Rainwater drainage in Karachi.

Just got this very interesting article. It is quite illustrative of the kinds of problems that a megacity (like Karachi) in the developing world has to face. What can be done about it?

Why Karachi turned into a cesspool when it rained
August 31, 2006
Daily Dawn, by Zubeida Mustafa

It is also being suggested that the city has never emerged unscathed whenever it has poured. But these are myths. First of all it must be pointed out that admittedly the rain in late July and August this year was more than what is normal in lean years. But it did not set any record. In the last few weeks Karachi has had 289mm rain. Not a fantastic figure by any means.

In 2003, the city received 308mm with record rainfall of 105mm on July 28, 2003 when the city was drenched with water which drained out from the main thoroughfares in a day or two. This year the maximum rain Karachi received in one spell was 80mm and the water continued to flood many areas and key communication arteries for over 10 days. It also flooded many homes and shops in Clifton that had been quite secure previously. Most horrendously, the sewers got choked and the city turned into a cesspool.

Why this catastrophe? The answer to this question lies in the fast growing land hunger, greed, corruption and inefficiency of those responsible for the civic infrastructure of Karachi. The various agencies – the city government, the town administrations, the KWSB, the cantonment boards, the DHA and so on — whose job it was to have geared up for the rains did not attend to their responsibilities and indulged in a blame game.

In July last year, the Sindh governor admitting that the drainage system was in a mess decided that the KWSB should be assigned the task of cleaning and desilting of nullahs. But the decision was not actually implemented until June 2006. By then the city government had already received a fund of Rs 242 million for rain preparations.

There are, however, some basic facts that have not been fully revealed. They need to be laid before the public which has suffered so much misery and is entitled to compensation for the losses incurred for no fault of its own. The stormwater drains that are designed to carry the rainwater were not cleaned – one cannot say since when. What happened to the millions that are allocated year after year for the cleaning of the drains and nullahs stretching over 1,000kms in all. Where has the money earmarked for this job being going? This fraud came to the fore when the rains came.

But could the nullahs have been cleaned in normal course even if someone wanted to do his job? No, not at all. Because the stage has been reached that many of these nullahs simply cannot be cleaned without massive digging up and demolition as has been partly done now. These drains have been encroached upon and the openings used for the dredging and cleaning operation have been blocked off. That is why when crisis struck this city there was the need to dig up and remove encroachments leading to heated arguments and threats because the encroachers are not poor and disadvantaged. They are the rich and the famous.

There are nullahs that have been given away for car parks – vide the Soldier Bazaar nullah behind Shaheen Complex, and the Glass Tower nullah in Clifton next to Habib Bank – with no mandatory provision being made for constructing manholes and openings for cleaning the drains. The KWSB says that of the 40,000-feet Soldier Bazaar nullah, 25,000 feet have been encroached upon.

Aesthetically they might look superb being neatly covered and the muck hidden away from the naked eye – but they are most unpractical as far as maintenance and cleaning operations are concerned.

The choked drains can prove to be a disaster in the rainy season since there is no outlet for the accumulated water. The excess water was allowed to flow into the sewers that also got choked spewing out the effluent into the stagnant rainwater. In a city, where garbage is not routinely collected in every locality, the nullahs are conveniently used as garbage dumping sites and they are virtually covered with a layer of plastic bags and waste which can be lethal. Besides, the nullahs are also being used as sewers – in many cases illegally after bribing the KWSB and the city government functionaries.

Worse still, ineptitude and corruption have also played a role in bringing matters to a head.

At Schon Circle, where the famous KPT underpass has been designed and built by Nespak, the branch of the Glass Tower nullah that had drained water from Clifton’s Block-8 into Nehr-i-Khayyam was blocked off during the construction of the underpass. Nespak in its wisdom replaced four 24-inch- diametre pipes with only one 15-inch-dia pipeline, thus creating a choke point. What happened in Clifton was a disaster waiting to happen. On the Mai Kolachi Road end, the pipes that drain water into the shrinking mangrove swamps were also reduced in size. Besides, the swamps have also been denied free access to the sea because land has been reclaimed and allotted. A marriage hall has already sprung up and PICIC’s signboard announces that its head office will be built there. This has emerged as a new choke point. Little wonder Sultanabad was flooded.

