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Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

The Express Tribune

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The protest questions

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...

30.04.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Imagined diseases

In the recently published brilliant biography of the 20th century philosopher, psychiatrist and anti-colonial activist Franz Fanon titled The...

23.04.2024 40

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Fatigue and frustration

It is not unusual for aspiring undergraduate and graduate students, or early career researchers and post-doctoral fellows to write to me and inquire...

16.04.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Posthumous inequity

Feeding the hungry has always been a noble act. Across religions, cultures, traditions and societies, those who feed the hungry are admired and...

09.04.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Seeking perfection?

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...

02.04.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Mid-semester reflections

This semester, I am offering a new course that focuses on engineering approaches to address health challenges faced by refugees, IDPs and stateless...

26.03.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Imagining a different world

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...

19.03.2024 40

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Hostage to rankings

Reducing a complex, multi-faceted academic institution to a single number on a list has become increasingly fashionable. Rankings, done through...

12.03.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

The pedestal

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...

05.03.2024 10

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Some are more equal

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...

27.02.2024 10

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Products and processes

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...

20.02.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Darkness, noise and light

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...

13.02.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Tackling segregation

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...

06.02.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Books for the rich

“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...

30.01.2024 50

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Privilege and public health

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...

23.01.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Symbols of ignorance

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...

16.01.2024 50

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Caring for more than one

F oreign-made weapons. A death toll that continues to climb every day. Several million people forcibly displaced from their homes and living in...

09.01.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

The old school

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,...

02.01.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

A monument to memory

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...

26.12.2023 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Of COPs and values

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...

19.12.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Reclaiming our agency

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...

12.12.2023 10

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

The conversations we need

T he crippling poverty of the mid 20th century in Latin America, combined by US-sponsored coups and support of brutal authoritarian dictators, was...

05.12.2023 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Hearing all voices

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...

28.11.2023 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Silence on Afghans

‘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...

07.11.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

The boundaries of our empathy

“Authorities have been directed to treat women, children and the elderly with the utmost respect,” said the caretaker interior minister last week...

31.10.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Applying the same rules

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...

24.10.2023 20

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

The hard things to do

‘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...

17.10.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Global goals vs local realities

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...

10.10.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Collapse of the classroom

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,...

03.10.2023 100

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

The trust issues

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...

26.09.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Sources of information

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...

19.09.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

Good vs good enough

A discussion with colleagues in Pakistani academia about the overall quality of the work in the country is often sensitive. Many colleagues in the...

12.09.2023 60

The Express Tribune

Muhammad Hamid Zaman

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