Madspeak

Everyone who is doing a job does so because he (or she) is unable to do any kind of business. Everyone who is doing business is either fortunate to have inherited it, or started it. But the problem is that businessmen and workers are members of the state - so under the laws of the state - both enjoy rights and previleges. It cannot be that all the businessmen should have all the rights and previleges and benefits and the workers should have none. A businessmen have to employ but the right to fire anyone on a whim should never exist. All workers have the right to put in a specific number of hours and be paid for them. The example of a venal form of capitalism is that of a chief accountant of a company who sorted out the accounts of his employer. He worked round the clock, even worked on weekends, did not take a single leave. The day he made his presentation of the work he had done before the management. He was congratulated for the great work he had done. No sooner was the chief

It is an old tradition of our newspapers is to announce the names ‘top three’ position holders of any examination. Which is nothing but a statistical improbability, because out of tens of thousands of students appearing in an exam it is ludicrous that only three students should fully comprehend the subjects they were taught. If this is true then it would mean that all the other candidates for the exams are complete idiots who could not understand the subjects they were taught. There is something seriously wrong with this, either all should fail all should get equal marks because they were all given the same subjects to study hence should provide the same results. It is impossible to believe that only three students every year get the topmost marks while the rest lag behind. No one studies in order to fail one seeks admission in an educational institution so that one gets an opportunity to learn. No one will invests in anything in which the chances of failure is the most likely outcome.

In Islamabad a residential area has come under control of an authority (which has been praised to the skies0 - it only means the people living in that residential area will not the previlege represenatation. They will be subject to the whims and fancies of the those who run the administration of the authority. Instead of being called a housing society in which all the people living in the residential area had a say in the problems which they faced - now those rights have been taken away from them. It is as if the people cannot be trusted to look after their own interests. In Karachi the Defence Housing Authority exists it is a part of the Cantonment Board. A cantonment use to a British military base and housing area. These should have been done away after 1947 - but they continued. The military not only runs the country, it is also the biggest real estate businessmen. The military has also entered the education business - providing dubious degrees to students. When the most hated and

The anti-smoking campaign has been around for over 20 years, cigarette ads and packs of cigarettes state the harmful effects of smoking. But even then people smoke, obviously the anti-smoking campaign does not work. I doubt very much that cigarettes are addictive as it is claimed. I tried smoking - it had no effect! I never developed the 'habit' . I can only assume that most people smoke more for social reasons than anything else. Perhaps some people have the tendency to get addicted or they choose to get addicted. One of the most potent argument smokers present is 'No one lives forever' and the other is 'live healthy and die healthy'. Unlike excessive alcohol consumption, cigarettes have yet to prove that they are a social menace. A person who drinks too much can become a menace to society, his behaviour is a danger to everyone, particularly his family provided he has any. No warning labels exist on the bottles of alcohol beverages - althoug

Considering the way people protested about the building of new consulate for the USA in Karachi - only shows how fed up people of the city have become with - diplomats of not only the USA but also of other countries, who are demarcating entire city areas as if they are their private turf. It has become irritating. Not only the flow of traffic is affected but also anyone passing by the offices and residences is considered suspect as if everyone in the city is a terrorist. A perfectly law abiding citizen is treated like a common criminal. It would be better if the consulates, all the foreigners who feel insecure in Karachi, would be start living elsewhere. It is a matter to note that as long as the Cold War lasted, the friendly face of all envoys was seen. There were cultural events. But as soon as the Cold War ended the envoys became blatantly obnoxious and hostile. First it was ' How to make friends and influnce people' the opposite 'How take enemies, coerce, irritate

Starting a career in advertising – every advertising agency is one man show. The person who owns the advertising agency – is the only copywriter and creative director. There is no place for anyone who chooses to be a copywriter, there never was and there never ever will be. In all companies whether they are advertising agencies or not have one thing in common the person who is the most incompetent, the most stupid is more likely to be promoted. Promotion is based the heights of incompetence one can rise to. This idea cost the life of the former Prime Minister ZA Bhutto who promoted the apparently the most idiotic generals and who had track record of complete incompetence – to the top ranking position in the army. He was none other than General Zia-ul-Haq. He overthrew ZA Bhutto’s government and had him executed. But the concept of promoting a complete moron is the fear that a smarter person would threaten the position of the person at the top. An incompetent and stup

