Push the Future

The final installment of Rash IV closed PUSH 2008.

Jenni began by speaking about her third year in Rwanda - she was based in the capital, Kigali. Things were worse then they had ever been and the gap between reality and her imagination was getting thinner. The rash continued spreading throughout her face, and she doesn’t love Bernard unconditionally anymore.

After spending three years in Rwanda, she resigned – only to find out a couple of weeks later the U.N. was kicked out of the country.

Jenni sits down on stage with her knitting and talks about moving to Haiti. The situation there was similar to that in Rwanda. Her relationship with Bernard was disintegrating with pointless discussion. After two years she left Haiti because it wasn’t big enough for the two of them.

In the next few years Jenni worked in 25 different countries. Her dad would prelude each trip with “Are you sure it’s safe Jenni?”

She explains that she began knitting to manage her stress better. She started measuring flight distances with knitting lingo and her biggest challenge was getting her needles through airport security. It was her first time she didn’t have itchy feet and she realized she didn’t want to start her life from scratch anymore.

Jenni signed up for a UN training program in a forest in Germany – it was a little late for training on what to do if you are kidnapped.

The stage went back to the well-known gunshots and she explained a familiar scene that was present in each installment of the play. People ran out from the trees, dragging them out, covered their heads and interrogated them. Jenni has a gun to her head. She starting yelling saying she was pregnant and married.

During the debriefing she was told that talking saved her life - she was told the same in Rwanda. That is when she realized what she wants is not what she needs. She was going to always have to deal with her inner conflict. “Is that selling out?”

She sat down to knit again discussing her flight to JFK airport. She was exited to be in New York, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. She landed her dream job - working for WITNESS. She is not working on the front lines, but she is working for those who are.

She ends the play by saying she is surrounded by knitting cafes to manage her stress and it was the first time her dad stopped asking her when she was coming home. She is still living in chaos, but she loves it.

Then she gets a call from the same familiar voice at the UN asking her if she would leave for Sudan in a couple of weeks.

She answered, “Maybe not right now, but what about the future? I’m still wavering.”

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

Rwandan-American Antoine Bigirimana, co-founder and managing director of Thousand Hills Venture Fund (THVF), kicked-off the technology section of PUSH 2008 by discussing how technology has started to advance Rwanda into the 21st century.

After the Rwandan genocide in 1994 when 1.2 million people were killed in 100 days there was an incredible opportunity for technology advancement throughout the country.

Starting in 2001, anything was possible for Rwanda. The economy was destroyed after the genocide. A virgin economy was available, offering opportunities across the nation that were ready to be embraced.

“Every time there is a problem there is an opportunity,” said Bigirimana.

In 2003, Rwandan President Kagame decided to reinvent the future using technology, with a vision of making Rwanda the technology hub of Africa. The early increase of technology created Rwanda’s first chance at a democratic election.

Vision 2020 was also developed. This idea was that by 2020 Rwanda would be a middle-income country - an idea that all Rwandans could base their future around.

Rwanda offered ample opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses. People came to the country to work, but credit was a major issue in Rwanda. In 2004, Bigirimana co-founded THVF. It allowed people to get a variety of loans, some interest free, and investments to start these businesses.

As businesses and wealth come to Rwanda, it will continue to get closer to reaching the goal of Vision 2020.

Looking into the future, Rwanda is creating 1000 telecenters. There will be a variety of services offered including: literacy, computer literacy, job listings and information on commodity prices for all national markets.

THVF is looking to bring in 1.2 million One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) computers, and hoping to have this localized by August 2008. The social impact of OLPC will be huge; the young will teach the adults how to use the OLPC, bringing access to information and knowledge that was not accessible before.

The access to information and technology needs to be available to 100 percent of the people in Rwanda, thus eliminating inequality and preventing another genocide.

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

Kiss the Ground is a recent partnership, just named today, between a cellist and a veena player/vocalist. Cellist Michelle Kinney, a specialist in new music innovation, has collaborated with a wide range of musicians and toured worldwide. Veena player and vocalist Nirmala Rajesekar who specializes in Carnatic music, a classical music system with origins in South India, has 25 years of experience collaborating with artists of other genres.

They explained that the name of their collaboration comes from a line in a Rumi poem: “There are many ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” This was the first time Kinney and Rajesekar had performed in public together.

Their first piece, “Seeking,” written by Rajesekar, is about journey and process, inspired by the challenges posed by two people from very different musical traditions communicating with each other on what they want to achieve together. “We are really reaching toward each other,” Kinney said.

