AN 11-YEAR-OLD BOY FROM Australia wrote in 1993:

“Greed and corruption disappeared,

that was a healthy start!

Material wealth was shared around,

and crime was next to go.

Bad drugs and firearms were destroyed,

the smart folk helped the slow.

With my family’s help I made a plan,

for all nations to combine

and share resources as one world.

Soon the UN’s head office was mine.

and the boomerang is the world symbol,

our aim is goodness—straight and true.

And our motto: ’Your deeds, good or bad,

come back, with strength, to you.’”

This poem by Sam Thorne won a writing contest called “My Idea for a Better World.” It has since been included in “Visions of a Better World,” a book dedicated to the United Nations by one of its Peace Messenger organizations, the Brahma Kumaris.

Many other children—and adults, too—from around the world contributed their ideas on the subject to make the book a successful global initiative.

Titia Maas, 14, from the Netherlands, cited a pop song hit: “In ‘Man in the Mirror,’ Michael Jackson sings that if you want to change the world, you should start with the one you see in the mirror. Well, that is what I am trying to do and I hope everyone will do this and that people do not think that just by themselves they cannot achieve anything.”

Continuing crusade

Sam Thorne and Titia Maas would be grownups now, but for the UN and all its Peace Messengers, the crusade continues.

Two years after the publication of “Visions for a Better World,” the UN declared an International Year for Tolerance.

In 1966, the General Assembly invited member-countries to observe the International Day for Tolerance on Nov. 16 every year.

On Thursday (Nov. 26), the Brahma Kumaris will host a special program, “Tolerance and Non-Violence,” to mark the global celebration in the Philippines this year.

The twin-bill speakers are Carmencita T. Abella, president of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation, and Dr. Nirmala Kajaria, BK Asia-Pacific Regional Coordinator.

“Non-violence is a very deep philosophy,” says Dr. Kajaria, a Raja Yoga practitioner for 40 years now. “It recognizes that all life is inter-related, and looks for what is good in every action.”

She says her aim for next week’s program is to shed light on the subject in ways that her listeners will find “meaningful and doable” in daily interactions.

To illustrate, she gives one that, she says, has never failed her: “Respond to situations with a cool head, and to people with a warm heart.”

The program will be held 7-9 p.m. at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Ayala Ave., cor. Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Makati. Call 890-7960 or 0927-280-8363 (Vicky Mandap).