2013 International Essay Contest for Young People
List of Winners
No. of participating countries: 157
No. of entries: 15,105 (Children’s category: 4,522 / Youth category: 10,583)

1st Prize
Children's category (1 entrant)Youth category (1 entrant)

The Wisdom of the Ghanaian People

Mikiya Tan-Okyere

The Devil Abolished in My Mind
Rogers Kimuli (Age 24, Rwanda)(Age 9, Japan <Living in Ghana>)

2nd Prize
Children's category (2 entrants)
Youth category (2 entrants)

A Ray of Hope

Keanne Chang (Age 12, Canada & Taiwan

Sidiq Maulana (Age 24, Indonesia)of China <Living in Taiwan of China>)

Beyond the BorderPath for All

Relationship between Individual and Culture
Nurana Rajabova Oqtay

Haruka Kawada (Age 14, Japan)(Age 24, Azerbaijan)

3rd Prize
Children's category (5 entrants)

Youth category (5 entrants)Anastasia Lebedenko (Age 10, Ukraine)Yuna Kida (Age 16, Japan)Angel Mahonri Caballero OrtegaNatsuka Sato (Age 16, Japan)(Age 11, Mexico)Simbarashe KaneunyenyeShah-Mir Aizaz (Age 13, Pakistan)(Age 16, Zimbabwe)



Kirin Suemitsu (Age 14, Japan)

Demchuk Ol’ha (Age 17, Ukraine)

Miki Nakamori (Age 15, Japan)

Jimena Curbelo Zabala (Age 20, Uruguay)

Honorable Mention
Children's category (25 entrants)

Youth category (25 entrants)



Takako Kanno (Age 10, Japan)

Thitaree Thummaluxsame (Age 10, Thailand)Yang Zhixi (Age 10, China)Shubham Kumar (Age 15, India)

Ekler-Szabo Botond AlexanderLisa Qian (Age 15, U.S.A.)(Age 11, Hungary)

Aurona Sarker (Age 16, Bangladesh)

Takashi Usami(Age 15, Japan <Living in U.K.>)

1

Jigme Kato (Age 11, Japan & Tibet of ChinaNeha Anna D'sa (Age 16, India)<Living in Nepal>)Natsuki Yamaguchi (Age 16, Japan)

Kira Householder (Age 11, U.S.A.)

Chiaki Shimada (Age 17, Japan)

Pak Aiya (Age 11, Kazakhstan)Dahyung Oh (Age 17, Republic of Korea)



Nodoka Ota (Age 12, Japan)Yuri Hasegawa (Age 17, Japan)Nana Shiohata (Age 12, Japan)

Kanako Hirosawa (Age 17, Japan)Shion Takeda (Age 12, Japan)



Rolyne Dominique B. Patron

Tabitha Miller (Age 12, Australia)

Yumiko TanIeva Killa (Age 18, Latvia)(Age 12, Japan <Living in Ghana>)Franziska Hartmann (Age 18, Germany)Sakiko Kidera (Age 13, Japan)



Gborglah Felix Korku Fate (Age 19, Ghana)Rinka Tachikawa (Age 13, Japan)Alina Toporas (Age 20, Romania)

Brent Lin (Age 13, U.S.A. & Taiwan of China

Octavio Daniel Carreno Gomez

(Age 17, The Philippines)<Living in Taiwan of China>)

Ami Muto (Age 13, Japan)

Arian Eshtehardian(Age 20, Mexico)Alvaro Santiago Condo Carabajo(Age 21, Ecuador)(Age 14, UK <Living in Sweden>)Silvio Godoy Argiz (Age 21, Argentina)

Alexine C. Yap (Age 14, The PhilippinesVictorio Román Cuyer Gómez<Living in Vietnam>)(Age 21, Paraguay)

Hitomi Sawano (Age 14, Japan)

Mahamat Atteib Dahab (Age 21, Senegal)Miku Shimizu (Age 14, Japan)Lena Taupier-Letage

Juhi Saxena (Age 14, U.S.A.)

Tijana Dodov (Age 14, Macedonia)

Tsang Man Yin (Age 24, China)

Twinkle Sharma (Age 14, India)Diana Marcela Sarasti Realpe



Hawwa Iufa (Age 14, Maldives)Keiko Kishimoto (Age 15, Japan)(Age 21, France <Living in U.S.A.>)(Age 24, Colombia)
Lusbey Mendez Santiz (Age 24, Mexico)Abdulkabeer Ishola (Age 25, Nigeria)

Best School Award (2 schools)

Ichikawa Junior & Senior High School, Chiba (Japan)

Tokyo Gakugei University International Secondary School (Japan)

School Incentive Award (27 schools)

Atomi Gakuen Junior High School, Tokyo(Japan)

School, Illinois (U.S.A.)

Fuji Sacred Heart Senior High School,Shizuoka (Japan)
Chicago Futabakai Japanese School-Saturday

Ghana Japanese Children's School, Accra(Ghana)Hanazono Junior High School ofHigashi-Osaka City, Osaka (Japan)

Ikubunkan Senior High School & Ikubunkan
Global High School, Tokyo (Japan)

2Japanese School of Toledo, Ohio (U.S.A.)

Japanese Supplementary School in Middle
Tennessee (U.S.A.)

Japaniche Schule in Zurich (Hoshuko)(Switzerland)

Kinki University Wakayama Junior High School(Japan)

Kokugojuku KURU, Tokyo (Japan)



Kokushikan Junior High School, Tokyo (Japan)

Kyoto Gakuen Junior and Senior HighschoolMatsumoto Shuho Secondary School, Nagano(Japan)(Japan)Miyagi Prefectural Hakuou Senior High SchoolHokkaido Obihiro Sanjo High School (Japan)

Oshwal Academy Nairobi Primary (Kenya)Saint Mary's International School, Tokyo(Japan)

Omori 6th Junior High School of Ota City,
Tokyo (Japan)

Port of Sacramento Japanese School,
California (U.S.A.)(Japan)Senzoku Gakuen High School, Kanagawa

(Japan)Showa Women's University Senior HighSchool, Tokyo (Japan)

Shoyokan Junior High School, Fukuoka

Takanawa Junior High School, Tokyo (Japan)Vancouver Japanese School, British Colombia(Japan)Tokyo Kenji Steiner School (Japan)(Canada)Yanai Gakuen High School, Yamaguchi(Japan)3

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children's Category - 1st Prize]

The Wisdom of the Ghanaian People(Original in Japanese)
Mikiya Tan-Okyere(Age 9, Japan <Living in Ghana>)
Ghana Japanese Children's School, Accra“The electricity will come back on. There’s nothing to worry about!”
people say as they patiently wait for the end of a power outage.
They place candles in their rooms and only use a flashlight when
they move around. They can’t do homework and they can’t watch
TV. In Ghana, everyone simply waits patiently for the electricity tocome back.

And the electricity always comes back. If you wait, it always comesback. Ghanaian fathers, in particular, never worry about such things.
But my mother always frets and say things like, “I’ll go check the meter,” or, “I wonder whenthe electricity will come back on.”When I was small I would do the same as my mother and get upset about power outages. But
now I know; the electricity always comes back!

In Ghana, hot dry weather dominates from January to March each year. Then the Harmattan
trade wind comes with its sand storms and turns the moon red. The sun looks just like themoon. My throat begins to hurt and everyone begins to cough. Your skin dries out and turns
white. I hate the Harmattan season because everyone ends up getting sick.

But the Ghanaian people know. The Harmattan will come to an end, the blessed rain will fall,
and the rainy season will begin. Once the rainy season comes, water will follow. You will nolonger have to wash your entire body with just one bucket of water. I hate the thunderstorms
and heavy rain of the rainy season, but I like the rainy season because it brings a lot of waterwith it.

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Even at times of power outages and water stoppages, Ghanaians believe that God will givethem water and electricity. Hence, they never panic. They pray and quietly wait for things toreturn to normal. I think this is a kind of wisdom they have acquired by living in a harshenvironment.

Every summer I return to Japan where my grandmother lives. There are no power outages
and water is always in abundant supply. This is why my mother can’t wait for even a short time
when there are water or power failures.

I want to become the kind of person who can wait. There is no point in fretting. No matter how
long a drought continues, the rain will come in due course. This is how the Ghanaian people
have come to terms with their harsh environment. And this is why, when they have anabundant harvest of crops such as pineapples or plantains, they share them among everyone.

I think the way that Ghanaian people are able to face their harsh environment and sharewhatever they have in abundance is a wonderful aspect of their culture. And I believe thatgetting along with nature, sharing what you have with other people and caring about people
are the qualities we need to create a better future.

