LIFE IN BARBADOS is characterized by a number of annual “seasons”, the major ones of which – Christmas, Easter, Crop Over and Independence, for example – are marked by their own peculiar practices and customs.
However, there is one “season”, the hurricane one, which has never been given the same level of importance as the others by the public.
Maybe this deficiency is rooted in the fact that, unlike the others, there is nothing to “celebrate” about the hurricane season. It attracts not the trappings of modern marketing, with its music and other attention-grabbing techniques.
Add to this that the Barbadian national psyche must have over time been desensitized to the peril hurricanes can wrought upon us by the fact that, unlike many of our neighbours, Barbados has not suffered the devastation of a direct strike by this natural phenomenon since Hurricane Janet’s visit on September 22, 1955.
Of course, no one can objectively question the serious work undertaken yearly by the Department of Emergency Management and the hundreds of volunteers across the island who, along with key Government agencies like the Police, Barbados Fire Service, Coast Guard and Defence Force, form a network dedicated to rescue and salvage should the need arise.
There therefore is a clear and pressing need to get the public at large sufficiently galvanised annually in a way and at a level to at least match the dedication and professionalism routinely exhibited by those agencies tasked with getting the systems, mechanisms and infrastructure ready for appropriate response.
It will require the powers that be to bring about the realization that the good luck that has left Barbados largely unscathed for so long is not a national right and cannot be guaranteed. In other words, the popular refrain that “God is a Bajan” is only a myth, grown out of complacency .
In the meantime, all Barbadians owe it to themselves to fully play their part now and accept their responsibility to place the country on perpetual national alert until the end of the season. They owe it to themselves, families and country.
