Fifty-four percent of the world's population lives in our cities. In developing countries, one third of that population is living in slums. Seventy-five percent of global energy consumption occurs in our cities, and 80 percent of gas emissions that cause global warming come from our cities. So things that you and I might think about as global problems, like climate change, the energy crisis or poverty, are really, in many ways, city problems. They will not be solved unless people who live in cities, like most of us, actually start doing a better job, because right now, we are not doing a very good one. And that becomes very clear when we look into three aspects of city life: first, our citizens' willingness to engage with democratic institutions; second, our cities' ability to really include all of their residents; and lastly, our own ability to live fulfilling and happy lives.
Pedeset i četiri posto svjetske populacije živi u našim gradovima. U zemljama u razvoju, jedna trećine te populacije živi u slamovima. Sedamdeset i pet posto potrošnje energije u svijetu javlja se u našim gradovima, i 80 posto emisije plinova koji uzrokuju globalno zatopljenje dolazi iz naših gradova. Stvari koje vi i ja možda smatramo globalnim problemima, kao klimatske promjene, energetsku krizu ili siromaštvo, su zapravo, na puno načina, gradski problemi. Oni neće biti riješeni ako ljudi koji žive u gradovima, kao većina nas, ne počnu raditi bolji posao, jer sada, mi ne radimo tako dobar posao. I to postaje vrlo jasno kada pogledamo tri aspekta gradskog života: prvo, volja građana da se uključe u demokratske institucije; drugo,sposobnost naših gradova da zaista uključe sve svoje stanovnike; i na kraju, vlastita mogućnost življenja ispunjujućih i sretnih života.
When it comes to engagement, the data is very clear. Voter turnout around the world peaked in the late '80s, and it has been declining at a pace that we have never seen before, and if those numbers are bad at the national level, at the level of our cities, they are just dismal. In the last two years, two of the world's most consolidated, oldest democracies, the U.S. and France, held nationwide municipal elections. In France, voter turnout hit a record low. Almost 40 percent of voters decided not to show up. In the U.S., the numbers were even scarier. In some American cities, voter turnout was close to five percent. I'll let that sink in for a second. We're talking about democratic cities in which 95 percent of people decided that it was not important to elect their leaders. The city of L.A., a city of four million people, elected its mayor with just a bit over 200,000 votes. That was the lowest turnout the city had seen in 100 years. Right here, in my city of Rio, in spite of mandatory voting, almost 30 percent of the voting population chose to either annul their votes or stay home and pay a fine in the last mayoral elections.
Kada pričamo o uključivanju, podatci su vrlo jasni. Odziv glasača širom svijeta bio je na vrhuncu u kasnim 80.-ima, i od tada opada tempom koji do sada nismo vidjeli, i ako su te brojke loše na nacionalnoj razini, na razini gradova, one su poražavajuće. U posljednje dvije godine, dvije najkonsolidiranije, najstarije demokracije svijeta, američka i francuska, održale su gradske izbore u cijeloj naciji. U Francuskoj, odziv birača bio je rekordno nizak. Gotovo 40 posto glasača odlučilo je ne pojaviti se. U Americi, brojke su bile još strašnije. U nekim američkim gradovima, odziv birača bio je blizu pet posto. Neka vam taj podatak sjedne. Govorimo o demokratskim gradovima gdje je 95 posto ljudi odlučilo da nije važno odabrati svoje vođe. Grad L.A., sa četiri milijuna ljudi, odabrao je gradonačelnika sa 200000 glasova. To je najniži odaziv koji je grad vidio u posljednjih 100 godina. Ovdje, u mom gradu, Riu, unatoč obveznom glasanju, gotovo 30 posto glasačke populacije odlučilo je ili poništiti glasove ili ostati kod kuće i platiti kaznu u posljednjim izborima za gradonačelnike.
