Load Sheding Blues (Part II)

I had set out to write a blog entry on the power failures we have been experiencing in Karachi, when my writing was interrupted by…a power failure. Normally that would not have fazed me but it happened to be an unusually hot day, I later found out the hottest day of 2006 till date. If that was not bad enough, the electricity had come and gone and come and gone again around twenty times. So here is my second attempt to put my thoughts down.

What bothers me most about Pakistan’s lack of adequate electricity is that unlike other sources of energy, Pakistan is not disadvantaged in resources to produce energy from electricity. Pakistan is after all a nuclear powered nation. After defying the world and perusing the technology, at a great cost to the people of Pakistan, the state has failed to utilize it effectively for civilians.

The problem may be manifested in a symptom such as lack of electricity, 1971, ethnic strife, election rigging, VIPism, and lack of respect for the law, but the disease is still the same.

Like a cancer the military has kept up its unabated growth to the determent of other Pakistani institutions. This often manifests it’s self in outright absurdity, such as the otherwise traditionally civilian held positions in society such as leadership in national sports or cultural institutions, which have for long been under Khakhi domination in Pakistan.

In the Khakhi Republic of Pakistan the military’s needs and even its desires for fancy toys takes precedence of even the most basic of civilian needs. Necessities such as clean water, electricity, and an attempt at a modern infrastructure are considered nothing more than an idealist’s day dream.

Pakistan has the resources to produce enough electricity, at least for domestic consumption if not more, however these resources are being diverted towards the military.

In my next blog I interview one of the General Managers at K.E.S.C and ask him a few questions.

Now you see it now you dont!

Blooger / Blogspot have been banned yet again! Perhaps the period of activity was simply due to the incompetence of the government employees put in charge of blocking the Blog.

Whatever the reason, today it is again impossible for Pakistanis to visit www.blogspot.com

www.pkblogs.com Zindabad!

Stay tuned for my next post where, electricty and God permiting, I will publish what I origanlly intended "Load Sheding Blues" to be.

Blog today...gone tommrow?

Good news! The government has un-banned www.blogger.com again!

It had been un-banned once before for a few days , only to be promptly re-banned. Looks like the Khakis cant make up their mind about how to deal with Internet speech.

Nevertheless we should rejoice and enjoy our restoration of blogging rights while they last!

Load-shedding Blues

Karachi! Can’t leave it, can’t use electrical appliances living in it! Us Karachites have been suffering electricity problems this summer the like of which we haven’t seen in many years. The authorities have decided to take drastic measures; shops must close by 8:00pm.

Now in cities like Lahore, or for that matter even in our Capital village “Isloo”, this would not be much of a problem. The culture there is much more laidback and shops generally close early anyway. In Karachi however most people lucky enough to be employed reach home around 7:00pm

What this means is that if you have any chores that you may have to tend to, you either have to give a “goli” at work and attend to them during work hours, tend to them right after a long days work or not tend to them at all.

All this in the name of saving damage to the Pakistani economy by making sure that our primary business city is not denied electricity during business hours. As draconian a solution as this may be, it has been grudgingly accepted by Karachites as the only solution that we can find in the short term. At least we can go about our business during the day with our productivity unaffected by constant blackouts, right?

WRONG!

Despite not having access to our local bazaars after sunset Karachi has been suffering… (Okay thank God I saved my work because the electricity failed again as I was writing this- THANK GOD FOR CRTL-S)….uhhh where was I?

Ahh yes, despite shopkeepers having a government enforced bedtime, we still have not seen a let up in regular, or should I say irregular, load shedding!

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This day alone I would estimate that the electricity has come and gone at least 20 times!

By now I am so completely livid beucase of the constant break downs that I cant continue to write this blog…but I think my point has been made.

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I need to find a cold glass of water and cool down and meditate on how fortunate I am that I have a generator at home and work. Most people in this city are not that fortunate.

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