(audience applauding and cheering)
- Good afternoon.
My name is Aminata Toure.
We are all here today
to talk about our future
and the future of Europe.
As young people, we control our destiny.
While there are many challenges
and opportunities ahead,
we know that our generation
owns the solutions
our world needs.
I learned early on that
representation matters.
I grew up in a refugee
camp here in Germany
listening to politicians making decisions
for an entire population
without knowing how it feels
to be impacted by these
circumstances and laws.
I would ask myself how will
our voices be represented?
Could someone like me even run for office?
What encouraged me was
that there was someone
on the other side of the Atlantic
who was starting a movement.
He was inspiring people
from all backgrounds
to take part in the political system.
He was a role model who told me
that if I wanted to shape the future,
I couldn't let someone else speak for me.
Politics is something that we all own.
It's for everyone.
So I decided to run.
Two years ago at the age
of 24 I became the youngest
and the first black member
of my state government
the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament.
It took hard work, the
support of family and friends
and believing that my opinions had value
and that I could make a difference.
Most people in politics are older than me,
some double my age.
They often don't see policy issues
the same way our generation does.
Outside the halls of Parliament,
I'm surrounded by peers
who care deeply about our shared future.
We're finding new solutions
to climate change,
promoting equal rights for all,
and advancing economic opportunity
through new industries.
It's not just in Germany.
Young people across Europe and the world
are connecting, taking
action, and making change.
It's our generation's collective passion
that makes me feel strong and confident.
The future is bright but only
if we encourage each other
and fight for it together.
Today I'm excited to welcome to Berlin
someone who has inspired
people all over the world
to make their voices be
heard and get involved.
He gave me courage when there
was no one that looked like me
running for office in my state.
And through his work with
the Obama Foundation,
he is still bringing together young people
who are determined to
make a positive difference
and is helping us have our
voices heard on the main stage.
It is an honor for me to
introduce the 44th president
of the United States,
President Barack Obama.
(audience applauding and cheering)
- Thank you.
Very kind.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Hey!
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
(speaking in a foreign language) Berlin!
(audience chattering)
It is good to be back
in the heart of Europe.
It's been over 10 years since I spoke
to a slightly larger crowd
(audience laughing)
in front of the Victory Column
when I was running for president.
I had a little less gray hair then.
(audience chuckling)
And since then I've been back to Germany,
I think at least 10 times.
I've been to Europe countless times.
But I'm as excited to be here with you
as I have been ever
when I've come to Europe
because this is a different kinda trip.
I'm here to begin the work
of the Obama Foundation
in partnering with some
remarkable young leaders
from all across Europe
who are already making
amazing change to see if we can make
even more amazing change.
You know, when I left office,
or maybe a few months
before I left office,
I had to make some decisions
about what I would do
after the end of my presidency
and I knew that I wanted
to catch up on my sleep.
(audience laughing)
I had to take Michelle on vacation.
(audience laughing)
She deserved it, putting
up with me for that long.
But we also knew that our
service wasn't yet done.
I was one of the youngest
presidents to be elected,
which meant I was one of
the youngest ex-presidents.
And I asked myself, all
right, what's the next thing
that I can do to make the biggest impact,
the most difference?
And there were a whole range of issues
that I care deeply about,
many of which you work on.
I believe climate change
is an existential challenge
for all of humanity.
I believe that creating
communities of tolerance and respect
despite our ethnic and
religious differences
is vital if we are to thrive
in this world that's now been shrunk
by technology and travel and migration.
I believe deeply in gender equality
and making sure that women
have the same opportunities
that men do in all fields of life.
And that people of different
sexual orientations
are treated with dignity and
respect and human rights.
I believe deeply in dealing
with the growing inequality
that has arisen as a consequence
of globalization and technology.
So there are a whole
range of specific issues
I was concerned about and
that I intended to work on.
But what I was also convinced of
was that probably the
biggest impact I could have
would be to support and convene
and engage and partner with
the next generation of leaders.
Because there's only one of me.
(audience chuckling)
And there's only one Michelle.
And if we're gonna
solve all these problems
and seize all these opportunities,
then the most important thing we can do is
to figure out how do we
continually duplicate ourselves
so that we have thousands
of activists and leaders.
And then tens of thousands
and then hundreds of thousands
and then millions of
people who are working
on behalf of the values and causes
that we so deeply believe in.
And so the theory of the Obama Foundation
is actually fairly simple.
If we can get young leaders like you
to begin to work together,
if we can provide you more
tools, more resources,
more attention, mentoring,
maybe a little bit of inspiration,
above all if we can get
you to work in concert
and teach and learn from each other,
then you will change the world
and I can sit back and relax a little bit.
(audience chuckling)
And I know there's a whole
lot of work to be done
because we live in uncertain times.
We're confronted by big questions
about how to organize our communities
and our countries and
the international order.
Here in Berlin, we have to recognize
that this moment is full of contradictions
because Europe in 2019
in some ways has achieved
the pinnacle of human well-being.
Collectively in Europe right now,
on average, you probably see
the highest standards of living
of any group of people
in the history of the planet.
Wealthier, healthier, better educated.
The continent has largely
been at peace for 70 years.
You have unprecedented
information at your fingertips.
You can travel freely across borders
that once were closed.
Our societies have made great strides
to extend opportunity
and educate our children,
and care for the sick, and
to pursue equality for people
no matter what you look
like or how you worship
or who you love.
So you would think that everybody'd feel
pretty good right now.
And yet, what we also know
is that powerful forces
are threatening to reverse
many of these trends.
The democratic institutions
that helped to bring these about
oftentimes have been taken for granted.
The planet that we live on is in danger.
Some of the contradictions
of our economies
and how we produce and
dispose of goods and services
continually now doesn't
appear to be as sustainable,
particularly if, understandably,
other parts of the world
want to achieve the same
kinds of standards of living
as we have.
We've seen in the 21st
century the re-emergence
of profound religious and
sectarian differences.
You've got inequality
that's been exacerbated
first by the financial
crisis, but as I said,
some of the deeper trends
of how capitalism works.
You've got social media that
was once considered to be
the network that would provide
us greater understanding.
Now suddenly appears to be a tool
that is used to spread disinformation
and hatred and suspicion.
Nationalism, particularly
from the far right,
has re-emerged, a politics that divides us
into us and them.
And we know where that leads.
Europe knows better than
anyone where that leads
to conflict and bloodshed and catastrophe.
So just as the world has choices to make,
Europe has choices to make.
The good news is that we actually know
there are solutions.
We know with changes in policy
we can reduce inequality
and we can combat climate
change while still providing
a high standard of living.
We know that if we
invest in our democracies
then they can work better
than they're currently working
and that if we teach our children
to love and listen instead of hate,
that our societies can work better.
But we can't do these
things by sitting back
and waiting for somebody else to do them.
We're gonna have to do them ourselves
and, more specifically,
you're gonna have to do them.
And what makes me optimistic
is you're already doing
extraordinary work.
We've got young leaders here
from across the continent
who are working in
government and civil society
and the private sector to
bring about positive change.
You just heard, I believe,
from Flavia and Delphine
and Klen who I had originally met with
when they were in Amsterdam.
And I could not have been more impressed
by the remarkable leadership
that they were already showing.
I met earlier today with
a group of young people
from the audience including Jerome.
Where's, he's here somewhere,
who is using technology in France
to mobilize humanitarian
support after disasters
around the world.
