Power to the People

They're at it again. We've been VERY lucky to avoid loadshedding by Eskom at home up until now. But Favourite Man and the Kid are currently powerless, which brings operations to a total standstill and has them finding "creative" ways to "amuse" themselves. Much more worrying to those of us who work away from home than when they're simply sitting in front of computers all day :-)

Of course there's not much we can do about it. Have you priced solar power lately?! I'm not good at toyi-toying, and it's not likely to help matters anyway. Other countries might get a notice over their power protestations, but here we just shrug and go about our non-powered business or play.

Then Eskom goes and puts up prices to do... what? Apparently they're building power stations. When? Who knows. Meantime it's a knock-on effect. Higher prices of electricity and fuel translate pretty quickly into higher prices of everything else - except salaries.

Shamelessly swiped off NinjaMonkeys is this bit by Jeremy Clarkson, who has such a wonderfully acid tongue. He also has some pretty good points - and an interesting take on possibilities down the line.

But it still doesn't solve the problem right now of what do we do when the juice runs dry.

And quite honestly I have no answer to that question. Yes, we're getting creative. We're also getting fed-up. Creative + fed-up equals... what, exactly? Apathy? Determination? A riot? Or just coffee made with a blowtorch instead of a kettle?

I suspect it's just going to be a case of everyone for themselves. Back to self-sufficiency as much as possible, getting "off the grid" in ways that you can both afford and self-manage without attracting the wrath of the Power(less)s that Be. And while we're at it, we're going to have to start growing our own food too I reckon.

Now THAT'S what I call (returning) power to the people!