With the Occupy Wall Street movement (also known as #OWS) finally making headlines around the world and capturing people’s imaginations, the timing of Contact Summit 2011, tagline: the evolution will be social, taking place in New York City on Thursday, October 20, could not be any more timely.

The emergence of the #Occupy so-called protests that started in New York City last month and are now spreading fast across North America (with #OccupyToronto taking place today, October 15 on King St. and Bay St. downtown) has been described by noted media theorist Douglas Rushkoff as the first net-era movement in North America, taking its cue from the collaborative, open source, and sustainable models many people around the world are working to build right now.

Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO (with over a $1 trillion under management) argues that #OWS is more than just a nascent movement that will grow in the weeks and months ahead. Along with the non-violent grassroots protests that we have seen emerge from the Arab Spring earlier this year, particularly in Egypt and Tunisia, El-Erian argues that #OWS is part of a worldwide drive for greater social justice that has the potential to unify people from diverse cultural backgrounds, political affiliations, religions, and social classes. He also dismisses skeptics and critics of the #OWS movement as repeating the mistake that many made in Egypt, Israel and Tunisia—that of falling hostage to an outmoded way of thinking about seemingly-leaderless grassroots movements.

Rushkoff also makes a similar argument wherein he argues that the reason why some mainstream news journalists and many of the audiences they serve see the #OWS protests as incoherent, is precisely because the press and the public are themselves. He notes that it is difficult to comprehend a 21st century movement from the perspective of the 20th century politics, media, and economics in which we are still steeped. Rushkoff goes on to say that unlike a political campaign designed to get a person in office and then close up shop (as in Obama ’08), #OWS is not a movement with a traditional narrative arc. Rather, it is the product of the decentralized networked-era culture that makes up our reality today, where it is less about victory than sustainability; it is not about one-pointedness, but inclusion and groping toward consensus; it is not like a book, it is like the Internet.

Returning to the Contact Summit, convened and hosted by Douglas Rushkoff himself, and with the likes of Dennis Crowley (founder of Foursquare), Eli Pariser (founder of MoveOn.org) and Clay Shirky attending, along with a number of other very talented people, the conference should prove to be interesting especially given the very participatory and results-oriented nature of the event. The Collaboratory—a “collaboratory” of attendee-conceived and moderated conversations taking place throughout the day, along with The Bazaar—a two-hour midday festival of demos, have been designed to produce results with the question, What concrete steps can we take to realize a true potential of the networked era?, kept in mind.

From the Contact Summit website:

“Contact is a working festival of innovation where the net’s leading minds and entrepreneurs can connect with the people who are building the social technologies of tomorrow. The net of the future will not be fueled by ads, but by people solving real problems through distributed, peer-to-peer solutions. This is dormant promise of the Internet, finally coming to fruition.”

Im looking forward to attending and participating at Contact in New York City next week and will certainly be keeping close tabs on the #OWS movement, especially now that I am back in Canada for the next little while and all of this hits way too close to home.

Half of the projects that I have worked on as well as conferences that I have attended since September of last year, were a result, if not a direct result, of being prepared and being open to many of these opportunities that came my way.

And with that, I am happy to share that I will be doing a fair bit of traveling over the next two weeks, and I hope to make a lot of new friends as well as see a lot of familiar faces along the way.

AEGEE, which stands for Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l’Europe/European Students’ Forum, is the largest student organization in Europe representing over 15,000 students in over 200 university cities across more than 40 European countries. I will be attending as a representative of the local chapter at my school, AEGEE Szombathely-Kőszeg, and I look forward to learning how student government is done in Europe, contrasting that to my years of experience with student government in Canada.

From there – and this is where I am really excited – I will be heading to Al Ain, United Arab Emirates on May 3rd and staying until May 8th, to attend TEDxAlAin: Towards Tomorrow on May 7th. For the past two months, I have been helping my friend and fellow University of Waterloo alum, Sajjad Kamal, organize TEDxAlAin remotely, helping mainly to establish the event’s online web presence at www.TEDxAlAin.com.

That said, I am also really looking forward to the event itself, as it promises to showcase the best that the city of Al Ain has to offer in terms of art, culture, history and innovation.

In more ways than one, a big part of me feels like I am heading ‘home’ back to good old Al Ain. And man, it feels good.

Happy and blessed Easter everyone!

Prof. Kaldor was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Corvinus University of Budapest given her extensive work on the issues of globalisation, international relations and humanitarian intervention, global civil society and global governance, and her theory of new wars.

