The Audacity of Humanity

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 Storytellers Leaders
Dreamers
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 share this . . . audaciously

In December of 2009, Seth Godin released What Matters Now featuring 70 big thinkers sharing an idea for the
coming year. On March 7, 2010, Lianne Raymond released a women of wisdom version, What’s Dying to Be
Born, on International Women’s Day. I was one of its 30 contributors. That project inspired me to create a book
about who-are-we-NOW that matters. This is a new kind of chain-mail for collaboration and inclusion.

Audacity augments courage – Publilius Syrus

The Audacity of Humanity features over 35 authors,

ages 10 to 63, from 5 continents, multiple ethnicities,
sexualities and belief systems with different abilities and
limitations. We are ONE people, the human race, courageously
up-ending stereotypes and generalizations.

Each contributor offers their story as a radical transformation

of what leadership can be. We are not contained by
description (check out our bios). We can agree to be offended
and stay connected. From A to Zed, we are a collective
testament to the audacity of humanity.

This is free. Liberate this. Tweet it, email it, post it on your own site. Make up your own riff, flip it, post
it on your blog or online social network. It's a good exercise to share. And when you do, let us know. We want
to share its chain reaction on Facebook.

Share it with someone new; with someone you don’t know or don’t necessarily like. Share it with young people
(17 and under); with those who seem alone, disenfranchised, or left out. Share it with folks who seem to have it
all. Today, your “moral jazz”, your willingness to be audacious, no matter how small, unrehearsed, or honestly
upset and bitter, is that what matters now. Be the audacity of that!

I am a 2009 TED Fellow. Welcome to my Twitterhood. I am Kyra Gaunt

 f
TRANSPARENT
(adj) having the property of transmitting light without
appreciable scattering so that bodies lying beyond are seen
clearly.
Race may be a pigment of our imagination, but in
conversations that offend us, we get stuck. In 2009 I taught
a course on racism at a diverse, business college in New
York City. Around midterms, a white student claimed that I
said, “all white people should be killed.” He added that I
had insisted the course be required as “reparations” for past
racial injustices.
Things escalated with six weeks of brazen discontent. He
colluded with other students—white and black—who had
grown “tired” of talking about racism after Obama’s
election. Then a belligerent outburst led to a mediation
with the Omsbud the day before our final class.
I heard him out—listening without interruption to every
one of his concerns. But by meeting’s end, I was convinced
I would be sued. Still shaken, I ran to catch a cab to a
rehearsal.
I am singer-songwriter and an Associate Professor at Baruch College-CUNY who
voices "the unspoken” through song, scholarship and social media. Tweet me
@kyraocity. I am that racism is a resource...for being courageous and compassionate.
I am Kyra Gaunt.
One driver—locking his doors and cracking his
window as I reached for the door—tried to refuse my
fare to SOHO at three o’clock in the afternoon. This
stayed under my skin.
During the final class, I could barely speak without
crying. I shared, not about the student, but about the
taxi driver’s crooked admission the day before when I
forced myself to ask, “You weren’t going to pick me
up because I'm black were you?” (I left him a decent
tip for being honest.)
Then, the student raised his hand after six weeks of
bitter silence. “I think everyone should have the
opportunity to face their oppressor and if they don’t,
I’d apologize to them. Everyone should have that
opportunity.”
In that moment, we all were eye to eye with the
remarkable oneness of humanity without changing a
thing. And conversations of bigotry, prejudice, and
discrimination were merely superstitions of the past
like the earth being flat.
Without racism, we all would have missed the
opportunity to agree to be offended and stay
connected, which began with our transparency.
BEING HEARD
About 10 years ago I discovered the Internet and its
power. Back then it was all about Y2K and how
everything was going to blow up. Well, the Internet
did blow up it just blew up in a direction that
people didn't expect. I tell you, these experts
(SMH ;-)
Complaining about not being heard is not an option
anymore and everyone owes it to themselves to own a
piece of the Internet. You do that by publishing yourself
online and blessing the world with one of your skills and
allowing everyone to be inspired by what you say or do.
The technology that we have around, social media and
Web design obviously facilitate the process and it doesn't
have to cost you much to own a piece of the action.

All this was before a little bird called Twitter, a TV
called YouTube, back when you fell asleep with
your face in a book.
The world turned around itself a few times since
and we're living in a new era. An era that truly
allows us to be powerful beyond measure. Not only
can we share information online, we are blessed
with the opportunity to share information and be
heard by the world. As if this wasn't powerful
enough we also have the ability to own the media
on which the information is created and shared.
Quite a few people didn't think that what they had to
share would be of any value until they tried and realized
that the world was patiently waiting for their
contribution. A man created a website with a blank page
and sold each piece for a dollar and became millionaire.
A young girl posted a video of herself singing, getting on
a table and falling, others were inspired by it and she
ended up on Oprah. Some sing, some dance, some are
funny, some are full of knowledge.
Be yourself and start sharing a piece of what matters to
you with the world. Do it today because we don't know
about tomorrow. Do it today because the world has
patiently been waiting for YOU.

Get online.

I am a professional in the web design industry. I was

born and raised in Montreal (Quebec) and moved to
Ottawa (Ontario), which I made my home. I help people
produce income on the web doing what they love.
Tweet me @stevenleconte. I am Steven Leconte.
Race-Mixing
Recipe for Mixing
for Kimiko

Every fall tendrils creep out of my mulch pile, out of my half-eaten debris, carted out religiously after the kitchen
scrap bucket holds no more. What climbing plants could these be, wandering from the muck, reaching to warm
sunlight?
To my delight, the first year these mystery plants bore fruit—pumpkins and carnival squash.
The second year, similar leaves and vines crawled along the rich soil, grasping at any stable staff to hoist skyward.
The trailing green vines—now bearing pumpkins with speckles, squash, and ornamental gourds—seemed to
intertwine sensuously. Caressing gently here. Climbing and interweaving almost competitively there. Prickly broad
leaves forming shade, camouflaging fruit below.
What’s to hide?
Year three, delicate tendrils return.
I watch eagerly as each vine sprawls out with whimsical, yet slow dance steps.
Later, after the performance, they recline longingly.
What secret appears under shaded leaves?
Radiant orange hybrids of gourds, squash, pumpkin—striped and speckled pumpkins, carnival squash with gourd
knobs, and long gourds wearing stems befitting jack-o-lanterns. Three years of fertile cross-pollination, as one
anther’s pollen mingled with the other. None can simply pass for pumpkin, nor squash, nor gourd any longer. The
labor from mulch bore no Latin-named offspring. Each vine offers unique offspring with no sense of belonging,
except with those traveling along the vine.

I move stories about the body. I am a Japanese American~happa dancer and

ethnomusicologist (happa = mixed, criolle, biracial, squash!). I wrote
Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture through Japanese Dance and
I study Monster Truck rallies and human-computer interfaces. I am Tomie Hahn.
ENGAGEMENT
I recently read your post about engagement photography and wanted to thank you for the mention.
As I write this, I am sitting at the head of my bed about to call it a night and go to sleep.

After reading your article, I do agree with your general sentiment. There is undeniable value in
documenting the "pre-wedding" or engagement experience. That said, I am shocked by the line: "As
long as you don’t pay an outrageous price for the photographer’s services, you certainly won’t regret it."
What exactly is an "outrageous price" for photography?

I do not believe this to be “outrageous,” this love, this art…a story of creation. As a person dedicated to
the mastery of art and community organization, I offer a wedding vow to photographers and their clients.

Let me charge you both to remember, that your future happiness is to be found in mutual consideration,
patience, kindness, confidence, and affection. We are to be one, undivided.

pho·tog·ra·phy \fә-ˈtä-grә-fē\ : noun (2010)

The art, practice, or occupation of taking and printing photographs that capture the ethereal,
ineffable, stories of life for the future.

