Future Lies in Rural Areas
“Future lies in rural areas,” Dr. Norbert Pintsch
Human beings like other organisms, have always polluted their environment with the byproducts of their action. As an organism man creates waste. As a social creature, he removes things from his environment and adds residue to it. So long as population density has been low on the planet, the environment was able to accommodate these alterations. Now with the world population about 8.5 billion people and increasing by 220,000 each day, the concentration of population in cities and resulting deterioration of environment is sounding alarms. The situation is urban Pakistan is worst.
The process of economic development over last 58 years has brought number of changes. One of the most critical dimensions of the process is urbanization of rural society. As the development has taken place primarily from agricultural to industrial economy, large scale rural to urban migration has taken place, changing the face of our cities as well as villages. The concentration of more and more people into urban areas is regarded as one of the major environmental threat today. The process is expected to escalate in Pakistan though many of our cities have already reached the point where further population concentration (by natural birth or migration) may jeopardize the delivery of basic civic services to all.
Urbanization process has effected all parts of country: villages, towns and cities in one-way or the other. The intensity of impact is most critical in the larger cities. Karachi, Lahore, Faislabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Sarghoda and Peshawar are suffering from environmental degradation and quantifiable deficiencies in basic civic services. The civic bodies are badly failing to manage these problems.
Solid waste management has become one of the serious urban nightmares in Pakistan. The municipalities equipped with centuries old and outdated methods inefficiently lift only 60 percent of the municipal waste generated in our cities. In the absence of professionalism and proper waste disposal systems, most of the garbage lifted from the cities is crudely dumped in open spaces nearby. These dumps attract mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches, houseflies, ticks flees as well as stray dogs and birds like vultures and crows. Carried by the vectors, bacterium thriving in rotten and moist garbage is spreading all sorts of diseases. Other 40 percent waste is simply not picked up and keeps rotting in streets or illegal filth depots inside the cities. As the society prospers, its trash -- mainly hazardous plastic, metals packaging and pathogenic non-biodegradable rubbish -- is growing exponentially.
Karachi the mega city with population estimated over 11 millions, alone is generating 6000 tons of waster per day. Solid waste management department of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation is trying to keep the city clean with fleet of vehicles and an army of sweepers in its roll. Result: “The effects of environmental degradation due to the waste left inside Karachi are slowly poisoning the city”, notes an epidemiologist.
Sewerage systems only in portions of the cities are crumbling. Apart from being old they were basically designed for lesser population without catering for the future growth. Remaining population depends for waste disposal on septic tanks, soak pits or over flows into open drain. As a result of improper disposal of human waste (in many areas there is no disposal) from the housing environment a large number of children are suffering from or are vulnerable to the attacks of different diseases. The effluents from industrial units and tanneries working unchecked in the residential areas -- with high concentration of pollutants are adding to the problems. Kasur, Multan and Sialkot are typical examples of the case in point.
One major problems of urbanization in Pakistan is the eating up of green and open spaces -- so important for ecological balance -- by concrete structures of ever expanding cities. Only 25 years back Lahore and Faislabad had several patches of agricultural land. Today, there is no arable land with in the limits of these cities. In Peshawar 2700 hectares of agricultural land were lost between 1965 and 1985. Multan had many mango orchards (Ram jis Bagh, Abidanwalla Bagh, Qasim Bagh, Langhe Khan Bagh, Hazori Bagh, Dewanwalla Bagh and Mirza Jan Bagh) inside the city. They all have been converted into plazas and industrial units. There is no open space in cities as small as Mandi Baha Ud Din that was declared district headquarters only in 1993.
The fresh water supply in our cities is dwindling as the cities are expanding. Access to the clean water is available to about 77 percent of the urban population. Only 30 percent have the luxury of piped water supply and the rest are being served by stand posts or public taps. Per capita water consumption in urban areas in bare minimum to sustain human life. Even the (finite) subsoil water reserves are decreasing due to high pumping rate. In most of the cities water pipe lines run next to the sewer lines there for, contaminating the drinking water.
Air governs the quality of our environment. The air in our cities is so polluted that it can be smelled and seen everywhere. When the wind is still, the fumes of vehicles, industrial concerns, smoke from garbage piles put of fire as well as airborne particles to dirt and pollen can be seen hung about any city. Only in Lahore 800,000 vehicles are responsible (apart form the noise pollution) for contaminating the environment by emitting poisonous gasses. Breathing has become a health hazard in soot-choked cities like Gujranwala where tar coal drums, electric wires and old tyres are burnt inside the residential areas in order to separate the iron.
There is an acute shortage of houses in the cities and the real estate prices are skyrocketing. The demand for the land is growing and the supply is limited. Since the land is essential for urban growth, devising equitable and efficient land development policies is one of the major challenges facing planners and policy makers, who do not seem to be aware of the seriousness of the problem. The number of slum and katchi abadi dwellers is on the increase.
In the typical city street, the road is potholed by PTCL or WASA excavations, electric generators and transformers carry a dangerous web of cable overhead. Shops encroach onto the roadways. Vendors have covered the open drains and advertisements and ugly looking neon signs are covering every available surface.
Historic buildings disappear without regret and even the protected monuments are suffering from vandalism. The roads are full of illegal speed breakers, all different in sizes and shapes. The old trees are being cut without a second thought. There is no body to oversee the overall growth of cities and to coordinate the work of city development agencies.
It is ideal if the human beings are dispersed evenly around the countryside. But people have been coming to cities for better economic and educational opportunities and better quality of life. It is about time that policy makers should think hard and plant to check the current demographic trend. This can be done, though it has yet not started to begin in Pakistan.
This is one of the reasons why one can believe that future lies in rural areas.
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Travelers’ View of the Area
One of the first places I came to know after settling down is a village Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka near Okara. The unique claim of the village to international fame is the dolls and toys made by village women that are collectors delight all over the world. Dolls made in the village have travelled to International Dolls Museum in Amsterdam and also have been put on display in the "Themepark" at EXPO 2000 in Hannover (Germany) as one of the 767 worldwide projects - an example of thinking for 21st century. Earlier, the dolls participated in International Toy Fair in Nuremberg. These dolls show how culture goes beyond simple work of art and becomes collaboration among applied and natural sciences as well as other forces that affect our lives.
