Porn Unblocked in China – Why this Change?

Information that porn sites on the Internet have been unblocked in China since the end of May 2010 spread quickly. This came as a big surprise. The introduction of blocking came often with an official reason, saying to block porn is done, as porn is culturally not acceptable. But this led often also to the blocking of politically unwelcome sites. So different assumptions as to the Why? were discussed widely. A variety of ideas have been proposed:

• It’s a mistake. This one is looking less likely with each day it goes on, unchanged. But it’s still the easiest explanation for a rather baffling change that seems to fly in the face of years of propaganda from the Chinese government.
• It’s a trap! In all seriousness, some people have suggested that it’s a sting operation, although I can’t imagine how that could possibly work. Are they going to arrest everyone who has watched porn or used Twitter in the past week?
• It’s a response to the school killings/Foxconn suicides. Some people have suggested that, in short, the government is starting to fear horny men, and hopes they’ll be placated by YouPorn, and, uh, Twitter. Perhaps these online pursuits can serve as a forum for venting the frustration that was previously manifesting in suicides and homicides.
• It’s related to a certain upcoming anniversary [Tian An Men square memorial]. This one doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either, but certainly, weird stuff does happen on the Chinese internet in early June. It’s just that usually more sites are being blocked, not less.
• From a tweet by Isaac Mao: maybe it’s a response to critics in the WTO

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So far, I am not aware that anybody came up with another probability: Public Health – public health professionals should have suggested this solution already.

The BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – held their second summit meeting in April 2010. Now, some weeks later, Brazilians told to have more sexual intercourse to avoid illness: “Brazilians can fight off chronic illness by engaging regularly in physical exercise, and particularly in sexual intercourse, the country’s health minister said.”

How to evaluate this? – “Well, this is the ‘hot Brazilians’…”?

But in July 2009, the British National Health Service gave some similar advice to the ‘cool British’:

Pupils told: Sex every day keeps the GP away:

A leaflet is advising school pupils that they have a ‘right’ to an enjoyable sex life and that regular intercourse can be good for their cardiovascular health.

“The advice appears in guidance circulated to parents, teachers and youth workers, and is intended to update sex education by telling pupils about the benefits of sexual pleasure. For too long, say its authors, experts have concentrated on the need for ‘safe sex’ and loving relationships while ignoring the main reason that many people have sex, that is, for enjoyment.

The document, called Pleasure, has been drawn up by National Health Service Sheffield, although it is also being circulated outside the city.

Alongside the slogan ‘An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away’, it says: ‘Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes’ physical activity three times a week.’

But not only physical health – as a social concern – received such attention from highly placed public institutions. But also Creativity received attention in a study, published in the prestigious US magazine Scientific American in September 2009: Does Falling in Love Make Us More Creative?: “A new study demonstrates that thinking about love – but not about sex – causes us to think more ‘globally,’ making it easier to come up with new ideas.”

As this later writings indicate: sex may not lead to creativity; so the unblocking of porn may not solve some elements of social stagnation (though it may help to improve cardiovascular health). The unblocking of porn sites in China was accompanied also by unblocking the access to some critical political content. That may be more important for future social developments (if such unblocking is not only temporary). But, after all, to read and to talk freely about sex is also not unrelated to love – which leads to creativity and open thinking. Good signs for the future!

 

My standard calculation…

“9 April 2010 – Justice John Paul Stevens, the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court and the leader of its liberal wing, announced his retirement Friday, giving President Obama his second chance to make a mark on the nation’s highest court.

“Stevens, who will turn 90 on April 20, said in a letter to ‘My dear Mr. President’ that he will leave the court at the conclusion of the current term at the end of June.”

So the reaction is: 90 minus 76 = 14. Wow! That is fourteen more years (but maybe less). Fourteen years? Actually that is not so long. I am in Cambodia already twenty.

 

Just for the record – Friday, 2 April 2010

Just for the record, Friday, 2 April 2010 – after having received several “Seasons Greetings” with wishes for a happy weekend.

The Betrayal and Arrest, Hearings, Conviction, and Execution of Jesus

Jesus went with his friends across the brook of the Kedron, the Ravine of Cedars. There was a garden there, which he entered with his friends. But Judas, who was betraying him, also knew the spot, for Jesus and his friends often had been there together. So Judas, taking a company of soldiers and officers sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees [at various times a political party, a social movement, or a school of thought – extremists some times, sometimes extreme legalists] came there with torches and lanterns and weapons.

