Blowin’ in the Wind
We must protect doctors from violence
Violence against doctors is an issue that is neither unique to our country nor recent.
Mass wedding in academia: A new kind of ‘taboo-breaking’
An institutionalised mass wedding will replace one form of social regulation with another.
Our migrant workers in UAE: Bound by borders, freed by conscience
The Washington Post recently speculated that Dr Yunus’s soft power may have indirectly influenced the UAE's decision to grant clemency.
When teachers become targets: Lessons from Emperor Alamgir
How do you process the nationwide humiliation of teachers?
Opinion / The triumphs and challenges of a generation in flux
The students are once again at the forefront by reaching out to the victims of the flood that has inundated the country’s eastern region.
Universities must prepare for the transition of students
While talking to our students, it was obvious that many of them are experiencing severe stress.
The power of education in ‘Bangla Bashanta'
Identity and ideology politics also played an essential role in brewing the Bangla Bashanta.
Quota violence / The lives of fallen students must inspire the change we need
Reconciliation cannot occur without truth-telling, accountability, and a commitment to dismantling the structures of violence that perpetuate inequality and injustice.
A timely decision on higher education
Finally, a breath of fresh air—winds blowing through the higher stratosphere are causing some thought clouds to loosen up and shower good news on higher education.
No Birds in the Sky
In the 80s, one sarcastic comment—for reasons better not stated out of respect for the deceased—was aired every now and then: hurl a stone in Dhaka’s air and you are sure to hit either a poet or a crow. On the surface, it was an innocent joke about the sheer number of creatures—those who fly with their wings and those others who dream to do so with their imagination.
Get up, stand up: don’t give up the flight
By the time you will be reading this piece, I “should” be on board our national carrier, Biman Bangladesh. I write “should” because nothing about Biman can be said with certainty; listen to the passenger’s mumbling at the boarding bay or lend your eyes and ears to the incidents on the aircraft itself, you are sure to get an endorsement.
The Greta Effect
I did myself a favour, as pleaded on Facebook by a colleague, and read Greta Thunberg’s chapbook, “No one is too small to make a difference.”
Of Camels and Unicorns
In the first few minutes of 2020, nearly 30 animals, mostly apes, were burnt to death in Krefeld Zoo in West Germany.
‘The rapist is you’
A Chilean feminist song about rape culture and victim shaming has recently gone viral. The performative piece, based on the work of Rita Segato by a group called Las Tesis, was first presented on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, 2019.
An old story for a new time
Among the flurry of e-messages (including a surprise “phishing” one), there was one worthy nugget available in my year-ending inbox: a random warning about not writing the year 2020 in short format.
Two decades after Y2K
I was explaining the apocalyptic fear in Blake’s poetry to my students. To offer a contemporary example, I mentioned the Y2K software problem that led to global panic responses, almost creating a doomsday scenario at the turn of the century.
Flights of human capital a.k.a brain drain
Legend has it: the black magician Doctor Faustus sold his soul to devil in exchange of 24 years of earthly knowledge and pleasure.
Demise of an Icon
For Aung San Suu Kyi, December 10 could have been a date to remember. It is the day when she received her Nobel Prize in 1991.