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Speech Contest Mahatma Gandhi Week 2005 The speech contest for age group 10 and below.Winner: Rishi Wagle What Peace means to me and my friends Hello! My name is Rishi Wagle and today I am going to talk about “What Peace Means to Me and My Friends” Before starting to design my speech I looked up the definition in a simple dictionary for the word peace. It said – absence of war, freedom from quarrels and inner calm. That got me thinking – what does Peace really mean to me and my friends. I also did a little survey in my school – one boy said “Oh simple – just don’t fight – that’s peace”. A girl said “Be calm – don’t shout and scream”. My little cousin said “Listen to your mommy and everything will be peaceful!” To me, Peace seems to have many meanings. It means the end of war, hatred, evil and violence. To me it also means a calm place where I can close my eyes and not have to think about people carrying guns, police catching thieves and even big bullies in school! My friends and I also think that if there is no war in this world there will be peace. The United Nations does a good job of maintaining world peace. The country of Sweden has a record for maintaining world peace for the longest time. All the countries competing for this kind of record – now that’s what I call a peaceful world! I also think of peace as the absence of violence, war and terrorism. But if we don’t want violence we will also need justice. Mahatma Gandhi believed in non-violence for a peaceful world. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in the presence of justice to maintain world peace. In conclusion, let me tell you a short story to show you what peace really means to me. There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake with mountains and a perfectly blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace. The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest - in perfect peace. Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. Do you know why? "Because," explained the king, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the middle of all those things and still be calm in your heart. Now that is the real meaning of peace for me. Thank you |
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