Amerikanische Schlamperei

[Ivo Skoric]

While in Africa, Asia, and some parts of Eastern Europe, black-outs 
are normal and predictable events, there was never a black-out the 
size and scope of the recent one that hit the Eastern seaboard of 
North America.

Explanations provided by US officials - about the aging electro-
distribution system - sound a little incredulous coming from the 
hyper-electrified hyper-power.

Whole states (like Connecticut), large cities in two different 
countries, like Detroit and Toronto, and the cosmopolitan center of 
the world New York city, were left without power - some parts for 
more than 20 hours.

The subways stopped running, the elevators stood still, the air 
conditioners died, the refrigerators went warm, a 15 million city of 
lights went dark. Of course, the computers lost data, the stock 
exchange stopped working, and the criminals had their day, ending up 
with $750 million in damages for New York by early estimates. That 
number will add up to the next year projected fiscal deficit of $2 
billion, making it 3....

How is it possible that in a not so hot summer in the North America
such a large and totally unpredicted black-out occurred? If this was 
not a terrorist attack, than what it was? German media offered a 
theory of a computer-virus attack (similar to one that is currently 
targeting Microsoft), targetting electro-distribution in the American 
Northeast.

During NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the US dropped grafite 
bombs over Serbian power-plants leaving 2/3 of the country 
temporarily in the dark. Could it be really that here there was no 
outside attack, but merely negligence of the US power providers?

While, undoubtedly, the US military is a very efficient conquering 
apparatus, the US home security systems are simply inadequate, 
regardless of all the intentions of the current government to install 
a sort of a more authoritarian domestic regime.

They, perhaps, pay attention to the wrong details. An example is my 
recent trip to Europe. The security personell at New York's JFK 
airport made us take our shoes off, addressing the past terrorist 
attack attempts, but the screeners failed to notice 6 cigarrete 
lighters packed-up in the checked luggage of my wife (intended for 
her mom, an avid smoker living in a country with ludicrously 
expensive lighters...).

The lighters were discovered only on Frankfurt airport, when we 
boarded for the next leg of our journey. I was unaware of that gift 
in my wife's luggage (otherwise I would have told her that she can't 
pack that in the checked luggage), but I find it rather disturbing 
that the quantity of fuel, that could in fact have been used to cause 
a fire on the airplane, went un-noticed on a trans-Atlantic flight. 
That story, however, makes it easier for me to understand how the 
recent black-out might have happened.

ivo