The Laws of Inertia
In 1988, Ershad's predictably dictator-esque declaration of a state religion led to the formation of the Committee to Resist Despotism
The Strongman returns
It should be no surprise to us that the political 'strongman' has resurged. The very word evokes images of a bare-bodied Vladimir...
The land of scared ideas
Sixty or seventy years back, higher education for the people of Bengal was a rare commodity. Racial and socioeconomic barriers held
A Democracy of Crisis
Psychologists have suggested that humans have a natural preference for negative news, the public experience of which they enjoy via mass media. The reason is not necessarily 'schadenfreude' or secret pleasure derived out of other people's misery.
Collateral of War and Peace
For Bangladesh's global image, January 2016 was not a good month. Allegations of sexual abuse by Bangladeshi peacekeepers
To burn a mockingbird
It was a windy August day, 1877 C.E. A young, darkish and mostly unimpressive youth was at Nulo Gopal's door...
Bangladesh at Bloggerheads
Like many Bangladeshis, I started concentrating on and paying closer attention to blogging from 2013. February 2013, to be precise.
A narrow spectrum of debate
Sometimes it seems that Bangladeshis have been debating the same thing over and over again, failing to reach any consensus and only
The Grand Theatre of War
World War I was once thought of as 'the War to End All Wars'. But the hypothesis that “violence can be extinguished with greater violence” has since been thoroughly disproved and should have no place in modern statecraft. Yet it is the bedrock of anti-terrorism.
The War on Abstract Notions
Wars on abstract concepts (e.g. terror, freethinking) are dangerous because they can be aimed at virtually anyone and can be invoked to launch every missile and curtail every freedom.