“Information Warfare”-Wikileaks drives the point home, but really?

A number of theories are going on about Wikileaks – about the ties with the Rothschilds, about the game plan for ‘staging’ another 1931-alike banking collapse and of course, most importantly, the whole new dimension it has given to the ‘badnami of munni’ in the comic context of ‘the ambassador’ and ‘the president’ in Pakistan (For those of you who have not received this joke as yet, little r me and I would be glad to do the honors).

But amidst the political turmoil and conspiracy theories, as technologists, we are looking at a new era unfolding. Information warfare has been yet another buzz word of the 21st century and the theorists that have claimed it to be the next world war, WWIII i.e. are smirking as Wikileaks drives the point home.

While working as the Technology Specialist for Public Sector, we used to often get engaged in this debate with the government officials especially in the context of the emerging trend of Cloud Computing. “We cannot trust our data with Microsoft outside Pakistan – you must bring your data centers here” – some would say with a patriotic vigour that sends a chill down your spine, only until you receive their business card that has their email address ending @gmail.com. Quite an argument indeed, sir! Some stood their grounds, such as the Higher Education Commission that refused to opt for the cheaper hosted alternatives for email I must say. And there is also of course the EGD that had decided to port all the foreign hosted government websites back in the country. At the same time however, most of the government officials you meet prefer to use personal email addresses with providers such as Google or Yahoo regardless of whether or not there exists an in-house messaging system. Their is a lack of trust in the in-house messaging service since the control at the end of the day lies with the IT Administrator and this fear is not all false – most of the Messaging Services provided by vendors including Exchange & Lotus – the most prevalent ones – do allow the recovery of emails under certain disaster recovery scenarios by the administrator with the right privileges. So is it then the case of choosing the lesser evil – lesser in this context measured in the sense of short term or long term threat?

At least two important lessons are there for the technology providers as well as the government internet users in Pakistan from Wikileaks. One, we need to realize that the use of Google, Yahoo, Live etc. is just as threatening as the perceived risk of cloud computing, in fact, even more so considering we might not put up confidential data in applications or portals hosted outside Pakistan (in Cloud Computing model) – but we certainly use email, most of the times unconsciously, for such an information exchange. It’s probably about time this was addressed and the same way that the action was taken to move all the websites hosted outside Pakistan back in, authorities takes ‘suo moto’ notice on all the gmail users as well! Second, for technology providers – selling Cloud Computing may be even more difficult in times to come unless partner hosted models are invested in, in the country. It may also mean that arguments of hosting data in European countries that have stricter information security laws compared to the US might also begin to fade since it’s no longer about ‘legitimate theft’ of information. Wikileaks is not a product of Cloud Computing, but is certainly food for thought for further investments in Cloud Computing within the ‘Information Warfare’ battlezone.

The Subcontinentalized Islam -

It was just last month maybe or the month before, that we were all reading headlines about the Pakistani scholar who won the International Chemistry Award and – just yesterday – there was a post about the doctor accused of blasphemy because he binned a business card with the name “Mohammad” on it. Unbelievable! Why do I relate the two, because the latter got me thinking where we are going wrong as a society when individually we seem to have an ample amount of analytical thinking, objectivity and street-smartness to make sense out of the obvious or even the not so obvious matters such as the anti-oxidant properties of chemicals!

I’m not a subject matter expert on religion nor am I someone who believes we were born as a result of a ‘big bang’ and I would dare not start another blog on Islam, moderation etc. – the buzz words of 21st century – I am just a neutral observer who is dying to understand the “logic” behind this accusation – or if no logic, at least a strong enough religious evidence. We fail to draw the fine line between reverence and respect. Whether it’s about the three kisses gesture (I’m sure your grand parents must have taught you to touch your lips nose and eyes whenever Prophet’s name is mentioned when you were young – if not you had a deprived childhood living in this country), or this kind of an incident where the man was accused of being blasphemous because he binned a business card with the name “Mohammad”. I couldn’t help but wonder if that guy’s wife (whose name was imprinted on the card) ever yelled at him taking his name- she must be blasphemizing too? Or what if his mother beat him up or swore at him as a child – was she also blasphemizing because the kid was named after the Prophet? I wouldn’t mind such a default privilege as I could be a complete jerk but would not be held accountable since I had the name tag?!

I dont understand and I beg pardon from the authorities who gave this verdict for a mediocre mind that I and so many others possess.

