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.

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(Above: Somewhere in Michigan – Road trip across the USA – February 2008 Edition with
Kevin Royal, Shawn Grover and Adam Halpert)

Building on an earlier blog post, I intend on making my way across Canada solo at the end of the month, all the way from Toronto, ON to Cranbrook, BC. I will be traveling from July 26 to July 30 and will be covering approximately 4,400 kms.

The long drives each day should provide me with a lot of time to think and reflect, and on occasion, sing along at the top of my voice to the loud music blasting from my car speakers. Of course, I plan on downloading a number of audio books and comedy podcasts as well to keep me company and would be open to any recommendations. Please feel free to leave them in the comments section of this blog post.

Below is the tentative schedule of my road trip across Canada, alongside the embedded Google map that showcases the route I intend to take in order to get to Cranbrook, BC.

View Larger Map

Monday, July 26 – A. Toronto, ON  to B. Sault Ste. Marie, ON

Tuesday, July 27 – B. Sault Ste. Marie, ON to C. Thunder Bay, ON

Wednesday, July 28 – C. Thunder Bay, ON to D. Winnipeg, MB

Thursday, July 29 – D. Winnipeg, MB to E. Regina, SK

Friday, July 30 – E. Regina, SK to F. Cranbrook, BC

Six Degrees of Separation – Perhaps YOU Can Help?

As I make my way across Canada, I would certainly be open to anyone wanting to show me around their city or town as I am passing through. (Anyone have a friend in Wawa, Ontario for example?)

For the cities highlighted in bold scheduled on the tentative dates above, it would be great if it also came with an offer to crash on your couch for the night.

(Above: Sigma Chi House, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas -
Road trip across the USA – February 2008 Edition with Kevin Royal, Shawn Grover and Adam Halpert)

If you or a friend of a friend would be willing to help me out with this favor, please do get in touch with me via email – renjiebutalid (at) gmail (dot) com, Twitter, Facebook, or feel free to leave a comment at the end of this blog post.

If you are able to help me out, what you would get in return is great company and lots of laughs, and a new found friend who would be forever grateful. Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing from many of you.

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- working on my newly launched photography blog, Photography by Renjie; now that I have purchased by first DSLR camera, the Nikon D5000, the possibilities are endless;

- making my way across Canada from Waterloo, ON to Cranbrook, BC at the end of July (details to come) and documenting the entire road trip along the way;

- hiking, swimming, camping and generally exploring the great outdoors of British Columbia while I am there;

- building a kite from scratch, now that I have seemingly found a new hobby after stumbling across it almost by accident back in April;

- beginning to plan TEDxWaterloo 2011 via email and Skype working sessions with a solid team, after the success of the inaugural TEDxWaterloo back in February this year;

- imagining the possibility of an Ignite Cranbrook taking place in mid- to late September, modelled after the success of Ignite Waterloo;

- and of course, looking forward to my keynote speech at the Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington, DC later this month.

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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

(Photo taken in San Francisco 2007)

Stay tuned in the next couple of days for a major update on where my life is headed next.

This includes my contract finishing up with SiG at the end of June; traveling to Washington DC for a keynote speech and then off to New York City for a mini high school reunion in July; followed by one, possibly two, road trips across Canada (and yes, I’m talking about going all the way from Halifax to Vancouver) for a couple of weeks, before spending some time in the Canadian Rocky Mountains with la familia, planning my next move.

And for those of you reading between the lines, yes, after 8 amazing years of studying, living and working in Waterloo, I am happy to say that I will be leaving this beautiful city come beginning of July, perhaps to return at some point in the distant future, who knows?

For now, exciting times ahead filled with a lot of uncertainty and yet, I have a certain sense of comfort that everything will be ok.

I just know it will.

Posted via web from renjie’s posterous

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I found the video above of a recent lecture given by Antony Bugg-Levine of the Rockefeller Foundation, when he came to visit MaRS in Toronto back in early April, to be one of the most insightful and compelling talks on impact investing and social finance that I have come across.

If you are currently working in the private capital investment sector or perhaps with a non-profit or charity organization, interested in social enterprise and sustainable revenue generating models, I would highly encourage you to take some time out of your day to watch this video. It may change your perspective on the traditional view of only using the for-profit model to make money, while only using the charity and non-profit model to address social problems.

In this day and age, where the problems we are facing are accelerating at a pace and complexity never before seen in history, it is evident that we require new approaches and tools that will enable us to tackle these problems at their scale and level of complexity. In the coming decades, experts have noted that we will begin to see rapid systemic changes on many levels, from the weakening of national public institutions, widening gaps between rich and poor, increasing scarcity of energy, and worsening damage of our environment as a result of climate change.

With this in mind, how are we to tackle many of these emerging globally complex problems, given the traditional models of charitable giving and our reliance on government to solve these issues for us?

The simple answer is that we cannot, given the current tools that we have at our disposal.

