Global X

Global X is this week in Ixtapa attending the Opportunity Collaboration conference. He is taping a new series of video interviews of leading social entrepreneurs, including Willy Foote (Root Capital), Gary White (water.org), Jeroo Bilimoria (Aflatoun), Leila Janah (Samasource) and David Green. They will soon be uploaded on Social Edge --stay tuned!

Global X interviews John Marks, President of Search for Common Ground, and Susan Collin Marks, Senior Vice President.

John Marks founded Search for Common Ground in 1982 to “transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.”

As can be seen on this X-Interview, John and Susan are not only partners in social change but also in their personal lives. They are co-preneurs who "share love, vision and passion."

John Marks mentions a typical error made by social entrepreneurs as they launch their social venture: they think they know where they are going, when the process is in fact similar to Napoleon's motto: "On s'engage et puis on voit." ("Let's start, and we will see where this is taking us.")

Susan Collin Marks adds: "Let's build a better world with congruence, with integrity. Let's be clear that we come from a place of compassion, and that we are here to heal divisions, not to create more."

She concludes this first interview: "People don't respect us for agreeing with them. They respect us for being true to ourselves."

In this second X-Interview (the first one is here), John Marks, President of Search for Common Ground, and Susan Collin Marks, Senior Vice President, share stories.

Susan talks about Burundi, where Search for Common Ground launched radio programs to help Tutsis and Hutus celebrate their heroes, those who risked their own lives for helping friends and neighbors from the other ethnic group.

These radio programs led into the Heroes Summit, where stories were shared publicly: "Previously seen as traitors, they are now recognized as heroes."

John talks about an initiative launched around the World Cup (the soccer/football global event) --soccer-based soap operas where players from different ethnic groups had to play together: "And if they don't cooperate, they don't score goals!"
 

Mathis Wackernagel and Susan Burns launched the Global Footprint Network in 2003 because "human beings are using more resources than the Earth can provide, and we are in global ecological overshoot." This husband-wife team developed the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature can produce in our country and how much we use of it.

"Our work is so much data driven, and yet it's so much about life," says Susan Burns. "And it's not about future generations anymore. It's about my life, our son's life," echoes Mathis Wackernagel.

When he was born, human beings were using half the resources that the planet was producing. We are now using 25% more than what's available, and it now takes a year and three months for the planet to recreate what was used by mankind the previous year.

And to conclude: "We are in a new century. In the past you could ignore resources constraints. If you do that in the future, we will be toast."

Martin von Hildebrand, the director of Fundación Gaia Amazonas, describes himself as a dreamer.

His father was in the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Germany, and his mother fought against the British for the independence of Ireland. That's how he realized that dreams could become realities. The first time he went to the Amazon, he dreamt that "Indians could have their own land and their autonomy --and that's what we have achieved!"

Listen to Martin von Hildebrand as he shares with Global X his moment of epiphany. He went to the Amazon forest for the first time in 1970, spending four months on a canoe. He met Indians that were exploited by rubber barons, almost enslaved: "One fellow was in debt for buying a pedal-sewing machine for his wife... He had been working for 35 years to pay back the loan!"

His advice: "Don't go in with the answers. Answers need to be built with the people, even if they are not the answers you expected, and even if it's not the best one."

En español:

Un entretien avec Martin von Hildebrand, directeur de la Fundación Gaia Amazonas, avec Global X (en français):

Bill Strickland, a three-time Harvard Business School case study and a MacArthur Genius Award winner, founded the Manchester Bidwell Corporation 40 years ago and changed the lives of thousands of disadvantaged urban teens and welfare mothers with his world-class arts centers and career training centers.

He told his story in “Make The Impossible Possible,” and shares with Global X the case of Sharif Bey, an African-American who started in the program at age 13 and now has a Ph.D. in Education.

His advice: "Don't do it by yourself! This profession can very isolating, it can be very difficult and challenging, particularly because it's a young field. Surround yourself with individuals of like-mind, of like-energy, to test out your ideas and the quality of your life, your mental health and your physical well-being."

John Wood, founder of Room To Read, is convinced that changing the world starts with educating children: "I strongly believe in education. It has made me who I am today, and most likely who you are."

