PROFESSOR Moriarty from ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ said “Hidden within the unconscious is an insatiable desire for conflict.” War was the conflict referenced to in the professor’s speech, although it has been argued that human beings also have an insatiable desire for natural disasters as well. Lots of people are so excited by news of approaching storms and hurricanes that they cannot help but feel disappointed when these systems fail to deliver on the excitement which was promised.
We see the disappointment in the aftermath of the passage of our dear Tropical Storm Dorian – and Dorian must have been a dear considering how delicate he was in his passage, so as not to cause any destruction to our beloved country. Some people are disappointed not in Dorian, but in the predictions and trajectory which NEMO made in his name. Storms and Hurricanes are given human names on the basis that they behave just like human beings in a way; they are sometimes not as bad as we make them out to be. It is our way of course to give them ‘bad names’, judge them from afar and prepare for the worst. Sometimes the storms are not as menacing as they are predicted to be and immature people are often embittered when the storms fail to meet their wicked expectations.
Just because people unleash their disappointment and bitterness at what they perceive to be inaccurate weather forecasts is no sensible reason for any Government to issue inadequate risk warnings. Furthermore, there is no such thing as ‘accurate weather forecast’ for the weather is transmutable by nature. Therefore, in consideration of Saint Lucia’s geographical location, every Saint Lucian should be prepared for adverse weather conditions 365 days out of every year. Storm preparations never go to waste and we must remember that there will be many more storms coming from wherever it was that Dorian came from. So don’t be too annoyed if you happen to be one of those who spent the little you had on hurricane supplies. You can store away what you got in preparation for the next tropical storm or hurricane watch.
Although Dorian looked grey in our sky he was not as disturbing as the picture of Dorian Gray. Maybe it was just his intention to shake us up a bit and to prepare us for whomever or whatever might be coming next in the name of storms and hurricanes. Tropical Storm Dorian is now making its way toward Puerto Rico and Florida where preparations are not being made on the basis of Saint Lucia’s experience with Dorian.
