Speech by Linus Wong, Student Head for Leadership Symposium 2011, Address for the Opening Ceremony of National Junior College’s 5th Leadership Symposium, May 25th, 2011, National Junior College, LT5.
Our Guest of Honour, Ms Isabella Loh, Chairman of the Singapore Environmental Council
Mrs. Virginia Cheng
Principal, National Junior College
Mr. Yeo Sho Hor, Ms. Amy Ng
Vice-Principals, National Junior College
Student representatives
Teachers and Student Leaders
1. Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to NJC’s Leadership Symposium 2011. On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank our Guest of Honour, Ms Isabella Loh, for taking time off this morning to grace our event. I would also like to express my gratitude to Mrs. Cheng and the teachers who assisted the organizing committee for their constant support and guidance. As the chairman for this year’s Leadership Symposium Student Organising Committee, I am delighted to see so many participants. I am sure that through the course of this symposium, you will learn much from the activities and programs that we have planned for you.
Why Is Leadership In Environmental Conservation Important?
2. Now perhaps some of you are wondering why this year’s Leadership Symposium centers on the environment. Why did we not focus our attention on another sector that also has problems that need addressing? I shall answer this in a rather roundabout fashion.
3. It perhaps comes as no surprise that we face a whole multitude of problems and challenges that seem intractable, unsolvable and insurmountable in the 21st century. But the greatest challenge that we have is that of the environment, of the problems arising from climate change, the depletion of natural resources and increased natural disasters on a scale never before witnessed in such a short span of time. A couple of weeks ago, I was flicking through the various TV channels after taking a break from planning for this symposium. There was a program about Bangladesh and I decided to watch it. I never knew that most of Bangladesh was less than 1 meter above sea level. I never knew that that country was crisscrossed by river upon river. I never knew, that Bangladesh, a country of 164 million, was slowly being consumed by water. It was a heart-rending scene to watch as the documentary showed a village literally falling into the water. And then it struck me. What if that were to happen to Singapore? What would we do? Where would we go?
4. And what we do if climate change threatens our food supply due to increased droughts and floods? Where would the planet’s 6.92 billion get their food and water? Imagine what sort of world that would be. Would we want to live in that world? How would we answer to future generations?
Why We Feel That Youth Leadership Is Necessary
5. Now, you might ask what can youths like you and I can do in addressing this existential threat? Fundamentally, we must recognize that this is our world. That this is our century. And just like the citizens of this Republic who have shown that they do care about our country, I believe that we can show the same commitment, concern and care to our environment. We must understand that this is humanity’s greatest challenge and that we, regardless of whether we like it or not, face this challenge together. It affects each and every one of us and this compels us to play our part in making sure that we triumph over this challenge.
6. Increasingly, youth across the world have answered this call. The Green movement was in large pioneered and driven by youth concerned about their future. Even the simplest of actions like ensuring that one recycles in their everyday lives and influencing other people around them to recycle can have a monumental impact if all of us do it. Often, I believe, we neglect the individual’s effort and contribution, but we must realize that it is our collective action that matters. Eventually, we will leave school and enter a brave new world. That is where what we believe in can be put into practice as our spheres of influence widen.
7. Assembled before me in this lecture theatre are the various student leaders and student representatives from NJC and from other colleges and schools. Each of you can lead in own respective right in your own community. We can lead by example; we can lead by inspiring others with the strength and conviction of our beliefs and we can lead by showing that we have a voice, that we care about our environment and that we are committed to doing something about it.
8. Our theme this year, “The Omnivore’s Trilemma: Our World, Our Choice”, sums it all up very well. We face the challenge of balancing the economic costs of environmental efforts, of ensuring the sustainability of those efforts and of the imperative need to not overtly compromise our other goals in pursuit of those aims. It is our choice. Would we choose the easy path, the highway of never ending consumption and economic greed that would drive us straight into the chasm of an ecological disaster? Or would we choose the steep, rocky mountain path of taking the painful political steps to address these problems, of making alterations to our lifestyles and to shoulder increased economic burdens from the costs of dealing with climate change?
How This Year’s Leadership Symposium Hopes to Achieve That
9. This year’s Leadership Symposium has been organized with the intention of allowing our participants to understand what it is like to be a leader in the field of the environment, to understand what it is like having to balance our environmental goals with that of our economic and political goals. We have planned a dialogue session where you will be able to hear from youth who have become leaders in this field. Through our Future Problem Solving activity and the Model United Nations Climate Change Conference, we hope to allow you to better understand how good decisions are made and the difficulties and possibilities involved in addressing the largest challenge of our day. On our learning journeys, we hope to allow you to better understand what current solutions and existing plans there are in tackling environmental issues. We as the organizing committee hope that each of these activities not only serve to give you a greater insight into what you can do, but also ultimately inspire you to take that bold step forward to take the lead in the field of the environment.
Conclusion
10. Ultimately, the world belongs to those who believe in the strength of their dreams, for those who believe in them will fight to the very end to see those dreams translate into reality. There is a Native American saying that “humankind has not woven the web of life, we are but a part of it”. And I think that is something we all have to remember. We have upset the balance of life on this planet. It is only right that we do something to restore it. For we owe that not just to ourselves, but also to our future generations and to the other living beings with whom we share this beautiful planet.
11. On behalf of the organizing committee, I hope you will enjoy this year’s Leadership Symposium and find it an enriching and meaningful experience. Thank you.
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