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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Coastal region and small island papers 9
Annex 5
FEATURE ADDRESS
Reverend
Lotu Uele
‘And
the King will answer them – Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brethren, you did it to Me’.
Matthew 25:40
Everyone
hates a bully. By golly I say to you, that my school days would have been the
most enjoyable times of my life, were it not for the bullies. Being the small
man that I am, every time I try to conjure up good memories of my school days, I
inevitably think first of the beatings that I used to get from the bullies.
To
counter the abuses, I vouched to myself to concentrate on my studies to get good
results, just to get back at them. So good was one of my exam papers, that I
told a bully, who was sitting behind me during the exam, to read it. He was
impressed and requested that I hold it up so he could copy from it. As he groped
for a pen, I turned a page, he began to copy in earnest. Never did the bully
know that it was the wrong page. When the results came out he had a ‘D’ for
his grade. I did not mind for I was glad that the bully was last in our class.
Bullies
are defined as arrogant and lacking in love. They enjoy what they do at the
immense expense of their victims. Bullying is a senseless act devoid of
Christian feeling. CSI’s
effort to clean up our act on the environment is a noble cause. Small-island
nations’ coastlines have continued to sink at an alarming rate according to
scientific reports. Yet, we are only voices in the wilderness. Big countries
continue to ignore us and our plight. The Tokelaus, Tuvalu and Kiribati, to name
a few, are really feeling the effects of the greenhouse gases. High tides have
become huge and they continue to eat away at the coastlines. You don’t have to
be a scientist to know that your island is sinking. Will the big countries ever
relent? We can only pray and hope.
The
famous Australian journalist, Michael Willesee, in a recent report called
‘Signs of the times’ said ‘The frequency in the occurrence of cyclones has
been quite overwhelming over the last decade, and more important is the
magnitude of the force with which they hit the world’. Is this intensity a
work of God? Or is it purely human-generated? It is not hard to know that it is
man-made. If the intensity of Cyclones Ofa and Val is anything to go by, then
Samoa was completely flattened. You feel violated and hollow inside, as you
survey the sheer devastation afterwards. Do you blame God for it? ‘The bug
stops here’ said Truman. Our prayers and pleas to the powers that be, are
‘Please slow down’.
We,
in the small countries, always appear to be at the receiving end of every
calamity. When prices fall in big countries, we feel the brunt. When natural
disaster strikes, we go hungry. When the exchange rate plummets, we become
beggars. Our top citizen said ‘When America sneezes, the Pacific islands
contract pneumonia’. When big decisions affecting the well-being of all
mankind are taken, we are not consulted. It matters little if one’s fate is
decided elsewhere. What matters is that we are all cast in God’s holy image.
‘Aye, there’s the rub’. In your effort to protect our environment we
request you to impart your managerial expertise fully, to help train our locals
to continue the struggle to preserve our coastal areas – with your assistance
we can sustain our fragile environment. I thank UNESCO
for inviting you, the learned participants, to our shores. I wish you great
success and pray that in your discourse, nothing will be left to chance. That
your knowledge and advice will go a long way in drawing international attention
for worldwide action, directed towards true conservation of the little
islands’ fragile environment. Land may not be an emotional issue to the big
countries. In the islands, emotions run high when the issue is land. That is how
precious it is to us. That is why we are thankful for this meeting. You will be
imparting expert ideas to sustain our small, limited and fragile coastlines. In
your hands lie the future of all these islands and their societies.
Did
not Jesus go after the poor and down-trodden? Did he not seek after the lowly
and the sick? And did God not bring down the mighty from their thrones? Yes, He
brought down the bullies with great might. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon,
epitomizes the downfall of the bullies ‘And the King will answer them –
Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you
did it to Me. Amen’.
Our
Father in Heaven, thank you for allowing us to gather here in peace – to
discuss some of the most sensitive issues confronting us today. Although the
problem becomes acute for us the small nations, we pray for thy Holy Spirit to
draw the attention of our bigger brothers to the plight that we as a people are
now facing. Enlighten your servants present here and endow them with your wisdom
to enable them to solve these difficulties. And may their deliberations be truly
inspired by you the God of all creation. Bless UNESCO
and all those who have contributed to the success of this programme. Bless the
participants and all of us here today – in the name of Jesus Christ.