And Elsa who's working
in Sweden to make this
the first zero-food waste generation.
And Paul who's working in
Romania to map the distribution
of political power so that government
can be more transparent
and ultimately more responsive to people.
So I hope that so far you've
already gotten a sense
that you're not alone
and that people like you
are doing remarkable things.
In some cases in the same area and sector
that you're working in, in
some cases in different sectors
but are motivated by the same
values and the same vision.
There are a lot more
people like you out there
who wanna build rather
than tear things down
and who wanna bring people together
rather than split them apart.
But sometimes all of you are isolated
and work alone or feel as
if you're working alone,
and the whole then feels like it's less
than the sum of its parts.
Now, I'm not here to
support any political party.
I've held my last political office.
The Obama Foundation is non-partisan.
Michelle would leave me if
I ever ran for office again.
(audience laughing)
But I'm deeply invested in these values
of tolerance and equality and rule of law
and democracy and human
rights and human freedom
and human dignity.
And you've got a European
parliamentary election
that's coming up.
It goes without saying that
all of you need to vote
if you are eligible.
And your friends do, too.
As Michelle and I talk sometimes
and when we hear that
young people aren't voting
or participating, we say to them,
you would not let your
grandfather or grandmother
decide what clothes you wear
or what music you listen to,
so why would you let them decide
the world you're gonna live in
and the politics that you're
gonna be subjected to?
Why would you give away that
power and that authority?
So I'm assuming that all of you
in one fashion or another
are paying attention
to political trends, but as we all know,
casting a ballot is just the start.
I always used to say that
the most important office
in a democracy is not
president or prime minister
or chancellor or governor
or mayor, it's citizen.
Change happens because
citizens are mobilized
and force change.
And each of you in your own ways
are part of that process.
The question now is, if you
are supporting each other
and engaged with each other and perhaps
if we can help a little bit,
can you start scaling up, doing more,
building momentum,
creating a new narrative,
creating greater sense of possibility
and a greater sense of hope?
I think you can.
And we've got a huge
stake in your success.
And hopefully the Obama Foundation
will be able to help you
in your work, because we're
just getting started here
and we intend to work, not because,
work here not based on
having all the answers
but rather having great confidence
that if we're interacting
with an amazing gathering
like this, that we'll be able
to come up with the solutions
that we need, not just for
Europe, but for the world.
So with that, I'm gonna
start taking some questions.
Thank you very much.
(audience applauding)
All right, and...
You know, because of we
couldn't fit everybody
in the continent in this room,
there are a bunch of people
who are watching live stream
or wanted to participate but couldn't
and are doing so online.
So actually I believe
that my first question
may be an online question,
but I'm not sure.
But it's from Conleth in Northern Ireland.
Am I correct about that?
Or is Conleth here?
There he is.
- My name is Conleth Burns
and I'm from a small village
in Northern Ireland.
As a young community organizer,
I work to build trust and mold consensus
between diverse groups of people.
No matter where young people are in Europe
how can we show the value in compromise
and the beauty in consensus?
- Well, this is an interesting question.
I saw a group of you
right before I came out
and somebody, I think, asked a question
that relates to this.
One of the challenges that I had
when I was a young organizer,
was I wanted change now
and I wanted 100% of what I wanted.
And then I'd suddenly
confront some politician
and they'd be like well, we can't do this
and we can only do that,
and maybe we can get
a little bit of this done or
I've gotta take into account
this constituency that
feels very differently
about the issue.
And I'd be furious and frustrated.
And then I was elected to
office and some young organizer
would come into my office and
say, "I want you to do this."
And I'd say well, you know, I can give you
a little bit of this but I...
And so I've been on both sides
of the equation.
And one of the biggest challenges
I think that we all have,
and there's no perfect formula,
is how do we
remain true to our
values and our principles
while recognizing
that in democracies,
in pluralistic societies,
that the only way we are gonna
be able to get things done
is if we agree to a certain set of rules
and part of those rules are
that you never get 100% of what you want.
Because somebody else is gonna
have a slightly different set
of interests or a slightly
different set of values.
And that navigating that territory
in which you push for what you believe in
but at a certain point
you are willing to say
okay, let me take this now
and then build on this later.
That's necessary for everyone.
I mean, look, when I passed the Paris,
or when I helped get
the Paris Agreement on
Climate accomplished,
I was the first one to
say what we've done here
is not adequate to meet the demands
of climate science.
The measures that had been set,
the targets that had
been set by each country,
even if they all met them,
wouldn't be sufficient
to address the pace
at which temperatures were rising
and emissions were going
into the atmosphere.
But if I had held out for us
getting to where we needed
to be in the science,
we wouldn't have gotten the accord.
And my theory was, look,
if, for the first time,
I can get every country on Earth,
or at least I think at
that time there were
maybe one or two country
that is didn't sign up.
Now it turns out it's only mine.
(audience chuckling)
But that's a whole nuther question.
If we can establish that principle
that everybody has to address this problem
and everybody has to take steps
to do something about it, and that becomes
the architecture that's in
place and it is measurable
and people are accountable,
if I can get that in place,
then I'll be able to
turn up those standards
each and every year as the
science and the technology
and what's possible develops and we build.
Right?
In my own country, in the United States,
our pension system, what
we call Social Security,
when it was first passed,
didn't apply to everybody.
Here's an interesting example.
It did not apply to domestic workers.
Why do you think that is?
Who were domestics?
Huh?
- Immigrants.
- Many of them were black people.
They were I guess immigrants brought
a little while, way back.
There was a whole different
way of how they came over.
So the South, the southern politicians,
they wanted to exclude
as a part of reinforcing
racial discrimination and
segregation laws in the South,
they wanted to exclude
certain portions of it.
Now, you could argue
that Franklin Roosevelt
should have said well, I'm
not willing to pass this
unless I can get those workers.
Or you can say, you get that set up,
given those particular political
constraints at that time,
and then over time
those biases were eliminated.
How we think about those
compromises is something
that each of us have to
take responsibility for.
We can't, as I said, there's no formula.
There may be certain issues
in which we say to ourselves,
no, I'm sorry, this, on
this I cannot compromise.
Right?
And each of us may have
certain issues like that.
I'd like to think that
if there was a proposal that today said,
we can, you know,
pass a wonderful law
that is gonna reduce poverty
but this particular group of people
is excluded from it,
I'd like to say today,
knowing what we now know, the
basis of our society today,
I actually think I'd have to say no,
I'm sorry, we can't pass that
'cause that violates now a
principle that we've established.
We've set a higher threshold.
We're not gonna go backwards on that.
So no matter how wonderful this
new social program might be,
I'm not gonna abide by that.
On the other hand, I know from experience
in passing the health care
law that I had to work on
in the United States,
that that was not the
ideal health care program
that I wanted to set up.
It's what I could get at the time
and if I could establish the principle
that everybody gets health
care and get 20 million people
more health care, even if 10
million still hadn't gotten it,
that's what I'm gonna do now.
And then I'll fight some
more later for the other 20%.
So to go back to the point
that was made by Conleth,
what's true for me when I was a president
or an elected official, it's
gonna be true for you as well,
even within your own organizations.
And one of the things I
do worry about sometimes
among progressives in the United States,
maybe it's true here as well,
is a certain kind of rigidity
where we say ah, I'm sorry,
this is how it's gonna be
and then we start sometimes creating
what's called a circular firing squad
where you start shooting at your allies
because one of them is straying
from purity on the issues.
