Our victory is with our knowledge, our creativity, our literacy

Some thoughts:
Extracts of speech by Hafez A.B Mohamed:
Director-General, Al Baraka Bank, South Africa

Demographics:
o  World Jewish Population :  14 million
o  Distribution                   : 7m in America
                                        :  5m in Asia
                                        : 2m in Europe
                                        : 100 thousand in Africa
o  World Muslim Population: 1.5 billion
o  Distribution: I billion in Asia/Mid-East
                    400 M in Africa
                    44 M in Europe
                     6 M in the Americas
o  Every fifth human being is a Muslim.
o  For every single Hindu there are two Muslims
o  For every Buddhist there are two Muslims
o  For every Jew there are 107 Muslims
o  Yet the 14 million Jews are more powerful than the entire 1..5 billion Muslims

                       Why?

Here are some of the reasons.

Some Movers of Current History:
o  Albert Einstein             Jewish
o  Sigmund Freud             Jewish
o  Karl Marx                    Jewish
o  Paul Samuelson             Jewish
o  Milton Friedman           Jewish

Some Medical Milestones:
o  Vaccinating Needle:       Benjamin Ruben         Jewish
o  Polio Vaccine                  Jonas Salk                Jewish
o  Leukemia Drug       Gertrude Elion           Jewish
o  Hepatitis B                    Baruch Blumberg        Jewish
o  Syphilis Drug                 Paul Ehrlich               Jewish
o  Neuro muscular             Elie Metchnikoff       Jewish
o  Endocrinology                Andrew Schally         Jewish
o  Cognitive therapy.          Aaron Beck               Jewish
o  Contraceptive Pill           Gregory Pincus          Jewish
o  Understanding of Human Eye   G. Wald           Jewish
o  Embryology.                   Stanley Cohen            Jewish
o  Kidney Dialysis               Willem Kloffcame      Jewish

Nobel Prize Winners:
o  In the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 180 Nobel prizes
    whilst 1.5 billion Muslims have contributed only 3 Nobel winners

Some Inventions that changed History:o  Micro- Processing Chip.          Stanley Mezor                   Jewish
o  Nuclear Chain Reactor           Leo Sziland                       Jewish
o  Optical Fibre Cable                Peter Schultz                    Jewish
o  Traffic Lights                       Charles Adler                    Jewish
o  Stainless Steel                      Benno Strauss                   Jewish
o  Sound Movies                        Isador Kisee                      Jewish
o  Telephone Microphone            Emile Berliner                    Jewish
o  Video Tape Recorder              Charles Ginsburg               Jewish

Some Influential Global Business People:
o  Polo                       Ralph Lauren                     Jewish
o  Coca Cola                                                       Jewish
o  Levi's Jeans          Levi Strauss                      Jewish
o  Starbuck's            Howard Schultz                 Jewish
o  Google                   Sergey Brin                       Jewish
o  Dell Computers      Michael Dell                      Jewish
o  Oracle                   Larry Ellison                      Jewish
o  DKNY                    Donna Karan                      Jewish
o  Baskin & Robbins    Irv Robbins                       Jewish
o  Dunkin Donuts       Bill Rosenberg                   Jewish

Some Influential Intellectuals/Politicians:
o  Henry Kissinger,            US Sec of State                       Jewish
o  Richard Levin,                President Yale University             Jewish
o  Alan Greenspan,             US Federal Reserve                   Jewish
o  Joseph Lieberman                                                          Jewish
o  Madeleine Albright,        US Sec of State                       Jewish
o  Casper Weinberger,       US Sec of Defense                    Jewish
o  Maxim Litvinov,              USSR Foreign Minister              Jewish
o  David Marshal,               Singapore Chief Minister           Jewish
o  Isaacs Isaacs,               Gov-Gen Australia                      Jewish
o  Benjamin Disraeli,          British Statesman                     Jewish
o  Yevgeny Primakov,          Russian PM                                Jewish
o  Barry Goldwater,           US Politician                             Jewish
o  Jorge Sampaio,              President Portugal                     Jewish
o  Herb Gray,                    Canadian Deputy - PM                Jewish
o  Pierre Mendes,               French PM                                Jewish
o  Michael Howard,            British Home Sec.                     Jewish
o  Bruno Kriesky,               Austrian Chancellor                   Jewish
o  Robert Rubin,                US Sec of Treasury                  Jewish

Global Media Influential People:
o  Wolf Blitzer,                 CNN                                         Jewish
o  Barbara Walters            ABC News                                 Jewish
o  Eugene Meyer ,              Washington Post                       Jewish
o  Henry Grunwald,            Time Magazine                          Jewish
o  Katherine Graham ,        Washington Post                      Jewish
o  Joseph Lelyeld,              New York Times                       Jewish
o  Max Frankel,                 New York Times                        Jewish

Some Global Philanthropists:
o  George Soros                                                  Jewish
o  Walter Annenberg                                           Jewish


Why are they powerful?

Why are Muslims powerless?

