term designating supreme authority over a certain polity.

There is no doubt that the nation adored him. Many of his fans and friends even worshipped him. Film lovers in India and Pakistan also highly respected his skills and versatility as an actor. Yet Razzak was a humble man and gave our film industry everything he possibly could without asking much in return.

When a country has a population of over 160 million people, it is only natural for pockets of ever-growing expatriate communities to spring up across the world.

. On one side, commentators are rightly holding the government accountable to generate enhanced youth-based human capital growth. However, on the other side, we also need to look at non-public policy factors which are preventing individuals in Bangladesh from being employed.

In a world dominated by self-proclaimed specialists and intellectuals, the potency of judgemental verdicts, private attitudes and predisposed notions tend to outweigh the strength of facts, statistics and empirical knowledge.