I heard a statistic recently that’s been
keeping me from sleep one person every
two weeks leaps from the Golden Gate
Bridge of San Francisco into the murky
waters of the deep in that for lasts for
four seconds at 86 miles per hour
colliding with a current by which they
are devoured and now I can’t stop the
visions about the little decisions that
might have been made when they woke up
in the morning to when they went back to
sleep again in Maher says their fellow
human see for some reason I’m assuming a
maybe they got to Chubin read the
Morning News on a paper given to them by
some do today with me on that commute
and I’m thinking what do they have for
breakfast they pour a glass of fresh
orange make a bowl of porridge and more
shoes that they wear and what color were
their socks where they’d a thin ankle
ones that they would wear when they
played squash or a thermo type the ones
that wear when they would hike around
the city hills at night overlooking San
Francisco city lights and did they
decide to style their hair put that bro
cream in their fingers and stare into
the mirror their mind elsewhere but
their reflection consistent as ever
because it is always there do they
decide to lock their door knowing that
they were never coming back well if it
did it connected us I did the same when
I left my flat you and I here today at
TEDx we are connected and I wish we make
that clear right it might remove some of
the fear we feel when we view each
other’s exteriors I’ve been going to a
prison once a month and we sit with
these men and I try not to think about
what they’ve done because when I do our
connection gets severed and that
distance that grows between us is so
large it can’t be measured because these
men are modern-day lepers their men were
bells around their necks because I judge
them for a sin by a moral stand that
I’ve never met and yeah it’s the same
process I use when I turn a stranger
into a shadow
shopkeeper into a transaction and a
criminal into an animal but we are human
and isn’t that the goal to become human
fully here fully present interwove and
restored ruins yet we have made such a
connection with failure and rejection
success and acceptance that we can’t
have a conversation without preconceived
misconceptions but I don’t want the
first time my daughter to hear that I
love her to be when she brings home an A
or for my son to know I think he’s
amazing
just cuz he scored his first goal in a
game I want to tell her why she’s
brushing her teeth I want to sing her
over him while he’s still asleep
I want us to eat with the strangers that
we meet in the street cuz our hearts of
stolen become hard to flesh when we
learn where the weary ones weep and we
go to where the broken ones live and we
make life warmer than that water that
flows under the Golden Gate Bridge I
believe we can deal with the heart of a
matter when we begin healing matters at
aha and I believe that we can change the
world I believe that we can bring hope
to the hopeless and healing to the
broken that we can be walking answers to
cries unheard and prayers unspoken and I
started writing poetry just to make
sense of this world I started writing a
young age I remember coming home from
school with a page of worlds filled with
the lines of from my teacher and I
didn’t mind I just discovered the
liberation of speaking into the chaos of
being nine I knew from a young age
something wasn’t quite right something
was broken in this place that there was
a fly in the ointment
my sisters and I spent our formative
years living in an impoverished area of
northern Pakistan where my father helped
build a hospital and we quickly became
accustomed to the image of limbless
beggars lying in the streets of the
markets the dusty faces of the children
that we would play with but who would
not share our futures we witness
hopelessness and brokenness on our
doorstep I remember one night going to
sleep hearing gunshots from my window as
you danced for over a bridge near our
home and my mom prayed for me as I fell
asleep one morning we woke up to find a
community of Afghani refugees laid out
on our front lawn and my mother filled
the tiny hands of my sisters and I with
pots and pans toiletries sacks of
potatoes anything that she could pull
from the cupboard of our home to make
them feel like they had won it was in
those days that I realized we could
change the world that we could bring
hope to the hopeless healing to the
broken we could be walking answers to
cries unheard and prayers unspoken and
it was in those days I got a taste for
revolution it was in those days I sought
the dream of being a part of something
bigger than myself revival renewal it
was in those days I began a dream about
change in the world but I didn’t grew up
to become a missionary like my parents I
grew up to become a millennial I grew up
in the age of Instagram filters Twitter
feeds 80,000 Starbucks combinations
where every 60 seconds 136 thousand
photos are uploaded 200,000 new comments
are posted and every single minute
400,000 statuses updated I grew up to
find a world that I could fit in my
pocket a universe in my palm I became a
man in the age of the documented and
have perfected the connected but the
