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TEDx Talks
Published: 2013-04-27
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Cc2QFVRJk
and I remember my nana telling me that when we landed a man on the moon it was like a collective expansion of what was possible for humanity and I sometimes wonder about the conversations I mean I have with my grandchildren about what our generation has done the proof just what's possible for sufficiently brave my fear is that they're gonna look back I feel that this generation
collectively shrank from the challenges of our time I feel like we're facing more and more important challenges than ever before that the old systems in the old answers suddenly feel inadequate now I came to the space of working on social problems through the lens of international development I was a recent finance graduate a burgeoning banker Krier and discontent with all things that that was I quit
my job in the self indulgent burst and went traveled for awhile to think about what I really wanted to do with my life while my contribution could be I came back and re energize them and reinvigorated and started an organization called global agents for change with some friends where ostensibly working on sustainable solutions to global poverty I think we did some good work where is the
much money we supported what I think was a pretty thoughtful projects we received a bunch of recognition but the nagging problem was and here in this definition to develop a poor country become more economically and socially advanced implicit in this is an assumption that we and I'm talking about the west loosely North America western Europe that we have the answers that we can fix it if
we can just expect sport are solutions in our answers fast not wide enough everything will be okay and as much as they become extremely uncomfortable with that world view and that lands wonderfully didn't come upon it somewhat honestly no I've been very lucky to grow up in the west a place for Outen average we live longer and were wealthier and we have fairly stable and peaceful
democracies and all that comes with that I just wonder if we become a little too comfortable with thinking that we've article now as the saying goes success in comfort breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure because the warnings been passed down through the annals of time you whether it's the failure of empire successful executives so flanked by their juniors our government has been in power too long
it gets knocked out by movement they didn't see coming if you take your eye off the future if you stop asking really tough questions about where we're trying to get it eventually be shunted aside my question is that we're coasting that's not that we stopped innovating and all despite the fancy new phone still blows my mind every time I get life on a plane I recently
been informed that we've created something called the spider goat does that go to the computer spider silk in its milk can Google at have I just wonder when those future generations look back if the not gonna question whether these were the highest and best use is of our collective genius and I'd rather pivotal point in human history %HESITATION I think you know whether we like it
or not there's a couple things happening in the world that are gonna come forces deployed had thought of the San one the system that we've become so dependent on are rattling and wobbling and second that the world's changing at a pace in a fundamental way that I'm not sure with entirely become aware to on the systems piece whether talking about our education system that was created
to produce workers and managers for factories in this fundamentally failing to prepare the youth of today for the challenges they'll face whether you're talking about healthcare systems that are gobbling up increasingly unbearable proportions the government budgets and nobody knows what to do about it our financial systems that seem cable of imploding at a moment's notice nobody quite understands and compounding all of this government systems that
seem incapable of responding in a timely an effective way now there's a couple of sources are just a couple of sources for for innovations in ways that we can think about this are those couple of a couple of ways of these big changes are coming through the one on the on the shifting sift systems of though the wobbly systems yes I am I on the train
to pace so I lost my spot sorry on the %HESITATION on that the change of pace in the world you know we've been conditioned by the development sector media or whatever the rest of of of the influence of bin to think of the developing world is a fairly bleak place somewhere that is our answers our money or our our solutions there's another side of the story
we've heard the burgeoning economies of India or China how many people have heard of Africa rising but the idea that seven out of ten of the fastest growing countries in the world African or the twenty two African countries reach middle income status is this some of the smartest most ambitious people I know are working in Africa right now and the not digging wells rebuilding schools they're
launching solar companies in Tanzania are there investing amazing social entrepreneurs in Kenya other launch attacking debaters and in Ghana and that's the other side of the story now we're gonna need think collectively about how we re address some of these problems and I happening in ways that were not at all prepared to embrace weather is that they're more interconnected because it's issues like climate our financial
systems that you can't nothing campus plan our own sandbox anymore or because the pace of changes so fast that technology or anything else there systems just aren't capable of embracing or responding to them anymore now we're gonna need to figure out how to think the unthinkable Allah theme today and I don't want you to get the idea that I'm fundamentally pessimistic about the future of humanity
I'm very optimistic about what we're capable of and what role we can play in that story it's just that it pisses me off were settling we put a man on the moon we're at a kid smallpox who got polio on the ropes we doubled human lifespans we created the United Nations that you get more credit than it does for creating a peaceful world and the face
of all of this is not fair to question whether the current state of affairs is the best that we can do the peak of our capacity or ability I mean I wake up every morning and I answer email all day and night and I just hope that you know nothing clamorous happens to me or my family maybe I can escape for we can go to go
to the beach forget the whole thing or the most I can ask for my government is a big squeeze another percentage point to GDP are they can save a percentage point off of off of the unemployment rate maybe tweak the high school curriculum the issue is that the world demands more we have more to give every crease is an author and entrepreneur has an interesting quote
and that he said our capacity to produce has dramatically outstripped our ability to know what to build and build almost anything we can imagine the purpose of this interesting place where our future prosperity depends on the quality of our collective imaginations so how have we gonna build that capacity of imagination can build stuff how to build a capacity of imagination I don't really have all the
answers but I've been fairly lucky to work in a few different sectors that are often overlooked and I think you're interesting source of inspiration the one I want a flashback to that so called developing world yes we're often talking about countries that have had a whole host of problems and don't necessarily have the depth of Brett their capacity to address the social issues in the way
