Everyday a Labour Day

Today is May 1st which is universally declared as Labour Day. Labour Day has been observed across the world with the concept dating back to over a century. The Labour Day story in its true sense starts from May 1, 1886 when a genuine labour organisation residing in USA demanded an 8-hour work against an 8-hour recreation and an 8-hour rest.
This demand obviously was not acceptable to the plunderers of the labourers. Therefore the labourers and their organisations eventually went on strike and a procession was conducted on 1st May. Chaos became the part of the occasion when a rebel threw a bomb in the area. Nearly 12 people including few police officers killed and about 100 people were wounded.
That whole campaign did help the labourers, though they were not able to get an urgent gain, but they knew they will achieve success in the time to come, when an 8-hour working day established as a reality, it became standard in many countries around the world.
'Labour Day' was therefore selected as a day for rallies, processions and speeches. 'Labour Day' is one of the most important off-days in United States, Russia and other socialist nations.
In Pakistan, India, and almost in whole of Asia 'Labour Day' is being observed as a public holiday. On this day, processions are taken out, speeches are uttered, local political parties, NGO's and other organisations hold public gatherings, and print and electronic media telecast and publish special features regarding labourers and their pains.
Apart from the history, what is important to know is what lead and caused the labourers of that time to stood up for their right, raised their voices and present their demand in front of their owners; whether the reasons were unjust, atrociousness by the then owners, disparity in profit distribution among labourers and their owners, forced-labour, loss of human dignity, encroachment on labourers-land etc or was there any other reason and cause behind their problems and difficulties.
Then comes the answer along with a whole new bunch of hard-core, thought-provoking, intellectual, brainy questions. Obviously a human being doesn't like to lose his dignity, he wants to be treated as a human and not an animal, he wants his due desires to be fulfilled, he wants to do his work by his own will and not by force, he wants to be respected, duly paid, and be cared.
When the 8-hour day campaign was accepted all the above mentioned problems were resolved to some extent but for the time being, now the question is whether the same is being adopted for present-day labourers.
ILO (International Labour Organistion) is trying its level best to ensure that the labourers are getting their due reward, share of their hard-work and sweat. According to my perception this is not being done at least in Pakistan, where I live surrounded by many labourers waiting on the pedestrian paths for the people, to be taken for the labour.
In Pakistan the scenario is far more different as compared to the international perspective of the labour or the labourer. Here the people engaged in labour are somewhat in distress and do their labour half-heartedly just to cope up with their daily house expenditure. They have far crossed the line to be treated as a dignified human being; they just now want daily expenditures to be covered up in one way or another even the masses looted them by not giving the due reward of their work.
This all is because of the ignorance of not only the government but also the masses; the NGO's shouting labour-related slogans, and other such organisations.
Pakistan is a country where the labour policies despite being scripted in the book of law are not being implemented in their true spirit, child-labour is the most ill-famed case in this regard.
Children since uneducated, young-aged, untrained and above all tattily available are being victimised in the most terrible way. They are being employed on jobs ranging from small stitching of clothes or sports stuff to the high-level heavy duty machinery operating jobs; just take a look, one will definitely witness children, either by force or on their own will, being employed on jobs not meant for them.
Important to mention is that child labour is not the only labour-related problem, even aged men and women are also not spared from this menace e.g. builders employing labourers to build multistory buildings don't adopt safety measures, thus causing life lose and eventually the lose of a source of income for the labourer's-family just pushing them more deep into the poverty.
What all this represent is another episode or repetition of May 1886 revolution but how can it be achieved and why should it be carried out? When political parties, highly acclaimed NGOs are available for this cause, fact is they are not doing their part of the job, how can a dispute be solved by bringing out a procession of affluent’s lead by affluent’s excluding the labourers, to mark a day meant for the labourers rights.
What is needed is the prompt implementation of the labour policies. Another atrocity which prevails in the society is the bonded-labour, which binds the labourer and he eventually loses his each and every basic right.
I do admit that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani's recent decision of keeping the minimum wage of Rs7000 is a great step forward in this regard, but will this amount cater the needs of a family in this recent economically recessive scenario. Implementation of laws in their true nature and spirit, defying all the pressure is the most important asset of a nation.
The European countries, far better, have a fund for the students or individuals who are unemployed, until they become employed they get a handsome amount to live their life decently, to pay their fees in their institutions. We have Bait-ul-Maal but the need is to use it effectively for the welfare of the people.
