[Applause]
this is the vent land it’s a small
region between here Berlin and Hamburg
pretty much in the middle there’s just
about 50,000 people living there but
since 1995 for one week every year the
vent land became a main attraction
30,000 visitors would turn the region
into a place where human rights were
suspended what happened
well the vent lund was chosen to be the
ultimate nuclear disposal site and it
turned also into the center of the
anti-nuclear movement people would sit
on the rail tracks to prevent the trains
from coming in and the 30,000 visitors
were actually policemen there was one
police officer for every two residents
and you probably guessed it by now I
grew up there when my grandma she was
living very close to the rail tracks
when she went out for grocery shopping
in the fields or anywhere she would be
searched by the police from head-to-toe
and my granny she was the sweetest
person on earth
that’s her at the diamond wedding in
1997 I was in the final I was in the
middle of my final exams police wanted
to take water in our gym while we
students we didn’t like that so what did
we do well we occupied the gym and
within hours the local farmers they came
with attractors put a fence around the
gym to keep the police away
and we were inside the gym occupying it
our school director he was furious he
let us fail all the exams it wasn’t a
really good timing for myself I was even
expelled being in the finals
well they underestimated the public
pressure on day two of this occupation I
found myself in front of national
television it was the biggest private
broadcast in the country RTL and I cited
our demands first the police should not
take these terms now or in the future
second all the exams would have to be
repeated and third no one including
myself should be expelled from school
well the public pressure build and they
signed yes they had to sign the contract
it was just one page
[Applause]
so on the left there was a signing as
the students and on the right it was the
school director the police the district
government and with the help of God
because the church was moderating the
whole process we won our first small
battle for democracy six years later I
felt myself in Hyde Park it was February
the 15th 2003 it was the biggest
demonstration in British history two
million people marched against the war
on Iraq I was studying in London at the
time and to help to organize these
protests george w bush president at the
time he was determined to go into war
he claimed that Saddam Hussein had
chemical weapons of mass destruction and
he wanted the Brits to follow him into
war and despite the public opinion being
against this war just a couple weeks
after this demonstration the biggest in
British history Westminster Parliament
voted to join the United States and go
to war well we all know that Iraq never
had weapons of mass destruction and that
this was a lie to start this war just
imagine what the world would look like
without this war
no deserts of destruction in the Middle
East probably no Isis and I would I
would even claim less right-wing
extremism over here because people
wouldn’t have to leave the Middle East
as refugees well
this was the time when I came about this
campaign
it’s the Howard Dean campaign Howard
Dean was the governor of Vermont at the
time and he was seeking the presidential
nomination for the Democratic Party in
2003 he was the first candidate running
a campaign entirely online he collected
millions of dollars but he was an
underdog at the end he didn’t make it
but he inspired me of the power of the
internet to strengthen democracy
I mean 2003 that was the time before
smart phones even existed and also
Facebook wasn’t around so after my
studies in London I moved back to
Hamburg and in Hamburg I came across a
referendum campaign in Hamburg at the
time we had one of the most undemocratic
electoral systems in the entire country
it was a so-called closed list system he
had won one vote only and he literally
had to give it away to a party because
in the Foreign through the elections the
parties would nominate a list of
candidates and you had no influence on
that list whatsoever usually we would
expect that you can vote for people that
you like and that you like their agenda
but in Hamburg it was actually the party
leadership determining the list and we
had members of parliament that were
applying for the mandate again they went
on holidays because their seat in
parliament was pretty much guaranteed
when they were on top of that list so I
joined the referendum campaign because I
knew members of parliament were too
detached from the people in Hamburg and
in June 2004 against the two major
parties in Hamburg it was the social
democratic party at the time in the
Conservatives we won this referendum
campaign and ever since Hamburg is one
of the most democratic electoral systems
we have five votes that you can freely
distribute among your top candidates but
there was a problem
how would people actually find the
candidates that they like how would they
screen the candidates and prepare for
elections how would they benefit from
the super democratic system well this is
when I met Boris and you can see I’m the
one to the left more hair is not always
better
well we created a website in 2004 called
Parliament watch and the idea was to
give voters a full profile of all
candidates and politicians in Parliament
