I attended the
OPEN conference on the ‘The Art of Leadership’ at the beautiful and secluded
Palo Alto campus of SAP, the German company that invented ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Open stands for
Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs in North America.
At arrival the pretty Pakistani at the check –in announced in a hushed tone over the phone ‘Khan Sahib has landed’. The Open membership and the forum cost me $85. Usually I would balk at this expense but aside from the fact that this was a gathering of the most important Pakistani’s in Silicon Valley and subsequently North America and a legitimate target for any incendiary device to be set by an insidious organization working against Pakistan, we also had our beloved Immi their.
After meeting with many friends and partaking in a sumptuous lunch provided by Mehran restaurant, I argued with an India Muslim about cricket. He said Miadad was a ‘domestic bully’, he proved his point with random stats. I told him I believe in thin slicing, I don’t think he got the point.
However, we all waited with baited breaths to hear Imran Khan, Captain of World Cup wining Pakistan cricket team, a world class cricketer, Philanthropist, Playboy, and Politician.
I have long been a fan of Imran Khan. I have seen him perform on the field and off the field. He thumbed his nose at Ian Botham, partied with Lady Diana, came out of his arrogant stage and became a Che for Pakistan. I have written articles on his quest for leadership. He has never been a very talented speaker, but this time I could clearly tell that he has been trained. He was a warrior, he swept the audience and he was better then Tim Robbins.
I listened to the speech in a horse-stand, the my inner chi threatening to explode as I stood their riveted (not an easy task as I suffer from ADHD). He made us laugh and proud, he made references to brown sahib complex, the elitist schooling, his battles on and off field, and the power to never compromise on your dreams.
‘Always keep your vision ahead of you, never compromise, I could have been a good medium pacer but I wanted to be the best fass bowler in cricket, I could have build a General hospital but I wanted a Cancer hospital, I could have been Prime Minister , but I wanted to change the system from grounds up.’
Imran said one thing that really stuck me, ‘The worst thing about colonialism is that it makes one detest oneself’ How true.
After him there were some other people. We heard Mr.Owais Leghari, the 31 yr old IT minister. He was unimpressive as he reminded me of the power structures and sycophancy in Pakistan.
‘Pakistan does not need any more investment, we need trust…. Aitcheson is not an elitist school’
I really wanted to ask him about his graduation from Rochester University, when the Pakistani Air force One came with his father then the president of Pakistan Farooq Leghari and eighty of his closest relatives to New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles from Pakistan. All on tax payers money. But his power is base on the achievement and deals of his father. Someone else comes to mind, but I can’t quite Bust it out.
I have been a fan of Imran for ages. Here is an excerpt of an article I wrote ten years back when Imran Khan announced his candidacy for a member of National assembly.
“ Driving home from work, listening to NPR, I heard about a third force in UK politics, a pressure group, orchestrated by Sir James Goldsmith, a.k.a Goldifnger. On the backdrop of the musical score from the James Bond movie "Goldfinger", Robert Seagull, the NPR newscaster, explained the eccentricities of this Anglo-French, Jewish millionaire, who has a mansion build in the jungles of Mexico, with armed guards and electric fences, all in the style of Ian Flemings villains. The ruthless millionaire, famous in America as a corporate raider, is internationally known for his cunning moves, especially the one which involved the conversion of all his stocks and shares into gold, just before the great stock market crash on "Black Monday". Sir James Goldsmith has also written a book on GATT. His point of view being that GATT will force under-developed countries to live by the laws of developed ones, especially in the new Intellectual Property Rights andthe Patents law, which banned reverse engineering on patents.
Which all make sense, or does it? …. Maybe GATT got rid of some loopholes that he profited. The enigma remains and is made more complex by the marriage of his daughter to Mr. Imran Khan, himself the political center of Pakistan politics at this time, and creator of the much publicized 'pressure group' or 'third force'. Incidentally, NPR used the same two words, third force and pressure group to describe Sir James Goldsmith campaign, without mentioning the significance of these words inPakistani politics.
So is there a connection or am I hallucinating from the stench of molasses as I make my way past the grain factories on the Mississippi river. Is the father-in-law impressed by his son-in-law.”
