Why does a six-day holiday feel too good to be true?
This is apparently the longest holiday that journalists have ever gotten in the history of Bangladesh’s newspaper industry.
4w ago
Who will restrain prices in the month of restraint?
If the government really wants to control or bring down prices during Ramadan and afterwards, it must be willing to go after its 'own people.'
2m ago
Who will restrain prices in the month of restraint?
A government’s job is not to preach about people’s food choices, but to keep food prices stable and reasonably down. When it starts to preach, more often than not it is trying to deflect scrutiny of what it cannot achieve through actions.
2m ago
‘Will you be my Valentine?’ and other expensive offers
In the end, love is a personal matter and it should remain so, regardless of how it comes out on February 14 and in the days that follow.
2m ago
‘There’s a huge difference between DSA and CSA’
Mohammad Ali Arafat, the newly appointed state minister for information and broadcasting, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star.
3m ago
Word of the Election Year: Dummy
Politicians provided a steady supply of obnoxious, potentially title-winning examples
3m ago
Can BNP survive the pre-election meltdown?
BNP's retreat to the back foot amid mass arrests and convictions was as remarkable as it was rapid.
4m ago
Voters without choice are just glorified dummies
You’ve already met the dummy candidates, aka independents. Now, meet dummy voters.
4m ago
August 6, 2022
How to avert the next level crossing disaster
Despite huge investments being made in the railways, the authorities are struggling to offer decent services thanks to sheer corruption and irregularities.
July 18, 2022
Digital Bangladesh: One step forward, two steps back?
“Digital Bangladesh” continues to be a central plank of the ruling Awami League, despite the failure of its techno-utopian Vision 2021.
July 3, 2022
Teachers aren’t under siege, but justice, civility and reason are
Here’s an image that will likely be seared into our memory forever: a teacher being forced to wear a garland of shoes around his neck.
June 22, 2022
EC’s big nothing: From a crowning moment to a humbling experience
Now that the Cumilla City Corporation (CCC) election is over and everything there was to see and hear has been seen and heard, we need to address the elephant in the room.
June 8, 2022
And the Nobel Prize for Violence Goes to…
No, silly, there is no such prize for violence. That’s just a conversation starter. After all, what better way to invoke the mighty Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) than with a nod to violence?
May 30, 2022
Mega projects, mega dreams: But where is that omelette the government promised us?
The pitfall of measuring development based on macrodata is that it shows the big picture, but fails to account for development achieved, if at all, on a micro/personal level.
May 20, 2022
Cumilla polls, a litmus test for EC, and the shadow of drugs
For a party so image-conscious and so demanding of "clean image" from its candidates, Awami League surely knows how to make a muck of things and draw unflattering attention.
April 29, 2022
If justice had a face now, it would be of victims wronged twice
The idea of a justice system hinges on people’s faith in its ability to offer fair solutions. So justice, as the saying goes, should not only be done, but be seen to be done as well, so that people’s faith in it is kept intact.
April 14, 2022
Hankering for rural contact? Pahela Baishakh isn’t the answer
It’s been quite some time since we’ve had a Pahela Baishakh in the middle of Ramadan. The convergence of the two occasions, not necessarily a clash of ideologies, begs appreciation of life in its many nuances and complexities.
April 6, 2022
Dhaka, for all intents and purposes, is dead
In Dhaka, we don’t live anymore, we merely survive.
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