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

A REAL Inconvenient Truth

I know this is probably the last article I should be writing here, seeing how pretty much everyone is now well-aware of the threat of Global Warming and Climate Change (aka the movie, "An Inconvenient Truth").

There's only one thing though: Deja vu.

Tens of film producers, stage-shows and such have been trying to highlight climage change for years. The threat of climate change has been trying to sneak its way into mainstream media for a long time now, but why when the 41st President of the United States of America (Al Gore.. Bush is nothing more than a cheat and in my heart & mind, he does not deserve the title of 'President') produces a documentary, almost as chilling and captivating as others.. wait a minute, this sentence has become too long and I've lost the point I've been trying to make. Simply put: Where was everyone when sh*t hit was constantly hitting the fan over the past several years? What was it about Al Gore's documentary that sparked a wide-spread, global shift in thought?

Power shut-downs have already begun in a few cities across the globe, with several others scheduled for later this year but its funny how we're in the year 2007 and still, world powers are taking more of a reactive approach to this issue than a proactive one. Shutting down the power for a few minutes once every few months is only going to slow down the effects of climate change.

I guess I shouldn't complain and instead be glad that awareness has picked up (again). I'll start complaining again when its all forgotten about and it blows over after a few months.

HT123

Windows Vista flawed

So, I hear Windows Vista is based on a platform that is filled with virtually every bug known to manking, and has the tendency to easily get infected by those we never knew existed.

Although Vista is already out (I've personally used an evaluation copy), it seems like more hype than anything. There is nothing really to rave about, except maybe that Media Center Edition is incorporated in some of the versions to Vista. Unlike Windows XP, where we had the choice of Home and Professional, Vista bring brings quite a few: Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.

Another reason I say it is flawed to begin with is that a lot of lesser-known software is incompatible with Vista and it will take a while before developers will adapt their software to run on Vista.

My advice, don't rush to make a purchase. Sit it out, and wait. My former colleagues at Microsoft still tell me to forget about it altogether; unless of course it comes with a newer PC. At least then, you'll be entitled to some quick-fixes and support options. I'll try to follow up on Vista, probably towards the end of the year - unless of course, World War III breaks out and Bill Gates and Microsoft's crummy OS will be the least concern of this "techno-centric" (yeah, I made that up) society.

HT123

Another Die Hard movie!

Ok, so this sorta went unnoticed on most entertainment websites and news articles. How can this NOT make news??

Another Die Hard movie is coming out, and of course Bruce Willis is ever present. No plot, no actors (except Willis) and no release date has been announced but its still good news none-the-less.

"Yippeee kaa-yay ***"

HT123

Crime in Dubai

"Murder", "rape", "child molestation", "theft", "high-scale robbery" and "drug deal"... Expect to see such headlines more often in Dubai.

For a city that now plays host to over 1.5 million inhabitants, Dubai is quickly becoming just like any other major, metropolitan city, crippled with the problems of traffic congestion, inflation and off late, crime.

Measures are being taken, make no mistake about that. The real question is, are those measures being fairly implemented in society? Racial discrimination, religious and ethnic prejudice are common in Dubai, and many people are using such realities as safe haven for crime. Your average local drunk GCC national that runs down a bunch of civilians (at times in broad daylight) has a different future than say, a British, American, Indo-Pak or Far-Eastern culprit. The truth is, there is one set of rules for some people, and another set of rules for others. The moment things shape up there, the situation should start to improve. Never will Dubai be what it was like 10-15 years ago, for crime is inevitable in a city of so many, where the gap between the rich-poor is widening, where inflation is continuing to rise and where intolerance and differentation still exists to a great extent.

My only hope is that the situation doesn't spiral out of control, and that justice be served fairly.

HT123

Abu Dhabi rising

For several years Abu Dhabi-ans have sat back and witnessed our neighbour boom while Abu Dhabi has been criticized for doing nothing to sustain long-term growth and push for further development. I think the wait is finally over.

The emirate of Abu Dhabi, being the largest land mass in the UAE, has enormous potential to invest in long-term, sustainable projects using the vast stock of funds from oil and foreign investment returns. With the emphasis on eco-friendly construction from natural islands such as Lu Lu, Al Reem, Yas and Saadiyat Islands (unlike the artificial Palm and The World), to the new Green Community, it seems Abu Dhabi is thinking bigger, better and more along the lines of long-term sustainability than Dubai. The beauty of it is, we (Abu Dhabi) have the financial security and backing to make sure we take the right steps and simply put: ‘get it right’, while learning from the flaws and problems Dubai is crippled with.

Abu Dhabi plans to spend more than $200 billion (AED 750 billion.. yes, billion.. 750 of them) over the next ten years alone, on various projects including 100 new hotels, several world-class hospitals, universities, museums and heritage parks.

36 major projects are on the way, including (naming a FEW):

** A 670-acre cultural district with sites designed by world-renowned architects including Frank Gehry (who designed the Guggenheim, in Spain). Even the Louvre will have an outpost in the district.
** A Ferrari theme park and driving school (Abu Dhabi owns 5% stake in Ferrari, through Mubadala) will be built on the prestigious Yas Island. The island will also have a racetrack winding its way around the island, water parks, a dozen hotels, polo fields, a golf course and a Formula One racing team.
**The Danet Abu Dhabi development will feature 36 mixed-use towers, 2 shopping malls, 2 mosques, a five-star hotel
**Shams Abu Dhabi is working on a canal-like system (similar to that in Venice, Italy), a central park (similar to that in New York City), and an 83-storey skyscraper to be built on Al Reem Island.
**Development projects are popping up around the world, oil exploration in Libya, telecom systems in Nigeria and a new mega-sea port.
**A unique “Green Community” will open in late 2009 and is a multi-billion dollar response to the global need for advanced energies and sustainability-related technologies, driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC). It will be the world’s first carbon-neutral, walled, car-free city housing wind farms, photovoltaic farms, research fields and plantations.

Long live Sheikh Zayed and his philosophy to preserve and further develop the culture, heritage and avoid all the pizzazz that has become synonymous with Dubai.

Abu Dhabi is on course to maintain their status of a lesser-commoditized, yet modern, exclusive niche that is predominantly culture-based and in doing so, “Abu Dhabi” will soon be on the lips of those who visit the Sorbonne, Guggenheim and the Louvre.

HT123