Minapa sanoin toisille lapsi!-
le:

— Se, joka jaksaa nostaa
tayden ammeen vetta, on kaik-
kein voimakkain!

Sellaista voimanmiesta ei
joukossa ollut. Silloin mina tar-
tuin itse kaikin voimin riukuun,
jonka paassa amme oli, ja pai-
noin se kaivoon. Mutta kateni
vasylvat pian, en saanut kouk-
kaistuksi vettaé, pdastin riu’un
irti enka ehtinyt huomatakaan,
miten siind kavi, kun olin akkia
korkealla ilmassa.

Edelleen kavi nain. Amme

tulla hurahti ylés kaivosta ja
mekkoni tarttul kurkeen. Kii-
kuin ilmassa ymmartamatta mi-
tain, kuulin vain, miten tytot
kirkuivat ja itkivat kauhusta.
Sitten rautapaino tarahti
maahan, ponnahti ja keikutti
minua aika tavalla kaivon koh-
dalla, amme hurahti uudestaan
kaivoon ja mina sen mukana. Se
painui veteen asti, ja taas paino
keikautti sen yl6s, ja mina sat-
kyttelin taas jalkojani ilmassa.
Silla tavalla nousin ja pai-
nuin kaksi kertaa. Vihdoin jokin
rasahti —- mekko repesi, Ja pu-

1979 International —

A handful
every child

In this, the International
Year of the Child, 1979, so
proclaimed by the United Nati-
ons, Romesh Chandra, speak-
ing in Toronto in‘ December,
made a strong plea for an end to
the horror which fills the lives of
millions of children today. He
called to mind pictures of chil-
dren condemned to war, pain
and poverty. On the other hand,
he pointed to the potential in a
world at peace, and in which
profit is not the priority, for
children to live full and healthy
lives.

Romesh Chandra is presi-
dent of the World Peace Council.
These are excerpts from his re-
marks.

kK

I am very fond of that poem,

of that song, of Nazim Hikmet’s
Who Is It?” — for it speaks of
a little girl who became a torch
and burned — a girl of seven.

1979 is the International
Year of the Child and so, it’s
- good to remember Nazim Hik-
met’s little girl. But she wasn’n
the only little girl —- and Nazim
died — and little girls and little
boys continued to be torches.
Hiroshima was not the last
place where little girls and little
boys were torches.

I remember these years, and
you remember them, as years of
great struggle and great cam-
paigns and movements for
peace, and of the great people of
our movement who are no more
with us. But what was that mo-
vement about? And then you
will remember: the movement
was to see that Nazim Hikmet’s
little girl of Hiroshima, like my

e

Year of the Child

of rice for

grandaughter, or your daughter,
your son, should not burn, but
should have sweets in their
mouth.

I think of Vietnam. Don’t
you remember the pictures
which were printed in every part
of the world of the child who
ran, with napalm burning her
body? Nazim Hikmet did not
see this girl, When was it —
long ago? — that in a place
called Soweto on another conti-
nent, not in Asia this time, notin
Japan, not Vietnam, but in Af-
rica, in a town called Soweto,
little children were shot and
killed by the tens and twenties,
hunted down, because it’s easier
to kill children than to kill grown-
aup men and women,

I thought to myself of the
hospital I visited on the Suez
Canal in 1967, and of the little
girls and little boys who lay in
those hospital beds with arms
gone and legs gone, and who
said, when they were told that
here are people who stand for
peace, who said only this: let my
younger brother not come to
this hospital...

So, wheter it is Africa or the
Middle East, or Vietnam, or
Hiroshima, somehow still, chil-
dren are burning like torches,
and still how many millions of
them do not have sweets in their
mouth.

If I came politics, or what
you call politics (you may callit
the peace movement, call it
what you like) it was because I
saw in my own land, as a child
that there were many, many
millions of children like me,
who did not have in their mouths

Suomentanut
V. Levdnen

POPP LPP PLL PPP

dota matkahdin kuin sammakko
jalat ja kadet harallaan maahan.

- Minuun koski kipeasti ja havet-

ti kovasti— Toiset lapset kun
viela tekivat pilkkaa ja nauroivat:
*Kaikkein voimakkain, kaik-
kein voimakkain!...”

— Enta sina, aiti? —
liikahti.

— Nauroin yhdessa heidan
kanssaan. En itkenyt heidan
nahtensdé. Mutta kun karkasin
arolle, niin siella en pidatellyt
kyyneleitani...

Kertomukset ja saduthan
ovat lapsista kaikkein hauskinta

Oleg

the sweets which I could have. ne

And, so many of us joined the
struggle for freedom, which
meant that we fought, not only
to rule in our own country and
not have a foreign imperialism
ruling over us. That, of course.
But what we fought for was
precisely that our children may
be able at least one night in a
week not to go to sleep hungry.
At least one night in a week.
This is what the struggle for
independence was, and is at this
time.

We do not burn only with
napalm or with the atom bomb.
Our children burn with hunger,
with poverty for hundreds of
them. One billion people starve
while one billion dollars are
spent on armaments. So, is it
such a difficult thing to under-
stand what we are fighting for?

What a change there is in
the world! Change because ot
the sacrifices of so many millions
who fought in the ranks of the
peace movement — a peace
movement which is amovement
that seeks not only tahat never
again shall there be Hiroshima,
never again shall there be the
burning of seven-year-old girl,
and that never again shall there
be the burning of the children of
Vietnam with napalm, never
again the shooting down of the
children of Soweto. Never the
hunger and continued hunger of
the millions of our children.

We fight for International
Children’s Year to place before
the world what we want. We
Want a world in which every
child shall at least know what a
sweet tastes like.

