A Silver Lining to Hurricane Season
It is hard –– VERY HARD –– to contemplate any even remote goodness related in any way to hurricanes. Especially today, as thousands of our fellow West Indians suffer tremendous pains struggling to maintain some slight semblance of daily life in the wake of Irma and Maria. If history is any guide, though, the almost inconceivable hardships they’re enduring right now will surely lead more than a few of them to –– *ahem* –– conceive. As any Granny or Tanti throughout our islands can tell you, and this Orlando Sentinel article from a few years back supports, you can always expect a bit of a baby boom nine months after a hurricane hits. No electricity means no TV or Internet distractions. What limited supplies that are available often don’t include contraception. Candlelight and the usual sultriness of our tropical surrounds seals the deal. (This stuff likely helps too.) So, get ready Anguilla, Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Culebra, Dominica, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten/St. Martin, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, Vieques: those amazing island communities you’re working so hard to rebuild will, in all likelihood, welcome more than a few fresh new faces next June…
*Photo credit: Flickr user Carlos Mendoza Lima.