Mary Kaldor – April 18 2011 Corvinus University.pdf Download this file

As I mentioned in my January update, the Mindanao region has been plagued by decades of internal strife and conflict between armed-Muslim separatist groups and government forces, affecting the lives of millions of people living in the region. I would be lying to you if I told you that I wasn’t scared or nervous to go to Mindanao, given all of the stereotypes and forewarnings that many of my relatives and friends in the Philippines mentioned prior to my departure. In fact, there was a bombing at the Zamboanga City Airport as recently as August 2010, where 2 people were killed and where the target of the bombing was the governor of Sulu, one of the more troubled provinces in the region of Mindanao.

Having said all of this, most of my relatives and friends in the Philippines have never actually been that far south in Mindanao. I know that a lot of their (mis)perceptions are driven by what is reported and showcased in mainstream media in the Philippines and elsewhere, as it seems all that is ever reported in the Philippine media are stories of violence and conflict coming out of Mindanao. Alternative news sources such as MindaNews.com and EQuALLS2 are trying to change this perception of Mindanao, by showcasing other stories beyond conflict and strife: from advances in education and environmental awareness in the region, to culture, governance and human rights issues.

One of the biggest motivating factors for attending and volunteering for this peace conference in Zamboanga City, was to change this (mis)perception of Mindanao for myself, and hopefully in the process, change the minds of my relatives and friends in the Philippines as well. What I found in Mindanao was far from what the media portrayed the region to be. I met some of the nicest and most hospitable people in the country, including some very inspirational women who were willing to step up and reclaim peace in their communities, especially those communities directly affected by the outbreak of violence as a result of the ongoing conflict.

From Vision to Action, From Conflict to Peace

The conference itself, the 2nd Philippine National Conference of Muslim Women Peace Advocates, was probably one of the best conferences that I have attended to date. And it all comes down to this: actions speak louder than words. Reflecting on why I felt this way after leaving the conference, I have concluded that perhaps it had a lot to do with the context and location of the conference itself; the promise of concrete action given the enthusiasm of the delegates involved; as well as the strong organizational supporting framework provided by the PCID, Magbassa Kita Foundation, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, and other civil society organizations and intergovernmental agencies.

When discussing the road to sustainable peace within the context of the conflict in Mindanao, the topic at hand–from vision to action, from conflict to peace–felt very real to me. This was particularly the case when I spoke with a woman from Basilan, as well as another woman from Maguindanao, who had seen first hand the detrimental effects the conflict has had on their families and communities. And yet, both of them (together with the other 150 delegates at the conference), possessed a sense of optimism and conviction that sustainable peace can be achieved in Mindanao in the not-too-distant future.

This peace can be achieved through the systemic deployment of local initiatives that aim to empower local women, such as maternal health and literacy education drives, and raising awareness of the implications and protections of international law to do with women, peace and security; but most important of all, formally organizing themselves into an advocacy organization, Noorus Salam (Arabic for Light of Peace) in order to gain a seat at the decision making table when it comes to the peace process negotiations. The belief here is that peace cannot be attained simply through the signing of a peace agreement between the Muslim armed separatist groups and the government of the Republic of the Philippines, without involving other key stakeholders in the community, such as the women, in a systematic and open way.

International laws and grassroots organizations on the ground

As a volunteer for the conference, I also had the opportunity to participate and document one of the four concurrent workshops taking place throughout the four-day conference. The workshop that I participated in, to do with international laws on women, peace & security, such as UNSCR 1325 and 1820, was facilitated by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), a membership-based organization composed of 50 women peacebuilding organizations from around the world. Often described as a “network of networks,” GNWP aims to bridge policy discussions of international laws pertaining to women, peace and security, between government and intergovernmental agencies, and grassroots civil society organizations working on the ground to implement these resolutions.

As this workshop progressed throughout the conference, it was definitely encouraging and inspiring to see the transformation the conference delegates went through when they realized that tools and resources, as well as people and organizations both in the Philippines and around the world, did in fact exist to help (empower) them to achieve their objectives of building peace in their local communities.

UNSCR 1325

To provide some context, UNSCR 1325 is a resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council in 2000, that reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and humanitarian responses in post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security. What made UNSCR 1325 groundbreaking and different from other prior international laws and resolutions dealing with women, peace and security, such as CEDAW (1979) and the Beijing Declaration (1995), was that it helped to transform the image of women from victims of war and conflict, to active peacebuilders and decision-makers. This transformative principle of UNSCR 1325 not only moved the issues of women, peace and security from the gender agenda–placing it front and centre on the international peace and security agenda of the UN Security Council–it also provided women the right to sit and be heard at the decision-making table when discussing (international) peace and security issues.

