In a magazine interview, Afzal Hossain announced that within a few days he would introduce someone on TV who would change the whole thought process of the television audience.

A large number of patients from Bangladesh go to India, Bangkok and Singapore for better treatment depending on their financial affordability. This tendency of the patients to go abroad for medical treatment reflects the failure of overall healthcare in the country.

Empirical evidences from village surveys reveal that, despite rural-urban migration, the number of households in the sample villages increased, on average, at 3.0 per cent per annum during the last two decades.

The news that Sheikh Hasina’s cook’s daughter has been saved and rescued from the brothel slums of Bombay is an enormously good and heart pleasing news. In these days of unheard sufferings of all kinds, one cannot but applaud this recovery of such lost people.

The Indian decision, taken unilaterally, to construct the Tipaimukh dam has caused indignation in Bangladesh. Critical statements have come out from the environmental groups as well as the civil society condemning the Indian decision.

A Dhaka-based European diplomat told me the other day — ‘your prime minister seems to be in the driving seat now, how do you take it?’. Having studied business in Europe and the United States, we always appreciate ‘hands on’ management style.

Trust is a critical factor in all relationships. This is more so in relationship between two countries, especially if they border each other.

The litany of grievances against the Hasina government is long. But the issues of governance, vital though these are, will not necessarily determine the course of politics.

People of this sub-continent, including those in Bangladesh, have an inherent liking for anything that is foreign, bideshi, and more specifically bilatee (English). In the early fifties when we were growing up as children just following the departure of the British rulers, many local products took an English prefix.

The concept of democratic law-enforcement, or to be more specific, democratic policing is of comparatively recent origin. The idea is to describe the characteristics of policing a democracy where the police serve the people of the country and not the regime.

How much longer can Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cling to power is a question which seems more and more baffling every day.

After prolonged and painful dips that dashed millions of small investors to the ground, the stock market index seems to be picking up slowly. In the last two to three days the DSE index is apparently showing a sign of confidence as reflected by the DGEN.

So many young men in my constituency, and just one female MP!” The sexual innuendo is explicit, and I can visualise the ear to ear grin that accompanied the comment allegedly made by one of our veteran members of parliament.

Two developments surrounding Myanmar, the isolated South-east Asian nation, have of late given a glimmer of hope that the country may move further towards democracy - a pattern of governance that the regime claims to have already accomplished, but hotly contested by the democratic world.

There is nothing like being part of a political adda. These addas provide ample content for reflection. These addas also reflect public perception. What are the top ten perceptions that haunt the common people today?

Perception No 1