**AMNESIA: IS IT ALWAYS A MEDICAL ISSUE?**

The sage e-dictionary described amnesia as partial or total loss of memory. One of its hyponyms is “global transient amnesia” which occurs sometimes in middle aged people for few hours after which their intellectual consciousness is regained.
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However, the world seems to be going through what I termed “global permanent amnesia” which in my opinion is like the opposite of global transient amnesia. For the purpose of the article I refer to global permanent amnesia as gradual loss of nature, cultures, friendships, values and historical details at an alarming rate and almost irreversibly without any consciousness or conscious efforts to reverse the trend all over the globe.

The question is, is it that people do not notice the changes or people forget what it used to be? Or there is no intergenerational communication? May yes but what about pictures, books and artifacts. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) made effortds to address this issue of amnesia using the word creeping normalcy which implies that the degradation of values or environments occur gradually at a scale too small to notice, hence people tend to cope easily because it does not require drastic adjustments. Consequent upon this, the whole environment or situation will look as it was; it takes several years or long time to notice changes which are usually permanent.Shutterstock.com

OECD seems not to have all the answers but their assertion is very vital in “global permanent amnesia” discourse. In sustainable development the word “business as usual” is a buzzword with deep implications some of which might be responsible for global permanent amnesia. Business as usual means exploiting the environment for personal gain without considerations to the regenerative capacity of such resources, perhaps this exploitative attitude is also responsible for decline in social capital.

It could also be viewed that ambition to discover new products and resources, explore new technologies, competition or collaboration drove our collective sensitivity to the changing landscapes, values and heritages into oblivion. Or can it be said that because relationships or common goods are joint properties taking responsibility and initiatives to strengthen them by an individual is an impossible task? This and many other questions raised in this piece need my readers’ opinions and insights.

This article do not seek to judge anyone or any generation but to see whether we can act better towards “creeping normalcy” which sometimes results to “global permanent amnesia” in whatever form they affect us as individuals and as a global border-less community.

My next piece on amnesia will be on “landscape and resource amnesia” your responses are of high importance.

Thank you

The earthmessenger