When it comes to inclusiveness, our cities are not the best cases of success either, and again, you don't need to look very far in order to find proof of that. The city of Rio is incredibly unequal. This is Leblon. Leblon is the city's richest neighborhood. And this is Complexo do Alemão. This is where over 70,000 of the city's poorest residents live. Leblon has an HDI, a Human Development Index, of .967. That is higher than Norway, Switzerland or Sweden. Complexo do Alemão has an HDI of .711. It sits somewhere in between the HDI of Algeria and Gabon. So Rio, like so many cities across the global South, is a place where you can go from northern Europe to sub-Saharan Africa in the space of 30 minutes. If you drive, that is. If you take public transit, it's about two hours.
Kada je u pitanju uključivost, naši gradovi nisu najbolji primjeri uspjeha, i ponovno, ne morate gledati daleko kako bi pronašli dokaze za to. Grad Rio je nevjerojatno nejednak. Ovo je Leblon. Leblon je najbogatije naselje grada. I ovo je Complexo do Alemao. Ovdje živi preko 70000 najsiromašnijih građana. Leblon ima ILJR, indeks ljudskog razvoja 0.967. To je više od Norveške, Švicarske ili Švedske. Complexo do Alemao ima ILJR 0.711. Sjedi negdje između ILJR Alžira i Gabona. Dakle Rio, kao mnogi drugi gradovi na globalnom Jugu, je mjesto na kojem možete otići od sjeverne Europe, do sub-Saharske Afrike u razmaku od pola sata. Toliko je ako vozite. Ako idete javnim prijevozom, to je dva sata.
And lastly, perhaps most importantly, cities, with the incredible wealth of relations that they enable, could be the ideal places for human happiness to flourish. We like being around people. We are social animals. Instead, countries where urbanization has already peaked seem to be the very countries in which cities have stopped making us happy. The United States population has suffered from a general decrease in happiness for the past three decades, and the main reason is this. The American way of building cities has caused good quality public spaces to virtually disappear in many, many American cities, and as a result, they have seen a decline of relations, of the things that make us happy. Many studies show an increase in solitude and a decrease in solidarity, honesty, and social and civic participation.
I posljednje, možda i najvažnije, gradovi, s ogromnim bogatstvom odnosa koje omogućuju, mogli bi biti idealna mjesta na kojima će ljudska sreća procvjetati. Volimo biti među ljudima. Mi smo socijalne životinje. Umjesto toga, zemlje gdje je urbanizacija već dosegla vrhunac su zemlje u kojima su nas gradovi prestali usrećivati. Populacija Sjedinjenih Američkih Država pati od generalnog smanjeja u sreći u posljednja tri desetljeća, i glavni razlog je ovo. Američki način izgradnje gradova prouzročio je da kvaitetni javni prostori doslovno nestaju u mnogim američkim gradovima, i kao rezultat, oni su vidjeli pad odnosa, stvari koje nas čine sretnima. Mnoge studije pokazuju povećanje samoće i smanjenje u solidarnosti, iskrenosti, društvenom i građanskom sudjelovanju.
So how do we start building cities that make us care? Cities that value their most important asset: the incredible diversity of the people who live in them? Cities that make us happy? Well, I believe that if we want to change what our cities look like, then we really have to change the decision-making processes that have given us the results that we have right now. We need a participation revolution, and we need it fast. The idea of voting as our only exercise in citizenship does not make sense anymore. People are tired of only being treated as empowered individuals every few years when it's time to delegate that power to someone else. If the protests that swept Brazil in June 2013 have taught us anything, it's that every time we try to exercise our power outside of an electoral context, we are beaten up, humiliated or arrested. And this needs to change, because when it does, not only will people re-engage with the structures of representation, but also complement these structures with direct, effective, and collective decision making, decision making of the kind that attacks inequality by its very inclusive nature, decision making of the kind that can change our cities into better places for us to live.