There are so many things we observe everyday such as the recitation of Quranic verses and later blowing it on water, food, walls etc with the intention to achieve a goal such as safety, health or even more grandiose (read impossible) ones such as happiness in a married life . I thought the Quran itself is for the “People who Think”. What do we even “think” when we are mindlessly reading verses that we have no idea about (since most of us can’t understand the Quran in Arabic) and “blow” it on substances hoping for miracles! For a second, let’s break it down in layman terms: if you are asking God to protect you from a certain ailment – would it be better to be consciously asking God for protection (language agnostically) or to be reading a verse you were taught in childhood that you do not know the meaning of and blowing it on something? The unfortunate part is that it’s not just a certain fraction of our society – it’s almost all of us, or at least most of us that are caught in this circle. We need to break away from these “cultural” phenomena that hamper our ability to exercise objectivity because they have been tied to religion – thereby making it seem blasphemous to digress from. I guess it’s just as religious as visiting the shrines believing in certain ‘saints’ as being ‘intermediaries’ between us and God. Talk about believing in One God and attibuting naught beside Him!

Let’s start being a bit more objective and use religion to live as better human beings and put the teachings of Islam to practical use such as charity for the under-privileged – and there are plenty in our country – and being honest and fair in our dealings rather than wasting our time worrying about how much respect or disrespect someone *else* shows for the Prophet. Islam has some of the most beautiful teachings that can give our social system a complete make over if put to use. So let’s get over with the holier than thou attitude and lets not worry about judging someone else’s faith: let’s work on our own and use it to make this a better place to live so we can quit talking about “exit strategies” in the country and move the focus to “sustainability strategies”!,

Not quite as warm as the weather :)

I was standing by the Bosphorous, looking over the magnificent bridge with a huge potatoe filled with some special turkish beans and spices in my hand that I couldnt finish, and I just glanced around… kids were enjoying the swings, large groups of friends or colleagues were having a laugh over lunch, and couples seemed to be having a great time as well. The air just seemed so warm and calm, contrary to the weather that was pleasant although on the chilly side as it was Feb/Mar timeframe in Istanbul. I then wondered what most of us wonder when we go abroad, why do we not have such an ambience back home? I vaguely recalled my dad once mentioning as we were cruising over river Nile in Egypt, that countries that have waters flowing through their cities generally seem to have more friendly and sociable communities than the dryer ones. Hmm I thought could that be the reason? It seemed true for a lot of places I had visited and found them very “warm” in ambience such as Portugal (despite being mugged there!), Egypt (despite some really bad bargains!) and now Turkey. But what happened to France and UK though then I thought – something went wrong with Seine and Thames – since they were far from warm?

It’s a common belief that weather has an effect on the societies’ personalities. If that is true then we should be especially ‘warm’ as a society in Pakistan And if that were true, then the people in Seattle which was another place I found very friendly and welcoming should be particularly ‘iced’ It’s unusual not to be thanked, not to be greeted in the elevators, parking lots, shops, and not to be smiled at for no reason by strangers when you are there. Whereas here in Pakistan, although we have the strongest emotional ties with families and friends and our sense of belonging is certainly higher than the western societies that is apparent in our so closely knit family circles, but what goes wrong when we are out on the roads or in shopping malls with complete strangers? Why is it such a burden to smile and greet with a “Salamaulaikum” or “Hello” to the next person who enters the elevator? We all seem to be so cold with each other that ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ like basic pleasantries are also considered “against the norm”!

Maybe each one of us can start making a difference through little gestures that would help us alter the overall ambience of the places around us. If we could just let the pedestrians cross the road rather than paddling through that lever even faster when we see a few people waiting!, if we could “thank” the waiters at the cafes or add a “please” while handing over the bill to the cashier at the bank! Another one thing that we could change and actually live Quaid-e-Azam’s 3rd pillar for a great nation: “Discipline” – is to develop the habit of respecting the right of the person before us in the queue whether we are in a bank, a shop or simply at Daewoo bus stop! It would save a lot of people a lot of frustration. It’s these little gestures that would make this place we love to call home more soothing to stay in . We cannot put up malls to go shopping over the weekend, we can’t build accessible cinemas to be able to watch a movie for entertainment on convenience and we cannot build public amusement parks to raise the quality of our lives overnight- but there is one thing we can change; and that is “the man in the mirror”!

So let’s spread some positive energy and share some smiles and make the air around us just as warm as the weather

Technically competent – but professionally inept?

This summarizes the attitude or rather a holistic model for most of the IT Vendors in Pakistan. For those of us who have either worked with IT/IT Enabled Services/Hardware vendors in Pakistan either as customers or as principals, would be drawn to concensus on the issue. In the vendor eco-system, the love triangle between the vendor, the principal provider and the customer is almost always strained! Whether or not the principal is based in Pakistan or is a foreign provider, the challenges faced with the local companies are the same although the principal providers who do have an establishment in Pakistan are faced with greater responsibility for Quality Assurance. To what extent is that quality assurance by the locally based principals ensured though realistically? Unfortunately, not much.

