Loud Thinking

Archive for January, 2013

Bernard Shaw and Muhammad (PBUH)

The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, though an atheist, said:

“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him – the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness:

I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.

Shaw also stated that “If any religion has a chance of conquering England ,nay Europe, within the next hundred years, that religion is Islam.”

He said about the prophet Mohammad (PBUH) : He was by far the most remarkable man that ever set foot on this earth. He preached a religion, founded a state, built a nation, laid down a moral code, initiated numerous social and political reforms, established a powerful and dynamic society to practice and represent his teachings and completely revolutionized the worlds of human thought and behavior for all times to come.

It is absolutely the right time to fully appreciate PCB and Pakistani cricket team for basically two achievements. Firstly, for winning the ODI series against India 2-1 and secondly, for completing a very sensitive tour, absolutely incident free.

Now, this is also very appropriate time for the PCB, to finalise its short and long term future plans, with regard to the policy of categorising players for the teams for Test’s, ODI’s and T20’s. This is necessary, because Pakistan will be competing for Test Championship, Champion’s Trophy, T20 World Cup and the ODI World Cup, all within next 36 months.

So, with an eye on the future, the PCB planning should focus on such potential players, who have the capacity or who can be groomed to have the capacity, to deliver for Pakistan, in the days to come. We should not waste time, energy and money on such players, who are past their prime and per se wants to continue playing, just for selfish reasons; but they are practically blocking the future of up coming and young players, for an indefinite period.

In this connection, PCB recently, took a difficult, bold and wise decision of dropping Shahid Afridi from the ODI version of the game. While, not taking anything from the past contributions of Shahid Afridi, PCB’s decision was very progressive and forward looking, but in my opinion, was still a bit late. National interests must not be compromised for personal wishes.

Now, again the time has come to select the players for the different versions of the game, on the basis of talent and capacity of the players, with prime objective of INVESTING in future. PCB should adopt a policy of bearing with the failures of the fresh lot with patience, rather than pursuing with old horses, who have even lost the strength, to easily hit sixes or even boundaries to reasonably good bowlers, or take three or four runs without being exhausted, on a slightly bigger grounds.

According to my observations, PCB must think about the future of the following players in a very rational manner.

1. Misbah ul Haq. He is not at all capable to play till the 2015 ODI World Cup. Even now, he is over age and not capable of steering the team out of a crisis situations, in front of WORLD CLASS bowling, particularly against out of sub-continent teams. So, why not to groom a fresh batsman instead of MUH and on the other hand, give the captaincy to Muhammad Hafeez, for gaining the experience for the coming Champions Trophy and the ensuing ODI World Cup?

2. Younis Khan. Our selectors took a retrogressive action in recalling him from the ODI retirement. Even his presence in the team today in the 3rd ODI, couldn’t save Pakistan from a mere 10 runs defeat against India. His selection for the Indian tour has cost us heavily, in not giving experience to a youngster. He should be decently thanked for his services and let him not block the future of any budding batsman. PCB should not be so callous with the new generation of batsmen, that retired batsmen be made to come in their way. If PCB had recalled Muhammad Yousaf or even Inzamam ul Haq, may be, they would have scored runs more than the newcomers, but then we can’t and must not live in the past, under any circumstances. For that matter, if India lost the ODI series against Pakistan, no heavens have fallen. Similarly, if we had lost to India with fresh legs, it would have been a gain of experience, rather than winning with recall, of retired persons.

3. Kamran Akmal. Just like Shahid Afridi (who can still be selected for few more weeks and months for his bowling abilities) Kamran Akmal is a spent cartridge; and to continue with him is in fact, deceiving ourselves. He may still give some performances against mediocre bowling, but against world class bowlers, his batting is absolutely UN-DEPENDABALE. As far as his wicket keeping is concerned, it is OK. However, there is no shortage of young generation of agile wicket keepers and hence, further continuation with Kamran Akmal, is like living in a fools paradise.

