Pakistan is no Less!

I just came back from Istanbul, Turkey after a short vacation and i already feel ready and refreshed for some serious work. No doubt Turkey is beautiful but I realized Pakistan is no less. Except for the organization part, where Turkey and Pakistan can not be compared, Karachi and Istanbul are very much alike. The kind of infrastructure that Istanbul has is similar to that of Karachi, even the landscaping is kind of similar like having a sea shore like Karachi's. The only difference between Karachi and Istanbul is that Turkish people have developed their tourism industry.

Look at Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, their economy is completely based on tourism when they only have beaches to boast about. They are a poor nation or should i say were a poor nation while Pakistan on the other hand has everything from beautiful sandy beaches to highest mountain peaks and yet we don't market them well.

Being a marketing person, i would say it is all about packaging and promoting it well. Only if we have proper sites and information related to all the things we have to offer then foreigners would know how beautiful and full of natural resources our country is, just like we found everything online from hotels to tour package to places we should visit for Turkey.

However for that, we must also update and improve our hotels and facilities available there because if tourists come and find things differently, they'll have a bad image about us.

Anyway, right now the kind of instability that is prevailing in Pakistan is making its inhabitants move away then foreigners who are so panicky, why would they ever come here. The stock market went down by almost 500points the other day as well and Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs) is also being pulled out.

This was not the way how i wanted my blog to go. I wanted it to be a little ray of hope for everyone and just to create awareness that we really need to develop our tourism industry but sadly the situations of today simply make it impossible to be positive about anything!

I'm Proud of you Pakistan!

Congratulations Pakistan for creating a Guinness World Record yesterday by planting the most plants in a day. Earlier records of Mexico and India for planting 348,493 and 447,874 plants respectively were broken down by a great margin and 532,887saplings were planted in a single day.

I would like to commend the ministry in cooperation with the Sindh forest department, the local
people and the sole sponsor National Bank of Pakistan, on their efforts to organize such event. The event was organized in Keti Bander near Thatta district where Mangrove Saplings were planted. 300 planters belonging to the community living in the Keti Bandar area
began planting mangroves with the sunrise and continued till the sunset. I would've loved to attend the event but couldn't do so because of the distance.

The thing i liked best about that event was that only natural daylight was availed and no artificial lights were used. The event, besides winning an esteemed position in the record book, was
aimed at involving the nearby population in eco-conservation and income
generation.

18th August 2009 has already been red-marked on my calendar, when another such event would be held. The day would be declared as National Forest Day and all segments of the
society would be mobilized to plant as many trees as possible throughout the country. Through my blog i dare to hope that people reading it would plant trees in their city or at the least near around their neighborhood.

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End of the World in 2012

Lots of people have written about the doomsday scenario which awaits us according to the Mayan calendar in 2012. I couldn't help but think that whether the world reaches its doomsday in 2012 or not, Pakistan probably will because of acute water shortage. The statistics are staggering. The per capita availability of water has already come down to 1200 cubic meters (one of the lowest in the world) from 5000 cubic meters at the time of independence. And before we reach our end because of the water famine, which would be severe enough to kill every Pakistani of hunger, we seriously need to start conserving water.

Due to climate change, increased heat and lesser rain, the water level of our rivers and lakes has become pretty low. The average global temperature has increased by 0.5degrees centigrade in the past 100years and the annual rainfall in the Potohar region alone has decreased from 1702.9mm to 1691.3mm i.e 15-20%.

There are only 3main reservoirs (Tarbela, Mangla and Chasma), which are storing our water, but they too have become filled with silt thereby reducing the efficiency by more than half. It is high time that we realize how important water is going to be in the next few years.

The future of water is the future of mankind, which calls for establishing sustainable ecological policies, developing and implementing new technologies and harnessing available expertise. An often quoted fact is that “water is one resource that cannot be generated, it can only be preserved.” therefore we should start saving every drop of water or be prepared to face wars, famine and the end of our nation.

Save water to save yourself!

To read more blog posts, visit http://yello.pk/profile/blog

What is wrong with us?

The blog "True or false" inspired me to write this piece. As per a news, a christian guy was beaten up for drinking tea at a dhaaba withouth declaring his religion to the owner who had put up a sign board asking customers to do so...

Can anyone believe it? I most certainly can't!!! I would certainly term this act as CRAZY. It is too odious and monstrous an act to stab that poor person with kitchen knives, hit him with rods and clubs just because he mistakenly drank tea in a muslim's cup!

This is the problem of Pakistanis, we don't have any patience left for any deviation.This problem could've been easily resolved peacefully. If the owner was such a fanatic and didn't want to share his burtan with non-muslims then he could've quietly thrown the cup away without demeaning the christian guy for being of a different religion.

Pakistanis have always been very egocentric and it is our intolerance to other cultures that turns us in to such radicals. We believe that our culture is the best and all other cultures and religions are below us while we are superior to all. I feel this is the reason we lost a major part of Pakistan in the form of Bangladesh too; because we wanted Urdu and English as the official languages of Pakistan even though Bengalis were in majority. We always took them as below us even when they were providing all the rice, cotton and sugar for the west Pakistanis to consume.So of course they retaliated and got a seperate country for themselves.

There is a dire need to understand and accept other cultures otherwise Pakistan would further divide into five more countries; Sind, Karachi, Baluchistan, Pubjab and Pakhtoonsitan.

Ever increasing Petrol Prices

And once again the petrol prices in Pakistan hiked up by Rs5.92 to Rs62.13 per litre, that of HOBC by Rs8.50 to Rs78.78, and of light diesel by Rs6.94 to Rs54.94. What is the general public supposed to do? How are we supposed to get more money to pay off our bills?Everything is already so expensive. Everyone is simply out there to make money, either by hook or crook.