But the most serious theft that has taken place has been in the 125-feet-long Nehr-i-Khayyam itself. It is being covered as a box drain only 15 feet in width. The remaining 115-feet land along the nullah has already been used for marking plots – eight in the block on the west of Khayaban-i-Iqbal and more on the other side.

The EDO, when I asked him about this land scam, vehemently denied it but others provided me the map. It is important that this matter be investigated to establish the truth of the matter.

Then there are the road builders who did not attend to the drainage of water from the newly constructed roads now in ruins. The drains that line the road to carry away the rain water are virtually non-existent in many cases. In others, they are choked.

Some excerpts from a note describing the state of the storm water drains prepared by the KWSB when it took over the cleaning operation are quite revealing:

“(i) A major number of stormwater drains are in deplorable condition;

(ii) Many of the stormwater drains of the city, particularly in the old city areas, have been covered and markets and other buildings have been built thereon;

In kutchi abadies, encroachment on nullahs have reduced the natural width of nullahs;

(iii) Kucha nullahs in several places are fully silted and are used as a track by scooters, bicycles or pedestrians;

(iv) Shuttering was not removed after construction of culverts at road crossings;

(v) RCC pipes used at road crossings are fully or partially choked;

(vi) Most of the storm water drains are dustbins and people throw all their garbage into these drains which has reduced their capacity to drain away rainwater.”

A new kind of journalism: written by robots?

Robots are once again becoming the greatest fear for humanity. They have returned in full-form: stronger, better, faster, and ever more pervasive to take over the human life form, and establish a digital anarchy across this planet.

Sci-fi movies from decades ago predicted that machines would take over the world - not necessarily in a menacing torturous way, but by simply replacing human beings in functions that allow humanity to continue to depend on each other. It was predicted that the human society as well know will be disrupted by the presence of robots in our midst. Well, the robots arrived, slowly but surely. No, they were not little man-like creatures that rolled on wheels and spoke with a structured hiccuping voice - they simply did the work, and they did it well. A sign outside my office reads to my co-workers “No Surprises”. Unfortunately they are human beings and every once in a while end up surprising me (in unpleasant ways), but robots would rarely do that (or so I dream some times :). While industrialization in the last few decades has brought robots into our factories to increase worker productivity, hospitals to improve accuracy, and in functions such as sniffing out bombs and/or survivors in a catastrophe, they had so far managed to stay away from our personal space at homes (unless you were living in the world of I, Robot or with Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man).

That era is also now past us. Robots seem to have invaded my little world. First it was the little robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba, then a robotic arm that we built for my company, and now I am told the daily news I am so addicted to will also be collected, authored, and delivered by tiny robots. Needless to say, it appears the old-fashioned journalism as we knew it is under serious attack by robots who have openly declared war on journalists whose job it was to collect information and weave them into news items. According to a news story, Thomson Financial, which had been using automatic computer programs to generate news for almost six months in a beta test, liked the output so much that it has decided to expand its fleet of robot reporters. With these computers putting out news stories based on financial reports in mere 0.3 seconds after receiving the data, what chance do us mere mortals have? I can’t even write the title for this note in that time!

I should have seen this coming. When was the last time I paid attention to who the author was on a news item reported in the Wall Street Journal or in a newswire. They all sound the same anyways, especially with the political correctness and ’smoothening’ of the news that has become common place in America. If human emotions, perceptions, and impressions are not going to be a part of a story, who cares if it was written by a robot or a pen/paper journalist. I have myself moved on to GoogleNews and RSS feeders - away from good ol’ newspapers - and to get a personal touch I now read blogs which cannot really be called news sources. There seems to be little time (or place) for human journalists in my life, and certainly financial or business news doesn’t fall into that category. Maybe journalists will all become political commentators and opinion editorial writers? Watch out Tom Friedman, your space is about to get crowded!

