Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday newspaper on 20 January 2013

For a year, this column has explored the power of ideas – some proven and celebrated, others still emerging and experimental but worth watching.

We have been especially interested in innovation: ideas applied to solve problems and make life better.

Today, in this 50th column, I want to share two uncommon yet charming ideas that, in their own way, defy conventional wisdom. That’s how change often starts – as a bright spark in unlikely places.

Why bother with outlandish ideas?

One of my Asian heroes, the Malaysian social activist Anwar Fazal, put it so well: “In a world that is increasingly violent, wasteful and manipulative, every effort at developing islands of integrity, wells of hope and sparks of action must be welcomed, multiplied and linked…”

Pay It Forward

You help someone who…