Rash IV

The final installment of Rash IV closed PUSH 2008.

Jenni began by speaking about her third year in Rwanda – she was based in the capital, Kigali. Things were worse then they had ever been and the gap between reality and her imagination was getting thinner. The rash continued spreading throughout her face, and she doesn’t love Bernard unconditionally anymore.

After spending three years in Rwanda, she resigned – only to find out a couple of weeks later the U.N. was kicked out of the country.

Jenni sits down on stage with her knitting and talks about moving to Haiti. The situation there was similar to that in Rwanda. Her relationship with Bernard was disintegrating with pointless discussion. After two years she left Haiti because it wasn’t big enough for the two of them.

In the next few years Jenni worked in 25 different countries. Her dad would prelude each trip with “Are you sure it’s safe Jenni?”

She explains that she began knitting to manage her stress better. She started measuring flight distances with knitting lingo and her biggest challenge was getting her needles through airport security. It was her first time she didn’t have itchy feet and she realized she didn’t want to start her life from scratch anymore.

Jenni signed up for a UN training program in a forest in Germany – it was a little late for training on what to do if you are kidnapped.

The stage went back to the well-known gunshots and she explained a familiar scene that was present in each installment of the play. People ran out from the trees, dragging them out, covered their heads and interrogated them. Jenni has a gun to her head. She starting yelling saying she was pregnant and married.

During the debriefing she was told that talking saved her life – she was told the same in Rwanda. That is when she realized what she wants is not what she needs. She was going to always have to deal with her inner conflict. “Is that selling out?”

She sat down to knit again discussing her flight to JFK airport. She was exited to be in New York, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. She landed her dream job – working for WITNESS. She is not working on the front lines, but she is working for those who are.

She ends the play by saying she is surrounded by knitting cafes to manage her stress and it was the first time her dad stopped asking her when she was coming home. She is still living in chaos, but she loves it.

Then she gets a call from the same familiar voice at the UN asking her if she would leave for Sudan in a couple of weeks.

She answered, “Maybe not right now, but what about the future? I’m still wavering.”

“Flatness: Realities and Myths” – Katherine Marshall

Katherine Marshall at PUSH 2008

After a half-hour break, Katherina Marshall closed the section on economics at PUSH 2008.

Marshall, a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and a senior advisor for the World Bank, has worked for over three decades on international development with a focus on issues facing the world’s poorest countries.

Marshall began her presentation, “Flatness: Realities and Myths,” by asking several questions that are important for the future.

· What kind of world are we seeking?

· Why do the choices matter?

· How do we navigate fierce debates?

· Why should you (personally) care?

· What can we do?

“It is ideas that really matter. It is ideas that change. It’s ideas that come out of this type of event,” Marshall explained.

There are many different ways to look at the changing issues in the world, but Marshall believes that looking at it as a kaleidoscope is important because, “what we are looking at is constantly changing and is a diverse picture that is always on the move.”

There are seven basic lessons/ issues that are important to the future of our world:

· Global poverty

· Keeping poverty on the agenda

· The role of the United States and changing its image to the rest of the world

· Working with wisdom and humility is important

· Pay attention to the “minefields” – have respect for how others might view the situation

· Human development is key

· Ethics and values matter

“With a plea for dialogue, intense support for mobilization efforts, that we all [Chandran Nair and Jonathan Greenblatt] are talking about, combined with individual action, and all it needs is a little PUSH!” concluded Marshall on what we can do to help the world for the future.

Empowerment through Technology – Michael Furdyk

Michael Furdyk, one of North America’s leading technology entrepreneurs, closed out the presentations for PUSH 2008 discussing the challenges we face and how technology can empower us to improve health, the environment and education.

Furdyk started his career in technology before he entered high school – he launched his first web site in eighth grade. He has co-founded and sold two successful internet-based companies- Mydesktop.com and buybuddy.com. His most recent venture is TakingITGlobal, which connects youth globally and helps them get involved in projects to better their local and global communities – changes that are affecting the planet.

“If we can inspire them at the right age there is no amount of change that can’t happen,” said Furdyk.

Furdyk and his partner developed the idea of a web site where people could go to learn about global issues. That was the start of TakingItGlobal.com. It was the world’s first social network for social good.

