I just returned from the ONE Power 100 Summit in DC this Saturday.
Wow.
That was the most inspirational, amazing, mind blowing four days of my life. And that's a true story. Let me try and break this down, but there is no way my words can do justice for this experience.
Wednesday
After being picked up at the Dulles airport, the shuttle traveled to the Capital Hilton in DC. It was breathtaking. I walked in the most luxurious hotel I have ever been in and was greeted by a ONE representative. After checking in and getting my room assignment, I went up to the 4th floor and entered pre-notorious 467. The first thing I did was drop my bags and open to curtains to see what kind of view I had down the street from GW's crib. A brick wall. From both windows.
I then started to settle in and began looking at the itinerary and the bios of the speakers that were scheduled for the week. Talk about an impressive line-up, but I'll get to that later. I had been anxiously awaiting a roommate for about two and a half hours when the door opened. And in walked Matt.
We kind of both stood there for a second and he re-checked the room number. I started laughing because I had always been afraid of ending up with a male roommate, and here it happened, for the first time. I explained my name was Tyler and they probably thought I was a guy. We decided not to change rooms.
That night was the welcome dinner in the Presidential Ballroom. And it lived up to its name. I could have eaten off of the floor and still felt like royalty in that place.
After dinner, some trivia, mingling, and finally meeting Weldon Kennedy and Erin Eagan, the faces behind the masses amounts of emails, Nick Stevens and I decided not to let the left over food from our feast go to waste. We got two to-go containers, packed them full of food, and hit the streets of DC. Probably not the smartest or safest thing to do as two tourists at night in an unfamiliar city, but we were determined to feed some hungry people. And we did.
That night a group of us decided to hit the town and go out for some drinks at a restaurant. On the way there we were joined by a very interesting character who wasn't too proud to beg. Literally. He followed us singing The Temptations Ain't too Proud to Beg for a good half a block. I will never hear that song again without thinking of him.
Thursday
This morning started off like no morning I've ever had before. With a rock, paper, scissor tournament. Now what does that have to do with fighting poverty? More than you think. More than I thought.
Douglas Walker, creator of the Word Rock Paper Scissors Society, spoke to us about the importance of word of mouth and using your resources, aka the Internet, to spread your message. After his speech we all played some RPS with ONE dollars. I was able to make it to the finals, but got knocked out in the first round. I was knocked out by the girl who won it all, might I add.
After a short break we were given the choice of two speakers; Erin Thornton, Policy Director of ONE speaking about AIDS, or Adam Taylor, Director of Campaigns and Organizing for Sojourners speaking about debt relief. I went with the debt relief.
Adam was an amazing speaker with a greater message - debt is a modern form of slavery in an economic form. He spoke of problems with the system. For instance, Sub-Saharan Africa has paid back 90% of its debt, yet still owes 201 billion$. This is due to the fact that for every dollar Africa receives in aid, they pay back 2.30$ in debt. Countries that started borrowing money to use for economic advances are now paying more in debt than on health and education combined. He spoke of Jubilee as referred to in Leviticus; a jubilee is a restoration of relationships. Every seven years debt is to be forgiven and people set free. This led to the introduction of the topic of the Jubilee Act. The Jubilee Act would add an additional 29 countries to become eligible for debt relief. Another 15 would be able to become eligible after they met certain standards and goals. A lot of people have unnecessary concerns about countries not using the money for what they're supposed to be using it for - the betterment of the country, but all that has come out of this has been success stories. Camerroon used its 28.9 million$ saved from debt to fight the effects of poverty. Zambia received debt cancellation of 23.8 million$ that they used on agricultural and health care benefits. The list goes on. The bottom line is that the debt in these countries needs to be forgiven. Without that cancellation, they will have little hope in gaining the money and resources to advance their countries. He mentioned an African proverb that I thought was very interesting; Spider webs at night can entangle a lion.
During lunch we were met with a panel of three amazing individuals. Sam Worthington, President and CEO of InterAction, Chief Executive Officer of Plan USA, past Executive Director of Delphi International Group, chair of the global NGO Impact Initiative, founder of Hope for African Children Initiative, just to name a few of his accomplishes; Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow for the Center for American Progress, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from 1998-2001, Senior Advisor to the Administrator and Chief of Staff of the US Agency for International Development from 1994-1998, she was also a journalist based in Africa for over 20 years as a journalist covering military, economic, and political affairs, again, to just name a few of her accomplishments; Steve Radelet, Senior Fellow for the Center for Global Development, past Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, Peace Corps Volunteer, economic advisor to the President and the Minister of Finance of Liberia. So you can see where one might be a little intimidated in a room with these people. They spoke to us about the future of foreign assistance.
Shortly after we were sent to security screening for our session with Jenna Bush. She spoke to us about her work with UNICEF and children in impoverished countries. She even read a loud to the group from her book Ana's Story, which we all received a copy of and got the opportunity to have signed by the President's daughter. Jenna really surprised me, she wasn't what I really expected considering her father, however there was some resemblance.
