| January 21, 2009 | Wednesday | Muharram 23, 1430 |
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South Asians prone to heart disease
Perpetual machine with zero energy input
Rice markets
Obama Express
Cowasjee and Durrani
Back in business
A complaint
Private schools
Dowry prohibition
Petrol prices
Time for action is limited
Columbus’s mistake
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
THE Israeli blitzkrieg on Gaza finally comes to a halt and hopefully the Israeli troops will commence withdrawal from Gaza soon, provided they are not provoked into continuing another round of slaughtering by Hamas missile launchers.
Now, if we could just sit back and assess the situation, do we have a winner here? I think not.
The Israeli army is definitely not a winner because once it recedes back from Gaza, Hamas will start its business as usual (maybe this time with more conviction). The trenches and tunnels would most likely be rebuilt. Hamas may have even gained some popularity due to their conviction and patience in surviving the brutal Israeli attacks.
But Hamas is also not a winner because it was the one which had to bear the daily onslaught and sacrifice many of its followers, including some senior leaders.
However, who was the loser? I think the only real losers were the innocent Palestinians killed in this episode. Therefore, I would like to ask the regional and global community a simple question: Can we please forget the racial and national prejudices and in the name of humanity try to find a lasting solution to the Palestinian conflict so that this massacre of the innocents ends.
Arranging Arab summits here and there would not help — we know the outcome of these summits in the past, so let’s not fool ourselves. A lasting solution can only be found when all the parties sit together and sincerely commit themselves to reaching a consensus.
It is ironical that all the Muslim communities could come up with was a slogan to ban products financing Israeli activities. Muslims have to grow up and go beyond such petty issues and try to find means to make themselves worthy of being noted.
All Muslim countries surrounding Gaza seem to be clueless about how to “act”(not say) on the Gaza conflict because either they are too weak or (most likely) they have vested international interests compelling them to conveniently wash their hands off the situation.
We Muslims could not even have a unified stance on as important as the international conflict afflicting Muslims mainly. Do we then expect Israel or even any other country in the world to take us any seriously than they have recently or in the past? Not so, I believe.
Therefore, it is time we Muslims came out of our slumber living on the belief that suicide bombing and mindless sloganeering will take us places. We need to believe in hard work, honesty, dedication and commitment to contribute to development rather than threatening destruction as means for success.
Whoever can influence the situation in Gaza should try to work positively in bringing together the parties towards an amicable resolution to ensure that no child, woman or any innocent person living now in Gaza will ever be killed by such attacks. We owe this to the many who lost their lives for a war which, at least to me, gained nothing.
RIZWAN AHMED
Kuwait
THE recent study conducted by members of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and a pharmaceutical company have confirmed what many other studies have already postulated for some time now. Not only are people of South Asian descent genetically predisposed to developing a coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular ailments, but are also at a higher risk of developing type II diabetes and obesity.
Other studies conducted in England and elsewhere have also shown that South Asians are more susceptible to these conditions at earlier ages, and lower levels of body fat than those of the general population.
In spite of this information being available, the general level of health awareness and healthy dietary habits is low in Pakistan. In addition to genetic factors, various other sociological trends including rising affluence, rural-urban migration, and consumer lifestyle choices have resulted in people depending increasingly on pre-packaged, mass-produced foods that are high in cholesterol, saturated fats and preservatives.
Other factors including lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyles, and consumption of tobacco are highly rampant in our society and further exacerbate the already poor health of our nation.
Cardiovascular disease is already the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide, and the ministry of health and the general population must realise that this epidemic is a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode.
In addition to the personal costs and grief involved in taking care of a loved one, the overall costs of healthcare, long-term disability, and lost productivity for a growing segment of our aging population will be crippling for our economy in the future.
Not only are remedial measures required at the national level (such as legislature promoting healthy food choices and nutritional information labelling), but more importantly at the personal level too.
Many traditional Pakistani foods are rich in oils, fats, and sugars and it is ultimately the millions of cooks and housewives whose daily cooking choices will directly influence the health of their families. It is imperative that people take these risks seriously and try to adopt healthy habits as soon as possible.
