Pakistan

Microsoft Windows and Office together are available for “40 dollars in Thailand”:http://www.idg.com.sg/idgwww.nsf/0/57F719F988F6415548256D8D003789A6?OpenDocument. However, the Pakistan government shows no sign or realization that they can bargain with Microsoft. So sooner or later, things are going to come to a head. Nobody here is going to buy software for a hundred dollars a pop here.

As Pakistan cracks down on software piracy, free software is going to become more and more important. Excepting the larger corporations and multinationals, every single computer in Pakistan runs pirated software. It will be interesting to see whether people will end up buying software, or switching to free alternatives. Even if the govenment starts jailing people, my guess is that about 2-4 percent of home users will pay western prices for software. Thre are “ongoing efforts”:http://newsforge.com/newsforge/03/10/05/162252.shtml?tid=11 to convert to Linux by the government. While techies/geeks are switching, the normal user is going to avoid it like the plague. See “LinuxPakistan.net”:http://www.linuxpakistan.net/ for more about Linux usage in Pakistan.

There are many good reasons to switch to OSS: “Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)?”:http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html and “Why Software Should Be Free”:http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html.

The following programs are all “best of breed”. These are the tools I use, and except for OpenOffice, are all better than the commercial alternatives.

Read moreBest Open Source or Free Software:

Just a few days ago, Musharraf proudly proclaimed that Pakistan is finally in great economic shape.

bq.. “In Pakistan, “globalization has taken a bloody turn”:http://focusasia.startv.com/indepth.cfm?CLIP_DATE=20030928&CLIP_NO=1 — literally,” writes chlim01. “The latest bright spot in its economy is the trade in live human kidneys, with debt-ridden Pakistani peasants comprising the hapless suppliers, desperate foreign kidney patients comprising the buyers, and local kidney merchants and surgeons raking in the cash. According to alarmed experts, about a hundred live kidneys are traded in the Lahore “every six to eight weeks”, with the bulk of the buyers coming from the region: “Mostly from the Middle East, from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Abu Dhabi — these states. And a few from America, England, Denmark and other European countries as well.

…However, a significant part of the alarm over the kidney trade is “concern for the suppliers”:http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/953888.asp, who largely appear to have sold their kidneys due to financial coercion. As observers note, “land reforms enacted in India and Bangladesh have passed Pakistan by, and its system of debt bondages forces millions of peasants to work as virtual slaves for generations,” and in such circumstances it’s easy for these desperate peasants to consider selling kidneys to settle these ballooning debts. Mr. Ahmed Khan, one such victim, explains his desire to sell his kidney: “I borrowed 22,000 rupees for an appendicitis operation for my wife, and 60,000 more when my son died. Now I want to sell my kidney… My landlord is pressurising me. He says ‘even sell your daughter, just give me my money back.'”

>> “Plastic”:http://www.plastic.com/article.html;sid=03/09/28/21295047

Read moreOrgan Trade Booms In Pakistan

p. “ABC news interviewed Musharraf”:http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/PJ_Musharraf030922.html on Sept 22. It’s very interesting, and I believe very important as it signals a change in Musharraf’s approach to the west. Previously he was more respectful and politically correct, now he’s laying it out on the west and is openly critical. Bonus points to him! Previously, I had been “quite critical of Musharraf”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/pakistan/2003_08/musharraf_self_styled_saviour_stuck_in_a_rut.html but over the last 2 weeks since he started speaking up he’s once again at the top of the list. I was particularly impressed by the ABC interview, which is below. It’s a must read.

Yet more good stuff by him at the UN about the war on terrorism. As usual, the American newspapers either don’t mention his statements on Kashmir or gloss over them. The Daily Times has more: “Musharraf: Kashmir movement not terrorism”:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-9-2003_pg1_1.

bq.. NEW YORK, Sept. 22 — Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said today that the U.S.-led war against terrorism, including the occupation of Iraq, have helped fuel the perception of Muslims that “Islam, as a religion, is being targeted and pilloried.”

…Musharraf told more than 20 world leaders and foreign ministers attending a counterterrorism conference that the Islamic world has an obligation to reform the religious schools, or madrassahs, that “preach hatred” and to “shun militancy and extremism.” But he said this would only “be feasible if the West joins us by helping to resolve all political disputes involving Muslims with justice.”

>> “Washingtonpost : Musharraf Criticizes Terror War”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49515-2003Sep22?language=printer

Read moreMusharraf takes a stand

September’s issues of both the “Herald”:http://www.dawn.com/herald/ and “Newsline”:http://www.newsline.com.pk/ have the Oil Spill as their cover stories. For the inside information on the ongoing fiasco which is the cleanup and the multiple commitees investigating it, it’s a must buy. Neither have the articles available online (or a decent website for that matter), but the print version is available online and in most newstands around the country. I had been earlier following the oil spill day by day as I was concerned/worried that it was going to spill a lot more than the 12,000 tons which the authorities kept claiming, and due to the fact that the “local newspapers did a very bad job of reporting the oil spill”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/pakistan/2003_08/oil_spill_off_pakistan_worse_than_first_thought.html. After that, it made no sense to follow anything as every day brought more of the same ludicrous statements by various ‘dignitaries’. The Herald and Newsline have done a brilliant job of covering/investigating the past month, so I’m glad I didn’t attempt to cover that.

