In 2009 I took part in the conference Leading Change for a Sustainable World. It was my first time visiting Mountain House, the IofC centre in Caux, Switzerland, and it was quite an experience.

One evening during the conference, participants had the choice of watching one of two films. I chose Amazing Grace. For those who haven’t seen the film, I strongly recommend it. It tells the inspiring – and, at times, painful – story of William Wilberforce and his crusade to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. It’s a good film – excellent performances and a pretty decent soundtrack. But, when the film ended and I left the room, I left with somewhat mixed feelings.

My family name is Okalowe. When pronounced with my Canadian accent it sounds a bit Irish but it’s not. My parents were born in southern Nigeria and I was born in southern Canada. Growing up, I learned about the transatlantic slave trade from very dedicated, passionate teachers. My parents never spoke about it and I certainly never brought it up with them. As a child, I’d often wonder whether the slave trade affected my ancestors. In school, little time was spent on the ‘African experience’ and there was a tendency to move quite quickly from the slave trade to slavery to segregation in the United States (never much mention of the segregation in Canada) to the African-American Civil Rights movement and, finally, to ‘today’ where, by golly, an African-American is President of the United States.

But, today – a sunny June day in the year 2010 – I look around me and I’m not convinced that the slave trade, slavery, and segregation are actually things of the past. Slavery, in its most traditional sense, still exists in various forms around the world and it’s a terrible, terrible reality. But I also look around and I wonder if companies moving jobs to low-wage and poorly regulated regions isn’t a form of economic slave trade? Sure, the people aren’t moving in this case – it’s just the jobs, the economic means for survival, that’s moving.

I look around and wonder if the massive mortgages, crippling credit-card balances and other forms of unwieldy debt are essentially keeping consumers trapped in a vicious cycle of economic servitude? Maybe it’s the consumer’s fault for consuming so much. It’s easy to have a home without a mortgage… just pay rent.

I wonder if I’m living a form of segregation in my home city – the populations of Blacks, South-East Asians, and Native Canadians are predominantly concentrated in the poorest neighbourhoods. Maybe economics has nothing to do with it and education is the road out of poverty…these ethnic families really just need to save up $25,000 per child and send each of their children to college. No one who goes to college every ends up living below the poverty line, right?

I wonder, finally, if we need another William Wilberforce…but this time to tackle economic slavery.

Back in 2009 as I returned home to Toronto from Caux, I wrote an article for IofC Canada describing my time at Mountain House as being an opportunity to contemplate what was, what is, and what could be. Now, almost a year later, I’m still contemplating on the past, the present, and the future.

As this year’s Leading Change for a Sustainable World conference kicks off on August 4, I’ll be thinking about what it must have been like for Mr Wilberforce to challenge such a pervasive system. We know that he was ostracized from his community for threatening their way of life. We know that he lost friends and that his health suffered severely throughout the campaign to abolish the slave trade. But today he is hailed as something of a hero. How did he manage to stay so strong, so dedicated, so committed to this cause? Did he have support of some sort from a divine being who kept him going when every fibre in his earthly being begged him to stop? He did what he believed was the right thing to do and we commend him for it. The slave trade was certainly not a sustainable path to worldwide progress and prosperity. Wilberforce saw this, understood this, and he led change on what was then a fairly global scale.

Our current economic way of life is also dangerously unsustainable and – while I know I must be the change I wish to see – I just can’t help but wonder: When will the next William (or Wilma) Wilberforce appear? Will it be you?

In any event, I hope to see you this year at the Caux conferences. Perhaps we can take in a film together…

Mercy Okalowe is a self-employed critical thinker and strategic communicator. She completed formal training in the areas of Investor Relations and Organizational Behaviour and is a member of the organizing team of the upcoming Caux conference "Leading Change for a Sustainable World." She currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

NOTE: Individuals of many cultures, nationalities, religions, and beliefs are actively involved with Initiatives of Change. These commentaries represent the views of the writer and not necessarily those of Initiatives of Change as a whole.