Dear Electricity Minister!What is the difference between your ministry and Israel? [Archives:2008/1132/Opinion]
Awadh Al-Asali
At the very beginning, I have to highlight that I highly respect the Electricity Minister Dr. Mustafa Bahran although people speak ill of him from time to time, and all that is attributed to a single reason. This reason is that Dr. Bahran is a man of reason and logic, who knows well that 'one plus one equals two, but not one or three'. Consequently, I expect that he will interact with this article, and then punish wrongdoers and reward do-gooders, or at least give us the logic justifications for what happened.
The story began in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008 when the power was cut off in the Nuzeili building, located near Al-Mesbahi Intersection. The building's occupants believed that the blackout was caused by one of the power network-related problems, which are numerous and commonplace in Yemen, but the power remained off until the afternoon of that day. The occupants started to question why the power has been cut off for many hours. Later on, they found out that the Electricity Ministry intentionally cut the power off in the building because some of its occupants have not settled the bills deserved for the ministry.
By God, I feel ashamed writing this article fearing that people outside the country may read it. When people outside Yemen or non-Yemenis read such an article, what will they say about us?
Dear readers, some Electricity Ministry workers cut the power off in the whole building in order to press those who have not settled the bills to rush to any nearby offices and pay the deserved dues. I expect that such an article may remind the respected readership of Israel's behavior when it cut electricity off in the entire Gazza strip in order to increase its pressure on the Palestinian resistance nationwide. In the meantime, I bear in mind that this simile is absolutely unfair since Israel has many justifications regarding the procedures it has so far taken against the Palestinian people, although we are dissatisfied with it, while Yemen's Electricity Ministry, on the other hand, has no excuse to behave this way. The way the ministry behaves implies that citizens are its real enemies.
In order for these words to be based on logic, I will present to Dr. Bahran some details in order to know much more about what is happening in the various government offices. When asked about anything, most of the government officials respond that they know nothing about what has happened or is happening. These details come as follows:
The Nuzeili Building is affiliated with the Fourth District's electricity office, which I contacted at the number 465400. People in the office told me that the Commercial Department is the relevant agency in charge of such matters, and therefore gave me the department's telephone number. No one answer me when I rang the department's number. I then gave another call to the electricity office's emergency department, but the worker on duty answered me angrily saying “you are stupid office hours are over you have to contact the department tomorrow morning.”
When I furiously reacted to his indecent expressions saying that power is off and that I can not wait until tomorrow morning, he replied, “I can do nothing for you have other things to do.” Such statements indicate that electricity workers have nothing to do with blackout. While speaking to me, another employ entered the office and he then told me, “the relevant employee has just come but he is refusing to speak with you.”
Dr. Bahran lived for a long time in the U.S. and I think the man knows well the meaning of this statement 'Customer Services' in any firm, be it small or big. So, how shocked one may get when he/she sees that an electricity ministry has a 'customer services department' but never consider customers' complaints.
Source: Nabanews.net
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