Dear brothers and sisters, June 10, 2009;
Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmathullahi Wa Bharakhathuhu.
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Tue Jun 9, 2009 11:39am EDT
GENEVA, June 9 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday it was getting close to declaring a full-blown pandemic caused by the H1N1 virus, which has infected more than 26,500 people in 73 countries.
Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general, voiced concern at the sustained spread of the new strain in countries including Australia following major outbreaks in North America. Confirmed community spread in a second region would trigger moving to phase 6 from phase 5 on its 6-level pandemic alert scale.
Fukuda, asked whether there was any doubt that a pandemic was under way, told a weekly teleconference: "We are really getting very close to that."
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If the WHO declares a Swine Flu pandemic travel would be affected; economy also would be affected.
As the Swine Flu is getting transmitted from person to person, all activities where groups need to work together would suffer. The impact on the economy is predicted below.
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If there's a pandemic on the level of the 1918 "Spanish" flu, a 2008 World Bank analysis says, it would cost the world economy $3.1 trillion and drop the world's gross domestic product by 4.8 percent in the first year of infection.
A pandemic like the less severe 1957 "Asian" flu would reduce global GDP by 2 percent, The World Bank concluded, while a pandemic like the most recent 1968 "Hong Kong" flu would cut world economic output by just under 1 percent.
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Inshah Allah we plan to avoid the economic downturn as much as possible in what follows.
We know that occupations done from home do not suffer due to travel restrictions. Such a work is called 'telecommuting.' There are some drawbacks to telecommuting.
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updated 12:59 p.m. ET, Tues., June 9, 2009
And if we're hiring, we prefer to recruit people who can come into the office every day, even if the job could be done from anywhere.
The reasons for this have nothing to do with checking that people are actually working. It's about efficient communications, building company culture and camaraderie, and sharing the daily bits of work and personal experiences that create a shared sense of purpose.
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We very much appreciate the need for developing a shared sense of purpose in any organization. However if we are forced to stay home due to Swine Flu, rather than idling our time in our homes, if we could, we should work from home.
But for manufacturing, most other economic activity could be done throgh the Internet and telephone. But many organizations would not be ready to adopt telecommuting to overcome the loss of productivity due to Swine Flu. If there is a way to convert a desk-oriented computer-based job to one of telecommuting it would help tide over the disruption due to Swine Flu. What would be the cost involved in moving a desk job to telecommuting?
We need a laptop or a Netbook to communicate with the Office PC using any one of the remote work programs. A good laptop might cost about $2,000 on which the necessary software could be installed by the user. Even though there are proposals to have such programs pre-installed in the Netbooks, we have not found any in the market now.
The companies need to evaluate whether they are better off spending slightly more than $2,000 per employee or accept the potential loss of productivity. The Governments might consider offering financial support as any avoidance of economic disruption is good for the Governments.
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updated 1:18 p.m. ET, Fri., Oct . 5, 2007
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In this article there is a graph showing the growth of telecommuting. It predicts that 27.5% of Americans would be telecommuting in 2009. Currently manufacturing contributes very little to the GDP. Thus if every computer-related job is made telecommuting, it is possible that the US economy would not suffer even under a Swine Flu pandemic. As regards other countries, their economies might suffer in proportion to the strength of manufacturing in their economies.
We believe the mind controls the body. As a rule if every one of us believes that he/ she is immune from the Swine Flu, with precautions, one might not fall sick.
Ya Allah! Frustrate the activities of any group that tries to disrupt the economies of the nations. Ya Allah! Strengthen the immunity of the population so that even a pandemic in Swine Flu does not cause widespread sickness. Aameen, Aameen, Ya Rabbil Aalameen.
Please contact your friends in America and other Western countries so that they could temporarily adopt telecommuting. In other countries do contact your friends working with computers so that they also benefit.
With prayers to Allah Subhana Wa Taala,
Your brother,
Mohideen Ibramsha
Was Salaam