I think i have hoplessly failed in my pursuit of making my blog non AIESECey (sigh),but i simply had to share this...

Here's an aussie AIESECer's speech that i thought was truly remarkable
I found it on the australia community

http://www.aiesec.net/members/ai/australia/file-storage/index?folder%5fid=29630979

i know its long and all...but really sometimes things are worth the trouble

We can, Can you?

As an Australian what would you attempt if you knew that you could not fail?


We are based in an adventurous culture where our mischievous foundingfathers were given the choice that if they stole a loaf of bread andran with it they would be taken out of the rat and disease infestedslums of England and be able to start a new life in a new society withnew opportunities. Everyone in this room, although slightly lessmischievous, also has those opportunities. Opportunities to build abetter tomorrow, and a greater future.


Australia is a great nation where our 'no worries' attitude, leads usto be the strongest nation of free blokes and Sheilas. We are a nationthat is girt by sea and pissed by lunchtime, where one of our nationalheroes is a criminal who used a trash can for a helmet and a formerPrime Minister is a world record beer drinker. We are a country wherethe national anthem should be 'thunderstruck', and our national moto'she'll be right, mate'. Collectively we have a unique identity thatcan take a lead role in changing the shape of this planet.


Gathered here today we have some of the smartest young minds on theplanet. From meeting with many of you it is clear that we areindividuals who collectively value, life, the environment, health andhappiness. We all see problems in our planet, be it disease, poverty,war-mongering oil barons or poor leadership. The individuals in thisroom have the ability and opportunity to change these futures. We haveall come here with a common purpose, and if I can extend on the wordsfrom the Booker Prize and recent Sydney Peace prize winner ArundhatiRoy, it is not enough to be smart, it is not enough to be right, it isonly enough when we win.


Simply by looking at the range of cultures and societies representedby individuals in this room, it is clear that we have a snapshot ofthe catch phrase globalisation. It is the concept globalisation whichis an essential part of this speech.As AIESEC is based around business ideas I will look into the businessworld and explain how the future leaders in this room can lead theworld into a better place.The basis for all international commercial transactions is based onthe idea of Comparative Advantage where the producer uses the leastamount of what is valued.


As I have stated previously the individualsin this room value friendship, life, the environment and good health.So in a world as I have defined, the basic economic principle shouldbe that those who can produce goods with the least amount of use ofwhat is valued should do so. Therefore those who can produce with theleast impact on life, health or environment should do so. Another essential aspect of the economic principles that govern thisglobal world of transactions is the notion of the 'dilemma of thecommons'. This is a basic economic example that is based on the ideaof a village that shares a common piece of land. This land is used forgrazing all the villages sheep, cattle, vegetables, goats and so on.If this land is overused it becomes defunct and unable to be used byanyone.As a global community, the dilemma of the commons alludes us to whatis seen as this worlds finite resources. The environment.

If we trulylive in a global village, then our global common is the environment.This is where we drill our oil, catch our fish, farm our livestock,produce our electricity and mine our minerals. Our only finiteresource is the water we drink and the foods we eat. Can we not printmore money if we run out of it?If we do not realise that the simple pursuit of money is spoiling our'common' then we will evolve into a global village that realises, toolate, that after every tree is cut down, and every fish caught that wecan not eat money.


We need an environment in order to have an economy, but we don't needan economy to have an environment.In reality, the world is built on an entirely different premise. Wherewhat is valued is getting ahead, producing goods at the cheapestfinancial rate regardless of culture, the environment and as I willshow basic human decency


..As an example I'll look into India. Every student of InternationalBusiness knows of the surge of India as a place of skilled labourwhere jobs of the west are being exported to India. This is seen as ahuge bonus to India. Economies will boom, people are employed, its alla neo-classical economists dream come true. Such things are admirableunder the premise of getting ahead, and making profits. However havinga closer look at these jobs shows that all is not well. Such jobsinclude working for American telecommunications companies, whereIndian Citizens make calls to American customers to sell products andso on. However market research shows that Americans don't likelistening, or they cannot understand Indian accents, thus theseIndians are being taught to sound like Southern Californians. They arebeing taught to give up their own national identity in order to makemoney and please the American customers. Under the premises of puttinga human face to such economically rationalised actions, as we havedone through in the outlining of our initial principles, such an actis not only racially callous but abysmal in terms of its destructionof culture. Are these Indians to feel that there culture is lessimportant due to the search for profits from those individuals higherin the organisation?So what is this pursuit of profits all about.


