The Governator never really let us miss Gray Davis, who was generally known for the rolling blackouts during his tenure as the supreme leader of California (yes, I called him the supreme leader; after all, we gotta show those Iranians they don't have a monopoly over this whole "supreme leader" thing). Since the Governator took over, we stopped talking about Davis and I didn't even realize that the guy had completely dropped out of the public eye.
However, since my arrival in Dhaka, there have been rolling blackouts every day, including on the weekends, and so, every day I am reminded of Gray Davis and his sleazy smile. The blackouts usually start around 9:30 am and go on until 8:30 pm or so. Usually, there are 4-5 rolling blackouts a day and they could last for long as a couple of hours or as short as a couple of minutes. On average, half of your work day is bound to be affected by blackouts. Most people here have accepted blackouts as a part of life and so, most businesses (and homes) shell money out of their own pockets to combat the problem. Here is an account from a local English daily about how they do that. The problem with these diesel "generators" is that they are hella noisy, they don't give you a good bang for the buck and they are not good for the environment (and trust me when I - with my avowed distaste of hippies - say that any damage inflicted to the ecosystem here is pushing it just that much closer to a state beyond repair). So, when you look at all the cons, it's hard to come to terms with the fact that "the total market size for generator is Tk 400 crore per year." Tk 400 crore is about $60 million. (Quick math class: a dollar is worth about Tk 70. Tk is short for Taka, the local currency. Crore is a local unit of measure, equivalent to ten million.)
So, unless my math is totally off, that's a pretty staggering number for a country where the average person earns just a couple of dollars a day and has a hard time providing three square meals a day for their families. This is money that's wasted because government intervention has led to an unnecessary yet predictable inefficient allocation of resources. I read a report today (can't find an online copy yet) that talked about the disparity between demand and supply in power generation in this country. The daily demand is about 5500 units (can't remember what units they used), while the output is about 3500 to 3700 units daily. So, what's the government gonna do to address the situation? Are they gonna let the free market decide what happens from here on out? Nope; that would be the sensible thing to do, so of course the Bdeshi government (or the US government, or any government for that matter) wouldn't do that. So, what are they gonna do to solve this crisis? Well, they are gonna institute Daylight Savings Time in the country. To be more accurate, they already did that a couple of hours ago. This step is gonna help save about 200 units, but when there's a shortfall of 1800-2000 units daily, 200 units isn't gonna do a whole lot, now is it? Instead of the usual five hours of blackout every day, we are gonna get four and a half hours of it. Whoop-de-do!
On a brighter note, we are on the same time zone as Bangkok right now. That means I don't have to reset my watch (my phone to be more precise, since no one really uses a watch as anything beyond a fashion accessory these days) when I, hopefully, visit Bangkok later this year. Woohoo!
One more thing that made me go woohoo today was when I was flipping through the channels and saw... wait for it... HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. They were showing reruns (obviously, since the season is over) but I was psyched. I took note of the time and the channel they showed it on, so now I have something to look forward to every week. I also saw promos for Man vs Wild on TV the other day, except they don't call it Man vs Wild. I think they call it the ultimate survival, or something weird like that. Survivorman is on TV too, but at weird times. It's only on when there is a blackout. Maybe Survivorman can do an episode on how to survive rolling blackouts.
Since the NBA finals are over, I don't really have a whole lot to look forward to in terms of sports. It's that time of the year when baseball takes over and bores you to death. The good thing about living in Dhaka is that you don't have to deal with baseball, because they hardly show any baseball games here. The bad thing is that whatever games ESPN broadcasts here always involves the Yanks. I didn't know the Yanks have such a huge fan base in Dhaka.
Speaking of huge fan followings I didn't know about, I didn't know that Pete Wentz has such a huge following here. I've seen at least a dozen teenage boys jocking his style. I wish I could have taken pictures, but my camera is officially dead. RIP. I am trying to revive my old brick of a digital camera which has a resolution much worse than most phones these days. Here is to hoping that the rest of my gadgets stay functional until my trip out of Bdesh (to Bangkok, I think, if everything works out).
The rolling blackouts have put a temporary stop to my prepwork for THE list - you know, the list of places to go and things to do in Bangladesh. I'll work on it when the situation gets better or when I get somewhat used to it, whichever happens first.
Anyway, it's a quarter past two in the morning, and I need to get some sleep. I have to wake up in four hours for a nine o'clock meeting, mainly because I have rationed two hours for travel that shouldn't take any longer than 40-50 minutes but because the traffic here (or gridlock, as I like to call it) is so unpredictable that if you wanna get anywhere on time, you have to leave for your destination hella early, even if that means you are gonna sit somewhere and sip a really, really sugary concoction that passes for tea around here for an hour. I'd rather do that than be late, but hey, maybe that's just me.
I know I sounded cranky in this post, but don't blame me. Blame Gray Davis and Daylight Savings Time.
Friday, June 19, 2009
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