The junta has done it again, blocking all the roads of Karachi – because of another dubious international fanfare which goes by the name of Expo 2005. The junta is above the law and has no consideration for anyone, causing huge traffic jams where should be none. Entire areas have shut off so that the movement of traffic is curtailed. Not even ambulances are allowed to get through, although have right of way, because they are on a mission to save lives. Just like the previous IDEAS exhibition where the same moronic behaviour was displayed. Whenever the existing ‘prime minister’ and ‘president’ is in the city, the entire city areas are blocked. What is worse the junta has recently increased the price of petrol has been increased by 110% and the ‘prime minister’ says inflation is only 7%. So all the people who waiting forced traffic jams with their engines running were going nowhere at all, waiting for hours before they got anywhere. Be it IDEAS, Expo 2005 or if the ‘prime

It is said that slavery has come to an end in this day and age, but nothing can be further from the truth. The large feudal lords of Sindh and Punjab are above the law in every sense. All the people working on their farms are slaves or serfs. Slavery also exists amongst the tribes, tribesmen are nothing more than slaves of their chiefs, they are not entitled to any pay for their services. What has become a threat to their way of life is industrialisation. The employment of people and paying them salaries on a monthly basis. But it will take a very long time when slavery will ever end. All these slaves have forfeited every bit of their dignity for the singular purpose of survival. Those who can escape to the city, mainly Karachi where the majority of the factories are located do so. But it takes a tremendous amount of courage to do so. The concept of industrialisation and job creation is still an alien one. The existing system can never bring about true democracy when most

When mobile phones were first introduced they were large bulky items, the size of most cordless phones of these days. But now they have shrunk in size and have so many features that fill an entire book. In the beginning they could only be owned by those who very rich, nowadays - almost everyone has them including kids. The original need for these phones was entirely business purposes just like personal computers use to be. Businessmen of large companies found the phones useful to make their deals while on the move in the chauffeur driven cars or were in not in their offices and were elsewhere. Well that was the original idea till their prices dropped and their features increased. In the beginning owning a mobile phone was a symbol of prestige, people would hauling them around in parties as if they were a luxury item. Today only those people make a show of their phones if they are really very expensive and have countless features in them although they may never use them or

What anyone chooses to believe is his (or her) choice. But faith and science canot be mxed up. Faith is a matter of personal choice - one can believe anything one - no one can challenge a belief. Science however is different. It is not a matter of what anyone believes it is a matter of observable information. Science is divided in two the theoretical and the practical. If people choose to believe that Earth is the centre of the Universe or that it is flat, it is entirely their choice. If they choose to believe that human beings did not evolve from some other creature then they have no reason. No one is forcing them to believe otherwise, matters of faith no matter how much overwhelming the evidence is against their collective belief, nothing can change that, they will continue to believe. They do not want to hear or see anything which contradicts their tenets. . Science presents information which has been observed and analysed - it can be challenged provided one has overwhelming evi

Sui the area in Balochistan from where natural gas is provided to the rest of Pakistan has been facing troubles. The trouble of the rights of Balochistan over its supply to the rest of the country have been ignored for too long. As long as there was a political solution to this issue and civilian management – the differences did not exist. If any arose they were resolved to the mutual benefit to all. But troubles have been mounting since the military took over the top management of the company. Things have become worse because the military in its ham handed way started undoing all the arrangements made which keep the peace in Balochistan. The always think guns and bullets are the answer to all the issues. Never in the history of the country has there been stoppage in the supply of natural gas to the country, but this has under happened under a military management. Wherever the military controls anything, things are bound to go to be problems. Some of the classic e

At one time the results of the examination boards of any given area was good enough for admission in any college (or university). Now the results of examination boards results are no longer considered a worthwhile qualification on the basis of which one can get an admission in a college - now college has started having entrance exams. Only if the candidates can clear the entrance exams will be they are admitted in a college. It is obvious that board examinations are no longer trusted by colleges – one of the reasons is that for every given area – the standard of education varies. It can be very poor in some parts and very high in others, the concept of a uniform standard does not exist. So if a student clears an exam of particular class from a specific examination board, it will not be the same as a student qualifying from the same class from another examination board. The owners of colleges are well aware of the rampant corruption, which exists in examination boards and their affi

There was a time scrabble use to be a board game. Of course it had all kinds of rules how it should be played. But after getting tired of the rules, we (my friends and I) would buy more scrabble games and break every rule the game had. We would have twenty blocks and come up with crazy words, which did not exist in the dictionary and some which no one used in polite company. We would laugh our heads off at the bizarre words, sometimes they would not be words instead entire phrases and even sentences. We would put several boards together and the game would never end. But coming to this day and age - the video game age - there is no flexibility no way you can make your rules - so rigid. Leave alone scrabble, we would make hash of chess. We buy as many chess games as we could and play the entire game with queens and no other pieces, the person who could wipe out the other's chess pieces would win. There was no check or checkmate, it was our version coming in with all the big

