 This thing on it is so Good morning afternoon, whatever it might be right now everybody and thank you for being here This is not at all what I expected when I was told that I would be coming down speaking under a tree I imagined a bunch of punk rockers sitting under a tree not punk rock You know like-minded people by the hundreds sitting comfortably under this awesome tree and this is an incredible Atmosphere and I'm in awe of what Shane's completed here and what he's doing what we're all putting together But you know when I was thinking about maps, I was thinking about my perception of maps Because I don't usually speak about maps. I'm out usually speaking about Haiti and Shane sort of threw me a curveball You know the theme is maps, okay Well, I have nothing to say about maps at all I thought and I started thinking what do maps mean to me and what's my relationship to maps and I realized That I put a lot of faith in maps I have an iPhone many of us do when I need to go somewhere I put in the destination and the iPhone tells me Where the destination is and how to get there and I put a lot of faith in that map And I've done that all the time even pre iPhone back in the early days of humanity when we used to use paper maps I would look at a map see a destination and assume that destination is where it is and I'm gonna go to it I put a lot of faith in maps, but the thing is is that using a map Instantly implies that the destination is real and that it exists and that's an illusion that I carry with me And it's oftentimes almost led me astray Case in point. I used to do a lot of support work for the Western Shoshone nation in central Nevada in a landright struggle They have going on with the United States government and some huge multinational mining corporations So I used to go down to Nevada all the time if I told you today to meet me at the Western Shoshone base camp in Crescent Valley, Nevada I would tell you take 80 east across Nevada take exit 261 Head south through Biowawi once you're through Biowawi get to Crescent Valley Take a left head out into the desert go around the corner go straight more out in the desert about 10 miles You're gonna get to a base camp and that's where some elderly Shoshone sisters live We're basically battling the United States government for their lives and their birthright in terms of their land. Okay Sounds like a map look it up on your iPhone try to get to Crescent Valley base camp I did it about 10 minutes ago and what it tells you is that you take that exit you go down to Crescent Valley and Then there's nothing there's no left to take to head towards the mountains and in fact out in the desert There's not only no base camp, but there's no Shoshone people and the ghost of Steve Jobs would tell us that they actually don't exist at all There's nothing there. There's no destination the map says nothing is there Ask a Shoshone person what the map looks like and they'll tell you will you get to this town Crescent Valley that was developed as a scam To scam people from California to move out to the desert and spend their money in the desert right on this You know lavish town, which is actually just like this crappy trailer town, right and what happens is you then go out into the Desert past where the Yamba grows Yamba is about a thumb-sized little tuber that the Shoshone lived on since time immemorial After you go past where the Yamba grows you go around the corner where the hot water is the hot water That kept us alive during times when we needed spiritual healing and even just bathing go around that corner and then out in the distance There's pinion trees and the pinion nuts kept us alive when nothing else would grow And then you get closer to those mountains near where this base camp is and you'll find the graves of our ancestors which carry Carry on our spiritual tradition. It's a different map Looks totally different, but if I put faith strictly in the map that I believe in I'd be taking lefts that things called exit 261 and driving through towns named by people who had no association whatsoever to that community, right? So I put a lot of faith in maps inadvertently and maybe I shouldn't So I want to tell you a little bit about the work that I've done in Haiti And if at the end of this talk the message you take away is the work that I've done in Haiti Then I have failed as a speaker. It's not about the work. I've done in Haiti. It's about rethinking our maps It's about rethinking goals. It's about thinking about what we're doing and why from new perspectives all the time and listening to people The great irony is one microphone 100 pairs of ears, and I'm speaking disregard that irony or at least take it into your consideration as you listen to me So after the earthquake in Haiti a couple years ago I was sitting in Seattle literally like when I say after the earthquake. I mean within minutes I was sitting in Seattle with a guy who works with me as an assistant, you know sort of partner as it was and We were watching Haiti happen on the news. I'd been in Haiti about six months before that filming a documentary I had some very close friends in Haiti. I saw it was going on the news and I thought holy crap This is out of control. We got to get we got to do something. We have to do something. There's the goal There's the destination Haiti. We have to do something now for these people. We were all thinking some along