So I'm up late - probably as late as usual - but I spent a good portion of the evening running the pump so that it can fill the water tanks. In the richest country of the Caribbean, where I am sitting here writing and doing work with synthetic worlds ('virtual' worlds), where I do web programming and other things... here, I have to wait and see when water is provided on the main and make sure that the tanks are filled because... one never knows with certainty when one will have water on the mainline again.

A country where oil is pumped out of the ground, sold to Europe. A country where men, like those pictured, wander around like lost children to open and close valves on pipes placed under roads in the 1950s. The roads have been paved for every election that I can remember. After every repaving of the roads, the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) comes by and excavates the new road so that they can replace pieces of the water pipes. Whether the water is potable is always a question. But we have water, unlike so many places in the world that do not. The desalination plant in South Trinidad produces 80% of the water for San Fernando, Trinidad - or so I am told.

Oil is pumped out of the ground in pipes.

I live above the pump station for the reservoir, which is on San Fernando Hill. They turn on the water based on all sorts of factors, I imagine, such as who is nearest to the valve, who has the keys to the pickups so that they can drive around and open and close valves. My father had an understanding with some of them, who would open up the water for a short period of time to assure that we got water. I'll give you the punch line to that joke. The pump is used to move water downhill. It is not used to move water uphill. This has been the case for... at least the last 15 years, as I understand. Its an ongoing battle of common sense and gravity versus idiocy and bureaucracy - and I must tell you that idiocy and bureaucracy are well above the challenge.

And this is why, when water comes on the mains, you hear people rushing to fill their tanks. San Fernando is one of the more developed areas of Trinidad. Port of Spain probably has a more secure connection of water, since the tourists, ambassadors and other people will stay in that area. Basic amenities are necessary for that.

Oil is pumped out of the ground in pipes.

Simple things like this - very simple things like this - abound all over Trinidad. They are symptomatic of a disease.

And that disease cannot be cured with water. But it seems to be fed by oil.

Oil is pumped out of the ground in pipes.

Water is circulated by truck and managed through street valves older than the men twisting them.

Priorities.