Third World Laughs at Blackout Woes

Fox News ^

[LearnsFromMistakes]

That was the reaction from Southeast Asia to West Africa as people in developing countries wondered how something so common to them could bring a huge swath of the world's superpower to a grinding halt.

"Look at their response there in New York," popular radio commentator Joe Taruc wondered aloud in his Friday morning talk show in Manila. "If it happened here, it would be nothing out of the ordinary."

Hot weather, storms, rebel attacks, even giant schools of jellyfish have been known to send power grids crashing like dominoes in countries already struggling to keep up with rising electricity demand. But such periodic power outages have led people to find ways to cope.

In Liberia, once sub-Saharan Africa's richest nation, power has been out since 1992. Factional fighting under Charles Taylor destroyed the hydroelectric plant, and it hasn't been fixed.

Iraqis, who have been enduring 120-degree heat largely without electricity as U.S. administrators struggle to get power back to pre-war levels, saw the North American outage as a bit of poetic justice.

"I hope it lasts for 20 years. Let them feel our suffering," George Ruweid, 27, playing cards with friends on a Baghdad sidewalk, said of the U.S. blackout.

"Blackouts are a part of our daily life. I can't understand why there is such panic in America," said Unal Karatas, 44, a pretzel vendor in Ankara, Turkey.

Virtually every public building of any size in the Philippines has a back-up generator, and companies often have battery-powered units that can keep their computers going when the electricity is out.

So as soon as Manila goes black, the lights start flickering back on. Shopping malls may be forced to cut back air conditioning, but the frappucino blenders at Starbucks keep whirring.

In the shantytown slums, residents bring out lanterns and candles. Traffic — which often ignores red lights anyway when police aren't in sight — continues its honking, cluttered pace with the lights out completely.

One of the strangest outages was in December 1999, when more than half of the Philippines' power supply was knocked out after an estimated 50 tons of jellyfish suddenly swam into a generating plant's cooling system.

Blackouts are a way of life in India, occurring several times a day over most of the country, particularly in the summer, when electricity demands are high for water pumps and fans.

When the power is out for a few hours, people just wait it out, going out to sleep on the roof at night, or trying to find shade during the day. When it's out for several days in poor areas, people sometimes burn tires and blockade streets to call attention to their plight.

After toppled transmission towers caused a huge blackout in 1999, Taiwan moved to reinforce power supplies islandwide. It took other precautions following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, including equipping key government offices with generators.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Blackouts are not part of our daily life. You learn to deal with what you need to deal with. Dump a couple of feet of snow in Manila and what would happen? America wouldn't sit back and laugh, I know that much...

[Onelifetogive]

"If it happened here, it would be nothing out of the ordinary."

If we didn't have ANYTHING that required electricity, we wouldn't have any problems with blackouts, either...

[TheBigB]

Dump a couple of feet of snow in Manila and what would happen?

It would melt. :)

[Huck]

"I hope it lasts for 20 years. Let them feel our suffering," George Ruweid, 27, playing cards with friends on a Baghdad sidewalk, said of the U.S. blackout.

Nice.

[Lucy Lake]

Oh, good. Maybe now they will stay home instead of migrating here in droves.

[gedeon3]

'"Look at their response there in New York," popular radio commentator Joe Taruc wondered aloud in his Friday morning talk show in Manila. "If it happened here, it would be nothing out of the ordinary."

Because their countries are nothing out of the ordinary. What a bunch loosers. They are used living like hell, so to them is not anything new.

[NC Conservative]

DO THEY HAVE INDOOR PLUMBING YET?

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

I guess its easy to laugh when everything they have was either made possible or given to them by us.The rest of the world should have a church where they have to go and worship the United States because without us they would have nothing!

[theDentist]

I dunno. I was amused/disgusted when I heard about 5 mins of Savage last night and some woman was on whining about being frightened because she hadn't heard Bush address the issue yet. And Savage was whining along with her! Jeez!

Come on! Do you fall apart when electricity on the street goes out? No. You light a few candles, break out the cards, and try to keep the kids warm/cool. You perservere. Do you fall apart when the building electrical fails? No, you accept it's a matter of inconvenience (and the rest of the day off) and make due.

Yes, this was a lot larger, had greater impact, but that's no reason to fold up like a beach chair. We make the best of it. Treat it like the aftermath of a snowstorm. The electricity will be back on, life will return to normal, and you'll have a story to tell the kids in 20 years or so.

[Lazamataz]

Blackouts are a way of life in India, occurring several times a day over most of the country, particularly in the summer, when electricity demands are high for water pumps and fans.

Remind me again why we should outsource our precious computer information?

[norraad]

What a good idea!

Let's develop this, I'd love to be a missionary!

[Lazamataz]

"I hope it lasts for 20 years. Let them feel our suffering," George Ruweid, 27, playing cards with friends on a Baghdad sidewalk, said of the U.S. blackout.

Feh. When Iraq goes into it's cold season, we'll just warm them up with some napalm. :o)

[r9etb]

Third world: "You guys ain't got no power... HAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

Eastern Seaboard: "And you guys have no stable governments, not to mention rampant venereal disease and filthy water."

And in the morning, the Eastern Seaboard will have power. The third world, however....

[Huck]

He wants poetic justice? How about 3000 dead from the heat in France?

[hemogoblin]

"Blackouts are a part of our daily life. I can't understand why there is such panic in America," said Unal Karatas, 44, a pretzel vendor in Ankara, Turkey.

Only ones I saw panicking were in the media. As usual. Actual Americans just got through it.

[battousai]

I think the problem is these people see the few whiners on TV, prompted on by storyless, airhead, reporters so they think the whole nation is full of whiners, whereas its just the opposite and the majority of people just did what they had to and got on with life.

[finnman69]

"Look at their response there in New York," popular radio commentator Joe Taruc wondered aloud in his Friday morning talk show in Manila. "If it happened here, it would be nothing out of the ordinary."

That's because you live in a third world cesspool Joe.

[chun]

you guys are somewhat funny. i mean dont you think its quite embarassing to compare yourself with the third world??? like in particular no other developed country in either europe, tiger-nations/japan, austrialia, such thing would happen, and in fact in US it happend quite often on a large scale.
and you should never forget that the main reson for the mess in the third world is 20th and 21st centeries colonalsm. so mostly british/US/france are responsible for todays third-world issue.

[Moby Grape]

Yes, they laugh by candle light while sharing a bed with their camels.

[Moby Grape]

Maybe we should have waited a while longer before going to Iraq so this guy could have felt Uday's wood chipper.