Elec-a-trocity

I want more zap sizzle sizzle.

[2008-01-18]

[Concerning recent and rolling power failures in South Africa]

If you steal R1000 out of my wallet, you are breaking the law.

If you chain me to my bedpost so that I can't do any work, you are breaking the law. (I assume you're breaking the law. I can't tell you exactly which law you are breaking, but there must be one.)

And yet if you cut off my power supply so that I'm unable to make money, you can walk away. The worst that can happen is that the government will ask you some embarrassing questions.

I know that above a certain income level, or political connectedness, what goes around stops coming around, but I would very much like to see a sense of responsibility permeating the minds of those in positions of power or authority.

And because that seems amazingly unlikely, I'd rather like a population that not only gets angry when it is maltreated, but holds those in power or authority accountable ... and exercises that accountability. Fires them, fines them, imprisons them.

It is not OK to allow the power supply to reach the stage where blackouts occur. It is not OK to close nursing schools, and not reopen them. It is not OK to underpay teachers, or police. It is short-sighted. It is immoral. It is stupid. And it must come back to bite you, because otherwise you will continue to do it.

(The "atr" in "atrocity" comes from the Latin for "black". Fitting.)

☙