Pres. Ali ‘hijacked’ the term “energy balance”

May 10, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

I am an energy technologist who has conducted energy audits and surveys. The term ‘energy balance’ used to be reserved for applications of the 1st law of thermodynamics (also known as the law of conservation of energy). I succeed as an energy auditor when I reconcile the amount of energy supplied with the amount of energy used and lost or wasted. Clients improved their energy efficiency by minimising energy loss, which can manifest itself as heat to shorten equipment lifetimes, or leak into sensitive areas and cause breakdown. It is like balancing the income and expenditures of a budget or of auditing in financial accounting.

So, I have grounds to complain that the President is hijacking the term “energy balance” in your KN report of May 5, 2026 to mean an arbitrary allocation of energy sources regardless of their financial sense. I would hate to have his version to be added as another meaning of the term.

I am also an educator of long standing, who has to bring students to be able to describe their reality, find relations between measurable things than can be changed, and change them for the good of mankind. Our President is exhorted to do this. If he can be credited with describing our situation, he is obviously out of touch with what can be changed, preferring to listen to what his exploiters say can be done instead of what his people need. The glaring example is the Gas-to-Energy project versus the 500% cheaper solar power. Please therefore, Mr. President, leave a legacy of respect for the learning of the representatives of the poor instead of the society of the rich.

The exploitative rich give advice that will perpetuate their benefits and make it appear that their (own sponsored) academia agree. This is what many young academics and politicians do not realise. They believe in the impartiality of many of those in charge of institutions of learning, which have even created a polite language for operating the resources “for you”. They write the playbook. Leaders not brought up in mathematical rigour and who are not willing to employ qualified persons, can be easily misled. The deuterocanonical biblical book of Sirach gives good advice about advisors in Chapter 37: “Beware of counsellors … First find out what they want themselves, since their advice coincides with their interests – in case they have designs on you. Do not consult … with a merchant about a bargain or with a buyer about selling …”

Alfred Bhulai

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