The lovechild of a sweltering African son, tempered with a dash of

Jamaican jerk, seasoned by a well-read mother goddess who cooks with
no books. Marinated in melting pots thick with legacy. Leavened by the
cultural yeast of a sleepless city. The yield? One dream walkin' Lightseer.
Ready to serve the betrothed @iamparris. I am Parris Whittingham

Photo credit: ©Parris Whittingham
OUTRAGEOUS
m YOUTH
Moved as a young child by the disrespectful and inhumane treatment of immigrant workers
that I witnessed, I kept in my heart a deep sense of outrage and injustice. There is no force
more powerful, it is said, than that of righteous indignation. Increasingly frustrated in my
early college years by the one-dimensional portrayal throughout media of Middle Eastern
youth – a portrayal virtually unanswered because of censorship and state control of media in
the region - I took to my keyboard to answer with my own voice, to show not only the
diversity of ethnicities, religions, and cultures in the region, but also the diversity of opinion,
fervor, ideals, hopes, and politics; to portray for the first time in the global discourse Middle
Eastern youth in all our depth, our feelings, and our complexity.

I was joined over time by a growing number of similar voices, declaring in unison that we are
Muslim and moderate, idealistic and hopeful, Jewish and peaceful; we are Christians, Baha’is,
Sunnis and Shias; Persians and Arabs; Turks, Berbers and Kurds, and we are all here so that
the world hears us in our own voices. We are humanity, with feelings and dreams that unite us
with the rest of the world.

I am the director of Mideast Youth I am a TED Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow and
a fighter for minority civil rights and free speech in the Middle East. My latest
project is MidEast Tunes: Music for Social Change. I am Esra'a Al Shafei.

A Climate Change
Taking this picture, in the face of palpable yet
misdirected hostility, made me reflect on how easily
divided we are as a species. How even the name
"United Nations" does not convey a unity of people
nor purpose. Rather it conveys divided national
identities and bureaucracies that in reality separate
us from each other. For what is it to be French or
English? To consider yourself American or
Chinese? To imagine that you are Indian or African?
Is it to appear somehow special by seeing anyone
else as "other," as “outsider”?

Our geographical labels would appear as ridiculous

Angry frustration boils over and the mob pushes forward their
hastily assembled placards disintegrating in the scrum.
Security, caught flat-footed, scramble to prevent chaos and yet
the actions of a few “peaceful” non-government organization
members will hasten the banning of many people of good will
from attending the remainder of the United Nations 2010
Climate Change Conference of the Parties No. 15 in
Copenhagen.
to any alien as they do to most geneticists or to
indeed any Buddhist. They no longer serve us
because the separation that once informed our
cultural pride has become a millstone preventing the
changes we need to make as a people not of many
nations, nor of separate geographies. We are a single
species that has taken over the Earth and we are
busy making a mess of it. In the moment when I
took this photo, I saw that we are only a people of
one homeworld and that homeworld is imperiled by
childish bickering.

I am half chinese australian from Earth :-). I am the special diplomatic envoy
for St Kitts and Nevis for sustainable development and the environment. I
wrote Stone Soup: The Secret Recipe for Making Something from Nothing. I

am an entrepreneur and philanthropist who tweets @liaonet. I am Bill Liao.
Genius Heart
Ruthless compassion.
A spirituality that makes way for rage.
A body politic that can forgive.
A generous commerce.
A unified diversity.
It’s feminine-fire-fueled. It’s round like eggs.
It’s spine roots back to the beginning.
A tree will conspire to speed the death of it’s own
branches as symptoms of disease surface. It’s how
some of us vote, or yell on behalf of the silenced.
It’s how we call crazy on its shit, and declare with
hollers, and touch, and laughter that, The heart is sane!
The beauty of our DNA is dying to be born: an
acceptance of the order of chaos; the reverence
of High Priestesses in the grocery store; the force
of incredibly tender men; the critical necessity of
senses that transcend technology.
We can speed the dying (it can hurt.) Karate-
chop greed. Puncture silicon. Carve up pretense
and principles too small for how big we really
are. Let the heart make the way -- she will
anyhow, by plow or by whisper, by angst or by
grace.
The genius heart is being born.
She loves fiercely, wholly, and now.

I am the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com...because self realization

rocks. I am an inspirational speaker and strategist, I help
entrepreneurs light up their career with my signature Fire Starter
Sessions. Tweet me @daniellelaporte. I am Danielle LaPorte.

If we are one, then what matters to me
is what’s of interest to you.

r
share this . . . someone’s waiting
WISDOM

We can’t start perfectly and beautifully, but if

we’re willing to start by accepting our neuroses
and basic chaos, we have a stepping-stone.
Don’t be afraid of being a fool. Start as a fool.
One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many
–Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Tibetan) people fail to remain awake through great periods of social
change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and
its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping
through revolutions. But today our very survival depends on
our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain
vigilant and to face the challenge of change.
I do not believe there is anything impossible.
–Martin Luther King, Jr. (African)
I feel that when you do not see your strength, your
pride, and your soul, and you do not want to deal
with something, you call it impossible.

–Yogi Bhajan (Indian)

The Other “N” Word
There is an “N” word that I repeatedly face that
evokes revulsion in me. It's “Nuts”. It is used to
describe a person suffering from a mental illness.
Though some do not find this “N” word to be as
vulgar as "n*gger", I find this word to be equally
offensive as a person living with a serious mental
illness.
It is challenging enough for me to be black, female,
poor, and have come from an unconventional family
with an undesirable upbringing. It’s far more
challenging to live with a mental illness and endure
the discrimination and prejudice that comes
packaged with the diagnosis.
My mental illness is has been like a double edge
sword. First there is the actual devastation of the
diagnosis--having your hopes and dreams trampled
and replaced with emotional upset, psychiatrist
visits, medications, hospitalizations, therapy
appointments and support groups. If that is not
enough there’s the misconceptions, stigma, and
discrimination which can be even more disabling the
actual illness itself.
I know what this is like firsthand. I was forced to
leave a college due to my mental illness. I have lost
jobs. I’ve lost housing. Lost friendships. I have had
people constantly underestimate my ability. “Well,
you don’t really 'look' like you have a mental
illness," they say. So what does it really look like?
I’ve also heard I am too “smart” and “well spoken”
to have a mental illness. Mental illness does not rob
you of your intellectual aptitude. My last semester
in college I was hospitalized 5 times, yet I still
managed to make the Dean’s List.
The time has come for those in recovery from
mental illness, like myself, to take our place in the
sun and challenge the stigma and stereotypes posed
by societies. I challenge these stereotypes daily by
getting up, exercising, going to work, smiling, and
volunteering in my community despite my feelings
and the side effects of my medication. So do me a
favor, next time you see me, don’t refer to me as
“Nuts.”

I am a strong black woman who refuses to succumb to the adversities I've faced
in life. I am a passionate advocate for people in recovery from a mental illness. 
My story was featured in “Firewalkers: Changing the Story of Mental Health.”
I could be your next door neighbor. I am Myra Anderson.
 good education
My village in Arusha, Tanzania did not have good
schools.  So, I started Shepherds Junior School in 2003
with money I raised from a small chicken farm.  I began
with only 10 students.  With the help of Epic Change,
now I serve more than 411 kids and my school is
currently ranked #2 in my district out of 118 schools. 
Find me on twitter @MamaLucy.
I am Mama Lucy Kamptoni.

