I never thought it was possible to see
brexit and the election of Donald Trump
in one year firebrand political record
the rhetoric blows up your news
essentially telling you that nationalism
is king and that thing you want to do
with globalism
is not legitimate that you should not be
engaged in this but this does not work
for you because you like I likely
self-identify as a global citizen you
want to drive global change champion a
cause make a small win in the battle of
ideas this message is for you unleash
your inner campaigner and your actions
with the actions of others will drive
global change you can be a campaigner
but don’t start as I did I had two
objectives when I was young one was to
be engaged with fashion and the other
with global change in terms of my
fashion as you see here I abdi obvious
notice the perm the bad plaid fit and
the lederhosen obvious failure in
addition I do not drive global change as
I was essentially unable to campaign
as I would have liked I didn’t do it
effectively
I didn’t align myself with the right
but you can look to Dorothy Height as an
effective campaigner she was known as
the godmother of civil rights and she
spent a lifetime working to empower
America Africa Numair ik ins she had a
cause who have a cause aligning with a
cause can be completely overwhelming
it’s essentially like walking into
Starbucks for the first time to order a
beverage unfortunately you have too many
global issues on your menu from which to
choose but it’s not that complicated
it’s actually rather simple and I have a
few ideas in terms of how you can do
that one find a cause that resonates
with you find one find to find three
whatever works for you to find
organizations that work for your cause
that those organizations to ensure that
they have longevity they have staying
power and then attach yourself to those
organizations three galvanize support
from your social network and pull them
into your involvement web get grandma
talk to your neighbors
text your friends and four commit to the
cause for the long haul we need to
strike for the cause while the iron is
hot but be willing to endure while the
embers continue to burn ramesh is an
example of a campaigner
who went through these steps meet my
friend
Ramesh Faris he is a 37 year old man who
contracted polio when he was a baby in
India he was later taken to an orphanage
and eventually adopted and ended up in
Canada where he learned to walk through
corrective surgeries and assistive
devices as a young adult Ramesh returned
to India there he met with polio
survivors and he contrasted his life
with the life of these friends who were
unable to benefit from the things that
he had he committed to the cause to end
polio he launched a campaign called
cycle to walk wherein he hand cycled
7,000 140 kilometers across remote
northern Canada he engaged with social
media he teamed up with rotary schools
and churches and he continues today as
you see here he’s taking a picture a
selfie with this his Holiness the Dalai
Lama very interesting as he snapped this
photo he shot it out to his social media
with a call-to-action Ramesh is a
fantastic campaigner recent protesters
are also campaigners irrespective of
your political views you were likely
stunned as I was two weeks ago when
unprecedented protests erupted around
the world
participants voiced
their concerns from the u.s. to Mexico
to Kenya to here in the UK and imagine a
retiree in Hawaii posted on Facebook I
think we should March and ignited a
movement imagine her big idea resulted
in a March for millions it was
interesting to see how digital
technology allowed this to happen and
enabled massive participation but this
is not necessarily new this has been
done for over the last decade what is
unique is a digital step change it is
the ability to campaign online you can
fundraise on Facebook sign petitions on
Twitter and you can even text your
politicians expressing dissent Digital
campaigning has empowered you and given
you space as a virtual global citizen it
has given you the ability to amplify
your voice but critics say that it’s not
enough that we need to couple our online
actions with offline actions as well we
do not want to be sync simply hashtag
activists so to speak for example this
is not good random angry cat random
hashtag very ineffective in addition if
we hashtag for example no ban no wall on
our social media posts but don’t follow
up by volunteering
with refugees in our communities it’s
less effective we don’t want to be
hashtag activists and we also don’t want
to be collectivists our offline actions
will require more skin in the game
it’s an illusion to think that
essentially being a part of the
worldwide web and surfing the net will
change the world as we put more skin in
the game we can up our game by
volunteering in our communities having
being an inner campaigner will require
you to do both I campaign with 8 million
others for global citizen a social
active action platform which works to
end extreme poverty the cause resonates
with me
I met incredibly talented people
throughout my life all around the world
living on less than a dollar 50 a day
potential politicians scientists Nobel
laureates kept from their dreams only
because they lacked resources this was
not okay with me and I knew that if they
had opportunity they could lift
themselves out of poverty global citizen
works on this cause and I aligned myself
with this organization I pulled on my
networks and I met new friends along the
way we are a tribe of like-minded global
people and it feels really good to be
part of a cause together my favorite
we converge on Central Park in September
with world leaders in order to commit to
the global goals for sustainable
1.3 million actions and come 44
commitments led to 1.9 billion dollars
worth of action these campaigns work to
empower girls and polio and many other
The Economist called it a mash-up of
during the event I escorted some
influencers front of stage we watched
the set with Eddie Vedder and Chris
Martin and at that moment I glanced out
to the audience
60,000 campaigners and I had a root and
Eureka moment I knew that all of this
was something that we as campaigners had
built and campaigns were driving Global
Change
you can drive Global Change will you
unleash your inner campaigner today
thank you [Applause]