DEAR ANCHERPERSONS

This was actually a time when the anchorpersons should have shown some forbearance, encouraged the administration to get its act together, and should have helped them by pointing out the results of their observations. This is the time to build up the heroes who are rising to the occasion. I feel like talking to our ‘anchorpersons’ of the electronic media, unless some of them feel that they already know it all! In any case, some of these distinguished personalities may find matters worth thinking about. So it is worth a friendly try. Most of our anchorpersons seem to have been inspired by the anchor of BBC’s programme ‘Hard Talk’. This anchor is aggressive and, occasionally, embarrasses the person being interviewed. Most of our anchorpersons take pride in being aggressive. They try to browbeat those being interviewed. They test their patience and consider it a great measure of success if some reach the limit of their patience and prefer to walk out. Is this the only role of the responsible anchorperson-journalist? The flood situation is indeed devastating and each individual in the nation is touched and disturbed by the havoc and misery meted out to the affected people. So are our anchorpersons. The electronic media has done well in reporting and informing the populace about the extent of the damage and the consequences. What they have also done, almost unanimously, is erode confidence in the civil administration in toto! At each and every location they have made it a point to register the absence of civil administrators and politicians. They have done it with force and passion. Yes, they have complimented the role of the army very correctly. The armed forces are responsible for providing rescue and relief. Indeed, they have done a tremendous job, even beyond the call of duty. Some have acknowledged the role played by 1122, which is fair. But these institutions are also part of the government, of the administration and the political set up. These have performed well because they are equipped with quick response facilities. The primary role of the civil administration and institutions is to rehabilitate and reconstruct. This is basically a follow up of rescue and relief. What one feels is that there has hardly been any consideration given to the constraints of the civil administration. Every individual and all administrations are not geared for immediate response anywhere in the world. We have seen disasters in the US, Indonesia, Africa and many other places. Natural disasters, in their early stages, take a huge toll. If anchors focus entirely on the foreign visit of the president and conclude that the administration is not doing anything, then it is an immature act. Have all of you not been crying hoarse that powers be shifted to the prime minister? Have these not been shifted? Do you prefer to believe that it is only a hoax? Or do you feel that the PM is incapable of responding? What is it? How can the whole administration respond within hours and show its effectiveness at each and every spot that the media anchor visits? This was actually a time when the anchorpersons should have shown some forbearance, encouraged the administration to get its act together, and should have helped them by pointing out the results of their observations. This is the time to build up the heroes who are rising to the occasion. Despite political differences and personal reservations, it was time to applaud the Sharifs for contributing Rs 10 million, it was time to acknowledge Musharraf for contributing Rs 10 million, it was time to acknowledge the Hindu community in Sindh who have taken the responsibility to feed 2,000 families of the affected without any consideration of religion, caste or creed. It was time to appreciate a politician in Sindh, Islamuddin Sheikh, who is raising Rs 4.5 million a day for food and then distributing it. How about Edhi’s efforts and those of so many others? I think it is time to acknowledge good work and appreciate the role models who are emerging from this disaster. It was funny that, while the information minister was giving details of the help sent by the federation to the provinces including thousands of tents, he was cut off for a commercial! And why do we not appreciate the valiant information minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who has shown exceptional courage and dedication even after the devastating personal tragedy of the loss of his only son? I think what needs to be done is a careful presentation of the facts in a balanced way. Stop being so aggressive and interrupting everyone on the show. When you shout and speak more than the guest, you are projecting your prejudices and blocking the other point of view. If you believe that someone is hiding or misrepresenting the facts, then your calm and pointed questions will indeed expose him or her and the viewers will understand. Your aggression puts the viewer off. An anchor’s calm creates the benchmark for the tone of discussion. Please realise that viewers have already been educated, thanks to your efforts. Now they expect more. They look for an analysis of the situation. They want a dispassionate, thought provoking appraisal and a way forward. They expect public opinion to be motivated for short-term and long-term solutions. One anchor interviewed a Sindh ‘nationalist’ leader and probed his reservations about the present scheme of water management. Some positive thinking emerged. This was an example. While the nation has experienced this colossal natural tragedy and is prepared to avoid a recurrence, we need to focus on acceptable planning. If the civil government fails to rehabilitate, reconstruct and plan for the future, the media must take it to task. Anchors have the power of communication beyond the reach of anyone else. It is the nature of your job that it is burdened with social responsibility. If you appreciate the good work of the armed forces, highlighting it is the right thing to do, but also encourage those who are sincerely mobilising. Build role models. Look at the causes and hold responsible those who have neglected the proper need for water management. Focus on developing a consensus on future strategy. Of course, expose corruption, mismanagement, apathy and incompetence. But be a role model yourself — of character, knowledge, investigation and decency.

