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Muhammad Hamid ZamanThe Express Tribune |
The campus protests and encampments at dozens of US universities are all over the news. I have been a faculty member since 2006 and have never seen...
In the recently published brilliant biography of the 20th century philosopher, psychiatrist and anti-colonial activist Franz Fanon titled The...
It is not unusual for aspiring undergraduate and graduate students, or early career researchers and post-doctoral fellows to write to me and inquire...
Feeding the hungry has always been a noble act. Across religions, cultures, traditions and societies, those who feed the hungry are admired and...
When people are inspired, or called to political action (including going to the polls), by an AI-generated speech by a beloved leader, is that a good...
This semester, I am offering a new course that focuses on engineering approaches to address health challenges faced by refugees, IDPs and stateless...
In February 2020, just a few weeks before the global travel was to come to a standstill, I was in Jerusalem. On a cold, rainy evening, I met up with a...
Reducing a complex, multi-faceted academic institution to a single number on a list has become increasingly fashionable. Rankings, done through...
Masks, chants and misogyny have been on full display in the house of elected members. Unexpectedly, not much has changed since the last time these...
I n her award-winning memoir, Street Without a Name , poet and author Kapka Kassabova vividly portrays what it was like growing up in communist...
A bout a decade ago, I heard Atul Gawande at a global health conference. Dr Gawande, who now directs the bureau of global health at USAID, was a...
W hen the screens — small ones in the palm of the hands of the voters, and larger ones in various election offices — went dark, a sense of déjà...
T he best part of my trip to Pakistan, no matter when it happens, is learning from the youth. I am fortunate that I am afforded that opportunity, as I...
“C an you please point me to where the Urdu books are?” I asked the shopkeeper as I entered a decent sized bookstore in a relatively well-to-do...
W ell below the big breaking news of celebrity divorce and other related stories talking about the when and how of this event of great national...
I still remember the 1988 general elections. I was not quite 11 and was excited by this new experience in my life called general elections and...
F oreign-made weapons. A death toll that continues to climb every day. Several million people forcibly displaced from their homes and living in...
M y mother taught at public schools in Islamabad for most of her life. Being among the larger model schools in the city, it is not uncommon for me,...
A year ago, in the last week of December, I was in Santiago, Chile. As I watched the changing of the guard in front of the imposing Presidential...
L ast week, amidst furor and fanfare, with predictions and promises, COP28 came to an end. It was easier to find selfies and smiling faces on social...
O ver the weekend, Japanese baseball player, Shohei Ohtani became the highest paid athlete in the world. The Los Angeles Dodgers signed a 10-year $700...
T he crippling poverty of the mid 20th century in Latin America, combined by US-sponsored coups and support of brutal authoritarian dictators, was...
S ince Oct 7th of this year, much has been written about who gets to write and speak in important media forums, and whose voice gets suppressed. There...
‘Going home’ is a particularly evil way to describe expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people. But that is where we are at. Buried deep among...
“Authorities have been directed to treat women, children and the elderly with the utmost respect,” said the caretaker interior minister last week...
The global media coverage of the tragic events in the Middle East has brought, once again, several important issues to the fore. Many people, across...
‘Because it is too hard’ was the response from a senior leader at a funding agency whose mandate is to support developing solutions to complex...
The UN general assembly meeting in September every year is not just about the heads of state giving speeches. There are dozens of meetings on the...
When a young relative told me a couple of years ago that he has stopped going to school altogether, and was studying on his own during his O-levels,...
Let us start with a simple thought experiment. Imagine going to a local pharmacy and asking for a drug for a particular ailment. The worker at the...
Every year, in the fall semester, I get a wonderful opportunity to speak to undergraduate students at my university who are enrolled in a course that...
A discussion with colleagues in Pakistani academia about the overall quality of the work in the country is often sensitive. Many colleagues in the...