Who Comes Up With These Crazy Decisions?

Seriously. Someone please tell me. The government's latest stint to save "face" has hurled it into a chaotic frenzy of ineffective and bleary decision-making. Instead it should be hurled into a sanitorium, but we'll save that discussion for another day.

"Right-sizing", as they call it, is the politically correct term for down-sizing. Unfortunately, there's nothing "right" about any of Zardari's decisions....or are they Gillani's? Either way, the solutions they've derived are irresponsible and incoherent. Nevertheless, the big-wigs in Islamabad remain placid to the outcome. The result of these counterproductive decisions can and will gravely affect the lives of every Pakistani....that is to say whatever is left of it. Case in point: the ministry of health.

The federal government has decided to allocate much of the responsibility to the individual provinces. Specifically, the pharmaceutical industry is the first and foremost to be affected. In light of this mandate, each province will be responsible for authorizing the production and sale of drugs within their own respective provinces. Once a pharmaceutical company receives approval for their drug from the provincial ministry of health, it will then have to travel to the remaining four provinces to inform these other provinces about the production of their drugs and also seek approval from them. This will not only make the entire process tedious and laborious, but also presents a number of problems, some of which are as follows:-

1. Standardization, in general, will be considerably affected. The importance and significance of one central governing body which used to ensure that all drugs produced and sold within the country are of optimum quality and standard, will now be discontinued. As a result, the quality of these drugs can no longer be guaranteed. In other words, each province will have their own set of standards, and these standards will inevitably differ from province to province. Such variations will inadvertently affect the production quality of these medicines.

2. Trade names might over-lap. For example, if one company in Punjab names their drug a specific name and indicates it for the use of heart disease, another company in Balochistan can have the same name for their drug but indicate it for the use of asthma. This can easily happen as a result of the discontinuation of a central governing body which used to raise the red flag and sound alarms when such over-laps and discrepancies occured. Consequently, this sort of over-lap will profoundly confuse consumers, and can lead to dangerous and fatal consequences.

3. Cost of medicines will vary significantly from province to province. After all, the pharmaceutical company has to find some way to compensate themselves for all the travelling their employees will do when engaging in the meticulous process of informing other provinces and finalizing approval of their drugs. As a result, the consumers will be targeted to provide the respite to these pharmaceutical companies. This will also lead to the development of another menace--variations in price will easily compel people to smuggle medicines from provinces selling drugs at a low price, giving way to a parallel business that will inescapably be marred with tainting and adulteration of these medicines.

Human lives are at stake, and our federal government is complacent. But, then again this is the kind of governance that can be expected from uneducated, avaricious, and iniquitous leaders.  

I LIKE JULIA CHILD

It's been a long hiatus, for reasons that I will discuss later, but I'm back! And it's good to be back. Not sure who reads this, and if at all anyone reads this. Hopefully someone does. :-) And thank you to those who do!

I've discovered Julia Child. Yes, the chef. Although I've known about her for years, but recently discovered some interesting things about her. At a height of 6'2'' she was a determined woman; not one to give up easily. She worked hard with unwavering focus and strength. Of course, much of her mental strength can be attributed to her physical fitness from playing tennis, basketball, and golf in high school and college. But, what intrigued me the most about Julia was her resolve and resilience. Her ability to forge ahead despite all kinds of hurdles isn't just admirable, but in fact a contagious virus that has me in its grip for the last few days.

Whether it was an assignment as a secret researcher in the OSS or learning to chop onions when she first joined Le Cordon Bleu--each task continuously emboldend her and pushed her to the farthest limits where she ended up realizing her potential. 

They say persistence and determination is the key to success. And in Julia's case this was especially the case--nothing deterred her. She took on each challenge with alacrity and embraced it fearlessly. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that she was able to write a 734-page cooking book on French cuisine, which has now become a seminal culinary work even though Houghton Mifflin said it was an encyclopedia and refused to publish it.

Her personality is extremely inspiring and has provoked me to change the way I handle certain aspects of my own life. Julia's confidence never dissipated, and so I take her demeanor which exudes with self-possession as guidance and march ahead chin up and ready to take on whatever comes my way!

Ramsay the Pharaoh?

Not an avid follower of Hell's Kitchen, but shouldn't something be done about Gordon Ramsay? I don't know how much he contributes to the demise of the chefs who've committed suicide after appearing on his show, but seems like he really knows how to drive in the last nail.

Rachel Brown shot herself last year and now Joseph Cerniglia jumped off a bridge.

Not quite sure what's cooking inside that kitchen....but Ramsay is doing one hell of a job pushing people to the edge.

