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 The rules and procedures are stringent and outdated.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.

Corruption in the Third World

This is one of the most difficult phrase to define, yet most prevalant in my country. This is the dilamma perhaps with every third world country ---lower the level of development, greater the corruption. When this menace creeps in to the society, it results into lawlessness, increased crime, widening gap between the poor and the rich etc. The courts are unable to retain their impartiality and independant in this situation and the police excesses become order of the day.This is, as well an important tool in the hands of dictators and the nascent democracies to victamize their opponents. The classical example in this case is Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan. He is husband of Pakistan's slain leader Mrs. Benazir Bhutto who remained Prime minister of Pakistan twice. Mr. Zardari remained behind the bars for eight years on the charges of corruption during Musharaff regime. The courts did nothing during this period, nor could government prove the charges against him.

Don't Think of An Elephant by George Lakoff

George Lakoff's book, Don't Think of An Elephant: Know your values and frame the debate--the Essential Guide for Progressives, provided fodder for understanding the underlying constructs along the spectrum of American politics. I liked the engaging balance between complexity and common sense presented in the book. I particularly appreciated how Lakoff tackled the issue of lying within the context of political argument. He claims that our subconscious (maybe conscious too?) is more bothered by the motive behind a lie than the actual mis-truth. Our rational mind is intertwined with our emotions, so a lie activates our curiosity both in order to find out if it is true as well as to understand why the teller has chosen it. Lakoff shows how we vote our values over our self-interest when the two conflict, explaining how important the process and principles are in framing political discourse. The three take-aways I will retain from this fantastic guide include:

1. The goal of each party is to extend their model and convince people to buy in by tapping their values. People vote their values more often than self-interest if the two are in conflict.
2. Reason and facts alone are not enough to convince people of a perspective because we only accept facts and arguments that fit into our frames of thinking, based on our values (strict father and nurtrant parent are the two ends of the spectrum).
3. Because of #2, "reframing" arguments is key. How an argument is presented is just as important as the content of what is said the political arena.
4. In reframing, one must be aware of and avoid crossing the chasm of misleading. Betrayal is interpreted as more severe than lying to humans, particularly in politics.

I'm taking a risk by having four great Lakoff points listed here, as I hear at the Kennedy School, good points come in threes. I hope they can fit into the KSG frame of argument synthesis.

Divesity in the USA

The beauty of USA among others has been its vast diversity in its people. This feature proved a great driving force in its innovations and creativity. There are many countries which are pluralist societies, nonetheless, they are still struggling to keep the various entities intact. Sri lanka inspite of its highest literacy rate is far from satisfing the demands of ethnic minority of Tamils. Similarly in the states of Asam and Kashmir, India the biggest democracy is unable to pacify the groups who are asking for freedom. Pakistan is no different. Earlier there had been voices from frontier province and Sindh . Now the government is trying to meet some demands of Baluchs separatists. In US the fear from diversity I feel could be segregation on racial lines.The increasing poverty is apprehended to further aggravate the situation.

So fast!

Today, I went to a hair salon. That was the first time for me to go to American one. In Japan, it takes at least one hour to finish all the process, which includes shampooing, shaving, and haircutting. However, the woman who cut my hair moved her hands so quickly. After ten minutes had passed, she said “Do you like it?”. I thought she tried to make sure her way to cut my hair was going well in the middle of the process. But, as soon as I replied “Yes”, she said “All done”. Then, I realized that she finished cutting, and was amazed a lot. As a result, the way to cut my hair was a little bit rough, but I liked the speed a lot.

Keep on' bloggin'

Ready for more reflections on blogging? Blogging, and the novelty, was quite fun the first few times. Now it is beginning to feel like a chore. I can understand, if I was blogging on a particular topic where I had much to say, that I might enjoy it more. Perhaps I should have tightened the reins myself a bit. Why is it that the wider-open the stage, the harder it is to think of something interesting to write. Tonight, I'm feeling like I'm writing just to write. That's not high-quality blogging in my opinion. Never fear, I will muster some more enthusiasm for my next post.

Myers-Briggs

I signed up to take the CPL Leadership class entitled "Foundations of Leadership: The Inner Journey." Yesterday was our first session and after taking the Myers-Briggs personality test, I found out that I am an ESTJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging). This categorization did not surprise me much. Most of the traits of an ESTJ fit me well. But I left the workshop wondering what I am supposed to do with this information. Am I supposed to try to be more like my opposite, the INFP? Or maybe these traits are my strengths so I should try to emphasize them more. Should I focus my job search on the types of careers that ESTJ's tend to be attracted to, or will this just be limiting. Are these traits inherited, learned, changable? I thought I would leave the session feeling more confident in knowing myself better, but actually, I feel more lost!

