Greetings to all,
More often than not, we the youth (sadly) become too engrossed in our own life. We tend to adopt an inward looking attitude rather than outward looking perspective. In other words, only caring for our own selves and immediate family members (and probably those who we try to pikat lol) and not giving a thought or two to the world around us. Don’t believe me? Well, go ahead and check around your friends’ blogs… It is either that they will dwell on the boring parts and pieces of their life like ‘what I ate today’ or even ‘who and who got together’ in the institution where they study. 80% will actually relate on the daily happenings of their life which typically reflects a typical teenager’s way of living. Sounds familiar? Sounds pathetic? I know it sounds boring to me.
Come on guys! That’s so ancient way of living! We should now no longer be distinguished by nationalities for we are now “world citizen”. Whatever we do should be for the betterment of humanity, the recovery of Mother Nature and the survival of the planet that we call home. That should be the way of youth. The recent Peace Proposal Forum 2008 expose us to the possibilities of solutions in three major branches of saving the world. The first being “protecting the ecological integrity of the planet”, the second would be “protecting human dignity” and the third “building infrastructure of peace”.
I think when it comes to protecting Mother Earth; there is sufficient awareness of the cause of pollution and also the effects of the pollution if we are not to do something about it. However, we are still using plastic bags widely even when we know we should be resorting to recycling bags especially for grocery shopping. We still turn on the air-con even when we know that it contributes to the widening of the ozone layer. What does this tell us? All talk and no actions! We write in our karangan for exams and we learned it in science and yet we do nothing about it. Hence, let us ACT upon it.
As for protecting human dignity, do you all know that women are still stoned to death in the third world countries? And do you all know what is so unfair about it? The reason the women are stoned to death is because they have been accused of ‘marital affair’ when in reality their abusive spouses force them to sell their bodies in order to earn a living. Next shocking news (don’t faint)… I know many of us heard before of male circumcision, what about female circumcision? Yes! There’s such a thing going on and mind you, it is by far the worse abuse that a girl has to put up with. Not only do the gals in the third world country have to deal with the pain of the act but also the fear of death as most of the tools used are not sterilized hence causing them to die of infection. Also, not forgetting that many children out there are still deprived of the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter and here we are proclaiming our mobile phones as a basic necessity of life.
What about peace? As long as I have constant money supply (from parents…Duh!), friends that think that I’m cool and also a girlfriend or boyfriend, then my world is very peaceful. Is that the way it should be? Do you all realise that there is almost a full blown war going on between
At the end of the forum, the one revelation that struck me the most was that of the role of youth. Youth plays a vital and important role to ensure human survival in a planet which we still can call home and fellow comrades which we still can address as ‘humans’. It is the time now to speak up and not later. It is the time now to demand a better future for ourselves and not later (for we may not have one). It is the time now to act and not later. Most importantly, it is US and not somebody else. For if it’s not us, then who else? So lets keep our fingers crossed that a campaign will be approved and all of us are able to work on it yeah! Let us all be heroes of the world! We do not need any particular extraordinary power to be heroes… only the compassion to save the world will suffice. Hence, superheroes… let us all ACT with dialogue as our weapon. Peace!
Andrea
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