Antony, who leads the Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, argues that through impact investing–generating a viable social and environmental return while requiring a market-rate risk-adjusted financial return–we are no longer limited to giving money away to charity or waiting for government to take care of the problem, impact investing has given us a third and complimentary tool for solving social problems. He showcased the promise of impact investing by sharing the compelling stories of people from the slums of Hyderabad to farmers in the Congo, and even close to home in Toronto, who now have opportunities at a better quality of life made possible through the use of for-profit investment.

However, Antony also identified a number of challenges that need to be overcome, including advocacy and awareness building of impact investing, if we are to get to a point where it is considered both economically feasible and morally acceptable to tackle a social problem with a for-profit investment.

Until such a time when there is a major shift in cultural beliefs around using for-profit investment for social impact, as well as the emergence of the basic infrastructure (including intermediaries) that will allow actors from all levels (e.g. private investors to pension funds) to engage in impact investing, online platforms such as SocialFinance.ca and organizations such as Causeway and SiG, can continue to inform, convene and organize debates and discussions around this emerging sector and the possibilities that impact investing holds.

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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.

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Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place—wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes. Ignoring Clay’s significant role in Harold’s life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold’s “roommate.” The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold’s bank accounts to pay for his care.

What happened next is even more chilling: without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold’s lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.

Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property.

With the help of a dedicated and persistent court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, Clay was finally released from the nursing home. Ms. Dennis, along with Stephen O’Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O’Neill, Barrack & Chong, now represent Clay in a lawsuit against the county, the auction company, and the nursing home, with technical assistance from NCLR. A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.

If say for example, Monika and I had been living in the United States in the early part of the 20th century, based on our race (i.e. Filipino and German-Portuguese), our relationship would have been looked down upon and in some cases, we may have even been thrown in jail if we decided to get married.

Anti-miscegenetion laws, otherwise known as miscegenation laws, were laws that prohibited interracial marriage. From the 19th century into the 1950s, most US states enforced anti-miscegenation laws. In 1967, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the landmark case Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.

Im happy that society has progressed to the point where interracial marriages are no longer an issue (generally speaking). In fact, in Canada, interracial marriages are on the rise especially as the number of visible minorities in Canada continues to climb where it is expected that an increasing number of them will marry outside their ethnic group. This comes as no surprise to me as I know a lot of mixed-race couples who have plans on getting married, having kids and raising a family even though they come from seemingly different backgrounds (in terms of race, culture, religion, etc).

It seems that Monika’s baby nephew, Nikolas aka “Tumbles“, is indicative of the emerging face of Canada/US (and perhaps other parts of the world), being of mixed Chinese-German-Portuguese heritage, but still 100% Canadian.

Back to the case at hand, it seems that society has not progressed far enough when two people who have spent a long time together, are forcibly kept apart by government strictly on the basis of their sexual orientation and with whom they choose to spend their life with. Everyone has the right to love and be happy with whomever they want, whether it is with a member of the opposite or the same sex.

I hope that Clay gets the justice that him and his partner Harold deserves, and that we finally recognize and place the same emphasis on gay relationships and unions just as we do with heterosexual relationships.

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Why I am supporting my friend and former colleague Jeff Henry, for Waterloo City Council

From the website campaign testimonial page:

“During my time as the Vice-President, Administration and Finance for the University of Waterloo’s Federation of Students, I worked closely with Jeff Henry, and can attest firsthand to his skilled leadership and collaborative approach. Among Jeff’s broad set of advocacy skills, his in-depth knowledge of municipal affairs helped to ensure an optimal outcome when we worked with the Region of Waterloo to provide a universal transit pass for University of Waterloo undergraduate students. Thanks to Jeff’s leadership and teamwork skills, more than 24,000 students now have access to affordable and reliable transit that connects them more closely with the Waterloo community.

Even during the more challenging executive experiences that arose during our time working together – and there were many – Jeff showed an even temperament, well thought-out arguments, a team-focused mindset, and capable leadership. I am pleased to support him in his bid for city council, and believe he would serve as an excellent bridge between the community and university students.”

Please visit www.jeffhenry.ca to learn more about Jeff and the issues surrounding Central-Columbia Ward 6 in the City of Waterloo.

Join the Facebook fan page, follow Jeff on Twitter, or subscribe to the campaign blog RSS feed to keep updated on the campaign as it progresses.

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Paul Saltzman is a rather remarkable person, who gave a talk at TEDxWaterloo last February sharing his insight on life and describing his personal journey and magical encounter with The Beatles in India back in the late 1960’s.

This TEDxWaterloo Talk in particular, has emerged as one of my favourites from the one-day event that we organized and held at the Gig Music Hall in Kitchener last February 25.

Paul’s remarkable story of traveling to India on a whim and his chance encounter with the Beatles, was told in a very compelling manner that I find myself watching this particular talk over and over again even after the fact. I remember sitting in the audience at TEDxWaterloo and hanging on to his every word as he shared his insight on humility and the notion of not making yourself small, but understanding your size in the universe.

