Waste of Talent

Talking about renewable energy resourse, I read this yesterday on rediff and would like to share it with you guys.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/19award.htm


Indians win two of the four `Green Oscars`

H S Rao in London | June 19, 2003 09:41 IST


Indians won two of the four prestigious Ashden Awards for sustainable energy, globally known as the `Green Oscars`, each carrying a cash prize of 30,000 pounds and a trophy, in London on Wednesday night.

Bunker Roy, founder of the Barefoot College, Tilonia in Rajasthan, who provided lighting using solar panels in over 136 remote and virtually inaccessible Himalayan villages bagged the Ashden Award for Community Welfare, while S P Gon Chaudhuri, a leading specialist in renewable energy systems from West Bengal, was chosen for the Ashden Award for Enterprise.

Afworki Tesfazion of Eritrea who invented smokeless and fuel-efficient clay stoves, got the Award for Food Security and Moel Moelegan, who developed an innovative wind farm, received the Ashden Award for the UK.

Lord Whitty, UK Minister for Farming, Food and Sustainable Energy, presented the awards at the Darwin Centre of the Natural History Museum in the presence of a select gathering.

The winners were chosen from a shortlist of nine people drawn from a record number of entries from some 25 countries and four continents.

The awards, now in their third year, recognise and reward inspirational renewable energy projects, which provide social and economic benefits for their local communities and protect the environment, Jonathon Porritt, internationally renowned environmentalist and chair of the UK government`s Sustainable Development Commission said.

After receiving the prize money and trophy, Roy told PTI he would utilise the cash prize for starting a Barefoot College for women in Ladakh.

As part of Roy`s commitment to demystifying the technology of solar energy and demonstrating that poor communities can manage their own solar electrified villages without any technical help from outside, 90 men and 19 women -- many of them illiterate -- were trained as barefoot engineers to maintain the fixed units and solar lanterns provided.

The change that has taken place in the lives of over 15,000 people, now benefitting from solar energy, has been immense.

``No longer do they have to walk for two days to get a 20-litre jerrycan of kerosene that had to last one month,`` Roy said.

The work of Roy and the Barefoot College has created significant employment opportunities, facilitated night schooling in winter, enabled women to produce handicrafts at home, regenerated wasteland through the use of solar water pumps, and most importantly, ensured a growing collective confidence among the communities involved to look after their own solar electrified villages.

Stating that he was `very happy` to receive the prestigious award, Gon Chaudhuri said he would utilise the entire prize money on electrification of Sunderbans in West Bengal.

Chaudhury, who is heading the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency, is famed for converting the Sagar Island into a solar island. The island receives more than one million pilgrims every year to visit the sacred sites.

The WBREDA, under Chaudhuri, provided the islanders with grid quality solar powered electricity. With support from the islanders, the Agency has also initiated a programme of village electrification using nine solar mini-grid systems. This project currently provides grid-quality power for more than 1,000 villagers for five to six hours daily.

It has also facilitated the villagers to have safe drinking water, health facilities and reduce snakebite cases.

The solar mini-grid system developed by him has been replicated in Zambia and Bangladesh, Chaudhuri, winner of the National Science Academy award, said.

Chaudhuri said he has also developed a pre-paid solar electricity card and it would be popularised with part of the prize money.

Ram Chandra Prasad, a dedicated environmentalist and activist, who heads of the Madhya Pradesh Gramin Vikas Mandal, was a losing finalist.

>I am not in favour of MMA nor agaionst it .Iam ignorent about it .

your ignorance does quite shine through on your post, i`m afraid.

it is actually not a know `fact` that students of single sex schools perform better academically than those of co-ed ones. to my mind, no study has been conducted thus far which would corroborate what you say. perhaps youre confused as to the studies done about women in pakistan, from both single sex and co-ed schools, generally performing better than men. other than that, your proposition is ridiculous.

the most demonstrable benefit of co-education is that most social interactions are not segregated. work places are not segreggated and to make them so would be economically and socially disastrous. co-education, in my opinion, is invaluable towards inculcating the etiquettes of interaction with the opposite sex. pakistan already doesnt posses nearly enough schools to fulfill the education requirements of its children and youth. in this respect, doubling the cost by having single schools only is ridiculous and would most probably mean even more substandard facilities for women.

i do agree that the way one looks has precious little to do with academic performance or the elusive concept of `modernity `and perhaps blindly mimicking the apparel of different cultures isnt the best way to go. but this has nothing to do with the issue of co-education. ultimately, its about having the freedom to choose how one wishes to dress without having others passing judgement or pointing fingers at them. every man in pakistan becoming a guardian of every womans morality has been a social distortion which primarily occurred during zia`s brutal regime and thinking of this sort doesnt help us reverse this retardation. you should stick to your own advice: dont be on of those morons who determine which aspects of `modernity` one should or shouldnt adopt and dont criticise something like co-education or the way women dress when the alternative doesnt provide any demonstrable benefits. if it aint broke...

