Columnists

The Art of Looking Beyond Your Nose

T. SHER SINGH

DAILY FIX

Wednesday, Octoner 31, 2012

I can see a pattern emerging.

Remember the World Trade Center in New York?

America’s enemies zeroed in on it as an ideal target. They tried several times to blow it up, but did limited damage each time.

Then the tragedy of 9/11 happened.

The entire complex was destroyed, by the same crazies who had kept trying and trying, and thousands of innocent lives were lost in the most tragic of circumstances.

So, what did New Yorkers learn from it all?

It appears, nothing!

They have rebuilt another bunch of skyscrapers on the same spot, oblivious of the fact that it was the relatively unsecure location and the concentration of American interests in one small, easy spot that had made it an ideal target for its enemies, in the first place. 

Has anyone scratched his proverbial head and said: How do we do things differently this time around so that it is no longer easy for madmen to see it as an easy target?

I worry that we live in a world that tears around everywhere in a hurry, with little time for long-term thinking.

I see the pattern emerging loud and clear, again in New York and vicinity, this time around in the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy.

Large centers of bee-hive-like human habitation -- such as New York and New Jersey -- have taken the full brunt of nature’s onslaught these last few days.

This is not the first time.

At periodic intervals, storms of various magnitude have head their way. Mercifully, most of the times, they get distracted en route and take a slightly different path, or the damage is less than feared.

This time there was no escape. The confluence of a number of nature’s forces -- wrong place, wrong time -- has led to a sprawling swath of destruction.

No one’s fault. That’s where the cities had been built, where the communities had settled, where large population centers had grown, through the centuries.

Why there?

Because it was convenient. Proximity to the sea made it easy for transportation, which in turn was good for commerce.

The decades passed, turned into centuries. The cities grew into huge metropolises.

No one had the time or the inclination to stop, even for a moment, to say, Wait a second, is this a good spot to be putting all our eggs? Now that we don’t HAVE to be here by the water, shouldn’t we be doing our new building a bit further inland.

No. We simply built the JFK and the La Guardia airports right by the sea. Because they need to be near the water? [You can carry on from here and create your own list …]

In the meantime, we’ve been meddling with the weather, all the time refusing to acknowledge the implications.

The writing on the wall has been clear. But we have lost the ability to see beyond our noses.

Sea storms have become bigger. Noticeably. Year after year.

And more frequent.

Which means, given the odds, more of them now accomplish landfall than  before.

And nature has no GPS. It doesn‘t follow instructions. Or human logic. Or obey the dictates of our needs. It frolics in its own unpredictable, careless way. It doesn’t say, hey, there’s Manhattan, let’s veer off a bit.

Thus, if we thought about it even for a moment -- the emphasis is on the word ‘thought‘ -- we would realize that it was only a matter of time when something like Hurricane Sandy would happen. As sure as Sandy followed Irene (2011), which followed Bill (2009), which followed Hanna (2008) … Barry in 2007, Ernesto in 2006 … as sure as one followed the next, one begat the other, there will be more.

So what do we do?

I was listening to remarks by Governor of Chris Christie of New Jersey last night. They say he is one of the brightest lights in the American firmament today. He was talking about the Atlantic City boardwalk.

The Atlantic City boardwalk is -- no, WAS! -- a world-famous stroll jutting out into the sea. Anybody who saw it or walked on it would have to be a total simpleton not to have the thought cross his mind that it was but a matter of time when nature would wash it out into the sea.

Well, it did. On Monday -- the day before yesterday.

Governor Christie said last night, with all the bravado he could muster in his huge frame, once the mourning for the dead is over, tomorrow -- that is, today, Wednesday, October 31, 2012 -- we begin to work on re-building the boardwalk.

Right! Let’s do it right there, Governor, exactly in the same spot where Sandy blew everything into kingdom come in the bat of an eyelid.

So that no one ever thinks that human beings are rational, intelligent, logical creatures who learn from their mistakes and correct their bearings as soon as they get an opportunity to do so.

Once the wind has died down in, say, New York, and the water has been pumped out back into the sea, the lights are back on, and life resumes its normalcy, do you think some bright minds will be summoned by our leaders to sit down and calmly reflect on where do we go from here, BEFORE we start re-building?

Sure, there’s no place on earth where we can guarantee perfect safety from nature.

But our task as rational creatures is to at least use common sense and seek out areas of less or least risk to our populations and future generations in everything we do.

Will such an exercise in thoughtful planning and engineering ever be carried out, BEFORE we start digging again, deep into the earth, and clawing towards the heavens?

I wouldn’t hold my breath, if I was you.   

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