Rory Stewart: Writer, Walker, Diplomat

I met Rory Stewart for a coffee on a trip to Africa. Modest, calm, a great listener, Rory defines the word gentleman. He didn't tell me much about himself when we met. He seemed more interested in what I was doing. Later, waiting at Heathrow for my flight to Nairobi, I happened to pick up the latest Harvard Business Review. To my amazement, it had a long article about Rory. That's when I realized why Rory was such a great listener and gentleman. In the past 5 years or so, he had walked across Afghanistan, acted as Governor in southern Iraq, and started a foundation to preserve local architecture and craftswork in Kabul Afghanistan. Learn more about his life and work in his books: The Places In Between, about his walk through Afghanistan, The Prince of the Marshes, about his time in Iraq. Also check out Turquoise Mountain, his foundation for Kabul.

Global is what local does

The basic saying goes "Think Global. Act Local." Built into these words is the very positive notion that somehow, all of us can take action to affect things. But isn't it a bit limiting to think that the best or meaningful way of affecting things is "local".

A lot of the time, we mock people trying to make a difference by saying "ok, sure, but let's not try to solve world hunger" as if it had no solution and were bigger than any combined effort could overcome.

Jeffrey Sachs, perhaps the most effective economist in history at creating dramatic change toward ending poverty, suggests that global poverty is solvable and in his book "The End of Poverty" lays out a perfectly doable plan.

With the rise of online social networks and mass collaboration, I really believe we are on the edge of an incredible wave of possibility. We see an explosion of people rising through Web 2.0, participating in online social networks and causes. Some of my favourites: takingitglobal.org, one.org, data.org, socialedge.org , and Kiva.org.

The big difference that we see in these platforms is that they drive organization, align power and focus resources on solving local problems on a global scale. In essence, this is what the new world is all about - "Think Local, Act Global." (Izumi Aizu).

We do have a chance. We do have a say. And we can act locally for global impact.

A beginning

Hi everyone. I am in the process of moving my blog over to blogger. Here is the first post I made about a year ago. It gives you a sense of what I hope this blog will be for many years to come.

......................

As I stood, going up the escalator this with people from the subway, I looked around me. What I saw was quite simply amazing - people. People from all over the world, rising the escalator together. The amazing thing was that there was no dominant race or background among us. We were all rising the escalator together on the same hot, sunny, beautiful day.

And then I realized, like most of the world, over half the people around me work in small businesses. Dry cleaners, restauranteurs, penny store clerks, news stand owners, tailors, tech entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, care-givers. For me, it was perhaps a picture perfect capsule of what the world could be: a diversity of cultures, no one dominant, no one threatening, no on scared - "small" individuals, "massive" in our potential collective strength, all rising together.

I smiled at the possibility of what could be, if some way, everyone had a chance to rise, a part of that great diversity. If only there were a force strong enough, fair enough, to give everyone around the world enough of a chance to realize their full potential and in the end, be happy. One beside the other without fear, uncertainty, torment or abuse along the way.

Things indeed are changing. The Internet is the great leveler, the great platform for people to rise together. The time is coming for everyone to get a fair opportunity to fulfill themselves, without constrain, diversion or pain.

My hope is that this blog "rise of the little guy" will be a place where we can all go, to share a vision of possibility, celebrate the success of people, the smallest in individual power, yet the most massive in collective energy, in their quest to realize their full potential.

I look forward to sharing what I see, what I experience in my life. I am excited and look forward to connecting with others, hearing, joining, reacting to the rise of the little guy.