The result is an ethereal sound, sometimes plaintive, sometimes rhythmical. They take turns as the lead instrumentally or vocally, then play in unison. At one point, a counterpoint develops during which the cello takes the lead while the veena contributes rhythmic percussion, all using scales that sound distinctively Eastern.

The second piece, by Kinney, incorporates a raga (think Ravi Shankar) and adds another layer of cultural complexity, a West African drumming rhythm.

The performance, bridging East and West, reinforced the very global nature of The Fertile Delta.

Posted by Wallys Conhaim

Tuesday morning, PUSH 2008 began with Cecily Sommers announcing a newly established partnership between The Push Institute and the Redeemer Center for Life, a program of Redeemer Lutheran Church, which serves a mostly segregated area in North Minneapolis. This special relationship with Redeemer developed through the Institute’s part-time intern, Karis Thompson, who is also a Redeemer staff member.

The collaboration will involve a scholarship program that will make possible the participation of Redeemer youth in the annual PUSH conference as well as a year-long curriculum, in which The Push Institute will find partners to help the Redeemer Center host events, develop mentor/mentee relationships, and assist in meeting other community needs.

The program is modeled after the award-winning Harlem Children’s Zone, which covers a 100-block area within Harlem and delivers education, health care, job skills training and parenting classes, among other services.  Currently, 80% of its $35 million budget is from private contributions.

The Redeemer Kids group, which included some youth leaders, presented the audience with three multidisciplinary pieces.  The first was in rap style, performed by a young man who introduced himself as the group’s host.  He said it was a journey rather than a poem, even though many of the lines rhymed.  Here are a few of the verses:

“I was born within the valley of peace ….”

“Hands reaching out for freedom, but it never seems to come ….”

“Hands through the clouds ….”

“They clipped my wings before I had a chance to fly ….”

“A dream is a silly thing to put your hope in ….”

“What happens to a dream deferred? ….”

The rapper was gradually joined on stage by other members of the group, including a break dancer who seemed to spend as much time on his head as on his feet.

The second piece, urging problem solving, collaboration, dialog and activism and led by a young woman, was a slower rhythmic recital composed just for PUSH 2008 :

“Some people say stop these tears ….”

“With no struggle there can be no gain ….”

“Some people in this system test our lives ….”

“If we don’t want to right it, then we must be insane ….”

“It’s time for the rich and the poor to join hands ….”

“All you people here together are powerful ….”

“We should know by now that nothin’s ever been solved with a gun ….”

“So don’t sit back ….  With your Push ….”

“If we sing it together we can never come unglued ….”

The last piece, about faith, had the audience standing up, swaying and clapping their hands above their heads in time with the music. 

The enthusiasm generated by the Redeemer Kids was truly contagious.

Posted by Wallys Conhaim

J.D. Steele closed out the first full day of PUSH 2008 on Monday evening with a performance about what he has been doing in Africa. He entertained the audience with a cultural experience and music.

A little background: Steele and his family began touring the international hit show “Gospel at Colonus” with Morgan Freeman around the world. The show had a nine-month run on Broadway in 1988. After that success, The Steeles signed their first record deal. Since then J.D. Steele has produced, performed and recorded six Steele albums and has written, produced and performed with many artists including Prince, Fine Young Cannibals and Donald Fagen. He has also written many songs and arranged credits for movies such as “Corina, Corina”, “Blankman” the award-winning documentary “Hoop Dreams” and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the PBS version of “Gospel at Colonus”.

But those accomplishments are nothing compared to what he has been doing recently. He went to Nairobi, Kenya to work with a group of children in the Shangilia (meaning rejoice child of Africa) orphanage. At the orphanage he worked with the children singing songs.

Steele played a video of the children and the town the orphanage is in. The video gave a personal look inside the town, the orphanage and the children. He described the town as a place of hopefulness. The people are happy and excited all the time, with hope for change in the future.

“They are truly my heart,” Steele said about the children.

As the video was playing, Steele started performing, explaining all that he and the children have done. They took their first airplane to Greece and did multiple concerts. They have been aired on BBC and appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and have gotten funding for a new school just outside of the city.

Steele ended his performance with two songs, one about saving Africa and the other about riding on the wings of love.

“I’m all the things I have done; I’m all the things I have seen,” sang Steele in the song “On the Wings of Love.”

“It will inspire you, take you higher.”

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

In an extraordinarily moving hour after lunch, Rich and Yvonne Dutra-St. John, founders of the Challenge Day, gave participants a taste of the transformative experience, which is now practiced with youth in almost all US states and Canadian provinces as well as in Germany and elsewhere in the world.