or applying for Parliament we would
record their voting behavior there our
committee memberships their extra
earnings and most importantly you could
ask them questions public and online and
it worked
people were actually answering questions
through Parliament watch the website is
called up coordinate and watch in German
and originally I mean we were complete
volunteers I mean the only expenses that
we had forest and myself were like 4
euros every month just to pay the
service originally we thought well we
just need to cover that for Hamburg but
then suddenly in 2005 – widow chants at
the time he called out for a
surprisingly new election and then we
extended the website to the entire
country we had more than 2000 candidates
from over from 299 voting districts and
millions of people were using the
website to prepare for the upcoming
elections in 2005 this guy is called
Pierre Steinberg he’s not a big fan of
Parliament watch and he’s not a member
of parliament anymore
he actually was quite an important
politician he ran against Angela Merkel
at the last federal elections in 2013 we
found out that he also ran from one paid
speech to the next making over 1 million
euros in extra earning from banks and
insurances the same companies that
benefited from his policies when he was
Minister of Finance during the banking
crisis we could even prove that peer
steinbrück
missed parliamentary sessions to make
highly paid speeches instead well when
we confronted him on this TV show with
our findings that was the end of his
campaign
[Applause]
but this was actually part of a much
bigger problem believe it or not Germany
until three years ago did not ratify the
United Nations Convention Against
Corruption and that was because it was
legal in this country two bright members
of parliament when we heard about that
we we knew this is something bigger we
needed to build a movement and this is
the time when I came around I came
across change.org so I started my first
campaign on the world’s biggest petition
platform we collected signatures that we
had several deliveries this is not money
this is actually signatures and
eventually eventually we changed it and
Germany could ratify this convention
well this is my personal story of
empowerment but what about you what if
you want to change something but you
don’t know how one last story and it’s
actually one of my favorite petitions on
change.org I want to introduce you to
Mariana and Peter Griffin Stine Mariana
is a 70 year old retired flute teacher
from Luton child and when I started at
change.org I came across this tiny
little newspaper article reporting that
Mary Mary Ann had tried to take the
government to court to stop the free
trade agreement with Canada Sita at the
time her case was rejected so I invited
Mariana to start a petition on
change.org and try over again that’s
what she did within two weeks she
collected 60,000 signatures of people
supporting her case well this time I
recommended that she would should get a
professional lawyer because her last
lawsuit she tried all by herself so she
hired a lawyer but Mariana didn’t have
the money to pay him she invited all the
big NGOs like food watch and Greenpeace
to join her and she was completely
ignored so what we did is that we
collected the money and
among her signers and within three days
they chipped in more than 18,000 euros
Mari and its only concern at the time
was how to stop the influx of money
well then basically what she did is she
asked people to formally join the case
you could do that by printing off a PDF
filling it in in writing and posting it
back traditional mail to her private
home in Luton shed well first the
postman came by foot then here to take
the bike eventually he had to take the
car because Mariana received almost
70,000 letters this is what a living
room looks like
but more importantly this time her case
got accepted and we were all invited and
we were going to the Constitutional
Court last October with Peter
Mariana myself and the change.org team
and there we met Sigma Kappa at the time
he was still the vice chancellor and the
economic minister and he was actually
defending the government personally
sometimes like shifting away the lawyers
and just stepping in himself and when he
entered the courtroom I introduced him
to Mariana so he turned around and said
so you are the person that brought me to
court and it sounds incredible but this
is exactly what Mariana has done she
achieved something that formerly only
big organizations should could do she
took the government to court and she won
the Constitutional Court ordered that
Germany can own that Sita can only enter
force for the European part not for the
German part that all the secret courts
that big corporations could use to sue
the government over environmental and
social issues that these secret courts
cannot enter force and that the German
government must always retain the right
to withdraw from this agreement when you
ask Mariana whether she could imagine to
run for Parliament herself she would
tell you well I’m already going in and
out of Parliament and I’m meeting all
these important people democracy in
Germany is about 60 years old and it’s
not perfect but when a retired flew
teacher from Luton she can take the
government to court and stop the free
trade agreement then you can do it too
thank you
[Applause]
this is the vent land it’s a small
