Even though I’m originally from Pakistan, I have lived in North America for most of my life. The only time I had experienced true Pakistani culture was before I moved to America, and during my occasional visits to Pakistan. Besides that, I had only experienced western culture firsthand. Furthermore, when it was time to apply to colleges, viewing it from a Pakistani standpoint was probably the least of my concerns. Like most people, I was only concerned with pursuing an undergraduate program from a well recognized university, which eventually turned out to be McGill University.

McGill is certainly one of the most well known universities around the world, and its undergraduate programs are second to none. Ranked as one of the top 12 universities in the world, alongside Harvard, Oxford and Yale, McGill University delivers a world-class educational experience. With over 300 academic programs and majors ranging from the Pre-Medical Sciences and Engineering to Middle-Eastern Studies and Economics, McGill gives you an opportunity to pursue almost anything you can think of. However, their educational standards are only the tip of the iceberg; I want to give you a glimpse of what students see once they get here.

First, McGill sits in the heart of downtown Montreal, one of the most cultural cities in the world. From food and nightlife, to music and fashion shows, Montreal offers something for everyone. Whether it is three in the afternoon or three in the morning, downtown Montreal is crowded with students. There is always something to do and somewhere to go; be it club 737 on the roof of the tallest skyscraper in Montreal, a McGill Redmen Football game or simply the movie theatre showing the latest Bollywood movie. In addition to its European aura, Montreal also has a huge Pakistani population. There is an entire bazaar, if you will, of Pakistani restaurants, shops and services. Given that food is probably one of the dearest values that Pakistanis hold close to their hearts, you can enjoy everything from tandoori chicken and seekh kababs, to lasi and samosas. Furthermore, there are countless mosques around every corner of the city. If you feel a little homesick, just grab a bunch of friends and head over to Jean Talon, Montreal’s touch of Pakistan. You’ll feel better in no time.

The secret to Montreal’s unique culture is the fact that it is home to one of the largest student populations on the continent. McGill alone hosts students from over 160 countries around the world. Thus, for international students, McGill is the perfect place. Not only do they offer millions of dollars in aid, it has vast university services specifically tailored to international students, like health care programs, housing and much more. There is nothing to be nervous about when coming to McGill as an international student, as the university will do everything possible to make you feel at home.

Apart from other South Asian populations from India and Bangladesh, there is a huge Pakistani student population numbering in the hundreds at McGill. There are students here from Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, and many other cities around the country. What this means is that there is a very active Pakistani Students Association (PSA). The PSA hosts countless events throughout the year, including barbeques, basant, Eid parties, and numerous other dinners and parties. As a Pakistani, I had forgotten most of these priceless cultural gifts that our country offers; away from Pakistan, McGill was the first place where I felt right at home. These parties remind you of the weddings in Pakistan, with top quality restaurant food, amazing desi music, and dance floors that can rival the extravagant mehndis of Lahore. In addition, the PSA hosts several discussion sessions on Pakistani politics, culture, and other Pakistani issues several times a semester. On a different note, there is an entire club solely devoted to cricket, which regularly hosts tournaments and televises live cricket matches on the big screen throughout the year.  All this means that, here at McGill, you might even feel more Pakistani than in Pakistan itself, as the PSA works very hard to keep you busy throughout the year.

Furthermore, McGill has an edge over many universities, with its readily available Halal food, a benefit that many people tend to overlook. Students at McGill have unlimited access to Pakistani grocery shops and restaurants, which not only make food that rivals Lahore’s Food Street, but which offer food deliveries as well. Therefore, if you are tired of western food and do not want to cook, you can get weekly food delivered for relatively cheap prices.

There is an extremely active Muslim Students Association that maintains a Musalla, where prayers are offered five times a day, and arranges Friday prayers in a hall on campus which gets packed with over a 1000 Muslims regularly. Students have access to countless courses offered in Islamic Studies as well as the Middle Eastern studies, supported by an entire Islamic Library with over a 100,000 volumes. In a time where there is tangible racism against Muslims around the world, McGill is one of the few universities that not only welcomes Muslims, but does everything in its power to provide for them. It is not unusual to see students around campus walking in shalwar kameez or Muslim caps.

