Saturday 10 December 2011

2nd December

Today, Dad showed me a speech from Charlie Chaplin at the end of 'The Great Dictator'. I always thought of Chaplin as a comedian with great talent, but I never knew he wrote an entire movie based around this speech. This is one of the first times he ever spoke in a movie, and his words have affected me greatly.



"Greed had poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed"
"...The machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. More than machinery, we need humanity."
"...You the people have the power - the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. The power to make this world free and beautiful."

I felt as if he was speaking directly to me, and I hope he had that affect on millions of other people too. It's time for change. The time we are living in now is the 'passing of greed', and we should not despair, but instead try our hardest to make positive changes to our world in whatever ways we can. I'm going to make an effort to give something helpful to a stranger every week. There's plenty of beggars in India to go around.

Maybe inspired by Chaplin’s words, I bought a weeks worth of food for a poor man on the street, and gave the rest of the money in my wallet to a another stranger, which I would never normally do. After all, I don’t know where that money is going to end up. I’m careful not to give money to children who look a state, or have physical injuries like burns - I’m worried their parents will do more damage to them to get more money. I take a notepad and coloring pencils with me for the kids instead, and sometimes I’ll get them a bottle of coke or some food.

All the beggars here seem quite genuine though. The woman I gave the money to was about my age with two young children. I can’t stand the fact that I have everything I need in life, while other women my age are struggling to keep themsleves alive. I’m an incredibly lucky person. Giving money to a stranger makes me feel worth something, and gives them enough to help with daily life – there’s no down side to giving things away, and I couldn’t have lived with myself if I had just walked past.

I hope one day my career will lead me to create a game which functions and relies on doing good deeds to help eachother.

I’m tired of shooting and killing. Even in games, it’s not that fun.

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