Quote:
"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite."
-- William Blake, 1757-1827

Powercuts and Globalization

Tonight I experienced the extent of the power of Globalization.

As I spoke with a friend on the phone, from my home in Brussels to his home in Portugal,
I heard him politely ask me to hang up, as he had to go attend his son, because the
lights had just went out. There was a general power cut in Lisbon area. I was about to say
goodbye when the lights went out also in my home. There was a power cut in Brussels area.

I was bewildered. Coincidence? I don't really believe in coincidences. I immediately
rationalized that the probability of two simultaneous power cuts in two modern cities,
which are 2000 km apart where extremely remote.
My emotional mind sowered with excitement. Something was happenning!
I called my parents in Portugal and my friends in Belgium to understand the extent of the cuts.
Some were in the dark while others not.

Slowly the excitement faded and gave place again to logical though. Europe has been linked in the last decade in a massive power grid,
where countries can draw spontaneous energy needs from one another. Importing and exporting electricity.

Nowadays, a small local crisis in Asia, as impacts in markets in Europe.
Hunger and war in Africa, affects the political agenda in America.
An innocent engineering mistake or the hungry needs for power and heating in one country affects the stability of the power grid of the next.

Such are the consequences, for good or for bad, of Globalization.
Either we liked or not, our futures are linked.
As people of this small blue planet,
we cannot any longer refuse to cooperate and
claim we are an island. We are bound.