And when that happens,
typically the overall
effort and movement weakens.
So I think whether you
are speaking as a citizen
or as a political leader
or as an organizer,
whether you're in the nonprofit space
and civic space or you're
in the political arena,
you have to recognize
that the way we've structured democracy
requires you to take into account
people who don't agree with you.
And that, by definition, means
you're not gonna get 100%
of what you want.
But you should take some time
to think in your own mind
and continually refine and reflect
what are my core principles?
Because the danger is
if you don't know what
your principles are,
that's when you compromise
your principles away.
So you have to know ahead of time,
here's what I'm willing to compromise on,
here are the things that I'm not.
You can't set up a system in which
you don't compromise on anything,
but you also can't operate in
a system where you compromise
on everything, everything's up for grabs.
That requires a certain amount
of internal reflection
and deliberation.
Okay.
Now with that, from here on out
I'm just gonna call on people.
(people chattering)
I think you should know in advance
that I will not get to every person.
(audience chuckling)
So forgive me for that, all right?
But I'm just gonna try to
get as many people as I can.
I'll start with you.
And there should be microphones.
Please introduce yourself
and tell us a little bit
about, very short, what
you're doing and then,
and by the way, you don't
have to ask a question.
You can also give me an
idea, make a comment.
If it's a speech, make it a short one.
(audience laughing)
- Thank you so much.
I'm very honored to be here.
My name is Anna Oudra,
I'm from Latvia, and I'm a journalist.
But in Washington, D.C.
I was advocating for Baltic
States in the U.S. Congress.
- Wow.
- So explaining to U.S. Congressmen
the issues that are important for us
in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
And my question is that these days I think
a lot of international
agreements are being broken
and sometimes international alliances
are being talked about in a light way.
But for us in such small countries
it's so important to be part of secure
and strong long-term alliances.
- Right.
- So my question would be,
what the leaders of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania could
do, how, in a better way
we can communicate to make
sure that everyone understands
the importance of these alliances?
And also, this might be a
bit silly, but could you sign
this piece of paper
with your famous phrase,
"Are you part of, are you ready to go"?
(Anna giggles)
- I can.
I'll do that afterwards.
- Okay, thank you so much.
- Okay.
You know, after World War II
and the tragedy that engulfed Europe
and then engulfed the world,
we set up a set of
international institutions.
The U.N., you know,
Bretton Woods, World Bank, et cetera.
And the idea was, I think, a recognition
that you had to have some
sort of international order
to try to mitigate against
a repeat of those tragedies.
And you had NATO and other alliances
that were established, in part,
because of the emerging Cold War.
Those institutions weren't perfect.
Oftentimes the participants,
including my own country,
operated hypocritically
within those institutions
and the declarations and charters
were often violated or ignored,
but they did create a structure
and a set of aspirations
so that small countries,
defenseless peoples, vulnerable groups
could appeal to the ideal
and the the principle
and take that charter or piece of paper
and say look, this is what you said.
And that gave some leverage,
some force to the argument
that over time improved the situation.
And then obviously with
the fall of the wall
and the end of the Cold War,
you then saw this blossoming
of excitement and opportunity.
Ah, now we're really gonna
live up to all these ideals.
And as I said before, we unfortunately,
I think, stand at a crossroads now,
a time where we took for
granted some of that progress.
Didn't tend to our
democracies and our alliances
and our international institutions
as well as we should
have, didn't update them
and adapt them to new circumstances.
And as people started feeling insecure
or frustrated because of economic changes,
technological changes,
demographic changes,
we got this backlash
and reaction to that order.
So our challenge now is how do we refresh
and renew these ideas.
With respect to the alliances
that the Baltics are part of,
I'm assuming you're referring
to, for example, NATO,
as president I was very clear
that there were no junior
or senior members of NATO
and that Article IV and
Article V means what it says
and that it has to be not just
talked about with nice phrases
but there have to be
planning and work done
to prepare for the possibility
of mutual defense.
And so we implemented a
whole range of exercises
and planning to reflect that.
I can't say exactly what the United States
and NATO is doing right now.
I recognize that there are some strains.
I think that the most important thing
that countries like Estonia, Latvia,
you know, other Baltics can do,
is to continue to reflect internally
the values of democracy,
freedom, rule of law,
so that when it speaks on the world stage
and it speaks in international forums,
it has credibility
and it is able to then
say look, we are doing
what we pledged and promised to do
in this charter and in this document,
and we expect you, the larger countries
that are signatories to
this, to do the same.
I think when there's
back sliding internally
then you have less moral
force in that argument.
I would also say, though,
that no matter
how much all the countries
in NATO or any other alliance
believe in that alliance
in the abstract, it's always better for us
not to have to test it.
And that means, for
example, that the stronger
that Europe as a whole
is, the more that the work
that all of your peers here are doing,
the more that the European
Parliament is reflecting on,
or is reflective of
the values of democracy
and rule of law and so forth,
that inoculates, you know,
it strengthens the European project,
it strengthens NATO, and
it serves as a defense,
a non-military defense
but a defense against
potential encroachment.
So I think it's important
not to separate military alliances.
The strength of Europe
over the last 20, 30 years
has not been because there
were a bunch of missiles fired.
It was because, thankfully,
it was because ideas won.
And if we start losing the ideas,
then we're gonna have
problems no matter what.
All right.
(people chattering)
Okay.
Gentleman right there in the blue.
Yeah, right here.
I'm looking, no, I'm looking at you.
Yeah, that's right, so.
But we need a mic.
- Yes.
- There you go.
- Thank you, Mr. President.
It's a great pleasure to be here.
My name is Ahmed Abdirahman.
I'm from Sweden with Somali background.
I really admire you.
I know the night you were
elected I was in Sweden
and cried like a baby.
(chuckles)
- Well, you were a baby.
(Ahmad and audience laughing)
(audience applauding)
What are you talking about?
He said he cried like a baby.
You were like, you were like 8 years old.
Of course.
You were probably hungry.
(audience laughing)
Or needed a nap.
(Barack laughing)
Anyway.
- Thank you.
I run an NGO called The Global Village
and our biggest work is called Jarvaveckan
where we gather politicians,
political leaders,
the Parliament, civil society,
NGOs, everybody together
in a suburb where I live
which is disadvantaged
where 90% of the population
have foreign backgrounds
and we try to build bridges
between the majority of Swedes
and the new Swedish people.
And the issue that we are facing in Sweden
and also, of course, all over Europe,
is how do we break that segregation?
How do we break that we and them narrative
that is literally holding back Europe
and particularly in Sweden's
opportunity to succeed?
For example, just 10 years from now
30% of the working age in
Sweden will be foreign born.
I assume that will be the
same thing across Europe.
So how do we break that we and them?
How do you create the new narrative?
And you have succeeded that in the U.S.
And another question to you, sorry guys,
is that how do you deal with
being a part of two worlds
and always being heckled by both sides
when you're trying to build a bridge?
Thank you so much.
And if you come to Sweden,
we hope to see you there of course.
Thank you.
- Okay, excellent.
(audience applauding)
I am gonna establish a
rule of just one question.
But those were excellent questions.
Look, obviously migration issues
are driving a lot of the political turmoil
here in Europe and in my home country.
