Lee Spada

The world we want to live in? What world would we want to live in? 

We’ll hear some of the lovely things today, I'm sure, but I am scared. Because bad ideas are ruining our world. Thoughtless ideas have gotten us into pointless wars. Poor ideas are how people starve. Inadequate ideas are why children in Beijing need to wear masks every day to go to school. What world do we live in?

To the future generations, we are so sorry we didn't listen. We made excuses for people's bad ideas, painting them as something they’re really not, as “fine”, “or acceptable till 2050”. It's funny we say that, actually, when we don’t have until 2050. Some bad ideas and clever words made us think that's okay. But the beauty of planet earth and what it means to be alive are anything but okay. It is strong to admit that, it is wise to understand that, and it will be history when fight for it.

Dear our future, you know it as the Antarctic Ocean. We knew it is a land called Antarctica, a land. A frozen wonderland, I mean they had these chubby fluffy birds called penguins, but you will only know what a penguin is in a picture book. Same with the elephants, one day with humans too. What about Rainforests sorry I mean the deserts in West Africa, Congo, I bet you know this one, the Amazon. Dense and rich with trees, and we cut 1 million square kilometres in only 50 years, for this *show a piece of money*.

To put that as a statistic because we know that's the only language that seems clear in the vocabulary of excuses is 1 million kilometres. That space, 1 million kilometres, can fit everyone on planet earth, 30 times over, that's about 240 billion people in total, and we cut that down in the name of progress in 50 years.

1.2 billion children who live in extreme poverty live in the sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. That includes china, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Vietnam, and many more. 1.2 billion kids are disintegrating away with malnutrition, dying from preventable diseases no worse than the common cold. These are issues so foreign to us, that to fix it all is as easy as going to McDonald's, or taking a strepsil. As easy as pulling a lever. 

My auntie recently had a child. A very adorable little girl by the name of Emmy, named after the film award. If you said, Emmy would starve of malnutrition, die of a preventable disease, or her parents could flick that lever. She will go to school. She will make friends. Emmy will grow up to see how we destroyed the world, but would have her first love, graduate university, have a family of her own, with only a flick of that lever. I say this for every parent present with us today. Every parent would crank that lever until the bones of their fingers broke through the skin. But 2.4 billion parents will never get to pull that lever.

Dreams, are not something to take lightly because our future right now is a nightmare. War, famine, drought, ocean levels rising, whack climate, inequality, corruption, excuses, recessions, and we keep listing to bad ideas again and again and again and everything turns black…

Good things don’t stay good forever, this is fact. But a good idea, that can replace a bad idea, is an idea worth fighting for. A good idea, clean and affordable energy, an end to destructive genocides for our oceans critters, caring more for each other rather than just being woke for yourself. Let people live, and they will see the beauty that life brings, and life moves pretty fast. So look your eyes, and look. Look. Look around you. 

I honestly pose a question. What will you miss most when it's gone forever? Look. You’re probably next to it. Don’t grieve it, not yet. Fight so what is right next to you, everyone can have one of, and it can stay forever. Forever as purposeful as the gift in your heart. Go make a difference in our world.

So we are sorry future generations. We will do better, we will, and when we hear everyone else's speech, remember to look at what's beautiful, what is not, and how a good idea can preserve beautiful things. 

What world would you want to live in?