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WIDER IMPLICATIONS ABOUT THE EMERGENCE OF CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROMES

 

Chapter 11

At the time of writing the world population is a little over 6 billion human beings and there has never been a time when there was more impact on our environment (the biosphere) as now.
There is also the co-evolving interplay between hosts and pathogens.

James Lovelock beautifully describes the earth in its entirety as Gaia, a descriptive term meant to convey that in a certain planet in a certain kind of solar system certain kinds of chemistry and geology have given rise to diverse and profoundly connected living systems and that this is our home.

A goal for all human beings is to honour and respect Gaia which is the ground of our existence and the basis for our future.

We are being informed of major scales of degradation and pollution of seas,
lakes, waterways, air and soils.

There is an opportunity for the wealth of the world to provide the best protection to these systems in the name of life.

If it is true that countless thousands of toxic substances and altered
concentrations of basic chemicals (for example in soil salination) are
having an impact it seems absurd that we are promoting billion dollar
industries around nutritional supplements without getting the underlying soils, water and air into optimal states. Healthy plants require such healthy environments and so it goes up the food chain.

Governments have generally been complicit with national and multinational companies and corporations in wilderness and ecosystem destruction.

JOINING SCIENCE WITH ATTITUDE AND CARING

WORLD SAVING COMMUNITIES

People of integrity could create an "Earth protecting group" which
cooperating with caring and new wave governments could eliminate the present tax havens, and together create "Healing funds and healing enterprises" to protect the richness of life and all its support systems.

The time has come for all of us to promote methods of agriculture in the world which are longer be driven by material profit motives and economic rationalism.

We can learn to go beyond selfishness.

This involves the realisation that people in moving to positions of
possession and power risk misuse of the world's resources.

Claiming the privilege of rights to much more of the world's resources than others is one sort of misuse.

Another is the claim to have a better or" only" revelation from God, which has led to indescribable actions towards other human beings as in the Spanish Inquisition which sprang up from within Christianity, but has no Christ like love within it.

In our recent history the action of destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York, killing human beings of many different beliefs, reveals the ethical consequences of such a disdain for others, through a blind and dogmatic interpretation of the Qu'ran.

Of this ilk are the differences that divide us.

They create notions of inclusion and exclusion.

I invite the reader to be willing to think of inclusion and compassion as basic to our futures on the earth.

Scientists and health practitioners can dare to seek and find the integrity of person and community that their truths cannot be bought, directly or indirectly by holders of wealth ,political expediency or bargaining power.

If we could somehow allocate some of this wealth to education of every
human being during schooling and to openness in telling the truth about the
state of health or otherwise in the food industry, at last it could be
possible for people to truly choose foods which would optimize health.

This is the field of ethics of caring.

I believe it is the responsibility of all citizens who are educated in the
field of biology to bring to bear the strongest influence on governments in the following matters.

1. A much greater assessment of all soils and the regular publication of information about soil and water quality in a completely accessible site.
(For example written and visual media including the internet.)

2. A method of doing genetic engineering research in such a way that it cannot contaminate non-genetically engineered plants or organisms.

3. Thorough labelling, not only of the contents of food, but its origin, list of nutrients and presence or absence of genetically engineered material.

4. Updating of all the methods that are now being employed to counter chemical and radiant pollutions with publication of this information in regular health bulletins available through the media and the internet.

5. Authorities need to stop being so defensive when conventional and accepted information is challenged. If it emerges that toxicity used to be thought about in terms of parts per million we do need to rethink whether there are
biological actions of parts per billion.

The example of the British Government's response to the initial information about bovine spongiform encephalopathy ( Mad Cow Disease) is just one example of an ignorant and arrogant response by people in authority.

6. Dr Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountains Institute in the USA writes and lectures about Natural Capitalism, in which we could factor in the value of every resource used. It truly makes economic sense to include the value of
what nature provides, and to know what it costs us when we damage the environment.

Lovins is very positive in his remedies which actually save money and generate long term economic advantages.

It seems timely to help children at various stages to appreciate that there are necessarily many ways to think about the world and ourselves. Many of these world views can be found in different cultures.

We can come to think of having access to many discourses about ourselves and our planet and this includes honouring many traditions other than our own.

Such a background could open us to respond to difference with curiosity rather than hostility.

HEALING OURSELVES AND HEALING THE HEALER

The journey of the healer as a person has old and sacred connections.

The healer at some time encountered a dangerous or hurtful experience leaving her or him wounded.
The emergence of a career in healing, will uncover a vulnerability that
touches the old wound or wounds.

It is a hope that through this happening the healer will sooner or later
realize that she or he has been wounded, and can dare to face that which wounded her or him.

The ancient claim is that there is" healing in facing that which wounds us."

Yet more is needed!

We can learn that we ourselves wound each other.
Thus we can become more aware of this possibility, so as to notice each time that we have contributed to another's pain.

In time, we awaken to be sensitive enough to confront whatever is needed, yet communicate in ways which fit with the persons own values and belief systems.

This is called "meeting people at their models of the world"

We cannot do this if we do not know what that model is".

We are ever in danger in imposing our models of the world on others.

Thus the new millenium could be a time for reflecting upon our present practices, healing those that need healing and creatively developing many new possibilities. (Theobald)

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