If you spent this Ramadan in its true spirit by fasting and more importantly immersing yourself in intensified prayer and personal reflection----you will have most probably felt by the end of the month refreshed and over-hauled, and if you were extremely fortunate then you would have also felt stripped clean of all the muck that had heaped up inside.

In case you had 30 minutes to spare perhaps on one of these days, then may be you were able to watch a girl called Mariam on Dawn TV getting blasted for not wearing a dupatta on her head during a show which was a question and answer session dealing with the topic of Islam.

She got hit from left, right, and center. They came at her from all sides! How on earth could she sit there day after day without a dupatta! "Get her to realize what Islam is, and then preach to the rest of us!!!" said one furious caller. The fury and comments just swelled with each passing day. But Mariam didn't cover her head. She remained staunch in her stance, and the callers unwavered in their views.

Should Mariam have followed the usual decorum such programs demand? Perhaps. Then why didn't she? May be because she felt that if she had to cover her head then it should be based on a decision of inherently wanting to do it for Allah and not for a bunch of people who were telling her to do it. The problem with this justification is that it only works for Mariam, and not for the rest of the people who felt she was committing a huge blunder. But then again, Mariam wasn't really interested in pleasing people and pacifying them---she was sticking to her guns. Her unwillingness to budge and acquiesce was not her problem----it was ours. But why?

Why were so many of the callers and others watching the show perturbed by her not covering her head? What difference would it make to them if she did or didn't?

It seemed people's agitation emerged from the idea that since she is a Muslim to begin with then why couldn't she adhere to Islamic values? The answer is how many of us are adhering to Islamic values? So Mariam wasn't covering her head.....if you look around most of us don't wear hijabs. Most of us can't even claim to be good practicing Muslims. So then how are we able to point fingers at her?

This isn't to defend Mariam. But rather we need to start realizing what the status quo is. Over the last several years we have evolved into a society that has gradually become far removed from Islamic values. May be that's why we're so obsessed about religion these days----because we've lost religion. So when a girl shows up on a TV channel co-hosting a show about Islam and isn't wearing hijab, that should come as no surprise because we essentially have reached a point where such issues have lost significance. We have forgotten what is right and wrong.....we no longer know what is in-line and out of line. We have back-pedalled to the point where we need to once again re-learn what Islam is and what it teaches us. And, so as a result of our own faults, short-comings, and carelessness we stand confused, lost, and incapable of adhering to "Islamic values". Rather than point fingers and brand each other with pejorative statements, we must endure this "re-learning" with civility and tolerance. And there is no harm in doing this. One only hopes that this repeat expedition will this time around bring us to the right destination. Until then, Mariam and others like her are trying to learn-----so let them.

Pakistan's embassy in the U.K. tried to downplay the expense of the trip, saying in a press release that the president was cutting costs by staying "in the cheapest five-star hotel in central London," and downgrading from a "royal suite" to "a relatively cheaper suite."

(http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/anger-swells-in-flood-hit-pakistan-over-presidents-foreign-trip/19580814)

How considerate of you Mr. President!

 

Lahoo mai doob rahi hai fiza-e-arz-e watan......

Mai kis zuban se kahu 'JASHAN-E-AZADI MUBARAK'

Does The Goalie Know What He's Doing??

7-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did anyone bother telling Korea's goalie how the game is played? I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved how Portugal exploited Korea's weakness......but the last 3 goals were a little too much! The Portugese were running around with dopey smiles, barely believing how lucky they were getting....and for the most part I'm sure all of us watching couldn't believe it either!

It's a shame that Korea totally gave up in the last few minutes and didn't feel it was worth putting up a fight till the end. The goalie is beyond my comprehension. Why the hell did he leave the goal post every time he saw the Portugese charging in? Who does that?! And this is the team that gave Brazil such a hard time. Where was Korea's defense? Why did it collapse? I'm sure Korea's coach and analysts are wondering the same. Perhaps this was a case of feeling invincible and over-confident.

Well, all that can be said is that Portugal thoroughly enjoyed their rampage in the second half and battered the Koreans to kingdom come!

LIFE IS GOOD! :-D

It sure is! We've got the World Cup going. And it has shown to be a must-see this time around with lesser known teams beating the hell out of the powerhouses! It's really allowed the bar to be raised and the competition is just starting! LOVE IT!!!

And then on the other hand Wimbledon is gonna start as of tomorrow. And for that, I have just one thing to say, "Roger, sweetheart, please win. Thank you".

By the way, any predictions for the Cup this year? Italy got slammed nicely by the Kiwis. I'm amazed at how up for grabs the Cup has become this time. This is what the game should have been about years ago!!!