Lastly, although all admissions information can easily be accessed at the university’s website, I would like make a few comments on McGill’s admission criteria. Although it is a prestigious university, McGill simply looks at your grades to make its admissions decisions. McGill’s application is relatively straightforward; it requires no essays or letters of recommendation. If you’re a decent student academically, you have a great chance of being admitted. Of course, extracurricular activities, community service, athletics, and a diverse group of high school subjects all give you a greater chance of not only being admitted, but of receiving scholarships and financial aid as well. Finally, McGill’s tuition is relatively cheap as compared to some of the universities of the same calibre, like Princeton or Johns Hopkins. McGill’s ability to maintain a low tuition and extraordinarily high academic standards while still keeping their acceptance rates higher than most top notch universities is all the more reason you need to apply to make McGill your future home.

McGill University provides you with an experience that you will remember for the rest of your life. From its world class education, to its vibrant urban location, to its bhangra parties with all Pakistani food you can enjoy, McGill offers something for everyone. The people you will meet here are the helpful and the open-minded,the friends you make here will last you a lifetime, and the memories will be priceless. As a Pakistani McGill student, words cannot come close to describing what an amazing experience studying at McGill has been.

Source: Rehan Umar.

I have a much shorter commute since I moved from Chicago. This change has both merits and demerits. Obviously, all else being equal, it’s better to spend less time on a bus or subway, if you can help it. On the other hand, less time on the bus and/or subway also means less reading for fun. It’s taken me a while to get through the books listed below. Anyway, here are my thoughts on these books, arranged in alphabetical order of the authors.

Empires of the Indus: From Tibet to Pakistan, the story of a river by Alice Albinia

Really lovely read, this. Part political history, part travel diary, part long form essay, it’s just a beautifully rendered story about the Indus, its past, its future, the people who’ve relief on it for millenia, the civilizations it’s spawned, the wars its seen, how its drying up in Sindh, what China’s uber-development model means for it, and a gazillion other things I’m forgetting.  I really enjoyed this. You should buy it and read it.

Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi by Steve Inskeep

Gotta say, I was a bit underwhelmed by this. Maybe it’s because I was so, so looking forward to it that it couldn’t match my expectations. After all, I’m always on the lookout for books and articles about Karachi, mainly because it so rarely receives serious, sustained treatment from academics or journalists.

My main critique of the book is that it doesn’t really dive into Karachi the way one might expect the author to. There are, broadly speaking, two ways one can provide a great deal of depth. One is by studying extensively the academic scholarship on a region or phenomenon, and then placing one particular subject in that context. The other is by spending lots and lots of time with locals, living and breathing their lives, and writing up ones impressions after that.

I thin Inskeep goes for the latter option but it’s just not as powerful a story as I would’ve hoped. For instance, it really pales in comparison to Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City on Mumbai, in which I felt Mehta really got to know the characters inside out which in turn allowed the reader to know the characters inside out. There’s a superficial feel to the whole thing.

The one area where Inskeep definitely deserves credit is explaining how Karachi developed as a geographical construct at the neighborhood level. That’s something you don’t really see out there. But I found most everything else about the book quite meh.

Football against the enemy by Simon Kuper

I’m generally very interested in how socio-political identities form and are mediated through existing institutional and social structures, so this book was right up my alley. It’s concerned with how football matters beyond the pitch, and how the sport interacts with identities and socio-political cleavages. Why does Barcelona mean what it does to Catalunya? Why is Rangers-Celtic such a serious rivalry? What role did football play in the unification of South Africa post-apartheid?

I liked this book for the most part, but there was something throughout it that kind of bothered me., Kuper takes as a given the existing explanations for why football matters to a certain populace, rather than problematizing it and being skeptical of what he’s told by locals. It’s just something that gnawed at me throughout. I would also add that the chapter on Argentina and how its military junta (mis)appropriated football to their ends is fair enough regarding the facts, but there’s something about the tone. Kuper is a Briton writing in the early 1990s, with (presumably) the memory of the Falklans war fresh in his mind, and it’s very clear that he adopts mainstream British attitudes toward Argentina and Argentine football.

Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark

Thrill a minute, this book. Before I say anything else, I’d like to commend the authors for meticulously tracing about forty years of records, statements, archives, letters, memos and god knows what else to put this together. It’s incredibly well-researched and kudos to the authors for that.

