Loud Thinking

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

AoA.

Sir,

When last time, we purchased Boeing 777 planes, America assured Pakistan that it will allow direct PIA flights from Pakistan to the USA, which were banned in the aftermath of the 9/11, as if 9/11 was the achievement of Pakistan.

As per their habit, Americans reneged on their promise and what to say about the permission of direct flights (which were banned after 9/11, as if Pakistani people did 9/11, wherein the fact is that not a single person accused of the 9/11 was from Pakistan, which was the handy work of OBL’s organisation, which was also not created by Pakistan, but fortunately or unfortunately it was an American creation), when the time for handing over Boeing 777 came, they even refused the visa for our pilots and the planes were handed over to is in the UK.

As such, if the Americans are not ready to fulfil their promise IMMEDIATELY, the PIA management may be ordered to cancel the orders for the Boeing 777 in favour of the more fuel efficient, advanced and economical planes, manufactured by the Air Bus of France.

Also please remember, last time when these Boeings were purchased, its financing was done through an American Bank at an astronomical high interest rate of 30%.

Wishing you all the success in your endeavours to build an economically strong Pakistan.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Great Branding Takes More Than Advertising

As digital disrupts more marketplaces, brands become more important and valuable – not less. They provide meaning and satisfy emotional needs. As consumers experience information overload, the tendency to gravitate toward what’s familiar increases. At the same time, reliance on traditional tools, like advertising, corporate identity programs, and PR, to build brands is waning. So how can companies strengthen their brands? Look at Apple: Since its “Think Different” ad campaign, it has withdrawn from image-building ads, kept a smaller marketing budget, and instead, focused brand efforts on creating a well-designed, holistic product experience. Firms must be able to tell a meaningful story through actions and products, not words in ads or statements. Products and services should encapsulate a brand and communicate value without an additional layer of advertising. Make your brand more central and embed it across the customer value chain.

Adapted by HBR from “ Brands Aren’t Dead, But Traditional Branding Tools Are Dying” by Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen.

All Islamic Countries Must Read This Latest Reuters Report & Immediately Snap Diplomatic Relations With Myanmar.

Rohingya health crisis in west Myanmar after aid groups forced out
By Aubrey Belford

KYEIN NI PYIN CAMP, MYANMAR | Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:43am EDT

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By Aubrey Belford

KYEIN NI PYIN CAMP, Myanmar (Reuters) – As three-month-old Asoma Khatu approached her final, labored breaths, her neighbor Elia, a 50-year-old former farmer, dug through the strongbox holding some of the last medicines in this camp for Myanmar’s displaced Rohingya.

First, some paracetamol for the severely malnourished girl’s fever and a wet towel for her forehead. Then some rehydration salts for her diarrhea. There was nothing else left.

The death of Asoma in a dusty, stifling hot camp a two-hour boat ride from Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State in west Myanmar, is part of a growing health crisis for stateless Muslim Rohingya that has been exacerbated by restrictions on international aid.

“I think my child would have made it if someone was here to help,” Asoma’s mother, Gorima, told Reuters, as she cradled the girl’s shrouded, almost weightless body in her arms.

In February, Myanmar’s government expelled the main aid group providing health to more than half a million Rohingya in Rakhine State – Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland (MSF-H) – after the group said it had treated people believed to have been victims of violence in southern Maungdaw township, near the Bangladesh border, in January.

The United Nations says at least 40 Rohingya were killed there by Buddhist Rakhine villagers. The government denies any killings occurred.

Attacks on March 26 and 27 on NGO and U.N. offices by a Rakhine mob angered by rumors a foreign staffer for another group, Malteser International, had desecrated a Buddhist flag led to the withdrawal of aid groups providing healthcare and other essential help to another 140,000 Rohingya living in camps after being displaced by Buddhist-Muslim violence since 2012.

The government had pledged to allow most NGOs to return to full operation after the end of Buddhist New Year celebrations this month.

But so far only food distribution by the World Food Programme has returned to normal, and Rakhine community leaders in the state government’s Emergency Coordination Centre have imposed conditions on others wanting to go back.

NGOs will only be allowed to operate if they show “complete transparency” in disclosing their travel plans and projects and are not seen to favor Rohingya, said Than Tun, a Rakhine elder who is part of the center. Neither MSF-H nor Malteser are being allowed back in, he said.

“CONCENTRATION CAMP”

With foreign aid largely absent, every day of delay is measured in preventable deaths.

No one is there to count them accurately, but the average of 10 daily emergency medical referrals before aid groups left are no longer happening, said Liviu Vedrasco, a coordinator with the World Health Organisation.

