A Heart in Education--DIL Fundraiser

A Heart in Education 

Carefully contrived acronyms give a subliminal message about the disposition of an organization. Developments in Literacy, a non-profit organization operating schools in Pakistan, has such an acronym (DIL)—for those who understand Urdu; the initialism gives one the warm fuzzy feeling of working with a group that has its heart in education. In DIL’s annual fundraiser arranged in Palo Alto on November 7, over 250 participants got ample opportunity to hear about and see (in a documentary, featuring Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times) DIL’s heartfelt efforts in promoting primary education in Pakistan. And education in Pakistan—and Afghanistan--is what many in the west are currently rooting for. Torn between the generals’ ever increasing demands of troops boost and the peaceniks’ cries for a quick and complete pullout from Afghanistan, the US administration often appears looking for an alternative solution. Enter the educationists. They tell you the problem can be solved for only $1 per child per month, through educating people. The vanguards of the education-corps are the various non-profit organizations, several of them based in the US (DIL, HDF, TCF, etc.). The superstar in this cluster of education-warriors is Greg Mortenson whose bestseller, ‘Three Cups of Tea’, has made a lot of Americans wonder if their country is trying to win the ‘War on Terror’ the wrong way. Greg Mortenson was the special guest of the DIL annual fundraiser, but he got sick and could not make it to the program. The keynote speaker of DIL’s program was Dr. Adil Najam, Professor of Global Public Policy at Boston University, and a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. In a speech laced with witty remarks and clever insights Dr. Najam said the Pakistanis suffered with a “national syndrome of achieving individual excellence amidst collective failure”. He said in order for Pakistan to climb up on the Human Development Index--an index based on quantifiable measures of life expectancy (health), per capita GDP (wealth), and education attainment--the country has to invest heavily in education. Priming the audience for the fundraising part of the event, Dr. Najam quoted statistics from “Portrait of a Giving Community: Philanthropy by the Pakistani-American Diaspora”, a 2007 study done under his supervision, and said the Pakistanis living in the US were very generous in their philanthropy. Greg Mortenson’s speaking slot was taken by Dr. Abdul Jabbar who is associated with the City College of San Francisco and is a board member of the Central Asia Institute (founded by Mortenson). Eulogizing the mentor of his organization, Dr. Jabbar said Mortenson’s success in building and operating schools in Pakistan lay in Mortenson’s understanding of the local culture and his approach of involving the community in the endeavor. A documentary about Central Asian Institute’s work in remote northern areas of Pakistan and in parts of Afghanistan was also screened. The speeches and a subsequent dinner were followed by a musical performance by Pakistan's prominent vocalist Tahira Syed. The duo of Paru Yusuf and Ambreen Jamal emceed the program. ========== Information obtained from DIL's handout at the fundraiser Gold Partners Sara and Sohaib Abbasi, Ambreen and Asad Jamal, Bhoomija and Saeed Malik, Paru and Zia Yusuf. Friends of DIL Nahid Aliniazee and Kamal Ahmed, Eileen Donahoe, Lubna and Syed Hasanain, Roohina and Arif Janjua, Amena and Javed Patel, Zakia Rahman, Shameela and Hasan Rizvi. Preferred Table Nayela and Shuja Keen DIL 2009-20010 San Francisco Board Paru Desai Yusuf—President Ambreen Jamal—Vice President Sara Abbasi, Nayela Keen, Shuja Keen, Amena Patel, Zakia Rehman, Bonnie Sheikh, Zia Yusuf Creative talent: Ayesha Rashid Khan, Event Coordinator Mariam Hussain, Truck Art Graphics Haider Ali (Centerpiece Artist) Catering: Tandoori and Curry Catering 2009 San Francisco Gala Volunteers: Faiz Abbasi, Faraz Abbasi, Reem Chughtai, Amra Faruqi, Miraal Haq, Mahum Jamal, Ghazala Khan, Zara Khan, Siemeen Mirza, Naila Qureshi, Abdulrahman Rafiq, Sonya A. Sohail, Saira Yusuf, Sanam Yusuf Ushers: Gibran Haq, Daanish Jamal, Salman Javed, Mehreen Khan, Samar Khan, Arham Qureshi, Asad Raza, Ramiz Sheikh, Zara Sheikh DIL Executive Board Dr. Nafis Sadik Executive Board Members Fiza Shah, Hashmat Saeed, Sara Abbasi, Mehar Patel, Jameela Fakhri, Najmi Sarwar, Tashnim Shaheryar, Muhammad B. Shahzad Dil Advisory Board Nasser Ahmed, Shahla Aly, Henna Inam, Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Kavita Ramdas, Dr. Nafis Sadiq, Jane Wales, Zia Yusuf, Kashif Zafar