As an "overworked, stressed Microsoft executive" trekking in Nepal, he met the head of a small school with a library that had no books. The headmaster told him: "We are too poor to afford education, but until we have education, we will always be poor."

Since this moment of epiphany that prompted him to leave Microsoft in 1999, Room To Read has built a network of 765 schools and 7,000 libraries with five million books, serving three million children.

His advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "My favorite three letters are GSD! Get shit done, let's get out there, let's change the world, action is better than talk!"

While attending the 2009 Skoll World Forum at Oxford, Global X interviewed Gillian Caldwell, campaign director of 1Sky, which tries to "shift federal policy in the United States towards the prosperity of a sustainable, low-carbon economy."

Her moment of epiphany came in 2005 when she was still with Witness and watched Al Gore deliver his slide show on global warming (it later became One Inconvenient Truth).

"We are all on this boat together and we only have one chance to make it right," says Gillian Caldwell in this three-minute interview.

Her advice: listen! "The essence of social change and effective work is the heart of human relationship. I don't think we can really be in an active and right relationship with people unless we are hearing them."

At the 2009 Skoll World Forum, Global X interviewed Jordan Kassalow, the founder of VisionSpring. The social enterprise formerly known as Scojo Foundation helps women create businesses to sell eye glasses to those at the bottom of the pyramid who need them the most.

Jordan Kassalow's moment of epiphany came 24 years ago as he was a young student in optometry doing volunteer work in Mexico. He noticed a seven-year old blind boy ("carrying his Braille book and with the typical blank stare of a blind person, living the life of a blind child in rural Mexico"), only to realize that this boy was actually profoundly near-sighted (prescription: - 22!) but not blind.

Jordan Kassalow remembers this moment: "I was the lucky guy who put the glasses on his face for the first time. The boy totally changed his expression from the blank stare of a blind person to the universal smile of joy of a seven-year old boy. This moment was infectious, it was powerful, and I knew I had to do more of this. His life changed as much as mine did at that moment."

From that time, Jordan Kassalow defined his success by how many more moments he could create just like that one.

Nina Smith, Executive Director of the RugMark Foundation in the US, works against child labor in the carpet industry by educating consumers (and businesses) on the problem of child labor --which currently impacts over 300,000 children in India, Nepal and Pakistan alone.

Nina Smith shares with Global X the story of Lakshmi who was able to break the cycle of poverty for her and her family. She was a carpet slave at the age of six and now speaks fluent English and works in hotel management and the tourism industry.

Nina Smith gives her piece of advice to emerging social entrepreneurs: "Clearly articulate the social impact you are having through your social venture!"

Sakena Yacoobi (see her picture with Muhammad Yunus) received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship for her work with women and children in Afghanistan. In this short interview, she tells Global X how fundamental an impact education is having on women.

She remembers the day she sat with 300 students ("All women!") to celebrate their graduation. Even though Sakena Yacoobi was with two men (her body guard and her manager), the women kept talking freely and didn't even try to hide their faces as is the custom in front of men who are not close relatives.

She was so proud: "How much they have learned --they are now independent, self-sufficient, earning income, proud of themselves, famous!"

Sakena Yacoobi's advice: "I listen to lots of stories --the women who share them are crying, they are weeping. But what I have learned is that rush, rush, rush is not going to work. You may save a life by listening."

 Global X just heard from the Webbies that he "has been selected "as an Official Honoree for the Public Service and Activism category in the 13th Annual Webby Awards."

Global X is at the Skoll World Forum, and he is interviewing the crème de la crème of social entrepreneurship. His pick so far:

- Ann Cotton (CAMFED), who is convinced that the world in 10 years will be a world "where every human being will be born from a well-educated woman."

- Bart Weetjens (Apopo), who trains rats to find mines in the minefields of Mozambique and to detect TB in humans

- Joe Madiath (Gram Vikas), who at age 11 tried to unionize the workers who were employed by his very own father. Within two months, he was in boarding school!

- Martin Burt (Fundación Paraguaya), who is convinced that if you treat poor people with dignity, they will get out of poverty

- Martin Fisher (Kickstart), who says that "the number one need of a poor person anywhere in the world is to have a way to make more money. It's not about education, heath care, or clean water, because if you find the way to make more money, you can afford to buy all these things."

- Mechai Viravaidya (PDA), for his piece of advice to young social entrepreneurs: "Young man, young woman, go out and change the world! The world is yours!"

