Our Worst Fear

It’s hard to imagine living in a world where nearly everything that is dependent on something is rendered useless. Computers, phones, fridges, etc, all run on one single source of power: Electricity. In Life As We Knew It, our nightmares come to life, and there is no electricity anymore. It only comes one for brief amounts of time, maybe from 10 to 30 minutes, or for a couple hours, but not every single day. It’s a situation hard to imagine in our life, but it happens everyday across the globe. This article by the Huffington Post speaks about the electricity shortages that happen in Pakistan everyday. I have been to Pakistan myself, and because my family lives in a more privileged area, the power shortages aren’t as severe, only for two hours every day. “Power can be out for up to 20 hours a day in the summer.” This applies to everyone, an issue not in Life As We Knew It. People have electricity in hospitals, where in Pakistan, sick people have to suffer the intense heat and their sickness for nearly 20 hours without electricity. “Public hospitals like the one in Gujar Khan, which care for the majority who can't afford private hospitals, generally draw power from two grids, but nowadays, especially in the hot months, there's sometimes no electricity coming from either grid.” The hospitals in Pakistan suffer the same fate as everyone else, not receiving the power they so desperately need for operations and comfort of the patients. The issue of not enough electricity is highlighted in Life As We Knew It, but it has been prevalent in the world for quite a while.