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Kien Bui

Executive Director, The Thai Binh Foundation

TEDCRED 500+
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If you were granted one wish of one gift to the world, what would it be?

Suppose you were handed an ancient lamp by an archaeologist friend of yours who recently retrieved it from an excavation. This lamp resembles those of the story books, but on its side you find inscribed the following unusual message:

"The bearer of this lamp is entitled to give one gift to the world.
Rub the lamps' side to summon the genie who will fulfill your wish."

What would your gift to the world be?

Consider it as broadly as you can. your gift can be something you offer your family, community, or humanity in general. Do not concern with feasibility or the challenges of implementation.

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Topics: contributions responsibility
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  • cheryl brockington

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    Dec 19 2011: that EVERYONE stop and dance and smile with or without someone, for just one full day...
    what would the next day be like?

  • Stephen Cordova

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    Dec 19 2011: An unlimited alternative to oil.

  • Cynthia Guy

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    Dec 10 2011: Health! When mankind has Health, he has the greatest gift one can have - it encompasses Health of body, mind and sprint!
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    moses meccah

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    Dec 6 2011: The great wisdom traditions emerged at a time when life was radically different than it is today. The world has changed immeasurably in the past two thousand years. And human beings have changed along with it.

    We are a new humanity facing a new set of challenges—and a new set of opportunities.

    How can we liberate the spiritual impulse from the outmoded structures of the past, so it can guide us in creating the future?

  • Sandra Bray

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    Dec 6 2011: Two wishes for humanity: a variety of non-violent means of resolving our differences and a smaller global population. How do I choose only one of these? Maybe wisdom is the source for both? Wisdom; I choose wisdom for my one wish.

  • Karen Lashure

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    Dec 3 2011: To end all suffering forever.

  • Comment deleted

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      moses meccah

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      Dec 6 2011: oh that is a good point, well this are my own conversation
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    Don Wesley 50+

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    Dec 3 2011: Eliminate man-made injustice is my answer.

    "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,
    but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
    Albert Einstein
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    moses meccah

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    Dec 3 2011: Oh thanks a lot for that, well which country do you come from, i hope all will be well in getting in contacts with you
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    Seth Lefferts

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    Dec 2 2011: To render all weapons useless. Think of what we would stop concentrating our energy on and what we could turn our attention to if weapons didn't work. Raising our consciousness level and spirituality, free energy, world health, community. Only good could come out of this.
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    moses meccah

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    Dec 1 2011: Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

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        moses meccah

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        Dec 6 2011: The great wisdom traditions emerged at a time when life was radically different than it is today. The world has changed immeasurably in the past two thousand years. And human beings have changed along with it.

        We are a new humanity facing a new set of challenges—and a new set of opportunities.

        How can we liberate the spiritual impulse from the outmoded structures of the past, so it can guide us in creating the future?
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    Thomas Jones 100+

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    Dec 1 2011: Nothing.

    Some things we need to figure out on our own.
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    yin ke

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    Dec 1 2011: By the way,I like dancing,I think it's a good way to communicate with the musician and the nature because dancing,in my opinion is the talent we got at the very beginning of our life.
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    yin ke

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    Dec 1 2011: I'd like to have endless love no matter the love is towards me or others,it's ok. What I really want is that we can live in a world with more love.we all can try more love and can find a warmer way to live our lives. Actually, more often,we maybe a little indifferent to the world because we are a little selfish and afraid.But now,it is time to make a change to give us a better world to live.

  • Joy Schuurmans Stekhoven

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    Nov 24 2011: My wish would be that everybody would have true compassion with others and then help those in need.
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    Nagendra Sai Harsha Velagapudi

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    Nov 21 2011: life

  • tishe Hires 10+

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    Nov 21 2011: No Miss Debra, you do not understand. Thank you for the thumb up. ( I messed up on the forum) Apologies to all. Hug back to you.
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    Joel Vincent

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    Nov 21 2011: i guess having the world become a utopia is the ideal outcome. But that seems like an easy answer, and to be honest i'm not totally sure if that would be a such a great gift. so what I would wish for is a world where lying DOES NOT exist, there is no word for it, no one knows what it is, how to do it or why they would do it.
    a world without lying, hmmmm
    Would you want a world without lying?
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    Gisela McKay 30+

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    Nov 20 2011: The ability to be content with what they have and/or pursue what truly makes them happy, as opposed to what they are told will make them happy.

    The need to compare what we have to others makes it such that a segment of the populace is not content with having achieved a certain level, but only in that others do not have it. Those who have large sums of cash and actually need to know that others are struggling is only the most obvious manifestation of the phenomenon, but our inverted understanding of "power" is much more corrosive than that.
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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Nov 20 2011: Some of the answers below are wonderful and so they forced me to really think about what gift I would want for humanity.

    My wish for humanity would be that we could experience the pain -physical and emotional- that we give to others- in our own bodies. So that surgeons and doctors could do their healing work, the reciprocal experience of pain would be short curcuited by the genuine desire to heal the other person.

    I think this gift would make us far more likely to survive as a species. Many of us lack genuine empathy and it is causing such misery on our planet. No one would shoot another person or drop a bomb if they had to feel the pain it causes. Rudeness and unkindness would fall off immediately if you had to face how it felt to the other. If the guys who profited by driving food prices up had to feel the hunger of those kids whose parents had no money left at the end of the month, that profit might not be quite as important to them.

  • Ed Schulte 50+

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    Nov 20 2011: Wisdom

  • tishe Hires 10+

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    Nov 20 2011: Hi and here is my wish.
    Shoot child abuser's in their gender parts! (women first, then THE men)
    It is a community, it is humanity, it is a challenge.
    No human, will touch this? (why?)
    I like your OP! (with respect!!)
    My wish, is to teach humans, how it feels to be hurt as a child. ( fricken stupid humans!) :(
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      Debra Smith 200+

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      Nov 20 2011: Humungous hug to you sweet Tishe!

      • tishe Hires 10+

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        Nov 21 2011: Hey and Hi!
        Thank you. Hugs back! (big ones!)

  • Cara Salvatore

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    Nov 19 2011: Peace
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    Scott Armstrong 50+

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    Nov 19 2011: Peace of Mind.

  • Robert Galway 20+

    • +1
    Nov 19 2011: Peace.
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