Project 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Project 3 - Essay Example In case the tenant damages any property within the apartment, the law provides that it should be tabulated and written down. In case the landlord has any intentions to withhold, the security amount, the same should be communicated to in advance. On the other hand, the tenant has certain rights within the frame work of law. Sec 8-211 provides that the tenant could make repairs and deduct the commensurate amount from the rent. On the other hand, the landlord has a duty to mitigate the effects of the damages through initiatives such as re renting the premises. The law provides that in cases where the lease in question is one of 1 year, a three months’ notice should be given. There is however, an exception in case of farm tenancies that run for 6 months. In case the tenants- landlord agreement is a month to month, there should be one month notice. It is now proper to turn to instances where there is breach or violation of lease agreement, Sec 402.1(a)(1) provides that eviction notice should be given 30 days. However, in cases where the tenant poses a great danger it should be given 14 days. The landlord has the obligation of abiding by the laws when terminating the lease agreement. In this respect, the landlord is barred by the law to take possession of the leased property unless within the confines of the law. On the same note the landlord can only take possession of the tenant’s property only in case the tenant does not give legal notice on exit. Before the tenants enter any premise, the landlord has the duty to disclose all the relevant information. Within such information should be the right of the tenants, the landlord’s right to inspect the premises. Within such information should also be the person whom the landlord may direct to act on their behalf. Based on the above provisions, it is now in order to discuss the matters that relate to the case above. It is evident

What is the marketing mix

What is the marketing mix What is the Marketing Mix The marketing mix of Product, Price, Promotion, and Place was introduced to marketing education by McCarthy (Yudelson 1999). First formulated as a pedagogical tool, the concept of the 4Ps represents a comprehensive way to describe the main tasks of marketing managers. (Goldsmith 1999). It is utilised to implement corporate planning after having researched and audited the marketing environment, identified and understood the customer, established a strategy and decided which market(s) or market segments to serve, or want to serve (Anonymous 2006). The Marketing Mix has its origins in the 60s: Neil Borden (1964) identified twelve controllable marketing elements that would result to a profitable business operation. Jerome McCarthy (1064) reduced Bordens factors to a simple four-element framework: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Practitioners and academics embraced the Mix paradigm that soon became the established and essential element of marketing theory and operational marketing management. (Constantinides 2006) The 4Ps were a suitable framework for the 1960s environment which was characterised by profit making consumer manufacturing companies who were concerned with reaching their customers in an age of emerging mass media and national mass markets. (Anonymous 2006) Eventually the 4Ps of the marketing mix became an unquestionable paradigm in academic research, the validity of which was taken for granted. (Grà ¶nroos 1994). There are voices though from academics and researchers which shout that the Marketing Mix in the fo rm of the 4Ps is not able to face the latest marketing challenges. The components of the Mix Product Since its the consumers perception that should be the centre of product policy, the product should not be defined as just the set of its own physical properties. The perceptions are influenced by different parameters, such as any associated services, the image, the brand name, even the social and cultural connections, or the perception of its own differentiation from competition. A product is a mixture of tangible and intangible attributes, including functional, social and psychological utilities or benefits (Anonymous 2006). Price Price is the only revenue generating element of the marketing mix; the other elements consume resources. There are three basic pricing strategies that all organisations can pursue for existing products: pricing above the market (higher than similar competitve products), pricing below the market (lower than competition) and pricing at the market (almost at the price of competition) (Anonymous 2006). Promotion One long-term purpose of promotion is to influence and encourage buyers to accept or adopt goods, services and ideas. Potential buyers go through a psychological or behavioural process before purchasing a product. AIDA, which is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action incorporates psychological processes: attention is a cognitive process, interest and desire are affective processes and action is a manifest behaviour process (Anonymous 2006). Place Place, or distribution strategy concerns the routes by which marketers of products and services can ensure that these reach their intended market. We normally refer to these routes as marketing channels, which include those intermediaries that products and services pass through from the point of production to the point of final use (Anonymous 2006). Criticism TQM and Relationships Management: Adaptation, not Revolution Yudelson (1999) identified six major marketing developments that challenged the 4Ps since