Jesus, knowing that something like this was going to happen, went out and asked them, “For whom are you looking?” “Jesus from Nazareth,” they replied. Jesus answered, “That is me.” Judas, who had betrayed him, was also with them. But when he said to them, “That is me,” they stepped back. He therefore asked again, “For whom are you looking?” And again they replied, “Jesus from Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that this is me. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”

Then Simon Peter, who had a dagger, struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear. Jesus called out to Peter, “Put your dagger back!”

Then the company of soldiers, with their captain and their underlings, arrested Jesus and tied him up. They took him first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest for that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that “it would be best if one man should die instead of many people.”

Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did also another of his friends. This friend was known to the high priest, so he went with Jesus into the high priest’s court. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other friend, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to a woman at the gate and brought Peter inside. She said to Peter, “Aren’t you one of this man’s friends?” He said, “I am not!” Now the servants had made a charcoal fire, for it was cold, and they were warming themselves. Peter, too, was standing there to warm himself.

The high priest then questioned Jesus about his group of friends, and about his teaching. Jesus answered, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, to these places everybody can go at all the time. I have spoken nothing in secret. Why are you questioning me? Ask those who have heard what I said to them. They surely know what I have said.” At this remark, one of the officers struck him and said. “What! Is that the way to answer the high priest?” “If I have said anything wrong,” said Jesus, “then prove it. But if I spoke rightly, then why do you hit me?” Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.

While Simon Peter was standing there, warming himself by the fire, they said to him, “But aren’t you one of his friends?” He denied it, saying, “I am not!” One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” Once more Peter denied it!

Next, they marched Jesus to the governor’s palace. It was still early morning. They did not yet enter the palace, however. Therefore Pilate came out to them and asked, “What have you to say against this man?” They answered, “If he were not an evil-doer, we would never have brought him to you.”

Then Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.” “No,” they said, “we are not permitted to administer the death penalty by ourselves.”

Pilate then went back into his palace. He sent for Jesus and said to him, “You, sir, are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own, or did others tell you this about me?” “Am I a Jew?” retorted Pilate [the Roman governor of the province of Judaea, from the year 26 to 36, according to our present counting of the years]. “No, your own people and the chief priests have given you into my hands. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my followers would fight so that I would not be turned over to the local authorities of the Jews. No, my kingdom is not an earthly one.” “Then you are a King?” asked Pilate. “I am, as you say, a King,” answered Jesus. “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Every friend of the truth listens to my voice.”

“Truth – ” exclaimed Pilate – “What is truth?” With this remark Pilate went out again to the crowd and reported, “I find no guilt at all in him! But you have a custom that I should set someone free at the Festival of Passover. Is it your wish that I set free the King of the Jews?” “No, no!” they shouted back, “Not this fellow, but Barabbas!” Barabbas was a robber who had also been arrested.

Then Pilate took Jesus, and had him caned. The soldiers, having made a crown of thorns, put it on his head and threw a piece of purple cloth around him. And while shouting, “Long live the King of the Jews!” they struck him again.

Therefore Pilate went out to them again and said, “See, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may realize that I find no guilt at all in him!” Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Look at this man!”

But when the chief priests and their underlings saw him, they shouted, “Execute him! Execute him!” But Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and execute him. As for me, I find him not guilty.” “We have a law,” they answered, “and by that law of ours he should be killed, for he claims to be the Son of God!”

When Pilate heard them say this, he became afraid more than ever. Going into the palace again, he said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no reply. “Why don’t you say anything?” said Pilate. “Don’t you know that I have the power to execute you, and that I have the power to set you free?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all over me, unless it were given you from a higher authority. Therefore, the one who betrayed me has the greater sin.”

Then Pilate wanted to set him free, but they kept shouting, “If you let this fellow go, you are not a friend of Caesar! Whoever sets himself up as a king is an insurgent against the state!” On hearing this, Pilate brought Jesus out again and seated himself on the judgment seat.

It was the preparation day of the Festival of Passover, about noontime. Pilate, the Roman governor, said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” But they shouted, “Away with him! Execute him!” Pilate said to them, “What? Shall I execute your King?” “We have no king but Caesar!” the high priests answered. He therefore handed him over to them to be executed. And they took Jesus and led him away.

Carrying his gallows, a beam with a cross-bar, he came to a spot named the Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they prepared to killed him, and with him two other convicted criminals, one on either side, and Jesus in the middle.

