From the category archives:
Social
by Owais Ehsan on March 11, 2010
UNDP statistics released the ‘2010 Asia-Pacific Human Development Report: Power Voice and Rights: A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific Asia’. According to this report Pakistan’s Human Development Index (HDI) showed a slight improvement of 1.28% and reached 0.572. However my dear country Pakistan is still ranked at 141 out of 182 countries. So what does HDI reflects ?
The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development that includes living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of life (measured by purchasing power parity and income). Wiki defines HDI as
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic used as an index to rank countries by level of “human development” and separate developed (high development), developing (middle development), and underdeveloped (low development) countries. The statistic is composed from statistics for Life Expectancy, Education, and GDP collected at the national level.
Here are some key findings of the report (Source : The News Pakistan); [click to continue...]
by Sakina Younus on March 2, 2010
I visited a book-store recently. In the front aisle, different fashion magazines were pinned up. The theme was apparently bridal wear. They were really pretty dresses. My sister asked me which one I liked the best. She chose the silver and blue one while I went for the silver and red one. She told me that a friend of hers who was about to get married had seen the dress I’d selected in the same magazine and called the designer immediately to place an order for herself. I looked at the dress again—it looked absolutely stunning which equated to seriously expensive. I asked how much it would cost her. The reply came: Rs. 214,000. I just stood there quietly looking at the magazine cover and wondered, I thought brides who got their Rukhsati dresses for more than Rs. 100,000 were extravagant. Well apparently many would consider that in the normal range. The limits of ‘normal-spending’ are expanding at a compound rate! [click to continue...]
by Owais Ehsan on February 26, 2010
Nepotism is the word that i want to emphasize upon at the moment. Dictionary.com defines it as ‘patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics’. Wiki defines nepotism as ‘ favoritism granted to relatives or friends, without regard to their merit’. A word that has plagues all of our institutions. While reading the newspaper i came across this interesting and shameless story about the NUML University family business scandal. Lets explore whats happening there;
Brig. (retd) Aziz , the Rector of NUML (National University of Modern Languages) is running the University as a family business whereby all his immediate relatives are running the show. Before i mention the irregularities lets explore a bit about the NUML University. NUML university is one of the largest universities in Pakistan with campuses in all the major cities and offer high education with great standards. The President of Pakistan is the Chancellor while the Federal Minister of Education is the Pro-Chancellor .The day to day administration is controlled by a Board of Governors headed by the Chief of Army Staff. Federal Secretaries of different ministries and prominent citizens from both private and public sectors function as its members. So we are talking about a national level major organization here and the sort of Nepotism witnessed here in the presence of such powerhouses is astonishing. Here is a list of points that were highlighted inthe article about Brig Aziz (r); [click to continue...]
by Sakina Younus on February 16, 2010
In movies, in TV shows, sometimes through narrations from a friend, you get to hear about all the different sorts of people you get to meet at the workplace. Especially for people who have not started working as yet, it is often very baffling to consider that such people actually exist, or that they will ever have the fortune—or misfortune, depending on the person—to work with someone like that. What you hear doesn’t necessarily always have to be bad, it can be stories of commendation and admiration too. For example, more often than not, there is always the case of someone at your office whose life’s purpose is to constantly butter up the boss and run around after him/her. Sometimes you also hear about really smart people at the office who are always willing to lend a [click to continue...]
by Suraiya Kasim on February 10, 2010
After a year in Copenhagen, Denmark, I was lucky enough to find a job in a patent consultancy company as a coordinator and that was the beginning of a new learning experience in my life. I have worked for law firms in Karachi as a para-legal but working in Copenhagen has been a learning experience.
The first thing that struck me was the sincerity and responsibility of the employees towards their work and how much quality matters to them. Even though there were many times when they did not agree with the manager’s decision they would sincerely and honestly complete their work. I found my colleagues to be open and honest almost always expressing what they think. Besides their working habits, my fellow colleagues were very well mannered and cordial. Always greeting everyone in the morning and saying goodbye while going out. I was the only non Dane in the company and was never made to feel an outsider. My religion and ethnicity was respected and I was even given a separate room to say my prayers. [click to continue...]
by Suraiya Kasim on February 7, 2010
When i first arrived here in Copenhagen in the spring of 2003, I was taken aback by how cold it was even in April. Coming from Karachi where the warm sun keeps us relaxed and at ease, the cold here made me cringe. Its no doubt that Copenhagen is a beautiful city and that I realized in late spring and summer when everything looked so fresh and colorful.
It is never easy to move countries, especially when you are so well 
settled in your own comfortable surroundings. It is one thing to move because of circumstances or career but moving because you got married to someone who happens to live in another country is quite another matter. Firstly because you enter in a new relationship that is one adjustment, on top of that you are in a new and foreign country. That makes the challenge even greater. And marriage is one such relationship which makes you do things which you think you would never do, in my case it was leaving Pakistan. [click to continue...]
by Sakina Younus on February 2, 2010
In one of my classes, we were talking about how the mind of a human being works. One thing that was of particular interest was the concept of ‘Cloud of Comforting Beliefs’. This basically meant that, we as human beings hold onto something so tightly that the line between possibility and absoluteness becomes blurred. We grow up thinking a certain way, throughout our lives we continue to think the same way. It is comforting for us. It is a solace to know that one day we will get rich, we will become business tycoons, we will become a high achiever. These are just some commonplace beliefs that all of us have since we are children we all want these things and despite everything that happens, we continue believing that this stuff will eventually happen one day. [click to continue...]
by Owais Ehsan on January 29, 2010
Who would have thought a person who was not a talented cricketer at first , would become one of the most successful cricketers of all time - and would make Pakistan team the world champions and beat the West Indies all conquering team of the 80s. Who would have dreamed that one of the best cancer hospitals in the world (free treatment for poors) would be made in Pakistan , with no funds to begin with ? But it all came true , and there is only one man behind this - IMRAN KHAN.
Now lets explore what Imran Khan is upto these days (aside from Politics); Namal College Mianwali ; whats so special about it? lets explore
Namal College & University , Mianwali :
Namal College was inaugrated in April 2008. Located at Rikhi in Mianwali District of Pakistan,it has become an Associate College of the University of Bradford. The college is being developed by the Mianwali Development Trust (MDT). As well as being the University’s Chancellor, Imran Khan is also Chairman of the MDT and was a Member of the Parliament (MNA) from the Mianwali district from 2002 - 2007. lets see this video to understand more about this college, as how International education is provided to poor students on merit basis and free of cost. [click to continue...]
by Usman Zahid on January 28, 2010
The movement for the restoration of judiciary no doubt was one of the greatest movements ever witnessed by this nation. The entire movement showed the trust this nation had in them and the movement also infused a lot of confidence in the lawyers. But a few notorious recent incidents involving lawyers have left a bad taste amongst the masses. It all started with the beating of a police constable by lawyers; that was further aggravated by the beating of the media men and journalists. Similar, such incidents were also reported where a peon was taken to ask by the lawyers and so on and so forth. What has been the most surprising element is that all such cases have hatched out of Lahore courts. [click to continue...]
