Loud Thinking

Archive for August, 2013

2 Things Your Data Visualization Needs

Data is easier to understand when it’s presented visually. But sometimes designers get wrapped up in the exercise of making something beautiful and forget to make it functional. Here are two things to keep in mind when creating an infographic:

Know your audience. You can’t help your viewers make a decision unless you know what they’re looking for. Ask yourself: How will they read and interpret the information? What do they know already and what do they want to find out?

Tell a story. The right graph and data range should convey a compelling narrative. Create a visual that helps the viewer observe, understand, and make sense of the information.

Adapted by HBR from “The Three Elements of Successful Data Visualizations,” by Jim Stikeleather.

Mian M Nawaz Sharif Sahab PM Pakistan why your government is even slower and tardy than the last government of the PPP when you and Mian Shahbaz Sharif are personally working so hard…???

Please read this Dawn News dated 7 August, 2013.

Delays hang over Pakistan 3G lifeline.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s cash-strapped government has promised to sell 3G mobile telephone licenses to raise revenue, match regional rivals and drive prosperity, but the process has been beset by delays.

Even Afghanistan, Pakistan’s far less developed western neighbour with a weaker economy and more fragile state, has the technology.

But Pakistani consumers struggle to transfer data by phone, video streaming is often interrupted — although technically YouTube is banned — and video calls problematic.

Two months after the new government took office, there is little sign that the process will start soon.

Pakistan’s state minister for information technology Anusha Rehman told AFP that the auction alone could take six to eight months.

“The base price for 3G licenses is not set yet. Only once it is done will I be able to give a figure on how much revenue will be generated by the licenses sale,” she said.

But first the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) needs to be constituted and Rehman conceded there could be substantial delays.

“I am not sure how long it is going to take because the appointment of members have to be made by the cabinet,” she said.

A senior civil servant initially told AFP that key appointments to the PTA were expected to be finalised in July. The first half of August in Pakistan is dominated by religious and national holidays.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, elected for a historic third term in May, faces the daunting challenge of bringing down an 8.8 per cent budget deficit, yet his first budget was conservative.

He offered no major tax reforms and within weeks, his government was forced to seek a $5.3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund: enough only to keep on top of old loan repayments.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar sought to fend off some criticism about the lack of tax reform by saying that a 3G auction would fetch a “considerable amount of foreign exchange”.

Cheap mobile phone telephony took Pakistan by storm in the early 2000s and according to the PTA there are more than 122 million mobile phone subscribers — or 68.6 per cent of the population.

PTA officials estimate that a 3G auction could raise $1 billion in annual license fees, which could be ploughed back into reducing the crippling $5 billion circular debt in the energy sector.

But delays are not the only problem.

“The previous government could not auction 3G licenses because it wanted to bypass the standard tendering practices,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“There was infighting within the PTA over the auctioning of licenses as the previous government wanted to bypass standard procedures and there was resistance by the members which delayed the process,” the official said.

Raza Rabbani, a leading senator from the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, has criticised the inclusion of 3G license sale proceeds in the first budget of the Sharif government.

“These are illusionary figures. There is nothing concrete,” he told AFP.

Of the five mobile phone companies in Pakistan, only Oslo-based Telenor has so far expressed public interest in acquiring a 3G license, saying it could be operationally ready at the end of 2013.

“Telenor Pakistan is presently going through a massive network modernisation exercise which is expected to finish by the end of this year and is essential in making our state-of-the-art network 3G, 4G and LTE enabled,” a company official told AFP.

He said the technology would drive prosperity and that increasing Internet penetration by just 10 per cent would raise GDP by 1.5-1.6 per cent.

“It is a paradigm shift from voice to data that will open many doors for GSM operators in the country to serve their customers through innovative avenues,” the official said.

Shahzad Ahmad, country director of Bytes for All, an independent technology think tank, says Pakistan should forget 3G and move directly to more advanced 4G LTE bands.

But he also called for clean bidding.

“The process should be transparent so that Pakistan gets a better price for its asset and ensure that there is no corruption,” he told AFP.

“So far there is no transparency in the process, nobody knows how many licenses are going to be auctioned and to whom?” he added.

Ahmad said that 4G technology will speed up telecommunication in Pakistan and create new jobs in online media content creation.

Consumers seem unfazed, saying they already have to pay more than 40 per cent taxes and service charges on recharges and calls.

“The amount of taxes on mobile phone calls is insane. I recharge a 100 rupee card and get only 60 rupees credit. The rest all goes into taxes, duties and service charges,” construction worker Mohammad Afzal, 35, told AFP.

Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

— Bernard M. Baruch

“If you don’t stretch your limits — you’ll set your limits.”

Helping-Others is to give aid or support to those in need.

“To strengthen the muscles of your heart, the best exercise is lifting someone else’s spirit whenever you can.”

