Venezuela Energy Crisis: President Tells Women to Stop Using Hairdryers and go With ‘Natural’ Style to Save Electricity

by Lizzie Dearden, The Independent:

The President of Venezuela has urged women to stop using hairdryers and offered alternative styling tips as the country’s energy crisis continues.

Nicolas Maduro has announced a decree giving state employees Fridays off for two months as part of measures to offset a crippling electricity shortage.

He urged his compatriots to increase other efforts to save power, including cutting appliance use and raising the temperature on air conditioning units.

Recommending that women reduce hairdryer use to “special occasions”, Mr Maduro added: “I always think a woman looks better when she just runs her fingers through her hair and lets it dry naturally. It’s just an idea I have.”

He also called on Venezuelans to make small changes to their routines, including embracing the tropical heat and hanging clothes out to dry instead of using tumble dryers.

Not everyone welcomed the advice, with one Caracas resident telling Al Jazeera: “If the President thinks that not blowdrying our hair is going to help, then the problem is far worse than we thought.”

The government has declared Fridays a non-working day for the public sector for the next 60 days as the economic and energy crisis combine to cause food shortages and long supermarket queues.

Around 70 per cent of Venezuela’s electricity comes from a hydroelectric plant at the Guri Dam, which holds back the Caroni River in the south-eastern state of Bolivar.

Officials have been warning for weeks that the water level behind it has fallen to near its minimum operating level, meaning it may soon have to be shut down entirely.

Mr Maduro’s socialist administration blames the crisis on a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon and acts of sabotage by its opponents, but experts say rationing could have been prevented by investment in maintenance and in the construction of thermoelectric plants.

The President’s emergency measures sparked ridicule from critics, who have predicted an acute recession.

Read More @ Independent.co.uk