WHAT IS THE BANE OF ILLITERACY

According to United Nations Development Programmes UNDP’s Human Development Report of 1996, the adult literacy rate in Pakistan is a nearly 36.4 percent and the gross enrollment ration at all levels in 37 percent (which indicates that the literacy rate is not growing at a reasonable rate). Having this gloomy picture in view, how can … Read more

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE AND STUDY

Knowledge is a true justified belief that is acquired by a method of context and reliability. A subjects belief counts as knowledge when they have good reason to have that belief. Trusting one’s sensory experience is a reliable method for acquiring beliefs in most context. If one trust one’s sensory experience, one will acquire beliefs … Read more

U.S. DEFENCE POLICY

The U.S. will continue to threaten retaliation, including nuclear retaliation to deter aggression against it, and its allies, according to the report. The Pentagon is making it clear that it reserves the right to use the nuclear threat even in the event of conventional attack against its forces, it is pouring cold water over international … Read more

U.S. IRAN CONTROVERSY

So far, the U.S. trade embargo against Iran had been partial, in the sense that the U.S. companies were prevented from marketing Iranian oil directly in the U.S. markets. They were, however, allowed to resell Iranian oil in the world market. In fact, last year, this amounted to buying almost 20 percent Iranian crude oil … Read more

WHAT IS BOSNIA PEACE BY PIECE

Progress towards peace in Bosnia shows in every newly stocked store window, on every traffic filled road in central Bosnia, and in the smiles of every roller skating child on Sarajevo’s once deadly streets. But it is all too shaky, a few arrests of alleged war criminals, local quarrels in Sarajevo and in Mostar, or … Read more

WHAT IS CENTRAL ASIA

PROBLEMS OF WEALTH, A WEALTH OF PROBLEMS In 1996, Central Asia became more clearly than ever the object of a new form of international rivalry, particularly in the renewed regional contest over Afghanistan. Some analysts referred to this rivalry as a new “Great Game”, harking back to the term made famous by Rudyard Kipling and … Read more

WHAT IS THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

LOCATION, CLIMATE, LANGUAGE, RELIGION, FLAG, CAPITAL The Russian Federation, or Russia (until 25 December 1991 officially known as the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic RSFSR), constituted the major part of the USSR, providing some 76% of its area and some 51 of its population in 1990. It is bounded by Norway, Finland, Estonia and Latvia … Read more