Loud Thinking

Archive for January, 2015

Don’t Give Feedback When You Don’t Need To

While feedback should be a regular part of work, not every behavior warrants input. For example, you shouldn’t offer corrective feedback just because someone has a different work process — even if it stresses you out. So before you deliver feedback, think about what you’re trying to achieve. And avoid giving it when:

You do not have all the information

It concerns something that the recipient can’t control

The person appears to be highly emotional or especially vulnerable

You don’t have time to explain it thoroughly

It’s based on a personal preference, not a need for more effective behavior

You haven’t come up with a solution for how the person can move forward

Adapted from “Giving Effective Feedback (20-Minute Manager Series).”

SHAME on whom the PTA or the PMLN’s govt or on both of them..?

SMS Service for Shaukat Khanum Donations Banned by PTA

Syed Talal | 19 Jan 2015 01:13 pm

The management of Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Peshawar recently started a campaign for collecting donations to help with establishment costs. The campaign included an SMS drive, which has run into issues as PTA has banned it without providing any reason. Through the SMS campaign, people could easily donate PKR 20 by sending a blank SMS to…

“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

—William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)
American Politician

Prioritize Good Communication on Your Global Team

Global virtual teams are becoming more common. And because it’s harder to keep people in different regions of the world on track, you need to make sure that people are communicating as effectively as possible. Here are some ideas to try:

Make email a priority. Instant messaging relies on everyone being there at the same time. Email, on the other hand, can be totally asynchronous as it fits time zone differences and keeps teams in rhythm together.

Be intentionally positive. It’s easy for things to sound negative in an email. Sarcasm and humor can come across the wrong way, but being friendly and approachable is always welcome…even if it means using emoticons.

Offer suggestions, not critiques. “I don’t get it” can steer the conversation into a dead end. People should always suggest an alternative instead of simply sharing their dislike for an idea.

Adapted from “Communication Tips for Global Virtual Teams” by Paul Berry.

Indo-Pak nuclear war is an option..! https://www.snayyar.com//?s=Indo-Pak+nuclear+war+is+an+option#sthash.2BjpnM0m.dpbs

A sensational news item published today by the daily “The News”.

France’s Le Pen says Paris attacks work of US or Israeli agents: report

January 18, 2015 – Updated 1430 PKT
From Web Edition

PARIS: According to a report, published in The Independent, founder of France’s far right Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen has said that the Charlie Hebdo massacre may have been the work of an “intelligence agency”.

In an interview with a virulently anti-Western Russian newspaper Komsomolskaïa Pravda, Mr Le Pen, 86, gave credence to conspiracy theories circulating on the internet suggesting that the attack was the work of American or Israeli agents seeking to foment a civil war between Islam and the West, the report said.

The independent report further says, “The shooting at Charlie Hebdo resembles a secret service operation but we have no proof of that,” the newspaper quoted Mr Le Pen as saying. “I don’t think it was organised by the French authorities but they permitted this crime to be committed. That, for the moment, is just a supposition.”

To justify his comments, Mr Le Pen pointed to the fact that one of the Kouachi brothers, who carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacre, left his identity card in a crashed getaway car. He compared this to the “miraculous fact” – beloved by conspiracy theorists – that one of the passports of the 9/11 hijackers was found on the ground in New York after two planes collided with the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in 2001, the report added.

He further said that the 1,500,000 who marched “against hatred” in Paris last Sunday were not “Charlies” but “Charlie Chaplins”.

Petrol Shortages in the province of Punjab ONLY.

The nation needs answers to the following questions.

1. Minister for petroleum says the shortage is due to the 25% increased use which was the result of steep price reductions. Please note that Karachi alone consumes 50% of the total country’s petroleum consumption. As such, how come this shortage is NOT in Karachi and all the other 3 provinces? Why only scarcity of petrol in Punjab?

2. Country’s domestic petroleum production increased from 60,000BPD to 1,00,000 BPD. Why this production is NOT available for Punjab?

3. If PSO is bankrupt and its MD was inefficient then how come three provinces are getting normal petrol supplies and Punjab is singled out?

4. If ministry of finance didn’t release the funds timely for purchase of fuel, why again its consequences are NOT falling upon on three provinces and Punjab is facing the brunt of fuel shortages.

5. Why ALL marketing companies failed to maintain mandatory reserve stocks of 20 days and why no action taken against OGRA over dereliction of duties on this account?

Janab Ishaq Dar Sahab where you taken Pakistan’s economy?

Today Pakistani government can’t pay to PSO for its debts and the most vital and most strategic asset has gone bankrupt and people are running from pillar to post for Electricity, gas, water and Petrol.

Sir, what else is called the collapse of the government?

Sir, it is high time that the government realised that you miserably failed to run the economy of the country?

As such, the government has a moral responsibility to immediately resign for its 100% failure for which it also owe an apology to the nation for causing rather increasing the troubles and miseries of the nation.

Let there immediately be a National Unity Government in Pakistan, for which the PMLN must play its positive role, to salvage of whatever is left about its image and reputation.

Else the public knows that PMLN’s failure of governance has dwarfed the failures of the last PPP regime.

