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Urbanization is considered a sign of advancement. Skyscrapers, transportation networks, and digital lines of communication are often regarded as symbols of progress. But behind these shiny facades, more than 1 billion people in the world live in slums characterized by deprivation, the UN Statistics Division says. From Kibera in Nairobi to Dharavi in Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, slums remind us that rapid urban expansion is not synonymous with better living conditions.

Photo by the Author The Rohingya crisis is not a new tragedy; it is a recurring wound in the conscience of South and Southeast Asia. For generations, the Rohingya people, an ethnic Muslim minority native to Myanmar’s Rakhine State, have lived as a community stripped of belonging. The crisis deepened in August 2017 when a brutal military operation in Rakhine drove over 700,000 Rohingya across the Naf River into Bangladesh. It was not the first exodus; smaller waves had occurr

By a Citizen Who Walked the Streets and Read the Skies I remember the smell of tear gas more vividly than the monsoon that came three...

Part 2 As I argued in the first part of the theory on Natural Rights Led Governance (NRLG), the Development–Destruction Trap exposes how...

Illustrated by Arif Iqbal Sajek Valley is a scenic hill destination location in the Rangamari District of Bangladesh, known for its...