20th April

A Crumbling Pitch

The article advises Pakistan to introspect to solve the current boycott it is facing at various levels, recently being the banning of ICC to host any level of cricket tournament till 2011 including the ICC World Cup.

The reaction is coming right from within the Pakistani team after the terrorist attack on Sri Lankan team as the Pakistani captain apprehended to quit the game if any such attack happened on his team. This would devoid, the world of cricket, some of the finest players who have originated from the country. The present solution should be to encourage the team to tour more and play at neutral venues as well. IPL was a golden chance for Pakistani cricketers had the foreign ministry given permission. The primary reason for all the mess seems to be the constant state of denial, the governing elite of Pakistan has exercised over the period, leading to the perception of pariah state by the world. With respect to Taliban elements, Islamabad has cited the Swat deal as a measure to contain Taliban which, evidently, hasn’t worked at all and now the insurgents are intruding into the heartland of Pakistan, Punjab. While Pakistan continues to blame its favorite villains, US and India, it is not able to see that the real problem is within their administration and polity. 

Taliban’s growth isn’t happening in vacuum. There are elements fueling their intrusion and intensification and Pakistan needs to recognize these elements immediately and eliminate them otherwise ICC World Cup would soon turn out to be least of its worries. 

Save the Reefs

The article talks about the latest Japanese technology that would help revive some of the most endangered reefs. Later on it emphasizes on the need for awareness among the general public to prevent the factors that lead to decline of reefs.

Japanese technologists have spent $2million and transplanted 13k pieces of fledgling corals into the dying reefs of East China Sea in 4 years. The technique had a success ratio of 33% and it would help preserving the genetic diversity of the corals. Similar project is going on in Andaman Sea, albeit, at a smaller scale. Coral reefs are considered as rainforests of the ocean. However, rising temperatures and greenhouse effect is causing bleaching and weakness in the reefs. This, in turn, endangers all crustacean creatures. Several creatures like fish and algae feed on the Global reef systems which also get endangered because of this. While techniques to revive reefs like giving jolts of electricity and seeding artificial undersea grids with cloned coral fragments have yielded positive results but that hasn’t prevented the death of reefs arising out of overfishing with dynamite in reef areas due to 1998 Asian economic crisis, toxic waste, intrusive tourism and global warming. If timely actions aren’t taken 75% of reef systems would die within next 50 years. 

Besides technology support, what is really needed is awareness among local people and tourists for coral reef conservation. More difficult task is concerted efforts from all the countries of the world to reduce greenhouse emissions before it’s too late.