the introduction of the Marketing Mix. Focus on the customer via the Marketing Concept (1960s); Broadening of marketing to include not-for-profits, services, causes, and even politics (1970s); Identification of the exchange transaction as the core of marketing (1970s); Introduction of Total Quality Management with its emphasis on customer satisfaction (1980s); Extension from transaction marketing to relationship marketing (1990s); Identification of the firm as a member of a complete value chain (1990s). Since the 80s, the definition of Product as anything offered is challenged due to the new perspective that organisations face: The success depends on the ability to transform satisfaction to delight. Customer satisfaction is identified as the new driving force, and that is one of the foundational ideas of TQM. Place is expanded to include the entire distribution system, which creates time and place utility and may incorporate specific systems such as just-in-time delivery as part of channel management. During the 1990s, another significant shift occurred. The role of relationships in the marketing activities of the organisation replaced the transaction perspective of earlier times. Price is no longer the amount of money paid to acquire a single Product but the lifetime costs associated with the acquisition, use, and ultimately disposal of the benefits attained during a period of time. Place is no longer just the point of exchange since that fails to communicate the interactions that occur as the product changes ownership and utility from conceptualisation to final disposal. Yudelson suggests that after nearly 40 years, the 4Ps need to let go because, as shown, the terminology has not managed to handle the challenges of developments in marketing thought and practice. However, no commonly agreed or satisfactory replacement has appeared and anyone who grew up on the concept of marketing mix (customers, marketing professionals and academics) would face significant dissonance if the key paradigm were dismissed. So, he suggests that the best strategy is Adaptation and not Revolution. His proposed adaptation focuses on the essential aspects of marketing as exchange driven behaviour, maintains the simplicity and familiarity of the 4Ps, recognises the concerns of past critics, and is capable of applying to both single instance transactions and long-term strategic relationships. Product should be redefined as all the benefits (present or anticipated) that the buyer or acquirer obtains from the exchange. It is recommended that Product be renamed as Performance to communicate the sense of benefit to the customer. Price should be redefined as everything that the acquirer gives up to obtain the benefits. It is suggested that we refer to the second P as Penalty to signify those things that the customer would have to give up or seek to minimize while obtaining the benefit or Performance associated with the exchange. Promotion should be redefined to include all of the information that is communicated between the parties to the transaction in keeping with the current thought on Integrated Marketing Communications. The purpose of the communication or information is to influence or encourage each party to enter into the transaction/ relationship. This is accomplished by providing information regarding the costs and benefits of the transaction-or better-the Perception of the Performance and Penalty. Place can be now defined as all that is done and required to facilitate or bring about the exchange and therefore, Yudelson proposes its redefinition as Process. Relationships Marketing A paradigm shift Grà ¶nroos (1994) believes that a paradigm shift is taking place in marketing. One of the main reasons lies beneath the nature of marketing mix. The marketing mix is a list of categories of marketing variables. A list never includes all relevant elements, it does not fit every situation, and it becomes obsolete. Moreover, the 4Ps represent an oversimplification of Bordens original concept, which was a list of 12 elements not intended to be a definition at all. This list would most probably have to be reconsidered in any given situation. Grà ¶nroos believes that McCarthy either misunderstood the meaning of Bordens marketing mix or his followers misunderstood McCarthys intentions. Probably Bordens original idea of a list of a large number of marketing mix ingredients that have to be reconsidered in every given situation was shortened for pedagogical reasons and a more limited number of marketing variables seemed to fit typical situations observed in the late 1950s and in the 1960s. T he 4Ps were never applicable to all markets and to all types of marketing situations. The development of alternative marketing theories (interaction/network approach to industrial marketing and the marketing of services, customer relationship economics) demonstrates that even from a management perspective, the marketing mix and its 4Ps became a problem. Gronroos concludes that in industrial marketing, services marketing, managing distribution channels and even consumer packaged goods marketing itself, a shift is clearly taking place from marketing to anonymous masses of customer to developing and managing relationships with more or less well-known or at least somehow identified customers. Other Reviews and Criticism Constantinides (2006) undertook a literature review on the status of Marketing Mix at the 21st century. He discovered that many researchers express serious doubts as to the role of the Mix as marketing management tool in its original form, proposing alternative approaches: adding new parameters to the