Pa kako ćemo početi graditi gradove koji čine da nam je stalo? Gradovi koji cijene svoju najvažniju odliku: nevjerojatnu raznolikost ljudi koji žive u njima? Gradovi koji nas usrećuju? Pa, vjerujem da ako želimo promijeniti kako naši gradovi izgledaju, moramo zaista promijeniti proces donošenja odluka koji nam je dao rezultate koje imamo sada. Trebamo revoluciju sudjelovanja, i trebamo ju brzo. Ideja glasovanja kao naše jedine vježbe građanstva nema više smisla. Ljudi su umorni od toga da ih se tretira kao osnažene individue svakih par godina kada treba tu moć dati nekom drugom. Ako su nas prosvjedi koji su se proširili Brazilom u lipnju 2013. išta naučili, to je da svaki put kad pokušamo prikazati svoju snagu izvan izbornog konteksta, pretučeni smo, poniženi ili uhićeni. I ovo se mora promijeniti, jer kada se promijeni, ne samo da će se ljudi ponovno uključiti u strukturu reprezentacije, ali i nadopuniti te strukture sa direktnim, efektivnim i kolektivnim donošenjem odluka, donošenju odluka koje napadaju nejednakosti svojom vrlo uključivom prirodom, donošenje odluka koje mogu promijeniti naše gradove u bolja mjesta za život.
But there is a catch, obviously: Enabling widespread participation and redistributing power can be a logistical nightmare, and there's where technology can play an incredibly helpful role, by making it easier for people to organize, communicate and make decisions without having to be in the same room at the same time.
Ali tu je kvaka, očito: Omogućujući široko sudjelovanje i redistribuirajući moć možemo dobiti logističku noćnu moru, i tu tehnologija može igrati vrlo važnu ulogu, pomažući ljudima da se organiziraju, komuniciraju i donose odluke bez da moraju biti u istoj sobi u isto vrijeme.
Unfortunately for us, when it comes to fostering democratic processes, our city governments have not used technology to its full potential. So far, most city governments have been effective at using tech to turn citizens into human sensors who serve authorities with data on the city: potholes, fallen trees or broken lamps. They have also, to a lesser extent, invited people to participate in improving the outcome of decisions that were already made for them, just like my mom when I was eight and she told me that I had a choice: I had to be in bed by 8 p.m., but I could choose my pink pajamas or my blue pajamas. That's not participation, and in fact, governments have not been very good at using technology to enable participation on what matters — the way we allocate our budget, the way we occupy our land, and the way we manage our natural resources. Those are the kinds of decisions that can actually impact global problems that manifest themselves in our cities.
Na našu nesreću, kada se radi o prihvaćanju demokratskog procesa, naše vlade ne koriste puni potencijal te tehnologije. Do sada, većina gradskih vlada bila je učinkovita u korištenju tehnologije da pretvore građane u ljudske senzore koji pružaju podatke o gradu vlastima: rupe, srušeno drveće ili pokidane svjetiljke. Također, u manjoj mjeri, pozivaju ljude da sudjeluju u poboljšanju ishoda odluka koje su već napravljene za njih, kao moju majku kada sam imala osam i ona mi je rekla da tada imam izbor: ili ću biti u krevetu do 8, ali mogu birati između plave i roza pidžame. To nije sudjelovanje, i zapravo, vlade nisu bile dobre u korištenju tehnologije da omoguće sudjelovanje u stvarima koje su važne — kako alociraju budžet, način na koji koristimo zemlju, i kako koristimo prirodne resurse. Ovo su vrste odluka koje zaista mogu utjecati na globalne probleme koji se manifestiraju u našim gradovima.
The good news is, and I do have good news to share with you, we don't need to wait for governments to do this. I have reason to believe that it's possible for citizens to build their own structures of participation. Three years ago, I cofounded an organization called Meu Rio, and we make it easier for people in the city of Rio to organize around causes and places that they care about in their own city, and have an impact on those causes and places every day. In these past three years, Meu Rio grew to a network of 160,000 citizens of Rio. About 40 percent of those members are young people aged 20 to 29. That is one in every 15 young people of that age in Rio today.
