Since a few days I am spending most of my time swatting flies, it is not that I don’t have anything better to do but when these tiny flying insects bother you beyond your limits of tolerance one has to take these measures, I have got the flours washed with Phenol, have tried bug spray on them but nothing seems to shatter their determination nor they reduce in number because they are plentiful all over the city.

Today I parked my car under a tree in North Nazimabad and within an hour there were at least a thousand of flies on the bonnet alone, two days ago I discovered one in the Biryani purchased from a famous Biryani Chain in the city, and today in the morning, Right in our own garden, along side the mint plants one committed suicide in my freshly brewed cup of coffee.   (more…)

FULL IMAGE

A number of complains have been received by a lot of shops in the Defence Phase 2 area for carton milk of 2-3 different brands. Could be seasonal or just a bad batch in the market, but please be careful before you drink from a fresh carton. If you could post any similar experiences, we can perhaps try and figure out if there are more of these complaints out there and perhaps bring it to the attention of the relevant companies.

Daily Jang

3rd Annual ” Machar Art ” Exhibition opened it doors to public yesterday evening at The Elephant Ware House, Clifton. But this is not just another exhibition, the kind which is the usual feature of the city. This one is far more different because there is a cause attached to it. Organized by Concern For Children, the exhibition is comprised of 175 artworks mostly photographs created by the under privileged children of the Mohammadi (Machar) Colony and some of the work of country’s most prominent photographers and artists including Yousuf Bashir, Amean J, Tapu Javeri, Adnan Lotia, Kohi Marri, Arif Mahmood and Izdeyar Sethna. With a promises that the proceeds from this exhibition will go towards CFC,s Machar Colony Community Driven Project which addresses issues related to health, sanitation and education for the people of Karachi’s largest unofficial Kachi Abadi.

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Mangroves are a wonderful being of ALLAH. They are species of plants which thrive in saline waters. Their roots grow best under fertile land and maybe found at places where deltas are formed due to discharge of river (sweet) water into sea waters (saline). They are important for survival of countless land and sea species and hundreds of thousands of men earn their livelihood through them (fishing, cutting trees, making homes, hunting, etc). Therefore, it is imperative that such wonderful and unique species are preserved for the betterment of people and environment. That’s not happening. From the lead organization:

http://casestudies.lead.org/index.php?cscid=143

“In Pakistan, mangroves are found along the southern borders of the country along the coast of Sindh and Balochistan. The Indus Delta extends to an area of approximately 600,000 hectares of which 160,000 consists of mangrove forests. These are unique in the sense that they are considered to be the largest area of arid climate mangroves in the world”.

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As an urban location Karachi has always been slightly expensive to live in. Recently though the cost of living in this great city of ours has risen by astronomical amounts, with the cost of every day usage products going up by 30 – 40% in the last few months. If we study this increase in costs over the last 2 years we will see a difference of almost double in prices.

In Jan 2006, a five-litre tin of Dalda cooking oil was for Rs395, which has now increased to Rs750. Ghee saw a similar increase, with the five-litre tin going from Rs395 to Rs730. Similarly, Basmati rice went from Rs36 per kg to Rs85-90 during the same period, while kernel rice went from Rs50 per kg to Rs105. Basmati tota has gone from Rs22 per kg to Rs54-60, while Irri 9 is tagged at Rs65 as opposed to Rs16 per kg in Jan 2006.

Obviously nobodies income has doubled in the last two years, specially the salaried class. Therefore everyone is feeling the pinch of these rising costs. People are using less fuel, eating out less and buying only essentials to make their days go by.

The point is though, as an agri based nation how can we allow our prices to go up by so much? Most of this is a result of bad policing i.e the current export of rice from our nation, when there is a shortage of it locally.

I appeal to our new city government to please provide a subsidy in essential food products rather than spending it on meaningless flyovers. I know traffic has to be distributed as well, but the rate of suicides in this city is going up day by day, i would rather be stuck in a jam then see my fellow karachites stand in long lines for flour. I also appeal that immediate bans be placed on the export of all essential food groups from our city and nation.

Despite repeated rhetoric by the authorities (March 31, 2007: No leniency in plastic bag ban says Sindh Minister for Environment and Alternative Energy, Dr Saghir Ahmed, April 30, 2007: Drive against plastic bags intensified, city district government claims, March 17, 2007:Plastic bag transportation in and out of the city to be checked says city nazim Mustafa Kamal), it has become increasingly apparent that the environment is the last thing on their agenda. Since the ban against plastic bags below the 30 micron weight limit was put into place last year, both the local city district and provincial governments have come out several times with tall claims about strict enforcement of the ban. Yet we see in practice that their claims couldn’t be further from the truth. (more…)

Every morning, there is a team of CDGK guys cleaning up the sewerage line here, close to my office. I pass them almost every day. This morning, whilst I enjoyed the cooler Karachi temperature with my car window rolled down, I had a head-on collision with a terrifically potent, extremely vile stench. I escaped the scene with just only a disgusting feeling, but this was the man, that had to handle the cause of the stench. (more…)

Thanks to our (all) governments whose incompetency in providing basic necessities of life one of which is clean water we have seen tremendous growth of companies selling mineral water and they are using the indifference of the gov. for their profiteering. As one of KMB author said “if our gov. doesn’t do anything NOW there would be a DAY when WE WOULD BE BREATHING OXYGEN by paying to companies”. His comments seem like a joke for now but so did the mineral water issue 100 years back that was considered free along with oxygen ever since we heard it.
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