Loud Thinking

Archive for March, 2011

 

Honourable Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani.

A.O.A.

The whole Pakistani nation salutes you for sacrificing fatherly love over your duty to the national cause, by deciding to visit India on the invitation of Dr. Manmohan Singh, to meet him at Mohali, on the occasion of semi final ICC Cricket ODI World cup 2011 match.

Mr. Prime Minister, this decision will always  be remembered in the annals of history as a monumental choice of duty above parental love.

Here I am reminded a very famous quote whose first part aptly applies on you, ” A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service “

While thanking you for this high act of patriotism, we pray for an early recovery of your son from his illness as well as, total success in your voyage of peace to India.

 
A vast majority of the peace loving people have  welcomed the news of Indian Prime Minister’s invitation to the Pakistani leadership  to visit India, on the occasion of cricket world cup semi final match, between Pakistan and India, to be played at Mohali on 30 March, 2011. It is earnestly hoped that this meeting will not only be a harbinger of peace between the two neighboring nations, but will also be a huge performance incentive for both the cricket teams, playing what is being billed as ‘Mother of all matches’.
 
Moreover, it is hoped that this historic opportunity of meeting, between the two democratically elected prime ministers, will also be utilized as a turning point, for genuine and authentic progress towards peace and harmony, between 1.5 billion human beings of two nuclear armed neighbors. It must be absolutely clear to every person that both of us have no choice except peace, whether we accept this fact today or 100 years hence. However, movement towards peace needs taking small but meaningful steps.
 
In this regards, besides other major issues of Kashmir, water, Siachin, Sir-Creek and anti-terrorism cooperation, the following smaller issues may also be given due importance, to show tangible progress in relations between the two neighbors.
 
1. Visa regulations to be changed to allow visit of people to any city, without restrictions, in both the countries.
 
2. Trade between both the nations should be given top most priority.
 
3. Relatives of prisoners should be given preferential visas.
 
4. Exchange of cultural, educational, trade/business and sports teams should be accorded top priority, for strengthening the people to people bonds.
 
5. Indian cricket team must visit Pakistan immediately after the world cup, to play a series of T20 matches.
 
6. As promised earlier,  BCCI must use its influence on ICC, to restore visits of foreign teams to Pakistan. And to show its resolve, a T20 tournament should be held ASAP in Pakistan, to be played amongst Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka national or A teams.
 
7. Direct air, rail & road traffic to more Indian and Pakistani cities should be opened without delay. Moreover, people wanting to visit both the countries by car, may also be allowed to travel by own transport.
 
8. Telephone rates are very high between the two countries, which should be rationalized according to the international tariff.

9. All television channels news papers & magazines should be freely available in both the countries, without any restrictions. 

Wishing & praying for a historic success to peace and cricket,  on the occasion of this highly awaited sports event of the century, which demands declaring of a holiday in both the countries, for its people to enjoy the witnessing of this mega event, in company of  their near and dear ones. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Pakistani cricket team, for giving so much joy and happiness to the terror stricken Pakistani nation, through a fabulous cricket match victory, in the ICC ODI World Cup 2011 Quarter Finals Vs West Indies.

In fact, this is a sort of victory which will strike terror into the hearts of the opponent teams, for the remaining world cup 2011 matches. 

We Pakistanis, firmly believe that today our cricket team has laid the foundation of the final match victory, to be played on 2 April 2011.  

May Allah also Grace you with roaring victories in Semi-Final and Final matches,  as well. Pakistan Zindabad.

The following poem written by my late father, Syed Shahab Uddin Ahmad (1919-2000) former Lecturer of Chemistry, Aligarh Muslim University,  Principal, Charmical Degree College Rangpur (East Pakistan), Academic Registrar, Rajshahi University (East Pakistan), G.M. Lyallpur Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (PIDC & NFC) Jaranwala & General Manager, National Fertilizers Corporation of Pakistan,  was originally published in the DAWN in early 40’s. Later on, this poem was also published by Syed Sharif Uddin Peerzada,  in a book titled ” UNPARDONABLE CRIME OF JINNAH ” in October 1942. One of the rarest copies of this book is with me.

” P A K I S T A N “

They say  ’tis  “vivisection”

Of the Indian nation

In an unknown fashion.

 

It is an idler’s dream,

A confused scream

For a selfish scheme.

 

‘Impracticable’

‘Unimaginable’,

Is how they babble.