The murals are painted on the parameter mud walls in the village where doll collectors and people interested in sustainable development and rural heritage from different initiative groups come and stay as paying guests. The village folks still consider cooing crows as symbol of the arrival of the guests. Architectural competitions are held annually when best mud house is selected. The Chief Harappan Explorer Dr. Mark Kenoyer had the place on the jury in competition held last July. Two full time German volunteers, Dr Norbert Pintsch and Dr Senta Siller, and village people are working together to change the life and out look in this peaceful hamlet. Whenever I visited the village, I saw something new, something different, which the villagers do to make difference in a place where they belong.
The murals are painted on the parameter mud walls in the village where doll collectors and people interested in sustainable development and rural heritage from different initiative groups come and stay as paying guests. The village folks still consider cooing crows as symbol of the arrival of the guests. Architectural competitions are held annually when best mud house is selected. The Chief Harappan Explorer Dr. Mark Kenoyer had the place on the jury in competition held last July. Two full time German volunteers, Dr Norbert Pintsch and Dr Senta Siller, and village people are working together to change the life and out look in this peaceful hamlet. Whenever I visited the village, I saw something new, something different, which the villagers do to make difference in a place where they belong.
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Cultures in Rural Areas
History
The most important factors for the current development were laid in the 19th century. The rejection of thinking and acting as a community meant for the technology an enormous increase in the industrial production because the division of work led to higher productivity and new professions and it appeared on the face of it to increase the standard of living in western cultures (for example the Taylorism as introduced in Ford automobile factories etc.)
Analysis of the society by political and economic thinkers led to development theories, which could not foresee the effects of these policies as evidenced today. The cardinal error by these theorists was the euro-centristic model, i.e. nobody took the happenings in other cultures into consideration.
In Smith's economic system, the free market functioned globally, as long as global meant regionally and maximum on a national level.
In Marx's political system the democracy functions internationally, as long as the power base is centrally located. This concept is also found in antique Greek city-state models on a local basis.
In both cases, there appears to be consensus on one point, i.e. that "multiple behavioral models (Artenvielfalt)" are not acceptable in these theories. But this is probably precisely the decisive error.
With this sketch, we would now like to analyze the present situation.
Present situation
It is the market factors in a democratically functioning society, which determines the general welfare of the people.
Since the market -in the traditional sense- neither takes into consideration the environment nor the traditional cultures, which are present in rural areas and production of goods leads to certain uniformity because of cost-reduction methods. Every effort must be undertaken, so that the (B.E.P.) does not fall short of targets under any circumstances. The multi-national concerns attempt by adding more products to their production programs to offer a variety of models: since all parties participating in the market work in similar way, but the demand in the market is relatively fixed and not able to be increased arbitrarily, it is clear where the wastage of resources is taking place.
The winner is the one, who has the largest potential of human resources as long as these can be controlled politically.
The intentions and the wishes of so-called democratic countries are understandable, if they exert all possible pressure on others to accept their form of governance.
If this effort does not succeed, their system -let us call it "western system"- would collapse together with all parties involved in it.
There are incredible factors, which remain unconsidered by the members of the City-Culture, they being the innovators and carriers of the enormous misunderstandings and the cardinal errors:
a) There are very different cultures
b) These cultures have developed over a long period of time in inter-action with the climate and the environment.
c) Each culture has its own set of rights and should be the subject of research to shed light on this enormous richness.
Of course much of the matter has been lost due to the way of thinking and the actions undertaken up till now, but exactly this is the task before us; to track down these materials.
Misuse of environment and resources are hardly a subject of discussion in economic appraisals. Similarly, the richness of traditional cultures, which still exist at least in part in the rural areas, which are typically described as "under-developed" is not mentioned in these appraisals. There is no code or value allocated to them. Only when the value has been destroyed, the damage becomes visible. The extent of destroyed traditional cultures is quite evident in the number of museums, i.e. as soon as the traditional cultures began to be considered as money making measures for the institutions, they received recognition as a valid market factor, but in effect became still more unstable.
As the international flow of money is not directed towards local industry and national states, there is a trend towards uniformity through optimization and standardization. This uniformity can be concealed through various designs and requires increased consumption of goods. In order to increase the consumption, the consumers (all consumers of the world unite!!) require financial means, which are actually not available to the majority of population.
Outlook
A special sort of market is created at the place where traditional cultures are promoted. Members of the community have a chance to participate, if they consider it a possibility to maintain their basic requirements, i.e. a form of satisfaction of most basic material needs must remain intact.
Author Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, Voluntary Director, TTTC TGD can be approached here: pdp33@hotmail.com
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From Greenland
The idea for the project originated in the year 2002 and is based on the location of the west to east greenland. At first there were various contacts between Narsalik and Qaqortoq and in 2006 a meeting with the director of the group in greenland was held. The meeting took place in the south of the island.
The pre-conditions for the project were good due to the parallels in the locations as well as the income generating factors sheep breeding and tourism.
After the activities came to a standstill and difficulties regarding deadlines and financing emerged but also as first orders for the Inuit-Dolls were received, the project was revived by arranging the finance and a visit to Kulusuk was undertaken in September 2007.
Complete manufacturing of the Inuit-Dolls is also not feasible here as the manufacturing of the naked doll would be too expensive here. For this purpose the doll bodies from Pakistan are used here. However, the hair and skin type as well as the face form correspond to the Greenland.
The pre-conditions for the project were good due to the parallels in the locations as well as the income generating factors sheep breeding and tourism.
After the activities came to a standstill and difficulties regarding deadlines and financing emerged but also as first orders for the Inuit-Dolls were received, the project was revived by arranging the finance and a visit to Kulusuk was undertaken in September 2007.
Complete manufacturing of the Inuit-Dolls is also not feasible here as the manufacturing of the naked doll would be too expensive here. For this purpose the doll bodies from Pakistan are used here. However, the hair and skin type as well as the face form correspond to the Greenland.
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Handicraft - Men Center - AFA
New handicraft are produced in Men Centre of AFA at TGD. Air Glider is another tiny winy toy manufactured by Zephanja from October 2007 to January 2008.
Readers of this blog remember the tin Rikshaw (toy) that is still very famous in gift market.
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Rural Development
Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, Omar M. Ali, Aaron Pinsker write still more on the future is in rural development
In the past, we have often discussed various opportunities of investment in rural areas. Mostly discussions at consumer and social oriented project forms showed the individuality of the regional possibilities.
Instead of an "either – or” it emerged more of a "this –as well as that" situation, although the combinations may be counter-productive, if the individual characteristics of the one or the other part are not sufficiently taken into consideration.
