'Mercenary Elites of Pakistan': Join the Bandwagon O Pakis!

In this article, i propose a simple, human resources solution to all ills of backward, savagic, extremist, poverty-ridden, illeterate, un-enlightened populace of Pakistan. (Its in the last para.)

In the US and NATO initiated war of terror - generously complemented with haughtiness, ignorance and pre-meditation - the mercenary elites of Pakistan under the leadership of that dictator (codename: you-know-who-only-lacked-sanity) championed the cause of humanity, justice and freedom (read: to kill innocents, be unjust & snatch freedom, esp. political freedom to choose govts they liked*). The "mercenary elites" of Pakistan composed of most educated and professional ones: military, bureacracy, hired politicians, US-sponsored or westernized journalists and academics. So it's not difficult to understand why they stress so much on (secular, wordly-only) education and on destroying indeginious madrassahs from the face of earth, which have always been independent, and inshaAllah will remain so.

However, our populace - the common believing men & women - have acted in “wrong faith”, against their own human nature by not imitating their leaders, aka killer mercenary elites. Why only should our liberal elite class have the privilege of working on ground for this project of "best last hope of the world" = USA?! Why do not "these" illeterate, radicalized, extremist 16 billion deluded Pakis mend themselves by their bootstraps? Do they not look at "ground realities" - the most logical argument? Perhaps these are the side-effects of malnourishment.

I failed to understand why our liberal elite is losing ground ever since they started licking imperialist powers' boots, starting with the treachary of Mir Jafir-o-Sadiq in 1800s. But, after years of contemplation, i've hint upon the true cause and its cure. Despite all treacheries and efforts to impose their infra-level ideologies on "deluded, extremist believers," little progress has been made due to little high-handedness of our elites. They should come few steps down, and pick the mike for the first time, for they've never explained their virtuous Dajjalic (aka, all goodness) schemes to the masses in the language the savages understand, no matter how vernacular, disgusting and lowly their local tongue may be. Make that amendment and you'll lo-and-behold and see how masses would flock to their destiny.

What's the destiny? What's the solution? What should the sub-human populace of Pakistan do to becomes acceptable to West and be happy and be Successful? Very simple. Em. US and NATO is on the move to enlighten 3rd world lately. They-who-don't-understand-or-believe-in-democracy need to be destroyed, even if it means destroying whole country, as in 99.99% of cases. For that soldiers are needed. Unfortunately, an American life is much more valuable (and costly too) than a non-Western. So all Pakis should join the battle against ignorance called anti-Americanism be America's boots on grounds. A-BOGS! Few dollars guaranteed with all perks a homeless American enjoys.

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* Some lunatic in state deptt was asked about the fate of new political system in Iraq. He however was categorical to rule out any possibility of a democractically elected Islamic govt. alhamdulilah.

Why eSystems often fail: Change Management

Our professor talks about failure of implementation of technology to solve real-world business (including private/public sectors). It happens due to the gap between computer scientists/engineers and people who run processes/businesses/institutions. Yet another failure of such mass-level system: "Minister [of education] admits failure of e-system (for roll# slips)" (Dawn, Wed 9 March, p. 13).

Education ministry was supposed to give all roll # slips electronically; 17,000 roll # slips given manually. Maybe because they didn't do the ground work; without involving someone who understands every aspect of the business and understands what would be the benefits of the technology to the business.

People get over-excited by benefits of technology, but often fail to understand change management issues, both technical and behavioral. For instance, i worked on the pre-feasibility of online tuition center. Where you can lecture 40 students in a classroom, you can now teach thousands online through Skype for free. You can now have a computerized adaptive testing system in which computer adapts to the ability of students and give simpler questions to a struggling students, or more difficult to an expert one - helping each master at their own pace. We can create earning opportunity for so many talented teachers through 1-to-1, 1-to-many online tuition, textbook solutions, homework help - btw, this is not novel, its being done via Grockit.com & Cramster.com. Problem with these sites is that they don't offer local language education and require credit card payment. Fortunately students in Pakistan can now pay their bills via easyPaisa.

But there are many technical & behavioral challenges to it. 1st technical issue which can wipe out this business model on day 1 - load-shedding! 2nd, internet connections may not be very fast & reliable.

When you come to behavioral issues - these are really subtle. Some go to academies just for friends, some due of fear of teachers who force them, some may not adopt eTuition just because its not done in physical world, some would only go to an academy because their parents want them to. All of these have their own solution, fortunately! For instance, by creating a game-like, socially competitive learning environment - learning experience online can be very addictive when you can compete with students in quiz, practice session. Ever saw those badges on Khanacademy.org? It serves the purpose.