TakingItGlobal developed training programs for teachers and students. At a school in West Philadelphia TakingItGlobal gave a laptop to every child and introduced a social network that exposed peers around the world. Teachers said that many of the students became unlikely friends. They created bonds across the country and world with the people they had met through the site.

In 2006 almost one half of students dropped out of high school because they were bored. 90 percent of dropouts were passing students. What is wrong with that? TakingItGlobal works to teach students in a fun, challenging way to keep them intrigued. If the dropout rate is lowered 1/5, the U.S. would save 18 billion dollars annually.

TakingItGlobal has many different features to fulfill its mission – to inspire, inform and involve. Features include: a global gallery, Commit to a
Better World, downloadable guides to action, educational classroom games, a page on issues and lastly 3.5 million pages about countries, states and cities around the world.

The user base of TakingItGlobal is worldwide and only increasing. Thirty-one percent of users are from North America, 22 percent of users are in Africa and 20 percent of users are in Asia. TakingItGlobal is working to make information available off-line, by SMS text messages and textbooks – textbooks will reach 8 million people in the next decade.

Studies show that on average teenagers are as competent as adults. There is a proven link between their being treated as a child and behavioral problems. Young people are capable and competent – teachers need to engage them because they have great ideas.

TakingItGlobal has been on-line for eight years. 2.5 million people used the site in 2007. The site is available in 12 languages. It has had 250,000 downloads and over 35,000 actions have been taken through the site in a six month period. Youth are engaged from every country on the planet.

If young people are learning this much from TakingItGlobal and becoming involved with important global issues, think about how it is going to change the world

Singer, Songwriter Wilson opens up Push 2008

Dan Wilson, a local Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter, helped open the 2008 Push Conference on Sunday evening by playing six songs. He successfully entertained the audience with good music and humorous stories.

Wilson has been a cult hero of American smart pop music since the late 1980s. He was a guitarist with the bands Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic. While a member of the band Semisonic the group earned a platinum album. In 2001, he moved on to a solo career where he focused on songwriting and studio work. He produced albums and wrote songs for many artists, as well as the song “Not ready to make nice,” with the Dixie Chicks that earned him the Grammy for “Song of the Year” in 2007. Also in 2007 he released his first solo album, Free Life.

The first song Wilson played on the guitar was “Easy Silence” written with the Dixie Chicks. It was about the search for peace, in a very personal sense.

Wilson moved to the piano for his third song, “All Kinds”, which is about the realization that if you didn’t live your life the way you did, who would be the person you could have become.

Wilson played the song “Closing time”, one of Semisonic’s hits. Most people think this song is a bar song, but it is really a song that he disguised about having his daughter and being “bounced from the womb”. He gave the audience an annotated version of the song, explaining the areas he masked so it wouldn’t sound like he was singing about his daughter; he got many laughs during the performance.

“It’s interesting to see how plainly something can be hidden,” He said.

Wilson ended his performance with a song asking the questions “Whatcha gonna spend your free life on? Who we gonna end up being?” Both are important questions for the future.

Behind the Scenes: A Peek at Reality – Chandran Nair

Internationalist Chandran Nair opened the economics section of PUSH 2008.

He is the founder and chief executive of the think tank, Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), based in Hong Kong. His work is defined by the questions he asks himself and others. Known for being challenging,

thought-provoking, constructive and sometimes uncomfortable, Nair advocates a sustainable approach to growth in Asia, and the rest of the world, seeing it as part of how nations deal with each other.

“Behind the Scenes: a Peak at reality” is the title of his presentation about the challenges the world is going to face in the future because of growing populations and the needs of Asia and other low-income regions.

Nair explained that we live in an unfair world – 20 percent of the world population accounts for 85 percent of the world’s consumption.

Asia is changing and expanding rapidly. 800 million Chinese people live on two dollars a day, but they are starting to become wealthier. What do they do when they get wealthier?

“They want to buy seafood. If they do the oceans will be empty, but who can say that they can’t have what you and I take for granted?” said Nair.

That is just one example is the growing number of countries wanting what countries like the United States have. But if these growing nations start using these resources there will be less for the big consumers, like the U.S.

There is unprecedented economic growth that is going to occur. People have to be aware of the new reality – by 2050, 3 billion people will be added to the world, mostly in low income countries. This means that fossil fuel consumption, and other non-renewable resource consumption, is only going to go up.