The discussion of the waveband of possibilities leads to recognition of an urban culture and a rural culture. In areas of high population and lesser access to immovable property, the residents have no other option but to continuously vary, to invest. This segment of population requires permanent income and is therefore forced to accept long-term employment in order to organize their livelihood.
The individual here can eventually juggle, in order to cover his financial requirements to some extent, multiple jobs are one other possibility, but to escape the urban system is hardly possible. It is unthinkable to create the opposite of an old saying "city air makes free", -this was said at a time, when more people lived in the villages than in the cities.
The general administrations have their own problems to overcome, which was not such a risk in a growth oriented time and appropriate tax income. The requirements and demands developed on the basis of growth economy can hardly be turned back, -privatization appears to be a logical possibility for decreasing the pressure on the households, but it fails to recognize the most general principles of economic administration in a global background. Just to mention a comment in this regard, already discussed in sufficient detail at other platforms: foreign corporations cannot invest out of social considerations of responsibility, -a well known fact, which does not interest the short-term thinking politicians.
Should we start to consider the individual and the costs of general administration, which are needed to organize the city life, we cannot but come to the conclusion that urban life in all respects is expensive and problem growth-oriented.
The city culture is international, just as also its problems. One is forced to stand in competition with each other; this leads not to a solution of the problem but to more and more brutal competition, the results being changeable and more uniform. So the main principle is Hope and –in the absence of other possibilities- the affected masses are forced to live on hope only.
The problem of de-population of rural areas is in-fact caused by the city culture itself; the financially stronger segment can enjoy the solitude of their expensive penthouses, what however leads to other problems already discussed at other place.
People living in rural areas, they feel the taste of backwardness, -backwardness as seen by the city dweller, who cannot judge the real situation in rural background and sees it –if at all- only in romantic context. The rural life functions in a different way as compared to the urban way, a fact which may not be not be appreciated by the politicians, because only universally applicable methods appear to be logical, which are however a basis for further problems, mostly of financial nature.
To keep a clear mind here is not impossible: still there is –let us call it-"traditional culture" prevalent in rural areas, which remains unconsidered in economic terms because their evaluation, similar to the fifties of the 20th century, is quite difficult. We are today aware of the traditional culture only sub-consciously in museum and amusement. The real traditional values are thereby increasingly being lost. Such thinking is often discarded as being obsolete, -a result of stagnation. Whereby it is exactly this thinking which should be the basis for a discussion about "Future in rural development”
Infrastructure measures in the rural areas are cost provoking only then, when these are taken from the position of the city culture. It is important in the rural areas –and with that we touch the main principles of development, to support the traditional handicraft, to make it independent of the central infrastructure and also to utilize fully the possibilities of small scale technologies.
The principles mentioned here are valid for rural areas but also for areas where the industrialization has still not fully established itself, for example. in the so-called developing countries, which after an exacter inspection and discounting the pressures of industrial standards and gross domestic product and due consideration of the value of traditional culture are actually not so poor after all!
In the times of mass production, the transfer of production to so-called cheap-labour-countries etc., an individualization of the products, i.e. production according to individual requirements is becoming more and more evident. The markets are saturated after local demand is satisfied. But the principle of industrial production is actually not production according to individual needs! If one looks at the forms of individualization in the automobile industry, the practice corresponds to designing of a single family house with the means of industrial production.
We have tried to emphasize, that when the above mentioned principles are kept in mind, the future lies in the rural areas. Up till now, the cost of livelihood in rural areas is quite cheap: a simple household and the possibility of self-subsistence in many ways are quite clear. On the other side we see the advocates of city culture and the growth-oriented strategists, the insufficient infra-structure, missing workplaces, bad education facilities and many more co-criteria.
The effects of developments in the 19th century on western societies were serious and led to the well known east-west conflicts. Even if the supposed winners of this conflict continue to follow their line, it should still be pointed out, that times have changed considerably. Unfortunately this fact is not given due consideration by decision-makers and their sub-ordinates. So we should not be surprised if the population continues to think according to old patterns and continues to energetically participate, in order just to survive. Notable is, that the solutions for bringing changes, not for reforms, lie on the floor like pearls, ready to be picked up, which unfortunately should be a difficult task for a well trained and well-fed body not so keen on change.
Where can we find the traditional culture of the past? How can we make ourselves independent of the central infra-structure? What do Small-Technologies mean?
These and many other questions arise and they are not produced in pre-arranged form as mass goods, -this is strenuous, but also a challenge. The answers lie like pearls on the floor: unheeded results of ethnologists, models for appropriate technologies, new forms of employment, etc. It is interesting to note that even from USA, the land of unlimited possibilities, interesting theories have emerged, which are gladly seen as necessary and already delayed reforms to the western system, but are useful to much further extent.
Finally, since we have become accustomed to quote and give references, otherwise we are not believed, so we name Th. Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolution), F.Bergmann (New Work). A. Gebhardt in Aachen looks forward to the period of individual manufacturing, of Recycelns, of three-dimensional printing, including developing and designing on a high-tech-level, -all challenges, new possibilities of rural development.
In the past, we have often discussed various opportunities of investment in rural areas. Mostly discussions at consumer and social oriented project forms showed the individuality of the regional possibilities.
Instead of an "either – or” it emerged more of a "this –as well as that" situation, although the combinations may be counter-productive, if the individual characteristics of the one or the other part are not sufficiently taken into consideration.
The discussion of the waveband of possibilities leads to recognition of an urban culture and a rural culture. In areas of high population and lesser access to immovable property, the residents have no other option but to continuously vary, to invest. This segment of population requires permanent income and is therefore forced to accept long-term employment in order to organize their livelihood.
The individual here can eventually juggle, in order to cover his financial requirements to some extent, multiple jobs are one other possibility, but to escape the urban system is hardly possible. It is unthinkable to create the opposite of an old saying "city air makes free", -this was said at a time, when more people lived in the villages than in the cities.
The general administrations have their own problems to overcome, which was not such a risk in a growth oriented time and appropriate tax income. The requirements and demands developed on the basis of growth economy can hardly be turned back, -privatization appears to be a logical possibility for decreasing the pressure on the households, but it fails to recognize the most general principles of economic administration in a global background. Just to mention a comment in this regard, already discussed in sufficient detail at other platforms: foreign corporations cannot invest out of social considerations of responsibility, -a well known fact, which does not interest the short-term thinking politicians.
