By Larbi Arbaoui
This morning I woke up with extra energy
and enthusiasm to do my work and keep my commitments, so I had my
breakfast early and hurried to my desk. After turning on my computer and
placing a cup of coffee at the reach of my hand– a habit of mine, that
of drinking either tea or coffee while doing some work– I started
writing a report of last week’s extra-curricular activities that were
done in my school. l needed to do this now, so as to get it in on
time. But when the power suddenly went out, I went off the deep end
and was left totally helpless. A frightening calm prevailed in my room,
opposite of what I felt inside.
We learn to value the importance of
things once we miss them, and this was a case in point. Even the buzz
produced by my fridge, which I previously consider a nuisance, in its
absence I remembered as somehow friendly. I discovered then that going
back to those early days, when only limited facilities were at the
disposal of our ancestors, must surely be a painful experience for the
modern man.
This is not the first time to be
interrupted by having the electricity cut off. What’s more irritating is
that this happens without people receiving any warning from the
electricity companies. This happens most frequently during summer time.
The increased use of electrical devices such as fans, fridges and air
conditioners–to name but a few–are the likely reason behind such
annoying outages. However, this should not be an excuse to bar the
electricity companies from providing good services, when their customers
are paying an arm and a leg.
In some remote regions of Morocco when
the electricity goes off, one’s life goes next. In few minutes following
the cutoff of electricity, your mobile phone as well as your computer
can no longer meet your needs because the network connection, which is
needed in order for your devices to be useful, depends on electricity as
well. One hour’s time after the cut is enough to finish off the water
from the tap. And if you are not already familiar with this “local rule”
you will be forced to go fetching water from far springs. So just a
matter of a few hours is all you need to feel exiled and helpless.
People are cheesed off how the constant
cuts of power come without any prior notice. This is especially true
when one gets up early in the morning and heads to the bank to learn
that, unfortunately, s/he can’t receive service because the power went
off. The elderly and children have it even worse, since they are less
able to stand the high degree of temperature, and life becomes hellish
since they depend on the electronic devices that air-condition their
homes, which now become as useless as a fifth wheel from the absence of
electricity.
As everybody knows, summer is the best
and preferred season for celebrating weddings in Morocco. Among the
necessities that the wedding organisers have to consider is that of
keeping an electrical generator ready for use at any time. People may
risk losing significant amounts of meat and other precious food they’d
once preserved in their fridges if electricity were to go off the whole
day. Last summer, I was invited to the wedding of a friend. They had us
sit in an open space since the weather was very hot inside. People liked
the place and everybody was engaged in conversation with one another.
To our hard luck, when food was served the power went off. The host was
very embarrassed, even though he was free of blame, and he apologised to
the invitees every now and then while the other family members were
busy looking for an alternative way to help people see their plates well
enough to allow them to eat. Some guys enjoyed their exceptional dinner
thanks to the help of cell-phone flashlights!
The regular cuts of electricity are a
source of discomfort for everybody. Who is responsible for the numerous
damages and delays of services that have resulted from the abrupt cuts
of electricity? People should start to consider seriously these
unacceptable acts and also think of measures to force the electricity
companies to back off from allowing so many of these sudden cuts of
power.
Originally published in Morocco World News
Taroudant, May17, 2012
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