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Feminists Around the World: Selina Leem · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is and Samantha. Welcome to stuff I've never
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  Speaker 1: told your production of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: And as it is the tail end of AAPI or
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  Speaker 2: API History Month, we are closing it out with an activist,
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  Speaker 2: a writer, and a poet, Selena Limb. Now Limb is
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  Speaker 2: an activist from the Marshall Islands and has been a
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  Speaker 2: leader for our community for a while now. At the
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  Speaker 2: age of eighteen, Limb was the youngest delegate to speak
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  Speaker 2: at the COP twenty one where she spoke about the
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  Speaker 2: impact of climate change and what was happening to her homeland.
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  Speaker 1: So the Republic of the Marshall Islands is located in
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  Speaker 1: the Micronesia region in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Here's some
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  Speaker 1: more information from Britannica dot com quote Marshall Islands Country
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  Speaker 1: and the Central Pacific Ocean. It consists of some of
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  Speaker 1: the easternmost islands of Micronesia. The Marshals are composed of
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  Speaker 1: more than twelve hundred islands and islets in two parallel
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  Speaker 1: chains of coral atolls, the Ratak Or sunrise to the
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  Speaker 1: east and the rolic Or sunset to the west. None
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  Speaker 1: of the twenty nine low lying coral atolls and the
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  Speaker 1: five coral islands in the Marshall Group rises to more
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  Speaker 1: than twenty feet six meters above high tide. The islands
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  Speaker 1: are coral caps set on the rims of submerged volcanoes
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  Speaker 1: rising from the ocean floor. The island units of the
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  Speaker 1: Marshalls are scattered over about one hundred and eighty thousand
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  Speaker 1: square miles of the Pacific.
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  Speaker 2: And because of where the country is located as well
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  Speaker 2: as the makeup of the land, they're in a pretty
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  Speaker 2: precarious state, especially with the ongo and climate crisis. Here's
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  Speaker 2: something from Hakai magazine dot com To say that the
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  Speaker 2: Republic of the Marshall Islands is vulnerable to sea level
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  Speaker 2: rise is an understatement. Two million square kilometers of Pacific
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  Speaker 2: Ocean surround the country's a smattering of islands and tiny atolls,
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  Speaker 2: of which are less than two meters above sea level.
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  Speaker 2: Since nineteen ninety three, the surrounding ocean has risen by
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  Speaker 2: more than twelve centimeters. Today, it regularly floods some neighborhoods,
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  Speaker 2: fills roads, and even graveyards. And this is just the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: If glaciers and polar ice sheets continue melting at the
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  Speaker 2: current rate, which is likely Even if global carbon emissions
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  Speaker 2: are capped, climate scientists expect the ocean around the Marshall
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  Speaker 2: Islands to rise as much as one point three meters
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  Speaker 2: by the year twenty one hundred. Powerful storms and extra
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  Speaker 2: big waves could temporarily push it even higher. Without drastic intervention,
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  Speaker 2: much of the country could be rendered uninhabitable.
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  Speaker 1: And this is why Lim has become a leader for
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  Speaker 1: climate justice. She has been working since her teens to
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  Speaker 1: not only bring attention to what is happening to her home,
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  Speaker 1: but also advocating and pushing political leaders to make change.
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  Speaker 1: When speaking about her work and her home, she said,
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  Speaker 1: my people are counting on me to share what is
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  Speaker 1: happening in the vast ocean of the Pacific, too small
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  Speaker 1: for people to see, too far for people to reach,
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  Speaker 1: and a number of fifty two, six hundred and thirty
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  Speaker 1: four people too little for people to care. Our islands
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  Speaker 1: are not just barely their dots on the maps for
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  Speaker 1: many to turn a blind eye. They are our home.
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  Speaker 2: So in an interview with thread dot Com, she talks
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  Speaker 2: about why she began her works. She said, as a child,
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  Speaker 2: my grandfather would reprimmend me and tell me that the
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  Speaker 2: ice in the north and south poles were melting, and
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  Speaker 2: that the water would eventually flood our islands. This was terrifying.
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  Speaker 2: I would have nightmares of my family drowning and me
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  Speaker 2: desperately trying to save them. This made me extremely conscious
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  Speaker 2: of the changing environment around me, and I began to
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  Speaker 2: pick up on increasing temperatures and rising sea levels year
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  Speaker 2: in year out. I quickly realized just how dire the
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  Speaker 2: situation had become and decided I had to do something
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  Speaker 2: about it.
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  Speaker 1: And she has been speaking up about her concerns, including
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  Speaker 1: permafrost melting, forest fires, and droughts which continue to threaten
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  Speaker 1: her home, and educating others and helping others to understand
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  Speaker 1: the crisis is something that she does often. She told
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  Speaker 1: World Bank dot org quotelimate change impacts, gender inequality, high
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  Speaker 1: unemployment rate, high school dropouts, noncommunicable diseases are some of
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  Speaker 1: the biggest issues we are facing right now. Our country
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  Speaker 1: is poor and a huge part of our government's budget
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  Speaker 1: comes from the United States government funding. I believe education
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  Speaker 1: is the first step to addressing these issues. Once we
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  Speaker 1: know what they are, what are the causes, the history,
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  Speaker 1: how it impacts us, why they must and need to
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  Speaker 1: be addressed and the support from our family, our community,
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  Speaker 1: our government, and internationally, then we are on the right path.
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  Speaker 1: It is important that there is a clear understanding and
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  Speaker 1: communication between the government and its people. Right now, the
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  Speaker 1: entire world's biggest threat is climate change.
