| December 24, 2006 | Sunday | Zilhaj 02, 1427 |
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Smoking zones in universities
Dinner at midnight
Not without water
ADB lending
Long-term measures for relief to citizens
KaraFilm Festival
Record Test centuries
Suo motu action needed
Market for drugs
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
ACCORDING to a report, Pakistan is facing an energy crisis and its oil consumption has risen by nearly 80 per cent (Dawn, Dec 21).
Needless to say, this is very worrisome and will severely impact the economy.
Alternative sources of energy must be found soon enough, but the outlook is bleak because the construction of dams has become a very controversial issue and would also take many years. Nuclear energy, too, is not easily accessible, given America’s reluctance about letting Pakistan acquire it.
There is, however, another option, which could ease our problems relatively quickly. In an article, ‘How mirrors can light up the world’ (Dawn, Nov 28), Ashley Seager has quoted two German scientists as saying that covering just 0.5 per cent of the world’s hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power (CSP) would provide the world’s entire electricity needs.
The technology would simultaneously also provide desalinated water to desert regions as a valuable by-product, as well as airconditioning for nearby cities.
CSP technology is not new. There has been a plant in the Mojave Desert in California for the past 15 years. Others are being built in Nevada (USA), southern Spain and Australia.
There are different forms of CSP but all have in common the use of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays on a pipe or vessel containing some gas or liquid that heats up to around 400 degrees centigrade and is used to power conventional steam turbines.
The triple function of the system raises its efficiency to 80-90 per cent.
The German report estimates the cost of CSP energy at around $50 per barrel of oil equivalent for the cost of building the plant.
This is likely to fall sharply to about $20, as the production of mirrors reaches industrial levels. It is nearly half the equivalent cost of using the solar cells that people have on their roofs. So, CSP is competitive with oil, currently priced around $60 a barrel.
The report recommends the construction of a high-voltage direct current grid for the sharing of this carbon-free, environment-friendly energy at long distances.
Alternating current cables result in greater transmission losses, whereas in DC cables it is only 3 per cent per 1,000 kilometres. It proposes the setting up of such systems in the deserts of north Africa to supply power to Europe.
It also notes that more than 30 countries (including India and South Korea) agreed in November to spend seven billion pounds on an experimental fusion reactor (rather than the existing fission-based nuclear reactors) in France, which critics say won’t produce any electricity for 50 years, if at all.
An expert estimates that CSP costs $3-5 million per installed megawatt, one-fifth the cost of fusion. Nuclear power accounts for just 3.1 per cent of global energy supply. CSP could provide 30 per cent or 300 per cent of future energy demand far more simply, safely and cost-effectively.
“In the wake of (this) report the enlightened investment is on hot deserts, not uranium mines or oil wells,” notes a renewables specialist. In Pakistan, the government has probably spent tens of millions of rupees on solar cell research without any significant results because these are still not cost-effective.
It could assign PCSIR or some other research organisation to work on the CSP project. Producing mirrors, boilers and steam turbines locally should be cheaper and quite easy and these could be set up in Balochistan and other places, which would bring additional development to these underdeveloped areas. Co-production with China would kick in further economics of scale.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
I ENDORSE the views expressed by Dr Javaid Khan (Dec 19) that passive smoking is highly dangerous because the nonsmokers have the least resistance to untoward impact of smoking on them.
It is very sad that non-smoking sign-boards work as a red rag to the bull for violators of rules. They feel proud that they are above the law as they hold it in their clutches and have been able to bend it to their ends. Bus drivers and conductors are the ones who violate the rules and smoke and thus give an opportunity to passengers to take liberty.
The other day I was travelling by an airconditioned coach from Hyderabad to Karachi and the man, sitting next to me, lighted a cigarette. I politely asked him if he could ‘afford’ to stop smoking as I suffer from an allergy against tobacco smoke. He looked in anger at me and retorted sardonically: “Sir, you better travel in your personal car’.”
My personal car? A luxury I couldn’t afford, I said to myself. The government servants having an official car at their disposal can afford this comfort, not me.
In a plane journey from Karachi to Islamabad, I found a hefty, bald-headed and a seemingly respectable person smoking in front of my seat in a non-smoking zone. Anticipating a severe rebuff from him, I asked the air hostess to do the needful. The person put off the cigarette, exhibiting a rather chivalrous attitude to the lady, but looking aghast at me, telling me to charter a plane exclusively for myself next time I travel.
“Even in mid air,” I said to myself, there is no escape from the atrocities of smokers. Flabbergasted at my timidity in the face of a person with a cigarette in hand, my friend asked what my reaction would be if I found a person with a Kalashnikov? I told him that I am more scared of a person with a cigar in hand than a person with a Kalashnikov as the latter can put an end to my life and provide me relief from witnessing excessive violation of rules around me, but the former gives a slow poisoning which is unbearable.
Yes, university campuses ought to be declared smoke-free zones with no provision of smoking zones.
I left an assignment because my immediate boss was a chain smoker and would frequently call me to discuss official matters in his office. I had no choice but to quit the job because the boss is always right!
