While I deeply empathize with the people of Texas currently going through power outages, I can't help but laugh at the outrage it's causing them, especially people on Twitter. Now, before you call me mean, put into perspective that I'm Nigerian. I was born into power outage, in fact I'm not certain the hospital I was born in at 9:45pm on a Thursday twenty-something years ago had any electricity.
Over here something as delicate as deliveries happen in candle lit rooms and everything is done manually. We hardly ever have electricity so whenever it comes on, we go, 'up NEPA' out of excitement. The first words of a baby born here would probably be, "UP NEPA" (NATIONAL ELECTRIC POWER AUTHORITY). I see my two year old niece like every other kid in the neighborhood jump for joy whenever power comes on and it's both funny and sad.
Constant power or even six hours of power a day is a luxury here and it's all but normal. I see Nigerians in Houston making jokes about how they're not gonna bitch about the power outage because it was literally their life here in Nigeria. The only unusual thing is the really cold weather they can't stand.
Unlike Texas where the outage is as a result of extreme weather conditions, over here in Nigeria, the lack of electricity is caused by thieving politicians and a very shitty system.
Now you see where I'm coming from, you'd understand why a thread of people whining about 6 hours without electricity is funny to me. In my country we go months and years without power and the government doesn't give a hoot about it. It's not normal but that's how we live over here.
Another reason why I need to get out of this shithole.
