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Opinions of Friday, 19 February 2021

Columnist: thisdaylive.com

Is this America? Four days without electricity, gas, water

Chido Nwangwu, Publisher, USAfricaonline.com Chido Nwangwu, Publisher, USAfricaonline.com

Chido Nwangwu, Publisher, USAfricaonline.com laments the prevailing natural disaster which has disrupted essential services in parts of America

Almost 3.6 million Texans, such as myself, family, neighbours and friends, have been without power supply (electricity), gas and water — or a combination — since Monday February 15, 2021 to today February 19.

Again, exposing how feeble and relatively weak the power of humankind or any country really is in the vortex of nature’s climactic changes and dynamism. If you cannot charge your phones and you cannot cook or warm a meal, the perilous decline to the imaginations of what approximates a contemporary ‘state of nature’ begins to form in reality and in your mind.

Also, it is necessary to underscore the point that the all critical catalyst of modern civilization has been and remains electricity.

Somehow, the politics of culture wars have come into play to distract from having someone accountable and responsible for the failure to “winterize” the independent Texas Electricity grid to enable it to withstand winter storms such as Uri.

The first person who should be responsible and accountable for the dangerous failures to protect and provide forTexans, our Governor, Greg Abbott, usually a gentleman, has lost credibility by claiming, falsely that the very small 12% of renewable and clean wind mill energy was the reason why Texas (which pulled itself out of the national grid) has failed to adequately protect its citizens. So far, 17 persons have died.

The echo-chamber of the Republican Party, FoxNews channel, has not relented in the twisted, misleading and atrocious propaganda. “It seems pretty clear that a reckless reliance on windmills is the cause of this disaster,” Tucker Carlson falsely claimed —- as much as his colleagues on Fox and a battalion of Republican activists who foolishly and shamelessly allege that liberal Democrats (yet to be enacted) ‘Green New Deal’ is responsible for the failure of Republican Governor, Republican State Representatives, Republican Speaker of the State House, all two Republican federal Senators. and a majority of members of the Texas delegation to the United States House of Representatives to exercise basic oversight over an agency they empowered called the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). It is the operator of the state’s power grid; used by about 90% of the state.

For at least four days, millions turned to the ways of rural quietness set in frigid, wintry temperatures usually seen in the colder regions of the world. It’s very cold for us in Texas when the weather drops to 10 degrees. Around Houston, the weather is usually 67-78 degrees; almost like Nigeria’s.

The overwhelming power of climactic changes and disruptions, equally, expose the reality of the limits of electrical charging as the dominant centerpiece of social interaction! February 15, 2021 was emblematic of these existential realities. It allowed, or may be better put, it compelled most of the recent immigrants from Nigeria and other parts of Africa where the naked absence of light/power/electricity form the daily, weekly, monthly and in some cases and communities, fill the 12 calendar months of living in deprivation and darkness! Without any idea of when and if a fix will ever come.
Thankfully, in these parts, restoration and return to normalcy for at least 55% of the affected should be in place within the next 200 hours!

QUOTE

For at least four days, millions turned to the ways of rural quietness set in frigid, wintry temperatures usually seen in the colder regions of the world. It’s very cold for us in Texas when the weather drops to 10 degrees. Around Houston, the weather is usually 67-78 degrees; almost like Nigeria’s. The overwhelming power of climactic changes and disruptions, equally, expose the reality of the limits of electrical charging as the dominant centerpiece of social interaction! February 15, 2021 was emblematic of these existential realities. It allowed, or may be better put, it compelled most of the recent immigrants from Nigeria and other parts of Africa where the naked absence of light/power/electricity form the daily, weekly, monthly and in some cases and communities, fill the 12 calendar months of living in deprivation and darkness