Improving Sindh Education… January 19, 2009
Posted by sickscorpio in Intelligentia, Personal.Tags: Education, human network, improvement, Quality, Sindh
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This post regards Sindh Education. I wrote this for an E-group ‘EducateSindh’, and am posting it here with slight mods (removing names). Anyone who knows about Sindh, knows that the Education quality here is degrading, despite billions being spent. Largely because, this money is being spent on higher education while the primary education continues to suffer. The politicians don’t seem to care. So, it’s upto us, the people of the province, to initiate a change for improvement.
Not only do we need to pressurize the policy makers explicitly, towards preparing and enforcing better education policies and practices, we must also create a grassroots movement involving ourseleves (the common people) to continuosly keep, the institutions close to us, in check and help them improve education quality.
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Myself and a few friends believe that a good way to move EducateSindh forward and help Sindh is to harness the power of networking. Human networks to be specific.
We realize that, it’s relatively easier for groups to achieve targets than it is for individuals and that’s what we must do with ES. We have had three official/announced ES gatherings at Karachi and a few in other cities of Pakistan. I personally believe that the best way to take this further is by having more gatherings, all over Sindh/Pakistan. The domain of these gatherings has to get finer by time i.e. from city level gatherings to town/village level ones. We need to form ES groups at town level, with loose hierarchies. We’ll also need a central ES committee, which will guide these local groups towards improved standards of Education in their respective areas. The central committee will also have to fulfill some essential formalities, such as creating/publishing a constitution, guidebooks for ES groups, short term and long term targets in the Education sector**, etc. Now back to the local gatherings.
What such meetings achieve:
1- More people get to know about ES, and a general sense of ‘the need to work for Education in Sindh’ develops.
2- Local people, who are more aware of the Education Issues of their area, get to decide/plan out how to tackle those, using local resources (whether human or material), with guidance from central ES committee/nearby ES groups.
3- It involves directly concerned/affected people, thus developing a habit of participation, instead of a sense of alienation that develops from simply getting aid or having one’s issues sorted by outside NGOs. [This is extremely important, since once developed, this habit will make people work towards improving other areas of their life, say healthcare, law and order etc]
What must be taken care of:
1- The central ES committee must enforce a certain regimen/standard for ES groups to manitain e.g. handling issues in a scientific way, always work with all available stats, document as much as possible, follow a standard problem solving approach and always have retrospective analysis.
2- All documentation must be presented to the central ES committee, who will also need to analyse it and provide their feedback to the concerned ES groups, so that everyone remains on the same page.
What might be the goals:
I personally believe that its better to start working with what you have, rather than waiting for what you hope to have someday. With regards to Education in Sindh, it’s important that we focus on the repairing part for now and keep further development for later.
We must focus on improving the quality of Education in currently functional institutions/schools/colleges before moving onto the stage of bringing more students to these schools. And we must start with the government schools.
There are various factors that combine to create quality education, and hence various ways to handle those factors. The basic ones would be:
1- Institute environment.
2- Student’s level of interest.
3- Standard of curriculum.
4- Quality/Qualification of teachers.
And perhaps most importantly 5- The willingness of the teacher to actually teach/guide.
Different ways to handle them, but handled they must be.
The local ES groups would identify the contributing factors and create plans on how to improve each. These plans may be reviewed and feedback provided, by the central ES committee, if required. Nearby ES groups will/may need eachothers’ support, which all of us would remain ready to provide.
We can fill in further details, as we go along.
I’m sure others have certain plans/ideas to move ES forward practically. I hope my post compliments those. I remain open to valuable feedback by other friends.
Thanks all, for reading this far, I know its quite long 
..
** I’ve focused only on Education sector, while some may argue the term ‘Educate Sindh’ encompasses much more; I understand.
Thereek-e-Televiban: A Short History – by NFP January 1, 2009
Posted by sickscorpio in Personal.Tags: common sense, NFP, pakistan, Tele-evangelism, terrorism
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by Nadeem F Paracha
Thereeka-e-Televiban (TT) – also called the Cable TV-Mujahids- is a militant organization operating in the cities of Pakistan. It is a collection of various radical groups propagating religious tolerance through the killing of heretics and the restoration of an independent judiciary through
the impeachment of assorted Presidents
and bad renditions of revolutionary poetry and free-style wrestling.
The TT was formed in 2001, but it expanded into a large organization through divine intervention when in 2005 God invoked a devastating earthquake in Kashmir due to the people’s liking for Indian movies and locally brewed delicacies. This is when TT gained a burst of popularity and attention, using the occasion to galvanize the people to send medical aid and food to the affected victims and to repent, repent, repent!
Though TT is made up of a number of organizations, four large groups make up its main leadership. This is so because these groups are able the raise the biggest amounts of corporate funds due to their admirable and passionate concern for the country’s political, social, economic, cultural, moral, sporting, judicial, nuclear, digital, physical, mental, intellectual, psychological, physiological, geographical, biological, chemical and puritanical state. To tackle these TT work’s through its deep philosophy and ideology that claims that “the object is never objective just like a subject is always subjective.” Of course, anyone disagreeing is an infidel on the payroll of Asif Ali Zardari, Barek Obama and Madonna.