Then Pilate wrote a caption, and put it on the gallows. The sign said, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” This caption was read by many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was put to death was near to the city. The sign was written in the local language of Hebrew, in the official language of the empire, Latin, and in Greek, the international language of communication in the region. The Jewish high priests then said to Pilate, “Do not write,’The King of the Jews,’ but rather that he had said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’ ” But Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

Standing beside the gallows of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary from Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the the only one of the group of his friends who had come whom he loved, standing near, he said to his mother, “Mother, there is your son!” Then he said to his friend, “There is your mother.” And from that hour the friend took her to his own home.

After this, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” The soldiers had a mug with vinegar. They filled a sponge with vinegar, fastened it to a cane, and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.” And, bowing his head, he died.

(From the Book of John, made shorter, tightening the language.)

=

Note on Mary from Magdala

Some reports say she had been a prostitute. She became prominent during the latter days of Jesus, accompanying him during his travels, and following him to the end, witnessing his execution, when all other friends except one had gone into hiding. In some traditions, she is described as a special follower of Jesus with a deeper understanding of his teachings than others; in modern feminist theology, there is also reference to her.

She started to be know, after one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have a meal together, and Jesus went to his house and squatted down to eat. Then, a woman from the city, who was publicly reputed to be of loose morals, who had heard that he was there, brought an flask of ointment, and squatting behind him, she wept and began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, and kissed his feet, and spread the ointment on him. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a bad woman.”

 

“How to Reclaim Your Attention”

Good advice – will try:

“I urge you to reclaim your attention.

Here’s how:

1. Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential.

2. Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require.

3. Limit your communication time. Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out. Going to do Twitter? Give yourself 5 minutes. Seriously, set up a timer. Don’t let these things take up all your attention.

4. Give up on news. It’s a never-ending cycle. And if you’ve paid attention to the news as long as I have (I’m a former journalist), you know it’s all the same, year after year. Unless your job depends on it, the news is usually a waste of your attention. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.

5. Be brief. Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto. Read more.

6. Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.

7. Become conscious of your distractions. Once you’ve decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up. Make note of them, and as you get the urge to be distracted, learn to pause, breathe, and return to the important.

8. Surround yourself with the positive. If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.”

Source: http://zenhabits.net/2010/03/reclaim-your-attention/

And how did I find it? Through one of the too many (?) Twitter friends.

I don’t agree with Point 4 – not only because I depend on news for my work on The Mirror. I do The Mirror since 1997 because I think that keeping up with the news – knowing what is going on in society – is the basis for being involved in society.

So I hope that whoever reads this will not drop off the list of readers of The Mirror. But I can agree with the last sentence of Point 4: “… keep it limited.”

 

Michael Moore: ‘Capitalism is evil … you have to eliminate it’

Michael Moore made another well researched film, digging out astounding things which had been suppressed in a society to proud of its freedoms – of expression, of opinion, of publication…

From The Guardian:

“Moore has dug out of a South Carolina archive a piece of film buried away 66 years ago because it threatened to rock the foundations of the capitalist system as Americans now know it.

“President Franklin D Roosevelt was ailing. Too ill to make his 1944 state of the nation address to Congress, he instead broadcast it by radio. But at one point he called in the cameras, and set out his vision of a new America he knew he would not live to see.

“Roosevelt proposed a second bill of rights to guarantee every American a job with a living wage, a decent home, medical care, protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness and unemployment, and, perhaps most dangerously for big business, freedom from unfair monopolies. He said that “true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.

“The film was quickly locked away.

“‘The next week on the newsreels – and we’ve gone back and researched this – they didn’t run that,’ said Moore. ‘They talked about other parts of his speech, the war. Nothing about this. The footage became lost. When we called the Roosevelt presidential library and asked them about it they said it wasn’t filmed. His own family told us it wasn’t filmed.’ Moore’s team scoured the country without luck until they were given a tip about a collector connected to the university of South Carolina.

“The university didn’t have anything archived under FDR’s speeches that fitted, but there were a couple of boxes from that week in 1944.

“‘We pop it in. It was all there. We had tears in our eyes watching it. For 65 years not a single American saw that speech, not one. I decided right then that we’re going to fulfil Roosevelt’s wishes that the American people see him saying this. Of all the things in the film, probably I feel most privileged that I get to share this. I get to give him his stage.’ It’s a powerful moment not only because it offers an alternative view of American values rarely spoken of today – almost all of which would be condemned as rampant socialism – but also an interesting reference point with which to compare the more restrained ambitions of the Obama administration.

“It is hard to imagine any circumstances in which Obama could put forward such an agenda, I suggest. Moore disagrees.”

