挪威王子哈康：尊嚴將世界青年團結在一起

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon is the co-founder of Global Dignity and a U.N. goodwill ambassador， focused on promoting millennium developmental goals. He is the heir to the Norwegian throne. The opinions in this piece are solely his.

Davos is a stimulating place to be， to discuss and to learn. Hopefully， by coming together， we will find ideas and solutions that will bring the world forward.

Youth today live in an extreme world regarding diversity， conflict， opportunities and technical means of connecting with others. The global networks of youth are far ahead what established leaders of today had when they were young.

Since 2006 I have been visiting schools and talking to students all around the world together with my fellow Young Global Leaders John Hope Bryant and Pekka Himanen.

We have arranged so called Dignity Days -- which is the main activity of our organization Global Dignity. We have three goals: To spur a global conversation on dignity， to arrange Global Dignity Days at schools and promote dignity-based leadership.

This year， Dignity Day will be held for more than half of the Norwegian first year high school pupils -- and in around 50 countries world wide.

What strikes me during my very diverse meetings with youth around the world is how similarly they define dignity -- and how relevant it feels for most young people to discuss this issue as a core value of our time.

These are some of the dignity stories we have been told:

In Jordan， a girl stood up and told how annoyed she had been when she got a visually impaired teacher.

The girl was very ambitious， and thought she would get less quality training because of the teacher's disability.

When the teacher later became the first visually impaired person in Jordan to earn her PhD， the student completely shifted her perspective. She realized that she was proud that this had been her teacher and that she had learned something more important from her than from any of her other teachers.

In South Africa a girl told how， during the riots in 2009， her grandmother covered and hid some of the immigrants in her home， who were targets of the riots.

In Norway， a Muslim student told how her friend had started to walk to and from school together with a Jewish boy who was being bullied -- to support and protect him.

I particularly like this third story. It shows the genius of youth in beautiful simplicity. It hits the core of what the world's leaders have been struggling so hard over so many years to achieve. I believe youth is an important target group for positive change -- indeed the real driver of positive change.

Youth find it incredibly easy to grasp the idea of dignity -- and even better: how it can be operationalized into practical action. They are truly Champions of Global Dignity.

So what do we need to do to create positive change?

It is not enough to merely accept the inherent dignity of all human beings. Our actions must reflect the dignity of others. In my view dignity consists of two main parts: Firstly， inherent dignity and secondly， perceived dignity -- a sort of dignity capital. We all have the ability to increase other people's dignity capital -- and thus increase our own.

This is about doing all we can to become our best selves -- by making conscious decisions -- and making the best out of our resources. Take action， see potential， and give unemployed youth the opportunity to use their resources as a response to this both current and emerging challenge.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/22/business/davos-crown-prince-haakon-dignity-unites-worlds-youth/index.html?iref=allsearch

隨著青年失業情況不斷加劇，我們目前面臨最大的危險是有可能失去一代人的人力資源。世界銀行數據顯示，2013年73%的年齡在15-24歲之間的勞動力沒有工作，處于待業狀態。我相信當今的年輕人是非常有競爭力的人群，他們擁有知識和經歷，可以在很多領域擔任帶頭作用。從2006年開始，我開始走訪學校，與世界各地的年輕人交談。我們安排了“尊嚴日”活動，鼓勵青年人分享他們的故事與經歷。“尊嚴”概念或許很難把握，但它可以轉換成實際的行動。所以，我們要接受所有人類都擁有與生俱來的尊嚴的觀念，在行動中尊重他人的尊嚴。這關乎我們成為更好的自己，也關乎我們更好利用所有的資源。