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Personal and Family Risk

Here at the outset we need to be clear about what we mean by risk.Unfortunately this is much misused and maligned word and it hasacquired a huge carapace of connotations that is becomes verydifficult to decipher what it denotes even in specific contexts.Originally, etymologically it meant from the Greek [ root or stone cutoff from firm land and later in the eighteenth century it got intoFrench as risque and used as metaphor for difficulty to be avoided atsea. Latin risicum meaning situation faced by sailors whenencountering dangers at sea. Ironically in Arabic it stands foranything given to you by god from which you draw profit, in thissense probably all of us would love risks.

Whereas now we have a huge list of meanings as this word beingtagged to whole lot of activities and subjects like economic risk,management risk, political risk, financial risk, health risk and latest,recession risk etc but all in general are broadly defined as probabilityof loss or hidden dangers or unprecedented adverse situations etc

In short RISK is Really Invisible but Supposed Killjoy aspect of anyactivity or enterprise.

Whenever we talk of risk, what we are interested more in is not

knowing what the risks are but what causes them and how to avoidthem or face them or overcome them. So we need to proceed to studythe causes and how to make adequate provisions to face them andovercome them.

Primarily a careful, complete, conscious comprehension of anyactivity or subject clears most of the risks, at least those avoidable.

This leaves us only to deal with those inevitable risks, even these

risks, the moment we are able to identify them, they have to cease tobe risks because the very identification also leads us to planning andpreparation as to how to tackle them. So the only risks that we need

worry at all about are those that have escaped the ken of ourperceptions and imaginations. They are the negative and mysterioussurprise elements of any activity or subject. Having thus embarked onthe preamble of what constitutes risk let us proceed to study the topic

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of this essay personal and family risk.

Again here we have two entities personal and family. First let me takethe word personal.

It comes from the Latin persona meaning the mask used by actors. Itis indeed a mask made of so many things that hides the real you.Here I would like to take the definition of Allport, who reviewedroughly fifty different definitions of personality before creating hisown, personality is the dynamic organization within the individual ofthose psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustmentsto his environment (1937, p. 48). Biologically the very birth starts

with the risk as a sperm cell you risked being nudged and pushedaway by other cells but then overcoming that risk you entered the

fallopian tube and found the egg to emerge as a living and lovelybeing.

But once you are out of the womb you grow by interacting in a specificenvironment with you own mask of inherent and acquired abilities,attributes and attitudes and this growth entails lots of risks as theenvironment may not and need not necessarily gel with your mask.These risks may vary from person to person and environment toenvironment, they are mask-specific and so cannot be generalized.However for easy administration of remedies to the risks that the

individual masks [persons] are likely to face in social living we canbroadly categorize them. For want of space and out of concern not tobore the reader too much let me resort to broad categorization.

personal risks in any environment can be broadly categorized andinvolving the following aspects physical well being, social acceptance,cultural compatibility, economic self sufficiency and psychologicalhappiness. Whether we take a macro view like a satellite or opt for amicro approach to these broadly categorized areas of risk we may be

able to cover a very great gamut of personal risks.

Let us now move on to the second entity family risks. Familyetymologically from Latin famulus servant and familia householdso in short it is etymologically servants of a household. Only later onit acquired the meaning of blood relations. Let me give a small

vindication as to why I resort to etymology. First to clear the carapace

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of connotations and second invariably it leads us to the core meaningof word that we analyze. Here, when we study the etymology of familythe stress is not so much on proximity or presence but oncontribution, participation and performance. How we canparticipate? What we can perform? How we can help all the membersof the group of the household? And make it into a family. All thesemean there is status quo as a unit for family comprising of more thanone individual. This requires co-operation and compatibility betweenor among the members of the family each playing or performing arole assigned or assumed or acquired or required. So the family risksagain vary from family to family and therefore difficult to generalize.

However broadly categorized the family risks emanate from maladjustment, lack of coordination and lack of socio psychological

perception of roles and responsibilities. These risks are minimized toa very great extent in societies where roles and responsibilities areenforced as sacred duties to each and every member of the familyeither justifiably or unjustifiably as part of the traditional and cultural

value system. So the best way to avoid or tackle family risks is not totamper with the fabric of time tested values systems held as sacred,traditional and part of the culture or when it is altered as part andprocess of evolutionary history one must ensure to create conduciveand not confrontationistic atmosphere so that new value systemsemerge and merge seamlessly with the existing ones.

Ultimately and most vitally both personal and family risks have moreto do with psychological perceptions and sociological adjustment thanthey have to do with economic parameters. External parameters canalways be injected like hygienic environment, better economiccondition etc but the inner willingness to adopt to them for

betterment is required. Therefore any publicity or persuasion mustappeal to the socio psychological aspects of life. In short the risks can

be minimized when everyone is educated to realize that life is a

constant process of adjustment and learning.