What happens when you consider “the world”
…That view from the space shuttle where the Earth looks peaceful, beautiful, arcs of harmless white cloud?
… maps?
… endless stretches of ocean, of desert, bustling cities?
… Cars, trains, planes traversing the expanse of it all disseminating pollutants and choking as they go?
... Farmers tilling the land?

Do you remember that bit in “The Fifth Element” when Milla Jovovich see’s all those images of war, genocide, cold killings, atomic mushroom clouds, and cant see anything good in mankind?
She says “everything you create, you use to destroy”
Is this really true?
I hope that Bruce Willis’ dry “Yeah, we call it human nature” is nothing but a negative reflection on a narrow base of evidence or we might as well all go mad, right?
But as he points out later… “…there are things worth saving”

That’s what I want to ponder now… “What is worth saving?”
I don’t just mean your Mum or Dad (though I don’t underrate their import) What is worth saving for the benefit of mankind?
We, as members of an international community, are required by necessity to work together to build and preserve for future generations. There are always references to “building a better world” but what would it be like to re-make the world according to our own individual priorities or whims?
What would we chose to keep? Would be separate warring neighbours? Bring together dissparate peoples?
There are currently 890 Unesco World Heritage Sites around the world, declared as such because of either their natural or cultural Outstanding Universal Value. There are over 4,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the UK. (over half of which have been declared to be of international significance).
It seems to me that these have things covered on the “landmarks of history and science” plane of things...
But what of you and me…
6 Pubs are closing a weeks in the UK, sweetshops where you can buy real aniseed balls and chocolate mice from big glass jars are the exception rather than the rule these days… bowing out to supermarkets and chain-stores stocking international chocolate giants like Mars, Cadburys…
But look how many empty stores there are now… standing empty… could we stuff them full of jars of cherry drops, resuscitate Woolworths?
How would you change the world to make it a better place?

This world of ours is in a state of constant flux. Andrew Marr (of “Britain from Above” fame) recently said in an interview that the primary experience of the latter half of the 20th Century was one of acceleration. Of mankind’s readjustment to a world where the world we live in now is less and less like that of our forbearers and is certainly little like the one our children and grandchildren will know…
How do we then negotiate the things we miss and the things that are yet to be when sometimes it simply feels like they happen or cease to happen all around us?

Remember It’s a small world after all!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIabgPX14R4