‘Stop being selfish’: Seven-year-old’s message to Prime Minister Tony Abbott

THIS young man calls himself Zen, and he has a rather pointed message for Tony Abbott. A few adults might agree with him too.

zen message

“IF YOU stop being selfish and thinking of yourself, then you might survive as well and people might stop telling you to leave Earth.”

That’s the message to Tony Abbott from a precocious seven-year-old, who has identified himself as “Zen” in a video message posted to YouTube.

The warning, uploaded on July 2, was posted by the seven-year-old’s mother, Hannah Powell, who described the moment her son came “bursting through the door” demanding the PM’s direct line.

“My son was supposed to be in bed, but came bursting through our door exclaiming that he had a message for Tony Abbott,” Hannah Powell wrote alongside the clip.

“He wanted me to call the PM to share his ideas, however I don’t happen to have the PM’s phone number handy.

“I did offer to record his thoughts and put it out to the universe in the hopes that it reaches him.”

Thinking ahead, the clever seven-year-old urged the Prime Minister to “stop chopping down trees” in order for “everyone to survive” in the next thousand years.

“If you don’t stop making stupid things now, like houses and taking over the Earth, well, we’ll survive.

“And, if you stop, like in a thousand years, well, we won’t live and we’ll end up looking like The City of Ember”.

The City of Ember is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Jeanne DuPrau that focuses on an underground city struggling to survive more than 200 years after disaster struck the Earth.

The City of Ember has won numerous literary awards since its 2003 publication.

Running out of power and supplies, the human population is at risk of extinction unless its young protagonist, Lina Mayfleet, can figure out a way out of the City of Ember.

It is the first in a series of four books telling the story of Ember. It has won a number of children’s literary awards since it was published in 2003. In 2008, Bill Murray starred in a film adaptation of the novel.

“The pipes won’t be very good, and we won’t have much food either. So if you stop chopping down trees now, well, everybody will survive. Even you,” Zen continues.

“And if you stop being selfish, too, and thinking of yourself, then you might survive as well and people might stop telling you to leave the Earth.

“And if you don’t stop, then none of us will survive and nothing will be here anymore.

“My name is Zen, and I’m just warning you, because, you won’t like it if we continue to the future in a thousand years and nothing is here. So we probably won’t survive if you keep doing this but if you stop we can probably continue the Earth.”

Will the PM respond? Time will tell.

— [e-mail]