2017 and what it means for 2018

WITH no street agitations or unexpected turn of events, and with the ruling party's firm grip over the situation, 2017 was politically a relatively calm year. But it was neither uneventful nor inconsequential.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Trailblazing through the digital world

ShopHobe.com is an E-commerce platform that simplifies the entire entrepreneurial process of creating a store online, for both home and registered businesses. The beta version of the SH stores comes fully equipped with a website, full logistics support, complete store analytics and a mobile app for your store's customers.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

SPORTING RELIEF

The world seemed to be careening towards apocalypse at the end of 2017, at a time when keeping up with the news is a depressing endeavour.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

THOSE WE'VE LOST

Member of the Parliament and Awami League's advisory council, Suranjit Sengupta was a veteran leader, senior politician, and spokesperson. He resigned in 2012 as second Railway Minister of Bangladesh.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Directors' Choice

Feedback: I remember two movies in particular that I watched in 2017 and found quite interesting, although both were made towards the end of 2016. As a director, I learned a lot from these movies in terms of cinematic language, screenplay, storytelling, and different film traditions and conventions.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Making social media safe for democracy

IN the run-up to multiple votes around the world in 2016, including the United Kingdom's Brexit vote and the United States presidential election, social media companies like Facebook and Twitter
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Stealing the populists' clothes

TWO cheers for US President Donald Trump. Without him, the West would still regard populism as a problem unique to Central and Eastern Europe. Yet Trump's presidency is as clear a demonstration as there could be of the fact that populism is not merely a product of the alleged “immaturity” of post-communist countries.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

A year of renewed climate commitments

FOR the growing share of the world's population that understands the existential threat posed by climate change, the beginning of 2017 brought a sense of trepidation. In fact, collective angst was already apparent at the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco, which had just started when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Creating our own language in film

FOR a director, completely objective analysis of cinema is difficult. So, I was in a dilemma when I sat down to write this piece for The Daily Star about Bangladeshi cinema, its language, the challenges and potentials.
31 December 2017, 18:00 PM

A Leading Cause of Death in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in women. It is estimated that every year 11,956 new cases of cervical
29 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Infrastructure spending stimulates growth

Bangladesh has been achieving seven-percent-plus economic growth for the last two consecutive years, averaged at over six percent for over a decade.
27 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Quality materials for quality construction

Indeed, Bangladesh is making tremendous economic progress. Infrastructural development will play the most important role if our economic development is to continue and our growth maintained.
27 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Mega infrastructures in sync can transform a society

Bangladesh is expected to be a middle-income country by 2021. To cater to the increased demand of a larger economy, the country's infrastructures need to be developed, operated and maintained adequately.
27 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Mega projects should be part of a long-term development plan

Bangladesh government has embarked on several big construction projects such as Padma Bridge, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Payra Port, Dhaka Elevated Expressway and Metro Rail, etc.
27 December 2017, 18:00 PM

GENOCIDE

Like thousands of other people in East Bengal, he had made the mistake, the fatal mistake of running within sight of a Pakistani army patrol. He was 24 years old, a slight man surrounded by soldiers. He was trembling, because he was about to be shot.
15 December 2017, 18:00 PM

THE WAR OF FOOTAGE

The footages, along with transcripts of ABC, CBS and NBC prime time news from March 25 to December 25, 1971, perhaps characterise the then US administration's stance on the Liberation War of Bangladesh, and show the response of the powers involved in the war and US media. However, the focus of this short write-up is how these three US television news channels represented the Liberation War in 1971.
15 December 2017, 18:00 PM

1971 And After: A Participant-observer's Frayed Recollections

It has neither been possible, nor even desirable, for me to write about 1971. The reasons are fairly simple. First, while my engagement in the war was early and sincere, my actual contribution to it was rather flimsy and dull.
15 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Editor's Note

Bangladesh stands at forty six today and while we celebrate it, we need to take time to introspect as we observe our Victory Day. The winds of freedom blew across the land, across the villages and towns, but we paid a very dear price. There was bloodletting,
15 December 2017, 18:00 PM

Escape to Freedom

It was March 1970. My husband, Aminul Islam, came to Islamabad on a posting to Pakistan Central Secretariat. I accompanied him with our two sons aged 15 and 13 and daughter aged 10. It was a comfortable living in Islamabad and we were all happy. But little did we know then that we had to be literally smuggled out of Pakistan to freedom in less than three years' time.
15 December 2017, 18:00 PM

BATTLES OF BELONIA BULGE

Feni-Belonia is an enclave of Bangladesh that penetrates the Indian territory, a narrow finger-like strip about 16km-long and 4-6km wide in area. A metre gauge railway track connects Belonia Border Outpost with Feni and two semi-
15 December 2017, 18:00 PM