Eresh Omar Jamal

In mid-June, the IMF in a country focus report on Bangladesh said that the economic impact of Covid-19 has most notably been felt in three main areas: a fall in remittances; a decline in RMG exports; and a drop in domestic economic activities.

In his address to a seminar on “National Strategy for Prevention of Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism 2019-2021” in November 2019, Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal said that it is not only that money laundering “creates macroeconomic distortion”, but it is “largely destroying our country in various ways”.

In this instalment of The Daily Star’s interview series that aims to give readers an idea of what changes to expect in a post-Covid-19 world, Dr Shahdeen Malik, advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal about the right to freedom of speech and expression and the limiting of human rights by governments.

In The End of Policing (2017), professor of sociology Alex S Vitale journeys back to its origins to remind us that the idea behind the creation of the first police force in 1829 England was not so much to fight crime, but to “manage disorder and protect the propertied classes from the rabble.”

Dr Zahid Hussain served as a Lead Economist in the Macro, Trade and Investment Global Practice of the World Bank. Since joining the World Bank in 1995, he has worked on several of the organisation’s flagship reports on Bangladesh. Prior to that, he was a member of academia, with 14 years of teaching experience in a number of universities in Bangladesh and abroad.

Today, June 5, marks the 53rd anniversary of the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbours Egypt, Jordan and Syria. In the six days of conflict, Israel captured the Sinai and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Syrian Golan Heights—all of which, except for the Sinai, it still illegally occupies.

During a Joe Rogan podcast a year ago, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla Inc., audaciously said that many human beings alive today have already become “cyborgs”.

In 1968, one of the United States’ top scientists, Dr Gordan JF MacDonald, who was a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee and the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, wrote:

The US Federal Reserve in a statement on March 4 warned that the coronavirus outbreak, which has already disturbed travel and access to goods worldwide, could cause further disruptions in the coming weeks.

Amidst much fanfare, US President Donald Trump officially unveiled his long awaited “Deal of the Century”—the plan for resolving the century-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict—on January 28.

In an interview last month, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer said: “I speak fluent Swedish and was thus able to read all of the original documents [of the alleged rape case in Sweden involving Assange]. I could hardly believe my eyes:

The announce-ment on January 23 that a uniform admission test will be held for all public universities starting next year had stirred a big debate. Even university teachers seemed divided over the issue—some supported it, while others opposed.

In its Spring 2019 edition of the “Bangladesh Development Update”, the World Bank said that success of Bangladesh’s development hinges on increased private investment and innovation.

You co-authored a book some years ago called “Going Digital: Realising the Dreams of a Digital Bangladesh for All”. What is its central thesis?

Made stateless by Myanmar in 1982, the Rohingyas have been left vulnerable to waves of violence at the hands of the Burmese army as part of a “clearing” programme that began in the 1970s.

November 29 marked the 72nd anniversary of UN Resolution 181 (II) to end the British mandate in Palestine and the historic decision to partition Palestine and establish, after a transition period, “Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem.” For the Palestinians, this was the origin of the “Nakba” (catastrophe).

November 29 marks the darkest day in history for the people of Palestine, for it was on this day in 1947 that the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 (II) to end the British mandate in Palestine by August 1, 1948. At the centre of this historic resolution was the decision to partition Palestine and establish, after a transition period, “Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem.”

The Greek word “philosophy” (philosophia) is a compound word, composed of two parts: “Philos” meaning love and “Sophia” meaning wisdom—thus translating to love of wisdom.

William Dalrymple, Scottish historian, writer and broadcaster, is the author of numerous award-winning books. In this interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, Dalrymple talks about his latest book, history of the British East India Company and Bengal, and the dangers of unchecked corporate power in the modern world.

Dr Shashi Tharoor is a former UN under-secretary-general and currently a serving Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha in India.