the same lines so I Started making some phone calls and to make a long story short. I ended up on private relief boat about a week and a half later sailing out of Miami and there was about 10 of us all Punk rockers and can you hear okay in the back? Should I maybe do this? Is this better? I mean, you know, it's a little too loud. Well, I can I can meter that with this manual manual volume control But um, why don't I just do that? You know, we're kind of we're kind of fighting the police Yeah, they know about us right it's like it's like, you know gosh You know, it's like such a crime right to help people in Haiti. It's you know pieces bad for business. So anyway, so um The point is is that uh, I was on a private relief boat to Haiti Okay, there's about 10 of us. We sailed out of Miami all volunteers on a boat the size of from here to the fence in the back and We were the first private relief boat to hit the southern coast of Haiti we brought about 10 12,000 pounds of medical supplies and food and Sailed for eight days and eight nights only a couple of them meaning a couple of us having had sailing experience And the rest of us, I don't know how many of you have sailed I don't know how many of you have been on a boat having no sailing experience I don't know how many of you have been on a boat with no sailing experience and waves that were sometimes 15 or 20 feet high at night It sucks But the point is is that we got there and we actually got there first because we were in action right away down to Jock mel the southern coast of Haiti. Okay That story and the details of it save it for another time point is the small boat the Liberty schooner Arrives in jock mel on the southern coast of Haiti and as we pull up to the dock in Haiti There's people waiting for us because they've heard you know that we're gonna we're gonna get there And this guy is standing there like as far away as you are and what's your name? Devin as far away as Devin is right and as the boat literally comes up the dock this guy who's standing there Haitian guy says to me and my friends welcome to Haiti. We see you as if God has arrived Okay, life-changing moment right big stuff. Okay, you know, I mean, I'm a human right? I'm like us, you know I'm not God right but to this guy 10,000 pounds of food and water medical supplies 12,000 pounds God had arrived. This is major right? I start thinking holy crap. What can be done? So the boat sails back to the United States because I had friends in Haiti I needed to see what was going on with them. I stayed on the ground in Haiti for a few days and Sawed out my friends made sure they were alive made sure they were okay Saw what was going on met a doctor that I know in Port-au-Prince and I said to him listen I'm gonna I'm gonna help you and you need to keep in mind This is I'm literally like this is moment in Indiana Jones where Indiana Jones says, you know You go back to wherever I'm gonna follow that truck with the Ark in it and you know Marion says to him You know, you know, how are you gonna do that? He's like, I don't know I'm making this up as I go along Okay, that that like as a young Greg that line changed my life because I'm not appearing before you today as this experienced Humanitarian who sails to Haiti on his yacht like Richard Branson kind of you know, like I literally making this up as I go along in Port-au-Prince Check in with the doctor and I said to him I'm gonna go back to the States. I'm gonna help you I'm gonna send you some money regularly Roadmap destination in the distance that guy needs money right needs money and help and I decided because he was giving away medical supplies and medicine for free to people who needed it in Port-au-Prince that I Should support him great idea came back to the United States I was actually sitting here in Los Angeles and my friends Kitch I did as kitchen table and decided a little louder. Okay. I know thank you So decide that what I was gonna do is form something called 100 for Haiti And what I was gonna do is just seek out 100 donors to donate a thousand dollars each Put together a hundred grand and send it down to Port-au-Prince to this doctor and his medical clinic And you have to keep in mind medical clinic in Haiti looks very different than medical clinic here in Los Angeles We're talking like cinderblock construction cracks in the walls sometimes electricity never any plumbing that sort of thing So a great idea perfect concept easy to get 100 individuals corporations or sponsors to donate a thousand bucks each And all the while I'm thinking to myself. There's something missing there like the map was before me, right? I know that delivering food and supplies to Haiti is a good idea I know that this guy needs help the map is before me and Somehow in the back of my mind I was thinking something's got to be different. Okay At the same time the people who are on the Liberty schooner got back they said we should do another mission again Destination in mind Haitians need supplies. They put together a bigger boat more supplies I got involved put together like 30,000 pounds of rice another 20,000 pounds of medical supplies It was ridiculous We had truck shipping stuff from all over the south to Miami loaded it on a much bigger boat sailed that boat to Haiti This trip rather than taking six days took about two months because the boat broke down And there was weather problems and blah blah