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Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Environment on July 8th, 2009
I’m internet surfing when suddenly the clock strikes 5:00 a.m., and the lights go out. “Ugh,” I say out loud. “Not again.” I count the number of hours it’s been since the last outage. Two. Guess we’re back to the electricity going every two hours yet again, I think to myself.
Electricity outages, or load sheddings as their commonly referred to in Pakistan, happen every day, multiple times a day. Most days you’re lucky if it only goes out six times a day, but some days it goes out every other hour. Depending on where you are in Pakistan, the load shedding can last anywhere from one hour to two or three hours.
The reason — there’s not enough infrastructure to support the rising Pakistani population which is over 172 million, according to a July 2008 estimate by the CIA World Fact book.
In an article by Sher Baz Khan in Tuesday’s edition of the DAWN, Pakistan’s leading English newspaper, he quoted sources as saying the Water and Power ministry was trying to reduce the amount of load shedding to six hours a day. Though the Water and Power minister said the “sole solution” for the current energy crisis was to have eleven hours of power cuts daily in the rural areas and nine hours in the urban areas.
So what’s life like during those hours the electricity is turned off?
Well for one, not everyone is sitting around in the dark for hours. Those who can afford them, have generators, which helps the electricity run during the loadshedding hours. Although generators can be great, they don’t keep the electricity running at a high speed so the fans don’t run as fast nor do the lights shine as bright. I really didn’t notice how stark the difference was until I was reading one night when the generator was running. Suddenly, the electricity came back and the lights were so bright. It actual took me a while for my eyes to adjust to the brightness of the lights.
Also, the generators run on gasoline, so if you run out of gas and the electricity goes in the middle of the night you’re shit-out-of-luck. In my house the AC units, the microwave, the deep freeze, the refrigerators, and the toaster aren’t hooked up to the generator, thus we can’t use those appliances when the real electricity is gone. Sometimes we have to wait until it comes back to eat because we can’t heat up food. We also risk spoiling our dairy products because the fridge has to be turned off so much.
During the day load shedding isn’t so terrible, but at night it’s horrific. Picture this: you’re sound asleep when suddenly the electricity goes. You have to physically get out of bed to tell the guard or gatekeeper to run the generator, which he does by physically flipping a switch and then pulling a cord, akin to pulling a lawnmower cord, to get it running. Then you or someone else has to flip a switch to turn off the fridge and deep freeze and then turn a dial to let the generator’s electricity run inside the house.
Then when the electricity comes back you have to turn the fridge and deep freeze back on and flip the switch to run the regular electricity. This is certainly not fun at 1 a.m. and even less fun at 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
The generator itself is rather small, though most offices and shops have huge generators as they need it to supply constant power to more people. The first time I saw one, I was surprised because they look like lawnmower engines.
When the lights go out at shops, it’s a bit scary. You’re standing there shopping, when it becomes pitch black. I normally stand still until the lights come back on, but most people keep moving about doing what they’re doing. It’s just part of life.
At the charity school where I volunteer there are no generators. When the electricity goes we have to open the doors to let the sunlight in. It gets really hot around noon and all we can do is fan ourselves with books. Whenever the electricity does come back, we all say, “Thanks God.”
But the real question is “how can this situation be fixed?” During the summer I attended a luncheon in the States with Mohammedmian Soomro, Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan. I asked, “What’s Pakistan planning to do about the load shedding?” He said hopefully they’d have it fixed within the next two years.
Until then all the people of Pakistan can do is wait and keep getting up in the middle of the night to turn the generator on and off.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Politics on July 8th, 2009
July 1, 2009
Most Pakistanis now see the Pakistani Taliban as well as al Qaeda as a critical threat to the country–a major shift from 18 months ago–and support the government and army in their fight in the Swat Valley against the Pakistani Taliban. An overwhelming majority think that Taliban groups who seek to overthrow the Afghan government should not be allowed to have bases in Pakistan.
(Photo: Al Jazeera English)
However, this does not bring with it a shift in attitudes toward the US. A large majority continue to have an unfavorable view of the US government. Almost two-thirds say they do not have confidence in Obama. An overwhelming majority opposes US drone attacks in Pakistan.
These are some of the results of a new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll conducted May 17-28, 2009. The nationwide random sample included 1000 Pakistani adults, selected using multi-stage probability sampling, who responded in face-to-face interviews. The margin of error is +/- 3.2 percent.