original Mix (e.g. 7Ps for services) or replacing it with alternative frameworks altogether. Some of the weaknesses of the 4Ps identified in the study are domain specific: ignoring the human factor, lack of strategic dimensions, offensive posture and lack of interactivity. Two limitations however seem to be common in all reviewed categories: The models internal orientation: The lack of explicit market input in the framework which sources from the fact that the Mix was originally developed as a concept suitable for marketing of consumer products in the mass-oriented US manufacturing sector of the 60s The lack of personalisation: Significant shifts of consumer behaviour such as individualisation, diminishing brand preference, value orientation, increasing sophistication etc. have undermined the effectiveness of the impersonal one-way communication and the mass marketing approaches. Hyman (2004) undertook a similar study on the criticism of the Mix. According to that, some marketers contend that the scope of the 4Ps is insufficient from a pedagogical or applied perspective. To address this limitation, they updated the schema by refining the current Ps, adding new Ps, broadening its perspective, or adapting it to specific industries. Moreover, he summarised previously published criticism of the 4Ps: Inadequate theoretical grounding Not formally integrated into the exchange paradigm Fails three of the five requirements for a sound classification schema Overly focused on consumer goods, yet is production rather than marketing-concept oriented Cannot account for the full range of marketing management activities Ignores strategic marketing Focuses only on the acquisition stage of consumption Contains an increasingly catch-all (i.e. atheoretically focused) promotion category Fails to account for interactions between Ps or boundary-spanning topics Is incompatible with the relationship-marketing paradigm van Waterschoot and Van den Bulte (1992) in their own research identified five key limitations of the 4Ps model: It focuses on what marketers do to customers rather than for them. It is externally directed and ignores the internal market. It says nothing about interactions between the mix variables. It takes a mechanistic view about markets. It assumes a transactional exchange rather than a relationship. The Xbox 360 Marketing Mix The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. The Xbox 360 is the successor to the Xbox, and competes with Sonys PlayStation 3 and Nintendos Wii as part of the seventh generation of gaming systems (usually called next-gen) (Wikipedia 2007). Product Name and Concept The term 360 represents a circle and is inline with the concept of the product. The customer is placed at The centre of the experience. Its a videogame and an entertainment system that integrates music, picture, games and movies. Everything revolves around the customer.(Porcaro 2005) Classification Xbox 360 belongs to the shopping consumer products category, which includes products purchased after the consumer shops around to find the best deal based on comparisons of price, quality, style, durability and other product attributes that are felt to be important. Although due to shortage at its launch many consumers were making effort to find one and others were forced to buy from eBay at inflated prices, 3 months after the launch the console could be purchased with smaller effort. Therefore, a classification of Speciality is not justified. Product Mix The total set of products a company sells is called its product mix, which consists of its component product lines. The product mix of Microsoft regarding console gaming consists of the following product lines: Xbox 360 consoles, the Xbox Live Services (Marketplace, Video and Arcade), console accessories and Microsoft Games. Xbox 360 Product Line During launch only two configurations were available; the Core and the Premium versions. Over time, the product line length rose to 3, in an Up-Market Stretch move from Microsoft, by introducing a high end version (Elite). Product Positioning Microsoft targets both casual and hard-core gamers. The Core and Arcade versions seem attractive to the former, while Premium and Elite are more appropriate to the latter. Product Levels The five levels of customer value hierarchy are as follows (Kotler and Keller 2006): Core benefit: The benefit that the customer is really buying. The buyer of the Xox 360 is buying video gaming. Basic Product: The Xbox 360 includes a video games console and a controller. Expected product: A set of attributes and conditions the buyers normally expect. Gamers expect from the seventh generation of gaming systems good graphics and sound performance, a wireless controller, digital connection with the HD TV and the amplifier, online gaming with friends through the internet and the ability to listen to music and watch videos. Augmented product: The level in which the product exceeds customer expectations. The Xbox 360 through its Xbox LIVE service lets the customers download purchased or promotional material. This includes game demos, movie and game trailers, Arcade games as well as add-on game content (items, costumes, levels, maps etc). Potential product: All the possible augmentations and transformations the product might undergo in the future. Even before the launch of Xbox 360, Microsoft was researching ways to create a video store accessible through the console, as well as a TV service which would add IPTV functionality. One year after the launch of the console, the Xbox Video Marketplace was introduced in the United States, and the Microsoft TV service under