Pervaiz Musharraf Government’s PTCL Sale to Etisalat Telecom Falls Under the Odious Transaction

Pervaiz Musharraf’s government sold the Pakistani gold mine company PTCL, to Etisalat Telecom of UAE, with mind boggling condition of transferring 100% physical assets on just 26% share holding of PTCL, that too on pay as you earn basis.

Never ever in the history of the world any government has sold its precious assets on such a throw away terms, to a foreign company.

As such, this deal clearly falls under the ODIOUS transaction.

Moreover, Etisalat Telecom is also a defaulter of mind boggling huge amount of $800 million to the GOP since about last 8-10 years.

Therefore, in the Pakistan’s national interest this PTCL sale deed with Etisalat Telecom should be cancelled and all their foreign executives posted in Pakistan be allowed to leave only after clearance of all dues with accrued interest, by the company.

Why can’t Pakistan repudiate its odious debts (when America has already done it) and odious PTCL deal with Etisalat?

Odious debt : Definition In international law, odious debt, also known as illegitimate debt, is a legal theory that holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are, thus, considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion.

Implementation history of odious debt.

The doctrine was formalised in a 1927 treatise by Alexander Nahum Sack, a Russian émigré legal theorist, based upon 19th-century precedents including Mexico’s repudiation of debts incurred by Emperor Maximilian’s regime, and the denial by the United States of Cuban liability for debts incurred by the Spanish colonial regime.

According to Alexander Nahum Sack: When a despotic regime contracts a debt, not for the needs or in the interests of the state, but rather to strengthen itself, to suppress a popular insurrection, etc, this debt is odious for the people of the entire state.

This debt does not bind the nation; it is a debt of the regime, a personal debt contracted by the ruler, and consequently it falls with the demise of the regime.

The reason why these odious debts cannot attach to the territory of the state is that they do not fulfil one of the conditions determining the lawfulness of State debts, namely that State debts must be incurred, and the proceeds used, for the needs and in the interests of the State.

Odious debts, contracted and utilised for purposes which, to the lenders’ knowledge, are contrary to the needs and the interests of the nation, are not binding on the nation – when it succeeds in overthrowing the government that contracted them – unless the debt is within the limits of real advantages that these debts might have afforded.

The lenders have committed a hostile act against the people, they cannot expect a nation which has freed itself of a despotic regime to assume these odious debts, which are the personal debts of the ruler.

Why can’t Pakistan repudiate its odious debts (when America has already done it) and odious PTCL deal with Etisalat?

Odious debt : Definition

In international law, odious debt, also known as illegitimate debt, is a legal theory that holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are, thus, considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion.

Implementation history of odious debt.

The doctrine was formalized in a 1927 treatise by Alexander Nahum Sack,[1] a Russian émigré legal theorist, based upon 19th-century precedents including Mexico’s repudiation of debts incurred by Emperor Maximilian’s regime, and the denial by the United States of Cuban liability for debts incurred by the Spanish colonial regime.

According to Sack:

When a despotic regime contracts a debt, not for the needs or in the interests of the state, but rather to strengthen itself, to suppress a popular insurrection, etc, this debt is odious for the people of the entire state. This debt does not bind the nation; it is a debt of the regime, a personal debt contracted by the ruler, and consequently it falls with the demise of the regime. The reason why these odious debts cannot attach to the territory of the state is that they do not fulfil one of the conditions determining the lawfulness of State debts, namely that State debts must be incurred, and the proceeds used, for the needs and in the interests of the State. Odious debts, contracted and utilised for purposes which, to the lenders’ knowledge, are contrary to the needs and the interests of the nation, are not binding on the nation – when it succeeds in overthrowing the government that contracted them – unless the debt is within the limits of real advantages that these debts might have afforded. The lenders have committed a hostile act against the people, they cannot expect a nation which has freed itself of a despotic regime to assume these odious debts, which are the personal debts of the ruler.

Mr. Ishaq Dar since you are under oath to serve Pakistan, we trust your personal relations with the UAE rulers will not come in the way of your duty towards your motherland

Mr. Ishaq Dar, as you know, Musharraf government sold the Pakistani gold mine company PTCL, to Etisalat Telecom of UAE, with mind boggling condition of transferring 100% physical assets on just 26% share holding of PTCL, that too on pay as you earn basis.

Never ever in the history of the world any government has sold its precious assets on such a throw away terms, to a foreign company.

As such, this deal clearly falls under the ODIOUS transaction.

Moreover, Etisalat Telecom is also a defaulter of mind boggling huge amount of $800 million to the GOP since about last 8-10 years. Therefore, in the national interest this PTCL sale deed with Etisalat Telecom should be cancelled and all their foreign executives posted in Pakistan be detained and only released after clearance of all dues with accrued interest by the company.

Mr. Ishaq Dar since you are under oath to serve Pakistan, we trust your personal relations with the UAE rulers will not come in the way of your duty towards your motherland.