It’s Getting Hot In Here

By Xixi Sun

Well, I am not yet 25 and definitely not yet leader of the world, but I am amongst the 700 international youth right here in London attending the inaugural One Young World summit. We were all born after 1984 and we represent youth from all 192 countries on this planet. Early this year I was lucky enough to be sponsored to attend. We are here to discuss the challenges faced by our generation and topics include climate change, interfaith dialogue, global business, media, global health and developing leadership for a positive future.

Here I want to tell you what Day 1 of this summit makes me think.

Having heard speeches made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Bob Geldof and Lord Mayor of London Boris Johnson yesterday at the opening ceremony, we started our day with the welcome session by hosts David Jones and Kate Robertson. The first plenary session is on Environment and its protection. Having attended COP15 last December with the China Youth COP15 team, I am glad to see that youth today have not lost hope. They have different views on why Copenhagen has failed, but they all agreed that actions need to be taken now and we cannot wait for the decision-makers to make decisions. In the video from Senator John Kerry he mentioned the youth campaign “How old will you be in 2050?” That T-shirt is still in my Beijing home and reminds me of the campaigning events we had in the Bella Centre. As many have said, it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning. And this OYW summit is not just a nice trip to London. There’s work, hard work to be done. This summit will be producing a youth resolution, where each part will be voted to pass by the 700 participants.

My choice of the highlight today is the speech given by Professor Muhammad Yunus. There are of course a lot of other excellent talks and videos throughout the day, but I personally find this particular one extremely inspiring. Professor Yunus gave a very powerful talk, like when Archbishop Tutu is speaking (of course they are different in styles but you know what I mean).  Every single person in the plenary stops fidgeting and listens very carefully to what he has to say. If my university lecturers can be half as good as him, I’ll definitely do a better job at staying awake. I recall his words:

Big things are good to have in mind, but I always think from the smallest things. If you can have impact on one person, then you can multiply the effect and succeed.

This is very useful for someone who wants to go out and do things, but is unsure of where to start. When he talks about how he invented microfinance, he said: “Sometimes not knowing is a blessing.” He did not know banking, so he did the opposite to conventional banks. He lends to the poor, to women, to people living in villages and he suggested banks should go to people instead of having people coming to the office. Since he did not know the rule of banking, he violated the rules and succeeded. Microfinance flourished whilst the major banks were collapsing. This is something we should think about. He questioned the concept of business – it’s all about maximization. This is what’s got us into the financial mess right now and it is still what we are taught in business schools today. This needs to be changed.

The model of social enterprises enables positive changes in societies. It is different from a charity because it generates revenue to cover its own costs and it differentiates itself from a commercial enterprise for how it reinvests its profits. “A dollar in a charity has just one life, but a dollar in a social business has endless lives.” Prof Yunus has given an example of a social enterprise he has set up with friend which provides yoghurt with essential nutrients for children with malnutrition in Bangladesh. It not only improves the health of local children but also creates jobs for the unemployed. There are other examples he’s mentioned including social business that provides clean water for the poor, and partnership with Adidas which aims to make shoes at less than USD$1 per pair for the kids in Bangladesh.

His conclusion was so powerful that it still remains in my head. “The world is made by ideas, not theories. We make the rules, and we can change the rules. Do not have fear. We should keep reinventing ourselves”.

By the end of today, all the resolution discussed has been passed by voting. The summit is live broadcasted and there is a simultaneous online voting too. The results have reached consensus with our voting. However some delegates mentioned that the resolution is too vague – it tells you what, vaguely, but not how. During tomorrow we will form regional impact teams and add on to the resolution with more details for action, especially follow-up actions in long term. So, more to come tomorrow!

You can find out all about One Young World online at www.oneyoungworld.com including videos of the speeches and follow @OneYoungWorld on twitter.