This book is not just about A.Q. Khan, though he obviously features prominently in it. One thing that caught me by surprise (amongst others) is the extent to which the Reagan administration did Pakistan’s bidding in the 1980s. I mean, I knew they looked the other way and stuff while we were producing nukes. I had no idea how that process actually played out, until I read this. You won’t believe some of the shenanigans those guys were up to: covering up CIA findings, picking fights with other agencies, putting the Pentagon and State at odds with other arms of the U.S. government, knowingly lying to Congress about Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities, destroying careers and lives…it’s all there. And it’s quite unbelievable.

There’s obviously a lot of information on the Pakistan side as well, so this is a very valuable resource for anyone doing research in the areas of nuclear proliferation, acquisition, and the nuclear balance in South Asia. One thing worth noting is how crazy and nutty and evil Generals Hamid Gul and Mirza Aslam Beg come across. They’re the type of characters only the Zaid Hamid types like at the best of times, but even against the baseline of low expectations, they come across really badly. Their antics from around the time Zia died/was killed to about halfway through Nawaz Sharif’s first term really have to be read to be fathomed.

Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven

This book caused a lot of angst amongst people I respect and admire in the Pakistan intelligentsia but I didn’t quite understand why. Is it too favorable to the military’s point of view? Yes, undoubtedly. It puts a halo around their head in a way that most liberal types probably don’t appreciate. But I do think the extent of his generosity to the khakis has been overstated; this certainly doesn’t read like a 500 page Ejaz Haider column, if that’s what your impression is.

I recall when it came out that someone (sorry, I forget who) made a really big deal about Lieven using “democracy” in quote marks to talk about Pakistan. Well, the reason is very clear, and Lieven sets it out in the first few pages of the book: democracy does not imply constitutionalism or liberalism, and so while Pakistan may be a procedural democracy, it has a ways to go to become anything resembling a rights-based constitutional state. That’s all the point of the quote marks was, as I understood it.

There’s plenty Lieven either gets wrong or doesn’t cover at all, but his central point — that patronage is the oil that greases the wheels of the Pakistani socio-political system, and that this is both a blessing and a curse — is well taken. I would also commend him for getting out of Islamabad and Lahore, walking the streets and talking to “ordinary” Pakistanis, which very few foreigners do when writing about Pakistan.

The overall point I would make is that this book is aimed at a very specific audience: the OSD or State Department Pakistan-Desk staffer or the New York Times op-ed writer who thinks Pakistan is on the verge of collapse any minute now. He is trying to disabuse them of that notion. And he does a fairly good job of it. If you don’t know Pakistan very well but would like to learn more, this book is a decent place to start because it covers a lot of bases. It doesn’t cover any one area very well but that’s to be expected of a book of this type.

Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President by Edward McClelland

This book’s narrative ends in 2004, so if you’re looking for any insight into Obama’s run-in to the presidency, you should look elsewhere. No, this book is about Obama’s time as an Illinois State Senator, and in particular his story in Chicago — from his time as a lawyer to community organizer to politician (one of the lessons of the book is those three professions, at least in the way Obama practiced them, are not so different as they first appear).

I really enjoyed this one. It gives you really valuable insight into one of the central questions about Obama as a politician, that is, the mismatch between his soaring rhetoric and his incrementalist style. I know it’s said that politicians “campaign in poetry and govern in prose” but Obama really takes that to the extreme, and this book gives some answers as to why. It traces his political development, and shows that throughout his life (at least until the presidency), Obama’s main challenge has been to convince middle-class, moderate voters that he is not a liberal elitist in love with himself and his fancy Harvard law degree. As a consequence, he extends a hand to his opponents to convince them of his good intentions, even when they are uninterested in compromise. Moreover, his accomplishments in the Illinois Senate, limited though they are, were as a result of his adhering strongly to his oft-cited “don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good” thing.

There’s a lot of lessons here for people who wish to understand Obama, the man and the politician. I’d recommend it pretty strongly if you’re at all interested in the subject matter.

Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh

Honestly, I don’t remember much about this book, given I read it about 4-5 months ago. One thing I do recall appreciating was that it was a lot less technical than (a) Singh’s other book I’ve read, The Codebook, and (b) what I expected. It’s mostly just the story of Fermat’s Last Theorem, which as Wikipedia will tell you, states

no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ for any integer value of n greater than two.

