Sammilogger

Col (R) Muhammad Bashir Teacher (Military College Jhelum) addressed passing out students of Class XII, on 17 Oct 2018. I liked it. I am sure u will too.

Dear

Be it! You are in the best of yourself, wakefully getting into the know how of the days, coming soon. It was a pleasure teaching you, wonderful young men, the hopes of their parents and the nation. Your one phase of learning is about to complete. The new horizon will open up to you soon. My earnest teaching in a number of disciplines, has given you the confidence to be sure-footed which I perceive in you. Go back home and let your parents see a fully made young man, their hopes becoming more brightened up, and you on your part never failing them. Test your stamina to the last!

Shaheen kabhi pervaaz se thak ker naee girta

Purdam hai agar tuo to naee khatra-e- uftaad

(Eagle never falls down due to tiredness, if you have guts then you need not be scared of misfortune)

My good will and prayers will remain your privilege. Be in the protection of God! Your faith in the service of Pakistan should stand firm, come what may. I am certain, your will make the best sons of this sacred land. I wish you good luck!

Three teams played dirty games to alter results for semi-finals of CWC19. The dirtites of all ie India is out of race in semis. I had predicted they will pay the price for unethical behaviour. England and Newzealand will also be out. Australia should be the champions, the result which will uphold ethical and morals for human behaviours.

Pakistan; now being termed as Pivot State of Asia (Andrew Korybko) has experienced tumultuous last four decades. All this time it was justifiably viewed from the prism of security. Due to prevalence of conflict, violence and volatile neighborhood (Afghanistan) Pakistan was perceived as most dangerous destination of the world. Consequently, the country became alien and closed to rest of the world. Umpteen positive aspects of the country got marred by couple of negatives. Global leaders, opinion makers and global intelligentsia shied away from visiting the region unless compelled by circumstances. Perceptions about Pakistan remained confined to media projections and distorted by proganda and spin doctors laden with ulterior motives. In this backdrop Pakistan started to suffer from a “Perception Dilemma”. There are three possibilities on how Pakistan is perceived. Firstly, every thing is bad with Pakistan and perceptions are justified. Secondly, nothing is wrong with Pakistan and perceptions are unjustified and thirdly, partly Pakistan is wrong but perceptions are exaggerated. In my view last possibility is applicable. It is also true that the West has a different prism for viewing Pakistan.
Interestingly, improvement in security environment of Pakistan has coincided with salience of the country in economic domains. Owing to CPEC and splendid strategic location of Pakistan, it is now being viewed from the prism of economy. It is appropriate time to focus on “Perception Dilemma” of Pakistan.

https://sammilogger.blog/2018/09/22/the-cunning-baniya/

Its being discussed that Indian cricket team threw away match to England with an intent to keep Pakistan out of the race. I have always said (refer to my last blog attached above) that BANIYA is mean to the core. They are cheats, fake and deceitful. My conviction is that if they did with bad intent, it will recoil back to them. Either they will get eliminated for semi finals or in semi finals. Such a mean team has no ethical and moral grounds to become CHAMPS. Let us see what happens.

Whole of Pakistan is aghast at uncivilized behaviour of Afghan fans at Headingley. Indeed it was uncalled for and deplorable. However, I feel Afghan people are not to be blamed. The uncivility of Afghans is direct product of prolonged wars and conflict. The environment hasn’t let them grow. Civil society of Afghanistan got obliterated. Although genetic make up of Afghans also leads them to violence, however, decline of their civil society was thrust upon them by super powers using their lands as battle grounds. Ibne Khaldun laid out a cycle of Evolution of Civil Society, however, this evolution needs a set of environment. External interventions have torn apart the civil society of Afghanistan. It should be taken as joint responsibility of all to create that environment for evolution of Afghan civil society. However, I feel US and Indian role in yet again using Afghan lands to contain China and Pakistan will keep such environment, a far cry.

I have written a bit on need to reform our society. Came across this clip of Ms Farah Azeem Shah, which touched my heart. Few verses missing at the end are

Khuddee tere rang mein, main nain jo dhall ke dekha

Meray ziker, meray fiker mein, buss tu hee ka kalaam hai

Mujhay maslakon se panah mili mujhay silsalon kee fiker hattee

Buss haq mila, makhlooq kee islaah hee Islam hai

Peer Asim Ali Shah

Allah may guide us

It’s an old adage, “when the going gets tough the tough gets going”. And what to say about people who make the going tough and then get going. Isn’t it marvellous? Team Pakistan which is in fact reflection of our society reminds me, that Pakistan is unique, unpredictable and enigmatic. Some say it’s like coconut, very hard from out side but very soft from inside. These are indeed attributes of a pure, honest and hearty person. Pakistan is enigmatic and so is our cricket team. If we decide we can stand upto a super power but some time we can even capitulate to a small fri. We have mastered super technology but fail on minor technologies. We have very low per capita income but we have very big heart for philanthropy. We shed the blood still we are happiest people in the region. We are Hard Country (Anatol Lieven) and also very fragile from inside. Our stock exchange rebounds on bad news but crashes on good news. We have betrayed all predictions of gloom and doom since creation of Pakistan. We rebound in face of every challenge. Sense of humour of this nation is unique in itself. One word to describe it all is RESILEINCE. I can say Resilience Thy name is Pakistan. Pakistan Zindabad.