4. Shoaib Malik. There is no doubt that he was past his prime many months ago. He has reached a stage, where its impossible for him to perform against quality bowling, particularly in ODI and T20 versions of the game. If we argue that he performed well in domestic level, then the selectors should be told that domestic level performances are for the new players. International players are judged on their performances against foreign teams. These are two separate criterions for the different levels of players. If the selectors still wants to retain some old horses, for Test matches for some time, then PCB management shall be the better judge. However, these old players must not be used in a way to stop the career of the budding players.

5. Umar Akmal. He was touted in the past to be a player with immense talent. However, he has proved wrong all his fans and well wishers. In fact, he is the most UN-DEPENDABLE batsman in the team. Not to play him is a risk. However, to play him is a bigger risk. While batting, he is a very risky person for the batsman at the other end. Moreover, mostly his shot selections are very poor. He never puts a price on his wicket. Also it looks that in his failures, there is a big hand of his head coach. Somehow, this man looks a fit case for sending him to a psychologist, for making him a person with some sense of responsibilities and strong mental power, who should be able to focus on teams goal achievement. Till such time he is transformed into a mature person, Umar Akmal seems to be an utterly misfit player in the national squad.

So much for the PPP TV advertisements about the shining Sindh.

The below given extracts are from a letter of Mr. Hashim Abro, published on 4 January, 2013 in the daily “Pakistan Observer”.

This letter must be an eye opener for ALL the Pakistani ruling elites, including major & minor political parties, who are unable to digest the un-precedented public support, Allama Dr. Tahir ul Qadri, is getting for his slogan of CHANGE.

One thing is for sure that this mammoth public support, may or may not be for the personality, charisma or oratory of Allama Dr. Tahir ul Qadri, but definitely, its against the callousness of the incumbent government; which not only deprived the general public from the safety and security of their lives and property, but even snatched the basics of daily life from the teeming millions, like food, health (people are dying in hordes, almost daily, due to measles and spurious medicines), electricity, gas and CNG. Obviously, under these miserable living conditions, mention of education as basic human right, looks like a joke in Pakistan.

Suicides due to economic hardships, have become order of the day in Pakistan.

However, it was HARAM on the government to impose austerity measures to save few pennies to give any sort of relief to the poor.

And now, the politicians are advising the poor suffering masses of Pakistan, to support the old system against Allama Dr. Tahir ul Qadri, who has taken up cudgels, to free them from all the exploitations of the corrupt politicians.

Link:- http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=190078

“Shockingly, the reliable statistics from a few research organizations and NGOs reveal that every day more than a dozen people of all age group, particularly, young people, somewhere in the upper and lower regions of the province, attempt suicide. This makes suicide the third major cause of death, after prevalent diseases, tribal killings and honour killings. The gone year was the worst year in which a huge number of Sindhi youth committed suicides. Only a few were reported but numerous were unreported due to fear and terror of police.”

Hope the above explicitly explains the answers, why the general masses wants to get rid of this decadent system in Pakistan, which only gives disease, hunger and death to the poor.

However, the Pakistani ruling elite is still living in a state of denial, like the French Princess; and are continuously trying to befool the people, with media advertisement campaigns worth billions of Rupees, to make them believe that canals of milk and honey are overflowing in Pakistan, as a result of their five years GOLDEN rule.

Know the Impression Your Body Language Makes

Gestures, posture, and facial expressions all convey powerful messages to the people you interact with. Yet far too many people are unaware of the messages their body language sends. Next time you’re in an important meeting, ask yourself these two questions:

Am I fidgeting? If you’re sitting still and listening, then all is probably well. But if you’re shifting about in your chair, drumming your fingers, or worst of all, looking at your phone, then you can be sure that the person talking feels like you’re not interested in what they have to say.

Am I interrupting? In any healthy debate people will occasionally interrupt. But if you do it a lot, or are leaning in to make your point, people may feel that you’re not open to what they are saying.

Today’s Management Tip of Harvard Business Review was adapted from “Your Body Language Speaks for You in Meetings” by Charalambos Vlachoutsicos.