If all that we imagine were true would it not be bizarre? If all fantasies were not fantasies but very very real - then we would not have TV shows, movies and stories about them. Everything which is banned gets into the realm of fantasy. Fantasy has a price and we all love to pay for it. This one strange aspect of human nature

My brother owns a small business in USA - I tried phoning him up at his house, but he was not there - then I later I tried getting hold of him at his office. Either he or my sister-in-law. It was an educational experience. The telephone operator picked up the phone and I asked for my brother. Although both, the telephone operator and I were both speaking English - it seemed as if we were speaking two completely different languages. She, or perhaps it was a he, I could not tell, could not follow my request to let me talk to my brother or my sister-in-law. The telephone operator banged the phone, then I changed my accent made it sound very American - thanks to my exposure American TV shows - after three attempts, I was successful. The telephone operator transferred the call to my sister-in-law. Some months afterwards my brother arrived and I noticed a very marked difference in his accent and style of talking. This was not the case when he was just doing a job and before that when

The average monthly salary of a newspaper employee is US$170 (around US$ 5 per day) and there is a 1% annual increase in the salary – although the annual inflation rate of the country is 30%. Making it increasingly impossible for newspaper employees to continue working with such a low income because the raise is just simply not enough. A dismal future lies ahead for newspaper employees they are going from rags to tatters and eventually will become absolutely dirt poor. Things are very grim and judging from the attitude of the newspaper owners the situation will only get much worse as time goes by. Strangely enough, newspaper owners hire people in very senior positions who have nothing at all to do with running a newspaper, these people earn a monthly salary which is around US$7000 (almost US$240 per day) they have company maintained cars and many other perk and benefits. It is the strangest fact that those who have nothing to do with taking out the newspaper everyday are bein

General Musharraf our present dictator – (in the tradition of all preceding dictators), after having ensured that they he has consolidated his hold over the country; with the help of his traitorous cronies – he is now regularly on a world tour with an entire aircraft exclusively meant for his use and is packed with an entourage (read toadies and hangers-on) they are on ‘official trips’. The taxpayers are bearing the cost of these extremely expensive pleasure trips. As long as the general feels his job is secure, he will keep on doing this and much worse. The same money could be very well spent on so many other things, which the country desperately needs. But the money is being spent by the general and his entourage to stay in the best places and go on shopping sprees and do sightseeing. None of these trips benefit the country in any way - although the impression is given that they do. The public relations officer assigned to the entourage sends the news that the general had ‘import

Dictators have ruled Pakistan since 1958 - it is not that democracy cannot work here, it is simply not allowed to. Those who held tremendous influence and power prior to the creation of Pakistan in 1947 were the feudal lords, the tribal chieftains and later on the militant mullahs. In India the first thing which was done was to get rid of feudalism, because feudal lords because of the control over acres of land would always be in a position to get the support of those on their lands - the people would not have a choice but to vote for the person on the lands they live on. In the absence of feudalism the people had greater freedom to choose whom they wanted vote for. In Pakistan the feudal lords had insidious influence on the country's politics. Democracy was and could never be in their interest. What they did not factor in was the subsequent industrialisation of the country - this meant movement of labour off the lands into the cities. As factory workers they discovered that at th

It was assumed that humanity would eventually become much more peaceful and kinder - but the opposite is more than apparent. There are civil wars, secret wars (covert operations) there all out invasions and attempts of occupation (the reasons for them are irrelevant, those have been discussed to deathby almost everyone). There is no doubt that human beings are so violent and dangerous that not only does every country in the world have soldiers but also a police force. Although the pace of development in science and technology of humanity is formidable, but human nature has not changed in any way. The 20th Century was full of wars, the killing, the maiming and torture went on and continues to this day. Some wars are reported intensely others are not given equal attention. The idea behind international sports events was to take people off the battlefield and bring them on the sports ground. International sports has done nothing at all – there are no easy solutions and perhaps there n

It was heartbreaking to see so many infants crying because their parents had them circumcised. It is generally assumed that the pain will go away and the child would eventually forget, this is an absolutely wrong assumption the memory of such an extremely painful experience does not go away that easily– it is only suppressed, No one bothers or cares to ask the child if he wanted to have an intricate part of his body removed. This is done when the child has not even started speaking leave alone, there is really he can do anything to prevent something like this to happen. By all medical and ethical standards, it is the person who is fully aware of the implications of any kind operation, should be the one to decide if he would like it to be done or not. When an intricate part body is sliced off – at such time it is surprising parents do not feel never realise the tremendous physical pain they inflicted and the possible psychologicall harm they have caused. The child may stop crying b