I asked a few of my students and teachers to write
something about me. Before the time to go home,
they wrote these responses. I was thrilled to read
what they wrote. It was my opportunity to learn who
I am -- though I'm not very sure if what they wrote is
true or it's just because we love each other. :-)
Nihad Salim: "I started learning at this school since I
was six years old; Now I am 12. Mama Lucy is a
founder of our school Shepherds Junior. She is a
hard-working mama. She is kind. She loves us and I
love her very much."
Leah Albert: "I joined Shepherds Junior 6 years ago
when I was in Nursery. Now I am in class 6. When
our school started, there was no cook. Mama Lucy
cooked for us tea or porridge. May God bless Mama
Lucy to live a long life. Thank you."
Kelvin
Yudah: “When I started school [five years
ago], she used her small Toyota Corolla to take pupils
to school and return them back home. It could carry
10 children. Now our school is having 1 big bus from
Epic Change and 3 school vans.”
Teacher Lillian, a founder teacher: "Mama Lucy is a
founder and School Manager of Shepherds Junior.
She works very close and likes to share ideas with
her workers compared to some other bosses. She
always work hard to see the problem is solved. She is
a person who never gives up. Thank you!”
Teacher Nancy - Class 6 teacher and Academic
Mistress: “I first met Mama Lucy year 2006 when
she employed me. She is a role model to our
community; a woman who never fails in her
ambitions.”
Gideon Gidori: “Mama Lucy is a very intelligent
and a person who works hard so that we can get good
education. I am proud of Shepherds Junior.”
EXPOSURE

I am a seasoned photographer from New York City specializing in live events to

maximize publicity and exposure. I have created a repertoire of unique images from
over
25 years of photography experience. I am Carl Nunn.
 been known to cause breast cancer and infertility.
The Last Apartheid Clean water is a gender issue of justice.

Water, sold in single-serving plastic bottles, is

As a trainer, I found it hard to believe when people tell
me they don't like to drink water.
No Water. No Life. No Water. No Food.
We cannot exist without it.
But everyday water is being separated from people by
major corporations around the world while we take
water for granted.
We are living in times when our fresh water supply is
being polluted and it's contributing to learning
disabilities and birth defects. Clean water is a children's
issue of justice.
If the chemicals in our water today can feminize male
frogs, what impact do you think it has on humans? Or
on the hormonal balances of men and women? The
petrochemicals in the plastic containers we buy have
responsible for hundreds of tons of plastic waste, the
release of hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide, and
millions of gallons of crude oil used for the
manufacture and transportation of the bottles. Clean
water is a sustainability issue of justice.
By buying a home filtration system you could be
spending 8¢ per gallon versus 25¢ per gallon for the
plastic-bottled water bought from a corner store or
local grocer. We are being sold tap water in unregulated
bottles labeled "spring water". Richard Wilk, a
professor of anthropology at Indiana University, who
studied the industry, wrote "The bottled water industry
takes a free liquid that falls from the sky and sells it for
as much as four times what we pay for gas." Clean
water is a cost-of-living issue of justice.
Lack of access to clean water is separating us from
healthy children, from wellness in men and women,
from our income, from a sustainable planet, and
ultimately from our very lives. Separated from our very
existence this could be the last Apartheid. Diversity
won’t matter without clean water.

I am a Certified Personal Trainer and wellness consultant in New York City. I

think taking responsibility for our health in an act of self love. We need the proper
nutrition, we need to detox and we need to drink clean water. Email me at

trudeauwellness@gmail.com. I am Ivan Trudeau.
 SLOGaneering used SMS technology to connect people to healthcare
The social sector has gotten stuck. We have confused and food. We have even set up voluntary carbon
energy and vision with meaningless mission statements markets to hone and incentivize environment-friendly
and empty slogans featuring words like “eradication”, processes.
“sustainability”, and “collaboration”. We promise our
We are doing good work. But we are growing
donors and investors that we have found the way to end
increasingly lazy in the way that we tell our stories. In
pollution, disease, hunger, and social injustice. We paint
fact, I’ll take it one step further – we are lying. People
these grandiose pictures akin to that of the millennium
are asking for measurements of success and many of
development goals (MDGs), and then we wonder why our
us do not have them – at least, not the ones we
donors are beginning to ask us
promised.
where their money is going.
Using buzz words instead of creative and honest
People are still poor. The slave
language to convey the work we are doing is
trade is still thriving. Children are
disrespectful to the people and communities we serve.
still hungry. Carbon dioxide
If you do choose to promise to eradicate poverty, I
emissions remain excessive. All
challenge you to do this in front of an audience of
realities that leave us with a
children in the slums of Kenya. If you choose to
question of, “Have we actually
promise to stop the international sex trade, do it while
done anything at all?”
looking into the eyes of the young rape victims in
Yes, we have. We have developed your own city. And if you choose to promise a future
ready-to-use-therapeutic-food to for all children,
address issues of malnutrition. We
I dare you to do so while sitting with a mother who
have provided millions of dollars
knows that the AIDS that claimed her husband’s life
in loans to foster entrepreneurship
will soon claim hers. They will all ask how. And they
in the developing world. We have
deserve a clearly defined answer.

I am young woman with a fierce passion for amplifying unheard voices.

I am a consultant for international non-profits. I love music, art, culture, and

vibrance. I graduate from Indiana University with an MPA in May 2010. Tweet me
@amycarolwolff. And I am saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. I am Amy Carol Wolff.
kCOLORED
I baked for nine months in my mama’s tummy and came out right on time during the Winter of
1980. But in Louisiana, our winters are more like happy autumns without the tenacity to carry the
bitterness and meanness of a real freeze. I was a fat baby and brown like a good roux; browner so
like pralines and pecan pies done right. I grew into a brown girl with plaits and knobby knees, legs
good for double dutch and Vaseline on bony edges. When I was six, I had a birthday party and all
my school friends were invited. One of my classmates gave me a doll and she had alabaster skin,
great big blue eyes and two long blonde plaits, one down each side tied at the end with a blue
ribbon. After the party was over, my mama took the doll away and told me that brown girls need
brown dolls and that was that. The hard truth came via middle school when I learned that brown
girls weren’t the color that pretty makes. There was a hierarchy -- boys liked the light skinned girls
the best but long silky hair was a close second. They didn’t mind a little fat as long as you
definitely had number one and better if you could complement number one with number two.
Pretty was a currency that could be bartered for popularity, recognition, and attention. During
adolescence and young adulthood my brown girlness wasn’t reflected in the fashion magazines I
read or the television I watched. I wondered, what color does pretty make? It seemed to me that
pretty was well pretty cliquish -- only allowing a selected few into the group, never fully realizing
the rest of us who stood right outside her purview. I decided to find my own pretty, for me, and I
found her within. I am the color that pretty makes and I love her Boldly.

I am an African American transplant from Southwest

Louisiana living in the Big Apple. A writer of books, essays and
blogs. I love to cook, and absolutely love to read. I tweet at
@cocacy. I am the thirtymilewoman Courtney Young.
PERSON-HOOD
Sex is just but one dialect from the lexicon of the body’s language. We concern ourselves with the act of
having sex or initiating the procreative process as a central meaning when speaking about sexuality. To
refer to me as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, straight or otherwise grants you a peep hole perspective into my very
personal horizontal existence. And with this limited view, which is not yours to imagine or judge from the
outset, you loose the potential to comprehend who I am and what I may need to express when positioned
otherwise.

When I talk about my sexuality I’m not speaking about how and who I have sex with. I’m expressing the
same with my hands, legs, smile, eyebrows and lips an army of ideas, emotions, intellectual viewpoints
and quiet connections. Our sexuality is an underused doorway to a robust comprehension of both strangers
and community. There is a sincerity in the way my body reacts to your words and their multitude of
possible meanings.

I propose instead of using these rigid and uniformed ideas of sexuality and gender expression as safeguards
we begin to observe, listen and accept the dialogue of our bodies. I simply suggest we include, explore and
use the body’s language when forming our identities and impressions of one another. We may find that
attraction does not always mean sex but the potential for understanding that predicates creativity.

I'm everything I've been and still collecting: Playwright, filmmaker,

musician and speaker. I am Hanifah Walidah.