distant where every single day I run the
risk of scrolling through my 20s as I
linger over the image of someone else’s
brunch missing the moments I was made
for you know social anxiety has become a
way of life for my generation because
never before have we had the task of
being compared to our own digital facade
and we become so self analytical self
preservation and perfectionism has
become overwhelming as we’ve become
obsessed with their world in our hands
and forgotten about the world that beats
within us as amazing as this age of
information and Technology truly is
if access to information does not lead
us to impact the life of an individual
does it make us more human and isn’t
that the goal to become human
I got lofty ideas of what it means to be
human because I think we’re more than
flesh and bones in the same way somehow
our house is more than brick and mortar
when someone calls it a home man I think
we’re walking miracles with shadows
equations that don’t add up but still
managed to tie shoelaces and I’ve always
thought it’s the poet’s role in society
to remind us to be human and I love I’ve
never felt more fulfilled than when I’m
using my words to speak into the chaos
of our time and I’m able to paint a
picture of something bigger than myself
to remind us of the song that’s still
being sung and a story there isn’t over
the baseline of something better humming
in the distance and I’ve been elbow over
the last few years to use my words and
partner with organizations and charities
individuals who are changing the world
I’ve been able to stand on soap boxes
and speak about the issues facing our
times but also bring awareness to the
hands of healing that are buried deep in
the soil of despair planting seeds of
change and revolution from the
Samaritans who will listen to anyone
anywhere just to ensure that you know
that you are not alone in this world
filled with despair to the pre-emptive
love coalition who work on the front
lines of conflict zones bringing
restoration and care of families and
it’s been working with these
organizations right in for their causes
that I’ve rediscovered the boy in
Pakistan who dreamt the restoration
dreamt of being part of a revolution of
some sort and it’s in these days I’m a
learning to unlearn so much of what this
age has taught me somewhere along the
way I believe the lie that fulfillment
is found at the end of a time line but
that time line never ends and access to
information doesn’t
always empower us to action often it
overwhelms us to the point and we
believe we can even make a difference I
become so aware that the age I’m living
in will distract me from the world in
here where they pull to be obsessed with
a world in here or a world out there I
have forgotten that the neighborhood I
can change is within me the city I can
rebuild is within me that is in here
revolution truly begins if we spend more
time looking through the world to our
Instagram filters than we do analyzing
the filters that we have that contribute
to some of the greatest atrocities in
our age our filters of prejudice our
filters of pride our filters of
ignorance then we will just walk in
circles I know that we can’t disarm a
entire regime on a Thursday afternoon
but I have learned I can start with a
soldier I can start by disarming a
soldier standing before me and in 2011
the state of Maha and the state of the
world through a very clear an acute
connection I discovered the horror and
the atrocity of human trafficking
modern-day slavery
I realized an idea that I thought was
IKEA an issue I thought had been dealt
with is alive more than ever that right
now in this moment there are over thirty
million women and children men in
captivity of some sort from the cocoa
fields of West Africa to the brothels
here in Bristol slavery is happening and
it is not an archaic idea is a business
with a probability of a hundred and
fifty billion right now and initially
the information was so accessible I felt
overwhelmed normed dumbed down to the
idea that I could do anything to change
and then I began learning about the
organizations the individuals the people
around the world the modern-day
abolitionists working tirelessly to see
we come and love 146 who free children
caught in sexual exploitation and give
them back their childhood to a 21
booting down doors of brothels freeing
women who had been trafficked to
unchosen here in Bristol through media
and creativity bringing awareness and
making noise about the horror of human
trafficking I rediscovered a world I
could change I discovered a revolution I
could be a part of I could become an
advocate an abolitionist I could become
an activist I could scrutinize the
supply chains I bought from I could
raise awareness I could build attention
I could change a world out there I could
heal an issue out there and as
disruptive and pure and Noble and
profound and as important as I know that
was and I know that is they didn’t take
me long to realize that slavery isn’t a
system that has evolved over time
slavery is a sickness slavery is the
symptom of an illness deep in the heart
of mankind slavery exists because
there’s a demand for it slavery exists
because there’s a demand for sexual
exploitation there is a demand for the
