Recent speech of Barrack Obama inspiring people (youngsters) to face challenges of the world - Sept. 2017 Goalkeepers event in NY, USA
Obama's Full Speech and Q&A with Bill and Melinda Gates, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWE8HUjYf8Q, 47 min. 48 secs, published on 20th Sept. 2017.
Youtube video description: President Barack Obama's complete speech and Q&A with Bill and Melinda Gates at the 2017 Goalkeepers event in New York City.
----
Ravi: I have given below the transcript of some parts of Obama's speech (and some words of Melinda and Bill Gates).
Former USA President Obama's words from around 3:30 in the video (edited from youtube transcript):
We do face extraordinary challenges. You've heard of many of them in your discussions today. You know the nature of these challenges from your work. Growing economic inequality, changing climate, terrorism, mass migration, still too much extreme poverty, still too many girls who are denied an education, the rise of nationalism and xenophobia, and a politics that says it's not we but us and them. The politics that threatens to turn good people away from the kind of collective action that has always driven human progress. So these are real challenges and we can't sugarcoat them. They're going to take a long time to solve but that can't discourage any of us from the belief that individually and collectively we can make a difference. We can make things better and rather than be daunted by those challenges, those challenges should inspire us and excite us because it gives us an opportunity to make our mark on the world in ways that we haven't even yet scratched the surface of. We have to reject the notion that we're suddenly gripped by forces that we cannot control. We've got to embrace the longer and more optimistic view of history and the part that we play in it.
And if you are skeptical of such optimism I will say something that may sound controversial. I used to say this to my staff in the White House, young interns who would come in, any group of young people that I met with, and that is that by just about every measure America is better and the world is better than it was 50 years ago, 30 years ago or even 10 years ago. I know that statement doesn't jibe (jive) with the steady stream of bad news and cynicism that we are fed through television and Twitter. But think about it. I was born - I mean I know I have gray hair but I don't consider myself that old. But I was born at a time when women and people of color were systematically, routinely excluded from enormous portions of American life. Today, women and minorities have risen up the ranks of business and politics and everywhere else, even if we still have miles to travel and innumerable laws and hearts and minds to change, the shift in what this country is and what it means is astonishing. Remarkable! It's happened, when you measure it against the scope of human history, in an instant.
Just since I graduated from college, crime rates, teen birth rates, dropout rates, the share of people living in poverty had dropped and in some cases dropped dramatically. The share of Americans with college education is up. Despite a massive global recession, in the final years of my presidency, the uninsured rate reached a new low. The median household income reached a new high. That's here in the United States. Worldwide, our progress is even more remarkable and Bill can rattle off these statistics better than I can. But over the past 100 years we've come from a world where only a small fraction of women could vote to a world where almost every woman (can). Since 1950s the global average life expectancy has grown by more than 20 years. Since 1990 we have cut extreme poverty and childhood mortality in half. Keep in mind I was in law school in 1990. It seems like yesterday. Since 2000 we've evolved from a world without marriage equality to one where it's a reality (in) more than two dozen countries. All of this has happened in such a steady march that sometimes we have (tended) to take it for granted.
And I often ask when I meet with young people, if you had to choose any moment in history in which to be born and you didn't know in advance whether you were going to be male or female, what country you were going to be from, or what your status was, you (would) choose right now. Because the world has never been healthier or wealthier or better educated or in many ways more tolerant or less violent than it is today. Fewer people are dying young. More people are living not only longer but better. More girls are in school. More adults can read. More children get the vaccines that they need. Despite the enormous conflicts that break our hearts around the world, it's demonstrable that fewer people are being killed in wars and conflicts than ever before. This would be the time you'd want to be showing up on this planet and these trends are real. They do not make us complacent but they should spur us to action because it shows despite the naysayers and the cynicism that in fact change can happen. They're not the result of mysterious forces of chance. They happen because countless people like you, toiling for many years, chose to make this progress.
------------
[From Around 18:20]
[Melinda Gates:] One of the things that strikes me in the conversations that we've had in this room today as you know earlier ... You know he [Justin Trudeau, Canadian PM perhaps?] started with youth movement(s) in his own country and rose to be the prime minister and you started as a community organizer and rose to be President. You understand the power of moving people along even people who aren't necessarily on your bus when you're starting. Talk to us a little bit about how you think of movements around the world and the power of those now and what leaders can learn from them.
[Obama:] Well, I'd make a couple of observations. Number one is that most big change, most human progress is driven by young people who don't know any better and figure why can't we do something different. Old people get comfortable or cranky or protective of their status or set in their ways. There is a reason why, if you look at for example here in the United States, the civil rights movement - the leaders of those movements were in their 20s. Dr. King was 26 when he started, 39 when he was killed. And if you (canvassed?) the world, oftentimes that is the impetus. People asking in ways that I think are familiar to many, not why but why not. Why do things have to be the way they are? So that's point number one (where) the young people, I think, can make an enormous difference.