Powerful as these international laws and resolutions may seem on paper, they are essentially meaningless unless they are implemented where they matter, such as local communities on the ground that are directly affected by conflict. In other words, what is the relevance of these international laws and resolutions to a woman farmer in the troubled region of Mindanao? In this case, organizations such as the GNWP takes on a global to local approach through the development, implementation and monitoring of National Action Plans (NAP) with governments and civil society organizations around the world, while developing a local to global strategy through initiating worldwide dialogue with global policy makers, diplomats in the UN, and women directly affected by conflict all around the world, from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Congo and Iran. I am also proud to say that the Philippines is the first country in Asia, and only the fifth Global South country, that has adopted a National Action Plan for the development and implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its supporting resolution UNSCR 1820, into executable, measurable and accountable actions.

At the end of the day, no successful implementation of these international laws and resolutions can be done without the participation of civil society organizations such as Noorus Salam, PCID, GNWP and others, in coordination with intergovernmental agencies. As Noorus Salam is just getting started, I look forward to where they are headed next in their advocacy and peacebuilding work. The future for Mindanao and the Philippines is exciting and it is only just the beginning.

A mural depicting the Troubles in Free Derry – More photos on Flickr here

Prior to the conference, I really did not know much about the conflict happening in Ireland, specifically in Northern Ireland, let alone understand the full intensity and gravity of the historical divisions that runs deep between those who fought for an independent Irish republic, the mainly-Catholic nationalists; and those who fought to remain a part of the United Kingdom, the mainly-Protestant unionists. My perception of Ireland and the Irish in general, was rather limited to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations held every March 17; Guinness; four-leaf clovers; and leprechauns sitting on a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This, I believe, is a fairly typical North American perspective to say the least–I would hazard a guess and say this is the perspective a majority of people hold who are not from, or have lived, in Ireland/Northern Ireland/United Kingdom for an extended period of time. In any case, I am almost embarrassed to admit what my stereotypes of Ireland were prior to this experience.

Another mural depicting the Troubles in Free Derry – More photos on Flickr here

I also don’t fully understand the complexities or know all of the history behind the troubles of Northern Ireland. I am, however, very curious about the peace process that has brought about a relative amount of peace and calm across Northern Ireland for the past decade or so; specifically in Derry, said to be the epicentre of the Irish Troubles back in 1968 and also where Bloody Sunday took place on January 30, 1972, when 13 civilians were shot dead by the British military in a civil rights march in the Bogside area. On a side note, there was a recent car bombing that took place in Derry in early October of this year; fortunately, no one was injured as a warning was given ahead of time. This time around, a group calling themselves the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the attack. And as with many conflicts around the world, there are always two sides to every story. A cursory search on YouTube regarding the ‘The Troubles’ in Ireland reveals countless documentaries on the nature of the conflict. However, within minutes, you can usually tell which ideological lens and perspective the video stems from and seeks to portray. Wikipedia also has a fairly comprehensive overview of ‘The Troubles’ of Northern Ireland, with a long list of references to look into, should you be interested in understanding the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland in greater detail.

Derry, Northern Ireland – More photos on Flickr here

There was one particular aspect of the conference that I found to be one of the most intense experiences that I have ever encountered in my life. On day two of the conference, we were extremely lucky to have had 3 cast members of the Playhouse Theatre of Witness production, “I Once Knew A Girl…” , along with the director, Teya Sepinuck, come in to give us a rendition of the play specifically for delegates of the conference. Since it was a fairly small academic conference with around 50 conference attendees (including speakers), to say that the atmosphere in the small(ish) lecture room was intimate was an understatement.

“I Once Knew a Girl…” – More photos on Flickr here

“I Once Knew A Girl…” is described as an original multi-media production performed and created by women whose lives were affected during the Troubles. The play is based on their true life stories and the production is by daughters, mothers, grandmothers and partners who through the circumstances of history, became involved as witnesses, survivors, and active participants of the Troubles, as well as more recent years of peace building. The one story that really got to me was the story of Mrs. Gillespie, the wife of Patrick ‘Patsy’ Gillespie, a Catholic from Derry who worked for the British Army as a cook, and thus, seen as a legitimate target; kidnapped by the IRA and forced to drive a van loaded with explosives into a military checkpoint outside of Derry, killing Mr. Gillespie and five other British soldiers in the process. By the time Mrs. Gillespie had finished telling her story, I was in tears just like a little child and completely speechless for close to half an hour. Prior to Mrs. Gillespie sharing her story and concluding the conference rendition of the play, we had also heard from a woman who was a former IRA paramilitary member, as well as from another woman who was a police officer. Given the history and complexities of the Troubles, the fact that these women have the strength to come together to share their stories in the face of conflict, adversity and tragedy, and in the end, are able to move and carry on with their lives, doing their part to build lasting peace in their community, sends a very strong message that peace can be achieved.