And the first thing
I would say is that you probably
have some better answers than I do
because of the fact that you are working
in a specific community
with specific people
face to face and so often
the way that you arrive
at ideas of breaking down these barriers
is on the ground, human to human,
as opposed to abstract ideas.
So I should be asking you what works
and you should be sharing, you and others
who are working on these issues,
should be sharing what seems
to work and what doesn't.
I'll make some general
observations, though.
The first is that
it's important for all of us
to admit that in every society
there is some temptation,
tendency to separate people
who are more like me and less like me.
That's not unique to white Europeans.
You know, my father's from Kenya.
You go to Kenya, the Luos
think the Kikuyus are
always out to get them.
And the Kikuyus think,
ah, the Luos they talk
but they're lazy.
I'm not gonna hire them.
And you go to the Middle East
and, you know, when everybody gets here,
suddenly oh, you know, we're all Arab.
You go back home, ah,
these people, those people.
Right?
So one thing to recall
is that this is
a universal phenomenon
because humans are fairly primitive
and we're still wired to
only be able to process,
like, knowing about 150 people
(chuckles) in our brains.
And so now suddenly we're
in cities with strangers
that we don't know and
we're asked to trust them
and it goes against some of our impulses.
And the reason I say
that is because I think
if you don't acknowledge that
then there's gonna be
a certain arrogance in how you approach
these problems and the
problems won't get solved.
That's point number one.
We all have some of these
biases inside of us.
It's not just, you know, those people.
Right?
If we start with that premise,
then I think what that means is that
we have to find ways
to have a humane, intelligent,
thoughtful, orderly immigration process
that is grounded in our better selves
and our better values.
And we're gonna have to figure out
how do we make the people
who are already in a country
feel comfortable with newcomers.
And that requires education and exposure
and reducing fear on the part of people
who are already there.
It also requires some levels of adaptation
from the people who are coming in.
And I think organizations like yours
can help to identify those mechanisms
that can help both sides.
In the United States, immigration
has always been controversial
and, at some level, immigrants adapted
to the norms of the existing society
so that if you look at how
the Irish, for example,
were talked about in
the United States, whoa.
It's as bad as anything, you
know, Irish no need apply.
There was a time where the Irish
and Jews and Italians,
they weren't considered white.
They were considered aliens, foreigners.
Then they got absorbed.
Now, black folks
never got absorbed.
(chuckles)
Right?
That took a little bit longer.
And so some of the assimilation
that inevitably takes place
is gonna take a little bit longer,
but some of those principles still apply.
And I worry sometimes
when as we think
about how to deal with
the immigration issue,
we think that any moves
towards assimilation
of newcomers to the existing culture
is somehow betrayal or a
denial of people's heritage
or what have you.
I mean, the truth of the matter is
is that if you're gonna have
a coherent, cohesive society,
then everybody has to have
some agreed-upon rules.
And they're gonna have
to be some accommodations
that everybody makes.
And that includes the
people who are newcomers.
The question is, are those fair?
Should we wanna encourage newcomers
to learn the language of the
country they're moving to?
Of course.
Does that mean that they can
never use their own language?
No.
Of course it doesn't mean that.
But it's, you know, it's not racist to say
ah, if you're gonna be here,
then you should learn the
language of the country
that you just arrived at.
Because we need to have
some sort of common language
in which all of us can work and learn
and understand each other.
It gets more sensitive, obviously,
around religious issues.
That becomes more challenging.
And I don't have, you know,
simple solutions to all of that.
But I guess what I think we have to do
in order to push back
against just, you know,
what are clearly racist motives of some,
we can't label everybody
who is disturbed by immigration as racist.
You know, that's a self-defeating tactic.
You push away potential allies,
people who maybe they just
haven't thought about it.
They may be good people
who are well meaning.
They just don't understand it
but if they're exposed to new information
and they're meeting people
who are from other countries
and they understand the nature
of these different traditions
and they see that others
are eager to work with you,
then suddenly they go ah, okay.
And, you know, some of
the work that was done
in Switzerland and other places
where you mobilize people
to say look, this is not who we are
and to appeal to their best natures,
shows that the majority of Europeans
don't want to think of themselves as mean
or ungenerous or racist, just
like the majority of Americans
don't wanna think of
themselves in that way.
But if the only thing they're hearing
is either people who
are making them afraid
or people who are saying
you're racist, (chuckles)
then they don't feel
as if they've got room
to find their better selves.
And we have to continually
find ways to speak to them.
And a lot of that happens face to face
which is why organizations
like yours ends up
being so important.
You do have to figure out
how do you link the work
that you're doing on a local level
with broader political efforts
to push back
against discriminatory,
unjust legislation.
And then so the micro has
to work with the macro
in order to be successful.
All right.
You had another question but
I don't remember what it was.
That was such a...
Right here.
- It will be actually an easy question
because the answer will be a yes, we can.
(Barack chuckling)
My name is Louis-Xavier I'm from Paris.
I started three years ago a simple network
of shopkeepers that
accept to offer services,
free services to homeless people.
They open the door and the homeless people
can come and charge their
phone, go to toilet,
heat some food in the microwave.
Simple stuff, you know.
- Yeah.
- We use lists, physical
lists with all the address,
the directions, so they can
go and recreate social link.
It's an easy way for a resident
to involve themselves, sorry.
In three years we have
around 1,000 shops in France
and it started in Seattle,
in London, Madrid,
and other cities.
My question is, how can you
maybe, can you and your team
actually help us and do
this international calling
for every shops and enterprise
so they'll open their doors.
- So the answer is yes, we can.
- Yes, we can and thanks.
(audience laughing)
(audience applauding)
- Excellent.
All right.
Well, first of all, I
wanna congratulate you
on a great idea.
The second thing I wanna say is
this is a perfect example of how,
if all of you are organized
and in communication with each other,
one good idea in one place
can then start disseminating,
start spreading to other places.
And we can certainly help.
I can publicize hey,
here's a great example
of somebody, a small business
that has started something
and is now becoming a movement.
But I'm not the only one that can help.
There are 300 and something people here
who all have small stores
in their communities
that may be interested in
something like this as well.
So part of our goal here
is in some ways
to highlight good work
that's already being done.
But also to identify good
ideas, best practices,
great tactics, great strategies,
good stories to tell, and
make sure that everybody
now knows them and is able
to steal your good ideas
because the nice thing is,
- With pleasure.
- is that you know,
great ideas like this are
ones where I'm assuming
you'd be happy if more and
more people were doing it, huh?
- And we started a little cookie factory.
- Those are cookies for me?
- Yeah.
- Homeless people who are employed
and they do organic, good cookies.
It's lots of butter, it's French,
in our country.
- Of course.
(audience laughing)
- It's for you and your family.
(audience applauding)
(speaking in a foreign language)
- Ah.
(audience laughing)
I can't wait.
But I shouldn't talk with my mouth full.
All right, let's see.
I'm just canvassing.
Since this young lady's
almost standing up here,
then I guess, go ahead.
Don't worry, I know that, I
see some people in the back.
I'll get to you, yeah, yeah.
- Okay.
- Don't worry.
Just need a microphone back there.
- Down here.
- Yeah.
- Thanks a lot.
It's a great pleasure to be here.
My name is Sima, I'm from
SINGA, SINGA Deutschland,
one of the co-founders of SINGA here.
And actually my question is
maybe a bit more personal.
