Posted on 03-11-2008 under
electronics,
karachi,
web crawlingSolar power is seeing increasing amounts of development these days. According to EETimes, the solar industry has seen revenues rise from $10 billion in 2006 to $13 billion in 2007. Cell efficiencies for the experimental varieties are getting to the point that they may be able to compete with fossil fuel generation. It may not be far off in the future when we are free of fossil fuel producers and their control over the international market.
The current market leaders in solar cell production are Japan and Germany. But China is rapidly increasing its output capacity, and it will very quickly overtake Japan, the current lead.
Increasingly, semi-conductor manufacturers are spending R&D budgets on this new, rapidly expanding market. According to John Boyd at EETimes:
We can be sure that almost every large semiconductor manufacturer has a PV program of some sort and is assessing strategies to leverage its manufacturing experience and depreciating assets.
While this is very good news for the environment, it is also good news for power generation. Sufficiently mass-produced and well-researched, this option may be cheap enough for low-income economies like our own.
So what does the future of solar power hold for Pakistan, with our gift of eternal sun. Recently some encouraging actions have been taken by our government.
According to the Business Recorder dated 10th February, 2008:
The government has decided to use solar energy-based lights on all important buildings … “With appropriate energy conservation policy, a minimum saving up to 25 percent in various segments of the energy sector can bring saving of $2 billion per annum.”
And on uniquepakistan.com, dated 24th February, 2008:
City District Government Karachi has decided to use solar energy system as alternate source for electricity at public places in Karach … City Government has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from Foreign/Local Firms … for providing solar energy system for parks, street lights, on bridges, lamp poles, spotlights, wall mounted lights, landscape lights etc. in Karachi.
In light of the current power situation in Pakistan, and especially Karachi, this is welcome news. It remains to be seen how this plan is actually carried out, since the change in government might just put this on the backburner. I do believe however, that Pakistan is very ripe for solar power, perhaps even to a surplus production capacity. Lets all wait and see.
Posted on 03-11-2008 under
site updatesI’m making a little theme for wordpress and I’m testing it here. I need it to match what I’m doing to the main site. Here’s a shot of the wordpress theme (far from complete).
And here is the main site (also under construction), which I’ll be linking to the blog. This is the look I’m trying to match above.
Let me know what you think.
Posted on 03-09-2008 under
generalPakistan achieved independence in 1947, after a long, hard and oftentimes tragic struggle. The British were leaving India anyway, but we wanted a separate state. The idea was, that if the British had not separated India, we would have been ruled by the Hindu majority, owing to the all-powerful panacea of democracy being forced down our throats. But every Pakistani who has read history knows that. We simply did not want the British replaced by another ruler.
Unfortunately, thats exactly what occurred. As the wise maxim goes: “Shit happens”. The British were not replaced by the Hindus, but the rich elite. The lords, and chaudhrys. The feudals. If you look back into the sixty year history of Pakistan, there has not been a single democratically elected government. People might count Zulfiqar Bhutto as being democratically elected, but he only won in West Pakistan. The majority vote went to the East Pakistan contender, Sheikh Mujib. Direct quote from Wikipedia:
However, Sheikh Mujib’s Awami League won an outright majority from the constituencies located in East Pakistan. Bhutto refused to accept an Awami League government and famously promised to “break the legs” of any elected PPP member who dared to attend the inaugural session of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
And from another site:
The first general election conducted in Pakistan on the basis of one person, one vote, was held on December 7, 1970; elections to provincial legislative assemblies followed three days later. The voting was heavy. Yahya Khan kept his promise of free and fair elections. The Awami League won a colossal victory in East Pakistan, for it was directly elected to 160 of the 162 seats in the east and thus gained a majority of the 300 directly elected seats in the National Assembly (plus the thirteen indirectly elected seats for women, bringing the total to 313 members) without winning a seat in the West Wing. The PPP won a large majority in the West Wing, especially in Punjab and Sindh, but no seats in the East Wing. In the North- West Frontier Province and Balochistan, the National Awami Party won a plurality of the seats. The Muslim League and the Islamic parties did poorly in the west and were not represented in the east.
Of course, the East Pakistani wasn’t allowed to rule. Heaven’s forbid the Bengalis were to rule Pakistan. (It remains to be seen whether the latest elections were fair or not). Given the state of things, the Quaid would have turned a groove a hundred metres deep in his grave by now.
Lets get back to the feudal topic. Our culture is riddled with class segregation. We have VIPs, snobs, snoots and what not. Our MPs get “protocols”, cars, bungalows, and other perks. While in Britain, MPs queue up for their morning coffee, our MPs block traffic for hours because they need to pass through; emergencies be damned. We call our superiors “Sir” and suck up to them. VIPs seem to exercise near-limitless power, and flaunt it regularly, no matter what their real appointment. They act exactly like a medieval lord would with the “peasants”, and the “rabble”. Normal people just aren’t humans, apparently.
Now lets take a look at our political parties. Most, if not all, are led by: you guessed it, feudal lords. Even the rites of heredity hold here. When Zulfiqar Bhutto passed away, the torch was passed to Benazir, his daughter. Now on her passing, her son is being made the man of the hour. And this is not done de jure, it is de facto. Everyone actually wants this. Everyone thinks that after Benazir’s death, the only person suitable for support is her son, who has lived his entire life outside Pakistan, and doesn’t know squat about the people here. Reminds me of the very famous yet hilarious incident where Benazir told the people of Pakistan to eat cake, since bread was getting expensive. Time will show what fascinating adventures the new “King” will have.
And in the midst of all of this is the education policy. Which is: absolutely diddly squat. Here we are again seeing the practice of feudal wisdom. Keep the populace uneducated and rule easy, educate them and your finished. An educated community would fight for their rights, maybe in a way that would actually hurt the ruler. Intelligent people would try to establish true democracy, not the wool being pulled over our eyes these past sixty years. Why bother with that much dissent. Just leave the people like they are. Don’t spend money on schools and colleges. Instead send your own sons and daughters to Harvard and Oxford to get the best education (with the taxpayers’ money, of course).
Where are the real Muslim leaders who would sell caps or copies of the Quran for a living. Who would not accept anything from the coffers of the state. The men who were with their people, not only heart and soul, but also physically. Who would deal with the same hardships the common man had to go through. And who would take responsibility for the lives of their people. We’ve all forgotten that. We’ve forgotten the teachings of Islam that say the ruler is responsible for even a head of cattle dying of starvation. We’ve lost all of that Islamic spirit. The teachings that make us that much closer to utopia are forgotten for the law of the jungle. Instead we remain focused on why the other guy doesn’t grow a beard, while worshiping the ground on which our feudal lords walk.
Note: I usually don’t rant about politics. But sometimes I do start caring about what the people we put in charge do to us.
