愛・地球博 =カナダ館と伝説のスピーチ=
カナダでは7月1日が建国記念日、その名も “Canada Day” です。今年は建国138年目だそう。万博会場でも1日・2日と誕生日イベントが行なわれ、ホテルアルバイト、チャイニーズカナディアンのMさんが出掛けました。『雨降ったけど、楽しかった~♪ Birthday Partyみたいに食事も出たし、頬に赤いカエデマークのペイントもしてもらったよ!』 いいなぁ~:)。自分も何度か万博へ足を運んでいる中で、カナダ館は、初めて訪れた日の一番に見学しました:D。 感想としてはですね、、、、、うぅ~~ん・・・・・・・・・・思い入れと期待が大きすぎたのか、“微妙だな~”って言うのが正直な所(笑)。良かったですよ。これは本当。カナダ人6名をピックアップ。彼らの日常生活とカナダの自然が、抽象的&幻想的&独創的な映像で紹介されています。“テク人”と呼ばれるPC画面を背負ったスタッフが、カナダと万博会場をネットや写真で繋ぐ役目をしてくれます。 『多様性の叡智』 をイメージされたと、後で知りました。多様に富み、それを歪みなく受け容れる器がカナダの特徴かつ大きな長所です。 ただ、映像美を求めた為か、Meiにはそれが伝わり辛かった。しかも、今回の万博のテーマは 『自然の叡智』自然を愛で、尊い、学び、保護する。 これこそ環境保護団体、Green Peaceの創設地 (※1971年Vancouver) であるカナダの得意分野のはず。 環境と動物保護への国民の高い意識、Native Canadian、Inuit(旧称インディアン、エスキモー)の知恵、環境保護で有名な日系カナダ人、David・Suzuki博士らの活動、広大な森林と野生動物を守るレンジャーのプライド、シンプルでスローなエコライフの実践方法、せめて、月並みでも、雄大な自然と緑溢れる美しい都市の映像くらいは、、、普段決してshow offしないから、こんな機会でこそアピールすれば良いのになと思ってしまいました。いつもマイペース。種はあっても自慢しない。この奥ゆかしさがカナダらしい♪なんて言ったら、贔屓しすぎかな(笑)。 けれど、スタッフの自然な笑顔と良い人っぽさ、これは賭け値無しで先進国中一番だった気がします!****************************************良い機会なので、David Suzuki氏の娘であるSevern Cullis-Suzukiさんが、1992年にブラジルのリオ・デ・ジャネイロで開かれた環境サミットで、世界の指導者を前にされた名スピーチを紹介します。環境保護の大切さと私達が出来る事について、当時まだ12歳だった少女が純粋に、分りやすく訴えています。決して難しい英語ではないので、是非ご一読を♪ (←訳せって) Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Cildren's Organization.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 butterflies, 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 realize, 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, organizers, reporters or politicians - 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 everything 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 creaturesto share - not be greedyThen 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 "everything'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 for listening. ●あなたが世界を変える日上記は『リオの伝説のスピーチ』と呼ばれ本になり、世界中で出版されています。●Skyfish Project Severnさんが2002年に立ち上げた、ウェブ中心の環境プラットフォーム。●David Suzuki FoundationSevernさんの父、David氏による環境保護基金。彼は2004年、生存する最も偉大なカナダ人に選ばれた、超有名日系人です。Mei