Should we start to consider the individual and the costs of general administration, which are needed to organize the city life, we cannot but come to the conclusion that urban life in all respects is expensive and problem growth-oriented.
The city culture is international, just as also its problems. One is forced to stand in competition with each other; this leads not to a solution of the problem but to more and more brutal competition, the results being changeable and more uniform. So the main principle is Hope and –in the absence of other possibilities- the affected masses are forced to live on hope only.
The problem of de-population of rural areas is in-fact caused by the city culture itself; the financially stronger segment can enjoy the solitude of their expensive penthouses, what however leads to other problems already discussed at other place.
People living in rural areas, they feel the taste of backwardness, -backwardness as seen by the city dweller, who cannot judge the real situation in rural background and sees it –if at all- only in romantic context. The rural life functions in a different way as compared to the urban way, a fact which may not be not be appreciated by the politicians, because only universally applicable methods appear to be logical, which are however a basis for further problems, mostly of financial nature.
To keep a clear mind here is not impossible: still there is –let us call it-"traditional culture" prevalent in rural areas, which remains unconsidered in economic terms because their evaluation, similar to the fifties of the 20th century, is quite difficult. We are today aware of the traditional culture only sub-consciously in museum and amusement. The real traditional values are thereby increasingly being lost. Such thinking is often discarded as being obsolete, -a result of stagnation. Whereby it is exactly this thinking which should be the basis for a discussion about "Future in rural development”
Infrastructure measures in the rural areas are cost provoking only then, when these are taken from the position of the city culture. It is important in the rural areas –and with that we touch the main principles of development, to support the traditional handicraft, to make it independent of the central infrastructure and also to utilize fully the possibilities of small scale technologies.
The principles mentioned here are valid for rural areas but also for areas where the industrialization has still not fully established itself, for example. in the so-called developing countries, which after an exacter inspection and discounting the pressures of industrial standards and gross domestic product and due consideration of the value of traditional culture are actually not so poor after all!
In the times of mass production, the transfer of production to so-called cheap-labour-countries etc., an individualization of the products, i.e. production according to individual requirements is becoming more and more evident. The markets are saturated after local demand is satisfied. But the principle of industrial production is actually not production according to individual needs! If one looks at the forms of individualization in the automobile industry, the practice corresponds to designing of a single family house with the means of industrial production.
We have tried to emphasize, that when the above mentioned principles are kept in mind, the future lies in the rural areas. Up till now, the cost of livelihood in rural areas is quite cheap: a simple household and the possibility of self-subsistence in many ways are quite clear. On the other side we see the advocates of city culture and the growth-oriented strategists, the insufficient infra-structure, missing workplaces, bad education facilities and many more co-criteria.
The effects of developments in the 19th century on western societies were serious and led to the well known east-west conflicts. Even if the supposed winners of this conflict continue to follow their line, it should still be pointed out, that times have changed considerably. Unfortunately this fact is not given due consideration by decision-makers and their sub-ordinates. So we should not be surprised if the population continues to think according to old patterns and continues to energetically participate, in order just to survive. Notable is, that the solutions for bringing changes, not for reforms, lie on the floor like pearls, ready to be picked up, which unfortunately should be a difficult task for a well trained and well-fed body not so keen on change.
Where can we find the traditional culture of the past? How can we make ourselves independent of the central infra-structure? What do Small-Technologies mean?
These and many other questions arise and they are not produced in pre-arranged form as mass goods, -this is strenuous, but also a challenge. The answers lie like pearls on the floor: unheeded results of ethnologists, models for appropriate technologies, new forms of employment, etc. It is interesting to note that even from USA, the land of unlimited possibilities, interesting theories have emerged, which are gladly seen as necessary and already delayed reforms to the western system, but are useful to much further extent.
Finally, since we have become accustomed to quote and give references, otherwise we are not believed, so we name Th. Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolution), F.Bergmann (New Work). A. Gebhardt in Aachen looks forward to the period of individual manufacturing, of Recycelns, of three-dimensional printing, including developing and designing on a high-tech-level, -all challenges, new possibilities of rural development.
Auto Insurance
Insurance is important for everyone. One does not have to be an expert to see the advantages of insurance coverage. People buy insurance coverage wishing that they never have to use the coverage and as a security against unexpected and unaffordable losses that occur in life. Where they really win is in the assurance the insurance policy gives them. If the worst comes in life, insurance works to provide financial recovery and support. This awareness has increased the demand for insurance services in the last couple of decades.
One should do a little home work before buying any type of policy. Have a look at auto insurance and see what they are offering and how. That will help you in making an informed decision.
One should do a little home work before buying any type of policy. Have a look at auto insurance and see what they are offering and how. That will help you in making an informed decision.
A Self Help Project
{Appeared in the Daily Nation on Sunday, Dec 16, 2007} The cluster of mud and brick houses in the plains of Punjab, Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka (TGD) looks like a typical Pakistani village about 80 kilometres away from Lahore and 40 kilometres from Indus civilization ruins in Harappa. There is no gas or telephone in the village. No asphalt roads lead to it. Yet it is different, the beautiful dolls and other handicrafts made by the village folks are collectors' delight all over the world. Influencers from Indus civilization from nearby Harappa and modern techniques brought by the German volunteers can be seen in the village together.The dolls made in the village are on display in international doll museum in Iceland, prestigious galleries and showrooms in Pakistan and abroad. TGD village doll project was one of the 767 worldwide projects presented in the "Themepark" at expo 2000 in Hannover (Germany) as an example of thinking of twenty first century. Earlier, the dolls from Pakistan participated in international toy fair in Nuremberg. These dolls show how culture goes beyond simple work of art and becomes collaboration among applied and natural sciences as well as other forces that affect our lives.
Thatta Kedona is a project, first of its kind, in rural area where handmade quality dolls and toys are crafted using all indigenous material and traditional designs based on cultural and folklore themes. The workmanship of the dolls and toys has acclaimed international recognition and clientele through their participation in numerous international events, exhibitions, fairs and display at International Doll Museum Iceland and Deutsche Gesellschafr zur Foerderung der Kultar, Germany. These toys are the embodiment of dreams, hopes and most of all self-reliance of the hands, which breathe a part of the soul into them.
