Is Bangladesh politics heading for a deadlock?

One thing certain about politics in Bangladesh is that it has an evolving order in the midst of an emerging chaos. If closely observed, it's right now abiding by Newton's first law of motion. The object at rest stays at rest, while the object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction. One of the assumptions of the law of inertia is that it doesn't change unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
25 August 2016

Mitigating fire risks in factories and malls

Although termed a 'fire accident', most fire incidents are far from being accidental. In fact, most fires are preventable.
24 August 2016

“Move”, they said

It's called a sprawl. We just happened to experience a mushroom growth. It happened to us when schools, garment factories, stores, boutiques, offices just stealthily popped up in our neighbourhood.
23 August 2016

Government walking a tightrope

The information being gleaned from suspects and their laptops is that there is external finance being funnelled in through informal channels such as hundi. But the most worrying development is the discovery of bomb making material and knowhow amongst some of those arrested.
22 August 2016

A deforested hill now a green canopy

A few decades ago the Joistapura Hills in Chittagong's Boalkhali upazila were deforested and bald; today they support a rich green canopy. The change has been driven by the simple dream of a single young man: 16-year-old Mozammel Hoque Bakul wanted to have his own garden.
21 August 2016

The tragedy of 21st August

As the nation observes the 12th anniversary of the ghastly grenade assault that was carried out at an Awami League rally in Dhaka city on August 21, 2004, discerning observers have to agree that the horrendous crimes committed on that day has left an indelible impact on the course and character of constitutional politics of Bangladesh.
20 August 2016

A change-maker in the knowledge industry

The knowledge industry is still in its infancy in Bangladesh. Firms like the McKinsey & Company or Brookings Institute are now
19 August 2016

An elephant eloquent, instructive in his death

One can thus feel in one's bones the pain and trauma the wild elephant, separated from its herd by severe flooding in Assam, must have gone through all the way down to Bangladesh.
18 August 2016

A tit (Baluchistan) for tat (Kashmir)

To express support for a breakaway group on the soil of that country would be a diplomatic incivility, but the shield of technicality was invoked to show that the premises of the Pakistan High Commission were the territory of Pakistan. But be that as it may, there is no doubt that the incident has brought about a complete 'rerouting' of India's policy towards Pakistan.
17 August 2016

The Towering Courage of Bangabandhu

For the uninformed multitudes, remembering Bangabandhu on August 15 is perhaps a ritualistic observance when the mind does not delve deep to grasp the historical significance of the tragedy.
14 August 2016

How not to win an election?

It's not easy, but one way to try and maintain sanity is by taking a worldwide view of every situation.
12 August 2016

Our Population, Our Asset

We are a land-short country, somewhat proverbially, as it seems. Bangladesh does not exactly have a galloping population but a
11 August 2016

Human rights cannot be sacrificed in fight against militants

It was an ordinary Friday afternoon in Dhaka when, on 7 August 2015, Niloy Neel and his partner Asha Moni heard a knock on their door.
10 August 2016

History and society in the shaping of terrorism today

Among the anxieties, fears and confusions generated by the grisly tragedy that occurred on July 1 at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, one refrain was fairly consistent...
9 August 2016

Searching for the shadowy Canadian leader of ISIS in Bangladesh

You must be kidding, bro,” a friend of mine from Windsor, Ontario, tells me when I ask him about Tamim Chowdhury, the purported leader of ISIS in Bangladesh.
8 August 2016

Why Donald Trump scares me

Donald Trump has variously been described as “dangerous,” “fraud,” “unhinged,” “racist,” “mentally unbalanced” and “outright nuts.” Vanity Fair magazine's Mark Bowden summed up these epithets in one sentence in a slightly more charitable manner:
7 August 2016

The floating schools of Chalan Beel

They don't go to schools, schools come to them.
6 August 2016

Terrorists in Bangladesh

The poor, marginalised, and uninformed madrasa students in Bangladesh are too weak and disorganised to spearhead any violent or revolutionary movement. This explains why urban, rich, and secular-educated – not rural, poor, and madrasa-educated – youths appear so far to be the main foot soldiers of Islamist terror.
5 August 2016

Goodbye hospitality industry?

The recent government decision to make residential areas residential makes sense. However, authorities seem to have gone gung ho in implementation.
1 August 2016

Child labour and its violent outcome

The horrific story of the murder of Sagar Barman, aged 10, was published in the front page of The Daily Star and other leading dailies of the country on July 25, 2016.
30 July 2016