A brief documentary from the UN Refugee Agency about women from two villages who stopped the men from fighting. Displaced women in two villages on Mindanao Island find an unconventional way to stop their menfolk fighting, clear roads and start rebuilding amid a separatist rebellion.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 30 November 1979 in Vancouver, Canada) is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. She's David Suzuki's daughter, not some random child. Don't be too surprised.
Raised in Vancouver and Toronto, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been camping and hiking all her life. When she was 9 she started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They were successful in many projects before 1992, when they raised enough money to go to the UN's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Their aim was to remind the decision-makers of who their actions or inactions would ultimately affect. The goal was reached when 12 yr old Severn closed a Plenary Session with a powerful speech that received a standing ovation.
Severn was 12 when she made this speech. Her speech was moving, but the cynic in me saw all the delegates leaving that conference and eating a sumptuous dinner. Perhaps a bit later, they went to talk to heads of state in their country. And then those heads of state went to talk to the people who gave them billions of dollars to get elected. And they all talked about that moving speech that the 12 year old girl gave at that conference. And then the conversation moved on to how important it was to deregulate the pollution controls on because it was hurting their industry's ability to compete globally. And if they can't compete on a global scale... well, Mr. Head of State, they can't cut you a big check... and you can't run television ads to get reelected.
The problem, I think, with speeches like this, is that they are made by people who fervently believe in the change they are proposing but have no power to actually enact that change... I looked up what Severn Suzuki is doing these days, hoping that she was a diplomat, or a high-ranking environmental official somewhere but cynically thinking that she's probably abandoned her environmentalist mindset and is working for some big multi-national. Alas, she is still an environmentalist, and is still making speeches. Anyway, THANK YOU, Internet for putting the spotlight on this beautiful speech again.
This is Severn's speech at the University of British Columbia in Canada on October 2008:
