Transcriber: Bashayer Hammad Reviewer: Denise RQ
Good afternoon everyone,
I hope you're having a good time.
My name is Amna Khalid, and before I actually say
the name of my talk, I want to define a few concepts.
What's the first thing that comes to your mind
when I say the word "Hero"?
I asked my family, my friends
Superman, a billionaire with a batmobile, perhaps,
a guy jumping from building to building,
and last but not least, a war veteran who's saved his fellow soldiers.
Realistically speaking, what is a hero?
A hero is a person who acquires noble qualities and courage.
So simply stating, anyone can be a hero.
The simplest of people, the people who go round
their day to day life, not thinking they're doing
anything extraordinary or out of the ordinary.
Now, why is it we sit around saying we can't be heroes?
And why is it we sit and say: "Oh my God,
who's gonna save me?"
Now, the importance of why I'm emphasizing on how you can
be a hero is because when I look around me,
at our youth, our community,
in my university, I see indifference.
Now, indifference is lack of concern, lack of interest,
and lack of sympathy for your fellow human beings.
To bring the concept closer,
I'd like to tell two examples.
I was parked in Riyadh, you know Riyadh,
I went into a clinic, when I left the clinic
I noticed that someone had broken my car window.
What was even more shocking was -- right next to my car
was another car, and the guy inside it
saw the guy break my window.
I stood there shocked, 5 minutes, not knowing
what to be more sad about,
My car window -- tears -- or the fact that the guy
was looking at the car while it was broken.
Now, that is an example of indifference.
The second example is, how many stories of rape
have you heard where the rapist attacks
their victim in plain sight, and when someone comes up
to them and like: "Dude, chillax,
don't attack the girl in public!",
He could actually say : "This is a domestic issue, please stay out of it",
If that same guy had said: "Dude, if this is a domestic issue,
why not keep it at home?!"
don't you think that girl could have gotten
any chance to get away?
Now, when I ask my friends and family,
the public in general, "Why are you indifferent?",
there are two main answers.
The first answer is, "I don't wanna butt
into people's business".
Now, I'm not asking you to go around and say
"Oh my God, I love that skirt, you should wear that everyday",
"Oh my God, don't be friends with that girl
she's not a good girl", that's butting into
other people's business.
But if you see someone needing help, why not help them?
If someone is trying to cross the road,
help them cross the road.
If someone falls down in front of you, help them up.
(Applause)
Second reason is, we're afraid of the consequences.
And I understand that fully, I once helped a woman
with two baby girls carry her luggage.
I boarded the plane, she was unable to board
due to issues. And when I got on the plane
my father gave me a really big fight about "Helping people".
I remember that day I promised myself
I would never help anyone again.
And I realized that's a really big problem,
and I shouldn't have done that, because coming back from the UK
a few months ago, you get to Khartoum airport,
and they have the steps, instead of a tube, right?
I stood next to the plane door with really heavy hand luggage
and, like you can see, I'm very tiny,
I stood there, not knowing what to do,
how I was gonna get the luggage down.
Out of nowhere, a guy comes running up the steps,
he takes my hand luggage, he takes it down for me,
and he leaves without me even saying thank you.
(Applause)
I don't know about you guys, but that day,
he was my hero.
Now, how indifferent have we become?
We've become indifferent to our countries.
Indifferent to our families.
Indifferent to ourselves.
How many of you here say: "I don't care what happens to Sudan
I'm from the UK"
"I'm from Emirates"
"I'm from KSA"
"Oh, I am from Sudan, but I am leaving the minute
I finish university", for example.
How many of us say that they wanna go out
with their friends every single day,
and not spend one hour with their families.
How many of us here, for example, have diabetes,
don't control their blood sugar.
You know that it's healthy to sleep 8 hours a day,
but you still sleep 5 hours a day.
That's how indifferent we have become as youth.
Now, after I fully explained the concept
of indifference, examples for it,
now we all get it, right?
I'm gonna give examples of how we can be heroes.
Now, I'm gonna give two examples, at the beginning
and these are non-negotiable examples.
The first one, okay, most of us can't be those poeple yet
but maybe in the future.
First example is your mother, how many of you here
would say their mother is a hero?
She keeps you clean.
She keeps you healthy.
She keeps you out of harm's way.
If anything were to come your way, harm,
she would sacrifice her body.
Can we give it up for the mums in here please.
(Applause) (Cheers)
Second example is your father, he leaves the comfort of his bed
every single day, so you can have a better life.
I don't care how rich he is, he wants you to be richer.
I don't care how educated he is, he wants you
to have a higher level of education.
(Applause)
Now, like I said, we can't be all those kinds of heroes yet
but we can be other kinds of heroes.
If you were an oldest sister, and you helped
your baby brother get dressed, you are a hero.
If you live in an uneducated society,
and you wanna get an education, you are a hero.
If your friend is having a hard time and you help them
you are a hero.
Now, I'm a medical student, and I go to the hospitals.
And I see how doctors are with their patients.
Some doctors are mean, they're rude,
they don't listen to your complaint, right?
Now, in the general sense of the word, a doctor
is supposed to be a hero, because he saves your life.
But if that same doctor was nice,
he was understanding, he was reassuring,
he would save your soul before he saves your body,
making him a hero.
(Applause)
Now, this TEDx theme is, "Youth can be the change",
and I see Sara, I see Fatma, I see Wa'ad,
I see Alya, I see Ahmed.
And they are courageous enough to get on this stange
and speak their ideas.
They are heroes.
(Applause)
And last but not least, in this time,
this generation, everyone follows, no one is themself
being yourself itself is an act of heroism.
You don't have to go down in history.
And you don't have to be remembered
for everything you do.
You can't help everyone everywhere,
but you can help someone somewhere.
And you can be heroes
because the make-believe ones do not exist.
And that's why the title of my talk is
"Yes, we can be heroes"