The Ghanaians’ way of life is wonderful. No matter how challenging the environment may be,they accept it without resistance. And they wait patiently in the firm belief that God will help
them. Being so bighearted allows them to think positively. Everyone shares and helps eachother, and this enables them to build a peaceful society.

I think there is a lot my impatient mother and I could learn from the positive way Ghanaian
people live. In Japan, many things move along at great speed, so we get anxious when thepace of things slows down. But there’s nothing to worry about. The rain always comes, and sodoes the water and electricity.

The Ghanaian people taught me that if we wait without losing faith and share things with one
another, a peaceful future is sure to come.

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2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 1st Prize]

The Devil Abolished in My Mind
(Original)
Rogers Kimuli(Age 24, Rwanda)
Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry

Since 1959, all the people in my country have experienced theimpact of the genocide ideology

which affected different minds ofthe people, and this led to the severe and a deadly slaughtering of
more than 1,000,000 innocent Tutsi in 1994 genocide, leaving thecountry politically, socially and economically unstable anddisorderly.

In 1962, when my mother was only one year old, she fled with hermother who was wounded everywhere on her body by the genocide
perpetrators, to the north of my country in Uganda and they settled there for a long period oftime. My mother met my father in a hard life as a refugee. They both decided to make a newlife and at least to have a new family since they had both lost a very big number of family
members on either side, and thus I was born in 1989 in this country.

As a young man, I grew up knowing that the country I’m living in wasn’t mine. I started tolearn true stories about what happened and why I wasn’t born in my country, and if that was
the case, why I could not go back to my country. The answer from my parents was that we
can’t go back because so many people in our country hate us and they don’t wish to seeanyone from the so called Tutsi tribe, that we were called snakes and sometimes cockroaches,
and also that the country was like a glass full of water where you can’t add on any more.

All this made me grow up knowing that there is a group of people searching for me, not to giveme prizes but to kill me. This made me develop a bad intention of waiting for a favorable
climate for me to make a good revenge.

6But between 1994 and 2000, when we went back to our country after Rwanda Patriotic Front
had overthrown the Hutu government, more than 120,000 genocide perpetrators were
imprisoned and were not yet tried in court. It was costly to the government and there was aneed to build more prisons instead of rebuilding commercial houses.

In 2001, the government developed gacaca courts, where well-respected elders known as
Inyangamugayo were elected based on their honesty by the people of the community. Gacaca
originates from our national language Kinyarwanda meaning short, clean cut grass or
umucaca. It symbolizes a gathering place for elders to sit on and judge the trial, a system ofcommunity justice inspired by tradition and culture, focusing on criminal prosecutions, putting
justice partially into the hands of the victims with a mission of achieving truth, justice andreconciliation.

Even though gacaca was mainly focusing on unity and reconciliation of Rwandans, it was still
very hard for me to change my mind to forgive, not until 2004, in one of the gacaca courts,
where a best friend of mine forgave a man who slaughtered both of his parents, two brothers
and three sisters while he was watching them die.

I changed my mind to develop myself and my country instead of focusing on revenging in 2005
when I was 16. I also forgave all those that killed my family. Since then, my life became more
successful. Focused on being an entrepreneur, I now grow watermelons and I offer jobs to fiveyoung men on a daily basis to earn a living.

Through people like me who changed because of gacaca, now more than 98% want theirchildren to think of themselves as Rwandans rather than Hutu, Tutsi or Twa, based on Rwanda
Reconciliation Barometer.

Rwanda’s development is second in Africa and first in East Africa. Even though it is a country
that lost the biggest number of people in the shortest period of time, united we stand todevelop our country and the world. If it wasn’t for the culture of gacaca courts, the devil of
genocide ideology wouldn’t have been abolished from my mind.

I now call upon all the young men and women in the whole world not to look at their culture asa burden, but as an initiator of their development economic wise.

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2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children's Category – 2nd Prize]

A Ray of Hope
(Original)
Keanne Chang(Age 12, Canada & Taiwan of China <Living in Taiwan of China>)
Taipei American School

Culture is one of the words in the dictionary that people talk about a lot. It means different
things to a variety of people; it could vary from food, clothing, song, dance, and art to behavior,religious practices, education, breeding, and others. Culture comprises of just seven letters;
yet this powerful word has a lasting impact that shapes the perception, attitude, and ideas thatdefine the identity of a person, a community and a nation. It is something that could bringpeople in a nation, country, or region together. There are a lot of diverse and unique culturesthat people all around the world are proud of. In Taiwan, where my parents are from, there is
one traditional ceremony that I take pride in and that is the Sky Lantern Festival. It is a custom
that symbolizes sacrifice, bonding, and aspiration.

According to the people of Pingxi, the tradition of setting the Sky Lantern dated back to the
Ching Dynasty. Long time ago, bands of outlaws frequently attacked the villages in Pingxi. This
forced the local residents to seek refuge in the mountains or elsewhere. The watchmen used
the sky lantern to signal the villagers that their houses were safe again so it was time to go
home. This simple story showed the bravery and sacrifice made by the watchmen just to makesure that the residents of their village were all safe. The Sky Lantern Festival is crucial in the
Taiwanese culture because it is a constant reminder of the sacrifices of our ancestors to makesure that our generation enjoys the security and freedom that we so much take for granted. It
is a gift that prompts our memory day by day that we should cherish and value what we have.

In addition, this unique culture has the ability to bring people together. Everyone has to unite
and work together for this sky lantern to rise up into the air. Since 2~7 people are usuallyneeded to do this, this is an event that allows family and friends to connect and bond with eachother in a fun way. Furthermore, people also can join in by watching hundreds and thousandsof sky lanterns go off in the air at the same time at the Pingxi Lantern Festival here in Taiwan.

8This festival attracts thousands of people from all over the world to come, watch, andparticipate the release of thousands of sky lanterns. This festival could let people of the sameinterest meet and become friends. As the lanterns filled the dark sky, there is a feeling ofsomething magical happening – the warmth and joy that surround the people present in thatevent.

Moreover, sky lantern is an important part of our culture in Taiwan because it is a symbol ofhope. The modern sky lanterns are the carrier of people’s prayers. Before releasing them tothe sky, people would write down their wishes, hopes and dreams on the lantern as a way ofdelivering the messages to heaven. It has been said that in heaven, the gods would take a lookat these sky lanterns and fulfill any of the wishes, hopes, and dreams sent to them. This
tradition of writing people's wishes, hopes, and dreams has been around for a couple ofdecades now. It is a deeply touching experience and should be kept alive. The future
generation should never extinguish the flame of hope because one day it may come true.

Sky lanterns can help build bridges between the past and the future. This tradition helps us
treasure the past and gives us a ray of hope for the future. By understanding what we all havein common and what we stand for, we can all move forward for a better tomorrow. One thingis for sure - regardless of race, ethnicity, and beliefs - we all believe that there is hope in the
future and that is what Pingxi Sky Lanterns prove.

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2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children's Category – 2nd Prize]

Path for All(Original)
Haruka Kawada(Age 14, Japan)
Ichikawa Junior High School, Chiba

I still remember clearly, the surprise I got at what my mother told me. I had been eating rice,a daily necessity in my life, when she severely told me off for not cleaning out my plate. "There
are seven gods in every grain of rice, so it's a sin to waste your food".

I couldn't understand what she meant. I had spent most of my childhood in England at acatholic school which is a monotheistic religion with just one god who I had learned to believe
in. At that time, I had just visited Italy and seen the Pope, who I understood to be a messenger
of God. I was moved by the sincerity of his prayers and loyalty he showed for God. Therefore,
the Japanese way of believing in many gods such as gods of flowers, gods of winds and evengods in a single grain of rice was difficult for me to understand. I puzzled over this question,
and wavered between the two. Which could possibly be right?

With this thought always nagging at my mind, I came back to Japan. Here, in one of the school
lessons we were all given a single grain of rice and a bucket which our teacher told us to use
to cultivate our own rice plant. It seemed an easy task, so it came as a blow that it was severe
and hard process. Rice, not being a strong plant, needed a lot of water and care to grow. The
hard work such as carrying buckets of water every day exhausted me. When the time for
harvest finally came, a certain feeling of worship for this plant had grown in my mind. I
realized that this feeling is the identity of the many gods I had been puzzling over. Belief is a
picture of the respect that we all hold.