Wired News is running another journalistic experiment that you - yes YOU - can also become a part of. Here’s what they say:

In an experiment in collaborative journalism, Wired News is putting reporter Ryan Singel at your service.

This wiki began as an unedited 1,059-word article on the wiki phenomenon, exactly as Ryan filed it. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to do the job of a Wired News editor and whip it into shape. Don’t change the quotes, but feel free to reorganize it, make cuts, smooth the prose or add links — whatever it takes to make it a lively, engaging news piece.

Ryan will answer questions from the comments page, and, when consensus calls for it, conduct additional reporting. If there’s something he missed, let him know, and he’ll get on the phone and investigate, then submit new text to the wiki for your review.

Readers can also submit headlines for the story, and write and editthe “deck” — a blurb for our front page and RSS feed that promotes the article.

To make any changes, you’ll first need to create a free account at Socialtext.

We’ll release the results under a Creative Commons license, and, if the whole thing doesn’t turn into a disaster, run the final story on Wired News on Sept. 7, 2006.

And on this blog: If you start too notice too many grammatical or spelling errors, please do alert me and I will tell my robots to stop misbehaving. Now I must take leave. My batteries need recharging.

An environmental friendly way to make Iron

Iron and Steel have been critical to launching our civilization into industrialization and mechanical progress. These materials have become an integral part of our society, and even though naysayers have prdicted that in time plastics and polymers would replace all metal usage, that time has yet to realize.

Iron making is a dirty process, utilizing furnaces and techniques that can be incredibly polluting. MIT researchers have just introduced a new technique for making iron that could be quite nonpolluting. This could be very interesting, but only if we ar enot just shifting the polution to another place (i.e. at an power production plant instead of the steel mill). If you are confused about the different between cast iron, wrought iron and steel, read this essay.

MIT devises eco-iron

August 28, 2006 9:43 AM PDT

Iron. It’s the material of the industrial revolution, and it’s dirty stuff to make.

Researchers at MIT, however, say they have come up with a way to produce the metal without generating carbon dioxide or other pollutants. In the experimental process, an electric current is passed through a vat of liquid iron oxide, which then gets transformed into iron and oxygen.

“What sets molten oxide electrolysis apart from other metal-producing technologies is that it is totally carbon-free and hence generates no carbon dioxide gases — only oxygen,” said Lawrence W. Kavanagh, AISI vice president of manufacturing and technology in a prepared statement.

Another potential advantage is that manufacturers are familiar with the electrolysis process: this is similar to how aluminum gets made.

Source: CNET

Political turmoil in Pakistan

Pakistani politics is going through a tough time right now. There are at least two issues that have seriously put the country at risk of diving into anarchy that could last a long time. Like many other Pakistanis, I am also watching the political scene unfolding before us intently and cautiously.

The two issues that are now confronting Pakistan are:

• The ruling coalition in Pakistan, with the support of President Musharraf, has presented a bill in the Parliament that aims to change the hideous Hudood Ordinance (new bill is being called the Women’s Protection Bill). The Hudood ordinance is a despicable piece of legislation that somehow got passed through earlier, more ideological legislative assemblies, in order to enforce strict shariah law sin the country, especially vis-a-vis rights of women. Naturally a strong religiously oriented opposition has creatd a ruccus over it in the parliament, and have now taken their protests and other antics to the streets. How could they envision a system where, for example, women would have a right to report a rape without carrying the risk of being jailed for Zinah (sex outside marriage)?

