March 21, 2009

Rolling Blackouts in Damascus
Damascus, Syria

I was rather surprised to discover today that the capital city of Syria suffers from daily power blackouts—and that it's been this way for ages.

"Residential areas during the day, business districts at night." That's what I was told at the family home that I'm staying in, which consistently has its electricity cut for a few hours, from 10:00 in the morning until sometime after noon.

You'd think that the flagship city of the country—the city where the President resides—would make keeping the lights on a priority. Everywhere I look there's wasted power… lights illuminating large sections of ancient fort walls, monuments, and other miscellaneous surfaces. Shouldn't the homes and businesses take precedence?

Yeesh—if it's this bad in the spring, I wonder what happens when people start running their air conditioners in the summer?

Recently in this country...

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