Aamna's writing

FEATURES By Aamna Mahboob Some days and dates carry importance in the history of Nations just like the fourth of February is a milestone in the history of Sri Lanka, the 23rd March 1940 is the date and day considered as the foundation stone laid for the creation of Pakistan. The 23rd of March is one of the most important days in Pakistan’s history, the day in 1940 when the founding fathers signed the momentous Pakistan Resolution, which gave birth to the idea of a nation. After the creation of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah had said: “We are a nation, with our distinctive culture and civilisation, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitude and ambition; in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation”. By all perceptions, this day March 23 is a red-letter day in the history of the subcontinent as it marked the g...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna MahboobForty-eight Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs) successfully passed a specially designed IT training programme under the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka’s (ICTA) Re-engineering Government programme. This is the first batch of CIOs who successfully completed the International Driving License course. This programme also included a module on Information Technology & Strategic Management for Managers. CIO concept is a widely accepted and practiced idea across the globe for successfully implementing eGovernment projects. Public officials have been handpicked by ICTA for their leadership skills and innovativeness rather than IT skills but, undergo rigorous training in IT. This is to ensure that they provide IT leadership within the government and are being trained to be change agents within their individual organizations. Much time and effort is spent on them as CIOs are the key to the end delivery of e-Services. Mr. Wasantha Desh...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob Minister of export development and international Trade Prof G. L. Peiris said that Sri Lanka has a very bright future in export; we must export our talent to the world. “There is a great demand for craftsmen and skill labuor in the Middle East countries, especially Dubai, Doha and Qatar where the construction industry is growing fast. Hence we should tap this market”, he said. He made these observations at the unveiling of the holding of Excon 2007(Exposition for the Domestic Construction Industry), Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka (CCI) President said they planned to hold construction industry exhibition at BMICH and Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorials Exhibition Hall from 11th to 13th May 2007. He also said that the proposed exhibition would be able to attract around 200 participants belonging to the construction industry. The Minister of Construction and Engineering DR. Rajitha Senratne assured the participants and CCI president to solve their ...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob Unilever Sri Lanka has launched ‘Hadaridma’ a CSR (Cooperate social responsibility) programme aimed at promoting heart healthy living in Sri Lanka recently. ‘Hadaridma’ was launched through its health brand Flora by hosting Unilever’s top contributing retailers to an evening of interactive learning on the importance of leading a heart healthy lifestyle, at Water’s Edge. “What better way to commence such an island wide campaign than with our retail community. This is the first step In Unilever’s mission, through its heart health spread brand Flora, to educate the community on leading a heart healthy lifestyle,” said Surith Perera Unilever’s Marketing Director of Food. Unilever’s heart health initiative comes in the wake of pressing statistics that illustrated as heart diseases are the No1 killer in Sri Lanka. The brand manager of Flora Saumya Perera said that, “When we found out that 10 people die daily of heart related disease, and of which, 7 of them d...

FEATURES By Aamna Mahboob The no parking signs as well as diversion of two way traffic into one-way on Duplication road, Galle road and certain other areas has added to the woes of the general public and the small business man in these areas. It has also added cost affective problem to the transporters who have to take long routes due to traffic diversions. A manager of accessories and clothes shop at Duplication road said that their business is going down due to no parking being allowed along the road side. He added that the customer have to park their vehicle far away from their shop. At time finding no parking places, the customer are forced to walk down for about a distance of two km after parking their vehicles inside lanes. According to him as Vajira road has also been turned into one-way, the customers are facing parking problems there. He also said that if by chance their customer parked their vehicle along the road side then the police will charge them. “We are trying to shift...

FINANCIAL TIMES By Aamna Mahboob The Mega Hair and Beauty Fair and the Hair Asia Pacific 2007 which commenced last week concluding on Sunday showcased the Aura Diamond Collection along with New York based Indian designer’s Indo Western Collection. The Hair and Beauty fair which went on for three days had various events such as the L’Oreal Colour Vision that held the international hair show which was sponsored by L’Oreal, then the Nature’s Secret Beauty Extravaganza that held a seminar about the beauty through the eyes of a doctor sponsored by Nature’s Secrets and lastly a fashion show of the designs of the Sri Lanka’s leading fashion designers and fashion schools. Hair Asia Pacific which started yesterday had over 200 foreign participants from Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan and many other countries. On the first day they had the L’Oreal Colour Vision event which was about forecasting the latest trend in hairstyles. The one hour show also featured the Sri Lanka’s top hairstylists with t...