 Type to
The BATTLE enter
text
I was a soldier in the United States Army
National Guard, and after years of serving only
one weekend a month, I was headed for the war
in Iraq. The year was 2005. I couldn’t
understand why I had to go. Why did I have to
interrupt college, a critical point in my life, to
support a war that I wasn’t sure had validity?
When my boots first hit the tan earth, I had no
idea what to expect. All the training under my
belt was theoretical. It didn’t map out the
direction a tour of duty would take every day or
how it would turn out. I found myself with
something to fear other than the threat of
mortars, IEDs and gunfire.
Uncertainty.
It seized my flesh and bones and left me
paralyzed. But I knew I couldn’t stay there.
Despite my misgivings about the conflict, I had
to honor my commitment to my country, my
fellow troops, to myself. Each day my faith
and sanity were under attack, but I returned
fire, refused to surrender to it. I knew that I
couldn’t give up because I had an obligation –
to present myself a living testimony to what
faith and courage can do.
Since then, I have turned in my rifle and
combat boots, but now I’m better-equipped for
the real fight. With each challenge, I don’t
always know why I have to go, but
I’m always glad that I did.

I am named for a beautiful, bright lotus that grows in a murky

stream and blossoms for just a few hours at night.   I am an
instrument created by the Lord to illuminate places where
there is no light. Tweet me @kamalalane. I am Kamala Lane.

 charity How not to give money to charities working in Africa

Thousands of well-meaning people around the world
give regularly to charities or want to donate or get
involved in some way but are unsure of the best way
to go about it. Many of these people lack knowledge
of the real issues on the ground affecting ordinary
Africans. They are often unaware of alternative,
more hands-on strategies to donate that can
sometimes give better, more tangible results and are
ultimately more satisfying for all concerned.
So here are 8 tips and donation strategies.
1. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that Africa is
all about poverty. It is extremely rich in resources
both human and natural.
2. Do not forget that there are 53 countries in
Africa.
3. Do not forget that governments (Western and
non-Western) are often incompetent, short-
sighted, and/or corrupt when it comes to aid to
Africa.
4. Consider visiting an African country and/or NGO
to see for yourself before donating.
5. Do not write a cheque or set up a direct debit
before asking for proof of how the money will be
spent. Not all charities are accountable.
6. Target charities with a sharp focus on health, new
technologies, empowerment, education,
infrastructure, rape centres, climate change,
water, agriculture, etc.
7. Do not forget to empower local individuals in/
from Africa. Invest in learning from them. Invest
in teaching and learning with that person so she/
he can pass the knowledge on to others in the
community.
8. Finally, make friends in Africa and find partners
and doers that can help you get involved in
ongoing or stagnant projects. There is no need to
reinvent the wheel.
(Originally posted March 6th, 2010. Visit http://bit.ly/
dwSM81 for more tips).

I was born in Senegal, West Africa. I am a London-based philanthropist, CEO,

social entrepreneur, blogger and mom. I have a passionate commitment to
empower my fellow Africans through education and social entrepreneurship.
I tweet from London, Paris, Dakar, and New York @mjamme.
I am Mariéme Jamme.


A KILLER IDEA
I notice if I'm asked to point someone out, if that
person is black, I hesitate. Will it be the right word?
Will I say it the right way? It's like part of you has
to die in order to live with the world that way.
Two years ago I traveled from the U.K. to San
Francisco to attend the Conference for Global
Transformation in 2008. One of the workshops I
attended was called Agree to Be Offended: Curious
Connections in Conversations of Race facilitated by
Kyra Gaunt. It was standing room only with 50
participants from the US, Canada and even Europe
where some individuals insist racism doesn't exist.
Kyra took us beyond the usual rigmarole about skin
color and explained how people think that merely
talking about race is what separates us. The problem
has little to do with skin color, and everything to do
with how we resist conversations that offend us. We
take things personally, get offended, and then we're
stuck. All that's left is gossip or avoidance. Then,
she had us share our
earliest memories of learning about racism--how old
we were, who was there and what happened. That
memory can be a "useful failure" for discovering
why racism persists and how ordinary people–
avoiding something that happened when they were
small—unwittingly perpetuate it with their silence.
It's been two years and Kyra and I have become
partners in promoting what I think is a killer idea.
Agree to Be Offended and Stay Connected™. It is
our listening, not our judgment, that can make a
difference. Otherwise, who is the separatist?
I have a whole new way of looking at racism.
Transparency is available as well as the
disappearance of the whole question of race. By
presencing or saying what offends us in the
moment, we get to put our hands on and truly grasp
how it's going to go. I have a whole new take on
racism as a resource for being courageous and
compassionate. It's not about the end of racism --
and that is NOW possible -- but rather the end of its
power over us.

! am a southern geordie with no accent from north east enger-land.

With pa(mi)ssion, ! adjust your listening : ! mentor individuals and
small groups to have them find & design their pa(mi)ssion to be.

Email me @ marley.liz@googlemail.com. ! am L¡z Marley.
Real Profits “If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to
sleep with a mosquito in the room” – Anita Roddick.

Reading this quote was the first of many defining community. They have the autonomy to choose
moments for me. It changed what I thought I wanted where their money goes so they can see firsthand
to do with my life and career, and what I believed I how powerful the process can be.
was capable of achieving. Just think of how long
mosquito bites can itch! What could I do in some Eventually, Koro and her collective decided to
small way that would have the same lasting value, allocate 5% of their profits to the health clinics of
impact? Project Muso, a non-profit and our local partner. 5%
amounts to 21,926 West African Francs (CFA) x 30
In one of InVenture's first pilot programs in Bamako, women = about $45 US dollars.
Mali, we began working with a female cooperative
of thirty Bogolan artisans including teenagers, As the profits came in, there was a dramatic shift in
mothers, and grandmothers well into their 60s. attitude. Koro and her fellow entrepreneurs were
Bògòlanfini cloth, aka "earthcloth" or "mudcloth", is excited! Their own hard-earned dollars were now
a traditional woven fabric dyed with fermented mud. being used to pay for the community’s health
Korotommu Ye was the leader. A mother of seven, services. They were proud of their ability to do good
Koro was very entrepreneurial, always among the for others while also benefiting themselves. Not only
top-ranked students in her class. The cooperative were they sustaining their families, but they also saw
was doing well, but it wasn't growing. Their debt a more lasting, intangible return: empowerment. To
was eating away any significant gains. Koro (as well the community at large these women became
as the others) was initially hesitant about donating leaders, standing for something more than just their
any of her profits, even if the money would improve craftwork.
her own 'community'. All we had to do was let them choose their impact!
And as soon a business begins to turn a profit,
InVenture Fund asks them to reinvest in their
I am an Indian woman who can't live without exclamation points
and believes that no one is too small to have an impact. I tweet

about InVenture Fund @shivsiroya and I am Shivani Siroya
Restorative justice
There are many restorative justice systems. The one
I’ve studied is Restorative Circles (RC), a system
originally developed by Dominic Barter in the shanty
towns, schools, courts and prisons of urban Brazil.
I am a bit embarrassed to champion it, because I fell
into it rather recently, but RC fits with my belief
system and values so completely, I cannot imagine
writing about anything else for this project.
Restorative Circles provide a way for individuals and
communities to handle conflicts, including racial
conflicts, compassionately rather than punitively, as
well as to heal and learn from these conflicts.
To the uninitiated, restorative processes may appear
idealistic and naive. After all, they reject the two core
aspects of the traditional justice system: the
assignment of blame and the administration of
punishment. Instead, the goal of the Circle is for the
parties involved in the conflict to first gain mutual
understanding of the others’ experiences and needs
and then to restore or build a mutually satisfying
relationship.
Talking is involved, so is listening. Lots of listening.
But it’s a decidedly different type of talk than people
usually engage in, and it's not just talk.
The restorative process is designed to lead to
voluntary (and they really are voluntary!) acts offered
to repair or restore the relationship. The two words
are not synonymous. Reparative acts have to do with
compensation -- paying for a broken window is a
reparative act -- while restorative acts are those whose
value is largely symbolic, like a heart-felt apology.
It’s certainly not surprising that people prefer to have
both, but, according to Barter, if they can only have
one, there is a strong preference for acts that are
restorative.
And yet, restorative processes aren’t, at the heart of it,
about apologies. They’re about mutual understanding
and connection. Too often racial conflict is addressed
with (legitimate) accusations. Denial ensues. Feelings
are hurt. At the end, no one feels good about what
happened. Restorative processes offer an alternative,
one that connects people and leaves them satisfied.
Right now, nothing in my anti-racism work gives me
more meaning or more hope.

