Push the Future

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

Clyde Prestowitz, author of Trading Places, Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East, and current member of both the Intel Policy Advisory Board and the U.S. Export-Import Bank Advisory Board closed Monday’s round of speakers. He asked that listeners first focus on the issues that are demanding and will demand change, then problem-solve and decide what needs to be done about changing those issues.

Prestowitz translated his ideas into reality through a colorful story of a recent trip to Mexico City and then to Shanghai, destinations that face significant challenges that are relevant both internally and externally. The crippled Mexican police represent just one example of the failing state that lies just across our border. And with the Gobi Desert growing at a rate of 2km per year and coal power plants popping up weekly, China faces impending environmental devastation that will not remain confined within one country’s borders. In both destinations, the short-term need for basic security and energy, respectively, are pitted against the long-term potential consequences of a failed state and an unlivable natural environment. Accompanying each issue is the potential to do harm at home in the U.S., yet the redeeming possibility of pragmatic decision-making still exists.

Moreover, Thomas Friedman has popularized the notion that globalization will make everyone rich, democratic and thus peaceful. Prestowitz argued that globalization does not make democracy strong; rather, it makes autocracy strong (see the Middle East and China versus relatively weak Western democracies). Rapid economic growth does not commonly occur under democracy; democracy comes about later. We are experiencing globalization in which developing countries question the validity and superiority of democracy. This concept obviously demands our consideration.

And considering democracy, Prestowitz was one of the many speakers today to mention the upcoming election. His view is that the three most important issues facing the next president will be 1) the collapse of the dollar 2) energy and 3) the nature of our democracy in regard to the system of checks and balances that make the system difficult to challenge, especially in relation to global warming legislation. So, how do we use change-agents to make our systems work better and address our problems?  

Posting by Anna Wool

Nate Garvis, Vice President of Government Affairs for Target Corporation, spoke in the political section of PUSH 2008 about leadership in reverse.

He is responsible for political, legislative and regulatory affairs at the international, federal, state and local levels of government. He is recognized as a thought leader in the areas of integrated public engagement strategies and emerging trends in the interrelationships between multi-national corporations, non-governmental advocacy groups and governmental institutions.

Garvis started by asking an unanswerable question, “What is the meaning of life?” No one knows the answer, but finding the meaning of life is the path of humanity, it’s what public policy has always been about.

Public policy is measured in outcomes. Too often things are discussed by inputs, but at the end of the day we experience outcomes.

Our dilemma is mobility- the mobility of information. Right now, we live in an age of storytelling. It has never been easier to get your story out there, and that is what is needed in the consumer world – consumer input to get the outcomes you want.

Garvis gave the example of a toolbox: it isn’t about one tool, it’s important to have the entire box. These tools are how people get what they want. The first tool in the box is being literate, not how well you read, but how you know the authentic qualities of that technology or institution – institutions such as government, business or NGOs/ non-profits.

The next tool in the box is the “how” not the “what.” It is important to know how institutions or technologies do what they do, not what they do. Institutions, such as the Target Corporation, need to listen to the consumer and know what they want, everything they want.

The consumer is in command. Be literate. As the consumer, express what you want and be a conspicuous consumer.

“It used to be, I’m rich and famous and I drive a Ferrari, you can’t,” said Garvis. “Now it is I’m rich and famous and I drive a Hybrid, why don’t you? No one said boycott the Ferrari, it’s that more people want the Hybrid.”

We need to practice a reward culture. Institutions are playing not to lose. We need to live in a world where we want to win, and where as many people as possible win. We need to enable these institutions, be clearer about what we want and reward good behavior.

We should look at the whole tool box of institutional energy that is capable of doing so much good, but also capable of many screw ups.

“As a consumer we owe it to these folks to tell them exactly what we want. Our job [as the institution] is to be better listeners than ever, to provide as much value as possible,” said Garvis.

Doing this is “leadership in reverse.” The consumer is leading the institution to get the right outcome.

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

For everyone Twittering at the conference, please tag your tweets #PUSH08 so we can keep track of the conversation. We’ve got that tag feed up on the sidebar of this very blog, so everyone can follow along. Check it out or join up for yourself!

Heading up the political segment of PUSH 2008, “Leaders in Reverse: Playing Short-Term Gains against Long-Term Needs,” U.N. correspondent for Al Jazeera English Mark Seddon spoke from the platform of personal experience to help elucidate a bigger, hopeful political picture.

