Nicholas Watt in Delhi
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 28 July 2010 18.07 BST
David Cameron today sparked a furious diplomatic row with Islamabad after accusing elements of the Pakistani state of promoting the export of terrorism. In the strongest British criticism of Pakistan so far, the prime minister warned Islamabad it could no longer "look both ways" by tolerating terrorism while demanding respect as a democracy.
But in an angry response, Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain accused Cameron of damaging the prospects for regional peace, and criticised him for believing allegations in the Wikileaks documents published in the Guardian earlier this week. The leaked documents claim that the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency, is still encouraging the Taliban.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner, writes on the Guardian Comment is free site: "One would have wished that the prime minister would have considered Pakistan's enormous role in the war on terror and the sacrifices it has rendered since 9/11. "There seems to be more reliance on information based on intelligence leaks which lack credibility of proof. A bilateral visit aimed at earning business could have been done without damaging the prospects of regional peace."
The prime minister initiated the row this morning in a speech to Indian business leaders in Bangalore, when he spoke of his horror at the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Delhi directly blamed the Pakistani authorities for the attacks. Cameron came close to endorsing Delhi's view when he said: "We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able to promote the export of terror, whether to India or Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world.
"That is why this relationship is important. But it should be a relationship based on a very clear message: that it is not right to have any relationship with groups that are promoting terror. Democratic states that want to be part of the developed world cannot do that. The message to Pakistan from the US and from the UK is very clear on that point." Abdul Basit, a spokesman for the Pakistani foreign ministry, told Radio 4's World at One: "There is no question of Pakistan looking the other way. I think the prime minister was referring to these reports, which are unverifiable and outdated. If we start drawing inferences from these self-serving reports, then obviously we are distracting ourselves."
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Cameron sparks diplomatic row with Pakistan after 'export of terror' remarks
Monday, July 26, 2010
Leadership Tips from Tony Hayward (or Not)
By Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Jul 26, 2010
Jul 26, 2010
Tony Hayward's expected departure as CEO of BP today won't be the biggest surprise; the surprise is that it's taken so long. (I called publicly for his resignation some time ago.) The Case of Tony Hayward and the Gulf Oil Spill will be fodder for business school discussions for years to come, as a how-not-to-do-it guide for leadership when disaster strikes.
Mr. Hayward must have studied management in a parallel universe, where a set of anti-rules for bad leadership are taught. Here's what I imagine are those anti-rules.
Deny and minimize problems. Drop any mention of the high-minded principles you announced at the beginning of your term, such as safety and a culture that puts people first. Sweep them under the rug as you play down the significance of the crisis. Or better yet, find someone else to blame — a supplier, a business partner, a lowly employee or two.
Emphasize your own power and importance. Keep yourself front and center all the time. Rarely bring forward the rest of the team, nor even indicate that it's a team effort.
Make the story all about you. Talk about your heavy burdens and the costs to your life. When forced to acknowledge the true victims, pay lip service.
Never apologize, and don't even pretend to learn from your mistakes. Brush off public disapproval, and persist in the same mindless behavior that provoked criticism in the first place.
Hang onto your job even when it's clear you should go, in order to negotiate the highest severance package, whether you deserve it or not. Don't even consider a deferred resignation to allow for smooth suggestion. Cling to power, and keep everyone guessing to the very end.
Read the complete artilce
How Social networks are shaping life around us?
Notes from one of the best presentatiosn, I have seen for many weeks.
We're also seeing a much bigger shift in how people spend their time online. People are spending much more time interacting with other people, and much less time consuming content from websites. This shift is not about any one particular social network. It's about people connecting to each other online.
The social web, and all social media that operate within it, is a way of thinking as opposed to a new channel. Its not about sales, or ads, or click-through rates. Its about pursuing relationships and fostering communities of consumers. Its about rethinking how you make plans when your customers are in the center and in control.
The first is that people often don't know what they are going to do with the things they build. There are so many Facebook fan pages with hundreds of thousands of followers yet nothing is happening. So 100,000 people became a fan of yours on Facebook. Now what? This is the fan page for the magazine seventeen. There are 174,000 fans but no conversation. You need to look at things like Facebook fan pages and think: “How is this going to fundamentally improve my relationship with my customers?”
