Editorial

MNA Editorial Desk: India, one of the uprising superpowers of the world, is the greatest economy and entity of South Asia. It has immense influence over almost all of its South Asian neighbours. But visibly it has strong issues with powerhouses like China with decade long tensions with neighbouring country Pakistan. During the recent conflicts, it was observed that China is trying to develop better relationships with the neighbours of India and it is nothing surprising as any country with such an enormous economy will try to spread its influence. Both the countries have engaged in numerous small to medium ...

MNA Editorial Desk: COVID-19 pandemic is still a life threatening issue around the world, including Bangladesh. For around 6-8 months, varying in different countries, the whole world is passing an appalling time. The pandemic is affecting lives in different ways – economically, financially, physically, mentally etc. The lockdowns have been lifted off at most of the places and most of the institutions; even public places have been opened. People are moving out of their safe shelters for different reasons and the life is coping up with the concept of ‘new normal’. But, apparently COVID-19 might have most negatively influenced the ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Child abuse, a heinous crime, has become a worldwide problem today. Despite having strict laws in almost every country, it continues to grow. It is a grave concern in Bangladesh too. Children are the future of a nation or the world but we are failing to fulfill their rights, which is very important if we want a safe, secured and bright future. Child abuse has increased significantly during the last two decades and we must stop this trend for the sake of a better world. We might not even realize how badly this can impact our society ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Proper physical and psychological growth of children is always desired for a better future of not only a particular country but also for the whole world. But if we need to name one curse, that will be acts of war, genocide or ethnic cleansing, which is destroying that scope for millions of children all around the world. It is not the case in today’s era only. It is rather a truth from the very inception of the human race. Children have been the greatest victim of any such atrocious acts. We should not desire or tolerate such ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Covid-19 has appeared and remained as a great threat for almost all economies of the world including that of Bangladesh. At the very beginning of this pandemic, Bangladesh was also hit by the deadly cyclone ‘Amphan’ and now is going through a lengthy flood. Though the economy is still holding up, the troubles are huge. We cannot accurately predict how the world economy will perform in the upcoming months and that requires us to safeguard our own economy focusing on internal factors mostly. Hence, we need to put emphasize on few areas immediately. In the current context, ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Millions of people throughout Bangladesh have been suffering from severe flood from the end of June this year. The country could be plunged into a humanitarian crisis as it endures the most protracted monsoon flooding in decades while it is still recovering from the effects of super-cyclone ‘Amphan’. Over 115 people have died in Bangladesh due to floods that have atrophied different parts of the country for almost a month. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimate that almost a third of Bangladesh has been affected and conditions are likely to worsen. Earlier ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated the distribution and plantation of one crore saplings across the country marking the ‘Mujib Year’. She reiterated her government’s goal of increasing the country’s forest coverage to 25 percent. From the same event, the premier also inaugurated the National Tree Plantation Campaign 2020. This campaign is highly important considering different factors. Though we have seen some initiatives as such on different occasions, unfortunately, most of those trees have become history. Hence, not only plantation but also preservation of these trees will be required the most. The total area of forest land ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Corruption has become one of the greatest problems of Bangladesh. But during the last two decades it has spread its black claws into every sector. Mostly, corruption is embedded and originated at public sector. Recently, after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina started an anti-corruption drive, many scams are rising above the water. In most of the cases though only few end level actors are being pulled out but the roots of corruptions are still untouched. We all know that, the names we find in different corruption cases cannot commit such crimes without political support. Hence, eliminating political patronization ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Coronavirus has spread throughout the world within a very short time. It has come out as a strike on humanity. The whole world is fighting this deadly pandemic. But it is hard to say, at which stage we are standing right now. Till now more than 2.3 million people got affected while over 0.16 million lost their lives worldwide. The scenario in Bangladesh is just getting worse day by day as till now 101 lives were lost while 2,948 became victims of this pandemic. Not only on human lives but also on every aspect of our society, ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Coronavirus has been such an entity which may have touched all human lives around the world in some way or another. The death toll and infected numbers are going up every minute as more than 1.8 million people are infected and more than 1.13 lac people died from this fierce coronavirus worldwide. In Bangladesh also 39 people died from the 803 infected in total. With hundreds of millions of people now isolating themselves around the world, the novel coronavirus pandemic has become a truly global event. We may find ourselves even into a shift of global power. ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Just as we speak, the recent global crisis of COVID-19 virus outbreak has claimed over 70,000 lives while over 1.4 million are infected worldwide. With terrific modernization and development of technology such as artificial intelligence, we could not yet find out a solid tool to fight against this deadly nature-caused virus and has to only depend on symptomatic treatment till now. Moreover, an incredible economic depression seems to be arriving immediately with next few weeks. Till now 12 people died and 123 were infected in Bangladesh also and it is expected to dangerously increase within the next ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The global coronavirus crisis has taken a leap into the lives of all the people in the world as already 189 countries of the world has been affected. Around 0.35 million people are officially affected by this deadly COVID-19 virus while around 15,000 already lost their lives and the scenario is expected to go worse. According to experts, millions of lives will be lost within the next few months. Bangladesh is also facing this crisis. It is hard to concretely tell how many people are already contaminated by this virus and how many actually died. Bangladesh is ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Bangladesh is celebrating the birth centenary of its greatest leader, the best Bengali of all time, the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Mujib is the name of the brightest star of this nation, whose name is written in the golden letters in the history of Bangladesh. Today, we can breathe in the free air of an independent country, walk unchained on a free soil and can chase any of our dreams–all these are mostly the contribution of this great personality. Intellectual leadership, prudent wisdom, uncompromising soul and heart filled with love for his ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Bangladesh has transformed into a role model of development during the last decade. Several infrastructural developments as well as improvement in human indices have led to this successful journey. This development has significantly reflected in economic progress also. We are performing well on different economic parameters as shown in different reports. Without economic growth, it is impossible for a country to move forward. Economic development is bound to be pursued on both short-term and long-term basis where sustainability becomes the most critical factor. Many countries of the world have experienced sharp economic incline on several occasions, but ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Around 2,500 people died worldwide and over 76,000 are infected from the deadly COVID-19, a form of commonly known coronavirus. It has been declared a world health emergency as the medical experts and the scientists are yet to find any viable cure of this dangerous disease. The doctors are depending on treatment of different symptoms of the disease till now but it is inadequate to save the infected certainly. Most importantly, there is no sign of slowing down of the spread of this virus. Every day we are getting news of new patients infected with coronavirus in ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Festive atmosphere and overwhelming participation of people can be termed as the attribute of ‘Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2020’. Thousands of people are rushing everyday to this fair irrespective of their intention of buying books. This year the historical book fair has received new vigour with the participation of innumerable kids. The timing of this fair is very significant in 2020 as we are standing very close to the 100th birth anniversary celebration of the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and this fair has also been dedicated to that historic moment. Though the perimeter ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Bangladesh along with many other countries of the world is chasing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is set to be achieved by 2030. There are 17 goals set in the SDGs. One of the most important is the goal 5 commonly known as SDG 5. It emphasizes elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls, elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls, and elimination of harmful practices affecting child and women. This goal is titled as ‘Gender Equality’, referring to same rights to men and women in different contexts. Bangladesh ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Dhaka city has received two new mayors on Feb 1. After an intense election, the new mayors of Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation along with newly elected councillors will take office soon. Before the election, they made thousands of promises to the city residents focusing on the development and welfare of this megacity as well as its citizens. But the promises are not enough as we have seen severe failures of the former mayors and councillors in the past. The citizens of Dhaka are mistreated and victims of fake promises for a long ...

