I saw the film, Sunshine, today. It is about the sun dying, leaving the Earth in perpetual winter, and the last chance for a group of young scientists to go up to the sun and set off a special bomb to rekindle the sun’s energy.

What bothered me most was that the people in the film, the young scientists on the space ship, seemed to find it difficult to do what was expected of them. They didn’t appreciate that what they had set out to do might end up with their deaths. The decisions they made, at first, were reminiscent of those who are out of their depths in a situation, had not planned for such problems, and seemed to think it was more important to save a colleague’s skin than continue with the mission and so possibly save millions of lives.

Clearly these people had not even considered what would happen if they didn’t get back to Earth.

In the end, they come up trumps and all die, but for the benefit of humankind and the Earth is saved.

A brilliantly made film, but after the Hostage Sailors situation I realised that many of our young people have become so self-centred in their lives that they don’t appear to fully understand the need for self-sacrifice, duty, or courage.

Being prepared to die for others is becoming new to those young people today. They have little comprehension of what it means to live to die for the benefit of others. The British sailors have been slated on unofficial websites by other British military colleagues for their “sensitivity” and some would say “cowardice” in the face of the enemy. After all, these were not conscripts they were volunteers.

Is this unexpected attitude due to political correctness - the desire to give men and women equal status in everything? Is it due to having things too easy in life with so much technology to do things for us - I know personally how technology can take away many of the mental and physical skills people had when I was young, so is this a reason? Is it due to young people not being taught about working properly together as a group and all pulling their weight equally? Is it due to so many people becoming “victims” and not learning to stand up to name calling, simple harships, or supporting others? Or is it due to people not being taught about the true difficulties of the past, including war experiences, or living in terrible conditions? Does everyone think that because they have so much material goods they can think themselves better as people?

As the years have gone by I thank whatever force is out there for the difficult upbringing I had, the trials and tribulations I had to endure, the lack of material goods and facilities. These taught me to be thankful for what I had, and not seek too much.

As for courage, I have had to fight not only those who continually bully me because of my mother’s alternative country of birth; have had to endure childlessness for twelve years then suddenly experience motherhood of two children within 20 months, one of whom is mentally disabled. The fights with authority these have generated have taught me much about what is available for those in the UK and what is not, even though it should be if we are truly a caring society. My parents both had serious health problems later in life, and I too have many illnesses, some of which require medication just to keep me alive.

Trying to cope with all these problems, endure quite a lot of suffering, has made me a stronger person, and my relationship with my husband of 36 years marriage is still enduring.

Yet all around me I see young people encouraged to flit from partner to partner, have sex without thought of disease or trauma, suffer relationship breakdowns within a few years which have catastrophic results, and live in the shadow of day to day dangers.

During the 1990s, where I lived I encountered community riots, two attempted bomb blasts which could easily have killed my family and friends, so-called improvements to the road nearby which brought misery and hardship for many and resulted in even more serious air pollution as well as traffic dangers, my son’s special needs school burned down and I had to fight with other parents’ to get a new school because the authorities wanted to mix it with a normal mainstream school which would have been detrimental to all the pupils, death of my father, my own health deteriorating and a burglary.

Throughout this time I concentrated on helping others, and saw them often take my support without a please or thank you and in return I was smeared and undermined because I was doing too good a job.

I did leave that place, for the benefit of my son’s health, as he also suffers from asthma and allergies as well as his mental disabilities. Even so, people have since applauded me for the work I did, and I believe that for a short time at least some attempts were made to improve life within my community.

Yet my problems are nothing compared with those who have fought so hard in war zones to improve not only my life but others who live in different countries too. They face danger every moment of the day, and many do it with courage and strength that the majority of us aren’t even aware of.

Stop being so sensitive to instances around you. Think of those who show courage and bravery, and risk their lives every day, just so you can continue to play with your computer games, use your mobiles, listen to your ipods. Conditions for many other people are far worse than you will ever experience. Where are you going to learn to understand courage and bravery?

Are you one of those people who is afraid to walk to school because of the possibility of being killed in a road accident, or being raped and tortured by a paedophile? Are you afraid to learn how to live in the wilderness, or climb mountains, because you may fall?

Bravery has to be learned. Courage and determination need to be learned. Duty to our fellow men and women has to be learned. Caring about others before ourselves and being prepared to sacrifice ourselves for their benefit has to be learned.

Unless we learn these things we become no better than robots who have no understanding of why they do things or what benefits there will be.

Come on, find your courage, find your bravery, before the human race becomes a frightened species unable to look after itself, or others.