IMF loan

By Letter Published The Express Tribune: July 13, 2013

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LAHORE: This is addressed to the finance minister, Ishaq Dar. Without an iota of doubt, it is sheer disaster for Pakistan’s economy to seek a loan (that too at an interest rate of three per cent) from the IMF to repay its old loan. Moreover, the minister’s argument that this was the only option to avoid a default does not hold water.

There were many viable options, and in any case, default is still better than the destruction of the very foundations of a country’s economy. I hope the minister knows that in the recent past, many countries have bravely negotiated with international lending agencies and succeeded in getting reduction of up to 60 per cent of their loans. However, in Pakistan’s case, our loan amount is increasing with alarming speed. It was recently reported that when the PPP government took over in 2008, our debt liability was $40 billion and now it has increased to over $60 billion.

There is still time to explore other options to avoid the IMF loan. Nothing is impossible.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad
Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2013.

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How Sri Lanka was lost from China to India.?
Was it a failure of Chinese Intelligence and success of RAW?

Did RAW’s Colombo chief play a role in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s poll defeat?
Reuters | Jan 18, 2015, 10.37 AM IST

COLOMBO/NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka expelled the Colombo station chief of RAW in the run up to this month’s presidential election, political and intelligence sources said, accusing him of helping the opposition oust the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman denied any expulsion and said that transfers were routine decisions. Rajapaksa, voted out of office in the Jan 8 election, told Reuters he did not know all the facts while the new government in Colombo has said it is aware of the reports but cannot confirm them.

But several sources in both Colombo and New Delhi said India was asked to recall the agent in December for helping gather support for joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena after persuading him to ditch Rajapaksa’s cabinet.

READ ALSO: How opposition’s secret move led to Rajapaksa’s exit

A sketchy report in Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times newspaper on December 28 said that “links with the common opposition” had cost India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) station chief his job in Colombo.

India has often been involved in the internal politics of the small island nation off its southern coast — it sent troops there in 1987 in a botched effort to broker peace between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Rajapaksa’s unexpected defeat after two terms in office coincided with growing concern in India that it was losing influence in Sri Lanka because of the former president’s tilt toward regional rival China.

The concern turned to alarm late last year when Rajapaksa allowed two Chinese submarines to dock in Sri Lanka without warning New Delhi as he should have under a standing agreement, the sources said.

READ ALSO: Sri Lanka to probe alleged coup attempt by ex-president Rajapaksa

Sirisena, the new president, has said he will visit New Delhi on his first foreign trip next month and has said India is the “first, main concern” of his foreign policy.

An Indian official said the RAW agent was recalled after complaints that he had worked with Sri Lanka’s usually fractious opposition parties to agree on a joint contender for the election. Then, he was accused of facilitating meetings to encourage several lawmakers, among them Sirisena, to defect from Rajapaksa’s party, the official said.

The agent was accused of playing a role in convincing the main leader of the opposition and former prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe not to contest against Rajapaksa in the election and stand aside for someone who could be sure of winning, said the officer and a Sri Lankan lawmaker who also maintains close contacts with India.

Sri Lanka’s new President Maithripala Sirisena has said India is the “first, main concern” of his foreign policy. (AFP photo)

The agent was also in touch with former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was a key player in convincing Sirisena to stand, said the officer and the lawmaker, who also confirmed that the agent had been asked to leave.

“They actively were involved, talking to Ranil, getting those things organized, talking to Chandrika,” the lawmaker told Reuters.

“Certain things you don’t talk about”

Wickremasinghe, who is now prime minister again in Sirisena’s government, met “two or three times” with the man identified as the agent in the months before the vote, as well as with the Indian high commissioner, or ambassador, the prime minister’s spokesman said.

“They discussed the current political situation,” Wickremasinghe’s spokesman said, but he denied that the Indians had advised him. “He does not know if he advised other politicians.”

It was not clear if Wickremasinghe was aware at the time that he was meeting with an intelligence official. India’s RAW officers are usually given diplomatic posts when assigned to foreign missions.

Former president Kumaratunga did not respond to requests for comment.

Rajapaksa declined to confirm the involvement of India in the campaign against him.

“I don’t know, I won’t suspect anybody until I get my real facts,” he said at his party headquarters.

“There are certain things you don’t talk about,” a close associate of the Rajapaksa family said, but added that “there were clear signs of a deep campaign by foreign elements.”

Sri Lanka’s then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa — a brother of the former president — complained about the agent’s activities to Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in November when Doval was visiting the island nation for a defence seminar, the Indian official said.

Another Indian official, who monitors the region for security threats, said New Delhi had been watching Beijing’s growing influence and heavy investments in Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa, who visited China seven times since becoming president in 2005.

But India was stunned and angry last year when the Chinese submarines docked in Sri Lanka on two separate occasions, a step New Delhi saw as part of Beijing’s “string of pearls” strategy to secure a foothold in South Asia and maritime access through the Indian Ocean.

“The turning point in the relationship was the submarines. There was real anger,” the Indian security official said.

Indian military officials said that New Delhi reminded Sri Lanka it was obliged to inform its neighbours about such port calls under a maritime pact, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with Rajapaksa at a meeting in New York.

In a possible sign of shifting allegiances, India’s top envoy in Colombo, high commissioner YK Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China’s ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.