 

And when meet their seers,

With crocodile tears

They expose their fears.

 

But these are morbid libels

From sworn but feigned infidels,

Wearing varied labels.

 

Preposterous, pretentious,

Hypocritical notions.

Disguised resolutions.

 

Phantastic desire.

To be India’s sire.

Is what they aspire.

 

In the name of democracy,

With numerical supremacy,

Is their game of diplomacy.

 

But we can’t be daunted

By sarcasms taunted.

Or vain fears haunted.

 

We want India’s deliverance,

To save it from decadence.

And without a vengeance.

 

A home for us secure.

Also for them quite sure.

Without a basely lure.

 

On justice, fairplay, equity

Behold Pakistan’s quality

Won’t it stand till eternity?

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These days, anybody not in the facebook and twitter, is not in this world.

Insha-Allah the following situation will emerge after the Quarter Finals for the Semi Finals line up of ICC ODI Cricket World Cup 2011 matches.

 

1. Pakistan. Proved correct. Pakistan won.

2. Australia. Proved Incorrect. India won.

3. Sri Lanka. Proved correct.   Sri Lanka Won.

4. South Africa. Proved incorrect NZ won.

           Winner of Finals. (Proved wrong)              PAKISTAN

            WINNER OF FINALS :-  SRI Lanka (Proved wrong winner I N D I A)

 

Pakistan passed the 100 million subscriber milestone in Oct 2010, with five operators fighting for the market share day in & day out, but  still waiting for the introduction of 3G WCDMA technology (High Internet Speed Mobile Access with International Roaming),  to take the telecoms market to the much needed next level.

 

The 3G Licenses auctioned last year in our neighboring country fetched multi billion dollars, in license fee in addition to a similar amount of foreign direct investments, creating a spree of jobs for not only the highly educated, but also for the less educated  skilled hands, working on things like tower construction.

 

The question remains why we are shying away from this golden opportunity, to give the much needed life saving shot to our economy?

 

May be the reason lies in the situation, where the current operators are shying away from the investments that they would have to make, when the licenses are made available and are just keeping a few individuals at the right places “happy”, so that it is deferred, as long as they wish.

 

With the 3G services available in most of the countries of South Asia and even Africa, why  we are being deprived of the technological and economical benefits and playing the catch up game?

 

The 3G License or Spectrum auction, which is just like selling “air” is the easiest way to slightly mitigate the ever increasing unemployment rate in the country. Our peoples representatives in the both the houses should take this up seriously, to expedite the ever delayed process.

                                                                                        By A. Muiz Khan

                                         An update by the writer

Although, 100 Million subscribers may seem a big figure in absolute terms yet, in the backdrop of Pakistan, this amounts to only about 60% Mobile penetration; which is far from saturation, with some developed countries having around about the 100% mark. These figures are obtained after the implementation of the standard active subscriber definition in the industry, which has forced the operators to adopt data cleaning process, so the data comes mostly from the active subscribers, hence, a fairly accurate estimate.

 

Now, the point of adopting 3G is not necessarily to add new subscribers. But if 60 people out of 100 have mobile connections, then to make lets say initially, 15 people out of the active 60, to switch to using the new technology. This will generate new high profit margin revenue streams from data intensive applications, like video calling & HD Video streaming etc.

 

Now, we as a country can benefit from this situation, by putting the technology on the table for Sale. Surely the existing operators cannot shy away from spending on the candy bar, which will ensure a greater revenue stream for them. However, their aim is to delay it as much as possible, so that they do not have to take out cash at this moment of the financial crunch.

 

Once we put the technology or as stated in the article “AIR” on sale, we will get instant payments from the operators on acoount of license fee and as the race to launch the first 3G network kicks off to obtain the First-Mover advantage, huge FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) will take place in modernizing and building the network infrastructure, resulting in effective billions of dollars in earnings and creating thousands of jobs in the process.

 

In the recent auction of the 3G licenses in our neighboring country, only the licenses fee fetched close to USD 15 Billion, which is a huge amount in itself, excluding all the FDI and other positive impacts on the economy, like reduction in unemployment rate.

                                                                                       By A. Muiz Khan

A ferocious tsunami unleashed by Japan’s biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it carried away ships, cars and homes, and triggered widespread fires that burned out of control.

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Northeast Japan spawned a ferocious tsunami that’s caused massive destruction; flattening whole cities, starting raging fires, and killing hundreds.

