'picked Egypt for its outsourced workers because of its highly skilled workforce'
No to mention how little they cost...
sounds like marketing BS to me. but I hope no one was hurt in the lack of power / water. That is genuinely nasty.
A massive power outage in Cairo has left the city sweltering in nearly 40˚C heat, without running water or internet services. A Reg reader, who is the chief tech officer at a global conference call provider, told us that the firm’s workers in the city have been without power for around four hours. “Our first concern is for …
We actually pay our staff in Egypt based on their skills and knowledge. The back office support team that we have are actually paid the same rate as our UK Tech Support guys - we don't pay the local rate.
The reason is that we are trying to improve the quality of life for our team. Three of them are in the process of moving from Egypt to other countries due to the problems in country. If they were not working for us they have said they would not be able to afford to move!
but we were stupid/ignorant enough to think they wouldn't get any worse.
It's not like the country has just emerged from a bloody revolution, and is surrounded by nations still stuck in civil war all the while being placed in one of the most restless regions in the globe.
or anything like that.
Egypt has not emerged from bloody revolution, it has mostly stopped being reported in the main stream media.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29029726
What is less recognised, is that it is shortages of food and energy that triggered the bloody revolution, and they are getting worse.
Yep.
My dad built a system using an old car battery and headlamp bulbs which he charged during the time we had power, me and my brother lugged a bike with a dynamo up to our room and took turns powering it so we could get changed for bed...
Admittedly then it wasn't such a hardship, other than the lights - our family room had 2 power points, one for the TV, and one used by my mum for the ironing... Only 3 channels of TV, and they weren't on all the time, ISTR they shut down in the afternoon for a while, our radios ran on batteries - and our books were on paper. We made our own entertainment back then :)
Nowadays it's a bit different - our whole lifestyle is geared around the electrons leaking out of the sockets in our rooms - my living room just for me has 6 double sockets, most of which have extenders plugged in.
During "The Winter of Discontent", I used to do my homework by candle-light listening to Radio 2!
It was one of the reasons I asked for my own radio as one of my next birthday presents, just so I could listen to Radio 1 or Radio Luxenbourg (I was too far away from the Thames Estuary to get Caroline).
If the lights went out now, I'd probably reach for the guitar and pick away for a few hours. I have a battery powered practice amp, so could even use my electric.
I think my kids would probably play "cards against humanity" or another card game for a while. They've also recently re-discovered board games.
There is a significant chance there will be power cuts in the UK this winter, the highest probability is when the demand is highest, which will be when the temperature is -4C or even -14C as it was a few years ago. I am going to rewire my central heating so that I can legally run it off an inverter when that happens.
However, our supply and demand problems are (as yet) peanuts to what Egypt is facing. In the longer term, we are going to be facing cold , dark nights many many times.
Make your emergency plans now!
Actually, it's fairly easy for me - small woodburner for heat and cooking if the power goes and knocks the cooker and boiler out, UPS and car battery starter charged up for lighting and minimal IT (charge phones, power router) - and having a selection of LED lights makes a big difference to power requirements compared to the old incandescent bulbs. Oh yes, and water from the stream to flush the loo if that conks out as well.
A couple of cases of baked beans and an Uzi and I'll be ready for anything!
(But my sympathy to residents of electrically heated flats in inner-city tower blocks. Not so good...)
Sounds like a prediction of this winter in the UK - except that the temperatures will be 4°C instead of 40°C.
Pardon me for being indelicate, but...wuss!
We in the Midwest/Great Lakes region would be running around in shorts if the forecasts for the winter were to have temperatures only as low as 4°C!
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"A really big solar flare could take out power stations worldwide, and in many countries (including the UK) that would also cut off water supplies."
We've had a number of big solar flares over the recent half century, and they've generally failed to cause the havoc that the doom-mongers predict. The power plants are well protected, and it is the grid that would get hit, and even that has plenty of interruptors and circuit breakers than have to deal with locally more powerful phenomena (eg lightning, short circuits) on a far more frequent basis.
Some water facilities would be affected by loss of power, but as a rule UK water engineers have designed both water supply and sewerage systems to use gravity, with a combination of distributed storage and local power back ups keeping water supply going for long enough to overcome most credible interruptions.
Collect your tin foil hat over there ------->
Obviously excluding those who need electricity for medical reasons, people or even pets that may suffer or many other cases I am too stupid to think of right now.
For the average over fed, entertained and planet disconnected generation to see the night sky free of a swath of light pollution, to hear voices over TV's or games boxes, to feel the earth hum free and spend time blindly clicking switches and frowning at kettles. To have the electronic armour of stimuli removed for a few minutes. I welcome that, because when it returns they will have more knowledge than before.
Imagine no water, electricity, no way to pump fuel into anything, no way to keep warm in the middle of a N European winter. 4 days and you are probably near death.
The half life of a city without power is probably a week.
And that's coming along nicely now. Thanks to insanity rules, OK? in the electricity politics of Europe.