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Evaporation Drops
the Temperature |
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The working class of
Pakistan, basically those who are not part of
the ruling/owning class have to bring about the
much needed and much awaited long-term
progressive change in Pakistan. However,
individuals who feel that they have the
ethical/moral fiber and the financial and
political clout to help and guide the working
class must play their part in mobilizing the
masses. Bear with me, as I try to explain an
analogy that is somewhat related to these
thoughts.
In Physics, we call the average
kinetic energy of a body, its temperature. Let's
imagine a liquid contained in a vessel with
innumerable colliding molecules forming the body
of the liquid. They engage in elastic
collisions, gaining and losing their kinetic
energy. The Central Limit Theorem (The Law of
Large Numbers) in statistics tells us that given
a large enough sample, all distributions will
tend to a normal distribution, i.e., a
significant majority of molecules in the liquid
possess energy levels that are right around the
average kinetic energy of the liquid (the bell
shaped curve). A small minority possesses very
high energy and a very small minority possesses
very low energy. It is the high energy molecules
that possess enough impetus to break the surface
of the liquid and escape into the rarer medium
above. This has a significant impact on the
temperature of a liquid, because the escaping
molecules have higher than 'average' energy
levels.
A country like Pakistan,
containing its teeming masses, is very similar.
The entropy of Pakistan, or its potential to
change itself is reflected by the empowerment
level that the average Pakistani possesses. The
overwhelming majority of people feel powerless
in the scheme of things in Pakistan and in their
desperation are blinded to reasoning and
rationale and continue to project their
ambitions on to individuals that have little to
show from their past and fall short of such a
responsibility. I highly recommend reading:
'Leaders, Fools, and Imposters'… a well
respected book on the psycho-analysis of
individuals in leadership positions.
[The
author of 'Leaders, Fools, and Imposters',
Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries is a practicing
psychoanalyst and Raoul de Vitry d’Avaucourt
chair of human resource management at the
European Institute of Business Administration
(INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France. He is the
author of eight books on such topics as
leadership, career dynamics, and organizational
diagnosis and intervention. Kets de Vries has
been an executive development consultant to
major corporations in the United States, Europe,
and Asia.]
As Ayaz Amir wrote in Dawn
some time ago:
"The tragedy is not Nawaz
Sharif's who has already known more than his
share of glory. The tragedy is that of the
Pakistani people who while yearning and indeed
waiting for heroes have always had to settle for
less than heroic figures. In the present case
the tragedy is two-fold because the people of
Pakistan have deluded themselves. Far from
anyone else betraying them, they have been
betrayed by their own expectations. Nawaz Sharif
was no stranger to them. They knew his strengths
and weaknesses as also the history of his rise
to political greatness. But driven by their own
desires they saw things in him that were not
there. Who is then to be blamed: Nawaz Sharif
for being true to form and character or the
people of Pakistan for living out another
chapter of their unchanging tragedy?"
Who
are the people at the two ends of the
bell-shaped empowerment curve for Pakistan? At
one end is a minority of individuals who possess
the political/professional/financial clout to
influence progressive change, and at the other
is a self-centered wealthy ruling elite, that
resists change and thrives on status
quo.
Since the 60's, flocks of
professional Pakistanis have migrated. The loss
is not simply of a monetary transfer of assets
or a brain drain. It is a loss in the entropy of
Pakistan. The nation is increasingly left with a
ruling class that is indifferent to the priority
in which the fundamental needs of Pakistan need
to be addressed.
In the presence of a
rarer medium, a liquid will eventually dry
up.
The working class of Pakistanis,
inside and abroad... need to WAKE UP and
influence change!
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The author works as
an Actuarial Analyst, quantifying financial
contingency. An avid follower of South Asia’s
socio-economic and geo-political
reality. |
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#23 by tariqlodi on
August 22, 1999 0:01am
PT
Ref:#24, Jay. The story of maxwell
may be partly true. The reason that you don’t find
every body bothering about it is that the
institutions charged with the duty are performing
their job to the maximum. The Britons do not have
to clamour for justice. They have confidence in
their legal system and there are little loopholes.
The difference a criminal would find in the two
societies is that there he knows that if his crime
is reported, may be he can stay at large for some
time. But once apprehended he does not have any
chance of getting away whereas here the criminal
is sure that he can stay free for ever and if
apprehended his chances to freedom are numerous,
although the degree and ratio of crime may be
somewhat equal both areas. tariqlodi.
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#22 by jay on
August 9, 1999 6:09pm PT saaf-go, on corruption
again. Here is story from england. nearly seven
years ago, the empire that maxwell built,
collapsed under a debt of 6 billion dollars. The
son maxwell, said he has no money to pay, he was
declared bankrupt. He registered for the
unemployment benefit, turned up in a mercedes. He
stayed in a 60 room manor house, in his wifes
name. His children continued in the boarding
school at $8000 a term, paid by the relatives. His
relatives supported in him establishing a telco
company and four years later he is a
billionaire. Nobody in England is palking about
corruption, in a third world country it would be
termed monumental corruption. Is it possible that
people who have no oppertunity to amass wealth
through `corruption` keep talking about
corruption.
