My warmest congratulations to you for earning the privilege of being here today.

Transcription

1 United Kingdom Day of Celebration and Achievement Windsor Castle St. George s Chapel, London, 22 April 2018 Your Royal Highness Ladies and gentlemen, And to all of the distinguished Queen s Scouts, My warmest congratulations to you for earning the privilege of being here today. As scout from Jordan and now the Secretary-General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. I am deeply honoured to stand before you. There is no place feels like home for us than the United Kingdom where scouting was born over a century ago. The UK gave the world Lord Baden Powell. And BP gave the scout movement to the world. What started at Brownsea Island is now, incredibly, has spread to over 200 countries. 500 million people alive today were once active scouts. Among them many leaders and trailblazers like Obama, David Beckham, Paul McCartney, Richard Branson, and many more in government, diplomacy, the arts and culture, sports, science and more. And 50 million young people are active in scouting right now. And among them, you are getting one of the highest recognitions. So no pressure! Someday, you too, will be ministers, diplomats, cinematographers or professional athletes. You might discover the cure to a disease or develop a technology to help end human suffering. You have many different interests but you are united by one set of values. You are well equipped as global citizens. Today I praise you for the honour you have earned. But more than that, I stress the responsibility it carries with it. The responsibility to yourself and your conscience; to your friends and your community; the responsibility to our world. Queen s Scouts,

2 Windsor Castle is one of the most famous places on earth. And St. George s Chapel is one of the most beautiful in the world. Standing here, I sense how far I personally have come thanks to the inspiration I received as a scout. I must confess, when I first came to the United Kingdom almost 15 years ago, I did not speak any English. People were kind. They gave me directions. There was one small problem though. I had no idea what they meant when they told me to take the Tube. I thought: Tube? Isn t that for toothpaste? If you saw me growing up in my hometown Zarqa, in Jordan, you would not expect that someday I would have the chance to be here. Scouting and volunteering made all the difference for me. My journey shows the transformative power of this movement. Many of you know the story of how Baden Powell met King Edwards in This was the start of the King Scouts. As Queen Scouts today, you inherit this rich tradition. Reflecting on that story, nearly a century later, all the way over in Jordan, a different King, His Majesty King Hussein, came to visit our city, Zarqa. That s when I had the chance to march with hundreds of scouts and see the King in person. He was more than a wise and beloved leader. He was a role model. He was my hero. The fact that he was among us, with no tight security, showed how much trust and closeness King Hussein had with the people. I was inspired by his words that day: My task is to lead my country through service. Serving others is the greatest honour one can ask for. From that moment on, I wanted to serve my country and the world. Let me share with you a story how I started volunteering. Growing up, back in the old days, everyone read newspapers. My father would read his paper each day. As a child, I asked What is this? He explained that, This is what happened in the world just yesterday. It was well before everyone got news alerts on their phone!

3 I was amazed, looking at all those pages, to think that so much could happen just in a single day. And I asked my family a very naïve, childish question. I wanted to know, Where are we? Where is our activities in this newspaper? My family laughed. And they explained that to be in the paper, you have to do something important hopefully, something useful to others. That was the spark moment for me. So Queen s Scouts, let me ask you. Do we consume the news or do we shape it ourselves? Do we watch events go by or do we drive the development of history? As Queen s Scouts, there is only one answer: to make a difference in our world. You have earned this respect-worthy award. That is the first step. And while I congratulate you all, I urge you take the next step. Do even more with your life than you ever could have imagined in service to others. You have this award because you have learned so much. Now it is time to apply what you have learned for the sake of our world. *** We live in difficult times. There are so many divisions. People are divided by race, by religion, by culture, by gender. We have to transcend these differences. And we learn how as scouts. The Scout Association has demonstrated how can scouting can be open for all. For me there is no more beautiful reminder of how we celebrate diversity and unity than a Jamboree. Scouts gather from all over the world, from all backgrounds. We can see the different uniforms and scarfs but each has the same purple scout emblem. Soon, the differences melt away. We build a city in two weeks. And when we leave, the environment is better than when we arrived. It is cleaner and healthier but more than that, there is an air of hope. Hope from seeing young people championing the values that make us human. Values

4 that our world needs today. What other movement in history has lasted this long more than a century and has spread this far, inspiring this many millions of young people? In the world, some youth movements develop physical skills, or intellectual abilities, or emotional intelligence but in scouting you develop all these and more, under one tent and while you are having fun. And by the way, there is no experience that gives better pictures for Instagram than a scout camp! Scouting is so cool in fact we need more space! Just here in the UK, there are 50,000 young people on a waiting list hoping to join. And around the world we aim to reach 100 million scouts by 2023! So let me appeal to the older folks please volunteer so we can set up new troops. Give back to the next generation what you got from your troop leaders. When you do this, you will gain even more than they do. *** As Queen s Scouts today you are exceptionally equipped with skills for life and for advancing the future not just for yourselves or your families but for everyone in society. I know that some of you wonder how this will help me to build a career. In my travels to over 80 countries I met with thousands of young people. Some ask for advice about how to build a career. They go on to polish their CVs. They add line after line but they may risk missing the whole story. It is not about trying to attract shiny prestige or project impressive credentials. It is about living true to your values, true to yourself, and not to go after shallow gains. Remember, what is better than writing a good CV is writing a good story! After my experience as a young scout in Zarqa, I began to volunteer. I quickly learned that giving your time for others is more satisfying than seeking rewards for yourself. This inspiration took me on adventures from youth camps, to the United Nations where I was the Secretary-General s Youth Envoy, to becoming the youngest Secretary-General of our Movement. All of you have the values and passion you need to meet the challenges in our world today. We are constantly bombarded with the depressing realities of our world. It rains down on us like a storm.

5 But I prefer to think of the lyrics of a song that we all love to sing around camp fire. A song about singing itself. Let the stormy clouds chase. Everyone from the place Come on with the rain I've a smile on my face I walk down the lane With a happy refrain Just singin' Singin' in the rain There are not many sunny days in London but this beautiful city lights the imagination of the whole world. From this glorious Windsor Castle, from this venerable St. George s Chapel, together with all of you hundreds of Queen s Scouts let us open a new future of peace and happiness. Let us keep singing and scouting. The world needs our energy. Thank you.