NASA is giving you a chance to make history. NASA wants to put a picture of you on one of the two remaining space shuttle missions and launch it into orbit. The two remaining shuttle missions are:

• STS-133 (Estimated Launch Date: 30th November, 2010)
• STS-134 (Estimated Launch Date: 27th February, 2011)

Why? Beats me! But I think since ANYONE can apply for it. This is a really cool thing. You have NOTHING to lose. Simply go their Face In Space Website – and upload your picture and that’s it. You could be one of the lucky ones to have your picture floating around somewhere in space. How cool would that look on your resume.

The rules of entry are that you have to be 13 years or older.

Check it out – the two missions:

(Home Page, Estimated Launch Date: 30th November, 2010)

(Home Page, Estimated Launch Date: 30th November, 2010)

For many years now – I have been writing to the CEO/President of PayPal and their parent company Ebay, asking then why they are not present in Pakistan. Despite all the communication via email, faxes, and letters that I dispatch every year, I have never managed to solicit a reply from them. Not even a squeak.

Today, many campaigns are afoot on the Internet in the hopes of getting PayPal’s attention and getting them to come to Pakistan.

Some people are supposedly even in touch with PayPal through their Far East office, London office or US office. Some have claimed to have met them, each vying to bring PayPal to Pakistan. In some minor cases, some of these elements are just not playing fair and present a fair picture to PayPal. They do so because they want to do business with PayPal and get paid for it (hint: law firms), others want accolades, etc. Just for the record, I want none. I just want them to be here.

Today, people fly to Singapore,Dubai, London and even the US to open a bank account just so that they can have a PayPal account.

Most of the activity that is done on PayPal on behalf of Pakistan is done so by what I call Acquaintance-PayPaling! – i.e. using the PayPal account of your brother, sister, uncle, niece, cousin, friend, relative, associate, etc.

Coming back to topic – the present situation is – we still do not have PayPal in Pakistan. Rumor mills are abound with the reasons why PayPal is not in Pakistan. I will not go there, but perhaps try to address what in my opinion I believe is stopping PayPal from coming to Pakistan.

PayPal as you know operates in quite a few countries. In our immediate region, i.e. South Asia, large economies like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc. do not have PayPal, yet countries like Rwanda, Botswana, Fiji, Panama, Sierra Leone, Tonga and Zambia have access to PayPal.

Even Yemen and Somalia have access to Paypal.

Is this fair? Certainly not!

PayPal’s reluctance to operate in Pakistan is due to Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist activities.

It is also rumored  (I cannot confirm this), that there  is a strong Indian lobby, that very tactfully yet and with sane reasoning positions Pakistan as a country which PayPal best avoids, despite the numbers that work in favor for PayPal to operate here.

No one – on their own wants to take ownership within PayPal and convince the New Business Development Department and the Legal team that Pakistan holds the potential of a very strong market for PayPal.

Having said this, there are some genuine people in PayPal who are literally fighting a case for Pakistan. I wish them good luck and request that they read on what I have written below.

So to summarize:

1. PayPal wants to do business in Pakistan, but are hesitant due to AML and for it (PayPal services) to possibly be used for terrorist activities.
2. People in Pakistan desperately want PayPal.

There are three concerning bodies in Pakistan that PayPal needs to get in touch with:

1. State Bank of Pakistan (the central bank of Pakistan)
2. Pakistan Remittance Initiative – a semi-autonomous body within SBP that is focused on inward remittances and how to legalize them, and provide better KYC, etc.
3. FMU – Financial Monitoring Unit – the AML arm of SBP.

In an unofficial capacity I can state, that all three are willing to talk to PayPal and pacify and address their concerns which prevents them from operating in Pakistan.

Especially PRI – the folks at PRI are more than willing to sit and listen to PayPal and advice them of our laws that we have in place and to correct any misconceptions that they might have with respect to Pakistan.  They can help you get PayPal services rolled out at a National level – and under a one-window operation for PayPal.

PRI is the most pertinent body that can help PayPal and will guide you if you need a banking license or a money-exchange license, how to get incorporated (if required by SECP) how to get integrated with the two ATM switch operators in Pakistan: 1Link and MNet – I’m very sure PRI will also help PayPal with any Tax related issues / consultation with the Tax Authorities (i.e. FBR).

