winasw1

My speech text for Final Bilingual Speech Contest (English & Japanese)

The 26th Annual Kobe Mayor’s Cup, 26 November 2005

at Kobe Maritime Museum, Kobe, Japan

(Duration time: 10 minutes)

(I am not a winner, but fortunately, I got JAPAN TIMES AWARD)

BUILDING A GLOBAL CITIZENS’ SOCIETY WHERE WE CAN ALL LIVE TOGETHER

My ideas for dealing with cross-border disaster

(By helping others more we could lead a better life)

By Syafwina

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!

My name is Syafwina, a graduate student at Kyoto University. I came from Aceh, Indonesia.

On December 26, last year, a big earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean and caused a tsunami disaster that destroyed many areas in Asian countries.

I felt very worried and tried to contact my family in my country, but there was no way to communicate. During the first two days TV only broadcast about Thailand, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka and so I was left completely in the darks.

When the picture about Aceh was shown for the first time, the world was shocked. The biggest tragedy in a century just happened right in my hometown, Banda Aceh. More than 200,000 people lost their lives. Our paradise became a massive graveyard with no hopes. No more family, no more places to stay, and no more smiles!

The entire world sent emergency aid, but they could not enter Aceh. The Indonesian government did not allow any foreigners to enter. Why?

There has been a conflict in Aceh for more than 10 years between the Indonesian government and GAM, a separatist organization. That was the reason why the Indonesian government closed Aceh, so, the world knew nothing about situation in Aceh. Nobody knew about how our people died every day because of the conflict, how many women were raped in front of their own family, and how many children saw their fathers murdered in front of their eyes. Aceh dedicates everything for Indonesia, but the Indonesian government sends only a long nightmare to the people in Aceh. Everyday we live in fear and under pressure. More than 10,000 people have been killed in Aceh during the conflict.

When finally, days after the tsunami attack the Indonesian government agreed to allow foreigners to enter, but it was too late for emergency responses. Many people, who had survived, passed away because they did not receive any aids.

People from Japan and around the world sent their support, love and prayers for Aceh. I do not know how to express my gratefulness to all of you. Because of you, now our people can continue their lives and our children start to smile again, but there is still much to do.

The tsunami destroyed almost everything, but it also brings a wind of change. Our place is now open again to the world and the Indonesian government and the separatist group has started to talk about peace again. Here we learn a lesson: a tragedy has united us. Humanity has forced us to wipe out borders and differences．

If we all could only erase the perception that one race is more superior to the others. If we all could only stop showing how powerful we are by making war. If we all could only stop destroying others that have different visions and backgrounds; If we all could only think that we cannot live only by ourselves. If we all could　only realize that by helping other nations we are actually helping ourselves. We could turn this world into a more beautiful place, whatever our races, culture or political differences are. As human being, we feel pain when suffering and feel happiness when love is touching us. After all, we are only human beings from the same planet.

Maybe all this time we have became too selfish to care for others. We only focus on our own little interests. There is an old belief, “If one cares for others and does not live only for himself, God will grant him a longer and happier life”. We do not have to wait until the next disaster to remind us.