Lebanese Ministry of Energy Promising 24/7 electricity
“Nothing more permanent than the temporary” – This is what my mother says after her lifetime of experience in moving houses and countries, and I think she got that proverb from her mother too, who being a military wife and having witnessed WWII had her share of moving. Every time we would settle in a new place, we would put off doing things and reforms, like painting a wall, adding an extra kitchen cabinet, or shelf, changing the hangers, updating the upholstery…, until “better times” , but these seemed to not arrive … and then we moved again…
I have been hearing that the problems with electricity cuts will be resolved, and we will have 24/7 electricity, ever since I was 10But something always seemed to get in the way, be it a little war, a bombing of the Power Station, a revolution…
And over a decade and a half later, I came to accept the electricity cut outs, and think of them as the government’s way to educate us about resource scarcity, global warming and saving energy, while contemplating alternative energy sources. Come global warming or any natural catastrophe, I guarantee the Lebanese will have the highest survival rate.
Last month, I was at an international conference in the Riviera Hotel in Beirut, even the Kenyan representative, whose country also suffers from power cuts, was smirking with the power blackouts and the generators inability to handle the Air Conditioners. The Lebanese organizers really felt ashamed…
Can the Ministry of Energy really keep its promise this time? But it is great that they are approaching the subject with self irony, admitting that something is OFF with Lebanon now.