• Secondly, an almost 80-year old tribal leader who had long engaged the government in a pitched battle over a large province’ autonomy, was shot dead by military forces. Nawab Akbar Bugti was not just any tribal leader, but one who commanded considerable respect in the tribal baloch despite his terroriszing ways of negotiationg with the government, and his utmost lack of interest in the development of the Baloch people or the province. Regardless, his death has widened the gulf between the central government and an already alienated province. Quetta, the capital city of the Balochistan province is under curfew and protests are taking place across the city.

This is a critical time for the Pakistani politics to try and redeem itself from its abysmal performance in the past 10-20 years (since 1988, really). General Musharraf’s government has faltered badly - while the changes in the Hudood ordinance are a must, the distraction caused by the Bugti murder is not going to help the cause of women in our country.

I have no idea what has gone wrong with the Musharraf government that people are feeling a complete lack of strategy in any of their programs. After 7 years of power, have they really lost touch with the street and the people? Do they really not understand how big their strategic and tactical blunders are, and how their patheic performances in trying to win over political opponents via dialogue and discussion (or torture and murder) are infecting the very roots of democracy in our country? Musharraf seems to have started considering himself as a visionary who has been ordained to deliver Pakistan from all its evils (alas with poor execution: we should have known this from his Kargil days), and Prime Minster Shaukat Aziz, like an obedient commander, seems to be simply towing the line. In this ordained role, unfortunately, the people have no say whatsoever, and the doors to his excellency’s command center seem to only go through the military corridors. The power obviously resides with the military complex, and in the post-9/11 world, the military commanders (who in pakistan are always thirsty for power beyond their military structures) seem to have lost sight altogether of what is right and what is wrong for them to do. From the torture of protestors in Wana to eviction of farmers in Punjab to the murder of Bugti, the heavy handed approach of the present is going to cost Pakistan much. Lets wait and watch how Musharraf tries to dig himself out of this hole.

Press Clipping(s): Somebody stole a train???

How can somebody steal a whole damn train? Well, here’s the news from Pakistan…supposedly the ‘thief’ was a crazy person from a town near Karachi, who stole the train, drove it down the track for 20 miles and almost caused a serious accident as he was only yards away from colliding with a crowded passenger train. For a while this was being considered a terrorist attack.

Staff of Pakistan railway work at engine which was diverted onto service lane in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006. A Pakistani man stole the unattended train engine from a southern station, driving it more than 30 kilometers (20 miles) and dangerously close to a passenger train on the same line before being arrested, police said. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

and how did the train get left unattended? Well, its the damn tea again. When its time for tea, we Pakistanis drop everything and just go savor our thirst :).

The railway engine was stolen from a marshalling yard near Karachi after its driver and fireman left it to have tea, officials say.

We don’t know as yet what his motive was for this attack. But he apparently knows how to drive a railway engine and had planned it Karachi police spokesman Irshad Baig

They say that the accused man, Madan, drove the engine 30km (20 miles) towards Karachi and did not stop at two stations in between - prompting fears of a major terrorist incident.

A passenger train, plying the same railway track, was stopped at the main Karachi cantonment railway station to avoid a major accident.

The Divisional Superintendent of Karachi, Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, said that the stolen engine was then diverted to a loop line where engineers were able to bring it to a halt. (BBC)

America is a special place

I complain a lot about America, about its international policy, and the fact that lately most visitors to this country have felt threatened and at risk of being mistreated because of their religion or nationality. I was in Europe last week, and it was almost sad to see everyone talk down about the US. Many people around the world are starting to feel that the current crises in the world, especially the most violent ones, are completely a product of the American dream for a hegemony, and its satellite state Israel’s, quest for taking all the land away from Palestinians.

But that is not what I want to talk about today. I just read about Senator Barak Obama’s visit back to his ancestral home in Kenya, and was reminded of what goodness this country has to offer to those it welcomes with open arms. Sen. Obama is such a positive image for the US to show to the rest of the world. Son of an immigrant from a small rural village in a poor African country rose to become a member of the Senate in this country, a front-line leader in one of its major political parties. Where else could that happen easily?

