Internet and Power in Pakistan

The observant reader may have seen that the postings from Pakistan came in batches. This is due to the nature of our access to the Internet there. Ellie and I noticed that Rawalpindi Pizza Hut, which was next to our hotel, offered wifi access. Our room faced the restaurant, so we worked out that if we sat on the arm of the armchair and balanced the laptop between the back of the chair and the windowsill, we could pick up the Pizza Hut wifi. We lost the connection if we did so much as put the laptop on the seat of the chair, and working from further away was impossible. So we would balance on the arm and back of the chair, to read and answer emails.

However, many sites we tried to access were blocked for 'inappropriate content'. This included anything with a 'blogspot.com' domain name, YouTube and even my Optus webmail. So if we wanted to check other email, or update our blogs, we had to waddle down to a tiny alleyway, go underground and use the computers in a tiny shop. Not exactly conducive to creative writing, and of course we could only do this when the city had electricty.

Power was out for 6 hours every night in the cities of Pakistan, including Rawalpindi, since the government had run out of fuel to run the power generators for the national grid. This is called 'load shedding'. In rural areas the power loss was 8 hours a day, and according to the TV news (which we watched when we had power!) some remote areas were without power for 16 hours a day.

I'm writing this from Delhi, where there are reliable power and Internet connections. I'm grateful for small mercies.