(Courtesy of TED
here are three mind-expanding illustrated talks.)
CAN
WOMEN CHANGE THE CULTURES THAT OPPRESS THEM?
You bet they can!
Kavita
Ramdas is president and CEO of the Global Fund for
Women, a publicly supported grantmaking foundation that advances human
rights by investing in women-led organizations worldwide. Ramdas tells
horrifying stories of how badly women are still treated in parts of the
world simply because they are women, even to the extent of rape and
sexual violence against women being used as weapons of war in some
parts of the Middle East and North Africa, as reported by US Secretary
of State Hilary Clinton. However, Ramdas is heartened to discover that
so many are devising their own methods to overcome oppression. She
recalls that one of them explained it to her this way: "A Filipina
activist once said to me, 'How do you cook a rice cake? With heat from
the bottom and heat from the top.'"
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CAN
WE BEAT CORRUPT OFFICIALS AT THEIR OWN GAME?
You bet we can!
Indian
social entrepreneur Shaffi Mather founded
an emergency ambulance service in Mumbai and Kerala with a sliding
scale payment system that has revolutionized medical transport there,
and he co-founded The Education Initiative which is involved with
e-learning and the creation of new schools across India. In addition,
Mather is a lawyer focusing on litigation in public interest --
battling for transparency in governance and use of public funds, human
rights, civil rights and primacy of constitution. He is currently
building up another company whereby people who can't get something done
by corrupt officials without paying a big bribe, can for a very small
fee get someone from this company to negotiate it for them. This works
because bribes and the officials demanding them are supposed to be
secret not public, so it has the effect of reducing corruption wherever
it operates. We need public spirited social entrepreneurs like Shaffi
in the Philippines.
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CAN
LEARNING ENGLISH CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND YOUR WORLD?
You bet it can!
American
inventor and entrepreneur Jay Walker
calls it the latest world mania. To illustrate it he shows video clips
of Chinese students learning English, and he quotes the amazing facts
that by law Chinese kids must start learning English in the third
grade, and that China will this year become the world's largest
English-speaking country. He concludes: "So is English mania good or
bad? Is English a tsunami, washing away other languages? Not likely.
English is the world's second language. Your native language is your
life. But with English you can become part of a wider conversation. A
global conversation about global problems. Like climate change or
poverty. Or hunger or disease. The world has other universal languages.
Mathematics is the language of science. Music is the language of
emotions. And now English is becoming the language of problem solving.
Not because America is pushing it. But because the world is pulling it.
So English mania is a turning point. Like the harnessing of electricity
in our cities, or the fall of the Berlin Wall, English represents hope
for a better future. A future where the world has a common language to
solve its common problems."