“A sea change has occurred in Pakistani public opinion. The tactics and undemocratic bent of militant groups–in tribal areas as well as Swat–have brought widespread revulsion and turned Pakistanis against them,” comments Clay Ramsay, research director. However, he adds: “It’s crucial to understand that the US is resented just as much as before, despite the US having a new president.”
There has been a huge increase in those who think the “activities of Islamist militants and local Taliban” are a critical threat to Pakistan–a 47 point rise to 81 percent, up from 34 percent in late 2007. If the Pakistani Taliban were to gain control of the country, 75 percent say this would be bad (very bad, 67%)–though only 33 percent think this outcome is likely.
Seventy percent say their sympathies are more with the government than with the Pakistani Taliban in the struggle over Swat. Large majorities express confidence in the government (69%) and the military (72%) to handle the situation. Retrospectively, the public leans (by 45% to 40%) toward thinking the government was right to try to make an agreement in which the Pakistani Taliban would shut down its camps and turn in its heavy weapons in return for a shari’a court system in Swat. But now 67 percent think the Pakistani Taliban violated the agreement when it sent its forces into more areas, and 63 percent think the people of Swat disapprove of the agreement.
On the Afghan Taliban, an overwhelming 87 percent think that groups fighting to overthrow the Afghan government should not be allowed to have bases in Pakistan. Most (77%) do not believe the Afghan Taliban has bases in Pakistan. However, if Pakistan’s government were to identify such bases in the country, three in four (78%) think it should close the bases even if it requires using military force.
Public attitudes toward al Qaeda training camps follow the same pattern. Those saying the “activities of al Qaeda” are a critical threat to Pakistan are up 41 points to 82 percent. Almost all (88%) think al Qaeda should not be allowed to operate training camps in Pakistan. Though 76 percent do not believe there are such camps, if the Pakistani government were to identify them, 74 percent say the government should close them, with force if necessary.
This striking new public willingness to see the government directly oppose Taliban groups and al Qaeda owes little or nothing to an “Obama effect.” A 62 percent majority expresses low confidence in President Obama to do the right thing in world affairs (none at all, 41%). Only one in three (32%) think his policies will be better for Pakistan; 62 percent think they will be about the same (26%) or worse (36%).
Views of the US remain overwhelmingly negative. Sixty-nine percent have an unfavorable view of the current US government (58% very unfavorable)–essentially the same as in 2008. Eighty-eight percent think it is a US goal to weaken and divide the Islamic world (78% definitely a goal). The US Predator drone attacks aimed at militant camps within the Pakistani border are rejected by 82 percent as unjustified. On the war in Afghanistan, 72 percent disapprove of the NATO mission and 79 percent want it ended now; 86 percent think most Afghans want the mission ended as well.
Asked about the nation’s leaders, a large majority–68 percent–views President Zardari unfavorably (very, 50%), but–unlike the recent past–there are multiple national leaders whom most do view favorably. Prime Minister Gilani is seems untarred by negative views of Zardari and gets favorable ratings from 80 percent of Pakistanis. The restored Chief Justice Chaudry is very popular (82%), and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif is extremely popular (87%). The leader most associated with the Pakistani Taliban, Maulana Sufi Mohammad, is viewed positively by only 18 percent of Pakistanis.
WorldPublicOpinion.org is a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. Funding for this research was provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Calvert Foundation.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Politics on July 5th, 2009
Islamofascism, militant Islam, radical Islam, suicide bombers, jihadis, et. al., occupy the mind of not just the beleaguered Pakistani suffering its categorical imperatives, but also the Western mind worrying about the end of their modern Western Civilization at the hands of some antediluvian ‘Ali Baba’ barbarians. [1] In fact, Daniel Pipes had put it thusly: “[It is] Not a Clash of Civilizations, It’s a Clash between the Civilized World and Barbarians.” [2]
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Politics on July 5th, 2009
Political Goods, Era of Seed Politics
Farmers claim that the soaring costs of farm inputs and energy, inefficient markets and short-sighted official policies have made farming largely unprofitable in recent years.
The single best recession hedge of the next 10 or 15 years is an investment in farmland corporate agriculture, as ”the need of the hour.
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