Opinione | La Spagna nel buio è più sicura che altrove con il potere
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/opinion/spain-portugal-blackout.html?smid=url-share
di JohnnyElRed
Opinione | La Spagna nel buio è più sicura che altrove con il potere
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/opinion/spain-portugal-blackout.html?smid=url-share
di JohnnyElRed
11 commenti
We took out a candle, lit it and finished our dinner. In darkness. In complete silence.
On [April 28](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/world/europe/spain-portugal-power-outage-what-we-know.html), the so-called Great Blackout, one of the strangest days of our lives, left all of the Iberian Peninsula in the dark. For over 10 hours we were completely cut off, unable to make phone calls or connect to the internet. Later I learned the luckiest among us had found an old transistor radio with batteries to hear the news. The three of us — my partner, my 6-month-old daughter and me — had no such luck. Now it was nighttime. Fear and all its ghosts might have lurked.
Occasionally, a random car or a few pedestrians with flashlights passed by our window. One might imagine the other things that were quiet. How the burglar alarms — the big business of keeping fear at bay — were not working. How the security cameras had gone blind. That no one was able to call the police. This, then, might have been a night dreamed of by thieves. A night when the evil-minded would seize the cover of darkness and all that silence to break into factories, businesses, shops, isolated villages, country houses or urban dwellings. But they did not.
This was no nightmare. Indeed, the Great Blackout was the opposite. It was like a dream — a world populated only by the kindest among us, evil intentions quashed. Average citizens directed traffic at intersections without working lights. Others brought water and food to passengers stranded on trains that had stopped in the middle of nowhere. Taxi drivers, unable to process credit cards, gave out their cellphone numbers so customers could pay their fares when the electricity returned.
Yes, I would also like to be stranded in a train for half a day, it is so poetic…
As Spanish emigrant, during this years i felt that all those countries that we grew up being told they where more developed than us, feel less secure, more savage, more individualistic, and less empathic than home.
We (the common worker citizen from Spain, being born in there or not) might be not as rich as those beyond the pyreness, but we are not the Barbars.
Do not let those Barbars, now organizing politically, win our minds, our culture it’s more collective leaning than individualistic.
I’m sure the ones who got trapped in lifts don’t enjoy this as much.
Any country that is cut off from feeding capitalist greed (covid, no electricity) brings people back to a better community life…
For many outsiders, the fact that people took it easy (**WHO COULD. OBVIOUSLY BEING STUCK IN AN ELEVATOR IS NOT FUN FOR ANYONE, OR LYING DOWN IN A STATION**)
that there were no mass panic reactions, or more disorder, or even more problems, is impossible to understand. That the army did not immediately take to the streets, to prevent disorder… etc
But whatever. It’s been a long time since I’ve tried that to be understood outside Spain, and even inside, because wow…
En fin, que mas da.
This is the most self-indulgent bullshit ever written.
We gathered in the cozy living room, lit a candle, and shared stories as the world outside faded into darkness. In that moment, we were enveloped in a comforting silence.
On April 28, during the Great Blackout, one of the most extraordinary days of my life unfolded right here in Spain. The entire Iberian Peninsula was plunged into darkness, and for over 10 hours, we were cut off from the outside world. My partner, our 6-month-old daughter, and I huddled together, feeling a mix of uncertainty and excitement. As night fell, I realized that this was a unique opportunity to connect with what truly mattered.
Outside, the streets were alive with the sounds of laughter and camaraderie. Neighbors emerged from their homes, sharing candles and food, creating a sense of community that felt almost magical. I watched as families gathered in their yards, playing games and telling stories, their faces illuminated by the soft glow of candlelight. It was as if the darkness had stripped away the distractions of modern life, revealing the beauty of human connection.
Occasionally, a car would pass by, its headlights cutting through the night, but the real light came from the kindness of those around us. People helped one another, offering water and food to those in need, and directing traffic at intersections without working signals. Strangers became friends, united by the shared experience of this unexpected adventure.
In that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the goodness that surrounded us. The Great Blackout was not a time of fear, but rather a celebration of the human spirit. It was the best time of my life, a reminder that in the heart of Spain, we are never truly alone. Surrounded by love, laughter, and the warmth of good people, I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be.
It was quite a phenomenon. I mean us Brits had a good moan when Heathrow in London was taken out by a single fire at a power station. But Spain was like hold my beer, watch this.
There’s a lot of pushback against this in the comments, and rightly so, but it was still not so bad.
All things considered, based on the fact basically everything relies on electricity, it was not bad. It hit at a convenient time (nice weather, etc.) but overall everyone was calm and nice.
There will always be exceptions when the population is as big as it is, but overall, it wasn’t as bad as it would have been in many countries.
I know the scale was a bit unprecedented, but the way people write about it is just so…ridiculous.
We had seven blackouts (15 min to a day) last month because the infra is shit. Last time there was a hurricane the power was out for two or three days.
The worst part was no internet and no AC. And of course everything in the fridge going bad. None of which is as dramatic as this whole thing is portrayed as.