They also both have articles about the fact that _few residents of Pakistan’s largest coastal city realise the extent of the damage caused by the oil spill from Tasman Spirit_. I’d “written earlier”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/pakistan/2003_08/pakistan_oil_spill_update.html about this, and while I’m no environmentalist or know much about oil spills, based on previous spills of this magnitude, we can can say goodbye to Clifton beach for at least a decade. They’re still cleaning up in Alaska, and we’re still forming commitee after high powered commitee. While the oil spill might only be visible in the area around Clifton beach (for a 16km stretch) it’s effects go well beyond that.

bq.. Corruption, incompetence and sheer lack of interest. That more or less sums up the role played by the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) management in the sordid ongoing saga of Tasman Spirit, the Greek-owned tanker that ran aground off the Karachi coast on July 27. The apathy of the two organisations contributed not only to the vessel?s beaching but also the devastating oil spill that has since disfigured the coastline and dealt a deadly blow to the marine ecosystem. What’s more, their knee-jerk reaction to deny that anything had gone wrong at all may rebound now if the one-billion-dollar claim being prepared by the PNSC against Polembros, the company that owned Tasman Spirit, goes to court.

A month after the Tasman Spirit ran aground, officials at the KPT as well as the PNSC have gone absolutely quiet. The reason: anything that they say to the media at this stage may be held against them if the issue of claims for the damage done to Karachi goes to court. However, given that their sheer incompetence stands completely exposed, their silence may have more to do with the fact that they still have no answers to several tricky questions that the world?s largest oil spill since 1996 has raised. Investigations by the Herald indicate that from the time that Tasman Spirit was beached, the negligence and indifference shown by the KPT and the PNSC bordered on the criminal. The two authorities neither had a contingency plan to deal with the situation nor was their top echelon even aware of the standard operating procedures that are to be followed in such situations.

>> “Herald: Ship of Fools”:http://www.dawn.com/herald/main.htm

p. “Dawn”:http://dawn.com has had a number of articles on the oil spill in the past few days:

bq. As was expected, the super high-powered committee, formed on the orders of Big Chief President General Pervez Musharraf to tackle the oil spill and its consequent damage, is floundering.

>> “Dawn: Cowasjee: Tasman Spirit IV”:http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm

This one is also worth reading: “Poor handling of oil spill disaster”:http://www.dawn.com/2003/09/15/ebr4.htm

I’m currently reading both the Herald and Newsline, so I’ll update this later.

*Update:* Newsline’s “cover story on the oil spill is available online”:http://www.newsline.com.pk/cover1sep2003.htm. It sums up everything from beginning to end quite well.

*Update:* The assessment carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme together with the World Conservation Union on the environmental damage caused by the spill has finished. It doesn’t look very good.

Read moreTasman Spirit: Karachi Oil Spill Update

“WorldCall”:http://www.go4b.net is the first ISP in Karachi to provide high-speed internet links at an affordable price. [at least in the area where I live]. They have set up their own private fiber optic network in Defence and Clifton, and are providing internet and TV over cable. I’ve been using their service for about 4 months now, and since a number of people have asked me about the service, I’ve written a review of WorldCall’s service.

Read moreWorldCall: 4 month review

_this entry was posted back in 2003, and is now outdated._

Some good news finally! This will be the first affordable faster than modem service once it’s available. Broadband is going to take a few more years, but even 128k-256k links are far better than dialup. Multinet is already providing DSL, but at 14000 Rs. it’s far to much for non business use. WorldCall has started a “cable internet service”:http://www.go4b.net which I’ve been using for the last three months, but their service makes the KESC look good! I’ve written a review of WorldCall’s service, which I’ll post in the next few days. The minute a reputable company like “Cybernet”:http://www.cyber.net.pk starts DSL at reasonable prices I’ll be switching. Hell, I’ll go pay them months in advance to get a faster connection!

bq. PTCL, the owner of the massive copper pairs that run across and under our roads, has “decided to allow”:http://www.ptcl.com.pk/news/aug_29_2003.html all willing (and qualifying) ISPs to offer DSL services to their users. This *is* exciting. Watch out this space for more on this in the next few hours.

>> “Tee Emm’s Window to Pakistan”:http://pakistan.blogspot.com/2003_08_31_pakistan_archive.html#106259279117631085

Like many other things in this country, nothing has happened in the DSL world even after the so called derugulation. All the companies offering DSL are cookie cutters of each other, offering basically the same prices for a ridiculously low amount of bandwidth (5-6GB/month). Hugely disappointing.

Read moreDSL – Let the Game Begin!