Fishermen, don't venture into the sea

The Govt of Tamilnadu, I understand, has cautioned fishermen not to venture into the sea, in view of the inclement weather.

Ever since I can remember, issuing this statement is the first and often the only piece of action from the government whenever a low-pressure area forms in the Bay of Bengal. The government, after all, has to demonstrate that it is alert to any danger and needs to make appropriate announcements to show that it is in full administrative control. And, as per standard operating procedure, it immediately asks fishermen not to venture into the sea. Once this is done, it feels that it has discharged its full duty.

To be honest, I haven’t seen evidence of the government or a bureaucrat actually telling the fishermen not to venture into the sea. I am going only by what the papers tell me. In fact I suspect that the government doesn’t even issue such a statement. Why it gets reported thus is perhaps because the newspapers strongly believe that, whenever there is a storm brewing, the readers would expect to be informed that fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea. The readers don’t care if the fishermen have actually been warned not to venture into the sea, but they feel that the newspapers ought to tell them so. This is a long unbroken tradition that is solemnly followed and respected by the newspapers and the readers.

In fact, if newspapers fail to report that fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea, nobody would believe that it is raining , even when there is a cyclonic storm lashing. It can’t be raining, the reader would assert. Where is the news item that fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea?

Conversely, when there is bright sunshine, if a mischievous reporter were to plant a story that the government had asked fishermen not to venture into the sea, the readers would, in a Pavlovian response, stay at home convinced that there was heavy rain outside.

The fishermen, oblivious to this drama, use their own judgement to decide whether they should venture into the sea or not. If they sense that it is going to rain, they don’t venture into the sea, not because the government has asked them not to, but because they feel that the public will not visit the fish market believing that there will not be any fresh catch, as newspapers had reported that fishermen had been asked not to venture into the sea.

Update 13/11/09 : Usha has forwarded this story:

"The Blackfeet asked their Chief in autumn, if the winter was going to be cold or not. Not really knowing the answer, the chief replies that the winter was going to be cold and that the members of the village were to collect wood to be prepared.

Being a good leader, he then went to the nearest phone booth and called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is this winter to be cold?"

The man on the phone responded, "This winter was going to be quite cold indeed."

So the Chief went back to speed up his people to collect even more wood to be prepared.

A week later he called the National Weather Service again, "Is it going to be a very cold winter?"

"Yes," the man replied, "its going to be a very cold winter."

So the Chief goes back to his people and orders them to go and find
every scrap of wood they can find. Two weeks later he calls the National Weather Service again and asks "Are you absolutely sure, that the winter is going to be very cold?"

"Absolutely" the man replies, "the Blackfeet are collecting wood like crazy!"