Popular singer and former One Direction band member Zayn Malik, posted a video on his Instagram and Twitter profile, supporting Malala Yousafzai in her cause to educate young girls.
The video showed messages promoting the education of girls and gender equality. The singer tagged Malala Yousafzai and the ‘Malala fund’ and urged his fans to help the cause by funding it.
Malala retweeted Zayn’s video message with the caption and wrote, “You’re headed in the right direction”, giving us all the hint that two have collaborated for the cause.
Being unemployed is never easy – on the person, his family or on the society as a whole. Here is what you need to do to get viable employment.
To get a job and then to sustain it, a candidate must possess two types of skills: hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are basically the primary talents one can have like engineering, programming, designing, and so on so forth. On the other hand, soft skills are those that let you manage yourself and people around effectively; some examples are social skills, communication skills, emotional intelligence, time management and so on.
A person who has both will have better employment opportunities. So what one should do to learn both, especially, if you cannot afford to go expensive university, or you do not have enough time due to personal reasons?
Edx.org is a platform created by the world best universities from where you can take many online courses for free. These courses are ranging from computer sciences to creative skills like graphics designing or content creation. There are hundreds of other courses that you can take to polish your hard and soft skills.
Be
mindful of one thing that to grow professionally – you have to develop the
habit of learning. As a famous American author Alvin Toffler rightly said:
“Illiterate
of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who
cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
So 2020 is not far away – be comfortable with your anxieties, fears and above all uncertainties. Perhaps, millennials do not have many options to escape this reality.
We have all heard of shoes being stolen outside of mosques while people offer their prayers but a new shoe theft has set a new record of sorts.
According to ARY News, a pair of shoes worth Rs 100,000 were stolen from outside a mosque in Lahore during prayers.
Police say that Sheeraz Bashir went to offer prayers in the mosque situated near Ganga Ram Hospital. When he came back from prayers, he found his expensive shoes had gone missing.
Bashir, a resident of the Defence area of Lahore, came to Ganga Ram Hospital to visit an ailing relative.
Sheeraz Bashir has asked the police to catch the thief with the help of CCTV footage and recover his shoes.
Police say they are doing everything possible to recover the expensive shoes.
Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy and an angsty little movie star called Forky helped propel existential to Dictionary.com’s word of the year.
The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news, the world and throughout 2019.
“In our data, it speaks to this sense of grappling with our survival, both literally and figuratively, that defined so much of the discourse,” said John Kelly, senior research editor for the site, ahead of the announcement.
The word earned “top of mind awareness” in sustained searches at Dictionary.com in the aftermath of wildfires and Hurricane Dorian, and mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas. It also reared itself in presidential politics and pop culture.
Oxford Dictionaries picked climate emergency as its word of the year, noting usage evidence that reflects the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, the company said in a statement.
Dictionary.com crunches lookup and other data to decide which word to anoint each year. The site has been picking a word of the year since 2010.
The word ‘existential’ dates to 1685, deriving from Late Latin’s existentialis. Dictionary.com defines existential as of or relating to existence and of, relating to, or characteristic of philosophical existentialism; concerned with the nature of human existence as determined by the individuals freely made choices.
Meanwhile, last year, Merriam-Webster had chosen “justice” as its 2018 word of the year while Oxford Dictionaries chose “toxic.” “Misinformation” was Dictonary.com’s word of the year in 2018.
As it is the beginning of the month and a few brands are also offering a discount so it is the best time to shop. You might not know that shopping is also good for your health in many ways. Here are 5 health benefits of shopping.
Exercise
You might not walk for
30 to 40 minutes in your normal routine but while shopping you will happily
walk for an hour or so. Walking through the streets of any bazaar or checking
out all the stores at a shopping mall is interesting and also healthy at the
same time as walk reduces the risk of heart diseases, increases muscle strength
and benefits health in many more ways.
Distraction
If something is
bothering you or you are stressed out due to some reason, shopping is a great
distraction. It will temporarily distract you from your problems.
