Justice for all

This afternoon, I fell in love. Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, but there was an almost-instant bond of friendship and responsibility that lasted for four short hours before I had to regretfully say goodbye.

She was a nine-month old Pit Bull full of love and spunk; we spent the afternoon walking and playing at a fundraising event in the hopes that she would meet her future family. Tails wagged as we met other dog-friends; kisses were given as she sat in my lap when we took a break and sat at the top of a small hill. And when it was over, I hugged her goodbye, told her she was a good girl, and prayed that she would soon find her forever home.

When I first started volunteering for the local humane league, I didn’t realize the profound effect it would have on me. I had just lost two of the dogs I had grown up with and wanted to find something that would ease the everyday heartache, wanted to find a way to give back.

Walking down those hallways the first time and passing cages filled with the four-legged friends I’d always associated with love and laughter and happiness, tears stung in my eyes. These animals shouldn’t be here, I thought. They should be going for long walks or playing catch outside in their own backyard; they should be curled up on the couch as their family watched TV or next to a little boy’s bed, guarding, protecting. Loving and loved. Seeing those animals in their cages, eager and waiting, sparked something in me — a purpose — a desire to protect these creatures who have, in their way, always protected me.

And I knew: this was my cause.

Empathy and compassion can take many forms, and though we might never quite understand why we react and relate so strongly to what we do, the fact that we feel so passionate towards something in the first place plays a large part in making a difference. Personally, my empathy and compassion has always manifested itself towards animals, particularly in their humane treatment and, these past two years, in finding homes for shelter dogs so that the love and joy they’ve so freely offered may be reciprocated in the form of a family, a place to call home.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 6-8 million dogs and cats in United States animal shelters each year, with roughly half of those animals being euthanized due to lack of space and financial resources. Too many people are giving up their animals for adoption, while not enough are adopting from shelters.

Today, as I handed over the leash and said goodbye to my new four-legged friend, I knew that in some small way that I may never know or understand, I had made a difference. I can’t change the world, but for these animals, maybe I can help play a part in changing their world. Maybe I can be the change for them.

The Changemaker

Channeling T. S. Eliot, Susan is a banker by day and a freelance writer by night. One of her many passions is exploring the world around her — both literally and figuratively. She enjoys asking questions through her creative writing on Typescript and reflecting on her personal experiences on twenty(or)something. She loves history, technology, and culture, and is convinced that dogs equal happiness.

I’ve been attempting to find time and contribute to this awesome blog series “Be the change” thanks to Akhila, and of course, I am writing this instead of working on a paper that’s due in a few days .

Prior to attending school at UC Berkeley, all I knew was that I was interested in “business” and “changing the world” (or more specifically, I used to say “starting a revolution”). Little did I know that individuals such as Muhammad Yunus were already doing so! My friend introduced me to the concept of “social business” and “social entrepreneurship” around second semester of my freshman year, and that was when it all began.

I embarked on a Google-ing, internet-searching quest to learn more about this concept, and ended up first reading Yunus’ book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. From then on, I’d continue to read articles, books, and scour the Internet for more about social entrepreneurship and social business.

I often stop and reflect on why it is I seem to have this insatiable need and want to help others and improve the lives of the less fortunate. For the most part, I think it’s because I have grown up with so much opportunity laid in front of me, the privilege of living in a nice community and have the comfort and support of my parents. Maybe I was too comfortable that I became uncomfortable with my comfort. Does that make sense?

Perhaps it’s why I want to pursue a career in poverty alleviation through the power of social business and entrepreneurship. I happened to be born into a family that gave me the opportunity to obtain a good education. It was chance that I was born in Taiwan to parents who wanted to pursue a better life in the United States and brought my sister and I here. What about others who live in poverty and are not presented with the opportunity of obtaining an education, of living a privileged life? How is it their fault?

