Darkness and despair

Last night I returned home to find there was a powercut. The weather has been torrential and I had passed the EDF van down the country lane that is our road, so should have guessed all was not well. I found my Mum sitting in darkness at the kitchen table looking forlorn. When asked what was wrong, she replied ‘I just don’t know what to do. I can’t read, I can’t do any work. I’m bored.’ A first! I was hungry but without electricity couldn’t cook so ate a rather unsatisfying corned beef sandwich for dinner. Without electricity we were reduced to despair. In the end I fled to a friend's house, and she went to bed early. It got me thinking; I lived in Tanzania for over three months without electricity last year, and I didn’t miss it at all. How is it that we are unable to cope when confronted with a minor powercut in the ‘developed’ world? At my adopted family’s house in Africa, light comes in the form of paraffin lamps – suspended from ceiling hooks at dinner time, or equally in the shower when washing after dark as I often did. Cooking is done over a fire in an unlit outhouse, or on an open fire under moonlight. There are no computers so that’s the work problem solved. Life is simpler, but people are happy. Can we really say we are more developed?