Whenever I speak to policymakers or business leaders today, I notice an uncomfortable silence when the topic of demographics comes up. Not because it is abstract, but because it is terrifyingly real. For decades, we assumed the world would remain young, productive, and constantly expanding. But today, the world’s demographic engine-the very foundation on which […]
demographic
Pakistan’s demographic dividend conundrum and government choices
‘Pakistan is moving through a substantial demographic dividend’ is a ‘tag line’ attached to almost every policy or strategy paper written on Pakistan over the last two decades. More recently though, the catch phrase ‘embarking onto the knowledge based economy’ is becoming equally repetitive. The country has an exceptionally young population with 63% population under […]
‘Love, Death & Robots’ — Netflix’s ‘Heavy Metal’ for post-millennials
Remember ‘Heavy Metal’, the 1981 animated film based on the French magazine Métal Hurlant? That feature-length hodgepodge of stories about stoner aliens, voluptuous androids, horny space travellers, dragon-riding heroines in dominatrix gear and other interstellar-overdriven pulp touches? “A step beyond science fiction” was the tagline; a 13-year-old boy peering at intricate drawings of rayguns and […]