You are now entering Free Derry – More photos on Flickr here

Directly following the play, we then heard from world renowned journalist, Isabel Hilton, who showcased her documentary, Condemned to Live (1999), a report about the after-effects of mass rape and genocide in Rwanda. Isabel then spoke briefly about the state of uncertainty in the world today and the pending environmental crisis that humanity is facing, beginning with the melting of the polar ice caps as a result of raised temperatures due to climate change. When asked a question from the audience why she continues to do what she does, given her long and illustrious career as a journalist having covered many important stories for more than three decades from all over the world, she responded, (paraphrasing slightly), “you cannot ‘un-know’ what you know… and when you know, you can no longer claim moral innocence and just stand there and do nothing about it.”

Some of the delegates from the BCA Divided Societies Conference 2010, Magee College, University of Ulster – More photos on Flickr here

Needless to say, by the end of the second day of the conference, I was a broken man, but not yet beaten; disheartened, perhaps a little; yet, I still remained positive in the goodness of humanity despite what I had just seen and witnessed. Earlier during the first day of the conference as well, we had also heard from Jody Jensen from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (and Director of the MA International Economics Relations program at ISES), about the case of Agnes Gereb being thrown into a Hungarian prison, for championing home births in the face of the authorities’ hardline childbirth policy. However, this issue is important enough to me to merit its own blog post, which I will be publishing very shortly.

At the end of the day, I learned a lot more about the Northern Ireland conflict; walked away with a much deeper appreciation of the role women play when it comes to peace building within divided societies; and made a lot of new friends with some of the coolest people in the world.

In the words of Yann Arthus-Bertrand in the documentary, Home, it is too late to be a pessimist.

Check against delivery

Thank you very much for the kind introduction, I appreciate it.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, most especially to the delegates of the Global Young Leaders Conference. My name is Renjie Butalid and I am from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, a city that is home to one of the most famous and recognizable products in the world: the Blackberry smartphone produced by Canadian company Research In Motion. Now for my own curiosity, how many of you own a Blackberry? Well then, I actually own an Apple iPhone myself, but please don’t let that information leave this room, since I do have to go back to Waterloo after all.

It is my sincere pleasure to be with all of you here in Washington, DC this evening.

On a personal level, my presence on this stage is extremely humbling. You see, back in 2002, I was a 17-year old teenager who had just graduated from high school in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. That summer soon after finishing high school and before I went off to the University of Waterloo in Canada to eventually earn a degree in Economics and Political Science, I found myself here at the Global Young Leaders Conference as a delegate. At the opening keynote, we were in a room much similar to the one we are in now and I was in the audience surrounded by a group of exceptional young people from all over the world, just like all of you today. Many of the people I met back at the GYLC, I still call friends to this very day.

And just so everyone knows, when I was a delegate at the GYLC eight years ago, I was a delegate representing India. Where are the Team India delegates in the audience this evening? Namaste.

And I remember all I could think of when I sat quietly and reflected, after having traveled thousands of miles to get to this conference, which was also my first visit to the United States of America, was,

“What am I really doing here?”

“Am I really a leader?”

“I don’t even know what it takes to lead, let alone, know what it takes to be a ‘global young leader’.”

Now, if you find yourself asking these very same questions at this particular moment in time, I will let you in on a secret that has taken me a while to discover.

That it is OK to be scared and uncertain, not knowing what to expect and to not have all of the answers all the time. At times, it is ok to even question whether you have the capacity and makings of a leader. I know that I’ve certainly questioned myself in the past, especially when I was a highly involved student leader at the University of Waterloo, where at one point, I had the responsibility of overseeing a budget of over $1.2 million dollars on behalf of 24,000 undergraduate students when I was on student government. I’ve also questioned myself on numerous occasions, most recently as a community organizer involved with a number of local community events back in Waterloo. But I prevailed.

What I have learned throughout my own leadership experience is to let that feeling of self-doubt and uncertainty motivate me and I would encourage all of you to do the same; there is after all, only a very small difference between excitement and fear of uncertainty. Instead of being scared, tell yourself that you’re excited to be here and open yourself up to the possibilities that exist out there in the world. There is a reason why you are all here in Washington, DC and will be in New York City, attending this global conference on youth leadership over the next ten days. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I really hope that you make the most of it.