development. Pricing The following table summarises competition pricing during their respective launch. Note that Playstation and Wii launched at November 2006, almost a year later than Xbox. The Xbox 360 was the first next-gen console to enter the market. Generally, if the product is an innovation, then the initial price is usually set quite high (Anonymous 2006), but this is not the policy that Microsoft followed. Microsoft used the strategy of Price penetration, in an effort to take as much market share as possible. In fact, it was reported that Microsoft was losing $126 per unit sold (Joystiq 2005). Robbie Bach, president of Entertainment and Devices Division, said that the Xbox 360 business will become profitable in 2008 and that the profit to make is not on the hardware itself, but rather on Live service subscriptions, accessories and games (Gamedaily 2007). In August 2007, Microsoft dropped the prices by à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 20 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 50. In October 2007, they introduced the Arcade version and priced it exactly the same as the Wii, that is At the market. Odd-even pricing assumes product sales benefit from prices such as  £99.99 rather than  £100.00, because customers will think the product is a good deal (Anonymous 2006). As we saw, Microsoft followed this policy, as all next-gen competitors did. Promotion Microsoft utilized the following Marketing Communications Mix for the launch of the console system. Advertising The advertising campaign took place via television, magazines and internet sites. The tag line was Jump In, which was in complete accordance with the name and the concept of the product (the center of the experience). The ads were introducing the idea that its more fun to play when youre part of a community, that games have always been more fun when you play with friends (Porcaro 2005). Sales Promotion The sales promotion took place through online contests and websites. OurColony.net offered challenges to its community, rewarding solutions with cropped pictures of the console and game screenshots. OrigenXbox360.com was offering visitors an opportunity to enter in various contests for a chance to attend promotional pre-launch events. Hex168.com hosted a number of images that appeared to perpetuate obscure conspiracy theories, but sometimes contained oblique references to Xbox 360. The campaign was later revealed to be a U.S. contest that offered participants a chance to win one of three hundred and sixty Xbox 360 console bundles six days before the official launch (Wikipedia 2007). Marketing Public Relations In order to assist the launch and to increase awareness, Microsoft made use of Marketing Public Relations. The official unveiling of the Xbox 360 occurred on May 2005 on MTV in a program called MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed (Wikipedia 2007). Elijah Wood hosted the show which featured a musical performance by the band The Killers. Ten days later the Xbox 360 was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine along with an associated article. Obviously, the viewers of MTV belong to the target market, while the cover of TIME magazine was a huge boost to the hype. Events Microsoft is one of the major exhibitors in the annual E3 Media and Business Summit which is considered as the biggest annual event in the video game industry. The announcements regarding future development are taking place at the Microsoft keynote event, which is highly anticipated by the worldwide video game media and community. Microsoft is also a frequent sponsor to gaming events. In association with adidas and EA Sports, they sponsored the Xbox World Cup, which received a lot of publicity by the gaming community. Gamers who qualified through national preliminary rounds were given an all-expenses paid trip to Berlin to take part in the competition representing their nations in matches that took place in an 8,500 seat stadium. Microsoft managed to identify with the target market as well as increase awareness and express commitment to the community. Place (Distribution) As mentioned earlier, the product suffered from shortages during its launch, due to huge demand and slow production. However, three months later the problems had been bypassed and it is worth noted that in its first year on the market, the system launched in 36 countries, more countries than any console has launched in a single year. Microsoft chose to distribute the products through the Producer >> Wholesaler >> Retailer >> Consumer channel. For the countries where Microsoft has physical presence, the Wholesaler intermediary part was played by the regional division. The Xbox 360 is distributed intensively, which means that all available outlets are used for distributing it. Conclusion The marketing mix of Product, Price, Promotion, and Place was introduced to marketing education during the 1960s. Practitioners and academics embraced the paradigm that soon became the established element of marketing theory and operational marketing management. Eventually the 4Ps of the marketing mix became an unquestionable paradigm in academic research, the validity of which was taken for granted. However, many researchers and academics object. Yudelson believes that the Mix requires adaptation to the challenges of the era (TQM and the role of relationships) and proposes redefinition of the components. Grà ¶nroos argues the 4Ps was never intended to become a paradigm and started as a simple list which was an oversimplification of a larger list. He states that the 4Ps were never applicable to all markets and to all