Shamsad Mortuza | The Daily Star
Skip to main content
Home
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
El Niño may return, raising concerns over rising heat in Bangladesh
‘We still hope a solution on the reforms will arise out of parliament’
Where are Iran’s frozen assets held and how much is stuck abroad?
বাংলা

Main navigation

  • News
    • Politics
    • Governance
    • Crime and Justice
    • Accidents and Fires
    • Technology
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Environment
    • World
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Views
    • Interviews
    • Tribute
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Agriculture
    • Industry
    • Startups
    • Global Economy
  • Sports
    • Cricket
    • Football
    • Tennis
    • More Sports
  • Lifestyle
    • Fashion
    • Relationships
    • Health and Wellness
    • Food and Recipe
    • Travel and Leisure
  • Culture
    • Entertainment
    • Books and Literature
    • Heritage
    • TV & Film
    • Music
    • Theatre & Arts
  • Slow Reads
    • In Focus
    • Geopolitical Insights
    • Big Picture
    • Unheard Voices
  • Youth
    • Academics
    • Career and Skills
    • Campus Life
    • Off Campus
    • Pop Culture
  • Ds+
    • Business +
    • Investigative Stories
    • Roundtables
    • Supplements
    • Law & Our Rights
    • My Dhaka
  • বাংলা
  • E-paper
  • Today’s News
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
  • E-paper
  • Today’s News
  • News
    • Politics
    • Governance
    • Crime and Justice
    • Accidents and Fires
    • Technology
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Healthcare
    • World
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Views
    • Interviews
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Agriculture
    • Industry
    • Startups
    • Global Economy
  • Sports
    • Cricket
    • Football
    • More Sports
    • Tennis
  • Lifestyle
    • Fashion
    • Relationships
    • Heath and Wellness
    • Food and Recipe
    • Travelogue
  • Culture
    • Entertainment
    • Books and Literature
    • Heritage
    • Tv & Film
    • Music
    • Theatre & Arts
  • Slow Reads
    • In Focus
    • Geopolitical Insights
    • Big Picture
    • Unheard Voices
  • Youth
    • Academics
    • Career and Skills
    • Campus Life
    • Off Campus
    • Pop Culture
  • Ds+
    • Business +
    • Investigative Stories
    • Roundtables
    • Supplements
    • Law & Our Rights
    • My Dhaka

Footer

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Comment policy
  • Apps
  • Archive
© 2026 thedailystar.net | Powered by: RSI Lab

Copyright: Any unauthorized use or reproduction of The Daily Star content for commercial purposes
is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

Shamsad Mortuza

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

Dr Shamsad Mortuza is the vice-chancellor of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB).

Cox’s Bazar Tourism Problems

Cox’s Bazar at the crossroads of beauty without design

18 April 2026, 11:00 AM
Nobody questions the potential of Cox’s Bazar. Clearly, it can compete with any of the top-class beaches elsewhere. For that, the administrators need to think beyond immediate, narrow interests. They need to plan access roads despite local pressures.
18 April 2026, 11:00 AM
ed1.jpg

Blended learning in an energy crisis: Innovation or institutional amnesia?

11 April 2026, 08:00 AM
“My classroom has four ceiling fans, but if we are to attend online classes from home, we will need 50 fans.”
11 April 2026, 08:00 AM
Long_queues_ED_1.jpg

Austerity and the crisis of fuel, confidence and coordination

4 April 2026, 09:00 AM
Last week, while buying vegetables from an open market, I could not help feeling dissatisfied over the hiked price of every item. “It seems you are still in a moon-sighting mode,” I said, to which the seller responded nonchalantly, “What can I do?
4 April 2026, 09:00 AM
Cumilla_trainbus_crash-ED_1.jpg

The surcharge of Eid-time tragedies

28 March 2026, 08:00 AM
In Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, a character with supposed authority intensifies the absurdity by quantifying emotion.
28 March 2026, 08:00 AM
ED_1.jpg

The unfinished promise to Bangladesh’s women

14 March 2026, 02:15 AM
Given the election results, one could assume that the female voters have registered a clear electoral message. They do not want to retreat into the margins of civic life. And why should they?
14 March 2026, 02:15 AM
ED-1.jpg

When our indifference breaks our children

7 March 2026, 01:16 AM
The posthumous Swadhinata Padak for Maherin Chowdhury, a teacher who died saving at least 20 students from the burning remains of Milestone School and College after it was hit by a fighter jet last year, brought back sad memories of losing children and teachers in a single tragic blow.
7 March 2026, 01:16 AM
ED_1.jpg

Depoliticise institutions, not ideas

28 February 2026, 01:06 AM
Not often do you hear a politician saying that “politicising education, research, and the practice of arts and literature is never a mark of a civilised society.”
28 February 2026, 01:06 AM
ED_1__Ekushey_Boimela.jpg

What the scheduling fiasco of Ekushey book fair tells us

21 February 2026, 02:05 AM
Ekushey February (February 21) is a date that reminds the Bangladeshi people of their culture as well as their originary moments.
21 February 2026, 02:05 AM
shame-being-men.jpg

