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Mohammad Badrul Ahsan

CROSS TALK

Editor, First News and opinion writer for The Daily Star badrul151@yahoo.com

brain.jpg

Iron grip of persecution, hunger and discrimination

Experts tell us that it should take another 150 to 170 years to close the gender pay gap around the world. Bad news for the mothers,
4 May 2017, 18:00 PM
4 May 2017, 18:00 PM
hasina modi.jpg

How can India win if Bangladesh does not?

Which between the two countries has gained more from Bangladesh prime minister's visit to India this month? The question appears no less intriguing than the long-standing debate over which came first between chicken and egg.
27 April 2017, 18:00 PM
27 April 2017, 18:00 PM
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Who's going to save politics from money?

Bees make honey, but it's easier said than done. They have to fly 55,000 miles and visit roughly 2 million flowers to produce a pound of honey.
15 April 2017, 18:00 PM
15 April 2017, 18:00 PM
Cowards strung together in a daisy chain

Cowards strung together in a daisy chain

Shame is thus the flipside of honour, and one can't exist without the other. Shameless people can't be honourable, and honourable people can't be shameless.
6 April 2017, 18:00 PM
6 April 2017, 18:00 PM
Islam.jpg

Terrorism was never in the DNA

The skein of yarn spun out of the Palestinian struggle, and then got twisted in the relentless Western maneuvering in the Middle East to defend Israel.
30 March 2017, 18:00 PM
30 March 2017, 18:00 PM
light.jpg

Great ideals are ghost lights at night

An increase in elevation lowers air pressure, which makes breathing difficult for a climber. The underwater world becomes increasingly blue and eventually black as a diver goes deeper.
23 March 2017, 18:00 PM
23 March 2017, 18:00 PM
Students at private university

Presidential humour and the irony of education

The President of the Republic went public with his academic records, while addressing the 50th convocation of Dhaka University on March 4.
16 March 2017, 18:00 PM
16 March 2017, 18:00 PM
Lies make us blind in full sight

Lies make us blind in full sight

If an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, what does a lie for a lie do to us?
9 March 2017, 18:00 PM
9 March 2017, 18:00 PM
Modi-pakistan

Isolation of Pakistan will not isolate terror

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has labelled Pakistan as a “mother ship of terrorism” at a summit of the BRIC nations held in the
20 October 2016, 18:00 PM
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Humanity's abandoned house

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked a seminal question in the parliament on October 6, a question that sublimated the anxiety bubbling inside every sensible heart in this country.
14 October 2016, 18:00 PM
John Shakespeare.jpg

Development without democracy isn't a happy solution

Persistent indigestion may point to the cancer of esophagus, throat or stomach. This prognosis is a sufficient hint for the wise to understand why development without democracy isn't good for a nation.
6 October 2016, 18:00 PM
Brangelina.jpg

The critical connection between love and marriage

Fire leaves behind ashes, rain leaves behind stains, and wind leaves behind fallen leaves, but what does love leave in its wake? Some
29 September 2016, 18:00 PM
Wrong side driving

Wrong side driving is wrong, even for ministers

The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, has said that both men are wise when one says something and the other listens.
22 September 2016, 18:00 PM

The Asian stage for the American show

It's not rocket science that the theatre of confrontation is shifting to Asia. The crux of this confrontation is cross-directional. China is pivoting west with its ambition to expand its reach across the continent and towards Europe. The United States, on the other hand, is pivoting east. It's convinced that its future should be entwined with the Asian prosperity instead of being sucked further into the quagmires of the Middle East.
15 September 2016, 18:00 PM
ershad.jpg

If Ershad lives for another hundred years. . .

Hussein Muhammad Ershad recently told his party men that he would live another hundred years if they were to put him back
8 September 2016, 18:00 PM
illustration_dvrlists.com_.jpg

The future generations are losing their entitlement

The world is demographically lopsided more than ever before: old people are concentrated in the rich countries, and the rest of the world is crowded with the young. Whoever said that the young shall inherit the earth must think again. As nations get more affluent, their populations also get more aged. In an increasingly prosperous world, the future generations are losing entitlement.
1 September 2016, 18:00 PM
Is bangladesh politics.jpg

Is Bangladesh politics heading for a deadlock?

One thing certain about politics in Bangladesh is that it has an evolving order in the midst of an emerging chaos. If closely observed, it's right now abiding by Newton's first law of motion. The object at rest stays at rest, while the object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction. One of the assumptions of the law of inertia is that it doesn't change unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
25 August 2016, 18:00 PM
Science for mankind

Science for mankind or mankind for science

Science was born out of the human necessity to investigate nature, but now it's also growing on the necessity to investigate human nature.
18 August 2016, 18:00 PM
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Where should journalists draw the elusive line?

Our Home Minister last Monday rightfully asked journalists not to publish any news that tarnishes Bangladesh's image or achievements
11 August 2016, 18:00 PM
thyblackman.jpg

Need for a factual assessment

The Muslims make 14.2 percent of India's 1.25 billion people. But, 25 percent of India's 370,000 beggars are Muslims. The
4 August 2016, 18:00 PM
al-bnp-logo-2.jpg

Looking for common grounds or common interests?

If national unity is an issue today, it also was an issue before. Our leaders didn't want to recognise it then, and they don't want to recognise it now. Meanwhile, a crack has grown into a giant hole.
28 July 2016, 18:00 PM
Bush and Blair

The Americans should have their own Chilcot

The Americans don't need to carry the burden of one man's guilt on their conscience. They, like the British people, have the right to know why their former leader had lied to take their country to a wasteful war.
21 July 2016, 18:00 PM
Terrorism

Terrorism is a suicide note written in blood

On the first day of this month, which also coincided with the first day of the Eid holidays for many, this nation was punched in the stomach while it was breaking out in laughter.
14 July 2016, 18:00 PM
Fifteen

Fame is fleeting and it's so hollow!

First it was the largest Indian state of Rajasthan that ejected Jawaharlal Nehru from its school textbook in the first week of last May...
30 June 2016, 18:00 PM
Donald Trump

Omar Mateen's ghost breathing inside Donald Trump?

Lets start with this absurd disclaimer that no identification with actual persons portrayed in this hypothesis is intended or should be inferred.
23 June 2016, 18:00 PM

Is the crackdown dousing fire with kerosene?

The ongoing crackdown is only rounding up hundreds of men every day with the jest of fishermen dragging a river. But can the numbers deliver the results, because a crackdown works like stray bullets having the greater chance of missing than hitting the targets?
16 June 2016, 18:00 PM

A book that can't be made into film

Syed Fahim Munaim, the late CEO and Chief Editor of Maasranga Television, who died on June 1, can be best described as the life support system for an indefatigable smile.
9 June 2016, 18:00 PM

Who's responsible for the deaths in UP elections?

The CEC has tried to blame everything on the political culture prevailing in the country, which sounded funny. It has only convinced the rest of us that he was blaming the dance floor to hide that he didn't know how to dance.
2 June 2016, 18:00 PM

Pagination

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