Base on news articles in the
HOY papers and
HERE too, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the government had acquired 10 millions of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs to be distributed in a swapping program (eliminating incandescent bulbs) throughout the country (DR).
And it's truly happening! I was in a not so bad barrio just West of
Penetracion al Muelle Av. in Puerto Plata to find a good bunch of homes bearing a sticker sign signaling that these homes were saving energy using CFLB's which had indeed been installed swapping about 4 to 5 normal bulbs in each home... FREE! (FREE? Well, sort'a, after all they take away the old bulbs... wouldn't we be surprised to see the
pulgas starting to swamp the market with "slighlty used" or "package missing" incandescent light bulbs soon?
But then, after going back researching the news articles, some numbers compelled me to stop short of hollering "hallelujah" from my balcony.
Here are the numbers: It's 10 Millions of bulbs for about USD 18.5 Million
initial investment to
acquire them. That's USD 1.85 a pop. I can get them at the super market in Puerto Plata for less, buying ONE by ONE.
Also, a 5 minute search effort on the net soon revealed offers from
vendors at that same price (USD 1.85/piece) when you buy only 50 or more. I am almost tempted to drive that seller into total hysteria for asking if they couldn't take that price down just a little bit more for... erm... 10 Million units
.
I think these deals should be found under 1.00 USD (at least on
fleabay I COULD) and in these quantities directly from a manufacturer, and if they (the gov) are not to be assumed stupid, I would suspect that's what they in fact may have done... so somebody may walk around with 8 to 10 millions of USD out of that deal...
Morale? My grandfather and your parents were right, we should have studied LAW instead of pursuing a technical career and stuff... I just can't seem to get into politics and get rich so quickly building homes and consulting to builders and developers...
... J-D.