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"I'm truly sorry, Pete, for not being there with you, (signed) Antonovna Valentina Lisitov."
I showed the letter to Sylvia on the very day it arrived, in the evening when we were watching the sunset from the top of the golden faced office tower next to the civic center.
She took the letter, read it, "Can I borrow this for a day?" she asked.
What resulted from this on the next day was the first courageous act of involvement by someone who was beginning to recognize her potential to become a giant. She took the letter to the podium the next morning, before the first speaker for the day was called. She read the letter as it was.
"I admire the woman who wrote this," she said at the end. "I admire her for her adherence to principle. The letter doesn't reveal anything that I didn't already know, but I came to this conference anyway, even knowing that the agenda is probably rigged to assure that predetermined conclusions will be reached. This woman, however, couldn't allow herself to play this kind of game, neither can I any longer. Still, I am here, and I will remain here. I am not going to go back home and hide in a closet. Instead, I am going to make certain that during this conference the face of UN will be an honorable one. In other words, there will be no predetermined agenda. We are here to explore, to discover, and to build on the discoveries of the day before. This means, we will have to make a new agenda each day, for that day. There is no point in us being here, is there, if the outcome is already established for us?" Then Sylvia took the published agenda that had been handed out to each participant on the first day. She took it in both hands and held it high, then ripped it up. She had pulled the sheet off for the current day, the rest she handed in pieces to the moderator of the panel. "I suggest you do the same," she said to him.
With this done, she returned to the podium and brought out a statistical account that detailed the donated food which Anton had referred to. She said she had obtained the list though the UN's own information service. China topped the list by a long way. Other donations' were modest. "But the greatest and longest running empire on the planet, on which the sun never sets," Sylvia emphasized, "donated nothing. And the UN," Sylvia added, "where do we find the UN in this huge humanitarian crisis? The UN is tied for last place with the USA. Both have donated so little that it is shameful to mention the amount."
She calmly folded her papers up, then left amidst a standing ovation.
She handed the letter back to me. "You've got remarkable friends, Pete," she said.
"Eh," I said, "and much more than that. I've got, you!" I stood up and hugged her.
Since Sylvia had torn up the conference agenda, I decided to add to this trend. Quickly, before the applause subsided I made my way to the stage and up onto the speaker's platform.
"The time has come to tear up also another agenda," I addressed the assembly. "The time has come to tear up the royal agenda for depopulating the world."
I expected protests, but there were none. There was a great silence instead.
"It is being said by the royals of this world that the Earth is over-populated," I said, "and that the human herd must be culled as cattle are culled to manage the size of the herd. Is there any truth to it?"
I paused. "Well, the answer depends on from which standpoint one looks at the world. If one looks at the world from the standpoint of its development potential, and what is required to realize that potential, the world is vastly under-populated. Just look at Africa, for instance. This is a huge continent. It is an area so large that you can fit into its physical dimension all of China, the USA, and a half dozen other countries together, with room to spare. Compared to that, Africa's population amounts to but a small fraction of what could be put into its space, and what is needed to properly develop the continent. The reason why there is starvation in Africa is not because too many people are living there, but because the royals of this world have disallowed its development for centuries. Whenever progressive and development minded leaders emerged in Africa, death by assassination followed. Fortunately this doesn't change the potential of this land. The continent has the best climate in the world, and the world's richest water resources. In fact, the food producing potential of Africa is so great that this continent could feed the entire world all by itself."
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