Archive for July, 2011
My Ranking is 30th Most Networked Person in Pakistan on Social Networks. Check Yours?
July 31st, 2011 | 
Author: Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad was ranked the 30th most networked person in Pakistan on Social Networks: Syed has friends in 52 countries, covering a distance of 3,004,297 Kilometers – How well networked are you? Find out at www.westernunionworld.com/yourworld
Health Matters – 5 Foods That Helps Lose Your Weight
1. Oats
Wait a minute; aren’t oats a carb? Yes and no. Oats are a whole grain, and they’re high on what nutritionists call the “satiety index,” meaning oats have tremendous power to make you feel full. Not only that, they’re also high in soluble fiber, so they cut cholesterol and blood fat. Oats digest slowly, so they don’t raise your blood sugar, and they keep you feeling filled up well into the late morning.
To keep the pounds at bay, eat an apple–or two–a day. Numerous studies have found that eating an apple a half hour to an hour before a meal has the result of cutting the calories of the meal. Why? The fiber in the apple makes you feel full, so you eat less. Recent research suggests eating apples has other benefits, too; the antioxidants in apples appear to prevent metabolic syndrome, the combination of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and prediabetes that tends to accompany thickening around the waist. Also, apples are high in pectin, which binds with water and limits the amount of fat your cells can absorb.
Nutritionists have been trying for some years to restore the reputation of the lowly egg. No longer thought to be a cholesterol-booster (eggs contain a different type of cholesterol than that in humans), eggs are a concentrated form of animal protein without the added fat that comes with meat. Dietary studies have repeatedly found that when people eat an egg every morning in addition to (or instead of) toast or cereal, they lose twice as much weight as those who eat a breakfast that’s dominated by carbs.
This simple spice appears to have the power to help your body metabolize sugar, according to surprising data that came out of a USDA study involving diabetics. Eating as little as 1/4 to 2 teaspoons of cinnamon a day was found to reduce blood sugar levels and cut cholesterol from 10 to 25 percent. So add cinnamon to smoothies, sprinkle it on your cereal, or flavor your coffee with it.
Another counterintuitive choice; aren’t nuts and nut butters supposed to be incredibly fattening? Well, almonds are calorie-dense, but they also pack a huge nutritional punch–and they’re particularly effective in counteracting cholesterol and triglycerides. One study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating almonds was as effective as taking a statin. Spreading almond butter on your morning toast gives you a nice protein boost while preventing the carbs in the toast from spiking your blood sugar.
Compiled by Farrah Wankadia (Bombay)
Golden Words – Benefits of Difficulty
“Every problem or difficulty you face contains the seed of an
equal or greater advantage or benefit.”
— Napoleon Hill
Pride of Performance for Amir Khan World Boxing Light Welterweight Champion
President Asif Ali Zardari and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani are requested to immediately announce an award of Pride of Performance, for British born Pakistani Boxer Amir Khan, who while wearing green and white Pakistani national colour, lifted world boxing light welterweight championship title at LAS VEGAS by defeating Zab Judah.
Thank You America
THANK YOU AMERICA
By: Col Khawar Munir Haroon(Retd),Sitara-e-Imtiaz(Military)
Thank you America, you did what you are capable of doing. You should have done it much earlier. You have unnecessarily put your people, the tax payers, under relentless pressure. Your “war on terror” expenditure has crossed $ 4 Trillion dollars. Expenditure on maintaining your troops in Afghanistan has crossed $ 100 Billion dollars. Your budget deficit is touching $ 1.645 Trillion dollars. You are under debt of over $ 14 Trillion dollars. Your economy is standing on the moving sands. A bubble, which your own economists are predicting, is about to burst. Very rightly so you have put strings to your support to Pakistan.
It is always good to run away from the theater of war. You did it in Korea, then in Vietnam. Prior to that, you buckled in front of Cuba, when Castro and Che Guevara kicked out your prodigy, Batista. You are running out of Afghanistan now. Do it fast, lest your poodle stops wagging its tail. This time your exit should be forever.
