Hurricane Dean has come and gone and clearly, My Friend P has declared, most people are quite ok.

Of course, there a lot of people who are suffering and they are suffering big time - but, unfortunately, the people who have the power and the wherewithal to do stuff and change stuff are very comfortable. Pity, I said to P, they should have lost their roofs.

How does My Friend P know this? Well we listened in total dismay to the chatter on air and in the streets on Tuesday, less than 72 hours after the island's near brush with death, and it was sad. What were people occupying their time with the right or 'wrongness' of the Prime Minister's decision to proclaim a state of public emergency.

It is clear to me that the only people who should be unduly bothered by the Prime Minister's announcement would have to be people who:

a) intended to do wrong

b) were seeking an opportunity to do wrong

c) thought there would be something to gain by having people do wrong

d) were in search of something to stick it to the PM about.

Yes, yes, I know some people out there are going to get their underwear all knotted now and talk about removal of rights but I say blah, blah, blah and that is all rubbish.

This is the reality; there is no water, no electricity (people in Kingston can finally see the stars at night), roads are blocked and properties public and private in many parts of the island are in varying states of exposure and destruction.

Under normal conditions many Jamaicans have clearly exhibited major problems with executing civilised behaviour. We loot, create mayhem and disorder at the slightest opening. An overturned trailer in the middle of the day will be looted (no hurricane needed); a crashed bus with injured people can be looted (no hurricane needed); a shop that is on fire will be looted (no hurricane needed); people wearing green and orange shirts can get into a fatal clash (no hurricane needed); a bit of bad driving can result in violence (no hurricane needed) and this seeming ridiculous list could go on and on - but people who live in Jamaica know that this is all true.

So what then, if, with our immature temperament as a people, we were to add the perfect environmental conditions of the aftermath of a hurricane (extreme or mild) what, pray tell, might the outcome be? Some people want to find out - the PM did not - at least not on her watch.

Some of us really have a screwed up notion of what is important from one day to next. My heart bleeds for the people who have no roof over their heads - partial or total - I have been there and it is no fun. I am in total hurt for the people who had put together the little stash to set up their children for the new school term and are watching it being blown away by the economic winds of woe in the immediate aftermath of a hurricane. I feel the discomfort of those caring for very young children, the old and the 'infirmed' in conditions of no running water or electricity. Think about those realities - do any of those people give a rat's tail about a state of public emergency? I think not.

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