Extrapolating from that how many people could be saved is impossible, Vedrasco said. “It was not ideal before March 27. NGOs were not providing five-star medical care. But they were filling a gap.”

Government medical teams have been making limited visits to Rohingya areas, but foreign aid groups say they are inadequate. Most of the slack has fallen to under-qualified Rohingya using whatever is at their disposal.

In Kyein Ni Pyin, nearly 4,600 Rohingya live under police guard and their movements are restricted. They are classified by the government as illegal Bengali immigrants. One foreign aid worker described the area to Reuters as “a concentration camp”.

Elia is one of eight people given seven days’ training to assist in an MSF-H clinic, which now sits empty. The only medicines he has are those he used on little Asoma and some iodine. Government doctors have made three visits of about two to three hours each, he said.

Eight people, including six infants, have died since the aid group left, he said. The night before a recent Reuters visit, one woman lost her baby during delivery.

“THEY REFUSE TREATMENT”

Win Myaing, a spokesman for the Rakhine State government, dismissed the notion that there is a health crisis in the camps.

“There is a group of people in one of these camps that shows the same sick children to anyone who visits. Even when the government arranges for treatment they refuse it,” he said.

The United States, Britain and other countries have called on the government to allow aid groups to return to Rakhine State, to little effect so far [ID:nL6N0MZ4K1].

Appeals by the international community for Myanmar to do more to end persecution of the Rohingya have similarly made little impression on a government that sees them as illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship.

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking during a visit to Malaysia, said on Sunday that Myanmar would not succeed if its minority Muslim population was oppressed.

He may visit Myanmar towards the end of this year, when it is due to host a regional summit, and he could come under pressure from lobby groups to restore sanctions that have been softened since the end of military rule in 2011.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the fight for democracy while the military ran the country and now sits in parliament, has faced rare criticism abroad for her failure to defend the Rohingya.

GETTING WORSE

Visits by Reuters to the remote Kyein Ni Pyin camp, as well as several camps near Sittwe, reveal a widespread struggle with illness. In low-slung huts, dozens of mothers showed their emaciated children. There is no data to compare malnutrition rates to when NGOs were forced to leave.

Along the bustling main street of the Thae Chaung camp outside Sittwe town, thatched bamboo stalls that sell a limited selection of drugs have become makeshift clinics.

Mohammad Elyas, a 30-year-old who sold medicine in Sittwe’s market before he was driven out by marauding mobs in 2012, displays his laminated qualifications near the front, including a degree in geology and a certificate in traditional medicine.

Medicine is sporadically supplied by sympathetic Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe, but they run the risk of retribution from their own community for doing so.

At least 20 to 30 people come each day seeking treatment, Elyas said. “Week by week it’s getting worse.”

“I’m just trying to save as many lives as possible. Even though I don’t have the proper qualifications, if I don’t do this work, people will die,” he said.

(Additional Reporting by Min Zayar Oo and Aye Win Myint; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

“Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.”

— Miguel Angel Ruiz

Kindness is to act friendly, generous and considerate to others.

“Do not inflict your will. Just give love. The soul will take that love and put it where it can best be used. ”

Emmanuel

Build an Experimentation Culture with Testing

Whether you sell a service, a product, or content, you’re creating value for your customer base – and every interaction with your product online is a measurable amount of value. To understand and utilize this, implement well-executed A/B testing, which involves, at its core, showing different user experiences to different users to measure the impact of those differences.
Keep the team small. You only need an engineer, a designer/front-end developer, and a business analyst to perform tests. Make sure that your product person has the skills to analyze tests promptly.
Test small changes. If you’re spending a lot of time creating a test, you’re doing it wrong. Find the smallest possible amount of development you can do to create a test based on your hypothesis; one variable at a time is best.
When a test fails, don’t give up. Instead, learn what happened (which metric did move?), and use that to inform future iterations. Keep a backlog of previously run tests, and re-test ideas later.

Adapted by HBR from “ A/B Testing and the Benefits of an Experimentation Culture” by Wyatt Jenkins.

Cricket Crisis – Last nail ready for the coffin…!

A Passionate Appeal to the PM Pakistan.

Dear Mr. Prime minister & The Patron in Chief PCB

AoA.

Sir,

At the outset, let me state that we are absolutely confident that you as the Prime Minister and the CEO of the country, will never allow any relations or friendship with you, come in the way of the national interest, which is even enshrined in the oath and our constitution (which prohibits favouritism and nepotism), as well.

There is no shame in losing a match, but abject surrender is absolutely unacceptable.