It has always been a great challenge to know the future as God confined it to Himself. People of knowledge can predict it where as people with low knowledge, like me can just extrapolate future. My focus is, which way Homo Sapiens are heading? Besides my observations, reflections and brooding, I came across three books by same author ie Yuval Noah Harari. First book Sapeins charts journey of human beings from beginning of life to becoming ruler of planet Earth. Second book, Homo Deus explores long term future of life, how humans might eventually become gods and what may be ultimate destiny of intelligence and consciousness. Third book, 21 Lessons for 21st Century predicts immediate future of human kind. In my observations, I have noticed that on the whole Human Beings are anti nature. What ever worldly knowledge we are implementing adversely affects the nature. Nature created universe in a state of fine balance. Humans are bent upon disturbing this balance in every way. We are fiddling with biology, ecology, cosmology, environment and all other fields. Science which continuously challenges nature is becoming over bearing. Humans are becoming more of machines. Advent of AI, blockchain, infotech and biotech is transforming the way humans will function in the future. Chaos, conflict and disorder is increasing on the planet earth. Occurrences against the logical tide are happening. Brexit, election of Trump and Modi are a few against the tide. In my view, these reflect power of social media. The period of social media is being called as Post Truth Era. Harari says, pilosophy, religion and science are all running out of time. The question is, are humans on the path of self destruction? Stephen Hawking as well as Harari opine that world is in danger due to AI, Brexit and Trump. Another question is, Did God give intelligence to humans to fiddle with His systems and go so far as to cause his own destruction? For sure it is not happening in immediate future, however, apparently humans are heading in that direction. Harari talks about End of History (Farncis Fukuyama also did) and says that ….and if the failure of history to come to its envisioned happy ending can only mean that it is hurtling towards Armageddon. We pray a wise interjection by God or by us humans takes us farther from this apocalyptic route.

Eid Greetings

Pls do play above clip

I have always tried to analyse that once we have the best religion, the best Prophet (PBUH) and the best concept why we are worst as practitioners? I feel the clip attached has greatly answered my query. Once Hasan Nisar also said, “unless we take Maulvi out of Islam we will not be able to progress”. Recently we have witnessed a tussle between a minister and Muftis on use of technology for moon sightings. I appreciate the Minister for calling a spade a spade and detest obscurantism of some Muftis. Today is the day to make a pledge. Let’s get the ball rolling. Allah may bless us to take rituals out of Islam.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1985003/6-empire-court-court-jesters/?amp=1

This article by my friend Ali Ehsan agitated me to write this blog. Seeing the state of governance and governing politicians in Pakistan we always come to the question, what the heck is wrong with us? I am just reading a book by Parag Khanna titled ‘The Future is Asian’. Page 240-251 carry a part on, ‘Singapore: A Technocratic Role Model’. I shall recommend this to all concerned Pakistanis. Its eye opening and magnificent. Once PTI came to power and seeing the devastation done to our institutions, I felt convinced that there was a need to rebuild our broken systems from scratch. To this end, I would have recommended a technocratic government for initial two years to raise the buildings and then handover to politicians. However, prudence didn’t dawn then and PTI has come to that, after wasting 9 months. However, it’s never too late. Parag opens debate with, ‘The idea that too much democracy can be dangerous is not Eastern idea. For Plato, the essential ingredients of a successful polis were an educated and engaged citizenry and a wise ruling class…..democracy with neither of these attributes will lead to free but dangerously anarchic society vulnerable to tyranny. To ward off against such decay, his preferred form of government was a committee of public spirited “gaurdians”. Today we call such a system as technocracy.’ Please relate all this to our governance. Parag has amply explained thoughts of Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore institutionalised its technocracy before allowing democracy to unfold fully. Politics is about positions, policy about decisions; democracies produce compromises, technocracies produce solutions; democracy suffices, technocracy optimizes. Parag says where as western democracies today have wish lists, Asian technocraices have strategies. He quotes Philip Tetlock, who said, ‘full transparency over political deliberations can lead to decisions aimed at being popular rather than correct.’ Please relate to Pakistan. He says in Singapore government is run like a spiral staircase: with each rung a civil servant learns to manage a different portfolio, gaining first hand experience and building a broad knowledge base. By contrast US politics is like an elevator: one can get in on the bottom floor and go straight to top, missing all learning in between. In Pakistan one just needs to be born in blessed family and you are on the top floor from first day, what we call as Parachuted Leadership. Parag has highlighted pitfalls of US and UK democracies. He says, ‘even a meritocratic technocracy like Singapore needs to be careful not to slip into an oligarchy alienated from its people. He says technocracy is well suited to Asia’s more differential cultures.

Once Future is Asian, we should not be left behind in good practices of Asians else we might be banished as so far we continue to be.