Shah Husain Imam

Annis had embarked upon his first wave of infrastructural improvements. A childhood friend of his calls him seeking his help for a cancer patient, the mother of an army officer.

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, one of the founders of Awami Muslim League (now Awami League), chief minister of undivided Bengal, former prime minister of Pakistan and one in our pantheon of “National Leaders” was once quoted as saying, “Bad election is better than no election.

What with difficult-to-deal-with Mr Trump on one side and “revanchist” Mr Putin on the other, the world seems to be in a turbulent place right now. It appears others in the world arena are also queuing up to join this disarray to make matters worse for years to come.

We show two traits when caught up in a political impasse before a general election and in responding to the government's offer of a dialogue when it comes to the opposition.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had kept up his sleeves a unique treat for his guest, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his visit to Tel Aviv in May of the current year.

Getting rid of a high-profile dissenter of any powerful government is almost invariably “surrounded by mysterious circumstances.” The reported murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Riyadh government, last week inside his own country's consulate in Istanbul is no exception.

Democracy and free press are inseparable concepts, so the renewed fervour we notice to the “debate” over the mutually complementary issues should be welcomed.

Try as we might to reconcile the two trends in Bangladesh's development story, one consistently positive and the other indicative of a lack of distributive justice, we may fail to make the pieces of the puzzle fit, and therefore, marvel at it as a “miracle” development.

The ancient Silk Road, of which the Belt and Road Initiative is a gigantic new avatar, dates back to the Chinese Han Dynasty's westward expansion more than 2100 years ago.

Do we see any spring on the feet of politicians of all hues in anticipation of the approaching general election? Not quite because the deck is yet to be cleared for a credible election, a far cry from the January 5, 2014 polls!

In the past we have been painfully aware of the interminable waves of persecution of Rohingya Muslims from the Rakhine state in Myanmar and the consequent foisting of an increasing refugee burden on Bangladesh. But now, nobody is left in any doubt about the intractability of the problem:

Not even a month has passed since the eye-opening teenagers' agitation for road safety, here we are today quizzed by an unpalatable question: Are we more accident-prone now than we were before the stirring event of early August? It appears we are!

Tit-for-tat goes on between the US and Turkey with surprising frequency and fury. Ankara has declared a “boycott” of all electronic goods from the US. This is in retaliation—of a narrower calibration—to Washington having doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Turkey.

This is entitled not to a freaky triumphalism but to a celebration of human compassion for the collective risk to lives on roads. This found a powerful utterance and demonstration through our tender-aged progeny's intelligent intervention for a few days.

The Western press by and large has called the elections in Pakistan “staged managed”—meaning the military had a hand in it.

Dhaka, once the Venice of the East by virtue of being surrounded by four ebullient rivers, is now an urban behemoth. In our university days, going home on a long vacation, we would be literally pining for Dhaka after a couple of weeks of sojourn with parents.

Last week has been a happening spell, in an untoward sense, for the public health landscape. From Chittagong to Khulna to Rangpur, a litany of serious lapses, irregularities and unauthorised hospital activities has come to light.

People in high places are privileged with getting away with minor indiscretions, especially in a developing country.

A three-man BNP delegation's visit to New Delhi on June 3-10 has raised more questions than provided answers for. This trip was led by Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, member of BNP National Standing Committee; Abdul Awal Mintoo, the party's vice chairman; and Humayan Kabir, its international affairs secretary.

Sir Winston Churchill, with his superbly imaginative and insightful mind, once said something like this: “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.” That means use vitriol, threats, intimidation, even go eye-ball to eye-ball if you must, but do your utmost to stay away from war.