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#21 by tahmed321 on
August 8, 1999 4:52pm PT Actually, there is a
much bigger wind of change than anything the
expatriate Pakistanis can provide. This is the
revolution in information technology and global
communications which is making the progressive
societies on this planet even more dynamic than
before and furthermore makes the stagnant
societies (like good old Pakistani society) part
of the same gas tank. Of course the expat
Pakisanis can and should do what they can
(financial support to opening new schools, direct
investments, and so on), and the global winds
would seem to be on their side too.
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#20 by saaf-go on
August 4, 1999 7:26pm PT sorry for the repeat
in my reply #20
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#19 by saaf-go on
August 4, 1999 2:08pm PT Re: Jay I think
corruption has an effect of undermining the
economic system itself. When loans are approved
without merit and the borrowers do not use it for
the purposes it was meant for and the industries
fail, losses mount it does have negative effect.
When corruption is as institutionalized as it is
in Pakistan it effects the legal and justice
system. Public loses confidence in the system and
govt. Long term investment dwindles. Strategic
investment initiatives are passed over for ones
that are more profitable for the corrupt
decision-makers. That is the cost of corruption in
Pakistan and other third world countries. The
cost of corruption in economic system is bad
decision, which in the least leads to loss of
efficiency and in the most loss of investment and
failure of pubic policy. In the absence of public
scrutiny (evidence of corruption of public office
holders) the bank manager will pick the candidate
who would provide the optimal benefit to him/her.
This may not be from the two comparable
competitors.
The cost of corruption in
legal and justice system is citizen and human
rights abuse and confidence lost in the
system. Ultimately it may lead to complete
break down of the entire society. This is when
people wish for ‘GOD’ to save them because
everybody else has failed them.
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#18 by saaf-go on
August 4, 1999 2:08pm PT Re: Lakhania # 18 I
came here eleven years ago. For the first few
years I felt much the same way that you do now.
Although I am not as homesick as I used to be, I
have not forgotten that home either. And I have a
new home now. Success is not just material gain,
it is the feeling of achievement and fulfillment.
Don’t let the unnecessary guilt get in the way of
your achieving your goals. If I had to do it over
I will do it the same way. Boond ko gohar bana
deta hay zandane sadaff Qaid-e-Tanhaai MaiN Ham
nay Iss Liyae Katay Barass
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#17 by anajam on
August 4, 1999 1:48am PT If only it were as
simple as that: humm nay jabb waadi-e-ghurbat
mein qadam rakha tha douur takk yaad-i-watan
aayee thii samjhanay ko
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#16 by macgupta on
August 3, 1999 6:38pm PT :Who are the people at
the two ends of the :bell-shaped empowerment curve
for
akistan?
At one end is a minority of individuals :who
possess the political/professional/financial
:clout to influence progressive change, and at the
ther
is a self-centered wealthy ruling elite, :that
resists change and thrives on status quo. A
wise man said that two fundamental mistakes are
that people who lack external decorations --
wealth, power, education, connections -- consider
themselves to be powerless or even worthless, and
that society considers such people powerless or
worthless. The same mistake is being
perpetuated in this article. It is a difficult
mistake to avoid. -arun gupta
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#15 by jay on
August 3, 1999 6:38pm PT saaf-go, wait on, I
was not talking about that type of corruption. I
was talking about a situation where there are two
`competing` investments, the one who pays bribe to
th bank manager gets the loan. In such a
situation, corruption is only a transaction cost,
abank charge, collected by the manager, which
effectively increases his pay, and has no adverse
economic effect. Now coming to your point, the
type of system you are taliking about, can only
exist at a relatively small level. For example, if
the loans are not `invested` in an economically
sound manner, it will be impossible to repay the
loans, the non performing looans of the banks will
increase and usually when it reaches around 40% of
the loan portfolio, the bank will collapse. The
fact that there are still private and public
sector banks still op[erating in pakistan is the
proof that you are exagerating the level of
corruption. Have you heard of `grmeen bank` in
bangladesh, it is not a small time operation, more
than US$ one billion has been lent with non
performing loans at less than 5%.
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#14 by lakhania on
August 3, 1999 6:38pm PT It has been 1 year
since I came to US for my education. I find it
hard to explain how this year has been for me..
Saying that it has been the worst year of my life
simply won`t do the justice. I sometimes think why
am i doing this? I would have got addmission in a
good university in karachi.. I had a good life in
karachi.. friends.. parents.. i left them all to
achieve the dream every student have. After 4
years of hard work, sleepless nights, haunting
images of my college days.. when I get my degree
and about half a doson good job offers.. what am i
gona do..?? what am I supposed to do??? should i
take a good offer and capatilize on four years of
hard work or should i continue to suffer and come
back to repay my country for the identity it has
given me.. this is a question which is faced by a
1000 students of my university. A lot of them will
probabbly go back. but i dont have those guts. it
is hard to let go of success that you achieved of
hard work. it doesnt mean that i dont love my
country.. it is just that i am not a hero that my
motherland wants me to be.
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| Total pages: 3
(23 replies) |
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