When I first heard about the free light bulbs drama, initially I did not hear how many bulbs were involved. A little light bulb went off in my head when I heard that the actual amount was 4,000,000. Now, that's a lot of bulbs.

I conducted a mini-survey at my office and found about five out of 10 households received some number of bulbs. Further, the average number of bulbs received per household was five. A few got one extra.

I also called the public relations department at the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and they informed me that JPS has 570,000 customers.

To be generous and assuming that even seven out of every 10 JPS customers received any of these free bulbs and assuming that each such household received an average of six bulbs, it would mean that just 2,394,000 bulbs were distributed (570,000 x 70 per cent x 6).

Where are the rest? Has anyone stated the number of bulbs that have not been distributed? Where are they stored?

The sale of 1,606,000 bulbs (the remainder) would provide someone a nice pension. In fact, at even $250 each, the street value of these bulbs would be more than $400 million ($401.5 million to be exact). That is more than the almost $300 million already spent on their distribution.

Let's hope none of these free bulbs found themselves on the street. One of these free light bulbs would be useful in shedding some light in this dark corner.

- Egerton Chang, MBA, B.Sc.