THERE’S a lot of talk about wind and wind power these days.
I have been thinking about it and the Bette Midler song `Wind beneath my Wings’, one of my favourites, came to mind.

Taking the breeze on a walk along the Guyana sea wall is a delightfully refreshing experience and I enjoy the feel of the wind streaming through my hair on long drives on land or out on the sea.

Some people belch and say they are getting rid of wind; others pass wind through the other end and exhale with double relief although it may not be as exhilarating for others around.

But wind power comes in difference forms and reaping the right kind of wind can produce rich dividends.

Other types of wind, like the stuff some local so-called analysts are so full of, can produce delusions and cause confusion among normal people.

They are much like the Don Quixote character the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra created and whose tales have become a Western literary masterpiece.

Cervantes’ Don Quixote was so afflicted by an ill wind and delusions that he attacked windmills he believed were ferocious giants.

Poor guy! He would have been in great company with some of his kind around here today who are so busy attacking windmills thinking they are taking the fight to huge mortal enemies.

The resemblance between sketches of the wild-eyed Don Quixote on a sorry-looking horse hurtling down the road, with a long lance to destroy a windmill looking like a giant on the horizon, and some local so-called defenders of the faith wielding literary lances from make-believe horses is eerie.

It’s like they live in a never-never world, ever tilting at windmills which are demons to be slain only in their delusions.

For example, it’s hilarious sometimes to hear some proclaim that Guyanese are in bondage under a dictatorship and yet they have so much freedom that they can openly criticise the President and his government almost daily without fearing any dire consequences.

People in a democracy have a right to be on guard against any excesses or abuses by those freely-elected to govern them; but they also have to be equally on the alert for shysters like Don Quixote living in wild nightmares.

True advocates should be looking at the good that can be harnessed by modern windmills from the abundant wind blowing across Guyana.

There can be no escaping the dangers of global warming and countries like Guyana have to tap into clean alternative sources of energy like wind power.

Some work has been done on this here but the pace should be stepped up to ensure others do not take the wind out of the Guyana energy sail.

In the United States, the idea of wind turbines churning out free electricity alongside every home and office building has appeal, judging by the throngs around “community wind” purveyors at a Chicago wind power convention this week.

According to Reuters news agency, Darrin Russell of Southwest Windpower was inundated with questions during the Windpower 2009 convention where he explained the economics of the company’s workhorse 2.4 kilowatt Skystream turbine, which plugs into the local electrical grid.

“It’s nice watching the (electricity) meter go backward. Sometimes it gets going pretty fast when the wind blows hard” which it does often at the company’s headquarters in Flagstaff, Arizona, he said.

The wind does blow hard here too and wind turbines along our coast and up in the mountains churning, churning and turning out clean and cheap electricity will do much to keep the local Don Quixotes locked in their caves along with their howling winds and delusions.