By “Isabel” Nathagan Seiermann

Awarded Second Place in the 4th Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Thailand, Northern region.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “Do you what you feel in your heart to be right- for you’ll be criticized anyway.” Every day we read in the newspapers about influential people who try their best to change the world in one or another way. But most people can’t be bothered to read those stories because they are more interested in sports, gossip and daily events. Then I ask myself how we, as children, can succeed where they have failed. To be quite honest most of us are like our parents: we’d rather take the easy road than to fight for something that is difficult to accomplish. Young people don’t have much power to change things as individuals; but we can do what we feel in our hearts to be right for others and convince as many people as possible of our ideas. If our ideas are good and we are dedicated and strong enough to fight for these ideas we have a chance to start a movement which within time will grow bigger, until it’s so big that it cannot be ignored.

It is difficult to single out the things we really want to change to make this world a better place for everybody because many things are interconnected. In my opinion, the five most important things to work for to change the world are a non-biased education which is free from any influence from any power group; eradication of poverty; a clean environment; free and effective health care for everybody; and, last not least, an end to greed which easily leads to war.

Academic freedom is the most important factor for an education which is not influenced by any interest groups, e.g. governments, religious groups, big industries. Many groups, especially in Third World Countries, try to keep people ignorant or with just a basic education so it’s easy to manipulate them and they are no danger to the power groups. Poor people rarely have any access to good education because they lack the financial means to send their children to school. In this case the state has to give free access to education for everybody. If the state spends the available tax money on defense and tax-cuts for the wealthy, there’s not enough money left for the less-fortunate people. The more educated the people are, the less the possibility is that they elect a bad or corrupt government. The more educated people are, the bigger the chance they will become interested in the things that really matter in life. The more educated people are, the more likely it is that they are able to convince other people of their ideas and reach their goals. So it is an important factor for young people like me and the people around me to get more involved into politics, because the power of the future lies within our hands.

Right now the gap between rich and poor, again mostly in Third World Countries, is enormous and is getting bigger day by day. This can only be solved by distributing the resources of a country in a just and equal way. To achieve this we sometimes need radical reforms, which often go against the interests of the people in power. As a result these groups will try everything to make us fail. Again we cannot do anything as individuals, but a popular movement can force governments out of power and bring in people who care for their country: men like in Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela. ‘We’ must make a change because the older generation won’t; we must have the confidence to fight for our goals and give out our ideas, and we must make the first move….

A clean environment is important to us and the next generations. We have to convince people that there is money to make in environmentally friendly industries, because otherwise nobody will invest in the technology which is necessary to produce goods without killing nature. It’s not just the industry that we have to convince but we also have to convince ordinary people of the importance of keeping our world ‘ alive’. The world is like a plant, if you don’t care for it properly it will die in time. You have to be very explicit and paint a gruesome picture of the world if you really want people to listen to you. Most of us wake up every morning and see the world as a wonderful place, but what we really need to do is to wake up and see reality. We should ask ourselves if we want to live in an environment where children have to put masks on just to go play outside because of the pollution.

Many poor people, for example in South America or Africa, don’t have access to any medical care. Everyday over 3000 children die of malaria because healthcare is out of reach or non-existent. The pharmaceutical industry is more interested in the research for the diseases of the rich rather than for the diseases of the poor. Many medications are much too expensive for poor people to buy and because they are patented it’s very difficult for poor countries to produce generic medications. Healthcare for everyone should be a top priority for every state. Its not enough to just depend on the generosity of the NGOs(non governmental organizations) from around the world. Someone has to start: it’s like painting a masterpiece—it’s the first stroke of paint that starts off the idea.

I am an average young person, just like all the people around me. We’re so lucky to be able to go to an international school which tries to create Global Citizens and helps us see the other sides of a world which we seem to think is perfect. We may not be a big group but we can still make a change. Our class at school has raised money to help people less fortunate than us; we have brought smiles to people, and best of all was to know that we made a change and a good deed. Every movement starts off with a small group; we are the ones who have to set an example for other people, to show them how to follow our ideas to make this world a place worth living in.

Greed and ignorance are the worst diseases of our world. They usually go hand in hand. Greed ignores the basic human rights of people; it can lead to aggression and, in the worst cases, to war. Almost all the people in the world want to live in peace. It’s always small groups of people or individuals who are responsible for aggression and wars. It’s much easier to convince people of the necessity to go to war if the population is ignorant. An educated public will more often oppose war. Everything in the world can be settled peacefully; war is a sign of not being able to communicate and to understand other cultures, religions or mentalities.

If we want to change things we can’t always be politically correct; we have to swim against the stream and have the courage to make enemies. The saying goes “if you can’t beat them, join them” but in this case it’s the opposite. If we can’t convince them and they call us dreamers, leave them. If we are really committed to our cause and step out of our shell and fight for our ideas, nothing is impossible. The world would be a miserable place without people who lived their dream and changed the world.

To read the other essays click the links below:

"Ann" Chatriya Lertwicha's essay

“Ice” Anawat Wongupanun's essay