Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Enough was enough
Schism in Pakistan is at its maximum possible level. However, the unending and frequent back breaking hikes in prices of commodities of daily use and the utilities has now started killing not only the poor, but the lower and middle income class people, as well. Unfortunately, at this crucial juncture of Pakistan’s life, our society is at loggerheads with each other, without knowing that this time our enemies have planned to attack us from the western side of our border.
As such, it is high time that in order to unite the divided people of Pakistan, we should immediately impose a ban on all politics, political activities and statements and handover the federal and the provincial governments to the reputed, but genuine Pakistani Technocrats (strictly sans the hitmen of the lending agencies) with first and the foremost priority of immediately restoring economy of the country to provide fast relief to the suffering masses, by way of increasing agricultural and industrial production and launching mega construction projects.
Last but not the least, this Technocrat government should also create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to take out poison from our body politic; and for providing peace of mind to the extremely agitated minds of the Pakistanis, living in Pakistan and abroad. We can live without politics (like many other fast developing countries), but now cannot live with increasing joblessness, poverty and hunger.
S NAYYAR UDDIN AHMED
Lahore
Pakistan
in America
Every day, like millions of Americans, I receive multiple calls from Pakistan; often six or more in a single day. Young Pakistani men, and occasionally Pakistani woman, introduce themselves as representative of ATT, Spectrum, Amazon, Medicare, “your utility company”, “your TV provider”, Publisher’s Clearing House, the IRS, or one of a few other well known American business or governmental entities. They offer special reduced service rates, rebates, prizes or the promise to stop a fraudulent credit card transaction, or sometimes, even a threat of dire consequences from an American government agency. And all they need to complete the offer, or remedy the problem, is my credit card information.
These schemers might succeed if not for their poor English skills (e.g.: “The reason of my call is . . .” , or, “Confirm me please your credit card number.”); their lack of understanding of American time zones (while it may be nine in the morning in New York, it is only six o’clock in LA or Seattle, way too early for customer calls); and the fact that they are all using the same robo-call recording, exactly the same hold-music while the call is being transferred (regardless of who they claim to represent), and the identical script as all the many other ‘representatives’ from ATT or Spectrum, or wherever, who have called daily – and often several times a day – for the last year! The only people they fool are the feeble-minded: the very old or the mentally ill. So their deceit is not much of a problem.
But they have become the voice of Pakistan, and by extension, as Pakistan is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the voice of Islam to many in America. While the Koran teaches respect for the elderly and alms for the poor, these young men and women prey on the weakest, most vulnerable in society. They are the only people who fall for the callers’ trickery.
LAWRENCE MALDONADO
Via email
Intelligence
vs thinking
As I have witnessed many CSS aspirant tending to use “irrelevant and difficult vocabulary” in their essay writing or in their general writing. Firstly, they must know the crude fact that essay requires simple and relevant choice of words. If you fail to satisfy the examiner by deliberate use of flowery and tough language, you willAlways use “Simple Words” in your sentence, for you have to convey your ideas and thoughts to others what actually you gonna say, let’s us say, not impress by using bombastic, pompous and flowery words. Don’t complicate the language, write as simple as that of student of 7th class.
What’s more, an irrelevant and misuse use of a word spoils the whole sentence structure. Hence, every word by its nature has its own collocation. To illustrate, we had a prodigious dinner; don’t say “a big dinner”, for it sounds awkward to use it, therefore, prodigious sounds more impressive and effective than the former.
Collocation makes it easier to avoid overused or ambiguous words. It (Collocation)is ‘a predictable combination of words‘ for example we can say heavy rain but not strong rain because it does not sound right’ likewise, we can say ‘do exercise’ but not ‘make exercise’. Collocations can be made up of any kinds of words such as verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives. There are no rules for collocations, they are just combinations of words that we can become familiar with and then use correctly.
We can use but a difficult vocabulary which gives complete sense in context. To sum up, always use simple, relevant and effective language in your writing, if you want to become a good writer. Use word according to collocation, for it makes language more beautiful, relevant and clearer. So, i suggest you to use “Oxford advanced learn’s dictionary” which will help you how to use a word in a relevant context and proper place.
USAMA MUGHAL
Kandhkot
