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Playground for the middle aged

Posted on July 20, 2011 // 1 Comment

When Mark Zukerberg created Facebook with his pals in college, did he know that he was on the brink of something which would alter life to this extent around the world? Was he thinking of the possibilities this monster could have? Did he have any vision to how his so called coolest thing to do would go from a youth oriented interconnectivity paradise to a play ground of the middle aged, bored and charm less?

What? You heard me right. Facebook today is basically the tool of the balding and about to be socially sidelined to keep themselves feeling like they still matter and this was long before Google+ came along. Still think you are a social media expert because your status update is changed every 30 minutes? Well often the updated status is rather stolen from someone else who stole it from someone else to look better? Let me wake you up!

1. Youth has good memory

When you were young you remembered who your friends were. You didn’t need a social media tool like Facebook to find them and you certainly didn’t hungrily stare at a computer screen for days to find out if they would be your friends again, even after that lunacy you engaged in school with them. That was many, many years ago. Point to notice, the primary activity of “befriending” has been replaced by “finding old friends” Meaning you still haven’t moved on!

2. From hip to wanna be hip

This basically means all of us uncles and aunties who are spending most of their productive time ogling at younger, better looking people on Facebook. Well, sorry to disappoint you but the better looking lot are shrinking each day, replaced by people putting up pictures of activities they never got to do in high school because they were not cool enough. You can find them in the millions, the inebriated middle aged exhibitionists that populate face book now and are the chief source of its soon to come destruction.

3. Exclusive has become elusive

There was a time when you had to be invited by someone to join Facebook. That was the time this platform was exclusive, when belonging to it actually meant something. As of today there are 250 million people on Facebook. 250 million people who want to connect; did we not go virtual because we wanted to escape?? Well now there is no escape because all of us are virtual or getting there. The herd mentality strikes again!

 

4. Inbox replacing email?

Why do you think a private messaging service on a social network is trying to replace email as a means of communication? Is it the way forward or because most of the users of Facebook now fall in the 26-34 age bracket rather than the 18-25 age bracket? After guzzling so many diet coke cans in a middle aged life you really cannot remember that many email addresses can you? You cannot even remember names that well anymore? Hmm! So when you type in ‘Ani’ in your inbox and Facebook shows you three dozen Anitas, Anilas and Annies to help your ageing brain grasp its target, comprendo?

It’s a bitter pill to swallow but most parents know that the surest way to stop your kid from doing something is to join them in it. That is what has happened to Facebook and as the age of the average user gets higher and higher with each passing day, the services this platform offers are being tailor-made to that bracket as well. Honestly put, soon Facebook will be a world only populated by lusting uncles and match making aunties and that’s the kind of harassment people do not go to their friends valimas for, forget online.

Orignally published in Features – Dawn

Filed Under: Geek Speak, Published Articles // Tagged: ,

Killing Karachi

Posted on July 19, 2011 // 6 Comments

A few days ago, I was running for my life; something so many of us take in our stride now in the city of Karachi. The lanes behind my office at M.A. Jinnah road had exploded with violence and there was gun fire from building corners and roof tops as all of us closed down shops/offices and ran on foot wherever we could to escape. There was no time to think about what was going on and contemplate any outcomes. Not until we reached the safety of our homes.

Ordinarily, one would feel some amount of post-traumatic stress at having gone through such an experience. All I felt, however, was remorse. I have stopped watching TV for quite a few months now, trying to avoid the depression it causes but that day all I did was stare at the tube as numbers of the dying piled up.

The remorse I felt was because I now understood exactly what the people of Qasbah colony and other areas racked by violence felt. I was part of the helplessness they experience when they cannot function like ordinary human beings, when they cannot go out to get a loaf of bread lest they are killed by a passing bullet.

The power game being played with guns and violence in this city has been going on for some time now. Our security apparatus is heavily outnumbered and understaffed. The weaponry borne by attackers is state of the art and lethal; we, as citizens have nobody to appeal to, nowhere to go. Many among us are now talking of moving to Lahore or other areas of this country because there seems to be no solution at all to the security problem of this city. Those with more resources are fleeing, or in the process of fleeing to fairer shores.