I feel how nervous I am now speaking.
- It's okay, just because
there are all these cameras
right on you.
(audience laughing)
- No big deal.
- And everybody, there are
millions more people watching.
Don't feel nervous at all.
- No pressure, yeah, okay.
(audience laughing)
(Barack laughing)
So yeah, I really liked what
you were speaking about earlier
about finding compromise.
And you said something about having
these sort of internal reflections
in order to sort of see,
find your balance, I guess.
And in the last year
or so I've been looking
more into topics of mindfulness.
And I was curious to know if you have
any sort of personal mindfulness practice,
for instance meditation or something else?
And as a sort of secondary part to that,
if you feel that there's any
space for more mindfulness
in politics to be able to lead
to more peaceful politics.
- Well, I definitely think
that there's some politicians
who could use some meditation.
(audience laughing)
There's no doubt about that.
(audience applauding)
(Barack laughing)
I can think of a few who, you know,
just sit there for a little bit
(audience laughing)
and reflect.
(Barack laughing)
Find some inner peace.
No, let me broaden the
question a little bit.
I mean, I will tell you that I don't have
a regular meditation practice.
But I have my own tools,
I guess, to take me to a certain place.
For example, you know,
particularly when I was your age
I did a lot of writing
and that would serve
as a similar process for me
where I would still myself.
And if I was writing well,
it would take me out of myself, right?
You become egoless a little bit
by just reflecting on the circumstances
and world around you.
Some people obviously prayer offers that.
And meditation's another tool.
But I would broaden the point.
Somebody asked me about this earlier,
what advice would I give myself
when I was a young organizer?
And one of the things I said was
I think sometimes we are so driven
to get the work done
and there's so much work to be done.
And typically in our various organizations
and our various efforts,
we're understaffed and overburdened
and certainly under-financed,
and sometimes we're isolated
and we feel guilty
if we're not working 24/7
because look at the people
who we're working with
who need so much
and, you know, we need to help them.
And just a reminder that you
can't help them effectively
if you're not taking care
of yourself in some fashion.
And that means simple things like sleep
(chuckles)
or time with friends
or organizing and scheduling
days or blocks of time
where you can just think
or read or get new ideas
or meditate or, you know,
whatever it is that you need.
I think organizing yourselves to do that
and getting in those good
habits or working out,
getting some exercise,
things like that end up
actually clearing your mind,
you'll be more effective,
you will interact with people better,
you're less likely to have your work
influenced by your bad moods.
You're more likely to listen and be open
to other people's experiences, right?
So all these things that may seem
as if they're for you,
could actually end up being for them.
You know, Michelle is
very clear about this
when she talked about parenting.
She came to a point,
particularly when our children
were small, I was traveling a lot
because I was doing politics
and we had two small kids,
and Michelle was still working
and she was going a mile a minute.
And obviously she'd feel like
oh, I've gotta do everything
for my kids.
And she talks about how there came a point
where she realized, you know,
if I don't do something
to just calm myself down
and be able to feel okay,
I'm gonna start taking it out on the kids.
You know, not in terrible ways,
but I won't be as good of a mom.
So she then started
scheduling certain things
that she had to do to
get her head straight.
And I think that that's
true for everybody.
You know, even as president,
I was a pretty busy guy,
I gotta say.
But I worked out every morning.
I mean, I was pretty religious about it.
I was in the gym.
And people knew, unless there was
an actual literal emergency,
that you had to block out that time
in the morning when I
was gonna be working out.
And if I did not have a workout,
I was gonna be cranky.
(audience chuckling)
But I knew that if I was
gonna be able to sustain
the pace I was sustaining over
the course of eight years,
I needed to have at least that.
And the same, I did the
same thing, by the way,
it's not just when you talk
about what's good for you.
Part of it is also social.
You have to make time
for friends or partners
or something that brings you some joy.
'Cause if you're disconnected from,
you can't organize a community
if you don't have a community.
(chuckles)
You know, if you're all
like oh, I'm out there,
I'm gonna pull people together
to help work together.
Then you go home and you're
all lonely eating by yourself,
you got no friends,
what do you know about
getting people organized?
So you've gotta have some social network
that can support you.
And so as president, for example,
my staff knew that I would
eat dinner with my children
at 6:30, with my wife and
children, at 6:30 every night.
Again, unless there
was an actual emergency
or I was traveling, I
was at the dinner table.
And then, you know, I'd work
until two in the morning
afterwards, but that block.
So part of what you have
to do is be intentional
about how you organize your time that way.
Anyway, all right.
Let's see.
I promised that I would turn this way.
Yes, you.
You do need a mic.
Who's got a mic?
Here we go.
Go ahead.
- Hi, Mr. President.
- Hi.
- I meant hi.
- How are you?
- I'm good, how are you?
- Very good.
- That's good.
My name is Katharina Schulze.
I'm a member of the
Bavarian State Parliament
here in Germany for the Green Party.
And I was running for office
after I was volunteering
in Michigan for your campaign 2008.
- Way to go, here, here.
- So, we already met.
(audience chuckling)
- Boom.
(audience applauding)
That's what I'm talking about.
- Yeah.
- Proud of you.
- Yes, so it's good to see you again.
- Good to see you!
(Katharina laughing)
- And I have a personal question.
How do you deal with
all the hate against you
and your family and your personal beliefs?
And do you have any advice for us
as young leaders how to deal with this?
Because as far as I see it now,
doing politics for 10 years,
it's getting harder and more and more.
And you already talked about
internet and social media
and the big dream about
what all the good things
this will bring for us and now we see also
the negative consequences.
And what would be your
advice for us to, like,
deal with this negative
(Barack sneezes)
in your own life and in the, bless you.
- Thank you.
- And in our communities or in our parties
or wherever we are active?
- You know, that's a great question.
(audience applauding)
So first I'll answer
sort of the personal question,
how do I deal with it
and then I think there are
some broader implications
that are worth us considering.
I did not,
I did not read about myself.
I did not watch TV about myself.
I, first of all,
whatever the news was saying about me,
I already knew.
I mean, whatever the
topic was, I was there.
(audience laughing)
So (laughing) they couldn't
give me actual information
that I didn't know.
The most they could do is
provide me with an opinion.
And, you know, sadly I think
that our media has become so splintered
and certainly social media
has become so splintered,
that people's opinions
were almost predictable, right?
You pretty much knew before
you even said anything
what one group was gonna say
versus what the other group was gonna say.
So it almost didn't
matter what I was doing.
It was just an occasion
to go back and forth
between the warring sides, right?
I advised Michelle and my mother-in-law,
you know, don't watch cable news shows.
They're designed to get you mad.
That's what their purpose is.
Social media is worse.
They're designed to make you click.
And the entire algorithm
and business model is
if you can inflame, provoke, anger
people or cat videos,
then people will go
(chuckles) that was a joke.
(audience laughing)
Cat videos are very popular.
(audience chuckling)
Then people will click.
And that then means
for advertising revenue
for the companies.
So for me,
creating a better filter,
personal filter, was important.
Now, obviously the danger is then if it's,
you're so filtered
then you don't get any
good feedback, right?
And I was fortunate
enough that I had a staff.
So I said well you watch it.
(chuckles)
And then you tell me if there's something
that we're hearing back
that indicates a genuine issue
or genuine problem,
something we didn't think of,
a legitimate critique,
then let's discuss it.
