My Publications

cover story BOTOL BHOOT [1948-2012] Storyteller, novelist, film director, academic – Humayun Ahmed was so many things to so many people but, above all, he was a great human being– emotional, entertaining, enterprising having a great sense of humour. Faizul Khan Tanim and Fariyah Nazneen Premaa goes beyond the usual retrospectives to explain why he is the most successful writer of contemporary Bangla literature. A pall of gloom descended over the country last week, when on July 19, 2012 Bangladesh time, this ailing prodigy lost his battle to the ruthless onslaught of the dreaded disease cancer while undergoing treatment in the United States just like his fictitious character Tuni from his drama serial Eishob Din Raatri . In his book “Botol Bhoot” ( Spirit of the Bottle, Genie in a Bottle ), the captivating story surrounds around a homeopathy vial, rumoured to contain a ghost which fulfils desires, and is bestowed upon a group of carefree boys by an eccentr...

endeavor   The Boats of Life Faizul Khan Tanim returns from Narayanganj, fascinated by the Lifebuoy-Friendship, a floating hospital, which is considered a breakthrough in medical services for the marginalized population and which inspired to build an even bigger ship - Rangdhonu   Pictures provided by : Friendship The first sight of the ships Lifebuoy-Friendship Hospital (LFH), Emirates-Friendship Hospital or the Rangdhonu-Friendship Hospital (Rangdhonu is Rainbow in English), can very easily be deemed as elements of peace, love and understanding. Bearing the colours green and crimson, on bright sunny or even dull and cloudy days, the ships basks in the glowing light or bathes in the beautiful rain and looks like institutions of happiness and care. Wrapped with the energy mesh of the phrase ‘get well soon’ and the big hulls and deck, it spreads an over powering message for the distressed population of our coastal belts and beyond. Even at night, wh...

The Occupy Movement in the US – Towards a Long-Term Critical Refusal? (Contd. from last week) Faizul Khan Tanim interviews several activists of the ongoing Occupy Movement in the West Coast of the United States to understand its crucial factors, its achievements and the legacy it may leave behind (Contd from last week) Pictures: Collected FKT: What is the role of Social Media in the occupy movement? Tanzeen : Since the beginning of the revolts in North Africa and Middle East, particularly with the movement in Egypt, there’s been a move by a certain class to think of it as a movement that was made possible by the social media. I think that is a false understanding. I think we have to understand that the history of technology (media-technologies included) is the history of capitalism. We should understand technologies as instruments of exploitation. There is no need to think that if we can organize on the internet, this will result in street protests. T...

The Occupy Movement – Towards a Long-term Critical Refusal? Faizul Khan Tanim interviews several activists of the ongoing Occupy Movement in the West Coast of the United States to understand its crucial factors, its achievements and the legacy it may leave behind What will the Occupy Movement ignite? Will it refine democracy and challenge the given social and political order? Fight the struggle to find economic alternatives in the face of the failure of market fundamentalism? Or bring an end to the dominance of the global elite who maintain their hierarchical power-structure at any cost? Today, people and especially the youth around the world are re-evaluating and re-assessing the kind of world they want to live in, the kind of visions they want to dream. Are Occupy Movements the real elements which can bring such ‘changes’? Will they be able to bring down, what they believe as the dysfunctional and exploitative global economic order? Thousands of que...