To put it in short, Karachi has been bleeding for the past decade, first at the behest of forces trying to cause religiously charged violence between Shia and Sunni factions of the population that lives here, and now they are doing the same with Mohajirs and Pathans. Let us be open and say it, we are all brainwashed with ethnicity and rage channeled towards the same people who once made this city what it is. We, my friends, are killing Karachi.

Can Karachi exist without being a multicultural melting pot? Never, this is the very identity of this city. This is the reason why people from all over the country still flock to it to look for work. This city has welcomed and continues to welcome immigrants every single day. This is not a city which salutes a rising sun; this is a city which draws its identity from a rainbow of ethnicities which dwell here.

Instead of blaming the two most visible ethnic groups for all the violence that is taking place we need to realize that many other factions are taking advantage of this situation and settling scores. The two political parties of Karachi need to see that they are being used to create a situation which is not beneficial for either, but destructive for both on the soon-to-come Election Day.

We must learn to live together because we are this city. We must stand up and take ownership of this umbilical cord which feeds us all. We must realize that without Karachi we would be nowhere because there is no city like this anywhere in the world. Come together Karachites, because without each other we will just be nomads, come together and agree to disagree rather than kill in the name of race. Every person in this city will bleed red when cut; that should be enough reason for any of us to wake up to our own humanity.

 

Originally published on The Dawn blog on July 18th 2011

Filed Under: Karachi, Published Articles // Tagged: , , , ,

From boredom to sheer inspiration

Posted on June 16, 2011 // Leave a Comment

One arrived about five minutes late at the TEDx Karachi event and was greeted by a queue that was at least half a block long, comprising of attendants patiently waiting to enter the premises on a sweltering May afternoon.

Last year, TEDx Karachi was an ‘international affair’, with speakers including TED’s curator Chris Anderson and Jacqueline Novogratz along with Pakistan-based Indo-Aussie performer Joshinder Chaggar. In comparison though this year’s line-up was all Pakistani, and with the inclusion of the likes of Imran Khan and Maukhtar Mai, had an activist-political slant.

Once past the requisite list check and QR code scanning (a truly geek touch), which might have been responsible for the large holdup outside, it was time to let the show begin. The event started with TEDx senior fellow Awab Alvi’s welcome note.

The first speaker was columnist Fasi Zaka. Armed with a razor-sharp wit, Zaka easily captured the attention of the audience within minutes. “Education is like tinday, you only eat them when you have to!” Zaka proclaimed, and then proceeded to give a good sound-drumming to all the eager minds hanging on his words about how important education is for Pakistan.

Speaking of hanging, next up was the TEDx Talk, a collection of videos from the original TED event, but rendered completely incomprehensible due to video glitches.

Abandoning it, the organizers invited the next speaker. Raja Sabri Khan, an engineer and an inventor, proudly introduced himself as a “drone maker”. Sabri, though articulate was a bit too cautious about his own talk and repeatedly mentioned the non-military aspects of making drones, which included the customary “I am against drone strikes” each time he glanced at the anti-drone Imran Khan in the audience. No one was expecting a dharna in any case.

As soon as he got done, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy came on stage and invited Imran Khan. And this was the moment from where the tone of the evening changed. Much had been written about inviting Khan to speak at the forum well before the event even commenced; indeed, both Facebook and Twitter buzzed with statuses and tweets for weeks in and weeks out about how he would bore us all with his idealistic politics.

However, Khan surprised all the naysayer when he indulged in self-depreciating humour and gave the crowd what they wanted on this forum. On their part, the crowd found his talk entertaining and warmed up to the ‘star’ Imran that they all adored and want more often to see.

One thing though, Khan was clearly under-prepared in both his delivery and focus. He wandered off once too often, speaking about so many different aspects of his life that it became quite difficult to follow him. In the words of an attendee, “He seemed a bit lost quite frankly.” Clearly, even after his 18 minutes of TEDx were done and as he kept going on and on about why we must never give up, Khan himself wasn’t giving up!