It’s not, and it’s a thought that resounds in me and propels me forward. I joined a student grassroots organization CalPIRG my freshman year, and by the second semester my friend and I started the Hunger and Homelessness Campaign, where we tried to tackle food insecurity in West Oakland. I then proceeded to help plan, in collaboration with two other student groups on campus, a conference on hunger and homelessness in the Bay Area. On the side, I worked with a local homeless shelter to establish and implement recycling and composting programs through another student organization BEACN. These experiences have helped me improve my skills and have provided me more insight in ways of addressing poverty. However, the models and methods of social business and social entrepreneurship are what really motivate me.

I’ve found it difficult to advance much in attempting to be more “in” the field (I am so inspired by social businesses such as the one I interned with this past summer World of Good, and projects such as the Allyu Initiative), because I often find myself constrained in my schoolwork and the fact that I am still in school. I’m often impatient in my demands, and too much of the time I’d rather be out there and immerse myself in a community and area to learn about the issues and critically evaluate ways to tackle them. I have to stop and remind myself that my getting an education is an important aspect: I need to focus on learning as much as I can in school so that I can apply it later on.

In the meantime, I have found the Twitterverse and the blogosphere to be of great company. It’s been absolutely inspiring and just plain awesome to be connected to other Gen Y-ers such as Akhila, Dwight, and Leslie and know that there are so many who are interested in similar topics and care about issues other than the best way to maximize profits and how to make the most money. So, I’d like to conclude by thanking Akhila once again for encouraging others to engage in social change and bringing together awesome individuals in this blog series!

The Changemaker

Rosalind Chu is a 20-year-old student attending school at University of California, Berkeley. She is majoring in Business Administration and Chinese (so as not to forget her Taiwanese roots and remain connected to Chinese culture). When she’s not worrying about everything there is to be worried about, she reads books (currently she’s reading Atlas Shrugged), blogs, goes home to visit her family and four amazing dogs, enjoys traveling, and has a fabulous time doing ridiculous things with her friends!

Check out her blog, Pointlessly.org, and say hi to her on Twitter @rosalindchu.

When I read Akhila’s e-mail about the possible opportunity to do a guest post about Being the Change, the first thing that came to mind was Palestine. I am a political blogger and a political individual, I will spare you all a fiery one-sided rant about who should be in the dock at The Hague and instead focus on why I think people need to wake up to this conflict.

I am constantly surprised when people are confronted with the question of Israel and Palestine, their responses to it and the utter changes that come across people’s faces when the conflict is given mention. People that are normally well-educated, socially and politically motivated and not in the least bit apathetic suddenly descend into a blathering mess of umms, errs and ‘why can’t they all just get along’-type cliches. The misconceptions about this conflict are staggering. People somehow imagine something like the flawed cartoon above, two crazed peoples butting heads until oblivion. The idea that this conflict exists because Jews and Muslims have always hated each other, or because the land has been hotly contested for thousands of years or because there must be something in the water make about as much sense as ‘they hate our freedom’ being touted as the reason for 9/11. Ie. not much at all.

In reality, the conflict’s roots can be traced to no earlier than the late 19th century, when the Zionist movement began and immigration of European Jews to what was then Ottoman-controlled Palestine gathered pace, and the modern phase began when the State of Israel was declared in 1948. The conflict has always been one over land, over national self-determination and over political power. The religious element was only injected later to whip up support on both sides. Whatever Qur’anic verses you may have heard lambasting Jews specifically, for example, are shady at best, and have only been seriously invoked recently. And while anti-semitism has long been a scourge globally, specifically anti-semitic political movements, such as al-Qaeda, and political figures, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are recent additions that have come about in reaction to the political situation.

The “Palestinians” and their supposed Arab friends, as far as the conflict goes, are far from a monolithic entity. Within Palestine itself, there are two widely divergent and conflicting dominant political movements, of the Western/Israeli-supported Fatah (currently rather unpopular locally) that rules the West Bank and represents the Palestinian Authority, and the Western/Israeli-shunned Hamas that governs Gaza.

