Dear Africa,

It has been awhile since I have had a serious chat with you. I know we might not be on very good terms, but I hope we can change that. I was wondering if you can help our continent, North America. It seems we've gotten addicted to a lot of things. There are small numbers of people addicted to drugs and alcohol, but more worrying is our addiction to something we thought was a very good thing. We call it 'development' but I think you might call it suicide. I asked my friend, why he needed a better computer and he said it would make his life easier. I asked him how it would make his life easier, and he said, it would give him more time. So I asked, to do what? And he said, I could see my friends more often, or spend more time with my family, or be able to do my work faster. It sounded good to me. But then I realized that a lot of groups living in Africa, have about the same free time as us. Actually, they might have more…

Here obesity is becoming a problem, I think it’s because many people don’t go outside anymore. They’re afraid. People wake up, they get ready to go to work, they go into their garage, get in their car. Then they park (sometime indoors!) and go inside. They will stay inside until work is over, and would you believe many of them don’t even like going outside! The few that do, they go outside to smoke. Maybe fresh air isn’t calming or pure enough.

People are afraid to drink the water from their rivers, many of them are afraid of drinking water from their taps; they will only drink bottled water.

People are afraid to speak. They try to say what they think others want them to say. The transit buses are silent. People from all sorts of different backgrounds, ages and ideas are all sitting together on a bus none of them talking to the each other. There can be 30 people side by side and not a word is spoken.

People are afraid of losing beauty. Because beauty means you are young, white, blonde, thin and in fashion. Older people try to get their hair back, they try to get their cheeks back and they try to cover their age with make-up. But, old is beautiful too, no?

People are afraid to stop ‘wanting’ and this is the biggest fear of all. People are afraid that they may one day have nothing more they want. They fear that someday they might actually have everything that they need. So that people don’t have this fear, there are constantly new fashions, new machines, new improvements. And people will keep working in order to have something they want and then they’ll find something new they want, and they will work more to have it.

I remember when I saw the workers in South America throw down their shovels at midday because they had realized that they had worked all they needed to have everything they needed. We never have everything we need.

I think one of the worst things, is that the very people that are trying to make a difference, we dislike. We want to find out the things that are wrong with the good people. We want to plaster it all over the news so everyone can know. We get mad when people tell us to throw our cans in the recycling bin and not the garbage. We get annoyed at the people on the bikes who go slow on the road. And then ironically, we get frustrated when we feel like we can’t make a difference in this world.

I think that most of us believe that there is no other way to live. That we had no choice in the matter, that this is the way for everyone to live most happily. But it isn’t, the whole time, we’ve been like a stubborn teenager who thinks they know everything and who thinks they are on top of the world. We’ve been so stubborn that we’ve managed to make even other countries feel like they are inferior to us. But all along, it’s been just the opposite. All along, we we’ve been on a suicidal course towards what we call ‘development’ and we’ve convinced others to follow this course too.

So I’m asking for help, before its too late. Because, there are many of you who have and still do live sustainably. Many of you who follow the simple rule of putting back what you have taken.

Please help.

Sincerely,

North America