Category: Apathy to action

This is fine

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes or off the street. Families are torn apart. Men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared”.

This quote is taken from Anne Frank’s diary in an entry dated January 13th, 1943. Yet any Palestinian could have said it any time over the last 60 years, or any American any time over the last 12 months.

At some point in their lives roughly one in every five Palestinian men in Gaza and the West Bank have been arrested – or abducted – and detained without charge. Just stop and think about that for a moment. Several thousand Palestinians are still held in Israeli detention centres or prisons. Indefinitely. Without charge.

Hundreds of those are children.

In the USA, ICE agents arrested a mind-blowing 328,000 people during 2025. Out of those, 327,000 were deported. Four people were killed during attempts to arrest them. Protestors aren’t safe, either. Just remember what happened last week.

And in the UK last summer, thousands of elderly protesters – including an 83-year-old Anglican priest, a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor’s daughter and an 89-year-old retired psychotherapist – were arrested for demanding an end to genocide in Gaza.

These are all acts of democratically elected governments.

If you thought this could never happen in the ‘civilised West’, think again. The rules-based order we’ve all come to depend on is being pulled apart right in front of our eyes. Laws are being applied selectively, power overriding accountability and norms once taken for granted are being openly ignored.

We might not know how to put an end to these horrors, but let’s not pretend they’re not happening.

One day they might come for you.

Did I do things the wrong way round?

Many moons ago, during two happy years as a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University, I had the pleasure of meeting more than my fair share of Valley multi-millionaires (and the odd billionaire). Back in those days there were plenty of them about and many – after years of playing nasty as they built their businesses – decided it might be a good idea to develop a bit of a conscience and do something good with all their wealth. I enjoyed sharing my work with them, explaining how emerging mobile technology was helping reshape the humanitarian and conservation sectors, and how FrontlineSMS was at the forefront of much of it. I could never have done what they’d achieved, but I did get some comfort knowing that their work hadn’t had the kind of positive impact mine had.

One thing constantly niggled me back then though, and twenty years later it still does. Meeting those wealthy individuals who only decided to turn their attention to making the world a better place after they’d got rich, made me wonder if I’d done things the right way round. While they were ruthlessly building their startups, I was either building schools or doing conservation work in East Africa or running primate sanctuaries in Nigeria. While I was busy laying the foundations for a career in social impact, opportunities to join the tech boom and make a few quid were passing me by.

Would it have been better for me to try and make some serious money like them, and only then focus on doing good?

When I did eventually do something impactful with FrontlineSMS, when I stepped back people assumed I’d got rich from it. After all, it was incredibly successful and had scaled to just about every country on earth. But the reality was very different. FrontlineSMS was always a free tool, it had no business model behind it, and when I stepped away there was no big pay day.

I now look back with envy at those who are able to self-fund their ideas. As I reflect on a lengthy career trying to do the right thing – while at the same time looking at how messed up the world has become – the need feels greater than ever. At a time in my life when I should probably be stepping back and slowing down, I’m as engaged and motivated and driven than ever.

So, if you’re reading this and by some crazy twist of fate we happened to have met in the Valley in 2007 or 2008, and you’re still looking to invest some of your hard-earned cash in doing a little good in the world, I’d love to talk. In the new year I’ll be throwing everything I’ve got at my new project, apathy to action, and I could do with a little help.

Looking for a visionary partner

For the past few months I’ve been working on apathy to action, a project that aims to help people move from feeling overwhelmed by global crises to taking meaningful, emotionally grounded action. The idea is simple but powerful – combine behavioural science, mindfulness and modern technology to help people reconnect, re-engage and rediscover their agency in a world that can feel paralysing and overwhelming.

The basic concept has already been sketched out, and I’m now looking to take it to the next level.

To do that I’m seeking a small amount of seed funding from a high-net-worth individual, an angel investor or a charitable foundation who sees both the urgent need and the enormous potential. The funding will give me six months to fully focus on building out the core concepts for the app and website, refreshing my coding skills, and preparing the platform for private beta release.

Why does this matter?

Because millions of people care deeply about the world but feel stuck – emotionally exhausted, disconnected and unsure where to begin. If we can help even a small number shift from apathy to meaningful action, the ripple effects could be profound.

Why support this?

Because it’s a rare opportunity to invest a relatively small amount in a project that could have significant global social impact, led by someone with a long track record in social innovation. I’ve spent two decades creating and promoting tools that genuinely empower people, and ‘apathy to action’ has the potential to be my most impactful work yet.

If you’re interested in being part of this journey, or know someone who might be, please share this post or reach out.

Because when we trade silence for courage, even the smallest action can spark a wave of change.

You can read more about the project on the apathy to action website here.

Thank you.

Say hello to the bystander planet

Imagine your neighbour’s house is on fire, but you’re too busy scrolling through social media to call for help, or you just assume someone else will handle it. Scale that up globally, and you’ve captured how public apathy operates during major crises.

Public indifference isn’t just inconvenient – it can be deadly. When people mentally check out from global problems governments lose political pressure to act, funding disappears and windows of opportunity close. The psychology behind this is well-documented. Our brains respond more to individual stories than mass statistics. One child in a well captivates us. 25,000 children dying daily from preventable causes is easily filed away and forgotten.

The consequences can be devastating. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, 800,000 people died in 100 days while public pressure for intervention remained virtually nonexistent. Climate change offers another stark example. Despite scientific consensus since the 1990s, Yale research shows only 8% of Americans are worried enough to take action, giving politicians cover to delay meaningful responses for decades.

History does, however, show that apathy can be overcome. Live Aid concerts in 1985 transformed abstract Ethiopian famine statistics into urgent, actionable concern for millions. The 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge used social media to raise $115 million and massive awareness for a rare disease. Environmental movements have learned to make climate change feel local and immediate rather than distant and abstract.

The most effective strategies combine emotional storytelling with clear actions, make distant problems feel personal and local, and give people confidence their contributions matter. Youth climate activists like Greta Thunberg have been particularly successful at creating urgency around problems that for many seemed distant.

Breaking through public apathy isn’t about making people feel guilty, though. It’s about understanding human psychology and designing engagement accordingly. As global challenges intensify, overcoming indifference isn’t optional – it’s existential. The biggest problems facing humanity can only be solved when enough people decide it’s worth solving.

If you feel confused, angry, disenfranchised or simply frustrated at the state of the world, check out my new project, apathy to action. You are not alone.