TCF Chairman, Arshad Abdulla dies in Germany

Monday, October 26. Losing a long battle with prostate cancer, Pakistani philanthropist and educationalist Arshad Abdulla (alternatively spelled as Arshad Abdullah), died in Germany this morning. An architect by profession--he, along with his younger brother Shahid Abdulla, was the owner of ASA (Arshad Shahid Abdulla, a leading architectural firm based in Karachi)--Arshad Abdulla was a cofounder of The Citizens' Foundation (TCF), a non-profit organization building schools all over Pakistan.


[Photo courtesy of http://www.pcp.org.pk]

Why the Brazilian Embassy, you ask.

Honduras President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military assisted coup in June this year. He was put on a plane to Costa Rica, purportedly in his pajamas. On his removal from power Zelaya found instant international support. From Venezuela to the USA—yes, the same Uncle Sam who historically supported the army and the big business in that Banana republic*—spoke in favor of Zelaya. But the ground realities were different. The Honduras army, the Supreme Court, and the opposition were together in a strong dislike for Zelaya. These players knew that time was of the essence—the sooner they could pile a lot of dirt on Zelaya’s ouster, the harder it would be for Zelaya to come back to power: elections were announced to be held in November. Zelaya got apprehensive; he HAD to return back to Honduras, in order to remain relevant. So, after two failed attempts Zelaya did manage to finally sneak in on September 21. He is presently in asylum at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Why the Brazilian embassy? Well, it could not be the Costa Rican embassy, since the Costa Rican President Arias has to play his role in negotiations between Zelaya and the opposition. It could not be the Venezuelan embassy as a refuge there would put Zelaya squarely in the “Socialist” camp and would provide an affirmation of the opposition’s accusation of Zelaya’s leanings. And of course it could not be the US embassy. And it could not be the embassy of a small, toothless country of Central America. Brazil is a big, powerful, non-Spanish speaking country of that region. For Zelaya Brazilian embassy made a good choice. An alternative could be the Spanish embassy. No one knows how many foreign missions Zelaya was in touch with and what his plans B—Z was, had the Brazilian embassy not welcomed him.
[Other logistics were also important. For example, the embassy in which Zelaya would take refuge had to be physically large.]
But no matter how Zelaya ended up at the Brazilian embassy, his return has thrown a monkey wrench in the opposition’s scheme. Now all bets are off and the game is on.


*Traveling in Honduras one sees a poor population living amidst a modern highway system. It does not take too long for the traveler to figure out what is happening. The highway system is not for the poor people of Honduras, it is for the bananas to quickly reach the ports.

[Photo courtesy of the Kuwait Times.]

Happy Father's Day

I am not sure why but I have always associated the strongest emotions and feelings with color, fragrance, or flavor. If you ask me what hard work smells like, I would say it was the scent that effused from the car that returned at night to our home with the man who would leave for work early in the morning. That I used to smell this aroma climbing the stairs of an office building in Karachi--an office building where people parked their cars all different ways, where signs of lawyers and other businesses hung on the façade among a myriad of telephone and electricity wires; an office building where several ground floor shops were of perfume-makers who would put their artistic potions in colored bottles of peculiar shapes, where a Pathan would run his teashop under the stairs. When my brother and I would sprint up to the third floor, on the behest of my mother who would be standing outside that building--the two of us pushing each other along the way--we would smell the redolent mixture of perfumes and hot tea, and then in a third floor office filled with cigarette smoke, sitting surrounded by law books, we would find the most important man of our lives.

Like most fathers of the world my father took care of the economic structure of our household. He worked very hard through his younger years and because of his toil we always remained a step out of the brutal ring of poverty. And being financially secure made it possible for us children to make independent decisions in our lives.

My father's second most important contribution in my upbringing was in setting my direction in seeking knowledge. I always found him surrounded by books; reading the titles of the books by his bedside I learned the names of Bertrand Russell, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Descartes and other great minds. My father never coached me about what I should study in school, but watching him read books I learned that no matter what field I choose for my vocational training, I must find solace in philosophy and good literature. That I may work as an accountant or a garbage collector, but when I find time I should read literature and philosophy to entertain myself and to try to reach the pinnacle of human intellect.