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Well, this in not an appropriate place for discussions on Qazi and company.

Ref. Cemendtaur, rep # 3

I just want to say, that I am sure that in the speach, in which Qazi Sahab stated that co-education will be abolished from the country, he must also have said some very other valid points about the system of the county, but our media is countiuously giving a negative projection of the MMA and quoted this statement as the main headlines in the newspapers and other media channels. Why so much bias??

Allegedly from the Daily Times (www.dailytimes.com.pk) but can`t find
the link.

C.



Confessions of a reluctant feminist

By Asim Ghani



A newspaper letter-writer recently voiced alarm at the prospect of
Maulana
Fazlur Rahman becoming prime minister. He said he`d emigrate to Papua
New
Guinea if that happened. Since then there has been a spate of similar
letters. Qazi Husain Ahmad`s statement last Sunday that the Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal would abolish coeducation can make you wonder if it`s
really
time to leave this country.

The most striking thing in the Qazi`s speech, at an MMA ``women`s
convention``
in Peshawar, is not so much this threat, as the fact that he doesn`t
know
what he`s talking about. ``We will set up separate universities for
girls,``
he declared; the same, needless to say, goes for schools and
colleges. He
promised vocational training centres exclusively for women. Qazi
Husain
Ahmad must have worked out the astronomical expenses involved, the
planning,
infrastructure and the years and years of completion required, the
female
teaching staff that would need to be raised for segregated vocational
and
technical training.

It reminds me of a news item a few weeks ago, on a decision in the
NWFP, the
Qazi`s home province, to convert all government schools into English-
medium
schools. And who will teach all the subjects in English, as well as
the
language itself?

Staff who will have received six months` training in Peshawar. For
some
reason he left unexplained, he wants the NWFP Governor`s House and
Frontier
House, the chief minister`s residence, tu rned into educational
institutions;
for girls and women, let`s assume, because of the high walls of the
buildings.

And that`s the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan`s best-
organized
political party. He`s vice president of the MMA, some of whose
important
figures are claiming the alliance`s unforeseen success in the
elections has
given it a popular mandate to rule Pakistan.

But something clearly slipped the Qazi`s mind in the heat of rhetoric.

He pledged that women would have equal opportunities and ``there will
be no
job restrictions`` on them. (Thank goodness!) In addition, women will
be
provided ``a conducive atmosphere in which to work with dignity.`` If
you
carry his philosophy on female education to its logical conclusion,
doesn`t
it follow that, if women are to work ``with dignity,`` workplaces will
be
segregated too?

For women (indeed, for anyone) dignity is synonymous with equality—
complete
equality, it should be emphasized here, since wome n`s status and
rights are
under discussion. But in wide areas of the NWFP we saw a
different ``dignity``
in action on Oct. 10. Women, including innumerable in the city of
Peshawar
itself, were strictly prohibited from voting, the prevention involving
threatened draconian measures in the tribal areas even against any
male who
dared to help a woman go to a polling station. The Jamaat leader, who
immediately after the elections had sworn to have the heads of ``the
daughters of the nation`` covered, came up with a tardy criticism of
this; it
was, he said in his speech, ``wrong.``

How many MMA legislators-elect in the NWFP kept their wives,
daughters,
mothers and sisters from voting is an interesting moot point.
The ``wrong``
happened to be the right thing for the MMA: we`ll never know to what
extent
the absence of women voters contributed to its electoral success.
(This is
to say nothing of allegations that the MMA`s ``vote bank`` was swollen
by
hundreds of thousands of Afgha n refugees who had illegally secured
Pakistani
national identity cards.)

``There will be no restrictions on women,`` the Qazi went on, ``but they
have
to live in accordance with the teachings of Islam.`` This ``but`` raises
a
question: Does it mean men will be free not to follow the teachings?

The MMA will also end honour killings, which the Qazi did condemn as
``un-Islamic.`` Meanwhile, laws will be passed to stop violence against
females and ``sexual harassment of women.`` To take only the latter
element,
what could be greater ``sexual harassment`` than for a woman to be
raped and
then be condemned to die for adultery? Zafran Bibi, whose punishment
of
being stoned to death was overturned by the Federal Shariat Court in
June
amid national and international outrage, was not the only such victim
of
Zia-ul-Haq`s Zina and Hudood laws. There are a number of rape victims
in
prison even now.

