| April 30, 2006 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 1, 1427 |
Immigrants flex their muscles in United States
Pray, why us, gentlemen?
TO attribute to power failures and loadshedding so much of the blame for missed and delayed deadlines and a further decline in quality of everything is almost like stating the obvious. But yet it needs to be underlined that we suffer. Now assuming that we are going to be tormented by this KESC factor, for virtually all of the next six months at least, a very pertinent question arises: what is the difference in the performance of the KESC between last summer and the prospects that appear to be unfolding this year? And what makes KESC different this year?
NEW YORK: In more than 100 years, people in the United States have not seen what they are likely to witness this May Day — massive rallies and protests against the treatment of undocumented workers expected to take place all over the country.
The answer is obvious. Last year consumers kept referring to the prospects of KESC’s privatisation. A kind of naivette in the consumers’ attitude made them imagine or hope that with privatisation KESC's performance would improve this year and there would be evidence of it, on a daily basis, at the grassroots level.
But that has not happened and there is no real good news from this newly privatised public utility. There has not been made public any vision or promise for the hapless, traumatized Karachi consumer. From the look of things so far, and given the kind of availability of electricity that we have had in the month of April alone, consumers are somewhat frightened at what may happen in the months of May and June. Or what may happen if Karachi's monsoon season is healthy and we get the rain that we need? After all we have a water shortage too, and, it is very relevant to underline here, as a gesture of lament and protest, that the KESC makes the water shortage aggravate.
A group of middle class men and women were unanimous in their view that the KESC post privatisation means that we are paying more for electricity and that the performance of the utility is the same as it was when the government was managing it .One helpless consumer, living in Mahmoodabad was flabbergasted yesterday when he received a bill for Rs2,500 approximately for almost 480 units, whereas in his view his normal consumption was about 200 units a month. He spoke of the unyielding attitude of a KESC officer on this subject, which destroyed domestic peace, ultimately.
But what most consumers seem to be perturbed about is how soon will KESC's performance improve, and at what cost. When will the benefits of privatisation become evident? Right now, there is a kind of corporate concealment of the reality of the electricity scenario in the Sindh capital. Typical private sector silence, remarked one disgusted citizen, who wondered about the current status of theft of electricity and line losses.
The KESC has been releasing large advertisements on why there is loadshedding. Supply does not meet demand. So, what is new? It’s been decades that we have been hearing this. Supply shortages characterize this society. The KESC has listed two significant problems that it faces. First, there is sabotage or theft (even KESC can’t figure this out?) that is hitting the utility. Second, there are "digging operations" by various civic agencies (unnamed) which are cutting the underground electricity cables. Worried sceptical citizens, who suffer because of all this, ask: what will happen if these problems grow? Sabotage and theft are both factors that seem to be emerging as major threat to other systems as well, even elsewhere in the country.
The inability of the KESC to organize and plan out the loadshedding that it does, (and one fears it will carry on doing in the future too) is something that has been part of the track record of the history of the organisation. Those of us who have experienced loadshedding in Lahore and elsewhere carried out by Wapda in the past; know the distinct advantages of having timetables that are adhered to. What stops the KESC from letting consumers know when loadshedding will be carried out?
This brings me to the conservation of electricity theme. Not a word has been said of this option in all the power shortage there is in town. Amazing, isn’t it? Neither does the KESC advocate the need to cut down on consumption at certain times when the load is high, nor does any public interest lobby do that. Not just would it mean saving electricity, howsoever small it may be on the aggregate, but it would enable the creation of an attitude that could make people appreciative of KESC handicaps.
In view of the power supply likely to be under pressure from a demand that is growing, it does not make sense, for instance to have all these neon signs and billboards glowing all night, to give to the city an artificial sense of affluence and well being like that bureaucrat, who keeps telling his ostrich like boss that all is well. Unfortunately, for us, all is not well, and there doesn’t appear to be a clear cut statement of assurance from KESC either. We need a definitive deadline, please.