It goes into the ups and downs Andrew Wiles faced while proving the theorem, thought to be one of math’s toughest problems. Can’t say too much else about it, I’m afraid (though I have to say I was a teeny tiny bit disappointed that Wiles turned out to be a regular dude; I always like to imagine professional mathematicians as crazy guys with long hair who live with their mother and eat only cheese, kinda like this guy).

Presenting a Strategic Plan is something of a poisoned chalice. On one hand it is an ideal opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the business and impress pretty senior people about your business acumen. On the other hand its very nature, unlike that of operating plans, invites very wide-ranging intellectual discussions with executive management during the presentation. A slip there can have very serious and permanent consequences.

The challenge therefore is to build up a reasonably believable plan and present it in a manner that, at the end, you still have your job intact. Having survived a number of such sessions, and now mostly having the pleasure of being in the reviewing audience, I do get asked for advice on best survival tips. In my opinion it’s more of a matter of avoiding certain key pitfalls. So here goes my two cents or seven and a half halala’s worth of advice…

First, bond thyself and thy audience. Now this is the real easy part, provided of course you are hot, blond, of the right friendly disposition and can successfully give Pamela Anderson a run for her money. For all the rest of us this is a big challenge.

It always pays to be humble and suitably deferential towards the audience, most of whom , except for the owners progeny, are unlikely to be anything other than shrewd and seasoned business executives. Time-honored openers like “it’s a pleasure presenting to all of you”, work all the time.

Stating that all your labor is, at the most, only likely to lead to a better understanding of the business challenges is another time tested winner: does all this sounds corny? Yes it is, but remember this is all about survival. Nobody likes a wise guy who pretends he is the biggest know all ever, so please do not come across as one, especially not at the start.

Second, know thy business and its limits. Pretty obvious, right? But seldom adhered to! While discussing the key objectives of the plan, we all have this irresistible urge to impress the audience. And in our zeal to impress, our vision comes across as being on par with the desires of a modern day Alexander. However, unless you are a Harvard dropout or had been given away at birth, and now are willing to cheat, copy, bully and lie your way to top, chances are slim that you will be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and lead your organization to everlasting glory. Plus of course, there is the small matter of having a high enough IQ.

Please ensure that you come across as someone who knows the difference between a vision and a dream.

Third, sell strategies they, not you, think are implementable. Therefore, please spare the audience the details of your grand designs related to the new world order. Banish the thoughts of revolutionizing the industry , stick to leveraging what your businesses core competencies are and you should have a built up a fairly reasonable pointer towards where all of you could possibly land up in another three to five years. And please keep the language simple and avoid grandiose expressions. The number of times I come across the words “passion” “anticipation” and “excitement” would make most of our film starlets blush.

Fourth, explain thy key plan assumptions well, and near the start. This does not mean showing a bewildering array of charts setting out endless population, GDP, inflation and sale trends numbers. Try building on something more interesting based on consumer insights, price points evolution, channel segmentation, etc. It is advisable to invest some money on good market research beforehand instead of downloading pages from CIA fact book. This should add credibility to the numbers you are building your whole plan on.

At the fifth place comes tackling thy enemy’s evil plans. Please keep in mind that everyone in that room is aware that you are not, unfortunately, the only player in the market, and that the enemy would also be planning your business’s demise. So an inadequate competitive analysis section makes you look quite foolish and out of touch with reality. Both of these outcomes can have very serious career repercussions.

As for number six, please be cautioned that Capital Expenditure both mattereth and hurtheth the moistest. Now you are on really dangerous grounds. Your audience will know, from bitter experience, that imprudent CAPEX outlays have a striking resemblance to bad marriages. You continuously regret getting into them and it’s impossible to avoid the consequences; and no wonder as most of the CAPEX requests I review are meant to look good on only one place, the Operations Directors CV! So only present what has been thoroughly assessed. Think instead of upgrades, and possibly leasing, and thou should be on safer grounds. This, by the way, applies to romantic liaisons also…

And seventh and the last, and the most critical. Do not wait to be asked questions, you do it all the time. Take the lead in asking them questions and then pointing out the answers in your presentation impresses them a lot, also makes them feel grateful for not having to think too much!