HUSSAIN KAKAL
Canada
THIS is with reference to the news item, ‘Invention of fuel-free power plant claimed’ (Jan 18). It has been reported that a Wapda employee has claimed to have invented a fuel-free power generation machine using the gravitational force.
This would amount to the creation of an eternal machine working without any energy input. Incidentally, this is not the first time similar proposals from individuals have received publicity in the press in Pakistan. The idea really belongs to the Middle Ages when people were desperately trying to develop a perpetual machine which could work by itself.
For the millennia it was not clear if it would be possible to do so. Consequently the scientists of that age made attempts in that direction. A scientist of the 13th century, Dillard de Homecount, in 1230, proposed a wheel with weights attached to its curved spokes which will fall close to the rim on one side and fold near the hub on the other side to make the wheel turn with the gravitational force in a continuous manner.
In 1630, Robert Fludd, English physicist and mystic proposed a machine worked by recirculation by means of a water wheel and the Archimedean Screw. The device would pump water back into its own supply tank.
Such endeavours continued till finally, during the 19th century, the Laws of Thermodynamics categorically established that such a closed system was not possible. The first law of thermodynamics mandates conservation of energy — energy can neither be created nor destroyed and that heat is a form of energy.
The second law of thermodynamics states that in all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves the system, the potential energy of the state will always be less than that of the initial state. This is commonly referred to as entropy. A mechanical watch will run until the potential energy in the spring is converted, and not again until energy is reapplied to the spring to rewind it. A car that has run out of gas will not run again until you walk all the way to a gas station and refuel the car.
Equivalently, the perpetual motion machines are impossible. Nevertheless, crazy and enthusiastic people have not entirely abandoned efforts to create a perpetual machine working without input of energy. Let us leave them alone with their thoughts and let us not get ourselves disturbed on this account.
S. ABRAR HUSSAIN
Lahore
THE recent intervention by the TCP in the rice market is expected to create severe distortions in a sector which is one of the three largest recipients of export proceeds.
The prices at which Basmati and ‘Irri’ rice varieties are being procured are hardly tenable vis-a-vis the export prices of international competitors like Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar.
What is more baffling is that no one in the government has realised this, which echoes the wheat export decision taken by the previous government, which eventually proved to be criminally disastrous.
One has to be cognizant of the fact that 60 per cent of Pakistan’s rice production is exported primarily to the Middle Eastern and African markets, earning close to $2bn in foreign exchange during FY 08. It is, therefore, the exporters who are singly responsible for achieving this feat without any formal assistance by the government as is the case for the textile industry.
The government’s ill-thought intervention in this market is under the plea to help the farmers in the wake of a bumper crop. How did the farmers cultivate record quantities of the crop if the so-called exporters’ cartel was not passing on the benefit of the high international prices last year?
How does the government think of benefiting the farmers through open tenders when most of them do not even read newspapers?
The government has to realise that such interventions cause severe distortions in relatively free markets and the eventual loss will be borne by the exchequer itself in the form of ballooning trade and budget deficits.
The bottomline is that currently local rice prices have been driven significantly higher than international export prices due to government interventions.
This would seriously curb rice export from Pakistan as it would be suicidal for an exporter to buy expensive and sell cheap. The six-monthly figures of rice export show an overhang of the commodity boom witnessed last year and things would not be as rosy in the next six months.
SATTAR QURESHI
Karachi
AMERICAN democracy has always managed to find great leaders in time of great crises. Some time, as in the case of Washington, the choice has been reasoned, and deliberate at other time, as in the cases of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson it has been largely fortuitous.
On Jan 20 Barack Hussain Obama made a history on taking the oath as 44th president of the US. Following the tradition of his great leader Abraham Lincoln, he took the symbolic train journey from Philadelphia to Washington by Obama Express.
It also shows that Barack Obama also pursues such policies as Lincoln had adopted, first he demolished slavery and took the country out of the storms of civil war safely. His policy was “malice towards none, charity for all”.
Being the only superpower and the greatest economic power in the present world, America is the most disliked country of the world. It is because of the biased foreign policies of the Republican regime. If Barack H. Obama doesn’t reconsider and review the American policies towards the Muslim countries and Israel, the situation in future will remain the same.
