8/11/2022

This is How Karachi’s Water Mafia Works

Influential people, including local counsel, mayors, and police, are stealing 40% of Karachi’s water and pocketing 50 billion rupees annually, through a system built on bribing leaders. Pakistan’s Chief Minister has created a task force to combat the water theft that has crept up in response. But people are skeptical it’ll take over from what is now a very powerful water mafia. Karachi’s water mafia independently (and illegally) extract water to supply neighborhoods in need and to irrigate crops to feed the people. But, the water is polluted and untested, and people are dying. However, their other option, to rely on leaders, will leave them dead, because they’re the ones enabling this system. Karachi is one of the fastest growing cities in South Asia, and has always had an issue getting water. The reason water operations have become so lucrative is because the water isn’t distributed evenly, and everyone needs it. But there’s consequences to an unregulated system: organized networks are extracting unlimited amounts of water, destabilizing the ground and leaving sinkholes in their wake.

8/11/2022

This is How Karachi’s Water Mafia Works

Influential people, including local counsel, mayors, and police, are stealing 40% of Karachi’s water and pocketing 50 billion rupees annually, through a system built on bribing leaders. Pakistan’s Chief Minister has created a task force to combat the water theft that has crept up in response. But people are skeptical it’ll take over from what is now a very powerful water mafia. Karachi’s water mafia independently (and illegally) extract water to supply neighborhoods in need and to irrigate crops to feed the people. But, the water is polluted and untested, and people are dying. However, their other option, to rely on leaders, will leave them dead, because they’re the ones enabling this system. Karachi is one of the fastest growing cities in South Asia, and has always had an issue getting water. The reason water operations have become so lucrative is because the water isn’t distributed evenly, and everyone needs it. But there’s consequences to an unregulated system: organized networks are extracting unlimited amounts of water, destabilizing the ground and leaving sinkholes in their wake.

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The UFO Summoner From Ishigaki Japan

Ishigaki Island, Japan. Everyone's heard about people running into aliens. And everyone thinks generally the same thing: those people are crazy. Claims of encounters with extraterrestrials are usually dismissed as superstition or hallucination. So, when we heard reports of numerous and consistent UFO sightings on Ishigaki -- a modest, neighboring island to Okinawa in southwest Japan -- we arrived as skeptics. When we got to the island, we met Naoyoshi Watanabe, a resident who's heard of a creature with freaky features..."like some sort of mummified octopus, but with a face, arms, and legs." He says his friends came across the creature while fishing in the popular tourist spot, the "Blue Cave." Weirdly, about a week after they told Naoyoshi-san about their encounter and request to look into it, they'd forgotten about it entirely. When Naoyoshi-san's tried to follow up, they don't know what he's talking about. That's weird. But it's one story, and we weren't fully convinced. So we trekked up to the northernmost tip of the island to meet with Suekazu Maeda, a man who claims to regularly 'summon the vehicles of the legendary beings.' He was excited by captive audience, and walked us through his tried and true method - flashing a light into the night sky. Initially, nothing happened, just as expected: no outer-world being appeared. But then, almost as if on command, spheres of light as big as the stars were bursting into the night sky. Over the course of an hour, we were in awe as we witnessed around 8-9 flashes of light interacting with each other in the sky. We were shocked--it felt like being in a daze. Maeda-san, however, was unfazed. He's seen them before, many times, even heard them make noise. He only wishes he could see their faces.

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This is How Karachi’s Water Mafia Works