Ted day 2, session 4: TED Prize session

This is the real power of TED - the TED Prize. Three people are chosen every year and given $100,000 to do with as they wish, but even greater, they are given a wish. This wish is put forth to all of TED, a group of powerful, influential, creative and passionate people who can then take action to make those wishes come true. The resources that can be brought to bear are staggering.

Updates on the 2007 wishes:

Encyclopedia of Life - goes live TODAY!

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Dave Eggers
No Child Left Behind: Like any Bush policy it is underfunded, poorly planned and based on a punitive model.

His Wish
I wish that you - you personally and every creative individual and organization you know will find a way to directly engage witha public school in your area and that you'll then tell the story of how you got involved so that within a year we have 1000 examples of tranformed students.

Once Upon a School (.org)
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Neil Turok

Too inspiring to even type much. I'm struck that he said when he began working to improve maths education and access in Africa, he got a lot of flack for it from his Cambridge colleagues -- "how do you have time for this??" people would ask. I can't help but wonder why this question gets asked. He has no more minutes in a day than anyone else. He just organizes them differently. It's about CHOICE, people.

He helped found the African Institute for Mathematical Study (AIMS)

His wish:
My wish is that you help us unlock and nurture scientific talent across Africa so that within our lifetimes we are celebrating an African Einstein.

Two parts:
The Dream - that the next Einstein will be African.
The Plan - AIMS is a proven model so now we must replicate it. We want to roll out 15 AIMS centers across Africa.
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Karen Armstrong

My two favorite things she said:

"You must not confine your compassion to your own group."

"A lot of religious people prefer to be right rather than compassionate."

I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principes of universal justice and respect.

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This session has been extremely powerful and I am determined to DO SOMETHING about at least one of these wishes. More to come on this soon.

Comments

[Marilyn]

Just reading this post makes me want to do something. It IS about choice. I'm particularly moved by AIMS...and haven't even checked it out yet. Thanks for sharing this.

[Linda]

I LOVE Karen Armstrong. I have also been following the EOL, but had forgotton/never knew that came from a TED prize. On the other had, I didn't know much about AIMS. Thanks for introducing me. I will definately check it (and Neil Turok) out.

[onepinktee]

Marilyn - I'm glad you came across this -- these projects are all so important in their own ways and I'm glad that I can do my little part to spread awareness of them.

Linda - same as above - glad that I could shine a light on this. TED is a pretty privileged and elite group, but the Prize is organized and carried out in a way that is just astonishing and heart-warming.