Blog from Pakistan to and around the world

It was hard to believe but true. Nigerian Film Industry is the thrid largest film industry in the world.
While watching National Geographic the other day it was revealed on me that Lagos has only one cinema but still Nigeria is the third largest film industry of the world.

The filmmakers do not make the films specifically for the box office, but directly release the film on CDs and DVDs so people can watch it in their homes even.

The cameras and equipments they have are out dated and they do not try to copy from Hollywood or any other films but have their own stories based on their own social and culturals factors. Making a Nigerian movie costs an average of US$ 25000

While we find our filmmakers complaining about decreasing number of cinemas and the indian movies being released on box office and on DVDs hurting the cause of the local cinema.

May be its time to think out of the box and release the movie on box office and on CD at the same time.
With so many TV channels available, it wont be a big ask to market their movie thru the tv channels and tempt the viewer on buying the locally realease movie on dvd.

It is also to be understood that watching movie in cinema is not easy. A family of 5 will have to spend an average of Rs. 1000 to just watch the movie, while the entertainment that goes with the movie is a separate entity.

While the competition with Indian movies cannot be ignored, but trying to go out of the box may pay off.

The city government in good faith, introduced road side cabins to accommodate street vendors, to have a better looking, proper space for their business. This was as good as legalizing their road side business by giving them a proper place to conduct business.

These roadside cabins are already built on footpaths, which hinder the movement of pedestrians who wish to use the footpath and hence have to walk on the road.

The cabin owners have started abusing the space allocated to them, by encroaching at least 5 feet further out of their cabins, putting their shop stuff like display counters or chairs and tables, further blocking the road and leaving just little space for cars and people to pass by.

The city government should ensure that the cabin owners only use the specified cabin space and do not further encroach out of their allocated space, as this is causing longer term menace to pedestrians, cars and passers by.

Government of Pakistan and private sector should look upon two more measures to ease up pressure on the electricity.
That is neck tie and coats / blazers in offices in summer.

Since neck tie tend to tie around the person's neck, it greatly increases persons requirement for more air and space.
So is the case with the coats and blazers, which when worn in the summer will make the person feel warm and would increase the requirement to keep in cool / air conditioned environment.

The dress code for summer should be halfsleeves shirts, with open neck button to ease up the summer heat.
Kurta shalwar can be a great alternate as it allows fair enough air around the body and dress.

We are a country where office business timings are determined by sunrise and sunset and not by the watch.
It is observed that majority of the business in Pakistan work till sunset or maghrib prayers.

I remember in school days when i used to visit my father's office, his office timings were usually till maghrib. It was like he would leave the office after offering the maghrib prayers be it summer or winter.

While the west observes day light saving in spring and summer.
It would be a wise idea if we Pakistanis observe the day light saving time in winters.

This will mean longer days in winter, hence more business hours but less use of electricity.
Also, people will start their day early, and will give them a chance to offer the Fajr prayers well around office and school timings.

And also since sun sets early, people tend to switch on the lights early hence using electricity for longer period of time.
Hence advancing the clock forward in winter for an hour will save that one hour of electricity usage, which can then be saved and used for summer.

May be government need to go anti-west on this strategy.

The government is looking to increase the tax revenue.
I have a suggestion for the government which can easily increase tax collection so much so that 98% of the population would be made to pay the tax.

This tax can be called "Inconvenience Tax"
Government should collect tax from the common man for all the inconveniences faced by him.

Since every citizen of Pakistan face inconvenience almost every day, this will hugely increase tax collection of the government.

People can be made to pay tax for the inconveniences faced by them on daily basis in shape and face of electricity load shedding, gas load shedding , water shortage, inconvience faced during vip movement, inconvenience faced by bomb blasts, riots and other such events. Inconvenience faced when dealing with government agencies, police, law enforcers. Inconvenience faced due to dug up roads, traffic jam, and accidents.

This tax can be collected thru utility bills. Inconvenience tax can be calculated on the total number of outages in the month, hence taxed accordingly.
Other taxes like inconvenience caused during vip movement can be charged directly to the people utilizing the inconvenience by mobile tax collection units and charging them at the time of inconvenience faced.

If government imposes these steps it can greatly increase tax collection.