- Sebastien Marot (Friends), because he thought he would saty in Cambodia for only a few days, but after what he saw as he was leaving a Phnom Penh restaurant on his very first night, he decided to stay. That was 12 years ago!

- Matt Flannery (Kiva), because of the way he describes how he made the decision to quit his Silicon Valley job and work full time for Kiva

- Premal Shah (Kiva), because he gives three wonderful pieces of advice to fellow emerging social entrepreneurs.
 

During his trip around the world, Global X had the chance to meet social entrepreneurs who are dealing with water scarcity, irrigation, sanitation, and access to healthy drinking water.

Here is a list of his favorite X-Interviews:

• Isaac Durojaiye - DMT Toilet, Lagos.

Because besides improving sanitation and public health, his toilet business creates jobs. Which may explain why the motto printed on his business cards says: "Shit business is serious business."

• Martin Fisher - Kickstart

Because he tells Global X: "The number one need of a poor person anywhere in the world is to have a way to make more money. It's not about education, heath care, or clean water, because if you find the way to make more money, you can afford to buy all these things."

• Joachim Ezeji - Rural Africa Water Development Project, Nigeria

Because the geologist-turned-social-entrepreneur says: "Africa wants to change, but the problem is leadership."

• Joe Madiath - Gram Vikas

Because he tells Global X what happened when, at age 11, he tried to unionize the workers who were employed by his very own father. Within two months, he was in boarding school!

• Jack Sim - World Toilet Organization ("the other WTO!")

Because he shares with Global X his youth in poor Singapore, then explains why he launched the WTO. The day he turned 40, he realized that he was half-way done with his life and decided to do something important.

• Adrien Couton - India

Because he helped IDE-India'sAmitabha Sadangi raise money for a profit-making venture and worked on exporting  drip irrigation technology to Pakistan and East Africa.

• Angelique Smit - Cambodia

Because she tells Global X why she is an optimist: "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. I want to stay awake!"

The playlist is on YouTube.

Global X loves powerful women, especially those who are changing the world one social venture at a time. Here are his favorite entretiens (that's French for interviews), knowing perfectly well that he will receive messages from jealous entrepreneurs who didn't make the cut...

The Top Five X-tremely Powerful Women:

• Jody Williams - Nobel Women's Initiative

Because she said: "Just don't whine about issues! Get up and take action to make a better world!"

• Louise Arbour - United Nations

Because she said: “Pick a cause! Be a citizen! Vote! Tell your governments what you want them to do and what you will not tolerate that they do on your behalf!”

• Jacqueline Novogratz - Acumen Fund

Because she told Global X what happened when 10 of the wealthiest people on earth met one of the poorest families in India.

• Pamela Hartigan - formerly with the Schwab Foundation, now with the Skoll Centre at Oxford

Because she said: "Soon, all entrepreneurs will be social entrepreneurs."

• Roshaneh Zafar - The Kashf Foundation

Because she shared with Global X what happened when she realized she was sitting at a conference next to a gentleman called Muhammad Yunus.

Very Powerful Social Entrepreneur Women:

• Ann Cotton – CAMFED

Because she hopes that the world in 2017 will be a world "where every human being will be born from a well-educated woman."

• Josephine Nzerem - Human Angle

Because she told Global X: "If you don't have the passion, you have lost the walk. Keep the passion alive!" And because of her daughter playing with her mobile phone...

• Kjerstin Erickson - Founder and Executive Director, Forge

Because she is the Radical Transparency Queen!

• Urmee Mehta Mankar- Swadhaar

Because when she quotes a young Mumbai boy, "I am not begging, I am doing my job!" she is explaining the difference between charity and social entrepreneurship.

• Caroline Casey - The Aisling Foundation

Because she reminded Global X that "It’s far better to be a dangerous dreamer than a day dreamer."

• Laila Iskandar - Community & Institutional Development

Because she said: "If it's not social, then it's bad business."

• Mari Kuraishi - President, GlobalGiving Foundation

Because of her life in Eastern Europe.

• Paula Goldman because she met a young woman in a Bogota slum who "never doubted that she could make a difference!"

And if that's not enough, you may want to check other X-Interviews of powerful women social entrepreneurs.