How all this started? A Pakistan studying in Germany, Amjad Ali who is a native of village TGD invited his German teachers Dr. Senta Siller to visit his village back home. Dr. Senta Siller along with Dr. Norbert Pinstch came to the village where they were presented a doll made by a local woman. Dr. Senta Siller was impressed by the doll and liked the natural and simple village life. She decided to work for the village; established NGO Anjumane-e-Falah-e-Aama and started community based Woman Art Centre in TGD in 1992. The aim of this centre is to involve local womenfolk in productive, creative and healthy income generating activities. For men Dr. Norbert Pintsch established Technology Transfer and Training Centre (TTTC). This created awareness and built confidence among the village folks and they started making dolls and toys on self-help biases that are marketed all over the world. The village and its residents are benefiting in the process.
This is a holistic project. Handicraft is in the spot on the stage but the project has a cultural philosophy. Education, science, agriculture, hydrogeology (drinking water project), appropriate technology, public health, economy (marketing, distribution), tourism and communication, are all in practice.
TTTC is concentrating on improved agricultural techniques and other suitable jobs for men. Also, carpenters, blacksmiths and tailors in the village are profitably involved in production for the TTTC for men. On Dr. Norbert Pintsch's arrival in Pakistan this time (November 2007), Nation took a chance to ask him about goals, the motives and motivations.
"The goals of the project are self-help activities at a grass roots levels, holistic village development, empowerment of women, income generation, and literacy and vocational training, says Dr. Norbert Pintsch. The philosophy working behind this selfless work is "preservation of cultural heritage, reduction of migration to cities by creating additional income in the village and future is in the rural areas," he added.
Dolls from Pakistan in authentic attires of the specific tribes, communities and areas and thematic toys tempt tourists and diplomats. They collect these dolls as a souvenir of the time they spent in Pakistan. "During last seven years, the Pakistani dolls have travelled in suitcases of our client to 40 different countries. They (dolls) sit in the ambassadors' residences not only in Islamabad, but accompany them to the next and second next posting. I have met TGD dolls in the Japanese ambassador's home in Jakarta and also in the German embassy in Damascus," tells Dr. Norbert Pintsch with pride and pleasure. "Part of the artists go where ever the dolls go," says a young artist. Each doll has a small plate attached carrying the name of the doll maker.
Doll making is one of the oldest and popular folk art in Pakistan. Simple stuffed dolls are made for children particularly in rural areas where people are still striving for the attainment of basic needs. The main difference of previous doll making and the modern techniques taught by Dr. Senta is that she has introduced variety in size and shapes and dresses them in colourful costumes with attentions to details. This has resulted in high quality soft toys to cater to demands of the gift market.
Work of Dr. Norbert Pintsch and Dr. Senta Siller has not only moved the people of area but also raised a spacious and simple building for the Women Art Centre and TTTC with the help of different donors. Now there are as many as 120 women from the age of 24 to 40 working in both the centres making dolls dressed in regional (Punjabi, Sindhi, Pathan, Balochi, Kashmiri and Kalash) embroider costumes, miniatures, hand knitted shawls tin rickshaws and other toys and earning their living. They are making their own lives better and strengthening their families. "They (the women) are moving towards true equality and independence" says a doll maker who has twelve year of schooling, is married in this village and working in the Centre.
Village TGD is changing. The relative prosperity has beginning to show. Villagers are putting their children, particularly the girls in school. The Woman Art Centre is also playing a part in the well being of the villagers. The Centre has provided furniture and other equipment to the primary school in village and opened a well equipped health care centre. An annual quality of life competition is held in the village when best houses are selected in three different categories.
This seems to be one of the unique and best self help project anywhere in Pakistan.
Clay Art
Clay and clay products are some of the oldest human started making at the dawn of civilization. Clay products are still sought after. Now people make things with clay using new techniques and equipment. One of the best places for clay lover is AMACO/Brent – a leading manufacturers of clay products and so many related accessories that are used in making clay products. AMACO/Brent is one of the oldest crafts materials manufacturers and is considered the largest manufacturer of ceramic supplies and equipment for schools and studios. The wide range of items they offer includes different craft products, an innovative soft metals program, and modeling materials some of which have become classics that have sold in craft and school supply stores for over five decades.
What is more, AMACO/Brent is the best place to shop for clay products. Explore the users’ friendly neatly and aesthetically laid out site and see what they are offering liquid glazes, non-toxic glazes and glaze chalk. See the wide rang they are displaying. Better still pick what you like. What is more, AMACO celebrates 90 years of Modeling Imagination with a new Social Network designed for artists, teachers, students, professional potters, and craft artists. Join the network and share ideas, techniques, upload galleries of artwork or classroom projects, post special events charity events, and workshops. You will find so many likeminded clay art lover there.
What is more, AMACO/Brent is the best place to shop for clay products. Explore the users’ friendly neatly and aesthetically laid out site and see what they are offering liquid glazes, non-toxic glazes and glaze chalk. See the wide rang they are displaying. Better still pick what you like. What is more, AMACO celebrates 90 years of Modeling Imagination with a new Social Network designed for artists, teachers, students, professional potters, and craft artists. Join the network and share ideas, techniques, upload galleries of artwork or classroom projects, post special events charity events, and workshops. You will find so many likeminded clay art lover there.
Thatta Kedona Overview
Ten years ago Thatta Kedona project started aiming to fight poverty and to support poor women living in the countryside in the district Okara. The products of Thatta Kedona project have earned a great reputation both inside and outside Pakistan, thanks to the voluntary efforts of designer and scientist Dr. Senta Siller. The main products are handcrafted dolls dressed in the garments of the different provinces of Pakistan and of minority groups such as the Kalashi and the Makrani.
In the past ten years there has been much talk in both national and international organizations, and in smaller circles, about supporting women living in the countryside. The key words in these discussions were 'women empowerment' 'tender training.' A lot has been written about this.
Women in the cities were encouraged but what happened in the countryside, where most of the population lives? In the village of Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka situated near Okara in the backwaters of Punjab, the local NGO has been successful in working practically on the small things in life and improving the situation of village women rather than leading discussions about urban culture and international theories. The pointing questions were: What can be done when a husband dies and the widow has to support their children on her own? What can be done when a wife is banished and needs to support herself and her children? What can be done, when heavy illness causes enormous difficulties in a family's well being? What can be done, when general conditions in the countryside deteriorate and lead people to migrate? What can be done to improve life in the countryside, to support the traditional culture, which is the wealth of a country and to change the socio-economic situation for the long-term?
For ten years now, practical improvements to life in the countryside have been implemented step by step by the village project, without prior spectacular theoretical announcements. Today, the arts and crafts project is one of twelve projects, in which the villagers are working together with Dr Siller and other voluntary workers.
