|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 11 December 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
UN Volunteers' Day reflections by Lorna Wright UN Volunteers Day, December 6. Appreciative words are the most powerful force for goodwill and there were many. Volunteers from all over the world celebrated. Fresh young faces, alongside mature ones. It was a joyful evening in chatter, warm and friendly; of faith justified and hope fulfilled, the togetherness in ethnic diversity. There were Japanese, Koreans, Croatians, British, Australians, Nigerians, Americans, Kenyans, Norwegians, Canadians, Belgians, Tazmanians, Kosovians. There were 170 Volunteers coming from the developed world to work and live in the poor world. The Volunteers had all struggled at some time with everyday life and survival questions around them, about meaning and purpose and value. When it got too complicated to understand, they very likely made a flip-flop change, till the situation was retrieved. Now for Globalization, Volunteers in their briefing were undoubtedly told thousands of hands were made employable in the poor countries. But they saw it different. In the country millions of hands turned upwards unemployed, far too many of them unemployable. There were millions of hands of women together in prayer, seeking answer. Beauty is a feeling and talking to them of mothers the world stirs them. But have spiritual and moral priorities become incompatible in a world where the techniques of economic solutions tends more and more to take over a power in itself? One prays while the other preys on the desperation of the other. They have experiences and stories to relate. Living in an area of subculture, they were witness to public welfare. At 24 years, 26 years a women had 5 or 6 children hanging on to them. These were women doomed to a life of public assistance numbed by poverty. Spontaneous and honest were the Volunteers questioning. Do they have to sell their bodies to find the next meal for the children? Get pregnant, again, and again and again with a man they trust who then disappears. The Volunteers found the plight of the children unnerving. Helpless, the less adept watch with varying degrees of attention in the limited time span. Often remarked we came to help the poor change their lives, but it is they who changed us. With the celebration and there were many positive and enjoyable aspects. The Koreans performed a sort of Karate, magnificent sight, in loose white costumes their long arms flaying the air they would lope across the floor. Their voices lifted in hell - force staccato oratory. Two Koreans and their bodies rivaled the Tiger in its meaningful litheness. The lean muscular bodies rippled with much liquid grace and synchronized power. This noiseless melodic line of movement of a Tiger illustrated, won the respect and admiration for all Tigers - certainly glory for them. Talking to others there was so much to learn. In countries 14 collected together. A group were eloquent and expressed themselves such on environment. They were emphatic and we could not have agreed more. Rethinking was necessary. The 3rd world are not consumers, despite poverty they merely "use" things. It is important extremely important, they agreed wholeheartedly with MOM Foundation that knowledge was necessary in the home. There must be no such thing as waste. In the developed world it is mass-assemble, and mass-distribute and mass-dump in the poor world. Here it was necessary to mass-collect, mass-disassemble and massively re-use the same material or perhaps someone could. To waste control and recycle was as absolute must for it was hidden - earnings. There was discussion of the odor of the decay lying around. An overwhelming lethargy fighting pollution, disposal of solid waste, garbage; twittering and wing stretching had gone on long enough. Authorities would warble like canaries, coo like pigeons with limited attention. But everyone agreed that the Sri Lankan blue skys, the drifting fluffy white clouds, the drizzle or rain, the thunderstorms the cloudless starry night, the sun, the grass and trees, made it paradise Island. They were agreed that belligerent campaigns swivelling around ethnic and racial pride could fragment a great nation with chauvinism. A country that had it all for a hearts journey for all. Some of the young oldies agreed with an oldie - It was said. Two women in the 1940s won the 2nd World War. Vera Lyn and Gracie Fields sang to the troops day in, day out, sang with the troops travelling thousands of miles, everyday: With Love and Laughter |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
