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Article by Dr. Hossam Badrawi in Al-Masry Al-Youm titled “Physiology of the Nation…Between Humans and Cities” 17/5/2023
Translated by GPT
The more we delve into understanding the human body, its anatomy and physiology, the more we realize that God’s greatness in His creation is the basis of the philosophy of our lives, which we believe to be materialistic in its daily routine of movements, eating, drinking, transportation, laws, police, army, government, and people. The creation of the human body and its structure is the basis of engineering, dynamics, physics, chemistry, and other applied sciences that we have excelled in as humans.
Come with me on a journey inside the human body, and compare it to the city we live in.
The life of a human is based on their ability to breathe and inhale oxygen through their lungs to reach every cell in their body to stay alive. This simple fact is known to the illiterate, educated, doctor, and killer who, if he wants to end a person’s life, will suffocate him and prevent breathing, despite his ignorance of the physiology.
Oxygen reaches every cell carried in the blood vessels by a carrier, in an integrated network that reaches each organ and every cell, which allow them to operate and carry their tasks. If any of these blood vessels become blocked, it may lead to amputation of limbs or, if blocked in an essential organ like the heart or brain, it may lead to immediate death.
What is the lung of the city? It is its parks and greenery, parks that should be proportionate to the number of people in the district or city. If the city’s lungs are absent, or destroyed , it will suffocate, just like a person who contracts lung disease.
And what about the human circulatory system; its arteries and veins, similar to the city’s highways and transportation systems that carry food to every part of the body? Just as the human body has major arteries that branch out to subsidiary collaterals , the city’s highways lead to subsidiary roads, in a logical building
structure that allows blood and its content to flow continuously. If arteries get blocked, the human body becomes ill and may die, and if the city’s arteries clog up with blood clots or cholesterol, the city stops flowing efficiently, and the body swells.
In anatomy, we know where every artery goes and where it branches, just like in modern cities, where there must be a clear network of roads allowing smooth movement, unimpeded by obstacles or constant ambushes; otherwise, the city will fall ill and may die.
Just as the human body regularly expels its waste, otherwise it will fail and die, the urinary system excretes urine, which, if not eliminated from the kidneys, can cause them to stop working and poison the body, Similarly, in a city, there must be a system for delivering water and expelling liquid waste, represented by sewage systems, which are considered one of the city’s essential infra structure , ensuring its survival and growth.
If germs or viruses attack the human body, the immune system and defense mechanisms work and send their tools to reach the site of penetration to fight the invaders. The body temperature rises because the body is in a battle that ends with victims of white blood cells and other cells that have been involved in fighting the intruders or blocking blood leaks. The body then rebuilds the damaged parts……… doesn’t this resemble the government and police and defense agencies in the country?!
The body recognizes and judges the type of damage through sensing devices that send messages to the nervous system to move the body’s defenses at the right time. Identification devices that determine who is outside the system and does not conform to its physiology and existence to stop the chaos.
The mind, sensing devices, immune system, and builders are the government of the city and its service institutions that derive their strength, as in humans, from their knowledge, which strengthens them to remain cohesive and correct to renew and grow with its members.
Sometimes, a person does not contract a disease from outside, but the cells begin to act selfishly and crazily, eating away at those around them to survive, and affecting other organs, such as cancer. In such cases, the body may not be able to win the battle, especially if its systems are weak and its immunity is compromised, except by completely eliminating the cancerous body and those around it, and those that nourish it , Otherwise, it will return again and destroy the rest of the body.
What does this remind you of in your homeland? I Leave that to your imagination, as we sometimes experience it in different forms in every period of our nation’s life.
The human body is among God’s creation, and if a society wants to live in a village, city or country, it must know its anatomy and physiology, and understand that the greatest harm may come from the slightest of injuries.
How many times have we seen a person lose their life due to a clot in their brain or bleeding or an artery burst! And how much has the quality of life deteriorated due to kidney or liver failure! And how much has cancer ravaged bodies and nations! How many bodies have collapsed and suffocated due to the failure of oxygen to reach every cell in them or simply because they cannot get rid of their waste and outputs!
Let us look at the human body and our lives and learn from them.
The nation must have a maestro who knows what is going on, coordinates and harmonizes with the vocabulary of its needs in balance, and protects its cells from destruction – internally or externally – while continuing to build and renew. The mind of the nation and its nervous system are its government, protection and system apparatus, which must be carefully selected, and their efficiency constantly judged and renewed based on standards that can be identified by regular examination and the use of modern technology for diagnosis and treatment.
As individuals, we represent the cells of the body, and our health is the foundation for the health of the entire body, and our country is our body, and we are its cells. For the body to be healthy, we must be healthy. To live and grow and reproduce, the country must be healthy and integrated. We should not underestimate any function of the body, no matter how trivial or small, and we should respect its existence. If an organ is damaged, we must protect and preserve it.
Can the nervous system replace the digestive system? Can the urinary system defend against a viral or bacterial attack on another organ? Everyone has their functions that they must perform, and if a system forces the other systems, no matter how efficient it is, it harms itself and the entire body, and its existence is meaningless without the existence of the other organs. For a person to be healthy and safe, he must receive sustenance sustainably, his cells must be renewed, and their harmful outputs must not accumulate and must be dealt with wisely and intelligently, as God showed us in the creation of the human body.
Beauty lies in the fact that God has given us our minds to think and accumulate experiences, and to benefit from them. Without our minds, thinking, and freedom of expression, we lose our humanity. In the life of a nation, learning from past experiences is vital so that the nation does not fall into crises by repeating the same actions and expecting different results.
How can we keep the body of the nation healthy, well, with its cells and tissues renewed, except through coordination between its functions and the best use of its organs, as well as the health of its mind and nervous system, which are represented by its government? The path to the health of the nation is primarily political, and our national dialogue is a dialogue for renewing and sustaining this mind and its organs.
The dialogue will not succeed without recognizing that each organ and institution has a specific function, which it performs for the benefit of the rest of the body. No single organ of the body, no matter how important and efficient it is, can perform and control all the functions of the other body organs, because it will lose its ability to perform its assigned role. And it will not achieve the health of the body in breathing, digestion, excretion, calling for immunity, renewal, and evolution, with arguments that have been established throughout the healthy history of nations and have been proven unsustainable.
The mind and conscience of a nation will not work without effective justice (the main challenge here). And sustainable human development (the second challenge), which makes the body’s cells and members capable of choosing the right alternatives based on knowledge, and continuing to learn with governments that are renewed, and power-sharing that allows positive accountability and building on achievement, and recognizing the potentials of the nation and using them optimally in coordination with the mind and efficiency of its members.
