A judge in New Zealand followed by another in India have created history and maybe controversy with a single verdict; they have given human status, therefore legal rights to certain rivers in their countries! In New Zealand it is the Whanganui river and in India, the Yamuna and Ganga!
Now they are to be recognized, the world over, as people!
As mountaineers with heavy gear climbed the mighty Everest, they heard rumblings beneath their feet, “Everest is angry!’ whispered the Sherpa guides as they trembled within themselves.
“How can a silly mountain be angry!” said the climbers and heard a rumble underneath, a cascading of snow and soon they were in for a merry tumble which was not too merry as they realised they could have easily fallen into a chasm. “Looks like you are right!” said the climbers hastily, “looks like Everest is angry!”
But it wasn’t just Everest as the world soon discovered, but mountains and hills all over, soon joined by rocks and trees, even pebbles and stones.
“What’s happening?” asked people, looking at volcanos threatening to erupt and seas ready to create a tsunami, “What have we done wrong?”
“Why only rivers?” asked a wave lashing the beautiful shores of a Sri Lankan beach, while it’s sisters did the same in Australia, “haven’t we carried your ships across ourselves?”
“Haven’t we prevented invaders from attacking you?” asked the Alps to little Switzerland.
“Protected you from the vagaries of the weather, given you shade and firewood?” asked a thousand trees with a mighty roar in the Amazon forests.
“Why only rivers?” they cried and people all over fled under their beds or into their cupboards, hearing the mighty sound.
The representatives of different countries, meeting at the UN, huddled together to find a solution. “We cannot ask these learned judges to reverse their decisions!” they discussed, “Because now that the rivers have tasted human rights, they will not want to give it up!”
“How right you are!” shouted the Ganga, and echoed by the Hudson outside the UN building in New York.
“We don’t want our fruits eaten!” cried the trees, “People call themselves vegetarians, and eat us up! Not fair!” they cried.
“And no wearing boots with spikes when you climb on us!” cried the hills and mountains.
“Okay!” shouted a learned judge from China, who people say was a descendent of Confucius,”Calm down everybody.” He brought a giant screen and placed it in front of the angry rioters. “Now here is what is happening all over the world. Tell us whether you want human rights?”
The mountains and trees, the oceans, volcanoes and others looked at fighting in Syria, racial violence in America, stone pelting in India, rapes in Africa, then slowly looked at each other. “No!” they cried, “We are happy as we are..!”
And the world returned to normalcy again.
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