Certificate of Commendation
The English Department is pleased to announce the awarding of a Certificate of Commendation to last year’s Shell pupil, Oliver Weerstand, by the international education charity Never Such Innocence, for his creative writing entry in the 2019/20 competition on the theme of ‘The Unheard Voices of Conflict: Stories from Around the World’. Never Such Innocence runs an international poetry, art, speech and song competition for young people aged 9-18, focusing on conflict and its impact. They aim to amplify the voices of children and young people all over the world.
Marlborough College are very proud of all entrants’ achievements and congratulate them on their wonderful writing. MCM has a proud tradition in this competition and has the honour of having a previous competition winner in 2017-2018 when Jasmine Surif was invited to London to receive the award from General Sir Gordon Messenger, Vice Chief of Defence Staff, at the Guards Chapel in the Wellington Barracks (see here).
Below is Oliver’s poem and his motivation for writing it:
‘I wrote this poem because many problems have arisen due to political choices. For example, politicians refusing to attempt to decrease pollution levels and blaming the problem on other countries. Due to these choices, these problems continue to linger in our world and affect the lives of others who have nothing to do with it. I wanted to help inspire people to do something against these dilemmas, or there is a high possibility that we may not have a positive future.’
The problem today…
I look around the world today, and what do I see?
Not positivity and peace, but terrors that make you flee.
Politicians and tyrants have caused destruction long enough, they need to change.
They have polluted the Earth, stolen money, spread fear and created weapons with high range.
People suffer, people are in poverty, under a tyrant’s reign,
It is like they are ruled by a DC villain, Bane.
Even if you plead, they won’t feel sorry.
They’d rather throw your protesters under a lorry.
Animals suffer from their decisions; they are not safe.
All that putrid pollution, all that choking, harrowing smog, is a hazardous wave.
I suffer too as I look around the world today…
And I hope that it changes… so the children of today, the leaders of tomorrow, will live… in a way YOU want to live.
But it has to change, because before we know it there WILL be no tomorrow.