But the defence of Zia`s ultra-obscurantist legislations is an
article of
fait h with Pakistan`s religious right. Zafran`s case, the Meerawala
gang
rape and the forced ``marriages`` of eight girls in Abbakhel near
Mianwali,
which again caused universal uproar, were met with virtual silence by
our
clerics. (It doesn`t bear reminding that the annulled marriages of the
girls—two as young as three and five—had been duly solemnized by a
local
maulvi.)

It was a little redundant for the Jamaat leader to give this
assurance to
the thousands of burqa-clad women bussed to the convention
(whose ``massive
participation`` he flaunted as proof of the MMA`s popularity among
women):
that the MMA won`t force them to wear the burqa. Nor would it carry
out a
Taliban-style crackdown on women. Let`s skip the fact that he isn`t
known to
have uttered a word of criticism of the Taliban`s hideous
victimization of
women, that the Jamaat and most other parties now in the MMA provided
all-round backing to the militia`s five-year ``jihad.`` Let`s recall the
incident in whic h the Taliban shaved the heads of Pakistani football
players
to punish them for turning up in ``immodest`` shorts for a match, not in
shalwar. Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the prime ministerial hopeful who is
the
unanimous parliamentary leader of all six components of the MMA (as
the Qazi
reminded the convention), lauded the abuse.

Again, since his audience were all in burqa, why did Qazi husain
Ahmad have
to be behind a curtain? You see, even if he couldn`t see the women,
they
could have seen him through their veils. But he`s one of the most
photographed Pakistani figures these days, and also appears on
television,
so they can see his face anyway. It would be silly to say to him, if
you`re
so punctilious about purdah, why don`t you stay away from
photographers and
television? However, he could avoid posing for photographs, such as
the one
in which, in a show of MMA solidarity, he`s linking arms with Maulana
Shah
Ahmad Noorani, the president of the transient grouping of di sparate
religious parties and factions. Normally he would be loath even to
pray
behind the Maulana, a veteran prayer-leader, because he is Barelvi
and the
Qazi is Wahabi.

Since the Jamaat leader is an unlikely convert to the idea of equal
opportunities for women, here`s a shibboleth to test his earnestness:
Is one
woman, or two women, equal to a male witness in testimony?

I don`t know how my fellow-alarmists reacted to the Qazi`s speech. I
laughed
out loud—particularly at his addressing women from behind a curtain.

That brought back some memories. I remember when I was working on a similar final year project; but that was on an entirely different topic and related to automation of systems in Industries. The problem with such research problems is that it is left on students only. The way it should work is that the students must work on an which government actually intends to complete. Your approach to contact Mr. Chandio was correct but it would have been nice if that were actually Mr. Chandio`s project.

Whatever progress villages have made is a miracle. Everything that is associated with progress in the modern sense stays away or is kept away from villages. The destiny of a village is to stay a village. There are many reasons for it some of which you have mentioned in your posts. One of the biggest reasons in my view is the brain drain...I know I know shehri lokk will give a mean smile and say what brain in village but truth is that almost 90% of the urbanites in the sub-continent today either themselves migrated from villages or their parent or grand parents migrated from the village. Many villages produced more professionals than cities in percentage terms when you compare people`s economic levels and facilities available. the problem is after anyone in the villages attains a skill or gets degree, he leaves. he leaves and then all his offsprings become part of the city. That leaves the village not only without one skilled or educated person but also hard working and relatively intelligent being and his offsprings. With every next youngman or woman getting educated and leaving, the villages gets poorer and dumber.

I will give you an example of my village. After the partition it remained without a high school for few years. The illiterate and poor elders thought out a plan and partnered with the neighouring village, donated enough land to run the school and the only Gurdwara building in the village was donated for the school leaving the village without a proper Gurdwara for couple of decades. That in itself was a miracle to think about. If they have to do the same today, i am sure they won`t. That little high school gave opportunities to so many kids that it produced young people who became doctors, researchers, professors, engineers and businessmen....totaling to over scores in the last 40 years. but everyone of them left the village. All of them are living well today..somewhere else but the village is today without a qualified doctor, a dedicated teacher and leader....the school building(ex-gurdwara building) walls falling down. After Govt made it a govt school villagers stoped paying for its maintenance and govt funds are never enough. Today they have more than 3 Gurdwara building going up with sangg-mar-mar floors and high domes costing lakhs and in one case Crores of rupees but school looks like a ruin.

This is the story of every other village. without brining industries and infrastructure to the village to offer people employment, village will remain a village. Cities will reap its fruits and leave it in ruins.