In the first year division, Mina Imoto took first place with Bravo! Second place went to Asami Hayashi with A Special Medicine, and Risa Sato took third place with My Precious Memory.
In the second year division, Yuko Sato took first place in our 2007 Zion English Speech Contest with A White Sheet. Second place went to Mami Koyama with her entry, Our Home, while third place was taken by Rika Hamada who spoke on The Loveliest Woman.
The two winning speeches can be found below. Pictures from the 2007 Zion English Speech Contest can be found on our website.
2nd Year - 1st place: "A WHITE SHEET"
It’s a crocodile!!! There!!’ In my house, I can see crocodiles everywhere. Are they dangerous? No. They are not real crocodiles. But, for her eyes they are. She is my sister who is 2 years old. Why did she see a crocodile? The answer is easy. She is at the miracle age.
One day, I was taking care of my sister. She suddenly shouted at me ‘Look!!! There is a crocodile’ ‘Say what?’ I was shocked. What did she say? Where is the crocodile? Of course, there was no crocodile. For a moment, she pointed at a wall. ‘There!!’ ‘Uh’ I understood why she said that. There was a lizard on the wall. She knows what a lizard is. However, she doesn’t know the real name for it. Let’s think about it. What looks like a lizard? Has four legs, a long tail, a long mouth and sharp eyes? It could be a crocodile. I think my sister has a good imagination. However, is it only my sister? I want to think so, but probably not. At this age all children are the same. They can see many things differently from us.
Also, they are always interested in many things. And they are constantly asking us questions. For example, why can’t fish live out of the water? Why can’t we fly like a bird? Where does a baby come from? Some questions are very challenging for adults. But, we don’t ignore these questions. Because, it is one of the many steps for children to become interested in the world. A few years later, they will stop asking such questions. Why? They know. They learn. And they become less curious have fewer interests. Just like us.
The miracle age for children is amazing. They have a sheet of white paper in their heads. And they are always drawing on it. Their questions and imagination appear on the paper, magically. Well, how about us? Do we have any white paper left? Or is our paper filled up, with no white space left? If we are interested in something, I think we can make white space. Asking questions and having a different set of eyes is important not only for children but also for us. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all see crocodiles?
- Yuko Sato
1st YEAR - 1ST PLACE: "Bravo"
Grameen Bank is a bank for poor people in Bangladesh, which won the Nobel Prize in 2006. ”Grameen” means “village” in Bengal. Its purpose is to reduce poverty and, Economist Muhammad Yunus started it in1983. It makes business loans for poor people”, which means they lend very small amounts of money to people who could never get a loan any other way. This “micro-banking” system stimulates economic development by making very small loans available to remote country areas not served by regular banks. I was really moved when I heard about this project. This idea is so simple and easy, but, I think poverty can be solved by using this system.
Why? I have three reasons. First, Grameen Bank began with only ten debtors! But, now it has three million people who are paying back loans!! Second, 95 % of the debtor’s are women!! Third, this bank’s personal loan repayment rate is over 95%!
All these people return the money they owe, little by little, at their own pace. The paper work consists only of writing down your own name, loan amount and repayment dates in a simple notebook. There has to be a trusting relationship between the lending side and the borrowing side. Mr. Yunus says, “We cannot help just out of pity.”
“I think that if there were 100 people in the room and you asked the question; how can we solve the problem of Poverty” …I think that there might be 100 different answers. Some might say help them by giving them something to eat. Others might want to build a school. Some might want to give the people housing and money. A religious person might want to pray for the poor. None of these ideas are absolutely correct or absolutely wrong. However, I think the words and actions of Mr. Yunus are the best answers. Using his knowledge and his ideas he looks after people who suffer from poverty in his country.
Bravo, Mr. Yunus from the bottom of my heart. He not only thought about how to help poor people but he actually carried it out. In the future I would like to be a person like him who could have an idea that could help the world and then put that idea into action.
- Mina Imoto