In the Line of Wire

A little bird tells me that Wateen Telecom is looking seriously at getting into the Business Process Outsourcing arena. They must be serious. Rumour has it (actually it is more than just a rumour) that they have managed to get on board Rao Hamid who was part of the senior management team at Ovex Technologies.

Rao is a graduate of the London School of Economics and has taken over as Head of Business Process Outsourcing at Wateen. Certainly a development to watch. Wateen never gets into anything half-heartedly.

Benazir Bhutto
Daughter of the East
(1953 - 2007)

You either loved her or you didn’t, but one thing was for sure - you could not ignore her.

The death of any human being is sad - more so when it is a violent and unexpected death. What is most tragic, to my mind, is that she leaves behind 3 young children - 19, 17 and 14 years of age.

I did not know Benazir, nor did I ever meet her. However, she was a confident, self-assured individual who showed the world that this country has produced women who are dynamic and brilliant and who can hold their own on the world stage. Benazir could have made a difference to this country; she could have made a difference to the empowerment and status of women in this country.

I am sorry she is no longer amongst us. I am even sorrier that she had to go the way she did. For her supporters and her party workers, I have but one message. If you believe that she wanted to save Pakistan and turn it into a strong economic force where each citizen lived in peace and harmony and where democracy flourished, then honour her memory by fulfilling that dream.

This country has so much potential. We have so many young and vital people living in our midst. Let us give them the opportunity to grow and make a mark for themselves nationally and internationally. Let us all ensure that we create an environment that allows them to develop into happy, self-assured and wonderful human beings who can contribute to their country and the world at large.

Farewell Pinky … may your soul rest in peace.

Tech Lahore picked up a story that appeared in Dawn which stated, and I quote:

To encourage investors, Ali Tallae* pointed out that the government has offered various incentives including plan to offer free of cost land for the project.

(*Syed Ai Tallae is apparently the Counsellor Technical Affairs at the Pakistan Mission in China). This was in reference to Chinese companies wanting to invest in putting up a software park in Lahore. The GoP wants to encourage the setting up of software parks in the major cities, according to the news story, and is willing to offer incentives.

If there is any truth to this, and the government is planning to offer free land for software park projects, I am sure that the larger IT companies in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad wouldn’t mind having some of that land. It would certainly be better than paying the Rs. 8 crore per acre which was being quoted to us only a few months ago.

We have all heard of Carpal tunnel syndrome which occurs when an important nerve (called the median nerve) gets compressed at the wrist because of swelling. This has been attributed to spending too much time at your computer using a keyboard and mouse. Blurred vision and headaches have sometimes been blamed on monitors. Then there are the spine and back issues. The poor computer has been blamed for a lot of medical problems lately - most of which can be avoided through sensible use of ergonomics.

Well, for a change the villain of this story is not the computer - it is the cell phone. A student in New Zealand has been diagnosed with Text Messager’s Thumb. The 20-year old student is said to have sent up to 100-text messages per day resulting in the inflammation of the tendons in her thumb. Must have been an intense discussion about something very important!

Eid ul Azha comes and goes and each year I question the slaughter of so many animals - goats, cows, sheep, camels? I am trying to understand the real meaning of ‘Qurbani’ which in literal terms means sacrifice. So the question arises: who is making the sacrifice? The humans or the animals? It couldn’t possibly be the human - who has just bought the animal a few days earlier with the specific purpose of slaughtering him on Eid day. What kind of sacrifice is the human being making? The money he spent on the purchase of the animal? Was this the concept behind the original sacrifice or was it something deeper?

My understanding is that the sacrifice of animals during the Hajj is meant to be a symbolic act that is meant to commemmorate Hazrat Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son to show his unquestioning obedience to God. However, where does it say in the Quran that the rest of us, who are not performing Hajj, should slaughter millions of animals in a 3-day period? How does it signify the sacrificing of anything that is near and dear to us?

I am not trying to undermine the fact that most people offer the sacrifice genuinely feeling that it is something that is expected of them as Muslims. They also feel it will help the poor as one-third of the meat is given to the needy. Many of the things we do, nonetheless, have become rituals and no-one actually delves into the whys and whereofs of some of these rituals. This probably comes from the inner belief that religion should not be questioned, just accepted.