This experience made me realize that religion couldn't all be so different. Though we may all
believe in a wide range of gods, in the end, praying to god is a sign of respect that we show
towards nature, our earth and also for each other. Though they may seem different on theoutside, they are like two parabolic graphs, which may have a different slope intercept form,

10but interact at one point. Different cultures are built over similar intrinsic thoughts which cancommonly be seen across human beings. Prior to this experience, I believed in a single God,and denied in my mind the concept of polytheism culture. Such stereotypes on our own mind
should be wrecked, since this is the biggest barrier against understanding others, particularly
in inter-cultural comprehension.

Recently, an American university girl stayed overnight at my house, when we applied for a hostfamily program. During dinner, a topic about the way of working came up. She told me thedifference of the working hours between Japanese and American workers. Japanese people
work much longer. In fact, my father comes back home late every day. Despite the length ofwork, we agreed that both Japanese and American people consider their families important.
While Americans come home early because of loyalty for their family, Japanese work long andhard for the same reason. Before, I may have defended the Japanese way of working anddenied the different culture. Trying to find underlying common values is the key forintercultural understanding.

I can't help feeling that a better awareness and understanding of realities in different cultures
is a big homework assignment for young people. Each of us should recognize that this is a task
we owe and make efforts to understand other cultures. Unlike some subjects we learn at
school, there is no textbook or answer. The effort of each individual could result in forming apath which we could proudly say that we had built together, one that will lead us to a brightand new future. As the Chinese novel 'Hometown' by Lu Hsün says, this world has no path but
when many people start to take that route, one day it will turn into one.

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2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 2nd Prize]

Beyond the Border(Original)
Sidiq Maulana(Age 24, Indonesia)

Malaysia Challenges!

That kind of news title appeared periodically on many newspapers and televisions in Indonesia
every time the tension between the two nations increased. Usually it’s about illegal fishing andborder claim issues, but also about cultural claims over several things from folk dances to
traditional songs and musical instruments. It could even be about food and sauce recipes! I
know it may sounds petty and unimportant, but such issue is taken seriously by someIndonesians. Cursing Malaysia became common during the tension, and any attempt to saysomething positive about them can be viewed as an act of betrayal.

Grew up in Jakarta, I once agreed with the bad images of Malaysia and its citizens as depictedby the media. They’re a bunch of plagiators with no identity trying to steal the rich heritage ofIndonesian nature and culture. But as the hate went viral that I heard it everywhere, I started
to think that something was wrong. I mean it’s true that Indonesia has problem with Malaysia.
But is it really that serious? Can we generalize it to the whole population? And will hate solve
the problem? I found the answer not in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur media, but right at the very
border of two countries.

It was a quiet and isolated village at the tail of Borneo Island, in a bay facing South China Sea.
I spent a month there, living with the locals and getting immersed in their daily activities.
Plucking coconuts, feeding cows, singing under the moonlight. A simple life away from thebustling big cities. I was amazed by how well they knew each other. A boy on one edge of thevillage could recognize an old woman on another edge. Everyone was counted, and everybody
was somebody worthy to be known. The whole village really looked like a big family. And that’s
not all.

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The village, called Temajuk, was just a step from Telok Melano, a neighboring Malaysianvillage over the hill. Prior to coming there, all I found about Temajuk on the internet were only
some news regarding its border conflict with Malaysia. But living inside the village, I came torealize that the situation was much calmer than what was depicted. Temajuk and Telok
Melano people were friends.

They traveled across the border everyday, conducting trading and social activities. At three orfour in the afternoon, Telok Melano youngsters came to play football with Temajuk youngsters,
or otherwise. Everything was so normal and peaceful that I asked myself, “where’s theconflict?”

A teaching to love our neighbors is actually ingrained in many cultures and societies. Yet while
we’re encouraged to do so in local context, we often failed to implement it in international
context. Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan, China and Japan. It’s a sad fact that wehave problem mostly with our closest neighbors. One night, I was invited to a wedding party
in the village. Young and old, men and women — everyone were dancing gleefully while themusic was being played. A kid pulled me into the dancing crowd and left me no choice but tojoin the dance. In the middle of the party noise, I was told that around half of the crowd were
Malaysians. And I was like, “What?” I failed to notice because they all looked the same andspoke the same dialect. At that moment, I realized that this border, this so-called nationalism
was no more than an illusion we created in our heads. Trapped together in the remoteness of
sea and rainforest, Temajuk and Telok Melano people knew exactly what is the meaning offriendship and trust. A sense of solidarity far from the hate that circulated in other parts ofIndonesia and Malaysia.

After all, we all live in one isolated village. A global village called earth which we inhabit
together. This is the lonely and only earth we have so far in the galaxy, so please share it
wisely. Listen beyond the horizon and narrow identities. The air we breathe, the genes weshare, the moon we stare at—everything that keeps telling us how we are one.

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2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 2nd Prize]

Relationship between Individual and Culture(Original)
Nurana Rajabova Oqtay(Age 24, Azerbaijan)

My first and foremost intercultural experience happened when I started working for U.S. Peace
Corps in my home country, Azerbaijan. Working as a Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitator,
I was responsible for conducting local language (Azerbaijani) and cultural training classes andserving as a key cultural informant of Azerbaijani customs, cultural norms and values for
American Peace Corps Volunteers in their pre-service training period. It was quite aninteresting and challenging experience, in terms of putting things in a new perspective for me
and developing my views and perceptions in many aspects of life.

As a Cultural Facilitator, I learned about the notion of culture and different values that exist indifferent societies. This experience did not only give me an opportunity to learn about
American culture, but rediscover the culture of my own country. I started to see my own
culture from the eyes of an outsider. Answering cultural questions raised by the Trainees, I
started to notice peculiarities of my culture, about which otherwise I would never question
myself, just living it without ever realizing. Working together with people coming fromdifferent cultural backgrounds, I saw many differences between us, yet amazed by so many
similarities despite to long distance, language, history etc.

My Peace Corps experience and afterwards experience in multicultural environments taughtme that, cultures are not good or bad, they are just are. Also, one of the biggest takeaways ofthis experience for me has been seeing the role of culture in our life. I started to see culture in
every single aspect of our life. Our language, our traditions, our way of doing things,
simply-from the way we greet each other to the way we govern our country are so much
impacted by the culture we carry in our inside. Culture is an inner part of our life, and it has somuch power in our actions, perceptions, reactions and so on and so forth.

14

Thinking deeply about relationship between an individual and culture, I was really amazed tosee this firm bond between them, and strong power of culture on the former. However, justrecently I had another experience which showed me a completely opposite form of this power
relationship between an individual and culture. I learned that, it is not just the culture which
has influential power on us shaping our behavior, but also we have so much power on creating
a culture.

To make my thoughts more clear, I would like to share my experience briefly here below. Thus,
I recently attended a Summer Peacebuilding Institute, where there were participants comingfrom all over the world. It was a real mixture of people coming from different continents,
countries, backgrounds, cultures, age groups, etc.

During more than a month we spent together, one of the interesting things that struck me wasthat in such a diverse environment, we felt just like a family. We became friends with people
from places, that we heard the name for the first time in our lives. Thinking about this beautiful
relationship among all of us, the true peace in our very diverse environment, I came tounderstand that the key for this success was our intention, our intention of being peaceful. We
knew we came from diverse backgrounds, yet we accepted each other with our differences.
With so much different cultures, we had created a new culture of our own, a culture of peace,friendship and sharing. This experience showed me once again that, we people have thepower to create a culture and most importantly creating a culture of peace is achievable, only
if we want and work for it.

I see the culture of peace as a key factor for a peaceful and better future, because by having
a peace culture, we will be able to look at our differences as a way of enriching ourselves, not
as a source of conflicts. Having a peace culture, we will be able to create a similarity between
us, but also keep our differences by respecting them. Thereby, creating a peace culture among
all societies in the world is my wish for the future and believe we will achieve it one day, if westrongly work for it.

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2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children’s Category – 3rd Prize]

More than Toys
(Original)
Anastasia Lebedenko(Age 10, Ukraine)
School 5, Monastyryshche

Dear All,I am Nastia Lebedenko. I live in a small rural town located in the center of Ukraine, 250 km
away from the capital city of Kyiv. Nearly 9,000 people inhabit my town. There are no famousplaces of interest in the town, but you can enjoy very beautiful nature of our district with its
clean air, green forests, endless fields and the people who are very hospitable and friendly. We
have close-knit families of several generations, keep family traditions, like spend time with ourfamilies, dining, walking, playing and going on holidays together and we like our culture thatteaches us to welcome anyone open-heartedly and treat people warmly and generously.