Courtesy NAEEM TAHIR

WHY DOESN'T THE WORLD CARE ABOUT PAKISTANIS?

The United Nations has characterized the destruction caused by the floods in Pakistan as greater than the damage from the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. Yet nearly three weeks since the floods began, aid is trickling in slowly and reluctantly to the United Nations, NGOs, and the Pakistani government.

After the Haiti earthquake, about 3.1 million Americans using mobile phones donated $10 each to the Red Cross, raising about $31 million. A similar campaign to raise contributions for Pakistan produced only about $10,000. The amount of funding donated per person affected by the 2004 tsunami was $1249.80, and for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, $1087.33. Even for the Pakistan earthquake of 2005, funding per affected person was $388.33. Thus far, for those affected by the 2010 floods, it is $16.36 per person.

Why has the most devastating natural disaster in recent memory generated such a tepid response from the international community? Something of a cottage industry is emerging to try to answer this latest and most sober of international mysteries.

There is no shortage of theories. It's donor fatigue. It's Pakistan fatigue. It's because the Pakistani government is corrupt and can't be trusted. It's because the victims are Muslim. It's because people think a nuclear power should be able to fend for itself. It's because floods -- particularly these floods -- spread their destruction slowly, over a period of time, rather than instantaneously. It's because of the tighter budgets of Western governments. It's because of the lingering effects of the financial crisis.

There's a degree of truth to all these explanations. But the main reason that Pakistan isn't receiving attention or aid proportionate to the devastation caused by these floods is because, well, it's Pakistan. Given a catastrophe of such epic proportions in any normal country, the world would look first through a humanitarian lens. But Pakistan, of course, is not a normal country. When the victims are Haitian or Sri Lankan -- hardly citizens of stable, well-government countries, themselves -- Americans and Europeans are quick to open their hearts and wallets. But in this case, the humanity of Pakistan's victims takes a backseat to the preconceived image that Westerners have of Pakistan as a country.

Pakistan is a country that no one quite gets completely, but apparently everybody knows enough about to be an expert. If you're a nuclear proliferation expert, suddenly you're an expert on Pakistan. If you're terrorism expert, ditto: expert on Pakistan. India expert? Pakistan, too then. Of South Asian origin of any kind at a think-tank, university, or newspaper? Expert on Pakistan. Angry that your parents sent you to the wrong madrassa when you were young? Expert on Pakistan.

This unique stock of global expertise on Pakistan naturally generates a scary picture. Between our fear of terrorism, nervousness about a Muslim country with a nuclear weapon, and global discomfort with an intelligence service that seems to do whatever it wants (rather than what we want it to do), Pakistan makes the world, and Americans in particular, extremely uncomfortable. In a 2008 Gallup poll of Americans, only Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, North Korea, and Iran were less popular than Pakistan.

The net result of Pakistan's own sins, and a global media that is gaga over India, is that Pakistan is always the bad guy. You'd be hard pressed to find a news story anywhere that celebrates the country's incredible scenery, diversity, food, unique brand of Islam, evolving and exciting musical tradition, or even its arresting array of sporting talent, though all those things are present in abundance.

How bad is it? Well, in 2007, when the Pakistani cricket team's national coach, an Englishman named Bob Woolmer, was found dead in his hotel room, the first instinct of the international press was that a Pakistani team member must have killed him. This is the story of modern day Pakistan.

Contrary to what many Pakistani conspiracy theorists believe, the suspicion and contempt with which the country is seen with is not deliberate or carefully calculated. It's just how things pan out when you are the perennial bad boy in a neighborhood that everyone wishes could be transformed into Scandinavia -- because after 9/11, the world cannot afford a dysfunctional ghetto in South and Central Asia anymore. Or so goes the paternalist doctrine.

It is bad enough that the Pakistani elite don't seem eager to cooperate with this agenda of transformation; now, nature also seems to be set against it. The floods in Pakistan are the third major humanitarian crisis to afflict the country in recent years. The 2005 earthquake and the massive internal displacement of Pakistanis from Swat and the FATA region in 2009 were well-managed disasters, according to many international aid workers. While international support was valuable in mitigating the effects of those disasters, most experts agree that it was Pakistanis, both in government and civil society, that did the heavy lifting.

The 2010 floods, however, are a game-changer. The country will not and cannot ever be the same. The loss of life, disease, poverty, and human misery themselves are going to take years to overcome. But the costs of desilting, cleaning up, and reconstructing Pakistan's most fertile and potent highways, canals, and waterworks will be exhausting just to calculate. The actual task of building back this critical infrastructure is a challenge of unprecedented proportions.

Last week, I visited a relatively well-to-do village called Pashtun Ghari in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pashtun Ghari is right off the historic Grand Trunk Road, and less than two miles from the river. Flood victims there did not feel abandoned by authorities, indeed they were quite satisfied with how they had been taken care of. Still, there was inconsolable despair among residents. Why? The town's entire livestock population, some 2,300 cows, had perished beneath waters that stood more than 10 feet high in the first wave of flooding. Those cattle are both assets and income generators for Pakistani villagers along the Indus River. There is no recovering from losing that quantum of livestock.

The fact that people in other countries don't like Pakistan very much doesn't change the humanity of those affected by the floods or their suffering. It is right and proper to take a critical view of Pakistani politicians, of their myopia and greed. It is understandable to be worried about the far-reaching capabilities of the Pakistani intelligence community and reports that they continue to support the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is even excusable that some indulge in the fantasy that a few hundred al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists are capable of taking over a country guarded by more than 750,000 men and women of the Pakistani military, and the 180 million folks that pay their salaries.

But are the farmers of Pashtun Ghari, of Muzzafararh and Dera Ghazi Khan, of Shikarpur and Sukkur, really obligated to allay these fears before they can get help in replacing their lost livelihoods? Twenty million people are now struggling to find a dry place to sleep, a morsel of food to eat, a sip of clean water to drink -- and the questions we are asking have to do with politics and international security. The problem is not in Pakistan. It is where those questions are coming from.

Pakistan has suffered from desperately poor moral leadership, but punishing the helpless and homeless millions of the 2010 floods is the worst possible way to express our rejection of the Pakistani elite and their duplicity and corruption. The poor, hungry, and homeless are not an ISI conspiracy to bilk you of your cash. They are a test of your humanity. Do not follow in the footsteps of the Pakistani elite by failing them. That would be immoral and inhumane. This is a time to ask only one question. And that question is: "How can I help?"

Courtesy Mosharraf Zaidi

WINNING HEARTS & MINDS

Some people have inherent special qualities that enable them to master all situations. Such individuals can, when they come to a gathering, win the hearts and minds of people simply by making an appearance there. It is said of them: “They came, they saw, they conquered.”

This kind of ability to win love is not the monopoly of extraordinary people. Any ordinary person also can win the hearts and minds of people, provided he knows the law of nature and can avail of it by the power known as the power of spirituality.

According to the Creation Plan of God, all human beings have two different qualities: ego and conscience. The ego symbolises arrogance, and the conscience, modesty. For instance, there could be a difference of opinion between two individuals, A and B. A might enter into a heated exchange, refusing to give B due respect and honour. This kind of behaviour is bound to provoke B, who might try to teach A a lesson. A psychologist offers this analysis: “When one’s ego is touched, it turns into super ego and the result is breakdown.”

In this case A presented a challenge to B and B’s ego gained the upper hand due to arrogance. On the other hand, if, instead of getting provoked and acting out of ego, had B had opted for a compromise, or if A had restrained himself from provoking B in the first place, there would be no conflict. In all likelihood, greater understanding would enable better relations between A and B; they would no longer be rivals bent on outdoing the other. There is scope for friendship now where earlier, there was only ill feeling. When one’s conscience is touched, it turns into super conscience and the result is complete surrender.

This formula is within our reach, and can be used quite successfully. However there are certain risks involved.

There is every possibility that in a sensitive situation where the ego is involved, the other person becomes even more arrogant. He will react more aggressively. He will be more dangerous than before. But that is only if you allow the ego to become your master. The ego is a bad master but a good servant. Fear of a situation arising in which one is completely directed by the ego is unfounded, because when the ego gains predominance it is because of ignorance of the power of nature, or more precisely, the power of spirituality. So all one needs to do is to try and be less ignorant; to learn how to think positive and keep one’s ego under control.

According to nature if you challenge someone’s ego, your success is doubtful but when you challenge someone’s conscience, then your success is guaranteed by nature.

People generally know the power of fighting but a wise man will tell you that the power of spirituality is greater than the power of either ego or conscience. At the time of a controversy, if you choose to fight, you will need arms but when you opt for the spiritual method, you don’t need any arms. The power of positive behaviour can triumph over the power of negativity, while the power of negativity cannot win anything -- it can only lead to destruction.

MANA KY ISS ZAMEEN KO GULZAAR NA KAR SAKAY
KUCH KHAAR KAM ZAROOR KIAY- GUZRAY JIDHAR SY HUM

The choice is ours: To opt for positive, peaceful methods to create better understanding and oneness, thereby contributing to universal togetherness with compassion and surrender or to take a combative stand, giving the ego a free hand, causing unhappiness all around.

Courtesy TOI

A NATION IN MOURNING

A one-day national mourning was observed yesterday (Thusrday, July 29) after a private airline’s plane crashed in the Margalla Hills on Wednesday morning. There were 152 people on board, including the crew. Unfortunately, no one survived. This has been the biggest aviation tragedy in Pakistan’s history. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost their loved ones in the crash. The whole nation mourns their loss and feels their pain.

According to some reports, the bad weather conditions and poor visibility could have been the reason for the crash. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the pilot was given directions to land. “The plane was at 2,600 feet before landing but suddenly it went to 3,000 feet, which was unexplained,” he said. Why the pilot chose to abort the landing and instead kept circling around and then going off towards the no-fly zone is something that cannot be explained without a proper investigation. The real reasons for the plane crash will not be known for sure until the black box is recovered. Initially there were reports that the black box had been found but apparently it was a “box-like something”. This indicates that it would be better if everyone exercises restraint rather than indulge in speculation until the inquiry is complete, as it would only lead to further confusion.

The media’s role needs to be looked at critically. In a race for ratings, we saw new lows in the way the electronic media covered the tragic event. There were reporters who boasted of removing ID cards from the dead passengers’ bodies, which in itself is a criminal act because only the authorities in charge of the rescue operation can remove anything from the scene. Not only was it criminal but downright unethical on the part of these journalists. They had no business removing things from the site. The way some channels had an animation of a crashing plane was disgusting to say the least. It seemed as if there was no editorial control over the way reporters went up to the families of the victims for a sound-byte. The bereaved families were already going through a tough time not knowing if their loved ones were alive or not after the interior minister and some media channels talked about ‘survivors’. It was extremely irresponsible of the government officials to give false hope to the families. In other countries when a tragedy like this occurs, we see how measured, cautious and responsible the remarks of officials are.

Another thing that was missing was the response of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Granted that even if we had the best disaster management system in place, the hilly and wooded terrain made it an inherently difficult operation, especially with the rain and bad light, but the response was not what it should have been. Be it the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the private airline or the government, the culture of mismanagement was evident everywhere.

One thing that we saw was how good the people’s response was towards the tragedy: that of helping their fellow human beings. Many volunteers helped the rescue workers even though it was very difficult to reach the area. But the concerned authorities need to revamp their systems and learn from their mistakes and inadequacies. Declaring a national mourning day is merely tokenism and not enough unless we learn from experience and always be prepared for a calamity, natural or otherwise.

Courtesy DAILY TIMES

July 30, 2010

ANY SOP'S FOR AIR SAFETY OR DISASTER MANAGEMENT?

The tragic air crash that consumed 152 precious lives has not only exposed the incompetence of the management gurus of the federal capital, disaster management and civil defence, but also highlighted, yet another time, the lack of coordination amongst the federal cabinet members, which only helped increase the chaos and miseries of the families looking for information about their loved ones.

Sitting in a chamber of parliament, our seniors at the Senate were in a state of grief, but equally dismayed at the poor performance of the cabinet members, the Capital Development Authority administration as well as the National Disaster Management Authority. Those, even from the People’s Party, agreed at the government’s apathy and the non-existence of any standard operating procedure (SOP) to block any unwanted flying object, not only in the no-fly zone of Islamabad, but also over the Diplomatic Enclave, the Presidency, the Prime Minister’s House, the Parliament House and, of course, the Supreme Court building. Why this flight was not interrupted the moment it entered the highly-sensitive area and has anyone cared about this at all or not, asked one of the seasoned senators from Punjab.

Just as nobody would ever know the cause of this crash, nobody would be bothered to find out that a pilot in his mid-60s, reportedly fasting and up all night for the Shab-e-Baraat, was allowed by AirBlue to fly with 152 people onboard, said a senator from Karachi. A knowledgeable former pilot sitting amidst the senators informed them that rumours were flying around that the pilot panicked when he was informed about violation of the no-fly zone and he might have committed the deadly mistake that cost him his life. The senators, however, were more interested in talking about the gaffes of the federal cabinet members throughout the incident-day. If it was Interior Malik, who pushed everyone to break the barriers, both at the crash site and at PIMS after announcing on one of the TV networks that six survivors have been rescued, then it was our Info-Champ Kaira who announced that the black box had been found, they said.

Another said if Interior Malik was announcing to probe any possibility of terrorism or sabotage, then a look-busy-do-nothing sort of Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar refused to consider this as sabotage. This perhaps enraged a senator from Karachi, who said that Mukhtar should better focus on his sons’ adventures in the US, which include, but are not limited to, gateway tele-exchanges, instead of venturing into ministry affairs, which in anyway are run by someone else and not by him.

Ironically, the situation was not that different on the administrative front, where seven various rescues agencies were occupying the Margalla Hills without even any clue as to how to drop their ill-prepared, ill-trained and ill-equipped rescue staff to the crash site. Had it not been for PAF choppers and the aviation rescue units of the army, it would have taken them a day to reach the spot, confided a reliable mole within the CDA.

The Capital Development Authority, which is supposed to look after and ensure the smooth functioning and planning of the city, proved again that they can best be used to find out plots for bureaucrats, politicians, judges, journalists, DMG batch mates or exhaust their budget on buying cheap land at higher rates from middle-men of the Oceanic town-cons, but when asked to provide rescue services, were found lacking. As per CDA Chairman Imtiaz Elahi, he had deputed over 500 people for rescue operations, but in shalwar kameez, with no fire-fighting gear, climbing kits or even proper rain-boots, adding that they were only combing the bushes and looting the remains of the ill-fated victims.

How much each of them and many other civilian rescuers have plundered is anyone’s guess, confided one of the rescue workers, who managed to get hold of only a Rado watch from one of the limbs, 150 metres away from the crash site. Does Imtiaz Elahi know about this? One can only hope for a better answer from him, if he is free from administrative and financial juggling. Nevertheless, we heard just a few days back that the salary bill of the Capital Development Authority has jumped from Rs 7 billion to over Rs 9 billion, out of the total budget of Rs 28 billion. Yet, we continue to hear stories of undue promotions of officers and placements of junior officials at higher positions on the basis of their ‘exemplary work’. Instead of asking for training and fire-brigade stations/equipment, we continue to hear that the wife of an officer is using a newly-bought Prado of the CDA or official vehicles meant for staff usage are being used for pick and drop services to officers’ wives from beauty parlours or their children from the best private schools around.Then there was Gen Nadeem from the much-hyped-about National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), whose agency continued to flip-flop throughout the crash-day by giving misleading figures – and figures were all they remained restricted to. As one senator friend reminded us that how could we forget the ‘good work’ of the NDMA during Cyclone Phet, which was highlighted in the previous session of the Senate when a number of senators spoke on the plight of the people living in the coastal areas of Balochistan, which have been battered by the cyclone.

Records show that senators Kalsoom Parveen, Rehana Yahya, Hasil Bizenjo and Sabir Baloch raised their voices about the issue, as they claimed that more than 2500 Cyclone Phet-affected people were living under open skies in more than 40 coastal villages of Gwadar, Ormara, Sonmiani and Pasni and the NDMA had failed to reach them.

So it is better to leave them to deal with the donors, digitised presentations and building grand bungalows in posh localities of the city, added a Baloch senator. About the district administration of Islamabad and civil defence, it’s better to leave them for some other time.

Courtesy Saeed Minhas

Daily Times, July 30,2010

THE 'NOT SO' LESSER HALF

By Andleeb Abbas

A working woman carries a negative perception in society, especially if she is a businesswoman. Parents feel that her chances of attracting a good marital prospect go down because she is not perceived as good material for focusing on the house and family

The privilege, or peril, of being a woman depends not only on the culture in which you live, but also the beliefs that you have nurtured within. Women are equal to men in rights but unequal to men in approach and abilities. That does not mean there is a superiority contest but simply a difference of strengths, which is actually complementary rather than supplementary.

Any country, especially a developing country, needs contribution by both men and women to really emerge out of the status of the nations not really there. In this context Pakistan has a lot to make up for. The Economic Intelligence Unit, which publishes an annual report on the women’s economic opportunity index, has placed Pakistan at 108 out of a total of 113 countries. As usual, all other South Asian countries are better placed than Pakistan with India at 84 and Bangladesh at 104.

One of the basic reasons is access to education. Education improves a woman’s prospects of finding employment or initiating a business venture. Even in this category, i.e. of education and training, women in Pakistan stand at 23rd place compared to India at 11 and Sri Lanka at 18. Mere numbers are also not true representatives of the real story behind the non-contribution of this sector. The type of education and the attitude towards the purpose of education and training, both in the rural and urban areas, also strongly determines whether this facility will actually activate women in the country to become a productive part of the workforce or not.

However, having a more educated populace is not a guarantee of more female participation in the economy. Many studies have proved that poor people are unwilling to invest in female education because the return on this investment is not very fruitful. Poverty is a factor that does affect the decision of sending children to school but those who send their daughters to charity schools often complain about the discouraging environment of these schools and the unproductive learning in them. Most poor parents feel that sending their daughters to school actually has an unsettling effect on them not only financially but psychologically as well. They are sent to school instead of working at home or in the fields and, thus, there is an opportunity cost. The education they get rarely enhances their chances of earning better and instead creates frustration as they find themselves to be misfits in their homes and culture. Thus the unrest created by the awareness of a better world but the inability and lack of opportunity to get to that better world make parents feel that perhaps ignorance really is bliss.

Here it is important to distinguish between the formal and informal employment market. The females of the rural areas may not be doing a formally documented and structured job but many of them are taking care of the cattle at home or working in the fields to support their families. Even in the cities, the poor family female is employed in households carrying out mostly menial chores. Most of the time, you may find that the male members are unemployed while their female counterparts are constantly working. Another strange phenomenon is that, in cities, where the education levels are much higher, the corresponding levels of female employment and entrepreneurship are very low. The proportion of females going for higher education has been increasing. In professional fields like medicine and business, increasingly we see female enrolment going up, but does this registration enhancement actually translate into a practical productive workforce increase is a question that ends up with a negative answer. What are the reasons for this discrepancy amongst professional studies and practical economic participation? Many studies have pointed out that cultural factors are hindering female employment or entrepreneurship opportunities. A working woman carries a negative perception in society, especially if she is a businesswoman. Parents feel that her chances of attracting a good marital prospect go down because she is not perceived as good material for focusing on the house and family. This perception is also fuelled by the fact that a male chauvinistic culture still persists where an aware and independent woman is seen as a challenge to male superiority and is thus shunned in preference for the meek and demure damsel in distress who is totally dependent on the whims and fancies of the in-laws and husband.

Despite these cultural and economic constraints, one party responsible for the low economic participation is females themselves. The prevailing mindset of many of our educated and blessed females is still of waiting for things to happen rather than making them happen. It is astonishing how girls outshine boys in medicine, in business, and in media studies. But it is equally astonishing how few of them are ready to go through the rigour of the discipline or struggle required to make it in practical life. Most of them blame the environment but they are to be blamed themselves as well. They want to be given equal status with their male counterparts but, when it comes to workloads and timings, they want to be given preferential treatment. Many of those who are working do not have a serious career-oriented approach. Either work is a good pastime or just an economic necessity. The ability to look at work as an ingrained opportunity to learn, develop, earn and discover one’s passion is very rare, with the result that many of them end up conjuring excuses for their preference of not having the courage and conviction to balance life both at home and in the office.

In most emerging countries like India and China, women contribute substantially to the economy. We, as a country, must own up that we have not provided enough opportunities for our women to really educate themselves and become more productive. We, as a culture, must own up that we are not ready to accept women in the non-traditional role of an independent decision maker. We, as women, must own up that we have not broken free of our mental shackles and made an honest effort to really contribute meaningfully. By owning up and acting on these three imperatives we can definitely challenge the best in the world.

The writer is a consultant and can be reached at andleeb@franklincoveysouthasia.com

Courtesy DAILY TIMES July 25, 2010

OBSESSION FOR BIG CATS

Scientists find cheetahs and jaguars attracted to Calvin Klein fragrance

Big game cats like lions or tigers are attracted to Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men more than any other fragrance, scientists have found.

Researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronz Zoo in New York experimented with a range of different fragrances and how two cheetahs reacted to them.

To their surprise, the cats spent more than 11 minutes sniffing and nuzzling up to a tree sprayed with Obsession for Men.

The perfume's effect on big cats is so potent that it is even used in the field by conservationists.

One program director in Guatemala has been using the perfume since 2007 to to try and determine the jaguar's population in the jungle.

Roan Balas McNab who works in a a protected tropical forest uses the perfume's unique properties to keep jaguars still enough so that he can take images of them using motion-sensitive cameras.

'But this technique is only effective if animals pass through the cameras' detection range and we get adequate photos,' Mr. McNab told the Wall Street Journal.

After hearing about its potency, his team tried spraying the perfume onto a rag tied to a stake in the ground.

To their amazement three times as many jaguars walked by and those that did lingered nearby making them far easier to identify.

The use of Obsession has even led to the researchers being able to capture footage of jaguar's mating rituals, something that had been rarely seen before the perfume was used.

'We're just starting to get an idea of how jaguars behave in their habitat,' Mr. McNab says. 'Before we used Obsession for Men we weren't able to get these images at all.'

Obsession for Men launched in 1986, just as the Calvin Klein brand was pushing the boundaries of sexuality in advertising. Early ads typically featured nude models and little else.

Ann Gottlieb, one of the creators of Obsession for Men's distinctive cat-friendly scent says the scent had synthetic 'animal' notes.

'It's a combination of this lickable vanilla heart married to this fresh green top note—it creates tension,' she told the paper. 'It sparks curiosity with humans and, apparently, animals.'

One of the main problems for scientists is being able to source enough of Obsession for Men as it is hard to find in shops near where much of the research is carried out.

COURTESY MAIL