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'You should listen more than you speak,' says Obama on building consensus

He speaks to young people at a town hall in Delhi on Friday

December 01, 2017 03:49 pm | Updated 07:11 pm IST

 A file photo of former U.S. President Barack Obama.

A file photo of former U.S. President Barack Obama.

As part of the non-profit organisation that carries his name, former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to young people at a town hall in Delhi on Friday.

Around 300 young people from various parts of the country are participating in this meeting.

Latest updates:

5.20 p.m.

An audience member asks about the challenges that the job market will face when automation begins to play a bigger role.

"Teachers have the most important jobs. I am also a big supporter of unions," he says.

5.10 p.m.

Mr. Obama speaks about channeling capital into areas of need.

4.50 p.m.

"How do you build consensus?" asks a person from the audience.

"The first thing you do is to listen more than you speak," says Mr. Obama. "You can't be a purist if you want to make change."

4.40 p.m.

Mr. Obama now answers a question from Facebook on leadership strategies.

He says:

"You have to start thinking how to empower young people once they are involved in the organisation.

"Take political parties, for instance. There are a lot of really old people in political parties. Two things result from that — young people who aspire to have influence get blocked, and if you've been a leader for too long, you lose touch.

"For my 2008 campaign, we had young people come in and we gave them huge responsibilities."

4.30 p.m.

Mr. Obama answers a transgender person's question about making their voice heard. "You have to find allies. You should take some measure of hope by just looking at what has happened in many countries around LGBT issues," he says.

Asked about his mentors, he observes, "I'm interested in mentoring because I didn't have anyone who took me under their wing and groomed me."

4.20 p.m.

The former President offers advice on achieving big goals. "Try to break up your efforts into bite-sized manageable pieces. if you start listening to what people are concerned about, then you will work with people better. It doesn't mean that it becomes easier, it means that you have a relationship. Sometimes, you also have to take out some time to just have fun, he notes.

4.10 p.m.

Mr. Obama is asked about where technology fits into his vision.

"The obvious advantage of technology is that you can leverage and reach more people," he points out.

4 p.m.

A discussion begins now.

"The only rule is, we go boy-girl-boy-girl, because men talk too much," quips Mr. Obama.

He is asked about his vision of a global health community, and he says, "What I learnt is that if you have a healthy community, particularly healthy children, that's an indicator of overall development of the community. It's also good economic policy. It starts with young people, because young people are naturally healthy. The more you can exercise prevention, the better off you will be. The biggest contributors to healthy people in developed countries was clean drinking water, waste management and sewage."

3.55 p.m.

Mr. Obama says, "We have already identified young people who have been doing some important work.

"These young people are already showing the power that anybody has.

"As troubled as our politics are, as difficult as the world may seem, the best time to born is now. Despite terrible conflicts, the world is actually less violent and more tolerant than it was.

"Dr. Martin Luther King was 24-25 years old when he began as an activist in Montgomery, Alabama."

3.45 p.m.

Founder of Youth Ki Awaaz Anshul Tiwari introduces the former President.

Mr. Obama takes the podium. He begins his speech with a couple of Hindi words, " Bahut dhanyavad ." (Thanks a lot)

"Three years ago I had the honour of being the first American President to visit on Republic Day. We have had Diwali celebrations every year in the White House when I was there. Both the U.S. and India are diverse, but we have a common set of values. I want to work on lifting up, identifying and training the next generation of leaders. It's going to be based in Chicago, but we will have projects everywhere," he says.

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