There is yet another text message circulating among the masses at the speed of light and, once more, it blames the US of A for all our ills which, given the current state of affairs, is hardly surprising. This particular message points out: "We don't want American rental power, we want electricity. In Pakistan electricity is now Rs 7 per unit and it will be increased after every two months due to the American IMF policies. Iran has agreed to give electricity on an urgent basis to us at the very cheap rate of Rs 1.18 per unit. Also China has offered Pakistan electricity with just a monthly household bill of Rs 300 for unlimited usage but our government is not taking this seriously. Now this is our time to show the government our strength." Where this message originated is unknown but it is popping up on mobile phones all over the country and, as with other such messages, thousands of people believe it as, like most propaganda, it is based on fact and the finger of blame is pointing in the right direction although there should also be two other directional fingers: One aiming straight at a government which has long since sold us, lock, stock and barrel, to American feudal lords and the other towards KESC, IESCO etc who, if they were serious about tackling the increasingly critical power shortage, would, first and foremost remove every single kunda connection throughout the country so that paying customers get their due. Expecting kunda connections to be removed, however, is pie in the sky as many of them, perhaps even all of them, were hooked up with the connivance of working members of the companies concerned...for a fee of course. It would also be extremely interesting to know just how many of those so vociferously objecting about loadshedding and electricity conservation methods, are actually legal consumers of this hit and miss commodity, as troublemakers the world over often have skeletons rattling in their closets which they are prepared to go to extreme lengths, including diverting attention, to hide. Not being full informed as to the intricacies of the Iranian and Chinese offers of bailout on the power front, I have absolutely no idea of the price per unit on offer but, even if our good neighbour Iran is prepared to sell us electricity at Rs 1.18 per unit, the cost to the end user, the consumer, would obviously be far more plus, as with the Chinese offer, would take years, if not decades, to materialise. This is not to say, definitely not by any stretch of the imagination, that rental power units are the answer as people, wealthy ones aside, are increasingly struggling to pay the exorbitant power bills they face each month. Bills, which despite tremendous loadshedding in some areas of the country, rural locations being particularly hard hit, increase, along with the cost of other basic staples, on a monthly basis to the point where a rising number of shopkeepers have had to close down refrigeration units they can no longer afford to run. The attention grabbing government hyperbole surrounding 8 pm closure of shops, the switching off of alternate street lights and two day weekends for government servants are nothing more than headline seeking platitudes aimed at camouflaging the fact that it is the ordinary person, not the wealthy and certainly not those raping the country to an American tune, who are expected to bravely soldier on as per usual which, in this modern era of technological survival tools is increasingly impossible. When loadshedding strikes, the real people of this country, those struggling to survive and who are, let's not forget it, the worker ants gluing Pakistan together, grind to a frustrated halt as their support net evaporates. Electricity is a service few can now manage with-out...this is a fact of life in the world of today and the worker ants need this commodity just as much as the 'bosses' who can, unlike the minions, flick over to generator power. For loadshedding to be equitable, generators should be banned from private homes, they do guzzle expensive fuel at an alarming rate remember and this fuel could be better utilised on a common basis such as in a power station, plus, generators cause a nerve wracking amount of noise pollution to those who cannot afford this luxury so simply have to sweat it out. The electricity supply infrastructure throughout the country has been deteriorating for years therefore, even if countries such as Iran and China are wisely allowed to prevail over exploitive American largesse from which, it goes without saying, someone will be reaping a massive profit, then how on earth can this economic lifeline function, uninterrupted, unless it is totally revamped from top to bottom? The simple fact is...it can't. Such solutions lie in the dim and distant future though but, for now, deleting all the useless government announced conservation palaver and getting firmly to grips with the kunda mafia would definitely help. The writer is a Murree-based freelance columnist.