We do not only need better leaders.

We need better teachers as well.

Recently, I was going through a preface for one of the upcoming books. In the preface, one of the co-authors acknowledges her teachers and writes:

They believed in their students.

I wish I could quote the whole thing here but as the book is unpublished, it would be unethical. But in its essence, this one simple line says a lot. Quite unusually, it tells you about the society as well. As the time passed, good teachers faded. The quality of teaching has gone down in the country. The once supposed quality of private education is going downhill faster than ever. More and more teachers are teaching subjects that they have not specialized. Furthermore, special education is under severe neglect.

As more and more teachers are not specialized trainers in their respective subjects, they turn to teachers' manual for help. I have personal experiences where teachers have demanded for the teachers' manual as they do not have a clue about the "right answers". Quite regularly, teachers dictate or "enforce" the answer from these manuals on the students. These answers are often considered as "benchmarks" by their student which are learned by them through rote-learning. This effectively kills the creativity of the students. When teachers do not believe in their own ability to tackle problems or plan lessons, they cannot extend the privilege of "being believed in" to the students. This totally destroys the learning curve.

The fun in learning lies in the "believing in" part where a teacher allows its student to make mistakes. This trial and error exercise effectively enhances the brain power of the student, making him or her to think and analyze. When an answer is forced upon the students, their minds stop to question information, and the cognitive process comes to a halt. A country filled with such students leads to doom. Indoctrination is thrn easy and mind strays very conveniently into the hands of evil. The beauty of human mind is to think, to ponder, to inquire but current-day teachers are not helping it to function that way.

In order to fix this issue, an urgent attention is required to be given on teachers' education. Neglecting the training of a teacher is one of the sin that we are committing out of our folly and ignorance. We need to quickly and very swiftly inculcate confidence in our teachers before it gets too late. This can be effectively done during the period of annual vacations. Schools need to take initiative as the responsibility of quality education lies on their shoulders. This pressing issue needs to resolved before DOOM is spelled out for us.

Cola is cheap and dangerous!

Well. This is what happens when you drink too much soft-drinks. The caffeine gets to your head, and the sugar gives you a rush, making you end up writing or doing things that you never should. On June 16, 2011, Sharmila Farooqi's opinion article, A Look at the Budget 2011-12, was printed in Express Tribune -- not a surprise there as only Express Tribune would print such frivolous nonsense.

In her attempt to impress everyone, Ms. Farooqi writes:

When the budget for 2010-2011 was prepared, the price of oil was expected to be in the range of $70-75 per barrel but rose to $125 per barrel during the year.

Upon her statement, a person named "dextor" rightly said:

If you cannot forsee the prices of oil then you does not deserve to rule or make budget. If you cannot foresee the future requirements then how could you rule.

And, I think that person has a point. While you are governing, you cannot excuses. Governments are required to be prepared for any fall-outs. The sudden oil-price hike is not something new, and is sometime forecast-able if the Government would have kept an able financial forecasting team as well as consulted people that work on these subjects.

She does not stop there and tries to mention one supposed achievement which is "Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)". She writes:

... The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has received widespread acceptance from development partners. It uses technology so that the possibilities of corruption are limited. This year, the government spent Rs35 billion for providing a monthly stipend of Rs1,000 to low-income households and next year this amount will increase to at least Rs50 billion. If additional resources are available, this amount may be increased to Rs65 billion.

ohreally? I wish Ms. Farooqi and her party should take heed from this Chinese proverb:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

We indeed have a very smart friends but alas, it seems that Pakistan Peoples Party is too hard-headed to take notice that. BISP is only feeding the fire of the poverty. As a student of business management, I know that a thing or two about the economy. All modern economists agree that cash handouts would never feed the country. They drain the economy unnecessarily while making people more depended on its government. The money on BISP and Sasti Roti Program (Inexpensive Bread Program) will never yield results. These program are a burden on an already sick economy. This money has better uses in the sectors of education and infrastructural development. It should be noted that HEC, the educational board that runs and regulates universities in the country, has been given Rs.10 billion less than the previous year.

In the end, Ms. Farooqi ends her article with the following lines:

It does not care about the propaganda campaign started by the PML-N, which was evident during the budget session. Rather, it believes in constructive criticism.

Clearly, Ms. Farooqi is a deluded women. She and her party has to come out of the perception that it is a "People's Government." Ever since, the PPP came into power it has not released any poverty number and neither it has released any tax numbers of the influential people that are a part of the National Assembly. Criticism of all sorts have been thrown at them and at the opposition, but it seems nobody is serious about the economy. The antics played by PML-N during the Federal budget were paid back by her party during the Punjab budget session where PML-N is in the power.

The current budget may look rosy on one side as it reduces tax and duties on certain items but it is also noteworthy that it does not talk about any solid austerity measures. It apparently looks like the government has planned the budget while keeping in mind the price hike of Ramadan. Strangely, luxury is cheaper than common commodity. In a country where bread is getting expensive, the government's priority was to make cola drinks cheaper. It cannot get more bubbly than this, perhaps.

With Neighbors Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Pakistan and India has a hate-and-love relationship. It stays cool and then it gets cold. In seemingly the past six and a half decades, both neighbors have tried endlessly to make peace but it gets destroyed every now and then. But as of late, it is seen that India likes to jump on the wagon on every issue related to Pakistan. Be it any issue of any importance, Indian media has a lot to reveal. Recently, Mohammed Hanif, the author of the novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes, gave an interview to the Economic Times where he gave a piece of advice that India needs to take heed of. Here is an extract from the interview:

ET: What should Pakistan's neighbours do to help? 

MH: Learn to shut up at critical moments. Stop gloating ...

Indeed. The undue tongue-lashing that has been going from India, for decades, needs to be curtailed. The kind of talk that Indian government and its media does, only fuels the fire between the two countries.