More medicine and less wellness

  For over a decade, some of us have been familiar with comedian George Carlin’s phenomenal tribute to his late wife. Though some people claim that the American actor actually plagiarized it, in the twelve years that I’ve known the lyrical tribute, no one has ever claimed intellectual ownership of the amazing art of word […]

 

For over a decade, some of us have been familiar with comedian George Carlin’s phenomenal tribute to his late wife. Though some people claim that the American actor actually plagiarized it, in the twelve years that I’ve known the lyrical tribute, no one has ever claimed intellectual ownership of the amazing art of word craft the man called ‘The paradox of our time’.

 

In fact, the title of this column today, is a line from Mr Carlin’s masterpiece. The whole lyrical tribute runs thus:

 

“The paradox of our time in history is that

 

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints.

 

We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less.

 

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time;

 

We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment;

 

More experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness ……

 

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

 

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

 

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life.

 

We’ve added years to life, not life to years.

 

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,

 

But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

 

We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space.

 

We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

 

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

 

We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice.

 

We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait.

 

We plan more, but accomplish less.

 

We write more, but learn less.

 

We build more computers

 

To hold more information

 

To produce more copies than ever,

 

But have less communication.

 

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion;

 

Tall men, and short characters; steep profits, and shallow relationships.

 

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare;

 

More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

 

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce;

 

Of fancier houses, but broken homes.

 

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw-away morality,

 

One-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do

 

Everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

 

It is a time when there is much in the show window

 

And nothing in the stockroom;

 

A time when technology can bring this letter to you,

 

And a time when you can choose either to share this insight,

 

Or to just hit delete ……”

 

Though we may not agree 100% with George Carlin, we are sure to accept that most of what he said is true. Here in Nigeria, the proof of what he said is never more obvious than when we look at our environment. The dirt we live in belies the fact that we are a country with lots of indigenous doctors and other medical personnel, who are in a position due to their training, to champion the cause of environmental hygiene.

 

Several times I have written on this page that with the exception of Abuja, there is no Nigerian city that you can proudly showcase to a foreigner because the dirt is enough to cause you shame. And even in Abuja, it isn’t the whole of it that you can show off with glee. Once you are out of Asokoro, Maitama, parts of Wuse II, Garki and Utako, you can’t be so confident because at any moment you can be confronted with a rubbish heap or a horribly open drainage.

 

As for the rest of our state capitals, the dirt is the norm, not the exception. Whenever we travel outside Abuja, I find myself trying to tell my children that our towns and cities weren’t this dirty when we were growing up. I often tell them that we used to have designated rubbish dumps such that a whole area uses that ‘bola’ and restrict their dirt to only that part of the ward. Today you come across numerous refuse dumps on both sides of the street and you wonder if anyone ever notices this descent into abyss.

 

And though we had open gutters even in those days, people cared enough to make their sons use the rake to clear them whenever the need arose. The activities of ‘yan aikin gayya’ local cooperative youths, also helped a lot in keeping our towns clean, as every once in a while they would organise environmental sanitation exercises, and with a lot of singing and dancing, they cleared the rubbish heaps as well as the gutters. As young kids we were always attracted to ‘aikin gayya’ exercises because of the singing and dancing we saw among the young adults. But we never went too close because of the smelly nature of the exercise.

 

Now remember that these were only the days of the duba-gari- the sanitary inspectors and nothing more, but people still took their environmental hygiene seriously and did so voluntarily because they knew the importance of basic hygiene. Today we churn out a lot medical doctors, such that almost every other family has a member in the profession, in addition to nurses, midwives, etc but we can’t feel the impact of having so many professionals in our environment.

 

We are supposed to be more enlightened because of much book knowledge around us but we see no evidence of that on the ground, in our towns and cities. Once upon a time you can count the number of university professors, in any Northern state, on the fingers of one hand. But today I wouldn’t be surprised if every local government in the North has produced at least one professor. Still we fail to feel the impact of this abundance of knowledge where we need to, in our immediate environment.

 

And here I am not saying that the problem of dirt is only here in the North, I am only citing the North as an example because this is where I know well. But I am well aware that this is a national problem because I’ve often seen pictures of places of incredible dirt from other parts of Nigeria. In fact a former colleague of mine who is from the South-south, once told me that a certain road linking one Southern state to another, consisted of one long refuse dump from the beginning of the road to the end. So when you are travelling by road you have to keep your eyes glued to the other side throughout the duration of the trip. Otherwise your grand travel view will be nothing other than that refuse eyesore. Can you believe this? In the 21st century, in a country with the most travelled citizens in Africa, yet we can’t seem to care about doing what others do i.e keep their environment clean?

 

No wonder we always have our annual Cholera and Meningitis outbreaks while our Malaria is super-resistant now, how can we hope to combat them when we have neither the will nor the intention to keep our surroundings clean?

 

In almost all parts of Nigeria today the monthly sanitation exercise is only observed in the breach. People stay at home to rest longer on each last Saturday of the month. As a result, we will continue to have our refuse dumps and blocked drainages which also lead to annual flooding and resultant tragedies. Yes, indeed it is a paradox of our times that we have more medicine but less wellness. We just can’t have what we didn’t work for.