Nearly 88,000 people are reported missing, according to the official Kyodo news agency. Nuclear experts said the solutions being proposed to quell radiation leaks at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima were last-ditch efforts to stem what could well be remembered as one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

Situation has turned so grave that workers were ordered to withdraw briefly from a stricken Japanese nuclear power plant on Wednesday after radiation levels surged, Kyodo news reported, a development that suggested the crisis was spiraling out of control.

Now it is high time that world must wake up for launching a campaign of getting rid of ALL nuclear reactors from the face of the Earth, before another major catastrophe hits in some other country after Japan.

Now this issue has become a matter of life and death for the humanity. UN Secretary General must immediately summon a meeting of the Security Council to chalk out a unified strategy to combat the menace of nuclear radiation from destroying the life from the face of the Earth.

In this regard, as a first step towards making planet earth safe and free from accidents at nuclear reactors, which produce electricity using uranium/plutonium as a fuel, the world leadership must also look into the possibility of using ONLY thorium, as a fuel for producing electricity from nuclear reactors.

Unlike current nuclear power stations, that use uranium, the thorium plant won’t use a material that can be weaponised. It would also mean there is much less danger from a meltdown. Thorium is also more abundant than uranium, so it will be cheaper and easier to supply.

The safer material means it can be supplied at a lower cost with far fewer security needs. Security measures are actually the most expensive part about building current nuclear power stations. Thorium reactors, on the other hand, don’t require special containment buildings and can even be set up in normal structures.

The proposed thorium reactor is made to run by itself without any need for intervention. It will only need to be checked by a person once every four months.

Since thorium reactors are far safer than current nuclear reactors there has been talk of miniaturising them so a $1000 unit could power a ten house street for a lifetime.

 

Every negative has a positive. Although, Pakistan lost in a pathetic manner against New Zealand, in their group match played on March, 08, 2011 yet, I believe that we should consider this defeat as a blessing in disguise. Because firstly, it was not a knock out situation and secondly, now we know all the chinks in our armor which we can and should be mended, to play our future matches with total focus and determination on winning the finals, at all costs.
 
In this regard, the following steps are suggested as an immediate corrective measures.

1. Our main problem is batting. Mr. Mohsin Hasan Khan (Chief Selector) is a very experienced, committed & dedicated person. Our team badly needs his services for planning, strategy and overall game plan. As such, Mr. Mohsin Hasan Khan may be asked to immediately join the team, for utilizing his services to uplift team’s batting in  particular & overall performance in general.

2. Request M/S Imran Khan and Javed Mindad to hold daily video or telephonic conference with the team management and entire team and discuss all training, motivational, technical, tactical and strategy issues relating to the next matches.
 
3. We should avoid insanity which is defined as ” Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” What I mean to say is that Mr. Kamran Akmal should not be expected to deliver as a wicket keeper or attacking batsman. Hence,  if possible he should (in the national interest) feign injury, return home and some able replacement may be sent in. Otherwise, he should be replaced with Asad Shafiq as a batsman and Umar Akmal should be given the responsibilities of wicket keeping.
 
4. Now coming to our strategy for the 1st ten overs. These overs are more precious than gold. Here, again insanity should be avoided and Abdul Razzaq and Shahzad Ahmad should open the innings with license to play shots, freely and keeping in view a target score not less than 90-100 runs. ( Not failure but low aim is crime).
 
5. If a wicket falls in 1st ten overs, Shahid Afridi should bat at No.3.
 
6. It must be clear to all and sundry that M/S Abul Razzaq & Shahid Afridi have virtually played no role in any Pakistani current world cup victory with their bat. And the team needs this role very badly. 
 
7. If a spinner is required to bowl in the 1st ten overs, Hafeez should be asked to do the job.
 
8. Junaid, the left arm fast bowler must be given the chance to  prove himself in the next match.
 
9. Winning the world cup is almost like achieving the impossible. And in order to achieve the impossible, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought. World class success can not be achieved with second class performance.
 
10. The biggest plus of this tournament has been the emergence of Shahzad Ahmad as the best fielder of the team. This asset should be properly utilized, to the maximum advantage of the team.

 

 

If Pakistan forgets thrashing by NZ batsmen and focus on winning the game with absolutely positive attitude, they can still win the match easily.

Nevertheless, if fate has ordained defeat for you, give it a good fight. Never ever, surrender.