Then came another break out session, malaria with Suprotik Basu, Public Health Specialist with World Bank, or child and maternal health with John Fawcett, Global Legislative Director for RESULTS. I went to listen to John. The information he gave us about child and maternal health seemed unreal. Sixty percent of births in Mali are done without a professional present, not a doctor, just someone who knows what they are doing. Where there are 7 deaths for every 1000 births in the US, there are 218 deaths for every 1000 births in Mali. Maternal deaths during birth are 1/2500 in the US compared to 1/10 in Mali. How are we letting this happen? Births aren't the only problems either. Health issues that seem trivial here such as diarrhea kills 5000 people every day. Pneumonia is a major problem as well, and if we took 600 million$ to expand health care, we could save 600,000 lives every year that are lost to pneumonia. Seems like a lot of money, right? Wrong. That is how much we spend on teeth whitening and Lunchables. Vitamin A deficiency is a leading cause of blindness in children and a small capsule twice a year could save lives. Nepal launched a Vitamin A program and reduced child mortality by half from 1995-2000. Just five years. So what can be done about all of this? According to John Fawcett, we need an integrated, targeted, measurable plan to reduce maternal and child deaths. The Global Child Survival Act will be up for a hearing in Congress February 14th of this year and it is crucial it is passed.
It was then time to hit the town. We got the honor to eat dinner at the National Press Club. We were first welcomed by their former President and told the history of the NPC as well as stories of past speakers, the rivalry between the women's and the men's press societies, and how the room with the piano unofficially became the Truman Room. Then we heard stories from former White House Aides Tucker Eskew and Nathan Naylor. Tucker was the Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Global Communications until December 2003 under the Bush administration. Nathan served in 1996 as an advance staffer for President Clinton. In 2000 he became Vice President Gore's assistant press secretary/ traveling press aid for the second administration and for the 2000 presidential campaign. These guys were hilarious. To hear them tell stories of their personal experiences with the Presidents and Vice Presidents made me realize that maybe I have been too hard on government officials in the past. After all, they are only human.After the realization that not all of the government is made up of bad people, I came to another one, while touring the national monuments by moonlight. I have always spoke out against America and the falsities that it stands for. It's not that I don't like America or being an American, trust me, I know how fortunate I am for being born in the country I was, but I have always sensed a sort of hypocrisy with our country and have always taken it out on our government. I mean it takes a lot more people to screw up a country than just a government, although I still wouldn't put it passed ours. But seriously, if we stood up for what we believed in instead of just accepting it for what it is, things could be different. Not just here, but everywhere. I still believe the world would be better off if we eliminated the boundaries of our countries and states and lived as one big province (think John Lennon's Imagine), but let's be realistic here.
With my new found respect for my country and new understanding of the government, something else happened I didn't think could in four short days. I formed a strong bond with a group of about 15 people from the summit. We spent that night in 467, until we got kicked out and ventured to 599. I'd love to talk about it, but those who were there know and that is all that matters. After all, what happens in 467 stays in 467.
Friday
After having breakfast with our Regional Outreach Ambassadors and the rest of the students in our region, we were taught the importance of the influence of grassroot movements on the Hill from Erin Erienborn, Director of Government Affairs for ONE. The talk really brought into perspective what we can do just by small acts and harassing the government officials and never stopping until you get what you want. We then heard from Tom Gavin, Communications Director for ONE and Kimberly Cadena, Press Secretary for ONE about speaking to any audience.
The next speaker was especially important to me. Patrick Schmitt, Former Executive Director of STAND and (I am the advocacy chair for STAND Mizzou) talked about student organizing. He highlighted some very important points in aspects of organizing. The first point he stressed was to always remember the difference between advocacy and charity. We do advocacy, not charity. The next is to always see ourselves as not just an organization, but as a movement. Movements go places. We are definitely going somewhere with ONE. Have out of the box ideas. Get excited about killing projects (I have been before, but after these four days, excited is an understatement). This next one is something I need to work on. Learn when to be a leader and when to be a follower. I am horrible at delegation. I always take on way more than I can handle when it would be much easier to divvy up the work. Use the technology you have and take advantage of everything. Good pointers from a man that has been so successful in the non-profit advocacy world. After he spoke, I went up and introduced myself and passed on the word about what is going on at Mizzou with STAND.
Our next speaker was Paul Begala, you might have seen him as co-host of CNN's Crossfire, or as the Democratic strategist on The Situation Room. He taught us the Theory of Rational Ignorance - we choose what we find information on because there is way too much information out there for us to know everything. He also gave advice on good ways to get our message out: 3. Be emotional
Our next speaker on education was Gene Sperling, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations. He also served as a contributing writer and consultant on NBC's "The West Wing." We listened to the harsh realities some countries have to face that we take for granted, and often complain about. Going to school. Majority of the time families have to choose whether or not their children go to school. And if they do make the decision to go, usually only boys get to go. It is too much of a risk for girls to travel to and from school every day.
After a late arrival, we were finally joined by former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. He informed us on ground rules for advocacy. The first, get them to understand the importance. Two, Go in with a specific goal. And C, close the sale; follow up and make them commit. That part is easier said than done. While I took those points and everything else Gingrich said to heart, one specific thing he said registered and is one of the best quotes I have ever heard. "If we can organize ourselves for war, we can organize ourselves for peace."
Needless to say it was our last night and 467 was relived, but in different rooms of course. We already had warnings on two others.
So like I said, this was our last time together. But this is not the emotional blog about the friendships I had formed. This is the informative blog. The one about the important things. Who am I kidding, the friendships are just as important as the messages from the speakers. But really, the emotional blog is soon to come.
I miss you guys. A lot.
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