Does the KESC appreciate the handicaps that it creates for society? This April KESC's performance has hit students – in particular those appearing for their crucial matriculation exams. I wonder what has been the state of public sector hospitals, about which the news media has not focused upon. What has happened to the patients in the wards and what about the operation theatres? Radio Pakistan Karachi station, itself, has been the victim of sudden power failures and loadshedding. I am told that while the broadcasts have been unaffected, the station's recordings and other production jobs (like editing) were hampered. A PBC spokesman said that the KESC should ensure electricity to the Karachi radio station as a matter of priority, rather than subject it to indifference.
As an answer to the growing darkness in our homes and the sweaty suffocation in the offices, and the economic losses that individuals and organisations suffer, people have tried to switch over to generators of different capacities and sizes. The cynics and sceptics have been suspicious on this score too. They wonder whether there is a hand in glove bond between prolonged power failures and the rising sale of generators and the UPS option.
The KESC has regretted inconvenience .It is not just that. It is misery that is created. KESC requests fellow citizens to cooperate and extend support to it. The Karachiite, in most cases, is running on empty on this count. Given the kind and quality of life that most citizens get, his degree of support and cooperation for just about anything, is likely to be slim, and sketchy.
“No work, no school, no buying, no selling,” vow posters in cities and towns across the US, as campaigners for immigrant rights plan to hold a nationwide strike on May 1.
Every year on May 1, workers all over the world are officially allowed to take a day off. Many take part in trade union rallies to express their solidarity with the industrial workers killed by Chicago police in 1886 while demanding shorter working hours. But not in the United States, where the tragic incident took place a more than a century ago, the “Labour Day” is now celebrated on the first Monday in September. With no official holiday, the day usually comes to an end with business as usual. Only a handful of marches are held by left-wing groups. However, all that may change this Monday with the “Great American Boycott 2006, a Day Without an Immigrant”, which calls for a nationwide general strike on May 1 to demand citizenship and full workers’ rights for undocumented immigrants.
The protest is being coordinated by more than 500 grassroots organisations and immigrants from around the country in response to recent legislative moves in the US Congress that would make it much harder for undocumented workers to stay and work in the United States.
Conservative lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties want to pass a new law that further criminalises those who hire undocumented workers. They also want to expand a border fence between the United States and Mexico.
Currently, there are about 12 million undocumented workers in the United States performing all kinds of blue-collar jobs for long hours and on low wages, most of whom come from Mexico and other Latin American countries. For his part, President Bush has repeatedly proposed a guest worker programme for immigrants and a path to citizenship, but rights groups demand full amnesty and citizenship for all immigrants whether they are employed lawfully or not.
The strike organisers are also demanding an end to the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), encompassing the United States, Canada and Mexico, and all other neo-liberal trade agreements, which they believe have created economic conditions that force people to come to the United States in search of work.
While the most vocal resistance to the immigration policy has come from Mexican workers, immigrants hailing from other parts of the world are increasingly joining the new movement for their rights. Many Muslim organisations, for example, called for participation in the massive protests that erupted last month, and are urging Muslim immigrants to join the May 1 rallies.
“Islam’s message is one of social justice, economic fairness, and fair treatment in the workplace,” says a statement from the Muslim Public Affairs Council in California. Numerous church, business and trade union leaders across the United States have also endorsed the call for May Day rallies and marches. Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, announced that it will temporarily shut down nine of its beef and pork plants on May Day because so many of the company’s workers plan to attend immigration rallies.
The second-biggest beef processor in the US, Cargill, is also giving workers the day off in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Texas and Colorado. “It is to show the lawmakers we have economic power,” the Long Island-based Business Owners Coalition said in a statement last week, while declaring its support to the strike. “It’s to show that employers are in solidarity with their employees.”
While some Democratic politicians have actively come forward to endorse the groups’ demands, many are keeping their distance from the immigrant movement. Only the Green Party has strongly spoken out against repressive legislation that targets immigrants.
“All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us,” it says in a resolution. “We must confront barriers such as racism, class, sexism, ageism and disability which add to denying fair treatment and equal justice.”
In California this week, the state senate fully endorsed the strike by adopting a resolution that said it would educate the United States about the contribution made by immigrants. Local Republicans, however, opposed the resolution, arguing that it would sanction “lawbreaking” and encourage children to skip school.
Encouraged by the massive turnout at immigrant rallies held in the past few weeks, the strike organisers say they expect millions of people across the country to take part in the rallies and marches on the May Day.
