My Publications

Safer Roads: Still a Far Cry Faizul Khan Tanim investigates the increasing rate of road accidents in the country and the NEGLECTED preventive measures A pall of gloom descended on Mirsharai Upazilla when in a tragic road accident, 44 school children were killed. It happened when a truck carrying 60 of them returning from a football tourney, skidded off the road and plunged into a roadside canal, the place of occurrence not being too far from the port city of Chittagong. Road accidents in Bangladesh claim on an average 12,000 lives annually and lead to about 35,000 injuries according to Dhaka-based accident research institutes while according to a 2009 world health organization (WHO) estimate, the count is nearly 20,050. The difference is even more as government institutes like Bangladesh road transport authority (BRTA) and police reported a little less than 3,000 fatal casualties in the country in 2008. The Road Traffic Accident database is being maintained and updated by BRTA on t...

Caretaker Government [1990 – 2011] – An Early and ''Digital'' Demise? Faizul Khan Tanim tries to find out who will take care of the country in times of interim trouble Many believe that the caretaker government (CG) probably had an untimely demise in Bangladesh. While the civil society, citizens from all over the country and the main opposition party have expressed grave concerns over the nullification of the CG system through the 15th amendment of the constitution, the government believes that this amendment was essential for ensuring true reflection of the people’s will. The 15th amendment bill was passed in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) by 291 to one votes. The session was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). BNP and allies have protested against the amendment quite vigorously in the streets. Rather interestingly, it was our current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who led the movement for starting a non-partisan caretaker government to su...

Hope rekindles for terracotta art Faizul Khan Tanim writes about the recent attempts to rev ive this glorious art form T erracotta, often mistaken as clay tiles, is actually baked earth (pora maati). There are specific themes and subjects based on which terracotta art is produced. A variety of items is made of terracotta – plaques, wall tiles, lamps, pitchers, flower vase, pottery, coin bank, candle-stands, dolls, and more. The designs of these burnt clay products reflect folk tales, picture of everyday life, artistic symbols denoting peace, love and understanding. In Bangladesh, some of the most contemporary and prominent pieces of terracotta art are dominant on plaques and murals portraying our Liberation War–or rural Bangladesh depicting many birds, fish and animals and agricultural activities. Members of the potters’ community, known in Bangla as kumars (formally known as kumbhokars) who usually bear the title Pal, are generally found in large settlements in mrit pollis (potter...