TT’s biggest weapon is a devastating exploding devise. It is called the Chattering-Bomb. It is constructed in assorted TV studios through tons of anarchic talking, cheesy innuendos, fact-free gibberish, passionate paranoia, compassionate naivety and awe-inspiring gossip. When these ineffectual, I mean, intellectual compounds are mixed they generate a reactionary effect that helps produce the most vital chemical used in the making of the Chattering-Bomb: Nausea.
So, unlike conventional exploding devises that go “ka-boom,” the Chattering-Bombs go “ka-blugghhh!!”
TT has a number of heroes in its ranks. But this historian will not take their names out of fear that they might conduct a suicide attack on the author and go “ka-blaggghh!” all over his brand new shirt that he recently brought from Dubai for a whooping 140 Dirhams. But I must add that the Chattering-Bomb is a fascinatingly unique devise because it may kill the victim but never the bomber. It only makes him fatter and louder.
Another effective weapon that TT possess is intriguingly called Choti se break. Though its immediate translation is “a short break,” but this weapon’s technical name is Coatis Commercialus Interruptus. This devise pops more than explodes, both suddenly and rudely. Interestingly, though it is effective in causing little peptic ulcers in infidels ( also called viewers), these bombs are actually firecrackers exploded by TT to celebrate the raising of funds through corporate sponsorship. Mind you, there is nothing choti (short) about these firecrackers. Their fuse maybe short but the break that they induce in the infidels’ patience can be devastatingly long. Some Coatis Commercialus Interruptus devises have also been known to have turned infidels into rotting skeletons held on to their sofas only by a spider’s web.
However, the most violent weapon of the TT remains to be a devise called the Breaking News Grenade. It is actually a small size version of the Chattering-Bomb. It is indiscriminately hurled at infidels even more suddenly and rudely than the Coatis Commercialus Interruptus. Though highly destructive, the Breaking News Grenade is surprisingly made with nothing more than hot air! Thus, this grenade makes a lot of noise and is mainly used to impede an infidel’s senses and bring everything come to a stand still, making him feel that the Day of Judgment has arrived and it’s time to repent, repent, repent!
Over the years TT has gathered great power, presence and popcorn. It believes that a revolution is at hand in Pakistan and that it is TT that will be bleeding it, I mean, leading it. That’s why most TT leaders are wonderful speechmakers, passionately speeching instead of speaking, gallantly deforming instead of informing, and declaring jihad against heretical infidel concepts of objectivity and common sense.
“Revolutions are not made through objectivity and common sense,” said one of its leaders while preparing a mesala-dosa with the host on a cooking show. “Well,” said the host, “at the moment we are making mesala-dosa and not revolution.”
Incensed by the comment the TT hero hurled a Breaking News Grenade at the cooking show host, accusing her of stealing manhole lids of Karachi in collaboration with PPP and MQM jiyalas that is helping fund ISI, CIA and KFC’s war on terror against innocent shepherds in Swat. He then exploded a Chattering-Bomb after shouting repent, repent, repent before slipping in a long Coatis Commercialus Interruptus to complete his gallant mission against mesala-dosa infidels.
Contrary to popular belief, the TT has a lighter and a tad more liberal side to it as well. It has a cultural wing consisting of (albeit irritating) sirens in shape of trendy looking androids that are fed burgers and French fries to further fatten their complete ignorance of reality and talk in strange tongues and languages also called “minglish,” “rap-slang,” and “Hinglish.” In other words, anything but English or Urdu. The idea is to use these androids to penetrate the cults of dumb brunettes and earring-wearing bozos amongst the infidels and convert them towards the TT’s cause. One of the biggest successes in this respect has been the conversion of Ahmed Ali Kurd who was once an uncaring, burger-popping DJ at a Quetta disco. Today he is a hero of the TT. Speaking on the issue, Kurd said: “Yo, man, like, I was a no-good dude, until the TT picked me up, and, like, far out, man … repent, repent, repent!”
TT’s history has been short but eventful. It believes it is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I mean, intellectual meltdown, I mean political showdown with the infidels that will lead to a glorious Islamic/Marxist/Democratic/Judicial/Fundamentalist/Liberal/Bollywoodist revolution that will save Pakistan from the wrath of God, George, Gog, Magog and Rheman Malik’s curly hair.
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Note: This article by NFP, has been reposted from:
http://www.chowk.com/articles/thereeketeleviban-a-short-history-nadeem-f-paracha.htm
I have been an NFP fan for a long time, and he never ceases to amaze me. You can get more of his articles on the site.
New Year Resolutions! January 1, 2009
Posted by sickscorpio in Personal.1 comment so far
1- Get back my washboard abs, by end of march, 2009.
2- Move into a new apartment.
3- Participate in taekwondo competitions.
4- Get back to the 9-5 life.
5- Work towards materializing my wishlist.
