@11:36 AM
And welcome to the great Cairo outage!! Today is the climax
of electric outage where many areas in Cairo and Giza suffer from complete outage
for two hours at least now. I woke up to do to find myself sitting in complete darkness,
no light and no ACs. It is the first time to have electric outage in my area already.
Now I found out that there is general blackout through Cairo
and Giza in areas like Zamalek, Mohendessin, Heliopolis, Downtown Cairo, 10th
Ramadan and October. Some areas in Alexandria are reporting electric outage as
well.
Now the Metro stations are suffering from that outage to the
level that people got stuck in the Metro vehicles and had to open its door
manually and walk in complete darkness to avoid suffocation.
I cannot understand how on earth and heavens that the Metro
does not have emergency power generators!! Needless to say not only the Metro
is suffering but the Egyptian stock market also suffered from outage.
Now from what I understand there is a problem in the 10th
Ramadan power station in East Cairo because it got no fuel.
Tell me about a failure state. Of course people are trying
to find an explanation.
You need to hire some smart Jewish technicians to run your utilities. Voilà, problem solved.
ReplyDeleteHaha.
Commenter Ahavat Eretz Israel once submitted a graphic of a "Greater Israel" map that included large chunks of all her neighbors. This was pure provocation on his part, but I cannot help but imagine how the residents would gasp as the wretched deserts sprang verdantly into fragrant date and orange groves.
Jewish humour is well respected but sadly you haven't inherited that talent dear boy.
DeleteNow that was just a "little" provocation. But seriously: Egyptians would be far better of under an Israeli government ;)
Delete@Jason,
DeleteRemember August 14, 2003 the day since much of the Northeastern United States and the Great Lakes region of Canada lost power during what would quickly become the largest power blackout in North American history. Residents in 8 US States as well as the Province of Ontario lost power for up to four days in the summer heat. In all, roughly 50 million people were impacted when the grid began to go down after a series of failures traced back to Ohio.
Maybe the US should hired 'smart Jewish technicians'.
Anonymous -- your rejoinder is the smartest, best researched, and most germane, I have ever observed on this blog, and you win this exchange. [shakes fist]
DeleteMany European countries with the best rail systems in the world have power outages and passengers have to leave the cabins to walk the tracks.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if Egyptians were not so selfish for once in their lives and actually saved electricity we would not be having this chaos.
2 reasons why Egypt is so far from unselfishness
1. Colleagues at work tell me they have AC at 16 all night long and then use blankets if they feel cold !!!!!!! Insane and totally selfish!
2. I have 3 neighbours above me who have AC running 24/7!!! It never goes off!
Time for Egyptians to start thinking of others and to do that you need to STOP blaming the government and start with yourselves!
It's 38 degrees YET I am sitting with a fan and no AC and I am not even native to Egypt who should be more used to the heat. The only time I use the AC is at night in bed and it is set at 27 and I have a sheet on the bed. In the 8 hours of sleep I switch off the AC for around half because it is TOO cold.
Why can Egyptians not be less selfish?
Why can you not work as a community and pool resources?
Why burn all the lights when one will do?
You yourself Zeinobia are at fault.
You said you awoke to find the AC and all lights off.
Why were you sleeping with lights ON!!!!
Why now.... work it out... you will find Morsi present with a large number of crises turning the public against him over the next few months. If they can't win elections they will make damn sure whoever does pays a price.
ReplyDeleteShut up, Anonymous. Zeinobia pays her power bill and can do what she likes with it.
ReplyDeleteif it is the first time to have a complete outage in your area, where do you live?
ReplyDeletein most part we are out of electricity every day for about one or two hours, i dont care about ac, but in 11th floor without elevator working and u have to go upstairs in dark stairhouse this is worse and i have to agree with the writer before, egyptians are exaggerating with ac's
agreed Egyptian TV is calling every day to save electricity but selfish Egyptians waste it leaving the really poor in villages with rotten food in their fridges because the rich prefer AC to the poor to have food kept cold in their little fridges.
DeleteCompletely selfish attitude of I am number one and I dont care about anyone else as long as I pay my electricity bill I can deprive poor Egyptians in villages who are hit worst.
Morsi needs to raise electricty prices for over average users. City Stars in one day uses more than 20 villages in a month!! why should they pay the same price!
Zenobia you should have a policy of banning Zionist comments. Jason and Ahavat Israel are consistently posting Zionist comments, please ban them.
ReplyDeleteThis power outage is the result of decades of neglect and corruption by Mubarak and his henchmen. Hopefully the new Government will solve the problem, but people should not be breathing down its neck so soon, the new Government is only 1 week old for God's sake.
agree with both your points
DeleteThere are some simple facts we have to remind here:
ReplyDelete- the power grid and the power stations and mostly old and some are not well maintained
- the whole system has been planned for a much smaller population with much smaller energy consumption
- the growth of population results automatically in an increase of power consumption
- te technical advance as in 3 million new ACs in the last 2 years (as AL Masry Al Youm reported some days ago) or the increasing number of eelectric signs, computers eg. need loads of extra energy
- without judging it is fair to say that the consumer behavior concearning energy is not one of saving as much as possible
- the planning of the state is one that isn't orientated at the goal of saving energy. for example hundrets of kilometer over land streets as fully enlightened all night. there is an easy alternative: car have to drive with their lighty switched on - as in so many other countries in the world.
