Basically sir, it was national week of peace and Hammersmith & Fulham was celebrating it on the 14th of September at the Lyric Square. The celebration was public, people could just join in off the street. There were African musicians, steel band players, Phillipino dancers and perhaps a couple of other things as entertainment, while people signed the peace pledge (a book symbolising the hope for peace that could be signed by anyone who wanted to or had a message). People could also place their messages of peace on a "peace tree" (one tree was handed to a representative from every area of the borough) and on balloons which were all realeased at once. Amnesty International was also there. There were 6 main speakers who had to give a speech to the crowd on the peace and maybe a little something about the borough and they wanted a young person to be one of those speakers and that young person ended up being me.
And this is what he said:
"I'll tell you this, a young person grows up in this borough and they grow up with the world. Where else in the United Kingdom would you find the human race represented in all the ways it is here? A person from every continent on every road, now that's what I call a community to be proud of. Now that's what I call a model for the whole world. Now people my age look at what's happening in the world everywhere and the feeling we get I've noticed is a little more radical in the sense of disgust. But then I look at something like this. All ages, all races, one place, one community. For a simple two hours, we're a model for the whole world. Wasn't so tough. It's a beautiful sight and I mean that. Thanks to all of you for coming, you've demonstrated in no matter how small a way, that peace is possible, that peace isn't a dream far out of reach, but a promise that we find hard to get a grip on. Today for two hours, we got a grip on it, and no one says that just because the day is over we got to let go. Today, in no matter how small a way, we've proven that no matter how dark things seems to get, we can stand and celebrate peace, we've proven that we don't need big and powerful leaders to find peace, all we need is to be not as strangers, but as family and friends. And I mean that. Mahatma Ghandi once said; "Be the change that you see in the world." Today, that's we've done, may we keep it up. He also said; "In a gentle way we can shake the world." We keep a hold on what we've witnessed today, we keep that with us and without noticing it, we demonstrate what a world should be like to each other and we grow up knowing that. That's one way I interpret that quote. That's one way we can shake the world. The world will be passed on to us and seeing days like this, evidence that we're taking that on board, makes that inheritance feel like something to really look forward to."
Yussif Osman
#22 September 2005
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