That's how Dr Raymond Forde, president of the Barbados Red Cross Society, has described the unfortunate mindset of Barbadians and he blamed it on the fact that unlike their Caribbean neighbours, Bajans have escaped the devastation caused by monster hurricanes and other acts of nature for at least 50 years.

"We tend to sit down and say, 'This can't happen to us'. We need to be more serious as a people about the dangers and the consequences of natural disasters," he said.

While the physician gave the Government full marks for its preparations to reduce the risks of disasters, Forde, a vice president of the International Federation of the Red Cross, appealed to Barbadians to wake up from their slumber of complacency.

"It was unfortunate for Grenada but fortunate for us in Barbados that we didn't suffer a hit a few years ago from Hurricane Ivan that went on and struck Grenada. But our society is not as resilient as some of our neighbouring countries, such as Dominica, Antigua and so on that have been tested, even if not by direct hit," the Red Cross president said.

He based his conclusions on the reaction of Bajans at home to a loss of electricity for half an hour or an hour – "we tend
to get all frantic because everything works at home" – and that was why he urged people to come to grips with the reality of the situation facing them, meaning that while the country had escaped serious damage since Hurricane Janet in the 1950s a natural disaster could occur at any time.

Forde branded as "quite unfair" and unwarranted suggestions that warning about the dangers of hurricanes was a ploy by the business community to market goods and services.

If Barbadians were looking for examples closer to home about what could happen at a moment's notice, the Red Cross leader cited the tragedy at Britton's Hill in St. Michael where a family died in a cave-in August 2007.

Although Barbados escaped any loss of life or serious property damage from the recent earth tremor felt in the Eastern Caribbean, Forde said that the reaction of Bajans, especially those persons in Bridgetown showed how vulnerable Bajans felt.

"The panic that was demonstrated, especially in Bridgetown where the tremor was felt mor, was a sign because we didn't know what was happening," he declared. (TB)