I am proud to be Ukrainian. I feel happy when I sing Ukrainian songs or listen to the melody
from the sopilka, our national flute, or when they host our national blue and yellow flag at
school assemblies, or when my four year old sister and I wear our national costumes on theholidays (We are such beauties then!)

I know how to use culture to make the future better. It is because I have some experience. It
all started when one day our teacher invited my class to participate in the international schools
Cyber Fair program. We decided to explore our cultural toys. You would say, “Ha, Toys!” But I
am not kidding. My granny Katia says everything starts with a toy. Working on the project I
realized what it means.

We did a lot of work. In the process of research we had to contact and communicate withdifferent people-parents, teachers, schoolmates, neighbours, a local doll maker and her family,
librarians, the local history museum director. We have found out that toys are more than toys.
They came into being at the earliest stages of civilization. They are a part of traditional folk art,16

they express a long national history, national spirit and cultural continuity. Religious beliefs,
world view, tastes and local customs are all represented in ethnic toys.

By St. Nicholas Day all our classmates united their efforts and made more than twenty
Motankas, our national folk dolls. We decided to visit the little children at a local boarding
school and to give them our Motankas as presents. We told them the stories we had learned
from the local doll maker and Ukrainian traditions. Our little friends were really excited! It wasso moving to see how simple handmade toys could make the children happy.

We initiated the exhibition and research work at the local history museum. When we
addressed them they were really very confused that we could not find any traditional toy, any
exhibit related so much to the history and cultural heritage of ours. We had negotiations with
our doll maker and the Museum Director. As a result they've got a collection of traditional toys
made by the Master and by the students of our school.

We also tried to unite the children of other countries to stop folk art decline and start reviving
the traditions. We were the first to start iEARN "National Toys" project and encouraged thepeers from the USA, Russia, Turkey, Romania, Pakistan, Taiwan, Belarus, Indonesia toparticipate in this toy making culture. We shared pictures, videos, national toys of ourcountries. We had Skype conferences with the participants and exchanged Culture Bags via
post. It was awesome!

Now I would like to say that simple toys have already changed my life for better: it has alreadybecome more interesting. I have learnt much, I have done much, I have made friends withchildren of other countries. Yes, different peoples have different cultures. But I see that culture
can make us friends. And if we become friends now we will have better tomorrow, because we
respect and love each other.

17

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children’s Category – 3rd Prize]

Sabiduría Milenaria(Original)Angel Mahonri Caballero Ortega(Age 11, Mexico)
Ignacio Zaragoza¡Hola!, soy Mahonri y vivo en la ciudad de Mérida en el estado de Yucatán, en el bello país
llamado México, a mi ciudad le han puesto a lo largo de su historia varios sobrenombres, por
ejemplo “La blanca Mérida” y los títulos “Muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Mérida”, en estosúltimos años se le nombró “La ciudad de la Paz” y esto es a lo que quiero referirme.

Desde que tengo uso de razón, mis padres me han enseñado que el respeto es lo más
importante entre los hombres, las naciones y entre todos los seres vivos y que la cultura Mayaes demás respetuosa con la naturaleza y con todo lo que nos rodea.

He tenido la oportunidad de visitar algunos sitios arqueológicos cercanos a donde yo vivo, me
he asombrado y maravillado, de cómo los antiguos habitantes de esta región hacían cambios
para vivir más cómodos y afectando al mínimo el medio ambiente, ¡es impresionante en
verdad!

En estos días se escucha en las noticias que los humanos hemos dañado nuestro mundo
entonces debemos mirar hacia atrás para aprender de la sabiduría de nuestros antepasados.

Lo que más me gusta de mi cultura es que aun en estos días existen comunidades que
conservan intactas sus costumbres y tradiciones sin dañar el medio ambiente ni a laspersonas.

Algunas de las tradiciones que aun tenemos presentes, son los bailables, la vestimenta,
ceremonia y también la lengua maya, que es difícil de leer y aun mas difícil de pronunciar. En
mi escuela, además de las clases normales, tenemos clases de maya, es muy divertido einteresante decir Ma´alo´ob k´iin que significa buenos días.

18

La parte más importante de las tradiciones de mis antepasados es cuidar nuestro entorno ynuestras familias ya que de ello depende nuestra subsistencia, por ejemplo:

Una vez con un amigo fuimos a visitar el “Gran Museo Maya” y nos dieron una explicación decómo los antiguos habitantes de esta región usaban las herramientas para sembrar y cosechar,también aprendimos que pescaban en los mares y que producían mucha sal a las orillas delmar, todas estas cosas que producían les sirvieron para interactuar con otras culturas por
medio del comercio o del trueque.

Sin embargo los mayas siempre tuvieron mucho cuidado en conocer otras culturas y saber con
quién hacían negocios, ellos no fueron egoístas, compartieron sus conocimientos en astrología
y matemáticas con otras culturas.

¿Por qué escribo sobre esto? La respuesta es simple, aun así hayan pasado siglos desde esaépoca, en este año 2013 me siento orgulloso de ser descendiente de los mayas tan sabios, meemociona su cultura y sus costumbres.

Intento seguir sus enseñanzas ¿Cómo? Siendo amable con el ecosistema que me rodea,
aprovechando cada oportunidad para servir a mis semejantes y compartiendo con ellos lo felizque soy al hacer las cosas correctas en mi comunidad y, ¿saben? No siempre es tan fácil paramí, a pesar de mi corta edad, soy un niño al que le cuesta concentrarme y con mucha energía(tengo TDAH) y me esfuerzo porque mis amigos, mis vecinos y mi familia sepan que tenemos
que cuidarnos y protegernos así como deberíamos estar cuidando y protegiendo nuestro
planeta para tener un mejor futuro.

Ahora mismo tengo en la cabeza muchas ideas para compartir, se me hace un remolino en lamente y tengo el impulso de salir y correr y gritar ¡cuidemos nuestro mundo! Pensaran que me
falta un tornillo o algo así …pero sé que si yo empiezo a hacerlos en mi comunidad se hará mas
y mas grande hasta que se note y los demás empiecen a hacer su parte por tener un mejor
futuro, un país en paz y si, también un mundo mejor.

19

Milennial Wisdom(Translation)
Hello! I am Mahonri and I live in the city of Mérida, Yucatán, in the beautiful country of Mexico.
My city has had several nicknames throughout its history, such as "The White Mérida" andsome titles like "The noble and loyal city of Mérida". In recent years it was named "The City ofPeace" and this is what I would like to write about.

For as long as I can remember, my parents have taught me that respect is the most important
thing among men, nations and all the living creatures, and that the Mayan culture is mostrespectful of nature and everything around us.

I have had the opportunity to visit some archaeological sites that are close to my hometown,
and I have been amazed and marveled at how the ancient inhabitants of this region made thenecessary changes to live more comfortably while affecting the environment as little aspossible, it’s really impressive!

Nowadays you hear on the news that us humans have damaged our world, so we must lookback to learn from the wisdom of our ancestors.

What I like the most about my culture is that even today there are communities that preserve
their customs and traditions intact without damaging the environment or other people.

Some of the traditions that we still have are the dances, dresses, ceremonies and also the
Mayan language, which is difficult to read and even more difficult to pronounce. At my school,in addition to the regular classes, we have Maya lessons. It is very fun and interesting to say
Ma'alo'ob k'iin, which means ‘Good morning’.

The most important part of the traditions of my ancestors is to look after our environment andour families because our livelihood depends on them, for example:

One day, a friend and I went to visit the "Great Mayan Museum", and we learned how theancient inhabitants of this region used the tools to plant and harvest. We also learned that theyused to fish in the seas and they produced a lot of salt on the shores; all these things helped
them to interact with other cultures through trade or barter.

20

However, the Mayas were always careful to know other cultures and know who to do businesswith. They were not selfish; they shared their knowledge in astrology and mathematics withother cultures.

Why am I writing about this? The answer is simple: Even if centuries have passed since thattime, in this year of 2013, I am proud to be a descendant of the wise Mayas. I am excited with
their culture and traditions.

I try to live by their teachings. How? By being kind to the environment, by taking every
opportunity to serve others and share with them the happiness I get from doing the rightthings in my community. And, you know? It’s not always easy for me. Despite my young age,
I am a highly energetic boy who sometimes has trouble paying attention (I have ADHD) and I
try hard to make my friends, my neighbors and my family aware of the fact that we have tolook after and protect ourselves, as we should be caring for and protecting our planet in orderto have a better future.

