This was a long, long, week. As the coronavirus continues to spread unabashedly and the government continues to refuse to do anything about it even more unabashedly, Pakistanis looked back at the stability of the rupee compared to last year, and similarities between Pakistan and former Muslim empires.
This week, we look at shade being thrown at all the pundits and anchors that predicted death for the dollar, the possibility of a certain State Bank Governor conducting cloak-and-dagger activities in his spare times, to how Pakistan’ Ottoman obsession is now crossing over to comparisons of decline. Private vaccines were also on everybody’s mind, and once again, the battle against the big three car companies continued to be waged on twitter. Profit’s Ariba Shahid presents this week’s social media roundup.
- Whatsapp uncles eat your words
PKR at 154.5/usd. To all anchors who said it will be 180+ and to the economists who said it will be 250, it’s high time to get hair transplant and new degree.
— Aneel Iqbal (@_AneelIqbal) March 26, 2021
Regardless of whether you have an economics background or not, there are strong chances you have at some point in recent times found yourself amidst a heated drawing room discussion about the rupee vs dollar led by uncles that later send you hot take Whatsapp forwards. These forwards you might remember as being the ones that had advised you to buy up the currency now for when it skyrocketed to Rs 250 for $1. The rupee, however, has stabilized much to the surprise of armchair analysts and television anchors that act as fuel for drawing room discussions. Will any of them be willing to eat their words?
- Conspirator supreme
Economic discourse in Pakistan in the 21st century:
Post SBP autonomy, the Governor is most likely to be a CIA, nay RAW, agent. And the various Deputy Governors? Oh, some category or the other of evil ogres bent upon the destruction of the Pakistani economy. #PakistanZindabad— samir ahmed (@samirahmed14) March 26, 2021
Yes, we know Dr Reza Baqir is cool. In fact, he is very cool. But no, we do not think he is cool enough to be a secret spy or agent out on a self-destruct mission. While we would love to see the State Bank of Pakistan Governor dorn a tux and go on secret missions, it is a vision that remains highly unlikely.
- Dying like the Ottomans
So as per economist @kaiserbengali, Pakistan will run out of money to pay salaries and fund its defence budget of SBP amendment passes as it is.
He says this is similar to the Ottoman Caliphate’s end!
Oh Lord! 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
— Uzair Younus عُزیر یُونس (@UzairYounus) March 24, 2021
Pakistan’s obsession with Turkey and Erturgral knows no bounds. That being said, Kaiser Bengali, despite being an economist played his role in fueling the propaganda against the SBP amendment bill before the contents of the bill officially were disclosed to the public with this astounding claim. We do have a question however, is Dr Bengali slyly trying to claim Imran Khan is the current Caliph? His recent disregard for social distancing will now send a horrible message to the entire Muslim world instead of just Pakistanis.
- A Suez story
SUEZ CANAL BLOCKED: The 400-meter long MV Ever Given remains stuck sideways inside the narrowest part of the waterway, with vessels pilling up north and south of it unable to cross. Our full story is here: https://t.co/tD2IHzluso pic.twitter.com/d2OZ0pkAk7
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) March 24, 2021
While this does not belong to the Pakistani Twitterverse, this news did make way for Pakistani memes. As someone that struggles to parallel park despite having six years of experience in driving, this reporter sends out our heartfelt sympathies to the ship and the companies worried about the disturbance in the supply chain. It also shows how little things and small mistakes are often what become iconic.
- Private vaccines
The private sector must be encouraged to import as many vaccine doses as they can w/o hindering the government procurements for free vaccination. The objective shouldn’t be some misplaced notion of equality, but to increase supply to ensure that maximum nos of peep get vaccinated https://t.co/GkRN6oalcx
— Javed Hassan (@javedhassan) March 25, 2021
There is a lot said on twitter about the import of vaccines by the private sector for those that can pay. As Javed Hassan points out, the import of the vaccine would largely result in greater vaccination of those that can pay in addition to the doses the government is administering for free. Will it mean inequality? Yes. But will it mean quicker inoculation? Also yes.
- Helpful reminders
Yes people, who owns the PUBLICLY LISTED company (AGP) that is importing sputnik? I think we should forget about using Google before spewing nonsense on social media. https://t.co/eDmNzOfhkY
— Azam A. Khan (@AzamAKhan2) March 24, 2021
Criticism aside, fact checks are important. Thank you Azam, for reminding us that the AGP is a publicly listed company in the private sector.
- Learning from mistakes
Happy 50th Independence Day to the Bangladeshi people. They should be proud of all that the country has achieved.
For Pakistanis, this is a good time to introspect and reflect.
Today, a child born in 🇧🇩 is more likely to live as an infant and be literate than one born in 🇵🇰.
— Uzair Younus عُزیر یُونس (@UzairYounus) March 26, 2021
Bangladesh celebrated its 50th independence day this week. With that one cannot help but applaud their progress and compare it with its origin country. It is a shame that we can neither learn from their successes nor have an honest conversation around the events of 1971, given the canceling of a talk organized by LUMS.
- Awards in sight
The ecommerce awards hosted by Profit are nearing the announcement of winners. The Founders Vote has also gone live as of late.
- Email etiquette
Writing work emails is always daunting. Do you say dear? Do you write hi? Do you ask them how they’re doing? More importantly how does one ask for a task that has been overdue for a while without sounding like a jerk? See, we’re not exaggerating. Everyone that has had to write an official email has probably shuddered at the very idea. Umer Farooqi here explains the importance of good email etiquette for a good work relationship at work.
- Good week to all except …
Good morning to everyone except those who feel that CAD is the only metric that matters
— Ammar Khan (@rogueonomist) March 27, 2021
Profit would like to wish a good week to everyone except those that believe the CAD is the only metric that matters. This scribe would also like to exclude people that feel that the Stock market is an indicator of economic progress.
