Thread: Pakistan's Degree Scandal

I think they sure need some help with getting properly accredited degrees :)

Fake degrees could see Pakistan lawmakers barred | Oddly Enough | Reuters

This thread was originally started in Off-Topics but I thought it might feel more comfortable here. My hope is that follow-up stories will begin to name the "schools" in question.

Agriculture 101: The poppy flower.

Originally Posted by Kizmet

My hope is that follow-up stories will begin to name the "schools" in question.

Yep - they have!

See these stories for some sources of fake degrees in Pakistan:

Chowk: : Fake Degrees for the Big Boys in Pakistan
Fake-degree scandal roils Pakistan politics - The Boston Globe

I love this quote:

"A degree is a degree! Whether fake or genuine, it’s a degree! It makes no difference!’’ Nawab Aslam Raisani, Baluchistan Province chief minister, who says he has a master’s in political science, shouted at a gaggle of reporters yesterday. :)

Johann

I simply love that quote :) . But it is true, they are law makers, what they can do is to pass a law in Pakistan saying for diplomas and degrees, fake=genuine. They can have the cake and eat it :)

Originally Posted by Johann

Yep - they have!

See these stories for some sources of fake degrees in Pakistan:

Chowk: : Fake Degrees for the Big Boys in Pakistan
Fake-degree scandal roils Pakistan politics - The Boston Globe

I love this quote:

"A degree is a degree! Whether fake or genuine, it’s a degree! It makes no difference!’’ Nawab Aslam Raisani, Baluchistan Province chief minister, who says he has a master’s in political science, shouted at a gaggle of reporters yesterday. :)

Johann

Originally Posted by jackrussell

fake=genuine

"War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," "Ignorance is Strength."

Originally Posted by Johann

Yep - they have!

See these stories for some sources of fake degrees in Pakistan:

Chowk: : Fake Degrees for the Big Boys in Pakistan
Fake-degree scandal roils Pakistan politics - The Boston Globe

I love this quote:

"A degree is a degree! Whether fake or genuine, it’s a degree! It makes no difference!’’ Nawab Aslam Raisani, Baluchistan Province chief minister, who says he has a master’s in political science, shouted at a gaggle of reporters yesterday. :)

Johann

Thanks for these news stories. They do name some names and they're not unfamiliar names to this board. To me it feels a lot like what happened in the tobacco industry. People in the US were happily smoking their brains out until a huge public education campaign helped them to understand the elements of addiction and disease. Then the tobacco companies just moved overseas to third world nations. Now the coffin nails that are not being sold in the USA are being sold in Africa (and still at a profit). The degree mill owners have just made similar moves. Selling their junk in third world countries to people who are desperate to gain any advantage in this world. Maybe the laws of these countries have not caught up with the modern world or maybe the desperate times make people more susceptible to bribery, or maybe both but these are the same criminals selling the same bogus degrees just in a different part of the world. Shameless.

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Hi

Kizmet, this is a bit off-topic, but I found it interesting that you mentioned the parallel of fake degrees and smoking. (I have no fake degrees but I am a reformed smoker - quit 33 years ago :) )

I'm told that in China, doctors who try to tell people that smoking is unhealthy, are routinely threatened into shutting up by the Chinese government. Reason: the Chinese Government is said to get 10% of its entire tax revenue from tobacco taxes.

Since declining sales (and lawsuits) have hit them here, American tobacco companies are aggressively pursuing opportunities in China --- It's their last big market.

Johann

It's part of the reason that tobacco companies have been so willing to put those scary warnings on the packs and to quietly accept the sin taxes that are applied to their products. They're making their profits in other countries now.

Originally Posted by Kizmet

They're making their profits in other countries now.

They sure are. And fifty - or seventy - years from now, some people will wonder:

(a) Why anyone - anywhere -- ever smoked
(b) Why people depended so long on gasoline to get around

There will still be plenty of juicy problems, though...

Johann