Right now I have many ideas to share. Sometimes my mind is like a tornado and I feel likerunning out and screaming ‘Let’s take care of our world!’ You might think that I'm crazy orsomething... but I know that if I start doing this in my community, it will get bigger and bigger
until everyone will notice and start doing their part in order to have a better future, a peacefulnation and yes, a better world, too.

It’s not enough to know, the important thing is to do and share. That is what makes us wise.

21

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children’s Category – 3rd Prize]

The Strength of Our Cultures to Create a Brighter Future(Original)
Shah-Mir Aizaz(Age 13, Pakistan)
Springfield School, Karachi

A long, straight, gray road ahead of me. Greenery on both sides, and on those patches, brightyellow crops of mustard enchanted the view. But, the most breath-taking sight was of the sunrise, as the time was around 6am in the morning. I could also see a couple of farmers working
on the fields. But, I was really inspired by their outfit. One of them was wearing his traditional
hat and colourful clothes. As, I spoke to him I could feel that the man was of a polite natureand talked with the utmost respect. He took me to his cottage which looked quite beautiful andalso offered me a cup of tea. I talked about his lifestyle and surprisingly, I realized that without
any television, computer or a radio which nowadays seem to be the most necessary things in
our life, that farmer was living happily. He told me that these traditions have passed from one
generation to another from centuries. He said that “I am happy that I have a family, my
children go to school and there is nothing more I want”. I found out that even though that man
did not have any access to electronic gadgets and appliances, but still he was contended. It
was all because of the traditional cultures which had been preserved in his heart and soul. I
believe that there is no power apart from God’s will that could have shattered him apart.

Well, after that splendid visit, I continued my journey towards Lahore. Coming acrossmagnificent cultures, chatting with people of all classes and races of Pakistan, as well as eating
all sorts of mouth-watering food they had to offer. During this marvelous journey acrossPakistan, I realized that the people in rural areas of the country are much better than thoseliving in urban areas. People, who are dwelling in cities, are always looking forward for more.
The reason is that they have come across many things and are so called as “hi-fi”. Whereas thevillagers and those living in country sides are contended with what they have. An appropriate
proverb to use here is “half a loaf is better than no bread”. Their traditions have kept themunited and so they have a much brighter future. Most of us, who dwell in cities, our22grandparents who were much backwards used to be patient and satisfied. But as time passed
and we moved towards cities our nature began to change.

“People without the knowledge about their past history are like trees without roots”. Theselines were spoken by Marcus Garvey, who was a Jamaican political leader, journalist and an
orator. People dwelling in cities really don’t have any idea about their past cultures. Even if they
do, they do not want to apply those cultures on themselves, because they think it would lookor sound bizarre. Where as if you look at the people living in country sides, they would nevereven think of leaving their traditions and adapting the new modern way of living. The reason
behind this is that these cultures have passed from one generation to another, and it is the
symbol of their beloved nation Pakistan. I don’t mean to say, that change is a bad thing, but itshould be in a positive sense.

I often think about that farmer, who has really changed my way of thinking. That man was aproud Pakistani who is really working hard for his nation. A thought came in my mind, that if
people from all cultures join hands and unite under one flag, than the whole nation will headtowards real prosperity. After coming across that farmer, I have tried my best to respect myculture because where ever I go in the world; the culture of my country is going to reflect mypersonality. The respect of my country will be in my hands. It depends on what picture of mynation I give to people.

May peace prevail on Earth.

23

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children’s Category – 3rd Prize]

Culture is Amazing(Original in Japanese)
Kirin Suemitsu(Age 14, Japan)
Tokyo Gakugei University International Secondary School

In order to utilize the power of culture to create a better future, it is important that we firstlearn about the cultures of various countries.

There are more than 190 countries in the world and I have lived in five of them; I have lived in
Malaysia, Bhutan, Uganda, Indonesia and Japan.

Let me start by telling you about the cultures I learned in Bhutan and Indonesia. Bhutan is avery small country brimming with happiness. The aspect of Bhutanese culture I would like toshare with you is that all students wear the national costume to school. My two elder sisters
also wore Kira, the costume for girls, to school. If you look for countries around the world
where children wear their national costume to school, I don’t think you’ll find very many. I
didn’t give this much thought when I lived there, but thinking about it now, I think the peopleof Bhutan who continue to preserve their traditional habits and customs show great integrity.

Next, let us consider Indonesia. The aspect of culture I learned about in Indonesia is Eid
al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice. This is an Islamic festival during which rich people provide
meat to people who are too poor to eat meat such as beef or goat on a regular basis. My family
and I actually went to see the animals slaughtered. I saw the men slaughtering them, but theskill with which they carefully carried out their task wowed me and it made a strong impression
on me. Two things about this event made a lasting impression on me. The first is that the fresh
blood flowing from the cows and goats was an incredibly beautiful red. Its magma-like redcolor made me conscious of the power of life. And the second thing was the happiness of a boy
as he took some of meat the men had butchered to a woman. Carrying the raw goat meat
carefully in both hands, the boy’s eyes gleamed with exuberance. Most people who have notexperienced Eid al-Adha may think it is very cruel, but when I saw it, I didn’t think there was24anything cruel or grotesque about it at all. This is probably because the men who carried out
the slaughter all live within a religious culture that has an attitude of gratitude toward animals.
I learned many things from Eid al-Adha including the amazing power and wonderfulness ofculture.

Much like people, each country has its own uniqueness and culture. I think creating a “CultureDay” could be a good way of encouraging lots of people to learn about different cultures.

In fact, the international school I attended in Uganda actually had a day like this. Students
wore their national costumes to school and visited country booths set up by their parents. In
this way, we could enjoy learning about a lot of countries’ cultures in one day. In the midst of
globalization and increase in the number of people living in countries other than their own, I
think people could learn about a lot of other countries’ cultures if countries around the world
adopted a day like this.

People often hold prejudices and discriminate against others on the basis of culturaldifferences. This is probably because either we don’t know about their cultures or we makejudgments on the basis of very superficial knowledge. At first, the only image I had of Eid
al-Adha was one of cruelty, but experiencing the festival firsthand helped me realize that it wasa religious event. Observing other countries’ cultures closely can help eliminate prejudices anddiscrimination. I believe learning about and respecting other countries’ and peoples’ cultures
can lead to a peaceful future.

25

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Children’s Category – 3rd Prize]

Abilities that Enable You to Venture into the World(Original in Japanese)
Miki Nakamori(Age 15, Japan)
Ichikawa Junior High School, Chiba

Have you heard of “aikido”? It was developed after the war (Russo-Japanese War) by a mancalled Morihei Ueshiba, who incorporated ancient Japanese sword play into Daito-ryu Aiki
Jujutsu, a martial art that had been created more than 900 years earlier, and added some of
his own philosophies and beliefs. This became known as “aikido.” Created in Japan, the strong
yet beautiful martial art of aikido reflects the Japanese spirit.

When I was an elementary school student, I absolutely hated PE. Even so, I wanted to dosome form of exercise, and martial arts caught my attention. My mother recommended aikido.
It has been almost five years since I started aikido, and I have had a number of experiences
during this time. These experiences have made me realize that aikido, an aspect of Japaneseculture that is widely revered, contributes greatly to fostering individuals that can thrive bothin modern Japanese society and in the global society. There are two reasons why I believe this.

Firstly, aikido is a noncompetitive form of martial art. Aikido seeks to ensure that bothparticipants are winners and neither comes out a loser. Accordingly, everyone can enjoy
practicing together. I think aikido is very beneficial for children’s development, helping themlearn to enjoy cooperating and getting along with their peers, rather than competing orfighting against them. This fosters good communication. The same goes for relationships
between adults, and between adults and children. This is because you often get to practice not
only with other children of similar ages, but also with adults. Practicing aikido allows yourcommunication skills to improve naturally, and communication skills are one of the mostimportant skills to have in our global society.

Secondly, aikido is a martial art that seeks unity. The essence of aikido lies in learning to
combine energy and attain unity. Forgetting everything else and striving to combine forces

26with your opponent creates a sense of unity. Achieving this sense of unity is surprisingly
difficult. So far, I have experienced it less than five times. However, I have come to realize whyachieving such unity has eluded me. First of all, you need to be considerate toward youropponent. You will never achieve unity if you try to do things your own way. Even if youropponent is a foreigner whom you can’t communicate with easily, you can’t allow this toimpede you. Likewise, there is no use in getting frustrated and emotional because youropponent is a child and doesn’t listen carefully to what you say. If you are considerate of eachother and try to match each other’s pace, unity will follow naturally. Language and age are of
no relevance in aikido. You practice with the goal of achieving a sense of unity. One experiencethat made me very happy was that through aikido, I was able to become friends with apractitioner from a dojo overseas, even though we could barely communicate verbally witheach other. Uniting with your opponent in this way can give rise to new things, and creating
new values with other people is something that is sought after both in modern Japan and in theworld at large.

At present, there are about 100,000 aikido aficionados in Japan; overseas there are 600,000,
and its popularity is growing. I think this is evidence that people all over the world are
accepting aikido’s philosophy of strengthening your body and mind without resorting tocombat. This kind of strength, which enables you to find a new way forward by becoming one
with your opponent rather than fighting, no matter what problems you may encounter, is a
product of Japan’s unique culture. It is this kind of strength that will be needed from here on in
our global society.

Created in Japan, aikido shows people new possibilities, but just how many Japanese people
are familiar with aikido? It is not particularly well known. In the future, I would like to see more
Japanese people practicing aikido and playing an active role in the world. So as a first step
towards this, I would like to make aikido a compulsory component of martial arts at school, sothat more people can learn about it. I would like them to learn the basic skills so that they canuse aikido to venture out into the world.

27

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 3rd Prize]

An Island where Many Cultures are One(Original in Japanese)
Yuna Kida(Age 16, Japan)
Kagoshima Gyokuryu Senior High School, Kagoshima City

I still remember it-the sight of sparks flying in the hot and stuffy workshop, and bits of glowing
iron being transformed into beautifully curved handles just like candy making.

This is the tanebasami scissor factory on Tanegashima, a Japanese island that is well known
for its Space Center. I have heard that there are very few craftspeople left on the island who
have inherited this tradition. The dry metallic sound of the blades coming together and thesmooth cutting action are something you cannot fully appreciate until you hold the scissors inyour hand. This is traditional craftsmanship that only highly skilled craftspeople can perform.

“These scissors were developed nearly five hundred years ago, through a combination ofWestern and local techniques,” one of the craftspeople murmured. These unexpected words
surprised me. In 1543, a single ship that would change the course of Japanese history arrived
at Tanegashima. The Portuguese on board this ship possessed matchlock firearms, andTanegashima Tokitaka, who ruled the island, ordered his vassals to make the same thing. This
weapon became known as the ‘Tanegashima,’ and it dominated the later part of Japan’s
Warring States period (1467-1568). But along with the firearm, what was also introduced toJapan at that time were Western style scissors, in which two blades crossed at the center tocreate a cutting action. Before long, the Edo shogunate was established, and as the wars cameto an end the demand for matchlock firearms was greatly reduced. So, instead of making
firearms, the swordsmiths on the island began to make scissors. They adapted the handles of
traditional Japanese scissors to the new Western scissors, creating the unique tanebasami.

The people of Tanegashima, where my maternal grandparents live, have the calm gentle
nature of island people. Sometimes, when I go back there, they talk to me with friendly,
smiling faces, and always take good care of me. This may be because, for many years, people28

have been telling stories of the American and British merchant ships that became shipwrecked
there, and how the islanders came to the aid of the crew and looked after them.

Rather than rejecting foreign cultures, these accepting islanders saw the good in other cultures
and actively made use of it, and thus was born the tanebasami. Besides their excellent cutting
ability, what makes these scissors great is their symmetrical form, which allows anyone to usethem, regardless of which hand is their dominant hand. Today, we would call this ‘universal
design,’ meaning that the designers put thought into making it easier for more people to use
the product. As represented by these scissors, the culture of Tanegashima consists of diverse
cultures blended together and coexisting harmoniously. In the UNESCO Constitution, it isstated that “ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout
the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world
through which their differences have all too often broken into war.” On Tanegashima,
whenever they have encountered different customs and cultures, they have not taken anarrow-minded view, but have continued reshaping their culture while still maintaining theirtraditions.

Each country and region of the world has cultivated its own culture. These cultures have been
passed down through history by the people who live there, and they should be mutuallyrespected. As we continue to learn about and understand each other’s cultures, I believe that
our cultures will evolve into accepting and enduring cultures suited to the times, and they will
live on in the world to come.

The many satellites that have been launched from the Tanegashima Space Center are still
circling the planet, looking down on our world. They show us a world without the national
borders we draw on maps. It is somehow significant that the Space Center was built on thisisland. These tanebasami scissors, which fit so comfortably in my hand, seem to becommunicating this to me.

29

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 3rd Prize]

Reusing and Recycling for Spiritual Wealth(Original in Japanese)
Natsuka Sato
(Age 16, Japan)
Showa Women's University Senior High School, Tokyo

Recently in my English class, we were learning about Wangari Maathai. Dr. Maathai was a
Kenyan environmental activist who, in 2004, became the first African woman to win the Nobel
Peace Prize for her work to protect the environment. When Dr. Maathai visited Japan, shelearned the Japanese word mottainai (a term of regret for being wasteful), which made a deep
impression on her. It is well-known that she introduced the term mottainai—which is difficult totranslate into other languages—to the world.

The word mottainai is unique in its meaning and the image it conveys. It seems to haveoriginated in Buddhism, but I think that for most Japanese people, the word has a slightly
different and broader meaning. It seems especially useful in situations where something is not
used to its fullest, such as, “It’s wasteful to throw that out,” or, “What a waste not to use it.”
Since long ago, before we had words like ‘recycle,’ Japanese people have treated things withcare, and we have been good at finding ways to reuse things until they are completely used up.
A good example of this is the rice plant, which Japanese people continue using even after it iscut. After the rice grains are harvested, the straw is used to make sandals and other products,
the husks are used to stuff pillows, the bran that comes off when polishing the rice is used bothfor pickling and in a soap press to take out stains, and the water that is used to wash rice
before cooking is reused for washing dishes and as fertilizer. There is nothing that is thrownaway. When sandals and other straw products become worn out, they were collected and used
to fertilize the fields.

People in the olden days relied on their predecessors and their own experience to learn thesethings, and I admire them greatly for it. Particularly during the Edo period (1603-1868),
people reused and recycled as much as they possibly could. If something broke, they would
always try to fix it and use it again, and there were craftsmen who specialized in repairing each30

household item. In those days, everything was made by hand, so I imagine it was an immense
undertaking just to make something. But at the same time, people took care of their things,
and I feel that the idea of mottainai must have pervaded their way of thinking.

As times changed and Western culture came in, Japanese society changed rapidly, but even in
the Shôwa era (1926-1989), people continued to treat things with care. Kimonos, thetraditional Japanese garment, were handed down from grandmother to mother, and frommother to daughter. Even if their sizes were a little different, it was no problem. Kimonos are
cut from a long piece of fabric and sewn more or less in a straight line, with the assumptionthat they will be altered in the future. When a kimono is no longer being worn, its material canbe made into bedding and cushions, and the remaining scraps of cloth are turned into pouches
and toys like beanbags. I imagine that the material itself would feel happy to be given such along life.

In thinking this over, I wondered if the reason for reusing things is just to avoid being wasteful.
When we are no longer using something for its original purpose, we use it for something else,
but that is not all there is to it. When something has fulfilled its intended role, we can breathe
new life into it by changing its form and using it in a different way, turning it into something
new. When we undo a seam and stitch it up again, we remember events related to that item,
and we picture the scenes where the next person will use it. The newly finished product is once
again full of life and useful to people. How fantastic this is, and how it fills our spirits with goodfeelings! All of us, I think can understand mottainai, and all of us feel that we should not be
wasteful. But today, the opportunities to turn our attention to this precious way of living areslipping away. No matter how materially wealthy we may be, it is unfortunate if we miss thisinvaluable chance to be spiritually wealthy. How can we treat our things with care? How can
we relate to them? From here on, I hope to have many more opportunities to think about thesequestions. And, as an adult, I hope that I will be able to properly convey the spirit and cultureof mottainai to others.

312013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 3rd Prize]

The Power of Culture to Create a Better Future(Original)
Simbarashe Kaneunyenye(Age 16, Zimbabwe)
St. Ignatius College

I have been living in my neighbourhood for the past five years. I still do not know myneighbours. I have been going to my high school for the past four years. I only have six people
whose backgrounds I really know. I have been chatting online for the past three years. I havemet none of my chat mates ever since. This is the world that I know. The world I am growing
up in. The world that is moulding me into the master of tomorrow.

