It’s not often I have reason to talk about the weather, but when you nickname a hurricane “Ivan the Terrible”, you tend to sit up and take notice.
The island of Grenada, after a visit from a Category 5 hurricane, is now akin to something out of an Irwin Allen/1970s disaster film. Nintey percent of the homes and buildings on the island destroyed… The ancient prison demolished, and criminals set free… Chaos on the streets, as machete-carrying looters are pushed back by troops firing tear gas…
And now Jamaica is in Ivan’s sights. If it gets a direct hit, God help them. After that, Cuba…and, most likely, Florida AGAIN! It’s as if the previous two hurricanes were softening up the Disney penninsula for the granddaddy of left hooks.
Florida must feel as if it’s living through a live production of the Book of Job, substituting wind, rain, and surf for the boils and other plagues favoured by the prophets of old. Some people have pointed out that it might be devine retribution — a reminder that the governing morons of this state were the ones that secured the election win of George W. Bush in 2000, and that it might not be a good idea to repeat the same mistake.
Vengeance or not, innocent people are in the way…tragedy writ large.
My friend Erin introduced me to the term weather porn: being transfixed/fascinated/hooked on television pictures of satellite tracking shots, and live reports from reporters hanging on to rails, trees, and buildings for dear life as mother nature roars by at warp speed, swatting everything in her parth. CNN is the king of weather porn, no doubt getting prepared to cover its third major hurricane of the season even as I write this entry…and relishing the rise in ratings.
They’ll do anything to beat FOX News.
That said, I will end up watching it, as will many others. It’s a human failing to calmy sit and watch the suffering of others, but it’s hard to ignore — especially if you’re a civics teacher who needs to know what’s going on in the world. So I will watch, I will observe, and then I will discuss. I wish I could stop that hurricane…
But all I can do is pray.
