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.

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.

A golden opportunity!

It was while shopping for jewellery for my wedding last year that I realised just how much of the gold in the glitzy, gilded shops are possibly smuggled.

How to kill a river / A River Dies in Kurigram

“Is there a river called Jinjirum that’s a trans-boundary river? Are you sure about its name? Is it the name of the locality or the river? I haven’t even heard about it,” says a high-ranking official of the northern zone of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), when we asked him about different issues faced by this river and the communities dependent on it.

Place-ing CHOBI MELA X

It all starts with contact with light. The process, as we know, requires light to seep into the lens in which the moment captured already exists.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Jhenaidah: A death a day

According to the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Bangladesh witnesses six incidents of suicide for every

Machines whirring at migratory bird sanctuary

Around halfway through the Jahangirnagar University campus one would notice age-old rusting signboards with caution warnings like