Abdullah Shibli

Two recent news items, apparently unrelated, caught my attention.

It bears repeating that vaccines are essential for protection against the deadly coronavirus. We’ve seen how the virus spares no one and targets the most vulnerable people, including those who have pre-existing health conditions or comorbidities.

In Bangladesh, while the pandemic has impacted businesses of all sizes, plus life and livelihood, evidence is mounting that the enterprises that employ between 1 and 249 workers—officially the micro, small and medium enterprises—are bearing the brunt of the economic slowdown.

As the world strives to fast-forward the economy in an attempt to recover from the pandemic, climate change has rightly emerged as a major concern in all international forums.

The Daily Star newspaper recently announced on its front page, “COVID Vaccines. One Lakh Pfizer Shots to Arrive Next Month” (May 19, 2021).

Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel Klara and the Sun, his first since receiving the award in literature in 2017, has some relevance for policymakers and ordinary citizens across the globe.

Food insecurity in Bangladesh during the pandemic is rising. Even in the best of times, millions of people in the country go hungry.

In a world that has always favoured the rich over the poor—both within a country and across nations—the Covid-19 pandemic will worsen this maldistribution further unless actions are taken soon to rectify it.

The latest crisis surrounding the Suez Canal appears to have come to a favourable resolution, avoiding a full-blown disaster. The world was watching with bated breath for almost 10 days, as the Suez Canal drama was playing out last week.

Non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) have played an important role in the economic growth of the motherland. Whether it is the remittances we are talking about or the “diaspora network” that facilitates technology transfer,

From 1979 onwards, since the Soviet Army moved into Afghanistan to support Babrak Karmal and the communist regime, the country has been embroiled in one conflict after another.

Raising the minimum wage is supposed to benefit the workers, particularly those who are making less than the minimum and are struggling to make a decent living.

As we fight to overcome the damages done by the Covid-19 pandemic and restart and recalibrate our economies, this is a golden opportunity to ask what we can do to prepare ourselves better for the next decade. One thing is certain.

I entered the job market when I was a graduate student at Dhaka University and have switched jobs many times since then.

It has been well-known for a long time that Bangladeshi migrant workers in the Middle East and South Asian countries are at the receiving end of all sorts of uncertainties one can think of.

Some politicians promise an El Dorado if you vote them into power. Others tell stories, some true and some not so, to get the voters to believe them.

End of the year op-eds, or the thought of it, bring for me anxiety as well as joy. I feel anxious because I can’t decide what to write about, or find issues to vent about, as the year draws to a close.

Bangladesh is celebrating the 49th anniversary of the nation’s Victory Day today.

The other day I was chatting with Abu, a long-time friend of mine who has been living in Bangladesh for the last one year.

In this time of the pandemic and the resultant economic slowdown, one has to be mindful of the effects of these twin curses on the poor of Bangladesh.