Heidi Trautmann Column - Heidi Trautmann Column 7 - Let’s talk about culture and health

Heidi Trautmann

Heidi Trautmann Column 7 - Let’s talk about culture and health 11/7/2012 I just finished reading a book about the times of the Plague, the Black Death, which was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. It is estimated to have killed 30-60 percent of Europe’s population in the 14th century. You may ask now what it has got to do with us today? Just like hundreds of years ago pandemics have one thing in common: it travels; it is spread by travelers. When one day you moan about headache and fever on this lovely island of pure air you have somehow been in touch with someone who had just come from abroad or you have caught the disease in the airplane that brought you back here, the viruses spread over the air condition system. Pandemics develop in countries with extremely poor conditions of life, lack of proper medical protection, hygiene and are spread by travelling people, and…even in our modern times in the middle of Europe …caused by criminal or profit orientated negligence in food producing and animal farming companies of which we have had many proof in the last years. Our health services worldwide and also in Cyprus are constantly on alert and try to keep control of the spreading of such pandemics. There are regular health checks in schools and the medical service offered is quite satisfactory. Only 100 years ago in Cyprus the Malaria pandemic was eradicated by Cypriot Chief Health Inspector Mehmet Aziz in cooperation with a British scientist Sir Ronald Ross. Records tell the story; he was the father of the famous Chief Matron Türkan Aziz who is still alive at the age of over 90 years. She had written the book ‘Death of friendship’. Health is one of the vital columns of society, it represents a cultural asset, and to pronounce it more scientifically: Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. A healthy mind in a healthy body, I say. Health also depends on the individual care of one’s own and only life; this is nothing your government is responsible for; health is an individual state of mind, body and spirit, depending on your upbringing, your genes and the way you feed your body, your brain and your spirit. You want to be healthy and happy? Try to avoid the consumption of all system weakening food and drinks; speak out when something is troubling you; don’t brood over things, try to sing and dance to the music in your kitchen while you are cooking, while you are doing any work around the house; read good books, watch good films; or in short: Look on the bright side of life! I know it is not easy when your back is hurting you, or your sweetheart has run away with someone else and the advice can only be a guide for normal days. The other day I met some elderly tourists on the way up the hills in the heat of a Cypriot summer day without a T-Shirt or hat on, red in the face; or I encountered joggers on roads with heavy traffic inhaling the exhaust fumes; We cannot live a healthy life just for ourselves, built a wall around us and forget about the rest. As long as my property is clean, my car, then I am doing enough for my health. Wrong! People throwing rubbish out of the window, into the road ditches, down the ravines, will attract vermin. Some desolated places have become dumping places; old paint, oils and other poisonous stuff trickle into the soil; old batteries etc. The word ‘health’ has the ring of cleanliness, positivity, openness and responsibility, a term we might also use for areas of activity like politics, economics and trade, organizations responsible for environment and peace.