Sitting in a cubicle in California – things are a whole lot different when Pakistan is viewed as a potential country to do business with. It would be conniving of PayPal not to get in touch with PRI / SBP / FMU – all three which operate under the auspices of Ministry of Finance and have the hurdles addressed.

Sitting in Pakistan, you cannot fathom our disbelief that we are blatantly being ignored by PayPal  -  the silence to all the communication/campaigns is deafening.

10+ years of PayPal and no service in Pakistan is just not fair to the 20 million internet users here. We are NOT a camel country! We don’t have sand dunes and people sitting in huts squatting flies. We are not running around naked in sewers begging for water. We do have almost all the conceivable luxuries and infrastructure that is prevalent out in the West. Especially digital infrastructure.

For god’s sake, stop being obtuse PayPal and open your eyes!

For good order’s sake – study us, and do your homework. We are the largest Non-Nato partner for the US in this war against terror. You really think that terrorist networks are only existing in Pakistan? they are all over the world – including UK, Germany, France, Somalia, Yemen, Rwanda, South Africa, Canada, countries where you operate. And please, do not associate the word terrorist with “Islam” or “Muslim” god knows how many home grown terrorist organizations are out there. Juxtaposing such labels on Pakistan is unfair, uncalled for and plain myopic business attitude. Radical white supremacist are gaining numbers everyday in Germany and Austria and UK, do you not consider them when you do business there? India has its own share of problems as far as terrorist organizations are concenred – including the Indian Maoist movement known as the Naxalites, but that does not stop PayPal from operating there now does it? So please think rationally when it comes to Pakistan and stop generalizing and compartmentalizing us.

Pakistani individuals and small businesses are making great strides on freelancing portals (like Elance, oDesk, RentaCoder, etc.) and other web outsourcing platforms where they deliver fantastic services.

Users here are forced to pay hefty fees associated with bank wire transfers, Western Union, 2Checkout, Liberty Reserve, Moneybookers, etc. to get paid.

The very least PayPal can do – is to get in touch with the right institutions here in Pakistan and work with them to have their issues addressed. Until and unless PayPal will not take the first step, the Government of Pakistan and its institutions are helpless, not to mention the 20 million Internet users and the nearing 100 million cellphone users. We as citizens can only do our digital protest in the hopes we get your attention – the walk you must walk!

If anyone in PayPal is reading this, please get in touch with myself, at fk (at) faisalkhan (dot) com and I shall duly put you in touch with the three institutions I mentioned. I do with without any self-servicing agenda or motive. I too like everyone else would like PayPal to be present in Pakistan.

Its been too long for us not to have PayPal and you have it within yourselves, the power, the will and determination to change that for the 20 million Internet users in Pakistan.

"Hope is not a dream but a way of making dreams become reality."

- L. J. Suenens

If you’ve ever run a web designing company – like we have in the past, then this sounds all too familiar.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Islamic Graffiti, Spamming and Colloquialisms:

Warning: Ranting here. If you do not have an open mind or if your comments are out of the ordinary bordering on insult, I shall simply ignore them.

Islamic Graffiti: It’s in the elevator in my building. Even outside it. It’s in the parking garage, the empty walls, the “For Hire’ notices on the notice board, on walls, doors, alley, walkways, on billboard poles, on the new bus stops in Karachi, on the back of cars, vans, trucks, school-bags, even on the fold-out meal table on Air Blue, on new under construction houses, multi-story buildings, the TCS truck, the Shell Oil Tanker, its outside the wall of many schools, and sometimes even on the school gate itself, on police pickets.

There is no escape from it – Islamic graffiti is everywhere. It is deemed a ‘sin’ (a kafir act) to erase it or take it down.