I am a Soviet-born, U.S.-raised psychologist, scholar and activist focused on race

relations and popular culture. I blog for Psychology Today and OpEdNews, where
I am the managing editor. I tweet @MikhailL I have no known mutant powers but
provided regular Congressional testimony opposing the Mutant Registration Act.
I am Mikhail Lyubansky.
 Mestiza This
Keeping Connected To Our Families´ Cultures
And Languages

Walang Título
podemos intindihan ang kanta amerikano
de tierra hangang tierra y hindi hirap to translate ang sulat de seguridad social
lumalakad ang tao o de los hospitales
en busca de un puente o del gobierno
a bridge cuando nuestros padres
para sa dormir worry their english isn't enough
para sa trabajo anak, hijas de inmigrantes
para sa ver las cosas chismised about in barangays we are
back home hindi tayo parejo
first languages are not easily defined lumake kami dito
and third world defines simply the purposeful poverty un lugar con fronteras
of our peoples and that has made all the difference
caminamos en las calles de nuestras comunidades
pero puede nakita sino ang bago dito- somos y no somos
the fresh off the boats hindi ko alam ang momento
and those who've grown into a swagger cuando
si- we became more american than not.

I am an actor/dancer/singer/writer/violinist/community
worker born and raised in NYC. I perform stateside and
abroad. I facilitate Red Tents and organize arts and
activist workshops in the communities- from schools,
prisons, and your local homey´s house. 
I am Jennifer Cendaña Armas. 

Mestiza THat
For Translation

Keeping Connected To Our Families´ Cultures

And Languages

Walang Título we understand american songs

and translate letters from
from land to land the social security office
walk the people the hospital
looking for a bridge the government
ng tulay when mag-alala our parents
to be able to sleep porque mga ingles no es suficiente
to be able to work somos the children of immigrants
to see those things gossiped en los barrios back home but we are not the same
es difícil para explicar las lenguas primeras we've grown up here
at third world = la pobreza de ng tao this bordered homefront
we walk the streets at esa es la diferencia
but you can spot los nuevos- we are and are not from where we are from
ang fresh off the boats I can´t pinpoint that exact moment
y el pueblo que han crecido una manera de when
pagmamalaki hemos crecido mas norte americanos que no.
yes-

Reach me at Lapulapu17@hotmail.com.
I am the flipside of Jennifer Cendaña Armas.

RE-Branding chattel. this had to be accomplished in order for
the most successful marketing campaign ever. other human beings to be able to kidnap, buy, sell,
the mark of a great marketing campaign is when the torture, maim, rape, kill, and work them to death,
idea or slogan transcends the product. it attaches to while maintaining a sense of their moral correctness.
the cultural consciousness, and when attached to the
product, makes the product greater. the product was slavery. a free work force. you
couldn’t have a free work force if everyone was
for instance, nike’s campaign, “Just Do It’ began to catching feelings every time someone dropped dead
be applied to everything from winning a basketball from exhaustion, screamed for their stolen child, etc.
game, to graduating from college, to giving birth. it’s in order to ’sell’ the idea that human beings should
now a part of our cultural vocabulary. another be treated as chattel, the marketing message was,
example is the 1930s advertising phrase ‘a diamond ‘these people are not like you and me, they are
is forever’ promoting the idea that one was simply different, inferior, subhuman.’ it was entrenched
necessary to cement an engagement. diamonds were enough that it could be handily applied to
NOT traditionally associated dismantling reconstruction efforts, segregating
with marriage or engagement. bathrooms and burial plots, and instituting jim crow
but the concept has become so laws. so, that’s that.
entrenched in our culture most
of us have no idea it originated as the world changed, the applications have changed,
as marketing. but the fact that racism can still be used, for
example, as a wedge issue in an election to rouse
racism, as we know it, was people to vote against their own self-interest out of
also implemented as a fear, is proof of the power of the marketing message.
marketing ploy. the goal of this compound that w/the fact that this country has been
campaign was to devalue pushing this advertising for four centuries. that’s a
human beings to the status of LOT of brand recognition.

I am a multimedia artist, filmmaker, husband and dad

currently trying to condense all that I am into a palatable catchphrase.
Tweet me @exittheapple.I am Pierre Bennu.
edited/big words by jamyla bennu
Longer version available at http://exittheapple.com Feb 20, 2010. Image from International Slave Museum website
Standards

Standards. Musings Installation 2006

I am a black Buddhist, world loving, american woman, visual artist. I am a
muse performance painter, professor of art, and mother of a teenaged planet.
I create large scale studio works and commissions. For me, Art is Life...
and withholding it from school children is a crime. I am Marcia Jones.
DARE
What starts with being inspired will almost always devolve into
being safe, being liked and playing small.

Dare to break out of that to live your life as a creation. To lead

the inspired life the visionary must be bold, and all of us
have an inner visionary dying to be set free.

It’s about giving the gift you’re here to give with flair and style,
because life is in love with seduction. Trust yourself and power
and freedom will emanate from you and resonate in the world
in ways that will surprise you.

Act like you mean it and you’ll find your tribe, and
together you’ll love and fight ruthlessly and energetically.

Be the genius you are and the world will listen to you.
In the end, the audacity to live fully alive is it’s own
greatest reward.

I am a Consultant and Coach. I work with individuals, groups and

organizations around the world to access their deepest power. I am also a
jazz saxophonist, a poet and a student of the world's wisdom. I live with
my beloved Joy Perreras in Boise, Idaho. I am Brian McFadin.


Possibility
When I was at the height of what felt like a powerful
rebellion, my friend Marvin asked me why I was railing
so raucously against, well, just about everything. I
explained that I felt confined by so many aspects of the
mainstream culture, that some days I didn’t know where
to start—everything needed fixing, everything needed
tearing down.
He asked me what would happen if I just imagined that
the systems that were confining me didn’t exist.
Impossible, said I, they dictate everything that we do.
But if you’re constantly focusing your energy on
breaking down a system, he said, you’re starting off by
first admitting that it’s true, and that it holds power over
you—this gives it its power. How about starting from a
place where none of those systems exist, and we can
define for ourselves what we think is important?
That conversation happened years ago—enough so that
my hair, for example, has been through an entire rotation
of colors, but almost every day I’m reminded of its
unique possibility, especially when traversing
conversations on online social networks. More than
ever, we have the opportunity to reject prescribed
identities and social structures, and to connect with
others doing the same. The more there are of us
doing it together, and as many kinds of people as we
can find, the better off our brave new world will be.
Sometimes change takes anger; it often requires
breaking apart social structures and barriers from the
outside in. But just maybe if enough of us sidestep
those barriers and use our ever-advancing social
tools to create space for a future where power,
tradition and hierarchy are not required elements for
success.

I am into tech, progressive politics, feminism, dogs, and writing, I am a

media technologist and strategist. I wrote Share This! How You Will Change
the World with Social Networking (June 2010). Tweet me @randomdeanna.