For decades, people have spoken about strong and weak ties. There is an abundance of research on strong and weak ties. Strong ties are the people you care about most. Your best friends. Your family. People often refer to strong ties as their “circle of trust.” We rely on strong ties for emotional support throughout life. Research has shown that maintaining our strong ties is important for our wellbeing. People with strong friendship bonds have lower incidents of heart disease, and get fewer colds and cases of the flu.
A study of 3000 randomly chosen Americans showed that the average American has just four strong ties. Most had between two and six. Another study of 1,178 adults found that on average, people had about 10 friends they meet or speak with at least weekly. Many research studies have shown that the vast majority of usage on social networks is with small numbers of strong ties. The average number of friends on Facebook is 130, and many users have many more. Yet despite having hundreds of friends, most people on Facebook only interact regularly with 4 to 6 people.
Strong ties often wield the most influence over people's decisions. For example, they are often the biggest factor in purchase decisions. Think about the last time you consulted a friend on whether to buy something. Chances are, it was quite recently.
Most of us can only stay up-to-date with up to 150 weak ties. This is a limitation of our brain. This number has been consistent throughout history. Neolithic farming villages tended to separate into two once they reached 150 inhabitants. The Roman army was split into groups of 150 so that everyone in the group knew each other.
Paul Adams
http://www.thinkoutsidein.com/blog/
We're also seeing a much bigger shift in how people spend their time online. People are spending much more time interacting with other people, and much less time consuming content from websites. This shift is not about any one particular social network. It's about people connecting to each other online.
The social web, and all social media that operate within it, is a way of thinking as opposed to a new channel. Its not about sales, or ads, or click-through rates. Its about pursuing relationships and fostering communities of consumers. Its about rethinking how you make plans when your customers are in the center and in control.
The first is that people often don't know what they are going to do with the things they build. There are so many Facebook fan pages with hundreds of thousands of followers yet nothing is happening. So 100,000 people became a fan of yours on Facebook. Now what? This is the fan page for the magazine seventeen. There are 174,000 fans but no conversation. You need to look at things like Facebook fan pages and think: “How is this going to fundamentally improve my relationship with my customers?”
For decades, people have spoken about strong and weak ties. There is an abundance of research on strong and weak ties. Strong ties are the people you care about most. Your best friends. Your family. People often refer to strong ties as their “circle of trust.” We rely on strong ties for emotional support throughout life. Research has shown that maintaining our strong ties is important for our wellbeing. People with strong friendship bonds have lower incidents of heart disease, and get fewer colds and cases of the flu.
A study of 3000 randomly chosen Americans showed that the average American has just four strong ties. Most had between two and six. Another study of 1,178 adults found that on average, people had about 10 friends they meet or speak with at least weekly. Many research studies have shown that the vast majority of usage on social networks is with small numbers of strong ties. The average number of friends on Facebook is 130, and many users have many more. Yet despite having hundreds of friends, most people on Facebook only interact regularly with 4 to 6 people.
Strong ties often wield the most influence over people's decisions. For example, they are often the biggest factor in purchase decisions. Think about the last time you consulted a friend on whether to buy something. Chances are, it was quite recently.
Most of us can only stay up-to-date with up to 150 weak ties. This is a limitation of our brain. This number has been consistent throughout history. Neolithic farming villages tended to separate into two once they reached 150 inhabitants. The Roman army was split into groups of 150 so that everyone in the group knew each other.
Paul Adams
http://www.thinkoutsidein.com/blog/
In the name of God, leave us alone and go!
Not a rebel, but I have got a brain in my head which makes me think and occasionally question few certainties. Corrupt as they are, many of them, believe that (God forbid) they are masters of the universe?
Tell me respected “monsters” of Kabirwala:
Why would you enforce religious values on us when you’re morally dishonest? Why would you talk about social justice, when you’re an icon of un-just? Why would you sermon on unity, when you preach hatred in private meetings? Why would you say good stuff on my face, when you are more likely to bite in my absence? Why would you close your doors and expect others to open their hearts for you? Why would you educate generosity of Hazrat Usman, when in personal lives you’re miserable bastards. Why would you mourn Imam Hussain A.S., when your daily acts shout about your allegiance to yazeed.
