Let's have 3 cups of Tea :)

I have this habit of reading news whenever i access internet and since last two days a phrase was catching my attention and that phrase was Three Cups of Tea. At first i thought it would be some medical research on tea consumption and that's why i never clicked on it but finally curiosity forced me to Google it. Contrary to what i had assumed about that phrase, i found out that it is basically a title of  a New York Times bestselling book written by Mountaineer turned Humanitarian Mr.Greg Mortenson. 

The complete title of the book is  (original hardcover title) Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations ... One School at a Time). By the name its obvious that this book is all about combating extremism and spreading education. It is a non-fictional memoir of Greg Motenson. An American came to Pakistan, to climb the second highest Mountain K-2 to honor the memory of his deceased sister. After more than 70 days on the mountain, Mortenson and three other climbers had their ascent interrupted by the need to complete a 75-hour life-saving rescue of a fifth climber. But unfortunately he was stranded during his descent   and reached Korphe (a village in northeastern Pakistan) where he was treated very well by the Chief of the Village. He was moved by the the drastic condition of the people and village. He promised to build  a school in that village and went back in order to raise funds for his mission. Luckily, he managed to have Jean Hoerni for this noble task who donated $12,000 and co-founded Central Asia Institute.

Till now, Non-Profit Organization(CAI) is responsible for remarkable achievements mentioned below:

• 170 schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan
• 687 fully or partially supported teachers
• Education for over 58,000 students, including 44,000 girls
• Ongoing education for victims of the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake. The quake killed 74,000 people, including 18,000 students, and displaced 2.8 million refugees. CAI has rebuilt or re-established 16 schools destroyed in the earthquake.

Mortenson has done a remarkable job by founding CAI despite the severe hardships(threats from extremists, long periods of separation from his family, and being kidnapped by Taliban sympathizers) he faced. His mission to eliminate extremism by spreading education is highly effective,suitable and pragmatic. His view that girls should be educated because educated girls remain in the community and pass their enhanced knowledge to the next generation is correct and should be adopted in our society. He was awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz(Pakistan’s highest civilian award) on 23rd March 2009. 

In the end, i would like to say that if an American brother can analyze and try to eliminate our very own problem then why can't we???? At-least donate *some amount* to his foundation. Its my plea to award this man a Nobel Peace Prize!

P.S.; The title of the Book is derived from this great proverb  "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family..."

Peace!

May Education R.I.P

May Education Rest in Peace in Pakistan! The Government has decided to tear Higher Education Commission and to prevent the masses to get educated. The following article by Mr.Attaur Rahman( former federal minister of science & technology and a former chairman of the Higher Education Commission) comprehensively describes the role of HEC in the prosperity of Pakistan but by devolving HEC, Government  has depicted high incompetency.

"There is an impending disaster looming in front of us (something also mentioned in a recent editorial in this newspaper on the matter of devolving the functions of the Higher Education Commission [HEC] to the provinces). What has been decided by the cabinet (on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee on devolution headed by Raza Rabbani) is to tear higher education to shreds and hand over the pieces to the provinces.

What has not been realized by our policymakers is that the process of socio-economic development takes place through central strategic planning, which is intimately connected to a country’s higher education and science and technology programmes. The minimum quality requirements and the numbers of engineers, scientists, doctors, economists and social scientists needed for nation-building have to be determined through careful central planning regarding human resource requirements in various sectors. A multiplicity of standards and regulations would be disastrous. That is why the world over, including in India, higher education planning and funding is done centrally, even though universities are located in the provinces.

All the vice-chancellors of public sector universities, on November 27, 2010, therefore, unanimously resolved that the status quo of the HEC should be maintained since it has performed exceptionally well and is completely protected under the 18th Amendment. Pakistan’s highest level science body, the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (whose members have included such luminaries as the late professors Abdus Salam and Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, and whose present members include Dr A Q Khan, Dr Ishfaq Ahmed and Dr Samar Mubarak Mand, and of which I am now the president) held a press conference in Islamabad recently, protesting in the strongest possible terms, the fragmentation of HEC. A strongly worded article protesting the dismantling of the HEC, by Dr AQ Khan, was published in The News of March 29, 2009. All this fell on deaf ears. The motivation behind the shredding is “to teach the HEC a lesson”. This, he wrote, was for upholding the principles of merit, not bowing to political pressures and, particularly, for refusing to verify forged degrees of a large number of parliamentarians as being legal.

Pakistan made remarkable progress during 2001-2008 in higher education. There was a 600 per cent increase in scientific publications in international journals and a 1,000 per cent increase in citations in this period. Today, several of our universities are ranked among the top 500. The University of Karachi was ranked at 223 in the world, NUST at 260 in the world and Quaid-i-Azam University at 270 in the world, in the field of natural sciences. This is no ordinary achievement after decades of stagnation. The World Bank, USAID and the British Council published comprehensive reports on the higher education sector, applauding it and calling it “a silent revolution”.

Pakistan won several prestigious international awards for the revolutionary changes in the higher education sector brought about by the Higher Education Commission. These include the TWAS (Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Italy) Award for Institutional Development in October 2009 and the Austrian high civil award “Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande” (2007), conferred on me as chairman of the Higher Education Commission.

An eminent educational expert, Professor Wolfgang Voelter of Tubingen University, paid glowing tributes to the Higher Education Commission in an article in a Pakistani newspaper on November 28, 2008 under the heading “The Golden Period”. I quote: “A miracle happened. The scenario of education, science and technology in Pakistan changed dramatically as never before in the history of Pakistan. The chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Education recently announced it as ‘Pakistan’s golden period in higher education’.” Professor Michael Rode, former chairman of the United Nations Commission on Science, Technology and Development wrote, and I quote: “The progress made was breathtaking and has put Pakistan ahead of comparable countries in numerous aspects.” The world’s leading and oldest scientific society, Royal Society (London) recently published a booklet entitled “A New Golden Age”, considering Pakistan to be the best practice model to be followed by other developing countries.