MNA Editorial Desk: More than 750,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in 2017. They entered the neighbouring Bangladesh crossing the river with tremendous risk on their lives. Bangladesh was valiant in open its border for this huge number of floating people on humanitarian grounds. These Rohingyas were forced into fetid camps across the border in Bangladesh. They have lost all their assets, human rights and honour on their own soil. United Nations investigators concluded that the brutal military attack with the support of accomplice Buddhist locals had been executed with genocidal intent over these minority Rohingya Muslims. The ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The election of two Dhaka City Corporations is going to be held on Feb 1. Though initially it was scheduled to be held on Jan 30, due to a major festival of the Hindu community, Saraswati Pooja, it was shifted. The mayoral and councillor candidates are running their campaigns in full pace as this year’s city corporation election has brought huge festivity in all areas of Dhaka city. The roads are all covered with festoons, banners and posters of the candidates. The environment is filled with loud innovative songs praising the candidates. In the Dhaka South City ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The countdown for the birth centenary celebration of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman began on January 10, the homecoming day of Bangabandhu, through a gala opening ceremony. The whole country eyed on the program as it is once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of and witness such a celebration. The ruling party Awami League has already declared March 17, 2020 to March 17, 2021 as the ‘Mujib Year’. Throughout the year there will be multiple programs and events marking the works, struggle and achievements of Bangabandhu. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The mayoral elections of two city corporations of Dhaka, one of the worst liveable cities of the world, are scheduled to be held on January 30. Mayors are majorly responsible for the liveability of a city and also its development. They are also accountable to ensure the comfort and peace of the citizens to a great extent. Dhaka city dwellers are suffering from different problems for a long time and it is becoming more troublesome to live in this city every day. The next mayors of Dhaka’s two city corporations hence should plan and execute a series ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Bangladesh, being a democratic country, provides open opportunity to practice politics to its citizens and participation in political activities from different groups and societal level is quite satisfactory. Though there are very few established or impactful political parties existing in the political field of Bangladesh, millions of people are engaged or associated with these parties from different aspects. This provides a great scope for strong democratic practice. Recently, the councils of top political parties and its affiliated organizations had been on the news. Many of these councils were held long after its usual time. New committees were ...

MNA Editorial Desk: In this era of globalization and open market economy, communal stability is a key element towards the development of a nation or a zone. But throughout the world, we are experiencing a negative mark in this area. Especially if we look into the South and Southeast Asia region, the situation is very alarming and the activities of South Asian giant India is making the situation worse with their new citizenship act which challenges secularism by injecting religion into national policy. Everyday thousands of people are being victims of religious persecution in this region and it will not ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Rohingya repatriation is still under severe question despite efforts from all around the world. Unfortunately the Myanmar government may not have received enough pressure to solicit the matter yet. Bangladesh has been hosting around a million Rohingya refugees since August 2017 who have fled their homeland under serious oppression and torture which the United Nations termed as ‘ethnic cleansing’. Though the world community significantly contributed in aiding this huge number of refugees on the Bangladeshi soil, they did not pressurize Myanmar to repatriate this homeless group. Hence, the fate of these Rohingyas still remains under question. The ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The Road Transport Act 2018 had come into effect few days back. Though it is yet to be implied in full extent, it has already created severe chaos and panic. We have been the victims of transport strike for a short period immediately after the implementation of this law. The law was passed in parliament on September 19, 2018. More than a year after it was passed into a law, the Road Transport Act, 2018 officially came into effect across Bangladesh. The authorities in charge of enforcing the law, however, are not fully prepared for the job ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Onion, a highly used commodity product in Bangladeshi kitchens, has broken all records in terms of price as well as percentage of price hike within a given period of time. The recent price hike of onions has been the talk of the nation as people everywhere are discussing this unusual jump. This issue was covered not only by the Bangladeshi media but also the international media on several occasions. Moreover, anyone, who uses social media, is receiving thousands of posts related to this onion price hike every day from the frustrated citizens. We have made a culture ...