My Publications

The Spirit of Christmas Faizul Khan Tanim on the festivities and celebration commemorating the birth of Jesus Christmas, called Boro Din in Bangla, is just around the corner and the Christian community in the country have started to gather in large numbers to participate in services singing: 'God rest ye merry gentlemen, may nothing you dismay, for Jesus Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's power, when we are gone astray, - Good tiding of Comfort and Joy'. Carols, the colour red, Santa Claus, Christmas tree, holidays, music, movies, gifts wrapped in cellophane and designer papers, The Nutcracker, good food, all-round happiness and more come together to form the priceless traditions of Christmas each year and it will be no different this time. The celebrations and ceremonies are about to begin in both urban and rural areas. Speaking to the Weekend Independent, one of the respected members of the Christian community, Senior Pastor Asa Kai...

Publish Post

White Cube through Diplomatic Lenses Faizul Khan Tanim interviews diplomat Giorgio Guglielmino to find out the significance of contemporary art and his appreciation of the Bengali palette Giorgio Guglielmino is one of the most peace loving diplomats residing here. An avid collector of contemporary art, a writer and most-importantly, the Italian Ambassador stationed in Bangladesh, his idea is to understand the Bengali psyche through colours and a very powerful means – contemporary art. His art appreciation, understanding, and ability to provide constructive critique, are all part of the magnetism which allows him to connect with people of a country faster than both artists and diplomats. The word 'contemporary' when used with art, is very tricky. It loses its meaning if one replaces the word with 'modern' and Guglielmino explains this significance with his almost 25 years of love and affection for art and through his very interesting book 'How to Look at Contemporar...

economy Bones Adding to the Revenue Faizul Khan Tanim visits the city's Hazaribagh area to find a thriving business of cattle bones No matter how much stench there is,behind it all lurks a revenue earning source of immense potential. Business during Eid-ul-Azha soars to maximum as cattle organs and bones, being valuable items in addition to the usual hide of the animals slaughtered during the festival are produced and sold at fascinating prices. These extracts come in three types – bones, horns and gonads. The bones are broken into one and half inches sizes to be packed in sacks. Each sack of 75 Kilograms machine-crushed bones were sold at Tk 1400 this year compared to Tk 675 in 2005 and each year the rates are going up. One of the biggest entrepreneurs and traders Abdul Mannan Bhola Miah, who started this trade right after our Liberation War from the Hazaribagh area, spread over a land of eight Katha, said, “My business took firm shape around 1988 and ever sinc...

Eid MOObarak Faizul Khan Tanim writes on how steak preparation has blended in to our Eastern appetite and bringing waves of joy on our tables Every Eid-Ul-Azha we are blessed with different types of meat cooked in variety ways to satiate our taste buds. And beef is definitely on the top of everyone's meat menu be it with bhuna khichuri, polau (rice dishes) or naan (Tandoori flat round bread). And these days, a lot of houses keep their meat to make good quality hunter beef and steaks. Steaks are very popular cuts of meat to throw on a grill or pan fry to perfection. Flavourful, tender, rich in meaty goodness, you would want to get the most out of your best beef portions. Now, good steak can be done very easily these days, thanks to the exclusive ranges and cuts of steaks available at the departmental stores and the biggest name in town to give you the right choices of cuts is Bengal Meat, the only export oriented meat processing company in Bangladesh. Syed Hassan Habib...

Sweeping Away Carbon Footprints with Jute Revival Faizul Khan Tanim writes on the return of the golden fibre in Bangladesh and its immense significance Jute used to be the country's largest foreign exchange earner till the 1970s and then slowly with its decline, we saw the largest jute mill in the world – Adamjee in Narayanganj – shut down in 2002. Very recently, the discovery of jute genome sequencing has made us more optimistic about revival of the fibre. Bangladeshi scientists have successfully decoded the vital genome sequence of jute, of which this country is the world's largest exporter. After this discovery, opportunities have been created to evolve different stress tolerant (salinity, drought, insects and pests) jute varieties. According to Bangladesh jute research institute (BJRI) officials under the ministry of agriculture, jute was mostly used to produce packaging materials and there were hardly any other use. And jute materials lost its potential due to its non...

A personal Prologue not published in the newspaper: I lost my God daughter Afsheen to the negligences of ''united hospital'' and a brother Mashnoor to ''labaid''. Tears rolled as i wrote this report, i know i can never get them back but i URGE every friend of mine to REVOLT against these malpractices and doctors. It is time to STAND UP...PLZ share this n circulate Medical Malpractices – A Dangerous Trend Faizul Khan Tanim writes on the negligence of hospital services and why this has become an epidemic in our society R ecently, people have heard horrid stories of sheer negligence -- bordering on the criminal -- of the staff in the so-called state-of-the art hospitals. There have been reports of the death of a seven-month old baby girl, a 27-year old young man and several more, all caused by negligence. In cases like these, the verdict of public opinion was unanimous: professional negligence by the healthcare provider causing death of the patient, ev...

1. Rivers – The Neglected Lifeblood of Bangladesh Faizul Khan Tanim writes on the urgency to understand the nature of rivers for sustaining our livelihood 2. Riverine Bangladesh Author / Source : Saquib Chowdhury 3. Against the Current Author / Source : Saba El Kabir with Mizanur Rahman Khan A river may be mighty, medium or very small in terms of size but in that particular area, the river controls the environment and ecosystem and plays a very significant part in the area’s sustenance. Therefore, what needs to be understood is that river maybe one word, but it does not describe all the rivers through this single language unit. Each river should be handled separately, and experts believe that only recently we have become alarmed by situations like erosion, encroachment, pollution and more and are starting to look into immediate steps that must be undertaken to save the rivers. In an interview with river expert and vice chancellor of BRAC University Dr Ainun Nishat, we got to know o...