what do we see when we turn on the
television or grab a newspaper or listen
to the radio on our way to work or
better yet scroll to our news feeds well
we see everything but there are 38
ongoing major conflict in the world
today war bloodshed refugees fleeing
home four of those major conflicts have
at least 10,000 deaths per year but this
isn’t new we have been fighting each
other
since the day mankind discovered fire
we’ve been fighting over resources we’ve
been fighting over land over love you
name it but history also tells us that
there is hope there is hope that the
conflicts that we see before us today
that the crisis the turmoil that have
ripped nations apart across the world
there is hope in our lifetime that not
only will those crisis will those wars
be resolved but that there is potential
for those conflicts to transition into
developed economies and societies but
let me share a personal story I’ll begin
by posing a few questions why is it that
some societies develop very quickly
after war and conflict and other
societies spiraled further into conflict
and chaos for example Germany and Japan
immediately after World War two it only
took five years for them to recover
economically and to begin to build
institutions and a political structure
and have jobs and the buildings and
schools and society so much so that
history has framed the 1950s in Central
Europe that was completely destroyed
during World War two
there was only five years after World
War two
has coined it as the golden ear of
capitalism where was the economic hub of
the Western world and the same in Japan
when the war ended only took about seven
years for them to recover economically
and to begin to rebuild but why has that
not been the case in other places in
Vietnam post-war in Eastern Europe so
back in 2011 something very strange
happened for hundreds and millions and
thousands of young people like myself
who have roots from the Arab world saw
for the very first time people across
the region going to the streets claiming
that they finally wanted democracy
freedom human rights justice something
that we’ve only ever dreamed up before
so growing up in the suburbs of South
Dublin I packed a small bag and I told
my mom I’m moving to the Middle East and
I want to contribute to the political
and social reforms that are ongoing
unlike any loving and caring mother
who’s supportive of her children’s
dreams and aspirations my mother said no
in hindsight I can see why but also like
any seasoned teenager at the age of 18
not only did I go but I also convinced
her to come along with me so I traveled
so I traveled to the Middle East and I
visited cities like Tunis and Cairo and
cities across Libya and beyond and I met
hundreds if not thousands of young
people who are so passionate so driven
full of energy to turn a new leaf to
reverse the decades of corruption in
politics and economics the decades of
corruption that has led Society to decay
at the back end of centuries of
we wanted to address the very issue that
I brought up how do we move forward in
post-conflict how do we move forward
after war and build institutions and
build schools and build a functioning
society that can have impact on the
world how do we do that
how do we do that when we were just
young people when we’re farmers and taxi
man and grocery store owners and
teachers and students how do we do that
at a grassroots level so that society
can in fact build sustain and foster
leadership from within so here’s what we
did we went on a journey we went on a
journey to discover how to do that and
what we learned was that if you study
history and if you look at all the
societies that developed very quickly
there are only three factors of course
there’s a lot more that comes to
post-conflict development after war but
at a grassroot level we found that at
the very heart and core at any
post-conflict development after war a
development a society that needs to
develop after work the very heart of
that there needs to be knowledge the
democratization of knowledge the access
to information whether you’re a student
or whether you’re uneducated or whether
you can read or whether you’re not or
whether you’re a professor or a farmer
or a taxi man accessibility to knowledge
to information to be able to grasp the
major issues of the day and to
understand how to filter out the noise
from the facts how to understand the
world around you was at the very very
core of being able to build a developed
society let me give you a very quick
example of when knowledge was purposely
and tactfully neglected from a
development from development in the late
1950s in China the Chinese leader Mao
had a very simple itical agenda that is
to purposely remove the idea that
knowledge and science and information
was essential to development now his
time and leadership only lasted about 10
or 15 years and in the last four years
of his leadership a complete and utter
rejection of knowledge science
information meant that 45 million people
died unnecessary deaths because of
famine and hunger 45 million people
because when we reject hundreds and
thousands years of how to farm the land
not to plan to see that the same place
when we reject hundreds of years of
education of knowledge grasping the
major issues of the day of facts 45
million people died in four years on the
