I today went to the Royal Court of Justice as part of my course requirement and was comparing the relative formality - compared to other countries - with which the interaction take place. No doubt laymen (as what lawyer seem keen to brand citizens) find the court environment so intimidating. I came across this interesting video that is not only funny bu also reflects a very different culture. This is just one small example and at any other day at another court the said person may actually have been thrown out or worse still found in contempt. Nonetheless this guy did it, everyone had a good laugh and then went about there own business probably becoming a highlight of the day.
You can bet you can't do such a thing here in UK. Not to mention this small decades old contempt legislation. But, come to think of it, it may also reflect the nature of the small strata of society that is represented in the legal system one that is old, arcane and desperate to cling on to anything that represent the heydays of yesteryear: the aristocracy.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Career Advice at Crescent Model School
Today while relaxing (read "procrastinating") after quite a hectic day at the Old Baily Central Criminal Court, London I stumbled across a -not so revolutionary- idea of giving something back to my school (where I spent 12 years of my education, yes from Grade 1 to 12) for what it has given back to me.
Let me start my saying a few words about my school, Crescent Model School. It is now about 35 years old and in its hay days it was the best school in Lahore my home town. It split up into boys only and girls only branches sometime back in the early 90s. The boys only has seen a steady decline in the quality of education it provides. Its part subsidized nature meant that it has never been able to pay competitive salaries to its teacher [Note I never knew about the exact figures teachers received so I cannot verify the veracity of this statement but this was almost universally agreed at the time I was in the school].
The result was that bar a few exceptions most of the quality teachers left the school for other private school that were charging higher fees and were able to offer better pays. I do not think Crescent School school could have done much other than to raise fees as well but that would have went against its philosophy of school for the middle class.
This being said there were a lot of things I did not like about my school at the time (most nothing to do with quality of teaching), and certainly do not like now after benefit of hindsight. Now I do not intend to list what was wrong with my school or what was good because things have moved on. It has been over 5 years since I last stood inside it as a student and knew the ins' and outs' so that information may well be redundant.
Now you must be asking where am I getting at, what is this idea? Patience I beg. While spending time at the school and college one thing I sorely missed was career guidance. Being children of middle class families there were not too many options we were all concerned with, doctor, engineer everyone wanted to be (something that has never been possible and never will). Even then, no one growing up until grade 8 and some, including me did not know what to do in order to be a doctor or an engineer. We certainly did not know how to pursue our interests in general and discover our talents in particular.
What I would dearly love is, have graduates come and visit the school, once a term [i.e. 3 times a year but it can be more or less periodical if necessary]. Graduates would mean university students to people with established careers and dare I say recently retirees, but people with a lot more "worldly" experience than the students themselves have. It can be as informal as it gets, over lunch, where children talk to these ex-students in one-one discussion to some form lectures with a lot of questions from the audience [which ever works best]. The idea being to talk about practical realities, more away from the books students are concerned with at all time and ensuring these youngsters are able to step back and look at the bigger picture. What the world is like. What there interests and ambitions are and how best to achieve those ambitions.
An idea in progress. If you are current student reading this I have two things to say, first I commend you for reading thus far and good luck for changing things around and putting into practice this or somewhat similar idea.
Ahmed Uzair [Class of 02[Matriculation] and 04[A-Level]]
Today while relaxing (read "procrastinating") after quite a hectic day at the Old Baily Central Criminal Court, London I stumbled across a -not so revolutionary- idea of giving something back to my school (where I spent 12 years of my education, yes from Grade 1 to 12) for what it has given back to me.
Let me start my saying a few words about my school, Crescent Model School. It is now about 35 years old and in its hay days it was the best school in Lahore my home town. It split up into boys only and girls only branches sometime back in the early 90s. The boys only has seen a steady decline in the quality of education it provides. Its part subsidized nature meant that it has never been able to pay competitive salaries to its teacher [Note I never knew about the exact figures teachers received so I cannot verify the veracity of this statement but this was almost universally agreed at the time I was in the school].
The result was that bar a few exceptions most of the quality teachers left the school for other private school that were charging higher fees and were able to offer better pays. I do not think Crescent School school could have done much other than to raise fees as well but that would have went against its philosophy of school for the middle class.
This being said there were a lot of things I did not like about my school at the time (most nothing to do with quality of teaching), and certainly do not like now after benefit of hindsight. Now I do not intend to list what was wrong with my school or what was good because things have moved on. It has been over 5 years since I last stood inside it as a student and knew the ins' and outs' so that information may well be redundant.