Someone, somewhere, has to be held accountable for the disgraceful manner, in which Pakistan’s cricket team was thrashed by the West Indies team, in the super ten round’s last match of the T20 World Cup 2014. However, the whole nation is shocked with the decisions of the PCB chairman, which he has taken in the aftermath of the Dhaka debacle as below.

1. The entire team management and the T20 team’s captain, who were responsible for the shameful performance, in the first instance were relieved of their duties, immediately upon their arrival in Pakistan, not in good faith, but as a PR exercise, to cool down the public anger.

2. Just after the tempers cooled, the chairman PCB struck with a vengeance and recalled and rehired the entire incompetent and failed team management personnel, on even better positions and the top nincompoop of them all, Mr. Moin Khan, was rewarded for his long list of failures, with a two years contract for double positions of the chief selector and the team manager.
Mr. Prime Minister, who else knows better than you that nowhere in the cricketing world, the post of manager has been held by the chief selector; for the very simple reason that the chief selector, is required to spend all his time in the country, to hunt the talent. How can this job be done in a proper manner, when the chief selector will be touring for weeks and months, with the team as a manager?
Sir, just for your information, recently the Indian cricket board has imposed a complete ban on the selectors, from going on foreign tours, with the team.

3. On top of all the wrong decisions, it has been reported that now the chairman PCB has decided to give a final death blow to the Pakistan cricket, by planning to close the departmental teams and ending the departmental competitions. This act will go down in the annals of the game’s history, as the last nail hammered in the coffin of the Pakistan’s cricket.
As such, you are requested to personally intervene in the matter and direct the PCB to refrain from killing the departmental cricket in the country, which was the brain child of the legendary late Abdul Hafeez Kardar; and has always been the factory, for producing super stars of Pakistan: to name a few of them Imran Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Bari and Javed Miandad, etc etc. Almost all and 100% renowned Pakistani cricketers have been the product of this system.
Mr. Prime Minister, just to pre-inform you that PCB will never admit that they are planning to disband the departmental cricket. In fact, PCB has apparently planned to obtain your approval in a disguised sugar coated scheme, wherein, it may be put up to you that departments will be merged with regions, to support the regional teams. Which in other words, will clearly mean that there will be no separate departmental teams.
Further, it is understood that the above sinister scheme has not even been approved by the Interim Management Committee of the PCB. In any case, this PCB management, is for an interim period and such basic and structural changes can only be made by a properly elected board. As such, even if this evil plan is bulldozed, it may easily face litigation hurdles. Moreover, this scheme is a sure shot recipe for the joblessness on a mass level, of all the cricketers, employed by the departments.

4. Coming back to the Dhaka debacle, we should also not forget that in the past, our team never performed so badly; and that for the first time in the history of the T20 World Cup, we could not even enter the semi finals, of the T20 World Cup tournament.

Now, after the miserable failure of the team, accountability is the need of the hour and the buck is sitting on your favourite Mr. Najam Sethi, who must be sacked IMMEDIATELY, for not just the defeat, but also for turning the Pakistani cricket team to a club level team, so that the whole nation knows, without any doubt that our Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, is a man of pure merit, and SIFARISH, friendship or relations will not come in his way, as far as the national interest is concerned.

We also know that you always believe in putting right man at the right job. Sir, to err is human and everyone makes mistakes. However, the wise and the sage persons feels no shame, in correcting their mistakes.

5. Sir, now your own image is at stake and Mr. Najam Sethi, who failed abysmally, as chairman PCB and knows nothing about cricket, must not be allowed to hide behind you.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

My letter published by the daily “Dawn” today 28 April, 2014.

3G, 4G auction
From the Newspaper
Updated about 5 hours ago

Comment Email Print

THIS refers to the news item ‘Four mobile operators qualify for 3G, 4G auction’ (April 17). Why is there no bidder for the expired licence of Instaphone?

Telecommunication companies do not want to invest a single penny in Pakistan from their overseas wealth; that too earned from Pakistan. Why was the procedure of auction designed in a manner which facilitated the alleged pooling? Has any action been taken against the consultants hired on hefty amounts?

What were the reciprocal benefits bargained with the telecommunication companies in accepting their demand for allowing the payments in Pakistani rupee (after it was notified in the information memorandum the auction payments will be in US dollars), which effectively confirmed that no foreign investment will be coming to Pakistan?

Why were no serious efforts made to invite new foreign telecommunication companies? Why did no new telecommunication company come when current companies are doing such a roaring business that they are sending about $2bn per annum profit out of Pakistan?