Tea break happened right after (may be thankfully?), and as ever became a social-blogger mixer in about 30 seconds. Everyone wanted pictures or get a word in with the speakers, who happily enough indulged the people and interacted openly with them. This only added to the slight delay in the proceedings! Once the schmoozing was done and over with, we trooped back into the auditorium and took our seats.

Noori was the next act and even though their ‘long lost band member’ never showed up, they managed to do a stellar job. Although it would have been even better if they would have just performed and not indulged in Sufi philosophy and tried to explain the basic of Sufism as if the audience comprised of ninth graders.

The musical act was followed by Dr Qurat ul ain Bakthiari, and TEDx Karachi switched gears again. Yes she made a very emotive figure as she told us so many details of a life spent working for refugees, replete with gems regarding her personal life and the pressing need for equality between the sexes – but she stretched it too long.

By the time her talk ended, a couple of feminists (are we allowed to call them that?) had gone into complete rapture but there were those who were getting shifty on the stage. The final straw perhaps was when her head-mike expressed its boredom in rapid fire shrieks and gave her the cue to take a bow amidst a standing ovation.

The irony of the evening was not lost, when Asad Rehman, the least flamboyant of the three organizers, presented Sarmad Tariq, the most powerful TEDx speaker, of the evening to us. A wheelchair-bound quadriplegic, Tariq did not have us pity him – rather he inspired all with his courage. For those who complain about how things go wrong in their lives, Tariq is a man who best sums up the adage ‘when the going gets tough, the tough gets going’. Sitting there and sharing his life, he is living proof that superhuman strength comes from within. It was indeed fitting that he got the most loud and vibrant standing ovation of this night.

As the finale to TEDx Karachi, there was a question-and-answer session with Mukhtar Mai, which fizzled out for many due to the ‘lack of stage presence’. Chinoy seemed inconsistent as she questioned Mai with questions that had been tweeted earlier by the participants and touched on different aspects of her life and struggle.

Mukhtar’s voice got lost due to the bad sound system but still some answers were comprehendible. The simple line by Mukhtar that she had “believed the Supreme Court would provide her justice and now she has left her case on Allah” sums up how the society and legal system fails on many counts. She also described the backlash as she is jeered by the freed men in her village when she is walking back from her school or back to her home from somewhere “I just pretend that it [the insults] didn’t happen and I walk on.”

“Hats off to the lady for standing up again the inherent prejudice and speaking out loud against injustice,” said a young attendee, summing up the feelings of those present.

And then that was that. The much-hyped event with its completely Pakistani line-up and nature, displaying little fissures of sound faults and slight miscues but proving to us all something very important: The knowledge that this nation of eccentric and varied talent still has it in its power to inspire!

 

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As published in “Features” Dawn.com

 

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Wikileaks – Our own truth

Posted on June 16, 2011 // 3 Comments

On May 2, 2011, the US SEALs carried out the now nefarious mission to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad without knowledge of our armed forces or government until what seems like the last moment. We as a nation woke up in an outrage. We were upset because our territorial sovereignty had been challenged, we were upset because we were never told. Our news anchors on every channel frothed at the mouth as they told us that our army was demoralised, that this was equal to the fall of Dhaka that we had been sold and compromised.

Enter the end of the same month and the WikiLeaks concerning Pakistan are now under scrutiny. We have had access to them as a nation for some time since their release, but for some reason have just woken up to their importance. Lo and behold they tell us that since 2009 not only are our government and military in tacit knowledge of drone attacks and US military activity in Waziristan but have also conducted not just training but actual ground missions with allied troops help as well, albeit not with American boots on the ground but their birds in our skies. We are yet again outraged. We cannot stomach the fact that our military and government knew all along and still kept us in the dark.

I ask you dear readers, do you blame our military or government? We as a nation are outraged when we don’t know and outraged when we do. We see every angle, every unseen hand but we cannot see the one that is trying to kill us from within. We talk of the collateral damage of these drone attacks in every living room of our cities whenever we get the chance but we conveniently forget to mention the 89 Pakistanis who died in last week’s suicide attack by the TTP.

Nay let me be more blunt, we are willing to accept the murder of 89 of our fellow Pakistanis at the hands of the militants who want to destroy our way of life but we are unwilling to let these militants die in drone attacks because the planes that do the job are not ours.

If this is our morality it is extremely twisted at best. It is quite tragic too that we have completely forgotten that we are at war with these militants. They are not going to stop until either us or them lays on the ground dead. So when the Ambassador of the US in a WikiLeaks released cable said on February 19, 2009 that “Kayani knows full well that the strikes have been precise (creating few civilian casualties) and targeted primarily at foreign fighters in the Waziristan” we should realise that she is speaking from our side.

I think it’s about time that we as a country understand that our establishment engages in saber rattling because we are unwilling to accept the truth. After all if any one of us had a choice of getting the enemy from up above or sending troops on the ground where some of us might die, we all know which route we would ourselves choose don’t we? The pacifists can go on chanting their mantras of “we don’t need this American war” but we all know that the only way out of this is to finish those against this country by any means possible.

What I am not willing to see any longer is my land desecrated by the blood of my countrymen who are being slaughtered by foreign militants. I am not willing to let this constantly hanging sword of Damocles threaten mine and my loved ones security anymore. I am not willing to sit and cry over the Leaks which tell me what I have known all along. I want to see results and if they come at a faster rate with US involvement let’s go for it now, while there is still a Pakistan to fight for and save. Don’t you agree?

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As published in The Dawn Blog on 21st may 2011

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Losing textile, losing trade

Posted on June 16, 2011 // 2 Comments

Much awaited with trepidation, the budget speech last week left the business community, particularly the trade and industry sector, disappointed.

The general consensus is that rather than being leaders, trade and industry are becoming more like a reflection of the crumbling edifice that is this country. To further the rot, we were witness to one of the most disgusting and unruly displays of hular bazi andsloganeering in parliament during Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh’s speech. The rumpus made sure that nobody understood what Sheikh was talking about and further solidified the impression that we as a nation are turning into zoo inmates.

While the finance minister’s speech left a lot to be desired, it was really disappointing that the issue of the imposition of 17 per cent sales tax on the import of  machinery and equipment was not touched. As inflation rises to almost 14 per cent, the worst thing that could be done to the nation is increase the number of unemployed Pakistanis. The textile industry in Pakistan is not just the fourth largest cotton producer in the world but employs over 40 per cent of the industrial workforce. This one sector contributes a hefty portion, 38 per cent of total manufacturing and 8 per cent of GDP, to our economy. Although there is much hue and cry made by other sectors on how the textile industry has always enjoyed a “too favorable status”, no one can deny that without it Pakistan would be sinking as a ship not just rudderless.

Despite all this, the government has felt it necessary to impose 17 per cent tax on plant and machinery which was previously cleared on a zero taxation basis. It’s not difficult to understand that this will further drive up the cost of increasing existing industries or setting up new ones. As a result, creation of new jobs would be almost impossible. It’s not as if the textile sector has remained quiet on this. The 14 day strike of the sizing industry in Faisalabad is ample proof that industrialists are trying everything in their power to make the government understand their woes, but is anyone listening?

This new tax is speeding up the downfall of the textile industry. Many units, whether spinning or garments related, have already closed down under the twin assault of rising load shedding and revised interest rates on previously doled out export refinance schemes.

We have no shortage of vision or entrepreneurs. Rather what we have is a shortage of realisation here. The realisation that we cannot take the country ahead without economic progress. The realisation that if we cannot match the incentives being doled out by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to their respective industry, we should at least try to not impose new hurdles to progress on ours. The realisation that every job lost means more fodder for the militants to provide means of employment which is leading to our daily destruction in the shape of suicide attacks. The realisation that cannibalising one sector (textiles) has a cumulative effect in other sectors servicing it as well, and we all know what happens when that trail of dominos starts to fall, hyperinflation, and riots and in the end the very tearing apart of our way of life.

What we saw behind the finance minister in parliament was just a trailer. Let’s pray someone wakes up before we are witness to that same baying for blood in our streets as well.

