So Jane Goodall had a public speech ”Seeds of Hope” on the 25th
of November delivered at Ewha Womans University of Seoul, South Korea. I will
try putting a brief note trying to answer the question “What did she say?’ and you
will be the judge to provide answer to the question “What would be the
impact?”.
The event started at 3pm with a musical presentation
dedicated to Dr. Jane Goodall after which Jane appeared on the podium from
where she was seated in the middle of the crowd surrounded by a bunch of little
kids with their phone cameras in front. Then Jane wasted no time in beginning
her speech by relating the power of music and culture in changing the world.
I was enjoying her way of storytelling as she listed the
most important people in her life in between her speech. She began with her
mother at first in the list of the most important. This has a message that
every parent, guardian or anybody has to know. A mother who was always by her daughter’s
side, encouraging & supporting her ambition unlike most others who would otherwise have been discouraging or disapproving of her strange inclinations and
fascination to life. She reminded her mother telling her that she had to work hard
if she wanted anything of something in her life. Jane points this as an
important message to every child, a message of hope that parents have a responsibility of passing to the younger generation.
Other personalities in the list respectively were: Louis
Leakey without whom she said may not have been engaged with chimpanzees
specifically, David Greybeard as the one who gave her a chance to be a member
of a chimpanzee family and in finding her epic breakthrough on the use of
tools, Husky whom unlike other professors and scientists proved her that animals
had personalities, mind and emotions.
Jane says, after all there is no fine
line dividing us as humans and other animals, after going down the details of
how she started at Gombe, first impressions and her discoveries. Besides resounding
DNA resemblance with humans and the tools discovered (9 different ways of using
tools), she told the audience about the multitude of behaviors her chimpanzees relate
with us. She listed by saying they kiss,
embrace, hug, they beg when they want to share food. The case of infant development
and the relationship between an infant and adult- how they raised their kids,
their learning process, even cultural records amongst different populations in
different locations as premature culture, premature warfare, reconciliation
processes. She even talks about their ability to love, show compassion and altruism,
having their own individual personalities, emotions, ability of thinking and
solving problems.
To prove the case that her
observation didn’t stick only with chimpanzees, she also had to present amazing
stories of other non human animals that were out of our expectation. She told
fascinating stories of how crows of Caledonia learned to use tools and animals as
simple to our observation as the brainless octopus can be outrageously smart
and cunning with the fact that many other animals are now proven to use tools.
Jane’s message truly felt from
the ultimate messenger of peace in the big auditorium packed with countless
number of mostly young people. The power of her story had to show reflection.
Jane didn't just focus on implying the amazing resemblance
between us and other animals, she not only listed non-humans in her list of the
most important personalities in her life, but she was also blatantly vocal on humanity’s
dissolute and irresponsible damage to its cousins – non humans and nature. She said
‘we have to be responsible’ and more importantly she spoke about the
immorality, abuse and destructive character of animal agriculture relating it
to ethical coexistence with other animals, environmental issues and climate
change.
Later Jane tried to analyze the ingenuity of human brain to
its deeds and questioned how the most intellectual species could be destroying
its own home. She blamed our short term thinking and that we lost our decision
as to how to think on our effects for the future and the disconnection between
the clever brain and compassion. She talked about air and water pollution, industrial,
agricultural and household waste, forest destruction, soil erosion, climate
change, oceanic and forest ecosystems loss etc to consolidate her claim. She also
gave a little bit of more time to climate change, how it takes effect as many
people still have no idea, co2, fossil fuel and animal agriculture and its
incredibly disproportionate scale of contribution to climate change through methane,
deforestation and tried to link it to cruelty to animals as well.
She said cow was her spokesperson for abused animals but
Jane also was quick to correct an audience during a question and answer session
who thought she was vegan by saying “I am a vegetarian”.
Clearly I would have expected my idol to be vegan and I know she can’t escape from criticism. Gary Francione,
one of the prominent vegan advocates I frequently agree with said she had speciesist
thoughts. True and I am free to think that could have arisen from one of her
big discoveries with chimpanzees or she was trying not to sound farfetched but
anyway I don’t buy into her idea of vivisection and consumption of free range or
organic dairy which is by no means easier to find than vegan food while
traveling 300 days a year.
My over excitement having seen my long time idol for the first time had shown a little bit of calmness at this time. I hope my Mexican friend who was there with me didn't notice that.
She had a powerful
message anyway, with great mind, story, personality and vision of hope saying “EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE”. And I hope the most important values she
shares would not be overlooked by the audience’s perception of Jane as a
celebrity and dwelling on specifics like her affinity with chimpanzees.
This is not just a public figure or like any other
celebrity, it’s Dr. Jane Goodall. She’s the one who smashed the wrongly
perceived humanity’s egomaniac ideology of a special and very different
creature on the planet. She’s the one
who spent decades into the wild to prove that and is now travelling across the
world to remind us and let us know.
And I
hope her message in the big crowd resonates. We have to bring ethics to the way
we treat nonhuman animals, nature and abstaining from all forms of their exploitation
has to be the foundation of that ethics.
Cheers!!