State bodies have often praised the project and promised support - empty words as yet! A general acknowledgement of this work would not just be a good advertisement for official bodies, but they could use the village project in other parts of the country as an example of achieving step-by-step improvements in other parts of the country.
The words 'long-term effects' are always keenly used; where are the examples of long-term improvements, the illustrious development projects resulting from bilateral agreements? At present, the term 'success' is used in relation to industries and measured according to the masses. The small steps and achievements of the village project are no less relevant. They are culture-friendly and still economic. Why are they neglected by official politics? Because they are not spectacular!
The simple listing of economic enterprises along the N5 only looks at the existing facilities on 500 meters on both sides of the road. It points out the enormous developments without evaluating them. Parts of the original population living along the N5 road have moved to Lahore and have to comply with urban culture. More and more machines are used for farming, more and more tractors are driving to the sugar cane plantations and with the increase in electronic media, singing in the villages and conversations amongst villagers are disappearing.
Ways of living and the use of local materials such as clay are changing through the introduction of technology. A metal container is now exchanged with one made of plastic, clay buildings that are adjustable to the climate are being swapped for brick buildings. Now is the time to show the possibilities of the rich traditional culture and make its worth seen through its people, otherwise it will be very difficult and expensive to repair and to reduce the mistakes made by the classic industrial countries.
In the meantime worldwide urban culture is expanding and working with industrial principles. Parents send their children to school to have them educated, since this has been the right thing to do up until now, and it can't be wrong in either the present or the future. A good education calms the conscience and pays off in the form of well-designed documents and certificates: University of Lahore, College for Management, Institute for Management Sciences, Academy for Fashion and Technology, College for Information and Technology, University for Management Sciences, Institute of Education Management, and so on. How can one imagine that a well-educated person won't be able to find work later on? In the meantime one can live well from the educational funds.
These worldwide accumulations of mistakes can be discussed further at another time. It is not possible to reduce them, but looking at general perceptions of the environment can create an uncomfortable process of realization. Even areas that seem beyond these issues, such as that of the arts, are part of the, perhaps unintended, process of industrialization and its system of education and values. Whatever is taught is done so in a scientific manner, so that the skills of the past that are normally passed from father to son, are examined and taught academically as part of a curriculum.
The result can't be more than a flat generalization, which is spiced according to region and season and presented as a new discipline, maybe, institute for the acquisition of questionability and existential orientations?
In the past ten years there has been much talk in both national and international organizations, and in smaller circles, about supporting women living in the countryside. The key words in these discussions were 'women empowerment' 'tender training.' A lot has been written about this.
Women in the cities were encouraged but what happened in the countryside, where most of the population lives? In the village of Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka situated near Okara in the backwaters of Punjab, the local NGO has been successful in working practically on the small things in life and improving the situation of village women rather than leading discussions about urban culture and international theories. The pointing questions were: What can be done when a husband dies and the widow has to support their children on her own? What can be done when a wife is banished and needs to support herself and her children? What can be done, when heavy illness causes enormous difficulties in a family's well being? What can be done, when general conditions in the countryside deteriorate and lead people to migrate? What can be done to improve life in the countryside, to support the traditional culture, which is the wealth of a country and to change the socio-economic situation for the long-term?
For ten years now, practical improvements to life in the countryside have been implemented step by step by the village project, without prior spectacular theoretical announcements. Today, the arts and crafts project is one of twelve projects, in which the villagers are working together with Dr Siller and other voluntary workers.
State bodies have often praised the project and promised support - empty words as yet! A general acknowledgement of this work would not just be a good advertisement for official bodies, but they could use the village project in other parts of the country as an example of achieving step-by-step improvements in other parts of the country.
The words 'long-term effects' are always keenly used; where are the examples of long-term improvements, the illustrious development projects resulting from bilateral agreements? At present, the term 'success' is used in relation to industries and measured according to the masses. The small steps and achievements of the village project are no less relevant. They are culture-friendly and still economic. Why are they neglected by official politics? Because they are not spectacular!
The simple listing of economic enterprises along the N5 only looks at the existing facilities on 500 meters on both sides of the road. It points out the enormous developments without evaluating them. Parts of the original population living along the N5 road have moved to Lahore and have to comply with urban culture. More and more machines are used for farming, more and more tractors are driving to the sugar cane plantations and with the increase in electronic media, singing in the villages and conversations amongst villagers are disappearing.
Ways of living and the use of local materials such as clay are changing through the introduction of technology. A metal container is now exchanged with one made of plastic, clay buildings that are adjustable to the climate are being swapped for brick buildings. Now is the time to show the possibilities of the rich traditional culture and make its worth seen through its people, otherwise it will be very difficult and expensive to repair and to reduce the mistakes made by the classic industrial countries.
In the meantime worldwide urban culture is expanding and working with industrial principles. Parents send their children to school to have them educated, since this has been the right thing to do up until now, and it can't be wrong in either the present or the future. A good education calms the conscience and pays off in the form of well-designed documents and certificates: University of Lahore, College for Management, Institute for Management Sciences, Academy for Fashion and Technology, College for Information and Technology, University for Management Sciences, Institute of Education Management, and so on. How can one imagine that a well-educated person won't be able to find work later on? In the meantime one can live well from the educational funds.
These worldwide accumulations of mistakes can be discussed further at another time. It is not possible to reduce them, but looking at general perceptions of the environment can create an uncomfortable process of realization. Even areas that seem beyond these issues, such as that of the arts, are part of the, perhaps unintended, process of industrialization and its system of education and values. Whatever is taught is done so in a scientific manner, so that the skills of the past that are normally passed from father to son, are examined and taught academically as part of a curriculum.
The result can't be more than a flat generalization, which is spiced according to region and season and presented as a new discipline, maybe, institute for the acquisition of questionability and existential orientations?
Software as a Service
Living in the age of Information technology, businesses need all sorts of applications to stay ahead. That may not be possible for everyone. That is where Software as a Service (SAAS) industry comes in.
Thanks to PHASE 2 that they deliver affordable and scalable access to high-end business software applications through SAAS. Building from its strong history of IT Consulting, PHASE 2 hosts an integrated suite of high-end applications for small-to-medium-sized businesses. PHASE 2 complements its portfolio of vertical software solutions with specific domain expertise and custom applications for industries such as Architectural and Construction professions. All of PHASE 2's business applications are delivered across the web to enable fast, on-demand access to corporate information wherever you, or your teams, are in the world. PHASE 2's SAAS solutions ensure a scalable and secure IT foundation that provides an affordable growth path for future requirements along with an infrastructure for application support and data back-up that removes the burden and risks of hosting solutions internally.