Islamic Spamming: It’s on message boards, the email, the “SubhanAllah” “MashaAllah” “InshaAllah” emails, the tree that resembles like a praying man, the boycott Danes, boycott Unilever, don’t eat McDonalds because its ‘haram’, the Dua emails, the Islamic classes email, the Islamic redemption emails, the Islamic stories in email, the Give Sadqa email, the Give Zakat emails, the 10 wonderful things about our beautiful Prophet (PBUH), the meanings of the 99 names of Allah, the debates on YouTube on how Dr. Zakir owned some Jewish priest on Peace TV, the ‘girl’ cover your head (hijab), else you will be a lollipop enticing flies (men). There is no end to it. It in your face and with no effort required in electron duplication, its being spread by the millions on emails, message boards, mailing lists, spams, forums, blog comments, videos, podcasts, etc.

And last, but not the least, Islamic  Colloquialisms – there is not a single hour – let alone an hour – half an hour that does not go by where “InshahAllah”  “SubhanAllah” “MashahAllah” et. al. are not inserted in mid-sentences, end-of-sentences, beginning of sentences.

I for one, have nothing against Islam. I am a proud Muslim. Equally, I respect other religions as well. I think of the minorities in Pakistan – how they face each and every day. A certain colleague is Hindu – I bet if he ever said “Bhagwan ka shukar hai” or scribbled a picture of a Hindu deity on the wall, or if even daring inside of an elevator next to the Islamic graffiti what sort of a reaction that would play. Not a very positive one I can tell you.

I converse with colleagues in Muslim countries and equally with colleagues who are Muslim in Non-Muslim countries, but I do not encounter it “as much” as I do so in Pakistan. Why is that? Can you imagine our Missionary teachers telling us “By the Grace of Jesus Christ our Lord’s savior – your Child is excelling in school” – I am sure that would have knee-jerk reaction of a lot of people fainting in disbelief.

Need I remind our citizens of the “White” in our Flag that is equally prominent. The White represents the Minorities in Pakistan.  Do we do justice to them by so much in your face Islam? Sure  – proponents argue you can tend to look the other way, or have I forgotten that the country is an “Islamic Republic of Pakistan”. No I have (sadly) not forgotten that.

I have never witnessed so much religious advertising in my life in – for any faith, as much as there is in Pakistan for Islam. The few non-Muslim countries I have travelled to, have such a moderate approach towards religion (all religions), and the few Muslim countries I have visited have not only a moderate, but also a tolerant and ‘balanced’ approach towards religion.

Why must we exemplify ourselves as more holier than thou? Can others not see that this is our downfall in an economically driven world? With religion division causing even more hatred and violence. Interpretations (each by its own faction, sect, head) are further fueling the situation and people are so oblivious to what is right or wrong. They unilaterally absorb anything that is fed to them under the tag of religion? Are we so obtuse in our thinking and vision?

I love my religion. But I am sure, a Christian loves his too. A Zoroastrian loves his and a Hindu loves his equally – and they all consider themselves Pakistanis equally. So I thought. Ask around with your close friends / colleagues / family who belong to the minority, and they will tell you how ‘threatened’ they feel about Islamization that is happening in Pakistan and the pace of its propagation onto everything they see, touch, hear, smell and taste. Do we honestly want to have a Pakistan of “Muslims” only and everyone else get the fuck out? I for one – think not. So then why this Islam mashing in your face daily!

Why can we as professionals not have a conversation without bringing religion into it? I do not see the ERP or Core Banking Software saying “SubhanAllah” when a check is cashed or when an inventory sale happens? So then why must we have bank tellers, account managers indoctrinated into this Islamization lingo?

We abhor Jews – yet use their technology (stop using the Intel processor if you hate the Jews and amongst many other millions of things). We chant Anti-West slogans and chest thumping in synchronous beats on Anti-American agendas – yet we continue to love and use their methods, inventions and products.

Why cannot we let religion be the personal entity it is and not brazenly advertise it to everyone else. Why must we try to convert everyone who is not a Muslim and if a Muslim tries to convert into any other religion – we want to kill him. Why must we declare Jihad on the Americans and West and not declare Jihad on poverty, education, child labour, women’s rights, farming, skills alleviation, etc.

Why do we burn tires and break windows and chant slogans of death on the top of our lungs when some with a pen writes something to piss us off, and yet on the other hand when a woman gets gang-raped – it is just another news item. Wouldn’t you be enraged if that were your wife / mother / sister / daughter?

