With reference to the article, Honour at stake, (March 14), it is high time that the women of our country and the whole world in general find an identity of their own.
What needs to be done is to change the mental attitude that considers women as vulnerable because the very thought leads to those crimes. Though education may not be enough to raise the status of women, it has certainly brought us a long way from the time when people refused to even recognize such issues.
KIRAN MANSOOR
Karachi
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With reference to the article Honour at stake (March 7), undoubtedly the article depicted the true picture of our so called modern society.
It is high time we should realize our mistakes and learn from them. Every year Women’s Day is celebrated with great enthusiasm. Seminars and rallies are organized, debates are held but very little is derived from them.
However, now is the time we take practical measures and create such living examples that could be followed in the society. Only then can we be able to give honour.
SANA REHMAN
Karachi
An oasis in the making
With reference to the article An oasis in the making (February 15) the increased security in the region surrounding Gorakh was not always there.
It suddenly became the priority of the government when a certain official, Mr Junejo was kidnapped (off the same 32km road mentioned in the article) by a famous dacoit of the area in the first half of January 2003. The kidnapping of the District Officer Revenue in his own jurisdiction exposed the failure of the local police to safeguard a Grade-18 official, let alone the poor public.
This bitter reality caused quite a commotion in the district administration of Dadu whose employees came out to strike and demanded the swift and safe recovery of Mr Junejo, a sentiment that was voiced in the local as well as the national media. Mr Junejo was finally released three weeks later, albeit in suspect circumstances. The kidnappers, however, remain at large and wait for their next victim.
Those travelling to Gorakh should be very careful when they visit this scary, yet beautiful den of dacoits.
RAVIZ AHMED
Karachi
How Bill bootstrapped the PC
With reference to the article How Bill bootstrapped the PC (March 14), while Bill Gates can be rightly credited with making personal computer a reality for hundreds of millions of computer users, even he would not claim the credit for the popularity of Internet browser.
That credit goes to Netscape. Microsoft was a late comer to the Internet party, but to its credit realized the popularity of the browser. It went aggressively after Netscape, giving away its Internet Explorer browser free of charge and in the process, drove Netscape out of the browser business.
More than computers, Microsoft’s product pricing and bundling practices also offer a study in marketing and sales to business school students. Unfortunately, these practices have landed Microsoft in hot water with regulators in United States and European Union. They have accused Microsoft of using the near-monopoly position of its Windows operating system to dominate markets for multimedia and networking software.
The new frontier of the computer may not involve Microsoft’s Windows operating system. For good desktop design, check out Apple Computers. For enterprise systems, Linux is giving others a run for their money. Adobe’s products are used by desktop publishers all over the place. Don’t overlook the browsers and operating systems for cellphones and televisions. How about those huge databases crunching numbers in the background?
Lastly, don’t forget the management and security systems for the vast telecommunication networks supporting the Internet, voice, and video services. There is more to information technology than personal computers, and I did not even mention the computer hardware!