The best way as ever is to be well prepared and to understand that strategic plans are a means to an end, not an end by themselves. This way you will enjoy the experience. And hopefully survive to fight another day…

Microsoft co-founder and Harvard drop out is redirecting his philanthropic efforts in a new direction (though not necessarily moving away from polio) towards research in agriculture. In a letter posted on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website, he explains the the irony that the starving 15% of the world are farmer families. He goes [...]

Bill Gates Will Feed The World is a post from: PakMediaBlog All Rights Reserved.

Foremost among these is the raging controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie’s scheduled appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival, a saga that neatly encapsulates both the virtues and vices of the Indian polity. The gathering has fast emerged as the largest and most prestigious literary event in Asia, and it is a fine example of the soft power strengths India brings to the competition with China for influence in the region. This year’s installment attracted some 250 writers from South Asia and beyond (including talk show maven Oprah Winfrey, new age guru Deepak Chopra and Joseph Lelyveld, whose book on Mahatma Gandhi was greeted with a blast of invective from the Indian political class last year) as well as 70,000 visitors. Yet the imbroglio over Rushdie, who was supposed to be the main attraction at this year’s festival, has tarnished India’s credentials as emerging Asia’s brightest exemplar of democratic freedoms.

Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai to a Muslim family of Kashmiri descent, is the author of the 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, which inflamed Muslim sentiment throughout the world and lead Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader, to issue a notorious fatwa against his life. Concerned about the potential for upheaval among its sizeable Muslim population, the Indian government quickly banned the book, part of its familiar but disgraceful ritual of proscribing books that touch on sensitive issues or arouse passions in certain quarters. Rushdie, who continues to live under the threat of death, has traveled to India without incident numerous times in the years since, including an unannounced 2007 visit to the Jaipur gathering that is credited with putting it on the world’s cultural map.

But his headline participation at this year’s event brought forth a torrent of umbrage and threats. Muslim clerics started things off, including those at Darul Uloom Deoband, an influential Islamic seminary in Uttar Predesh, India’s most populous state which will hold legislative elections next month that many believe are critical to the survival of the Congress Party-led national government in New Delhi. Another seminary issued a fatwa calling for protests against the visit and a number of Muslim groups warned of “unprecedented protests” and burned Rushdie’s effigy.

Predictably enough, politicians soon took up the cudgels, many of them Congress Party leaders fearful of losing the allegiance of Uttar Pradesh’s large bloc of Muslim voters, who formed about a fifth of the state’s electorate. Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of Rajasthan, the northwestern state where the festival takes place, and a former general secretary of the All India Congress Committee, reportedly pressed the organizers to rescind their invitation to Rushdie and appeared indifferent to the threats being made against Rushdie’s safety. Chandrabhan Singh, head of the Congress Party’s Rajasthan unit, declared that “Rushdie has hurt the sentiments of many Indians. He must not be allowed to come to India.” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the party’s national leader, maintained a studious silence, while one of Singh’s Cabinet members pronounced that Rushdie’s “presence is not desirable.”

In contrast to the poltroon instincts of the political class, India’s boisterous media leapt to Rushdie’s defense. The Times of India accused the Congress Party of playing identity politics and argued that “by catering to such intolerance, the Congress has further contributed to creating an increasingly illiberal atmosphere in the country.” The Hindu called the affair “a national shame” and charged that “India has again betrayed its heritage of providing sanctuary to persecuted individuals and ideas, not to speak of its Constitution.”

If the saga had ended at this point, it would have amounted to an embarassment to the country’s reputation. Instead it unexpectedly morphed into an outrage against free expression. On the eve of the festival’s opening, Rushdie suddenly withdrew when the Rajasthan police warned him of an assassination plot being hatched by a Mumbai underworld boss who has close ties to the Pakistani security establishment. Media outlets, however, soon reported that the death threat was concocted by authorities to scare him away. When Rushdie made plans to address the gathering via video link, Rajasthan officials attempted to throw up new impediments. In the end, the video conference was abruptly cancelled by the venue’s owner following police warnings about violent protests.

In solidarity with Rushdie, four Indian writers at the gathering staged an impromptu reading of passages from The Satanic Verses, a prohibited act that drew quick police notice. Advised by legal counsel that they had unwittingly opened themselves up to criminal charges, the writers hastily departed Jaipur and, in some cases, the country.

