PICKING UP THE PIECES

Live footage of the rescue operations and heartrending photographs in newspapers have awakened in people a deep sense of grief over the colossal loss of life and compassion for those who survived but have lost limbs along with their ability to earn. For survivors the ordeal still goes on. How will they go on without the ability to walk or use a sewing machine or even function normally? How will they feed their families? While the survivors agonise over such questions, people are showing their solidarity in different ways. Many are asking: How can we help?

UPASHANA SALAM

Karuna Sikdar lies helplessly on her hospital bed while her parents bustle around her, making sure she is comfortable, constantly asking her if she would like a drink of water, fussing with the blanket that covers her body. A survivor…

Perspective

A Disaster That Could Be Better Managed

Amitava Kar

What kind of help do the victims of the Rana Plaza collapse need? What is the price of a lost leg or hand? How much is a human life worth? The answers depend on what side we are on. From…

Reflections

The Modern Jajabor

Andrew Eagle

A meeting of jajabors while on the road is a surprisingly uncommon event. Many days may pass without hint of another, and in settled periods the absence of even evidence leads one to wonder if others at all exist. Yet…

Current Affairs

More Nightmares to Come?

Shakhawat Liton

The year 2013 began without the hope of better days in the New Year. Yet people welcomed 2013 amid fear of possible political unrest and violence. Political analysts and even many politicians had been warning the government and the major…

Impressions

RIDER CLAUSE OF LIFE

Shah Husain Imam

What went through every citizen’s mind on Sunday was a living hell unfolding before one’s own eyes. We have seen nothing like this before, let alone experienced it at first hand. Even by the standards of our convulsive history, the…

Straight Talk

Falling through the Cracks

NADIA KABIR BARB

For decades, immigration has been a hot topic of debate in the UK where it has divided opinions not just among politicians but also amongst the general public. There are those who feel that the influx of migrants over the…

Perceptions

A Petition on Our Unchanging Nature

M Ahsanur Rahim

I have a petition to circulate among the citizens of our country which, after reading, I hope they will tear out, sign and deluge the respected home minister’s office. This petition comes, of course, as a result of what has…

Special Feature

A WORSENING WASTELAND

Zahir Hassan Nabil

The tannery capital in the city’s Hazaribagh area has been hogging the headlines for more than a decade now. It is widely known how this industry is a severe threat to all elements of our environment. The Buriganga river alone…

Economy

The Aftermath of GSP Hearing Get Your Act Together

REFAYET ULLAH MIRDHA

Human tragedy seems to have become a regular feature plaguing the highest export earning ready-made garment (RMG) industry, putting this sector at risk in terms of losing business. The nation’s most tragic building collapse at Rana Plaza on April 24…

Art

Azmeer’s Lust for Life

FAYZA HAQ

Azmeer Hussain, a young Bangladeshi painter who has lived in New York for 13 years during which he did his paintings, combines water-colour and mixed media in his solo exhibition at Bengal Gallery. His abstract works are dominated by horizontal…

Opinion

An Uneasy Peace

Syed Maqsud Jamil

Fortune is a privileged position. The greater it is the mightier it becomes. For underdeveloped and developing countries like Bangladesh it naturally gets the homage its privilege demands from the wielders of power and authority. Fortune, it is generally acknowledged…

Star Diary

Self-defence My working timings are quite erratic as I work for an ad agency and sometimes  I have to return home late. On one of these late nights, I couldn’t find a rickshaw in front of my workplace and so…

Writing the Wrong

Laugh It Off

SHARBARI AHMED

About a month ago, in a rare fit of productivity, I started emptying closets and drawers and mercilessly started discarding old clothes and books and sundries and I discovered a letter I had written to my unborn son two days…

Voicebox

“I don’t think it is really serious… it’s an accident.” AMA MUHITH finance minister expresses his views on the factory-building collapse in Savar “Khaleda Zia, you are brutal and a heartless women.” MOHAMMAD NASIM Awami League stalwart alleging Zia of…

Chintito

Peace Through Love

Chintito

There are legalized wine bars, sleazy nightclubs, steamy pole dancing, strip joints, unisex nude beaches, open gambling, pork dishes, living together, escort services, and every other matter that is banned and discouraged in Islam available in countries such as the…

HOW CAN WE HELP?

Postscript

Mad Men

AASHA MEHREEN AMIN

Arecent report in the Guardian online edition says that women are being told not to vote in the upcoming elections in certain remote areas of Pakistan as it is considered ‘un-Islamic’. Letters have been circulated warning men not to allow…

Letters

Shirin, Meira, Fehmida

The appointment of Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury to the office of the Speaker of the parliament should be welcomed by people of the country regardless of their political affiliation. Her appointment is especially important at a time when bigots of the…

Cartoon Strip

The Conspiracy

Sharier