Cover Story

TAX DON’T LOSE SLEEP OVER IT

“Don't let the tax tail wag the dog.” If you have never heard the canine reference to taxes, hopefully the visual will stick with you and aid you in understanding the central tenet of this article—taxes, like a dog's tail, are extremely important, but it is a mere appendage of your life and the taxman is not necessarily always the villain.

Amitava Kar

You need some convincing though. You do not know how much tax you are supposed to pay and when. You are afraid that if the tax office knows how much you are worth, you are going to be in trouble.…

Current Affairs

Victory>Defeat>Victory

Shakhawat Liton

What does the BNP really want from the June 15 battle of ballots in four city corporations? Will it be a triumph for the party if the mayoral aspirants backed by the BNP win all the four mayoral posts? Or…

Reflections

The Monkeys with Attractive Eyes

Andrew Eagle

If eyes stick out like golf balls, bulbous enough to have inspired a hideous new creature on a Star Wars set; if a head is disproportionately small, looking like an animated sultana atop a skyscraper; if ears are of the…

Photo Feature

MURDER NOT TRAGEDY

The images of the worst garment factory disaster will long be embedded in our minds. The Rana Plaza collapse on April 24, 2013 killed 1,129 young men and women and maimed hundreds of others. The 21 day rescue operation was…

A Meeting of Immense Scope

The last few years have been tough on US-China relations, and distrust over long-term intentions has grown on both sides. But now that a new leadership has taken over the reins in China and the Barack Obama administration has started…

Energy

DREAMING NUCLEAR

M Abul Kalam Azad

The declining reserves of fossil fuels and their detrimental effects on the environment has thrust nuclear power into the limelight as a promising option to energy-starved economies around the world. According to statistics from the Power Development Board, only half…

Neighbours

Limit on Muslim Births

Myanmar is about to impose a two-child limit on Muslim Rohingya families in two townships of western Rakhine state. The policy is straightforward discrimination, as it will not be applied to the country’s majority-Buddhist population. The two Rakhine townships in…

Endeavour

Green is the New Black

Upashana Salam

The world of fashion is an exciting one. Bright, beautiful and self-obsessed. Many disregard the fashion industry as one that promotes superficiality. It is an industry that gets a bad rap for putting special emphasis on materialism. The fashion industry…

Writing the Wrong

Higher Ground

SHARBARI AHMED

I believe in so much stuff that sometimes it clogs my spiritual pipes. Maybe it’s because I am constantly searching for the heart of things. Pipes need to be free of obstructions, so everything can flow easily. Lately, I feel…

Perceptions

TV’s Smarter, Faster Replacement

SHERIN MONI

Until June 2011, TV was the only form of entertainment to over 1500 young women at Ruquayyah Hall, one of the oldest women’s hostel of Dhaka University. Now, after so many years, a simple Wi-Fi connection is changing the the…

Art

Printmaking in Progress

Mustafa Zaman

Printmaking – a process that utilises etching, lithography, woodcut etc. to transfer images into paper – is past its industrial heyday. At present, it enjoys an afterlife as a medium of art. It has often been pegged as a democratic…

Exhibition

Mirror of a Mass Culture

Fayza Haq

Rokeya Sultana’s latest endeavour, after the nine months of her Fullbright scholarship, presents “Fata Morgana”, which is a collection of distorted mirages that sailors often saw at sea. It includes coastlines, boats and islands. Morgan is a term taken from…

Star Diary

Indifferent policemen In order to reach Banani for a personal work, I took a bus from Khamarbari at Farmgate. There is a one-way road with two lanes from Khamarbari to Farmgate police box. Out of the two lanes, the left…

Periscope

Wonderboy and Wondergirls

AHMEDE HUSSAIN

Former President General (rtd) HM Ershad has an interesting record to his name. Once ousted, hardly any military dictator or his party has ever fared well in a free and fair election across the world. Ershad is an exception. In…

Musings

Bit of Happiness

NEAMUL SARHADI

Do we not all yearn for things that we can never have? Yes we do. We do it every day. Consciously…subconsciously… knowingly….unwittingly…that is the very essence of the human soul. And no amount of social seclusion and no amount of…

Voicebox

“If you (AL and BNP) amend the constitution, restore the presidential form and then contest together an election against me, I will win. This is my challenge.” HM ERSHAD chairman of Jatiya Party challenging the ruling Awami League and the…

Write to Mita

Dear Mita, I am in my late twenties and am in a fix. I have met two very nice women. One I met online – she is pretty, smart but a few years older than me. The other one is…

Cartoon Strip

The Conspiracy

Postscript

Zooming Away in a Traffic Jam?

AASHA MEHREEN AMIN

Bangladeshis living abroad are appalled when they come to Dhaka every few years. How can you live like this they say. Things just seem to be getting worse. We, the locals, agree with them wholeheartedly while they salivate over mangoes,…

Letters

A City for All

The article makes some important points about how to increase accessibility of persons with disabilities. It is important to note that accessibility is best achieved incrementally – for example, by improving the features of buildings in stages. Initial efforts should…

A TAXING AFFAIR