objectification of an individual and our
culture and society is becoming
increasingly comfortable with it
the Greek word porn a is where we get
our English word porn from and it simply
translates as prostituted pornography in
its purest sense is sexual exploitation
and pornography was for me as it is for
many sexual education pornography gave
me filters to which I saw the world to
which I saw women myself and sexuality
and so the young abolitionists in 2011
would fire in his belly is his to see
slavery and had to make the haunting
horrifying and humbling connection with
the appetite that was
fuelled in my belly fueled by
pornography for sexual exploitation and
objectification with the same hunger
that hangs in the belly of men who
shadowed the doorsteps of brothels and
bed sets prisons and dungeons I realized
that I was responsible to starve an
appetite within myself that sought to
feed a table resting upon the backs of
slaves I realized it was the same
computer that I used to research the
horror of modern-day slavery as it was
that I used to invest into the horror of
modern-day slavery in 2011 I realized
that slavery isn’t an issue out there
it’s a symptom and a sickness in here in
2011 I realized that I can truly deal
with the Harvie matter when I begin
healing matters of maja like any patient
I realized I was sick and I needed to
become well by show of hands who
remembers the image of a small Syrian
boy washed up on a Turkish Beach most of
the room his name was Alan Kurdi he was
five years old and when I saw his
picture like many of you my heart broke
I actually cried when I saw his image
but by the next day that image had been
replaced by a hundred and thirty six
thousand new photos per minute and Alan
Kurdi
got lost in the abyss of our timelines
the constant changing tides and so I
wrote a poem that I want to share with
you today and it was a poem I knew I had
to write because I knew I had to grieve
and you had to lament the fact that this
happened on my watch in my lifetime in
my global neighborhood I had to
acknowledge the fact that this wasn’t an
issue out there it was an issue in here
and as hopeless as that might sound I
was actually filled and fueled
empowered to make a change because I
realized the power was in my hands I had
the opportunity to scrutinize my
prejudice prejudice question my pride
deal with my ignorance I realized that a
power is in our hands if the world that
we seek to change is in our hearts and
suddenly I realized I was a part of the
revolution I’ve always dreamt of being
involved in I was a part of change in
the world that I was always dreamt of
being a part of right now right here
where I am and so I write about a hard
man because I’m just trying to
understand what we’re all here for and I
shed a couple tears when I saw the
picture of that kid lion still
understand of the sea-shore because he
should have been held in a castle and he
should have had a bucket in a spade but
with shoes full of war or our sons and
our daughters are washing up on a shore
like the waves I read the news that day
on the train to my mom’s house an image
on the front page changed my state of
mind from sunrise to sundown and I’ve
been trying to find a way out but I will
never find an open door because how
could I heal an issue that my heart
hasn’t broken for of damn sure no
disaster regazzi waters I remain silent
on behalf of a walls still unspoken for
man have you ever felt so powerless that
I would slip the clock tick the wick
burn the candle drip acting like you
can’t handle it staring at your healthy
hands acting like they’re wrapped in
bandages man I am as weak as I make
myself I cannot say I live in a
nightmare with the ability to wake
myself I cannot remain a victim if I
want to change a system yes Icarus
looked ridiculous but at least he had
some visions so I’m spitting lyrics at
this hypocrite caught and contradiction
because I want to touch the Sun but I’m
afraid of the solar system so let this
image be the catalyst that strangles my
selfishness instead of just some paper
that I wrap around my fish and chips man
I want this revolution but instead of
persecuting politicians I must purge my
personal pollution
but ever it’s only one solution of which
we are all accountable did we give
without receiving and love in a way that
was tangible refugee to the tyrant
migrant to the citizen we are all
children of God blessed with innocence
so stop saying that you’re useless I
know you cannot kill an army but as a
man in the mirror that you can start
this arm and you cannot love your
neighbor unless you love yourself
so let’s stop talking about changing
Nations – we can hug our souls I write
about a hard man because I’m trying to
understand what we’re here for
and I’ve shed a couple tears over the
last 20-something years for this world
lost in heartbreak and sin I can feel
the tides are turning and as a
generation stirring rising up so that
darkness won’t win they know their hands
are made for healing and their souls
have started dreaming to see the outcast
and stranger come in and so as these
days grow darker man don’t let your
heart grow harder because we must start
with the world that’s within thank you
very much
[Applause]