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As published in “Features” Dawn

 

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Twitter 101

Posted on May 17, 2011 // 2 Comments

At first, there was only Facebook, the be-all and end-all of social media in Pakistan. You had to set up an account. It was a privilege; putting up all those updates and being part of a class of the country which was digitally aware – an outlet for the silent majority, as they were often called at that time. Then came Twitter and we sort of went nuts.

Twitter is a social media tool which is tailor-made for you to vent about all your problems. It takes all of 10 seconds to create an account and then you can start following people and broadcasting your updates in 140 characters or less to all those who decide to follow you back. It is addictive, it is corny and it is all encompassing. We, as a country, have now gone into a Twitter frenzy with its applications being available on almost every kind of mobile device, with advertisements on TV screaming: “It’s texciting”. Still, even in this seemingly Wild West of social media there exists an unwritten code of etiquette.  No, I do not mean soup or dessertspoon kind of manners but the kind that can help a Twitterer sound more like a person one wants to communicate with and not the creepy guy standing in the corner staring at everyone.

Excessive tweeting

For instance, there is a difference between the following: @A I’m eating lunch right now and then there is this type of a Twitterer: @A is about to eat lunch, @A picked up spoon, @A wow! This is my favourite dish, @A I am so full!, @A sitting in the loo now. Simply put, people find Twitter very easy to update the world with everything they are doing. But if you insist on tweeting every eight minutes, it is plain irritating for everyone following you. So calm down, I am sure everyone knows you are still there – you don’t have to remind everyone multiple times a day.

Multi and wordy tweets

Everyone has a tough time trying to fit their updates into the 140 character space limit in the initial stages. This does not in any way mean that the creators of Twitter are trying to send you some sort of subliminal challenge to find a loophole to break this limit. First of all, multi-part tweets by adding ‘contd.’ and so on get seriously lost in the fast-paced stream of Twitter and does not make sense. Secondly, using a third party application to go beyond the character limit may sound like a good idea but if we wanted to read your thesis or analysis on everything we would email you. Really.

Too much information

As a social media platform which is so open, Twitter should be used with some degree of discretion. It is one thing when you are having lunch with someone and share salaciously your view of a member of the opposite sex and completely bizarre when you do the same with 3,000 followers. In short, discussing details of a personal nature on Twitter is equivalent to walking into a crowded restaurant and announcing how hot you think person X is over the megaphone. If you have any doubts about how odd this may be, you can try it the next time you go out to eat at a restaurant.

Getting pushy

Unlike Facebook, Twitter gives a person the option to follow or un-follow you without safety of secrecy. Thus everyone has the right to decide if they wish to read every update you make by following you. If they decide not to, it is really not because they “hate” you. Therefore getting all prickly with messages like “@A I followed you but what did you do” looks a bit silly.  Hence, “the follow-back” may be a social code for some people but it’s not something written in stone. I can tell you a much better way to get followers: say something interesting.

Trend pimping

Aggregation of information (tweets) takes place on this platform with the help of hash tags. That is anything followed by a ‘#’ like #dawn.com in your tweet would neatly categorise your update under this hash tag. Trending hash tags are the ones being used the most all over the world. This usually takes place when an event of some importance occurs. Thus @A oh god! I am so tired #prayforjapan would just show your followers that you are being sneaky and not actually contributing anything to the hash tag in question. It basically tells them this person will do anything to attract attention, sort of like wearing a Pakistan team jersey to a wedding during the World Cup.

Analyst mode

Reading a couple of articles on Pakistan and winning the argument on a current affairs topic among your friends circle does not make you an analyst. Although this syndrome first affected mainstream media in Pakistan ala talk-shows, it is now commonplace on Twitter as well with people feeling they can give their expert opinions to anyone they wish even if they have only superficial knowledge of the subject at hand. It’s like me commenting on the intricacies of satire vs Ardeshir Cowasjee doing it, looks pretty silly and has no outcome then to produce “know it all updates” from my side. Try learning instead of analysing.

