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K.M. Chaudary / AP
Angry protesters burn the furniture of a gas station to condemn fierce power cuts in Lahore, Pakistan on March 26, 2012. Pakistan is suffering from an energy crisis leading to the closure of industrial units and causing long hours of load shedding.
The Pakistan Times reported as far back as May 2008:
Khuram Parvez / Reuters
Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.
Pakistan is suffering a serious crisis in the electricity generation sector. According to a recent estimate around 67% of the nation’s population lives in darkness.
The power shortage is a chronic problem that has slowed Pakistan’s social and economic growth. The problem is not a new one and dates back to the early nineties when the power supply was exceeded by the demand for electricity by thousands of MW.
The Wikipedia entry on Pakistan’s electricity sector says:
For many years the matter of balancing Pakistan's supply against the demand for electricity has remained a largely unresolved matter. Pakistan faces a significant challenge in revamping its network responsible for the supply of electricity.
While the government claims credit for overseeing a turnaround in the economy through a comprehensive recovery, it has just failed to oversee a similar improvement in the quality of the network for electricity supply.
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Let's review: Pakistanis don't have enough energy so they burn fuel in the open to protest? Right. Clearly they'll be a first world power any day now.
Pakistan - spelled "schizophrenic-stan". Need one say more?
Does this tell all the world something about this corrupt, illiterate, lazy muslim country? Not enough fuel, so let's burn a few gas stations! How about you lazy corrupt pakis get off your lazy collective asses and go to work!
The same could be said of Americans, so please refrain from stereotyping against a collective whole. It makes you look unintelligent, anyway.
Wow, in the dark for 20 years? I would be mad as hell also.
solar power. go back to living without all the modern conveniences, they cause problems, and wars. everyone wants oil and when the entire world acts like gluttonous modern america, there will be problems.
Putting aside your very first sentence (assuming you mean solar electricity generation and not just enjoying sunlight, solar power is very much a "modern convenience"), there were a lot more problems and wars without all the modern conveniences. Convinced we went to war in the Middle East for oil? Back in the day, it was common practice to exterminate entire families over GOLD. I'm rather pleased that civilization has advanced to the point that we now kill each other over resources that have productive uses rather than just looking shiny.
And then of course there's all the other things that modern conveniences do for us; refrigerators to store food that would otherwise spoil in hours if not preserved, a wide selection of foods to stave off malnutrition and many diseases, medicine to wipe out crippling diseases like tuberculosis, smallpox, etc...
But hey, it's a free country. If you want to don an animal skin and go back to hunting and gathering, go wild! Me, I can see perfectly well why half the world is in such a hurry to join the 21st century.
It all boils down to energy. All world economies depend more and more on les and less oil. When we don't have enough our economy declines. Our only solution is to seek smaller deposits that are harder and harder to extract. We need an army of builders to create massive solar power production facilities in our deserts. We don't need them fighting wars for dwindling supplies of our only staple for survival.
The founding fathers planned a future for a nation and we are living in their design. Isn't it time we started to seriously plan for the future of our children, or do we forsake their future and they will curse us.
It has been 99 years since Frank Shuman built his solar power plant (1913) in the desert of Egypt. It worked beautifully for 3 years until it was dimantled for scrap to make weapons during World War 1. Perhaps he is a forgotten prophet that deserves to be heard again after all these years.
What we see in Pakistan is the fate of mankind as demand for fuel grows, but supplies dwindle. We do not produce oil, as the economists say, we extract it. Food is produced, oil is not. If we do not start looking for solutions now, the hole will be too deep to dig ourselves out.
It won't come down to oil. Nowadays markets are more powerful than militaries anyway. We went to war in Iraq supposedly "for the oil", but gas prices remained sky-high.
There are many power sources on the planet, and oil became pre-eminent because it was convenient. When it is no longer convenient, it will be phased out and replaced. Maybe by another fossil fuel, maybe by nuclear power, maybe by renewables (doubt it), maybe by some futuristic power source that we haven't seriously considered yet. It will be a painful shift, but much less so than warfare over gasoline.
Hell, the American economy is already making major shifts toward using natural gas since we found a convenient way to get it out of rocks. Maybe we won't be driving NG-powered cars in ten years, but by then a majority of cars will probably be high-MPG hybrids with a smattering of electric cars.
I see no reason to be pessimistic about the future just because PAKISTAN is having trouble. They can't do anything right.
Maybe if Pakistan wasn't so focused on the "impending" Indian invasion (as if a successful developing nation like India gives a damn about Pakistan) they would have enough resources to get their electric grid up to code. I mean, how much money do we give them in military aid? Seems to me that money would be put to much better use building power plants and buying fuel. Not like they use it to kill our enemies anyway.
well said.
These guys are REALLY bad at protesting.
Stupid way to get your voice heard!
This could be someone's life savings, there is no insurance in these 3rd world countries, so if somone burns your shop or gas station your are f****d for life.
Precisely why it still remains a third world country. They continually set themselves back day to day.
gee...why is it...people don't want to go to Pakistan for a vacation....I know its a craphole of a country....and these idiots make it more so.......
What kind of mentality believes improvement comes from destroying a country's infastructure? Same thing happened here in Watts several years ago; and we all claim to be civilized and possess the ability to improve our standard of living. Could have fooled me.
if pakistan govt.would stop trainning Terrorist,and use the US aid they beg ,
they could help their own people ,generate more power .
Pakiatan s ISI is bent upon destroying India ,Isreal and USA
This is a picture of protest ? These two bum looking individuals should be protesting the quality of life that thay have come to accept as normal living standards. I'm disgusted just looking at these two . check out the fingernails on the guy in the burnt orange shirt. Is his wife happy to jump into the sack with him at night? and vise-versa? Please direct your protest to stamp out b-tt cheese.