keeping me from sleep one person every
two weeks leaps from the Golden Gate
Bridge of San Francisco into the murky
waters of the deep in that for lasts for
four seconds at 86 miles per hour
colliding with a current by which they
are devoured and now I can’t stop the
visions about the little decisions that
might have been made when they woke up
in the morning to when they went back to
sleep again in Maher says their fellow
human see for some reason I’m assuming a
maybe they got to Chubin read the
Morning News on a paper given to them by
some do today with me on that commute
and I’m thinking what do they have for
breakfast they pour a glass of fresh
orange make a bowl of porridge and more
shoes that they wear and what color were
their socks where they’d a thin ankle
ones that they would wear when they
played squash or a thermo type the ones
that wear when they would hike around
the city hills at night overlooking San
Francisco city lights and did they
decide to style their hair put that bro
cream in their fingers and stare into
the mirror their mind elsewhere but
their reflection consistent as ever
because it is always there do they
decide to lock their door knowing that
they were never coming back well if it
did it connected us I did the same when
I left my flat you and I here today at
TEDx we are connected and I wish we make
that clear right it might remove some of
the fear we feel when we view each
other’s exteriors I’ve been going to a
prison once a month and we sit with
these men and I try not to think about
what they’ve done because when I do our
connection gets severed and that
distance that grows between us is so
large it can’t be measured because these
men are modern-day lepers their men were
bells around their necks because I judge
them for a sin by a moral stand that
I’ve never met and yeah it’s the same
process I use when I turn a stranger
into a shadow
shopkeeper into a transaction and a
criminal into an animal but we are human
and isn’t that the goal to become human
fully here fully present interwove and
restored ruins yet we have made such a
connection with failure and rejection
success and acceptance that we can’t
have a conversation without preconceived
misconceptions but I don’t want the
first time my daughter to hear that I
love her to be when she brings home an A
or for my son to know I think he’s
amazing
just cuz he scored his first goal in a
game I want to tell her why she’s
brushing her teeth I want to sing her
over him while he’s still asleep
I want us to eat with the strangers that
we meet in the street cuz our hearts of
stolen become hard to flesh when we
learn where the weary ones weep and we
go to where the broken ones live and we
make life warmer than that water that
flows under the Golden Gate Bridge I
believe we can deal with the heart of a
matter when we begin healing matters at
aha and I believe that we can change the
world I believe that we can bring hope
to the hopeless and healing to the
broken that we can be walking answers to
cries unheard and prayers unspoken and I
started writing poetry just to make
sense of this world I started writing a
young age I remember coming home from
school with a page of worlds filled with
the lines of from my teacher and I
didn’t mind I just discovered the
liberation of speaking into the chaos of
being nine I knew from a young age
something wasn’t quite right something
was broken in this place that there was
a fly in the ointment
my sisters and I spent our formative
years living in an impoverished area of
northern Pakistan where my father helped
build a hospital and we quickly became
accustomed to the image of limbless
beggars lying in the streets of the
markets the dusty faces of the children
that we would play with but who would
not share our futures we witness
hopelessness and brokenness on our
doorstep I remember one night going to
sleep hearing gunshots from my window as
you danced for over a bridge near our
home and my mom prayed for me as I fell
asleep one morning we woke up to find a
community of Afghani refugees laid out
on our front lawn and my mother filled
the tiny hands of my sisters and I with
pots and pans toiletries sacks of
potatoes anything that she could pull
from the cupboard of our home to make
them feel like they had won it was in
those days that I realized we could
change the world that we could bring
hope to the hopeless healing to the
broken we could be walking answers to
cries unheard and prayers unspoken and
it was in those days I got a taste for
revolution it was in those days I sought
the dream of being a part of something
bigger than myself revival renewal it
was in those days I began a dream about
change in the world but I didn’t grew up
to become a missionary like my parents I
grew up to become a millennial I grew up
in the age of Instagram filters Twitter
feeds 80,000 Starbucks combinations
where every 60 seconds 136 thousand
photos are uploaded 200,000 new comments
are posted and every single minute
400,000 statuses updated I grew up to
find a world that I could fit in my
pocket a universe in my palm I became a
man in the age of the documented and
have perfected the connected but the
distant where every single day I run the
risk of scrolling through my 20s as I
