When God decided
to create, his masterpiece called “Mother
Earth”, it took him six days according to the bible in Genesis 1:1 to 2:3.
There were light, the earth with its lands; water, the sun, moon and stars; and
various species of plants and animals. Amongst the animals, God chose humans
and made them in His image which is love. He provided our needs and asked us to
live in peace on earth despite our differences.
There were beauties
in the world, the water's source of life was cleaned and free; the fresh air
purified our days and nights; the animals were our neighbors and shared their
joys and songs with us, and we learned to see God through the beauty of trees,
rivers, and mountains. We woke up with the sun and went to bed with the moon;
we live together as a family. We took from Mother
Earth what was needed. Algonquian legend says that "beneath the clouds
lives the Earth-Mother from whom is derived the Water of Life, who at her bosom
feeds plants, animals, and human". As result, Mother Earth and humans lived as one and in harmony.
One day, a day,
historians couldn’t date, one of our ancestor got blinded by fear, went on to
fence a piece of land and trees, and told his neighbors that they belonged to
him. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau put it on his Discourse
on the Origin of Inequality “The first man who, having fenced in a piece of
land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe
him, that man was the true founder of civil society.” A new society based on
fear was born, and since then our relationships with Mother Nature have been unhealthy. We have discarded God’s
instructions of living with love and harmony, and have chosen the path of
self-destruction in the name of progress and profit.
Furthermore,
humans went on to misinterpret Mark verse 12:31 which says ‘Love your neighbor
as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”. Some believe
that “loving your neighbors” means loving only people of same race, sex, or
religious group, yet others believe that their neighbors could only be humans;
therefore, they overlooked nature and other animals, and acted towards them in
unloving manners.
For so long,
Humanity’s relations toward Mother Earth
has been destructive; As a result, she has contracted many diseases such as
deforestation, soil degradation, and air pollution. Today, wherever you go, you
see the impact of unhealthy humans’ behaviors on nature. In Latin America, home
to the largest rainforest, people have been witnessing the destruction of the
Amazon Forest. Considering to Rhett Butler’s article entitled “Amazon Destruction” and published on
January 26, 2017, over 750,000 square kilometers (289,000 square miles) of the
amazon rainforest has been destroyed since 1978 across Brazil, Peru, Colombia,
Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. Further, Mark Kinver a
BBC environmental reporter attested to this destruction in his December 4,
2014, article entitled African Soil
Crisis Threatens Food Security. “Neglecting the health of Africa’s soil
will lock the continent into a cycle of food insecurity for generations to
come.” And in Asia, China, the most populated country in the world has been
covering her population health under a blanket of air pollution -even in the
summer time. In 2007, an article about China's
Pollution Problem, a New York Times explained that "Environmental
degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international
repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the
Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist
Party."
Therefore, it is
time to overcome our fears and accept a new interpretation of Mark 12:31 which
views the world as a whole, where people, animals, and nature must live in
harmony as neighbors, and love each other. Global warming is real, it is
causing both North and South poles to melt, and waters to rise. We must break
the silence, accept the truth of our unbalanced relations with nature, and
redeem ourselves before it is too late. God created Mother Earth with love and under fear, we created a society of
consumerism without consideration of our eco-system.
The road to
redemption can be long, but a step must be taken to build a better healthy
relation with Mother Earth. Countries
have been coming together to construct a legal framework, but unsuccessful. The
bridge connecting the Rio Conference on Environment
and Development (June 3-14,1992); to the Earth System Governance Tokyo Conference (January 28-31, 2013), and
to the Paris Climate Change Conference (2015) has been long and
shaky. The bridge was not built by architects and construction workers, but by
politicians who most of the time defended campaign donors’ interests, enjoyed
free meals, drinks, and hotel rooms, and disregarded the common good. Therefore,
I will advise you not to drive your car on that bridge until they get their
acts together and accept Mother Earth
has rights, or you will drown. As Evo Morales said “Sooner or later, we will
have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution.
