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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
December 20, 2005
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| November 25, 2005 |
Guest Educator - “I’m possible” Living the slow life – Ryuichi Nakamura |
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| Advocate for slow life, Ryuichi Nakamura |
Ryuichi Nakamura believes the word ‘impossible’ should be read in Japanese characters as “I’m possible.” This is his motto, as he tries to do his part to help make the world a safer, greener, healthier and more relaxing place. |
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| With another environmentally concerned guest, Shuichi Nakajima, Ryuichi “adds a drop of water to the burning earth.” Each drop placed on the giant poster of earth expressed a different way of contributing to a better earth. |
Onboard Peace Boat from Chile to Tahiti, Ryuichi held a series of lectures on ‘slow living.’ Slow life is a concept he believes strongly in. This involves stepping back from fast-paced, economy driven society, and living in a more natural, sustainable society. “Nowadays many people have fast and competitive lifestyles, which is a main reason why our society has become unsustainable,” he said.
Ryuichi is a founding member of a non-government organization called “The Sloth Club”, which promotes a low energy, non-violent, slow, sustainable and healthy way of life. |
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| Ryuichi gives a lecture to participants about slow living |
As an example of responsible slow business, he operates a coffee bean export business. After turning to organic farming many years ago, Ryuichi traveled to South America, where he made personal friendships with coffee bean farmers, and began to import from them. Now involved in the fair trade movement in Japan, he says that maintaining true friendships with business partners and sharing mutual respect is imperative – yet lacking – in today’s commercial world. |
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| Ryuichi Nakamura with Peace Boat participants who, through his lectures about various environmental issues in the world, would like to work together towards the common goal of preserving our precious environment |
As part of his effort to raise awareness of environmental issues while onboard Peace Boat, Ryuichi encouraged participants to think of ways that they could do their part to help the environment. After discussing various environmental problems in Japan and the world, participants came up with many different ideas that they could implement in their own lives. Examples include carrying reusable chopsticks instead of using disposable, wooden ones; using less electricity; reducing waste and educating other people about important issues. |
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To conclude his series of lectures and discussions on Peace Boat, Ryuichi spoke of one of his inspirations – Severn Suzuki, a young Canadian who, as a child in 1992 presented a plea to world delegates at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Her speech represented perfectly Nakamura’s own feelings, he said.
Excerpt from Severn Suzuki’s plea at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“I’m only a child, and I don't have all the solutions but I want you to realize neither do you: You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer.
You don’t know how to bring the salmon back up a dead stream.
You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct.
And you can’t bring back the forest which once grew and is now a desert
If you don't know how to fix it, please, stop breaking it.
Here today, you may be delegates of your government, business people, organizers, reporters or politicians.
But really, you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles.
And all of you are someone’s child. I am only a child, yet I know we are all part of a family - five billion strong in fact - 30 million species strong, and borders and governments will never change that.
I am only a child, yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.
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