linger over the image of someone else’s
brunch missing the moments I was made
for you know social anxiety has become a
way of life for my generation because
never before have we had the task of
being compared to our own digital facade
and we become so self analytical self
preservation and perfectionism has
become overwhelming as we’ve become
obsessed with their world in our hands
and forgotten about the world that beats
within us as amazing as this age of
information and Technology truly is
if access to information does not lead
us to impact the life of an individual
does it make us more human and isn’t
that the goal to become human
I got lofty ideas of what it means to be
human because I think we’re more than
flesh and bones in the same way somehow
our house is more than brick and mortar
when someone calls it a home man I think
we’re walking miracles with shadows
equations that don’t add up but still
managed to tie shoelaces and I’ve always
thought it’s the poet’s role in society
to remind us to be human and I love I’ve
never felt more fulfilled than when I’m
using my words to speak into the chaos
of our time and I’m able to paint a
picture of something bigger than myself
to remind us of the song that’s still
being sung and a story there isn’t over
the baseline of something better humming
in the distance and I’ve been elbow over
the last few years to use my words and
partner with organizations and charities
individuals who are changing the world
I’ve been able to stand on soap boxes
and speak about the issues facing our
times but also bring awareness to the
hands of healing that are buried deep in
the soil of despair planting seeds of
change and revolution from the
Samaritans who will listen to anyone
anywhere just to ensure that you know
that you are not alone in this world
filled with despair to the pre-emptive
love coalition who work on the front
lines of conflict zones bringing
restoration and care of families and
it’s been working with these
organizations right in for their causes
that I’ve rediscovered the boy in
Pakistan who dreamt the restoration
dreamt of being part of a revolution of
some sort and it’s in these days I’m a
learning to unlearn so much of what this
age has taught me somewhere along the
way I believe the lie that fulfillment
is found at the end of a time line but
that time line never ends and access to
information doesn’t
always empower us to action often it
overwhelms us to the point and we
believe we can even make a difference I
become so aware that the age I’m living
in will distract me from the world in
here where they pull to be obsessed with
a world in here or a world out there I
have forgotten that the neighborhood I
can change is within me the city I can
rebuild is within me that is in here
revolution truly begins if we spend more
time looking through the world to our
Instagram filters than we do analyzing
the filters that we have that contribute
to some of the greatest atrocities in
our age our filters of prejudice our
filters of pride our filters of
ignorance then we will just walk in
circles I know that we can’t disarm a
entire regime on a Thursday afternoon
but I have learned I can start with a
soldier I can start by disarming a
soldier standing before me and in 2011
the state of Maha and the state of the
world through a very clear an acute
connection I discovered the horror and
the atrocity of human trafficking
modern-day slavery
I realized an idea that I thought was
IKEA an issue I thought had been dealt
with is alive more than ever that right
now in this moment there are over thirty
million women and children men in
captivity of some sort from the cocoa
fields of West Africa to the brothels
here in Bristol slavery is happening and
it is not an archaic idea is a business
with a probability of a hundred and
fifty billion right now and initially
the information was so accessible I felt
overwhelmed normed dumbed down to the
idea that I could do anything to change
and then I began learning about the
organizations the individuals the people
around the world the modern-day
abolitionists working tirelessly to see
we come and love 146 who free children
caught in sexual exploitation and give
them back their childhood to a 21
booting down doors of brothels freeing
women who had been trafficked to
unchosen here in Bristol through media
and creativity bringing awareness and
making noise about the horror of human
trafficking I rediscovered a world I
could change I discovered a revolution I
could be a part of I could become an
advocate an abolitionist I could become
an activist I could scrutinize the
supply chains I bought from I could
raise awareness I could build attention
I could change a world out there I could
heal an issue out there and as
disruptive and pure and Noble and
profound and as important as I know that
was and I know that is they didn’t take
me long to realize that slavery isn’t a
system that has evolved over time
slavery is a sickness slavery is the
symptom of an illness deep in the heart
of mankind slavery exists because
there’s a demand for it slavery exists
because there’s a demand for sexual
exploitation there is a demand for the
objectification of an individual and our
