Loud Thinking

Archive for February, 2014

“…Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours.”

Ayn Rand (1905-1982);
writer, philosopher

“You create your opportunities by asking for them.”

— Shakti Gawain

“I haven’t a clue how my story will end, but that’s all right. When you set out on a journey and night covers the road, that’s when you discover the stars.”

Nancy Willard (born 1936);
children’s author, poet, and novelist

Rely on Routines to Free Your Mental Energy

Every time you make a decision — which candidate to hire, whether to delegate a task, even what to eat for lunch — you create mental tension. Our energy to make decisions is limited; stress and fatigue can keep us from making good ones. Use routines to reduce the number of decisions you have to make: If there’s something you need to do daily, try doing it at the same time every day. For example, establish a ritual for preparing for work in the morning. That might begin with checking e-mails and voice mails and responding to the urgent ones first to make it easier to move more quickly to important projects. Set up a similar routine for packing up to go home at night. Once you’ve put less-important decisions on autopilot, you’ll free up your energy for things that matter more.

Adapted by HBR from the HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work.

Zaka says he refused ICC presidentship for country
Undemocratic step of democratic government to harm Pakistan cricket

February 17, 2014 AZHAR KHAN The Nation.

“Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.”

— John Henry Jowett

An advice to the government of Mian Nawaz Sharif for avoiding the pit falls of the privatisation.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

AoA.

Sir,

Please note that privatisation should not be done in such a way, which will not GENUINELY increase the national wealth.

I mean that firstly, in payments of the government’s sold assets, money must not move from just one bank to the other bank, because It will NOT make any ADDITION to the national wealth.

Money must come from abroad, so that NATIONAL WEALTH genuinely increases in sale of the state owned enterprises (SOE’s).

For this to happen, all payments must be made to the GOP in foreign currency.

Secondly, the modus operandi of payment should not be based on the FACILITY to the buyers of the national assets, for making payment in instalments.

This system has the built in fault, of allowing the buyers of the SOE’s, to pay the instalments of the purchased assets from the pockets of the general public, by just increasing the prices of their products or services.

Such privatisations are a NET loss for the public and the nation.

Hence, these types of payment terms must not be allowed to be included in the privatisation deals.

We should also not forget the lessons of the highly dubious PTCL deal, in which the 10 years old outstanding payment of $800 million (which must be worth now $5 billion), by the ETISALAT Telecom, is still due to the government of Pakistan and the telecom company is enjoying the benefits of the default.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad.

An advice to the government of Mian Nawaz Sharif for avoiding the pit falls of the privatisation.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

AoA.

Sir,

Please note that privatisation should not be done in such a way, which will not GENUINELY increase the national wealth.

I mean that firstly, in payments of the government’s sold assets, money must not move from just one bank to the other bank, because It will NOT make any ADDITION to the national wealth.

Money must come from abroad, so that NATIONAL WEALTH genuinely increases in sale of the state owned enterprises (SOE’s).

For this to happen, all payments must be made to the GOP in foreign currency.

Secondly, the modus operandi of payment should not be based on the FACILITY to the buyers of the national assets, for making payment in instalments.

This system has the built in fault, of allowing the buyers of the SOE’s, to pay the instalments of the purchased assets from the pockets of the general public, by just increasing the prices of their products or services.

Such privatisations are a NET loss for the public and the nation.

Hence, these types of payment terms must not be allowed to be included in the privatisation deals.

We should also not forget the lessons of the highly dubious PTCL deal, in which the 10 years old outstanding payment of $800 million (which must be worth now $5 billion), by the ETISALAT Telecom, is still due to the government of Pakistan and the telecom company is enjoying the benefits of the default.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

ICC’s 3 Idiots.

The big three.

An excellent letter published by the daily “Dawn”.

BY virtue of the constitution the ICC had the privilege of being the ‘world state’ of cricket. All confederating powers as full members, vesting their authorities with the ICC to ethically and equitably govern the affairs, promote cricket the world over.

Unfortunately, over the years the poor working prompted the mandating of Lord Harry Woolf, the former chief justice of England and Wales, to review the governance of the ICC. His recommendations disdainfully discarded so much meat for the mites.

The latest autocratic overreach of the Big Three, sponsored by the ICC, will deliver a severe blow to the body of the ICC. It prompted Lord Woolf to remark ” … if implemented, the ICC would cease to be a global governing body…”

It shall have abrogated its right to rule cricket. It shall die its death and the world will witness the birth of a divided order splitting cricket forever with disastrous consequences.

Fakir S. Aizazuddin

Karachi

Secret of happiness..!

Once a group of 50 people was attending a seminar.

Suddenly the speaker stopped and started giving each one a balloon. Each one was asked to write his/her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room.

Now these delegates were let in that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written, within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with eachother, pushing around others and there was utter chaos.

At the end of 5 minutes no one could find their own balloon.

Now each one was asked to randomaly collect a balloon and give it to the the person whose name was written on it.

Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

The speaker began— Exactly this is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is.

Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness, you will get your own happiness.

And this is the purpose of human life.

Is this not what you are looking for?