Being A Global Citizen II
Now, some people's immediate reaction to this idea is that either it's a bit utopian or even threatening.
So I'd like to share with you a little of my story today, how I ended up here, how it connects with Davinia and, hopefully, with you.
Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, I was one of those seriously irritating little kids that never, ever stopped asking, "Why?"
You might have been one yourself. I used to ask my mum the most annoying questions.
I'd ask her questions like, "Mum, why I can't I dress up and play with puppets all day?"
"Why do you want fries with that?"
"What is a shrimp, and why do we have to keep throwing them on the barbie?"
(Laughter)
"And mum -- this haircut. Why?"
(Laughter)
The worst haircut, I think. Still terrible.
As a "why" kid, I thought I could change the world, and it was impossible to convince me otherwise.
And when I was 12 and in my first year of high school, I started raising money for communities in the developing world.
We were a really enthusiastic group of kids, and we raised more money than any other school in Australia.
And so I was awarded the chance to go to the Philippines to learn more.
It was 1998. We were taken into a slum in the outskirts of Manila.
It was there I became friends with Sonny Boy, who lived on what was literally a pile of steaming garbage.
"Smoky Mountain" was what they called it.
But don't let the romance of that name fool you,
because it was nothing more than a rancid landfill that kids like Sonny Boy spent hours rummaging through every single day to find something, anything of value.
That night with Sonny Boy and his family changed my life forever,
because when it came time to go to sleep, we simply laid down on this concrete slab the size of half my bedroom with myself, Sonny Boy, and the rest of his family,
seven of us in this long line, with the smell of rubbish all around us and cockroaches crawling all around.
And I didn't sleep a wink, but I lay awake thinking to myself, "Why should anyone have to live like this when I have so much?
Why should Sonny Boy's ability to live out his dreams be determined by where he's born, or what Warren Buffett called 'the ovarian lottery?'"
I just didn't get it, and I needed to understand why.
Questions
Which of the following correctly discribe the place where sonny boy lived?
>overcrowded, harsh and dingy.
Why does Evans introduce his life as a child?
>to show he insists on getting to the bottom of everything.
A slum is...
> an overcrowded, poor area of a city.
What is the "Smoky Mountain"?
>a pile of steaming garbage
Why does Evans emphasize the fact that he always ask why when he was younger? to show that he has always been examining new possibilities
Now, I only later came to understand that the poverty I'd seen in the Philippines was the result of decisions made or not made, man-made,
by a succession of colonial powers and corrupt governments who had anything but the interests of Sonny Boy at heart.
Sure, they didn't create Smoky Mountain, but they may as well have.
And if we're to try to help kids like Sonny Boy,
it wouldn't work just to try to send him a few dollars or to try to clean up the garbage dump on which he lived,
because the core of the problem lay elsewhere.
And as I worked on community development projects over the coming years trying to help build schools, train teachers, and tackle HIV and AIDS,
I came to see that community development should be driven by communities themselves,
and that although charity is necessary, it's not sufficient.
We need to confront these challenges on a global scale and in a systemic way.
And the best thing I could do is try to mobilize a large group of citizens back home to insist that our leaders engage in that systemic change.
That's why, a few years later, I joined with a group of college friends in bringing the Make Poverty History campaign to Australia.
We had this dream of staging this small concert around the time of the G20 with local Aussie artists,
and it suddenly exploded one day when we got a phone call from Bono, the Edge and Pearl Jam, who all agreed to headline our concert.
I got a little bit excited that day, as you can see.
(Laughter)
But to our amazement, the Australian government heard our collective voices,
and they agreed to double investment into global health and development
-- an additional 6.2 billion dollars. It felt like --
(Applause)
It felt like this incredible validation.
By rallying citizens together, we helped persuade our government to do the unthinkable, and act to fix a problem miles outside of our borders.
Questions
What does the success of Evans' campaign demonstrate?
>The power of communities can bring about meaningful change.
To rally people means to..
>bring them together in order to porovide support.
How did Evans attempt to improve global health and development?
>by holding a concert to influence world leaders
A musician who headlines a concert holds a concert is the concert's leading performer.
Why does Evans only use one or two words on his slides?
>to highlight the key points and prevent distraction.
We need to confront these challenges on a global scale and in a systemic way.
Some people's immediate reaction to this idea is that it's either a bit utopian or even threatening.