India became deeply concerned at these developments. In an article entitled “Pak Threat to Indian Science” published in the leading daily newspaper Hindustan Times, India, on July 23, 2006, Neha Mehta reported that Professor C N R Rao, (Chairman of the Indian prime minister’s scientific advisory council) made a presentation to his boss and expressed serious concerns at the remarkable progress made by Pakistan in the higher education and science sectors. The article wrote that “Pakistan may soon join China in giving India serious competition in science”. The Indian leadership need not be concerned since we are ourselves hell-bent on destroying our nation by undermining the development and progress of higher education, science and technology and then being doomed to perpetual slavery.

The HEC was created as an autonomous federal regulatory institution with the prime minister of Pakistan as its controlling authority. The composition of the commission reflects a balanced federal structure with representation from each province, as well as the secretary education and secretary science and technology, together with eminent academic and research experts. All powers and functions of the HEC defined under its legislation are covered and protected in the provisions of the 18th Amendment. But, alas, who cares about what is legal and what is not.

Lower level education has been a complete mess, because of half-witted plans and lack of a national commitment towards education. Some of our leaders have now come up with this strategy to destroy the higher education sector as well. My plea to the government is: Please stop this suicidal madness. Something good happened in Pakistan after some 55 years of neglect. Let us not destroy this wonderful initiative.

I hope that the president, prime minister and the army chief will intervene to stop this madness before it is too late. If ever there was a case for the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo motu action on, this is it."

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th,  2011.

Don't make fun of him!

Recently a protest was held in Islamabad condemning the release of infamous Mr.Raymond Davis. Imran Khan and other political leaders were kind of supervising that protest. A participant unfortunately got interviewed by a media personnel and this interview made him famous among the *foolish* critics!

I used the word "unfortunately" because i guess he would be cursing himself for going out there and participating in the protest - YES HE WOULD BE! Mainly because our Nation made real fun of this poor guy. Many called him a "burger"(slang word a person who reacts as if he/she a foreigner, speak English with or without broken accent and carry a highly modern apparel), some people made fun of him saying "Oh bechara garmi mai bahir agaya ... issay AC lado..blah blah blah!" but all in all the majority rebuked him. Let me categorize myself in the minority because i was the one who appreciated his little effort.

My personal opinion is that we should appreciate his little effort. i don't really get one thing that why the critics are ignoring the fact that this guy left all the comfort at his home and came out to join the protest. He is way better than the guys who just severely criticized him by commenting insensibly on this vdo on facebook..etc. Its easier to criticize other the to go out and join the protest! 

To blame and to criticize others are our national hobbies. We just love to criticize. We criticize the elite class for not paying heed to the National Crises as they are only concerned about their bank accounts. But if one them like this guy(assumed by many that he's from upper class or elite class) comes out to join us then also we criticize..... Why are we so confused and divided???? We lack rationality and we talk about Revolution! Revolution never comes in a divided Nation! We need to get united in order to bring the Revolution rather than rebuking our fellow countrymen!

So, you all haters and critics... kindly don't degrade anyone because it clearly depicts your level of mentality and lack of rationality!

Education Emergency

Aren't we familiar with the word "Emergency"????
I guess our motherland is always in a state of emergency mainly because of the following factors:

1-Terrorism

2-No rule of Law
3-Political mess
4-Weak and corrupt governance..etc.

Above mentioned factors are very drastic and lethal for the survival of any nation. Sadly, Pakistan is facing a very hard time combating such evil factors and the ultimate savior can only be "Education". Let's take a look at the statistics regarding education in our Motherland There are 187,342,721 (July 2011 est.)people living on a piece of land named Pakistan but the literacy rate is 49.9%(according to the definition "age 15 and over can read and write") of the total population. The school life expectancy(primary to tertiary education) is total: 7 years male: 8 years and female: 6 years (2009est.). The government only care to spend 2.9% of the total GDP (2008) which is shameful because countries like Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia allocate more percent of their GDPs for the education. The extremists are brainwashing the young generation easily because the Government fails to provide them with basic education and without it we can't even think of prospering in today's world.

We don't have a single political party that can walk out of the parliament or coalition government for education reforms. We got blabbering mouths but no one seems to do something practically good for the widespread of Education! Apart from this, the condition of Government schools is appalling. When i was in 10th Grade, the venue for board examination was Sindh Madarsatul Islam where Quaid-e-Azam(Founder of Pakistan) had received his early education. The condition of that school was appalling and the Government didn't even bother to renovate it. Now Shehzad Roy has renovated the school and i Salute this man! Hats off to him. Private sector can also do the same thing. The grandees and middle class people may contribute a small or big sum of money for the renovation of Government Schools. It is a very practical and useful step. Another problem with the Education is its syllabus which is ages old and i guess we still teach GW Basic in 9th Grade rather than teaching MS-Office. By the way, how can i forget the infamous Jali Degree(Fake Degree) issue... Around 148 elected MNAs and MPAs have fake degrees and they are enjoying the perks ad privileges of a highly educated and able person. We live in so-called democracy and we have elected uneducated and incompetent to rule us. It clearly depicts that we lack common sense and a sense to distinguish between good and bad and this sense comes from Education.

We can never prosper without educating our masses. Our forces are combating the extremism with guns but the real and most effective weapon against extremism can only be Education! Its time for us to take a stand and to pressurize Government to bring out reforms in the education policy. It would be a great effort if you kindly sign the petition and spread the word!