The fact that you are all here this evening tells me that you all believe in yourselves, and that there are people out there who also see your leadership potential and capabilities, be they your parents, teachers, guidance counselors, friends or mentors. There is something very powerful in the notion that someone out there believes in you. It is equally as important to have this boost of confidence at such a young age and this is one of the many reasons why I am truly excited for all of you in the coming days ahead. This is only the beginning of your global leadership journey, where you ultimately begin to believe that you are a leader; it eventually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now, in a world where the real and pressing problems of climate change, poverty and hunger, deforestation, peace and global conflict, water and food scarcity, conservation, overpopulation, human rights, and many more; where these problems are accelerating at a pace and level of complexity never before seen in history, it is evident we require new tools and approaches that will enable us to tackle these problems at their level of scale. If ever there was a time the world needed young people to step up to the challenge, to work together and find innovative solutions in order to tackle these complex global issues, that time is NOW. And that is why, standing before you this very evening at the opening of the Global Young Leaders Conference, where all of you will have the opportunity to discuss many of these problems in greater depth and working towards solutions in the days ahead, I remain hopeful, especially as a young person, who is not much older than many of you in this room today.

For I firmly believe that young people – us – have the power and the opportunities like never before to affect positive change in this world today. At this conference, you have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, to make new friends from countries that perhaps you never knew even existed, and to imagine a world of new possibilities as you begin to interact and work with people and organizations, especially those in positions of leadership on the world stage, such as the United Nations.

If you are willing to step up to challenge the status quo, with the firm belief that there is a better way to operate as humanity in the world today, know this, that you are joining a movement, which according to renowned environmentalist, social entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, describes as the largest movement the world has ever seen. In light of many of the world’s problems and challenges, this movement currently provides hope, support and meaning to billions of people all over the world. And again according to Hawken, no one really knows exactly how large this movement of tackling the most salient problems of our day, really is; all we know is that the action is taking place all over the world, in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refugee camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums. I would add conferences like the Global Young Leaders Conference into the mix as well.

I would also like to throw a note of caution for the young, intrepid changemaker however. Ric Young, one of Canada’s foremost thought leaders on social innovation, has forewarned that the real work of change is long and frustratingly slow, with these moments of transformation every now and then. Profound social change is not something that happens overnight, as the mainstream media including 24-hour cable television, would have you to believe. Nor is it something that is linear or predictable. Throughout history, we have seen that transformative social change – from women’s suffrage, to moving from an agrarian to an industrialized, and now knowledge-based economy – has happened and can continue to happen in the future; all we have to do, according to Young, is tap into the latent energy that exists in society, in communities around the world. There is no question that we all live and operate in this world, and that we do have some measure of responsibility and the opportunity for having an effect in it. It is not hard to convince people who have a leadership mentality that making a contribution now to the future is a significant thing to do. It no longer becomes a question of why, but how?

Now that I’ve given you an overview of the context of the world we live in and described some of the challenges that we, as humanity, collectively face, let me now say a few words about leadership, most especially servant leadership, and how these types of leaders enable and inspire others.

To use the often-quoted saying by Marianne Williamson,

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us… Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you… We are all meant to shine, as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Building on this, I now want each of you to take a moment to just think about the words “Leader” and “Leadership” based on your own experiences. What do these words mean to you?

Now that you’ve given this some thought, I would like to make the distinction between leaders and those who lead. Leaders, using the textbook definition of the word, are people or organizations that hold formal positions of power and authority. In short, these types of leaders are the ones who say, “I’m the boss and I’m in charge around here.” They also usually say, but not always, “It’s my way or the highway.”

On the other hand, those who lead, are people or organizations that do not necessarily hold any formal positions of power or authority, but are able to inspire and motivate us because they are driven by firm beliefs and convictions. We follow them not because we have to, but because we want to. We ultimately believe in what they believe and stand for, and eventually we take their cause as our own.

A great and very recent example of this was the election of Senator Barack Obama to the White House in 2008, where he was elected to became the first African-American President of the United States of America. The Obama campaign slogan of “Yes We Can”, ultimately spoke to the millions of Americans, especially young Americans, who came out in massive droves to volunteer for the campaign and to vote Obama into office. Obama’s presidential campaign at the time, spoke to the urgent need and desire for profound change in the country, and in the world. However, we do need to keep Ric Young’s warning in mind, the work of real change is long and frustratingly slow, with these moments of transformation that do not just happen overnight.

