Loud Thinking

Archive for July, 2013

An Excellent Out of Box Solution for the Entire Economic Malaise of Pakistan.

Pakistan must give a try to this novel idea to easily eliminate poverty and unemployment.

The other untapped ‘free’ money

July 17, 2013 Najma Sadeque

An Article About a Novel Idea to Easily Eliminate Poverty & Unemployment Published in the daily “The Nation” dated 17 July, 2013.

The actual worth of goods and services in the world last year was over $71 trillion, a staggering jump from over $41 trillion in 2000. If that’s the case, how is it that the amount of money in the world – coins, paper and digital – is ten times that or more? With such excess, why are 2 billion still hungry, poor, jobless or underemployed?

What happens when some have too much and most have too little money? When a minority of people have several hundred or thousand-fold more than others, they buy up most of everything, create monopolies and cartels, arbitrarily raise prices and make undue, excessive profits while the majority do with less than their fair share, or go without entirely. They have money enough to lobby and influence politics, government and legislation, and unwarranted control over or privatisation of ‘commons’ lands and public goods, leading to loss of social and economic services for the masses. Why is such excess purchasing power allowed when it causes heightened and unacceptable inequalities and damaging inflation?

If we really believe in things like human and constitutional rights, democracy, Islamic finance, and equal rights and opportunities, and acknowledge that all natural resources are essential for survival, and all are therefore entitled to an adequate share each, there then has to be a mechanism to ensure fair distribution of minimum needs for all citizens.

That facilitator is money, which today no longer has to be backed by gold or silver or other commodity; it just needs to be guaranteed and reliable.

Various types of positive financial services have successfully served the “little people” in many other countries for at least a century. When dire economic straits occurred, such as in Argentina, Iran, even USA and UK, and most recently in Greece, apart from rioting and protests, did people just curl up and die because they had no cash? No, necessity being the mother of invention, some innovated or revived old, tested solutions known as complementary or community currencies.

It is best illustrated by one of the most famous success stories. In 1932, Wörgl, a small Austrian town, was in dire straits. There were 1,500 jobless and 200 impoverished, penniless families. But Michael Unterguggenberger, Wörgl’s brilliant Mayor, decided to test out the ideas of Silvio Gesell, a German economist and activist. He issued scrip (free of cost except for printing) with an exchange value of 40,000 schillings, and spent the money into circulation through public works that created huge employment. All the broken roads were repaved, the water system rebuilt, a ski jump, new houses, and more made; even a bridge, commemorated with a permanent plaque that proudly states: “This bridge was built with our own ‘free’ money.”

As it turned out, every scrip generated 12 to 14 times more employment than the official schillings in circulation. It was so successful that a neighbouring city and six villages copied it. The then Prime Minister of France specially visited to see the “Miracle of Wörgl” for himself. A year later, 200 other Austrian towns planned to replicate it.

At this point, the Central Bank grew alarmed and asserted its monopoly over the finance system, even though each scrip was restricted to community use. The people sued the central bank, but lost. It was an unfortunate dog-in-the-manger attitude, refusing to assist people who needed help, but also thwarting the people from helping themselves.

Since then, there have been many other such examples – but with happier endings, some with government tolerance if not backing. A virtually costless solution for people denied the right to paid work and money.

Today, there are over 2,500 complementary and community currencies around the world. There are small service charges, but no crippling interest. There have always been poor and low-income or the temporarily cash-strapped; alternatives were developed according to local needs.

The tokens are not national legal tender, and not allowed outside delineated areas of operation. Yet, they are being resorted to increasingly, to overcome the marginalisation of the masses by banks or inept governments.

In recent decades, answering a need, they have grown in popularity and use. Just a few weeks ago, the 2nd International Conference on Complementary and Community Currency Systems took place in the Netherlands, addressed by academics, economists, public bankers and activists. Other such meetings are forthcoming this year in UK and USA. Since 2002 – long before the global financial crash – some local currency schemes in Europe under certain conditions are exchangeable with national currency.

Some schemes are for the express purpose of local food production and re-localisation of purchasing. If and when they are no longer needed, they can be easily phased out. It is the sort of thing our women and our peasants need until they are “mainstreamed” into the wider economy.

In a country such as ours where there is inadequate infrastructure for most services, this would ideally be carried out by trusted civil service organisations as they have been elsewhere. Micro-credit philanthropies need to study complementary/community currency possibilities because the money they use still carries an in-built interest burden, while microcredit banks charge heavy interest like any other bank; they serve individuals rather than communities, and only to a limited extent.

Commercial banks are limited by their own for-profit-only existence, lending only to those who pay back with interest; and certain self-serving transactional practices that have corrupted part of the wider banking world, in the end failing most people, especially of the developing world.

The scheme requires no major infrastructure, and it certainly does not require foreign loans, that would be undesirable and defeat the purpose. There is one proviso though. It has to be operated with transparency and honesty. Success stories came from maintaining open, audited books and public participation. If corruption or political advantage intrude, it will collapse before take-off.