Having said all this it is also important to recognise that we are still in our Twitter infancy here in Pakistan; no one has hit a million followers as far as I know, therefore the true power of this social media juggernaut is still to be discovered. The whole purpose however is not just to gain in followers but rather to gain in interaction with the ones you already have. Once you can achieve this, then the rest will follow.

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As published on THE DAWN BLOG on May 16th 2011

Filed Under: Geek Speak, Published Articles // Tagged: , ,

Social media circus

Posted on May 11, 2011 // Leave a Comment

When we come across the term social media in mainstream media, it is always being trumpeted as a ground breaking leap that is altering the connected human conscience. But the question remains: how many Pakistanis use it properly? By social media, I mean the entire gamut of blogging/Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin, etc in case you are wondering or are still oblivious to all this.

You can always find “social media prophets” that harp on and on about its benefits, and use the word “engage” and “transparent” about 83 times in a talk that is seven minutes long. But what does it actually mean? Everyday it seems as though we, the users of social media in the country, have come to think of ourselves as some sort of a vigilante task force with the mission of “balancing and checking” the mainstream media. Sometimes people do it with tremendous effect and unearth stories that usually slip under the radar but most of the time, it only introduces new media junkies who are more like armchair analysts without any research of their own.

So what is the actual essence of social media in Pakistan? Is it the landfill of information that appears at your doorstep in the morning with 213 Facebook updates, 1400 Tweets and 124 new blogposts where about 90 per cent of information is gleaned through the ever-magical wand called Google? Or is it ever going to evolve as it has in the west into an alternate news and content source; something which can be used to actually achieve a result of any substance in the real world aside from self-promotion?

Sometimes I feel as though social media is just a delusion, being used by all of us to distract ourselves from the apathy of our day to day lives. While the most successful blogs in Pakistan are based on insider information being presented to the world as ethical reporting, we can hardly claim to have a moral high ground here. Most of the time we harp on about the Target Rating Point for mainstream media where quality is sometimes compromised for quantity, whereas website hits mean the exact same thing. How many Pakistani bloggers throw mud on news anchors for ill-gotten gains when they earn thousands of dollars each month from consulting and ad traffic without paying a penny in local taxes? It seems that the watchers need a little watching themselves.

By this I am not advocating a government censure or some other kind of spook monitoring but a need for the bigwigs of the social media scene in this country to create and make an association with perhaps a set of basic guidelines to be followed by its members. This may appear to most as a block on the very freedom these online resources bring but can serve as a form of unification as well as the conversion of all this white noise into a singularly intelligible information stream. It can also lead to a more cohesive community which is right now fragmented into different groups operating against each other with very specific agendas.

We must learn to take on the onus of responsibility before we judge others for it. Lets call a spade a spade and realise that we need to use these online tools in a much more refined manner or the social media scene in this nation will continue going south until it becomes a reflection of what it set out to replace.

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As published in the Dawn Blog on May 9th 2011

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Smart or not

Posted on April 25, 2011 // Leave a Comment

I remember the moment quite clearly. I was completely lucid and walking past a shop which had funny looking bulky cellphones with lots of buttons, displayed with colourful banners. This was a time in life when looking at my Nokia’s blue screen made me feel a bit smug. However my carrier had just launched something called the ‘BlackBerry service’ and I was curious to see what the fuss was about. So I walked up to the counter and that is when it all began.

Cut to present-day and I have just bought the new Android phone. Let’s be honest, it was new a few days ago, now however, I have tweaked its open source operating system and options so much that even I don’t know what it is anymore. It has crashed several times so far and I have rescued it by reading reams of tips and guidelines on different forums full of people like me. My friends even have a Whatsapp group for this new technology and we spend our nights tweaking our Androids. Sometimes, this is accompanied by maniacal giggling at 4 am when something works like it should, much to the horror of our better halves.

This is what a smartphone does to you, eventually that is. It can be a Blackberry or an iPhone or the latest Android fetish, in the end it reduces you to a zombie. Yes, you are walking around going through the motions of everyday life, but we all know that your soul is tethered into your device and your real life is being lived online, in packets of data beamed from one cellphone tower to another.

