Ok
I usually try and stay an arm and a leg away from the politics section, simply because, uptill now I felt it was more a place for a wrestling match then for genuine and intelligent conversations and exchange of Ideas. But I guess the last couple of days have made me think much more about all thats been happening in my country.
Anyways, concentrating on the future .... I thot I write about the Pak Millenium 2000 conference that was held in boston a week ago.
http://www.pak2000.org/
It was an in event organized to get people together and have different sections of the society discuss what they thot should be the way to go for pakistan and pakistanis.
There were some interesting presentation (eg the very low level of qualified CS people in pakistan) and some not so useful points (eg every single presenter used India as a gauging point for what Pakistan has or has not achieved... something I personally found very odd for a country that left India to start afresh!!!).. Anyways, I believe there are currently efforts to put online all the presentations and Q & A sessions.
One of the poinst that several of the presenters did talk about ( and i completely agree on this) was the lack of any cooridanted pakistani society for the whole of USA/Canada.
Several of the groups that were represented there (Hdfna -- a group helping improve rural health in pakistan, OPEN -- a group representing pakistani enterprenurs) were totally new to most people. And that i think may be the most important thing for us pakistanis to do for the future.. to stop acting as individiuals and start acting as group. and to start finding ways to come together as a group. Perhaps other people have an idea of how this may be achieved....
As an aside after the conference there was a dinner at which the then Pakistani Ambassador presented a 2 hour long speech about why the USA should give pakistan more funds and money. A friend of mine had this to say after the recent coup.
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Few days ago we heard the horrible speech made by the new Pakistani ambassador to USA. During the speech, while commenting on the remarks of another Pakistani who had left the civil services because he could not
tolerate his superiors, the ambassador had FEROCIOUSLY remarked, "Those who cannot stand the heat should leave the kitchen. I can and I will stay........"
Well, here is what happened to the ambassador. Seems like he also had a hand in Nawaz Sharif's dirty game. The heat just
got turned on him
and he is running away to hide like a rabbit.
From Dawn Newspaper
Pakistan envoy to US sacked
By Our Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Oct 15: The Pakistan ambassador to the United States, Tariq Fatmi, who took over only last month, was sacked by the new military government on Friday, but he is not returning to Pakistan.
Sources close to the ambassador said Mr Fatmi was trying to seek a job and would apparently seek political asylum in the US as he feared that he might be persecuted if he returned to Pakistan.
Very intersting indeed to see people change thier stances once things dont suit them anylonger
[This message has been edited by hmcq (edited October 17, 1999).]
I usually try and stay an arm and a leg away from the politics section, simply because, uptill now I felt it was more a place for a wrestling match then for genuine and intelligent conversations and exchange of Ideas. But I guess the last couple of days have made me think much more about all thats been happening in my country.
Anyways, concentrating on the future .... I thot I write about the Pak Millenium 2000 conference that was held in boston a week ago.
http://www.pak2000.org/
It was an in event organized to get people together and have different sections of the society discuss what they thot should be the way to go for pakistan and pakistanis.
There were some interesting presentation (eg the very low level of qualified CS people in pakistan) and some not so useful points (eg every single presenter used India as a gauging point for what Pakistan has or has not achieved... something I personally found very odd for a country that left India to start afresh!!!).. Anyways, I believe there are currently efforts to put online all the presentations and Q & A sessions.
One of the poinst that several of the presenters did talk about ( and i completely agree on this) was the lack of any cooridanted pakistani society for the whole of USA/Canada.
Several of the groups that were represented there (Hdfna -- a group helping improve rural health in pakistan, OPEN -- a group representing pakistani enterprenurs) were totally new to most people. And that i think may be the most important thing for us pakistanis to do for the future.. to stop acting as individiuals and start acting as group. and to start finding ways to come together as a group. Perhaps other people have an idea of how this may be achieved....
As an aside after the conference there was a dinner at which the then Pakistani Ambassador presented a 2 hour long speech about why the USA should give pakistan more funds and money. A friend of mine had this to say after the recent coup.
-------------------------------
Few days ago we heard the horrible speech made by the new Pakistani ambassador to USA. During the speech, while commenting on the remarks of another Pakistani who had left the civil services because he could not
tolerate his superiors, the ambassador had FEROCIOUSLY remarked, "Those who cannot stand the heat should leave the kitchen. I can and I will stay........"
Well, here is what happened to the ambassador. Seems like he also had a hand in Nawaz Sharif's dirty game. The heat just
got turned on him
and he is running away to hide like a rabbit. From Dawn Newspaper
Pakistan envoy to US sacked
By Our Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Oct 15: The Pakistan ambassador to the United States, Tariq Fatmi, who took over only last month, was sacked by the new military government on Friday, but he is not returning to Pakistan.
Sources close to the ambassador said Mr Fatmi was trying to seek a job and would apparently seek political asylum in the US as he feared that he might be persecuted if he returned to Pakistan.
Very intersting indeed to see people change thier stances once things dont suit them anylonger
[This message has been edited by hmcq (edited October 17, 1999).]
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