Dependence

Office scene:

It's 4 days 'til the State of the Nation Address. Everyone in the House Secretariat (particularly the Administrative Department where I work) is in a mad rush to finish preparations for the big event. Documents are flying left and right while employees' fingers hurriedly glide along keyboards as they type last minute memos, orders and requests. "Busy" is too weak a term to describe the chaos... Then...

The lights go out...

Silence...

In this modern day and age, brownouts are a rarity -- but they're not impossible. Why did this "once-in-a-blue-moon" event have to happen now?

Everything's at a halt. Computers are down. Printers are offline. Fax machines are rendered useless. A panic-filled hush fills the air.

A minute passes... 2... 3...

The wait is agonizingly painful; but nothing can be done. Electricity (partly) controls our lives.

A realization dawns on me: ICT has a downside!

People have grown so highly dependent on technology that we have forgotten how to function without it. Almost every aspect of our lives (work, school, socializing...) involve the use of ICT. We need laptops, copiers, cellphones, etc. We yearn for faster internet connections and for easy-to-use computer software.

What we don't realize is that "brownouts" do happen, no matter how rare they may be. When this occurs, what happens to us? Will we be ready?