If you could tear your eyes away from that screen for just a minute and take a look around – you will be shocked to see that you are not alone. All around us people are constantly connected. In fact, a recent article on smartphone usage in South Asia reveals that 100 million smartphones are sold in this region annually. That’s a lot of people spending a lot of time online.

It is becoming so bad that countries like South Korea have given a name to people like us, we are called ‘web addicts’ and there are two million of us in a nation of 60 million people. Doctors in Singapore are likening our constant need for data input akin to the pangs a drug addict feels when drawn towards their next hit.

The point being is that we need to look at some symptoms (of our ‘drug’ abuse) to recognise and maybe even rectify our habit.

1.      You use it in the bathroom

Quite self-explanatory. If you are using a smartphone while on the can, it is not just bad hygiene but you have dragged the equivalent of a computer into what is supposed to be the most personal space in your world.

Verdict: You are addicted

2.      The sense of panic when you cannot locate it

You know that feeling of pure horror when you cannot find it in your pocket or your handbag? What will your Twitter followers do now? How will your Facebook friends live? How will you update your virtual friends and let them know that you cannot find your next digital fix for an entire five minutes!

Verdict: You are addicted.

3.      Instant bonding with other users like you

Have you had the following conversation with random people who also carry the shiny, black hole as you:

You: “Hey have you tried the new Google Sky Map app yet?”
Random person: “Yes, it is so awesome!”
You: “You know, I am saving up for the newest version of this phone.”
Random person: “Really? Is it slimmer?”

Verdict: You are addicted

4.      Your battery does not last…

You know the little book containing important information that came along with your smartphone? The one you ripped to shreds while unpacking the box, just so you could hold your newest acquisition? It says that the standby time on your device is 50 hours, yet you are charging it from almost zero, every six hours. Guess what that means? Yes, you are addicted!

5.      Spending more on accessories than the actual device

It begins slowly; you know, a car charger here or there, a desktop, some extra batteries and before you know it – you are the proud owner of a wristband for your phone plus the mandatory seven covers for each day of the week or a few loopy ones for when you are festive. You do know it’s just a device right? Plus the fact that all of this will be useless when you upgrade to your next one in say, three months?

Verdict: Sadly, you are addicted!

So here is what I recommend: it is a real walk on the wild side for many of us now but eventually if you want to get out of this painful loop and back to life, there is but one choice. Pick up your smartphone and drop it in a bathtub full of water. My three-year-old did that once, telling me that since I use it so much – he needed to wash it. I still haven’t listened to his sagely advice but then who has the time? Not me, I have a ROM update just about to finish!

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As published in the Dawn Blog on 25/4/2011

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Structurally sound?

Posted on March 15, 2011 //

Over the last few days, we have seen horrific images of the carnage that has been caused by the tsunami in Japan.  With the epicenter of the quake preceding the tsunami measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, we have also witnessed good engineering and well-designed buildings in the most technologically-advanced and earthquake ready country in the world, where sky scrapers swayed gently from side to side during and after the quake without collapsing.

This is because Japan, located in an area prone to earthquakes, has the most stringent of building codes, with seismic shock absorbers built into tall buildings to save it from collapsing in case of an earthquake.  In short, Japan has poured billions of dollars into building safety laws and technology to minimise the death toll in case of an emergency.

Most of the people being reported dead in Japan during this incident have thus not been killed due to the collapse of a skyscraper or due to shoddy construction but by the enormous tsunami which washed across some of its northern prefectures wiping away entire towns in its path.

Pakistan is also located in an area that is prone to earthquakes. The tragic events of 2005 are testament to how ill-prepared we are in the case of a disaster. The last earthquake to jolt the country was in January 2011, with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale. Our only saving grace was that its’ epicenter was in a very remote area of Balochistan with a very low population, thus the resulting damage was not too severe.

