Fact of life
The power outages that are currently plaguing the island are a fact of life. It used to be that the late Ir. William Brooks would be blamed for all the troubles Gebe’s equipment had to endure but now that he is no longer there, people may be looking for a new scapegoat. The obvious choice is the freshly appointed CEO, Kendrick Chittick – but what’s the point?
The generators that produce our electricity contain a lot of moving parts. Even under the best of conditions, some parts could break down and voila – another bad situation that frustrates not only citizens but also the good people at Gebe.
Until somebody shows us with irrefutable proof the opposite, we take it for granted that the technicians at the utilities company are working diligently to solve the problem.
Is that naïve? Some people will certainly think so, but it is way too easy to come up with all kinds of baseless accusations to stir up emotions. We don’t want to go there; we leave that to gossip websites.
So what to do? Of course, complaining to Gebe will let the company know how frustrated you are. But does it solve the problem?
The other course of action is to realize that we are living on an island; that we have only one supplier for our electricity and that things do and will break down every now and then.
Saying: get used to it is not a free pass for Gebe to neglect the maintenance of its machinery. But we do have to get used to inevitable equipment failure, just like we will have to put up with fires on the so-called sanitary landfill.
And picture this in the evening when the lights go out. You light some candles, open a bottle of wine and enjoy the atmosphere. If you say: hey, but then I miss my favorite TV show, you really have to ask yourself whether you have become a junkie, addicted to whatever the flatscreen is feeding you on a daily basis.
Power cuts are annoying, we totally agree, but they are also unavoidable. And it is still better to make something good out of a bad situation, than grumping about something over which you have no control.