So you can't completely isolate yourself.
And I recognize not
everybody has the luxury
of having a staff.
So you, in your issues,
whatever you're working on,
may feel obliged, okay, I've gotta follow
what the chatter is on social media
in order for me to be informed
and to see how well our
message is getting out,
which then suddenly you
have all these trolls
who are sending you terrible information.
And even if you say to yourself,
these are just trolls and
losers in their underwear
in a basement somewhere
and who just decided
they wanna just be mean,
it's not gonna, it doesn't
mean you're not affected.
I recognize that.
But I do think at least
you should be able to
at least break the habit
that I suspect all of you
of a certain generation have
of constantly checking and renewing.
That has less to do with you
needing to get information
to do your work and has
more to do with the fact
that you've been addicted,
like everybody else,
to this device.
It's designed to make you addicted.
And by the way, I'm not
saying something that is,
this isn't a conspiracy.
It's a well-known fact, right?
Apps are designed and
these social media outlets
are designed to maximize your use
and amount of time on them.
And we're all victim to it.
So you have to somehow break that
while still being able
to take in external information.
So that's the personal point.
The general point I would make
is that we are collectively,
all of us, going to have to find ways
in which we improve
the conversation on the internet
and in social media.
And it's gonna be difficult to do.
I do not believe that
there's an effective way
to censor disinformation.
Because if you start
getting into a situation
like has happened in
the Chinese government
or in Russia where the
government's deciding
what is appropriate and what's not
and basically they have control,
they're the filter,
the potential for abuse is obviously high.
So what that means is is that
we're gonna have to design
ourselves and find ways in which we create
pockets of sanity and kindness and truth
(chuckles)
and then build those out.
And we have to find ways
to make those entertaining
and those interesting to people.
And I think that is actually
an interesting project
collectively for groups like all of you
to engage in, to have a, what sometimes
the technology people call a hackathon
to brainstorm about how do we build
lily pads of sanity and reason
on the internet that we
can then slowly grow?
Because I do believe that
part of what's driving
our politics in a negative direction
is the information overload
that is coming in through social media.
You know, if you look historically,
each time there's been a big breakthrough
in media technology, whether
it was the printing press
or the radio or television,
you actually saw those tools
creating upheaval, in part,
because of the nature of the media.
And this is no different.
And by the way, it's
gonna get worse with AI
because you're gonna start seeing...
If you think fake news is bad now,
what you're gonna start seeing
is the ability to
duplicate people's speech
and figures so that it's,
distinguishing what's true and what's not
is gonna become even more difficult.
So one of the things that I think
in the Foundation we're
looking at is how do we join,
let's say, a conversation and a convening
of this group with technologists
and start coming up with strategies?
And by the way, the strategies,
not every one is gonna work right away.
So we may have to try a whole
bunch of different things
to see what is it that
is able to penetrate
and attract attention?
And we'll have to test it.
And I'm always trying to figure out
by talking to my daughters.
All right, like, how long
is your attention span?
I know you won't listen
to me more than 10 minutes
but if, I (chuckles).
I'm only half joking on that one.
But, you know, look, Sasha's 17.
She has a different relationship
with the phone and how she
gets information than I do.
Than I do, and I have one, but I'm not,
I don't live in it the same way she does.
So we're gonna have to find ways
to think about information
and basically take it back
from these dominant,
very strategic operations.
Some of them are state-sponsored,
some of them are sponsored
by business interests.
The platforms themselves, just by nature,
are not designed to how do we foster
the most, you know, enlightened
democratic conversation.
They're designed to how
do we get the most clicks.
So you have these large,
both business interests,
political interests, that
are being very strategic
about this space, and we don't have,
I think, the same kind
of strategic thinking
around this space, which
is part of the reason
why sometimes it feels
as if we're not communicating effectively
relative to, say, right wing groups
getting their message out
to their constituents in this time.
All right.
Okay, I haven't, I don't
think I've gotten this side.
So I think this side
needs a little attention.
Yeah, go ahead.
Yes, I called on you.
(audience laughing)
You seem surprised.
- I didn't see you because of the light.
- I see, okay.
Yeah, that makes sense.
- Now I can see better.
Hi.
So my name is Jelena
and I come from Croatia.
I'm not sure is it a speech or a question,
but I'll be quick.
- That's fine.
- I will speak from the
segment of a private sector,
social innovation and
social entrepreneurship.
Little bit about me.
I run a social enterprise
called Family Tales.
We create fairy tales for children
based on their life experiences,
trying to solve their problems.
It started as a business just like turning
parents' love stories into
bedtime stories for their kids.
- That's nice.
- Until I wrote a first fairy tale
for a child who didn't have a parent.
Since then I wrote about 150 fairy tales
for orphans by myself.
- Oh, that's wonderful.
- And I'm teaching others to do the same.
- That's great.
- And I decided to stop the business part
and just to try to build
a cure for these children
and turn what I'm doing into
official therapy methodology.
And I'm working on it.
And nothing on that path
didn't frustrate me,
not the lack of money funding
and all these like regular stuff.
But the lack of understanding
from government and bureaucracy
is something that it's,
few times almost caused me like giving up
because you come to the point
where you can do everything
but if you don't have a
support from your government,
you can't implement your
innovation into this world.
Because many times and in many segments
the world is not practical
for social change
and for social innovation.
So my question would be, and it may sound
a little bit naive, is
there a way to trigger
that change in the government
to make them to start understanding
how important it is to give us the support
other than becoming an activist?
Because I don't think I can do that.
Maybe I can.
Apparently you can motivate people.
(chuckles)
(audience chuckling)
After your answer, maybe.
- Well, look, I mean,
I do believe that you
can become an activist.
You're already an activist in some ways
because what started as you
doing something commercially,
you became passionate
about it and now you want
the world to know how
children can be helped
through what you're doing
and that's activism.
And the question then is,
is there a way for you
to interact with government
and have them recognize that
this may be a useful tool?
Yes, you're gonna have to be active.
So sorry.
It's too late.
You're already down that path.
Look, there are a couple of ways
to get governments to be more responsive.
One is, I already spoke about, you vote.
Even better than voting
is to have a platform
ahead of politicians voting
so that you ask them questions
and force them to respond
and make commitments.
And then you vote.
(chuckles)
So that they feel some pressure
to follow through on the
commitments that they've made.
But even when you have
well-meaning politicians
and elected officials representing you,
there's still gonna be
frustrations around government
because look, governments
are human institutions and they're big
and there are a lot of people involved.
I always tell the story, the first week
that I became president,
I was in a meeting
with the Secretary of Defense at the time
who had been there a very long time.
He had been in Washington
and served seven presidents.
And I said, you know, I'm
the new young president.
I say what advice do you have for me
in terms of what I should expect?
He said, "Mr. President, you now have
"a little over two million
people working for you
"and a budget of $1 1/2 trillion.
"One thing you can know for certain
"is that every minute of every day
"somebody somewhere is screwing up.
"Somebody somewhere out of
those two million people
"is doing something
really stupid right now."
Which is true.
Because, look, it's
just a big organization.
And even a well-run organization,
you've got people out there and
there's gonna be frustration
and bureaucracy and
sometimes there are rules
that are set up that
seem like sensible rules.
Right?
So you pass a law we don't
want somebody in government
just giving somebody a contract
without first confirming that
the money's being well spent.
