Education System in Pakistan

The education system is perhaps the strongest tool in the hands of any society to determine the direction of a nation in general and shape the minds of youth in particular. This is the area where havoc has been played in Pakistan and unfortunately no action from responsible position seems to be in the offing. The curricula of the schools were made by those people who were bigots and had very limited understanding of religion. In one such instance they portrayed all those invaders from Central Asia and Afghanistan who in the past invaded the peaceful Indians, as our heroes. This hero worship, perhaps detached the youngsters from the values of their lands and they were entrapped in the illusion of pan-reformism. The Afghan war in the past was fought, predominantly on this mythology. The world supported Pakistan at that time to fight against the former Soviet Union. This war, however had serious cosequences for Pakistan and put the country in serious crises. I believe that international community, if comes forward and helps Pakistan in revamping its education system, the situation can be changed drastically, because Pakistanis by and large are very tolerant and vibrant society. Pakistan is situated on the west of India and south west of China, the two most leading economies, can be a trade corridor for the world.

Information Technology and Governance

Among many others , one major issue facing the developing countries, is the issue of 'good governance'. There is either no representation of the people at all or there is minimal participation of the citizens. The bureaucracies are bulky, sluggish, inefficient, non responsive and corrupt. The rules and procedures are stringent and outdated. Due to deteriorating quality and level of civic services, the citizens are frustrated in those societies. The exponential growth of population, coupled with diminishing access to the basic services like health and education are adding up the people in to a pool of poverty. There is lack of transparancy in the contract procedures. The public officials are not accountable. The courts are not independant enough to protect the citizens from the infringement of their rights. In order to improve the situation, many interventions are required like new laws, decentralization of powers, more allocation of resources to the social sector, administrative reforms etc etc. These are quite necessary and are time consuming. These reforms can be implemented and sustained more effectivly with the use of information technology. The concept of e- government itself leads to increased economy, transparancy, reduction in the size of public officials and enhanced the citizen participatin. I think this is an impotrtant tool, when used wisely can bring enormous changes in the culture of developing countries.

Boston downtown

Yesterday I visited Boston .My wife and kids accompnied me.Walking through the streets , we noticed very old buildings . My children were already familiar with the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre, nevertheless they were curious to know more about the history of this famous town. We walked along the independance line and reached Quincy market. The childern ware amused with the acrobatics and the street dance by the performers. Next we went to the very crowded, Haymarket. We did some shopping there. The children got tired and didn't let me and my wife stay there.We took some snaps near the City Hall. My son was fascinated with the tourist buses and asked me a lot of questions about them. Walking down these streets made me feel like, living in the past. The preservation work of the old buildings was marvelous and these buildings are an evidence of great vision of the founding fathers of America.

US and Japanese Societies

I spent couple of months in Yokohama, Japan in year 2006. During this period I got an opportunity to visit various parts of Japan and got to know the culture, values, progress and system of Japan. They are a great nation. Japanese are a homogeneous society, who are very shy to foreigners, unlike USA which is a very diverse society and always welcomed immigrants. The Japanese have a ‘king’, a very old institution since centuries who has no role in the government and is different from all the world monarchies. He is more a symbol of reverence and cultural values than authority. They have a very unique style of greetings. They are very formal in greetings. Humility, submission, respect and warmness are the characteristics of these greetings. Japanese do not shake hands in the greetings. They are so meticulous in their diet that before each dine they work out calories. They are very clean and if you visit their offices or restaurants , you need to put off your shoes. The environmental standards are very stringent. The homes are their cleanest places. Japanese are predominantly a non religious society, nevertheless Shinto’s is largely practiced followed by Buddhism by a small percentage. The isolation through a process of centuries has made them quiet in their habits. They do not like talking much in the public. So in the trains you can see people either reading , sleeping or sitting quiet. The bullet train is aero plan on land. So fantastic---- unbelievable. If US can boast on being the pioneer in automobile, the Japanese feel pride in talking about the bullet train. They have perhaps ,the best railways system in the world. The question which I am trying to make from this writing is that how the two most cultured societies on the extremes of each other have achieved the best development standards so far known to man—I mean the US society, so pluralistic, democratic, capitalistic, open and diverse in contrast to Japanese , a closed ,conservative, formal and homogeneous society.

East or West -- Dubai is the Best

Some times back I got an opportunity of visiting Dubai. This is one of the most leading cities in that region. I was amazed to see the progress of the city. The high rise buildings, high quality hotels, beautiful villas, a large number of restaurants, wide roads and date palm trees add to the scenic beauty of the city. This is an icon of free market and secularisim on the Arab soil. While moving around in Dubai you do not feel that you are in a third world city. All the credit goes to its former ruler Sheikh Zaid Bin Sultan who being a monarch conceived of a city whoich was to become the buisness, commercial and residential center of the entire region. You can invest money or can have your own house over there.Similarly you can have western life style or the eastern one. You can go to the sea or visit the desert or can have skiing on the snow in the closed doors. This is your choice. The city provides you the environment to adopt the life style of your liking. And I think this is the strenght of any city for its residents. I am quite sure in future this city is going to become a conglomerate of both east and west.

Food Crisis

The invisible crisis which is looming the world, specially the third world is the food crisis. Concurrent to the oil crises the prices of food items have gone alarminly very high. Even the agricultural country like Pakistan which produses most of its food own , is under lot of crises now a days. There are demonstrations against the price hike. In the last four months the prices of oil have increased more than 80 percent. The Pakistani currency has devalued to more than 30 percent in a period of three months . During this period the price of wheat which is a staple food in the country, doubled, a record in the history of the country. The biggest challange for the govrnment is reducing the prices of common items and control the inflationary trends.

Riding and Leadership

Many years back, at the time of pre service training at the Civil Services Academy Lahore, I asked my riding instructor--- why riding was a necessary part of training. He responded that it was a tradition since colonial times. That was not the answer to my question. I raised the level and went to director training and put the same question. He tried to answer me in a way that’ it keeps you healthy and fit’-------- but what correlation does this has with leadership: He elaborated that while riding you learn how to control a horse? He added that horse naturally would never like somebody to sit on it and control it and in this situation it becomes necessary for the rider to control the horse. That answer could not satisfy me as well and I always remained curious to find an appropriate answer for that. Couple of days ago I was reading Heifetz’s book “Leadership without Easy Answers”. From the reading I discovered that adaptive challenges are complex situations and do not have easy and simple answers as compared to technical problems. The riding is distinct from other sports in many ways. Besides rider, it involves horse which has power and will of its own. There is more unpredictabity in this sport as compared with others due to confounding factors. The rider may lose the game if he is not familiar with the psyche of his horse. Similarly any incompatibility between horse and rider may lead to fatal consequences, a serious element of danger, specially for the rider. And finally it is the prompt response from either of the two to be in the race or win the race. All these components in the riding are the important traits of leadership. The leader and the led have to move in tandem in complete harmony to each other. The leadership works in unpredictable situations and adaptive challenges make the leader to think about multiple strategies. He is always quick in responding to any situation. The fear makes him careful from the dangers. In view of the foregoing, my argument is that riding, perhaps can be a useful tool in understanding and developing leadership skills.