And it is because of this training that I live with the confidence that if ever circumstances suddenly became unfavorable for me, that if the clouds of benevolence that constantly hang over my head ever disappeared, if doors are ever slammed shut on my face, if I am ever pushed to the ground and told of my utter failure, that in the most miserable situation I would live with the inner peace that I have strived to gain true knowledge, the knowledge that illuminates the path to the heavens, the knowledge that I sought through guidance received from my father.

[Originally written in Urdu. That text is here:
http://hindiurdublog.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2-%D9%BE%D8%AF%D8%B1/]

It would be surprising if anyone among the Warren Packard audience did not mark their calendar for December 13, 2010. Packard thought the manner in which the technology was getting cheaper by the day, in eighteen months attendees of technical conferences would find themselves receiving free mp3 players as marketing material. "See me if this does not happen," Packard assured the audience.

See other OPEN Forum 2009 pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cemendtaur/OPENForum2009#

OPEN Silicon Valley Forum 2009

Trying to learn new things in an OPEN (Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America) Forum is like trying to drink water from a fire-hydrant. With three parallel tracks of panel discussions going on, scores of knowledgeable speakers to listen to, and hundreds of people to reconnect with the whole day affair is an exhilarating exercise. This years OPEN Forum took place on Saturday, June 13, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

In the picture above you see Warren Packard of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a venture capitalist firm, giving the morning keynote speech at the OPEN Forum 2009. In his speech Packard put great confidence in the entrepreneurial spirit of mankind; he seemed assured "we" will come out fine from recession, environmental problems, and political instabilities around the world.

See other OPEN Forum 2009 pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cemendtaur/OPENForum2009#

OPEN Forum 2009, A Program Worth Attending

In Pakistan Eidgahs, the places where Eid prayers are offered have their own unique culture. Eidgah is a place of hustle and bustle, where a small group of people is very serious about offering its religious duties the most solemn way, and where most others are present to show off their new clothes, meet people they normally meet on Eid days i.e., once or twice a year, and to have a good time. Every Eidgah starts coming more and more alive as the prayer time gets closer, the venue initially hums with low-scale chatter, becomes dead quiet when the prayers are offered, and springs into revelry as the prayers end. If its keynote speech can be equated with the Eid prayer then the annual OPEN (Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America) Forum venue is indeed the Eidgah Pakistanis living in the Bay Area flock to, quite religiously. There got to be some people who attend that program to learn new things, or to hear the distinguished keynote and other speakers the program features, but for this scribe and for many of his friends OPEN Forum is an opportunity to meet people you normally meet once in a while, and to have a good time on a summer Saturday. The most noticeable activity at the OPEN Forum is the exchange of business cards—in between the panel discussions and speaking sessions, everywhere you look you would see people shaking hands and trading contact information. At OPEN Fora entrepreneurs-at-heart look for opportunities to start new businesses, to either become a part of the team they have always dreamt of becoming a part of, or to assemble the right talent to put together the dream team. It is an event to see and to be seen at. If this correspondent is in town, he never misses the opportunity to attend an OPEN Forum. He thoroughly enjoyed the Forum when Imran Khan was the keynote speaker. His report on that event is here:
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2005/July05/15/06.HTM
Then last year, OPEN Forum 2008 had a whole bunch of inspirational speakers, from Mike Moritz to Howard Dean. His report on that program is here:
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2008/June08/27/01.HTM
And video highlights are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0u7YYi2wm8
And this year, the OPEN organizers—all of them are volunteers, very hardworking indeed--are promising the program to be another memorable gala. Read about the OPEN Forum 2009 here:
http://www.opensiliconvalley.org/
At the OPEN Forum 2009 you will learn the real deal behind the buzz phrases: from Cloud Computing to Genentech to Social Networking software, and you would hear from very knowledgeable speakers including former Congressman Tom Campbell.

Don’t miss the most celebrated Pakistani event of the San Francisco Bay Area; be there at the OPEN Forum 2009, on Saturday, June 13, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

[Image courtesy of OPEN Silicon Valley.]

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20934

The real question is: What is on Iftikhar Chaudhry's mind?