Seddon’s off-putting experience with Britain’s Labour Party led him to drop out of politics and into Al Jazeera, a network created to help educate people by closing North-South news divides and erasing existing geo-political and cultural stereotypes. Seddon’s intention today resembled the network’s philosophy as he challenged individual political complacency and asked for proactive thought and action.

Unfortunately, the special, symbiotic relationship between Britain and the United States allows for minimal, diversifying cross pollination of new ideas and therefore an unchanging, unchallenged, and dumbed-down political process in which people believe in the inherent superiority of the Western system of political organization. For example, people seem to think that free market economics is the best and most effective system, since that’s what we’ve been told and are most accustomed to. The decline of representative democracy and of political accountability is something that needs to be challenged and is not specific to government. A place to start would be the media: Al Jazeera is minimally available in the United States, largely as a result of the self-imposed (or ordained) censorship that large media corporations practice.

Seddon’s general advice stems from the belief that change can be seen in both a constructive and a destructive light; it has been a Western luxury to believe that change is stagnant. The current decline in activism must be answered, not necessarily by an involvement in politics. Seddon rallied the audience to take it all on, to get organized and involved again. Today’s climate portends change, especially with the presidential election looming, and we have to start to think again. With the return of the idea and the power to think, so too will return the real power of democracy.

Posted by Anna Wool

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

Jenni Wolfson ended the morning’s round of speakers with her second 15-minute installment of RASH.

Still in Rwanda, she continues to navigate her personal, human and cultural concerns. She learns to shed her preconceived notions about Africa by comparing worlds with her partner Bernard. Wolfson introduces him to the concept of travel for its own sake, and he educates her about the difficulties Africa has faced as a result of European colonialism. Together they escape with parties and relaxation.  

One day, Wolfson and a group of UN workers get ambushed by gun-wielding rebels in military uniforms. She dodges death by virtue of being Scottish rather than British, and sees the largest influx of refugees in the history of the world. 

Posted by Anna Wool

After a half-hour break, Katherine Marshall closed the section on economics at PUSH 2008.

Marshall, a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and a senior advisor for the World Bank, has worked for over three decades on international development with a focus on issues facing the world’s poorest countries.

Marshall began her presentation, “Flatness: Realities and Myths,” by asking several questions that are important for the future.

· What kind of world are we seeking?

· Why do the choices matter?

· How do we navigate fierce debates?

· Why should you (personally) care?

· What can we do?

“It is ideas that really matter. It is ideas that change. It’s ideas that come out of this type of event,” Marshall explained.

There are many different ways to look at the changing issues in the world, but Marshall believes that looking at it as a kaleidoscope is important because, “what we are looking at is constantly changing and is a diverse picture that is always on the move.”

There are seven basic lessons/ issues that are important to the future of our world:

· Global poverty

· Keeping poverty on the agenda

· The role of the United States and changing its image to the rest of the world

· Working with wisdom and humility is important

· Pay attention to the “minefields” – have respect for how others might view the situation

· Human development is key

· Ethics and values matter

“With a plea for dialogue, intense support for mobilization efforts, that we all [Chandran Nair and Jonathan Greenblatt] are talking about, combined with individual action, and all it needs is a little PUSH!” concluded Marshall on what we can do to help the world for the future.

Posted by Melissa Turtinen

We’re honored and excited to have WIRED blogger Dan Olson posting his thoughts about PUSH on the GeekDad blog.

His first post described his thoughts about one of the performances from last night’s opening gala,

“Jenni Wolfson’s Scots accent pierced through my midwestern brain. She knitted her humor into the telling of her experiences as a UN Human Rights Activist in Rwanda. The first of four monologues closed with slides of the dead in Rwanda. The laughter faded as the images sunk in.”

The next segment of Jenni’s one-woman play is coming up in a few minutes…

Welcome to the conversation, Dan! Keep up with his posts here.

PUSH 2008 presenters will be signing books Tuesday, June 17, in the Push Lounge and Store on the lower level of the Walker, below our auditorium.  Here’s the schedule:

Clyde Prestowitz:  8 AM to 8:45 AM

Eboo Patel:  10:15 AM to 10:45 AM

Anthea Butler:  3 PM to 3:30 PM

Their books will be available for sale in the Push Lounge.