How can you make sure that neither you nor your near and dear ones are subjected to any of the natural and man-made disasters that seem to lurk around every corner? Several of the many pitfalls that await the average man or woman in the modern world are tackled in this book, whose author is apparently a well-known television personality in the USA and host of an investigative program designed to ferret out and tackle such issues.
So this book, which is also plugged as ‘The Essential Guide to Keeping You and Your Famile Safe in the Modern World, is the result, or summary, of his and his team’s efforts to take the sting out of many of the dangers that are now almost an inevitable part of daily life for many of us. Thus, for example, his first chapter focuses on protecting the home, whether from burglars, mold or fire, amongst other things. His principal piece of advice is to be prepared and have a plan for every contingency that might arise. Being a TV personality and having a producer and a team of assistants ready to cooperate in setting up hypothetical situations and consult experts in each field is obviously a help, but it results in invaluable information and advice for those of us who are not so well endowed with outside assistance.
The bottom line varies in each instance. So in the case of a burglary, for example, Rossen’s advice, based on interviews with law-enforcement officials, is to cooperate. “If they ask where your jewelry is, you tell them. You can always get more cash or sapphires, you can never get a new heartbeat.” When it comes to mold, of course, your course of action is to call in an expert, know where to look for hidden caches of the dreaded infestation, and invest in good cleaning materials (and a good cleaner, too, I might add).
Tips on how to behave if your house catches fire or you are caught in an air-crash or a tornado abound. In the case of a fire, his advice (again, based on the advice of experts) is to leave the place immediately without hanging around to save any items, whether essential or not. If there’s a tornado in the offing you won’t have much time to think about what to do, but Rossen is advised by an expert that the best place to be is in a bath-tub. I’m not so sure about this, as when I was living in the Mid-West of the USA my children were told at school to go down to the basement and sit with their backs to a supporting wall. What protection a bath-tub would provide is not made clear in Rossen’s book, and I have the feeling that he got something wrong somewhere along the way. But since he writes about all the various horrible things that can happen to us in a way that is both entertaining and enlightening, it doesn’t seem fair to quibble.
In addition, over the years of preparing his TV programs Rossen has undertaken a great deal of research, exposing himself to dangers of various kinds, and is now prepared to share his experience and knowledge with the wider public. His book is obviously geared toward the American public, and deals with topics that are more likely to affect people there, but many of the subjects he tackles are certainly universal. Like most countries, America has laws designed to protect the consumer from scams of various kinds, and it transpires that all over the world there are unscrupulous people whose sole aim in life is to steal from, cheat, swindle, or otherwise harm innocent members of the general public. Jeff Rossen has made it his mission in life to protect us from those would-be crooks, and I for one am grateful to him for sharing this information with the rest of us.