Loud Thinking

Archive for July, 2014

An open letter to Mr. Ahsan Iqbal..!

My dear Ahsan Iqbal Sahab,

AoA.

There is no need for rejoicing on the improvement of Moodi’s credit rating for Pakistan.

Reason being that PMLN’s government is in its 14 month of the 60 month tenure; and the general public is absolutely devoid of any trickle down affects of the government policies.

Just look at the fact that exactly the same electricity was being generated during the last PPP era.

The difference now being we are forced to pay the double for not only the electricity bills, but for the gas and petrol bills, as well.

So, in fact, PMLN’s government rather than giving anything to the public, has snatched whatever was left with, at the end of the PPP government.

As such, please stop blowing the IMF, World Bank and Moodi’s trumpet and have an honest dissection of your government’s economic policies, which is based on the foundations of:

Loans.

Increasing utilities rates.

Enhancing POL rates.

Punishing the honest citizens who accurately pays bills and taxes by increasing the bills and taxes amounts.

Rewarding the tax and utility bill thieves, who who can easily evade these payments, with their might and influence.

Doubling the car token tax in Punjab, may be to punish your voters for the mistake of voting to PMLN to power again in the province.

Not implementing any austerity drive, which is evident from the purchases of luxury cars and dogs and favouring people like Baber Ayaz with appointment at CAA at Rs.60/- Lacs per annum salary + perks.

Sir, it looks that this government is even more cruel and callous, when it comes to lavish spendings of the tax payers money.

Kindly, correct me where I was wrong mentioning the facts about the lavish spendings of the national wealth, during the current government’s 14 month era and also to be noted that no effort has been made to recover the looted national wealth stashed abroad, as per most loud claims made during the election rallies.

Under the circumstances, kindly advise us what difference is there to compare this government with ANY previous government of Pakistan?

“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot — it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”

— Maya Angelou

Look what CNN says about the Israeli Genocide of Muslims in Gaza..!

CNN: Palestinians Want to Die

By David Swanson

July 12, 2014 “ICH” – In this latest assault on Gaza, Israel had by Thursday already killed 69 Palestinians including 22 children and 13 women, plus 469 wounded including 166 children and 85 women, and 70 houses destroyed. These numbers have since increased significantly.
In this video from Thursday on CNN, Jake Tapper interviews Diana Buttu, a former advisor to the PLO. After failing to persuade her of Israel’s complete innocence, he tells her that Hamas is instructing women and children to remain in their homes to die as Israel bombs them. She responds by expressing doubt that people want to die. Oh no, says Tapper, Palestinians live in a culture of martyrdom; they want to die.

William Westmoreland once remarked on Vietnam, where the United States killed 4 million men, women, children, and infants: “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient.”

Banastre Tarleton stood up in Parliament and defended the slave trade on the grounds that Africans did not object to being slaves.

President William McKinley said little brown Filipinos appreciated being conquered and dominated.

The view that the people you are abusing don’t mind it has a long history of being employed to distract from the evil being done.

Just as powerful, if not more so, is the view that no evil is being done at all.

ABC News’ Diane Sawyer told her viewers that scenes of destruction in Gaza were actually in Israel, and was later forced to apologize, but did not note that scenes like those she’d shown do not exist in Israel, rather leaving the impression that a simple mistake had swapped out similar scenes from one country for the other.

Polls have found that people in the United States believe Iraq benefitted from the war that destroyed it and that Iraqis are grateful, while the United States itself suffered.

If people cannot be depicted as evil, because we see images of them, and they are 3 years old and have their limbs ripped off, and if our cruelty cannot be depicted as for their own good, then the cruelty must itself be denied. We must completely avert our eyes or invert the facts. Or we must blame someone else for it. Blame Israel for getting a bit carried away after so many years of innocent suffering.

But it is with billions of dollars of weaponry provided free of cost courtesy of U.S. taxpayers that the Israeli military is bombing civilian neighborhoods in occupied Gaza. The ongoing occupation is at the root of the crisis, but this new turn to large-scale violence was produced by fraud. The Israeli government learned that three Israelis had been killed, falsely blamed Hamas, and falsely claimed to believe the young men might still be alive. This fraud was used to justify a search-and-rescue operation that left numerous dead and hundreds under arrest.

Small-scale violence by Palestinians is not justified by Israel’s ongoing brutality. It is deeply immoral as well as absurdly counterproductive. But if individual murders justified the mass killing of war, the United States would have to launch a full-scale war on itself every day of the year. And it is the United States’ weaponry, provided under the euphemism of “aid,” that is pounding the homes of the people of Gaza.

Jewish Voice for Peace says, in an open letter that you too can sign:

“In this time of tremendous suffering and fear, from Jerusalem to Gaza, and from Hebron to Be’er Sheva, we reaffirm that all Israelis and Palestinians deserve security, justice, and equality, and we mourn all those who have died.

“Our unshakeable commitment to freedom and justice for all compels us to acknowledge that this violence has fallen overwhelmingly on Palestinians. And it compels us to affirm that this violence has a root cause: Israel’s illegal occupation.

“We are united in our belief that:

“The denial of Palestinian human rights must end.
Illegal settlements must end.
Bombing civilians must end.
Killing children must end.
Valuing Jewish lives at the expense of others must end.

“Only by embracing equality for all peoples can this terrible bloodshed end.”

“All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.”

—James Thurber (1894-1961);
American Author, Cartoonist

Lionel Messi probably got his prize of golden ball for his more number of mishits at crucial times, than goals scored..!

Mr. Prime Minister, since your government took over, over a year ago, instead of providing the electricity, your government is giving us the figures of electricity produced and its demand.

Sir, we don’t need figures of electricity supply and demand.

The nation wants electricity.

However, if there is a shortage don’t punish the poor only.

Let the President, PM, Governor and CM houses and VIP colonies also take some burden of the load shedding.

Avoid These Common Strategic Planning Activities

When it comes to setting strategy, most companies do three things that are useless. These exercises may be familiar and reassuring, but you should not:
Wait until the annual strategy review to revisit your strategy. Competitors don’t wait a year to attack, customers don’t wait to shift their preferences, and new technology doesn’t wait to change the game. Monitor the marketplace continuously, and keep your strategy choices aligned with it.
Put together a SWOT analysis to kick off the process. There is no such thing as a generic strength, weakness, opportunity, or threat. A strength is only a strength in specific contexts. Rather than trying to analyze these in advance, first figure out where you want to play and how you’ll win.
Worry about a perfect mission statement right now. You can’t finalize your statement without choosing where to play and how to win. Start with a draft that you can revisit.

Adapted by HBR from “ Three Quick Ways to Improve Your Strategy-Making” by Roger Martin.

Falklands country has lost the game…again to a European nation.

The world has witnessed a scintillating game..!

Well played GRE.
ARG lost but not disgraced..!