For the local companies, whether they are just hardware resellers or solutions providers, there is a clear human capital challenge – most of them are able to get excellent technical resources but are oblivious to the lack of professionalism that is inherent in most of the projects. But then we don’t really teach the graduating engineers how to be professional and honor commitments which is the crux of most of the conflicts between customers and vendors. Is there, then, something more needed than just the technical qualification we impart on the 20,000+ IT graduates we are producing every year? How can we teach them professional etiquette, to be proactive in communication, to realize the importance of spending time on planning and architecture design without just focusing on the implementation – to think outside the run of the mill and have the passion to do the right thing for the customer! We can understand the lack of quality management or project planning for smaller companies that act as resellers for IT equipment but can you really excuse the lack of basic etiquette in terms of order fulfillment when you are notified weeks after the expected delivery date that it’s stuck with customs?! I can’t. It’s not about following paper work or wasting time (although I dont believe it such) on status updates – it’s about the basic courtesy of keeping the customer informed of delays before rather than after the committed timelines!

Does the onus then lie on the Educational Institutes for not instilling the professional etiquette and merely loading the graduates with technical knowledge; or the Organizations that hire them for not putting them through a Soft Skills training; or the Principal Providers for not investing in the grooming of the local partners; OR on our entire Social System that is a victim of prevalent dishonesty and lack of accountability – and therefore it’s not Professional Ineptitude on part of the IT Vendors but rather a reflection of our Stagnant and Lethargic cultural and social stream?

Whatever the cause may be, I strongly believe it’s high time we got out of our comfort zones and IT Principal Providers as well as the Vendor Eco-system realize this gap and gear up to turn the $3B into $30B IT Industry in times to come!

Female Professionals in Pakistan – the softer side of the story!

We read about sexual assault cases, harassment and disrespect, unequal growth opportunities at work and lack of credibility for the female workers in Pakistan, especially in the industries that are dominated by men such as Technology or Banking compared to Education or Development where there is a greater representation by women, all the time. ‘Men are pigs!’ We love saying it And it’s not all false of course, but there is a facet of our society I explored having worked as a woman – mostly the “only” woman at places,  that I think deserves equal attention if we are to have women stop feeling victimized by a male dominated society and start harnessing their true potential for success in whatever they do. If you are good at what you do, you are committed to your work and you carry yourself well, people will treat you the way you allow them to treat you – that is a simple fact often ignored by most of us. We need to stop complaining about how hard it is to excel as a woman and look around us at the women who are indeed the best of breed professionals in their fields. They didn’t bypass the society, they are not all “privileged because of their influential fathers or husbands” – at times, and most of the times, they are just women who worked hard at their careers and maintained the focus!

Without sidelining the injustice prevalent in the unprivileged part of our society of course- where women who work from home and supposedly contribute to 60% of our economy are paid 40% less in wages – I am talking about the white-collar workers here in the urban areas who have no excuse for blaming men for not moving forward professionally. I have worked as the only female at Microsoft, I along with multiple other female professionals I know have sat across Ministers and Government Officials closing multimillion dollar deals and I have been able to have the audience ‘listen’ while I talk technology – I believe I can serve as the expert witness to assure all the young aspiring women in our country that if you have the passion to succeed, the “male dominant and patronizing” culture will mold itself in your favor. I would also like to pay a special tribute to our ‘sarkari mulazimeen’ who have earned themselves a reputation unfortunately of not always being politically correct with women – I felt no such discomfort in my 2 year tenure as a “Public Sector” Technology Specialist. In fact I was always offered a seat by someone already sitting if there was none! I managed more than 20 customers at various times and interacted with every level, from Peon’s to Director Generals and System Administrators to CIO’s, ranging from Telco’s to Banks to Government and Education, traveled around the world on my own and was perhaps the only employee at the company to have been promoted every year! I wasn’t harassed nor mistreated in any way. I felt respected as a professional and a colleague and I thank the men in our society – the “Pakistani Society” – for making that possible! The drivers hired for meetings were hospitable and kind when I went around – the airport staff was always decent, customers were receptive and never hinted anything inappropriate just because I was a female in Sales – in “Pakistan”. Without meaning to gloat, I believe women need to come out and share success stories and the media should take responsibility for spreading the positive image across, although of course that’s outside the call of duty for them and we are cognizant of that . As long as you win the respect and trust of your colleagues and customers, you are considered a part of the team from a gender agnostic perspective. That is the state that women themselves have to strive for and establish for themselves – and for that, they cannot blame the men for being chauvinistic or simply – “dogs” as tempted as we might be to

There “are” reasons I love this country!