You vouch solidarity and your manners illustrate contradictory image.
Shame on your hypo crates of Kabirwala, I understand until you’re elders of this unfortunate town, the fate will remain same!
When will you leave us please? In the name of God, leave us alone and please go!
Tell me respected “monsters” of Kabirwala:
Why would you enforce religious values on us when you’re morally dishonest? Why would you talk about social justice, when you’re an icon of un-just? Why would you sermon on unity, when you preach hatred in private meetings? Why would you say good stuff on my face, when you are more likely to bite in my absence? Why would you close your doors and expect others to open their hearts for you? Why would you educate generosity of Hazrat Usman, when in personal lives you’re miserable bastards. Why would you mourn Imam Hussain A.S., when your daily acts shout about your allegiance to yazeed.
You vouch solidarity and your manners illustrate contradictory image.
Shame on your hypo crates of Kabirwala, I understand until you’re elders of this unfortunate town, the fate will remain same!
When will you leave us please? In the name of God, leave us alone and please go!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Three years ago, Malik Mahboob was killed
Three years ago, Malik Mahboob was killed.
IT was SUNDAY morning of 15th of July 2007; I heard that there was firing in Sadat Market, Kabirwala. Worried about sectarian problems, I thought it was beginning of another riot in town. I didn’t realize that it could be Malik Mahboob who had embraced the bullet.
Next day – The daily dawn newspaper carried story of shooting in the town.
IT was SUNDAY morning of 15th of July 2007; I heard that there was firing in Sadat Market, Kabirwala. Worried about sectarian problems, I thought it was beginning of another riot in town. I didn’t realize that it could be Malik Mahboob who had embraced the bullet.
Next day – The daily dawn newspaper carried story of shooting in the town.
Police said the gunmen sprayed bullets at Malik Mahboob Yazdani sitting in his mobile phone shop in Sadat Market, killing him on the spot.I can't write more than that at the moment but will touch this topic again.Mahboob, Allah ki amaan merey veer, I will inshallah see you soon.
Also present in the shop were Imran Gardezi, the son of market owner, and Sheikh Abu Bakar, who sustained serious injuries. They were shifted to the THQ Hospital, Kabirwala, from where they were referred to the Nishtar Hospital, Multan, but Abu Bakar could not survive. Reports said that soon after the occurrence, other businessmen tried hard to contact police on emergency 15 but no one attended the calls.
The business community of Khanewal and Kabirwala pulled down their shutters in protest to mourn the killings and press police to arrest the assailants.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
People aren’t spreading ideas on Twitter; they’re spreading observations, perhaps.
Interesting insights from Malcolm Gladwell on social media!
Celebrated writer Malcolm Gladwell seems to have penned the script for the first part of the 21st century, with his provocative bestsellers on ideas such as contagion (The Tipping Point), the power of instant conclusions (Blink) and the genesis of genius (Outliers). But Mr. Gladwell, who returns home to Canada briefly this week, is conspicuously and deliberately absent from a central part of modern life: social media. His blog posts are biannual, his Facebook page is a placeholder and he has never ventured on to Twitter . On Wednesday in Vancouver, he speaks to the F5 Expo, an executive conference on changing online technologies. But first he spoke to The Globe and Mail on the social media – and why he’s cut himself off from much of that world.
On balance, are the social media a positive or negative thing?
I’d like to think that on balance any innovation, at the end of the day, is usually a net good. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant and sometimes adverse consequences that we need to find another way to deal with. While we’re in the midst of the revolution, we need to stop and talk about its broader consequences.
Can you give me an example?
The ease with which you can organize people means you no longer have to go to the trouble of things like building strong grassroots organizations, developing a coherent message, forming strong and lasting ties with individuals. That’s one consequence. The reason that people did that in the past is that it was really hard, that you had to that to build a broader organization. Now, you can do the broad part so easily, you don’t have to do your homework first.