types of marketing situations, and that we have started to experience a paradigm shift towards relationships marketing. Other studies also conclude that the marketing m ix of the 4Ps is getting old and cannot address complex environment issues, such as management of personalisation. The application of the marketing mix model to the Xbox 360 gaming console system revealed that model managed to incorporate some of the major marketing planning activities of Microsoft under its 4Ps components. However, Yudelsons model seems to apply better. Xbox 360 is not just about the actual console product, but through its integration with other products and services its about the Performance of the entertainment experience. Its Promotion is inline with the current thought on Integrated Marketing Communications. And finally, its Place (distribution) is more about the Process of distribution, from which Microsoft actually suffered during the launch. Also, the marketing mix model failed to incorporate the personalisation component of the product. That is, through the LIVE services each user is uniquely identified. Microsoft has access to personal information, such as favourite games, music and movies and is able to propose similar content to the customers upon request. Unfortunate ly, the 4Ps did not manage to capture this aspect of Xbox 360 marketing. We conclude that the marketing mix is a tool which has performed well in the past and may still do in many cases. However, the increasingly complex environment demands adaptation and expansion. Personalisation for example is a very important component and should be incorporated under the umbrella of the new XPs, whatever number the academia decides that X should be. References Anonymous (2006). Strategic Marketing Module Book Edition 10, Management Centre, University of Leicester. Borden, N.H. (1964), The concept of the Marketing Mix, Journal of Advertising Research, June, pp 2-7 Constantinides, E. (2006), The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management 2006, 22, pp 407-438 Gamedaily, http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/bach-xbox-business-profitable-next-year/70371/?biz=1, [15 December 2007] Goldsmith, R. E. (1999), The personalised marketplace: beyond the 4Ps, Marketing Intelligence Planning 17/4, pp 178-185 Grà ¶nroos, C. (1994), From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing, Management Decision, Vol. 32 No. 2, 1994, pp. 4-20 Hyman, M. R. (2004), Revising the structural framework for marketing management, Journal of Business Research 57, pp 923- 932 Joystiq, http://www.joystiq.com/2005/11/23/microsoft-losing-126-on-every-sold-xbox-360/, [15 December 2007] Kotler, P. and Keller, K. L. (2006), Marketing Management 12e, Pearson Prentice Hall McCarthy, E.J. (1964), Basic Marketing, a Managerial Approach, Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.. Porcaro, J. (2005), Xbox 360 Marketing, http://www.johnporcaro.com/2006/03/xbox_360_market.html, [15 December 2007] van Waterschoot, W. and den Bulte, C. (1992). The 4P classification of the marketing mix revisited, Journal of Marketing 56 (October), pp 83-93. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360, [15 December 2007] Yudelson, J. (1999), Adapting Mccarthys Four Ps for the Twenty-First Century, Journal of Marketing Education 21, pp 60-67

Privacy In The Information Age :: essays research papers

The world is changing rapidly. There used to be a time when we could be confident that no one could learn too much about our personal lives. There used to be a time when information was merely a way of keeping records. That time is gone and with it went a large amount of what we might call our personal privacy. Information about our personal lives has now become one of the most valued resources on the market today. The explosion of the computer and communications industries has created a system that can store vast amounts of data on an individual and transmit that information almost anywhere in a negligible amount of time. More and more people are gaining access to this information and the government has been too slow to react to the changes. As a result, employers, insurance agencies, law enforcement officers, and researchers are all lobbying for legislation that would establish clear rules for the access to this information. Each of these groups stand to gain enormous benefits from legitimizing access to a broad base of personal information. This information will be organized into vast databases that will be maintained by the government, credit report agencies, the health care industry, and employers. The system will come to contain information on virtually every aspect of our lives, the data will be quickly and efficiently transferred around the globe via the arising Global Information Infrastructure, and paper records sitting in file cabinets will become a thing of the past. However, considering current trends, what may be missed the most from the old system are the locks on those old, rusted file cabinets. This new system allows for a lot of access to previously confidential files and we are already seeing the negative effects that this system has produced. For example, employers and insurance companies have begun to discriminate against individuals based on samplings of a person’s or fetus’s DNA. As genetic testing and the human genome proje ct advance, there will be an even greater opportunity for discrimination based on characteristics or conditions that may, or may not, arise in an individual's future. To provide a background to the discussion, this report will establish who has access to what information today.