Why must we stay silent when people are murdered by our very own – in our acts of enragement? Why must we decide to ‘burn’ someone for what their views are on religion? Imagine if the West had a fatwa (equivalent) or law that would demand mobs to ‘burn’ a person who converts from Christianity to Islam – how would you feel?

Why don’t the Islamists of our country wage the Holiest of Holy Wars against beggary and the vicious monsters who butcher children and disfigure them permanently to induce them into the beggary trade?

Why cannot we collectively just like we do on a Juma prayer – decide for once to clean the very areas we work and live in?

I don’t have answers for these questions – but I tell you a few things in closing why it does not happen.

Because …

• Religion in Pakistan is a Business
• Religion in Pakistan is about Control
• Religion in Pakistan is about Votes
• Religion in Pakistan is about Money
• Religion in Pakistan is about Power

Clean Streets, Educated Minds, Religious Tolerance and Harmony, Strict Laws and Follow through against Rape, Child Labor, Beggary, defy all the five points above.

I hope somewhere – somehow – we will stop having double-standards when it comes to religion. Stop being judgmental, stop being myopic, stop being obtuse, be more harmonious, be more tolerant, be more open-minded, be more forgiving and be less selfish. “InshahAllah” (“Ameen”) .

Here is some very interesting (read: shocking) statistic for you: (accurate as of 15th January, 2010).

• Number of Countries in the World: 192 (as per United Nations) [i]
• Number of Countries in the World: 195 (if we include Kosovo, Vatican City, etc.)
• US State Department Recognized Countries: 194
• Number of Countries in which PayPal Operates: 189[ii]
• Number of Countries that do NOT have Paypal: 5 (as per US State Department’s count)
• GDP Ranking (as compiled by IMF) for Pakistan for the year 2008 out of 179 Countries is # 48[iii]
• GDP Ranking (as compiled by World Bank) for Pakistan for the year 2008 out of 182 countries is # 46[iv]
• Internet Users in Pakistan: 18.5 Million (as per December 2009)[v]
• Internet users (as a percentage of the population): 10.6%

As of now, PayPal operates in 189 countries, that is like only six countries where Paypal does NOT operate:

• Cuba
• Pakistan
• Iran
• North Korea, and
• Afghanistan
• Syria

So lets see, Cuba has an embargo on trade with the US – has been for past 40+ years, so that is okay.

Iran, North Korea and Syria are “Axis of Evil” countries. So that’s understandable.

Afghanistan – is where the US is fighting it main battle $200+ Billion lost – okay so that is also understandable,

Pakistan – Ah! Pakistan. US’s Non-Nato Ally. Why the heck is Pakistan left out? I mean for crying out loud, even Somalia and Yemen have access to Paypal? Bloody Yemen! Bloody Somalia! Bloody Rwanda!

You know what? That makes me – Bloody Angry!

Why the discrimination – I have no idea. Reminds me of the song by the Pet Shop Boys, “What Have I Ddone to Deserve This?”

Here are the list of countries where PayPal is operating:

[ii] Source: Paypal (www.paypal.com) and navigate to Sign-up Page (countries list extracted from there).

[iii] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

[iv] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

[v] Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm#asia

Its that time of the year again when I shall be writing my annual letter to the CEO/President of PayPal and Ebay (Ebay owns Paypal), complaining to them as to why they are not in Pakistan.

Last year I was very hopeful that would reply back (despite writing to them twice). This year, I have much more than a simple letter in mind for them. I almost feel like betting here (that they will reply back, else I shall eat my letter). Note, I said, I ‘almost’ felt like betting.

Anyhow, I am compiling and researching and have almost completed it. I should be penning my thoughts and arguments in the coming days and hope to have the letter go out before the end of January 2010.

Stay tuned.

One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops – a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well.

At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight, built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, “Big John doesn’t pay!” and sat down at the back

Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn’t argue with Big John, but he wasn’t happy about it. The next day the same thing happened – Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next

This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff

By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what’s more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, “Big John doesn’t pay!”

The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, ” And why not?”

With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, ” Big John has a bus pass.”