We also only need to look at the thousands of people who came out to hear Obama speak when he was out on the campaign trail, both in the United States and abroad, as an example of a leader who was able to inspire others to dare to imagine possibilities. To go back even further into history, we have the examples of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi who led movements of thousands of people, based on the causes they believed in.

Obama, Martin Luther King and Gandhi are all household names and almost always come to mind when we think of great leaders able to inspire and motivate others. But how many of you have heard of Majid Mirza? Ruby Ku? Kristina Lugo? Nick Petten? And the list goes on and on. Chances are, you probably haven’t… yet. You see, they are all friends of mine, and in some way, shape or form, they inspire me for they are all working towards creating a positive impact out there in the world, both in Canada and as far away as Pakistan, Botswana, Malawi and Thailand, in ways that fulfill their desire to challenge the status quo.

Now, take Majid for example, an introduction to the term ‘social enterprise’ a couple of years ago led him to an internship with the Acumen Fund in Pakistan last summer, to work on their Micro Drip Project where he helped farmers in rural areas grow their crops in a sustainable manner. Social enterprise in this case, refers to a practice of operating a business model that has a positive social and environmental impact, while generating monetary returns allowing it to be financially sustainable in the long run. In other words, it is a new way of doing business where the bottom line is not solely how much money can be made, but what positive impact can we have in society in the process as well.

Of course, Majid’s story is similar to Ruby’s, Kristina’s, Nick’s, and the hundreds of individuals I know that are just like them. They are ordinary young people just like you and me wanting to change the world, doing what they do and inspiring others in the process. What I am trying to say is that you don’t need to be rich and famous, a great speaker, or even have the best hair, in order to be a great leader. Of course having the best hair always helps, but it is not essential.

French writer and aviator, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, once said

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Going back to the Barack Obama example, “Yes We Can”.

Inspired leaders – those who lead – are driven by a cause, a higher purpose or a strong belief that there is, and can be, a better way of doing things. The traditional model of leadership involves being in charge, having the position of authority and power and being served by others. In the world we live in today and the complexity of the global challenges that we face, we can no longer afford to depend on the traditional model of leadership, where one person sits at the top and makes the decisions that affect us all. The good news is, this traditional model of leadership is giving way to the evolving concept of Servant Leadership, first coined by Robert Greenleaf in his seminal 1970 essay entitled, “The Servant as a Leader”, which suggests that true leadership involves humbling yourself and serving others. Other characteristics of the servant leader include, being trustworthy, self-aware, a visionary, empowering, relational, competent, having good stewardship and being a community builder.

Again, we follow these inspired servant leaders not because we have to, but because we want to. When you talk about what you believe in, you will attract those who believe what you believe, and right then and there, you have the beginnings of a movement.

Remember, always strive to be someone who leads, inspires and serves others.

And finally, now that I’ve talked about the context of the world we live in today and shared some of my key insights on inspired servant leadership, I would like to use the last portion of my talk to discuss humility and self-identity within the context of leadership.

Paul Saltzman, photographer for The Beatles and award-winning film director, has said that the concept of humility is “not about making yourself feel small but rather, understanding your size in the vastness of the universe”. To me, this speaks volumes in understanding how you see yourself in this world, let alone the universe, as well as to the concept of true leadership requiring humility and the capacity to serve others.

In the opening of my talk, I mentioned that I was from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, simply because I have lived, studied and worked there for the past eight years, and it is as much a part of me as my cultural heritage and background. In many ways, the story is a lot more complicated, as beyond simply “coming from Waterloo in Canada,” I do consider myself to be a global citizen given my background and history.

I was born in the Philippines to middle-class, hard-working Filipino parents, who decided to move to the United Arab Emirates when I was five years old, in search of new beginnings and a better life for our family. Growing up in the United Arab Emirates until I was seventeen, I was always unsure of my identity and where my place was in this world given that I was living in a foreign country. Was I Filipino who just happened to have lived-Middle Eastern experiences? Or was I Middle Eastern with a Filipino background? Two years ago, I became a Canadian citizen, so you can imagine the thoughts that were going through my head when I thought about my identity and where my place was in this world.

Now I tell this personal story of my background and my search for identity because I believe that it is important to know who you are as an individual and where you have come from, in order to begin to understand where your place is in this world and where you are headed in the future. Of course, this is a journey with an unknown destination, and going back to early on in my speech, it is ok to not have all the answers all of the time. I’m still not too sure where I am headed in the future, but all I know is that I am headed in the right direction and I am excited for it. Being with all of you here this evening in Washington, DC is certainly a clear indication of that to me.

