Here Comes Treble: Confucius’s Theory on Electricity
...Apart from domestic implications, the effects on the general economy are staggering. Traffic lights do not function. People are late for appointments. Businesses, hospitals, schools, and agriculture grind to a halt as most modern activities rely on a steady and reliable supply of electricity. Computers, heart-monitors, switchboards, and a myriad of industrial machines cannot work without it. Sensitive appliances suffer premature breakdowns because of surges as power is reconnected...
South Africans are experiencing frequent, and sometimes prolonged, power blackouts. But Isabel Bradley, remembering Confucius's theory that every negative situation should be viewed as a positive, is finding silver linings.
“ … grid-locks to endure; the freezer may have defrosted, leaving puddles all over the kitchen floor; will I be able to cook dinner, wash dishes, enjoy a long, hot bath while reading a good book? Will I be able to make coffee tomorrow morning before work? Will the alarm-clock wake me, or will it also be sleeping because of load-shedding? Will I be stuck in a lift again – how long for this time?”
One of our newsreaders was speaking to the talk-show host, just after reading a bulletin informing South Africa that the current ‘load-shedding’ would continue at least until the weekend.
What, you may wonder, is ‘load-shedding’? Is it what happens when a truck spills a load of tomatoes on the highway, or the result of a successful diet?
No, in South Africa it is the official term for daily power-failures that roll through our vast and beautiful country. According to our Electricity Supply Commission, ‘ESKOM’, this may continue for the next decade, because of ‘planned and unplanned’ maintenance. Sometimes power cuts last the promised two and a half hours and happen on schedule; more often they last a lot longer. Cape Town was without power for a full week earlier this year! The deliberate and planned cutting of power to specific areas has become necessary due to a lack of forward-planning, poor maintenance and general incompetence. Last week our State President, Thabo Mbeki, publicly apologised for the continuing inconvenience to the nation, saying it is Government’s fault for not granting the required budget for expansion of the country’s electrical system.
Apart from domestic implications, the effects on the general economy are staggering. Traffic lights do not function. People are late for appointments. Businesses, hospitals, schools, and agriculture grind to a halt as most modern activities rely on a steady and reliable supply of electricity. Computers, heart-monitors, switchboards, and a myriad of industrial machines cannot work without it. Sensitive appliances suffer premature breakdowns because of surges as power is reconnected.
We have been told by ESKOM that load-shedding will become more frequent, particularly during winter, when heaters are essential, in heat-waves, when air-conditioners are used, and of course, during peak hours when people are bathing, doing laundry and cooking. We’ve been asked to switch our water heaters off between five in the morning and ten at night. This state of affairs, we are informed, will persist at least until 2012, by which time some planned new power stations will be completed.
Last winter, the country suffered the additional ignominy of a shortage of bottled gas - preferred for cooking and heating as people became desperate to find alternative power sources. Expensive items, such as engine driven generators, gas appliances and solar panels, will be resorted to by all who depend on electricity.
Load-shedding has become one more interesting facet of living in a society that is part first-world and part third-world. South Africans should be grateful that ESKOM is planning to build more power stations, rebuild those that were ‘moth-balled’ and implement planned maintenance on existing stations. Other developing countries are not so fortunate, and suffer power failures far more often and for longer periods than we do.
There are many ‘silver linings’ to these looming clouds of darkness. When there are no street-lights, houses or businesses spreading light, night skies glow with stars, and the moon seems to shine brighter than ever. Candle-lit evenings spent in the company of good friends, are companionable and cosy. Candle-light soothes wrinkles. Smiles and laughter seem to come more easily and conversation flows when we aren’t sitting silently gazing at a flickering television screen. With enough candle-power, reading is, as always, a delightful way to pass the time. Cooking food on an open fire is one of our national pastimes, it is no hardship.
Perhaps it is time to slow down. In place of our fast-paced, hectic life-styles, we could learn to sit quietly, to hear the birds singing, perhaps even to listen to each other, actually hear what other people have to say, to think and to ponder, to communicate and to learn to connect with our world once again.
Confucius considered that every negative situation should be viewed as positive, as an adventure. South Africans should prepare to enjoy many adventures over the coming years.
Until next time, ‘here comes Treble!’
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Isabel Bradley