Management Lesson:

“Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one.

KESC  – I don’t know whether to love them or hate them. Of late, they have been causing so much problems for our building on Main Shahrah-e-Faisal (called Park Avenue) that I am about to lose it.

I wrote back to KESC a few day back (See attached), but never heard from them.

Just this week after the rains, we’ve been inundated with power outages from KESC that I decided to write a letter again to their CEO, which border on unprofessional communication, but in hindsight you know what, I don’t give a fuck! When KESC starts costing me in equipment damages, and downtime, it is only fair that they get their act together and fix things.

Here is the letter I sent to them today…

——————————-

3^rd September 2009.

Mr. Naveed Ismail
Chief Executive Officer
Karachi Electric Supply Company Limited
State Life Building No. 11, 7th Floor,
Abdullah Haroon Road,
Saddar
Karachi
Tel No. 021-9205117 & 9205142
Fax No.021-9205192 & 9206275

Subject:                       KESC’s Cable Fault at Park Avenue Building (Main Shahrah-e-Faisal)

Respect Mr. Ismail,

Reference my last letter to you (See Attached), the power supply issues at Park Avenue on Main Shahrah-e-Faisal remains. This past Sunday we had an outage of over 35 hours. Power was restored within hours of the rain everywhere except Park Avenue, the reason being cited was “Cable Fault”.

I am absolutely now disgusted by calling KESC Helpline. “Power will be resorted in 1-2 hours InshahAllah” is the standard answer, and after 40+ calls and 35 hours later. It does get restored, but the happiness was short lived. I’ve never seen God’s name been taken in vain so many time as I have with KESC.

Today as I write this letter, we’ve had power fed by KESC for less than 3 hours on total (since 7 AM) and right now it’s 3:20PM.

Power is coming and going. When we call to find out, we find we have been “shifted” to another cable which cannot take the load, and the cable that can take the load – has a fault in it.

I’m sorry to be extremely blunt, but you show no mercy when collecting bills. As the CEO of KESC it is not my duty to remind you of what your fiduciary duties are, but I would speculate one of them is to ensure that power is supplied continuously.

Either you don’t give two hoots about our building and its power supply issues (I wanted to use a another strong word, but am restraining to do so) or on a lighter note did we miss a monthly grease money payment. Your candid reply would be much appreciated.

You cannot fathom the frustration and loathing right now that I have for KESC.

Please fix the fault. At least communicate back in writing, explaining in detail what the issue is and how you are going to address is and the time frame in which it will be done.

Please do not make a mockery out of me by citing a technical excuse that would be jargon for me – it would not be. I do have an BSEE/MSEE from the US, so let’s try not to pull a fast one here.

I’m looking for resolution and I need it fast!

Sincerely,

FAISAL KHAN
CEO

CC:       Chief Operating Officer Jan Abbas Zaidi

——————————-

Being an engineer and that too having specialized in electromagnetic, I am fascinated with physics. Anything and everything about the sciences intrigues me. Being a father of two children who are very young, I am extremely worried about their future. What worries me is not that we are a nuclear power. Or we are an “Islamic” nuclear power. The fact that we have nuclear power for purposes of deterrence which can be used to cause death and destruction is what worries me.

Five years ago had you asked any tourist in the Swat Valley that the Talibans would be entrenched here in the years to come, people would have dismissed that very thought.

But it did happen.

Barring other countries, why don’t we question our nuclear program. No – that would deemed unpatriotic. Unbecoming a Pakistani. Unbecoming a proud Muslim. Really?

Sure we have made the bomb, but now what? The notion that this nation will eat grass and survive when the sanctions were placed, what did it achieve for us? More debt? Yes. Did we progress or slip backwards? If you talk about technology – we progressed, if you talk about education, we slipped back.

If you talk about increasing our water supplies, we slipped back.

If you talk about human rights, we slipped back.

If you talk about power generation, we slipped back.

If you talk about brain-drain, we slipped back.

If you talk about religious tolerance, we slipped back.

If you talk about harmony in society, we slipped back.

