Mohammad Badrul Ahsan

CROSS TALK

Editor, First News and opinion writer for The Daily Star badrul151@yahoo.com

Iron grip of persecution, hunger and discrimination

Experts tell us that it should take another 150 to 170 years to close the gender pay gap around the world. Bad news for the mothers,

7y ago

How can India win if Bangladesh does not?

Which between the two countries has gained more from Bangladesh prime minister's visit to India this month? The question appears no less intriguing than the long-standing debate over which came first between chicken and egg.

7y ago

Who's going to save politics from money?

Bees make honey, but it's easier said than done. They have to fly 55,000 miles and visit roughly 2 million flowers to produce a pound of honey.

7y ago

Cowards strung together in a daisy chain

Shame is thus the flipside of honour, and one can't exist without the other. Shameless people can't be honourable, and honourable people can't be shameless.

7y ago

Terrorism was never in the DNA

The skein of yarn spun out of the Palestinian struggle, and then got twisted in the relentless Western maneuvering in the Middle East to defend Israel.

7y ago

Great ideals are ghost lights at night

An increase in elevation lowers air pressure, which makes breathing difficult for a climber. The underwater world becomes increasingly blue and eventually black as a diver goes deeper.

7y ago

Presidential humour and the irony of education

The President of the Republic went public with his academic records, while addressing the 50th convocation of Dhaka University on March 4.

7y ago

Lies make us blind in full sight

If an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, what does a lie for a lie do to us?

7y ago
February 17, 2017
February 17, 2017

Has the mountain brought forth a mouse?

The appointment of the new Chief Election Commissioner was an elaborate undertaking that had a curious resemblance to the

February 10, 2017
February 10, 2017

History is asking for an address change

In my student days I worked as a bartender in a nightclub in downtown Washington, D.C.,where my colleague was a bespectacled nerdy-looking Vietnam veteran.

February 3, 2017
February 3, 2017

A moving martyrdom on a trail track

An assistant technician of Bangladesh Railway did last Friday what nobody does these days. Not since those fateful days of 1971 and some of the political movements in this country when our martyrs laid down their lives for their countrymen. Dying for others has long

January 29, 2017
January 29, 2017

A heartfelt goodbye to beloved Behrouze bhai

Mirza Ali Behrouze Ispahani, chairman of the Ispahani Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in the country, died as quietly as he lived.

January 27, 2017
January 27, 2017

Tonu murder trial and the fate of hurricanes

The Observer Effect in science has it that the act of observing will influence the phenomenon being observed. If we're looking for an answer ten months after the brutal killing of a young girl named Sohagi Jahan Tonu, this effect comes closest to explaining what has happened since then.

January 20, 2017
January 20, 2017

Light things float and heavy things sink

After Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu came to power in 1965, he called himself "The Genius of the Carpathians". He had even

January 13, 2017
January 13, 2017

When ignorance is the pillar of knowledge

The recent textbook fiasco has been a textbook case of how a dot becomes a circle. First we ignored the quality of teachers. Then we

January 6, 2017
January 6, 2017

To live and die in surrogate democracies

Russian leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, in their spare time, used to make fun of Western sympathisers who blindly supported them.

December 30, 2016
December 30, 2016

New Year revelry and our declining chivalry

As we stand on the cusp of another new year, many of us are preparing for the revelry of a boisterous night. Private clubs and posh

December 23, 2016
December 23, 2016

Aleppo burning today, whose city is next?

Aleppo is now more than a historic city; it's the boiling point of mankind where human lives are changing into vapour. In this nether region, the forces of evil have come together.