However, I was listening to Abbas Hussain, an Islamic scholar, on Breakfast at Dawn on Dawn News and what he said made great sense. If we really believe that this is the time for the rest of us to be part of the Qurbani (sacrifice) process, then why don’t we offer something that will actually be a sacrifice? For example, a doctor could give 5 days of treatment to poor patients free; we could go work with orphans - teach them, feed them, play with them; things like that. Something that involves more than just giving money or slaughtering an animal. That’s an easy thing to do for those with money. Food for thought you think?

I couldn’t resist sharing this post that I found on Engadget. It is for those who want to relieve stress, and have a free USB port available.

The best thing about it is that you can put customized ‘heads’ on it so supposing you are mad at a politician or a colleague or an in-law, instead of bashing their faces in, you attach Punch Head to your USB port and hit out as aggressively as you wish to relieve your aggression. You will hear ‘Owws’ and ‘Ouches’ and will even see the face being deformed - uggh!

Of course for those of us who are pacifists anyway, this would be of no use at all.

I was speaking with the head of a P@SHA company this morning and he told me something that totally amazed me. His company is one of the fastest growing companies in the BPO sector in Pakistan. Totally export driven with most of the business coming from the US. He tells me that his company is now outsourcing some work to the US. Yes, you heard correctly! A Pakistani company outsourcing work to the US!

Why has this become necessary when we have a population of 160 million? Well, some of the work that he needs done includes translation in 48 languages. Finding people who can do translations in Spanish, French, German, Italian, etc has not been easy. He is turning to natives of these languages living in Pakistan. Maybe one of the things we should be looking at is emphasizing more on the learning of languages. English certainly but in addition perhaps one of two European languages? What say you?

They might have the answer to your prayers. At least such was the case for Adnan Haider who is in town again and related a recent experience that led to this post.

Adnan dropped in to see me the other day so that we could catch up. It’s always great to see him - he is such a bubbly and intelligent character but a character nonetheless. Naturally, I asked him how Lootmaar - the Pakistani version of eBay - was doing. After that I had to say no more. He excitedly went into the details of how well the limited beta version was doing - better than even the optimistic Adnan had hoped.

There had been a few teething problems - like the courier company backing out just days before the beta launch and the brilliant techology duo that he had assigned the job to, not being able to give it the kind of time that was needed, due to their changing circumstances and commitments.

The courier problem was initially temporarily solved in a rather odd fashion by Noman (Adnan’s partner) actually spending his time on Karachi’s streets picking up and delivering packages. Since this was not a sustainable model, they are now close to striking a deal with another courier company that has a large network across the country.

As for the technology issue, the solution for that came through Adnan’s blog. He blogged about the problems he was facing and a firm of geeks based in Lahore contacted him. They talked, Adnan loved the fact that they understood exactly what he needed - or, in Adnan’s own words “they spoke geek”, and the rest, as they say, is history. The team of 15 based in Lahore will be taking on the task of making sure that Lootmaar continues to evolve and operate smoothly. Good luck Adnan. We will be watching!

P.S. Wonder how many more such amazing firms of geeks exist in the nooks and corners of our cities, just below the official industry radar. We must work hard to attract them into the fold. They would add colour and bring new ideas to the industry and they also might benefit from being part of a larger family.

In September Meizu had launched their M8 cell phone interface which was obviously a rip-off of the Apple iPhone UI and yet they denied that they were “inspired” by the iPhone interface.

Well the latest iPhone Chinese knock-off (pictured here) does not try and deny that. Their advertising even has Think Different plastered all over it! Talk about brazen!

This iPhone clone costs US$270 and has a feature the original iPhone doesn’t have - a shake-to-answer feature - so when your phone rings, you don’t need to push a button to answer it, just shake the phone! Hmmmm … that could be inconvenient in certain circumstances. I hope they have a “turn off this feature” option. For more details regarding this product, visit Gizmodo and Engadget.

Little things can make your day sometimes. I left home just before 8 am yesterday. Drove to Business Plus studio at Do Talwaar to appear on The AM Show. It was a good interview. The host was a young lady, Mifra Jamil, who is studying at the College of Business Management (CBM) - MBA in Finance. Pretty and confident. Had been hosting the show for only a week. She seems to have a lot of potential.

The interview covered a little bit of everything - how was the Pakistan IT industry doing, why were we not as large as the Indian IT industry (if i got a dollar each time that question was posed to me, I would be wading in money), a bit of discussion surrounding the current notable startup successes, the APICTA winners, what the industry’s expectations were for the coming years, etc. I was also asked how I expected the elections to impact on business and the stock market. We also talked about women’s role in the economy and how more of them could be encouraged to be a part of it.