Well, that's a sensible rule, except okay,
how do we determine that
the money's not well spent?
Now we gotta have a bunch
of committees and processes
and application forms.
And all of these flow from a good idea
but if you have a good
idea and you're trying
to get government to act
and now it's six months
or a year and you're still waiting,
it can seem frustrating.
And I will say, by the way,
Europeans, you guys like a lot of rules
and a lot of meetings.
(audience laughing)
And you've got a lot of governments.
It's hard to keep up sometimes.
(chuckles)
Okay, you got the Commission
and you got the Parliament
and you got this
and you got that.
When I used to come over for meetings,
I'd be like didn't I just meet with them?
No, that's a different thing.
This is this.
(audience laughing)
Okay, and everybody's
talking for a long time.
(audience chuckling)
So, you know, I understand
that frustration.
But the point I'm making is,
in addition to electing good people,
one of the things that
you can do, I think,
is encourage and work with governments
to identify where are bottlenecks,
where are inefficiencies that
could potentially be solved
and then finding allies
to help improve processes
inside of government.
So rather than just complain,
one of the things you can do
is to find some, you know,
smart young politician
who's a progressive and
wants to try new things
and say hey, how 'bout let's put
these application processes online
and so that before I
come down to the office,
you can tell me ahead of time
what information I need to bring.
Right?
Just simple things, that can increase
in sophistication over time
but can make government work better.
The point is, I think sometimes we think
of the government as this thing
that is separate from us.
But if we're active citizens,
then part of our job is
not just to get government
to respond to us,
it's also to improve the government.
Make it work better so that the person
who comes after us trying
to get something done
won't have the same frustrations.
Right?
And that, I think, requires somebody
on the inside as well as
somebody on the outside.
You've gotta have people
on the outside pushing
and then you've gotta
have people on the inside
who are willing to be pushed.
And it means that when you're
interacting with government,
having constructive ideas.
If you come, if you
experience a frustration,
then the next time you're
with a Parliamentarian
or some government official
who you're trying to get action from,
you should say to them
in a, not in a mean way.
Not like you guys are terrible and stupid,
but say, you know, I just want you to know
that like I had to wait for six months
and maybe if, why is that?
Is there something we can do?
I have an organization here.
I can be supportive and,
you know, helping you
just make this office
work better in this issue
that we care deeply about
and I'm sure you do too.
Right?
So there may be ways.
But you have to take
some ownership over that.
All right.
Let's see.
Yes.
Right here.
- Me?
- Yes, yes.
No, no, no, no.
Well, you know what?
I'll call on you just so
you don't feel depressed
but this young lady I had called on first.
- All right, she's got--
- Is that fair?
- Yes.
- Yes, I think it's fair.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
See, bad, I, nobody--
(audience laughing)
- He gave me the microphone.
I'm sorry.
- Yeah, yeah, this one right here.
I didn't even see you having your hand up.
(audience chuckling)
- Hi, again from me also.
It's a pleasure to be here.
My name is Koubra.
I'm a writer and an activist
and I've been an activist
for 15 years, half my life.
And over the course of the last years
I realized that we all know
how the human brain works.
You present a problem
and then we come up with the solutions.
- Well, that's how it should work.
I'm not sure that's how it
actually works but that's okay.
- And what drives us to
see things differently,
what drives us is to
have a different world,
to strive for a different world.
So we come up with all these
solutions to different problems
that we come across and
all the time, you know,
we try to create, I would
try to create solutions
for larger problems.
But over the course of
the years I realized
that maybe what we're only doing is fixing
a system that in and of itself is broken.
And what I'm missing is questions
like who's our society designed for?
What kind of people do we think about
when we design our society?
(audience applauding)
And over the course of
the years I realized
that trying to solve
problems might also be a way
to keep the system working.
And I wonder, do we need more
or different conversations
on how we want to design
society more generally?
And also think about conversations
like, we have no idea
what it's like to live
in a just world.
We have no idea what it's
like to live in a world
that does not discriminate
based on gender, race,
economic status, and so on and so on.
We have no idea what
the future looks like.
So we constantly come up with solutions,
constantly try and change things,
and I wonder, do we need
a different conversation?
Should we stop fixing problems
or maybe not stop fixing problems
but while also we're doing it,
also think about larger questions
so that we can come up with true visions.
Not only visions that have
a solution for a time span
of five years, but long-lasting,
sustainable solutions.
(audience applauding)
- Well look, I mean I think...
This is an age-old debate,
what you just described.
Right?
Which is you start off
in an imperfect world, all right?
What I used to call the world as it is.
Like fish in a bowl,
sometimes we are trapped
by just what we see around us.
It's hard for us
to get outside
of that bowl and to imagine
an entirely different
set of possibilities.
And it may be that the
world as it should be
requires a completely radical set
of new institutions and new ways
to think about human relationships and of
an entirely different paradigm.
Right?
But here's the thing
is in the world as it is
there's a child that's hungry right now.
And in the world as it is,
there are some migrant families
that are behind barbed wire.
And in the world as it is,
I've got a young man who wants
to work but can't find a job.
Our task, at least I view my task,
as being how do I navigate
between the world as it is
and the world as it should
be and I'd like it to be?
And by definition what that means
is that I have to keep one foot in reality
even as I'm imagining something better.
And yes, that may constrain
what I consider to be possible.
But this is why I'm not a philosopher.
I'm not a theoretician.
There is a role for them to play also.
To write and to think and to
completely free themselves
from the constraints
of the world as it is.
And I respect that.
I want thinkers like
that who are out there.
But in the meantime, I'm here.
In the mud, in the dirt.
And so there I do have constraints.
And I have to continually
guard against thinking
okay, only this is possible,
when, in fact, if I was
bolder, more would be possible.
But the one thing I would
caution about is thinking
that, 'cause I saw
everybody doing this thing.
The one thing I would caution about
is thinking somehow
that change in societies
happen quickly or happen
because you think boldly.
Societies are somewhat sticky.
And what that means is that everybody,
you know, we grow up in,
surrounded by all kinds
of social structures and expectations
and habits and norms and customs.
When you start trying
to radically change things quickly,
the track record has not been great.
It hasn't been.
So let's imagine, for example,
we'll just take an example.
This wasn't one you used but
I'll just use an example.
Right now global capitalism is creating
large-scale inequality.
We'll set aside the issue
of environmental
sustainability for a second.
Let's just talk about economics.
It is creating large-scale inequality
and that inequality is accelerating.
And it's true in every society.
It's true between countries.
It's true within countries.
And it seems to be getting
progressively worse.
And part of that can be
explained by the fact
that the more technologically
driven the economy is,
the more redundant labor
is and can be replaced.
It means that if I have the ability
to leverage the technology,
I now have a global market.
I can make huge amounts
of profit very quickly.
I don't have to employ as many people.
And that gives me a huge share
of society's productivity
versus somebody who is unskilled
and only has their labor to offer, right?
So we could have a long
discussion about that.
Now, what do we do about that?
It is certainly true
that we have to...
If we we don't figure out
a way in which all people
feel as if they've got a
stake in the economic order
and can support families
and feel productive,
then political chaos
eventually will reign.
And we'll see backlash and radicalism
from the right and the left
and resentments will grow.
So we've gotta figure this out.
But I would say that some societies
are doing better than others.
Hey, if you go to the
Scandinavian countries,
they're not perfect, it
hasn't eliminated inequality
but you know what?