other hand when Singapore ceded from
Malaysia and became an independent state
the overwhelming resources of the nation
were devoted to knowledge to education
systems to institutions that inspire
people to read to learn to seek
information and so Singapore became one
of the leading economies in that region
but knowledge alone is not enough
we figured you could have all the
knowledge in the world you can be
informed in all elements and aspects of
life but if you are unable to match that
knowledge with the skill set necessary
to communicate the knowledge to
transform those ideas the messaging the
knowledge the information into action
the skill set necessary to bring to life
the importance of science if we are not
skilled in matters that involve our own
personal leadership the ability to lead
a team the ability to lead different
groups in society behind an idea behind
a vision then what good is all the
knowledge in the world and so we formed
programs across the region to help
foster leadership skills on a personal
level at a community level to help give
people the tools to take on their ideas
and farming or their ideas in commercial
retail or their ideas in the various
fields and industries of Education to
life but that alone was not enough you
can still have all the knowledge and all
the weekend courses and skills you ever
can but we found that if you don’t go
out to society and practice and gain
experience and
the world around you with ideas but
being innovative by being proactive by
finding problems in society and matching
that with solutions by going beyond
contributing to our individual fields
and instead shaping defining and leaving
the very forefront of whatever it is we
study or do only can society at a very
grassroot level rise from a cycle of
conflict and war and begin to rebuild
itself and foster leadership from within
and create a culture of service that
will help the society and the economy
grow and this is not to say that every
one of us here today or anyone watching
online this is not to say that we must
wait until conflict or war hits our
homes or our lives for us be able to
take action on the major issues of the
day every single one of us every
institution that cares about fostering
leadership every home cares about
fostering leadership every community in
society that wants to solve the major
issues of the day from climate change to
global warming to denuclearization to
the refugee problems that our seashores
we need to equip ourselves with the
knowledge with the skills and take the
initiative to be proactive and to go and
to leave our comfort zones and challenge
the world around us with new and fresh
ideas thank you [Applause]
television or grab a newspaper or listen
to the radio on our way to work or
better yet scroll to our news feeds well
we see everything but there are 38
ongoing major conflict in the world
today war bloodshed refugees fleeing
home four of those major conflicts have
at least 10,000 deaths per year but this
isn’t new we have been fighting each
other
since the day mankind discovered fire
we’ve been fighting over resources we’ve
been fighting over land over love you
name it but history also tells us that
there is hope there is hope that the
conflicts that we see before us today
that the crisis the turmoil that have
ripped nations apart across the world
there is hope in our lifetime that not
only will those crisis will those wars
be resolved but that there is potential
for those conflicts to transition into
developed economies and societies but
let me share a personal story I’ll begin
by posing a few questions why is it that
some societies develop very quickly
after war and conflict and other
societies spiraled further into conflict
and chaos for example Germany and Japan
immediately after World War two it only
took five years for them to recover
economically and to begin to build
institutions and a political structure
and have jobs and the buildings and
schools and society so much so that
history has framed the 1950s in Central
Europe that was completely destroyed
during World War two
there was only five years after World
War two
has coined it as the golden ear of
capitalism where was the economic hub of
the Western world and the same in Japan
when the war ended only took about seven
years for them to recover economically
and to begin to rebuild but why has that
not been the case in other places in
Vietnam post-war in Eastern Europe so
back in 2011 something very strange
happened for hundreds and millions and
thousands of young people like myself
who have roots from the Arab world saw
for the very first time people across
the region going to the streets claiming
that they finally wanted democracy
freedom human rights justice something
that we’ve only ever dreamed up before
so growing up in the suburbs of South
Dublin I packed a small bag and I told
my mom I’m moving to the Middle East and
I want to contribute to the political
and social reforms that are ongoing
unlike any loving and caring mother
who’s supportive of her children’s
dreams and aspirations my mother said no
in hindsight I can see why but also like
any seasoned teenager at the age of 18
not only did I go but I also convinced
her to come along with me so I traveled
so I traveled to the Middle East and I
visited cities like Tunis and Cairo and
cities across Libya and beyond and I met
