Shahzeen Rashid's Speeches for Voice your Thoughts 2006 (18th November 2006)

Mother Theresa: If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Imagine our world being full of peace, harmony, tranquility. A diverse world. A world where everybody is accepted for who they are. Imagine our world being ‘A peaceful global village’ where differences bring people together and help them to understand each other better. When a person judges another, when a person compares that person to another…what are the qualities used to judge that person? Which qualities do we look for when we judge others? Usually, it is the physical appearance of a person which fixes an image in the mind of another. For example: It is how a person dresses, how he / she looks, what skin colour he / she has and so on. But why should one person judge another? Why should a person evaluate another according to his / her physical appearance? Mother Theresa very appropriately stated that, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” I totally agree with that. If people start to evaluate people in the way they dress, the way they do things, or the way they are – they will always be judging these people – comparing them with themselves, others and anything else. Hence, there is no time for these people to get to really know the people that they are always judging. There is no time to appreciate them and their actions. There is no time to offer friendship, no time to like that person, no time to appreciate their inner self, who they really are, the part that is really worth knowing. A person’s inner character can not be understood unless they are taken and accepted for what they are, no matter who and how different they really are.In fact it is these differences that will truly unite us and bring us together. It is through these differences that we shall get to know each other better. It is through these differences ladies and gentlemen, that we shall be able to accept each other, like each other, love each other. This is the only way in which we can stop judging others and get time to love them, thus creating a totally peaceful diverse world of people. People that all speak, smile and do in one language – the language of humanity –DIVERSITY! Thank you.

Quote by Mikhail Gorbachev: "Peace is not unity in similarity but unity indiversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences."

Imagine our world being full of peace, harmony, tranquility. A diverse world. A world where there is unity in diversity. Imagine our world being ‘A peaceful global village’ where the differences bring people together and not take them apart.

Peace can be described in many ways. However, this quote by Mikhail Gorbachev offers us an entirely extraordinary meaning of peace.

Mikhail Gorbachev very appropriately states that, “Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.”

Basically, what that means is that peace will arise when everybody is united. But - we should be united not only with people that are similar to us, but we must be united with people of all different kinds, acknowledging the differences that remain between us but at the same time also willing to resolve and reconcile them.

By ‘people similar to us’ I mean the people that we readily make friends and mix with -the people that we take as our ‘equals’.

However, I totally agree with Mr. Gorbachev and believe that if we only mix with people that are ‘similar to us’, we’ll never be able to settle our differences with each other. There will always be a barrier of hostility separating the people similar to us and the people who are not very similar to us. Thus, there will be no peace in the world.

Therefore, if peace is to remain with us, in our cities, in our countries in our nations – then we have to mix with everybody; no matter how they dress, no matter how and which religion they practice, no matter what their gender is, no matter which ethnic groups they come from, no matter who and how different they really are…

This is because it is these differences that will truly unite us and bring us together to create a peaceful, free of discrimination world where everybody is equal and accepts each others differences, seeing them as something that joins everybody else together. A totally peaceful diverse world of people. People that all speak, smile and do in one language – the language of humanity – DIVERSITY!

Thank You.