If I was to try to even barely sum up in dot points the main events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the wider Arab-Israeli conflict which is inextricably linked, I would fill up pages and pages of Akhila’s precious web real estate and possibly bore many of you (it’s not something you could ever hope to understand in one sitting). We’re talking about a conflict that is roughly 150 years old, and yet entire university subjects are devoted to it as part of undergraduate degrees.

I am unashamedly pro-Palestinian in my personal stance. I do not see this is a two-sided issue. I see that there is a dominant military power and a group of state-less people with no nation and no clear avenue to self-determination. Israel keeps the West Bank under occupation, bisecting its land with checkpoints and ever-growing settlements, and making daily life and economy very difficult for the locals indeed. And while Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 (a unilateral decision made for political considerations, not out of the goodness of their hearts, I assure you), it has turned the strip into an open-air prison, imposing a crippling land & sea blockade that keeps Gazans in abject poverty, lacking stable power, food and medication. I condemn Hamas’ constant rocket fire into Israel as deplorable, targeting civilians always is, but the population of Gaza did not deserve to lose 1400 of its number (mostly civilian) to a 3 week blitz known as Operation Cast Lead either. My opinion happens to be shared by several more prominent intellectuals than myself, and on Gaza specifically, has been confirmed by a recent UN fact-finding commission into the Gaza offensive which uncovered war crimes committed by both sides. Our hope is that one day the international community will see this for what it is: an apartheid comparable in scope to that of South Africa, not a namby-pamby two-sided game of ‘oh why don’t they just get along’

Well I had to rant a little… but what I truly encourage you to do is to educate yourselves on this conflict, starting form wikipedia, media, bloggers, intellectuals, wherever you’re comfy, and encompassing as many varied opinions as possible. If you need suggestions, feel free to hit me up via the avenues listed below in my bio.

Don’t get me wrong, I know the world has plenty of other problems. There’s Darfur, there’s Myanmar, there’s North Korea, there’s the Congo, there’s a whole lot of other places and people with issues incredibly deep and suffering that cannot be quantified or truly compared. But if you want to understand the widely disparate geographical area roughly termed the Middle East (the borders of which have never been agreed upon), from Morocco to Pakistan and further, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict holds the key.

Not only is this conflict one of the great moral questions of our time but without understanding this conflict, you will never understand the region, or its politics. And thus fail to understand a region that, apart from being an emerging market economically, polarises politicans, foreign policy wonks, pundits and intellectuals the world over. We saw the importance of the Middle East on 9/11 as we were glued in horror to our television screens, we saw it during the oil shocks and in global trade patterns, costly wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, and that’s just the last 20 years. The importance of this region in global politics today cannot be denied, and neither can the issue at its core: that of Israel and Palestine.

The Changemaker

Alex Lobov is a final year undergraduate student at the University of Melbourne in Australia, majoring in Spanish, Japanese and Accounting. Interested in literature, coffee, fashion, good food and beautiful things. Bored of the politics of his native Australia, he enjoys the never-a-dull-moment nature of Middle Eastern politics. After travelling throughout the region he still harks back to the cliched-but-fantastic shawarma & shisha of the Persian Gulf and beyond. Connect with him over at his blog dedicated to Middle Eastern Politics, The Zeitgeist Politics, his personal blog or his twitter @alexlobov.

The internet is awesome. I spend hours a week Googling and Twittering and Facebook stalking. The internet has brought us such gems as the “Hamster Dance” and full episodes of The Office. However, in this age of information, the internet can also make the world seem like a depressing place. It’s hard to miss the headlines on your Yahoo! Mail homepage every day: suicide bombers, poverty, global warming, war, and the like.

I know the answer for most of us is to tune out all the bad news. After being bombarded with information on a daily – if not hourly – basis, we can’t help but become desensitized. Even I admit to clicking on articles about celebrity gossip rather than reading about the latest news on the war in Afghanistan (yes, we are currently at war, remember?).