blah blah, but all that stuff got to Haiti when it got to Haiti and again Long story short the fight with Haitian customs to get this aid into Haiti was so insane It would take two hours of your time to explain how it happened and how we got about getting the stuff into Haiti But the point is after all the stuff got in and I came back to the States again I'm thinking Something's wrong with the map something's wrong with the way that I'm following the map I keep putting together like missions and supplies and starting to be about the numbers Oh, we did 10,000 pounds of supplies the first time 30,000 pounds is better next time We do 50,000 pounds and already the captain of the boat is saying we need a bigger boat Okay, so what happens next 100,000 pounds do we start bringing trucks down to Haiti? Do we bring them a subway sandwich shop and just put it right in the center of Port-au-Prince and say you're saved What happens next bigger bigger bigger? wrong map month later I was in Haiti and I was walking through The tent cities and I started to really listen to people rather than think from the perspective of I'm from America I'm here to help which is like the worst thing you could say to somebody basically anywhere in the world at this point I Started listening to people and over subsequent trips to Haiti I listened more and more and about a year ago and I should you know sidebar Yes, 100 as Shane said 100 for Haiti formed, you know along the way and started to you know Just me and my rag tag group of about five of us, you know started to form this organization Start to really listen to people and about a year ago We were in Port-au-Prince We were about to walk through a tent city and we really wanted to see inside these tents because people have been living since the Earthquake still today as we speak as we sit here right now in tents like this that were given to them you know Second second week of January 2010 and they're still living in them and they have begun to literally Deteriorate from the Sun and it's not just you know stalwart young people I mean the elderly and children are living in in the most unspeakable conditions all over Port-au-Prince so Walking through hate walking through one of these tent cities a guy comes up. He says hey, amen I can give you a tour, you know, let me give you a tour right and all over Haiti everybody's got an angle I mean, you know the tour is gonna you know lead to whatever and you start to become numb to it You have to kind of shut it off just a little bit because you don't have the resources and money to help every single person with An angle, but there's something about this guy And I'm just listening to him and he says let me give you this tour. It's like okay. Let's do this So we start walking through the tent city and he's not just like here's a tent. There's a tent. There's a tent He is like step inside this tent I want you to see and take home to the people back home what we've been living in right and We walk we're inside these tents and he's showing us where you know This guy almost died. He's barely alive and yep Verifiable that guy is almost about to die and then there's some kids like literally sitting in piles of human waste And they're you know super bummed and just like on and on and on and on and on right point is we're walking through this tent city and a little girl comes up and She's begging and she's begging in Not not in English, but she's begging just out of you know in total desperation right and She she puts out her hand and she starts asking asking questions of me and I speak some French Right, so I'm kind of gathering that she wants money and she's hungry. She's about six maybe five and This guy takes me aside and he's like she's gonna take your money I'm like that I know he's like but what she's gonna do with it She's gonna spend as little as she can on food and the rest she's gonna use To rent a bike from this guy who has this broken bike on the other side of the tent city She's gonna ride her bike around this tent city three times. That's what she gets for her whatever it was five good It's like a matter of sense And it's like I walk back over to her and I and I asked her some questions about some of the other details He had told me and I asked her I asked her in French because he was speaking in English So I'm thinking okay I'm gonna hit her up now in French because this was in English and I asked her in French I said where do you live and she pointed and corroborated his story and I said what are you doing? She says I'm asking for money. I said, what are you gonna do with the money? And she says I'm gonna eat. I'm gonna eat. I'm gonna say and I said what are you really gonna do with the money? And she didn't know what to say and I said, what are you really gonna do with the money? She said I'm gonna ride a bike. I'm like, huh Okay, so now we're now now we're on a different map now the map is totally different now It's not just about food anymore What do you do when there's a country of people who yes are hungry and yes need help? But at their core what they really want to do is just be a little girl and ride a bike Restructuring like a deck of cards restructuring in my brain right so I turned to this guy And I'm like this is for real and he's like yeah, this is for real. He's like, don't you see I don't want money He says I want a way to make money. I want a way to survive I want