region between here Berlin and Hamburg
pretty much in the middle there’s just
about 50,000 people living there but
since 1995 for one week every year the
vent land became a main attraction
30,000 visitors would turn the region
into a place where human rights were
suspended what happened
well the vent lund was chosen to be the
ultimate nuclear disposal site and it
turned also into the center of the
anti-nuclear movement people would sit
on the rail tracks to prevent the trains
from coming in and the 30,000 visitors
were actually policemen there was one
police officer for every two residents
and you probably guessed it by now I
grew up there when my grandma she was
living very close to the rail tracks
when she went out for grocery shopping
in the fields or anywhere she would be
searched by the police from head-to-toe
and my granny she was the sweetest
person on earth
that’s her at the diamond wedding in
1997 I was in the final I was in the
middle of my final exams police wanted
to take water in our gym while we
students we didn’t like that so what did
we do well we occupied the gym and
within hours the local farmers they came
with attractors put a fence around the
gym to keep the police away
and we were inside the gym occupying it
our school director he was furious he
let us fail all the exams it wasn’t a
really good timing for myself I was even
expelled being in the finals
well they underestimated the public
pressure on day two of this occupation I
found myself in front of national
television it was the biggest private
broadcast in the country RTL and I cited
our demands first the police should not
take these terms now or in the future
second all the exams would have to be
repeated and third no one including
myself should be expelled from school
well the public pressure build and they
signed yes they had to sign the contract
it was just one page
[Applause]
so on the left there was a signing as
the students and on the right it was the
school director the police the district
government and with the help of God
because the church was moderating the
whole process we won our first small
battle for democracy six years later I
felt myself in Hyde Park it was February
the 15th 2003 it was the biggest
demonstration in British history two
million people marched against the war
on Iraq I was studying in London at the
time and to help to organize these
protests george w bush president at the
time he was determined to go into war
he claimed that Saddam Hussein had
chemical weapons of mass destruction and
he wanted the Brits to follow him into
war and despite the public opinion being
against this war just a couple weeks
after this demonstration the biggest in
British history Westminster Parliament
voted to join the United States and go
to war well we all know that Iraq never
had weapons of mass destruction and that
this was a lie to start this war just
imagine what the world would look like
without this war
no deserts of destruction in the Middle
East probably no Isis and I would I
would even claim less right-wing
extremism over here because people
wouldn’t have to leave the Middle East
as refugees well
this was the time when I came about this
campaign
it’s the Howard Dean campaign Howard
Dean was the governor of Vermont at the
time and he was seeking the presidential
nomination for the Democratic Party in
2003 he was the first candidate running
a campaign entirely online he collected
millions of dollars but he was an
underdog at the end he didn’t make it
but he inspired me of the power of the
internet to strengthen democracy
I mean 2003 that was the time before
smart phones even existed and also
Facebook wasn’t around so after my
studies in London I moved back to
Hamburg and in Hamburg I came across a
referendum campaign in Hamburg at the
time we had one of the most undemocratic
electoral systems in the entire country
it was a so-called closed list system he
had won one vote only and he literally
had to give it away to a party because
in the Foreign through the elections the
parties would nominate a list of
candidates and you had no influence on
that list whatsoever usually we would
expect that you can vote for people that
you like and that you like their agenda
but in Hamburg it was actually the party
leadership determining the list and we
had members of parliament that were
applying for the mandate again they went
on holidays because their seat in
parliament was pretty much guaranteed
when they were on top of that list so I
joined the referendum campaign because I
knew members of parliament were too
detached from the people in Hamburg and
in June 2004 against the two major
parties in Hamburg it was the social
democratic party at the time in the
Conservatives we won this referendum
campaign and ever since Hamburg is one
of the most democratic electoral systems
we have five votes that you can freely
distribute among your top candidates but
there was a problem
how would people actually find the
candidates that they like how would they
screen the candidates and prepare for
elections how would they benefit from
the super democratic system well this is
when I met Boris and you can see I’m the
one to the left more hair is not always
better
well we created a website in 2004 called
Parliament watch and the idea was to
give voters a full profile of all
candidates and politicians in Parliament
or applying for Parliament we would
