Surveillance capitalism and the right to privacy
“Surveillance is the business model of the internet”—Bruce Schneier, security expert and privacy specialist
8 September 2019, 18:00 PM
8 September 2019, 18:00 PM
'Whether we win or lose, we are not going to be on their side'
"Ultimately, in the long run, whether we win or lose, we are not going to be on their side. So we might as well do what we have to do as well as we can."
6 March 2019, 18:00 PM
6 March 2019, 18:00 PM
Rethinking our digital priorities
On April 14, 2016, the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with the aim of giving control to people over their personal data, recognising certain “digital” rights that individuals are entitled to regarding how their personal data is collected and used.
3 March 2019, 18:00 PM
3 March 2019, 18:00 PM
The unexplored treasures of old Bengali manuscripts
Dr Md Shahjahan Mian, Professor of the Department of Bengali, Dhaka University talks to Shamsuddoza Sajen and Moyukh Mahtab about the importance of studying and preserving old Bengali manuscripts to write a comprehensive history of the Bengali speaking region.
24 February 2019, 18:00 PM
24 February 2019, 18:00 PM
Recovering the stories of the Armenians of Asia
Liz Chater, a family history researcher based in the UK, has been working on the Armenian communities in South Asia since 2010. Currently, she is working with the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection in Armanitola on the Bangladesh Armenian Heritage Project, which aims to "build the stories, starting from the ground up" of the Armenian communities of Bangladesh and India. In an interview over email with Moyukh Mahtab, she talks of her own heritage, which led her to her research interest, and of her past and present projects.
17 February 2019, 18:00 PM
17 February 2019, 18:00 PM
Sexual Violence And Harassment / The gaps in our laws we need to address
Sabrina Zarin, Barrister-at-Law, (Hon'ble Society or Lincoln's Inn, UK) and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Partner in FM Associates, talks to The Daily Star's Moyukh Mahtab about needed reforms in sexual violence and harassment laws in Bangladesh and the importance of raising awareness, especially among children.
6 February 2019, 18:00 PM
6 February 2019, 18:00 PM
Is DMP's action plan enough to fix our roads?
Apparently “inspired” by last year's safe road movement, the DMP has come up with yet another action plan to deal with Dhaka's anarchic—to put it mildly— traffic situation.
16 January 2019, 18:00 PM
16 January 2019, 18:00 PM
Punitive drug policies don't work
Naomi Burke-Shyne, Executive Director of Harm Reduction International, and international NGO “dedicated to reducing the negative health, social and legal impacts of drug use and drug policy”, talks to The Daily Star's Moyukh Mahtab (over e-mail) about the global failure of wars on drugs, and how a health-based approach to drug policy could save lives and promote the well-being of citizens.
18 December 2018, 18:00 PM
18 December 2018, 18:00 PM
'Drug policies should be first of all concerned with preserving public health'
Bangladesh's recent impetus on cracking down on drug abuse and trade has led to some divisive results—while there is no doubt that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, the approach taken by the authorities has been questioned.
22 November 2018, 18:00 PM
Drug abuse must be treated as a public health issue, not a war
In June 1971, in a press conference, US President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse as the “public enemy number one.” This was a day after the publication of a ...
30 October 2018, 18:00 PM
A mass murder largely forgotten
Beginning October 1965 to mid-1966, at least half a million (over a million by some accounts) Indonesians were killed by the army and army-backed local civilian militias. Another million were incarcerated without charge.
21 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Unless power is checked, you cannot have liberty
PUBLISHED in 1748, Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws remains, after over 250 years, one of the seminal works of political theory. Among this Age of Enlightenment philosopher's preoccupations was the relationship between power and freedom, and how the distribution of power in a government can be the crucial factor between a state of liberty and one of despotism.
13 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Another refusal to give workers their due
In the past week, a few interesting things happened. For one, a report by a New York-based research firm was published, which found that Bangladesh topped the list of countries with the quickest growth of ultra-wealthy individuals.