Look after your household. Something is rotting out there. Before it gets too late to mend, smooth-en up your wrinkles. I am sure; you must have calculated the risk of losing your good old friends, the family of Sauds. You must be aware of the disasters of delinking of dollar from petro sales. Iran and Venezuela has already shown you the door. What if Sauds lose their hold?
How many of you really know the state of affairs when Pakistan came into being? Indian Government betrayed the Government of Pakistan. British were an accomplice to this betrayal. Funds were stopped; share of equipment including military hardware was not given to Pakistan. There was only one textile mill by the name of Layallpur Cotton Mills at Layallpur(now Faisalabad). There was another textile mill by the name of Mela Ram Textile Mills in Lahore, which was nonfunctional. Today, Pakistan has 450 cotton spinning mills and 35 composite textile mills. The paper manufacturing facility was in East Pakistan at Karnaphuli. The electricity was scarce. The resources were so meager that Acasia thorns were used as paper pins to tag the papers. Lanterns with kerosene oil were the lamps providing light at night or in the dark offices. You must be thinking as to why I’m recalling these old stories. Yes! There is a reason. In all poverty and hunger, Pakistanis remained steadfast. These hardy souls toiled the land and got the results. Despite all the upheavals and deceits by your prodigies, this nation kept on progressing. You killed Liaqat Ali Khan to bring your own pets, but, even then the nation moved ahead. Your blunder was to put Pakistan under sanctions in 1965. Your betrayal jolted this nation. You played blind with India, when she was planning to dismember Pakistan in 1971. Then again in 1974, when India went nuclear, your response was muted. This was jolt enough for us Pakistanis to go nuclear. Not only that we went nuclear, our technology was much more sophisticated than Indians and even yours.
It is good that you passed the Pressler Amendment and again forced the Pakistanis to stand firm on their feet. Figures must be there with you. Sift through and find out that how the Pakistanis developed missiles even better than stinger. It must be in your knowledge that stingers do not function at Siachin. It was the Pakistani technology which broke the backbone of Indian Army Aviation in Siachin.
It is good that you have once again decided to tie the strings with the “Aid”. You know, this nation is unique. Almost blackout conditions do not make them rowdy hooligans. Do you remember the looting of New York stores and shops, when there was electric break down some years ago? The hardy Pakistanis can endure scorching heat and even then do not go naked. By the way, our scorching heat is above 40C and not 28C. More than 70% of our population lives in the rural areas. Out of remaining 30% in urban areas more than 90% is living in equally hard conditions. Therefore, hardship is part and parcel of the majority.
What about you? Your people are not akin to such situation. Your debt of $14 trillion is getting fatter by day. Main contributor to your extravagance, Japan, is now in itself in turmoil. The Euro is dying its own death. China will never bail you out. Do you have the guts to publicize what Gordon Duff is saying? He is one of your citizens, shouting at the top of his voice, warning you to mend your ways. This Senior Editor of ‘Veterans Today’ has repeatedly brought to light your follies. He says, “Afghanistan will have leftover 150,000 American troops killed, wounded or permanently disabled at a financial cost of $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years. This does not include other war costs”. Dare read his latest article, “Afghanistan: An American Rape. Is ‘slow withdrawal’ an answer to rape?”
Run Americans run, it is your fate now, because 2% of your population, Jews, is doing the same thing which 1% of them did in Germany, way back in 1929. You are being controlled by them, the way they were doing in Germany. How naive are you? How oblivious are you of the strangle hold of Israel? Disaster is their fate and so is yours. Save yourself if you can.
Author is presently doing as Principal, Lahore Garrison University, Walton Campus (ex Garrison Post Graduate College for Men), Lahore Cantt.
