LUMS Review

World Bank Help For Pakistan's Education - A Poisoned Chalice?

Posted on March 1, 2009 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

by Pervez Hoodbhoy

Rumor has it that the World Bank is on its way back to Pakistan with a bagful of loans, together with plans for how we must spend the money. A major focus of the Bank's efforts will be higher education reform. No one doubts the desperate need for reform of Pakistan's education sector, or the need for assistance, especially since we have shown little capacity to fund or plan our education ourselves. But recent experience suggests the Bank's help may be a poisoned chalice. If it is to be otherwise, the Bank will have to avoid local snake charmers and be more skeptical of what bureaucrats and ministers claim.

Continue reading World Bank Help For Pakistan's Education - A Poisoned Chalice? .

DreamFly: Crawl Before You Can Walk

Posted on February 24, 2009 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

DreamFly is giving poor kids in Pakistan, living on less than 50 cents a day, a chance of going to school. These children have no access to education and yet they dare to dream of becoming doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

Recently, DreamFly organized a successful fund raiser at the Harvard Business School. And also met their goal of raising $100,000 for the first DreamFly school. Help this venture in any way you can. More information about DreamFly is here. This initiative has LUMS roots.

How Greed Ruins Academia

Posted on February 20, 2009 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

by Pervez Hoodbhoy

Aquatint of a Doctor of Divinity at the Univer...

Image via Wikipedia

Pakistan's university system is breaking down, perhaps irreparably so. Thanks to the Higher Education Commission's grand plans for a massive change, a tidal wave of money hit our public universities during the Musharraf years. Although difficult financial times finally stemmed the flood, this enormous cash infusion served to amplify problems rather than improve teaching and research quality.

Naked greed is now destroying the moral fibre of academia. Professors across the country are clamoring to lift even minimal requirements that could assure quality education. This is happening in two critical ways. First, to benefit from 3-fold increases in salaries for tenure-track positions, professors are speedily removing all barriers for their promotions. Second, they want to be able to take on more PhD students, whether these students have the requisite academic capacity or not. Having more students translates into proportionately more money in each professor's pocket.

Continue reading How Greed Ruins Academia.

Alumni Magazine 2008

Posted on February 13, 2009 1:34 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

LUMS published their Alumni Magazine for 2008 in December. This year the central theme was the alumni perspective of the workplace. The magazine is embedded at the end of this post. Alternatively, a PDF version is also available:

LUMS Alumni Magazine 2008

With the growing size of the alumni body, the class notes are fast becoming a big dead tree on paper. Maybe they need to re-invent that section.

Continue reading Alumni Magazine 2008 .

LUMS Gradute Studies Talk

Posted on January 27, 2009 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Last January, LUMS Career Development Office hosted a session on graduate studies. They invited a few alumni to share their experience with current students. The session covered topics like admissions, funding, and PhD vs. Masters debate. Below are the slides used at the LUMS graduate session:

Graduate Studies Talk

There is also a similar talk given at UC Berkeley by Jacob Scott. A copy of Jacob's slides are here.

Students may find these two talks useful.

Continue reading LUMS Gradute Studies Talk .

New Dawn for America

Posted on January 21, 2009 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

by Hassan Baig

Around 155 B.C., the Greek post-classical philosopher Carneades of Cyrene came to Rome as one of the three Athenian ambassadors who had come to beg the Roman Senate for a political favor. A fine had been levied against the citizens of their city, and they wanted to convince Rome that it was unfair. Carneades represented the Academy - the same argumentative open-air institution where three centuries before, Socrates drove his interlocutors to murder him just to get some respite from his arguments. It was now called the New Academy, was no less argumentative, and had the reputation of being the hotbed of skepticism in the ancient world.

On the much anticipated day of his oration, Carneades stood up and delivered a brilliantly argued harangue in praise of justice and how administering it should be at the top of our motives. The Roman audience was spellbound. It was not just his charisma; the audience was swayed by the strength of the arguments, the eloquence of the thought, the purity of the language, and the energy of the speaker. But that was not the point he wanted to drill. The next day, Carneades came back, stood up, and orated the diametrically opposite of his speech from yesterday. He proceeded to contradict and refute with no less swaying arguments what he had established so convincingly the day before. He managed to persuade the very same audience in the very same spot that justice should be way down on the list of motivations for human undertakings.

