Blackouts
Blackouts are huge news when they occur in the developed world, even if the electricity was gone for just half an hour. It’s a big deal to us these days — it almost seems we are hardly able to survive without that most important of utilities. Here in Ecuador, though, occasional blackouts seem to be the most normal thing in the world. Sometimes it’s just our block where the lights go out — because the electricity company is fixing some cable around the corner. Sometimes, though, it’s actually the whole city (and this is the country’s capital!). Within the last week or two, we had three blackouts that were long enough for us to notice.
It’s amazing, really, how much we depend on electricity. Without it, there’s no TV, no Internet access, no light to read (though we do have our stack of candles by now — you learn). Worse, there’s nothing to keep that freezer from melting and your food from going bad. How do people live without electricity?
December 19, 2006 at 05:27
As they did for thousands of years. I often wonder if all the extremely wonderful toys we give children in the “developed” world, doesn’t rob them of their imagination. And without imagination, how can they learn to think for themselves?