Dark Ages

If there is any disadvantage in staying in Sabah at all, I'd say its the constant power cuts that spoils its utopian charm. Sabah's electricity woes are so legendary that Lim Kit Siang has hit out at SESB (Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd) in his book 'The Cries of Sabah'.

“Talking about power supply in my hometown, on average in a month, we will be in total darkness for at least 72 hours; the highest record was no power supply for 8 hours a day for 1 whole week!! If there is no power disruption in Sabah, then it’s not Sabah, SESB confirms to this, where SESB stands for SABAH EVERYDAY SURE BLACKOUT. If there were no power supply for half an hour in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, tomorrow it will be the top news in the media, but for us Sabahans on the other side of Malaysia, being drenched in total darkness for few others, causing traffics to go haywire, no one even bothered about us.”

- “The cries of Sabahan”

I can assure you readers from West Malaysia that, YES, its that bad. Everytime there is a power cut, it will undoubtedly affect my workplace - how else can I key in sales transactions when the monitors are all blank right? So we have to rely on manual written transactions that will be entered into the POS once the power comes back on.

This is really bothersome, especially if you have multiple customers waiting and you are copying down all the barcodes, prices, items and whatnot furiously while trying to counsel them at the same time.

Looking through all of last year's transactions, I've counted a total of 42 power cuts during office hours. Thats like almost one every week! Mind you, this is not including power cuts at odd hours of the night that wakes us up in a pool of sweat, only to get back to sleep by losing consciousness through extreme heat exhaustion.

As much as I hate power disruptions, there are times when I long for it. Oh say when the telly is showing Sir Alex like this...

Sir Alex's nasal follicles are longer than my beard!

Having nasal hair that shows is a greater sin than having inappropriate relations with your pet dog. I find it difficult talking to people who have such a substantial volume of hair in the nose that wave to you everytime they exhale. What's worse is that they seem to be proud of it. I've always believed that it takes a great deal of apathy towards personal hygiene and grooming for it to ever reach such a level.

Speaking of apathy, that's the general feeling towards power cuts now in Sabah. Talk to any man on the street and yes he will be pissed at SESB but the conversation will always end with 'What to do? Don't get electricity from them, who else can you get from?' We've all learnt to adjust and live our lives around this terrible inconvenience. Apathy has become acceptance in a way.

Maybe I should start getting used to nasal hair as plan B in case I can never grow a moustache.