Published in The News on December 8, 2005
As if the damage caused to our respiratory system by ingesting the dust raised during the never ending construction of the underpass wasn't enough, we unfortunate residents of Clifton's Block 5 now have to breathe pure carbon monoxide from the burning of garbage near the two sword roundabout. And it's no use telling the nazim to do something about it. Knowing how much the quality of education in the country has deteriorated, our elected officials will probably be stunned to hear that the smoke emanating from the burning garbage is bad for health.
As for environmental pollution, that's too technical a subject for most Pakistanis to understand. Maybe things would have been different if our educationists hadn't abandoned science in favour of such abstruse subjects as national ideology. Mind you, this is no ordinary locality. The burning garbage lies only a few feet away from the gate of the Convent school that produced the country's only female prime minister.
And there are many consulates in the vicinity, including that of the country that managed an empire over which the sun never set. Not long ago, the garbage was taken away to be dumped somewhere out of the city. But then, this being Pakistan, someone had the brilliant idea of burning it right where it was while claiming huge sums of money for transporting it fifty kilometres away.
Shakir Lakhani
Karachi
No comments:
Post a Comment