Sparsh Shah
Rapper, Singer, Songwriter, Motivational speaker
Speaker Bio
Sparsh Shah is an Indian American rapper, singer, songwriter and inspirational speaker from New Jersey, USA.
He has performed and spoken in six countries across the globe, bagged scholarships and multiple awards including the prestigious Global Indian Award and has been on several TV shows including Ellen DeGeneres’ "Little Big Shots".
He has also been a motivational speaker, aiming to changing many lives through his music and speech. He was featured in World's Greatest Motivators, and Kaun Banega Crorepati. He is known for his viral cover video of Eminem's "Not Afraid" song. A documentary film Brittle Bone Rapper was made on his journey.
He visited India in 2019 and had an interview with Republic TV journalist Arnab Goswami. Sparsh Shah sang the Indian National Anthem in the Howdy, Modi! event the same year.
Speech
You’ve heard this spoken many times by many people, but let me add one more voice to the choir of concerned citizens: My siblings, we are at a crossroads.
Never have such extreme circumstances unfolded on Earth, and never again will they recur.
Currently, we help eradicate up to 10,000 species of organisms every year. If that doesn’t scare you, remember that we humans — all 7.9 billion of us — are only one species!
We kill around 80,000 of our siblings each year, and we let over 811 million of our siblings go hungry every day. Even worse, one in three of us is malnourished.
We destroy over 15 billion trees and 24 billion tons of fertile land every year.
We throw over 2.12 billion tons of waste each year, and we’ve already thrown more than 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic into our waters!
Enough statistics. The list of problems never ends. But the point is the same: My siblings, we are at a crossroads.
We have two paths to choose from: the path of life, or the path of death.
And guess where we’re going on right now? The path of death, the highway to Hell on Earth.
However, there’s still hope. Right now, it is NOT too late for us to change. But if we don’t change for the better now, EVERYTHING around us — economies, societies, ecology, you name it — will change irreversibly for the worse.
My siblings, it is time for us to repent. It’s time for us to turn away from our wrongdoings towards the Earth and ourselves. It’s time for humanity to bring revival to our planet and global society.
How do we bring revival? With LOVE. We love by acting out the truth that we are ALL one family — and not just humans, but every other organism we share the Earth with — and no difference can change the fact that we are ALL of infinite worth to our Creator.
And how do we love? We SERVE. We serve by standing against injustice, uplifting the downtrodden, and restoring balance and resources to our planet.
My siblings, we have enough land to save our dying wildlife! We have the power to stop violence for good, and turn swords into plowshares! We have enough food to feed the hungry! We have enough resources to reduce, reuse, and recycle the trash in our waters and landfills! Freely have we received; let us, then, freely give.
My siblings, we are at a crossroads. If we are the change we wish to see in the world, let’s make it happen. If we are the stewards of God’s creation, let us act the part. If we do not inherit the world from our ancestors, but borrow it from our children, then let’s give them something worth lending!
The responsibility is not only on my generation, but the generations above and soon to be below us. We children, as many as we are, are not enough to solve this crisis.
We need your help. And this is my plea. This is OUR plea. Let’s do justice to the gift of life God has given us, through love and service.
My siblings, we are at a crossroads. Never have the challenges humanity has faced been more extreme, and never will they be so again.
So, will you love and serve with us? I hope you will, because your fate and our future depends on it.
Thank you.