So why are we hell-bent on protecting the bomb. What realistically does it achieve for us. Deterrence? At what price? Read this carefully. We cannot, I repeat cannot even ‘question’ the amount of money being spent on Pakistan’s Nuclear Program.

All the time we are in a constant tit-for-tat comparative race with the Indians.  Let me pose a question…

Tomorrow India signs the NPT, what would we do? Follow suit and sign it? Why can it not be the other way around?

Why can’t we take a bold step and sign the NPT. Enough of the bombs I say. Lets  open our nuclear program for civilian use. Lets power up our cities. Let us be responsible enough in the eyes of the world and ourselves to be able to export nuclear technology. Let us rid ourselves of some of the financial burden we carry.

The world today is a global village. It all boils down about financial survival. We sign the NPT, for once we take a bold step and look good. Not only do we look good, we act responsible to ourselves and for our future. I have a deep sense of belonging and attachment to our national flag. But it seems we are more and more inclined towards the Green it represents and ignore the White (minorities – remember Gojra?). We are more concerned with what the Indians are up to than what is happening in our own backyard. We have become stubborn.

Why must we act differently. Why must we indulge in hidden self-pity (in case you disagree, losing two wars is self-pity enough and we pile on arms to justify the loss).

Why can’t we simply sign the NPT and progress as a responsible nation? I leave that thought and question open for you to answer.

I won’t go into debate, most of them are self explanatory.

1. 3-years mandatory induction for males into the armed forces upon reaching the age of 18. Same would true hold for women (but for 2 years only). Front-line for 1 year. Saves us massive amounts of money and melts down the different ‘types’ into one – a patriotic Pakistani and not a superficial Pakistani.
2. Identity card would NOT be made for anyone who has not enrolled into the mandatory service. No one gets exempted or buys his/her way out. No one.
3. Reduce Armed forces HR count by 20% – become more efficient. Why we need to be in the Top 5 or Top 10 – when we are burning money every year. We don’t need a bigger Army/Navy/Air-Force, we need a leaner one!
4. Reduce Armed forces budget by 20% (yeah, times are tough, try a little friendly diplomacy).
5. 5% additional tax on cigarettes – goes towards Education. I’d like to see someone bitch about this.
6. 5% additional tax on gasoline – goes towards Education.
7. Don’t ask how – trim other areas you have to – make the education budget at least 85 Billion Rupees (we can CERTAINLY find a way to do this). $1 Billion per year on education is not a bad idea itself. Lets get foreign investment in this sector alone.
8. Let PIA go bankrupt. While we are at it, the Government should only own the post office if they really need to hold on to anything, everything else, put it under the auctioneer’s hammer.
9. Abolish permanent service in the Government (Federal/provincial, state, council, etc.) People need to learn to live in a society that is dynamic. Permanent jobs leads to de-pasteurizing the very institution and decreases efficiency of which there is a serious lack.
10. All school/college graduates (no exceptions) must have taken a course and successfully graduated in a Computer language. Fortran, Machine language, COBOL and BASIC do NOT count.
11. One-day of the week – Wednesday, introduce public transport day only. Private cars must pay the equivalent of a very high-carbon tax to be on the road that day.
12. Reintroduce Foreign Exchange (Non) Bearer Certificates. Whiten your money, 2% tax, no questions asked.
13. Introduce a scheme backed by Gold – in a joint-venture with a Swiss Bank with sovereign guarantee to allow NRPs (Non-Resident Pakistanis) to invest their Dollars, Euros, Pounds, Dirhams and Riyals here in Pakistan for up to 1 year will full repatriation f funds allowed.
14. Remove all forms of Police protection to MNAs, MPAs, Ministers, Judges, Federal Ministers. Only President / Prime Minister can have it. All throughout Pakistan, no person can have any sort of an escort of Police or any other agency. No one. Especially the Police themselves.
15. Reduce the working week for Government down to 5 days.
16. Establish an oversight committee in the National Assembly to question what the Intelligence agencies are doing, include responsible non-parliamentarians in it.
17. Establish an oversight committee – more or less like a People’s Court to find out what your MNA/MPA is doing. Their pay shall be directly proportional to both their attendance in the assembly, availability in their office in their home constituency and their active participation towards the better of Pakistan. They each should have a blog with a ticket order system to lodge complaints and to see the follow up done on those complaints.
18. Introduce land reforms. No person can own more than 200 acres. This includes institutions (Hello Army, Railways and State Life)!
19. Double the Yield-Per-Acreage on your land, and take 0% tax on the increase. However, your existing farming area that you are cultivating cannot be reduced in size.
20. Establish a tax free industry with a maximum of 10% raw material allowed to be imported to innovate solutions in Solar Energy, Water Desalination and Water purification and filtration using the indigenous resources available in Pakistan.
21. Do your Ph.D, publish a paper in an international journal, get Rs. 10 Million worth of tax-free benefits should you decide to stay and work in Pakistan. You are allowed to sell this ‘tax’ deduction to any business after one year.
22. Buy 1 computer and donate to the schools (via a very civilian monitored / NGO monitored program) get tax benefit of Rs. 100,000. Do 2, tax benefit of Rs. 150,000, and for each additional computer you donate, get a tax benefit receipt from FBR worth Rs. 50,000. Computer has to be on the prescribed list (old PIIIs will not do).
23. Hold a Masters/Ph.D from abroad? Teach – and get a tax benefit and a grant. This is directly tied into the funds you will receive from the investors who would like to invest into the education sector in Pakistan.
24. Upgrade the railways and introduce monorail. Not just in one city, but throughout Pakistan. Use steel in construction of over-passes for monorails, fast urban transportation is very much needed.
25. Build more dams. Lots of them. Dams require geologists, physicists, engineers (civil, mechanical, electrical, fluid mechanics, etc.) architects, MBAs, construction workers, blue-collar / white-collar, 10,000s of jobs can be created over the next 2 decades.