I am just one of the many casualties of today’s society. Rather than care of how we are going
to progress as a collective, I am taught how to beat the rest and make it by myself. Booker T
Washington, the civil rights activist, once asserted that there are two ways of exerting one’s
strength: one is pushing down and the other is pulling up. Every time I leave the house, myhands are in my pockets and the sound of the outside world is blocked by my earphones. I
don’t greet anyone on the way because I was taught not to talk to strangers. The rare few that
I do know, I acknowledge by nodding my head at them. No time for chit chat in this world.

This is the attitude of the world. Like I said, “I am just one of the many casualties of today’ssociety.” The other casualties can be seen in the rising number of teen pregnancies, the risingnumber of school-dropouts and rising number of child soldiers. In the rising number of childdisappearances, rising number of child rape cases and rising number of child murder cases.
We often hear stories of teenagers who got involved in a drunken driving accident or a student
who massacred his classmates. Stories like these used to be front page material but now
they’re just published somewhere near the business section where only a few sharp eyes will
notice. This is now just the norm or at least was the norm for me. I had gotten so used to thisworld that I believed there was no deliverance. To my surprise there was another world out
there.

32

A while back, I visited my relatives in the village. What struck me first was the arrangement of
the huts. They were placed in a circular manner ensuring that each hut faced the centre. At thecentre was a large gazebo where people would gather and eat together, play drums and dance
together or just talk. It was odd how they got together just for the sake of being together. I
was amazed to find out that almost everyone knew my name and who I was. For the first timein a very long time I felt like I belonged. That is one part of my traditional culture that I had
forgotten; family. The Zimbabwean culture emphasizes so much on the family unit. In thevillage, everyone was family and they were genuinely caring of who I was. To them I was morethan just a member of the community; I was a part of them.

This got me thinking. Imagine if the entire world felt this way. Imagine if the world finallychose to accept that we really are just one big family. One twig alone can be snapped by justtwo fingers but an entire bunch of twigs cannot be snapped by any hand known to man. Our
diverse cultures all throughout the world emphasize one thing and that is family. The
realisation of this can stop any crime in progress. No true human being can stare their brotherin the eye and hit, rob or kill him. If we stick true to our culture and from now on treat
everyone as family, the world will definitely be a better place. Try it, greet everyone you meet.
Make an effort to find out more about the people in your life. I guarantee you will be amazedat just how much you belong. That is how we can use the Power of Culture to create a better
future for us all.

33

2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 3rd Prize]

Warum Kultur?
(Original)
Demchuk Ol’ha(Age 17, Ukraine)

Knarren der Lastwagen und Pferdegetrampel, ständiger Gesang, rege Gespräche und reger
Handel, lauter Markt, der mit traditioneller ukrainischen Stickerei – wyschywanka -vollgestopft ist, und ein riesiges Kastenpfeiler, dessen Rauch den Himmel anfasst. Das sind nur
einige Bestandteile eines Festivals meiner Region, wo ich meine Herkunft eigentlich spüren
kann und wo ich mich wirklich freier als in der großen Stadt fühle. Echt sonderbar, weil ein derTräume vieler Jugendlichen aus demjenigen Gebiet die Hauptstadt „im Sturm zu erobern“ ist.
Also versuchen sie den Lebensstil zu wechseln, denn „es ist Schande“ den lokalen Dialekt zu
sprechen oder die Zuchttiere zu pflegen. Wenn ich diese Trend bemerkt habe, begann ich michzahlreiche Frage zu stellen, nämlich, warum schämt man sich eigener Hintergrund wegen derMode oder verschiedener Tendenzen? Noch mehr, sind die Traditionen schon in der
Vergangenheit, oder haben sie noch Kraft die Zukunft auch zu beeinflussen?

Natürlich scheint es jemandem heute kaum möglich. Die Welt läuft mit großen Schritten auf
die Globalisierung, d.h. Schaffen der gemeinsamer Kultur, einheitlicher Sprache undInternationaler Mitarbeit. Lautet ganz gut, sogar optimistisch – so soll der künftige Tag ohne
Vorurteile gebaut werden. Aber es passiert öfter, dass man keine Einheit sucht, sondern die
Wege sich ins große und lockere System einzuflechten, wo es vielleicht keinen Hunger undmehr Sicherheit gibt. Assimilation und Nachahmung werden schon ein Motto vieler Menschen.
Zwar kaum Religion aber schon eigenartiger Kult, der heute auf unsere Zukunft wirkt.
Beispielsweise, verschwindet so die Atmosphäre der kleinen Städtchen, die nicht sehr populär
sind und danach streben, mehr Einkommen vom Tourismus zu haben. Darum erscheinen dort
die allgegenwärtigen Marktkette, nämlich Restaurants und Supermärkte, damit sich die
Touristen wie zu Hause fühlten und den gemütlichen Ort noch einmal besuchten. Darum fühle
ich mich wie in einem merkwürdigen Inkubator. Aber nicht nur die Kultur des Ortes verbleicht
sich, sondern auch die kulturelle Auffassung der Gesellschaft. Einmal hatte ich mit einer
Gruppe ein Ausflug in die kleine Stadt im Norden Deutschlands. Fast die ersten Fragen waren

34darüber, wo es die nähsten „H&M“ und „New Yorker“ Kleidungsgeschäfte waren, als ob die
Kultur ganz unwichtig wäre.

Deswegen bin ich überzeugt, dass es sinnvoll wäre den Jugendlichen aufzuklären, welchen
Platz die Kultur in unserem Leben hat. Daran kann sich auch Jugend engagieren. In meiner
Region gibt es eine tolle AG, wo die lokalen Tanzarten unterrichtet werden. Mir gefällt es ammeisten, dass man dort auch die authentischen Trachten anzieht, sie dekoriert und wie seinen
Augenapfel hütet nicht nur, weil Anzüge teuer sind. Sie ist nicht populär aber für mich ist dieseAG eine Hoffnung, dass sogar die kleinen Regionen mindestens eine Erinnerung von Kultur
haben. Und ich bin echt stolz auf solche Menschen, die noch versuchen ihren Ursprung zu
bewahren, trotz aller modernen Tendenzen. Ich meine, dass dank solchen, sogar kleinen
Einsätzen, die Welt über ukrainische Kultur etwas weiß. Nicht über politische undwirtschaftliche Probleme, sondern über den Volk. Über die Ukrainer, die nicht mehr
Kommunismus anbeten, dessen Land schon seit langem kein Teil von „Soviet Russia“ ist. So,
wer sonst ukrainische Jugendliche sollte diese Entwicklung bestätigen? In erster Linie, glaube
ich, ist es nötig für meine und künftige Generationen die Geschichte meines Staats zu wissen.
Dort gibt es die Inspiration und Antworten auf jede Frage. Tatsächlich, hat mein Volk immer
seine religiöse und kulturelle Rechte verteidigt. Dabei wurden die wichtigsten Aktionen fürdiese Freiheiten ein Anfang dazu, dass man den Staat gründen konnte.

Also für mich ist die Zukunft mit der Kultur stark verbunden, denn von ihr hängt die Erziehung
der künftigen Welt. Ohne ihre Entwicklung gäbe es keine Revolution, keine La Gioconda undkeine Relativitätstheorie. Wir wären blind und stumm ohne Kunst und verloren ohne
Traditionen, unseren Hintergrund und Seele.

Why Culture?
(English translation)
The creaking of lorries, the trampling of horses, constant singing, lively discussions, busy
trading, a loud marketplace which full of the traditional Ukrainian embroidery called
wychywanka and smoke touching the sky. These are only a few components of a festival in myregion, where I can sense my roots and where I feel more freedom than in the big town. Thisis strange because it is the dream of many young people of my area to “conquer” our capital.
So they try to change their life style as it is “embarrassing” to speak the local dialect or to look35

after breeding animals. Once I realized this tendency, I began to ask myself many questions,such as “Why does one feel ashamed of his own roots, because of your traditional fashion andbecause of other facts?” And moreover I asked myself if the traditions are already the past or
if they still have the power to influence our future?

Nowadays the latter this seems impossible. The world runs with large steps towards
globalization, which means creating a common culture, creating a common language andinternational cooperation. Sounds good, even optimistic – so let`s look into the future without
prejudice. However, it happens now more often that one does not look for unity but for ways
into a large and loose system where there is no more hunger and no more safety.

To copy and to assimilate is the theme of many people. It is not the religion anymore having
the effects but peculiar cults. For example: The atmosphere of little towns, which are not wellvisited, disappears whilst the towns yearn for more income through tourism. They want theubiquitous chains, restaurants and supermarkets, so that the tourists feel at home and want tocome again. I feel like being in a peculiar kind of incubator. And it is not only the culture of atown, but also the cultural thinking of a society. I once took a little group to an excursion to asmall town in Germany. Immediately I was asked where the closest “H&M” shops and “NewYorker” clothes shops were, as if the culture would not count at all.