I, like many of you, had the
great honor and privilege of
knowing and meeting Salvador
Allende. He was a member of
the World Peace Council. And

as I heard the song of Nazim.

Hikmet, I thought of what he
used to Say.

He said — and I want you to
remember this, for you know it
well — he said: I want every
child in Chile to have a glass of
milk every day. And I can get
that! And these children have
not had it, ever! Can you imagi-

-kertomaan Ukrainasta,

kieltdytyneet, kun Oleg pyysi
tyo-
miesten entisesta raskaasta ela-
masta, Olegin isoisasta Koros-
tylevista ja paljosta muusta,
mika on jokaisesta lapsesta
kiinnostavaa.

Oleg maksoi samaila mital-
la. Niin kehittyi ystavyytemme
ja keskindinen luottamuksem-
me...

"SE KAY AKKIA!”

Pian Vera mummokin
muutti Poltavasta meille. Han
oli tyéss4 neuvostotilalla puo-
luejarjestén organisaattorina ja
asui yhdess4 meidan kanssam-
me.

Olég oli mummon tulosta

aarett6man iloinen. Ja mita pa-
remmat ystavat mummosta ja
Olegista tulil, sité enemm4an
Oleg sai tietia kansamme ela-
masta ja sen onnestaan ja va-
paasta elamastaan kaymasta
taistelusta, ja se kaikki voimisti
pojan isdnmaanrakkautta.
Vera. mummo oli Olegille
bolshevikin esikuva. Mummo
oli aina hyvantuulinen, touhu-

? — I can get that if — the
wealth of my land is not looted.
And so, he said, because the
people of Chile wish that: Let
my children have a glass of
milk; and let the robbers give
back what they robber every
year from us.

That was the meaning of
what was called ’taking over’,

or the nationalization of riches.
of the people of Chile. Ah, the |

story is so well known ~— the
transnational corporations, the
CIA, the president of the United
States, the secretary of state of
the United States — all involv-
ed! In a conspiracy for what?
For saving ’’democracy’’. For
saving the profits of those com-
panies which keep them in
power, and for taking the glass
of milk out of the hands of the
children of Chile.

Don’t think that children
everywhere are tortuned., If I
speak of the hunger of the child-
ren of many countries, I speak
of it because I want to say that it
is possible to change it. I went to
Vietnam... at the beginning of
1978 and I saw a palace — and
old palace in Ho Chi Minh City,
formely Saigon, a palace used
by the old puppet regime for
their lords. But now it’s apalace
for children. And there were so
many charts to show what child-
ren had done, what children had
suffered,

The overhelming majority
of them in the old Saigon were
used for drug peddling, used for
prostitution, so many of them
suffering from every possible
disease, and yet, children who
fought in the liberation front,
children who acted the liberati-
on forces, who acted for Viet-
nam, heroes and heroines who
died. And how, with the victory,
here were the children of Viet-
nam, no longer hiding, or fear-

ing to look up at the sky because

every time they looked there
would be the B-52 bombers.
Here were children who.
could look up at the sky and who
could laugh and dance and play.
So victory had come. Now again
they would try to take the smiles
off the faces of the children of

kas, ei istun
mettomana, elaméniloinen, uu-

a! Eine kertaakaan

ie ae

ras, kova tyéihminen, osaaotta-
vainen toisten suruun ja aina
avulias.

Muistan paivan,
Olegista tuli pioneeri.

Olisyyskuun 7. pdiva 1935,
Oleg herdsi aamun valjetessa ja
pukeutui nopeasti. Pian kuulin
viereisesta huoneesta: .
| Mina,  Sosialististen
Neuvostotasavaltojen _Liiton
nuori pioneeri, lupaan toverieni
edess4, etta olen varmasti puol-
tava Leninin—Stalinin asiaa...

Olegin aani oli liikuttunut,
mutta han lausui sanat varmas-
ti.

jolloin

Hanen silmansa loistivat,
kun han palasi koulusta kau-
lassaan uusi punainen kaulalii-
na. Han ryntdsi suutelemaan
minua. |

Sitten han sanoi kuin aikui-
nen:

— Meilla on nyt kaksi puo-
lueenjasenta.

— Keta?

— Mummo ja mina, — vas-
tasi Oleg.

En voinut olla nauramatta.
Vaikka Oleg myOnsikin, kun se-
litin, ettei pioneeri ole viela puo-
lueen jasen, etta ensin on liityt-
tava nuorisoliittoon ja vasta sit~
ten puolueeseen, niin han kui-
tenkin pysyi mielipiteessaan.

— Enta sitten? On pioneeri-
kin hiukan puolueen jasen...

Siita pdivasta Oleg noudat-
ti tunnontarkasti kaikkia pio-
neerien kaytdésohjeita.

Kerran toverit kutsuivat
Olegin vappujuhlaan lastentar-
haan, missa olin tyéssd.,

Jatkuu

Vietnam, but they will not
succeed.

I think of the children i in the
Soviet Union, I think of the
great children’s congress a year-
and-a-half ago, where children
came, and stood in a socialist
country, laughed and played
and talked together. Well, I
want that the children of my
country should, like the child-
ren of all countries, laugh and
play, dance, but if not that yet,
at least that every child should
have what I call half a handful of
rice,... It’s a small demand, but
it can be done. But it can be
done only by the strenght of all
of us.

Children can be assured the
kind of life we want for them and
has been realized in countries
which have won their freedom,
countries where no one exploits
and no one lives on the hunger
of others.

we
FB RR

Romesh Chandra,
World Peace Council.

president

11

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