Actually it's done pretty good.
(chuckles)
And it's not that radical, you know.
Basically their solution has been,
we'll tax people more,
(chuckles)
we'll tax the rich people more
and then we will give
better public services
to the people
who are not as rich.
Now, has that eliminated completely
groups that are being
discriminated against?
Of course not.
Does that, has that accommodated
immigrants who are viewed as well, that's,
this program shouldn't be for them?
Of course not.
So that's not a radical change.
That's not a perfect change.
But it's better than societies
that don't have these issues.
I tell you, if you are a single mother
in the United States right now who's poor,
it's a lot harder for you
to get decent child care
and help raise your child
than it is in Finland.
And that difference is significant.
So the question then becomes,
yes, we have to continually re-imagine
maybe even something larger
than that, something completely
much more radically
generous towards each other,
but in the meantime,
I'd like to see improvements.
And I know you don't
necessarily disagree with this.
My only point is, I think
we have to be careful
in balancing big dreams and bold ideas
with also recognizing that,
typically, change happens
in steps.
And if you wanna skip steps, you can.
Historically what's ended up happening
is sometimes if you skip too many steps,
you end up having bad outcomes.
Not always, but sometimes.
Oh, I promised that I would call
on that gentleman right there.
- Thank you.
And by the way, one of your
staff just came up to me
and said this was gonna
be the last question,
so make it good.
(audience chuckling)
- Oh, wow.
- No pressure.
And also said make it quick
otherwise you would miss your flight.
(audience laughing)
But you know that would be pretty cool
to make Obama miss his flight
by asking a long question.
(audience laughing)
So my name's Nick.
I'm a Brexit migrant based in Berlin now
and working for Ashoka
which is a global community
of social entrepreneurs.
(audience applauding)
And we have a, we have a
bigger bit crazy vision
of actually empowering every citizen
as an agent of positive change.
And my question to you
regarding that would be,
how can we give every
child as young as possible
the chance top find their
power to change the world?
So how important do you think that is
that at a very young age
and how can we do it?
- You know, I think it's really important.
It turns out that habits of,
habits of participation and voting
and involvement, there's
a direct correlation
between people who start early and young
and what they do in adulthood.
And if we are teaching young people
their power early, they
will sustain that power
over the long term.
I mean, Michelle and I talk
about with our daughters,
we were actually
relatively strict parents,
I have to confess, in the sense
that we tried to give them structure.
But we always would talk to them
as if they were adults,
as if they weren't stupid
about what we were doing.
So, you know, we wouldn't just say,
go to bed because you have to go to bed.
We'd say well, you know, go to bed
'cause you get cranky when you're tired
and tomorrow you've gotta go to school
and so forth and so on.
And then they'd, if they had an argument,
we'd say okay, you know,
give us your best argument.
And since they were six,
usually we'd win the argument
'cause they hadn't thought
(audience laughing)
things through that much.
But what that did was it, right,
it teaches independence of thinking
and a sense of, okay,
I'm being listened to
and I've got the ability
to make an argument.
The same is true in our public life,
in our schools, in our civic settings.
And I think that kind of empowerment
is critically important.
And the earlier you
start, the better it is.
And one of the things
that we're gonna be interested in doing
is working with groups
like all of yours to
think about how do you
communicate, not just with your peers,
but also with the people coming behind you
because those are gonna
be your future voters,
your future constituents,
your future leaders.
And starting that conversation
earlier rather than later.
You know, the Friday movement
that's been taking place
around climate change is...
(audience applauding)
A lot of those people can't vote, right?
They're too young to vote yet.
But they know what's going on.
And they're making change.
And those habits and that sense of power
that they are developing now,
that's gonna carry over for
the rest of their lives.
So it's something that I think
is very much on our agenda
and we're gonna want to strategize
and think about how we can approach that,
how we can do it.
Okay?
Good.
Even though I said last question,
I always take one extra one.
So gentleman right here.
(audience applauding and cheering)
Oh, he's got, what, you guys,
you guys know this guy?
- That's my team.
- That's your team.
You got your crew.
- Mr. President, my
name is Danny Gyamerah.
I'm Chairman of Each One Teach One
and it's probably
the largest black-led employment
organization in Germany.
- Excellent.
- We have about 8000 books
by people of African descent
and we strive to empower youth
and do anti-discrimination work and so on.
- Excellent.
- And I want to ask you if
you can help us to start
a 10 million civil society fund
for people of African descent
because we have the knowledge,
we have the people but we
don't have access to funding.
It would be really great
if you could come here
and support us in doing that.
- Well, I tell you what...
(audience applauding)
So first of all, I wanna hear more
about the work you're doing.
And second of all, as is
true for all the groups
that are here,
I recognize that, you know,
yeah, okay, I wanna hear
Obama's advice and ideas,
blah, blah, blah, but you know
what I really could use is a check.
(audience laughing)
I've been there.
No, I get it.
But, what I will,
what I will commit to all of you
is that as we develop
a pool of donors who are interested
in these issues, hopefully we can create
a consortium that, as it learns
about what various
organizations are doing,
we can say oh, you're interested in this?
Well, Reach One Teach
One's doing great work.
You should contact them.
Or oh, you're interested in climate?
This organization's doing great work
and we can channel those resources.
Keep in mind that we're
not just focused on Europe,
so it's great work that you're doing
on behalf of the African
diaspora in Europe
but we're also working
in Africa (chuckles)
where they also would like
some financial support.
So we're, and Asia and, right?
So in each of these areas,
part of what we're doing,
and sprinkled among you, by the way,
are some donors who have been listening
and watching this process
that we've engaged and invited
to be inspired by all of you,
part of our goal would be to set up
essentially a clearinghouse
for philanthropic efforts regionally
so that you all have direct access.
I don't even have to
necessarily be an intermediary,
in which you have more access
to talk to and directly work
with people who are interested
in supporting the work that you're doing.
'Cause I've been on the other
side trying to raise money.
And it's, you know, sometimes it's hard.
I was talking to some donors earlier
about the fact that, you
know, the safe thing to do
is ah, I give to a museum or I give
to a, you know, hospital
or I give to a well-established charity
because there's no
possibility of controversy.
And I said to these donors, I said look,
admittedly if you fund
and engage with social activists
who are trying to bring
about systemic change
and re-imagine how society
might work together,
there are probably some
more risks involved
because it's harder.
'Cause in some cases it
hasn't been done before.
I mean, we haven't been confronted before
with a situation where
we had to stop the planet
from getting completely burned.
(chuckles)
We haven't dealt before
with some of the issues
that we are dealing with
or we haven't dealt with
them wisely and well before.
So we're creating new models.
So there's gonna be some risks involved.
But if you don't want
to see a continuation
of current trends, if you
want to actually see progress,
then you have to invest,
just like venture capitalists
invest in start-ups,
you have to invest in folks
who are trying new things.
And yes, there's more risks,
but there's also most upside.
And I truly believe that.
My belief is, investing in you
is our best investment.
And what I can do more
than anything, I think,
is to spotlight,
highlight, bring attention
to the work you're doing,
and occasionally maybe, you
know, give a little inspiration.
But your work will speak for itself
and will potentially, I think,
not only inspire donors
but, more importantly,
change the world.
(audience applauding)
So thank you very much, everybody.
It was good to see you.
Thank you!
Thank you!
