Pretty young women must marry army officers to motivate young men to serve the nation.
With due apologies to The Acorn for using his proprietary blogpost title of Sunday Levity, this masterpiece from Chitranjan Sawant detailing the ways to overcome officer shortage in the Indian Army deserves widest possible coverage. The pièce de résistance is here.
Young [...]
From Peter and Dilbert.
The Peter Principle:
In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.
And its modern day variation, The Dilbert Principle:
Leadership is nature’s way of removing morons from the productive flow.
Now is the time to remember them because Rowan Manahan reminds us that it has been 40 years since that little [...]
Who won and who lost?
Those with military service, who have been MPs earlier, and won a seat in the recent elections.
Jaswant Singh (Darjeeling)
Suresh Kalmadi (Pune)
Sanjay Singh (Sultanpur)
And those aspirants with military service, who have been MPs earlier and lost in these elections.
Manvendra Singh (Barmer)
Lt Gen TPS Rawat (Garhwal)
Dhani Ram Shandil (Shimla)
Add on to the list [...]
A literal concatenation.
An interesting bit of information about the starting officer rank in the Indian army from the OUP blog:
…the word lieutenant. The word arrived in English from French in 1375 and within 100 years the English were pronouncing it “left-tenant” as if there were a “right-tenant” as well. Yet the spelling that influences Americans [...]
The Pakistan army spokesman in Swat issued a statement on the eve of General Kayani’s unscheduled visit to the region.
“The militants who are sponsored by foreign spy agencies would be completely crushed and their strongholds would be destroyed or captured,” he said.[Tribune]
One never knew that the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence was considered a foreign spy [...]
Two quotes.
From Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and the Battle of Trafalgar by Adam Nicolson
Rather than order, the prevention of disorder was the essence of naval life. Written Admiralty instructions required the boatswain and his mates on each ship “to be diligent . . . and see . . . that the working of the [...]
How Viagra helps CIA win friends by enticing Afghan Chieftains.
From the WaPo –
According to the retired operative who was there, the man was a clan leader in southern Afghanistan who had been wary of Americans — neither supportive nor actively opposed. The man had extensive knowledge of the region and his village controlled key passages [...]
Only two parties seem to be keen on an aggressive Indian military response. One is of course the Pakistani army, which triggered it all for this very purpose. The other one, surprisingly, is a section of the Indian media.
For these people, a sobering anecdotal thought about the men and women who go to war comes [...]
The Pakistani government can place some markers to signify how the jehadi movement is bringing the Pakistani army and the populace in the frontier areas of Pakistan closer to Allah. From The News [HT: Nitin Pai]–
The other day I attended a dinner where I met a major from the army who is posted in NWFP [...]
…of an Indian hand in torching NATO supplies in Peshawar.
This was the fifth attack on the NATO freight terminals in Peshawar in last 10 days. 300 containers destroyed. And here is what the Pakistani newspaper The Post conjures up as an explanation–
One version is that it is Taliban who wanted to cut the supply line [...]
Between the intention and the effect falls the shadow. ~Eliot
While the Indian Navy destroyed a pirate mother ship off the Somalian coast, the Australian Navy is getting two months paid holiday during Christmas. It is one of the innovative ways to improve recruitment and retention rates in the Australian Navy.
What next? A no-war pact with [...]
The Taliban did not run shy of dispensing instant justice during its rule in Afghanistan — public executions in stadia were the norm. Here is a video of one such execution at Kabul in 1999. Now, when the boot is on the other foot, this is the official response from the Taliban.
“We strongly request the [...]
Military metaphors are very commonly used in everyday communication, especially in the political and corporate world. Strategy, tactics, ammunition and arsenal, words with pure military connotations, are commonplace in corporate turf wars and political battles. Some other examples of military metaphors that come straight to the mind are: Spearheading the discussion, Getting off your high [...]
…because hairdos matter more [and pay better] than foreign policy.
Sarah Palin’s travelling stylist, Amy Strozzi was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks in October. In contrast, McCain’s foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was paid $12,500. [Telegraph]
…because India has no Starbucks outlet.
The more Starbucks a country has, the bigger its financial problems.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmad is a Corps Commander in Pakistan Army, of 1 Corps (strike corps) at Mangla. Someone dropped me an email saying that he is the shining star of the Pakistan Army — the one to watch out for in the future. Pronto, Google.
And here is what we have — Meet Lt General [...]
Although there are many versions of this joke (mainly between the Palestinians and the Israelis), the latest adaptation, received by email, is on Kashmir, India and Pakistan.
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.
A representative from India began: ‘Before beginning my talk I [...]
Pragmatic Euphony is on a short break. Regular programming will commence in a few days.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani says this in an interview–
Ever since my release from prison on August 7, 2004, I have been spreading my message across Kashmir. I have a three-point programme.
First to impose an Islamic nizam (Islamic system) [in] Kashmir. Islam should govern our lives, be it in our political thought, socio-economic plans, culture or [...]
The anecdote given below has been received via email. As the name of the author was missing from the email, this blog cannot acknowledge the original author. If any reader happens to know of the original author [Chander], leave a comment so that he or she can be rightly credited for the elfish tale.
In 1974, [...]
Visitants annotate…