The question is: why didn’t Pakistan adopt such solutions earlier? Mainly because our politicians and decision-makers couldn’t care less; nor do they want to empower people, who may become the competition or reduce their domination – as in the case of land reform. The “highly-qualified” are so inward-looking, even brainwashed by World Bank/IMF norms, they don’t even look at today’s easily accessible global information, to learn from outside.

It first needs the realisation that money is merely a measure – a medium of exchange and accounting device – and that it does ‘not’ have to be borrowed or be earned first before it can be spent. Nor is it a special knowledge that only bankers and controlling governments can understand.

The writer is a former journalist and currently director of The Green Economic Initiative at Shirkat Gah, a rights and advocacy group.

Ahmad Shahzad and Nasir Jamshed are batting like retarded players. Good luck Pakistan.

Justice is the quality of being fair; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness..

“Take a stand for what’s right. Raise a ruckus and make a change. You may not always be popular, but you’ll be part of something larger and bigger and greater than yourself. Besides, making history is extremely cool.”

Samuel L. Jackson (born 1948);
Actor

Saeed Ajmal seems to have lost his sting and now looks a pretty ordinary slow bowler.

Pakistan must take these fake Indian parliament and Mumbai attacks issue to the United Nations Security Council and demand an Indian apology.

India should also apologise with the family of Afzal Guru.

USA and NSG members must immediately terminate any civilian nuclear cooperation and Australia must cease uranium supplies to India for risking a nuclear war after raising a false flags not once but twice, of fake parliament and Mumbai attacks by the so called Pakistani terrorists.

The statements of Satish Verma and the 13 questions of A Roy totally corroborate to prove that Indian government brought the world to the brink of nuclear war not once but twice by manipulating false flag, may be it learned these tactics from the USA when Iraq was attacked on false flag of WMD’s.

First read this excerpt from Times of India dated 14 July, 2013.

A former home ministry officer has alleged that a member of the CBI-SIT team had accused incumbent governments of “orchestrating” the terror attack on Parliament and the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai.

R V S Mani, who as home ministry under-secretary signed the affidavits submitted in court in the alleged encounter case, has said that Satish Verma, until recently a part of the CBI-SIT probe team, told him that both the terror attacks were set up “with the objective of strengthening the counter-terror legislation (sic)”.

Mani has said that Verma “…narrated that the 13.12. 2001(attack on Parliament) was followed by Pota (Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act) and 26/11 2008 (terrorists’ siege of Mumbai) was followed by amendment to the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act).”

The official has alleged Verma levelled the damaging charge while debunking IB’s inputs labelling the three killed with Ishrat in the June 2004 encounter as Lashkar terrorists.

Arundhati Roy’s 13 Questions about December 13:

Question 1: For months before the Attack on Parliament, both the government and the police had been saying that Parliament could be attacked. On December 12, 2001, at an informal meeting the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee warned of an imminent attack on Parliament. On December 13, Parliament was attacked. Given that there was an ‘improved security drill’, how did a car bomb packed with explosives enter the parliament complex?

Question 2: Within days of the Attack, the Special Cell of Delhi Police said it was a meticulously planned joint operation of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba. They said the attack was led by a man called ‘Mohammad’ who was also involved in the hijacking of IC-814 in 1998. (This was later refuted by the CBI.) None of this was ever proved in the court. What evidence did the Special Cell have for its claim?

Question 3: The entire attack was recorded live on Close Circuit TV (CCTV). Congress Party MP Kapil Sibal demanded in Parliament that the CCTV recording be shown to the members. He was supported by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah, who said that there was confusion about the details of the event. The Chief Whip of the Congress Party, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, said: ‘I counted six men getting out of the car. But only five were killed. The close-circuit TV camera recording clearly showed the six men.’ If Dasmunshi was right, why did the police say that there were only five people in the car? Who was the sixth person? Where is he now? Why was the CCTV recording not produced by the prosecution as evidence in the trial? Why was it not released for public viewing?

Question 4: Why was Parliament adjourned after some of these questions were raised?

Question 5: A few days after December 13 attacks, the government declared that it had ‘incontrovertible evidence’ of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack, and announced a massive mobilisation of almost half-a-million soldiers to the Indo-Pakistan border. The subcontinent was pushed to the brink of nuclear war. Apart from Afzal’s ‘confession’, extracted under torture (and later set aside by the Supreme Court), what was the ‘incontrovertible evidence’?

Question 6: Is it true that the military mobilisation to the Pakistan border had begun long before the December 13 Attack?

Question 7: How much did this military standoff, which lasted for nearly a year, cost? How many soldiers died in the process? How many soldiers and civilians died because of mishandled landmines, and how many peasants lost their homes and land because trucks and tanks were rolling through their villages, and landmines were being planted in their fields?