The Shame of Being a Man

I woke up with a colleague’s hesitant post on Facebook wishing his friends well on the International Men’s Day. The comment thread is filled with issues ranging from locker room banter to the high theory on the dominant form of masculinity.
20 November 2020, 18:00 PM
re-haul-education-system.jpg

Never waste a good crisis

One more circular. One more extension. The opening of the educational institutions is further delayed; this time up to December 19.
13 November 2020, 18:00 PM
An-Unnatural-Death.jpg

An Unnatural Death

Have you ever put your ear to the rail to listen to the rumbling sound of an approaching train? I have. Many of us have.
23 October 2020, 18:00 PM
HSC-without-exam.jpg

HSC results without exams: The pros and cons

You have near perfect vision, or 20/20 vision, if you can see the letters of an eye-chart from a 20 feet distance. 20/20 is an exciting cricket game if you can add two ounces of cricket with one ounce of baseball and garnish it with pom-poms.
9 October 2020, 18:00 PM
Corruption

A game of kabadi against corruption

As the old joke has it, there is no lid in the mouth of hell where the Bengalis are kept.
25 September 2020, 18:00 PM
onion_18.jpg

No onion, no cry

In his Ode to the Onion, the Chilean Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda praises onions as “the miracle” that happens under the earth.
18 September 2020, 18:00 PM
remind-police-role.jpg

A Corpse of Love Doesn’t Sink in Water

The title alludes to a very famous folk song by Abdul Alim, Premer Mora Jole Dobe Na. The song pits true love against so-called flings, suggesting that mere water cannot drown the “body” who is in love.
11 September 2020, 18:00 PM
ragging-in-campus.jpg

Rage, rage against the ragging in the campus

English professors are known for being sticklers for rules. Even if I try to disassociate myself from the grammar Nazis, there are times when I have to wonder about the usage of certain words.
4 September 2020, 18:00 PM
Fahim-and-sinha.jpg

Losing a Loved One: When Doves Cry

“And my last ask is: if you’re someone’s sister, the next time you see your brother, please hug him… as tightly as you can, for as long as you want, because that’s all I want to do every time I see those photos. But I will never be able to hug Fahim again.”
21 August 2020, 18:00 PM
Sheikh-Mujibur-Rahman.jpg

He gave to Mis’ry all he had, a tear

Attending the peace summit on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela in 2018, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quoted both Nelson Mandela and our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
14 August 2020, 18:00 PM
research-higher-education.jpg

Fostering a research culture in higher education

In an op-ed published on July 27, Prof Syed Saad Andaleeb reviewed the DU annual budget and argued that the dearth of funding should not be blamed for the lack of research.
30 July 2020, 18:00 PM
Indian-cattle-brought.jpg

Sacrifice and the Sacred

Cross border cattle smuggling prior to Eid-ul-Adha is an irritant that keeps officials in both Bangladesh and India nervy.
24 July 2020, 18:00 PM
rab-arrest-sghahed.jpg

Counting of Crows

During his regular stroll in the palace garden, Emperor Akbar once saw many crows flying around. He asked his minister, “How many crows are there in our kingdom, Birbal?”
17 July 2020, 18:00 PM
global stock.jpg

Necessary sacrifices, unnecessary thoughts

The coronavirus crisis posed serious threats to the global stock markets.
10 July 2020, 18:00 PM
Dhaka-University-oparajyo-bangla.jpg

A hitchhiker’s guide to our educational galaxy

Let’s admit it: our education today is in crisis. And it was in crisis even before the pandemic was here. The pandemic has exposed the skeletons we have been hiding in the open for a long time.
3 July 2020, 18:00 PM
doctor-collects-sample-corona.jpg

Doctor, doctor, what is wrong with us?

There was a broken black chair by the window near the gate. On it there was a thin plastic bag containing some mixed up rice, daal, and probably vegetables or curry.
26 June 2020, 18:00 PM
PUBLIC-EXAMINATION.jpg

Time to rethink our examinations

Uncertainties loom large over the holding of Higher Secondary Certificates (HSC) and its equivalent exams.
19 June 2020, 18:00 PM
Cost-of-Education.jpg

The Cost of Education

I had a senior colleague at Jahangirnagar University who was known to his students at the Pharmacy Department as an eccentric genius.
12 June 2020, 18:00 PM
honour-of-George-Floyd.jpg

Breathe, Breathe in the Air

The Amazon rainforest, spread over 2.1 million square miles, is dubbed as the “lungs of the planet” as it produces 20 percent of the oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere.
5 June 2020, 18:00 PM

The double piston of love and fear

His visiting card had two office addresses: one in Scotland and the other in Estonia. There was nothing wrong with it, but the architect who just shared his card explained the oddity.
29 May 2020, 18:00 PM

Pagination

  • Show more
Home
Journalism without fear or favour
Follow Us

Footer

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Comment policy
  • Apps
  • Archive
© 2026 thedailystar.net | Powered by: RSI Lab

Copyright: Any unauthorized use or reproduction of The Daily Star content for commercial purposes
is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.