Better education, better jobs, and political and economic stability — those are all reasons people from around the world choose to immigrate to the United States. Much like Sen. Obama, America has provided so much opportunity to so many people, including myself. America has been called a melting pot, and I believe its a place where one is able to preserve their culture and roots if one so desires, while integrating into the American dream at the same time. I have now lived in this country for 11 years, and I would not be honest if I didn’t say that in many ways I have enjoyed more freedom in this country than I think I would in most other parts of the world, including Pakistan. It has been a roller coaster ride at times, but friends in this country have helped me ride out the bumps along the way.

Earlier Saturday, thousands of well-wishers lined pot-holed roads to greet Obama as he began a journey to his ancestral home, Nyangoma-Kogelo, a tiny village in the rural west where his father grew up herding goats and attending classes in tin-roofed schools.

“I just want to say very quickly that I am so proud to come back home,” Obama told the cheering crowds. “It means a lot to me that the people of my father, my grandfather, are here in such huge crowds.”

His father, also named Barack Obama, won a scholarship to a university in Hawaii, where he met and married Obama’s mother. The two soon separated, however, and Obama’s father returned to Kenya and worked as a government economist.

His father died in a car crash in 1982, leaving three wives, six sons and a daughter. This was Obama’s third visit, but his first since becoming senator of the U.S. state of Illinois in January 2005. His last visit was in 1995.

Obama said he was looking forward to seeing his grandmother and uncle, who still live in the village, but that the trip was more than just a family reunion. Both his grandmother and uncle have visited him in the United States, and will get other chances to see him, he said.

Yes, it sucks to sometimes be treated as a second grade person at the airports, or be stared up and down by folks who still haven’t overcome their issues with people of color, or be singled out in discussions as the representative of Islam (and ofcourse the crazy fanatics who would bomb the US). It is also difficult to be a resident in a country that is not exactly liked in many places of this world, and to travel internationally when getting back into your permanent place of residence (USA) is the most difficult part of the trip. Most importantly, it is sad, really sad, to see how the ignorant politics of a few people has thrown this nation at war with the rest of the world, and how its crazy antics regarding Israel are leading to so much death and destruction in the world.

I am not ignoring all the issues above, and others, but I am thinking today of the good that the US does for its own people, for visitors to this country, and for others around the world. More importantly, there is also so much potential for it to do more, and the responsibility lies on all of us to encourage it to do that good. From international politics to international donor aid, support for democracy, restrain from building of military industrial complexes, environmental protection, and access to technology to world’s under-privileged. SO much to work on. Sen. Obama is taking on the AIDS pandemic in his home country, and its time for others to also take on other important issues head on. Example, poverty, illiteracy and fundamentalism in Pakistan?

How many planets are there in our solar system?

This note has also been posted on ATP: All Things Pakistan

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8, 9, or 12? Let’s see how many people get the answer right? If I had not read the news yesterday, my answer would have been 9, or maybe 12 if I had tried to impress you that I was up to date on what Astronomers were thinking a few weeks ago. But now, both answers are considerd wrong. The correct answer is 8. Starting now, textbooks around the world that teach otherwise need to be revised and changed. And the same is true for Pakistan.

But how (and when) will Pakistan be able reflect these changes in its textbooks? What is the process for textbook revision in Pakistan? I also wonder how are we going to integrate new information, such as this, evolution theory and other issues including global climate change and advances in biomedical sciences, into our textbooks when we can’t even conclude our fights about the history of South Asian independence struggle and the idology behind the formation of Pakistan?

Here is how Pluto, the smallest (former) planet lost its status:

Fields Medal in Mathematics.

I am no mathematician but I know that a Fields Medal in Mathematics is probably even more prestigious than the Nobel prize in the other fields. It is an international prize given every 4 years (and not ever year like the Nobel Prize), and mathematicians, by their very nature are usually geniuses that can hardly be comprehended by mere mortal souls like myself. If you haven’t watched the movies “A Beautiful Mind” (about John Nash, the genius), “Pi”, and”GoodWill Hunting”, check them out. I loved watching “A Beautiful Mind”. There is a scence where I felt like getting up and somehow showing respect to the incredible genius who lived amongst us….I wish I knew how to.

