There has hardly been any news in the media about the ongoing HSC examinations that started on April 2. And that's probably good news.

All men are created equal, as the United States of America's Declaration of Independence states, and this is a principal that should be admired and adopted by all developing nations in the world today. But how far has this principal been implemented, and what improvements can be made to further develop this ideal within the RMG sector of Bangladesh?

It was a lovely spring morning when my friend Arif and I drove down to Montgomery, Alabama. A new memorial, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opened here on April 24—dedicated to African Americans who had been the victims of extrajudicial killings in the post-Civil War United States.

Did Maulana Bhashani—the famous Red Maulana—ever read Marx? I recently asked this question to a prominent biographer of Bhashani—Syed Abul Maksud. His answer was, “Probably not.”

No I am not talking about my encounter with the ghost of Karl Marx in Bangladesh. If you are interested in such stories you should read Howard Zinn's Marx in Soho or Sumonto Bandyopadhyay's Bhuture Molakat (Ghostly Encounter)—two hilarious and, at the same time, intellectually erudite accounts of meeting the ghost of Marx in New York and Kolkata, respectively. Rather, what I am going to narrate here is

THIS week has experienced a flurry of diplomatic activities centring the Rohingya issue. Principal among those was what has been dubbed a “historic and highly unusual” visit of an important delegation of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to Bangladesh and Burma. Quite understandably, the visit drew attention of various quarters—states, international agencies, refugee and rights organisations, and most importantly, the hapless Rohingyas who have been “living in mud and shacks, with no hope and no future, no nation and no identity, no past and no future.”

Ever since Kissinger branded Bangladesh a basket case, development aid and its practitioners have flocked here as it became a testing ground for fine-tuning development models and practices. Bangladesh is now among the fastest growing economies, thanks to its thriving businesses and many trade agreements. However, it faces multiple challenges on the road to transitioning to a lower middle-income country, including no longer having LDC benefits. First off, it has a poor record of attracting FDIs, has highly concentrated exports and suffers weak competitiveness because of corruption and poor physical and social infrastructure.

The importance of love has never been greater. Our world is wracked with violence, stress, indiscipline and diminishing resources. Exploitation, intolerance and domination abound. What the world needs is a thorough immersion in this uplifting, peace-engendering and unifying emotion.

For a very long time, innovation and creativity endowed with intellectual property rights (IPRs)—patents, trademarks, geographical indications (GI), industrial designs, copyrights, etc.—have been powering change through ownership, reward and compensation. New products or new ways of doing things along with new forms of original artistic expressions are the result of such innovation and creativity.

As a telecommunications company we are in the centre of technological change and rebirth—every year we are having to adapt to new changes and expand our services to accommodate the new reality. However, the changes we are witnessing could potentially have significant impact on every industry, big or small, and tip the very basis of society.

Fashion is perhaps the most dynamic industry of this modern age. We are living in an era of fast fashion where trends come and go, and where product is being regarded more and more as a disposable item. Speed is taking over all aspects of the fashion supply chain and many of the everyday features of life, in particular with regard to the way the consumer communicates.

The suggestion of the parliamentary public administration standing committee members for a “logical reform” to the existing quota system in the civil service system should be considered as a positive step towards the resolution of the ongoing debate on the quota system.

The benefits of unprecedented connectivity come with vulnerability to manipulation and exploitation, as exposed in Facebook's data misuse scandal involving the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

Now that the dust has temporarily settled from the recent agitation for reform of the quota system in government jobs, it is time to calmly reflect on the next steps needed to establish a system that is fair and equitable and makes best use of the potential in our youth.

AMAR Mitra's literary achievements are formidable. His works of fiction have won India's coveted Sahitya Akademi Award (for the novel Dhrubaputra) as well as West Bengal's Bankim Puraskar (for the novel Ashwacharit).

At this time, in this city, on this land along the shore of the Bay of Bengal, the angel of death works double time. There is always someone to kill, someone to trap or exploit, someone to drive crazy, someone expendable. How else will you explain the seismic waves of tragedies, misfortunes and betrayals that are breaking on our shores every day? How else will you justify your existence in a country so self-righteously preening itself over its moral credentials when, clearly, it is being dominated by thugs, rapists, and misanthropes?

For thousands of Bangladeshi Hajj aspirants every year, the entire process, starting from registration to obtaining a visa to getting on the plane, turns out to be a nightmare.

Who among us today, if we were born Hindu, does not have at least one relative or acquaintance who hates Muslims? Who among us does not have friends—men and women thought to be moral and humane—that have closed their eyes to the brutal amorality of the ruling regime, seeing it instead as the political road to India's salvation? Will they be able to carry on unchanged even now, after the people they voted in have sprung to the defence of the rapists and murderers of an eight-year-old? Will they fail even now to see that a girl of that age is neither Hindu nor Muslim but only a child?

The recent countrywide agitation against the quota system for selection of candidates for government jobs was successfully ended through the timely intervention of the prime minister. But our youth remain concerned about corruption in many other areas of the recruitment process. The authorities should pay heed to them before they turn into a full-blown crisis.

Once again, a headline in The Daily Star grated: “Fifth-grader 'raped' by headmaster.” Another headline literally stung: “RMG worker gang-raped in moving bus.” Violence against women continues inexorably and with inexplicable regularity, reflecting the unconscionable disregard and disrespect that is held today for the helpless victims. Where does such abjectness come from? Is there something in the male ethos,