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Nobody wants to go to the doctors. You put it off until you really really must. Today was one of those days that I really really had to go to the doctors. Our GP works on a first come first serve basis which means no appointments can be made. This means being tactical about when you go. Either go half an hour before it opens or 15 minutes before it closes people say. This time I chose the latter. This tactic did not work, in fact I ended up waiting for over an hour for my appointment. Of course I came prepared, I brought a book to read but what is funny is that when you are made to wait around you tend to get bored of reading even if it is the biggest page turner in the world. I got distracted and looked around the room. The patients consisted mainly of elderly people, all looking incredibly bored and frustrated that they were back again. ‘All I ever do I go back and forth to doctors and hospitals!’ a woman moaned to her daughter. Leaflets and notices were pinned up on the boards about health and wellbeing none of which were engaging in the slightest. I noticed one that looked as though it had literally been typed up on Word in standard font and printed out; it was about the benefits of exercise. Another talked of the perils of bad posture which is ironic considering the seating in the waiting room creates an aching back. There were so many signs that these posters and leaflets had been put up because the GP had to put them there rather than actually wanting to inform patients. When finally, my name was called out I got up and walked to the doctor’s room. She was a kindly, friendly woman but
was incredibly flustered. She held out her hand to shake it and then went back to fiddling with her watch. So…err…what can I do for you? I tried to explain my problems but felt so rushed for time that I skipped out many major details even though I had brought a list! Thoughts rushing through my head – I really don’t need to be here! I’m fine! – as I spoke. She listened half-heartedly with a look that suggested her mind was in another place. When I finished she rushed through some options and then apologized that she didn’t have time for an assessment. Ok that’s it then, well goodbye! What was so sad about this was that she genuinely looked like she did want to help but she just didn’t have the time because she had spent too much time listening to other patients and being a good doctor before hand. This is not the GP’s fault. This isn’t even the NHS’s fault. There is no money or time created within the system to care enough about everyone’s wellbeing so just the most desperate are given these things which in turn creates even more expense for the NHS. The problem is that the system that provides the NHS does not care enough about the public wellbeing to properly look at the categorical problems that cause it to be such a bad service. Nobody wants to go to the doctors. Not even the doctors themselves want to be there.
How do you solve a problem like climate change? A problem that is so large scale that it will eventually effect each and every one of us yet so few of us have the time or the priority to really think about it, let alone do something about it. On top of this there are still many people out there, including the new US president, that don’t believe it is actually going to happen. How do we tackle this? One answer comes in the form of Planet Earth II. Planet Earth II has used the best means possible to create change: great telly. I have never been a particularly avid watcher of nature documentaries. I do always mean to watch them but never really get round to it. They just seem to go on for a bit too long or aren’t particularly attention grabbing. However, just from watching the trailer of Planet Earth II I was hooked. It still took me some time to watch the actual thing a week later – ‘maybe we could just watch it and talk over it?’ – yet as soon as we pressed play we were glued to it, in a constantly changing state of fear, empathy and wonder. This isn’t just any nature documentary; it has two key factors to it that makes it stand out, creativity and sexiness. There is a real story behind each scenario we are placed in, someone has really thought hard about how to narrate this in a way which will provoke emotion rather than focusing on the facts and figures. Of course facts and figures are
keeping people intrigued by the topic. Many of the animals seem like humans that we can relate to and care about. Every viewer now has them in their mind and can think about them every time another acre of the rainforest has been cut down or another vast expanse of ice melts. Hans Zimmer created the music to go alongside the documentary – if you don’t know him he did the music for the Lion King. He has composed the music so you get the feeling that this is something really exciting, like the next big Disney film, that you don’t want to miss out on. If you notice, it changes so often to suit each scene perfectly to further fuel the emotions of the viewers. Not only that, the technology is ‘shit hot’. This means they can film as close to the animals and plants as possible and make them look as good as if not better than real life. The whole thing is a visual and audio treat for the eyes and ears – its like nature porn. All these aspects knock into our deepest instincts and fill us with a sense of true wonder at the world. It reminds us what it used to be like as children, to really be curious about nature and the surrounding world. It makes us realise how awful it would be if it was really taken away from us. It creates empathy which is something we really need in this society if we are going to do anything about climate change and, for that matter, any of the other large scale problems we suffer from today.
Help someone out
Make something bigger and better than yourself
Find out how something works
Share your more vunerable side to another person
Be grateful for what you’ve already got
Stop ranting about how awful other people are
Think more about death
Stop taking yourself too seriously
Look at the sky more
Many people tend to slate the internet and see it as a danger to be wary of. Of course there is a very dark side to the web but I think we need to put more emphasis on the incredible positives that come with it. One thing that should be much more celebrated is YouTube. This is the most amazing resource because of the media it uses – film. Like with Planet Earth II’s success people watch stuff and we have the choice of what to watch. There are people out there talking to us right now, people with good motifs that don’t want profit but just want to help. Just by pressing play, people and organisations with good intentions can fuel you with new ideas, skills and excitement. There has been a boom in DIY tutorials on YouTube ranging from playing guitar to hooping to yoga to Adobe programmes. The possibilities are endless and we should be so grateful for this new resource that costs nothing. There has also been a rise in opinion ‘vlogs’ filling us with new perspectives and creating millions of online discussions in the comments box. Yes, there will be the odd troll but generally the conversations can be incredibly open-minded and interesting. There are also a number of educational channels popping up that can re-engage us in topics that may have passed us by at school. Not only that there is a free flow on new music to excite our ears and inspire our tastes. What are all these things doing? They are empowering us and creating a sense of togetherness in a challenging time that through the mass media’s eyes is stunted and going nowhere. It gives us hope that positive change can and will happen. No matter who we are or how much money we have, we all have access, even if just for a few minutes in an internet café, to this amazing underground resource. We just have to make the most of it.