Examinations. Good or Bad? Essay

Examination is a very wide word, which is used in all spheres of life. It is the most feared word of many students. We have examinations everywhere around the world. In Singapore, students take examinations every few months and major examinations every few years. As a result, many parents often push their children to strive in examinations. This causes them to feel extremely pressured as they have to juggle extra co-curricular activities that are compulsory in Singapore’s education system as well as to ensure that they do not neglect their studies and to meet their parents’ expectations. They often end up burning the midnight oil when there are examinations, leaving them worn out. Hence, the majority of students in Singapore feel that exams should be abolished. However, examinations are also proven to be beneficial. They help observe if we were able to consolidate what we have learnt and it has given students the drive to study. Without examinations, do you think a stud ent will spend time revising? Clearly, examinations should not be abolished. Examinations have given students the drive to study. As many parents expect their children to pass with flying colours during examinations, they usually will push them to study, hoping that by doing so they will get good grades. Sending them to tuition classes or even taking time off work to help them with their studies are ways parents will push them to work hard. As many parents always tell their children, â€Å"getting good grades will get you a good job†. By doing so, students will have to put in effort into their studies and do frequent revision which helps them to understand better. Should examinations be abolished, students will not be motivated to study and do revision. Without revision, there is no point in having classes as one will not learn and remember everything being taught. Students will then laze around and waste unnecessary time which could have been used for revision which will be beneficial to them. Not only do examinations give students the drive to study, they are also used to evaluate students. It is important for schools to evaluate how well students can consolidate the material presented to them, as otherwise the teachers might have explained everything in class in vain. The evaluation based on the grades taken in exams can help the teachers see what the students’ mistakes are and what misconceptions they may have and the teacher can correct them. Moreover, it helps them to see the students’ areas of  strengths and weaknesses and ensure that the teacher is able to maintain their strengths and improve their weaknesses. Hence, students will be able to learn better and it is no doubt that examinations are helping the students. Some people point out that examinations cause a large amount of stress to many students. Admittedly, students tend to feel extremely pressured when they hear the word â€Å"examinations†. This is because they are being pressured to meet their parents’ expectations by studying extremely hard, and sometimes, even burning the midnight oil. While doing so, they also have to attend extra co-curricular activities as well as to attend ballet classes, piano classes, tuition classes, and many more. However, if students learn to manage their time properly, I do not see why they should feel stressed. By completing their homework and revision on time and by drawing out timetables, there should not be a problem when it comes to dealing with examinations. Moreover, instead of doing last-minute revision, they could have done revision every day after school. This way, they will not panic. Furthermore, if students do not waste unnecessary time lazing around and playing video games, ther e should not be a problem with not completing their revision on time. Additionally, stress helps boost brain power as well as create mental toughness, increase clarity, and it helps in greater appreciation for one’s circumstances, and contribute to a sense of confidence built on a history of overcoming of obstacles. Hence, when it comes to examinations as a whole, the good outweighs the bad. All in all, examinations have been beneficial to many people.