The vision of the program is “that every child could someday live in a world where they feel safe, loved and celebrated.”  The founders launched it after years of professional work that dealt with symptoms, such as drug addiction and crime, and wanted to address the real causes of these symptoms – separation, anxiety and loneliness in our society, in their view. 

“Why do some people need to get “into the system” after drug treatment or something else before they can get the love and attention they deserve?” Rich and Yvonne asked themselves.  “21^st Century teens are under more pressure and less equipped than ever before,” they said.

“Our goal became to create a program that was safe enough and powerful enough to bring everyone together on campus,” Yvonne said — different races, body types, economic situations and all other factors that separate people. “If we settle for tolerance, we have failed.  Our goal became to bring them together in love.”

Videos in high school settings showed how the Challenge Day program achieves its goals of breaking down barriers, starting with games to loosen things up and proceeding quickly into participants’ revealing some of their most difficult experiences, each completing the sentence to their peers, “If you really knew me, you would know …” They took a stand — “crossing the line” across the gym – admitting to difficult issues in their lives, issues that are rarely discussed: if they had ever been hurt or judged because of the color of their skin, because somebody thought them too fat or thin, if they had ever been humiliated in a classroom by a teacher or student, if they had ever been teased or hurt for a need to wear glasses, and more.

The process ends in an amazing level of new understanding and commitment to take on the challenge of changing the environment in the larger student body.

In a similar vein, PUSH 2008 participants were asked to stand up in silence at their seats and recognize their colleagues who also answered positively by standing if they had ever felt alone in school (almost all audience members), been called stupid or lazy or not good enough, been hurt or judged because of the color of their skin, ever been or had a family member homeless or on welfare, ever witnessed or been part of an act of violence (many), ever seriously considered or attempted suicide or knew someone who had (more than anyone could imagine), and more.  This was an experience that brought tears to the eyes of many audience members.

A second audience exercise asked participants in teams to practice the tools the Challenge Day leaders believe to be the two most important tools that are needed in our lives, in  their philosophy:  being “real” by telling the truth, and offering the gift of listening.

To “be the change” we have to accept the challenge to do our part. “Be the difference,” Yvonne and Rich urge us.  “Find out what we are passionate about in this world.  Commit to doing one intentional act to make a difference every day” — something of service to help another human being.

Just think what a difference it would make if you consider the multiplier impacts of the days, weeks and months of these simple acts.

Posted by Wallys Conhaim

Internationalist Chandran Nair opened the economics section of PUSH 2008.

He is the founder and chief executive of the think tank, Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), based in Hong Kong. His work is defined by the questions he asks himself and others. Known for being challenging,

thought-provoking, constructive and sometimes uncomfortable, Nair advocates a sustainable approach to growth in Asia, and the rest of the world, seeing it as part of how nations deal with each other.

“Behind the Scenes: a Peak at reality” is the title of his presentation about the challenges the world is going to face in the future because of growing populations and the needs of Asia and other low-income regions.

Nair explained that we live in an unfair world - 20 percent of the world population accounts for 85 percent of the world’s consumption.

Asia is changing and expanding rapidly. 800 million Chinese people live on two dollars a day, but they are starting to become wealthier. What do they do when they get wealthier?

“They want to buy seafood. If they do the oceans will be empty, but who can say that they can’t have what you and I take for granted?” said Nair.

That is just one example is the growing number of countries wanting what countries like the United States have. But if these growing nations start using these resources there will be less for the big consumers, like the U.S.

There is unprecedented economic growth that is going to occur. People have to be aware of the new reality - by 2050, 3 billion people will be added to the world, mostly in low income countries. This means that fossil fuel consumption, and other non-renewable resource consumption, is only going to go up.

The challenge of our times is to alleviate poverty, increase economic prosperity for all, halt the destruction of the natural world, manage and conserve natural resources for human well being. We need to be aware of the threat of climate change, decrease the destruction of the natural world, increase cultural and religious tolerance and create a new business leadership.

“The giants have awakened. How will they sustain themselves?”

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter, Dan Wilson, will open PUSH this year, Sunday, June 15, with songs from his most recent album “Free Life,” some classics and, he tells me, maybe a few new songs that we’ll be among the first to hear.

Dan cleared a few days from his demanding tour schedule in order to be with us. We’re in for a big treat - catch a preview here:

My friend, Tom Oliphant (a rockin’ furniture designer), sent me some photos from Taiwan, where he was a guest of Tunghai University, that says it all: