My Publications

Is Bangladesh ready for nuclear power generation? Faizul Khan Tanim talks to different stakeholders of nuclear power generation and also green activists and tries to find if we are ready for a nuclear power plant Bangladesh is said to be one of the biggest energy-starved countries, with the present demand for electricity at 7500 plus MW (Mega Watt) as opposed to the production of 5000 to 5800 MW. Access to electricity in Bangladesh is one of the lowest, about 40 percent of the total population are without access to adequate, cheap and quality energy. At present, we have to depend on indigenous energy resources, which are finite as well - gas, oil, furnace oil and coal to produce electricity. And about 55 per cent of our natural gas is used to produce this power. The reserve of gas is not infinite and will soon run out and before that happens, we must adopt alternative energy sources, be it renewable with a bio-ecological/green revolution or build nuclear power plant...

Krishnokoli – Bunoful by Faizul Khan Tanim Indigenous music is one of the only forms of organic folk compositions left which takes us to earthen realities, enjoy congenital mysticism and spontaneous combustions. These expressions somehow embody the beauty and significance of ‘wild flowers’. And wild flower (Bunoful) is precisely the name of the album I’m listening to, singer Krishnokoli’s latest studio compilation. This anthology is composed of indigenous folk music - Santali and Jhumur songs - which necessarily do not have great instrumental technicalities, psychedelic compositions but they do possess atmospheric diffusions, powerful words and most importantly, the vocalist, with her magnetism of vocal chords, urgently tries to transport the listeners to a realm where the jhumur dance dawns from the cluster of bells worn round the ankles (jhumur). Her songs and tunes have direct associations with particular festivals, love and everyday conversations. T...

Iron Man-3: All’s well that ends well? ….NOT!   By Faizul Khan Tanim If Iron Man (IM) is a trilogy, then part three is the perfect example of how the last of the three instalments MUST NOT end but if there is a part four then ardent fans expect Jon Favreau be brought back in to action behind the lenses rather than playing ‘Happy’. Moreover, if you believe in the phrase ‘morning shows the day’ then you’d be disappointed by how the film kicks in with the intro music I’m Blue by Eiffel 65…got the fans puzzled if we mistakenly swapped halls and watching a Chinese Kung-Fu film or a wrongly dubbed movie instead of IM-3? I mean for God’s sake where’s AC/DC or Black Sabbath? And then we realize that it is IM-3 with its semi Terminator-2 rip-off schemes; inappropriate ‘freaking out’ syndromes; no one home inside the Iron Man armours; bad dialogues; an almost fake-Mandarin sporting a villain as hilarious as Admiral General Aladeen and to top it off, Tony Stark blows up ...