EVM Voting Machines- Is Technology a Panacea: Technology is as good as the people using it

کیا صرف ٹیکنالوجی لگا دینے سے ٹرانسپیرنسی و شفافیت حاصل ہو جاتی ہے؟

My dear PM, technology in itself is not a panacea. Technology is as good as the people using it! 

Taking on Challenging Responsibilities vs Trying to be a Superwoman

What is the problem with the following advice:
"Don't get too proud, she said, of your capabilities at handling anything — or soon people will expect you to handle everything. The world is always eager to find someone who can handle everything (because the world is lazy, and doesn't want to do the work) and soon you will be responsible for more than you can manage. You will be doing more than what is fair, or even sensible — and you will be doing thousands of things that you were never designed to do.

Don't get seduced by the idea that you are some kind of Superwoman — as much as the world wants to put that honorific upon you. (Telling women that they are superheroes is a trick the world has always played, for making women do all the work.)

Trying to be a super woman

Power of Psychological Assumptions in Matchmaking Processes

Power of assumption?
Match-making processes would be markedly different for society that assumes "you are mentally ill unless proven healthy" vs the society that assumes "you are healthy unless proven mentally ill".
This is similar to the power of assumption in law:
"You are innocent unless proven guilty" vs "you are guilty unless proven innocent" through due process.
The impact on behaviors, societal norms and management processes differ tremendously in societies using the assumption "innocent unless proven guilty" (simpler open fast processes of developed countries) vs 'guilty unless proven innocent (complex convoluted opaque tedious processes of developing countries like Pakistan).

Hill Park Karachi over the Years and Social Networks of Old Familiar Faces

ھل پارک 1975, PECHS, Karachi

 I went regularly in the mornings during 1995-2012 when my children were growing up. Feeding the ducks and climbing up and down the hilly slopes was the nearest to tracking/hiking children could get in Karachi. I also frequented it during 1980-86 during my engineering and MBA days, and even used to study there too . I still go there some times.

My Khaloo was a regular visitor of Hill Park with his children from 1970-88. While on visit from Islamabad to Karachi and staying at Khala's place in PECHS has some very interesting time there.

Branding, Consumerism and Islamic Principles of Trade

مغربی کیپٹلزم کی اشتراکیت کو ضم کرنے کے بعد اس سے بڑی کیا کامیابی ہو گی کہ اس دو سو سال سے لڑنے والے مزہبی پیشوا خود کیپٹلسٹ کنزیومرزم کے سب سے بڑے داعی بن جائیں-

Sam Walton, ‏Ghazali's Ihsaan in ‎معاملات ‏ ‏and High-end Expensive Brands

There are several types of price setting strategies such as Cost Plus and Demand Driven Pricing. Walmart's success was built on cost plus pricing model. Sam Walton was the founder of the retailing giant of 1990s-2000s. In his autobiography "Made in America" published a few months around his death in 1992, he mentions the example of a toothpaste he was selling at around 2 dollars. He found a vendor who offered the same quality at around 55cents. Managers advised him to sell at around $1.20. Their logic was that Walmart buyers are used to buying this tooth paste at around 2 dollars. $1.2 is a significant decrease. However, he declined. He decided to sell at around 70 cents. His logic was that his CSR is providing consumers with lowest prices. Walmart slogan is "Everyday Lowest Prices". He said around 10% margin is as per his mission. The toothpaste was sold at 70 cents. He writes in the autobiography, while he was suffering from terminal cancer, that this book will come to haunt those who will try to meddle with his legacy. He was writing in the context of the question that what was his contribution to the social welfare of people. He said his mission was to provide his customers with the lowest price anywhere. This mission had made life easier for millions of mass consumers of USA. The benefits of cheaper prices that he had passed on to Americans is unparalleled.

Why Leaders Fail to Recognize their Own Incompetence: Bureaucracy and IK

Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence.

Incompetence of the "competent authorities" of pakistani government bureaucrats. And belief of PTIans in competence of IK. 

Dunning Kruger-Effect: Why Unintelligent People Don’t Learn?