Two Democratic Parties

An opinion poll conducted in Japan said that 58% of Japanese people thought that it may be a good idea to let Democratic Party, which was the biggest opposition party in Japan manage the government, and the percentage exceeds that of people who did not think so. In Japan, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been a ruling party for a long time. However, because of mismanagement of pension problems and widening disparity between the rich and the poor, many people come to think they need to change the government. Here in the U.S, people cast their ballots in November, and the Democratic candidate may become the president. In Japan too, they have an election this year or at the beginning of the next year, and a Democratic candidate may become the Prime Minister. Thus the situation looks similar. The futures of both countries may depend on Democratic Parties.

A technological dummy

My cell phone broke last weekend and because I still have 3 months before I am eligible for an upgrade, I bought a very basic, no-frills $20 replacement phone. I hardly used all of the features on my old phone, but I knew how to use them if I wanted to and liked that they were there. A friend of mine got an iPhone recently so he very kindly passed down his old phone to me which is about 20 times more high-tech than my $20 replacement. But, it's a Motorola and I have only used Nokia's and LG's before. I can hardly figure out how to answer it, let alone check my voice mail or send text messages. I like to think I am 20-something who is in the loop when it comes to technology. My dad has an iPhone but I have to give him lessons on how to use it. But, this new (old) phone has made me feel like a two year old trying to learn to tie her shoes. I didn't think this sleek little contraption could make me feel so helpless. Hopefully I'll make progress just by playing around with it. I have to master the device by the time I go home for thanksgiving. I can't let my parents see my fumbling around with it like they do with theirs...how embarrassing!

Logic and Emotion

I tended to think that logic and emotion are mutually exclusive. When I was working in Japanese government, I should be logical rather than emotional to persuade my idea was better than other ones. However, I come to change my mind after taking an ethics class here. I found that logic reaches emotion more often than I had expected. Let's say there is a question “why shouldn’t we kill other people?” Some people may say because this impairs other people’s liberties. Then next question comes. Why shouldn’t we impair other people’s liberties? Some may say because it is very precious. Again, why is it precious?,,, If we try to rely on only logic, we cannot finish the sequence. This is because some emotion or intuition is necessary to stop the logical sequence. I do not mean logic is not important, but emotion is also necessary part of logic sometimes.

No love?

As promised, here are the answers to the riddles.

1. "How many conservative economists does it take to change a light bulb?"
None. The darkness will cause the light bulb to change by itself.

2. "How many real men does it take to change a light bulb?"
None. Real men aren't afraid of the dark.

3. "How many IBM engineers does it take to change a burnt out light bulb?"
None. They merely change the standard to darkness and upgrade the customers.

Maybe you can put these in your avoiding-awkward-conversation-arsenal. Anyone got anything better?

Four Candidates?

Today, I watched the debate between Obama and McCain. The debate was held last month too. Everyday media features the two candidates. These situation made me think that there were only two candidates in the presidential election. However, a friend had a piece of paper for absentee ballot today, and I found that there were four presidential candidates in reality. I know only the two have a chance to win in actuality. However, is it fair to give chances to debate on TV only to the two?

Running--a sport for all

I like to go running. One thing that I have come to appreciate about the sport is how accessible it is to almost everyone. All you really need is a pair of athletic shoes (or I guess you could go barefoot if you are tough or on the beach) and you can usually just step out the door and go. You don't have to be experienced or have lessons to be able to do it. It's not like tennis where if you can't hit the ball, the game is over, or like basketball where at minimum you need a court and a hoop mounted up high.

It is also a sport for people of all shapes and sizes. I ran my first marathon 5 years ago and was shocked by the range of people running the 26.2 mile race. Some were elite competitors, but most were doing it as some sort of personal challenge: to raise money for a charity, in memory of a loved one, or just to push beyond their own comfort zone. I made friends during the race. I met a man from my hometown at mile 5, and a woman who had just had her 5th child at mile 20. Perfect strangers would cheer me on as they passed me going up a hill. I was too excited to leave the race after I finished--I just stood at the finish line cheering everyone else on. There does not have to be clear winners and losers in this sport.

I will not deny that the exercise can be painful at times. Sometimes I give in to the snooze button and skip my morning run. But, when I finally get out there on the trail, road, or path, I am motivated by all of the runners around me and am glad I am one of them.

Dear Blog-mates:

In the vein of blogging experiments, I would like to attempt to elicit some "comments" from my colleagues by posting a few jokes in hopes that you will post answers!

