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Omens in weather?

www.newsday.co.tt

IF WE WERE superstitious, then the strange weather conditions which accompanied the passing of the old year and the advent of the new would have made us quite jittery. Over the past week or so, blustery winds and falling night temperatures had Trinis taking unusual measures, bringing out the blankets, doubling up on their sleeping garments and keeping their windows firmly closed. As they blew across some parts of the country, the winds howled and moaned eerily, as if bent on telling us something. In some areas also, particularly in the sheltered Maracas and Santa Cruz valleys, temperatures plummeted to as low as 20 degrees Celsius, causing some folks to wonder whether they would soon be getting a visit from Frosty.

What really was happening? Were these odd features of the weather a sign of things to come, omens for the new year? With an unfortunate 2003 fading into history, marked by rising levels of violence, crime and road deaths, it seemed only natural for our already perturbed minds to run along these superstitious lines. And what about the dreary nature of our politics, the stagnating deadlock over key legislative measures in the House, the sacrifice of the country's vital interest to silly partisan antics, the impending trauma of watching the nation's Parliament unceremoniously evicted from its historic seat in the Red House to make room for the Prime Minister's office? Were these freaks in the weather pattern, extending over the switching of years, really warning us that 2004 will simply see more of the same old ludicrous song and dance? Or, even more likely, that we ain't seen nothing yet, and that matters on the political front are destined to become even colder and more blustery?

Whatever we may choose to see in these "strategic" weather phenomena, the fact is that we really do not need them to predict the course of things to come. Our melancholy experience over a long period of time provides us with an infallible guide to the future; the political games will go on as usual, the egotism of our leaders will hold sway and the people's affairs will continue to play second fiddle to partisan power plays. And may God bless our nation. But if the naughty weather was such as to make us jittery, the unnerving nuisance of scratch bombs and other explosives was not as terrifying over the recent holiday celebrations as it has been in the past, thanks largely to the energetic crackdown of the Police. In various neighbourhoods, fireworks brightened the night sky, giving a glittering send-off to the old year. These multi-coloured sparklers have become a delightful part of the old year's night celebrations, but it is good to note that this time around they were not accompanied by the horrible blasts of scratch bombs, at least not as prolifically as before.

As a result, we must commend the work of the police in drastically reducing this form of terror inflicted on the residents of peaceful neighbourhoods during this time of the year. Their vigilance has paid off, but it must not falter until this dangerous nuisance is totally eradicated from our country. Yesterday, for example, we reported that a cache of more than 12,000 scratch bombs were allegedly found in a home at Tunapuna by members of the Firearms Interdiction Unit. If that report is true, we can only imagine the horror that these "bombs" would have caused all over the country had they reached the public. We could not, of course, reverse the temperature or halt the winds. But, as harbingers of 2004, they tell us nothing that we really do not know.

Trinidad and Tobago News

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