TITLE: The Sea People GRADE LEVEL: 5-6 AUTHOR: Jorg Muller and Jorg Steimer THEMES: Cooperation, sharing, peaceful conflict resolution SYNOPSIS: This is a legend about two islands. The people of the two islands both shared their surrounding waters and fished but that's where their similarities ended. On the Greater Island lived people who were tall, some were rich and some were poor, some servants and some masters. Their ships were magnificent. The tall people were capable and efficient. On the Lesser Island there were small people, none were masters, none were servants. Nobody wanted to become rich and they had plenty of time to play and sing, to dance, to fly their kites, and to enjoy living. The people of the two islands could not understand each others' ways. The King of the Greater Island wanted to go collect rubble and earth from the Lesser Island. Up until thistime the small people had no worries. Now even their wise blind man had no advice. The King of the Greater Island had no rest. He worried, he was impatient, and he was plagued by nightmares. The people of the Lesser Island worried about their island sinking. The old blind man went to speak to the king. The blind man reminded him of the legend of the Red Sunstone. Legend told that when the Red Sunstone sinks, the people of the sea will have offended the law of life and the islands will be drowned. The King refused to believe this and ordered the Red Sunstone moved to higher ground. During this process the diggersfound gold under the stone. The King was then overcome by greed and ordered excavation day and night and started buildinghis city of gold. All else on the island was neglected. The King needed more workers and ordered his men to get the people of the Lesser Island. If they came willingly they would be treated as good workers, if not, as prisonersand slaves. The blind man intervened and asked if the people of the Lesser Island could have their earth back since it was now worthless to the Greater Island. So the people of the Lesser Island worked for the Greater Island and at night would take their earth back to their home. A rainstorm wreaked havoc on the Greater Island. The people had to abandon their island which was destroyed. The people of the Lesser Island let them come to live on their island and took no revenge. They helped the Greater Island people rebuild their island. There is no end to the tale because it is about the world, the story goes on and on and who knows how it will end? QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTED ANSWERS: Q. What qualities did the people of the Lesser Island possess that gave the island a sense of peace? A. The people would sing and dance. There were no rich people or poor, and no slaves or masters. They had equality. People took time to enjoy their environment and each other. Q. What were characteristics of the people of the Greater Island? A. They were hard working, greedy. Consumer oriented. They wanted more gold, more land, more workers. Q. What was the consequence of their greed? A. Destruction of their island. Q. How did the people of the Lesser Island truly show they were loving and peaceful? A. They surprised the people of the Greater Island by taking them in when they needed help, even though they had not been treated well in the past by the people of Greater Island. The Lesser Island might have had less material things but the people had more love, understanding and peace. Q. Might this happen again? Why did it say there was no end to the story? A. Yes, if another greedy King comes to power, it could happen again. Q. How could this be prevented? A. The people on the Greater Island could learn from their neighbors and not allow themselves to be ruled by a greedy leader again. They could set up a new way of life adhering to the principles of truth, justice, freedom and equality. If civilians are assertive and stick together, they can influence decisions. Q. What other lesson does this story tell us about taking care of the environment? A. If the King on the Greater Island would have been satisfied with his land and treated it properly, he would not have had the problems he did and lose his land and people. Q. Have there been wars started because one country wants another country's land? A. Yes, W.W.II-Hitler wanted all of Europe. Just about every war all the way back to ancient times. (Rome, Greece, Egypt). Q. How is our environment being destroyed? A. Pollution; lack of conservation and recycling of our natural resources.
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