Economic Hit of Pakistan and Illusion of Monetary Policy's Independence from Fiscal Policy

Central Banks are required by law everywhere to manage and control monetary policy or value of money. There is nothing "natural" about value of money or forex rates. Monetary policy (always artificially crafted) works in tandem with fiscal policy and international policy to establish value of money. Tools used by fiscal/monetary policy include (1) interest rate changes, (2) unemployment rates, (3) inflation reports, (4) gross domestic product numbers, (5) manufacturing data, and (6) commodities. 

Imran Khan's Tabdeeli- Change Management and BPR

IK got elected on the slogan of "tabdeeli" (change). He doesn't know ABC of change management or how BPR (Businesses Process Reengineering) achieves substantial and visible "tabdeeli". BPR is about reducing the complexity of Inter departmental processes by eliminating 60-80% steps and increasing efficiency by up to 80%, and resulting in substantial reduction of corruption as seen in CNIC process of NADRA, passport process or CDC system for share purchase and sale processes.

Growing up with Magazines

In 1969-70 I was 7 when I started reading Taleem o Tarbiat and other magazines. We had almirahs shelves full of magazine issues going back to early 1960s and to even mid 1950s. 

First Makeup Experience: Impact of Childhood Experiences across Time and Space

Vividness of childhood experiences and the distance it travels across time and space. As I am going through the letters, papers and other documents of my parents dating back to the days before their marriage (1940s, they married in 1951), I come across the clues to their personality that I observed during 1966-2003, time of my conscious interactions with them till before their death. An FB post reminded me of a page from my mother's diary where she writes about an incident when she was around 10 or 12 ( 1946-47) about makeup.

History of PKR Pakistani Rupee

چمڑی جاۓ پر دمڑی نہ جاۓ

دمڑی نہ جائے چاہے چمڑی جائے۔

دمڑی کی بڑھیا ٹکہ سرمنڈائی۔

دمڑی کی بلبل ٹکا ہشکا ئی۔[1]

دمڑی کے تین تین۔

دمڑی کی آمدنی نہیں گھڑی بھر کی فرصت نہیں۔

دمڑی کی ہانڈی گئی کتوں کی ذات پہچانی گئی۔

اونٹ دمڑی کا اور دمڑی بھی پاس نہیں۔

دمڑی کی ہانڈی لیتے ہیں تو اسے بھی ٹھونک بجا کر لیتے ہیں۔

دمڑی کی دال بوا پتلی نہ ہو۔[2]

 

My First Brush with Philosophy: A Tribute to Sir Nafees Siddiqui of ICB/IMS

I remember Sir Nafees Siddiqui who used to teach English at ICB/IMSB, G6/3,Islamabad. He didn't teach our class but we had the opportunity to be taught for a couple of class sessions when he came in to fill in for the absence of our regular teacher. Sir Nafees Siddiqui gave us our first introduction to philosophy and its terminology. He drew a vertical line at the center of blackboard to divide it into two columns. On left side he wrote physical, temporal, mundane, real, objective ... and on right words like metaphysical, transcendent, spiritual, abstract, subjective ,.. And then explained the terms and their difference which were instrumental in raising my awareness.

ICB/IMSB Teachers Autographs 1975-80

Tribute to my school teachers who laid the foundation for my learning at ICB (Islamabad Model School for Boys) G-6/3 near Covered Bazar/Melody. 

Autographs from 1975 and 1980:

Sir Ghalib Raza (Urdu) 

Sir Hanif Tahir (Maths) 

Sir Subhan Ullah (Geography)

Sir Rafique Malik (English)

Sir Jan e Alam (Urdu)

Sir Sabir Raza (Urdu)

I regret not having taken autographs on this autograph book from some other great teachers like Sir Saleem A Khan (Physics) , Sir Tanveer (Chemistry) , Sir Wajid Nawaz (Pak Studies) , Sir Muhammad Ahmed, (Technical Drawing), Sir Zafar Zaidi (Chemistry), Sir Arif Husain (islamiat) , Sir Shabihul Hasan (Biology)... But I do have reports with their comments and signatures 😊..

Social Media and Medium is the message

ٹیکنالوجی نے اب اتنی زیادہ ترقی کر لی ہے کہ عام عوام نے کتابیں "پڑھنے لکھنے" کی صلاحیتیں چھوڑ کر 1435 کی گٹنبرگ پرنٹنگ پریس کی ایجاد سے قبل کے زمانے کی عوام کی طرح صرف "دیکھنے سننے" کی صلاحیتوں تک محدود کر دیا ہے!

