Month: January 2023

We take so many of the benefits of civilization for granted  – until they’re gone. One of those benefits is electricity. An occasional storm-caused power outage aside, access to electricity is so normal that we don’t even think about it.

Not so in South Africa. Load shedding – their name for rolling blackouts — occurs every day; sometimes multiple times per day. The electric company Eskom even has an app that lists your location’s shedding times for the week. You can learn when your power will be off and for how long – assuming your phone is charged!

Power outages change everything. Your cooking, washing, TV, office work, internet access, even funeral homes all depend on when electric power will be available. Businesses, shops, and restaurants have to invest in generators to keep open – both inefficient and expensive. Homeowners buy inverters with battery back-ups to keep a lamp, TV, or the Internet on. We know a potter who can’t keep her kiln going enough to fire her works. People have lost jobs and livelihoods.  Kids can’t do homework. Load shedding is a huge drain on the economy and psyche of the nation; and the forecast is for at least 2 more years of it.

The other local feature that causes you to think about electricity is that you pay for it in advance. Our accommodations have a little meter in the panel box next to the circuit breakers. There’s a display showing how many kilowatt-hours of energy you have left. If it gets to zero, everything shuts off.

How do you buy electricity in advance? Why, you go to the grocery store! Bring your account number to the service desk and buy say, 1000 Rands of energy (about $58) Back home, you key in your 20-digit PIN from the receipt into the keypad of the meter, and a few seconds later, your display of remaining energy is updated. We’re intrigued that a 20-digit PIN represents well over 12 Billion combinations for every person on the planet. Maybe Eskom is planning a major expansion!

Pay-in-advance electricity makes you think about how you use power much more than paying in arrears (paying after the service has been provided). How much do you really want to run your high-power AC? How hot should we wash the clothes or the dishes? Do these lights need to be on? From an energy conservation/climate change perspective, this is probably a good thing.  But psychologically, it can trigger a mindset of scarcity rather than abundance.

Dealing with South African electricity makes us think about what else is scarce or abundant, and how do we deal with it. In the Tennessee Valley, water is super abundant and very cheap – although we know that’s not true elsewhere. We rarely give a second thought to our water use and still pay the minimum amount (in arrears) each month.

However, time is a truly scarce resource, and we pay for it by not having time for other things. It is the great equalizer – everyone has 24 hours in a day. Science fiction writers imagined worlds where “time is money,” and you have to pay in advance, or else(!). How you spend your time is likely the most important decision you can make. But how many of us actually think about time as a scarce commodity, and prioritize how we use it? Now that’s a shocking concept!

What makes you feel secure?  Our rental in Cape Town (South Africa) has multiple security systems.  First, there’s the button on the key fob to open the gate to the property.  Then there’s the wall and an electric fence

above it. Another button opens the security door; then you unlock the front door. All the doors here have security grills that unlock in 2 places; then the door itself unlocks – and remember this is inside the electrified wall/fence perimeter. All of the windows have bars – stylish, but bars nonetheless.  Other buttons are for the security system. If you don’t remember to deactivate it before you enter, you and everyone else on the block will get a reminder to do so. Don’t push the red button because you will receive an “armed response.”

Property crime is a problem in South Africa, but not so bad that you have to cower inside a fortress. What we heard was that once someone puts up an electric fence, the insurance companies want everyone else on the block to do the same – or else their rates go up.  Now it’s a race and everybody is running.

Mechanical and electrical security features may make you feel safer. But as long as “Us and Them” is the dominant mind set, how safe can any of us feel? The challenge is to build a community of “we” that works to keep all of us safe. After all, We can be stronger than Us and Them.

But security isn’t the only thing that makes life worthwhile.  Step outside and look. There’s Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak leaping 1000 meters up from the coastal plain. What a sight!  Cape Town is about as far south as Los Angeles is north, so the clement weather is appreciated. And it’s summer here.

To travel here. We were up at 5 AM, and got on the first of 3 airplanes at 10:40 AM. At 11:00 PM (local time) the next day, we arrived in Cape Town.  Was it worth it?  Totally!