The Darkness shines light on to our problems
The current issue with GEBE is a reflection on how our governance impacts our society.
I have a system.
9 am, 1:30/2:00 pm, and 5:00 pm I can expect to not be with electricity.
In 2024, and not after a natural disaster, it is frustrating that day-to-day life is being affected by the load-shedding practices of our electricity. But as many politicians, former employees, managers, and citizens would tell you, this issue did not start this year. This is an eruption of all the issues that have been consistently ignored throughout the decades. In a typical fashion, we have found comfort in these frustrating times through memes or music, as King Kembe's “GEBE Wukup” is making a resurgence or Rummer’s parody remix of Grandmasters’ “Outside Again” titled "GEBE Gone Again" is getting serious radio play. However, in this piece, we will take a different turn in the dialogue of the instability of GEBE and its ability to provide the country with electricity. Instead of the conversations surrounding the grid, mismanagement, etc, we are going to look at how this impacts our national security and will be a catalyst for a public health crisis and the unfortunate reality of politics interfering with basic human rights.
No Light = Threats
Since the hack of March 2022, the crisis response to our electricity company being attacked has been underwhelming. The lack of much-needed government oversight, rigorous improvements to the company's infrastructure, and bad communications surrounding what happened, where the client's information goes, and how to do something as simple as how to pay your bills have left the people annoyed and frustrated with the entire company and the government by extension. The hack itself catapults the serious issues surrounding our national security. While enough people have written about it in our local media for the last two years, I am linking a Policy Memo Assignment that I wrote for my Security and Resilience Policy course back in Spring 2023. That memo outlines the key issues and important policy decisions that could have been implemented last year to help address the problem.
Now we are here.
In 2024, I want to look at the national security problem from the lens of telecommunications and our port of entry. On Sunday, June 2nd, we experienced a country-wide blackout, after one of the engines caught on fire earlier that morning. Due to these issues, GEBE is currently unable to consistently generate electricity for all persons currently on the grid. During Sunday's blackout, telecommunications also went down, with persons unable to get a phone signal until later in the night and unable to get DATA and/or wifi until the next morning. This presents a huge issue. One of the most important things in the security of the country is to be able to send information in case of issues of natural disasters, potential harmful explosions, or in the worst-case scenario some form of military action and/or invasion. Without this, people on the island would be blindsided. On the other hand, when the power went out, the backup generators at Princess Juliana International Airport did not properly kick in, thus having the last American Airlines flight that needed to depart stuck on the jet bridge for an extended period. Luckily, airport operations were able to get the generator to push enough electricity to get the jet bridge off the plane and for the plane to take off, but it still left the airport in darkness. While the airport being not functioning is an issue for national security (see the same reasons for telecommunications) it is also an issue for my next point, public health. Imagine you need to do a medical emergency fly-out but cannot because the airport is not functioning.
Public Health Crisis
It is interesting that we hamper about public health issues when it comes to the debates surrounding national health insurance, the development (or lack of) with our medical center and the idea of “everyone needs to eat healthier.” But because of lack of cross ministerial collaboration, we do not see our current environment as an indication of a public health crisis. As I concluded the last part with “what if someone needs to be flown out (or in) and the airport isn't functioning?” The lack of power can also present new questions as well. How does this impact those who are at home on different medical devices? How does this impact refrigeration at home and at businesses and how the inconsistency of refrigeration can allow for food borne illnesses to thrive. How does the person who has challenges with functioning with the heat can cool down, especially as the summer presents a record level of heat? All these issues will present more sick people on the already strained health system. We always say “a healthy people are a happy people” but one cannot even try to be healthy if their food is spoiled, their pressure keeps rising or falling and they simply are struggling with dealing with this historic heat (and it is only going to get worse).
Conclusion
It is obvious that we are currently playing the blame game here. Pointing fingers back and forth instead of having meaningful dialogue to fix the situation now and to put in and/or implement proper practices to help avoid similar situations to occur again. It is the time to look at other energy solutions and how that works for a small country like Sint Maarten. But when human basic needs such as light and power become political, it is much more difficult to engage in these necessary and important actions.
I leave you with this. We speak about the importance of development for the country, and how development brings in money and work opportunities. The questions I ask you (1) what is the development? (2) how does this impact our environment, our grid, and our safety? (3) is the development worth it when the people of Sint Maarten are left in the dark?
This darkness has shone a light on some damning information, and I hope you all see it.