WAPA AGAIN???????

roki: Are you packing up yet? 😉

Hey, if it was all perfect & really easy here, it would be more packed than Manhattan.

I agree with you but we are not talking about being perfect. We are talking about being normal

Roki, good point on not paying for services, when they aren't provided.

All of those things you describe are considered normal here, not perfect for true, but infrastructure problems are part of our normal lives. Wanting things to change is considered normal, having things change quickly or dramatically would be abnormal.

Precisely. You should have been here when it was rare to have any kind of generator, much less one that turned on automatically.
My power's out now but if you have a phone that doesn't need electricity it should work. Granted, they're harder & harder to find.

when we first got here there were quite a few occasions i had to bartend with a flashlight in my mouth,lol beer coolers are really dark when the lights are out

I have been here long before people had generators - having ' no current ' was often a welcome respite to what was considered too much ' modernness ' and allowed things to slow back down to what was then considered a ' normal ' pace. Taping a piece of black electrical tape over the flashing 12:00 LEDs on the new - fangled clocks was absolutely a step into the future here.

You can still get the old style phones at KMart and yes, when power goes, the phone will still work. I have one as a "backup" phone for when the power goes out. I think they cost $10 or something. Everyone should buy one while they still make 'em!

I am not talking about having a perfect system that is impossible what i am saying is that we have a regular system that's all. At leas in communications that are very important the USVI must have a system comparable to Puerto rico which is also a US territory.

Roki, I don't know what to say about you. You have done nothing but complain about this place from since you started on this board. Seems like you have not down your homework or made the decision to invest nevertheless. Then you should have known what you would be up against and figured a plan to deal with it or help. I will love to know what store you own so I can come in and see what a store properly run is like!

It is hard to make a comparison between Puerto Rico and the VI
population : 4,000,000 vs. 108,000
Sq. Miles 3,515 vs. 133 [ on 3 separate islands ]
GDP $77 Billion vs. under $1 Billion
Few things could be comparable, as the VI often has to have 3 separate systems because of the geographic difficulties as well.

When you talk about GDP per capita VI and Puerto rico are not so far apart. Puerto rico GDP per capita is 20,000 and the USVI 18,000 but STJ is 33,000 per capita. Also the amount of Fed Aid to the VI is the same per capita as for Puerto rico. Also be reminded that Puerto rico supplies Energy to the Islands of Vieques and Culebra being this last one very closed to St thomas. I think it is unacceptable that a US territory must conform itself with a 3erd world electrical system. And if you did not know there is a ultramarine cable of AEE of Puerto rico that runs from PR all the way to Culebra it will only cost Wapa and AEE to extend that cable to the VI for less 40 million dollars this will guaranteed Wapa will have power to feed off Electrical grid fromPuerto rico which has enough reserves to run electrical consumption in St thomas and the VI's 200 times over. This idea is right now in the US Congress where Fortuno resident commissioner is pitching fro Fed funds to Finance the project in order for the AEE to increase revenues and for the VI to secure power from a bigger grid like the US states do.

rokipatel, why are you so surprised that the power goes out? I thought you had lived on Caribbean islands before. I think you even mentioned spending time in the DR, and I'm sure the situation there is way worse. Lucky you, you have a generator! Life is too short to be so unhappy. If you are going to invest in something, you really need to do your research first. That is why day after day people on this board are giving that advice. This subject has been discussed ad infinitum before you moved there.

There is a BIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG difference between DR and an American Territory. They are not even in the same sentenced. Yes i grew up in Puerto rico and yes there where problems sometimes with the Power but not as bad as i seen here. I know that people here want to chill out and no worries but talk to every single owner of shops and business and hotels and this situations caused interruptions and loss of MONEY$$$$. Every time the Marriott Frenchman's reef turns on their generators with sky high fuel prices they loose up to 30% per day revenue . People have to live, work and the VI cannot risk anymore hotel corporations and businesses pulling out of the islands because Wapa forgot to service generating units. There is allot of Islands competing for the Buck out there the island should find ways to make the island with reliable infrastructure.

roki: I hope you don't think we are ganging up on you. It is NOT normal here. If you are waiting for normal, you will be sorely disappointed. You bought a generator to get you through these outages. Be happy you have it! The USVI is never going to be the mainland, PR, DR, BVI, etc.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

Wow - all that sun has you residents putting your heads in the sand. Sounds like you don't even want to discuss it. In other words, if you move here, never complain, don't think and certainly don't try to discuss anything controversial. That's paradise?

It's called realism but Angela, you're certainly welcome to come here & improve everything. We'd love it if you could.

I've reposted this before & it was originally posted by John Tee. Here's the quote written by Herman Wouk in "Don't Stop The Carnival." Wouk lived here.

"The West Indian is not exactly hostile to change, but he is not much inclined to believe in it. This comes from a piece of wisdom that his climate of eternal summer teaches him. It is that, under all the parade of human effort and noise, today is like yesterday, and tomorrow will be like today; that existence is a wheel of recurring patterns from which no one escapes; that all anybody does in this life is live for a while and then die for good, without finding out much; and that therefore the idea is to take things easy and enjoy the passing time under the sun. The white people charging hopefully around the islands these days in the noon glare, making deals, bulldozing airstrips, hammering up hotels, laying out new marinas, opening new banks, night clubs and gift shops, are to him merely a passing plague. They have come before and gone before."

Roki, I understand and agree with your complaint. But it seems to me that no matter how you look at it, we're like a small town, and small towns only have so much money to pool. Once you get big enough (and have growth) you can kind of bank on the future (like retirement plan philosophy - although don't ask the Chinese about this!).

But, I'd much rather move forward on this issue, than to stay in the past. I'd like to find out more about that link to the PR power grid... do you have some web links?. Although I still think the answer is to look a little further forward with solar, wind and ocean. I'd like to start understanding the VI govn (elected and running) folks to see who is looking forward and who is looking back on this issue. And finally how much pull does business have in the VI to influence things (who are the players).

But, Trade... that is priceless... I love that!!! I'd rather like to believe that we newbies are the modern navigators through troubled waters, and the resigned folks are the bobbing buoys... but, Mr. Wouk might have it more correct. Finally, I'm taking comfort in the thought that if I come to adopt the West Indian philosophy, I'll be equally happy...

right on Trade!! and PR has 100's of thousands of people to spread the cost of making electricity among, we don't

I never finished the Wouk novel. For me, the Paperman character was so unappealing, it ruined the whole book. But the cite above is a PERFECT description of the culture on STX. Who is to say it's right or wrong? "It is what it is." As I've said before, I'm no missionary. I enjoy my life on STX, I contribute to the island life and tax base, I adapt to the differences. And, when I don't like it any more, I'll find someplace else to live that I like better. STX will continue on as it always has without me.

Not for nothing, but Con Edison (NY) Public Service Electric and Gas Company (NJ) during the summer months request that customers turn off their AC when the temp hits 90 degrees because they (the companies can not handle the demand), at 85 degrees they call it a heat wave and request customers to use the AC sparingly. These mainland companies have brownouts, blackouts, and disruption of service frequently. No Head in the sand here! Just Fact.

P.S. We can't put our heads in the sand because of the turtle eggs!

Paradise is great and everything but there is a reality people need to work and make money to eat and if the government doesn't guarantee at least a reliable service of electricity and water and communications more and more businesses will leave the island and that is a FACT? this attitude that i see here you are a newbie that is the way it is here take it attitude DOES NOT MAKE IT RIGHT. There has to be accountability and people should demand that Government do something about this problem that has been carry for years.