I am Deanna Zandt.
我是如何学习英文 Learning
In U.S. we call a teacher Ms. or Mr. in grade school
and “Professor” in college. In Chinese school, it is
forbidden to call a teacher’s name. You may call any
teacher 老师, “lao-shi” but never their name. If you
speak their name you are breaking the rules and you
will get punished. The teacher will call your parents
and let them know that your disrespect of the elders.
Girls and boys are seated together for greater
harmony. Each desk has two drawers where we put
our books and we have to change our seat every week.
In the U.S. the student will always sit in the chair that
they first choose. My seat is always beside another
Chinese student, because I feel safe there.
In China, students have to show respect to the teacher
and Chinese teachers are more strict and serious than
most U.S. teachers. It is because of a traditional
Chinese ideology: “I eat more salt than you had with
rice," which means the elders are always right. They
know more than those who are younger. As a result
students only listen and are not expected to give
opinions. That is why many Chinese students in
America do not speak in class.
English
In Chinese schools, a group of about 4 people have to
clean the classroom together. We call that cleaning
group the “zhi-ri-sheng”. They have to reset the chairs
and the desks, close the windows, throw out the
garbage, and erase the board. The key to the room will
be kept by the one among them who is most
responsible, and that person has to come to the class
before everybody else. The purpose—to practice
diligence. In the U.S., students do not have to do this
work. A maintenance staff is hired at a low wage to
clean classrooms.
In the U.S., professors give students a grade without
any comment. Sometimes they do not return the paper.
If I do not understand where I made the mistakes, I
never learn right from wrong. Many Chinese students
must learn more about English than their professors
learn about Chinese. If English speakers understood
more about the Chinese language, it would not only
serve students but make for more powerful
communication skills around each subject.

I came to the United States when I was 15. I am in college and I wrote this
as part of my mini-ethnography project for my anthropology class with
Professor Kyra Gaunt. I am proud of my work and my writing. I am Mei
UBUNTU Extract from A Child's First Book of History, ed. Bechtle, Raneel.
Penguin E-Books (Republic of Truro and St. Austell), published 2339.

The world you and your community live in was not
always like this. Three hundred years ago, children
like you lived in small groups, apart from their
communities. Everyone was divided into groups
according to where they came from, how they talked,
and other ideas which you may struggle to
understand -- 'class', 'sexuality', 'race', 'gender', and
many others. Many of these groups were afraid of
each other. Ask an adult to explain these terms to
you; there was also 'religion'. This is a little harder to
understand; your local council of learned elders may
be able to help explain this.
Some of these groups -- large numbers of adults and
children together -- formed what were called 'nation-
states'. These were like countries, but they were very
large and some had hundreds of millions of people,
believe it or not. They were ruled by powerful kings
and presidents and large, powerful armies, and went
to war all the time. Sometimes a nation-state would
go to war with the people who lived there.
This started to change in the first hundred years after
the internet was discovered in 1969. At first popular
with people from a few of these 'nation-states',
because a lot of people from certain parts of the
world did not have good enough communication (in
fact, many parts of the world did not have good
enough food or hygiene for billions of people!), it
spread through the world and allowed any person to
talk to another person from any other group in any
other part of the world. You may take this for granted
but this was something new and important.
People realised that these groups were 'interesting'
just as you may find your friends' taste in music or
food interesting, but they were not created by nature,
or real reasons for conflict. This seems very simple
now but it was very different and exciting at the
time. The big idea came from a nation-state called
South Africa. It was called 'Ubuntu', in a word from
one of the languages of the people there, and it was
said very simply as this: "I am a human being
because I share in the community of human beings,"
or even simpler, "I am because we are."

I am a single thread in the elaborate tapestry of humanity. I campaign for libertarian

causes. I am an elected official, a son, a neighbour, a marketer, an inhabitant of
Reading, England, and a peerer into parallel universes. But none of those are me. I am

the sum of my relationships. Tweet me @mattplatts. I am Matthew Wolfram Platts.
 Brave
What is black rock?

I’ll start by saying that it’s more than simply rock played by black people, though that’s part
of it. Referencing Living Colour gets people in the zone, but doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. As it
was used when I was involved with the Black Rock Coalition (BRC) it was a term that encompasses the total
spectrum of Black music—rock, soul, jazz, blues, funk, hiphop, world, etc. But the slightly more complicated
truth is that there’s no one sound that defines black rock.

Better, I think, is to understand the term as a concept, one that’s in opposition to the narrow view that the
music industry (itself a microcosm of American society) promotes of what it means to be African American:
Namely, that you’re supposed to know the boundaries and stay within them. More to the point: Black music =
hip-hop and R&B. From that perspective, black rock is a term I’ll continue to employ not only in this
dialogue that attempts to reconnect African Americans to music we created, but also as a means of mounting
an ongoing and worthwhile effort to overcome ridiculous limitations imposed from within and without. In my
estimation, the former must come first. The music industry has no incentive to change in this regard,
particularly since it’s getting little to no mass indication that there is economic justification to do so.

So black rock is, at first, an invitation for African Americans to—here’s a nod to The Matrix—take the red
pill. It’s an invitation to break the frame of things we take for granted—what we listen to out of course,
avenues through which we can express ourselves, even notions of what it means to be authentically black.

Black rock is an invitation for us to be brave.

I am a husband, a father, a Black rock evangelist, and a music

entrepreneur living in Brooklyn, NY. I’ve been writing about black
alternative music culture for the last three years at Boldaslove.us.
I believe in the crazy idea that black rock can save black culture

and the world. Tweet me @robfields. I am Rob Fields.
Koseli Koseli means "gift" in Nepali; an expression of love for somebody special.
In 1997, five seeds were sown in Nepal. A group of 5
friends got together and created a small kitty of funds
with which 5 kids were sponsored to attend school.
Randomly picked from streets and slums, the only
common factors amongst these children were that
they were all school-going age and they had not seen
what a school looked like from inside.
The program didn’t expand for next ten years until
the oldest child of the group finished his high school.
For the first time I saw “A Transformed Life.” For the
first time I saw how education can completely change
a person. It became evident that the child who
belonged to the slums was
never going back. He had a
much better life ahead. And
that gave power to my
dreams. So from 5 kids we
grew to 25 and, come this
April, the Shikshantar
Outreach Program will
serve 250 children.
I am Indian-Nepalese. I just entered the rat race
as late entrant working overtime. When my race
is over, everybody will emerge a winner. That is
the fabric of my life. I am Renu Bagaria.
Those short-listed belong to the most neglected
segments of Nepalese society, to the deep wraps of
abject poverty. Some are HIV positive and some…
directly hit by the armed conflict which has torn the
country apart in the last ten years. Children migrated
from the mountains only to end up begging in the
streets of Kathmandu.
Still, there are 800,000 children out of school in
Nepal. The number of children that can be served by
a centre (a district) is 80-100. A simple calculation
tells us we don't need one, we need 8,000 centres to
educate them all.
Though a picturesque country settled in the
Himalayas, my country is one of the least developed
nations in the world. We face major problems of
population, poverty, political conflict and religious
unrest and rural Nepal is still gripped by social beliefs
about “untouchability.” This and other forms of "dis-
ease" cannot be eradicated by empathy. The only way
it can be thrown out is through empowerment.
Empowerment comes only through education.
We have wasted so many generations, let's save this
one with the gift of education.
Mental slavery
History is not the past, it is how we recount the past.
The way in which history is told, particularly in the
classroom, plays a vital role in shaping our world
view. It is precisely because of this sociological
influence that it is imperative that history be taught in
a complete and honest manner. Unfortunately, history
is usually used as a means for local boosterism (at
best) or ideological propaganda (at worst).
One salient example is how the history of
institutionalized slavery during Canada's first 200
years has been kept out of Canadian history textbooks,
classrooms, and collective social consciousness.
Omitting this substantial part of the nation’s
development from the curriculum has deprived and
continues to deprive generations of the ability to
identify the connection between the practice of
slavery and the rise of racism and white privilege.
Part of the reason that Canada's slave history is absent
to begin with is that early historians left it out.
For example, slavery officially ended in Québec
(then known as Nouvelle France) on August 1, 1834.
In 1845, François-Xavier Garneau wrote Histoire du
Canada—the first book to chronicle the history of the
Québec people—in which he describes the practice
of slavery as a "great and terrible plague... unknown
under our northern sky."
Garneau was 25 years old when slavery ended in
Québec. He worked as a notary and civil servant, so
he would have been fully aware of the institution of
slavery; he may very well have notarized some bills
of sale for slaves himself! It seems inconceivable that
someone could deny something that was so
ubiquitous just 10 years prior. Imagine it’s 2005 and
a Hutu in Kigali writing that there was no genocide
in 1994—madness!
Racism is perpetuated by ignorance. Unless we start
telling the truth in our history, and not just the bits
that make us feel good about ourselves or fit an
agenda, there is little hope of fulfilling the real need
for a restorative justice that honors our human equity
(the wealth found in our connectedness despite any
difference)—which is essential in a just society.