that we do but look at another way what happens when you don't have legacy systems are best practices for fifty years ago the tell you how you master cannot address an issue perhaps you manage stick a step back and ask them different questions to come up with different answers a few quick examples %HESITATION connectivity when you think about connectivity we're talking twenty thirty years ago about
phones mostly landline phones the obvious answer the day was let's get those land lines in the ground as fast as we can to get more people hooked up but realistically if we look back we're asking the wrong question people skip landlines they leap frog our technology they went straight to mobile huge chunks of the world had much deeper levels a mobile penetration that we did long
before we did not allow them to get way ahead of the game interesting things like more vile education mobile health about money and second source of animation are second second source of inspiration why are we still talking about coal fired power plants and whether the cheapest way to fire electrical grid when you've got all different areas from Nigeria to India were selling solar systems in the
millions to businesses and homes that allow them to take control of their own sustainable energy future or why if you were to take another step back we talk about governance are we so obsessed with GDP which basically just measures our ability to produce stuff a repeat of the ground in any given year could you maybe take some inspiration places like attack have come up with really
nuanced approach is the gross national happiness maybe that's an interesting guide for policy that we look at Bolivia which isn't trying the rights of mother nature directly into the constitution you have to defend Mother Earth if to defend the environment bottom line they were dependent all the systems that were bequeathed us back grandparents for our great great great great great grandparents like the university that I
work with him right now and although the systems that served as well for a long time they also hold us back in some ways to mask our ability to recognize other opportunities for inspiration the second source of inspiration and I wanted to chat about the world's number one renewable resource my guess is and what the world number one renewable resources but people Tommy has away fast
in the practice audience %HESITATION use young people okay we'll go one up on you and young people %HESITATION this they're everywhere to produce more of a many time and if we're lucky they haven't got all the baggage that we've got this look to have that spark of creativity that spark of innovation and inspiration allows them to see new solutions and my life in my life work
for what I hope will be my life's work I guess and I like to think that we need to nurture and find them and support that's at the creativity anywhere we can find it I saw it as a couple quick stories about the young innovators that inspired me maybe this gentleman here is name sangha Moses the saying is an entrepreneur that we have the opportunity to
work with in Uganda there an initiative called the global catalyst initiative something we created to work with emerging social entrepreneurs in East Africa as I got a good job the banking sector which the tough job to get you got no there's not a lot of formal employment they say can awake one day about the fact that his little sister was missing days and days and days
of school every year collecting wood is a source of cooking feel and his other gotta be a better way to do this so you know this ingenious solution are they convert excess agricultural waste into kind of bio char Dustin the compressive into a brick cat and you can sell them more cheaply than the usual source of fuel say saving people money it also displaces fuel that
was made from wood so stopping deforestation and all the people who are producing the vile chart distributing that the the new charcoal earning income it is actually pretty lobby has people as well is genius didn't have a lot to help from us he was well on its way to kind of re and a second example next door in Kenya this organization was started by a woman
named Maria Springer %HESITATION livelihoods started from the basis of reframing the question of you know what we do with this problem of unemployed are often homeless youth in urban slum communities in around Nairobi had we provide services or how do we do with this issue I just looked at and said you know what could be people contribute look of his own people contribute and what happens
we build a solution around that and I came up with this idea to employ these youth as distribution agents for socially beneficial products in their communities solar health the things that make people's lives better and who better to build a sales team that people have grown up on the streets and had to hustle most often every day of their lives to figure out how to make
a living and I know those communities inside out is the beginnings of a hell of a sales team well since I'm working education and this is a wonderful partner of ours in Uganda cult educate and they're re framing the problem are there they're bigger question about what they're trying to accomplish wasn't there how do we get more kids in the school which is the usual kind
education charity asked and said what school for how do we create a generation of youth they're gonna solve the problems of the future of Uganda and their answer was degraded to your %HESITATION high school curriculum alongside grades eleven and twelve had he just community leadership and social entrepreneurship and eventually got adopted by the ministry of education now thought nationwide across Uganda I baka here is one
of the graduates that reach thousands of you found a one of A. award when he came out and started something called angels initiatives and angels initiatives like an incubator they support other emerging Ugandan entrepreneurs and now they're working with dozens of future entrepreneurs and the cycles kind of it started and Bach and his partner Hakim of also started a few other businesses in that quickly establishing
themselves as that leadership group it's gonna be can't take you got a forward I last example does to bring home as the sun damage and tell I started a company here in Vancouver called fusion kitchen well if using kitchen does is to just cooking classes based on a bunch of different cuisines from all over the world the kicker is that they employ women who've recently immigrated
to Canada to teach these classes based on the cuisine from where they've come from so the creating the first often the first opportunity these women to gain work experience in Canada to build networks outside the house the first opportunity to earn income and the process also just creating this wonderful cross cultural opportunity for everybody who produced highly recommended if you if you if you have a
chance and Saddam and Centel came out of program that we built university here that's trying to work with young people like this it is trying to nurture that innovative capacity where when we find it give them opportunities to understand social problems and build those practical solutions and get some practice and so they can come out and find those fundamental reimagined answers that we're gonna need for
me to think the unthinkable flat slide this image is called the blue marble and it wasn't the first image taken of earth from space but is one of the first were fully eliminated has taken by us Apollo seventeen of December seventh nineteen seventy two it was seized on by the environmental movement of seventies is indicative of our that shared fate on the small blue planet I
just thought it was a nice reminder that you know we're in all of this together and the time when we could put our heads down and as communities as individuals or as nations of hope the world's problems are gonna passes by is over you more vast of more is asked of us and we have a lot more to give some question of capacity at the question