What kind of Supreme Court are we going to see after his reinstatement on March 21?
Would Chaudhry's old suo-moto style of judiciary now burgeon, or would it dwindle in favor of pragmatism?
And whatever style the Supreme Court adopts would determine if future candidates for Pakistan's top government positions would still salivate over the few perks those jobs offer, or would they shiver over the responsibility of looking after the well-being of 170 million mostly impoverished people.
C.

[Photo, courtesy of The Guardian.]

Long March, for long awaited fundamental reforms

Now too much relies on Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's well-being. Hope there is a big group of people guarding him, day and night.

[Photo, courtesy of Dawn.com]

Waiting to have a cup of tea with Greg Mortensen



Approaching Greg Mortenson from a distance you would first encounter a very large circle of glossy advertising material featuring poor but fair-complexioned, photogenic children learning in schools built by the Central Asia Institute (CAI), Mortenson's non-profit organization; you would then meet a huge readership of 'Three Cups of Tea', Mortenson's bestselling book; and then there would be singers singing the 'Three Cups of Tea' song; and then finally you would meet the inner circle of diehard Mortenson fans holding their guru in the highest esteem. Being mesmerized by this setup it is easy to forget an important tenet of journalism i.e., take a fresh, unbiased, independent look at the subject.

After attending two programs in the San Francisco Bay Area that featured Greg Mortenson, I made a list of things to do, before I would write a newspaper report on Mortenson and his excellent work:
1. Call the office of Central Asia Institute in Pakistan and ask them a few questions.
2. Read independent reports in the Pakistani newspapers on Mortenson's work.
3. Meet Pakistanis who have visited schools built by Mortenson and have talked to the villagers about the impact the schools are having.

I must confess to my readers that I failed in all three of the above. My call to the Central Asia Institute about their office telephone numbers in Pakistan is still unanswered (CAI's web site does not provide that information). The Pakistani English newspaper reports I have read so far all derive information from western sources which in turn rely on information provided in the book 'Three Cups of Tea' or obtained from Mortenson's interviews. Search Google in Urdu for Mortenson and you would find two (2) links on Mortenson—both sources relying on western news reports. Search the man in Farsi and you would find that the only Mortenson (or Mortensen) the Farsi/Darri world recognizes is actor Viggo Mortensen. You wonder what kind of ungrateful bunch Greg Mortenson is dealing with.

So let me limit the scope of this report to Greg Mortenson's recent visit to Northern California. Mortenson's March 3 visit to the Bay area was arranged by the Fremont branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). In the afternoon, Mortenson spoke to children and adults at Guy Emanuele Pavilion of Logan High School in Union City. Around 1800 people attended that program. In the evening Mortenson gave a speech at the Diamond Palace in Fremont. Almost 900 awe-struck people listened to Mortenson's life story and how he got into building schools for children in far flung northern areas of Pakistan and in Afghanistan.

The audio of Greg Mortenson's speech at the Diamond Palace is here:
http://www.archive.org/details/GregMortensonAtLoganHighSchoolUnionCity

Photos of Mortenson event at the Logan High School are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cemendtaur/GregMortensonAtLoganHighSchoolUnionCity#

Photos of Mortenson event at the Diamond Palace are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cemendtaur/GregMortensonAtTheDiamondPalaceFremont#

Cricket, A Dangerous Game

Or, at least when played in Pakistan. For that matter, anything you do in Pakistan comes with huge risks these days. When the rest of the world refused to play cricket in Pakistan, the Sri Lankan team said 'No' to that boycott. The Sri Lankans wanted to show their support for Pakistan and its cricket fans. Little did they know they would be punished for their empathy. In hindsight, the Sri Lankan team should have insisted on playing cricket in Pakistan how George W. Bush played in Pakistan i.e., in the boundary of their embassy.

Photo of Sri Lankan Cricket team leaving Qaddafi Stadium in army helicopter, courtesy of AP.
Photo of President Bush playing cricket in the US Embassy in Islamabad, courtesy of
http://www.mykaussie.com

US Government now owning more banks and other businesses

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090227/ap_on_bi_ge/citigroup_rescue

It has something to do with Afghanistan. One socialist superpower went to Afghanistan, became bankrupt, and changed its economic system to capitalism. Now another superpower, this time a capitalist one, went to Afghanistan, is getting financially weak, and is in the process of changing its economic system from capitalism to socialism.

Afghanistan, that little poor country, is in the business of humbling superpowers and turning around their economic systems 180 degrees.

[Citi Bank logo, courtesy of Citi Bank.]