hundreds if not thousands of young
people who are so passionate so driven
full of energy to turn a new leaf to
reverse the decades of corruption in
politics and economics the decades of
corruption that has led Society to decay
at the back end of centuries of
we wanted to address the very issue that
I brought up how do we move forward in
post-conflict how do we move forward
after war and build institutions and
build schools and build a functioning
society that can have impact on the
world how do we do that
how do we do that when we were just
young people when we’re farmers and taxi
man and grocery store owners and
teachers and students how do we do that
at a grassroots level so that society
can in fact build sustain and foster
leadership from within so here’s what we
did we went on a journey we went on a
journey to discover how to do that and
what we learned was that if you study
history and if you look at all the
societies that developed very quickly
there are only three factors of course
there’s a lot more that comes to
post-conflict development after war but
at a grassroot level we found that at
the very heart and core at any
post-conflict development after war a
development a society that needs to
develop after work the very heart of
that there needs to be knowledge the
democratization of knowledge the access
to information whether you’re a student
or whether you’re uneducated or whether
you can read or whether you’re not or
whether you’re a professor or a farmer
or a taxi man accessibility to knowledge
to information to be able to grasp the
major issues of the day and to
understand how to filter out the noise
from the facts how to understand the
world around you was at the very very
core of being able to build a developed
society let me give you a very quick
example of when knowledge was purposely
and tactfully neglected from a
development from development in the late
1950s in China the Chinese leader Mao
had a very simple itical agenda that is
to purposely remove the idea that
knowledge and science and information
was essential to development now his
time and leadership only lasted about 10
or 15 years and in the last four years
of his leadership a complete and utter
rejection of knowledge science
information meant that 45 million people
died unnecessary deaths because of
famine and hunger 45 million people
because when we reject hundreds and
thousands years of how to farm the land
not to plan to see that the same place
when we reject hundreds of years of
education of knowledge grasping the
major issues of the day of facts 45
million people died in four years on the
other hand when Singapore ceded from
Malaysia and became an independent state
the overwhelming resources of the nation
were devoted to knowledge to education
systems to institutions that inspire
people to read to learn to seek
information and so Singapore became one
of the leading economies in that region
but knowledge alone is not enough
we figured you could have all the
knowledge in the world you can be
informed in all elements and aspects of
life but if you are unable to match that
knowledge with the skill set necessary
to communicate the knowledge to
transform those ideas the messaging the
knowledge the information into action
the skill set necessary to bring to life
the importance of science if we are not
skilled in matters that involve our own
personal leadership the ability to lead
a team the ability to lead different
groups in society behind an idea behind
a vision then what good is all the
knowledge in the world and so we formed
programs across the region to help
foster leadership skills on a personal
level at a community level to help give
people the tools to take on their ideas
and farming or their ideas in commercial
retail or their ideas in the various
fields and industries of Education to
life but that alone was not enough you
can still have all the knowledge and all
the weekend courses and skills you ever
can but we found that if you don’t go
out to society and practice and gain
experience and
the world around you with ideas but
being innovative by being proactive by
finding problems in society and matching
that with solutions by going beyond
contributing to our individual fields
and instead shaping defining and leaving
the very forefront of whatever it is we
study or do only can society at a very
grassroot level rise from a cycle of
conflict and war and begin to rebuild
itself and foster leadership from within
and create a culture of service that
will help the society and the economy
grow and this is not to say that every
one of us here today or anyone watching
online this is not to say that we must
wait until conflict or war hits our
homes or our lives for us be able to
take action on the major issues of the
day every single one of us every
institution that cares about fostering
leadership every home cares about
fostering leadership every community in
society that wants to solve the major
issues of the day from climate change to
global warming to denuclearization to
the refugee problems that our seashores
we need to equip ourselves with the
knowledge with the skills and take the
initiative to be proactive and to go and
to leave our comfort zones and challenge
the world around us with new and fresh
ideas thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: