Refreshing, isn’t it, when oftentimes a young person’s outlook on life gives us pause to look beyond our own hectic adult lives and see things with an enlightened perspective.
Such is the case with young Alex Weber (page 5), whose concern for people around the world who don’t have access to quality water such as we do in the Bow Valley, gives you pause. It was tempting to use the phrase, “from the mouths of babes,” but clearly, Alex Weber is mature beyond his years.
Weber, in learning that about 4,500 kids die daily from water-related diseases, decided to do something about the situation by starting his own charity to provide wells.
Kudos to the young man and how realistic of him to point out that $50 billion was dropped on the recent Sochi Olympics. As he points out, those dollars could have provided quality water for millions of people.
Beyond that, in recent times, China dropped $44 billion on its summer Games, and London, $14 billion. Excluding the comparatively modest $6.4 million spent on the Whistler Vancouver Games, it’s still a ridiculous amount.
Possibly it’s time to realize there could be better uses for these billions of dollars than to hold wildly excessive athletic events, which best serve the power and the glory of the International Olympic Committee. By all means, continuing hosting the Olympic Games, we all love watching our Canadian athletes in action, but could the one-upmanship be avoided? Does every Games need to outspend the previous? Rather than pouring millions into the opening and closing ceremonies alone, could some aspect of fiscal responsibility be encouraged, with some funds going to charity as a show of the largesse the IOC could be capable of?
Weber, of course, is only the most recent example of youngsters who have recognized a problem internationally and taken action.
Just last year, Banff youth Jemima Maycock was recognized with a SHINE award for starting her own branch of the charity Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan, among other things.
Young people in our communities have also raised funds for hockey in the Himalayas, and for stoves and housing in Central America and other regions.
If, as is often quoted, our children are our future, then things look bright in that they seem able to summon empathy for those who have less than they themselves do.
In his book Save the Humans, author and documentary director Rob Stewart, himself a wildlife campaigner dedicated to saving sharks (Sharkwaters), suggests young people can be strong champions of a cause possibly because they’re less weighed down by family, work, finances, mortgages, etc. than their parents and other adults. They can see an issue and immediately step up to see that it’s corrected.
Beware the cloven hooved ones
Last week, it was a warning that it’s tick season in the woods and this week, that elk are now dropping their calves.
Please keep in mind that female elk, which can tip the scales at more than 200 kilograms, get understandably cranky if their young are approached and can lash out with their hooves if they feel threatened.
When out and about in either the front or backcountry, be aware it is calving season.
