When a volcano wakes
I watched the footage of Barren Island — India's only active volcano — stirring again with that mixture of unease and awe that such images always produce. The Times of India ran the short, arresting clip and factual note: "Watch: India's only active volcano stirs again; 'Barren Island' saw mild eruptions twice last week" Watch: India's only active volcano stirs again; 'Barren Island' saw mild eruptions twice last week. A remote, dramatic reminder that Nature still makes headlines with sudden, visible events.
And yet my mind went elsewhere — to the quieter, less photogenic harms that kill and disable many more people every year. I have written about this imbalance before: how we rush to respond to spectacular catastrophes but are much less vigorous about preventing slow, daily killers — malnutrition, air pollution, road accidents, maternal deaths, farmer suicides, people run over on tracks Why do we need drama?.
Drama versus steady harm: why visibility drives action
There is nothing wrong with being moved by a volcano. It is a rare, visceral event; it gives us a single image to hang our attention on. But I keep returning to a stubborn question: why do we marshal so much public energy and political will for visible drama while tolerating thousands of preventable deaths that never make the front pages with the same intensity?
I argued along these lines years ago in pieces about preventive action and political incentives. I asked why tragedies that are loud and immediate demand action, while systemic killers — polluted air from coal plants, unsafe infrastructure, chronic malnutrition — receive only a murmur I am all for Preventive Action. That contrast is painfully pertinent when we watch a volcano and then look away.
Accidents, preparedness and a culture of accountability
The eruption footage also reminded me of another theme I have returned to: the way societies learn (or fail to learn) from accidents. The history of film and television is littered with on-set tragedies — an object lesson in how lax safety cultures can cost lives — cataloged meticulously in public records List of film and television accidents. Those stories are uncomfortable because they often show how predictable failures, ignored warnings, or weak regulation turn avoidable risks into fatalities.
The same lesson applies to public services and infrastructure. I have advocated for a stronger framework to hold systems and their custodians accountable — a kind of Service Liability regime that treats persistent omissions as actionable failures and forces systemic change Needed: Service Liability Act. When the public only reacts to spectacle, there is no sustained pressure to fix chronic hazards.
I had written about these gaps before — and that matters
It is striking, and honestly a little validating, that many of these ideas are not new to me. Years ago I wrote about the need to act on steady harms, proposed digital tools to raise public voice, and even sketched frameworks to rate government response and enforce accountability Needed: Service Liability Act. I had also reflected on how coincidences and dramatic juxtapositions grab public attention and skew perception This is not even a black swan; it is red…. The core idea I want to underline is simple: I flagged these problems long before the latest headline. Seeing events unfold now only sharpens my sense that those earlier ideas still deserve action.
(If this resonates, note that I did propose concrete public-facing instruments — an online Service Liability Assessment Matrix, citizen reporting, and clearer legal responsibilities for public servants — because awareness without structure rarely produces change Needed: Service Liability Act.)
What watching a volcano should teach us
A few modest reflections, born of history and of the essays I've posted over time:
Rare, dramatic events concentrate attention. Use that attention to spotlight and fund long-term preventive measures, not just emergency response.
Accident histories — whether in entertainment, transport, or public infrastructure — show the value of institutional learning and accountability. The catalogue of on-set accidents is a source of painful lessons on safety culture List of film and television accidents.
We should treat slow killers as policy priorities. I’ve argued this before: daily, preventable deaths demand systematic remedies, not only occasional headlines Why do we need drama?.
Citizens need tools to measure and demand better service. That was the idea behind my Service Liability proposal: make it easier for people to rate failures and hold institutions to account Needed: Service Liability Act.
A quiet plea
Watching Barren Island remind us that Nature can be dramatic. But I hope the same emotional bandwidth can be extended to the quieter, cumulative tragedies that kill far more people over time. Let the volcano be a teacher: not just of geology and awe, but of attention — and let that attention be put to work on the persistent, fixable harms that cost lives every day.
I raised these points before. Today, seeing how events keep unspooling, I feel both a quiet validation and an urgency: our earlier insights were useful then and they are still needed now.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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