VISION 2020
Some 20 years ago, at the start of this century (and the new millennium), organizations and countries enthusiastically took up a new term – Vision 2020 – to provide an umbrella for ambitious plans for a grand and prosperous future. And let’s admit it, 2020 with its alliterative ring, sounded so promising, so energetic, and yes …. So visionary! Little wonder then that everyone loved this expression.
The Public Hanging of Rapists Debate
Surviving children of Sahiwal Toll Plaza police encounter
Pakistan today is seized with the terrible, deeply disturbing rape of a young mother by 2 men on a Punjab motorway last week, with people across the nation calling for the public hanging of the rapists. Indeed the culprits need to be apprehended and given exemplary punishment. But is a public hanging the answer? Our Prime Minister and his cabinet seem to think so, with the PM also calling for a bill to be passed for castration and public hanging of all rapists.
Preparing for the new normal
Social Distancing in the New Normal
A cousin in New Jersey held his fortieth birthday party this week. Forty relatives attended. Everyone sang out happy birthday for 40 seconds by the clock. Social distancing was strictly maintained, with thousands of kilometers separating the attendees, located all over the world from Canada to Australia, UK to Pakistan, Sweden to Singapore, and one relative even joining in from South Africa! You guessed it; the birthday party was on Zoom! The birthday ‘boy’ got lots of presents, ordered well in advance by the senders and delivered to him by Amazon.
Isolated Eyes
How speedily some words and phrases have become an integral part of our daily lexicon these days – lockdown, isolation, social distancing, virus, vaccines, sanitizer, the new normal ….
A deeper inquiry into corruption
Note: This write-up was first published on December 27, 2019 in Express Tribune blogs, with a different heading given by the editor. It can be seen at https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/92407/corruption-in-pakistan-is-not-limited-to-politicians/
Corruption is commonly understood to be the giving or taking of money to commit an illegal act benefiting the money giver, while enriching the money taker. It is also invariably implicit that such benefit is at someone else’s or the state’s cost. The bribe can be in cash or in kind; high value material things – like a plot of land, a house / apartment, a car, jewelry, gold, et cetera.
Global ranking of universities
Oxford University – The world’s number one ranked university
A ranking of practically anything, from top universities to let’s say the all-time greatest love songs, is invariably the subject of debate, disagreement and even controversy. Many a ranking is quite subjective, strongly reflecting the personal preferences or biases of the individual or organization coming out with it. One must however not disagree that some rankings are more credible than others, with their wider acceptance being based as much on the credibility and transparency of the organization putting forward the ranking, as on the methodology adopted and the empirical and measurable criteria used, even if some would still disagree with the selection of the criteria itself.
10 Words (and phrases) to Avoid
Well actually, easily a hundred words to eliminate from one’s usage of the English language can be listed! Words and phrases that have become either extremely clichéd and overused by now, or are too often wrongly used, or are really too basic and inexpressive to be used by even a moderately literate person. But here I will not list a hundred, but only my top 10 ones to be consciously given a wide berth verbally and in writing. You may not agree with all of them and are welcome to draw up (and put into practice!) your own Top 10 list of words and phrases to be shunned.
Discover Lebanon now!
Room with a view! View of the Yacht Club & Marina, with the blue Mediterranean beyond, from my 12th floor room in the Four Seasons Hotel, Beirut
Some key statistics by way of an introduction ….
Population:
About 4.5 million
Lebanese abroad:
About 12 million, making it perhaps the only country of the world with about 3 times as many citizens living abroad than in the homeland. Of course most are now nationals of theseother countries.
Demographics (from Wikipedia):
54% Muslims (Shia and Sunni, 27% each), 40.5% Christian, 5.5% Druze
Also a very small number of other religious minorities – Bahais, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Jews.
On Reading Great Literature – 1
DISCLAIMER: If this writing at all gives the impression, even the most fleeting one, that I am stating myself to be a well-read person of Western literature, then please accept that this is not my intention in the least. Yes, in my life I have read a little, perhaps a little more than the typical individual sharing my general social and educational background, but then again, as any habitual reader of literature will readily admit, I have not read anywhere as near to what I should have read by this age, or at least, not anywhere near to as much as l would have liked to have read by this age in life. For the more you read, the more you realize, with some forlornness if I may put it as such, that time is running out and there is so much that is still to be read – which in truth should have been read a long time ago.
Sri Lanka …. Once again!
About 900 years ago, the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, wrote thus about his visit to Sri Lanka in his classic work, ‘Divestment dou Monde’ (Description of the World): “On leaving the island of Andaman and sailing for 1,000 miles a little south of west, you come to the island of Seilan, which is undoubtedly the finest island of its size in all the world.”