—Dawn/IPS News Service
WHAT’S this city coming to, you may ask. As if we don’t have enough of the rowdy lot of our own we’ve now started inviting the weirdoes from across the border. Lahorites don’t take kindly to unflattering comments about who they are, but here they were, dumbstruck, when Feroze Khan opened his mouth the other day to tell them what he thought was wrong with them. This, after the second-rate hero of the 1970s’ Bollywood had been literally wined and dined by the who’s who of town. Serves us Pakistanis right, doesn’t it, for doting over film idols that have long been discarded as trash in their own country?
But life goes on. The city was abuzz with yet more Indian celebrities, among them Naseeruddin Shah, arriving and performing here this week. Mr Shah, too, it is known, is quick to lose it in real life, especially when responding to questions by the media people. But then patience, as they say, is a rare virtue in our part of the world. The fact is that most foreign celebrities, without prejudice to any nationality, when they come to Pakistan, can get away with murder, and many do, especially those who also pose as half-baked intellectuals. While we snap into our zinda dil hospitality mode, they snap into a rudeness that will never be tolerated back home.
And now to the uneventful premieres: first there was Mughal-i-Azam that opened to near-empty cinema halls in the city and then came Taj Mahal. By this Mughal mania, is anyone’s guess. Well, Mughal-i-Azam is a classic that has been watched over and over again by many Pakistanis, though on mini, TV screens, hence a loss of appetite for it. But at least the acting, the music, the sets, etc. were superb and can be partaken pleasure of over and over again. As for Taj Mahal, well, high ticket prices and the security checks, perhaps, kept the viewers away.
The point to consider is as to how many Pakistanis are likely to pick up such historical flicks for viewing even from a video shop around the corner. It is the Bollywood blockbusters, with all the filmi masala, that have a market here and not the kind of films that have been brought for screening from across the border. They can only cater to a niche audience, the variety that is fast receding, as glamour rules the silver screen.
Another genre of Indian films that is popular with Pakistanis is social comedy. The likes of Munnabhai MBBS and Hera Pheri, that would sail safely through the troubled waters of the censor board, are the kind to consider for screening in this country. Have one of these films and then watch the people throng the theatres, like they did to watch King Kong and Shrek not too long ago. Alternatively, one could also import from India the swinging, musical films of the 1970s whose songs still live on. Get the ones with R D Burman’s music and see the scene rock. These, too, will pass through the censors with flying colours.
AS the mercury rose to over 40 degrees in the city, roads wore a deserted look, especially in the afternoon. You don’t need the Met office to tell you that the heat wave will continue or even that a dust storm, followed by a sprinkle, might be hovering close by. As we step into May, this shall be the order of things, provided we have a traditional summer. That is, hail and storm in May, hell fire let loose in June, and the monsoon cloudburst in July. As for slimy August, the least said the batter.
But there is nothing to keep Lahorites holed up indoors after dark even as the heat wave continues. There was a time when weddings were exclusively a winter activity. Not anymore. Weddings are taking place by the dozen a day even in these stuffy conditions nowadays. For one thing, most venues now are air-conditioned, and showing up late at a wedding continues to be a fashion statement. In fact, the later, the better, seems to be the unwritten rule that most people abide by.
At a wedding the other night, guests were told to get there after 10pm, and guess what happened? The host made appearance a few minutes past 11pm, and the party, in right earnest, started no sooner than past midnight. By two in the morning, you would think it was time to finally go home. But the majority of guests stayed on till past four, slurping on the qulfis made to order for the occasion. Which was just as well. Who would mind having an ice-cold snack rolling in full cream, almonds and pistachios the last thing before hitting the road home. Take a peep inside one of the fancy, 24-hour bakery/eatery joints in the wee hours of the morning and you’ll know exactly what this summer has in store for the merrymakers.
Most night owls are young corporate professionals, doctors, bankers, lawyers, etc. How do they manage to get to work in the morning, you may ask. They manage alright, but that’s just about it; they get there, while getting down to real work is a different story altogether. At the same wedding mentioned earlier, a bunch of them were laughing their hearts out, the punch line? You’ve guessed it: ‘Yar, who wants to work? Eat, drink and be happy, tomorrow’s another day’. Don’t we all love this city? — OBSERVER