I asked Mike Lebowitz about the power outages reported by Simon Romero of the NY TIMES. His reply:
>Romero is a fool but the NYT is more so for keeping on a guy who just rewrites >the articles in oppo papers. That said, there definitely is a electricity >crisis, short and medium term. Short reflects in part the very heavy reliance >upon hydro-electric power which doesn't look so great when climate change and >el nino mean the rainy season is cancelled. [In caracas, water is being >rationed one day a week for different parts now.]* > Medium term because demand is rising very rapidly both because of new > projects propelled by the state and because rising income for the poor has > unleashed a mad consumption splurge--- tvs. air conditioning in every room, > etc... and because generation and distribution networks have fallen well > behind [firstly because state ones were run to the ground in anticipation of > privatisation and secondly because private distribution ones were doing so > well that they saw no need to invest in new facilities]. >The crisis, though, reflects the idiocy of the state managers who just pushed >pawns while the workers kept shouting a crisis is coming. That's the situation >still--- the privates were taken over by the state a little while back but >still have their separate boards and the mgrs from the multinationals. The >crisis forced chavez [in last -- JD] few weeks to create a new ministry of >electricity [union had demanded this for several years] and to call upon the >minister to meet with the workers; so far, the minister keeps meeting with the >suits and the workers are pissed. > You're getting this almost from the horde's mouth as I participated in a > meeting yesterday with the electrical workers and reps from other unions. > Ie., I've got lots of inside dope.< * all bracketed comments are Mike L's, unless noted. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