To go back to what I believe in, I firmly believe that young people – us – in this day and age, do have the power and the opportunities like never before to affect positive change in this world. And if those opportunities somehow don’t exist, there is nothing stopping you from creating them. As humanity, we are more connected today than we have ever been in the past; we literally have the world at our fingertips. How many people here have Blackberrys and iPhones again?

I also only have to look at my friends Majid and others, as concrete examples of young people affecting positive change in their communities, to be convinced that there are better ways of doing things – from creating effective government policy and better business practices that generate not only financial, but also social and environmental returns, to ensuring education, healthcare, food and clean drinking water is available to everyone, most especially the world’s poor, the 1-2 billion people living on less than $2 a day.

As GYLC delegates who are about to embark on a shared journey together, embrace this opportunity of a lifetime, dream big and strongly believe that you CAN make a difference in this world.

In the words of William Shakespeare,

“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them”

I wish you all the very best of luck. Thank you for having me. It has been a pleasure to be here this evening and I look forward to your questions.

As an alumnus of the GYLC, I am extremely excited and humbled at the very same time, to have been asked to give the opening keynote. I attended this very same youth leadership conference back in July 2002. The difference is, back then, I was a young and naive 17 year old teenager who had just graduated from the International School of Choueifat in Al Ain, with a world of possibilities before him. Given my work with Social Innovation Generation these past few years and my keen interest in social entrepreneurship, I still feel that there is a world of possibilities out there, it is certainly an exciting time to be a part of this growing social innovation movement.

I was asked to write up a reflections piece by the CYLC discussing my journey beyond the conference in 2002, to be featured in their newsletter to parents and students thinking about attending the GYLC. If you are one of those students and you are reading this, I would highly recommend you attend.

I have shared my reflection piece below, feedback welcome.

With this in mind, I will be in Washington DC July 10-14, 2010 and then in New York City from July 14-18, 2010. So if you are in town and would like to get together, please feel free to drop me a line.

Reflections of a GYLC Alumnus (2002) – by Renjie Butalid

I attended the Global Young Leaders Conference in July 2002 after I was nominated and encouraged to attend by my high-school teacher during senior year. I did not realize the extent to which the conference would have an impact on me until now, when I was asked to submit a reflection piece by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council on my journey after the GYLC. Looking back over the past eight years, I can say with utmost certainty that it was a transformative experience for me and I would not be the person I am today if it had not been for the days spent in Washington DC and New York City that summer. The lessons that I learned and the people I met from all over the world, many of whom I call close friends and still keep in touch with, have had a profound impact on me even to this day.

Making the decision to attend the GYLC was not an easy one as it required a much bigger personal and financial commitment coming from the United Arab Emirates, a country situated in the Middle East and halfway around the world from the United States of America. I lived and grew up in a small oasis desert city called Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, with parents who decided to move to the UAE from the Philippines in 1990. Growing up, I was your average teenager, not quite shy, and yet, not too sure what my identity was and where my place was in this world given my cultural background and heritage living in a foreign country. I also never considered myself to be a leader, even though it seemed I was highly involved in high school through playing on a number of sports teams and competing with other schools in the local area.

Attending the GYLC changed all that and I was able to see myself in a different light from then on. There is something very powerful in the notion that someone out there believes in you and sees your leadership potential and capabilities. You ultimately begin to believe it yourself and it eventually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. More than anything, the GYLC allowed me to find the courage within myself as I embarked on my leadership journey moving forward.

Following the conference, I came to Canada as an international student to study mathematics and business at the University of Waterloo. Two years into the program, I realized more than anything that my interests and passions were more aligned with the study of finance and international relations, so I switched majors and chose to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a minor in Political Science from the University of Waterloo. I also found myself getting a lot more involved within the Waterloo student community; getting hired as a residence don and introducing first-year students to campus life as a freshman orientation leader, and eventually becoming president of the Waterloo Model United Nations where I was able to lead a team of Waterloo students to the Harvard University Model United Nations conference in Boston in 2006. My experience with the GYLC and subsequent introduction to the UN Headquarters in New York City back in 2002, where we played the role of diplomats engaged in foreign relations, certainly helped to put things into perspective for me early on.

These activities and my involvement with numerous clubs and organizations on campus, gave me the boost of confidence I needed to really take on major leadership roles at the University of Waterloo. In early 2006, I ran for and was elected to the one-year term of Vice President Administration & Finance for the student-body government at the University of Waterloo, having the privilege to represent over 24,000 undergraduate students and tasked with the responsibility of managing an operating budget of $1.2 million.