انسٹاگرام ٹک ٹاک جنریشن کو مبارکباد

FB is not a medium but message itself? tiktok is not a medium but message itself? Instagram is not a medium but message itself? Is technology value neutral or does it bring its own values?

"Medium is the message" Marshal Luhan observed this phenomenon in TV, radio, movies, newspapers. Now this observation is clearly visible in different media now available such as FB, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.

McLuhan in his 1964 book uses the term 'message' to signify content and character. The content of the medium is a message that can be easily grasped and the character of the medium is another message which can be easily overlooked. McLuhan says "Indeed, it is only too typical that the 'content' of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium". For McLuhan, it was the medium itself that shaped and controlled "the scale and form of human association and action".[4] Taking the movie as an example, he argued that the way this medium played with conceptions of speed and time transformed "the world of sequence and connections into the world of creative configuration and structure".[5] Therefore, the message of the movie medium is this transition from "lineal connections" to "configurations".[5] Extending the argument for understanding the medium as the message itself, he proposed that the "content of any medium is always another medium"[6] – thus, speech is the content of writing, writing is the content of print, and print itself is the content of the telegraph."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Media

There is substantial research now which indicates technology brings its own values and it rejects the earlier notion of technology being value neutral. For example you can say things on Facebook which you will not say in an email. And you can write certain things in chat which you will not write an email. Also you can say things in an email that you will not say on phone call. There are things that you can say in phone call which you will not say in person.

Similarly, what you can see in a youtube video, you will not see in a cinema hall,.....

 what Marshal Luhan says is that the medium is so impactful that voice of the content is drowned by the medium

yes that's why I said it is part of context.. and effects the message, intended message precisely BUT not the message per se.. You see same has been true in retrospect in all times.. For eg writing on bones with charcoal to writing on tablet with quills, then on paper with fountain pen, then ball point... All methods and media brought substantial changes in handwritings, and hence also carried noticable effects on message because handwriting reflects the inner psychological context of the writer.. like body language carries in verbal communication.. Jab bhi to log ye hi kehte the email typing mein wo bat nahi.. Because handwritings personal touch is gone.. TRUE.. اب ye to ہوگا.. but saying medium is the message is misleading in my opinion.

there is substantial research now which indicates technology brings its own values and it rejects the earlier notion of technology being value neutral. For example you can say things on Facebook which you will not say in an email. And you can write certain things in chat which you will not write an email. Also you can say things in an email that you will not say on phone call. There are things that you can say in phone call which you will not say in person.

Similarly, what you can see in a youtube video, 

you will not see in a cinema hall,.....

Medium is the message. SMS/texting is only suitable for short messages that were exchanged via telegram like short messages that have urgency such as informing about death, arrival, departure, rendezvous, change in meeting time, an emergency, hospitalization, congratulations on success, death info, condolence, receipt, acknowledgement of communication confirmation , etc. It is totally inappropriate for sharing your profound thoughts, intense grief, expectations, disappointments, future plans, major life decisions, etc.

People are getting their love accepted, getting committed and even great break ups through SMS, this cannot always be misinterpretation :) many hidden love affairs are also making love through these messages. We can't call them misinterpretation completely

Mohammad Ayub Latif my point is that medium

 being an overpowering message will dilute and misconstrue your deeper messages. Why do you think the Hidaya Academy students were sitting on the floor during the awards. The medium (seating structure) through which you go for the award is an overpowering message. Similarly, SMS has its intrinsic message which overpowers what the content means. It is constrained by the structure of device, word count limits, sequence in which you see the messages, the hierarchy of display etc is similar in impact to whether the talaba are sitting on floor or on chairs/sofas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

People are getting their love accepted, getting committed and even great break ups through SMS, this cannot always be misinterpretation :) many hidden love affairs are also making love through these messages. We can't call them misinterpretation completely

Irfan Hyder yes boss agreed and I think the floor seating shows more of learning attitude and also gives the message that asatza and akabareen are Afzal 

Q: But Sir why then writing on social media books npapers etc has such profound effect even tweets, even official matters even arguments by lawyers to great extent, but when it comes to messages why we deem it so useless...