Look below for this year’s Fields Medal award winners. And why mathematicians are hard to comprehend. They live, some times, in their own worlds and their brains work to the pint where they are borderline mad/crazy. I am always in awe….

The Chronicle of Higher Education

3 University Mathematicians Accept the Fields Medal, While a 4th Winner Declines

By JASON M. BRESLOW The International Mathematical Union awarded its prestigious Fields Medal on Tuesday to three professors who teach at universities in the United States and France, and to a reclusive Russian mathematician who solved a key part of one of the discipline’s most difficult problems — and who declined to accept the prize. The Fields Medal, which is awarded every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40, is often regarded as mathematics’ equivalent to the Nobel Prize. Yet despite the prestige of the award, one winner, Grigori Perelman, who reportedly lives in St. Petersburg, Russia, refused to accept the prize and did not attend the ceremony in Madrid where the other winners were honored. Mr. Perelman — who has refused to accept other honors in the past, as well as job offers from several universities — was being recognized for his work to prove the Poincaré conjecture.

Cricket fiasco between Pakistan and England

Not sure how many readers of this blog watch or follow cricket. Some probably have never heard much about it, except that its a game that vaguely resembles baseball, and that the British somehow invented it.

This post is not going to try and explain cricket. Maybe I will do that later. But like almost all other Pakistanis, I am a big fan of cricket. Even though field hockey, called just hockey because there ain’t no ice hockey in my part of the world, is the official nationalsport, it is fast becoming more of a legacy sport. Cricket reigns supreme. When cricket matches are on, and yes - they do last for days and days on end, everything else slows down just so people can get an earful of the commentary on the game.

Pakistan is currently in England, playing a series of test matches (this is the name given to the game that lasts 5 days straight). And a fiasco is evolving there. Pakistan, arguably one of the best bowling sides in the world, was blamed by the umpires for tampering with the ball, and the team in a mark of protest decided not to come out until after a delay. When they did come out to play, the Umpires decided they had had it, and walked off the field. Their refusal has thrown the game into a mess, and the latest news is that it has been awarded to England.

This is a total disaster, for many reasons. Just today I was talking to an English friend of mine who was commenting how these games are going while several pakistanis have been arrested for reportedly planning a terrorist atack from London. Clearly the two nations are watching intently…and this stupidity by the umpires. This is gonna be bad.

There is an excellent discussion going on about this topic at All Things Pakistan. check it out. You can tell by reading the comments how Pakistanis are tied to this sport!

No child left behind: One laptop per child

A version of this note has been posted on ATP: All Things Pakistan
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This is not a crazy idea: What would the world be in 20 years if each child growing up in today’s developing countries had access to a computer and internet, and being connected to knowledge sources locally as well as across the globe? Is it possible? Is it even affordable? and what good can a computer bring to communities where roti, kapra, makan are still the fundamental unmet needs.

Well, one visionary has an idea, and his idea is gaining popularity across the globe. That visionary is Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at MIT’s Media Lab, who envisioned an educational eco-system for children in the developing parts of the world that revolves around the use of computers and connectivity.

He wanted to see a future where children in developing countries were not left perennially behind because they simply did not have access to the tools that others in affluent countries did. Aware of the economic situation in most parts of the world that has given the term digital divide a new meaning, Negroponte envsioned a laptop that would be available to children at a cost of less than 100 dollars.

The vision of Negroponte, and the non profit organization One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) that he created, is not just to promote another tech tool with over-promises of benefits - but to boldly address the critical technical and economic research areas that have hampered the availability of digital tools for the developing world. Ever since the first declaration at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2005, OLPC has set out to create a world class performance laptop that is not only unbelievably cheap, also creates a system for education and development of children who use them.