- ramadan time always means an extra energy consumption cause of more light and activity at night (al masry al youm reported the official number of about 30% more than normal about 1 week or 2 ago)
If i consider these facts i have to come to the conclusion, that nobody will be able to meet the rising need for energy under the circumstances Egypt is in. So there is only one startegy that would work: first the energy consumption has to be made a topic. Everybody has to look if he/she can reduce the amout of energy needed. there are simple ways without loosing any comfort of living. Of course that has to be flanked by technical modernization in different fields. It's hard to say but if so much energy is wasted, the price seems to be too low.
And if all that is sucessfull, the second pillar of the strategy can succeed: building more power stations to rise the amout of energy available. For that Egypt should focus on renewable energy because there is plenty of sun and wind (and of course the water from lake Nasser). In the long term all other forms of energy generation will be more expensive and they r not available for ever.
Just think of another fact: more energy consumption means automatically more subsidies the government has to pay as every kilowatthour is sold under the production costs to households. Who should pay that? More precisly: shouldn't Egypt spend the money on other things as health care, schools, universities, infrastructure, social insurance, arts, culture and so on?
Why Egypt and "Friend !?" Israel not cooperate on developing comercially successful solar power?? The expertise are on both sides (particularly, Israeli side), the space and the demands are more biased on Egypt side.. This may create a big enemy to the Salafi Saudies(hehe..)who strive on demands for Oil.. Just a thought!!
DeleteSolar pwoer is too expensive BUT! all street lights and signs should be switched to solar immediately. Cats eyes on the roads like in Europe should be adopted also in remote areas forcing driver to use headlights. Hotels should put off lights in areas not occupied. Building lights should be on timers to switch off when resident reaches door to home. Malls should pay much more in charges than domestic rather than less!!!!
DeleteShops should close at midnight and open at 6am unstead of 24/7.
Homeowners should all use energy saving bulbs and AC only in the evening.
It's true the poor are suffering more than the rich. The rich can go out and replace food that is destroyed when the fridge goes off. The poor do not have that luxury where maybe a few families share a fridge in villages. It's just typical selfishness and disregard for others and the usual 'I am all right Jack' attitude so sod everuone else which amazingly hasn't changed even in Ramadan.
Most of the analyses from Europe & the US designate Solar power as clean but expensive. The key point is sustainability of Sunshine versus cloudy periods. As for Egypt and Israel that is not too bad, sunshines almost constantly during dytime, and the modern technology will allow storing unused energy to use during the nightime . Combining solar, hydrolic and maybe gas will provide good power mix. When friendship betwen the two countries develop to stronger level they can build nuclear power. But they need to educate the masses about the stupidity to keep talking about nuclear wepon (it is the most stupid, meaingless weapon), then they will grow wiser and look at nuclear power more positively.
Delete"please ban them"
ReplyDeleteSuch a thin skin you have, Gamal. The free exchange of ideas (including provocation and ridicule) is what makes Egyptian Chronicles so much fun.
The only speech that requires protection is unpopular speech.
Have you considered converting to Judaism? "If you can't beat them, join them" is a pertinent old saying sometimes attributed to Machiavelli, probably incorrectly.
PS. I am not Jewish.
Most zionists are not Jewish and that is the paradox
DeleteAs an occasional passenger on overseas flights, I would appreciate the assurance that commercial airline pilots don't from time to time holler "allahu akhbar" and plunge their planes into the sea. Since Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Jain pilots don't do this, perhaps some consideration should be given to the religious persuasion of those accredited to fly airplanes.
ReplyDeleteyet Jewish and Christian pilots have no problem at all flying planes dropping bombs and white phosphorus and other chemical weapons, depleted Uranium, atomic bombs on babies heads
DeleteWhite phosphorus is not a chemical weapon. It is a smokescreen and incendiary material deployed by many nations. Depleted uranium is a relatively innocuous substance employed for its density, not its toxicity. Neither white phosphorus nor depleted uranium would be healthy to put in, say, a breakfast cereal; but they are not foods. They are weapons. The standards are different, except to morons.
DeleteDear Zenobia, if you listen to Gamal this will not be published!
ReplyDeleteIsrael also has problems with peak electricity consumption in this hot summer, and so it ran a very effective ad asking people not to use washing machines eand other electricity consuming appliances between 10:00 and 16:00. Thus power outtages were prevented even though consumption reached unprecedented levels.
Israeli washing machines and swimming pools using stolen Palestinian water no doubt
DeleteReminds me of the song, "The Night the Lights went out in Georgia" here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnwMptUwiNA&feature=related
Re; Anonymous8/10/2012 01:05:00 PM
ReplyDelete"Most zionists are not Jewish and that is the paradox"
Agreed , but you need to educate young Egyptians and middle easterns of the meaning behinds this statement. It is too complicated for them
Knowledge is power, educate the people about Electricity. From it's creation to the massive outages. how would you feel knowing that someone is dying in a hospital because you abused the luxury and overloaded the grid. ps electricity is a luxury
ReplyDeleteI read in one of your newspapers about the woman who is divorcing her husband and cited the power outages as the reason. I empathize with her.I have a very personal friend who lives in Giza
ReplyDeleteI live in Canada, so we have a 6 hours time difference, due to our work schedules we are only able to speak on line when he gets off work at 3:00 am, sometimes I wait for hours hoping that the power will reinstate so that we can talk. this is begining to put a strain on the relationship. I can no longer talk to to him since he was recently robbed by some bandits on his way home from work,he lost everything including the cell phone. So we can not even talk until he gets another phone. It's Friday night at 11:11 and I am still sitting here waiting and waiting. So I do understand the woman's plight, The power outages has affected both of us in different ways. It is sad when relationships are being destroyed by this silly power outage.