I’ve always advocated, that the progress of any nation can be gauged by the efficiency and adaptation of technology by its shipping and courier companies. With the mobile / Internet age now at high-noon, how are our shipping companies fairing up?

Let me start reverse, the best out there is TCS, then perhaps OCS and then everyone else. But that is unfortunately where the good of it all ends.
Even in developing countries (Sri Lanka is an example, Maldives is another), the technology available at the walk-in center of any courier company would outshine its Pakistani counterpart many lumens over.

I still do not understand why consumer based packaging and labeling still not provided to the consumer. First of all, there is a ridiculous requirement at TCS (since I haven’t walked into OCS / Leopard in a long time, I cannot say, but I am assuming they are also playing follow the leader). Coming back to the stupid requirement. They need to see the envelope that I am sending ‘unsealed’ (I understand security concerns but ???)

Everything you bring there has unsealed (read: opened). Once the security guy checks it – only then will they allow you to close it.

Just to play a prank, one of these days, I will send a courier to the CEO of TCS, in a letter filled with talcum powder, which easily could have been anthrax. That would be the ultimate definition of a loophole in security.

Anyways, ask TCS for bubble-packaging sheets – and chances are they will stare blankly at you. The list is quite large…

• Security checks are a joke.
• You cannot transport a laptop – and the insurance premium is 8% (true as of 19th July, 2009, as indicated by TCS Shahrah-e-Faisal branch).
• No courier service offers tapes for sales, various sized boxes, packaging material, strong box material, tear-proof sheets, etc.
• Labeling material is not provided for.
• No courier company offers downloadable software for businesses to generate their own labels for the outgoing mail
• Bulk checking against their system is not offered, i.e. if a business has sent out 100 letters using the courier company’s software (let’s assume it is available), then there is no way to check in bulk from the software itself, the status and delivery confirmation.
• SMS based confirmations still not offered by industry. At time of booking a cell number can be taken, and you can be notified when your parcel/letter is signed for and delivered (this is such a simple application).
• 2D bar codes if generated by the client cannot be read by any courier company, albeit from what I hear Speedex is doing trials on this – rumor? I don’t know. The source is shallow.
• Peanut packaging material is not available.
• Insurance rates for high-value items is very high.
• Delivery updated are far and long.

For small industries to survive or even e-commerce based shops to thrive, sending small (volume sized) pieces of shipments in an effective manner is still something to be achieved.

