Last week I had the distinct pleasure of joining two very special people to me — His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland, without question one of the top philosophers in the world today, for Dignity Day, Helsinki, Finland with youth from a local high school. Memorable, and a rare opportunity to experience all the co-founders in one place, at one time.
A special thank you to our host, Pekka Himanen, for arranging a fantastic event in his native Finland, and to our friend and booster Martina Gmur of the World Economic Forum, for helping to nurture Global Dignity into existence. Global Dignity is an intiative of the Forum of Young Global Leaders, for which we all belong as members, and HOPE Global Initiatives, the international arm of Operation HOPE.
As the Dignity Day session got rolling, I was particularly moved by Crown Prince Haakon’s presentation, as he truly showed his humility and compassion, combined with his deep intelligence and intense and personal knowledge on the topics covered. Imagine a world leader taking you through a power point presentation on the world’s problems, challenges, and future opportunities. This is personal to him, and it showed. I called Crown Prince Haakon "the people’s prince," but the Finish did one better in a headline in a local newspaper, calling him, loosely translated, "the cool prince." Enough said.
The presentation starts out with Pekka framing the day and what Global Dignity is all about, some of it done in the native language, then the Crown Prince, then me, followed by some Q & A. Sound quality is generally good, but keep in mind that I was miked but my co-founders were not.
Listen, enjoy, and let me know what you think. Download dignity_day_helsinki_finland_11_.m4a. You can also podcast this and other speeches and events to your iPod, simply by signing up at iTunes for a free podcast subscription. Signing up at iTunes also means you avoid the time it takes to download the MP3 file here before you listen to it.
Hope you like it.
Onward with HOPE,
John Hope Bryant