In the last week or so, stock markets around the world have been hit by an upsurge in volatility, with large price swings confronting traders in New York, Tokyo, London, and beyond. And the entire global financial spasm has been largely blamed on a single culprit: China.

While our workers sail out to unfamiliar territories and face subhuman working conditions, the foreign lands are, in reality, never home for them. Their identities there are mostly performed and contested.

Hijras or transgenders have a special place in South Asian history as semi-sacred people and this culture prevails in India, some parts of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

As I write this piece, a picture of a stunned Professor Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, drenched in rain, after an assault on a teachers' demo at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) on August 30 has gone viral, thanks to social networking sites and the media.

Within 50 years since its independence, Singapore set a bar which many countries cannot achieve in a hundred years. Inheriting a tiny piece of land and a poor community of inhabitants, the leadership under Lee Kuan Yew, understood that the nation would need to make the best use of its geographic advantage.

China is set to reap the windfall of the post-nuclear deal scenario with Iran. Indeed if one looks at Chinese engagement with Iran during the standoff between Washington and Tehran over the last few years, it is understandable why Beijing threw its weight behind a diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue.

Technology is not the panacea to all ailments in the fight against poverty but it certainly can improve the efficiency of large-scale programmes and should be applied to benefit the poorest.

When dust makes a story, there will be dust storms in the air. It is easy enough to blame media, but the media will travel only so far as public interest takes it. If there were no readers, there would be no story.

When developed countries, particularly European countries, are still using DSL despite the presence of fibre optic and cable technology, there is no reason why the BTCL should not capture the market first with its currently available infrastructure with only some up-gradation work.

The government of Bangladesh is presently contemplating a move that would permit girls to marry at 16 with parental consent and/or approval from courts.

Clearly, astute politicians can feel the vibes of the people and what would win votes for them. They know that many of us are very keen on instant gratification of the desire for justice. As long as a 'wrong' is punished, many of us are too eager to be oblivious to the trivial nuances of the modes or forms of punishment or the identity or motive of the punisher.

Once we are done having our tea, we throw the ash of our cigarettes into the cup turned ash tray. There is one remedy to this bad habit – serve tea in ash trays.

Modi still has more than three and a half years of his rule ahead. He should abandon measures which have not yielded any fruit and adopt new ones which will help the country to develop.

A revolution can either explode or implode, but it can't do both. The French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Chinese Revolution exploded when the rage of people shattered old regimes and installed new ones.

The international community's response to the biggest movement of refugees and migrants in Europe since the aftermath of World War II is inadequate and flawed.

Sri Lanka voted overwhelmingly to elect the broad coalition led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe back to power.

At last there is acknowledgement from the government party members that innocent people do get killed in “crossfire”. One wishes it had come sooner.

Being a littoral state, we are naturally blessed with an access to the outside world for unhindered maritime trade and commerce via the sea.

The name Barrack Obama will remain etched in history as the first black President of the United States (POTUS). Soon, with a little more help from Donald Trump (Conservative/Independent), the US might be having its first woman president.

No country is now immune to domestic or internationally-linked terrorism. Terrorism broadly falls into various categories, such as ideological or class-struggle or cross-border terrorism.