Israel is destroying the reputation of the US all over the world. It’s the right time for the Democrats to redesign the American foreign policy to solve world problems and to enhance the American image in the eyes of world community, in general, and in the eyes of Muslims, in particular. The slogan of change would not be understood in spirit if action is not taken in this regard.
ANWAR ALI SHAH
Chitral
IN his latest column, ‘Tarnishing the national image’ (Jan 11), Ardeshir Cowasjee has dipped his pen in the controversy regarding the PM’s security adviser, Maj-Gen (r) Mehmood Durrani, and narrating his bright career history and achievements.
Then he quotes: “Whilst still in the army, he (Durrani) wrote to the then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, advising him that to his mind conducting a nuclear test as a repartee to the Indian nuclear tests of 1998 would be a strategic mistake. He also made himself unpopular with Sharif by telling him that Kargil was also a grave error and that it would not work to plan”.
Mr Cowasjee then declares that Durrani was right on both counts.
Now, even a child in Pakistan knows that conducting nuclear tests by the Nawaz government was a decision in the right direction as it boosted the morale of our army and the people and dampened the bloated hype of the Indians.
Secondly, Nawaz Sharif has publicly made it clear that he was not fully made aware of the Kargil plan.
Thirdly, what do you think of an army officer writing direct to the prime minister of his country over and above the head of the commander-in-chief? That’s what he did in his last key position.
Prime Minister Gilani has rightly asserted his authority by sacking him, otherwise he would be a tomfool to let everybody in his cabinet to bypass him under wrong notions or backed by foreign elements.
MOHAMMAD ALEEM SHEIKH
Karachi
THE report, ‘Back in business’ (Dec 28, 2008 ), aimed, as stated, at seeing and realising the impetus and force of the recent lending by the IMF, with certain terms and conditions, pressuring Pakistan’s economy and citizens.
During the last quarter of the last year, the ‘D-Day’ was approaching fast, when ‘Pakistan was to make payments of agreed instalments and interest upon its foreign liabilities. Pakistan did not possess sufficient foreign currency reserves to easily meet its obligations. Non-payments within the specified period might have created further financial adverse conditions, including declaration of Pakistan’s bankruptcy.
This horrendous state of affairs puts lots of pressure and severe stress on the avenues of the government’s stakeholders. They knocked the doors of almost all friendly countries, including our friends China and Saudi Arabia, for financial help, but amazingly there was no positive response.
The last resort left was the International Monetary Fund and that too agreed to accommodate us, due to the pressures of powerful countries, which have strong say in the affairs of the Fund.
The US and some other western countries favoured us, only because of their own interests, because of war against terror, and specific geographic placement of Pakistan. We all Pakistani must understand that there is no friends in this political world, it is the own interests of the countries which create soft corners and friendships with each other. As regards terms and conditions attached with the IMF bailout package, we should know and understand that beggars have no choice.
Previously, during the 1990s under the same horrible financial situation, the IMF rescued us, with the same terrifying terms and conditions. It is said that when we failed to reach even the resemblance with the attached terms of the fund, our ministry of finance started providing fake figures of our macroeconomic indicators. It was then that the IMF put our economic state of affairs under surveillance.
A regards the impact of this bailout package of $7.600 billion, out of which $3 billion has already been advanced, it will not be encouraging for our economy. This is a timely relief saving us from big a disaster.
With this package our foreign liabilities have further increased, informing us that repayments of this borrowing is to start from 2011, along with interests and service charges. The planners and executers of our country’s economic cycle are almost naive. Highly intelligent and fairly honest, untiring efforts are required with tremendous confidence and strong will to achieve progressive targets, by altruist, ambitious and expert executers.
Economy is a complex matter, interrelated with almost all aspects of human beings. In short, at present I do not foresee any worth stating betterment in the country’s economy.
Our industrial sector has continually been going down because of shortage and absence of power. The capital market has collapsed. Capital and foreign investments have been flying out of Pakistan to places of security and growth.