This life lesson was passed on to him by George Harrison of the Beatles, who was 24 years old and the same age as Paul at the time, who put things into perspective by saying

“We’re the Beatles after all aren’t we? We have all the money you could ever dream of, we have all the fame you could ever wish for, but it isn’t love, it isn’t health, it isn’t peace inside.”

At the end of the day, Paul concluded that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were ordinary people just like him, who were leading very extraordinary lives.

Paul mentioned the word ‘magic’ several times throughout his presentation, defining magic as ‘that which is real, but as yet we do not understand’. This term was set within the context of ‘magical’ coincidences and opportunities that he has had in his life, simply by virtue of paying attention to the broader universe and what it was telling and compelling him to do, even if he did not quite fully understand it at the time.

Perhaps this is one of the major reasons why Paul’s talk at TEDxWaterloo speaks very loudly to me at this point in my life. There are times where I do feel that I don’t know where I am going, but I get the sense and the occasional reassurance that I am on my way there.

Exciting times ahead.

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I attended a talk given by Tal Dehtiar of Oliberté last week on Thursday, hosted by Capacity Waterloo Region as part of their Change Agent Series. Oliberté is the first company in the world to market premium urban-casual footwear that is exclusively made in Africa, from the natural rubber found in Liberia and leather from Ethiopia, to local workers manufacturing shoes in factories built to ISO 14000 (environmental management) standards, where workers are paid a fair wage and no child labor is used.

Tal is certainly an accomplished individual, having founded MBA’s WIthout Borders (MWB) several years ago prior to Oliberté, which he then eventually sold (the rights) to CDC Development Solutions.

From my perspective, it seems that a lot of his motivation comes from seeing business as the biggest change agent in the world. Perhaps this point of view was shaped by his family history and struggles as new immigrants to Canada a couple of decades ago, a story which he shared with the audience. Similar to many familiar new-immigrant stories that you hear today, Tal’s parents were highly educated back in their home country, but either due to a lack of English-speaking skills or education credentials not being recognized here, they had to make do with whatever job was necessary in order to survive. And similar in outcome to many immigrant stories, Tal’s parents ended up starting their own business, becoming successful in turning a profit, while in the process, employing hundreds of people to work for them.

With this in mind, Tal views his for-profit company Oliberté, as a social venture or social enterprise. And he does so because at the end of the day, he believes that he is charting a much more sustainable way of life for people living in countries like Ethiopia and Liberia, by providing them with a stable means of employment and fair income. Tal has also heard many local people say that they do not need any more direct aid or charity (in the traditional sense of the word) in Africa. What they do need are jobs in order to provide for their families themselves, with sustained economic growth and investment in order to build a middle-class in Africa, which currently does not exist. This is something that Dambisa Moyo argues in her book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is A Better Way For Africa.

That being said, Tal made the point that although Oliberté is a social enterprise, it is a footwear company first, competing with the likes of Lacoste, Roots, Nike, etc., in the premium footwear market in terms of price point and quality of the product. They are not necessarily focusing on selling the ’social good’ aspect of the company, although it does provide a great backstory to the company, and I completely agree with this approach.

Social ventures and social enterprises, especially those competing for market share with traditional for-profit companies (social enterprise in the non-profit space is another discussion altogether), do need to compete at the very same level of traditional for-profit companies, both in terms of value the social enterprise brings to the table and/or the quality of the products they produce. Tal recognizes that if they were to rely solely on the ’social good’ aspect of their company alone, i.e. providing jobs for people in Ethiopia and Liberia in a safe and fair manner, minimizing environmental impact and more importantly, changing the current perception of Africa as a place where you CAN invest and do business, without a strong focus on the product itself, Oliberté will only go so far in the long run.

There absolutely HAS to be a focus on producing high-quality product that is able to compete with other companies vying for market share and consumers attention. The fact that there is a ’social good’ aspect to it, provides the social enterprise with a competitive advantage, but again, should not be made into the deciding factor for consumers in general when it comes to choosing between products to buy. The quality, attributes and brand of the product should be able to stand on its own merit, especially since, as it turns out, the market segment of those who are lifestyle-, sustainable- and health-conscious only represent 18% of the total market segment. Not too sure which consumer market Tal is referring to, but if he is referring to the US/Canadian market, this 18% number is not surprising at all.

Overall, the talk was really good and I am glad that I went. Tal was very candid and personal in his approach to storytelling and answering questions, calling it as he saw it and providing honest answers about the operations of Oliberté and future plans for his company (I had a great conversation with him on marketing and development strategies after his talk). And I believe that it was this approach that allowed him to connect with the audience.

As I have seen over and over again, it all comes down to people. From the support system of people who are there for you/your company through the good times as well as the bad, the people who work for you either as members of your team or employees who have placed their trust in your leadership and judgment, as well as your consumers who expect to receive great value for money from your product.

Speaking of which, I may just order a pair of Oliberté shoes in the next couple of days, and yes, they do ship to Canada.

Many thanks to Jennifer King and Capacity Waterloo Region for organizing the event.

Posted via email from renjie’s posterous

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