In a nutshell, the most pivotal aspect is that what is being said for the labourer-class should be implemented with each and every word converted into a fact. Each dream that is dreamt should be brought into a reality; constructing flyovers, beautifying the city or the country is not the main issue unless there are lively, healthy, contended people available to live in those cities.
I salute all the efforts being done up till now by the present government and any of the past governments for the labour-class but all of this is not enough. Further steps must be taken, policies should be initiated, government's poverty alleviation programme must include some labourer-related regulations, as they are also the most poverty affected class of the society.
Furthermore, all the labour-related laws should be modified keeping in mind the current scenario. The Labour-Day must be observed in a way where the labourers feel relaxed, otherwise it will be just another day for the labour.
In a nutshell, the most pivotal aspect is that what is being said for labourer class should be implemented with each and every word converted into a fact. Each dream that is dreamt should be brought into a reality; constructing flyovers, beautifying the city or the country is not the main issue unless there are lively, healthy, contended people available to live in those cities. Healthy people make a healthy society indeed and no doubt this law is present in almost all the developed countries. On the labour day we must strive hard to make sure that for a labourer its not another day for labour. They are humans think about their prosperity as you think about your self without any discrimination. They are uneducated think of giving them just the basic knowledge and education. At least pay them a salary that copes up their daily house expenditures in a decent, humble, respectable way.

Economic Crisis and their Solutions

Pakistan’s economy had been suffering, dwindling and withering gradually because of the disorganised, unimplementable, flawful planning & idea generation by its ministers and concerned individuals that were definitely not in the interest of the country. Pakistan has been facing this scenario even before the actual global recession that lamed the titans of the business sector, began to occur, resulting in the bankruptcies and chapter eleven’s of various tycoon and blue chip companies of Europe etc.
At the moment Pakistan is holding a bucket full of different diversified challenges, problems and crises in almost all the reasonable fronts i.e. the political front, the adverse law and order situation as well as unavailability of infrastructure for economic growth.
When the global financial crisis further deepened after 2008, with the American insurance group (AIG), Lehman brothers and such other top financial institutions of USA surrendering themselves to the flow of the severe recession, refused to provide their respective financial services and in fact opted for chapter 11, it certainly did put a strong impact on the country’s insurance and some other sectors, especially those sectors dependent on USA based investment. The indicators at that moment were highly depressive showing a truly negative picture i.e. GDP fell down to 2.0 per cent, inflation touched at all time high i.e. at 20.08 per cent, export target slipped by $1.3 billion, and rupee devaluation occurred at the rate of 35 per cent.
With this brief introduction let us come to the core of this article. What are basically the major hurdles in the economic recovery of Pakistan?
Well now at least every citizen knows the answer to this question since they are the 1st one to experience the impact or the effect of any governmental decision lead crises, i.e. load shedding of electricity & gas (including natural, compressed and liquefied etc), extremely exorbitant back breaking prices of gas & electricity (important to mention a further increment in the prices of electricity on the directives of IMF is still under consideration), higher interest rates, continuous increase in fuel prices and thus increased cost of doing business, poor and adverse law and order situation even placing its impact on the foreign investors and their investment in the country, in addition to the above Rs116 billion circular debt is also a major problem along with others, faced by the country.
In the current energy deficiency scenario, among its other impacts the most significant effect that it places on any country’s economy is the hampering of its export targets and when this problem is summed up with the wrong, unprofitable and unfavourable export policies factor it will certainly devastate the economy at least from the export side e.g. take Pakistan’s case wrong export policies along with energy deficiency resulted in the near paralysis of cotton yarn, and raw cotton value added textile sector so much so that the local investors started to pack up their investment and shifted it to different neighbouring countries ONLY because they offered a relief based policy.
Similarly higher interest rate and input costs adding up with the above two factors only hurts the export of any sector and not just the major sectors. During the last 9 months, cement export reduce by 14.72 per cent, leather manufacturing sector dropped down by 23.24 per cent, surgical goods by 9 per cent, and basmati rice, value added textile, engineering goods and different other sectors showed a sheer negative growth.
About 39 per cent increase in import of food group items, significant import of transport equipment and heavy oil import bill just adds to the severity of the scenario and creates a further pressure on rupee as compared to dollar hence devaluation is seen. With the exports decreasing and imports increasing how is it possible to reach an economic level i.e. termed as recovered. A country must keep a balance in its trade and payment making way to the concept of balance of payment and trade demanding effective, efficient policy making.