Political and law and order situations are not satisfactory. The war against terror and strange relations with India all these factors do not allow any better prediction in our economy.
ZAHID BUKHARI
Karachi
Recently two contenders from Gilgit participated in the Pakistan Institute of Human Rights poster competition. They secured excellent positions but they were not enrolled in the list of winners. People of Northern Areas voiced their protest but in vain. This incident shows negligence by the organisers.
The prolonged exercise of negligence adds fuel to the anguish felt by the people of Gilgit. The relevant authorities should pay heed to this issue seriously before the water spills over the brim.
REHAN KHAN
Gilgit
I FULLY support the views expressed by Jabbar Habibani on the subject of private schools in his letter (Jan 17). He rightly said that there was no difference between the education standard of government schools and private schools and it had been falling day by day.
Many private schools are being run for making money and nothing else. In government schools physical punishment and unhealthy environment force students to leave government schools, while in private schools high fees compel the parents not to send their children to private schools. This situation is very favourable to child labour.
The government has established an institution named EOBI to address the grievances of the private employees but almost all private schools do not get registration of their teaching and non-teaching staff through this institution and they do not provide any job security to the employees.
They charge high fees but hire low-paid employees which affect the quality of education. Let alone play grounds, they do not even have airy classrooms.
The government has established a separate directorate to do away with the complaint against the private schools but it is not working in the same direction. The authorities concerned are requested to take notice of the situation and do something to give relief to parents, students and teachers as well.
IMRAN IQBAL
Hyderabad
THIS refers to the letter, ‘Dowry prohibition’ (Jan 19) by Amir Aqil.
The custom of dowry is a part of the Hindu religion and is practised in India. With education and awareness which is slowly bringing a change in people’s lives and views and mindsets, the Hindus have come to realise the irrationality of this practice and how shameful it is. The Hindu media is creating awareness among the people through soap operas and films.
In India, the payment of dowry was prohibited in 1961 under the civil law. Unfortunately, Pakistanis are still staunch followers of this custom and it is increasing day by day. NGOs working for women’s rights should work on this menace. It’s time society raised its voice against dowry and filtered this act out of their lives.
MARIA ILYAS NAVEED
Karachi
IN the international market prices of petroleum products continue to slide downward and there are speculations that it may come down to $25 a barrel very soon. It is amazing that despite substantial reduction in oil prices, the government has not transferred the benefit of reduced petroleum products’ prices to the people though when the prices of these products rose in international market, the authorities concerned had immediately enhanced it without consulting the representatives of the people.
Last month when the people criticised the government, through media and TV channels, for not reducing the prices of petroleum products, the Sindh government reduced the price by a rupee, which is totally insignificant and a cruel joke with the people.
The government should reduce the petrol and furnace oil prices by at least Rs5, which will satisfy the people.
MUHAMMAD YOUSUFF KHAN
Karachi
I JUST want to convey to the rulers what Napoleon once said: “Take time to deliberate but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” Our country today is facing a number of challenges — external and internal. Our internal problems have made us vulnerable to external challenges because only an internally stable country can cope with the external threats.
We have water crisis, flour crisis, electricity crisis, and, most of all, safety and security crisis. The government should gear up to remove all sense of insecurity by the public. Time of making mere promises has gone. It’s time for fulfilling the promises. If no action is taken now, the situation will worsen. Fighting in the NWFP can extend to other provinces as well. In fact, it is spreading gradually.
The delay in taking action is not only creating anger against the government but also amongst the provinces which are seeking their basic rights.
The government should not disappoint the people because when the public is not secure, the government too will not remain secure.
AASMA BASHIR
Rawalpindi
THE next day after winning the Senate Foreign Committee’s vote, Senator Hillary Clinton while outlining her preferences said America needs the support of the world and the world needs American support.
This reminded me of a paragraph from Urdu ki akhri kitab, a book written by Ibne Insha, a short story writer and humourist. The paragraph says it all, “Earlier, there were nations in the world living in peace and harmony but Columbus discovered America. People say Columbus discovered it by mistake, if it is so it was his greatest mistake as he has departed but we are still paying for his mistake”.
H.K. NIAZI
Karachi
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