18 September 2018, 18:00 PM
Education as the freedom to create and to construct
The theme for this year's International Literacy Day, “Literacy and Skills Development”, speaks of a pressing issue of our time, as the rate of job creation in the country struggles to keep pace with the number of people joining the workforce every year.
7 September 2018, 18:00 PM
The ethics of documenting sexual violence
"These women are carrying on with their lives. The injury of what happened is coming up in different ways—it need not be something sensational like the understanding we have of the birangona. Otherwise we would never understand what happened to the birangonas in terms of their experiences of the war."
25 August 2018, 18:00 PM
Road safety: Are we tackling the broader issues?
The enormous support that school and college students who had taken to the streets received,
12 August 2018, 18:00 PM
When students have to do the job of the law enforcers
Hopefully, the mass agitation will bring change. Hopefully, our leaders will feel the irony of the situation in which students have to take to the streets to ensure drivers have valid licences while law enforcers are seen going around vehicles driven by kids.
2 August 2018, 18:00 PM
Acquiescence of Violence
The irony of peaceful protesters being beaten up by thugs claiming to uphold the spirit of our liberation war, at a spot which commemorates our language movement protesters who were brutalised by the powers that were, cannot be lost on anyone.
5 July 2018, 18:00 PM
How the east was won
On June 16, 1756, a young Siraj ud-Daulah led a force of some thirty thousand soldiers to attack Fort William in Calcutta, unhappy that despite his directives, the British were heavily reinforcing the fort and at the company's interference in internal politics of his province.
24 June 2018, 18:00 PM
The perils of a city divided
"We want to get into power—why? What are the problems we are going to solve? What we want to attack is inequality, violence and corruption.”
21 June 2018, 18:00 PM
Our economic and political choices now will determine our children's future
Unicef and other organisations have been advocating for a long time that this allocation should be at least 20 percent of the total. What are your thoughts on this year's proposed allocation? I think it's a milestone moment for Bangladesh. Bangladesh is on the path of transition to a developing country. Now, alongside rapid economic development, inequality can also grow. But there are also more resources available, so the economic and political choices that are made today will determine the future.
14 June 2018, 18:00 PM
Are we giving enough priority to education?
The size of our budget is continually expanding. So, on the face of it, we will see that the allocation for education has increased. But if we take a closer look, we will see that as a percentage of the total budget, the allocation has actually decreased. Even in the revised budget of the last fiscal year, the education budget was over 12 percent of the total. Now in 2018-19, even before the revision—budget allocation usually decreases after revision—the allocation has been reduced to 11.41 percent. This is disappointing.
10 June 2018, 18:00 PM
In search of a community lost in time
Armen Arslanian, warden of the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection in Armanitola, talks to The Daily Star about the importance of preserving and researching the history of the Armenian community in Dhaka and how it was linked to a broader global community
29 April 2018, 18:00 PM
A voice that still resonates
The Raju Bhashkorjo is dedicated to the memory of Moin Hossain Raju, an activist of Bangladesh Chatra Union, who was gunned down near where the sculpture now stands, on this day in 1992 while protesting terrorism in the name of student politics on campus.
12 March 2018, 18:00 PM
A field day for sexual predators
There are few things that could make a college student so disgusted at her fellow countrymen to make her want to not live in that country anymore. Being molested by a mob of men on the streets—supposedly there in celebration of a major milestone of this country's independence—is definitely one of them.
8 March 2018, 18:00 PM
You can't put a price on a forest
How can you put a value on the oxygen that the trees of the forest produce? Or the food it supplies to the animals?
8 January 2018, 18:00 PM
Question paper leaks
It's that time of the year again, the season traditionally known for weddings and pitthas. But seasons undergo changes, and the winter can barely live up to its name anymore.
20 December 2017, 18:00 PM
Langadu, after the flames
But, as happens in the world, we forgot Langadu. The Rangamati landslides, the flash floods, the influx of Rohingya refugees followed one after another, and in trying to cope and deal with each, the limelight shifted from the previous crises. So, six months later, it is pertinent to ask, how is the Chakma community in Langadu carrying on?
28 October 2017, 18:00 PM