Dobre vijesti su, i imam dobre vijesti za podijeliti, da ne moramo čekati vladu da ovo učini. Imam razloga vjerovati da je moguće da građani izgrade vlastite strukture sudjelovanja. Prije tri godine bila sam suosnivač organizacije imena Meu Rio, (Moj Rio) i olakšali smo ljudima u Riu da se organiziraju oko stvari i mjesta za koje su brinuli u svom gradu, i da mogu utjecati na te stvari i mjesta svakog dana. U posljednje tri godine, Meu Rio narastao je u mrežu od 160000 građana Ria. 40 posto tih članova su mladi ljudi od 20 do 29 godina. To je jedan u svakih 15 mladih tih godina u Riu danas.
Amongst our members is this adorable little girl, Bia, to your right, and Bia was just 11 years old when she started a campaign using one of our tools to save her model public school from demolition. Her school actually ranks among the best public schools in the country, and it was going to be demolished by the Rio de Janeiro state government to build, I kid you not, a parking lot for the World Cup right before the event happened. Bia started a campaign, and we even watched her school 24/7 through webcam monitoring, and many months afterwards, the government changed their minds. Bia's school stayed in place.
Među našim članovima je i ova dražesna djevojčica, Bia, s vaše desne strane, i Bia je imala samo 11 godina kada je počela kampanju koristeći jedan od naših alata kako bi spasila svoju javnu školu od rušenja. Njena škola je među najboljim javnim školama u zemlji i trebala je biti srušena od strane gradskih vlasti u Rio de Janeiru kako bi izgradili, ne šalim se, parking za Svjetsko prvenstvo netom prije događaja. Bia je započela kampanju, i čak smo i nadzirali školu 24/7 putem web kamere i puno mjeseci nakon toga, vlada se predomislila. Njena škola ostala je na mjestu.
There's also Jovita. She's an amazing woman whose daughter went missing about 10 years ago, and since then, she has been looking for her daughter. In that process, she found out that first, she was not alone. In the last year alone, 2013, 6,000 people disappeared in the state of Rio. But she also found out that in spite of that, Rio had no centralized intelligence system for solving missing persons cases. In other Brazilian cities, those systems have helped solve up to 80 percent of missing persons cases. She started a campaign, and after the secretary of security got 16,000 emails from people asking him to do this, he responded, and started to build a police unit specializing in those cases. It was open to the public at the end of last month, and Jovita was there giving interviews and being very fancy.
Tu je i Jovita. Ona je zapanjujuća žena čija kćer je nestala prije 10 godina, i od tada, ona traži svoju kćer. U tom procesu, otkrila je da prvo, nije sama. Samo u prošloj godini, 2013., 6000 ljudi je nestalo u oblasti Ria. Ali je također otkrila da unatoč tome, Rio nema centralizirani sustav informiranja za rješavanje slučajeva nestalih osoba. U drugim brazilskim gradovima, ti sustavi pomogli su riješiti 80 posto slučajeva nestalih osoba. Započela je kampanju, i nakon što je tajnik sigurnosti dobio 16000 mailova u kojima su ga ljudi tražili da to učini, odgovorio je, i počeo graditi policijsku jedinicu koja će se specijalizirati za te slučajeve. Otvorena je za javnost krajem prošlog mjeseca i Jovita je bila ondje, davala intervjue i bila vrlo otmjena.
And then, there is Leandro. Leandro is an amazing guy in a slum in Rio, and he created a recycling project in the slum. At the end of last year, December 16, he received an eviction order by the Rio de Janeiro state government giving him two weeks to leave the space that he had been using for two years. The plan was to hand it over to a developer, who planned to turn it into a construction site. Leandro started a campaign using one of our tools, the Pressure Cooker, the same one that Bia and Jovita used, and the state government changed their minds before Christmas Eve.