Now you must be asking where am I getting at, what is this idea? Patience I beg. While spending time at the school and college one thing I sorely missed was career guidance. Being children of middle class families there were not too many options we were all concerned with, doctor, engineer everyone wanted to be (something that has never been possible and never will). Even then, no one growing up until grade 8 and some, including me did not know what to do in order to be a doctor or an engineer. We certainly did not know how to pursue our interests in general and discover our talents in particular.
What I would dearly love is, have graduates come and visit the school, once a term [i.e. 3 times a year but it can be more or less periodical if necessary]. Graduates would mean university students to people with established careers and dare I say recently retirees, but people with a lot more "worldly" experience than the students themselves have. It can be as informal as it gets, over lunch, where children talk to these ex-students in one-one discussion to some form lectures with a lot of questions from the audience [which ever works best]. The idea being to talk about practical realities, more away from the books students are concerned with at all time and ensuring these youngsters are able to step back and look at the bigger picture. What the world is like. What there interests and ambitions are and how best to achieve those ambitions.
An idea in progress. If you are current student reading this I have two things to say, first I commend you for reading thus far and good luck for changing things around and putting into practice this or somewhat similar idea.
Ahmed Uzair [Class of 02[Matriculation] and 04[A-Level]]
I am going to start using the blogosphere a lot more than I have in the past. My vast majority of the source of information I obtain from the internet is raw data news research papers case law and so forth. I do not follow too (read "any") many blog, heck I havn't got my head around RSS feeds yet.
I also want to change the way I post on my blog. The entries are usually quite formal, often written for some other purpose. But now I want to change is in the air!
I also want to change the way I post on my blog. The entries are usually quite formal, often written for some other purpose. But now I want to change is in the air!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Police Academy Carnage: Is Pakistan's security situation out of control?
For starters, to think that the President or any politician would resign over what is ostensibly a failures of the state is wishful thinking. They would be more than willing to "dismiss" state officials, but that is only so that the blame rests on someone else.
I think I would have to answer the question in the affirmative. We have to accept that the situation is dire. There are many reasons, but for me 2 stand out.
WIDESPREAD ARMS PROLIFERATION
One of the legacy of the Afghan War is the gun proliferation throughout Pakistan (not just in North West). Until and unless this evil is routed out we have no way of stopping such incidents. There is an underground gun industry in Pakistan which regrettably is thriving. We cannot change the situation over-night and so this is where the second reason comes in:
GUN CULTURE
This has to change. It is only when the society will start to frown upon those with arms/ guns ( I will go so far as to say even for defense) will we see any effect of the laws against gun possession. While one can appreciate the argument that it is necessary for protection on an individual level it is not a state-wide solution. Imagine 160 million guns and you will see what I mean. In the mix is our Police. On the local news channels Police were seen firing guns in the air at the end the siege. There jubilation notwithstanding, this is wrong. The obvious risk of bullets coming down and hurting someone aside the idea of touting guns in the air is no way of ending this menace. It sends the wrong message. The sooner we realize that greater/ bigger/ better guns can never be a response to smaller guns the better off we will be.
In conclusion, this should be a somber day for the Pakistani people one that should convince us that we have to take a u-turn on the gun culture. Although, and regrettably, I don't see that happening.
Shorter version posted at www://english.aljazeera.net/your_views
On the day the Police Academy in Lahore was attacked.
For starters, to think that the President or any politician would resign over what is ostensibly a failures of the state is wishful thinking. They would be more than willing to "dismiss" state officials, but that is only so that the blame rests on someone else.
I think I would have to answer the question in the affirmative. We have to accept that the situation is dire. There are many reasons, but for me 2 stand out.
WIDESPREAD ARMS PROLIFERATION
One of the legacy of the Afghan War is the gun proliferation throughout Pakistan (not just in North West). Until and unless this evil is routed out we have no way of stopping such incidents. There is an underground gun industry in Pakistan which regrettably is thriving. We cannot change the situation over-night and so this is where the second reason comes in:
GUN CULTURE
This has to change. It is only when the society will start to frown upon those with arms/ guns ( I will go so far as to say even for defense) will we see any effect of the laws against gun possession. While one can appreciate the argument that it is necessary for protection on an individual level it is not a state-wide solution. Imagine 160 million guns and you will see what I mean. In the mix is our Police. On the local news channels Police were seen firing guns in the air at the end the siege. There jubilation notwithstanding, this is wrong. The obvious risk of bullets coming down and hurting someone aside the idea of touting guns in the air is no way of ending this menace. It sends the wrong message. The sooner we realize that greater/ bigger/ better guns can never be a response to smaller guns the better off we will be.
In conclusion, this should be a somber day for the Pakistani people one that should convince us that we have to take a u-turn on the gun culture. Although, and regrettably, I don't see that happening.
Shorter version posted at www://english.aljazeera.net/your_views
On the day the Police Academy in Lahore was attacked.
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