Climate change and coronavirus have much in common. They are both invisible threats to humanity. Warnings of their inevitable onset by scientists have largely been ignored. At their worse, they can lead to substantial loss of human life and exacerbate the inequities present in our world. Coincidentally, coronavirus has also revealed climate change’s kryptonite: lockdown. […]
Radical policy #1: carbon pausing
Climate change and coronavirus have much in common. They are both invisible threats to humanity. Warnings of their inevitable onset by scientists have largely been ignored. At their worse, they can lead to substantial loss of human life and exacerbate the inequities present in our world. Coincidentally, coronavirus has also revealed climate change’s kryptonite: lockdown. […]
Beyond Trees
Imagine driving down Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore, and stopping at a light. A traffic camera reads your number plate, checks it against a database of registered vehicles and charges you a fixed sum as your vehicle does not meet the city’s zonal emission standards. Welcome to the concept of Low Emission Zones (LEZ): schemes that […]
Remittances: a panacea?
Prime Minister Imran Khan has made several supplications to overseas Pakistanis to send money home; infamous ones include an attempt to crowdsource infrastructure projects such as the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dam projects. One form of payments from overseas Pakistanis, however, is relatively neglected: remittances i.e. money and goods sent by workers and other people living […]
The lucky draws of life: plight of a low-income Pakistani migrant
Moral philosopher Joseph Carens in his seminal piece on migration, Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders, compares migration dictated by nationality to medieval feudalism privilege where the location of one’s birth determines economic and social opportunities. Some people are born into poverty in countries that offer little opportunity for them to improve their […]
‘Happy citizens’
For many, Scandinavia is the poster child for happy citizens and generous welfare programs. In fact, the UN’s World Happiness Report has consistently ranked Scandinavian countries at the top of their list. In recent times, however, there has been much debate about the beneficiaries of these programs. The rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric calls for placing […]