I personally asked some website owners who are operating fantastic local e-commerce stores, if they had their trust in the courier service. None of them responded positively. They so much so had to rely on stocking in different part of the country and use their own runners, etc. for effective delivery services.

Another thing the courier companies can look into are mobile phone with cameras, and phone that allow 3rd party apps to be written for them. With cellphone cameras, you can take a snapshot of the bar code, have it read by the app written on the phone and then text this in a compressed manner to the central site, this is perhaps the fastest way to acknowledge that a parcel has been picked up or delivered. Even with the unreliability of SMS, apps exist to make sure the full-circle of communication takes place (for example if confirmation code is not received by the phone, it will try again) and vice-versa.

Courier services have been broken down to the basic functionality that of the post man. Try a package delivery and then see the ‘haalat’ in which it arrives at the destination. In FedEx you can get a FedEx envelope, various sizes boxes, tear-proof envelopes, tubes, etc. what does TCS or any other courier company give you in return for your postal needs?

What about 2nd day delivery or low priority delivery? None of it exists sadly. The courier companies sure need to get their act together and innovate, without which, we will see them as simply a replacement of Pakistan Postal Service.

One other point I must mention, as part of the courier companies grooming services, it must ensure that its employees wear deodorant. Because of the running around all day along in the field and sweating, wearing an anti-anti-perspirant / deodorant should be on top of their agenda.

We must realize the world in which we live in today moves two things: atoms and electrons. Atoms being the physical goods and electrons being the electronic Ones and Zeros on our digital infrastructure. We have adapted the electronic highway very well and are continuing to improve life on it. However, we still need physical goods, in order for us to become more efficient as a society on the whole, we need to remove inefficiencies and the stale-progress graphs and innovate and implement cutting edge technologies within our daily fabric. Failing to do so, will result in a totally disparate nation with two economies, the super-efficient digital economy and the super-inefficient physical economy.

For our futures sake, I hope we can hammer some sense into these courier companies, logistic companies and shipping companies.

More and more people are ditching their paper based newspaper for the online edition. Slowly, but surely, the demise of the newspaper is coming. I’ve always held the belief that convenience based solutions will prosper and the old-school thought that “the newspaper will exist no matter what”, was being ignorant.

Family, friends and colleagues confirm they are reading the physical (paper) based version less and reading it online more. Why? Convenience and cost. Hmmm – didn’t I see that coming.

To get a better perspective, I decided to ask the newspaper deliveryman who drops-in the newspaper to my house, as to how things are? I wasn’t surprised. He cited sales are low. Very low. When a new house props up in the neighborhood, they (meaning various newspaper delivery agents) fight as to who will get to deliver the newspaper to that house. Competition is fierce. He says, people are now less willing to buy a newspaper as it is money wasted. One observation he cited was many-a-times when he goes to collect bills, he can see previous day’s newspaper still lying where he tossed it a day earlier. People are just not reading newspaper like they use to.

The classifieds sections have shrunk (contrary to popular belief). More people opt for online job portals rather than the jobs classified section of your local daily. The lifestyles and entertainment sections are picturesque at best and sometimes outdated/stale information.

The local news section – always seems outdated, in the world of 24/7 connectivity and the plethora of TV channel, I have always found the next day’s newspaper to be a summarized version of yesterday (which it is).

The new generation (80s born) rely solely online for their news. My generation (70s) born, I guess is divided. Today, when I look at a newspaper here are some of the things that I think (in no particular order):

1. Black ink on fingers
2. Wrapping paper
3. Free rubber band
4. Has anyone seen my TIME magazine that came with the newspaper
5. Shit – another wasted paper that I pay for – and I haven’t even opened it
6. I have to cancel the subscription
7. More rubbish
8. Old news
9. Did I mention wrapping paper?
10. Tenders and Procurement Notices
11. Pity they don’t carry the Bizarro cartoon series anymore

It will be safe to say, the newspaper may survive the next decade, but the transition to online primary medium is already underway.

The (2nd) set of Open Letters written to the CEO of Ebay and PayPal were delivered. See below for proof of delivery.

Letter Delivered to CEO of Ebay

Letter Delivered to CEO of PayPal