These days my interests lies in the realm of social innovation, working full-time for close to two years now as the (Waterloo) Communications Coordinator for the Canadian-based Social Innovation Generation, a national collaborative between University of Waterloo, MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation in Montreal and PLAN Institute in Vancouver, designed to foster a culture of social innovation in Canada. Social innovation, in this case, refers to new ways of thinking and acting within society–from government, education and healthcare, to non-profit, charity and business–in order to address the root causes of intractable social problems that will ultimately lead to transformative and meaningful change within our local communities and across global society as a whole.

This idea of creating meaning within our lives and having a deeper impact within our local communities, is far more resonant with our generation that it has ever been in the past. It is an exciting time to be involved in profound social change within our communities and as US President Barack Obama once said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek.”

More than anything, the GYLC offered me the opportunity to see myself as a leader at such a young age, preparing me to take on the complexities of global challenges and for this, I am truly grateful.

Posted via email from renjie’s posterous

Pleasantly surprised to find my talk from the EpCon conference in Waterloo last week featured on TechVibes today.

From the article by Karim Kanji

When it comes to technology I’ve always been of the belief that if it can’t make life easier or simpler, then who cares.  So, when it comes to creating positive social change, I’m all ears.  Last Friday, Renjie Butalid, Communications Coordinator for Social Innovation Generation at the University of Waterloo, spoke at EPIC‘s EpCon 2010 event in Waterloo, Ontario.

Renjie challenged the delegates to question how they could use their education to use technology to transform social dilemmas.  Renjie, himself, is passionate about using online communities, technology and social media to create positive social change.  Furthermore, he is convinced that young people have the power and opportunity, like never before, to affect positive change in the world.

During his presentation he cited four examples of companies and initiatives that have used technology to create meaningful societal change:

1. KIVA - A dream of lending to low-income entrepreneurs via the internet is now one of the largest and most successful micro-lending programs in the world with thousands of people now able to live in dignity.
2. Cell-Life – The vision of Cell-Life is to improve the lives of people affected by AIDS in South Africa through the use of mobile technology.
3. SIMpill - According to their website, the SIMpill Medication Adherence System monitors the patient’s medication schedule and intake of medication and reminds patients and carers as necessary by sending a text message to the patient and/or carers mobile phone if the patient does not take their medication as prescribed.
4. MoCa - MoCa connects health workers in developing nations to medical professionals around the world via mobile technology.

To date, more than $10 million has been raised via SMS for Haiti earthquake relief.  With two-thirds of Africa’s 4.5 billion people using some sort of mobile technology in the next 2 years, the opportunity for social change is not just a hope anymore: it’s real.

Nick, Mike and I also had a great time capturing video and doing interviews with all the delegates, organizers and speakers at #EpCon last weekend, as part of We Move Media.

We’re hoping to have the videos edited and released in the next week or so. Stay tuned for more details!

Congratulations to the EPIC team for doing an amazing job with running the conference!

Posted via web from renjie’s posterous

That said, I will be speaking at the upcoming EpCon 2010 student technology conference to be held in Waterloo, Ontario next week on January 15-16, hosted by the up and coming student organization, EPIC Technology Organization founded at the University of Waterloo.

EPIC (which stands for Educate, Promote, Inspire & Connect) promises to bring together North America’s leading tech gurus and 300 student tech enthusiasts from schools all over Canada to imagine where the future of technology is headed. With tech heavyweights such as Google, Facebook, EA, Rogers, CISCO, RIM and IBM present at the conference, I am sincerely humbled to have been asked to deliver one of only three so-called ‘Power Talks‘ on a topic that I am extremely passionate about: social entrepreneurship, more specifically technology in social enterprise.

Given the context of the conference, I will be speaking on how an emerging generation of leaders and changemakers from all over the world, are harnessing the power of online and mobile technology to bring about significant positive social change, most especially to the world’s poor with limited or no access to such technology. Examples abound such as Kiva, where in just over four years, have managed to raise $100 million in the form of microloans for entrepreneurs in developing countries (and most recently, to entrepreneurs based in the US); to organizations such as Cell-Life and SIMpill in South Africa leveraging mobile SMS technology to revolutionize healthcare delivery for patients with HIV/AIDS and TB respectively.

These are only a few of the examples that I hope to showcase at EpCon 2010 next week. As I have said before and will say again, young people have the power and opportunities like never before to affect positive social change in this world, and this will become even more apparent in the decade to come.

If you are interested in attending EpCon 2010, there are still spaces available but you will have to register very soon in order to guarantee your spot. See you next week!