Click here to read the complete interview
Celebrated writer Malcolm Gladwell seems to have penned the script for the first part of the 21st century, with his provocative bestsellers on ideas such as contagion (The Tipping Point), the power of instant conclusions (Blink) and the genesis of genius (Outliers). But Mr. Gladwell, who returns home to Canada briefly this week, is conspicuously and deliberately absent from a central part of modern life: social media. His blog posts are biannual, his Facebook page is a placeholder and he has never ventured on to Twitter . On Wednesday in Vancouver, he speaks to the F5 Expo, an executive conference on changing online technologies. But first he spoke to The Globe and Mail on the social media – and why he’s cut himself off from much of that world.
On balance, are the social media a positive or negative thing?
I’d like to think that on balance any innovation, at the end of the day, is usually a net good. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant and sometimes adverse consequences that we need to find another way to deal with. While we’re in the midst of the revolution, we need to stop and talk about its broader consequences.
Can you give me an example?
The ease with which you can organize people means you no longer have to go to the trouble of things like building strong grassroots organizations, developing a coherent message, forming strong and lasting ties with individuals. That’s one consequence. The reason that people did that in the past is that it was really hard, that you had to that to build a broader organization. Now, you can do the broad part so easily, you don’t have to do your homework first.
Click here to read the complete interview
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
YMCA rebrands itself as The "Y"
Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Monday
12 July 2010 19.38 BST
It was perhaps the most joyfully proclaimed acronym in the history of popular music. Four letters, four actions, one exuberant hit record that came to be seen as a symbol of gay culture in the 1970s, on a par with moustaches and wide lapels.
But on Monday, the YMCA was laid to rest in the US, marking the end of its 166-year history. Or to be more accurate, MCA was laid to rest, leaving the Y standing tall and proud as the sole surviving letter of the Youth Men's Christian Association, the original Bible study group founded in London in 1844. The board of the organisation's American branch announced that it will henceforth call itself by its common street name, "The Y", unveiling a new logo as part of a major "brand revitalisation".
The logo comes in five different colour combinations and depicts the letter Y in a design that lends itself to a number of possible interpretations. The creators presumably wanted to suggest a forward-looking, energetic youngster, as befits the group's founding principles of helping young people to become healthy in spirit, mind and body. Equally, though, you could see it as a penguin flapping its obsolete wings.
Neil Nicoll, president of the YMCA of the USA, said the change was necessary to communicate "our story, bringing more people to the place where they can realise the benefits we bring".
Audrey Haynes, the group's vice president, said it was a "momentous event in the history of the Y". She said the new logo was a symbol that "honours our past and represents our future".
But for many, that was precisely the problem: honouring the past. Specifically, what on Earth now happens to the famous Village People pop hit that took the US and the UK by storm in January 1979?
What will thousands of teenagers at coming-of-age parties and barmitzvahs now dance to at the end of the evening, and what becomes of the choreographed hand movements with which they spell out Y-M-C-A in time to the legendary chorus? "It's fun to stay at the Y-Y-Y-Y" doesn't quite cut it.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
No one gossips
No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
Bertrand Russell
How true for most of my friends in Kabirwala!
Bertrand Russell
How true for most of my friends in Kabirwala!
My best city Kabirwala Facebook group
Face book has seen emergence of many groups dedicated to Kabirwala. Unfortunately, nobody has done any serious effort and service to the town.
I was sent invitation to join “my best city kabirwala”; Please click here to see the group
I will decide later on joining the group. I had a sneak on discussion board and saw conversations on topics like…
“What technical education we can give to madarsa students in kabirwala”? Important question but none has replied yet.
“What do you like most in Kabirwala?” Answers range from people to writers of Kabirwala. The answer depends who is actually answering the question. Exposure and mentality both countJ
38 members so far, but you may want to join the band:)
I was sent invitation to join “my best city kabirwala”; Please click here to see the group
I will decide later on joining the group. I had a sneak on discussion board and saw conversations on topics like…
“What technical education we can give to madarsa students in kabirwala”? Important question but none has replied yet.
“What do you like most in Kabirwala?” Answers range from people to writers of Kabirwala. The answer depends who is actually answering the question. Exposure and mentality both countJ
38 members so far, but you may want to join the band:)
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