How to declare campuses as smoke-free zones is a problem. Go then and visit the Institute of Business Management, Korangi Creek, Karachi, and ask them how they manage it so well. I wish I should be serving in an institution/office which is smoke-free. Perhaps it is my wishful thinking.
ARSLAN KHAIR
Karachi
GLUBB Pasha wrote about some Arab country (in the distant past, most probably Egypt) that weddings were held in the evening. This must have been something unusual, otherwise Sir John Bagot Glubb would not have mentioned it. When Pakistan’s history is written a thousand years from now, the historian will say that wedding dinners in Karachi, its major city, were held at midnight.
Recently, I had to attend yet another wedding. When I reached the marriage hall at 9.30pm, I expected to find it empty, and empty it indeed was. I went to a nearby restaurant, had a hearty meal and returned to the hall at10.15pm. The hosts were not there, and fewer than a dozen guests, mostly belonging to low-income groups, were there.
Slowly, the guests started arriving at 10.45pm. But the hosts were not there. Then it became 11 and then 11.30 and then midnight. The hosts were still not there. I had planned to reach home at 11pm, because the next day was a working day. My plan of action was that I would stay for half an hour or so after handing in the ‘envelope’ to the hosts and then depart after congratulating them and exchanging pleasantries.
At midnight I got desperate. Spotting one of the hosts’ near relative, I handed over the envelope to him and departed. I had braved Karachi’s nightmarish traffic and wasted all that time in the fond hope that I would have the pleasure of letting the hosts know that I was there to share their happiness. But I was disappointed.
When I left the hall at midnight, pots and pans were still cold. Women with infants wrapped in woollies were sill arriving, and I wonder when the dinner was served. I reached home at 12.30am.
All around there was affluence: over-lit halls, Pajeros and cars of all variety parked double or triple, women in gorgeous clothes and costly jewellery, a variety of food in plenty, yet such lack of common sense.
What kind of civilisation are we building? Everyone complains, but nobody is prepared to make a change. As divine justice would have it, everybody suffers.
RIZWAN YASSIN
Karachi
I AGREE and disagree with writer Qudsia Akhlaque on her article, ‘Waves on Kashmir and misplaced aggression’ (Dec 19). I agree that the proposals from our president have kept the issue alive and caused some ripples on the Indian side. In my opinion keeping the issue alive is good, but to back down from it just to resolve it is wrong.
How could Tasneem Aslam, even while speaking on behalf of the government, say that Kashmir was never an integral part of Pakistan? If it is not an issue, why are we discussing it and trying to keep it alive? Why have we fought three wars with India? Why then was the issue taken to the United Nations?
Pakistan is at the verge of becoming Ethiopia thanks to our able politicians. In the last 60 years we have not built a single large dam to store water, while our agriculture sector is a shambles. We import onions, potatoes and what not from India and at what cost?
It is so easy to declare that Kashmir was never an integral part of Pakistan, but does any government official realise that all our rivers flow come from Kashmir?
The issue of Kashmir is not only about a piece of disputed land; it is the issue of Pakistan’s livelihood for how can a country function without a guaranteed source of water.
SHAISTA PAL
Lahore
THIS has reference to Dr Noman Ahmed’s article ‘ADB lending to Pakistan’. I entirely agree with the views expressed by the writer. In fact, I happen to be a witness to the reckless squandering of loan amounts in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (now defunct).
In one of the ADB-funded projects, a fleet of expensive vehicles was purchased from a European country. The make and model of the vehicles was totally unsuitable for the roads and working conditions of Karachi. When a junior officer attempted to warn the bank’s consultant, he was severely admonished.
Within two years of their arrival, most of the vehicles were out of operation due to mechanical faults and unavailability of spare parts. They were finally dumped in workshops to rot. I am certain that somebody somewhere must have amply benefited from the lucrative deal, making our generations more indebted than before.
I. R. KHAN
Karachi
AN increasing number of complaints have been appearing for the last many months on the state of affairs of road traffic on city routes and perennial traffic jams twice a day in the Karachi city. In my view, this state of affair is a manifestation of utter lack of vision and planning on the part of city fathers (be it local, provincial or federal agencies).
Maximum they talk is of wider roads, more overpasses and underpasses planned or /being planned for building some time in the future. And they have been missing in the last 50 years by far the most important factors which contribute to the traffic mess we find ourselves in at present. In my opinion these are:
a. Mass transit system which will effectively improve road traffic scene. A tram (cheap solution of mass transit system) carrying 50 passengers from Clifton to Saddar/ business centres will reduce 50 cars on Clifton roads. With 1,000 trams (or trolley buses) plying, the car density will reduce by 50,000 cars on city roads. For many, many years, the city fathers have been planning (or talking of) very expensive (tube trains, overhead light rail) solutions for which we find ourselves unable to allocate funds.
b. All road users must undergo rigorous education (starting from primary school level) and training of how to behave while driving a vehicle and how to help other road users so that traffic flows in an orderly manner.
c. Save rare exceptions, all public transport ply without regulation lights, i.e., no tail light/brake light and fully dazzling headlights. This factor, in my opinion, is a major cause of accidents occurring at night. All it requires is commitment to ensure that all vehicles ply with regulation lights.
d. There exist a number of statements by city fathers at various times that the movement of heavy transport vehicles has been ordered to be restricted on city roads during routinely cyclic rush hours, i.e., heavy transport vehicles are banned on working days within city limits from 7 to 9am, 12 to 2pm and 5 to 8pm in order to provide some relief to other city road traffic.