Many members of our generation (in America, at least) are rather apathetic about current affairs. Sure, we know who the President is, but we certainly don’t care what he thinks about healthcare or what is going on in the “outside” world. Or maybe we do care but we think, “Hey, I’m not Mother Teresa. I just want to be happy. I’ll let people like Al Gore worry about global warming.” There is nothing wrong with feeling that way. In fact, I derive a lot of my personal happiness through friendships and hobbies. However, we are all capable of being Mother Teresa – even if for only an hour out of our week.

You know the motto when it comes to recycling: “Every little bit helps.” It’s cliché, but it’s true: there may be mountains of rotting garbage in our dumps but if we collectively work to recycle and re-use, we can make a substantial change in our environment. Grass roots efforts do work, from recycling to Presidential elections – just look at President Obama! So why don’t more people make activism a part of their life? Whether it’s volunteering at your local pet shelter or blogging about gay rights, there are small and big things each of us can incorporate into our lives that WILL make the world a better place. And believe me, it will be less painful than those forty-minute elliptical machine sessions you’ve been forcing yourself to do three times a week.

What kind of activism do I participate in? If you’ve read my blog, you’ll know that I am a feminist political blogger. I blog about a wide range of topics – from hot button issues like abortion and sexist double standards to lighter fare like relationships and book reviews. As for my personal life, I recycle and work actively to be as eco-friendly as possible. I hope to start a career in a meaningful industry – be it the government or a non-profit organization. I want the work I do in my lifetime to bring about positive change – however great or small.

Recently, I applied to write for a college fashion blog that had an opening for interns. I received an interesting response – while the editor of the blog thought I was a strong writer and displayed a good sense of fashion, she told me that she was rejecting me because she felt writing about fashion would bore me and conflict with my beliefs. She said, and I quote, “[my blog] is simply a fun, positive blog that covers the trends and provides style advice . . . There are plenty of places to find negativity online, but few places to escape it, and I want my site to be one such escape.” I was seriously taken aback. Sure, she could tell from my writing samples that I am not a fan of our consumerist culture; something that I had explained would not be a problem because I could easily advocate thrifting and other eco-friendly fashion tips while discussing the latest clothing trends. However, the real shocker to me wasn’t the fact that she felt I wasn’t right for the job because of my beliefs but because I had beliefs at all! My blog, by focusing on something more “depressing” than fashion, makes me too negative for fashion writing? I was surprised to find myself placed in that sort of category. See – I’m just like most young people in our generation. I go to college, I party hard on the weekends, I obsess over guys and I am a huge fan of clothes shopping. However, I happen to moonlight as a feminist blogger. Does that make me so different from everyone else? I hope not!

After thinking about the response I got from that fashion blogger for the past few months, I realized something – she saw me as one of those “special” Mother Teresa types who found it possible to look at all that is wrong with the world and try to change it, rather than just be a “regular” girl who enjoys having a good time. My friends, I beg to differ. I think there is a little “activist” in all of us. Sure, bloggers like Akhila and I might spend more time than the average person writing and thinking about depressing world issues, but we have other passions and interests as well. In fact, that’s the great thing about blogging – it’s a learning experience and I’m getting my voice out there – but, at the end of the day, if I’m too mentally exhausted to write a post, I just…don’t. I can sit in bed and watch the Hills to my content (and hey, it inspired me to write a post just the other day!).

So, what are your passions? Do you love to write and care about global warming? Why not start a blog. Do you enjoy sports? Why not volunteer as an assistant coach at a public school that might not have a lot of sports-related funding? There are fun and “easy” ways of incorporating activism into your daily life without feeling like you are sacrificing your own well-being and interests. Hey, we can’t all be Mother Teresa, but we can be better citizens, friends and members of the international community.

In what ways are you engaging in activism in your community and/or abroad? Do you have some suggestions for other people looking to make a change in the world?

