Wish for 2010 (3)

During my round of cleaning up the office recently, I found an interesting story about The Future and Sustainable Development. I thought it is good to share at the start of New Year 2010.

An old man and a child play a game of riddles. The child approaches the old man carrying something in his hands.

“What is it?” he asks the old man.

The old man can see a feather sticking out between the child’s fingers. “It must be a bird”, he says. “Yes”, the child answer, “But is it dead or alive?”. The old man can see the bird moving. So he says, “It is alive”, and the child quickly strangles the bird, and says “No, you are wrong.”

The next time, the old man sees the child, he is again carrying something in his hands. “What do you think it is?” asks the child. Once again, there are feathers sticking out. The old man does not want the child to kill the bird, so he quickly says “It is a dead bird”. and the child, letting do of the bird, says, “No, you’re wrong.”

This happens a third time. The child is carrying a bird cupped in his hands, and asks the old man, what he thinks it is. But this time he answers “I cannot tell you, my child. For the future is in your hands”.

Similarly, sustainability is our own creation. We will decide for ourselves as well as receiving the impacts of our own doing. The future of human beings, and not the Earth as many claimed is definitely a journey we ourselves treasured. Therefore, we should not blame others for not doing enough if we ourselves have not done enough.

Well, why should we complain about others of not supporting the No Plastic Bag Campaign if we ourselves are still using plastic bag unwisely. Why should we asking people to take public transport if we ourselves are still riding the car. Why should we ask people to do composting to reduce rubbish if we ourselves still throwing rubbish extensively?

The list can go on… and endless.