Jefferson’s 10 Rules – Wisdom to Apply in “Practical Life”

In an email I came across Thomos Jefferson's 10 Rules of Wisdom. I m sure they are as applicable to day in life as they were in his lifetime. These are:

1. ''Never put off till tomorrow what you can do to-day.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend your money before you have it.
4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
10.When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.''

At last the Announcement for the Flight is on

A sigh of relief from the long wait for the flight - Islamabad to Karachi. It's almost half past 6 now. We hope to fly at 7 pm and are expected to land at Karachi before 9 pm.

So I m logging off my PenSparks now. See you soon. Take care.

Another HBR: Resume' Tips

Once I got the following Resume' Tips from the Harvard Business Review:

1. Insert date for everything
Try to fill each gap with dates. Use cover letter if there are any peculiarities.

2.Use buzzwords
Employ buzz words from specific job descriptions. Customize it to the job you are applying for.

3. No typos
Proof read, proof read, proof read....till you don't have any typing mistakes. Typos are unprofessional.

3 things you did'nt know about Marine Corps Leadership

Today I received a management tip from Harvard Business Review. It is interesting to read. I am quoting from the tip:
Most people assume the U.S. Marine Corps is a rank-and-file organization where officers have power and soldiers obey orders. In fact, the Marine Corps is a highly effective organization that thrives by empowering soldiers. Here are three things you can learn from the Marines to be a better leader: Communicate the mission. Marine officers are evaluated by how well their soldiers understand their mission and their role in it. Instead of dictating how things should be done, explain the mission and challenge your people to figure out how to accomplish it. Earn your respect, don't expect it. Formal authority has little value in today's world, even in the Marines. To lead effectively, you must earn the respect of your people. That's the only way your mission will be carried out when you're not there. Trust your soldiers. While there are strict rules of engagement, one of the fundamental principles of Marine leadership is to push decision-making to the lowest possible level. Trust your people's expertise and decision-making and empower them to do what's right.'' I wonder how often we follow these principles of Mission, Respect and Trust (MRT). I hope it might englighten us all for our own benefit.

Between Hope and History - Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton, in one of his books - Between Hope and History - talks about ORC. He talks about creating Opportunities for American people; helps encourage Responsibility; and finally emphasizes Community strengthening. ORC is Clinton's political model/vision for his tenure.

In one of his pages he said that, if we want people to get out of poverty, we must create equality of opportunity for them to make a choice.

I wonder what our policy makers do. Forget equality; we can't even think of extending opportunity for them to make a choice. Take for example the case of basic education. Look at its quality standard. If our people, I mean the majority of people, who live in the rural areas and exist below poverty line, don't have access to a minimally quality education, the time spent by their children in the state run schools would be useless because it would not build any of their capacities or capabilities to compete in future.

But the bigger question is why should these poor people send their children to government schools? It's a question of 'cost of opportunity'. If a child goes to government school but at the end of the day, doesn't learn anything he/she loses her time. And if the child continuously goes to a school where he/she doesn't learn anything at all, the child will be constrained to think of little value to education. For the child, education will be nothing but loitering away of the time resource.  On the other, if the child would be engaged by his/her father in some work, the child would not only learn some surviving skills when he/she grows up but would also help family in winning its bread. Hence the choice solely rests with the state : whether to provide quality education or persist with the sub standard education service. The poor parents have actually no choice. The logic as well as economic sense suggests they should not at all send thier kids to government schools for wastage of time.

Ofcoruse there are exceptions in the state sector as well. We can still find some good schools doing some great contribution. But we as public policy makers, failed to capitalize on their model. We would not like to investigate why one government school is working where majority of others are not working. Perhaps we don't want to ensure minimum service standards (MSS) for our schools, learning from such schools and also learning from various NGO run as well as low cost  private schools. Ask anyone in the districts, they will point out political interference in the education affairs, and political patronage for the inefficient and corrupt within the education system. No body dares belling the cat!

But coming back to hope and history, I would just say we need to put in our efforts either individually or collectively to create opportunity for our people, relying less on the state to make things better for us. Yes, however, we can seek to make government accountable by creating awareness what government has done so far, and now where it should go in future.

Children see colors in the world; Adults become color blind!

