Re: Pictures of Ebola- sometimes says more than words
Dear God...
Thinking about Ebola and the fear, mistrust and other emotions it seems to generate whether here or in the outbreak zones, it is unsurprising that so many people are in denial. It is this denial that has led to the destruction of the treatment center in Liberia.
Fear, anger and denial is a very human response, not dissimilar to the initial emotions people feel when they are told by their doctor they have a terminal disease e.g. a widespread cancer and have days left to live. There hasnt been time for the normal acceptance process to occur. A lot of work has been done on this in the Western World, and frankly, on the basis of this work I do not think we would respond too differently on an individual scale, if this were to occur in a developed country. Its just we would have more clinical and caring surroundings.
I wish people were more altruistic, but its an emotional luxury that some of us on this planet cannot afford. We are asking a people faced with the most dire of diseases and a probable death sentance to think of their fellow countrymen and human beings before themselves, thier wants, and their emotional needs. Whilst people would instinctively protect their families, only a very few (in our countries or there) would be sufficiently altruistic to think of the greater good in such circumstances, and isolate and do all that is being asked of them. Instead when faced with a life or death struggle, the only thought is personal survival, or the important people they want to see or talk to before they die. Its instinctive.
The people we are seeing in the isolation centeres are the altruistic ones.
We need to remember that.
