Editor's Note

Faces of Janus

The month of January gets its name from Janus, the Roman god of the doorway. Janus had two faces- the symbolism being one looking back and one looking forward. Bangladeshis are simultaneously looking back and forward right now too, not just because it's a new year, but also because there's a new government. Or an old government. Depends on how you look at it. As we get on this course, like Janus, perhaps it would help to look back as we look forward. There is plenty of blind optimism or pessimism all around, but it is troubling when these attitudes come out of nowhere. Forgetting the lessons of history can be disastrous.

The cover story contains some musings by our own Rafi Hossain as well as some of his own suggestions for the country. Other stories you'll find inside include one about a man who has donated a tremendous amount of blood throughout his life and wasn't satisfied with just that. He organised young people together and convinced them to give blood. There is a story about a massacre of 17 young men and the memorial that stands- just one of many. The story of blood is written in so many ways.

Abak Hussain
From the Insight Desk

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