A recent study that has just come out of the London School ofEconomics found that with the increases in wages in North America thelevel of social happiness has declined. Based on statistics such asdivorce rates, mental health figures, suicides, jail rates, murdersand so on it was found that even though wages in real terms haveincreased substantially over the last fifty years the social happinessfigures show a decline.As Kanye West puts it 'we be livin the American dream, but the peoplehighest up got the lowest self esteem, the prettiest people do theugliest things for the road to riches and diamond rings'.Kanye discusses the American dream, and call me captain obvious but weare not American and from my experiences in the US, we don't wanttheir dream.I have studied, and lived in the US for about two years, I havestudied at some of there best universities, and will later this yearattend the Asian Harvard Business Conference in Tokyo. From all of myexperiences in the country, we don't want what they're cooking. Weshould be inventing our own dream, based on altruistic values as wasseen in our response to the tsunami. We should not base ourselves on aculture that revolves around material objects and is run bycorporation me.So then if wealth doesn't make us happy then why are so many peopleblindly pursuing it?Well I'll put forward a reason.

A recent study of American businessstudents found that they did not mind being poor, as long as there wassomeone more poor than they were. So essentially in relative terms tothe top of the socio-economic charts these individuals did not feelthat their own economic wealth mattered, they did not mind being poorcompared to those at the top. However the competition they felt to notbe at the bottom was strongly present. So essentially if all students,or future leaders feel that they need to 'get ahead' then we have aculture of competition which is not socially responsible as thepremise of such a social structure is that it is the individuals thatare to get ahead, and the benefits are to benefit the individual andnot society, or the community as a whole. In a world of globalisation,and increasingly centralised power it is very dangerous to haveindividuals at the top looking out for number one: Corporation Me.


When all things are considered, would you not prefer to make a millionfriends, or a million smiles than a million dollars?


We all come here with different backgrounds. Architecture, teaching,engineering, science, law, International Relations and Business.However it is through the correct pursuit of moral objectives that wecan all become architects of our future, engineers of understanding,teachers of conscience, and scientists of humanity.

As a smarter man than I (Bertrand Russell has put it:The ultimate aim of production is not the production of goods, but theproduction of free humans beings associated with one another on termsof equality.This is a production process that I would be proud to be a part of,and this is what has been alluded to as the AIESEC experience.To be a part of such an experience it is important that we must give asense of the value of things other than domination, to help createwise citizens of a free community, to encourage a combination ofcitizenship with liberty, individual creativeness, which means that weregard a child as a gardener regards a young tree, as something withan intrinsic nature which will develop into an admirable form givenproper soil and air and light.We are not a collection of individuals that wishes to rage against themachine, but rather to steer it in a direction that will benefit allof humanity rather than those individuals who are in it forthemselves.



We are what AIESEC calls change agents.Many of us in this room have begun their AIESEC experience, some havefinished this journey and others like myself are in their first steps.However by being here we have all taken our own steps in a processthat hopes to create a happier humanity rather than the simple pursuitof money for personal benefit.The basis for putting a human face to economics that I hope to bringto fruition will need to be based on individuals who value, life,happiness and the environment which I have assumed from meeting withyou, that you do.In a world as big as this it is hard in any certainty to say I canmake a difference. Most of the time we are simply walking alone onescher's staircase, gripping the rail, deciding what is up and what isdown. Seeing ourselves as voiceless individuals debating whether ournext move will be construed as jump or fall, success or failure.Such a premise is simply as flawed as those whose pursuit of profitsis for their own personal benefit. Remember we live in a globalvillage that must run under the premise that 'we are all in thistogether'.

So to reframe such an important question.What would you attempt if you knew we could not fail?For those of you who feel that there is nothing that can be done,think of the promise we have for those who will follow us.Promise, it is the single greatest commodity known to man. Promise ofa better day, promise of a greater hope, promise of a new tomorrow.Such promises form the bonds between generations, and are the glue ofhumanity.When we look at the economics that run this world through the eyes ofa world citizen the faults appear and the cracks widen.

Communism didnot fail because it was inherently evil. It failed because it wascreated by human intellect which did not take into account humannature. American style Capitalism will falter for the same reasons. Itwas created by human intellect, and will be destroyed by human nature.This however is not the end. Another world is possible. Some of ushere may not live to see her.
But on a quiet day and in a room such asthis; I can hear her breathing.