The Milton Pot

A 'friend' (who prefers anonymity) whose status as a potential tenant in Manhattan was challenged:

"As a member of the Republican party, I do not hope for individual endorsements, although I will be appreciative, since that's what the society tells me how a decent human should feel. However, if I am a good tenant with low credit risk and low depreciation rate, and if the signals are dispatched right, the market will recognize this itself."

"The above statement is made in honor of Milton Friedman, 1912-2006, the greatest economist in the 20th century."

REAL first word

In recognition of all the love and hard work that he gets from his Tasha Khala, Faiz has officially uttered 'Tasha' as his first word. He started by babling 'Tasha Tasha Tasha...' consistently and sometimes incoherently, and a week of this diatribe could have been confused with many other rants and ramblings (mam mum baba mama dada etc.). But yesterday he confirmed that he can say Tasha, and means his Khala when he says it. So thanks Tasha Khala; this is a first that you will always have.

Unexpected

We all think we are going to be great. And we feel a little bit robbed when our expectations aren’t met. But sometimes our expectations sell us short. Sometimes the expected simply pales in comparison to the unexpected. You have to wonder wonder why we cling to our expectations? Because the expected is just what keeps us steady. Standing. Still. The expected is just the beginning. The unexpected is what changes our lives. - Grey's Anatomy, Jan 25 2007

Old is gold

"... literacy was viewed in terms of knowledge of literature and attention to rhetorical appropriateness. Literacy pedagogy involved rote learning, oral recitation, copying, and imitation of what was considered correct speech and writing. And the literacy curriculum was based on exemplary texts ... and handwriting primers. This public schooling paradigm corresponded to the needs of an aristocratic social structure, in which land, power and knowledge was concentrated in a few hands, and education involved obedience to tradition and power." - Mark Warschauer (2004)

This text describes the state of school-based literacy in the U.S. in the nineteenth-century. Sound familiar?

Thought of the day

TV is like alcohol. It helps you forget, it's addictive, and the hangover hurts like hell.

Lazy no more

African proverb:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will get killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

Unequal prosperity

Friedman, in 'The World is Flat': Communism is a great system for making people equally poor, and capitalism for making them unequally rich.

So which is better? Which makes people happier? If the entire world where communist, and everyone was equal, then that would probably be better. But societies and nations cannot live in isolation anymore, and as long as there are have-nots anywhere in the world, there will be discord, strife and conflict. I think I need to finally start reading 'Capitalism at the Crossroads.'

Tool my technology

I wrote in my Wharton essay:

"I believe that developing countries like Pakistan have the skill-set and training to manufacture home-grown ICT solutions for non-technology problems. This has the potential to not only provide employment to a generation of underutilized youth, but to help develop solutions to many socio-economic problems that plague developing countries, like accountability, transparency, service delivery, and education, to name a few."

Basically I am for narrowing the digital divide (the uneven diffusion of information and communications technology) not by applying imported technology, but by building home-grown technology solutions. Narrowing the divide is not an aim in itself, rather narrowing the divide is a means to spurring socio-economic revolution.

It's another dimension of "homesourcing." We're not going to try to continue to fail to get our little piece of the outsourcing pie, but rather use and develop our own skills and resources to directly impact our lives.

"Some people argue that technology is a reward of development, making it inevitable that the digital divide follows the income divide. True, as incomes rise, people gain access to the benefits of technological advance. But many technologies are tools of human development that enable people to increase their incomes, live longer, be healthier, enjoy a better standard of living, participate more in their communities and lead more creative lives. From the earliest times, people have fashioned tools to address the challenges of existence, from war to health care to crop production. Technology is like education—it enables people to lift themselves out of poverty. Thus technology is a tool for, not just a reward of, growth and development." UNDP, HDR 2001

Numb

You've probably heard 'Numb' (Linken Park) a hundred times on the airwaves. If not, you've been missing massive!

I didn't really pay attention till I caught the video. The lyrics follow. I think they capture a feeling that is so familiar to so many (teen angst not included). We become numb not by chance, but by choice.

i'm tired of being what you want me to be
feeling so faithless
lost under the surface
i don't know what you're expecting of me
put under the pressure
of walking in your shoes
[caught in the undertow / just caught in the undertow]
every step that i take is another mistake to you

i've
become so numb
i can't feel you there
become so tired
so much more aware
i'm becoming this
all i want to do
is be more like me
and be less like you

can't you see that you're smothering me
holding too tightly
afraid to lose control
cause everything that you thought i would be
has fallen apart right in front of you

[caught in the undertow / just caught in the undertow]
every step that i take is another mistake to you
[caught in the undertow / just caught in the undertow]
and every second i waste is more than i can take

but i know
i may end up failing too
but i know
you were just like me
with someone disappointed in you

Ford

God must have really favored Gerald Ford (unfortunately for those he preceded) -- he became an accidental vice-president in 1973 when Agnew resigned on charges of tax evasion, and then in 1974 when Nixon was taken down by Watergate. Critics wouldn't describe him as the 'smartest', but few would debate that he was exceptionally hardworking and honest. He recalled that his mother had made him recite Kipling's "If" if he was ever in a bad mood, and her rule of the house had been "Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time."

Simple, and effective. Easy to remember a few things that matter, than a laundry list of new years resolutions that are new every year.

Here is Kipling's "If." A little worn, but worn with reason.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Takeover?

Sadiq says:

Saw faiz today. He was looking awesome! Actually, he now looks more like Naeem (at least that is what it seemed to me). He is the most awesome kid, smiling and dialing, kicking around and jumping up and down. I really enjoyed him; he is exactly what I would want in a kid – a kicking and jumping kid. =)


So I said:

Yeah right. Thanks, but you can't have him. Make your own.

Little Man

In the four months that we have been without Faiz, he has grown incredibly. He's a little person now! He has moods, likes and dislikes, (usually strong) preferences, things that make him laugh, tricks to make others do as he wants. So much love and attention (and clothes and toys!) are lavished on him in his nanhial, we're almost feeling guilty for bringing him over to his poor, student parents!

He like working with Nana. He sits in Nana's lap and gleefully chews on a pen while Nana marks exams. Apparently, he takes such pleasure in this he sits in this position for a long time.

Of course, Nana loves it, too.

Khala ki jaan.

Nano keeps making smart outfits for her "raja", who regally accepts (and expects) the effort as his birthright.

Getting cozy on a lazy Sunday morning.

Though much is taken, much abides

I've been feeling the heat of becoming a student again after almost three years of "self rule", ironically, as an academic on the other side of the fence. Amid a coterie of younger, fresher, possibly brighter but certainly not more eager minds, I feel somewhat like the war worn Ulysses. And like him, in Tennyson's words, ready for more.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Beautiful. I need to start reading poetry. As the verses above urge: it is never too late.