Have a look at team foundation server hosting that allows you and your organization to manage your Visual Studio projects and resources to success. Tools like source control, permission managment, team build, and MS Project integration make it easy to stay on track and deliver. Given the service, team foundation server pricing is affordable. You will fine team foundation server price lowest in the market. See what they are offering and get the service to take your business to the next level.
Thanks to PHASE 2 that they deliver affordable and scalable access to high-end business software applications through SAAS. Building from its strong history of IT Consulting, PHASE 2 hosts an integrated suite of high-end applications for small-to-medium-sized businesses. PHASE 2 complements its portfolio of vertical software solutions with specific domain expertise and custom applications for industries such as Architectural and Construction professions. All of PHASE 2's business applications are delivered across the web to enable fast, on-demand access to corporate information wherever you, or your teams, are in the world. PHASE 2's SAAS solutions ensure a scalable and secure IT foundation that provides an affordable growth path for future requirements along with an infrastructure for application support and data back-up that removes the burden and risks of hosting solutions internally.
Have a look at team foundation server hosting that allows you and your organization to manage your Visual Studio projects and resources to success. Tools like source control, permission managment, team build, and MS Project integration make it easy to stay on track and deliver. Given the service, team foundation server pricing is affordable. You will fine team foundation server price lowest in the market. See what they are offering and get the service to take your business to the next level.
Feed Cluster
In computing, an aggregator is an application which aggregates content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. Aggregators reduce the time and effort needed to regularly check websites for updates, creating a unique information space. An aggregator is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and retrieve the update. The content is sometimes described as being pulled to the subscriber, as opposed to pushed with email or IM. Aggregator features are frequently built into portal sites, Web browsers and email programs.
If you have a blog; why not show it. Blogger may start at blog portal hosting that offers free hosting of community aggregators. A community aggregator (also known as a blog portal) is a customizable portal that features blogs generally written by people interested in common niche. The aggregator provides easy access to blogs about any focused topic of common interest. That is how any successful aggregator can act as blog traffic. If you have a blog, you can search for a related aggregator and try adding your blog to it. If you can't find an aggregator that is a most suitable for your blog, you can start an aggregator of your own. I have created my show case Light Within; feel free to submit your blog there. It is very simple; just give email and create an account and your own community of likeminded blogger start building up and in the process you become known in the blogsphere.
If you have a blog; why not show it. Blogger may start at blog portal hosting that offers free hosting of community aggregators. A community aggregator (also known as a blog portal) is a customizable portal that features blogs generally written by people interested in common niche. The aggregator provides easy access to blogs about any focused topic of common interest. That is how any successful aggregator can act as blog traffic. If you have a blog, you can search for a related aggregator and try adding your blog to it. If you can't find an aggregator that is a most suitable for your blog, you can start an aggregator of your own. I have created my show case Light Within; feel free to submit your blog there. It is very simple; just give email and create an account and your own community of likeminded blogger start building up and in the process you become known in the blogsphere.
Heritage of Love -- Woodwork
Engraved woodwork - the name is enough to collectors, travellers and cautiously curious dreaming. Antiquity is the first message of the ancient art. And, woodwork executed in villages of Pakistan is a collector's delight that needs to be preserved.
During the Mughal era, Pakistan produced many intelligent personalities and talented artisans who occupied positions in the Mughal courts. Artisans of Pakistan have instinctive good taste and they have achieved a distinctive excellence in woodwork. They are said to have been employed during the construction of Taj Mahal at Agra and Golden Temple at Amritsar. Special types of furniture and decorative items with brightly lacquered woodcarvings and coloured woodwork are still made here and famous all over the world. Gujrat, Chaniot and Multan are particularly famous for woodwork.
What this internationally acclaimed craft of the country needs is an institutional patronization and extensive efforts for preservation. Made in Pakistan wood items are found at different antique shops and but this art seem to be fading away in the face of the factory made items. It can be a potent source of earning for village artisans if attention is paid to and earnest efforts are made. Sadly, the trained incompetents responsible for export promotion of art and culture do not see this and the unique potentials and its cultural importance yet.
Use ARX
News is that Michael Aish - marathon runner and former Olympic athlete – recommends ARX - a foundation for greater performance. "A few months ago I started using ARX. I used to try anything as long as it was legal, and trust me I tried it all with little to no results. ARX is different. It works. Not overnight, more of a long term effect. The kind of thing that you only notice when you look back at your training and see that you haven't had any of those really tired days out on the roads, no missed days of training and that you seem to be waking a lot better the mornings after those really long hard training days. Becoming the best was always said to be about working harder than the next guy, but really it's about recovering faster than that guy so you can get back to the Œworking harder part," says Michael Aish.
Regular use of ARX can change the physiology for greater endurance, strength, speed, and faster muscle recovery.
ARX is a unique combination of ingredients that help to clear lactate from the bloodstream faster and circulate it to the rest of the body so that it can be used as an additional fuel source for exercise and other energy demands, improving your performance and reducing muscle recovery time.
Explore Faster Tomorrow – information rich site dedicated to helping endurance athletes of all ages reach peak performance through science and nutrition - and earn more about ARX, better still try this amazing supplement.
Regular use of ARX can change the physiology for greater endurance, strength, speed, and faster muscle recovery.
ARX is a unique combination of ingredients that help to clear lactate from the bloodstream faster and circulate it to the rest of the body so that it can be used as an additional fuel source for exercise and other energy demands, improving your performance and reducing muscle recovery time.
Explore Faster Tomorrow – information rich site dedicated to helping endurance athletes of all ages reach peak performance through science and nutrition - and earn more about ARX, better still try this amazing supplement.
Greenland Project
The idea for the project originated in the year 2002 and is based on the location of the west to east greenland. At first there were various contacts between Narsalik and Qaqortoq and in 2006 a meeting with the director of the group in greenland was held. The meeting took place in the south of the island.
The pre-conditions for the project were good due to the parallels in the locations as well as the income generating factors sheep breeding and tourism.
After the activities came to a standstill and difficulties regarding deadlines and financing emerged but also as first orders for the Inuit-Dolls were received, the project was revived by arranging the finance and a visit to Kulusuk was undertaken in September 2007.