Why I Love Pakistan

Love is a great passion. It is natural that man loves his native country. The same case in with me. I love Pakistan because it is my dear homeland. It was a dream of Allama Iqbal. And the Quaid-e-Azam struggled hard against the Hindus and the British to turn it into a reality. It appeared on the map of the world on the 14th of August 1947. I love Pakistan because God gave it to us as a gift to fulfill our desire to make it an ideal Muslim State. We got it in the name of Islam.It was the duty of our leaders to honour their pledges, but we are ashamed to say that they did not or perhaps they could not. It ought to have been an Islamic Country like Saudi Arabia, having a purely Islamic constitution an Islamic outlook of life and a strong love for an Islamic way of living. But we are not hopeless yet. I hope a time will come and Pakistan will become a real fort of Islam (Inshallah). I love Pakistan because there are still many people in it who demand crimes to be punished as laid down in the Holy Quran.And when this is done all social and moral evils amongst us will come to an end. We shall then become Muslims in the real sense of the word. And then Allah's promise in the holy Quran that â€Å"you will be most exalted if you become true Muslims† will insha Allah be fulfilled. I love Pakistan because while living in it we are free from the maltreatment of the Hindus. We are not forbidden to sacrifice the cow. Our shops are not looted by them our houses are not burnt by the bad characters amongst them.The doors of all important services are not closed on us. We re thankful to Allah because there are no ill natured Hindus here to fill our hearts with constant fear by their destructive designs and anti Muslim activities to kill us to loot to burn our property simply because we are Muslims. I love Pakistan because it is progressing by leaps and bounds in every field. I love Pakistan because its army its Navy and its Air Force are strong enough by the grace of All ah to guard every inch of his sacred territory.I love Pakistan because its government is our own government and its commerce its industry and its imports and exports are in our own hands. I love Pakistan because the doors of its services are all open to us and we are free to worship Allah as we please. We are free to go to mosques. Rather everybody is free to offer his prayers according to his creed. I love Pakistan because Allah wants it to exist despite our faults and it will Insha Allah exist as long as any other country does.I love Pakistan for the sake of all the saints who lie buried in it. I love it for the sake of all martyrs who fought for it. I love Pakistan because it will sooner or later win for itself a place of great honour and importance amongst the Muslim countries of the world. It will become the fountain head of Islam. It will work for the glory of Islam. Pakistani people will leave no stone unturned to spread Islam all over the world. I love Pakistan because it is the land of peace and its object is world peace. The CivilizationPakistan is not a recent figment but a continuation of 5000 years of history: quite sheepishly, I admit, that I am an adherent of the view held by many historians that the Indus valley and the Indus man were always somewhat distinct from their brethren across the Indus. I do not wish to venture into this debate but I am proud as an inheritor of Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Mehrgarh (not strictly in this order) and this makes me feel rooted and connected to my soil as well as ancient human civilizations and cultures.It also makes me happy that no matter how much the present-day media hysteria about Pakistan (and â€Å"natives† in general) diminishes my country and region, nothing can take away this heritage and high points of my ancestral culture. Pakistan is not just Indus civilization – it is a hybrid cultural ethos: the Greek, Gandhara, the central Asian, Persian, Aryan and the Islamic influences merge in to this river and define my soul – how can I not be proud of this? The People I simply love the Pakistani people – they are resilient, diverse and most entrepreneurial.They have survived calamities, famines, upheavals, injustices and exploitation and yet, by and large, retain a sense of humour. I am not naive to say that they are totally free of the various bondages of history but they display remarkable entrepreneurial and creative potential. Most of them are â€Å"real† and rooted and yet not averse to modernity. There is an urban revolution taking place in parts of Punjab and Sindh and the drivers are neither the state nor external donors but the people themselves. The private sector has even contributed to build an airport.There is an ugly side as well: the absence or predatory activities of the state (e. g. Karachi) has also provided a breeding ground for mafias but this is not a unique Pakistani phenomenon. From LA to Jakarata, such groups operate within t he folds of urbanization. I am proud of my people who have proved themselves in all spheres and countries – whether it is Professor Abdus Salam, the Nobel Laureate or Shazia Sikander, the miniaturist of international fame or Mukhtaran Mai who has proved her mettle in giving a tough time to forces of oppression.The Spirituality There is inordinate focus on Pakistani madrassahs, the pro-Taliban groups and the violent jihadis. How representative are these groups? Only Pakistanis know that such groups are