Question 8: In a criminal investigation it is vital for the police to show how the evidence gathered at the scene of the attack led them to the accused. How did the police reach Mohammad Afzal? The Special Cell says SAR Geelani led them to Afzal. But the message to look out for Afzal was actually flashed to the Srinagar Police before Geelani was arrested. So how did the Special Cell connect Afzal to the 13 December Attack?

Question 9: The courts acknowledge that Afzal was a surrendered militant who was in regular contact with the security forces, particularly the Special Task Force (STF) of Jammu & Kashmir Police. How do the security forces explain the fact that a person under their surveillance was able to conspire in a major militant operation?

Question 10: Is it plausible that organizations like Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed would rely on a person who had been in and out of STF torture chambers, and was under constant police surveillance, as the principal link for a major operation?

Question 11: In his statement before the court, Afzal says that he was introduced to ‘Mohammed’ and instructed to take him to Delhi by a man called Tariq, who was working with the STF. Tariq was named in the police charge sheet. Who is Tariq and where is he now?

Question 12: On 19 December 2001, six days after the Parliament Attack, Police Commissioner, Thane (Maharashtra), S.M. Shangari identified one of the attackers killed in the Parliament Attack as Mohammad Yasin Fateh Mohammed (alias Abu Hamza) of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, who had been arrested in Mumbai in November 2000, and immediately handed over to the J&K Police. He gave detailed descriptions to support his statement. If Police Commissioner Shangari was right, how did Mohammad Yasin, a man in the custody of the J&K Police, end up participating in the Parliament Attack? If he was wrong, where is Mohammad Yasin now?

Question 13: Why is it that we still don’t know who the five dead ‘terrorists’ killed in the Parliament Attack are?

Our Lives Begin to End the Day We
Become Silent about Things that Matter.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Right Questions to Ask Your Data Analysts

In today’s business world, you’ve got to be data literate to succeed. If you aren’t trained in analytics, don’t fret. As a non-expert, you can play a critical role by asking your “quants” the tough questions. Here are a few that almost always lead to more rigorous, defensible analyses: Where did the data come from? How well does the sample represent the population? Does the data distribution include outliers? How did they affect the results? What assumptions are behind your analysis? Might certain conditions render your assumptions and your model invalid? Why did you decide on that particular analytical approach? What alternatives did you consider? If you don’t understand a reply to any of these, ask for one that uses simpler language.

Adapted from “Keep Up with Your Quants” by Thomas H. Davenport.

“It is not good enough to have a good mind; the main thing is
to use it well.”

— Rene Descartes

Pakistan sleeping with illiteracy

Education Emergency

An excellent letter by Mr. Imran Takkar, Peshawar, Published by the daily “Daily Times” on 16 July 13.

Sir: The fundamental role of education in contributing to the cognitive, emotional and intellectual development of a child cannot be overstated. Hence, the right to education has time and again been recognised an an essential right of all human beings. Furthermore, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UNESCO Convection against Discrimination in Education 1960, the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 have all instituted the basic right of all individuals to get meaningful education. Pakistan, in addition to being a signatory to these conventions, has also endorsed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) goals. If we speak of education as being the right of an individual, our constitution regards it as a “fundamental right” but, unfortunately, in Pakistan, even after more than 60 years we lag far behind what could have been achieved. If we make the MDGs (of which Pakistan is a signatory) a benchmark to assess our education system, we may find startling figures. For instance, MDG goal number two says, “Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling” but Pakistan still has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world and the second largest out of school population, The number of out of school children is more than that of India, Ethiopia and even Nigeria. In the percentile literacy rate Pakistan even lags behind countries like Bangladesh and Nigeria.

The recently published annual report by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) shows that almost 25 million children and adolescents are out of school in Pakistan, out of which seven million (aged between three to five years) have yet to receive primary schooling. The poor state of education in the country is evident from Pakistan’s position on the Education Development Index where Pakistan is ranked at 113 out of 120 countries. With the current rate of progress, Pakistan will fail to reach the education related MDGs by 2015. The SPARC annual report further said that almost 12 million school going children are out of the school net, while last year, in April, UNICEF reported that around 7.3 million primary school going children were not going to school. It is estimated that girl children account for 4.21 million of the total.

So far, nothing has been done to reform the education system, despite the 18th Amendment, which made the provinces responsible for education up till higher secondary levels and made education free and compulsory for each child from ages five to sixteen. It has become evident that only making changes in the constitution and laws can never bring educational reforms. It needs real political will and practical intentions, i.e. investment in primary education needs to be increased substantially to attain prospective progress towards set targets and goals outlined in the MDGs and EFA initiatives. In this context, the importance of investing in primary education has been magnified in the aftermath of the 18th Amendment whereby access to primary education has been declared a fundamental right under Article 25 A of the constitution. Keeping in view the best interests of the child and a prosperous Pakistan, the current government should take effective administrative, financial and policy initiatives to upgrade and redesign the education structure according to the needs and requirements of the nation and the country. In fact, it has become a dire need to call an education emergency in the country; we need mass mobilisation of the general public as education is the basic step towards the country’s overall development.