culture and society is becoming
increasingly comfortable with it
the Greek word porn a is where we get
our English word porn from and it simply
translates as prostituted pornography in
its purest sense is sexual exploitation
and pornography was for me as it is for
many sexual education pornography gave
me filters to which I saw the world to
which I saw women myself and sexuality
and so the young abolitionists in 2011
would fire in his belly is his to see
slavery and had to make the haunting
horrifying and humbling connection with
the appetite that was
fuelled in my belly fueled by
pornography for sexual exploitation and
objectification with the same hunger
that hangs in the belly of men who
shadowed the doorsteps of brothels and
bed sets prisons and dungeons I realized
that I was responsible to starve an
appetite within myself that sought to
feed a table resting upon the backs of
slaves I realized it was the same
computer that I used to research the
horror of modern-day slavery as it was
that I used to invest into the horror of
modern-day slavery in 2011 I realized
that slavery isn’t an issue out there
it’s a symptom and a sickness in here in
2011 I realized that I can truly deal
with the Harvie matter when I begin
healing matters of maja like any patient
I realized I was sick and I needed to
become well by show of hands who
remembers the image of a small Syrian
boy washed up on a Turkish Beach most of
the room his name was Alan Kurdi he was
five years old and when I saw his
picture like many of you my heart broke
I actually cried when I saw his image
but by the next day that image had been
replaced by a hundred and thirty six
thousand new photos per minute and Alan
Kurdi
got lost in the abyss of our timelines
the constant changing tides and so I
wrote a poem that I want to share with
you today and it was a poem I knew I had
to write because I knew I had to grieve
and you had to lament the fact that this
happened on my watch in my lifetime in
my global neighborhood I had to
acknowledge the fact that this wasn’t an
issue out there it was an issue in here
and as hopeless as that might sound I
was actually filled and fueled
empowered to make a change because I
realized the power was in my hands I had
the opportunity to scrutinize my
prejudice prejudice question my pride
deal with my ignorance I realized that a
power is in our hands if the world that
we seek to change is in our hearts and
suddenly I realized I was a part of the
revolution I’ve always dreamt of being
involved in I was a part of change in
the world that I was always dreamt of
being a part of right now right here
where I am and so I write about a hard
man because I’m just trying to
understand what we’re all here for and I
shed a couple tears when I saw the
picture of that kid lion still
understand of the sea-shore because he
should have been held in a castle and he
should have had a bucket in a spade but
with shoes full of war or our sons and
our daughters are washing up on a shore
like the waves I read the news that day
on the train to my mom’s house an image
on the front page changed my state of
mind from sunrise to sundown and I’ve
been trying to find a way out but I will
never find an open door because how
could I heal an issue that my heart
hasn’t broken for of damn sure no
disaster regazzi waters I remain silent
on behalf of a walls still unspoken for
man have you ever felt so powerless that
I would slip the clock tick the wick
burn the candle drip acting like you
can’t handle it staring at your healthy
hands acting like they’re wrapped in
bandages man I am as weak as I make
myself I cannot say I live in a
nightmare with the ability to wake
myself I cannot remain a victim if I
want to change a system yes Icarus
looked ridiculous but at least he had
some visions so I’m spitting lyrics at
this hypocrite caught and contradiction
because I want to touch the Sun but I’m
afraid of the solar system so let this
image be the catalyst that strangles my
selfishness instead of just some paper
that I wrap around my fish and chips man
I want this revolution but instead of
persecuting politicians I must purge my
personal pollution
but ever it’s only one solution of which
we are all accountable did we give
without receiving and love in a way that
was tangible refugee to the tyrant
migrant to the citizen we are all
children of God blessed with innocence
so stop saying that you’re useless I
know you cannot kill an army but as a
man in the mirror that you can start
this arm and you cannot love your
neighbor unless you love yourself
so let’s stop talking about changing
Nations – we can hug our souls I write
about a hard man because I’m trying to
understand what we’re here for
and I’ve shed a couple tears over the
last 20-something years for this world
lost in heartbreak and sin I can feel
the tides are turning and as a
generation stirring rising up so that
darkness won’t win they know their hands
are made for healing and their souls
have started dreaming to see the outcast
and stranger come in and so as these
days grow darker man don’t let your
heart grow harder because we must start
with the world that’s within thank you
very much
[Applause]
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