Spotlight
Jahangirnagar University crisis - mired in a stalemate
Amidst all the commotion at Jahangirnagar University, this issue of the Star Weekend attempts to discern the trajectory of the disaster by sieving it through a chronological timeline, collated from reports published in The Daily Star and other major national newspapers. We start from the reappointment of the VC and take the reader through all that has happened till date, all that has brought this renowned academic institution to a standstill.This timeline is certainly not exhaustive. What it demands of the reader is discernment, analysis and conscious awareness of the ever-persistent, wider issues that these events represent. Where does it all begin, and where does it end? Why should a public university be in such a place to begin with?
East Jurain: Worst place to live in Dhaka?
Ashraful Islam, a retired government official, built a two-story house in Dhaka’s east Jurain neighbourhood in 1996. He spent his forty years of savings and even exhausted his wife’s fixed deposit to build this dwelling.
Stone- Crushers Dying of silicosis, failed by courts
Burimari union, a border village nestling in a nook of the Indian district of Cooch Behar, is a village of stones and stone-crushing yards.
Jamdani: A fabric of then and now
Along the banks of the Sitalakhya river in Narayanganj, some 20 villages in Sonargaon, Rupganj, and Siddhirganj in particular, women villagers starch yarn in lime and toasted rice to make warp yarn—the vertical, lengthwise weaves that make up a fabric.
TERROR RISING
The latest, but probably not the last, victim of this culture of impunity is Abrar Fahad, a second-year student of the electrical and electronic engineering department of Bangladesh University of Science and Technology (BUET).
A long, hard look at our teachers
For months, our public universities have been erupting in protests, with students demanding some very basic things: vice-chancellors who are not corrupt, teachers who cannot bribe their way into the university, student political wings who do not extort or oppress (or murder), effective sexual harassment policies, and freedom of expression.
Youth against fear and injustice
The public universities, old and new, are in quite a sorry state. It seems that these institutions exist only to offer support for the government’s misrule.
The story of Teesta
The story of Teesta begins 23,386 ft above the sea-level at the Pahunri glacier nestled between the Tibet and India border.
SURVIVING THE TREMORS
As we have seen and experienced in the past few days, massive earthquakes like the ones that nearly demolished the entire country of Nepal, can turn lives upside down in the blink of an eye.
THE FIRST RAYS OF THE SUN
Liton Nandi, Suman Sengupta and Amit Dey have now become household names - only because they jumped in to save their fellow Photos: Prabir Das
THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH
The incident of sexual assault that took place this Pahela Baishakh on the Dhaka University campus was not the first of its kind.
THE AFTERMATH
Sharif Hossain Nazmuddin, an entrepreneur who has been fish farming for years in his 5 fishponds at Chandpur shared his struggling experience.
THE BALLAD OF HEAT AND STORMS
Boishakh's different elements provide a powerful setting for our writers to talk about overcoming odds and welcoming a new dawn.
DAMAGE CONTROL
school can be built in a matter of days, and already many students are starting to attend classes in existing schools.
Statistics:
Due to inadequate access and insufficient water supply, the “floating” or street people of Dhaka have to spend more money on average on water, compared to the people living in slums and apartments, researchers say.
A SOLUTION TO WATER CRISIS
Each year torrential showers of the monsoon season pour millions of gallons of fresh water over Bangladesh. In cities like Dhaka, where drinking water is a costly commodity, this abundant blessing should not go to waste.
WHERE THE CONDEMNED ROT
When one walks into the Bihari Camp in Mohammadpur, locally referred to as the “Market Camp,” it is as though one has left the city and entered a different world- the world of the condemned.