| April 16, 2003 | Wednesday | Safar 13, 1424 |
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Cracking the genome riddle
KESC tariff hike
SAUDI ARABIA’s decision to call a conference of regional states on the Iraqi situation deserves to be welcomed. The countries attending the conference will include not only the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council but possibly other states — like Yemen, Syria and Jordan. In any case, a regional conference that may also include non-GCC countries is long overdue given the gravity of the situation in Iraq and an extremely dangerous and unpredictable future facing the region in the new context. In looking at the Iraqi situation, one is struck by the lack of will on the part of the Arab states to have a say in matters affecting their region. In the events leading up to the Anglo-American attack on Iraq, the Arab states played little or no role in preventing aggression against a fellow-Arab country. Granted that no two states share an identity of views on all matters, and the fact of there being differences among Arab states on peripheral issues would be easy to understand. What, however, is shocking is that the Arab states did not present a common front even on such a vital issue as an impending attack on another Arab country from powers far outside the region. The consequences are there for all to see.
The fall of the Saddam regime is not the end of the story. Syria has already started receiving warnings from both the US and Israel. One does not know what the future holds for the Middle East, and which other Muslim state will next find itself in the firing line on supposed or real grounds of possession of the elusive “weapons of mass destruction” or for harbouring “terrorists” or for both. Monday’s Israeli warning to Syria had an ominous ring about it. “Damascus is playing with fire,” said an official close to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
At issue is the very future of the Arab-Islamic heartland. Mercifully, the neo-cons who have drafted the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) have made their views known. Founded in 1997, the PNAC includes such hawks as US Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle, a member of the powerful Defence Policy Board and its former chairman. Their plan for Pax Americana is widely known. It gives a clear enough picture of the grand Israeli-American design for the region. One of the PNAC’s aim is to establish an American protectorate over Iraq and turn it into a base of operations against other regional states, including America’s allies such as Saudi Arabia.
If the Arab world does not wake up to these forebodings and unite, there is every possibility that the Arab states may be carved up and placed under a new “mandate.” While, after World War I, it was a British-French “mandate” that took care of all Ottoman territories, this time it may be an American-Israeli “mandate” — a euphemism for occupation. Saudi Arabia itself is in mortal danger, because breaking up this large oil-rich country has been one of Israel’s major aims. Military and industrial weakness does not mean that the Arab states cannot unite on vital issues and coordinate their foreign and defence policies in order to safeguard their security and territorial integrity. With abundant oil reserves, a huge land mass stretching from the Gulf to the Atlantic and a strategic location, the Middle East can shape its own destiny in its own way if the Arab states stop bickering among themselves and begin to enlist their own peoples’ effective participation in governance.
THE news that scientists from six countries — the US, UK, France, Germany, China and Japan — have successfully completed the mapping of the human genome, marks a major scientific breakthrough in human history. In simple terms, this means that man now knows what exactly constitutes each and every human gene, of which each individual genome represents one of the three billion chemical codes that constitute a living being. This was no simple task and required ‘sequencing’ — identifying and sorting — all the three billion DNA letters encoding a genome. The task marks the conclusion of the discovery of the DNA bases, and took over 12 years to complete. The breakthrough is set to revolutionize biomedical sciences, offering, in good time, cures and preventive means for all known cancers, and many other fatal diseases. That the achievement was the result of scientists from six advanced nations working jointly towards the common goal is a feat worthy of being applauded as a milestone in scientific progress.
Announcing the breakthrough, the joint statement issued by the six-country genome project proclaimed that man has “succeeded in decoding all the chapters of the instruction book for human life.” The participating US-based National Human Genome Research Institute elaborated that the project covered “99 per cent of the human genome’s gene-containing regions”. The lack of explanation as to the elusive one per cent of the ‘regions’ — and the announcement of the conclusion of the scientific effort in spite of it — can be assumed to mean that the illusive metaphysical and uncharted territory lies beyond the realm of man. This, in other words, is where the penetrating reach of the available knowledge ends, and the realm of the unknown begins — though the scientists would be loath to use such terminology. The lesson offered by the elusive one per cent of the metaphysical gene structure, thus, strengthens the moral argument. Which is to say that all scientific development must be guided by moral principles — in that human effort should only be used as a means to better understand — and serve — human needs, and not for venturing into attempts to genetically alter, or meddle with, the grand design of nature.
A 12-18 paisa per unit increase in the KESC’s power rates allowed by Nepra to meet the utility’s urgent cash needs appears to be more of a bail-out than a case of automatic adjustment of fuel costs. A similar, though much lower, tariff increase for Wapda approved by the regulatory authority has not been enforced on the intervention of Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali on grounds of industrial costs. Instead, there is a reported move to compensate Wapda through an official subsidy. The two different approaches lack a common rationale. As it is, KESC consumers pay far more for line losses than in the case of Wapda. Perhaps, there would not have been any need for the present or some of the previous hikes if the KESC’s line losses had been brought down to even Wapda’s level of 25 per cent. A major and sustainable thrust is required to end kunda connections and thefts. Honest consumers should not be penalized for the misdeeds of unscrupulous consumers and the KESC’s inefficiencies. An 18-20 paisa hike for domestic users of more than 50 units and industrial consumers comes at a particularly inappropriate time. A shrinking middle class and impoverished low-income groups can ill-afford spiralling powers tariffs. With the WTO deadline of 2005 fast approaching, the ever rising power tariffs will impact adversely on the export-oriented industries which will then have to compete in a quota-free and quality and price conscious international market. Exports have to become cost-effective for which both the KESC and Wapda are required to provide power at globally competitive rates. The first priority for both should, therefore, be to plug revenue leakages and improve operational efficiencies. They should not go on hobbling along on the crutches of subsidies and frequent tariff increases.