Inspiration
Severn Suzuki’s Earth Summit 1992 Speech
Posted by Shaza Hakim on October 17, 2008
I’ve just concluded an exhausting yet fulfilling and prophetic read of “Hot, Flat and Crowded” by Thomas L. Friedman.
Going through the book, I scribbled my own notes of interesting and important excerpts that I can share with others. Nothing is more important than what I found on Page 395. It reads a transcript of the speech given by Severn Suzuki, then a 12-year-old, who stood in front of the delegations of 1992 Rio de Janeiro’s Earth Summit.
Severn Suzuki is now an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. A video of the speech is available on YouTube.
If You Don’t Know How To Fix It, Stop Breaking It!
“Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. – The Environmental Children’s Organisation.We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.
I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.
I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.
I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don’t know what chemicals are in it.
I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going extinct every day — vanishing forever.
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?
All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I’m only a child and I don’t have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do you!
- You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer.
- You don’t know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream.
- You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct.
- And you can’t bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert.
If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or poiticians – but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles – and all of you are somebody’s child.
I’m only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil — borders and governments will never change that.
I’m only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.
In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.
In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share.
In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter — we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: “I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection.”
If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everyting still so greedy?
I can’t stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.
I’m only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!
At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:
- not to fight with others,
- to work things out,
- to respect others,
- to clean up our mess,
- not to hurt other creatures,
- to share – not be greedy.
Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
Do not forget why you’re attending these conferences, who you’re doing this for — we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying “everyting’s going to be alright” , “we’re doing the best we can” and “it’s not the end of the world”.
But I don’t think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says “You are what you do, not what you say.”
Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you.”
Posted in Books, Giving Back, Inspiration 1 Comment »
The Good Things in Life
Posted by Shaza Hakim on May 9, 2008
When you live in Langkawi, you are enveloped by nature.
You wake up in the morning to bird songs, inhale a deep breath of fresh air and greet the regular racket-tailed drongos that come to visit your office window. Breakfast becomes a leisurely routine with a good book and a cup of coffee. If it gets chilly, cats and kittens will come to cuddle around your feet. Near the gates on a good day, Rosie the lizard will be out basking in the sun, eyeing you suspiciously as you get close. During the wet season, snails love the soils near the gates, so you have to maneuver the car real good to miss them. There’s also the monitor lizard who likes to cross the road at his own pace, making it wise to stop, alert other cars and let him pass safely. Sometimes, the majestic hornbills come in pairs weeping down from Gunung Raya and that will be the highlight of the day.
Close to sunset, an amazing display of dusky leaf langurs can be seen coming down from the rainforest mountain behind, swaying from one tree to the next. In the evening, our resident gecko – we suspect he has made himself a cosy little pad up on the roof – will croak it’s signature call amidst the jungle ambience.
Taking time to live life and paying attention to nature’s way is quite a recent revelation to us. Irshad Mobarak, the island’s resident naturalist and Sri Sari, Stampede’s new manager, have been our close friends for few years now and their dedication towards nature and its conservation is nothing short of inspirational. The trouble with living on a tropic island is that tourism comes at a price. You see beautiful forests cut down to make way for resort developments and sometimes to fuel political agendas, wildlife’s deprived of their habitats and become victims of roadkills in search of food and shelter. It’s rather unfortunately short-sighted considering that it’s the island’s abundance of nature that keep tourists coming back.
Irshad, an avid birdwatcher and a guardian of the island’s millennia-old rainforest found his life’s call in nature a decade ago and never looked back. I know Sri to be a most dedicated person when it comes to protecting wildlife’s wellbeing. When you see these two individuals out there fighting the good battle, you’ll find a quiet relief because this small little patches of islands, is at least in good hands for now.
Stampede’s day-to-day operation is remotely attached to nature, but it has been our growing concern lately to grow as a team towards something bigger than ourselves. With the launch of Bird Malaysia, Junglewalla and soon enough Rainforest-Aid, we’re now a team that supports sustainable practices and nature conservation.
It is our very small way of saying thanks to all the good things in life.
Posted in Giving Back, Inspiration 2 Comments »
Well-rounded All In All
Posted by Shaza Hakim on April 10, 2008
The single best real-life industry-smart lesson I’ve had during my university years was served by Mr Amzairi Amar, lecturer of then Small Business & Entrepreneurship class. He thought me the fundamentals of having a sound business plan before venturing into a business but most importantly, how to stand on your own when you need to.
Like most of us, I was really looking forward to a career-life post-graduation. The three-piece-suit, feeling all-important doing work and making difference, climbing up the corporate ladder. The reality hit me 4 months after. I realized that there are such thing as “office politics” and prejudiced colleagues driven by job insecurity. I found that it always rain early in the morning when you have to leave for work and that the big money is not that really big after all.
It was about then that Dov and I decided to take the plunge and Stampede happened. Sure things go crazy, people come and go, milestones get at you, frantic phone calls at 2am – but it’s all part of us growing up to be better at what we do and I’d be insane to say I don’t love every minute of it.
Looking back at my life then, I’m grateful to be here now doing what I love and working with people that matters. Starting up a small business is scary and frustrating at times but I find that small steps keep you grounded and your values intact. You’re left humbled and wiser with every mistake you make along the way. Most of the times, getting past the initial resistance is the biggest challenge of all. I’m just glad we have the knowledge and early guidance of how to start right.
Perhaps one day what we do at Stampede will be an inspiration to others, but for now I’d like to applaud the wisdom of Mr Amzairi Amar, an inspiring teacher and true to UTP tradition – a well-rounded individual all in all.
Posted in Inspiration Add Comment »
