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
May 13, 2016
May 13, 2016

Does it matter who's the next US president?

Both Ted Cruz and John Kasich have fallen by the wayside, while Donald Trump dashed to the finishing line of Republican Party nomination for the US presidential race in 2016.

May 6, 2016
May 6, 2016

How much courage is needed to be cowards?

This nation is now stupefied with horror. We're afraid of what we see but don't have the courage to see what we're afraid of. We don't always know what's right and what's wrong. But the mind is akin to someone lying in bed, changing his position. It wants to toss and turn before it goes to sleep.

April 29, 2016
April 29, 2016

Obama's Libya admission and the clockwork world

Less than five years after the Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi was ousted from power, US president Barack Obama has made a

April 22, 2016
April 22, 2016

Panorama of perfidy in the Panama Papers

Ever since the Panama Papers hit the fan, the leak has been working like a series of introductions at a high-profile gathering.

April 8, 2016
April 8, 2016

How shall we find our way back?

For argument's sake, let's assume this country suddenly wakes up and wants to fix things. Who is going to do it? Who will decide what is right or wrong, sinful or virtuous, wise or stupid, and useful or useless?

March 25, 2016
March 25, 2016

An award that couldn't be rewarding enough

Different people inhabit different worlds and one man's trophy is another man's trash. Jean Paul Sartre rejected Nobel Prize for literature in 1964. Hollywood actor Marlon Brando turned down the Academy Award for the Best Actor in 1973. But a heartbroken poet of this country resorted to bizarre antics last week

March 18, 2016
March 18, 2016

Bangladesh Bank governor confused hubris with heroism

The governor of Bangladesh Bank has resigned, which is an appreciable act intermediate between compulsion and courage, and he

March 11, 2016
March 11, 2016

Is the dream of democracy going downhill?

Loss of standard in many democracies has created its own double standard.

March 4, 2016
March 4, 2016

Dual citizenship challenges expression of national loyalty

It’s understood if you have two families and hold two jobs, but not if you express two beliefs in one conversation.

March 1, 2016
March 1, 2016

A lighthouse has gone dark and silent

Iowe him my first job, the memo-writing skills, the vast concourse of discourses on virtually everything on earth, and roughly half the