However, there is no evidence that the authorities would ever enforce its compliance by road transporters. In my opinion, compliance to this measure alone should considerably ease the traffic scene on city roads.
If our city fathers start thinking for common city dwellers and their twice daily hardships now, at least 10 to 15 years would elapse before the Karachi city can hope for an improved traffic scene.
M. YOUSUF BEG
Karachi
WITH increase in population of Karachi, the pressure of traffic on roads is correspondingly increasing day by day. The situation has reached a point where crossing a busy road is tremendously hazardous, especially for children, women and old people. On roads wider than 50 feet, two or three rows of vehicles run parallel at full speed. If a pedestrian wants to cross the road at a certain point, he is warned by any of three rows at a time. If the first lane is cleared to move, the vehicle coming on the second row threatens him not to take risk, likewise if the first or second lane seems clear, vehicles on the third lane poses the same danger and this cycle goes on changing rapidly, constraining one to hold to one’s position if he or she wants to keep the relation of his body and soul intact.
No overhead bridges or subways can be provided at appropriate distance as it involves huge finance. Nor zebra-crossing are feasible because it is unmanageable due to fast traffic.
I think the cheapest and quickest and simplest solution to this problem are concrete islands (18” x 6’) x 9”, colouring them like zebra-crossing may be provided on roads at reasonable intervals. If the road in 60 feet wide, only one island is enough for crossing the road safely. If it is wider than 60’, say 90’, two islands dividing the road into three lanes may serve the purpose.
In addition to providing shelter to the pedestrian during road crossing, it will make it difficult for drivers to violate the rule while changing lanes.
NUSRAT ALI
Karachi
HATS off to festival director Hasan Zaidi and the whole lot of his dedicated team members for accomplishing the successful holding of the sixth KaraFilm Festival held in Karachi between Dec 7 and 17.
A festival of 170 films from 37 countries, with over 40 delegates and two screening venues, was nothing short of a Herculean task for those young boys and girls who had volunteered themselves to meet the challenges. All students, no professionals, but the impeccable management skills displayed by them was beyond commendation.
In real terms, a treat for Karachiites for 10 full days.
Having said this, I would like to draw the attention of festival director towards an aching angle. The KaraFilm Festival is gaining popularity and is now one of the major annual cultural events in Pakistan. It is high time for the festival to attain credibility. In this context, I must say that decisions taken by the jury members were neither appropriate nor professional.
Scores of people were surprised when the awards were announced on the closing day. Possibly this was the reason that those unjust results were not made public through Dawn or other newspapers of Karachi.
Time does not forgive anybody. One will have to be more judicious in selection of competent and professionally knowledgeable jury members.
NAQI MUSTAFA
Karachi
THIS letter is in regard to Zaheer Abbas’s article concerning cricketer Mohammad Yousuf’s record. I just wanted to correct him on a minor mistake he made about the record. He writes:
“Also, if he scores a hundred in the first Test match (on the South Africa tour), he will stand alongside the legendary Don Bradman for scoring six centuries in consecutive tests.”
Mohammad Yousuf has already broken Bradman’s record as he scored two consecutive centuries in the third and fourth Test matches in England.
He then scored four centuries in the three Test matches against West Indies; two of them were scored in each innings of the Test match in Karachi. I hope Yousuf starts off with another century in the first Test in SA and maintains his great form.
JIBRAN BAIG
Florida, USA
THIS refers to the news report entitled ‘Govt told to explain handover of man to US’ (Dec 21). It was mentioned in the report that a local court has demanded that the government explain the reason for handing over a Pakistani citizen to the US authorities on account of his suspected links with Al Qaeda. Moreover, it was also revealed the said person, Majid Khan, was sent to the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in 2003 after his arrest in Pakistan.
I was ashamed to read this story and would like to request the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take suo motu action against this illegal and immoral act of our government which has done damage to the sovereign status of the country.
NAUMAN YUNUS LODHI
Rawalpindi
FOR years now the few corrupt Pakistanis who carry drugs when they go to Saudi Arabia inevitably get their heads chopped off after they get caught. There must be a consumer market for these restricted products in Saudi Arabia. Yet the Saudi government has never tried to find out where and by whom these drugs are being used.
Who is the influential person or group of persons in Saudi Arabia who provides the ground for these activities? I urge Pakistani officials to carry out a serious dialogue with Saudi officials in order to dismantle the drug buying potential in Saudi Arabia. We have to take every step possible in saving the lives of our Pakistani brothers, the same as every independent country does.
SHAHERYAR
London
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