Waiting for the flight, all of sudden my cell phone rings continuously for a few times. My fingers ran through the pocket to grope for the cell phone. I immediately take it out and answer it. The voice at the other end is no one but my sweetest little soul, my daughter, 4 plus. She says hello and asks me what I m doing and when I am coming back. She seems to be a bit tired, a bit sleepy. But she seems to gather energy to talk to me. She energizes as she engages me in the conversation. She seems more matured whenever I speak with her on the phone. She seems to know many things - much more than I ever happen to expect while I am at home or watching over her. I wonder why is it feels so!

I often curse myself  for not affording enough time to be with her. I often come late from office and then, once I am at home, I either engage myself in watching TV or in reading, or go to sleep. She usually comes to me and tries to engage me with her books, toys or games. As night falls or as soon as she gets sleepy she would come asking me to tell an interesting, but long story to her. She loves stories. But she wants long, long stories so she could sleep while imaginng herself or thinking about the story.

Her story reminds me of her passion. She loves  painting/filling colours in to pictures. Now with the passage of t ime, she is trying her hand on some human drawings. I wonder she rightly captures the main features of body - like eyes, ears, hands, legs, head. One of my colleage suggested she is more imaginative and asked me to feed her imagination. Perhaps the world she is watching is much more colored than what we see it to be. So children see more colors; Adults gradually become color blind, don't they? Just a thought.

Waiting for the Flight

I am sitting inside the airport waiting lounge at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto Airport. I have come here quite early as I had to check out from the hotel at 2 pm. It's almost half past 4pm now. The flight for Karachi is leaving at 7 pm. It's still a long time to go.

But the waiting lounge has some activity. A lot of people are waiting for their flights. Some are just trying to relax; others seem a little stressed from their foreheads; still others, enjoying (really enjoying I can't say for sure!) with their families. Some are using their time for catching up on past news (today's newspapers report yesterday's news!). Some are trying to connect themselves with their near and dear ones - perhaps in a way this waiting time brings us to normal senses. Some are just looking around with no real purpose. Few are also looking outside  through the glass window, perhaps trying to discover something they have been looking for all their lives!

Interestingly very few I can see engrossed in books - alas, we have the poorest reading habit when it comes to book reading. It was really very different from my experience of Cardiff/UK where I would often find people engrossed in book reading while they would be waiting for a bus, train or flight.

Thanks to Internet, I can now find a couple of free internet cabins for waiting passengers, provided by Wateen, a cellular company and internet service provider. Some people are perhaps taking time to check their emails or simply googling their time away.

I can also see some kids playing around creating a kind of little hustle and bustle. Some kids seem really interested in seeing through the glass window.

Some people in groups are talking their time away. Interestingly I can't find ladies having any activity except looking over their kids sometimes.

Life is so interesting when we wait. It's so relaxed here. Very rarely we find time to look into ourselves or over others in such a relaxed mood. Modern life has its advantages and disadvantages obviously, as we can see now.

Do you know what Kiswa has to do with Kaa'aba?

The Kiswah is the special cloth which covers the whole of Kaa'ba, the Central Worshipping place of Moslems, in Makkah, Suadi Arabia, is special factory designed. The cloth is changed annually. The cloth costs Saudi Riyals 17 million every year. The cloth is made up of 670 kg of silver dyed black, about 120 kg of pure gold and  about 50 kg silver used for writing Quranic (Moslem Holy Book) verses on the cloth. The total area of the cloth is 658 square meters.

Information Source - PakistanCommoners

Passive acceptance of teachers' wisdom.... Bertrand Russel on Education

I quote from a chapter on Education, The principles of Social Reconstruction:

'' Passive acceptance of the teachers' wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of the independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless heis a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.''

I liked the paragraph and appreciate his thoughts. But I don't agree with him in every case and situation. But overall, he seems right. What do you think of his thoughts?

Cats and Dogs in Islamabad - How do the birds save their families?

It really poured cats and dogs this evening in Islamabad. Due to heavy downpour, very few people were on the streets/roads. Shops were still open though.

Air is cooler. Trees and streets are quite wet. Men, women and children are all inside homes; I just wonder where the birds have hidden themselves during heavy down pour. And don't know the poor living in tent like homes were able to withstand the misery of this unexpected downpour. Do our policy makers think of our people in such eventualities, I bet I don't know yet!

Early Morning of 10th Sept

It's early morning here in Islamabad. I have had an interesting discussion with Sohail online. We both caught up on each other.

I am so glad he is progressing well in Netherlands on his research work at Tilburg. Best of luck to him. As the Dutch would say - Success!

