THE annual Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference brings together the world’s most eminent thinkers and doers. Each year, three exceptional individuals are given RM100,000 and the granting of “One Wish To Change The World”.

British author Karen Armstrong, who won the award in 2008, wanted help in creating, launching and propagating the Charter For Compassion. It is an effort to put forth compassion as a core value at the centre of religious, moral and political life. The aim is to build a global community where everyone can live in peace, guided by the principle of compassion.

Late last year, the world was invited to send in their contributions to the charter. More than 150,000 people from over 180 countries responded, and their input were drafted into the charter by the Council of Conscience, a multi-faith, multi-national group of religious thinkers and leaders.

Today, the Charter For Compassion will be unveiled.

R.AGE took to the streets and asked our young people what compassion means to them.

For more information, visit http://charterforcompassion.org. To see what other youths have to say about compassion, log on to rage.com.my and watch the video.

Vincent

“Compassion is when one shows that he cares about someone and when one understands how people feel by actually putting oneself into others’ shoes. When an elderly person enters a bus, I would offer my seat to him but it is rare to see such acts these days.” — Vincent, 19

Alvin Teh

“Compassion is like affection or love. Nowadays, even though there seems to be less compassion going around, I still experience it in my life everyday. When I injured my finger the other day, my family and friends came and helped me.” — Alvin Teh, 19

Seow Jun Lin

“To me, compassion is helping some person on the street. It is like civil consciousness and love. When my car broke down the other day, some people actually stopped by and helped me fix the tyre.”’ —Seow Jun Lin, 19

“Compassion is a feeling of empathy and sympathy towards anything at all in the world. I think there is a fair percentage of people who are compassionate, and those who are not. For example, I know of a former restaurant manager who established an NGO to help reduce poverty in his area by hiring locals in his office, and financially helped the children there.” — Puteri Nur Asyiqin, 18

Puteri Nur Asyiqin

“Compassion is when you show kindness and love towards other people. You don’t hear so much about it but on the other hand, we see crime and terrorism on the rise in the news every day.” – Adri Khalis Abdul Karim, 18

Mariam Ghani and Adri Khalis

“Compassion is the act of showing empathy towards someone in a worse situation than I am. In some ways, I do feel that the world is less compassionate these days but there are a few organisations out there like Amnesty International who are looking out for those in need. I do carry out acts of compassion from time to time. Last week, my class did a sociology project where we went to an Orang Asli village and helped them out. It was quite a moving experience for me.” — Siti Mariam Ramli Ghani, 18

Ter Yi Wen and Chia Hsia Chen

“To us, compassion is love and care towards family and friends. We would say that compassion is not lost in this world because it can be expressed in different ways. But even so, people only show compassion towards family and those close to them.” — Ter Yi Wen and Chia Hsia Chen, both 18