Business - Written Friday, January 25, 2008 by Don Tapscott - 0 Comments

Most inspiring session — the kids are all right

With all the discussion of the world’s problems at Davos, one can get a little discouraged. Right now I’m sitting in a session and I’m feeling positively uplifted. Inspired really. It’s a panel of 6 kids aged 17 – 20 who were selected by the British Council. The British Council has created a global network of 54 young people who have been defining what needs to be done to the world to make it possible for them to be successful and solve the many problems that previous generations have created.

The panelists were extraordinary. These 6 were all natural leaders and as activists for social change, all educated, connected and multi-lingual are completely atypical of their peers. But they are part of a global generation and values are more reflective of their generation than not. ( I speak from some experience having just interviewed 11,000 youth in 10 countries of a New Paradigm research project on “the Net Generation.” )

The panel was co-moderated by Actor Emma Thompson, who told me before the session that I should get ready for some uplifting discussion.

A young woman from Sri Lanka working to eliminate poverty and with other has created a network of youth activists. “You must be the difference you want to see in the world.” She describes how the 54 people in the British Council network all view the world the same way. She’s on to something. My research indicates that youth today have very common views about many things, regardless of nationality. This is arguably the first generation ever of which that could be said. She told a story of a 5 year old who watched her mother being gang raped and suffered major trauma. After much counselling she is now doing OK.

A young woman the USA notes “In the US we spend $21 billion every year on ice cream. But it would only take $10 billion to put every child in the world into primary school.” In high school she raised enough money to create a school in Sierra Leone. She told an amazing story of a 5th grader, who was involved in raising funds to build a school.

A 19 year old from Cape Town leads an anti-racism and human rights campaign among young people.

The panelist from Scotland fights against prejudice towards gay people. He once talked to a 16 year old male prostitute in Glasgow and asked him where he gets condoms from. His reply: “what do I need condoms for, I can’t get pregnant.” Lad was amazed that the education system had failed. Prostitute is now working in a community center educating gays about this issue.

A 17 year old male from China told a story of growing up in rural China. Every spring there were sand storms in his village and he coughed for months. He now has a project where young people are planting 365 trees per day. When referred by a questioner as “the future” he replies “True, but we don’t want to be the future only — we want to make a difference today.” He’s got a new view of peer pressure. He says we think about peers in a negative way but peering can be the opposite. We can have peer inspiration where young people can work together as peers to make great things can happen.

A young man from Argentina is organizing a campaign against poverty, raising awareness on the importance of every kid getting an education. Among his projects, has set up a library in Buenos Aires.

Emma Thomson asked the panel — what do you want older leaders to do? One panelist worried that as populations age, governments will do what old people want, and not what the young want. Why not youth parliaments and other creative initiatives like regional and global forums to engage young people. Another panellist suggests a World youth forum. Invite some older leaders but they would be the minority. And then listen to what the young people say: “Use your ears rather than them being decorations.”

As far as I’m concerned these are the 6 most important people attending Davos.