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  Speaker 2: Not only has she used her voice to speak up
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  Speaker 2: in international conferences in front of powerful world leaders, but
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  Speaker 2: has used her voice in performing spoken word and poetry.
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  Speaker 2: She was also featured in Before the Flood, a documentary
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  Speaker 2: talking about the climate crisis, in which she talks about
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  Speaker 2: her land. Apparently it was produced by Leonardo Dicaprille. That's
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  Speaker 2: a bit tidbit. There you go.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for the tidbit. In the same threat
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  Speaker 1: dot Com interview, she talks about the power of the
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  Speaker 1: arts and why creativity is important in her activism. She said,
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  Speaker 1: quote creativity connects us with our core, which is our
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  Speaker 1: emotion and what makes us human. I'm privileged to have
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  Speaker 1: been born in this era because it's so easy to
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  Speaker 1: mental health, setting boundaries and how to move forward with
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  Speaker 1: my generation. We're part of a community, so that when
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  Speaker 1: ego anxiety is gripping my heart and I feel so
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  Speaker 1: overwhelmed with the state of things, I'm able to feel
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  Speaker 1: grounded and remind myself that I'm not alone. We're all
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  Speaker 1: in this together, and that if I need to take
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  Speaker 1: a break to look after myself, it's okay, because they'll
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  Speaker 1: keep fighting for me in the meantime. And she goes
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  Speaker 1: on talking about why storytelling is an important medium quote
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  Speaker 1: because it's human. It's how my grandparents taught me to
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  Speaker 1: keep our cultures, proverbs, morals, and values alone. This is
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  Speaker 1: why I find it a very powerful and effective tool
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  Speaker 1: to use.
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  Speaker 2: Right And obviously her works have gained some notoriety, including
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  Speaker 2: the fact that she was nominated for a Contributing Performance
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  Speaker 2: in the Best Indigenous Language Album category at the thirty
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  Speaker 2: third Golden Melody Awards. And I'm sure we'll hear more
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  Speaker 2: from her because her work is beautiful. And with that,
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  Speaker 2: we wanted to read a bit of her poem. And
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  Speaker 2: this is just like a small snippet of her poem
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  Speaker 2: that she presented to the cop twenty six. It was
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  Speaker 2: the poem that we mentioned earlier. I grew giant and
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  Speaker 2: all BT dubs. I'm gonna put this in there. They
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  Speaker 2: also speak Marshallesee in here. Obviously I do not know
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  Speaker 2: this language. I could not really, just find a pronunciation
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  Speaker 2: or translation for it for me, which is good because
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  Speaker 2: she did this purposefully. So I'm going to try my
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  Speaker 2: best and excuse my pronunciation. If you actually speak Marshal
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  Speaker 2: Lesee and want to send in a corrected version, please
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  Speaker 2: do because we would love to hear it. So here
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  Speaker 2: we go. Now is what I need you respond to.
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  Speaker 2: I've seen bones of loved ones spilling out of broken graves,
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  Speaker 2: torn by the angry waves. Nightmares haunt me at night
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  Speaker 2: and follows me throughout the day. The terror I feel
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  Speaker 2: act now I stand here najhatukijin for my people, my home,
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  Speaker 2: non homage rao nani ju jiku. Our corals never grew
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  Speaker 2: to be the giant we needed them to be to
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  Speaker 2: protect us from the rising water. But I did to
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  Speaker 2: five three the giant to protect my home from the
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  Speaker 2: waves of deniers and work hand in hand with those
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  Speaker 2: fighting for our planet together, each of us, like the
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  Speaker 2: tiny corals my friends and I put out in a
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  Speaker 2: horizontal line near the outer reef, grow tall Tuesday to
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  Speaker 2: be giants for our planet. And again, this is just
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  Speaker 2: a small piece, and her whole piece was beautiful. You
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  Speaker 2: can actually look this up. They do have it on
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  Speaker 2: medium dot com where they speak about her a little
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  Speaker 2: bit and give the entirety of the poem. But yes,
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  Speaker 2: obviously this is really really important work. And I was
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  Speaker 2: admitting to any earlier that my geography is way off
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  Speaker 2: because I did not know that the Republic of the
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  Speaker 2: Marshall Islands existed and didn't know its history and what
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  Speaker 2: was happening there. Obviously there's a lot happening, and islands
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  Speaker 2: and countries like these are very heavily affected by what
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  Speaker 2: is happening with the climate change, and they have become
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  Speaker 2: the people of the Marshall Islands have become leaders in
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  Speaker 2: this movement, I mean true leaders with some amazing plans,
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  Speaker 2: and I didn't even talk about what they've been doing
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  Speaker 2: and the whole layout they have to try to protect
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  Speaker 2: their lands because as Liam told another interview that she
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  Speaker 2: knows people who've lived there all their lives, like their
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  Speaker 2: families from there, and they said they would drown on
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  Speaker 2: that island before ever leaving it because they love their
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  Speaker 2: home so much. So it's definitely something that we need
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  Speaker 2: to be talking about more. And also it was acknowledging
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  Speaker 2: in the fact that yes, again I feel real ignorant,
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  Speaker 2: not even knowing that the existence of this country was here,
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  Speaker 2: and even the impact that the US had on them,
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  Speaker 2: which was not great, but the fact that they were
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  Speaker 2: able to get their independence and now doing what they're
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  Speaker 2: trying to do to save their land really important.
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  Speaker 1: Work is always and yeah, listeners, if you have any
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  Speaker 1: further information or any thoughts about this or anything related
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  Speaker 1: to this, experiences or anything like that, please let us know.
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