Oh, Power is Unstable

This has been going on for weeks now. Well, it’s actually some sort of a tradition in the nation. But it has been increasingly regular recently. In the midday, when the heat would reach its most painful peak, electricity would go out, cutting power supplied from the spinning blades of electric fans, air conditioning units, and the Internet service off computers utilized in different facets of societal functions. In a snap, clusters of communities are plunged into hellish humidity. Sufferers of this sudden suspension have some choices. They could yell out loud complaints of annoyance, hopelessly wave a fan to generate ventilation, get out of the room to uselessly find another part of the edifice with better air circulation or whatever would soothe them from the torturing temperature. I personally choose staying put, floundering in the fountain of my own perspiration while scrounging for whatever I could gather to work offline; that is, if I still have sufficient battery supply. Oh, power is unstable.

Of course, episodes like this don’t last for more than 15 minutes; and maybe you’re thinking that I’m just a whining wonk. But what makes this case curious and burns me like a boil on the buttocks is that it occurs almost everyday in almost the same time of around, some minutes before or after 1 pm, right smack when the heat hurts the most. It happens almost every day, regularly at around the same time, supposedly at some selected parts of the city which include schools and offices which are engaged in serious businesses. As if this vexation to the sensation were not infuriating enough, this noon time incidents would recur sometimes for one or two more times later in the afternoon. So, in some days, some people would yell out loud complaints of annoyance, hopelessly wave a fan to generate ventilation, get out of the room to uselessly find another part of the edifice with better air circulation or stay put to flounder in the fountain of perspiration while scrounging for whatever could be gather to work offline; that is, if the laptop still has sufficient battery supply, for two or three times in a four-hour work period. Oh, power is unstable.

How does that happen? Does some clumsy technician regularly trip off some important cable before taking his afternoon siesta? Does some staffer regularly nudge some lever while stretching and yawning while getting up from his nap? What happened to those repairs and maintenance that they did on those day-long Saturday scheduled brownouts? I just suppose that if they were fixing the lines, service would be more efficient.

There have been this longstanding conspiracy theory that electric companies intentionally and heartlessly turn the power off then on in a matter of seconds or minutes, just to increase the bills, unmindful of its destructive effects on appliances. Of course, that wouldn’t be true. No one with the decent sanity would ever do or even craft the idea of such a selfless scheme. That’s just like saying the Warriors and Celtics intentionally tied the finals at 2:2 for increased game revenues. They wouldn’t do that, would they?

I remember when an aunt who was visiting from Chicago commented on how terrible the electricity service was when the power suddenly went out one evening in the middle of some social exchanges. I initially thought that she has forgotten how it was when she has not yet migrated. Now, I agree with her. It really is terrible. Can’t we do something about the unstable power?

Maybe you would say, that’s a petty pet peeve. So, let’s go global. Some powerful nation is threatening to go all-out invasion mode, the minute a neighboring nation which it has considered as their own, declared itself independent. What’s the matter? Taiwan has been essentially independent all along, ever since Mao’s troops decided that it would be more costly for them to cross the Taiwan Strait. That powerful nation has been so insecure that it has long been pushing for One China policy, like a busty bimbo advertising against fake implants. Can’t they just get along like the two Congos? It’s like threatening to sue your neighbor if he/she declares that his/her land is his/her own. What does Taiwan do? Keep itself form stating the obvious and real? What would China do? Fire missiles when their brothers across the strait state the actually apparent? What makes this worse than Ukraine is that the threat is just around the Southeast Asian neighborhood. Oh, power is unstable.

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” Isaiah 40:29