Surveillance capitalism and the right to privacy
“Surveillance is the business model of the internet”—Bruce Schneier, security expert and privacy specialist
5y ago
'Whether we win or lose, we are not going to be on their side'
"Ultimately, in the long run, whether we win or lose, we are not going to be on their side. So we might as well do what we have to do as well as we can."
5y ago
Rethinking our digital priorities
On April 14, 2016, the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with the aim of giving control to people over their personal data, recognising certain “digital” rights that individuals are entitled to regarding how their personal data is collected and used.
5y ago
The unexplored treasures of old Bengali manuscripts
Dr Md Shahjahan Mian, Professor of the Department of Bengali, Dhaka University talks to Shamsuddoza Sajen and Moyukh Mahtab about the importance of studying and preserving old Bengali manuscripts to write a comprehensive history of the Bengali speaking region.
5y ago
Recovering the stories of the Armenians of Asia
Liz Chater, a family history researcher based in the UK, has been working on the Armenian communities in South Asia since 2010. Currently, she is working with the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection in Armanitola on the Bangladesh Armenian Heritage Project, which aims to "build the stories, starting from the ground up" of the Armenian communities of Bangladesh and India. In an interview over email with Moyukh Mahtab, she talks of her own heritage, which led her to her research interest, and of her past and present projects.
5y ago
The gaps in our laws we need to address
Sabrina Zarin, Barrister-at-Law, (Hon'ble Society or Lincoln's Inn, UK) and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Partner in FM Associates, talks to The Daily Star's Moyukh Mahtab about needed reforms in sexual violence and harassment laws in Bangladesh and the importance of raising awareness, especially among children.
5y ago
Is DMP's action plan enough to fix our roads?
Apparently “inspired” by last year's safe road movement, the DMP has come up with yet another action plan to deal with Dhaka's anarchic—to put it mildly— traffic situation.
5y ago
Punitive drug policies don't work
Naomi Burke-Shyne, Executive Director of Harm Reduction International, and international NGO “dedicated to reducing the negative health, social and legal impacts of drug use and drug policy”, talks to The Daily Star's Moyukh Mahtab (over e-mail) about the global failure of wars on drugs, and how a health-based approach to drug policy could save lives and promote the well-being of citizens.
5y ago
April 6, 2017
The irony of restricting access to internet in “Digital Bangladesh”
The questions the government should be asking is how the use of the internet can be made safer, the private data of the users be protected, and what infrastructural and policy reforms may be made to ensure that access to the internet can translate to its radical goals.
April 4, 2017
Rethinking history education
It would be superfluous to repeat here the details of the mass killings and systematic sexual violence committed by the Pakistani military on Bangladeshis in 1971.
March 10, 2017
The land of tales and tigers
I visited the Sundarbans about four years ago, with a touring company. We lived on the boat, anchored at safe places during the night...
January 28, 2017
Untangling memory, taking a stand
Yesterday was the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. But what does it mean to remember the Holocaust? It cannot be only to speak of the details of the gruesome barbarity that engulfed a continent in the last century through voyeuristic descriptions of horror. Neither should one speak of the death of six million in the contextual realms of history; it cannot be a matter of numbers. Does one, as the student from Alan Bennet's History Boys, simply gloss over the matter with a pithy “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”?
January 27, 2017
Attacks on journalists and activists – but why?
Police’s brutal assault on the activists and journalists begs the question, what called for this extreme use of force? From when does it take a group of fully armoured policemen to restrain one unarmed civilian?
January 21, 2017
Disturbing deviations in children's books
Over the recent backlash of the erroneous content and apparently mysterious changes to the curriculum, the education minister on January 10 stated during a press briefing, “I'm not avoiding my responsibility, but I'm leaving the matter to you whether handing over such a volume of textbooks is a bigger thing than these errors,” to which, the answer is an obvious yes.
January 13, 2017
Legal constraints give law enforcement free reign
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque’s statement that the commission is powerless to take action against human rights violations is an understatement.
January 9, 2017
What has feminism ever done to you?
A couple of years ago, three female computer scientists from MIT decided to do a live Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on the popular internet platform Reddit.
December 19, 2016
Santal Community: Exploited throughout history
In 1855, tens of thousands of Santals, one of the oldest communities to make their home in Bengal, rose up in open rebellion. The Santal hool or revolution would mark one of the major milestones in the history of peasant rebellions against the British colonial administration. Choking under the pressure of practical serfdom due to the mahajani system, with no recourse to the law and administration, the Santals demanded autonomy.
December 16, 2016
The Birangona beyond her wound
Merely days after the Liberation War ended in 1971, the government of the newly formed Bangladesh, in a historically unprecedented move, termed women who were victims of sexual violence during the nine months of the war as Birangonas (war heroines). This, along with the state efforts of rehabilitating these women, has meant that unlike the conventional attitude towards wartime sexual violence, the issue is not mired in silence within Bangladesh
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