Jinnah Super and Shopping

I caught up with my sleep backlog this after noon. After fast break, I went to Jinnah Super Market, Islamabad's well known shopping bazaar. First I had dinner there. Then I did some shopping  including some books. The books were - the power of positive thinking by Norman Vincent; Autobiography of Bertrand Russel; Principles of Social Reconstruction by Bertrand Russel; and Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said.

I also enjoyed a Milk Kulfi and Ice cream and a cup of tea at a road side restaurant. Now I am back to hotel.

Fulbright Interview for PhD at Islamabad Pakistan

I reached the US Education Foundation Office (Pakistan) in Islamabad at 7:45 am, 15 minutes ahead of scheduled time.  But the guards asked us, some other candidates and myself, to wait for some time. 15-20 minutes later they let us in with security check and visitor registration.

Outside I met Noreen Yaqoob, my batch mate. She told me she was also shortlisted for PhD interview. She had her interest in tax reforms. We had a good conversation; catching up on what each of us was doing; and where the department was going. She confirmed Pakistan Revenue Service has been notified now.

All candidates were ushered into the library hall. They first gave us a form asking us if we had any relatives in the US. Second, they gave us a blank sheet for putting our reflections on a topic. I was given a topic on ''how I will use one of my academic lessons to help my mom learn something''. Pretty unexpected kind of topic. But I was glad; it was not something that required deep thought. I instantly thought of relevance of economics - allocation of scarce resources against competing demands. I used the lesson for helping my mom with the monthly expenditure for the family. We were given just ten minutes to finish up writing. Later, they took a snap shot of each candidate. Finally, candidates were being called for interview up stairs where the interview committee was seated in a separate room.

The committee consisted of five members. They were : Dr Muhammad Aslam Khaki, Juris Consultant, Federal Shariah Court (Supreme Court of Pakistan); Dr. Shaheena Ayub Bhatti, Associate Professor, Department of English (National Univeristy of Modern Languages, NIML); Dr. Mahmood H. Butt, Vice Chancellor (Allama Iqbal Open University); Dr. S.M. Raza, Advisor, HRD (Higher Education Commission, HEC); and Dr. Grace C. Clark, Executive Director, US Education Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP).

Dr. Clark welcomed me on my entry into the room. I thanked them back for extending an opportunity. She started with comments on my 'attempt at using economics lesson in helping my mom with her monthly family budget'. She admired my approach. So it was a good beginning.

During the interview, only Dr. Clark and one other gentleman, perhaps Dr. Butt ( name tags were not available), engaged me in discussion. They touched public policy concepts,  education management reforms, significance of the day ( international literacy day today),literacy and its challenges with respect to Pakistan, relevance of my gradation (engineering) with public policy courses.  I missed one question however regarding the main theorists of public policy. Overall my assessment of the interview was that it ended on a positive note. I assume I have a good chance for making it to the final list. Let's see what happens.

I had earlier not sent my online application to fulbright which I was required to before the interview. I had emailed them I was having problems. The staff helped me with it, and I was able to finally send it through. Hence all done. They told me if they required anything else, they would inform me.

One of the USEF Staff advised us to seek help from them for applying directly to the US universities and obtain scholarship, as a back up plan in case we can't make it to the final list. He advised us to get ourselves registered with the USEF Pakistan online. In return, they will provide each one of us an advisor who will help and guide us in this endeavor. He also told us that we might even be invited to workshops/seminars sometimes.

Overall my visit to the USEF Pakistan went well.

On my return to hotel, Noreen called me and shared that her interview did not go well. My view point on her assessment was that sometimes we make wrong assessments and should not be disappointed.

WB Institute - Public Private Parnterships Course -Sept.21-24 Washington DC

There is a bright chance I may attend this short course/workshop at WBI Washington, DC. If everything goes well with my nomination and sponsorship, I hope to lay my first steps on the 'land of the opportunity'. I will try  to pen down my sparks and share them on here.

Fulbright Interview on Sept. 8th at Margalla Hills

My ticket to US depends on how well I perform at the Fulbright Interview for PhD scholarship at the US Ed Foundation on the early morning of the 8th Sept. More than anything else I worry about reaching the USEF Office in the Margalla Hills of Islamabad, at 8:00 am straight from a hotel.

I read in a blog of a propsective candidate from abroad for Fulbright, that the Interviewing Team asked grilled her on the following aspects - least expected by her :

- How clear she was about her career objectives
- How she linked her study objectives with society wellfare on her return
- Whether she knew anything relevant to her research interests, about her home country's state of affairs;
-What skills she had for undertaking such serious study in the US.

I hope I will not forget these aspects. If I did, I should not repent.