The recent discursive assault on Islam and Muslims by the so-called “new atheists” is another moment in the sequence of never ending vilifications of Islam that Western culture seems to have an insatiable appetite for. There is a perverse quality to this culture and discourse of contempt. It is to some extent “performed” for consumption by social media and cable networks to satiate the daily appetite for controversy, outrage, moral judgment and value-based affirmations of the self. The new public intellectuals, who engage in this theatre of outrage, are professionals whose bottom line depends on the frequency and intensity with which the media covers such performed cultural conflicts. The most famous and popular of all new atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, are full servi...
Most of the mayor and councillor aspirants in Dhaka North and Dhaka South city polls are businessmen, a citizen’s forum said on Monday.
The rate of businessman among the mayor and councillor aspirants is 67.02 percent and 71.82 percent in Dhaka North and Dhaka South city polls respectively.
The Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujon), a citizen’s forum campaigning for good governance, revealed these after analysing the information of mayor and councillor candidates submitted to the election commission.
Shujon secretary Badiul Alam Majum...
Absence of women from the mayoral race in Dhaka South City, Dhaka North City and the port city of Chittagong shocked women empowerment campaigners.
They were equally shocked to find few women contesting for 134 common seats of ward councilors in the three cities.
The Election Commission records show that in Dhaka South City out of 386 councilor candidates only six are women, reports the New Age.
In Dhaka North City out of 280 candidates contesting for the common seats only 12 are women.
In Chittagong out of 213 councilor candidat...
Pahela Baisakh, the first day of 1422 in the Bangla calendar, is set to arrive. The youth are going overboard in their exuberance and enthusiasm to celebrate this traditional festival.
Young men and women are thronging the shopping centres, buying new clothes and accessories for the occasion. They are rushing to the bazar’s to buy hilsa, willing to
pay exorbitant prices for the fish. They are chalking out the day’s plans in advance. Yet amidst this frenzied festivity, there is a shocking lack of knowledge about ...
As customers crowd outlets of leading fashion brands, businessmen of the smaller store say they are unlikely to make much profit during this year’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations.
They blame the political unrest for the below-average sales, mostly of clothes that are
sold ahead of the Bengali new year. Nevertheless, crowds are seen roaming around the markets in Dhaka city.
“We don’t have a large number of customers for Baishakhi wear this year. The political turmoil has hit the sales,” said Mursalin Bithun, managing di...
Dhaka has decided to ink a deal with Beijing to build the Payra deep-sea port after it shelved the much-hyped Sonadia deep-sea port multi-billion project amid oppositions from major countries, including India, over Chinese involvement.
The latest policy direction from the prime minister’s office would pacify China after they were left disgruntled when the government abruptly backtracked from signing a memo in July, last year, on the Sonadia port, a senior official in the PMO said,
reports New Age.
The shipping ministry has undertaken a move t...
