Wherin the author writes about a road trip from Karachi to Quetta, and then on to Ziarat to see the snow, and lastly the famed Bolan Pass. Covered a grand total of 2000 kilometers and “eight film rolls”:http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/quetta_2004/index.html in 4 days.
Pakistan
Tasman Spirit Oil Spill roundup
The area around the Tasman Spirit is still black, but about a kilometer away from the broken up wreck the sea seems as clear as it used to be. At least to the naked eye that is. It is hard to comprehend the long-term effects of the spill. Clifton beach has been cleaned up, but there doesn’t seem to be any further cleanup work being done anymore. They’re still cleaning up in Alaska more than a decade after the Exxon Valdez, so the cleanup can’t just be finished so fast. Karachi’s coastline was already “badly polluted”:http://www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/karachi.htm and the oil spill is just more icing on the cake.
Somehow, Clifton beach just doesn’t seem the same anymore. Maybe its the mental image of a blackened beach, and oil on the water as far as the eye could see, coupled with toxic fumes. The locals seem to feel that things are getting back to normal, but if one reads some of the more scientific studies on the oil spill than it’s really depressing. It’s not just the ‘posh localities’ being affected as Ahmad Ali put it, but hundreds of miles of coastline.
Software Piracy in Pakistan
A few days ago I was at the local computer store to buy some hardware, when I noticed that all the software shops were absent any software. It turned out that Microsoft and their local lackeys are back on the warpath chasing after software piracy. *Again*. This has happened so many times in the past that it’s laughable. Still, maybe because of these constant raids, software piracy has slowed down to some extent. We no longer have the latest and greatest software’s available here soon as they get released for manufacturing abroad. Often times, one has to wait for months before software is finally available over here. Still, with the advent of Windows XP and Office XP, people are basically satisfied with what they have, and there are no longer hordes of people looking for the latest software releases. Games of course are available here well before their release dates abroad.
For those who shudder in horror at all the rampant piracy around here, please take note that it is *impossible* to actually buy a legal copy of any software around here. I have tried over the years, but I have never been able to track down anyplace which sells legal copies of Windows and Office. When it comes to digging out computer stuff in Karachi, I consider myself quite resourceful, so if I (and a large number of other people and hardware retailers) can’t find a legal copy even after a good ten years of effort, I have to conclude that Microsoft doesn’t care about this market and so can’t be bothered to actually sell any copies.
The most likely explanation is that whoever it is whom Microsoft has authorized to look after the Pakistan market is happy making money by raiding small offices and slapping hefty fines on them. I have gotten a number of threatening faxes from this (Dubai based) organization over the years, and while most have gone into the dustbin straightaway, I did contact them a number of times about acquiring/purchasing Windows. Each time they said they’re in the business of stopping software piracy, not selling software. And no, they did not send along any contact numbers/places where I could purchase the software from.
Pakistani Approach to IT
Sadly, it seems that most IT people in Pakistan just don’t grasp Information Technology. I’m not talking about the people who use computers solely for email and the web, but actual IT professionals. While there are a number of extremely professional people in the IT field (and I’ve met quite a few of them) in Karachi, the majority just don’t seem to grasp the digital world. ( _ed: examples?_ )
OffroadPakistan Update
I just a added an article written in 1995 prior to a month long trip to the mountains: “JEEP TRIP ’95: The Great Idea”:http://offroadpakistan.com/trips/jeep_trip_95_the_great_idea.php. There is also a “picture gallery of this trip”:http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/chitral/index.html. There is a lot more content waiting in the wings to make a grand entrance… now if only someone can locate that … Read moreOffroadPakistan Update
Bomb Blasts in Saddar
There have been two bomb blasts in Saddar in front of Trinity Church, near Avari Towers. One blast was small, while the other was big and damaged a lot of cars. No one was killed, early reports say. Breaking news is available at the “Jang”:http://jang-group.com/thenews/index.html and “Dawn”:http://www.dawn.com/ websites. Fortunately, they didn’t target the Zainab market … Read moreBomb Blasts in Saddar
Computer Shops in Karachi
Walk into any computer store in Karachi. The likelihood is:
* The person behind the counter doesn’t know much about computers.
* He (and it’s definitely going to be a he) doesn’t really use computers.
* The price will be as high as they think they can get away with.
* Does not realize that he can make his life much easier using the same computers he’s selling to automate much of the mindless software installation and troubleshooting they keep doing.
* Has never heard of automated installs and imaging.
* Customer support… ( _no no no_ )
* Everything will be scattered about in a way to make even the simplest task take at least half an hour.
* Everything will be connected to a single _overloaded_ stablizer, causing all the monitors to flicker like mad.
* There will only be a *single* phillips head screwdriver in the whole shop, which will be borrowed periodically by someone next door.
* Has never wondered why most of their customers come to him with the same issues over and over again.
India, Pakistan and the Kashmir issue
Tons have already been written about the alienation between India and Pakistan. In a nutshell: The British left in a rush and did not plan things out. “Partition”:http://sacw.insaf.net/partition/ led to a mass migration (about 10 million people) and more than a million deaths. You can imagine the amount of bad blood that left.
Human Rights for All: The Nature of the Beast in Pakistan
Rights rights and more rights… it seems there are never enough to go around. Pakistan has a particularly bad track record on human rights. There has been so much written about this already, as a quick glance at the links below shows, that it seems useless writing more about it. Most Pakistanis’ indeed, have given it up as a lost cause and regard the current state of affairs as what is, and what will be in the forseeable future.
Everywhere you turn, its all gloom and doom. “Karo Kari”:http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/pakistan/reports/honour/index.html is on the rise, minorities are being increasingly “persecuted”:http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/pakistan-03.html, “religious intolerance”:http://www.religioustolerance.org/rt_pakis.htm is once again “rearing its ugly head”:http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/16F959A8-B0A7-4719-8D27-7D112475034A.htm, and a large percentage of Pakistani peasants/farmers still live in the “medieval age”:http://www.dawn.com/2003/09/27/local32.htm. The local newspapers and magazines are full of violations left right and center. On the other hand, a vast number of “NGO’s”:http://www.net-ngo.com/ have sprung up all over the country committed to increasing human rights awareness and bettering the situation. While many of these NGO’s have been vilified in the press and in popular opinion, they are doing a much needed job which the state seems to have abandoned completely.
Read moreHuman Rights for All: The Nature of the Beast in Pakistan
The massive global job shift
The common view of globalization is that the jobs have been flying south to the poorer countries, as this article below shows:
bq.. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the North are being exported to the South in an unprecedentedly frenzied manner to maximize profits by cutting costs in terms of wages, in cases even by half, by the corporate sector.
…George Monbiot of The Guardian in one of his “recent columns”:http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=615 has described these jobs as the ones “we (British colonialists) stole 200 years ago” and are now “returning to India”. In an apologetic vein, by drawing upon his country’s colonial history, he says: “Britain’s industrialization was secured by destroying the manufacturing capacity of India… So a historical restitution appears to be taking place as hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them good ones, flee to the economy we ruined”. But it is not because of the historic injustices the West did to Asia that corporate giants are willing to offer too many jobs to Indians as a compensation so as to settle the old score. It is the naked lust for profits that is whipping up the new trend
>> “Dawn: The massive global job shift”:http://www.dawn.com/2003/11/10/ebr2.htm
p. Many people in the west have the misperception that their jobs are being somehow ‘transferred’ to poeple in China and the rest of the developing world. While jobs are disappearing, as the quote below shows, it is not just a simple transer operation. From “Daniel Drezner”:http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/000879.html: