There I was, in Cape Town last week and this week, working my fingers to the bone, when all of a sudden, suddenly like, I had a black-out. No I mean an electricity black-out, in the middle of downloading 190 emails. Lekker ne? Not really.
I had the publisher screaming down my neck about my work ethic, readers complaining that the site looked like the power station in the Western Cape where all the problems were - still en rustig, and then I suddenly saw the light, and the power was back on - at least for a while.
I decided that the access point I was at, was at fault and decided to try another route and looked for an internet cafe, those small businesses that are springing up all over the place, and I found one such shop in Fishoek, the centre of the technology explosion in the area.
I knew from the look on the owners face that I was in luck. He had power, there was a queue of people at the door, fingers poised to get back on line to make those hotel bookings and organize cars via the Internet.
Everyone settled down and the finger taping noise was deafening. Well, that was the case for at least 10 minutes and then poof black-out again.
Im gatvol. And so was he.
It was then that the idea of a small claims court action for individual losses of revenue - below the threshold,sprung to mind. Imagine suing the municipality for lack of delivery. Imagine all the small businesses affected by the black-out going to the small claims court and suing for loss of business. Imagine the chaos as teh power goes out whiel the cases are heard... imagine
Anyway - I couldnt get anything done, I packed up my machine, called my publisher on my mobile phone, which was sucking out the last of its charge and headed for the beach. At least I could depend on solar power and heating, even with some cloud cover.
And then I read in the paper today that its now time to consider entering the discussion around the proposed pebble bed modular reactor which Eskom, the government and its shareholders. Its about time.
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