Transcriber: Jerzy Pa Reviewer: Krystian Aparta
(Polish) Good morning, Cracow.
(English) It's fantastic to be here.
What I'd like to talk about is, actually, communication,
it's also about what's happening in the 21st century,
following on from the last speaker, about activism.
And some of the things that are driving that in the 21st century,
and ultimately, some of the issues that it brings up.
And issues for us as individuals,
but also issues for us as institutions or organizations
or governments or societies.
I think 2011 as well as being a really bad year for the bad guy
has actually been pretty good for Poland in terms of global leadership.
I think the Polish government was very smart to quickly offer support
to the developing societies in North Africa.
And I think it was Radek Sikorski that said something like:
"We're not going to send F-16s.
We're going to send Lech Walesa."
Now, I don't know if he actually said that
or whether it was just a smart sound bite,
but look at the logic of it.
Rightly so, Solidarity activated around 10 million people,
at its heyday.
Now, that's 10 million 1980's people,
which is not 10 million "likes" on Facebook.
And that's really impressive.
Interestingly, at Lech Wałęsa's probably unofficial facebook page,
he's got 127 likes.
(Laughter)
Different ways of looking at it.
So Poland has shown real leadership, I think,
in the whole sphere of 21st century activism and what it means,
and people are looking to Poland for that experience.
But of course, times have moved on.
We have the same passion for change,
but, of course, we've got different means,
and we organize ourselves in different ways.
Marshall McLuhan famously said something like:
"We shape our tools, but then, in turn, our tools will shape us."
And as we have looked to organize,
build relationships, make a real difference,
we've seen, of course, the spawning of a myriad of different tools.
But those tools are now shaping us in turn.
Now, we talk a lot about the generation
that has driven this phenomenon.
But I think an image like this is actually really out of date.
There are all sorts of characteristics
around the so-called Generation Y, the Millennials,
but if you look at them,
you can see that they're a behavior,
they are a way of acting in society that has spread beyond this age group.
So this is no longer age-specific.
If you look at things like, for example, a generation with high expectations,
confidence, wanting responsibility and wanting it quickly,
a generation that is challenging and demanding,
a generation not content slowly working through traditional paths,
wanting to make the world a better place,
comfortable with diversity,
all of these characteristics are not the preserve
of this so-called Generation Y, the so-called Millennials.
But I think there's one thing missing from all of that,
and I think that's the passion for creative expression,
and the passion for sharing culture.
I think TEDx in Cracow and TED all over the world
has very very smartly brought entertainment,
has brought culture into the heart of the debate,
because, actually, the 21st century and the world of activism
makes really good use of culture
and the ability to share creative expression.
I'd like to just jump through a couple of slides
and talk a little bit about North Africa.
We all know what happened, what was sparked in Tunisia
with the Jasmin Revolution.
But some of you may know the story of a Tunisian rapper,
called Hamada Ben Amor, with the pen name of El Général.
And I'd like to show you a short clip
of a video that he released, of a song called "Rais Lebled,"
which is "Head of State."
Very critical of the authorities,
released at just the time that the protests were beginning.
Incredibly risky act by him.
(Music) On the 6th of January 2011 rapper "El General" (...) was arrested (...)
Until today, no news about him (...)
Video: [Mr. President, today I am speaking in the name of myself]
[and in the names of all the people who are suffering in 2011.]
[There are still people dying of hunger who want to work to survive, ]
[but their voice was not heard, get off into the street and see.]
[People have become like animals. See the police with batons.]
[Takatak they don't care since there is no one telling them to stop.]
[Even the law of the constitution, put it in water and drink it.]
[Every day I hear of invented processes]
AW: I'm sure there are some Arabic rapping experts in the audience
that could translate for us, but...
In some of the language he was using: "I see too much injustice,
and so I decided to send this message
even though the people told me that my end is death."
OK, thankfully his end wasn't death.
He was released a couple of days after he was arrested,
but I think, what is really interesting is that,
and I think the BBC picked up on this during the protests in Tunisia,
the words that he was using in this rap song
were on the lips on the protesters
as they marched through the streets of Tunisia.
So he tapped in using his very powerful creative expression.
And then, of course, the nature of the way in which he sought to influence
is plain to see.
The global aspiration for his message is plain to see.
And the way in which he went about communicating it,
and the way in which he went about inciting that change,
using these 20th century tools,
is striking.
So...
Most importantly for me it's the passion for creative expression,
the passion to share culture.
And with the 20th century tools available to us
the ability has made the sharing of our cultures so much more powerful.
So, everyone's an activist.
You will have seen these images recently from the "Occupy Wall Street."
What I really, really love about the Occupy Wall Street movement
is the sort of incredible signage that sort of sprang up around this.
I was caught on a few websites a couple of days ago.
A middle-aged woman with a very strong message
for the banks and for the governments,
and it just said simply: "Remember"...
Fuck with us and we will multiply."
(Laughter)
(Applause)
And I think that perfectly captures the dilemma
that governments and institutions and organizations have
because they've lost the monopoly to manage information.
They've lost the monopoly to organize action.
And we see, of course, people taking the lead,
talking about the leadership that Seth Godin talked about,
taking the lead themselves.
Interestingly, in the same demonstration there was a six year old girl,
and she had made her own sign as well.
It wasn't quite as strong in terms of language as the previous one.
It just said simply: "Be nice."
(Laughter)
And I thought that was lovely.
We all have the tools of personal democracy.
We all have the energy and passion to make things happen.
We all have the energy to pull people together
in a Seth Godin tribe.
I'd like to tell you
about two ways in which cultural institutions
have responded to this challenge.
Because if a government or an institution
or an organization or society can't respond to the energy
and to the leadership of the people,
then what is it for?
Why is it there and why does it exist?
I was talking to a great guy called Grzegorz
just before the TEDx began.
And I hope you don't mind me quoting you, Grzegorz.
When I was talking about this presentation, he said...
I said, "Well what do you look to from Polish institutions,
from Polish government?"
He said: "Oh, it's very simple. Just one thing."
"Leave me alone."
And he's absolutely right, but, of course, there's a danger,
that in leaving people alone to do their thing
we get a fragmentation of society
and gaps that grow can lead to, I suppose,
more conflict and more danger.
So, two stories. This is Zuhal.
This photograph was taken in 2006.
An Iraqi pianist.
Her passion was obviously to develop her piano skills.
In 2008 she couldn't find an instructor in her Iraqi town.
She didn't give up, she contacted people on the internet, through Skype,
and she built up a network
of instructors in America and the UK.
And she developed her skills, built her networks in that way.
But her passion was to build a youth orchestra,
a national youth orchestra of Iraq across religious divide,
so, Sunni, Shia, Kurd.
But she looked outside of these normal Skype relationships for this.
And that's when she came to the British Council and said:
"What can you do to help me with this?"
Now, the British Council has these conversations
all over the world, in 110 countries,
with people just like Zuhal.
And of course, what we realized
was that we needed to create connections between them.
Not connections so that they could...
[...so that] we could control the dialogue or push the agenda
or make things happen on our terms,
but purely to help them realize what they were trying to achieve
and to realize their dreams.
So she was brought into our Global Changemakers Program.
And as a result of the connections she made, and the training she received,
she build her national orchestra of Iraq.
And on the 29th of July 2009
she led a performance with 35 young Iraqi musicians,
to an audience of thousands.
The second [story] that I'd like to share is...
It looks like a TEDx, it looks like a TEDxCairo.
(Laughter)
But it's the Goethe institute in Cairo.
It's a place called...
Very close to the protests.
And what the Goethe institute did, which I think is incredibly clever,
They gave over, they created a space called the Tahrir lounge.
And they made it available to young activists to have exhibitions,
to have discussions, to have dramatic performances.
But a physical space where they were safe
to do whatever was necessary during those turbulent times of protest.
So I think there are two examples there:
one from the virtual world, and one from the physical world.
The key thing for me is...
how institutions, how governments, how organizations
respond to the new normal.
The new normal is that everyone's an activist.
So how do we respond to that?
The risk, of course, is fragmentation if there's no response at all.
My challenge, and I don't know how many people are here
who lead organizations,
or are in a position to make that institutional change,
but my challenge is to take into account
the new normal connection of this,
which is that everything is possible,
nothing is impossible,
so what can institutions do to support people,
to actually take the lead and make things happen?
Thanks for listening and enjoy the rest of the TEDx.
(Applause)