I am therefore convinced that it would be useful to inform the youth about the importance of
culture in our lives. In my region there is a lovely club for traditional dances. Most of all I likethat they not only dance but also put on their traditional dresses which are cherished byeverybody like life itself as the dresses are so expensive. That club is not especially popular but
I do hope that it gives the smaller regions at least a memory of their own culture. And I am
proud about people who try to keep their roots despite all modern tendencies.

I think that thanks to these people the world learns about Ukrainian culture. Not about ourpolitical and economic problems, but about our people. About the Ukrainians who do not adore
communism any longer and whose country has not been part of “Soviet Russia” for quite sometime now. Who else than the Ukrainian youth should give proof of this development? Primarily,
I believe, it is important that my and the future generations know the history of our State as
there every question finds inspiration and answers. As a matter of fact, my people have always
defended their religious and cultural rights. And the most important activities to defend these
freedoms was the beginning of the foundation of our State!

36For me therefore future is strongly connected with culture. The education of the future world
depends on it. Without the development of culture there would be no revolution, no Giocanda(music opera) and no theory of relativity. We would be blind and deaf without art and together
with our traditions we would loose our background and our soul.

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2013 International Essay Contest for Young People[Youth Category – 3rd Prize]

Una Sobremesa para el Desarrollo(Original)
Jimena Curbelo Zabala(Age 20, Uruguay)

Mi nombre es Jimena Curbelo, tengo 20 años y vivo en Uruguay, un rincón al sur del mundo;
el país del mate, tango, fútbol y candombe. Estos cuatro aspectos caracterizan a la cultura
uruguaya y generalmente se presentan como nuestra imagen al mundo. Sin embargo, quiero
resaltar otro elemento que forma parte de nuestra cultura y que no siempre es mencionado:
las tradicionales sobremesas de domingo en familia; una instancia muy particular decomunicación que se abre al debate y la discusión. Generalmente la conversación gira en torno
a diversos temas, de acuerdo a las preocupaciones del momento, abordados desde tan
diversas ópticas como participantes en la mesa, enfrentando argumentos totalmente opuestos.
Las discusiones con frecuencia se vuelven apasionantes y pueden llevar horas, pero se hace enel más absoluto respeto de las diversas opiniones, del derecho a expresarnos y ser escuchados.
En la última sobremesa que participé con mi familia recuerdo haber tratado temas tan
disímiles como los sistemas de seguridad social, transiciones demográficas e incluso diversos
juicios éticos acerca de la justicia. Por supuesto que con esos temas sobre la mesa la discusión
parecía ir por caminos muy alejados pero sin renunciar por ello a la armonía entre nosotros ni
a una animada y abierta disposición a escucharnos. Un debate familiar que además se da entre
tres generaciones; abuelos, padres y nietos. Y éste es un punto que considero central; el papel
reservado para los mas jóvenes no es el del oyente pasivo, sino el de un interlocutor activo que
sorprende, a veces desafía, con innovadores puntos de vista y creativos argumentos.

Actualmente curso una licenciatura en desarrollo y he aprendido a reconocer en él laimportancia de su dimensión normativa. El desarrollo supone siempre una valoración de los“bueno”, lo “deseable”, supone por tanto, juicios de valor y el reconocimiento de la libertad nosólo como medio sin también como fin, Al mismo tiempo, las evaluaciones que de él se realizan
se construyen desde conjunto de principios y valores que conforman la matriz cultural de cadasociedad.

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Hoy en día es aceptado que desarrollo no es sinónimo de crecimiento económico, que variables
como el PBI/pc poco dicen de las capacidades y oportunidades que las distintas sociedades
disfrutan para llevar a cabo los procesos de desarrollo que consideran valiosos. Hoy más que
nunca la cultura se coloca al centro de los abordajes a la problemática del desarrollo, en el
entendido de que diversidad y pluralidad no son obstáculos al desarrollo, porque para éste no
hay recetas aplicables universalmente, sino que aparecen como poderosas herramientas que
impulsan a las sociedades a tomar las riendas de sus propios destinos.

Me gusta imaginar entonces, una gran sobremesa en la que los asientos son ocupados por las
diversas sociedades del mundo, una sobremesa que se convierte en un espacio decomunicación franco y abierto, donde diversas posturas son defendidas, en el reconocimientode las capacidades propias y del derecho a trabajar por ellas. Un espacio que derive en
cooperación, empatía y hermandad, en la identificación plena de que sólo una participación
activa y real puede consolidar la sustentabilidad del desarrollo.

Y al igual que en la sobremesa familiar, el encuentro generacional, la diversidad de opiniones
y la pluralidad de opciones no debe ser entendido como enfrentamiento irreconciliable, sino
como la expresión real de diversas capacidades y de la libertad a escoger la que cada sociedad
considere deseable. Tomar caminos distintos en la promoción del desarrollo implica considerara los derechos de los hombres no como herramientas de defensa sino de acción, no se trata deevitar que otro decida por mi, sino trabajar para que lo que la sociedad considere deseable yjusto suceda. Poner el desarrollo sobre la mesa significa ponerlo en manos de hombre ymujeres que deciden sobre sus propias vidas, que viven la vida que desean en coherencia con
los valores y costumbres que distinguen sus culturas. Y en este camino los jóvenes no sólo
estamos llamados a pensar en el futuro sino en construirlo, las iniciativas y acciones creativas
deben desplegarse en el presente, debemos construir futuro, empezando hoy.

An After-Dinner for Development(English translation)
My name is Jimena Curbelo. I’m 20 years old and I live in Uruguay, a place in the south cornerof the world; the country of mate, tango, soccer and candombe. These four aspects
characterize the Uruguayan culture and are usually presented as our image to the world.
However, I want to highlight another element that is part of our culture and that is not always

39

mentioned: the traditional family after-dinner on Sundays; a very particular moment ofcommunication that is open for debate and discussion. The conversation usually goes arounddifferent topics, according to the current concerns, and is addressed from as many different
perspectives as there are participants at the table, offering totally opposite arguments. The
discussions often become exciting and can go on for hours, but we always have the utmost
respect for all the diverse opinions, and the right to express ourselves and be heard. During
the last after-dinner I had with my family, I remember addressing topics as diverse as social
security systems, demographic transitions and even different ethical judgments about justice.
Of course, with these topics on the table, the discussion seemed to get extreme at times, but
without breaking the harmony between us, or forgetting our open and lively willingness tolisten. This family debate also happens between three generations: grandparents, parents andgrandchildren, and this is a point that I consider of the greatest importance; the role reserved
for the younger is not that of a passive listener, but an active member of the conversation thatsurprises -sometimes challenges- the others with innovative points of view and creativearguments.

I’m currently studying a Degree in Development and I have learned to recognize theimportance of its normative dimension. The development always involves an assessment of
the "good", the "desirable", and thus involves judgments of value and the recognition of
freedom not only as a means but also as an end. At the same time, the consequent evaluations
are built from a set of principles and values that make up the cultural matrix of every society.

It is well accepted today that development is not the same as economic growth; that variables
like GDP say little about the capabilities and opportunities of the different societies to carry out
the development processes they consider valuable. Today more than ever, culture is placed at
the center of the approaches to the problems of development, in the understanding thatdiversity and pluralism are not obstacles for development, because there are no universally
applicable formulas for it, but appear as powerful tools that drive societies to take charge of
their own destinies.

I like to imagine then, a big after-dinner where the seats are taken by the various societies in
the world; an after-dinner that becomes a space for open and honest communication, where
several positions are defended while recognizing everyone’s own capabilities and their right towork for them; a space that results in cooperation, empathy and brotherhood, in full
realization that only a real and active participation can strengthen the sustainability of40

development.

And as in the family after-dinner, the generational gaps, the diversity of opinion and theplurality of options should not be treated as irreconcilable clash, but as the true expression ofvarious abilities and the freedom to choose what each society considers desirable. Taking
different paths in the promotion of development involves considering the rights of men, not as
tools of defense but of action; it’s not about preventing someone else to decide for me, but
working to achieve what society deems desirable and just. Putting development on the tablemeans placing it in the hands of men and women who decide on their own lives and live the life
they want according to the values and customs that distinguish their cultures. And in this pathyoung people are called to not only think about the future but to build it. The initiatives andcreative actions should be taken in the present. We must build a future, starting today.

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