Why isn’t the FBR pressing for its many years’ old claim of more than Rs50bn usurped by these companies on account of payables to the government collected from the public on the government’s behalf?

When the world is crying foul in the 3G/4G bids by the four telecommunication companies, why does the government say the auction will fetch a satisfactory amount of $1.3bn when even these payments will be received in Pakistan rupee? Why isn’t the public being told that only Rs65bn would be received and the remaining 50pc would be received in easy instalments in five years?

Why did the government relax the rules to allow the participation in the telecommunication spectrum auction of a defaulting company? Why hasn’t $850m due from a defaulting company since 2006 been recovered for the equal of more than 95pc to 97pc properties already transferred in the defaulting company’s name?

S. Nayyaruddin Ahmad

Lahore

Cricket Crisis – Final nail is about to be hammered into the coffin

A Passionate Appeal to the PM Pakistan.

Dear Mr. Prime minister & The Patron in Chief PCB

AoA.

Sir,

At the outset, let me state that we are absolutely confident that you as the Prime Minister and the CEO of the country, will never allow any relations or friendship with you, come in way of the national interest, which is even enshrined in the oath, as well.

There is no shame in losing a match, but abject surrender is absolutely unacceptable.

Someone, somewhere, has to be held accountable for the disgraceful manner, in which Pakistan’s cricket team was thrashed by the West Indies team, in the super ten round’s last match of the T20 World Cup 2014. However, the entire nation is shocked with the decisions of the PCB chairman, which he has taken in the aftermath of the Dhaka debacle as below.

1. The entire team management and the T20 team’s captain, who were responsible for the shameful performance, in the first instance were relieved of their duties, immediately upon their arrival in Pakistan, not in good faith, but as a PR exercise, to cool down the public anger.

2. Just after the tempers cooled, the chairman PCB struck with a vengeance and recalled and rehired the entire incompetent team management personnel, with better positions and even the top nincompoop of them all Mr. Moin Khan, was rewarded for his failures, with a two years contract for double positions of the chief selector and the team manager.
Mr. Prime Minister, who else knows better than you that nowhere in the cricketing world, the post of manager has been held by the chief selector; for the very simple reason that the chief selector, is required to spend all his time in the country, to hunt the talent. How can this job be done in a proper manner, when the chief selector will be touring for weeks and months, with the team as a manager?
Sir, just for your information, recently the Indian cricket board has imposed a complete ban on the selectors, from going on foreign tours, with the team.

3. On top of all the wrong decisions, it has been reported that now the chairman PCB has decided to give a final death blow to the Pakistan cricket, by planning to close the departmental teams and ending the departmental competitions. This act will go down in the history, as the last nail hammered in the coffin of the Pakistan’s cricket.
As such, you are requested to personally intervene in the matter and direct the PCB to refrain from killing the departmental cricket in the country, which was the brain child of the legendary late Abdul Hafeez Kardar; and has always been the factory for producing super stars of Pakistan: to name a few of them Imran Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Bari and Javed Miandad, etc etc. Almost all and 100% renowned Pakistani cricketers have been the product of this system.
Mr. Prime Minister, just to pre-inform you that PCB will never admit that they are planning to disband the departmental cricket. In fact, PCB has apparently planned to obtain your approval in a disguised sugar coated scheme, wherein, it may be put up to you that departments will be merged with regions, to support the regional teams. Which in other words, will clearly mean that there will be no separate departmental teams.
Further, it is understood that the above sinister scheme has not even been approved by the Interim Management Committee of the PCB. In any case, this PCB management, is for an interim period and such basic and structural changes can only be made by a properly elected board. As such, even if this sinister plan is bulldozed, it may easily face litigation hurdles. Moreover, this scheme is a sure shot recipe for the joblessness on a mass level, of all the cricketers employed by the departments.

4. Coming back to the Dhaka debacle, we should also not forget that in the past, our team never performed so badly; and that for the first time in the history of the T20 World Cup, we could not even enter the semi finals, of the T20 World Cup tournament.

Now, after the miserable failure of the team, accountability is the need of the hour and the buck is sitting on your favourite Mr. Najam Sethi, who must be sacked IMMEDIATELY, for not just the defeat, but also for turning the Pakistani cricket team to a club level team, so that the whole nation knows, without any doubt that our Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, is a man of pure merit, and SIFARISH, friendship or relations will not come in his way, as far as the national interest is concerned.

We also know that you always believe in putting right man at the right job.

5. Sir, now your own image is at stake and Mr. Najam Sethi, who failed abysmally, as chairman PCB and knows nothing about cricket, must not be allowed to hide behind you.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE