Ejaz Asi - Information Designer from Karachi, Pakistan

From Dawn: http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/26/top4.htm

He was speaking at a ceremony to launch the test transmission of DawnNews television.

While praising the launching of the country’s first 24-hour English language news channel, President Musharraf described it as a unique event. But at the same time he did not hesitate in taking full credit for the mushrooming of private television channels, saying that whatever freedom there was in the country it was only because of him. “I alone had insisted that we must give them freedom so that the media could hold everyone accountable,” he said while recalling the early years in power when he had framed the media policy.

Gen Musharraf rejected the long-stated view of the journalist fraternity that the freedom of press in the country was the result of their campaign and persistent demand and said he was not aware of any such demand when he decided to ‘give this freedom’.

It was quite apparent that the president had come to the launching ceremony to not just praise the media, or take credit for his policy, but also to speak his mind about the prevailing trends in newspapers and television channels. And although he repeatedly assured the select audience, and the country at large, that such level of independence would continue, President Musharraf’s insistence was that such freedom should come with a certain level of responsibility.

He gave examples from the television coverage of the war in Iraq, and said while western media never showed bodies of their own soldiers, they had no hesitation in showing the images of the bodies of Saddam Hussain and his sons.

The other example he gave was of the recent killings in one of the schools in the United States by a gunman, and said the American television networks made a conscious decision not to show the dead bodies.

While presenting his argument, President Musharraf raised the issue of what he described as the trend of repeatedly showing gory images, blood and killings. He said such images were telecast round the clock as if they were from an India-Pakistan cricket match.

Similarly, he said the way religious extremism was glorified by showing militants in Waziristan, or the clerics of Lal Masjid, and the manner in which their views were aired, amounted to ‘brutalisation of society’.

Indirectly holding the media partly responsible for the state of affairs in the country, President Musharraf said it was creating unnecessary alarm amongst overseas Pakistani and other potential investors. He was of the view that if the media failed to demonstrate what he called a certain level of responsibility in the projection of Pakistan, then it may have a negative impact on the economic and social progress of the country.

Now you have to take this down too:
He felt a ‘negative projection’ of the country might affect the economy by scaring investors away.“We need to develop national cohesion, underplay what can lower the nation’s morale and encourage what can raise it.”

What’s with the image thing anyway? Okay, I can actually speak on it some time later.

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I am great fan of speeches. Actually, I become a child who finds fascination in each word and every move of body language or every word spoken eloquently and with as much courage, determination and hope as the words themselves are. I used to write speeches or drafts of speeches for my friends since I was too shy and nervous-kid but later on I found I just loved the kick and passion and the energy of the speaker and how that could arouse thousands of positive or negative emotions in you. How those words could storm people’s hearts and they could be led to whatever you want them to. Such IS the power of words and the respect for them has to be as immense as the larger than life status of theirs.

I have been dumbfounded at the Karachi Riots on 12 May. Enough has been said about who’s to be blamed and who’s not to. And yet many questions will linger on and the memories of those who participated in the riots will prevail for as long as the city lives. And no matter how much I want to write or say or speak of what and how I feel about this, I just can’t seem to make it. Words betray you sometimes perhaps.

But I have learnt two words at least or more appropriate would be to say that my conviction of these two words have been profoundly and emphatically strengthened.

Many years later, if the coming youth asked me who [tried to] destroy[ed] Kaarchi and Pakistan? I’d say, ‘Ego’.

And when they’d ask me what brought you to fight back and win your battle, I’d say, ‘Hope’.

Hellen Keller said that “The world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming it” How true.

But it’s the speech of Jesse Jackson that no matter how many times I listen to or read always brings myriad of emotions to me. And I thought to share one of the excerpts from his world-renowned and one of the most celebrated speeches of all times in this particular time.
From “Common Ground and Common Sense,” delivered by Reverend Jesse Jackson at the 1988 Democratic convention in Atlanta:

“Wherever you are tonight, I challenge you to hope and to dream. Don’t submerge your dreams. Even on drugs, dream of the day you’re drug-free. Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you’ll be up on your feet again. You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes. But don’t stop with the way things are; dream of things as they ought to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith, and dreams will help you rise above the pain. . . ”

Also, with slight changes (apologies to Mr. Jackson)

You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you’re qualified and you hold on and hold out. We must never surrender. Pakistan will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive.

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Watching non-programmers trying to run software companies is like watching someone who doesn’t know how to surf trying to surf.

“It’s ok! I have great advisors standing on the shore telling me what to do!” they say, and then fall off the board, again and again. The standard cry of the MBA who believes that management is a generic function. Is Ballmer going to be another John Sculley, who nearly drove Apple into extinction because the board of directors thought that selling Pepsi was good preparation for running a computer company? The cult of the MBA likes to believe that you can run organizations that do things that you don’t understand

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