Unfortunately, the Rushdie affair stands out for its prominence but not its singularity. Currently, the Delhi High Court is considering a petition that seeks to hold Google and Facebook liable for not censoring content that might offend the sensibilities of Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The judge overseeing the matter ominously warned that if the companies could not police their own sites, “like China we may be forced to pass orders banning all such websites.” Prime Minister Singh’s government has lent its imprimatur to the petitioner’s cause.

Late last year, Kapil Sibal, a Harvard-educated lawyer who serves as Mr. Singh’s telecommunications minister, likewise threatened to censor social networking sites for objectionable content (here and here).  Similar to the rhetoric directed at Rushdie, he argued that “religious sentiments of many communities and of any reasonable person is [sic] being hurt because of content which is on the sites.” Last June’s death of M. F. Husain, the most acclaimed painter of modern India, also recalled how he had been hounded into self-exile by Hindu nationalist groups incensed at his nude depictions of Hindu deities. Prime Minister Singh called Husain’s passing in a London hospital “a national loss” but he did nothing to dampen the mob culture that caused Husain to spend the last years of his life outside of India.

Indeed, over the last two years, India’s illiberal tendencies have been in particular bloom:

• A fictionalized biography of Congress Party supreme Sonia Gandhi was banned;
• Government officials helped put the kibosh on plans to make a movie based on Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, a non-fiction book that sheds light on Jawaharlal Nehru’s furtive relationship with the wife of the British Raj’s last viceroy;
• An outcry organized by the family of Bal Thackeray, a Hindu nationalist politician, forced the University of Mumbai to drop Rohinton Mistry’s novel, Such a Long Journey, a finalist for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, from its English-language syllabus;
• And Arundhati Roy, a perennial bete noire to the political establishment and a Man Booker Prize-winner for her 1997 novel, The God of Small Things, was charged with sedition for her remarks on the Kashmir dispute.

All democracies are continuous works in progress. But this year’s Republic Day reveals just how far India still remains from the ideals of free expression.

Hello there, its been a while.

2011 has ended and like every passing year, it seems only yesterday when it came our way.
For me, 2011 brought a lot of great experiences and some difficult times too. The year started with an incredible experience that was Harvard Model United Nations 2011 and ended with an opportunity to be part of a Live Q&A session with the one who claims to bring about a ‘tsunami’, the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI]. Imran Khan came to the Institute of Business Administration on 23rd December 2011 perhaps in an attempt to garner further support and answer a few questions. Ironically the show’s name was ‘To the Point’ and unfortunately he was the opposite of that. I will be talking about this experience and Imran Khan’s political aspirations soon. From tomorrow I have my final exams of my first semester, hopefully it’ll be a breeze.

My blogging sadly took a back seat due to the hectic college days, yet I hope to blog more often in 2012.
Here’s a small yet interesting video about the year 2011. Have a look.
Happy New Year folks!

In a follow up to yesterday’s post, I have come across a piece in Time Magazine by Eben Harrell of Harvard’s Belfer Center. In it, Harrell discusses the thriving nuclear export business Kim John Il established during his reign in which he allegedly provided equipment for fissile materials production and missile technology to countries such as Syria and Iran. Such links are evidenced by, for example, the fact that the Al-Kibar reactor bombed by the Israelis closely resembled the North Korean plutonium reactor at Pyongyang.

With information from North Korean defectors, the Harrell piece also provides an interesting nugget of information about how the illicit export network allegedly functions.

AFP/Getty

“What’s not clear is how much this network relied on support or at least authorization from Kim Jong Il. But reports from North Korean defectors once involved in the tripartite proliferation network suggest it is highly sophisticated and involves many different layers of officialdom. It may work something like this: North Korean state trading companies working directly for the DPRK regime set up branch offices in mainland China. These companies contract private Chinese firms to send purchase orders to the local subsidiaries of European industrial machinery companies, who have set up shop in China specifically to cash in on China’s growing domestic market.  These domestic orders, of course, are not subject to export controls, so without knowing it, western subsidiaries sell dual-use technology — industrial tool and dye equipment, for example — directly to private Chinese firms, who then use their established routes to transport the goods to North Korea. In terms of sales, North Korea state trading companies are also contracting private Chinese firms to move sensitive goods through Southeast Asia (including Myanmar) and on to clients in the Middle East.”

