She's twelve years old. Bronzed skin, hair bleached from the salted sun. We didn't manage to get her name; she was with her girl friends - carefree and full of cheer - at the Kota Kinabalu waterfront just beside the Handicraft Market that afternoon. They came and willingly jumped in front of the camera, making hip-hop poses like teens from the 'hood. She was chatty, just like any other healthy girl except for one big difference.

She's never been to school. There isn't one where she lives. She cannot read nor write. She knows rudimentary arithmetic - simple addition and subtraction. Ditto her group of friends. Each morning the girls leave their homes in the settlements at Pulau Gaya and come ashore to the city's waterfront seeking menial work - dishwashing, food prep and packaging. Promises of the dreams of a high-income economy and the NEM would be pretty meaningless for people like them. In most likelihood, a frustration will build up as the world passes them by. And then what?

Could this be the timebomb that Project IC planted?

For a Sunday morning, in slow-to-wake KL, 9am would be a very cruel time to start deep discussions. But a group of young Malaysians had the cheek to think otherwise and even convinced some of the country's most radical and progressive minds to come participate. Sigh...the things people do for a good cause.

Hello New York! Webcam transmission of the audience at Columbia University.

These youths are from Malaysia Forum, "a global community that seeks to engage each other in 'civil conversation' on Malaysian issues". What's interesting is the group was founded by Malaysian students studying abroad, and the succeeding batches remain the main engine today. Malaysia Forum organises a conference each year; this year's theme is Harapan, and the conference was held at Columbia University, New York. The plan was to have live internet broadcast from KL - hence the unkind hour - so that anyone keen on the issues discussed could tune in.

The venue: Rumah Anak Bangsa Malaysia. Yep, our home.