Further in upcoming budget imposition of Value added Tax and increment in electricity charges on the directives of IMF and pricy electricity from the recently hired rental power plants will just add to the misery of the investors eventually discouraging industrialisation in Pakistan. Recent notification of 2 off days per week by the state will effect the economic cycle of the country no doubt that’s a fact BUT the closure of banks will increase the negative impact of the decision hence worsening the economy of the country to another level. Since transactions especially port related are vital for the economy of Pakistan, being the exporter and the importer of different goods and services, therefore the decision just requires a bit amendment not ALL but some branches should be closed at least providing the investors the ease in conducting their business in their own way.
Last but not the least it is must for the government to rely on its own resources in order to get rid of these alarming challenges and obstacles in the recovery of economy.
It has always been said that Pakistan is one of the most resourceful country in the world it is for the government to effectively and efficiently exploit its resources in accordance with a profitable, giving, beneficial, problem solving, lucrative PLAN.
Also it’s now time for bringing a consensus among the masses on the construction of dams and efficacious utilization of coal resources to over come this electricity crisis once and for all. Government should ease its fiscal policy, increase spending on development project and should cut down their non development expenditures. It should ease the tax policy “do not impose new taxes enhance and expand the tax base” should be the policy of the government for this purpose new sectors should be explored.
Emphasis must be placed on direct taxes rather than indirect taxes. Discount rate and inflation must be in single digits. State bank should make regulations for commercial bank keeping banking spread about 2-3 per cent.
Encourage saving by increasing the rate of return on saving bonds etc resulting in the appreciation of the Pakistani rupee value.
In addition to the rupee appreciation high saving rate also enables the government to raise long-term capital for their infrastructure development projects as well as in coping up the current budget deficit.
Term finance certificates and public private partnership should be encouraged in fact prioritised to enhance the infrastructure growth and this will give certainly fruitful results since in the case of public private partner ship the public’s interest is at stake they are involve din the decision making process which gives them the insight causing them to be responsible for the acts of the company.

In a nut shell proper, effective, efficient up to the theoretical extent construction and implementation of the PLANS along with the usage of current up to dated technology in order to bring innovation and development in the country is the necessity at the moment in order to overcome the current crises whereas this all is being hampered and obstructions are created when improper policies made by inexperienced individuals along with a touch of corruption and last but not the least the non or wrong implementation of the PLAN occur hence causing none other than chaos in the economic chapter of the country.

Cell Phone or Hell Phone..?

Mobile phones and related technologies are no doubt a master piece, a classic example of human innovation, a definitely remarkable, illustrious, outstanding example of human thought process i.e. what human can think and up to which extent.
What is or was the basic objective of bringing in the world this extraordinary compact piece of tech? Did it helped in achieving its birth objective? Or did we just abused its due use? Well a many lot articles, columns, researches both medical and technical wise have already been published while keeping in mind these particular questions. Its human nature to find intentionally or unintentionally, along with the positive use of anything, its negative prospect and unfortunately use it more for the latter one.
The question arising here is, do our children need these tech stuffs to carry along with them even in schools and what is this whole scenario’s impact on the children? Its obvious what will be the drawback, no rocket science is needed for that purpose the only thing one requires to think is his/her’s brain. Run the thought process and one will go on with getting answers; low percentages in academics, less concentration in studies, much concentration in playing video games, less concentration in using the calculator in the cell phone, much importance laid upon texting forward sms’s(jokes etc) not prioritising the dispersing of the daily class work or the home work they were given or the education related activities they did in school, spending their valued time in the chat rooms introduced by many telecom companies as an extra misleading service, much time spent on sticking or pasting their small faces in the 2-5 or 6 inch screen of the cell phone, least concentration in even glancing at the teacher yelling at them loudly although she’s actually teaching.
The above mentioned night mares especially for parents, are some of the basic problems or one can say the symptoms of a student affected by the cell phobia disease, must to mention these problems are excluding those that medically put a severe effect on the young children’s different abilities and senses.
Consider e.g. the famous texting disease, symptoms are; students typing at extremely fast speed not even looking at the cell phone’s screen, the continuous beeping of the cell phone, and if the cell is in silent mode, the continuous blinking or flashing of the cell’s background light. These are some of the basic symptoms one can witness openly.
