Subscriber Brian Nugent shared this, with permission for me to reprint it here. Your thoughts are also welcome, and you can post them below!<\/p>\n
Dear Dr. Gayek,<\/p>\n
Thank you for a very thought provoking article on disasters, how we
\nperceive them and how we respond to them.\u00a0 It’s so sad that the TV<\/div>\nstations (which I avoid as mich as possible) seem to gloat in referring<\/div>\nus to their web sites where we can see ‘amazing’ pictures of the<\/div>\nJapanese disaster!!\u00a0 But unless we consciously switch our thoughts to<\/div>\na more forward looking position we can get locked into this sensationalism.<\/div>\nThe point I want to make in this response is about recognising our
\nown strengths, joining them to other’s strengths and achieving amazing
\nthings jointly.<\/div>\nBefore the so called first world nations relied so much on technology and
\ndepended so much on doctors to cure us, teachers to have us learn and
\ngovernments to provide for us, societies found ways of achieving for their
\ncommunities by sharing, co-operating and working together to reach a goal
\nwhich benefited many.<\/div>\nI have worked in developing countries for many years and before
\ncommunities began to depend on Landcruisers to transport outside<\/div>\n‘specialists’, and regular supplies of food aid to perceived helpless peoples,<\/div>\nthey used their vast array of local resources in the shape of knowledge,<\/div>\nmanual skills, land, rivers, nature and kinship to address and solve<\/div>\nproblems and achieve aims.<\/div>\nThere is much talk about ‘early warning systems’ in place through
\nhigh level technology. Well in reality what have they achieved?\u00a0 The
\npeople in villages in Africa who would forwarned of droughts and such<\/div>\ncalamities, through the departure of animals and birds, or the change in
\nwind-direction are now being ignored for computer readings.<\/p>\nThe Japanese people, so severely effected by recent disasters, will now
\nlook to the formation of groups and associations and face this catastrophe
\ntogether towards rebuilding their lives and livelihoods.\u00a0 They will be
\ndepending only on their own strengths and those of like minded people, not
\non the international community and not on their government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhile life saving health assistance will be required for the short term,
\npeople will take greater responsibility for their own health and that of
\ntheir families.\u00a0 Reducing reliance on health services from governments
\nis spreading rapidly.\u00a0 The British Government is even seeking to include
\nits population in reshaping the health service by beginning in the home
\nthrough better self-care.\u00a0 There is much from history to learn about relying more
\non ourselves and on our communities than placing the power in the hands of
\nothers.<\/p>\nThere is a lovely introduction to the book ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell
\nabout why the community of Roseto, Pennsylvania lived so healthily, while
\nother neighbouring communities complained of many diseases and ailments.
\nSocial interaction, care for each other, community undertakings and an
\napparent relaxed approach to life were key to a more healthy
\nlifestyle.\u00a0 This was the 1950s.<\/p>\nStrength based approaches to growth, prosperity and a caring association
\nwith others can be learned about through examples such as Asset Based
\nCommunity Development (ABCD), Positive Deviance, Endogenous Development
\nand others.<\/p>\nThere is much we can learn and much we can do besides wallowing in how the
\nJapanese people and others are suffering.\u00a0 Care, consideration and
\ninteraction with our neighbour is essential – you never know where or when
\nthe next disaster lurks.<\/p>\nBrian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Thank you so much, Brian, for the reminder about what we can accomplish by focusing on what we CAN do instead of what we can’t, how we’re connected instead of alone, all the wonderful resources we have in one another and the natural world around us, instead of how dangerous the natural world is, and how we’ve collectively screwed it up even more.<\/p>\n
What a breath of fresh air! Speaking of which, it’s time to go out for a walk in the spring loveliness!<\/p>\n
with love and appreciation,<\/p>\n
Dr. Gayek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Subscriber Brian Nugent shared this, with permission for me to reprint it here. Your thoughts are also welcome, and you can post them below! Dear Dr. Gayek, Thank you for a very thought provoking article on disasters, how we perceive them and how we respond to them.\u00a0 It’s so sad that the TV stations (which… Continue reading Response to Responding…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-healing","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":702,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}