Well good morning everybody, thank you for the introduction and
As I only have a few minutes, I haven't tried to make a formal speech I've tried to put down some points,
which I feel are important on this day of peace.
I think it's more important than ever in the world we live in today that we
We have a vision of what it would be like
to live in a peaceful world the kind of world we all want
And then to see what we as individuals can do to try and bring that about
and
peace starts within
We have some how to find peace within ourselves
So that we can then reach out to others and spread this message of peace
So how do you find peace within yourself when you live in a really difficult
situation?
When perhaps your refugee?
I think the only way I can think of doing
This is each day to try to do your best to make the world around you just a little bit better
And if you can go to sleep each night thinking, well I really did do my best maybe in a very difficult situation
Then that will give you the kind of feeling that leads to peace and then you're better able to help others you
This little video showed a young woman from Syria
saving people
She said she arrived in Germany and found a new life. Our roots and shoots program in Germany went into those areas
where the refugees were first housed when they arrived and helped them, particularly the children.
We've worked with refugees and Tanzania refugees from troubled Burundi and from Congo
Started our roots and shoots program there made a huge difference
so that people came and said
Why does it look better here? Why are the things growing?
Why are the children playing and smiling when in other parts of the camp it's grim?
and they're told well this roots and shoots here and
since you mentioned it roots and shoots began in Tanzania with 12 high school students your kind of age and
It was young people who wanted to make the world around them better and didn't know how to do it
So the main message of roots and shoots
And this is very important for Peace Day is that each and every one of us
matters and has a role to play in this world even though
We don't yet perhaps know what that role is.
And even more important each and every one of us makes some impact on the planet every single day that we live and
We're in a position of fortunate position of being able to choose what sort of impact we make
What do we buy? What do we wear? What do we eat? How will those little choices affect future generations and
One thing which needs to be said on this Day of Peace and that is there is
War we know about the wars and the conflicts around the world
There's a new threat of nuclear war with crazy people whose fingers buttons that could annihilate
mankind
There's terrorism which is a new completely new I woke up this morning on this peace day
To hear that in London, and I come from London. There was a bomb on the underground killing people
What a way to begin the day of peace
But we'll never have true peace
Yes, we need to respect each other. Yes, we need to learn more and more about each other's nations
cultures customs
We need to learn more about the different religions because religion is causing so much strife
We need to realize that every single major religion has the Golden Rule do to others as you would have them do to you
It's the fanatics who are changing the religions into something which is causing conflict
so
While we need and must respect each other, while it's important for everyone to live lives of dignity
this can never come about
until we also stop the war that we are waging as a species on the natural world on the
Environment that actually supports us that gives us water and clean air. We're destroying it and
One of the outcomes of that is climate change
There's no time to go into all of this, but I think you know what I'm talking about species other species
we're supposed to share the planet and
Yet species are disappearing
Ecosystems are collapsing. That's going to affect us
But now we realize and we're realizing more and more that other animals also have
Emotions and feelings they feel pain they feel fear and what are we doing to them? They too are
refugees and losing their homes they too are homeless. They too are dying and suffering
So on this peace day when we dream and think about peace
We should also commit ourselves to doing everything in our power to bring about peace
It's no good thinking of the big wide world and the big wide Wars
But think about our own communities our own lives the people surrounding us nature surrounding us
What can we do to make that a more peaceful place?
And then knowing that this is everywhere and our roots and shoots program is now in 100 countries
with members from preschool through University and
We're trying to grow a critical mass of young people and we are using whoever made that question about
social media because social media can bring people together
Around an issue and then we can go out and take action when we know more about it
so
Roots and roots and shoots
Growing a critical mass of young people share
the same philosophy of respect for other human beings
respect the nature
respect for other amazing animals and
What is so important is hope if we don't have hope we give up we do nothing
And in this world of violence and fear
We must have hoped for a better future and that's something each one of us can work for and it's you young people
Who give me the most hope when you
understand the problems on are empowered to take action what you are doing around the world is
unbelievable my greatest reason for hope along with the human brain the resilience of nature and the indomitable human spirit
That we see in refugees in homeless people overcoming seemingly insurmountable
problems and
showing we're part of an extraordinary species
And we will only achieve our true human potential when head and heart work in harmony