A: Problems are often too complex. For example, Twitter is simply a soundbite. When you reduce a complex issue to a tweet of one sentence consisting of max 280 letters, you have to reduce the complexity arbitrarily to a simplicity which does not do justice to the problem and you are forced to come up with slogans or simplification that can not withstand the complexity of real life. This is what happened to Trump's messages and also IK's messages. They were forced to reduce complex problems to simple soundbites that they were not. Extremist and fringe thoughts of populace pulled the message in their direction. Message got reduced to satisfying the simplistic mind. Nature of Twitter medium focusing on count of subscribers and count of likes forced the message to be  reduced to satisfying the simplistic mind only. Once in power, reality exposed the impossibility of their soundbites! 1 crore jobs, 50 lacs home, Mexico border wall.... See the devastation in both countries

How many taxpayers are in pakistan

فائلر ہوں، چور نہیں ہوں:

ہر پاکستانی GST,WHT دیتا ہے، 

صرف FBR فائلرز 1% ہیں

مگر 13 کروڑ فون، بجلی پر ٹیکس دینے والے بھی فائلرز ہیں!

It is a blatant lie that there are only 1% tax filers who are supporting the taxes of the whole country. Government has files of taxpayers who are giving huge amount of indirect taxes, they must be called filers too!

 

Shajra Taxonomy of Sufi Tassauf Terminology

 شجرہ معرفت الہی و حقیقت روح و صراحت عالمہائے ظاہری و باطنی و طریقہائے تصوف متعلق نور ایمان

Ausaf Husain and His Sincere Frankness

Syed Ausaf Hussain Marhoom: On 18th January, 2012, Ausaf Bhai left for his heavenly abode. A wrangler in the true sense and a man of high principles. With the way he carried himself, no one could gauge his true age. I remember sharing an anecdote with us that he once visited a Hakeem. Hakeem sb as per practice took the pulse and asked what was Ausaf Bhai age. Ausaf Bhai replied either 72 or 79, I cannot remember. Hakeem sb got furious and told him not to joke and that Ausaf bhai must be in 50's. A solid person upon whom you could rely in times of need. Irfan, Sara, and Khurram can dwell more on Ausaf bhai personality. May Allah grant Jannah to Ausaf bhai and buland his darajats. Ameen

Ausaf Husain with his mother

Depressive Thoughts and Poetry- How Poetry Mellows and Enriches Social Interactions

What is the relationship between depressive thoughts and poetic expression? How poetry enables us to face hardships in our lives. 

What a mournful separation of the family members after the partition is depicted through poetry. Note the following message of eid Mubarak and its poetic response by members of the family across the divide. Also, note the level of education in the 1950s and the ability of the educated to express through poetry their feelings and experiences. Today educated can't even read poetry, let alone compose it. 

Elegy on the Killing of PM Liaquat Ali Khan by Shah Abdul Shakoor Faridi

مرثیہ ترجیح بند در شہادت لیاقت علیخان

بر بند سعدی علیہ الرحمہ

از شاہ عبد الشکور فریدی، مانک پور

یہ مرثیہ ایک ١٩٥١ کےخط میں ملا جو کہ شاہ عبد الشکور ساکن مانک پور کا بھیجا ہوا تھا-

 شاہ عبد الشکور فریدی میری والدہ کے نانا تھے- بڑے بزرگ تھے- ان کے منظوم ملفوظات میرے پاس کچھ موجود ہیں- ان کے مزار پر اب بھی عرس ہوتا ہے- ان کے کئی خطوط میرے پاس ہیں- پارٹیشن کے بعد ان کے خاندان کے اکثر لوگ ہجرت کر کے پاکستان آ گئے مگر انہوں نے اپنے آباؤاجداد کے قصبہ کو چھوڑنا مناسب نہ سمجھا- وہ وہاں اکیلے ایک دو افراد کے ساتھ رہ گئے- ان کی ایک بیٹی عائشہ فریدی(میری والدہ کی خالہ) ان کے ساتھ رہا کرتی تھیں جن کے تواتر سے دلخراش خطوط میری والدہ کے پاس آیا کرتے تھے جو کہ ان کے انتقال  1967-68 تک آتے رہے- ان خطوط میں شاہ عبد الشکور فریدی کے منظوم ملفوظات بھی ہوتے تھے- ان کا کچھ دیوان ہمارے ایک عزیز کے پاس ہے