Pakistan's problem

Education, or lack there of.

In one word, the problem faced in Pakistan is education.

The situation in Karachi is pitiful, horrific and devastating. As of today, 34 people have been killed. There really is no reason for what has happened.

In a nutshell, here is what's happened.

1. Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf ousted Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in what was later proved to be wide-spread corruption and injustice.
2. The Chief Justice argues that he will not accept the "President's" order to stand down, because he does not accept Musharraf as President of Pakistan as long as he continues to wear two different hats: President's seal, and his military jacket (i.e. Musharraf is already Cheif of Army Staff; two roles cannot be assumed by a President in Pakistan).
3. The Chief Justice went on and formed rallies, supported only by fellow members of the justice panel, and a plathora of opposing political parties.
4. The result: Widespread protests and instigated violence by the general public, easily coerced by the opposition parties into creating mayhem on the streets of Karachi.

I am not denouncing freedom of speech and the ability to protest, but if the masses weren't so ill-educated, they would not resort to violence and wide-spread disaster. From burning cars, tires/tyres (don't even get me started on the UK/American way of spelling), ripping off signs from shops (whyyyy would they do that?!?.. plain stupid) and storming into airports and disrupting travel for thousands and thousands of people.

It is reasons like this that countries like Pakistan have a bad name. Who in their right minds (including myself) would EVER want to visit Pakistan now, if they didn't already. They would much prefer to trott down to India and enjoy their vacation in peace. Pakistan then wonders why tourism is at an all-time low, hatred towards Pakistan and its people are on the rise in the West. They need to fix the root of the problem. Spend more time endorsing education and change public perception towards education. If it means bringing in foreigners to help implement strategy, so be it. If things can work well on that track, it will set the country up for much needed improvement in the longer-run. Granted, it takes third world countries several decades of development before things like this can be rectified - afterall, America, UK, European countries and India have had their infrastructures in-place for hundreds of years; Pakistan has had less than half that time and although they have accomplished a lot, there is much more needed and education is the right place to start.

Paris Hilton's jail sentence

Background: Paris Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail after breaking her probation for a drink-driving conviction.

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Now, WHY would she do something so stupid when she knows very well that "Hilton State Penitentiary" is her where she'll be making her next pit stop?? Its not like she has a mental disability.

Its quite sad really when she pleads with the judge and tells him that she'll "pay complete attention to everything from now on".. Sounds more like an 5-year old's plea to being grounded for painting on the walls.

I hear that she's been getting threatening messages from convicts who are eagerly awaiting her arrival. I think the prison experience will do her good. If she doesn't come out a changed person, then only the Big Fella can help her in this world...

HT123

300 and Iran

I thought I'd give my 2 cents about how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was outraged with the movie 300 and how it wrongfully depicted Persians at the time.

First of all, you have to realise that 300 has absolutely no historical significance and is merely fiction. Granted, the Spartans existed and there was said to be a major battle that took place blah blah blah. However, the Persian representation in the movie is quite clearly nothing more than fiction. Saying that Hollywood used that movie as an act of provocation is just stupid.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does have a habit of saying a lot of stuff that makes little, or no sense. I do admire his courage and strong-hold stance towards the United States and Great Britain as far as political issues are concerned.. and to some extent, I admire his leadership abilities also but the whole thing about banning the movie from showing in theatres, thats just taking it too far. Most of my Iranian friends LOVED the movie to bits, while others found it too gory, but NOT ONE (and I have quite a bit of Iranian friends) hated the movie because Iranians were portrayed in a different light to what historical fact states. They know its just a movie. Its entertainment. If you like the idea, watch the movie. If you don't, then don't watch it; it really, really is as simple as that.

HT123

Global taxation policy

Did you know that Michael Ballack (German international footballer), who currently plays for Chelsea football club (aka scousers) currently gets paid a whopping £130,000 per week - YES, PER WEEK!

To give you an idea, I've converted this to some of the world's highly-traded currencies:

EUR€: 191,000
US$: 257,000
CAD$: 285,000
UAE Dhs: 945,000
PAK Rs: 15,571,000

Remember folks, this is per freggin week!

Imagine if Ballack donated (which I hope he does/did) 1% of his weekly salary to a needy cause? That's £1300 per week. Do you know how many people you can feed for £1300 in one week??? Considering MOST poor people living in inpoverished countries, where standard/cost of living is so low that even I can be considered a filthy rich bloke. My best guess is that you can probably feed at least 1300 people for 1 month on 1 player's weekly salary.

Now imagine if we were to take the likes of Ballack, Ronaldo, Rooney, Gerrard, Owen, Totti, Ibrahamovic, Beckham et al and asked them to contribute 1% of their weekly salary for JUST one week... we're talking about being able to feed several thousand people for a month, in the blink of an eye. £1300 per week most definitely goes unnoticed with footballers (and other extremely well-to-do individuals), so whats the problem?

Am I being too difficult, or expecting too much for something like that to happen? Where's the obstacle? Why haven't we crossed that hurdle already? Can somebody tell me WHY the heck is something like this not happening.

Several countries have domestic taxation policies, and thats great but I think we should start considering an international/global taxation on a progressive system (the higher you earn, the more you are taxed). I'm not talking about ridiculous percentages here. 1%, even 0.5% is not too much to ask for, is it?

Some of these footy guys are really nice, generous, sincere people, so what is it that stops them from contributing more than they probably already do? Governments, international policy makers/politics is what stops people from donating. Why is it that transparency exists for 1000's of companies world-wide so people can invest their funds, but when it comes to charity/sponsorship donations, there is a ridiculous lack of transparency, information and interest from the global community.

If somebody's got dough, influence and a clear heart & mind, I say shout out and do your bit to raise this awareness.

HT123

April already!?

Damn, April already.

Come to think of it, time always flies by but things pretty much stay the same in this world of ours. Iraq is still occupied, Afghanistan is exactly where it was before the US invaded, Chelsea football club are still a bunch of arrogant wankers and the cost of fuel is still insanely high.

Its times like this I wonder about where we're headed, as an international community. Here are my predictions, lets see how they turn out in a few months:

- US will stay in Iraq until they've figured out how to fix the mess they created, and of coure, until they figure out how to set themselves up with Iraqi oil and business in the region.
- Afghanistan will continue to make most of their money off hashish. Bush, Blair et al will occasionally smoke up during their "visits" to the region; Hamid Karzai and Musharraf will blamed for cross-border insurgency until there are no more people left in Afghanistan.
-Chelsea football club will continue to stay behind Manchester United in the English Premier League (yes, I'm a football fan.. its not 'soccer'; learn to live with it)
- Fuel will eventually cost an arm and a leg, literally
- Arms and legs will be traded on the black market like there's no tomorrow
- Dubai will become so congested that people will actually start moving to Abu Dhabi, much to their dislike.

Hmm, I'm starting to feel there's not really much point in this so i'll leave on a final note: Where do you think we're headed 5, 10 and possibly 20 years from now? If you can figure out how to take that image and make it the rosiest, most beautiful thing one could ever imagie: join the developer team of Electronic Arts' game, "The Sims" and you can continue to dream on.

HT123