to be able to chart my own course basically is what he was saying So now all of a sudden I'm rethinking the map entirely I get back to Seattle and I started walking around We call it the office. I don't know if any of you have been to Seattle But there's a burrito place called El Chupacabra. There's a lake called Green Lake. Do you know it? You know Chupacabra? Yeah rules. Okay. Yeah, there you go So so 100 for Haiti's office is Green Lake We go for the three mile walk around Green Lake and then we go to Chupacabra. That's the office We sit and we eat burritos and just okay, so we went to the office and we had a talk and the talk was what are we doing? Like send a bigger boat is that is that what's needed and feed directly into Haitian bureaucracy the idea that here comes more Supplies here comes more food here comes blah blah blah Or do we listen to the people and what they're saying about the roadmap that they have written for themselves? Which is that at their core at their humanity? They need the basics. They want to ride a bike They want to be self-sustaining and self-driving They don't want 10,000 pounds of food and supplies dropped in their lap see you later And I go home and I tell everybody I rule I sent this money to Haiti. I sent this bullshit It's totally fiction. It's a fiction that I wrote in my head like a roadmap that I wrote while blind Okay, so what are we doing? So we came up with an idea and the idea was for the self-sustaining project We called it modal logistics and the way modal logistics works is what 100 for Haiti decided to do and I will say we've continued to send money to that doctor in Port-au-Prince to his clinic and He's incredibly thankful and the clinic is thriving and you know There's video on the 100 for Haiti site of medicine and people who's you know been helped and whatnot And you know Haiti definitely needs food supplies and money. That's that's for sure But our focus shifted modal logistics works like this We've targeted and identified clinics and orphanages around Haiti with whom we want to work And we are loaning them money. We're loaning them money so that they can buy motorcycles and ATVs Almost 80% it said of the Haitian population gets around by using motorcycles Moto-taxies they're called so if you want to get from here to Orange County, you get up Well, that's a long way for you know on a back of motorcycle Whatever you hop on the back of a dirt bike and you negotiate something with the driver The driver drives you you pay that driver the driver's got a job and life goes on and you've gotten your ride What we decided to do as we decided to give You know through a no-interest loan Money to targeted orphanages take for example cayangela. It's an orphanage in Jockmel Haiti They serve children who have or who have been affected by HIV and AIDS There's a woman there from Amsterdam who's lived in Haiti for 15 years All she does day in day out is try to figure out how to get resources together to pay for the diapers soap and lives of these kids who either have HIV or AIDS okay, and Take cayangela for example We're gonna loan them money and they're gonna buy motorcycle with it And what they do with that motorcycle is they use it by day to transport patients and supplies They use it by night as a Moto taxi service They find somebody in the community who needs a job That's just about everybody and they negotiate on terms with the driver for what the driver needs for his or her Services and I will say most of the time it's his services because women by and large don't drive motor taxes in Haiti But so if I say his it's not being sexist. That's just the deal So what it needs for his services and once they reach a point where the hours that he's trading of his life for money Are worth what he's being paid they work out a deal So basically no interest loan goes to cat cayangela clinic Cayangela orphanage and they use this motorcycle by day and then at night by taxi service that driver drives that motorcycle Raises money all night long driving this taxi around and what he does is he takes a percentage That's his salary. He's got a job Cayangela takes a percentage for repairs Cayangela takes a percentage for themselves to be able to sustain the clinic and a very very small percentage five sometimes 10% goes back to repay the loan to 100 for Haiti and we sign an agreement with them that they will Pay back the loan over between four and six years and what happens is we've rewritten the map No longer is I stand here. You need help. I raise money. I give you money You spend money We've just taken a very valuable human resource Which is people's time and their passion and their devotion and essentially we've squandered it because once that money is spent It's gone forever and what we've done is we've rewritten the map Now what we've got going on is a situation where we get to reuse that money money's worthless It's a fetish object. What we can do with it is astounding So when we give money to that that orphanage and they buy that motorcycle somebody's got a job in time Cayangela pays off that motorcycle and they own it outright and what 100 for Haiti has is the principal back on an No-interest loan basis and we're willing to lose whatever percentage we'd make profit on the loan or interest on the loan That's for crazy people. We just want to have people have jobs and be able to define their own future in Haiti So if