Political map of Middle East

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Islamabad The Beautiful

Islamabad The Beautiful Capital of Pakistan.

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Different colored waters - An interesting phenomenon!

When the murky waters of the Amazon River meet the aquamarine waters of the Tapajos River near Santarem, Brazil, the different colored waters don't mix for many a mile. An interesting phenomenon!

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Pakistan Floods 2010

• Dated: July-August 201
• Reason: Heavy monsoon rains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab, Giligit-Baltistan and Balochistan regions of Pakistan.
• Land underwater: One-fifth of Pakistan’s total land (maximum)
• People affected: 20 million
• Casualties: close to 2,000
• Ban Ki-moon stated that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen. 
• Structural damages: $4 billion +
• Total economic impact: $43 billion
• Since its inception the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has received Rs 87.8 billion (about 900 million USD). But it proved unproductive during recent floods.
• Homes destroyed: 1.89 million
• People displaced: 6 million
• Loss to power infrastructure: 10,000 transmission lines and transformers, feeders and power houses were damaged.
• Loss to Infrastructure: 2,433 miles of highway, 3,508 miles of railways, 5,000 schools
• Length of Indus River: 3,180 km

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A guide to Haiti Earthquake

• Dated: January 12, 2010
• Magnitude: 7.0 Mw
• Casualties:  92,000 – 316,000

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• It is 3^rd deadliest earthquake
• Region: Caribbean
• Magnitude: 7.0 Mw
• Epicenter: 25km west of Port-au-Prince
• Plate: Gonava Plate between the much larger North American to the north and the Caribbean to the south.
• Homeless people: 1.5 million
• UN special envoy to Haiti: Bill Clinton

         

WikiLeaks - A new way to Journalism

What is WikiLeaks?
WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization that publishes submissions of private, secret and classified media from anonymous news sources and news leaks. It is a media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. It is created by Jullian Assange in 2006 and is owned by The Sunshine Press.

What is the purpose of WikiLeaks?
WikiLeaks states that its "primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations."


What is the legal status of WikiLeaks?
The legal status of WikiLeaks is complex. Assange considers WikiLeaks a whistleblower protection intermediary. Rather than leaking directly to the press, and fearing exposure and retribution, whistleblowers can leak to WikiLeaks, which then leaks to the press for them.


WikiLeaks states "...We derive these principles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 inspires the work of our journalists and other volunteers. It states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 


Important Leaks?

1. Video: Collateral Murder
2. War Diary: Afghanistan War Logs
3. War Diary: Iraq War Logs
4. Cablegate: 250,000 US Embassy Diplomatic cables
5. Tax Evasion by the Rich and Famous (Coming Soon)

How it affected the world?

It has become a "new way to journalism". Jasmine Revolution has also some roots in Diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks also tells us that Information Technology Revolution has changed the world and has potential to spread the information to each corner of the world.

Coke Cricket Junoon

Every Pakistani is a Cricket Junooni by birth and loving cricket is as customary to all us of as eating, sleeping and breathing. We enjoy every bit of the game. No one celebrates victory louder than us and in times of loss our support for the team mums all naysayers. This unbeatable and unconditional love for the game is what our Cricket Junoon is all about. Coke, the official drink of Junoonis, dedicates this portal www.cokecricketjunoon.com to all you crazy cricket fans of Pakistan.
Coke brings you a chance to be a part of the first ever fan movement of Pakistan called 

“Coke Cricket Junoon”. We are making a 

Junoon Flag that represents the Junoon of each and every Pakistani at its best. This Junoon Flag will carry the pictures of Junoonis from all across the country to be revealed in Sri-Lanka during Pakistan’s first match to show the world our unmatchable Junoon.

So get to your nearest Coke Junoon booth, “Dikha do Cricket Junoon” to be a part of the biggest Junoon Flag.

Why Nations Go to War?

Aggression is a human nature while War is a learned behavior. As psychology is science of behavior, we can discuss this topic under the psychological perspective that why nations go to war. Some abstract forces like nationalism, militarism, alliance system and economic issues play their role in starting a war. However, with regard to the problem of the outbreak of war, major wars of twentieth century indicate the crucial importance of the personalities of leaders. Let take the outbreak of World War II; there is no doubt that the victor’s peace of Versailles and the galloping inflation of 1920s brought the rise of Nazi Germany. But it was the personality of Hitler that was decisive.

More Examples:

•  Emotional instability of Kaiser Wilhelm’s of Germany
•  General McArthur’s personality because of which Korean War Prolonged by two years.
• Fragile egos of American Presidents during Vietnam war
• Volatile personality of Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.
•  Yahya Khan’s ego of not to be cowed down by a woman during 1971 Indo-Pak war.
• Saddam’s and Khomeini’s personalities during Iran-Iraq war.

Misperception also played a vital role to start a war. This was in four different ways:

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1.  Leader’s image of himself
2. Leader’s view of his adversary character
3. Leader’s view of his adversary’s intentions about himself
4. Leader’s view of his adversary’s capabilities and powers.

