We’ve known for a long, long time that colourism is rampant in South Asia. And now, in light of everything that is happening in the world, we should acknowledge that we are also some of the worst perpetrators of anti-black racism. We may fall under the same People of Colour (POC) umbrella, but we are not yet the allies we need to be.

One of the most serious challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic is the threat to agriculture and therefore to food security. So far, the government has been able to ensure a steady supply of essential food items like vegetables, fruits, fish, meat and so on across the country.

On June 6, thanks to modern technology, my siblings, nephews, nieces and their families in various countries in Asia, Europe and North America, virtually participated in every aspect of my Boro Bhai’s last journey. My Bangladeshi brothers beautifully followed all the rituals in the most meticulous manner with love, respect, dignity and compassion.

How can you tell if the nearest drinking water source is safe? What would be the agriculture yield this year, factoring in all the variables? How can we identify the optimum location for a rural healthcare facility?

Last week, Bangladesh formally took over the leadership of the group of nearly 50 countries in the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) for the next two years.

On March 16, 2020, amidst fears of the coronavirus outbreak, the Bangladesh government issued a directive decreeing all educational institutions under the Ministry of Education to close.

“Gulf countries are highly dependent on migrant workers in almost every major sector…and yet they have utterly failed to protect migrant workers, and treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve”—these words were spoken by a representative of Amnesty International while highlighting the plight of migrant workers during Covid-19 times.

The Covid-19 pandemic will be recorded as one of the most consequential events in human history. A small part of that history will relate to how governments interacted with their populations in responding to the crisis.

The fundamental objective of the budget for the next financial year (FY21) should have been to resolve the unparalleled health and economic threats raised by the Covid-19 pandemic, and to restore economic stability. Though the budget has acknowledged the context, it falls short to be a Covid-19 responsive budget.

Never in the history of budget placement in this country has there been so much of excitement and interest.

Preparing the budget for FY 2020-21 amid the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly been an extremely difficult task. Even then, there was room for being more realistic in providing headline budget targets and being more proactive in dealing with the profound health and livelihood challenges faced by numerous households in the country.

It is disappointment again for the advocates of education who have been pleading for stronger public commitment to education. The new budget maintains Bangladesh’s record for having one of the lowest allocations in South Asia and among developing countries for education as share of GDP and of the national budget. Moreover, there is no sign of an education rescue and recovery plan to offset the impact of the pandemic.

While personally I found more positives than negatives in working from home, I realise that the sudden shift to full-time online work may have affected others differently.

Children are our most precious assets—for some, in a very literal sense. For money, for sustenance, for survival, many parents unable to bear poverty end up pushing their precious little ones into the wide open in search of subsistence. Children as young as three-four end up in the informal sector, doing menial jobs, for a tiny sum of money.

The brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where a policeman placed a knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, has been viewed globally in horror as his life flowed out in pain and agony.

Though much of the world is focused on transitioning away from fossil fuels as a way to fight climate change, there are other often overlooked contributors to the conundrum resulting from climate change.

When I first met Mizan in Dhaka, he was wearing an elbow crutch to help him walk, accompanied by his elderly father.

The Covid-19 pandemic is putting the world under enormous social and economic strain. The major disruption to the global economy has resulted in the near collapse of overseas employment for millions, with devastating implications for migrant workers including in states heavily reliant on a foreign labour force.

As success has many fathers, witty comments too have many misattributed sources. For example, the sentence that “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” was mistakenly attributed by author extraordinaire Mark Twain to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

The spread of Covid-19 has critically exposed the long-standing weaknesses of Bangladesh’s health system.