I am a musician, writer and independent filmmaker with a particular

interest in social justice issues. I regularly blog at Race-Talk.org and
I am currently directing the documentary “A Past, Denied: The Invisible
History of Slavery in Canada.” I tweet @apastdenied and

I am Mike Barber.
Homeland security
The legal system is not designed for the evolution of
man.
I have lived in the United States since my mother and I
arrived as lawful permanent residents, in 1971, when I
was a year old. My parents were born in Haiti, but I
was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
while my father was working there. I served two years
in prison for a wrongful drug conviction in the state of
Maine. Because the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) mishandled my mother's application for
naturalization, I was not certified as a U.S. citizen, as I
should have been, before my eighteenth birthday in
1988. Since neither Haiti nor the Congo would accept
me as a citizen, I've spent over 21 months in
immigration-related detention in a country I call home.
While detained by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) in April of 2009, 70 to 100 other
detainees at the Port Isabel Detention Center in
Los Fresnos, Texas joined me and two others in a
hunger strike. We wanted to raise consciousness
about immigrant detention that violates human
rights as well as due process in the U.S.
The prolonged immigration detention that I and
many others have been and continue to be subjected
to is unjust and unconstitutional. Since the vast
majority of people detained do not understand
immigration or constitutional law their human and
civil rights are being violated. Most are detained
indefinitely. Many are shipped around the country,
in violation of their human rights. They are shipped
away from their family and all their legal resources.
The government does not provide attorneys. Many
American families are being destroyed because of
this process.
Detainees end up giving up, signing out, and letting
themselves be deported, because they cannot deal
with detention for 12, 24, 36 months or more. It’s
important that people understand that this is a civil
process, not a criminal process. My goal is to end
immigration detention as we know it.

I am an African American of Haitian descent. I am an immigrant-

rights activist and a leader outside/within immigration detention
centers in the U.S.. I am a multimedia entertainment producer and
entrepreneur. Contact me about Activism at the Speed of Thought©
at ramacarty@gmail.com. I am Rama Carty.

n
Balance Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian expression meaning “life out of balance”.

We are responsible for having fed this culture to our young

What needs to happen when we have young men among
us who stab or shoot someone who ‘looks at them the
wrong way’? Who are we, and who do we need to be? I
live in London, UK. But I pose this question to all of us
– we live in one world after all, don’t we?
Some years ago, I went to a show featuring Shaolin
monks. I was rapt in their spectacular feats and mental
power. They seemed super-human.
people, some of whom have metabolised it well and are
now reflecting it back at us. Magnified, maybe. The young
men who have gone the way of the knife and gun deem
their retaliation imperative; to them, the ‘bad look’ in their
direction is an attack against which they must defend
themselves. We are aghast at their behaviour – but I find
myself counting the heads of state that modelled this
behaviour in the first place.

Afterwards, a beautiful monk was interviewed and took
questions via a translator. He said he and his colleagues
were highly trained killers. They’d been, from a very
young age, intensively and rigorously trained in
violence. It stayed with me.
The beautiful Shaolin monk said something else: he and his
fellow monks were also equally highly trained in religion
and philosophy – training which he said was vital. Vital.
Without it, they would be out of control highly trained
killers. With it, they were balanced.

We’re all training intensively, rigorously, in something.
Collectively, we’ve been feeding our young people
what we’re trained in: instant gratification; the
fetishisation of consumer goods and unregulated
capital.
Maybe being balanced means the monks are empowered to
maximise their human potential in the area of the
breathtaking martial arts feats of which they are capable.
Maybe that’s an essentially human quality – and nothing to
do with being super-human at all.

Koyaanisqatsi. Still. Could it be that prioritising being balanced is a simple, yet

powerful, human answer? We live in one world. We’re all in
it together. And a knife or gun in anyone’s hand is also in
yours and mine.

I am a daughter of One People, Out of Many, following the Jamaican

national motto. The many includes the UK, where I was born and raised,

and all the places I’ve visited so far. I work with young people and I write
and observe life. Reach me at vestaht@yahoo.co.uk. I am Heather Imani.
Response-Able
I have suffered with rheumatoid arthritis and asthma
since I was a child but despite having to sometimes use
walking sticks and inhalers I had a very busy life.
I was married with a family and foster children. I was
thirty-six years old when my husband and
I divorced. I decided to go to university and was
accepted at Manchester University in September 1985,
doing a social science degree. My sister Katy and my
friends had been worried about my health, but I was
determined to go.
In my second year, it was discovered I had a heart
condition. I asked my tutors if I could take my 5pm class
in my faculty (or discipline), on the ground floor, where
a room was free, and was told “no -- we might need it”. I
was forced to climb the stairs to my tutorial, every
Monday, on all-fours making my hands and knees filthy.
One day, a dozen female students arranged to meet on
campus and go for a meal. After some discussion one of
the women said, “Lets go into town then decide”.
Suddenly they ran across the road and jumped into a
group of taxis, leaving just me and another student
standing alone. There was no way I could catch up with
them on crutches. I asked the other student “why did
I am a 63 year-old, English woman of Irish descent. I love doing crafting
and garden designs. I write so people can read about more than just
celebrities. Find me on Facebook in my latest vehicle. I am Sheila Howe.
they do that?” She looked embarrassed and replied,
“They’re uncomfortable with your disability”. And these
were women who constantly talked about “women’s
rights”!
I gained my degree and began giving talks on child
abuse hoping to continue my studies later. However, one
day coming home from a talk at Oxford University I
collapsed and was rushed to hospital where it was
discovered my rheumatoid arthritis was so bad I would
need a wheelchair.
I also had diabetes and a problem with my lungs.
I was forty-one, had just become a grandma and had
been looking forward to taking my grandson to the park.
This, coupled with having to give up my studies, was
devastating.
The wheelchair changed my life beyond belief;
I was rarely invited to the theatre or to restaurants, or
people chose inaccessible locations. “Friends” who had
been frequent visitors to my home now rarely came
unless they needed something, and eventually some
“friends” told me they “couldn’t cope with my
disability” and seemed really shocked when I retorted,
“You don’t cope with my disability. I DO!”.
KARMA
My mom saved me and four siblings from starvation under the Khmer Rouge in 1976. She used her
rudimentary ability to speak a foreign language as our passport into Vietnam. Her ability was so basic that she
didn't know she had given the boys girls' names and the girls boys' names until a nice Vietnamese lady pointed
out the error. This generous stranger tutored my mom for the next three days before her language exam.
When my mom passed away in October 2009 at the age of 73, I realized that for her justice delayed had
become justice denied. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the expression “justice delayed is justice denied” had
never really sunk in until her passing.
As an observant Buddhist, mom probably had the last word. She always said that no matter what happened to
the Khmer Rouge leadership in their current lifetime, Karmic justice would prevail in the next: They would be
reborn as cockroaches.
I am certain that this belief has helped millions of survivors cope with the reality that, after more than three
decades since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, not a single leader has been held to account.
When I filed my civil complaint in 2008 with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, I was required to outline what
compensation I wanted. When I said I didn’t want any compensation, that this isn’t about money, it’s about
justice for the past and accountability for the future, you could have heard a pin drop. I should have said that
I would like my father and brother back but no amount of compensation can do that.
Justice in that sense is meaningless. My hope is that in the not-too-distant future the next Pol Pot might have
to think twice about genocide. Based on 18 March 2010 NYT Op-Ed "Khmer Rouge Tribunal vs. Karmic Justice".