The challenge of our times is to alleviate poverty, increase economic prosperity for all, halt the destruction of the natural world, manage and conserve natural resources for human well being. We need to be aware of the threat of climate change, decrease the destruction of the natural world, increase cultural and religious tolerance and create a new business leadership.

“The giants have awakened. How will they sustain themselves?”

Consumers leading Institutions – Nate Garvis

Nate Garvis, Vice President of Government Affairs for Target Corporation, spoke in the political section of PUSH 2008 about leadership in reverse.

He is responsible for political, legislative and regulatory affairs at the international, federal, state and local levels of government. He is recognized as a thought leader in the areas of integrated public engagement strategies and emerging trends in the interrelationships between multi-national corporations, non-governmental advocacy groups and governmental institutions.

Garvis started by asking an unanswerable question, “What is the meaning of life?” No one knows the answer, but finding the meaning of life is the path of humanity, it’s what public policy has always been about.

Public policy is measured in outcomes. Too often things are discussed by inputs, but at the end of the day we experience outcomes.

Our dilemma is mobility- the mobility of information. Right now, we live in an age of storytelling. It has never been easier to get your story out there, and that is what is needed in the consumer world – consumer input to get the outcomes you want.

Garvis gave the example of a toolbox: it isn’t about one tool, it’s important to have the entire box. These tools are how people get what they want. The first tool in the box is being literate, not how well you read, but how you know the authentic qualities of that technology or institution – institutions such as government, business or NGOs/ non-profits.

The next tool in the box is the “how” not the “what.” It is important to know how institutions or technologies do what they do, not what they do. Institutions, such as the Target Corporation, need to listen to the consumer and know what they want, everything they want.

The consumer is in command. Be literate. As the consumer, express what you want and be a conspicuous consumer.

“It used to be, I’m rich and famous and I drive a Ferrari, you can’t,” said Garvis. “Now it is I’m rich and famous and I drive a Hybrid, why don’t you? No one said boycott the Ferrari, it’s that more people want the Hybrid.”

We need to practice a reward culture. Institutions are playing not to lose. We need to live in a world where we want to win, and where as many people as possible win. We need to enable these institutions, be clearer about what we want and reward good behavior.

We should look at the whole tool box of institutional energy that is capable of doing so much good, but also capable of many screw ups.

“As a consumer we owe it to these folks to tell them exactly what we want. Our job [as the institution] is to be better listeners than ever, to provide as much value as possible,” said Garvis.

Doing this is “leadership in reverse.” The consumer is leading the institution to get the right outcome.

“The Soul of Nairobi” – J.D. Steele

J.D. Steele closed out the first full day of PUSH 2008 on Monday evening with a performance about what he has been doing in Africa. He entertained the audience with a cultural experience and music.

A little background: Steele and his family began touring the international hit show “Gospel at Colonus” with Morgan Freeman around the world. The show had a nine-month run on Broadway in 1988. After that success, The Steeles signed their first record deal. Since then J.D. Steele has produced, performed and recorded six Steele albums and has written, produced and performed with many artists including Prince, Fine Young Cannibals and Donald Fagen. He has also written many songs and arranged credits for movies such as “Corina, Corina”, “Blankman” the award-winning documentary “Hoop Dreams” and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the PBS version of “Gospel at Colonus”.

But those accomplishments are nothing compared to what he has been doing recently. He went to Nairobi, Kenya to work with a group of children in the Shangilia (meaning rejoice child of Africa) orphanage. At the orphanage he worked with the children singing songs.

Steele played a video of the children and the town the orphanage is in. The video gave a personal look inside the town, the orphanage and the children. He described the town as a place of hopefulness. The people are happy and excited all the time, with hope for change in the future.

“They are truly my heart,” Steele said about the children.

As the video was playing, Steele started performing, explaining all that he and the children have done. They took their first airplane to Greece and did multiple concerts. They have been aired on BBC and appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and have gotten funding for a new school just outside of the city.

Steele ended his performance with two songs, one about saving Africa and the other about riding on the wings of love.

“I’m all the things I have done; I’m all the things I have seen,” sang Steele in the song “On the Wings of Love.”

