(I had written this essay for an online competition conducted by the IPHU on the theme of “Innovating for the health of all” )
Countries of the world have been busy investing money in making bullets to silence communication. What we need now is for countries to invest time on making valuable communication.
—————-
When the meaning of “health” itself is so diverse, varying from person to person, it is indeed a difficult task to work towards health for all. Health workers are not working on a homogenous problem here; the problems are diverse, complex and overwhelming.
Then again, if one were to sit down and think, is it possible that we already know the answers? Is it possible that in this chaos of approaches, there is actually a straight road that leads to the desired destination?
“All problems will be solved if everyone stopped doing all that they are doing” is what Masanobu Fukuoka had to say in The One Straw Revolution; and that got the machinery moving in my brain. The question now is to ask ourselves “what exactly is the problem?”
Through the last one year I have exposed myself to a plethora of literature on environment and health. It blew my mind, just the volume of literature, the number of ideas and the number of innovative approaches. Most of this material is just buried under a pile of newer literature that keeps getting churned up. It is for this reason that I picked up old books, books which were published decades ago and read them just for the sake of it. And I came across ideas, the relevance of which in today’s context I couldn’t deny one bit.
Why then have we not dealt with these problems effectively, as and how they arise?
————
What is it that triggers a thought process in a person? I mean, when does a person really start to introspect, take some time off to think about things and not merely take them on face value? What is it that then pushes him or her to follow thoughts with action?
There is always an instigating factor for thought and action; and this may vary between situations and persons. A counter-insight to this understanding is provided by ecological historians like Peter Ray who talk about ecological impulse or ecological unconsciousness. But even though there is an ‘unconsciousness’ that exists, there needs to be spark for it to come to consciousness, at least for the human species. At this moment in time, I feel that the spark has something to do with “communication”.
Communication has never been this simple and simultaneously this difficult in human history. While it is easy to speak to someone across the world as though he or she were next to you, it is all the more difficult to have meaningful and introspective dialogue now. There are distractions everywhere, there is noise. How is one to find a meaningful answer in the midst of all this noise? People have termed this phenomenon as information overload; and this generation of youth are being referred to as the google generation. Things are being taken at a superficial level and in depth understanding about situations is lacking. So, at this time do we need more information for innovation? Are we not already overwhelmed by the information that exists? Have we taken the time to see what we already have in the bag?
Everything is connected, from health to development to environment to unanswered questions. For everyone to recognize the connections, all that is needed is a new pair of glasses, metaphorically speaking of course. The new perspective/mindset will be provided through the new innovation which would be a communication bullet (The term bullet may seem violent and inappropriate but my vocabulary limits me here). The bullet finds its mark, makes the impression and also leaves a lasting impact on the receiver.
The target audience is the entire population of the world. The content of communication will vary slightly with each subgroup concerned, but the essence of the communication would remain the same for all the groups of the world. The communication would not be about hygiene, immunization, disease or nutrition; it would be, in a way, about development. It would be about holistic and sustainable development and this is something no one can isolate himself or herself from. The only thing left to figure out is the intent, content and the medium of the communication. That is the big challenge. The probable intent of the communication would be to stimulate the thought process at various levels of the community, from members to managers.
I say this knowing the fact that 80 percent of the diseases occurring in the world are preventable. Intuition tells me that the number is more. Now, when we know that 80 percent of the diseases are preventable, don’t we already know how to prevent them? How about first achieve this feat by methods we know. It probably is political will that needs to be generated and general awareness that needs to be built, which is exactly the purpose of the communication bullet. Without the right communication, any corrective action taken would be meaningless and unsustainable. In this case, the communication itself is the important entity.
Countries of the world have been busy investing money in making bullets to silence communication. What we need now is for countries to invest time on making valuable communication.