somebody wants a job in Haiti now they can get one, right? And if they if Cayangela needs the resource of a motorcycle full-time, it's theirs and no outlay of cash for them So in time we get to reuse the money that's coming in through donations. Okay Reason this is cool is not only because it's a great idea But also because it's working yesterday when I landed here in Los Angeles I went straight to the bank and I sent down a Basically all the money in 100 for Haiti account to a partner in Haiti We are providing motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles for the first ever all Haitian EMT training program That's being done in Haiti being done the Brazilian government in conjunction with the Canadian government in conjunction with a group of Called global dirt. They've been on the ground since the earthquake. We're providing with the same deal Motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles for the first all Haitian EMT program in Haiti It's the same deal the chunk of money that we sent down in time comes back to us We get to use it elsewhere to other clinics, you know, and they get these motorcycles They get Haitians like get to be empowered. They get to be their own care providers They get to be their own Roadmap writers if you will you know because everybody in the world flew down to Haiti to help them And I you know people were listening and there's amazing groups on the ground in Haiti But the question becomes, you know, are we listening well enough? Are we really serving the people? You know is the roadmap we're following one that we've written, you know, take a right at exit 261 through Biowawi into the desert Or is it one written by the people, you know, that talks more about the burial sites of ancestors for the Shoshone like you talked about before So that's um, I have notes here that I wanted to follow but is that making sense so far? Okay, cool. All right. Good. Good. I'm glad So, uh, and I don't know. Oh, you know what how am I doing time like I'm out good That's perfect because I've got one more thing to say. Okay, so, um, you're all smart people obviously That's like a given and that's not just me like, you know, just like, you know, saying a nice thing So you smile at me, you know You're obviously smart people. So I'm Shakespearean people amongst you. Anybody know Shakespeare? Okay three So you're not so smart after all anyway But uh, okay, so in Hamlet right Hamlet, there's a scene in Hamlet for those in fact Maybe I should take a step back Shakespeare was this playwright. He's dead now. Okay There's a scene in Hamlet right where there's a play going on and Instructions are given to the actors in the play and the instructions given to the actors in the play are suit the action to the word And the word to the action a little bit earlier The instruction is uh, you know nor saw the air too much with your hand. Thus I'll translate that into English for you, right suit the action to the word and the word to the action When you're an actor and the line is, you know, um, you know to be or not to be that is the question, right? Everybody in the world first time out acting, you know to be or not to be that is the question Right is this dramatic thing. How many of amongst us have ever thought about killing themselves? You don't have to raise your hand It's okay. I'll raise mine. You know in those moments where you've thought to yourself I'm an idiot. My life is over. I'm gonna kill myself and you're asking yourself to be meaning to live or not to be to die That's the question. You don't lay there in your bed at night, right with the 45 next to your head going to be or not to be You know, you're like literally like laying there just like in your head if you even vocalize. It's astounding, right? So suit the action to the word the word to the action Don't make the words you say and the actions that go along with those words be incongruous Make them line up, you know nor saw the air too much with your hand Thus to be or not to be that is the question, you know Don't make these dramatic gestures with your hand when what you're really talking about maybe is is a close matter of the heart That's the point of all this if you read a map From the perspective that's in your mind You're gonna end up possibly not always but possibly not suiting the proper action to the proper word The proper goal might have a path on it That's not the best one when you start to listen to people you start to rewrite a map and instead of sawing the air with your hand Us and making dramatic statements of look what we can do in Haiti I started off by telling you if you leave here by saying, oh, yeah, he did this cool stuff in Haiti You've missed the point. It's not about the size of the boat, right? You know, it's how you sail it. So the point is is that you know and why you sail it more importantly, okay? So the thing is is that if you saw the air and make these dramatic statements with your hand You're gonna miss the point that while you're doing this and making a show of yourself You're not listening and again the great irony is that there's one microphone one voice for the last 30 minutes You've been very generous with one of the most valuable resources you have in your life Which is your time and with all that said if we get a chance and I hope we do over the course of the day I'd love to hear what you have to say as well. Thank you Thank you