Narcotics kill slowly but surely and, if unchecked, can destroy entire generations. If the harmful drugs and narcotics are allowed to pervade the market and their flagrant use is not prevented, the nation is bound to suffer irreparably, a consequence that not all of us are able to foresee.

There is no question that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taught both the BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her party some big lessons – lessons of making political mistakes, of overestimating one’s mass support, of depending too much on sycophants, of ignoring history and thinking that it can be custom made just by possessing political power, of never really trying to understand the underlying values of our Liberation War, of arrogance, of misuse of political power.

We are shocked to learn about the complete apathy of the two government hospitals in Narayanganj in treating their medical waste.

It is unfortunate that even after decades of efforts from the government and non-government organisations to combat tuberculosis (TB) in Bangladesh, a large number of TB patients still remain undiagnosed, mostly due to a lack of awareness among the patients as well as people in general.

The once-sparkling water of the Buriganga is now a dark, smelly pit of liquid waste. Dark flows the Turag too, which is lined with factories that dump their waste, including plastic materials, polythene and dyes into its water.

It is a disturbing fact that due to tax evasion by foreigners working in Bangladesh, our government is being deprived of USD 1.35 billion in revenue every year.

We are alarmed by the lack of action to check and investigate the spate of attacks on journalists covering the elections in Dhaka city corporations allegedly by individuals linked to the ruling party.

We are disappointed by the mishap that has occurred during the ongoing Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent exams, where wrong question papers were distributed among students in four centres in Barishal, Nilphamari, Jashore and Feni.

It was no secret that the Road Transport Act 2018 was not well-received by the operators of the transport sector, i.e. the owners and the workers.

We live in a world that would be inconceivable without translation. We live in a time when translation does more than guide us into texts from other cultures and territories;

There is little doubt that the Bangladesh Bank (BB) reserve heist four years ago has been the biggest cybercrime in Bangladesh’s financial sector, one that is shrouded in mystery, as till now we do not know who the actors involved were.

In the run-up to the Dhaka city corporation polls, candidates were criticised for their indiscriminate use of laminated posters that seemed to cover every inch of this city, especially in the final two weeks before the February 1 election.

We are outraged at the recent rise of border killings along the India-Bangladesh border despite India’s repeated promises of bringing down the number of such deaths to zero.

Should people suffer because of someone’s unlawful act, which has gone unnoticed by the authorities? The case in point is the high-handed attitude of a person who deems it perfectly permissible to withdraw and separate water from a common source, a flowing canal meant for the daily use of ordinary people living along the canal.

Low voter turnout happens in many places of the world. But never so in Bangladesh, till lately. Ours always used to be one of high to very high voter turnout.

The Dhaka city corporation elections held yesterday only reiterated what is increasingly becoming a disturbing trend in elections in the country—low voter turnout.

Justice for a victim of “mob justice” may sound like an oxymoron for those uninitiated in the fundamental principles of law, but it is not—and for Taslima Begum Renu, the struggle for justice remains as real as the day she died, six months ago, in the hands of a bloodthirsty mob.

Today, Dhaka dwellers will turn out in droves to vote for the candidate(s) of their choice. Or so we hope, despite the fact that in the Dhaka North City Corporation mayoral election held last year, the turnout was extraordinarily low, signifying the general apathy that has developed in people regarding the electoral process.

The US and Israel have historically been allies and staunch supporters of each other’s policies. Despite that, it was a disturbing scene when US President Donald Trump stood next to the smiling Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and drew huge cheers from the crowd while unveiling what he called “the deal of the century”—a plan that strips the Palestinians of their rights and imposes apartheid-like conditions that would effectively make Palestine an Israeli colony.

Since Dhaka is increasingly becoming a city of fear for women, with incidents of rape and sexual harassment in public places and public transports rising by the day, ensuring the safety and security of women through taking some concrete steps should be one of the key responsibilities of our would-be city mayors and councillors.