Health Matters – 51 Ways to Reduce Stress
51. Stop a bad habit
52. Buy yourself a flower
53. Take time to small the flowers
54. Find support from others
55. Ask someone to be your “vent-partner”
56. Do it today
57. Work at being cheerful and optimistic
58. Put safety first
59. Do everything in moderation
60. Pay attention to your appearance
61. Strive for Excellence NOT perfection
62. Stretch your limits a little each day
63. Look at a work of art
64. Hum a jingle
65. Maintain your weight
66. Plant a tree
67. Feed the birds
68. Practice grace under pressure
69. Stand up and stretch
70. Always have a plan “B”
71. Learn a new doodle
72. Memorize a joke
73. Be responsible for your feelings
74. Learn to meet your own needs
75. Become a better listener
76. Know your limitations and let others know them, too
77. Tell someone to have a good day in Latin
78. Throw a paper airplane
79. Exercise every day
80. Learn the words to a new song
81. Get to work early
82. Clean out one closet
83. Play patty cake with a toddler
84. Go on a picnic
85. Take a different route to work
86. Leave work early (with permission)
87. Put air freshener in your car
88.. Watch a movie and eat popcorn
89. Write a note to a far away friend
90. Go to a ball game and scream
91. Cook a meal and eat it by candlelight
92. Recognize the importance of unconditional love
93. Remember that stress is an attitude
94. Keep a journal
95. Practice a monster smile
96. Remember you always have options
97. Have a support network of people, places and things
98. Quit trying to fix other people
99. Get enough sleep
100.Talk less and listen more
101.Freely praise other people
Compiled by Muhammad Shoaib Tanoli
Another Fit Case for Suo Moto Action by Superior Courts of Pakistan
Straight Talk – The Power Crisis & The 780 million rip-offs. (The Nation, Sunday, 10th July, 2011)
The threat of a looming power crisis that the country would be facing in the coming years was raised way back in 1994, when a group of concerned citizens had filed a Public Interest Litigation against KESC in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Since then, Helpline Trust and other citizens have repeatedly raised this issue at various platforms. Yet despite the ringing of the alarm bells over the years, no government, civilian or military, has taken this looming crisis seriously.
Instead, the present government has excelled in promoting the culture of corruption in its various ministries. There are reports of mega corruption scandals almost every day and yet our leaders have the audacity to insist that they must be allowed to complete their five-year term in office, because the citizens had voted for the PPP in the last elections.
However, the voters had not given the government a carte-blanche authority to loot and plunder the country. They had voted for the PPP, with the hope that this time it would fulfill its promise of providing Roti – Kapra – Makaan to the citizens and establish good governance, accountability and enforcement of the Rule of Law. But, as in the past, it has failed to honor any of these promises.
However, instead of introducing good governance and investing in power generation units and improving the output and efficiency of the existing units, the government has been indulging in the worst kind of corruption and rip-offs in the power sector.
First we had the questionable KESC Privatization deal, which is still shrouded in secrecy, followed by the scandals of the massive rip-offs in the importation of IPP plants and the agreements connected with these shady deals. (http://www.helplinetrust.org/EDC%201/youtube%20ht/kesc.htm).
This was then followed by the news of the recent rip-off in the importation of the Turkish Karkey power rental ship, which, according to reports, is standing idle off the shores of Karachi for the last few months and is costing this electricity starved City of Lights a cool $9 million a month.
The deal to pay capacity charges of approximately Rs.780 million was struck between the clueless former minister of water and power, Raja Pervez Ashraf, who had boldly announced that there would be no load shedding in Pakistan after December 2009 and Raja Babar Ali Zulqarnain, son of AJK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan, the country representative for the company Karkey Karadeniz Elektrik Uretim AS in Pakistan.
The power rental ship is standing idle because the government is not making any efforts to ensure fuel supply to make the unit fully operational. Instead, it is paying Rs26.37 per unit as capacity charges, while Rs. l5.48 per unit is being paid under the head of fuel cost.
This multi-million dollar loss to the national economy came to the surface during the hearing of the petition of eight power distribution companies. During the hearings, it was revealed that Karkey is producing only 30 megawatts of power, against an agreement to add 231 MWs to the system.
