THE threat of tropical storm Tomas brings to mind how things are changing and will change further in the future with regard to utilities. It further brings to mind how other things have changed over the years and here I mention a few. One is the sort of preparations that people have made just in case Tomas comes our way.

In the old days, perhaps because hurricanes were infrequent for a number of decades, most Jamaicans laughed at any precautions. Today we take them seriously, as we should. Indeed, both Hurricane Charlie in 1951 and Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 took some by surprise because they refused to listen.

Even termites in Jamaica are doing things differently today. I do not recall seeing so many subterranean termites in houses in previous years. Some might say that the subterranean termites have taken over from the wood termites because most houses are concrete today while more wood was used for buildings previously.

Even so, I believe that if the subterranean termites had enough stones to consume they would not interfere with buildings. In other words, the subterranean termite plague (and I choose to call it that) might well have do with the interference with their natural habitat by illegal sandmining and by removing too many rocks from below the earth’s surface.

And speaking about storms and hurricanes, if Tomas affects sections of Jamaica badly, it might very well be one of the last storms to cause a prolonged suspension of the electricity supply. Why do I think so? Because more people today have their own solar electric plant and this is bound to escalate.

After all the talk since the beginning of the international oil crisis in 1973, the corporate community now sees alternate energy as profitable. To that end, it seems they engaged the services of Bill Clinton to speak about the need to cut the oil bill, something which was first said 37 years ago. Will alternate energy bring new problems? I do not know, except that if people have their own power plants there might not be the level of precaution against fatal electric shocks.

And when alternative energy becomes the norm, it will be incredible to a future generation of children when they are told that after Hurricane Gilbert many did not have electricity for more than two months. And that in itself was very different to what happened after Hurricane Charlie in 1951. At that time most of Jamaica did not yet have electricity, so it really made no difference.

Indeed, most of the spread of electricity came after political independence under what was then called the rural electrification programme. The name alone reveals that it was mainly the major towns in Jamaica that had electricity at the time. After Hurricane Charlie in 1951, many had to walk several miles to get food.

And there were no telephones, let alone computers or email, so that people could know what had happened to their relatives and if they were still alive after the hurricane. Today people within a few feet of each other are busy texting each other because they cannot be bothered to talk. I often ask youngsters if they can imagine a long line of people waiting to use a single telephone. That is the way things were up to 20 years ago.

One new problem that will bring about new ways of doing things is the presence of lionfish in Jamaican waters. My regular readers know that I have written two columns on lionfish in recent times, one in August called, “Lionfish in Jamaican waters” and another in September, “Lionfish psychology . Since those articles appeared, some people have emailed me with their suggestions pertaining to lionfish.

One person wrote that since lionfish prey on parrot fish, among others, perhaps the government should import Pacific Ocean parrot fish (which is a tropical fish) to Jamaica. According to him, the Pacific Ocean parrot fish know how to defend themselves against lionfish. And there is a suggestion that the government and the Jamaica Tourist Board should be inviting skin divers to our shores as tourists to view the beautiful lionfish.

Another person wrote that in Grand Cayman there are regular lionfish cookouts once per month to reduce the population of lionfish around that island. He suggests we do the same here to reduce the lionfish population and protect the tourist industry. I suggest that the fishermen’s co-operatives should take the lead in this area. So for what they are worth, I pass on these suggestions.

But there needs to be more lionfish education. As recently as National Heroes Day, I heard a fisherman with a conspiracy theory that lionfish is a laboratory concoction to kill other fish and starve poor people in the Third World. He does not believe in the other story that was given. As a result some fishermen will have as little to do with lionfish as possible. And if this rumour is not corrected the lionfish will thrive to our detriment.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com