Boosts Your Mood
The fact cannot be
held for denial that shopping has a lot to do with a sense of achievement. When
you buy that shirt you have always wanted, the increase emotions of joy release
endorphins. These are the chemicals in your brain that make you feel good deep
inside.
Makes you more creative
When you go out
shopping, you make experiments with patterns, styles and colors. Your mind
becomes open to things, patterns and there’s a major creative wave that takes
place in your head.
Social bonding
Normally people go out
shopping either with your family or your friends so one can spend some quality
time with friends and family. So grab your friends and go out for
shopping.
Pakistani authorities last month thwarted an attempt by a Sikh girl to enter the country illegally.
According to reports, the girl came to Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Kartarpur and entered Pakistan as a Sikh pilgrim in order to meet her Pakistani boyfriend at the Darbar Sahib.
The girl, identified as Manjeet Kaur, met her boyfriend who was from
Faisalabad. The guy had come along with a couple of friends including a woman.
Kaur decided to stay in Pakistan and the woman who had accompanied the Faisalabad man gave the girl her visitor card. Kaur then discarded her pilgrim card in a dustbin in order to avoid being caught.
However, Pakistani authorities hindered the plan and confronted the couple before the girl could escape into the country.
Following the incident, security around the Sikh holy site was tightened and visitors will now have to provide biometric verification when exiting the holy place as well.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has requested PTV to air famous Turkish historical fiction series Dirilis: Ertugrul. The drama is popularly referred to as the Turkish ‘Game of Thrones‘ by fans.
According to a report in Arab News, the drama will soon air on PTV after being dubbed in Urdu. PTV has gotten exclusive rights for dubbing and screening it in Pakistan and voice actors for the drama have been selected.
The report said that PM Khan had recommended the popular TV opera to all Pakistanis as promoting the true Islamic values.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the initiative has been taken at the behest of the prime minister to protect “our social, cultural and religious norms.”
She said that the Muslim world has its own cultural heritage and values and that the drama can enlighten and broaden the understanding of the history of Islam, especially among younger generations.
“It is also PM Khan’s vision to share media content to counter Islamophobia and improve understanding of Islamic values,” Awan added.
Back in September PM Khan has shared that Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia will jointly launch a TV channel to fight Islamophobia. PM Imran had said that the English language TV Channel will be like BBC which will also highlight the issues faced by the Muslim world.
Our meeting in which we decided to set up a BBC type English language TV Channel that, apart from highlighting Muslim issues, will also fight Islamophobia. pic.twitter.com/GA6o15oJFH
Dirilis: Ertugrul is set in 13th century Anatolia, before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. It illustrates the struggle of Ertugrul Gazi, the father of Osman I – the founder of the Ottoman dynasty.
Since its premiere on state-run Turkish TV channel TRT 1 in November 2014, the serial has been telecasted in 60 countries.
Pakistani business tycoon, Malik Riaz has agreed to hand over cash and assets worth £190 million to National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom (UK).
NCA in recent tweet disclosed the news about a settlement with a Pakistani businessman. The tweet said, “The NCA has agreed a £190m settlement with a family that owns large property developments in Pakistan and elsewhere after a frozen funds investigation”.
The NCA has agreed a £190m settlement with a family that owns large property developments in Pakistan and elsewhere after a frozen funds investigation.
The NCA has accepted a settlement offer in region of £190 million which includes a UK property, 1 Hyde Park Place, London, W2 2LH, valued at approximately £50 million and all of the funds in the frozen accounts.
The agency also said that agreement had been reached with Hussain to hand over the cash and ownership of the exclusive address, which overlooks Hyde Park, adding that the assets will be given to the government of Pakistan.
In August 2019 eight account freezing orders were secured at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in connection with funds totalling around £120 million.
These orders followed an earlier freezing order secured in December 2018 linked to the same investigation for £20 million. All of the account freezing orders relate to money held in UK bank accounts.
Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Muhammad Ali Asghar has ordered that motorcyclists without a helmet would not be able to get petrol in Peshawar.
As perreports, action will be taken against owners of petrol stations if they violate the rule.
A similar rule was enforced in Rawalpindi a few weeks ago following the orders of the Lahore High Court. Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rawalpindi Dr Umar Jahangir had directed all petrol stations not to give petrol to bikers without a helmet.
Like it or not, plus-size individuals very much exist. Fat-shaming and fatphobia are real and not just in Pakistan but across the world as well. People look down upon those who don’t fit the society’s standard of what a person should look like. ‘Thin-ess’ is equated to beauty and fat is considered ugly, no matter what.
For instance, award-winning singer Adele recently lost 10 kgs following her divorce and people cannot stop praising her for hitting back at her estranged husband by losing weight. Any other reason is irrelevant.
Closer to home, across the border, Bollywood actor Sonakshi Sinha recently released a powerful video in which she recounted being fat-shamed and shared all the names which were used to describe her. They ranged from ‘Fatso’ and ‘Aunty’ to harsher ones like ‘Motakshi Sinha’. Just reading such terms should be enough to make you uncomfortable.
Despite all this, the world is making efforts to tackle body shaming. You visit any international clothing brand and you’ll find a section dedicated to plus-sized outfits. However, in Pakistan, this is not the case.
Last month, comedian and actor, Faiza Saleem, who is one of the leading ambassadors of plus-sized women in our country, did a campaign with Lulusar for plus-sized clothing. While on one hand people appreciated the campaign for being inclusive, there was a large population of people who wrote degrading comments on social media posts.
Speaking exclusively to The Current about the collection and backlash, Lulusar said: “Initially, this collection was never intended to become a body positivity statement. From our end, ‘Faiza Saleem x LULUSAR’ was just another collaboration in our series. We did introduce a new size-set so that Faiza could be represented accurately and fully.”
“However, the comments and messages we received on the campaign were a shock. We debated on deleting disparaging & hateful comments in the beginning, but they multiplied every hour,” they stated.
“After this, we did release a statement with Faiza standing up for our values and our philosophy, highlighting the fact that Lulusar is for all. As a brand, we realised we have the platform to ignite change and breakthrough social barriers that all of us are bound by in this society,” added Lulusar.
Speaking further, the brand said, “We began to see comments from women talking about how they regained confidence, how they wanted to dress in bright colors and patterns and never thought they could until this campaign, and the overwhelming support that poured in helped us realise the impact we had made.”
On whether plus-sized fashion has made its way to Pakistan, Lulusar said, “We think that there is definitely a dialogue that has started about the concept of inclusivity, but it hasn’t reached the masses yet.”
“Major brands still don’t have options for women of all shapes and sizes and, if they do, they’re not advertised or they are extremely limited. Plus-sized women are not invited to take part in the newest trends, prints or designs and still have to resort to unstitched dresses. There’s a long way to go in local fashion when it comes to making sure it’s available for all women,” they added.
On the other hand, Khadijah Shah, who is the brains behind one of Pakistan’s most successful fashion brands, Élan said that plus-sized fashion has not yet made its way to Pakistan as it should have.
“I don’t think it has as [of] yet. But, I feel like I see the winds of change,” said Khadijah in her interview with The Current.
In the past, Generation has experimented with plus-size clothing and has even received a positive response for it, but apart from a few campaigns here and there, no one has really carried forward the idea or made it a permanent feature.
On why most Pakistani brands resist from making plus-size clothing, Lulusar remarked, “Cost could definitely be a factor since this is a very niche market and the lower return on investment when compared to conventional campaigns wouldn’t be preferable.”
“However, more than that, it’s the fact that our general society is more receptive towards conventional campaigns, models and fashion. Fear of backlash is probably a greater reason why most brands haven’t taken a step towards inclusivity. For most brands, the negative response is just not worth it.”