Allegations of massive corruption and mismanagement in the power sector have been circulating for a very long time, but who are the real Hidden Hands that are behind this recent rip-off is not clear but it is obvious that they must all be very pleased with themselves and smiling all the way to the bank.
In India, the citizens have forced the government to form a Grand Alliance against Corruption and introduce a bill to tackle the problem. India’s Supreme Court has also ordered a special investigation into undeclared money stashed in foreign bank accounts of the rich and the famous.
While in contrast, instead of assisting the Supreme Court of Pakistan in punishing the culprits involved in corruption, our democratically elected Awami government has tried everything in the book to sabotage trial proceedings.
It has frustrated the Court’s efforts to investigate cases of corruption and the Rs.5 billion NICL scandal, by trying to suspend ADG FIA, Zafar Qureshi, on the pretext of talking to media without departmental authorization.
However, the CJ has stepped in and ordered the government to reinstate the ADG or face its wrath. Such is the commitment of this morally corrupt government to eliminate the octopus of corruption and improve our system of governance.
According to media reports, all this was being done to accommodate the leaders of PML-Q, who have come forward to join a shaky coalition, to prevent the PPP government from immediate collapse.
General Musharraf, in his eight years of governance, had the opportunity to tackle the power crisis and could have taken the positive steps to set up power generation plants and revamp the dilapidated and outdated distribution.
But instead, this government had also ignored this problem and had taken took the easy way out, by privatizing the utility service, without examining the ground realities and had allowed allowing this city of lights to plunge into darkness.
And unfortunately, the present government has also failed to rectify the mess that the previous government had left and even failed to provide the basic facilities like electricity, gas, clean water and a decent health and education system to its citizens.
Our leaders have shamelessly humiliated and shamed this nation. Under this government, we do not have democracy, but a politics of bullets and fear, as it has failed to even protect the lives and property of the citizens, which is the primary duty of the government under the constitution.
Will the Grand Alliance between the two former rivals, PML-N and MQM, come up to the ‘Great Expectations’ of the suffering citizens? Will it force the government to end corruption, the increasing killings in Karachi and improve the system of governance?
Or is it just another attempt to push AZ and his Merry Men out of their Ivory Tower? Or will this GA end up as just another ‘Much ado about nothing’ charade, as in the past, only time will tell.
After 9/11, Pakistan had declared a war against terror. Perhaps it is time for the government to declare a war against corruption, target killings and the power crisis, which is crippling and killing our industries and making the lives of the citizens miserable and unbearable.
Until then, in the words of Gen. Musharraf, our former dictator, at the end of his resignation speech: ‘Pakistan Ka Khuda hafiz hai’ – ‘May Allah protect Pakistan’.
Hamid Maker. (Email: trust@helplinetrust.org).
Golden Words – 30 Ways to Reduce Your Stress
21. Unclutter your life
22. Smile
23. Be prepared for rain
24. Tickle a baby
25. Pet a friendly dog/cat
26. Don’t know all the answers
27. Look for a silver lining
28. Say something nice to someone
29. Teach a kid to fly a kite
30. Walk in the rain
31. Schedule play time into every day
32. Take a bubble bath
33. Be aware of the decisions you make
34. Believe in yourself
35. Stop saying negative things to yourself
36. Visualize yourself winning
37. Develop your sense of humor
38. Stop thinking tomorrow will be a better today
39. Have goals for yourself
40. Dance a jig
41. Say “hello” to a stranger
42. Ask a friend for a hug
43. Look up at the stars
44. Practice breathing slowly
45. Learn to whistle a tune
46. Read a poem
47. Listen to a symphony
48. Watch a ballet
49. Read a story curled up in bed
50. Do a brand new thing
Golden Words – Happiness Bestowed By A Small Compliment
“There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment.”
Golden Words – Inadequate Life
| “Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.” |
| Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956);
Poet, playwright, theater director |