After Quetta, the next high-risk earthquake zone is the metropolis of Karachi, being next to a major tectonic plate boundary. Yes, our Karachi with a teeming population and apartment buildings popping up like mushrooms all over the city with little or no regard for construction laws or seismic safety. In the uniform building code 1997, Karachi was listed in the ‘high risk’ zone 4 (zone 1 being negligible risk and zone 4 being the highest). However, a body of senior architects and engineers made a case of “no scientific evidence” in place to support such a rating and it was downgraded to 2B. Obviously, there are commercial interests in play as a more risky zone rating means compliance with stricter building codes which most builders here tend to see as mere hurdles in the path of rapid construction.

Frankly speaking, even by conservative estimates if an earthquake the magnitude of which Tokyo just survived, struck here we would witness to unimaginable destruction in Karachi. A fact which NGO Shehri and its various members have been shouting themselves hoarse over for many years without any concrete results. We do not even have proper machinery to pull survivors from wreckage, so should we not implement stringent safety measures for all high-rises during construction?

As inflation grips us further in its coils, it is quite obvious that the exorbitant price of land in the city will force more and more residents into choosing apartments and flats in high-rises rather than buying their own houses. Recently the government has made some positive noise about the need for earthquake-proof structures to be built to provide a safe alternative to the existing situation. However, with most of the buildings in this city still being constructed without the services of proper structural engineers and architects, how will building codes be enforced when the emphasis is just on constructing a building at the lowest cost possible?

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As published in the Dawn blog on 15/3/2011

 

Filed Under: Published Articles // Tagged: , ,

The global game of power

Posted on March 7, 2011 //

The world has watched in jubilation the scenes of revolution in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain over the last few weeks. In each instance, the populace of the country in question has peacefully demanded change and has managed to achieve it, either in the shape of a change in government or concessions being made by ruling despots to adjust to the will of the people. I refer to these rulers as despots because that is what I regard them to be – puppets put in place by their facilitators in the west, to keep their citizens unaware, which allows them to equally share the great bounty of liquid gold they sit upon, amongst their own nefarious families and with their western counterparts in the form of oft hidden contracts.

Funnily enough, until the revolution reached Libya, the western world was content in issuing placid calls for negotiation and dialogue as well the need for their appointed rulers to “change as per today’s requirements” even though in the case of each country, extreme violence was used by the ruling authorities to quash the public uprising.

However now that Col.Qadhafi’s government is using the same heavy handedness displayed previously in Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia, the Nato allies are up in arms at the seriousness of the situation with the American forces on standby to come to the “aid” of the Libyan people if necessary within the hour, Ms Clinton has offered“any kind of assistance”.

Add to this, the American Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on CNN “If it’s ordered, we can do it,” but imposing a no-fly zone “begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses.” Welcome to war hysteria ladies and gentlemen in its third, or is it the fourth edition now? US senators are comparing the situation in Libya to Yugoslavia while British PM David Cameron and other western leaders fear the use of chemical weapons by Qadhafi. Remember the WMD scare in Iraq?

The heads of various states are also talking about the precarious and urgent need for a no-fly zone over Libya. Obviously none of this has anything to do with the fact that Libya is an oil rich country with a per capita income of USD 14,000, which is also close to the $10 billion, 4,128 kilometre long trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria, expected to be functional by 2015. The same country which was until very recently praised by the IMFfor having “continued efforts to modernise and diversify the economy” and lauded for its “efforts to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy”.

I think the Libyans need to be very, very careful. For in bringing about their revolution, they might just make the mistake of replacing their own despot for the ones who control him in the first place. The harbingers of democracy are looking at a very small, very oily window of opportunity here, which needs to be closed very quickly by those in charge of the revolution in Libya. As rightly pointed out by the human-rights lawyer, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga: “We are against any foreign intervention or military intervention in our internal affairs…This revolution will be completed by our people with the liberation of the rest of Libyan territory controlled by Qadhafi’s forces.”

“Our” being the key word here, for it is very easy to be swept away in the glamour of heroic revolution and then look back to only see that the country which was going to be uplifted by its population by the said heroics, was only being used as a pawn in the global game of power. As the old saying goes “beware of greeks bearing gift”

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As published on “The Dawn Blog” at March 7th, 2011

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Published Articles // Tagged: , ,
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