As I was leaving Business Plus to head for my next meeting, I found this little visitor rolled up and fast asleep on the bonnet of my car. Being a cat lover, I gently petted the little tomcat and asked it to go find some other place to sleep. As you can see, he was not amused at being disturbed. Took his time to move away - and not until he had given me a disapproving look for having disturbed him in the first place Nonetheless it was a confrontation that brought a quick and easy smile to my face.

It seems room is now being made for women in senior and middle-management positions within the largest companies in India. In fact, headhunters are being asked to shortlist women for management roles - this according to The Economic Times which says that Blue chip India is rolling out the red carpet for women professionals.

Companies like Bharti Enterprises, American Express, Wal-Mart, Shell, IBM and Microsoft are using a variety of policies to promote gender diversity. While American Express asks for at least one-third representation among those appearing for job interviews, it’s 25-30% for Bharti. According to Inder Walia, Bharti’s HR head, Bharti group flagship Airtel will soon have a woman at a very senior position, as part of its gender diversity programme. At present women comprise around 20% of the group’s total workforce.

Wal-Mart and Shell, who both have a global gender policy say they are trying to implement the same policy in India. The technology sector too is jumping on the bandwagon. IBM, whose employee base in India is 53,000, has 26% representation of women. They are offering special incentives to recruitment consultants in order to get more qualified women professionals into the organisation.

It is thought that although gender diversity programs actually began as part of employer branding initiatives, it is the talent crunch that is driving companies towards adopting more women-friendly policies. Presently it is estimated that 25% of the IT and ITeS workforce in India is female. This figure is expected to grow significantly in the coming months.

Studies have shown that a diverse workforce is always a better business proposition. The dynamics and culture in an organisation undergo a significant change when there is gender balance. Emphasis is being placed worldwide on leveraging individual differences for business advantage. The participation of women has always been seen to enhance a company’s overall performance.

So what is happening in Pakistan? Does anyone have any statistics? Yes, there are a growing number of women in the workforce but still nowhere near enough. What are we doing to change that? Or are we waiting for the talent crunch to hit (some say it already has) before we start looking at attracting more women into our organisations?

IT & IT Enabled service companies in Pakistan are facing a shortage of good quality workers. Some of them are already starting to incorporate flexi-time and work-from-home programs as part of their HR policies. Women have been found to be much more dedicated and quality-driven. They take ownership of projects. They are naturals at juggling numerous tasks and carrying them to fruition without a hitch. Companies who don’t recruit and retain women have no idea what they are missing.

It was a day for 150 HR Managers, Directors and practitioners to get together and deliberate on the Emerging Issues in Human Resource Management. The National HRM Conference had been organized by Nutshell Forum for just this purpose.

But there were some intruders in their midst - the likes of Dr. Aamir Matin, Country GM of Cisco Systems and Furqan Qureshi, GM Marketing & Communications of Wateen Telecom and of course yours truly

So what was I doing there? Azfar Ahsan, the CEO of Nutshell Forum, had been kind enough to invite me and, since we as an industry have identified the development of quality Human Resource as being one of our key focus areas, I thought I would sit in and see if there was anything new being said.

It was a well organized conference as Nutshell’s events usually are. However, a number of presentations took us through much of what has been presented many times before. There were some sharing of programs by organizations - things that have worked in the areas of retention and motivation - nothing very earth-shattering though.

A panel moderated by Dr. Aamir Matin livened things up a bit. On the panel were the heads of HR from AKU, MCB and Dubai Islamic Bank and Furqan Qureshi. The discussion centred on the role of HR departments in the overall capacity building process when it was clearly recognized that line managers were directly involved in evaluating, mentoring, motivating and recognizing talent. Were HR departments then just a support and facilitating arm of the organization - were they there simply to implement training programs? This of course resulted in quite a lot of discussion on how much more HR managers were responsible for - they were there as counsellors, as people who developed policy and carried out recruitment programs as well as motivated the teams and were there to act as a buffer in case things went wrong between line managers and teams.

Another question that was brought up was whether HR was actually a profession - didn’t many people who ended up in HR start their lives in other career segments? How many HR heads ended up as CEOs of companies? Were HR practitioners restricted to their own silos or did they spend enough time interacting with employees in the organization, connecting with them and understanding what the real issues were?

There were also questions about flexi-time for women and the necessity for day care centres to be available if more women were to be attracted to the workforce. Some of the attendees shared programs where women worked on certain projects from home and came in a few hours a week. Most of the panel agreed that women were a lot more committed to their jobs and took much more ownership of projects than did their male counterparts. The audience was heavily involved in the discussions and that’s why I thought this was a very productive and interesting session.

A lot of networking took place on the sidelines of this event. Deals were discussed and appointments made. Overall, a good event but i would suggest that next time they have a mixture of HR managers and CEOs as well as some run-of-the-mill employees. That would make the discussion much more lively.

This poem was nominated by UN as the best poem of 2006 - it is written by an African kid:

When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you gray
And you calling me colored??

“Mainstream media is a source of mass distraction”, was how David Barsamian started his talk at The Second Floor in Karachi on Sunday evening. That certainly was enough to grab my attention. I read somewhere that he sometimes follows that up with “We ought to have UN inspectors viewing the media and there should be public health reports. Like with cigarettes: This is dangerous for your health.

David is the award winning founder and director of Alternative Radio, the independent weekly series based in Boulder, Colorado. He is a radio producer, journalist, author and lecturer. He has been working in radio since 1978. His interviews and articles appear regularly in The Progressive and Z Magazine.

His latest books are Targeting Iran with Noam Chomsky, Ervand Abrahamian, Nahid Mozaffari, What We Say Goes and Imperial Ambitions with Noam Chomsky,Speaking of Empire & Resistance with Tariq Ali and Original Zinn with Howard Zinn . His earlier books include Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky; Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire and The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting.

Friends of Community Media gave him the 2007 Media Education Award for outstanding work as a progressive media voice. The Institute for Alternative Journalism named him one of its “Top Ten Media Heroes.”

When I heard that he was in Karachi and would be speaking at T2F, I just had to overcome my exhaustion from the Singapore trip and drive across town to listen to him. I was glad I did. He spoke for about two hours. His talk was a mixture of wit, analysis and harsh facts. At certain junctures I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. That is the kind of emotion that he aroused in the audience that evening. There was one woman who kept giggling at the saddest of stories because he related them with a mixture of sweet-bitter wit.

David started off by telling us that he was not an educated man - that he dropped out of high school before the education system had been able to “condition” him. Like most people who are self-taught, he has a global view and an open mind. Hence he appears to have a depth of knowledge and an ability to sift through and analyse whatever information is “fed” to him.

Talking about mainstream media in the US, he says that news and programming are heavily self-censored and hence a lot of filtering takes place. He said that most Americans are unaware of the damage and destruction carried out by American Foreign Policy in the Middle East and other developing countries.

There is more airtime dedicated to details regarding the adoption of a child by Madonna and OJ Simpson’s activities and what Brittney Spears is up to than to any serious domestic or foreign issue. Iran is made out to be the evil power that wants to attack and wage war. But history indicates, says David, that Iran has not attacked any other country in 250 years whereas, in the recent past, no two years have passed without the US waging war on one country or the other.

He said people in the US do not know how the attack on Iraq has resulted in more refugees than exist in Darfur. It is just not covered in Amercian mainstream media.

Talking about Alternative Radio, David said that organizations like his actually looked at world isuses “more fairly” and because they were not part of large groups, they were not affiliated to any political groups. Alternative media does not carry advertising and so does not have to be sensitive to issues that may annoy advertisers. They are therefore more “independent” in their views.

How do they survive then? Well, according to David, more and more people want to know the truth and hence people send an annual subscription fee; some send in money for the radio station to be able to carry on their work. There are speaking opportunities for which David is paid. They sell CDs of interviews and program archives - anything that does not compromise the content of the programming.

I find the concept of alternative media to be an amazing one and with technology advancing at the rate it has, it will be easier and cheaper to find avenues of running such media channels.

Community radio is something that needs to flourish so that more discourse takes place, more consensus and understanding can be developed, more sharing of knowledge and experience becomes possible. This one-to-many approach of mainstream media is just not a healthy practice, nor a democratic one.

Listening to David Barsamian was a delight. I wish more media students had been present to listen to him on Sunday at T2F. These are the kind of talks that opens up the minds of people young and old. I hope he will be back amongst us soon. He is headed for Lahore - I hope Lahore education institutions and those interested in media studies will take the opportunity to organize some talks where he can share his thoughts and experiences.