Continue reading New Dawn for America .

Obama's Silence on Gaza

Posted on January 14, 2009 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

by Muneeb Ali

In the last week before Obama's inauguration, people are almost numb about Gaza. At least most of them. Another graphic image of an unnamed dead child appears and you really don't want to look. This is too depressing to glance over, you justify to yourself. The death toll goes up by five or six, but who is really keeping a count? Oh they still haven't reached a thousand?

A few, however, are still human enough to feel the pain. Fresh photographs of child corpses make them hug their own kids a little closer. For these frustrated souls, the death toll of 975 is not just a number. The sacred land of monotheistic religions is bleeding. Yet again. Where are the hope candles that we all have been burning this past year? Where is Obama?

Obama can condemn the loss of life in Darfur, but not in Gaza? He can "closely monitor" the situation in Mumbai, but for Gaza there is only one President at a time? He can criticize the current President on economy, but not the Middle East? The failing US economy calls for urgent action - we understand. But when Obama tries to talk about the economy while bombs are slicing innocent humans, while hospitals are fast resembling slaughter houses, and while schools are turning in to graveyards, you can't help but wonder if he is deaf or blind or both.

Continue reading Obama's Silence on Gaza .

Jaadu on iTunes

Posted on January 14, 2009 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Another LUMS-related startup is in the air. Jahanzeb Sherwani (Bsc 2002) is done with his PhD from CMU and is recently hitting the spotlight for his innovative iPhone application. Jaadu is a VNC client that lets you control your computer from your iPhone. This is, apparently, the first time that Apple has included a software written by a Pakistani on their iTunes store. Jehan Ara has a more detailed story on Jaadu and J. here.

10 Lessons All Pakistanis Must Learn

Posted on December 2, 2008 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

by Hassan Baig

"Mulk khud hi chalta rehay ga" (approximate translation: the country doesn't need our contribution to thrive) is a sentence many Pakistanis are prone to saying. I confess that till a few years ago, I myself was confident of this misleading notion. Misleading and dangerous - especially in today's volatile climate. As Pakistanis, it is imperative that we come to terms with the fact that no heavenly Manna will alleviate our country's plight. The job rests squarely on our own shoulders; with the destiny of a whole nation tethered to our will and to the execution of that will. And so as the clock ticks and the prophets of doom raise a foreboding murmur from East to West, it is high time for us to learn some crucial lessons. Lessons without which our collective slumber will only deepen:

Continue reading 10 Lessons All Pakistanis Must Learn.

Chances of a War

Posted on November 30, 2008 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

by Muneeb Ali

Pakistanis feared, and expected, that the Mumbai attacks will be linked to their country. The media was curling its fingers around this juicy possibility. Hardly waiting to savor the escalating tensions. Even before they actually existed. Now, the Pakistan Army is considering moving its troops, from the Afghan front, back to where they belonged - the Punjab border. Indo-Pak tensions are, once again, creeping into casual conversations. However, there is little, if any, real chance of a war.

If the Pakistani troops start moving towards Lahore, buckle up for needlessly frenzied media reports. Lets not forget that the Pakistani army is currently dislocated. They will only be returning home. A scenario that neither America or Afghanistan can afford at this time. If the troops start building up across the Indo-Pak border, it means going back to playing cat and mouse. The largely harmless, and occasionally catastrophic, game that both armies are accustomed to playing for the past fifty plus years.

Continue reading Chances of a War.

LUMS Review

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World Bank Help For Pakistan's Education - A Poisoned Chalice?

DreamFly: Crawl Before You Can Walk

How Greed Ruins Academia

Alumni Magazine 2008

LUMS Gradute Studies Talk

New Dawn for America

Obama's Silence on Gaza

Jaadu on iTunes

10 Lessons All Pakistanis Must Learn

Chances of a War

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