The Changemaker

Dollface is a college student at a small liberal arts college in New England. She blogs anonymously about feminism and politics so that her future plans of becoming President of the United States aren’t compromised by her stance on abortion (…just kidding!). She enjoys long walks on the beach, poking fun at Twilight fans, and generally being a sarcastic @$$hole. She blogs at Rotten Little Girls (http://therottenlittlegirls.com) and you can follow her on twitter @rottendollface. Be warned, of course, that her twitter updates are horrendously boring and of little interest to anyone.

There is an old saying: “Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way”. I first heard this on Idiocracy, a hilarious social commentary of a movie, and it has really stuck with me. In this day and age when youth leadership is a phase thrown around a lot, it really got me thinking about what it means to be a youth leader.

You see, I am not a youth leader. If I were to describe myself, I’d be a youth follower, or even a youth loner since I dislike crowds, hate public speaking and generally not ambitious or clever enough to start my own projects or build houses for Habitat for Humanity in Guatemala. I was totally unengaged in high school and only somewhat to not at all engaged in university and one experience in university pretty much put an end to my participation in anything.

Oh and strictly speaking, I’m not even a youth. I’m 25 and would prefer the term “young professional” but depending on where you are, youth can be anywhere from 12 to 35. So broadly speaking, I still fit into the youth category.

I also work for a human rights organization that fosters youth leadership and education as a communications coordinator, have organized two international youth conferences and am fairly knowledgeable in current events, international relations and Canadian politics (it helps that my degree is in Political Science).

Some people are naturally outgoing and leadership comes easily to them but I am pretty introverted and don’t have the greatest socializing skills. For me, taking the lead does not come naturally and it can be quite a chore, so much so that I prefer not to take the lead if I can avoid it. There will be some who criticize that as laziness or apathy but that’s the thing. Some youth just aren’t suited to be team leaders, whether they are not experienced enough or are naturally introverted and it galls me when all politicians or community leaders talk about is building the capacity of youth leaders.

What about the rest of us, middle of the pack, boring, introverted, loner kids who don’t want to be forefront and centre? What about us not-so-motivated-but-still-interested kids who would be willing to put in time and effort to be part of a team and accomplish a collaborative goal? Yes, self-motivation is an important quality to have when it comes to taking action but take it from me, self-motivation isn’t inherent and you can’t expect someone who doesn’t naturally take charge to, well, take charge and be motivated about something. I am motivated by external stimuli, not internal ones, and I suck at taking personal initiative to accomplish anything but given the right motivation (my cause) and great leadership (my current mentors), I have learned how far I can push my boundaries and how much further I can still go.

There will be those who will proudly and loudly proclaim that this kind of thinking (following rather than leading) encourages apathy and laziness since youth are already unmotivated to take action. Most people who say this, I find, tend to be extroverted go-getters who are already inclined to be leaders or take leadership positions. I’d argue that leadership isn’t spontaneous and takes time and development and getting a youth involved is more important, to me anyways, than to make sure they all develop their own projects. I once complained to my younger brother, who happens to be one of these extroverted go-getter types, that in comparison to my older colleagues, I was the least motivated, the least passionate and the least leader-like member of our team. To which my 21 year old brother replied with a snort, “The only thing they have over you is experience at being leaders and that comes with time.”

My youth won’t last forever and neither will yours but I believe that when it’s all over, I won’t be a youth anymore but I will be a leader. And it won’t matter that I wasn’t super motivated or super engaged when I was 18, or 21 or even 23. In the two years since I graduated from university, I’ve already taken the first of many long hard steps towards being the change I want to be and I did it by following, not leading.

The Changemaker

Mandy Siu is a twenty-something communications coordinator for a human rights organization in Canada with a degree in political science. Her interests in the field of political science range from Canadian politics to youth engagement and leadership. Funny fact about Mandy is that she has organized more youth conferences then she has ever attended and thinks that ought to change before she is no longer a youth.