Grow with Quality & Visibility    

English
日本語

       

 

Rich and Richer  
 

Second Place Winner of the 1999 National Speech Contest 1999.3.14. Joseph O-Yang

 

Please give me some food to eat! “Doo…, Gugi Gugi Gugi.I just happened to know a little lovely baby named Kuchung. Ladies and gentlemen, we are rich. "

Rich and Richer

I'm hungry! Please give me some food!

Ladies and gentlemen, do you have enough food to eat? Or, are you still hungry? This is a very important and serious question!

When we are hungry, we have a desire to eat something. At that time, if we do not eat, or ignore the desire to eat, what might happen? First of all, the brain will feel dizzy due to decreased blood sugar. The body will start shaking due to lack of energy and heat. The person will become thinner because the muscles will be consumed and converted into necessary nutrition. And then, one will become weaker and weaker until the heart is too weak to pump blood the person is finished. So, feeling hungry is very important to us. It serves as an early warning system against death and weakness. By eating properly, we can survive and have enough strength to build and enjoy a bright future.

However, in Taiwan, we don't need this early warning system. Without even feeling hungry, we eat for enjoyment. We are so rich that we eat a lot, much more than what we actually need. Fish, lobsters, crabs, oysters, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, duck, milk, juice, cheese, cakes, ice-cream, chocolate, alcohol and garbage food. The more we eat, the more we excrete--garbage in garbage out! Also, when we eat too much, we not only feel full, but also feel stuffed. We not only grow muscles but also accumulate extra fat and become overweight, not only sufficient blood sugar, but also additional cholesterol, not only higher levels of energy, but also higher blood pressure! Eventually, the food we eat does not support our life anymore--it becomes a killer and kills us step by step! Do we rich people deserve this destiny? Surely we don't. It's merely because we paid lots of attention in making money, but less attention in taking care of our health and spirit.

Just when we commit slow suicide by overeating, thousands and thousands of children are starving to death. I happen to know one of them. He is a lovely, little baby named Kuchung. “Doo…, Gugi Gugi Gugi.” Yes, Kuchung is really cute, but he had no choice in being born into Uganda, an extremely poor country. Ever since Kuchung's birth, he struggled much harder then most of us. He tried harder than we did to suck the milk from mothers' breast, but the milk was never enough. During Kuchung's very short lifetime, his stomach was never full. Kuchung was born as innocently as our babies are, but after a two-month struggle; Kuchung died in his mother's arms. No disease, no accident, Kuchung just passed away simply because of hunger. Kuchung didn't do anything wrong. Kuchung wasn't guilty of anything either. An innocent baby passed away before he had a chance to grow up and enjoy a bright future.

Ladies and gentlemen, if there's an easy way, are you willing to help babies like Kuchung? Are you willing to give them a chance to grow up? Yes, we can easily accomplish this wonderful goal and also benefit ourselves. We can save some money by just eating a little bit less. We can put our savings into this “charity bread”, a moneybox. One well-known and reliable organization will collect the money and buy food for babies like Kuchung. Each 10-dollar NT is good enough for a baby to survive for at least one more day. Each one more day is vitally important to them. Each one more day might be the critical day between life and death. For this one more day a baby may have a better chance to grow up and build his own bright future. So, ladies and gentlemen, each 10-dollar coin of yours may save a life and contribute to a bright future.

My dearest friends, let's think about it. By eating just a little bit less, and by donating just NT$10 each meal, we can make a huge difference. We can turn our feeling stuffed into a child's feeling full. We can turn our extra fat into a child's muscles. We can turn our high blood pressure into a child's high level energy. We can turn our life killer into a child's life savior. We can light up our own future by lighting up others'?

Ladies and gentlemen, in respect of money, we are unbelievably rich. While in respect of health and spirit, we can make ourselves richer simply by helping others.

Contest Master!