Here's one reason. We have lost the capacity to produce knowledge.

o  In the entire Muslim World (57 Muslim Countries) there are only 500 universities.
o  In USA alone, 5,758 universities.
o  In India alone, 8,407 universities.
o  ONLY ONE university in the entire Islamic World features in the Top 500 Ranking Universities of the World.
o  Literacy in the Christian World  90%.
o  Literacy in the Muslim World     40%.
o  15 Christian majority-countries, literacy rate 100%.
o  Muslim majority - countries ,       None.
o  98% in Christian countries completed primary school.
o  Only 50% in Muslim countries completed primary school.
o  40% in Christian countries attended university.
o  In Muslim countries a dismal 2% attended.
o  Muslim majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims.
o  The USA has 5000 per million.
o  The Christian world 1000 technicians per million.
o  Entire Arab World only 50 technicians per million.
o  Muslim World spends on research/development 0.2% of GDP.
o  Christian World spends 5 % of GDP.

A Conclusion.
o  The Muslim World lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.

Another way of testing the degree of knowledge is the degree of diffusing knowledge.

o  Pakistan 23 daily newspapers per 1000 citizens.
o  Singapore 460 per 1000 citizens.
o  In UK book titles per million is 2000.
o  In Egypt book titles per million is only 17.

A Conclusion.
o  The Muslim World is failing to diffuse knowledge.

Applying Knowledge is another such test.

o  Exports of high tech products from Pakistan is 0.9% of its exports.
o  In Saudi Arabia is 0.2%
o  Kuwait, Morocco and Algeria 0.3%.
o  Singapore alone is 68%.

A Conclusion:

o  The Muslim World is failing to apply knowledge.
So what do YOU conclude?

No need to tell, the figures speak for themselves very loudly, if we are unable to listen.

Please educate yourself and your children.
Always promote education, don't compromise on it.
Don't ignore your children's slightest misguidance from education.
And please, for God's Sake, don't use your personal contacts or sources to promote your children in their education; if they fail, let them and make them learn to pass; b/c if they can't do it now, they can't ever).

We are World's biggest and strongest nation, all we need is to identify and explore our own selves.
Our victory is with our knowledge, our creativity, our literacy...And nothing else.
Please Muslims....Wake up... It is not too late.

Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board

As Pakistan faces pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make loans (for the private sector) expensive by notching up the minimum interest rate to double digits, the government has not yet convened a meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board.

The Ministry of Finance has not yet convened a “legally binding” meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board, according to sources in the economic advisory wing of the ministry.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Act, 1956, binds the Finance Ministry to call a meeting of the coordination board every quarter. The last meeting of the board was held in January.

The Washington-based lender’s push for interest rate hike is aimed at convincing Pakistan to adopt a contractionary monetary policy that the Fund believes is necessary for economic stabilisation – a policy that independent economists say will cost the country economic growth and development.

Delays in convening the meeting will leave no other option for the central board of directors of the SBP than to agree on monetary policy in isolation in its upcoming meeting. The SBP is expected to meet in the last ten days of August to announce the country’s monetary policy for the next two months.

All eyes are set on the SBP’s board, which will meet just a few days before the meeting of the executive board of the IMF to consider Pakistan’s request for a $7.3-billion bailout package.

Sources said the IMF had asked the government to increase the discount rate – the minimum rate at which the central bank lends money to the commercial banks – by 100 basis points to 10%. In its last meeting, the SBP had slashed the discount rate by 50 basis points to 9% while arguing that inflation had been falling and economic growth was “too anemic”.

Pakistan has been trying to convince the IMF to hold-up its monetary policy advice for a few months, but the lender has not agreed yet. SBP’s monetary policy, though a key pillar, will be one of half a dozen prior actions that will help determine the size of the bailout package, sources said.

Sudden rebound in inflation to 8.3% in July and massive government borrowings from the central bank can be used as a basis to increase the interest rates, making IMF’s case stronger to ask for the uptick. Sources say that the IMF had questioned Pakistan’s monetary easing (expansionary monetary policy), despite wider fiscal deficit and serious problems in financing the current account deficit, the sources added.

Monetary policy is closely linked with a country’s fiscal policy and recent developments on the economic front, because of which there was an urgent need of the meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board, according to a government functionary.

Summoning a meeting of the board is the responsibility of the finance ministry. The board is chaired by the finance minister, with other members being the commerce minister, deputy chairman of the planning commission, the SBP governor and the finance secretary. Two eminent macro and monetary economists, former governor of the SBP Dr Ishrat Husain and former IMF official Mohsin Khan, are also be on the board.

However, the board still remains incomplete as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had not yet appointed a commerce minister.

The spokesperson of the finance ministry was not available to comment on reasons for the unwarranted delays and the condition of the IMF to notch up the interest rate.

The urgency of calling the meeting has intensified after the government faced serious problems of rebounding inflation, declining tax revenues and repercussions of expansionary fiscal policy from the very first month of the new fiscal year.

In July, the Federal Board of Revenue missed its monthly revenue target. The government borrowed Rs400 billion from the SBP till July26, out of which it retired Rs292.8 billion to commercial banks and the rest of the amount was used for budget financing.

Published in The Express Tribune