According a local newspaper, “Petrol pumps in different parts of the country stopped sale on Tuesday after the government announced an increase in prices with effect from Wednesday. The unexpected closure left motorists and transporters without fuel in several cities and towns and people were seen dragging motorbikes and pushing cars. And the small number of pumps which did remain open struggled to cope with long queues of vehicles as people tried to fill the tank at the old price.”

The suggestion made by the Ministry of Petroleum to increase prices was approved by the Prime Minister on the basis that the international oil prices have increased during the last month (June) and for the knowledge of the layman, our prices are set based on the average international prices in the previous month. We are so helpless in front of all the actions taken by the government. The worst part is that the people in our country don’t even understand why the government is taking such actions. The government has also taxed the petroleum products with a vampire called “Carbon Tax” which again the general public does not know about.

Carbon tax is an environmental tax on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This carbon tax is often linked with global warming. What I and many others don’t understand is when we are not even doing anything to prevent global warming, why are we being charged for it? If USA is charging its people with a carbon tax, it’s understandable because the people know where their money is going, but what about us?

People in some well established areas like DHA and Yasinabad are paying water taxes when they don’t even get water from the direct lines and have to resort to water tankers and bored-water, then how can the government expect us to pay a tax for carbon emission and not complain about it?

Anyway, once again we should get ready for an increase in the prices of all food and non-food items. The inflation rate for this month according to the ministry of finance is already 14.7% [source: http://www.finance.gov.pk/finance_blog/?p=53] and God knows what it would be soon after.

The only thing I’m concerned about is the increase in crime rate this inflation would bring. If people can’t earn enough bread for their family, then they either resort to suicide or to committing crime which would mean more families without bread earners, more mobile snatching, more thugs raiding our houses, and more car-lifting.

We can only hope that things become better one day and Pakistan becomes a peaceful place to live in where the government is a part of the public and not just a machine squeezing money out of its people.

4 Foolish ways to go Green

I was reading this article on Msn.com the other day when I came across this article of “4 Foolish ways to go Green” by Sally Herigstad. I couldn’t help but wonder how much of it applied to Pakistan. I mean as usual we are only trying to copy the west without actually realizing its true benefits. Companies are making it a point to mention on their packaging that their product is environmentally friendly even though a large percentage of the air pollution in Pakistan is caused by factories which don’t care at all about the environment. The Government is imposing carbon tax on petroleum products but these Carbon taxes will probably not be used to enhance factories to prevent carbon dioxide from emitting in to the environment.

In the article it was mentioned that companies are luring customers to buy products just because they are “Green”. Well I would completely agree with the writer of that article who says, “Buy a T-shirt because you need a T-shirt, not because you want to save the planet”. Simply wearing a T-shirt which says “Go green” isn’t really helping the environment. There are probably better ways to raise awareness.

The article also mentioned the fact that sometimes people tend to buy low-quality green products which do not even accomplish anything. For example, a recent entry into the green market is a low-flow toilet that requires three flushes. It is not saving much!
If we really want to help save the environment, there are some easy ways to do so. First of all change your electricity bulbs to energy savers. Secondly close the refrigerator door almost immediately after you take the desired item out. Think about what you want from the fridge before opening it because by leaving it open for just a few extra seconds, you are wasting a lot of energy.

Third and the easiest thing to do, switch of the lights when you leave the room. This is such a simple thing to do, but sometimes it's so hard to remember! Put little stickers near the light switches you leave on the most often, reminding everyone to turn them off when they leave the room.

Some other tips are to turn off your car while waiting for someone. Roll down the windows first after sitting in the car, this cools down the car a little before you blast on the Air Conditioner in the car. Use the Air-conditioner in your house for only a few hours and at 26 degrees centigrade. Better yet, have a green garden on your roof top to reduce the heating effects of direct sunlight.
Going green should not become a fad, like so many others that have come and gone. It requires some simple changes to our lifestyle and these are usually enough to save a lot of wasted energy.

Wanna Bees

Don't you sometimes wonder why people come to Universities all dressed up? What are they trying to prove? Being clean and presentable is one thing but full party makeup and shadi walay clothes is another...Some people are just trying to become BURGERS by copying the "ACCENT" of the "DEFENCE WALAS" and also their clothing style.. But of course they are never successful, are they? Cant you just identify a wanna be YO from a real sophisticated and educated person?Don't they realize that its not about what you're wearing but how you are carrying it? You can wear a normal Lawn ka suit and look as elegant and look like you are falling apart in a small t-shirt and jeans; its only how you wear it that matters!These wanna bes think that by talking in "tooty phooty" English but with a great fake accent, they'll look very burger and others will get impressed by them, well NEWS FLASH, people are actually TURNED OFF by it!!!I dont want to offend anybody but it seems to me that they are not sure about themselves and feel the need to be like some1 else.. People, you need to be confident about yourself and be content and proud of who you are..There is a famous urdu ki saying for this "Kua challa hans ki chal and apni chal bhi bhool gya!" so guys please don't be a crow and try to be a Hans, just be happy with who you are otherwise a time will come when you'll be asking yourself, Who am i?!Come on ppl lets discuss this issue and stop wanna bes from making a fool of themselves...Tell me do you know any Wanna Bes? How many of you think that they are cool? Do you think they are a victim of Inferiority compex? And now the most difficult question... Who is going to be bold enough and accept that (s)he's a wanna be!
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