Complete manufacturing of the Inuit-Dolls is also not feasible here as the manufacturing of the naked doll would be too expensive here. For this purpose the doll bodies from Pakistan are used here. However, the hair and skin type as well as the face form correspond to the Greenland.
The pre-conditions for the project were good due to the parallels in the locations as well as the income generating factors sheep breeding and tourism.
After the activities came to a standstill and difficulties regarding deadlines and financing emerged but also as first orders for the Inuit-Dolls were received, the project was revived by arranging the finance and a visit to Kulusuk was undertaken in September 2007.
Complete manufacturing of the Inuit-Dolls is also not feasible here as the manufacturing of the naked doll would be too expensive here. For this purpose the doll bodies from Pakistan are used here. However, the hair and skin type as well as the face form correspond to the Greenland.
Shop at Gadget Circle
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Future Lies in the Villages
“Future lies in rural areas,” Dr. Norbert Pintsch
Human beings like other organisms, have always polluted their environment with the byproducts of their action. As an organism man creates waste. As a social creature, he removes things from his environment and adds residue to it. So long as population density has been low on the planet, the environment was able to accommodate these alterations. Now with the world population about 8.5 billion people and increasing by 220,000 each day, the concentration of population in cities and resulting deterioration of environment is sounding alarms. The situation is urban Pakistan is worst.
The process of economic development over last 58 years has brought number of changes. One of the most critical dimensions of the process is urbanization of rural society. As the development has taken place primarily from agricultural to industrial economy, large scale rural to urban migration has taken place, changing the face of our cities as well as villages. The concentration of more and more people into urban areas is regarded as one of the major environmental threat today. The process is expected to escalate in Pakistan though many of our cities have already reached the point where further population concentration (by natural birth or migration) may jeopardize the delivery of basic civic services to all.
Urbanization process has effected all parts of country: villages, towns and cities in one-way or the other. The intensity of impact is most critical in the larger cities. Karachi, Lahore, Faislabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Sarghoda and Peshawar are suffering from environmental degradation and quantifiable deficiencies in basic civic services. The civic bodies are badly failing to manage these problems.
Solid waste management has become one of the serious urban nightmares in Pakistan. The municipalities equipped with centuries old and outdated methods inefficiently lift only 60 percent of the municipal waste generated in our cities. In the absence of professionalism and proper waste disposal systems, most of the garbage lifted from the cities is crudely dumped in open spaces nearby. These dumps attract mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches, houseflies, ticks flees as well as stray dogs and birds like vultures and crows. Carried by the vectors, bacterium thriving in rotten and moist garbage is spreading all sorts of diseases. Other 40 percent waste is simply not picked up and keeps rotting in streets or illegal filth depots inside the cities. As the society prospers, its trash -- mainly hazardous plastic, metals packaging and pathogenic non-biodegradable rubbish -- is growing exponentially.
Karachi the mega city with population estimated over 11 millions, alone is generating 6000 tons of waster per day. Solid waste management department of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation is trying to keep the city clean with fleet of vehicles and an army of sweepers in its roll. Result: “The effects of environmental degradation due to the waste left inside Karachi are slowly poisoning the city”, notes an epidemiologist.
Sewerage systems only in portions of the cities are crumbling. Apart from being old they were basically designed for lesser population without catering for the future growth. Remaining population depends for waste disposal on septic tanks, soak pits or over flows into open drain. As a result of improper disposal of human waste (in many areas there is no disposal) from the housing environment a large number of children are suffering from or are vulnerable to the attacks of different diseases. The effluents from industrial units and tanneries working unchecked in the residential areas -- with high concentration of pollutants are adding to the problems. Kasur, Multan and Sialkot are typical examples of the case in point.
One major problems of urbanization in Pakistan is the eating up of green and open spaces -- so important for ecological balance -- by concrete structures of ever expanding cities. Only 25 years back Lahore and Faislabad had several patches of agricultural land. Today, there is no arable land with in the limits of these cities. In Peshawar 2700 hectares of agricultural land were lost between 1965 and 1985. Multan had many mango orchards (Ram jis Bagh, Abidanwalla Bagh, Qasim Bagh, Langhe Khan Bagh, Hazori Bagh, Dewanwalla Bagh and Mirza Jan Bagh) inside the city. They all have been converted into plazas and industrial units. There is no open space in cities as small as Mandi Baha Ud Din that was declared district headquarters only in 1993.
The fresh water supply in our cities is dwindling as the cities are expanding. Access to the clean water is available to about 77 percent of the urban population. Only 30 percent have the luxury of piped water supply and the rest are being served by stand posts or public taps. Per capita water consumption in urban areas in bare minimum to sustain human life. Even the (finite) subsoil water reserves are decreasing due to high pumping rate. In most of the cities water pipe lines run next to the sewer lines there for, contaminating the drinking water.
Air governs the quality of our environment. The air in our cities is so polluted that it can be smelled and seen everywhere. When the wind is still, the fumes of vehicles, industrial concerns, smoke from garbage piles put of fire as well as airborne particles to dirt and pollen can be seen hung about any city. Only in Lahore 800,000 vehicles are responsible (apart form the noise pollution) for contaminating the environment by emitting poisonous gasses. Breathing has become a health hazard in soot-choked cities like Gujranwala where tar coal drums, electric wires and old tyres are burnt inside the residential areas in order to separate the iron.
There is an acute shortage of houses in the cities and the real estate prices are skyrocketing. The demand for the land is growing and the supply is limited. Since the land is essential for urban growth, devising equitable and efficient land development policies is one of the major challenges facing planners and policy makers, who do not seem to be aware of the seriousness of the problem. The number of slum and katchi abadi dwellers is on the increase.
In the typical city street, the road is potholed by PTCL or WASA excavations, electric generators and transformers carry a dangerous web of cable overhead. Shops encroach onto the roadways. Vendors have covered the open drains and advertisements and ugly looking neon signs are covering every available surface.
Historic buildings disappear without regret and even the protected monuments are suffering from vandalism. The roads are full of illegal speed breakers, all different in sizes and shapes. The old trees are being cut without a second thought. There is no body to oversee the overall growth of cities and to coordinate the work of city development agencies.
It is ideal if the human beings are dispersed evenly around the countryside. But people have been coming to cities for better economic and educational opportunities and better quality of life. It is about time that policy makers should think hard and plant to check the current demographic trend. This can be done, though it has yet not started to begin in Pakistan.
This is one of the reasons why one can believe that future lies in rural areas.