Managing Slackers

This semester i made some gross mistakes. First, taking members in the team just being sympathetic to them, for they couldn't find other group in class. Second, taking non-serious people, who are known for slacking. Third, i knew how disinterested they would be. Fourth, judging people. Mr. Umer faces the eternal question: can i transform people, or can i transform myself into a group leader who can transform people?

Well our professor taught us a powerful but simple way of dealing with those who just don't want to work. Assign them tasks that they can do. And, when they don't deliver it, fire them. You give them a chance, and be fair. But, you've justification for separating yourself from such slackers.

This nation, including me, is filled with lazy people. Quran warns us not to be. Results are too obvious to reiterate.

Breaking the Ice: Benchmarking Army Personnel's Social Networking

My friend comes to my home, and asks me for help. He wants me to count people in my neighborhood whom i know. I struggled to name any at all, but eventually 3 people came to my mind in a town of of over a lac people, i presume, at least! I said to him that i'm in trouble. I ain't no good at knowing my neighbours, this is a serious lacking from Islamic perspective. So i asked him, how to penetrate and break the ice with these people in this modern town.

Remember, its a characteristic of modern cities, according to sociologists, that communal life doesn't exist there. In modern cities, neighbours usually don't know each other much, but people are very active socially on networking platforms (offline it mentioned, but online as well). What a paradox.

He suggested me a tested tip: Send a formal letter with minimum words, in most elegant manners, to your neighbor calling them on a tea. This is a practice of many an Army people who do this when they come into a new place.

I'm writing the letter as a BETA version here.

______________________________

House # ABC
Street # Alif. Bay. Pay
Mr/Mrs _________

Assalamualaekum!

I'm Muhammad Umer Toor, a business student at a university in Lahore. I'm living in ______ with my father. I'm new here, so I want to have chat with you over a cup of tea at my home.

This is mobile # ________. My notify me your arrival date and time, and we'll catch up anytime of your choice.

Regards
Muhammad Umer Toor
[university name]
External Researcher @ R&D Labs,
Kirana Bar School.

Road to Interest-free Economy: Power of a singular bold step

Today is major day in life. It is so because one firm has decided to give up earning interest on funds of its employees, and to adopt halal way of making profit. It is an HR firm that outcourses thousands of low-level employees to companies. Its clients gives it a large sum of money for its employees as 'gratuity'. Because of inflation or salary increases the reserve for gratuity gets low (I can explain if you want in comments section). This is what they call short-fall. To meet this short-fall they need money, which is earned by putting that alrge sum in bank, on which they get interest. This is haram. Although the firm never used the interest for itself, but nonetheless it earned interest to make up for its shortfall in money. But this is no excuse for the company to indulge in such haram a transaction as earning interest or riba.

The point of mirth and shukar (gratitude to Allah) is that I pointed out this 'moral ambuity; to CEO, who has a deep relation with me, as he explained me what I have explained to you about gratuity and all that stuff. And although I'm no employee or board of directors, he was moved saying he 'has been caught red-handed'... He is a man of action. He took a bold step and is ready to make things in conformity with Sharia'.

Long story short, CEO immediately called his CFO and asked him to suggest new, 'healthy' ways to get out of it. As a first step, he has ordered to shift millions of money from bank deposits to 'current account' on which the depositor gets no money/interest/profit. That is huge, actually. Till December they'll have to come up with ways to earn profit on millions of rupees. It can be risky, nay, clearly it is. And here CHANGE MANAGEMENT is involved. This is a major paradigm shift. Some key people in the organization are disturbed by this decision. And I fear a covert resistance that may undermine the project. Here we're not left alone. Alhamdulilah, there's a vast body of literature on change management. It tells all about this science, what change means, how do people in organizations can react to it, how to implement a successful change program, what pitfalls to avoid, etc., etc.

One important book has been written in the cultural context (2 Cs) of Pakistan by former Dean of my university's school of management. It's called, simply, Managing Change, by Dr. ZIQ. (Managing Change is both a text-book in which frameworks are given to solve case-studies, each theoretical chapter is followed by case-studies of purely Pakistani companies.

I am rambling too much! Because. I feel so indebted to Allah that a few words of mine have seemingly changed substantially business life of a firm. I've been asked to propose solutions and not just pin-point messy problems... So... Tomorrow after jumma prayer I intend to meet one of my professors who'd guide me to alternatives, inshaAllah! For you, if you're Muslim business-student or -man, it's your duty to help your brother in faith by suggesting brilliant ideas for profit-earning ventures. Judgment criteria: We always need every year more than 1.7m in our reserves to pay the gratuity of employees in order to meet expected short-falls. If you've problems understanding, please mention inshaAllah I'd clarify.