Harrell concludes by emphasizing that the potential vacuum created by Kim Jong Il’s death should prod the West to stop the DPRK’s illicit nuclear trade network once and for all.  As I noted yesterday, one can only hope that the regime change indeed provides some opportunity for breakthrough in the ongoing impasse on the Korean Peninsula.

Micro Manager

The term Micro Management means keeping close control on happenings within an organization. The term has a negative connotation and rightly so. Manager’s role is to facilitate, but a micro manager generally creates roadblocks for other coworkers.

Small business owners tend to micromanage, but once the business grows, the scope of an owner manager’s responsibilities change. It however becomes challenging for him to realize the situation, which ultimately makes life difficult for him and his coworkers. In this post, I would like to focus on why people micromanage and what can be done to improve situation in an organization.

Psychologically, we all are micromanagers; some will consider this a radical statement. But the fact of the matter is that human generally think that “they are correct and others are goofs”. Those who say that they are working for micro managers, most of the time do not realize that they micromanage too!

I found an interesting post at Harvard Business Review that analyzed “why people micromanage?” I strongly recommend reading this excellent post on the subject. Commenting on the post readers shared their views saying:

“I have been micromanaged and guess what? When I rose through the ranks I did the same. It’s difficult to admit to yourself. I believe it’s a part of the learning process.”

The other reader noted:

“I am one of those control freaks you are talking about. I know I am doing it, but sometimes being like that has made me aware of some nasty situations before they turned into disasters. I can imagine that I am a complete nightmare to work for.”

Logically speaking, most of micromanagement stems from insecurity and uncertainty. When an individual tries to behave as a “Mr Know it All” he is actually exerting the behavior of Insecurity and mistrust. And in case of small business owners, this is valid too. They are usually running the show themselves, and their workers are either part time or do not have any future development potential within the organization. Expecting 100% loyalty in such a situation is foolish, hence the attitude towards micromanagement embeds into most small business owners or even managers that are working in similar situations.

Delegation is one of the ways to reduce the effect of micromanagement. Most system driven organizations, small or big create a process that makes workers self accountable. They work on “no blame-game theory”. This means that every individual will agree on a process of self accountability and will be fully responsible to his or her acts.

Individuals and organizations suffering from this negative behavior tend to move slowly due to hurdles created by micromanagers. An interesting way to overcome this is realization and trainings. Change does not come prompt, but in most cases leadership trainings help micromanagers learn to lead effectively.

In the end, lets analyze yourself, are you:

• Making all the decisions
• Setting priorities
• Doing all the talking
• Signing off on every document and communication
• Attending every meeting that anyone of your team attends
• Making sure the spotlight is always on you
• Accepting credit for team accomplishments
• Assigning blame to some individual of your team when something goes wrong

If you are behaving in this manner, I am afraid, you are one of them and remember “a micromanager is one of the most frustrating and demoralizing forces in the workplace!”

Thank you Mark Dummett, for the report in BBC today paying tribute to Anthony Mascarenhas, the brilliant and courageous Pakistani journalist who had to flee abroad in order to be able to tell the truth – Bangladesh war: The article that changed history.

Mascarenhas

“Eight journalists, including Mascarenhas, were given a 10-day tour of the province (East Pakistan). When they returned home, seven of them duly wrote what they were told to,” writes Dummett.

“But one of them refused.”

That was Mascarenhas, who died in 1986 in London.

His wife Yvonne Mascarenhas told Dummett that she remembers him coming back distraught: “I’d never seen my husband looking in such a state. He was absolutely shocked, stressed, upset and terribly emotional. He told me that if he couldn’t write the story of what he’d seen he’d never be able to write another word again.”

“Clearly it would not be possible to do so in Pakistan. All newspaper articles were checked by the military censor, and Mascarenhas told his wife he was certain he would be shot if he tried,” writes Dummett.

Here is a case of a journalist who rose above what was no doubt being touted as the “national interest”. His subsequent reports in the Sunday Times made him a “traitor” to West Pakistan and a hero to the Bengalis. But I think he was a hero to the cause of journalism.

“There is little doubt that Mascarenhas’ reportage played its part in ending the war. It helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a decisive role,” writes Dummett… “Not that this was ever Mascarenhas’ intention”.