How far will this reach the public in the USA? And even if it does?

 

What is a Barcamp?

My last and only visit to Burma was less than 24 hours in Rangoon 1965 – now I plan to make my second visit: to Myanmar in 2010 to attend and probably make a presentation at the first BarCamp in Yangon.

BarCamp Yangon

What is a Barcamp?

Barcamp is a technology sharing event where anyone can participate freely and openly. It is a community activity based on collaboration and knowledge sharing, which has become a trend in Web 2.0 era, that is striving to reduce the knowledge gap between peers and between professionals and non-professionals. It is not an event where the rest of you have to listen to one person talking, but an event where you will be able to express yourself in topics concerning related fields, and therefore, will be able to meet and talk with many people. It is not like a seminar, where the direction goes from one to many, but will be going from many to many.

Barcamp Yangon

Barcamps are usually named after the place where the event is held. Many countries have held barcamps, and are still holding such events. However, this barcamp will be the first to be held in Myanmar. Since we haven’t held such conferences before, you can say that this will be our first conference. Starting from this, other states and divisions around the country may hold their own barcamps in the future. Anyone who is interested can attend this Yangon Barcamp. Enthusiasts and professionals within the country as well as from broad will be here at this event.

Our Aim

• Target youths
• To increase good practices such as technology and knowledge sharing
  among youths
• To be able to collaborate with peers with same interest and figure
  out how to use such technology for the good of many
• To highlight how to use internet in an effective way
• To increase internet user population in the country to a whole new level

Organization

With the permission of Ministry of Post & Telecommunication, and sponsored by Myanmar Computer Professionals Association, Barcamp Yangon will be organized by Barcamp Organizers from various sections in the IT Industry within the country. Wireless internet will be available for the two-day event, which will be sponsored by Redlink Company. Barcamp is not under the direct control of anyone, and there will only be organizers who will be responsible for the success of this event. In order for Barcamp to be successful, everyone who attends this event will have to participate wholeheartedly. Currently, we have set up groups of organizers for Barcamp Yangon. Volunteers are still needed for the successful holding of this event.

Barcamp Style

Barcamp is not a seminar. It is more independent and have more warmth. Those who will hold presentations in this event may or may not have prepared their presentations, and can be a spur-of-the-moment presentations. If you suddenly thought of a good topic to discuss while looking at the list of topics that others will be discussing, you can register your topic at “Topic Registration” and just post it up on the noticeboard. Therefore, you will have to persuade the audience to attend your discussion, which can actually be fun! Some announce that they will treat their audience with snacks, so they would have to prepare snacks for everyone. Some gives souvenirs and others pass out brochures. You cannot predict that everyone who come to Barcamp will be interested in your topic of discussion. You will need to keep in mind that there would also be other discussions in other rooms just like yours. It will not be the same as a seminar where only one person will be talking. There would be 4 people who would be talking about 4 different topics in 4 different rooms. If their topic and their public attraction is better than yours, there will be no audience for your discussion. That is why you would need to persuade the audience using the techniques mentioned above. It is necessary for you to advertise about your topic of discussion so that your audience will be aware of it. However, please keep in mind that this is not a competition.

Who will be Attending Barcamp Yangon

The first Barcamp Yangon will be based on Information Technology, so it will be attended by anyone who is related to IT. Since this is the first of its kind in Myanmar, it would also be attended by people from other parts of the country. Professionals from other countries will also be here for this event. Actually, Barcamp is not only for IT-related events. There are also other camps such as “book camp” or “health camp”. After evaluating the first Barcamp experiences, there would be other kinds of barcamps all over the country. It has been estimated that more than 1000 people will be attending Barcamp Yangon.

 

OPEN KNOWLEDGE, FREE CULTURE – ICT history in Cambodia, and the future?

Dr. Tilman Baumgärtel from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Department of Media and Communication, wrote a report about the 8 January 2010 conference OPEN KNOWLEDGE, FREE CULTURE, where I presented some history about ICT developments in Cambodia as Open Source – Open Knowledge: some stories from Cambodia.

My presentation is also linked there.

 

A new system of surveillance of a new sector of society: Karaoke

The Los Angeles Times [/source] reported “China plucks popular ‘Snail House’ TV show off the air. Some say the crackdown signals a troubling new trend in censorship…”

Brief content:

“Set in a fictional city resembling Shanghai, the drama focuses on two sisters who become fangnu, or mortgage slaves, desperately struggling to pay their bills in a country where 85% of the population is priced out of the housing market.”

