First off, I'm happy to report that things are resolved with T-Mobile regarding my stolen cell phone. They turned out to be very reasonable and I am very satisfied with the result. It's good to see that companies can be responsive to their customers. I really did like their service and am happy to be able to stay with them. Now on to other things.
Marvin left for Botswana yesterday. He is taking his son to live with his brother, who is a lawyer in Gaberone. I don't know if or when Marvin expects to see his son again. It will be several months in any case. I just hope that his health improves and he can finally kick his TB infection. He still wants to get his printing business going but he will need to much healthier to do that.
Electricity has become a national emergency across South Africa. Eskom, the peristatal electricity company, is having major problems meeting the demand for power. This is mostly due to the fact that the government has not funded any new power stations since at least the early '90s, even though their own reports and commissions called for new plants as far back as 10 years ago. Since 1997, the population has grown to 48 million from 41 million, and industrial growth has been 6-10% per year but power producing capacity has not grown at all. Those figures, combined with scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, has left the country about 5,000 megawatt hours (or maybe gigawatt hours, whichever is largest) short of the demand.
Eskom's solution to the problem is to have scheduled blackouts nearly every day. These happen across the country. My area is subject to power outages from noon to 2:30pm and 8:00pm to 10:30pm daily. Others have morning times and some have late-night times. We've been fortunate in Sea Point that they have rarely been implemented. Other parts of town, though, especially the black and coloured areas, seem to have them 4-5 days a week. It creates utter chaos on the roads, because people haven't quite figured out how to handle non-working stoplights. They turn from semi-controlled intersections (since a lot of people run the reds anyway) to a free-for-all. It's almost as good as aerobic exercise – the heart beats really fast when you see trucks coming at you with no sign of stopping.
Industry is also being affected. The gold and other mines actually suspended operations for a couple days last week, losing over R60 million per day. Eskom has capped usage for all large companies and is only now allowing them to ramp up to only 80-90% of their previous peak demand. There is no indication of how long this will last or what the real impact will be to employment, government revenues and the economy as a whole (whatever it is, it won't be good).
Last night there was some kind of problem at a substation and most of Cape Town was without power for up to 7 hours (mine was out for 6) between 8:15 and 3:30. It was very eerie looking out my window and seeing Main Road dark. One benefit: I could see hundreds of stars that were normally hidden by the light pollution. It was actually pretty seeing them over the ocean. But, the restaurant owners certainly were not happy to be plunged into darkness with rooms full of people and food half-cooked.
Government officials are saying that South Africa will be subject to blackouts for the next 7 years. They are looking at all kinds of ways to alleviate the problem, from rate increases to subsidies on solar water heaters (hot water heaters being a major power use) to outright rationing. (One government minister said people should just go to bed earlier. Kind of tough in the winter when it gets dark at 5:00.) They are also discussing implementing multiple time zones so that peak times can be stretched out and demand lowered. The 2010 Soccer World Cup is also impacted, since presumably there won't be enough power for all of the games and the hundreds of thousands of tourists expected to attend. Of course, no one in government has lost their job from the debacle and the buck keeps getting passed from one person to another. President Mbeki did apologize last week for the problem but it seemed a bit hollow.
It's going to be very difficult this coming winter if the current outages continue. And, a very difficult next 10 years for the survival of the nation.
I also learned some new information on funeral traditions. This is one thing even Rev. Spiwo didn't know until recently. Apparently, it has to do with addressing the corpse before the funeral. Although most people in South Africa are Christian, many of the blacks still follow some of the traditional customs very closely. A large part of their customs are centered on ancestry and dealing with those who went before you. This includes curses and bad luck (“one of the ancestors must have done wrong and now I am suffering revenge” or “I was cursed and now one of the ancestors is harming me”). Spiwo was telling me that it is common for families to speak with the corpse before the funeral, especially if it is being moved across the country (like to the Eastern Cape). The family members will say something like:
“Brother, we are taking you home to rest. We hope you will not cause any trouble during the trip or while we bury you.”
Spiwo explained it's like straddling a line. If things work on the right side, keep on working with the right side. But if things stop working on the right side, fall back to the left side. Or, follow the right side but hedge your bets by leaning a little to the left side. Kind of reminds me of U.S. politics right now, at least what I see and hear on CNN.
It's now 30 days to d-day (departure day). Some people are starting to wonder aloud what they will do when I'm gone, especially those who see me regularly for food or transport money. I've also been making more “loans” lately, most of which will probably never be repaid (but that's okay). I hope to still have many more stories to tell, so stay tuned.
More to come.
1 comment:
Good post.
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