Five books for times like this

I have always been a hand washing person but now we have all taken it to the max and we wash our hands constantly to remove daily grime and a possible lurking infection. This I believe will improve our collective hygiene. This maybe the overall resultant fall out from this virus that has turned us […]

I have always been a hand washing person but now we have all taken it to the max and we wash our hands constantly to remove daily grime and a possible lurking infection. This I believe will improve our collective hygiene. This maybe the overall resultant fall out from this virus that has turned us all into a mass of fear. We are also a communal people so it has been very hard to get us all to stop shaking each other’s hands described by many as the fastest way to spread the disease. I personally love to hug my favourite people but now, well, not so much anymore. It is a devastating thing to have any disease ravage a community. We need to step up our airport checks and border towns. We are also not the only nation that has ever come under such an attack. In the past and even in modern times, diseases have wiped out whole families and communities. This is not our portion by the grace of God. Here are books to help us make sense of health issues related to things like Ebola.

1. Pure by Andrew Miller won the 2011 Costa Award and several other awards. It’s a well written book about pre-revolutionary France and the turmoil faced by a nation in trying to clear its graveyards which was polluting the place led by an Engineer. While this is the story of France managing a health hazard, the book’s theatrics will give you joy in its writing and the deft handling of such a sensitive topic has won it many awards.

2. The Black Death by Philip Ziegler. This is a well-documented historical book on the bubonic plague one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–53. This book piecing together chronicles from archives and historical papers tells the devastating story of how nearly sixty percent of Europe’s population was wiped out by a zoonotic disease from rat fleas and lived on black rats before translating into humans; a systemic disintegration of an age. It took Europe nearly 150 years to recover its population. We ought to be grateful for modern science and public health for assisting us in quickly curbing Ebola. Diseases can snowball if not properly handled.

3. The Solution; Conquer your fear, Control your future by Lucinda Basset is a book that helps you conquer your fear and take control of your life. A lot of people suffer stress related ailments when faced with difficult situations e.g. insurgency, fear of a disease, Lack of a job, fear of dying early because your parents did. This is a book that will help you overcome anxiety in a world plagued by many upheavals. A very well researched book that is divided into two, the problem and the solution. There is even an intriguing section where she says your past should never dictate your future citing famous people like Winston Churchill who flunked sixth grade and went on to become one of the most powerful Prime Ministers of Great Britain.

4. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity by Ervin Goffman is a book every Ebola virus survivor must read. Stigma is an illuminating excursion into the situation of persons who are unable to conform to standards that society calls normal. Disqualified from full social acceptance, they are stigmatized individuals. This book will open your psychological mind and tell you that your human self is different from another and bring you to an acceptance of who you are, where you are at the moment with hope for your future irrespective of the bad behaviour of mean spirited individuals who stigmatise others.
I am quite disappointed that people are stigmatising others who got into trouble through contact and are now free of Ebola disease but people always have the fear of the unknown. We are all lucky because we are free of this deadly disease. Let us spare a thought for victims today particularly our health workers who are constantly facing danger by just doing their job like the late Dr Adadevoh.

Read as many magazines and newspapers as you can on the subject matter of Ebola so that you are well informed. I just finished reading last week’s Time magazine and found an interesting article on Ebola and how the disease control unit of the United States is on red alert for a disease that has never killed anyone on American soil. It showed how nation’s plan and traced the history of the Ebola disease so well I felt sufficiently educated and empowered.

BONUS BOOKS;
Any inspirational or motivational book. Any religious or spiritual book. These are difficult times and we need to turn to books that give us comfort and make sense of the world we live in.