record their voting behavior there our
committee memberships their extra
earnings and most importantly you could
ask them questions public and online and
it worked
people were actually answering questions
through Parliament watch the website is
called up coordinate and watch in German
and originally I mean we were complete
volunteers I mean the only expenses that
we had forest and myself were like 4
euros every month just to pay the
service originally we thought well we
just need to cover that for Hamburg but
then suddenly in 2005 – widow chants at
the time he called out for a
surprisingly new election and then we
extended the website to the entire
country we had more than 2000 candidates
from over from 299 voting districts and
millions of people were using the
website to prepare for the upcoming
elections in 2005 this guy is called
Pierre Steinberg he’s not a big fan of
Parliament watch and he’s not a member
of parliament anymore
he actually was quite an important
politician he ran against Angela Merkel
at the last federal elections in 2013 we
found out that he also ran from one paid
speech to the next making over 1 million
euros in extra earning from banks and
insurances the same companies that
benefited from his policies when he was
Minister of Finance during the banking
crisis we could even prove that peer
steinbrück
missed parliamentary sessions to make
highly paid speeches instead well when
we confronted him on this TV show with
our findings that was the end of his
campaign
[Applause]
but this was actually part of a much
bigger problem believe it or not Germany
until three years ago did not ratify the
United Nations Convention Against
Corruption and that was because it was
legal in this country two bright members
of parliament when we heard about that
we we knew this is something bigger we
needed to build a movement and this is
the time when I came around I came
across change.org so I started my first
campaign on the world’s biggest petition
platform we collected signatures that we
had several deliveries this is not money
this is actually signatures and
eventually eventually we changed it and
Germany could ratify this convention
well this is my personal story of
empowerment but what about you what if
you want to change something but you
don’t know how one last story and it’s
actually one of my favorite petitions on
change.org I want to introduce you to
Mariana and Peter Griffin Stine Mariana
is a 70 year old retired flute teacher
from Luton child and when I started at
change.org I came across this tiny
little newspaper article reporting that
Mary Mary Ann had tried to take the
government to court to stop the free
trade agreement with Canada Sita at the
time her case was rejected so I invited
Mariana to start a petition on
change.org and try over again that’s
what she did within two weeks she
collected 60,000 signatures of people
supporting her case well this time I
recommended that she would should get a
professional lawyer because her last
lawsuit she tried all by herself so she
hired a lawyer but Mariana didn’t have
the money to pay him she invited all the
big NGOs like food watch and Greenpeace
to join her and she was completely
ignored so what we did is that we
collected the money and
among her signers and within three days
they chipped in more than 18,000 euros
Mari and its only concern at the time
was how to stop the influx of money
well then basically what she did is she
asked people to formally join the case
you could do that by printing off a PDF
filling it in in writing and posting it
back traditional mail to her private
home in Luton shed well first the
postman came by foot then here to take
the bike eventually he had to take the
car because Mariana received almost
70,000 letters this is what a living
room looks like
but more importantly this time her case
got accepted and we were all invited and
we were going to the Constitutional
Court last October with Peter
Mariana myself and the change.org team
and there we met Sigma Kappa at the time
he was still the vice chancellor and the
economic minister and he was actually
defending the government personally
sometimes like shifting away the lawyers
and just stepping in himself and when he
entered the courtroom I introduced him
to Mariana so he turned around and said
so you are the person that brought me to
court and it sounds incredible but this
is exactly what Mariana has done she
achieved something that formerly only
big organizations should could do she
took the government to court and she won
the Constitutional Court ordered that
Germany can own that Sita can only enter
force for the European part not for the
German part that all the secret courts
that big corporations could use to sue
the government over environmental and
social issues that these secret courts
cannot enter force and that the German
government must always retain the right
to withdraw from this agreement when you
ask Mariana whether she could imagine to
run for Parliament herself she would
tell you well I’m already going in and
out of Parliament and I’m meeting all
these important people democracy in
Germany is about 60 years old and it’s
not perfect but when a retired flew
teacher from Luton she can take the
government to court and stop the free
trade agreement then you can do it too
thank you
[Applause]
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