He was, simply, as editor of the Sunday Times, Harold Evans wrote in his memoirs, “just a very good reporter doing an honest job”.

It speaks volumes for the mainstream Pakistani narrative about the events of 1971, that I, as a journalist with a deep interest in human rights issues, never even heard of Anthony Mascarenhas until just a few years ago, and then too, quite by chance.

My uncle Zawwar Hasan, a retired journalist now over 80 years old, mentioned “Tony Mascarenhas” while reminiscing about how he ended up in this profession. Unsuccessful in getting a job in his own field, marketing, he had landed a job as a sports reporter with the government-controlled news agency Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) in Karachi in 1948. After his first assignment, a cricket match, he went to the India Coffee House with a new friend, another sports journalist, M. Akhtar.

“We wrote our reports there, and he gave me a lift to my office at APP.… Tony Mascarenhas was there – he later ended up with London Times,” said my uncle, remembering how Mascarenhas, who was editor of APP, had told him off for not coming straight back to the office after the match to file his report.

“Do you realise this is a news agency and every minute is precious. Anyway, show me what you have.”

Mascarenhas the editor then himself typed up the handwritten report (because the rookie reporter didn’t know how to type), telling him only to “come early tomorrow and learn to type.”

Being interested in the contributions of non-mainstream Muslims to Pakistan’s struggle for democracy, I was intrigued by the obviously Goan Christian name Mascarenhas. I started looking him up. I also learned how he “ended up with London Times”, initially as their correspondent in Pakistan.

According to the Times obituary of December 8, 1986, he was born Neville Anthony Mascarenhas in “Belgaum, near Goa, on July 10, 1928. A Roman Catholic, he was educated at St Patrick’s College, Karachi, before joining Reuters in Bombay in 1948.

“At the time of partition he was sent to Karachi to start their operation in the new state of Pakistan. He then helped to found Pakistan’s own news agency, APP.  In 1958 he joined the Times of Karachi as assistant editor…  From 1961 to 1971 he worked for the Morning News, mainly as assistant editor, though for two years (1963-5) he was its correspondent in India, and in 1965 was interned there with his family for three months while India and Pakistan were at war.

“In 1970 he was recruited by The Sunday Times, for which paper he wrote, the following year, the report from East Bengal which profoundly influenced opinion in the outside world, and which changed the course of his life.”

Read Dummett’s article for fascinating details about how Mascarenhas and his family escaped from Pakistan.

Later, in Cambridge MA, with access to the Harvard libraries, I found his books, The rape of Bangladesh (Delhi, Vikas Publications, 1971) and Bangladesh: a legacy of blood (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1986). As far as I know, neither is unavailable in Pakistan although I hear that there have been some translations.

Some years ago I asked a senior journalist who had been posted in Dhaka during 1971, why no one in West Pakistan wrote the truth about what was happening. “We were not allowed,” he said simply. “There was strict censorship.”

But Mascarenhas had the courage, and the opportunity, to follow his conscience.

As I wrote in an essay for the Economic and Political Weekly, the State controlled Pakistan Television, that started broadcasts in 1964, has remained very much ‘his master’s voice’.

Along with a few newspapers and the government controlled Radio Pakistan, PTV reported only what the government allowed. This censorship was particularly evident when it came to the growing unrest in what was then East Pakistan. The news censorship and slanting was so extreme that even on Dec 16, 1971, when the Pakistan army surrendered to the Indian, the West Pakistan media was still predicting victory. An exception was Anthony Mascarenhas, the Goa-born, Karachi-educated journalist…. In 1970, recruited by The Sunday Times, London, his reports on the happenings in East Bengal “profoundly influenced opinion in the outside world, and changed the course of his life”, as his obituary in The Times notes.

“He and his family had to leave their home and all their possessions in Karachi. He arrived in Britain on June 12, 1971, and the following day his three-page story appeared in The Sunday Times. It was quoted all over the world and won him awards from IPC and What the Papers Say. But it also earned him the bitter hatred of Pakistan’s military regime, and for time he had reason to fear for his life.”

Ironically, or perhaps tellingly, he had become an Indian citizen in 1976 –obviously Pakistan had disowned him — although at the time of his death he was intending to apply for British citizenship, according to the Times obituary.