marginal to the mainstream attachment to and practice of religion. The rural folk are still steeped in Sufi worldview and many versions of Islam exist within the same neighborhood. Of course there is manipulated curse of sectarian violence but that mercifully is not embedded despite the attempts of big external players and the octopus-like state agencies.Ordinary Pakistanis, such as me, value their Islamic beliefs, are God fearing and follow what is essentially a continuation of the centuries old traditions of spirituality that survives in the folk idiom, in the kaafis of Bulleh Shah, and in the verses of Bhitai and Rahman Baba. Our proverbs, day-to-day beliefs are all mixed and laced with history, oral tradition, Sufi lore and of course Islamic simplicity. It is another matter that there are individuals who want to hijack this thread and impose their nonsense on us – but we as a people have resisted that and shall continue to do so.After all we inherited the confluence of ancient religions and practices. Pakistan is where Buddha taught and Taxila shined, and where Nanak preached and the great saints – Usman Hajweri, Fariduddin Ganj Shakar, Bhitai and Sarmast – brought people into the fold of Islam. Despite the revisionist, constructed history by extremists in India, the sword had little to do with Islam’s rise in this region. The Natural Beauty Well the spirituality of my homeland is not just restricted to the intangible belief systems. It also reflects in the splendors of Mother Nature.From the pristine peaks in the north to the mangroves of the Indus delta, Pakistan blends climates, geographies, terrains in its melting pot. Within hours of leaving an arid zone, one enters into a fertile delta. And again a few more hours put you right in front of otherworldly mountains. The deserts of Cholistan radiate the moonlight and the surreal wildernesses of Balochistan are nothing but metaphors of spiritual beauty. Where else can I experience the aroma of wet earth when the baked earth cracks up to embrace every droplet and where else can one find a Jamun tree with a Koel calling the gods?An everlasting impression on my being shall remain the majestic sunrise at the Fairy Meadows amid the Karakorams and the melting gold of Nanga Parbat peak. I love this country’s rivers, streams and the fields where farmers testify their existence with each stroke, each touch of earth. I cherish trees that are not just tree s but signify Buddha’s seat or the ones in graveyards nourishing the seasonal blossoms. The Cuisine Yes, I love the aromas and myriad scents of Thai cooking, the subtlety of the French and Lebanese or the Turkish dishes but nothing compares to the Pakistani cuisine.Forget the high sounding stuff; ghar ka khana (homemade food) no matter which strata are you from is difficult to find elsewhere (except India of course). Whether it is a simple Tandoor ki Roti with Achaar or Palak (in the Punjab) or the intricate Biryani with ingredients and spices of all hues, the food is out of this world. In my house, we were used to at least ten different rice dishes (steamed white rice/saada/green peas/vegetable/channa/choliya/potato Pilau), three types of Biryanis (Sindhi, Hyderabadi, Dilli or just our cook’s hybridized Punjabi version), and my grandmother’s recipe of Lambi Khichdee.The list continues. In the Northern areas, there are Chinese-Pakistani concoctions, in the North West Frontier there is meat in its most tender and purest form. In Balochistan there is Sajji, meat grilled in earthenware at low heat until all the juices have transformed the steaks into a magic delight. And, the fruits and the sweets – the mangoes that come in dozens of varieties and colours, melons of different sizes, the pomegranates and the wild berries that still grow despite the pollution everywhere! How could I not love this eclectic cuisine? And Finally†¦ the sum-total of all five: I love Pakistan as this is my identity – immutable and irreversible. Simple. The genesis of this post. I am averse to the ratings and rankings that characterize the junk-journalism of our times. Much like the embedded style of reporting such a view remains partial and often ignorant of the nuances and layers of subtext that are almost unachievable in the pop-view of the world. Readers might question this apparent paradox as on the one hand I am participating in this top-five series and on the other I am also being critical.Well, well this is kosher from a South Asian perspective as we remain a mythical-modern bundle of contradictions. The real reason for me to ‘submit’ my top 5 is the inquiring spirit of Mayank Austen Soofi whom I don’t know and have never met. But I am quite empathetic to his efforts at understanding Pakistan. At least he ventures into the ‘other’ territory and unlike the mainstream media and writers, does not view Pakistan as a threatening collage of burqa clad women, terrorism and gun toting radicals.Even as he carries out his current obsession, i. e. Pakistan, there are many in the blogosphere who have questioned his motives and alleged deliberate derision of Pakistan and its inhabitants through his writings. Since I do not suffer from this sort of irrational paranoia, I am happy to let him write more on my country. At least there is one alternative voice, one un-cliched perspective from the other si de of the border. Even if my young friend employs a cliched format in this series, it is better than ‘high writing’ churning more cliches!