I am a pentalingual Khmerican, TED Fellow, and professor born by mother

Cam Youk Lim and her life-saving languages of love. See Column 14, Row 4
of the PhotoMosaic of images from her life, on the next page, representing a
portrait of us in Vietnam. Watch Escaping the Khmer Rouge at TED.com.
Find me on Twitter @sophal_ear. I am the son named Sophal Ear.


Click here to view PhotoMosaic by Sophal Ear in detail. Created with AndreaMosaic freeware.
CONVERSATION
We need the courage and patience to fill the deadly
silence brought on by words like terrorist, hetero-
normative, ghetto, white privilege, gay lifestyle, illegal
worker.
Let’s begin to fill that dead zone with words like “from
my perspective’” and “why do you believe that?” And
then let’s meet those words with what the academics like
to call active listening, but what is really no more than
simply really listening to another person’s point of view.
But as we will fill that cold place with our new words,
we must stand there rooted in the promise that we will
stay at it until we sort this through and have begun to
understand what “others” are saying to us. By no means
are we required, or even urged to push for some sort of
new found agreement. Simply understanding, though
there is nothing simple about understanding, will be
victory enough. Besides, I may never be able to agree
with you but I sure would like to understand you.
Let’s also remember to take baby steps. This may
not be the time for finding the right words to string
together to form world peace. This may just be the
time to get used to having conversations across the
fault lines that divide us. And let’s be gentle with
ourselves and each other.
We’re new at this. We’re bound to make mistakes.
There’s a good chance that not all our words will be
properly polished. We may also find that the words
we speak may not be the words that are heard. And,
inevitably there will be times the words will hurt.
That’s when we need to face the speaker and ask, is
that what you meant? Why does my generation,
gender, race, class, geography or different opinion
make you want to use hurtful words? Or was it an
accident? Did you misspeak? Did I mishear?
It won’t be easy, but if we stick with it, perhaps we
can create a movement where we replace the dueling
monologues with conversations that fill the dead
space with the warmth of human interaction.

I facilitate Faultlines. I am president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism

Education working to help create a multi-cultural multimedia that accurately and fairly
portrays all segments of U.S. society. I tweet @djmaynard. I am Dori J. Maynard.


2050: Café Con LEche
Majority minority. Minority majority. Either way, it
happens around 2050. What? Whites will be a
minority around 2050 in the US. People of color will
be a majority. And it’s going to be a wild ride.
It’s still called the White House but George Clinton
was right—that was a temporary condition. In a
country where it’s easier to elect a black Democrat as
President than it is to get a majority of white voters to
vote Democratic, we have to ask: when faced with the
choice between maintaining power and maintaining
democracy, what will White Americans do?
Even the most recent history of American Whites
facing race is filled with disappointing actions:
Senator Mitch McConnell, when elected as what had
previously been known as the ‘Minority Leader’
position in the US Senate, said he preferred to be
called the ‘Republican leader’ because ‘minority’ was
disempowering. One member of the Texas Board of
Education commented on their recent effort to
whitewash history textbooks “They can just pretend
this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”
And when Lyndon Johnson said, “we have lost the
South for a generation" as he signed the 1964 Civil
Rights Act, he underestimated: it’s been 46 years, at
least 2 generations, and counting since a majority of
white voters voted for a Democratic Presidential
candidate.
Where do we go from here? Many White Americans
have decided to go the tea party route, seeing any loss
of power as undemocratic and even apocalyptic.
Others are moving to what Rich Benjamin calls
Whiteopias.
The rest of us, of every race, have to become more
racially literate. We have to beat back wedge attacks
that use implicit bias to prey on white racial anxiety.
All Americans, especially Whites, have to act as if we
indeed have linked fates.
Even more than chocolate cities, we’ll be living in a
café con leche US. Are you ready?

I am a Bronx-born Haitian-American father, drapetomaniac,

Buddhist, scuba-diver, and Prince-lover. Been leading
campaigns to change societies for more than 20 years. I'm excited

about 2050. Tweet me @ludovicspeaks. I am Ludovic Blain III.
LISTEN
Most adults think there’s only one way to do
everything, their way. That makes me and probably Or they’d ask “What school do you go to?” “How
other kids sick because we’re always creating old are you?” They didn’t think people as small as
different ways to do things but our ideas are ignored. us could be asking something so big.
It’s like we’re still in my grandmother’s day when
kids were supposed to be seen, not heard. They didn’t get the full experience because they
didn’t think we could take on their full thoughts.
I was in an exhibit at a famous art museum. The
artist I was working for does non-material art. His I think by limiting us they limited themselves.
exhibit used people from 8 to 80 to ask others a
simple question. “What is progress?” How is the world going to get better if we don’t
listen to half the people who live here?
When we asked the question many adults didn’t take
the time to let the words out of our mouths. They I am a kid with thoughts and ideas and I am
would pass us by or smile to try to come across as determined to be heard.
delighted because we asked them to follow and talk
to us.

I am a third grader at Saint Ann’s School in

Brooklyn. I am a budding actress. I am a splash
of color and inspiration. I am determined to be
heard. I am Corinne Bobb-Semple.

Photo credit: © Syreeta McFadden
The Walkabout
You make your own world. You have all the tools
you need. Often times, it’s right in front of you.
Sometimes, it just takes a little movement.
So I go on walks. I walk everywhere and over the
course of my journey, meandering, wanderings, I
often figure out a solution, imagine a possibility that I
hadn’t seen in an existing situation.
I didn’t make this up. This practice is as old as time.
Aboriginal peoples called this the walkabout, a rite of
passage where young men wandered in the bush for
months at a time. The closest thing I’ve ever
experienced to that in New York City is when I take
my camera and get lost in the City. You can get lost
here.
We’re surrounded by amazing inventions and this too
has worked to the great benefit of us all. However,
the great paradox has been an imbalance in how we
engage with our natural world and ourselves. We
need balance, we need conversation, we need
connection. When I feel I’m getting pulled in the
undertow of cloudy images, distractions, technology,
terrible writing ideas, I take a walk. Sometimes for
fifteen minutes, sometimes longer, with no
destination in mind. I discover new things about my
neighborhood that I’d otherwise miss. I’ve even
stumbled on a rather fortuitous strip from a fortune
cookie. We’re such creatures of habits and find such
comfort in old habits and patterns that we fear
change, new direction.
So I’m concerned about sustainability of our own
natural resources. We are energy. We have to do some
self care, we have to recharge. So I go on long walks.
Because if I’m not clear or open, how can I possibly
expect that my encounters with other men and
women could ever lead to the new?
Exercise your dreaming mind. Take a walk. No
destination. For thirty minutes let your body guide
you. Make turns if you feel a strong pull to go in that
direction. There is no wrong answer; there are no
wrong turns. Listen to your body, it’ll never lead you
astray. The last time you almost crossed the street in
front of a speeding car, you jerked away. Your body
knows how to protect you. You should trust that.

I am a writer and photographer from the dairy state whose

motto is ‘forward’, living and dreaming in the County of
Kings. Seventh generation American, dreamer for the next

movement. Tweet me @reetamac. I am Syreeta McFadden.
 Photo/Image Credits:

Courtney Young’s photo courtesy of Allen Breaux Studio & Gallery Inc.

Hanifah Walidah’s photo courtesy of Olive Demetrius

Kyra Gaunt’s image courtesy of Nokia for the TED Fellows Responsiveness campaign
featured in Monocle magazine (09 Oct 2009, p. 097)

Mamy Lucy Kamptoni’s photo courtesy of Tim Llewellyn

Syreeta McFadden’s photo courtesy of Peter Dressel

Tomie Hahn’s photo courtesy of Mark Morelli

Image above by Nicolás García

Tc

Coming Soon - The Audacity of Humanity Inquiry Calls

featuring various contributors. How do YOU be audacious? When and where?
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Curated and edited by Kyra D. Gaunt, Ph.D.

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