“But when one sister is driven to become the mistress of a corrupt Communist Party cadre, the show perhaps became too realistic for nervous officials. “Snail House” was recently yanked from the airwaves in some areas, another victim of candor in a country where mass communication is tightly controlled.”

This is probably not the first time a TV program was stopped. But I had never heard that karaoke is also controlled – in Chongqing, a provincial level municipality like Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, with a population of over 31 million, in central-western China. and even “automatically.”

Rough translation:

“Chongqing has installed an automatic content management system in 176 karaoke parlors. Through this system, surveillance and law enforcement will be strengthened. This system allows to monitor when a forbidden song is sung: a red light blinks as a warning. During last week, the authorities have therefore already searched 11 dance and music establishments which had violated the regulations, in order to strengthen that the law is upheld and cultural rules are observed. For the beginning 10 titles have been indicated, which have texts with vulgar words, including some MTV scenes, or dirty jokes about women. The campaign will continue until 25 December, cabarets and karaoke parlors will be once warned to delete forbidden songs, but in case of repeated violations the establishments may be closed.”

[source: 重慶監控K房 點唱禁歌將自動報警]

The report does not disclose any technicalities, how this “content monitoring” works, apart from the statement that it works “automatically.” Anyway, the Big Brother is going to watch more, and this automatically. Scary.

 

Where does the money come from? High level corrucption in Cambodia

The Mirror carried on 4.1.2010 the story The Son of a Four-Star-General Said Corruption Occurs at Present from Top to Bottom – not a critical attack from outsiders, but stories shared from the inside. The full story – with gorgeous pictures – is here: “Khmer Riche,” a pun for the “Khmer Rouge.”

Almost as a sequel there is now in The Cambodia Daily of 5.1.2010 another story:

RCAF General’s Son Begins Three-Day Nuptials

“Kim Phara, 26, a son of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Deputy Commander-in-Chief General Kun Kim, began three days of ceremonies and celebration on Monday to wed 16-year-old Dim Sereyroth, daughter of Seang Chanheng, director of the agribusiness company Heng Development, and Dim Sokhom, according to Dim Sopheavy, and elder sister of the bride. The first two days of the wedding were to be held at Mr. Kim’s Takhmau city residence in Kandal province with the final day to be held at the NagaWorld hotel and casino in Phnom Penh, said Ms. Sopheavy. ‘There are 10,000 guests participating at my sister’s wedding over three days and the bride is the youngest on my family’s side,’ she said. According to Kong Kunthearith, an advisor to Mr. Kim, the first day was to be attended by members of the CPP youth movement, while officials from the RCAF high command and defense ministry are expected today.”

Where does the money come from?

And how long can this ontinue?

 

At the new start with the New Year 2010

When I am being asked: “How is Cambodia?” I usually say, since a year or so ago: “Like a W – down, up, down, up – but it is now more down.” If I am still around at the end of May of this year, I will have been 19 full years in Cambodia, surely a time also with many ups. But the last year has shown in many ways that the society is facing so many uncertainties, because it is not possible to have confidence in a transparent system where realities are faced and not denied, and where the society can move with confidence within a state of law. Laws are disregarded sometimes in every country, but when they are frequently disregarded by people with power, it is difficult to look with confidence into the future. But everybody needs hope to move on.

Current events have been regularly covered in The Mirror and elsewhere. For the beginning of our 14th year of publication, I had asked, in view of some recent events, the question From 2009 to 2010 – Where Are We Heading?

There is hardly any effort visible in Cambodia towards a wide, global analysis and reflection of the situation of the country, just responses to some challenges of the day. But all the more it is good to know that there are people, here and elsewhere, who are alert and clear and creative to consider where we are, and where should not, and where we might go. Globally – and locally.

I had been made aware of the following speech some time ago and had decided to share and spread it also, not yet knowing at that time that this speach would also be sent out from Cambodia with other greetings – as it covers all the challenges and all the hopes we can have at this crucial time for the earth, and for us who live on it and from it, after the Copenhagen Climate Summit is over – without a lot to the expected results, but still as a milestone to survival, or not.

Here is the speech – read it, consider it, share some commments with others or also with me.

The Unforgettable Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.

Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

“…the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.”

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

“YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING.”

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

“Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.”

The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”

“We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells.”

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

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Information about the author and the source of the speech in Global Mindshift is here:

Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May 2009, when he delivered this superb speech. Our thanks especially to Erica Linson for her help making that moment possible.