Saturday - October 07, 2006
Almost normal.
(The view from our office the day after Milenyo - no power.)
Our Skycable connection was restored today, more than a week after Milenyo. According to the building guards, one of the cable techs mentioned many of their cables had been stolen, so it hadn't just been a matter of repairing, but replacing.
We were mostly at the office immediately post-Milenyo, due to two consecutive new business pitches. So, unlike many in the city who were home with no power, we had TV. We found it both amusing and tragic that on the news, the clips showing ruined billboards, felled power lines and mangled structures also showed pilferers in shorts and sandos pouncing on the pieces and running away. Carpe diem and anything you can sell por kilo. In the interest of balanced reporting, they also showed said pilferers being a) shooed away and b) handcuffed.
(It reminded me of a news story from a month ago - four men on bicycles shot to death by police for stealing power cables. (They fled when the police tried to question them, and one of them had a paltik - a homemade gun.) All the townspeople interviewed after the incident said it was only right.)
In many towns, fights broke out over water. Fabo had a Soylent Green moment when he was in line for water being distributed in their area by a councilor. He said people had brought their relatives from other areas, and many had brought multiple pails and drums, which annoyed the rest who'd only been after their fair share. A big container of water spilled on the ground amidst the arguing and shoving. Fabo left.
Someone I spoke to said it was a good thing they had a swimming pool, so they could use the water to flush their toilets.