A Brief Note of Explanation, Kinda

I guess I should offer some explanation about why the blog has been dormant for so long. Frankly, I can only speak for myself and you can put it down to exhaustion and lack of motivation as far as I am concerned (the rest of the contributors can speak for themselves). Even though I returned from vacation a while ago, and there have been a number of topics I have thought of blogging about (Lord knows, there always are in Pakistan), the two main reasons for the absence are the power woes that KESC's dastardly staff has put all of Karachi through - and which have sapped my energy in more ways than one - and the feeling of futility that engulfs all of us living in Pakistan at some point or the other, which has been particularly marked over the last few months. After a while, unending tales of incompetence, brutality, corruption, dishonesty and cynical manipulation do tend to numb you. I am not at all implying that this is in any way only specific to Pakistan. But since I live here, I can only speak for life in this place. The tendency often is to try and find solace in other, lighter things.

At another level (and somewhat contradictory to the sense of futility), there is also a feeling that there is little point in spending hours constructing posts on matters that others have already addressed or are already addressing. When we began the blog, very, very few people were taking on the media as a subject. Thankfully, a lot more debate now occurs on the subject both online and in the print and electronic media and that is a good thing. A lot more people are also willing and vigilant enough to call out inconsistencies and issues in the media. One hopes we have played a small part in making that possible but, yes, it can lead to complacency.

I know these may be seen as just excuses for laziness and I am willing to concede that. But I thought I owed it to our readers to at least provide some explanations, even if they are mere excuses. Hopefully, we'll get over our blue funk and soon get our mojo back.

Powerless in Karachi

A quick non-expletive-ridden word about the absolute disaster known as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation. Two days on from the torrential downpour in the city on Saturday July 18, and 70 per cent of it is still without power.

The KESC Managing Director Naveed Ismail, holding a press conference on Monday (July 20) afternoon even as riots broke out all over the city had the gall to claim, with not a hint of irony, that "there is no problem with power generation. In fact, we were supplying power to WAPDA yesterday." Er, yeah... you should have surplus power you dodo! Nobody's getting it in Karachi!

So, as usual when it's not "too much load" or "not enough generation", it's "technical faults", "cable faults" and, my favourite, "tripping." That's a whole lot of grid stations on acid, if you ask me. But the question is this: who lays those lines that develop faults at the first drop of rain? Who instals those grid stations and transformers that blow whether it's too hot or too wet. I've never heard of them overheating in Dubai or Saudi Arabia, which have much higher temperatures than ours on a more consistent basis. I've never heard of them constantly tripping out on a few drops of water in Malaysia or Thailand which get far more rain than Karachi does. Why are we constantly hearing about the need to upgrade transmission lines and feeders - I have been hearing about this at least for 25 years - but nothing ever gets done? Perhaps if they spent less on public relationing with hundreds of thousands of rupees of ads and cushy perks for their PR bozos and more on developing a cleaner transmission system...

There is no denying that Karachi's electricity supply system needs massive overhaul but it's not just the fault of the people who came before. The present lot are equally to blame for adding to the problem - have you ever seen how they work? There is no system, a lot of jugaar, and an ubiquitous chalta-hai attitude. The way I look at it, KESC top to bottom is either criminally callous and lazy or stupendously inefficient and stupid. In either case, that's grounds for dismissal.