Why?

Published on November 20, 2009 in conversation, entrepreneurship, globalization, musing and poverty. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Over on his “Dare Mighty Things” blog, tech and social entrepreneur Ryan Allis writes, “As I sit on the 28th floor of a hotel in San Francisco I am angry, yet hopeful. I wonder why in a world with as much wealth as we see, as much luxury that we experience, should 40% of the human species live on under $2 per day?”

Ryan’s uncharacteristically outraged.

Always passionate, there’s a ring of clarity and urgency. This from a guy who, not even 20, founded a successful technology company and today spends alot of time inspiring others. Ryan’s young, smart, successful - he’s supposed to be optimistic about the human species and our capacity to shape the world for the better, right? So what gives?

He goes on to explain:

2.56 billion human beings, people just like you and I, live on under $2 per day. On average, 24,900 children under 5 die each and every day from preventable diseases and starvation. 24,900 children under 5. Check out the sources below. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Ryan closes by asking a simple question: “Why does no one talk about this?”

It is my belief that, more than ever before, people are talking about it. Its one of the hallmarks of our age: talk. On television, on the radio, in newspapers, magazines, across the internet, in our bookstores, and in popular culture we’re talking about ending, eradicating, mitigating, reversing, stamping out, and in other ways looking up to the elimination of extreme poverty.

The conversation is there.

What I believe we need is something more elusive. We need consensus. We need shared agreement that extreme poverty in a world that boasts perhaps a thousand billionaires who control over somewhere close to $4 trillion in assets is an outrage (not an outrage directed personally, but outrage that, from a system perspective, this is an optimal outcome). From outrage we need an impassioned corps of leaders who rethink and reshape the wealth distribution pyramid. These leaders need to define solutions that involve us - the do gooders, the wage earners, the individual donors and the pension fund holders (and dare I say it, the consumers) - and empower us to coordinate, not scatter, our actions to eradicate poverty.

Here’s what I wrote to Ryan in response:

Ryan, thank you for sharing your passion/compassion. I believe you are right, we need more constructive discussion around this topic. I think individuals like Paul Polak over at D-Rev (http://www.d-rev.com) , the UKs Department of foreign and International Development (http://www.developments.org.uk) and many others are trying to popularize the discussion.

The challenge – what I hear in your, “Why isn’t anyone talking about this” outrage – is to bump this work to the level of lifestyle impact and rethinking aid.

Bringing people “out of poverty” is intensely personal work. People like Muhammad Yunus have demonstrated, in my opinion, the need for long term solutions that are managed by a ‘boots on the ground’ presence that really knows its base.

How do people in luxury-intensive societies contribute? Not by Kiva alone. But by making choices that free up choices for others. This is an unpopular position perhaps, because no one thinks of development as a lose-win dynamic. Its supposed to be win-win, right?

Climate change, globalization and returning shareholder “value” as defined by fund managers fundamentally re-write the equation.

The place to begin is outrage perhaps – and then we can translate that into passion in the boardroom.

Thank you for your ongoing leadership. Next time you’re in Boston, I hope you’ll come by and meet the students at Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development (http://web.mit.edu/seid/) – they’re working in exactly that space.

Continue reading ‘Why?’

Nebulae, Cities and Innovation

Published on October 27, 2009 in globalization, innovation, mit and musing. 0 Comments Tags: .
The Orion Nebula captured through NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Orion Nebula captured through NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Just yesterday I was reading an article at physorg.org describing the remarkable discovery of an explosion within the Orion Nebula considered to be the youngest “star nursery” ever discovered. A star nursery – that phrase really stuck with me in a way it hadn’t before, and I think it must all be in the context of work.

That same day I came across a 2006 TED Talk by the inimitable Stewart Brand, who founded the Whole Earth Review back when the Internet was a glint in Bob Metcalf’s eye. It wasn’t even ARPANET (I don’t think). Anyway, Stewart Brand in his TED Talk was describing the explosive rate of growth of our cities, and how they represent one of our greatest hopes for a future without poverty. He said - and still does - a lot of provocative things in his TED talk back in 2006, and one of them is that cities, especially slums, are nodes of problem solving and innovation.

London at night, as seen from space and captured by American astronaut Donald Pettit

London at night, as seen from space and captured by American astronaut Donald Pettit

And then he did something remarkable – at least I thought it was remarkable - he played a video clip of the earth in dark. The camera slowly pulls away from the East Coast of the U.S. and its dense, nebula-like cluster of light. We see the dark expanse of the Atlantic Ocean and then London comes into view, then Paris and Cairo and Berlin and Istanbul and soon the entire surface of the earth is shining with these clusters of light and he says something breathtaking: “For the first time, the earth is shining back at the stars.”

Star nurseries. The Internet. Cities. Innovation. Changing perspective.

This is what I’ve been dreaming about for more than a year – the creation of a place where innovative ideas are born and carried forward, an global incubator for “invention as public service.” A place where the worldwide talent of MIT students, alumni and their collaborators can be directed toward some of the great opportunities of our time – from energy production and storage to innovations in international health and sanitation. Agricultural production and processing to new approaches to education and communication delivery.

These are some of the challenges we face, and it is my deepest hope that the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge can be an incubator of some of MIT’s new humanitarian stars.

Shanty Towns Are the New, Green Pioneer Cities

Published on October 27, 2009 in entrepreneurship, environment and musing. 0 Comments Tags: .

So says Stewart Brand.

During a recent talk at MIT, the urbanist scholar Anthony Flint said, “Cities are the greenest form of human settlement humans can aspire to.” Taking an aerial view of Los Angeles in the ’80’s, one might have been less than certain. Today, with an ever growing number of people living in “megacities” (those with more than 10 million inhabitants), one might be even less certain.

With an energy-intensive lifestyle and panoply of diversions, the truth of Mr Flint’s statement is hardly self-evident.

Broadly speaking, “green” is shorthand for the concept of “ecologically friendly.” In other words, little to no harm is done to the environment through the process of extraction, production or distribution of goods and services. Applying the concept of “greenness” to cities is no small feat.

Large concentrations of human settlement by definition have a more visible, intense impact on the environment than dispersed populations. Whether through resource consumption - for example, the construction of housing - or waste generation - and its necessary incineration or other means of disposal - large concentrations of people are by definition *not green.*

So what gives?

Continue reading ‘Shanty Towns Are the New, Green Pioneer Cities’