The symptoms or the disease doesn’t seem to be much precarious but take a look at the dark side, many researches being conducted and published imaging the hazard of the cell phones and its microwaves on young children such as texting state that such risky use of cell phones causes a rare thumb problem among the users of the cell phone, constant typing with the thumbs is not favourable for any one it not only affects the skin but even the thumb bones, as the tips are constantly in action and being pressed just typing.
Similarly preadolescent children are more vulnerable to microwave radiation because of their thinner skulls, their still developing nervous systems, their increased levels of cell division, and their less robust immune systems.
Likewise, let me share with you the results of a research that involved an experiment in which brain cells were exposed to mobile phone radiation for 2 hours for 50 days which resulted in the presence of excess DEAD brain cells when questioned, the experts admitted, “A neuronal damage of the kind described as dead brain cells after 50 days may not have immediately demonstrable consequences, even if repeated. In the long run, however, it may result in reduced brain reserve capacity that might be unveiled by other neuronal disease or even the wear and tear of aging.”
See, the worst effects of this techno-electric-wave generating device. I’m not here to convince any body about the hazards or the complications it may create for anybody, just delivering the facts, positive use of any thing in excess also always result in a negative or adverse effect or aspect of that particular thing, coming forward.
We rarely now see our kids giving time to any body but mostly to texting, talking to their friends wasting there precious time giving priority to their relations ‘other than’ parents, brothers or sisters just filling the humongous, cant-be-filled pockets of the telecom companies by abundantly and wholeheartedly using there call or sms packages just damaging their own selves giving ample chance to the telecom’s to earn and earn and just earn.
Read the following results of 4 separate studies. One ten-year study in Sweden suggests that heavy mobile users are more prone to non-malignant tumours in the ear and brain while a Dutch study had suggested changes in cognitive function. A German study has hinted at an increase in cancer around base stations, while a project supported by the EU had shown evidence of cell damage from fields typical of those of mobile phones.
Consider all of this happening to your own dear child, one can now imagine the seriousness of the problem. Cell phones do have there advantages I accept, but in case of children it altogether becomes a hazardous, infection creating, health related problem establishing device. Parents are concerned regarding there siblings safety no doubt thats there right. But this cant be the only acceptable reason or excuse for the parents to push there youngster’s in the abyss of frightening diseases.
Parents must take the responsibility for creating an environment atleast at home i.e. hazard free, that does not contain any thing harmful for the children, by keeping them away from their cell phones. Tell the children, make them understand in a lenient way that the use of cell phone is not necessary at all they will just become affected by the so called diseases harming them seriously. Make them spend there leisure time in other healthy entertainments like sports etc solving puzzles, brain teasers. Make them see constructive educational television programs. Assure them the fact that keeping a cell phone is not a status symbol at all its just a piece of tech filled with lots and lots of diseases and rubbish.
The crux of all said above is keep the children safe and sound by NOT giving them the cell phones. Responsibility is a big word with greater position comes greater responsibility parents, teachers, guardians and elder brothers and sisters or any othe relatives are responsible for the right learning of the children their habits the things they are taught the environment they see they face now at home will certainly become a part f them tomorrow.
Now comes the really hard part what to do in such scenario; well again responsibility should be owned by every stake holder i.e. parents should guide their children in a proper anti-cell phone way. At the same time schools, institutes and universities should make such rules not allowing children atleast under 14 to have cell phones in their close vicinity. They should place a strict ban on the students even in universities during the teaching hours cells must not be allowed to keep switched on it just divides the students concentration. What is the need of keeping a cell phone during a lecture?
Similarly the telecom companies should show some responsibility its obvious that adults don’t do forward texting it’s the only teenager class that does it likewise it is not the adults who talk late night with their aahmmmmm...its only again the teenager category, im not advocating the shutting off of these packages, as it will also hurt my own agendas but what is being emphasised is make them costly out of the reach of this insolent, impudent, daring teenage class.
Last but not the least students, teenagers, youngsters they themselves should understand the fact that how hard it is in present days to earn justly even a two time meal per day. For the students, our parents do not earn for your to get destroyed or for you to become exploited but they all make these efforts for you to become their helping hand in future and above all for you to reach at a high, respectable position, for you to become well educated.
With this message I end my whole article cum lecture, giving the parents their last piece of advice you care for your children keep them away from these HELL Phones……they will just create hell for your children in both worlds here and in the after world.