1. "How many conservative economists does it take to change a light bulb?"

2. "How many real men does it take to change a light bulb?"

3. "How many IBM engineers does it take to change a burnt out light bulb?"

I will post the answers tonight. Prizes might be awarded;)

"The fog of War"

Yesterday, I watched a movie titled “The fog of War”. This is a documentary movie in which former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara introduces 11 lessens he learned from his experience about national security such as Cuba Missile Crisis and Vietnam War. 11 Lessons are as follows.

Empathize with your enemy.
Rationality will not save us.
There's something beyond one's self.
Maximize efficiency.
Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
Get the data.
Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
Never say never.
You can't change human nature.

These lessons look so universal that everybody knows all of them without watching the movie. However, knowing them and being able to acting in conformity with them are totally different. According to McNamara, even Kennedy was in the verge of a nuclear war because he misunderstood the intention of the enemy, USSR Communist Party Leader Khrushchev (In this case, he was not able to “empathize with your enemy”, which is the first lesson by McNamara.). I know I am much less mature than Kennedy, and that is why I am studying Kennedy School at Harvard. So, I would like not only to understand what is important, or what is necessary for the good of people, but also to become able to practice those ideas here.

Working for free

Second year MPP students at HKS have to complete a "Policy Analysis Exercise" (PAE) which is basically a year long consulting project with a real client consisting of research, analysis and recommendations for a specific problem or question that the client's organization is facing.

You would think it would be easy to find a client because you are offering free labor from one or a pair of Harvard graduate students. No, finding a client does not seem to be the hard part. Really, how often do you walk by something being offered for free and say "no thanks"? But once the client has been selected and it is time for the project to begin, that energy with which they agreed to take the free help seems to have disappeared. Getting the client to carry their weight in providing background information and access to data and contacts, or just being available to check-in proves to be more difficult.

I don't think HKS would ever consider making PAE clients pay for the students' service but the dynamic between a client and a paid consultant versus an unpaid consultant must surely be different. Though requiring some sort of fee may decrese the quantity of clients showing interest in working with a student on their PAE, I do not doubt that the quality of the relationship and the committment from the client would increase.

Reflection of Blogging Exercise

So it's Day ten. I have to say that I've really enjoyed the experience of blogging. It's far easier than a personal diary and the barriers to entry (obviously) are relatively low. I've learned a lot about using blogging as a vehicle of communication and have had the opportunity to revisit some of the HTML code I learned years ago in undergrad. My only complaint is that I wish this thing had spelling/grammar check!

Thanks for the opportunity!

You can't vote if you aren't registered!

And now for my public service annoucement. The deadlines in many states to register is October 4th. Don't delay...and if you need any more convincing--check out this message from Hollywood.




Also, it appears that public opinion is shifting. For state by state analysis, check out this nifty electoral map!

Reflections of a Blogger

Half-way through this blogging exercise, I stop to reflect on this virtual communication mode. While the accessibility is addicting, I am beginning to see a parallel, or an equation, appearing in the blue tint of the screen. The more I blog, the more I become disillusioned that others’ care to read what I write (never mind this is a closed site), all the while, the postings become more personal. This is a strangely illogical ebb and flow. Or maybe it is tapping into a natural human desire to be known (for more than 15 minutes).

I do understand the usefulness of the on-line diary; many a time, I have clicked on “Trina’s trip to Tibet” or the equivalent, but beyond the trip logs, I find blogging to be several layers deeper in self-absorption than general writing. Now that I come to think about it, blogging isn’t replacing anything (yet). It is simply a new way to share information. But blogging seems to take on an informal tone to it and a rambling nature. TMI. And there is something that feels narcissistic about blogging.

Of course, I claim guilty to all that I suggest. The truth is, our culture’s privacy lines and appropriate limits of self-disclosure have been blurred between all the posting, the clicking and the squinting, never to be the same again. But before I become slave to my own observations and narcisistically disclose all the unimportant details of my day, I will sign off.

Venus and Mars

As the economic crisis has become increasingly uncertain,in my microcosm I've noticed the difference in how women and men handle the situation. May be because I was a former journalist, or may be it's my natural instinct to never be out of the loop, but I can't read or digest enough information on the topic. I need to understand worst case scenario at every minute of the game. I need to understand all points of view, whether I agree with them or not. I'm all about information overload. My male counterparts, have taken a strikingly alternate approach choosing to shield themselves from the proverbial media firehose. My fiance, for example, strictly relies on NPR in the morning and evening for the headlines. His argument is that there is no point in panicking with a situation out of our control. Is this one of those moments where we agree to disagree?