Now that Global X is short-listed for the 2009 Webby Awards, he had to watch the 100+ video interviews of social entrepreneurs he taped in the past two years, only to select the very best moments for his demo reel.

Global X had a hard time eliminating the stars he interviewed, but he was tough: neither Muhammad Yunus nor Jimmy Carter nor Bill Drayton made the final cut...

Instead, he kept a valuable piece of advice by Kiva's Premal Shah, a visually stunning introduction by d-light design's Sam Goldman, Harsha Moily's comments about the role of technology in development, and a moving story by Mumbai-based microfinance expert Urmee Mehta Mankar in which she demonstrates that social entrepreneurship is not charity.

Global X also kept a short segment taped in Dakar where Josephine Nzerem's daughter plays with her mother's mobile phone as she talks about passion in social entrepreneurship.

This three-minute demo reel ends with a powerful call for action from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams. Global X can't help but have tears in his eyes when he watches this compilation --so many great individuals doing fabulous work to build a better planet.

And he can't help wonder what pair of glasses he will wear when he goes to New York to get his award, as he owns seven pairs of Mikli!

Global X arrived at the office this morning, wondering why he wasn't in Egypt interviewing social entrepreneurs, when he noticed an e-mail print-out on his door. "Ouh la la!" he said to himself in his best French-accent: "I am short listed for the Webby Awards! Maybe, just maybe, the Global Children will finally be impressed..."

This is what the e-mail said:

Congratulations! This letter serves as your notification that The X-Interviews Hosted by Global X has made the Online Film and Video short list in the Public Service and Activism category in the 13th Annual Webby Awards. 

This means that from the thousands of entries submitted during the call for entries, your work faired the best in our reviewing process and will be moving on to the next stage of judging. 

Short listed entries are further evaluated by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences for consideration of a Webby Award.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Webby Awards "celebrate sites that pave important paths to the internet's next phase."

Global X liked that description: paving important paths? Mais oui!

Is Global X really at the World Economic Forum? Does he wish...

Unfortunately, Global X was not invited to Davos this year again (next year? please!) but to show how connected he is, he came up with a list of social entrepreneurs he has X-Interviewed in the past few months and who are attending this year's World Economic Forum:

Taffy Adler: Social Edge or YouTube

Vikram Akula: Social Edge or YouTube

Ann Cotton: Social Edge or YouTube

Christopher Elias: Social Edge or YouTube

Andreas Heinecke: Social Edge or YouTube

Laila Iskandar: Social Edge or YouTube

Bart Weetjens: Social Edge or YouTube

Muhammad Yunus: Social Edge or YouTube

Roshaneh Zafar: Social Edge or YouTube

Adrien Couton on working with Amitabha Sandangi: Social Edge or YouTube
 
Tim Brown of IDEO on Aravind Eye Care Hospital: Social Edge or YouTube
 

Mirjam, please write a memo to Klaus Schwab: Next year, invite Global X to Davos!

Stephan de Beer was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2007 for his work with the Tswane Leadership Foundation, which he launched to help communities connect and work together in South African cities.

"People are often displaced through urban renewal processes," he says and the foundation helps them get back on their feet. He mentions a woman who was living on the street with her two children. The Tswane Leadership Foundation was able to place her in a shelter, give her a job in a laundromat and find a day care center for her younger child --a holistic approach. She is now the manager of the small laundry business.

Stephan de Beer grew up himself in the inner-city. He created a shelter for boys, but one of them died when the shelter burnt, forcing Stephan de Beer to ask himself big questions "on issues of inclusion and exclusion, who is welcome in the city and who isn't, and this led me to a commitment to build healthy communities where even the most vulnerable are welcome."

His advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "There is no shame in saying I don't know. We surround ourselves with people with different experiences and expertise who help us find the right answer."

Timothy Jenkin has been a Cape Town-based political activist all his life. He launched the Community Exchange System (CES) in 2003 to create a new money system, and was elected Ashoka Fellow in 2007.

As Timothy Jenkin explains it, CES is a community-based network using a 'money' created by its users, one that can never be in short supply --so long as one can offer something of value, you can always receive from the community goods and services of similar value.

This helps township citizens be part of the local economy without incurring huge debts due to predatory lending. Transactions are computerized so that users can maintain their personal accounts through computer kiosks or mobile phones.