Number two is that because most of us now either live in democracies or countries that purport to be democracies, because we have won the battle of ideas that says governments and our common efforts have to be rooted in the legitimacy of people, there is more power than ever in people being able to band together and collectively push for initiatives that are going to make change in their lives. That's something that for most of human history was unimaginable. That is one of the amazing transitions that has taken place and you will notice that even in autocracies today there is, at least the pretence of democracy, because people believe that governments that are rooted in people are more legitimate. That's a battle we won and now have to make real wherever we can. That's point number two.
Point number three is simple math. In most places if you want to get something done whether it's a smarter climate change policy or health care for people or more funding for girls education, you've got to have a majority of people supporting it. You got to have votes. You (got) to have the allocation of resources and that requires mobilization and a game of addition rather than subtraction.
And the fourth point I would make would be (that) the Internet now has turbocharged the capacity for us to develop movements in ways that we had not imagined before.
Now the last thing I'll say so that I don't sound like (I am) still in the US Senate filibustering, is I guess a smaller point but a profound one that I tried to reinforce with my staff at every level of my public work and and continue to do to this day. I actually think organizing, mobilizing, starting movements starts with a story and you can't create a story that moves large numbers of people unless you are able to listen and hear to the story of the person next to you, the story of your neighbors, the stories of your co-workers, the stories of your community, the story of people who are not like you and so one of the things that I think is important is for us to learn how to listen to each other and learn how it is that we came to be who we are, think the way we do, because that understanding of other people's stories is how you end up ultimately forging bonds and creating the glue that creates movements.
Every great movement - (when) you think about Gandhi in India, it started with his understanding of India's story and his own story and seeing Indians in South Africa discriminated against and recognizing that there were traditions and myths and a power in those stories that ended up driving out the most powerful empire on earth. It wasn't guns and increasingly that will be the case and certainly that will be the case if we want to move forward the sustainable development goals that we're talking about as we've got to be able to tell a story not only to big donors or politicians but also to, for example people here in the United States who may feel like look I've got my own problems why should I be worrying about somebody on the other side of the world.
[Bill Gates: (around 24:58)] You have to say when we got in the philanthropy and particularly studied global health, we were stunned at the progress made. We had no idea and it's kind of amazing if you ask even very well-educated people you know - what's happened with vaccinations? What's happened with HIV? They don't know the positive story and a little bit (issue is) the news is always going to focus on the setbacks because that's what happened that day. The gradual progress doesn't fit that paradigm. And even people who raise money for these causes - I have to say you know sometimes even some of the material we create - is talking about the piece that remains as though it's never improved. ...
----------
[I thank Goalkeepers 2017 event organizers and former USA president Barrack Obama (and Melinda and Bill Gates), and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their speech/questions on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Youtube video description: President Barack Obama's complete speech and Q&A with Bill and Melinda Gates at the 2017 Goalkeepers event in New York City.
----
Ravi: I have given below the transcript of some parts of Obama's speech (and some words of Melinda and Bill Gates).
Former USA President Obama's words from around 3:30 in the video (edited from youtube transcript):
We do face extraordinary challenges. You've heard of many of them in your discussions today. You know the nature of these challenges from your work. Growing economic inequality, changing climate, terrorism, mass migration, still too much extreme poverty, still too many girls who are denied an education, the rise of nationalism and xenophobia, and a politics that says it's not we but us and them. The politics that threatens to turn good people away from the kind of collective action that has always driven human progress. So these are real challenges and we can't sugarcoat them. They're going to take a long time to solve but that can't discourage any of us from the belief that individually and collectively we can make a difference. We can make things better and rather than be daunted by those challenges, those challenges should inspire us and excite us because it gives us an opportunity to make our mark on the world in ways that we haven't even yet scratched the surface of. We have to reject the notion that we're suddenly gripped by forces that we cannot control. We've got to embrace the longer and more optimistic view of history and the part that we play in it.
And if you are skeptical of such optimism I will say something that may sound controversial. I used to say this to my staff in the White House, young interns who would come in, any group of young people that I met with, and that is that by just about every measure America is better and the world is better than it was 50 years ago, 30 years ago or even 10 years ago. I know that statement doesn't jibe (jive) with the steady stream of bad news and cynicism that we are fed through television and Twitter. But think about it. I was born - I mean I know I have gray hair but I don't consider myself that old. But I was born at a time when women and people of color were systematically, routinely excluded from enormous portions of American life. Today, women and minorities have risen up the ranks of business and politics and everywhere else, even if we still have miles to travel and innumerable laws and hearts and minds to change, the shift in what this country is and what it means is astonishing. Remarkable! It's happened, when you measure it against the scope of human history, in an instant.
Just since I graduated from college, crime rates, teen birth rates, dropout rates, the share of people living in poverty had dropped and in some cases dropped dramatically. The share of Americans with college education is up. Despite a massive global recession, in the final years of my presidency, the uninsured rate reached a new low. The median household income reached a new high. That's here in the United States. Worldwide, our progress is even more remarkable and Bill can rattle off these statistics better than I can. But over the past 100 years we've come from a world where only a small fraction of women could vote to a world where almost every woman (can). Since 1950s the global average life expectancy has grown by more than 20 years. Since 1990 we have cut extreme poverty and childhood mortality in half. Keep in mind I was in law school in 1990. It seems like yesterday. Since 2000 we've evolved from a world without marriage equality to one where it's a reality (in) more than two dozen countries. All of this has happened in such a steady march that sometimes we have (tended) to take it for granted.
And I often ask when I meet with young people, if you had to choose any moment in history in which to be born and you didn't know in advance whether you were going to be male or female, what country you were going to be from, or what your status was, you (would) choose right now. Because the world has never been healthier or wealthier or better educated or in many ways more tolerant or less violent than it is today. Fewer people are dying young. More people are living not only longer but better. More girls are in school. More adults can read. More children get the vaccines that they need. Despite the enormous conflicts that break our hearts around the world, it's demonstrable that fewer people are being killed in wars and conflicts than ever before. This would be the time you'd want to be showing up on this planet and these trends are real. They do not make us complacent but they should spur us to action because it shows despite the naysayers and the cynicism that in fact change can happen. They're not the result of mysterious forces of chance. They happen because countless people like you, toiling for many years, chose to make this progress.
------------
[From Around 18:20]
[Melinda Gates:] One of the things that strikes me in the conversations that we've had in this room today as you know earlier ... You know he [Justin Trudeau, Canadian PM perhaps?] started with youth movement(s) in his own country and rose to be the prime minister and you started as a community organizer and rose to be President. You understand the power of moving people along even people who aren't necessarily on your bus when you're starting. Talk to us a little bit about how you think of movements around the world and the power of those now and what leaders can learn from them.
[Obama:] Well, I'd make a couple of observations. Number one is that most big change, most human progress is driven by young people who don't know any better and figure why can't we do something different. Old people get comfortable or cranky or protective of their status or set in their ways. There is a reason why, if you look at for example here in the United States, the civil rights movement - the leaders of those movements were in their 20s. Dr. King was 26 when he started, 39 when he was killed. And if you (canvassed?) the world, oftentimes that is the impetus. People asking in ways that I think are familiar to many, not why but why not. Why do things have to be the way they are? So that's point number one (where) the young people, I think, can make an enormous difference.
Number two is that because most of us now either live in democracies or countries that purport to be democracies, because we have won the battle of ideas that says governments and our common efforts have to be rooted in the legitimacy of people, there is more power than ever in people being able to band together and collectively push for initiatives that are going to make change in their lives. That's something that for most of human history was unimaginable. That is one of the amazing transitions that has taken place and you will notice that even in autocracies today there is, at least the pretence of democracy, because people believe that governments that are rooted in people are more legitimate. That's a battle we won and now have to make real wherever we can. That's point number two.
Point number three is simple math. In most places if you want to get something done whether it's a smarter climate change policy or health care for people or more funding for girls education, you've got to have a majority of people supporting it. You got to have votes. You (got) to have the allocation of resources and that requires mobilization and a game of addition rather than subtraction.
And the fourth point I would make would be (that) the Internet now has turbocharged the capacity for us to develop movements in ways that we had not imagined before.
Now the last thing I'll say so that I don't sound like (I am) still in the US Senate filibustering, is I guess a smaller point but a profound one that I tried to reinforce with my staff at every level of my public work and and continue to do to this day. I actually think organizing, mobilizing, starting movements starts with a story and you can't create a story that moves large numbers of people unless you are able to listen and hear to the story of the person next to you, the story of your neighbors, the stories of your co-workers, the stories of your community, the story of people who are not like you and so one of the things that I think is important is for us to learn how to listen to each other and learn how it is that we came to be who we are, think the way we do, because that understanding of other people's stories is how you end up ultimately forging bonds and creating the glue that creates movements.
Every great movement - (when) you think about Gandhi in India, it started with his understanding of India's story and his own story and seeing Indians in South Africa discriminated against and recognizing that there were traditions and myths and a power in those stories that ended up driving out the most powerful empire on earth. It wasn't guns and increasingly that will be the case and certainly that will be the case if we want to move forward the sustainable development goals that we're talking about as we've got to be able to tell a story not only to big donors or politicians but also to, for example people here in the United States who may feel like look I've got my own problems why should I be worrying about somebody on the other side of the world.
[Bill Gates: (around 24:58)] You have to say when we got in the philanthropy and particularly studied global health, we were stunned at the progress made. We had no idea and it's kind of amazing if you ask even very well-educated people you know - what's happened with vaccinations? What's happened with HIV? They don't know the positive story and a little bit (issue is) the news is always going to focus on the setbacks because that's what happened that day. The gradual progress doesn't fit that paradigm. And even people who raise money for these causes - I have to say you know sometimes even some of the material we create - is talking about the piece that remains as though it's never improved. ...
----------
[I thank Goalkeepers 2017 event organizers and former USA president Barrack Obama (and Melinda and Bill Gates), and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their speech/questions on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Comments
Post a Comment