“It will inspire you, take you higher.”

Youth, Religious Pluralism – Eboo Patel

Dr. Eboo Patel followed the Redeemer Kids perfectly with his discussion on the importance of religious pluralism and its significance for the future on Tuesday morning to start the last day of PUSH 2008.

Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core. He wrote the book Acts of Faith and co-wrote the book Building the interfaith Youth Movement with Patrice Brodeur. Patel is an Ashoka Fellow and has been featured in various types of media including NPR, CNN and the Chicago Tribune.

“Muslim extremist murders Christian pilgrim.”

Most people read that headline as Muslim | Christian. Patel believes that people need to start reading that line extremist | pilgrim.

“If we read the line Muslims against Christians…” said Patel. “We are all going to be lost.”

That is one example of the faith line that is bound to destroy people in the 21st century. There are many factors leading to the faith line.

 

• The unexpected religious revival that we have experienced in the last few years 

 

• The youth bulge – the majority of the world is the youth. 

 

• The breakdown of socioeconomic trends – including the difficulty for many to get viable employment in traditional jobs. 

• The increased interaction of people from all different backgrounds living together 

 

But what does this mean? The youth is the most influenced age group in our society because they are looking for a clear identity and to have a powerful impact on the world, but still haven’t made up their minds on where they want to go in life.

“My fear is that the people who have figured out the energy at these four convergent trends [factors leading to the faith line] are religious extremists,” said Patel. “Every time you turn on the television you see someone murdering someone else to the soundtrack of prayer.”

How old are those murderers? Why is religious extremism a movement of young people taking action? It’s because religious extremists build from the youth.

Patel explains how vulnerable some young people are with a quotation from the late Chicago African-American poet Gwendolyn Brooks: “I shall create if not a note, a hole; if not an overture, a desecration.”

Bin Laden was 14 years-old when he was recruited to Al Qaeda. He was on a soccer field at an elite academy. How does this happen? It’s because religious extremists understand the power they have to influence the youth.

On the other hand, how old was the Dali Lama when he started his movement – 19 years-old; Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott. Youth can be influenced with extremism or pluralism.

What is going to make a difference in the way the world goes? Patel believes it is youth, his basic idea behind the Interfaith Youth Core.

The Interfaith Youth Core believes that we need to build religious pluralism and institutions nurturing young people can make that happen.

“The central challenge is to have young people be the leaders in religious pluralism and be the architects of a society in which people from different backgrounds live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty,” said Patel.

Technology advances Rwanda- Antoine Bigirimana

Rwandan-American Antoine Bigirimana, co-founder and managing director of Thousand Hills Venture Fund (THVF), kicked-off the technology section of PUSH 2008 by discussing how technology has started to advance Rwanda into the 21st century.

After the Rwandan genocide in 1994 when 1.2 million people were killed in 100 days there was an incredible opportunity for technology advancement throughout the country.

Starting in 2001, anything was possible for Rwanda. The economy was destroyed after the genocide. A virgin economy was available, offering opportunities across the nation that were ready to be embraced.

“Every time there is a problem there is an opportunity,” said Bigirimana.

In 2003, Rwandan President Kagame decided to reinvent the future using technology, with a vision of making Rwanda the technology hub of Africa. The early increase of technology created Rwanda’s first chance at a democratic election.

Vision 2020 was also developed. This idea was that by 2020 Rwanda would be a middle-income country – an idea that all Rwandans could base their future around.

Rwanda offered ample opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses. People came to the country to work, but credit was a major issue in Rwanda. In 2004, Bigirimana co-founded THVF. It allowed people to get a variety of loans, some interest free, and investments to start these businesses.

As businesses and wealth come to Rwanda, it will continue to get closer to reaching the goal of Vision 2020.

Looking into the future, Rwanda is creating 1000 telecenters. There will be a variety of services offered including: literacy, computer literacy, job listings and information on commodity prices for all national markets.

THVF is looking to bring in 1.2 million One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) computers, and hoping to have this localized by August 2008. The social impact of OLPC will be huge; the young will teach the adults how to use the OLPC, bringing access to information and knowledge that was not accessible before.

The access to information and technology needs to be available to 100 percent of the people in Rwanda, thus eliminating inequality and preventing another genocide.