What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth,
but the planet can live without humans.”
As a result, you
cannot effort to leave this matter in the hands of a group of people. We, humans,
must redeem ourselves by accepting Mother
Earth has rights too. In Africa
since the beginning of times, people have always had deep spiritual connections
with nature and its surroundings. For example, in Casamance, Senegal, there were
locations the Jolas called Sacred Forests which were protected and
venerated by them. It was forbidden to cut trees or hunt animals in these
areas, and it was the duty of each member of the community to protect the Sacred Forests. Studies made by Rukarivo
Tatsande on “African Totems, Kinship and
Conservation”. Indicated over 100 plant and animal species are considered
totems among Batooro, Banyoro and Baganda tribes in Uganda. Today, the benefits of these relations
affect the preservation of Mother Earth
and the “raison d’etre” of safari.
In Chicago, I
recalled on Friday, April 24th ,2009, at the Stella Maris
Chapel of Loyola University Chicago from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, activists, musicians and nature lovers
came together to celebrate International Mother
Earth Day under a synchronized sound of music, prayers and good wishes. The
initiative of celebrating International
Mother Earth Day was established in 2009, by the General
Assembly under Resolution A/RES/63/278, to provide an opportunity to raise
public awareness around the world to the challenges regarding the well-being of
the planet and all the life it supports. Since 2009, Chicago has been slowly
redeeming itself. Lady Michigan has been a blessing for the city, some roads have
been shaped for bikers to ride freely and in some stores plastic bags are no
longer free. Chicagoans are more self-conscious on climate issues and in touch
with nature through urban gardening, recycling and parks. These small
transformations around the city are a stone in the ocean, but it is a stone.
The International Mother Day theme
this year has been "Environmental
& Climate Literacy".
On April 22, 2017, the Windy City was on its April’s moods, I decided to celebrate Mother Earth Day with the world by having a solitary walk near Lake Michigan. She was beautiful on her gold and blue dress, and I was not alone enjoying the view. I felt hopeful because, whenever, there is love, there will be hope. In Bolivia, Mother Earth was baptized as a “Collective subject of public interest” and has been given a legal personality. The law 701 of the Rights of Mother Earth was passed by the Bolivian Plurinational Assembly in December 2010, it enumerates seven specific rights to which Mother Earth and her constituent life system are entitled: Right to life, to the diversity of life, to water, to clean air, to equilibrium, to restoration and to live free of contamination. I hope the world will follow Bolivia’s footsteps, or at least, humans will make the effort in their daily life to recognize and respect those rights. There is a Cree Indian prophecy that says: “Only after the last Tree has been cut down, only after the last River was been poisoned, only after the last Fish has been caught, only then will you find that Money cannot be eaten.” I wish you Happy International Mother Earth Day 2017, Love Your Neighbors!
On April 22, 2017, the Windy City was on its April’s moods, I decided to celebrate Mother Earth Day with the world by having a solitary walk near Lake Michigan. She was beautiful on her gold and blue dress, and I was not alone enjoying the view. I felt hopeful because, whenever, there is love, there will be hope. In Bolivia, Mother Earth was baptized as a “Collective subject of public interest” and has been given a legal personality. The law 701 of the Rights of Mother Earth was passed by the Bolivian Plurinational Assembly in December 2010, it enumerates seven specific rights to which Mother Earth and her constituent life system are entitled: Right to life, to the diversity of life, to water, to clean air, to equilibrium, to restoration and to live free of contamination. I hope the world will follow Bolivia’s footsteps, or at least, humans will make the effort in their daily life to recognize and respect those rights. There is a Cree Indian prophecy that says: “Only after the last Tree has been cut down, only after the last River was been poisoned, only after the last Fish has been caught, only then will you find that Money cannot be eaten.” I wish you Happy International Mother Earth Day 2017, Love Your Neighbors!
Sincerely,