What makes us human? let's see the answer from Jane Goodall perception, a primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and United Nation Peace Messenger of Peace...
My name is Jane Goodall and my age is 80. My job is giving people hope. I learned from my mother the great importance of support. When I was a child, she supported all my crazy love of animals. When I wanted to go off to Africa at age 10 and everybody laughed at me, she supported me, and she simply said something I took to heart and always repeat:
"If you really want something, you must be prepared to work very hard. Take advantage of opportunity, and above all never give up."
In my life right now... I'm 80. There's so much to do. So I would like to go back, and give myself a bit longer. As it is, I don't know how long I have to live, but certainly, every year takes me closer to the end, whenever that is. So there's this feeling of desperation. So many places I want to go, so many people to talk to, so many hearts to reach. I'm just me, and I try to use this electronic stuff. It does work, to a certain extent. But it's not the same as being there, and sensing a person, and trying to get in where it seems impossible to go.
Education is not a sort of thing, we think about when children go to school. Education is learning from experience. We continue to be educated throughout life. Every day bring its own kind of education, and we can learn from it. If we keep our eyes and ears open, and think of every day as an adventure, then each day will give us a lesson.
I have many kinds of happiness. I'm completely happy when I'm alone in nature. I love to be alone in nature. It makes me happy. I'm really happy sitting with friends in the evening, particularly around a campfire, telling stories, drinking a bit of red wine. I'm totally happy when I'm walking with a dog. Dogs make me really, really happy. You can be yourself, with a dog. A dog is always him- or herself with me. When I was a child, my great teacher was a dog. A dog who taught me we're just part of the animal kingdom. We're not the only beings with personalities, and mind capable of reasoning. Certainly not the only beings with emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, despair. Nor are we the only beings capable of giving and receiving love.
The biggest problem that we have as environmental activist is to fight the power of money. There's absolutely no question. People in government truly agree, when I talk with them, that this mine should not go ahead, that dam should not be build... Monsanto should not be allowed to test its seeds here. But when it's time... It's corruption, really. The might of money, the corporations that hold governments in their hands, because of lobbying power... It's really frightening. If I were allowed to change a few things, if I had this magis power, I would like, without causing any pain or suffering, to reduce the number of people on the planet. There's too many of us. Our planet has finite resources, and we're using them up. That will mean so much suffering in the future. I would also like to alleviate poverty.
When you're poor, never mind the individual suffering, you destroy the environment to survive. You have to cut down the trees to grow a bit of food for your family, or to make charcoal. Or you have to buy the cheapest food, even it did cause horrendous suffering to animals or slave child labor somewhere else. So alleviate poverty. And maybe the hardest of all, but what I really would love to change, is the unsustainable lifestyle of everybody else. We're just greedy! I always think of Gandhi's saying, "This planet can provide for human need, but not for human greed." That's so right!
My name is Jane Goodall and my age is 80. My job is giving people hope. I learned from my mother the great importance of support. When I was a child, she supported all my crazy love of animals. When I wanted to go off to Africa at age 10 and everybody laughed at me, she supported me, and she simply said something I took to heart and always repeat:
"If you really want something, you must be prepared to work very hard. Take advantage of opportunity, and above all never give up."
In my life right now... I'm 80. There's so much to do. So I would like to go back, and give myself a bit longer. As it is, I don't know how long I have to live, but certainly, every year takes me closer to the end, whenever that is. So there's this feeling of desperation. So many places I want to go, so many people to talk to, so many hearts to reach. I'm just me, and I try to use this electronic stuff. It does work, to a certain extent. But it's not the same as being there, and sensing a person, and trying to get in where it seems impossible to go.
Education is not a sort of thing, we think about when children go to school. Education is learning from experience. We continue to be educated throughout life. Every day bring its own kind of education, and we can learn from it. If we keep our eyes and ears open, and think of every day as an adventure, then each day will give us a lesson.
I have many kinds of happiness. I'm completely happy when I'm alone in nature. I love to be alone in nature. It makes me happy. I'm really happy sitting with friends in the evening, particularly around a campfire, telling stories, drinking a bit of red wine. I'm totally happy when I'm walking with a dog. Dogs make me really, really happy. You can be yourself, with a dog. A dog is always him- or herself with me. When I was a child, my great teacher was a dog. A dog who taught me we're just part of the animal kingdom. We're not the only beings with personalities, and mind capable of reasoning. Certainly not the only beings with emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, despair. Nor are we the only beings capable of giving and receiving love.
The biggest problem that we have as environmental activist is to fight the power of money. There's absolutely no question. People in government truly agree, when I talk with them, that this mine should not go ahead, that dam should not be build... Monsanto should not be allowed to test its seeds here. But when it's time... It's corruption, really. The might of money, the corporations that hold governments in their hands, because of lobbying power... It's really frightening. If I were allowed to change a few things, if I had this magis power, I would like, without causing any pain or suffering, to reduce the number of people on the planet. There's too many of us. Our planet has finite resources, and we're using them up. That will mean so much suffering in the future. I would also like to alleviate poverty.
When you're poor, never mind the individual suffering, you destroy the environment to survive. You have to cut down the trees to grow a bit of food for your family, or to make charcoal. Or you have to buy the cheapest food, even it did cause horrendous suffering to animals or slave child labor somewhere else. So alleviate poverty. And maybe the hardest of all, but what I really would love to change, is the unsustainable lifestyle of everybody else. We're just greedy! I always think of Gandhi's saying, "This planet can provide for human need, but not for human greed." That's so right!
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