Example for 'leader’s image of himself':

• WW1 – Kaiser Wilhelm’s famous words that our soldiers will come before the leaves had fallen from the trees shows how he was overestimating his power.
• WW2 – Hitler’s confidence in early German victory.
•  Korean War – General McArthur’s overestimation of his power that Chinese military will not go to war with American military power even if he cross the 38^th parallel line.
• Vietnam War – During Vietnam War, each American soldier was thinking that just a few more bombs and then will come victory. This proved wrong when this war became the longest war of American history.
• Arab-Israel Wars – Arab countries overestimated their capabilities when armies of four Arab countries invaded Israel. As a result, they lost Gaza strip and West Bank to Israel.
• Indo-Pak Wars – After success in a minor military conflict at Rann of Kutch, Pakistan overestimated her power and started mission Gibraltar.

Example for ‘Leader’s view of his adversary character’:

• WW1 – Kaiser Wilhelm once said “he hated the Slavs, even though one should not hate anyone.” This reflects his hatred toward Slavic peoples.
• Vietnam War – American President Johnson’s words “Americans, the child of light, had to defeat the child of darkness in twentieth century crusade” shows his view about Asian communism.

5.    Examples for ‘Leader’s view of his adversary’s intentions about himself’:

• WW1 – When Russians started military mobilization on defense out of fear of possible Austrian attack, Wilhelm considered it as preparation for a possible attack on Germany.
• WW2 – Similar in case of WW2, Hitler was of the fear that England and France are ready on borders so he invaded both on eastern and western countries simultaneously.
• Arab-Israel War – Because of fear of Israeli operation on Golan Heights, Syria and Egypt invaded Israel.

Examples for ‘Leader’s view of his adversary’s capabilities and powers’:

•  Korean War – General McArthur, during his advance through North Korea toward the Chinese border, stubbornly believed that the Chinese Communists did not have the capability to intervene. When the Chinese did cross the Yalu River into North Korea.
• Arab-Israel Wars – After three successful was, Israel viewed Arab power only with contempt and its own as unassailable. That was wrong, as Israel had to learn in the Vitter war of October 1973.

In short, the beginning of each war is a misperception. The war itself then slowly, and in agony, teaches the lesson of reality.
Source: Why Nations Go to War by John G. Stoessigner

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State of Pakistan Economy (Data from Economic Survey 2009-10)

Pakistan Economy:
GDP: $161 bn
GNP: $167.6 bn
Population: 166 million
Per Capita Income: $1006

Sectoral share in GDP:
Agriculture: 21.5%
Industry: 25.2%
Service sector: 53.3%

Real Growth Rates:
Agriculture: 2.0
Industry: 4.9
Service sector: 4.6 (1.6 last year)
GDP: 4.1 (1.2 last year)

Unemployment:
Unemployment rate: 5.5% (5.2% last year)
Urban unemployment: 7.1% (6.3% last year)

Population:
- Pakistan is world's sixth most populous country
- Annual Growth rate = 2.05 % ( will become fourth most populous in 2050 after India, China, United States)

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Benazir Income Support Program (BISP):
Total Budget = Rs. 70 billion
Target = 5.5 million poor people (1000 month each)

War on Terror: (2002-2010)
Total incidents = 8141
Total deaths = 8875

Education: 
Public sector spendings: 2.1% of GDP
Literacy rate = 57%

Poverty (World):
- 40% poorest people have 5% of total global income
- 20% richest people have 75% of total global income
- 963 million people in the world are hungry at this moment.

Cyber Laws in Pakistan

1) Electronic Transaction Ordinance 2002

==> Total 43 sections.

==> Mainly deals with E-commerce.

==> Maximum Punishment: 7 Years imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1 million

2) Electronic/Cyber Crime Act 2007

==> Also called "Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance, 2007"

==> Promulgated on the 31st December 2007

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==> Deals with Electronic crimes: Cyber Terrorism, Data damage, Electronic Fraud, Electronic forgery, Unauthorized access to code, Cyber stalking, Cyber Spamming

==> Applies to every person irrespective of his/her nationality.

==> Minimum Punishment: 6 months imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 50,000 for Cyber Spamming.

==> Maximum Punishment: Capital Punishment/ Life imprisonment/ fine of Rs. 10 million

      

Some facts about Sino-American relations

- America was having $58 billion direct investment in China in 2005.

- More than 100 multinational American companies are operating in China. Mainly in Hotel and petrochemical industry.

- According to some estimates, China will cross the economic power of America in 2025.

- US is a military power. Total defense budget of America is more than the combined defense budget of 100 big nations.

- Total trade between China and America was 33$ billion in 1992. In 2005, it rose to $284.5 billion.

- Total trade deficit of America with China was $200 billion in 2005.

- China is second largest importer of America.

Important Issues between China and America:

- Devaluation of Currency (Yuan) by China

- Republic of China (Taiwan)

- North Korea

- Human Right Violence in China

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