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In the Bob Dylan song Talkin' World War III Blues, he laments that he can't listen to the radio -- during a nuclear holocaust -- because he didn't pay his electric bill:
Well, I remember seein' some ad
So I turned on my Conelrad.
But I didn't pay my Con Ed bill,
So the radio didn't work so well.
Here in Buenos Aires we've left many bills unpaid, mostly to the IMF and the World Bank... but these debts wouldn't explain today's three-hour blackout of almost the entire city and a large part of the surrounding area.
In our own apartments at three in the afternoon, Jeremy and I had the same reaction, looking around for our fuseboxes and messing with the circuit breakers. When I found the apartment hallways dark and the emergency lights on, I realized it was my whole building. When I walked outside half an hour later and saw the normal traffic confusion exacerbated by the total lack of traffic lights, I thought maybe my section of town was affected. Slowly I learned that across town Jeremy and Kate didn't have lights, either, and neither did anybody within a half hour drive. After the power went back on, the TV news said the cause was an explosion in a large substation (the energy secretary immediately rejected any talk of sabotage).
Jermey and I spent the afternoon in the park with hundreds of others, watching traffic lights from a hill to gauge when Buenos Aires would be up and running again. Though basically the entire city and suburbs -- more than 8 million people -- were without electricity (no traffic lights, elevators, cash registers, refrigerators...), the atmosphere where we were was puzzlingly peaceful.
The McDonald's I passed was closed, and people were pouring out of the movie theaters (how long did they wait in their seats for the power to come back on?). But cafes and restaurants kept going, and my local ice cream shop was busier than ever, hand-writing receipts in candlelight. The park was full of people listening to one of the year's biggest city soccer games on their battery-powered radios (the newspaper mentions tonight that nobody could watch the game on TV). Buses and taxis waved at each other to negotiate busy intersections. I can't believe it: Buenos Aires seems to just keep going. Where does it get such resiliance? What would happen to Philadelphia or DC with a three-hour total blackout? How can we learn to be as flexible and easygoing as the Argentines?
This week we'll see how this accident effects the intense negotiations with the recently privatized electricity company, which is pressuring the Argentina and the IMF to allow them to raise rates by about 30%. The electric company had already alerted the city that interruptions in service could begin because of a lack of funds for maintenance.
antes era importing
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david
More: the prolonged power outage caused suspension in water service. Even six hours after the power went back on, I had to brush my teeth without water and go to sleep very fresh and minty. Yum.
[enviado el 25 Nov 02]