I onda je tu Leandro. Leandro je zapanjujuć tip u slamu u Riu, i stvorio je projekt recikliranja u slamu. Krajem prošle godine, 16. prosinca, primio je obavijest o iseljenju od strane vlade Rio de Janeira dajući mu dva tjedna da napusti prostor koji je koristio dvije godine. Plan je bio predati taj prostor građevinaru, koji je planirao započeti gradnju na tom mjestu. Leandro je započeo kampanju koristeći jedan naš alat, Ekspres Lonac, koji su koristili i Bia i Jovita, i vlada je promijenila mišljenje prije Badnjaka.
These stories make me happy, but not just because they have happy endings. They make me happy because they are happy beginnings. The teacher and parent community at Bia's school is looking for other ways they could improve that space even further. Leandro has ambitious plans to take his model to other low-income communities in Rio, and Jovita is volunteering at the police unit that she helped created. Bia, Jovita and Leandro are living examples of something that citizens and city governments around the world need to know: We are ready. As citizens, we are ready to decide on our common destinies, because we know that the way we distribute power says a lot about how we actually value everyone, and because we know that enabling and participating in local politics is a sign that we truly care about our relations to one another, and we are ready to do this in cities around the world right now. With the Our Cities network, the Meu Rio team hopes to share what we have learned with other people who want to create similar initiatives in their own cities. We have already started doing it in São Paulo with incredible results, and want to take it to cities around the world through a network of citizen-centric, citizen-led organizations that can inspire us, challenge us, and remind us to demand real participation in our city lives.
Ove priče me usrećuju, ali ne samo zato što imaju sretan kraj. Čine me sretnom jer su sretni počeci. Učiteljska i roditeljska zajednica u Biinoj školi traži druge načine kako bi poboljšali taj prostor još više. Leandro ima ambiciozne planove da prenese svoj model u druge zajednice niskih prihoda u Riu, a Jovita volontira u policijskoj jedinici koju je pomogla osnovati. Bia, Jovita i Leandro su živući primjeri nečega što građani i gradske vlade širom svijeta moraju znati: Spremni smo. Kao građani, spremni smo odlučivati naše zajedničke sudbine, jer znamo da način na koji raspodjeljujemo moć govori puno o tome kako cijenimo druge, i zato što znamo da omogućavanje i sudjelovanje u lokalnoj politici pokazuje da nam je stvarno stalo do naših odnosa jednih s drugima, i spremni smo ovo učiniti u gradovima širom svijeta. Sa mrežom Our Cities (Naši Gradovi), tim Meu Rio nada se podijeliti što smo naučili s drugim ljudima koji žele stvoriti slične inicijative u svojim gradovima. Već smo počeli to činiti u Sao Paulu, sa zadivljujućim rezultatima, i želimo to podijeliti s gradovima širom svijeta kroz mrežu organizacija fokusiranih na građene i vođenih od strane građana koje nas mogu inspirirati, izazvati, i podsjetiti nas da tražimo stvarno sudjelovanje u životu svojih gradova.
It is up to us to decide whether we want schools or parking lots, community-driven recycling projects or construction sites, loneliness or solidarity, cars or buses, and it is our responsibility to do that now, for ourselves, for our families, for the people who make our lives worth living, and for the incredible creativity, beauty, and wonder that make our cities, in spite of all of their problems, the greatest invention of our time.
Na nama je da odlučimo želimo li škole ili parkirališta, projekte recikliranja u zajednici ili gradilišta, samoću ili solidarnost, aute ili buseve, i naša je odgovornost to učiniti sada, za sebe, za naše obitelji, za ljude koji čine naše živote vrijednima življenja, i za nevjerojatnu kreativnost, ljepotu, i čuda koja čine naše gradove unatoč svim njihovim problemima, najveće izume našeg vremena.
Obrigado. Thank you.
Obrigado. Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)