0:00:01.043,0:00:04.608 Chris Anderson asked me if I could put the last 25 years 0:00:04.608,0:00:09.307 of anti-poverty campaigning into 10 minutes for TED. 0:00:09.307,0:00:13.304 That's an Englishman asking an Irishman to be succinct. 0:00:13.304,0:00:15.369 (Laughter) 0:00:15.369,0:00:19.942 I said, "Chris, that would take a miracle." 0:00:19.942,0:00:25.097 He said, "Bono, wouldn't that be a good use of your messianic complex?" 0:00:25.097,0:00:27.118 So, yeah. 0:00:27.118,0:00:31.115 Then I thought, let's go even further than 25 years. 0:00:31.115,0:00:34.850 Let's go back before Christ, three millennia, 0:00:34.850,0:00:39.217 to a time when, at least in my head, the journey for justice, 0:00:39.217,0:00:43.244 the march against inequality and poverty really began. 0:00:43.244,0:00:44.727 Three thousand years ago, 0:00:44.727,0:00:47.780 civilization just getting started on the banks of the Nile, 0:00:47.780,0:00:51.685 some slaves, Jewish shepherds in this instance, 0:00:51.685,0:00:54.593 smelling of sheep shit, I guess, 0:00:54.593,0:00:59.172 proclaimed to the Pharaoh, sitting high on his throne, 0:00:59.172,0:01:04.656 "We, your majesty-ness, are equal to you." 0:01:04.656,0:01:08.037 And the Pharaoh replies, "Oh, no. 0:01:08.037,0:01:11.305 You, your miserableness, have got to be kidding." 0:01:11.305,0:01:15.117 And they say, "No, no, that's what it says here 0:01:15.117,0:01:17.128 in our holy book." 0:01:17.128,0:01:19.956 Cut to our century, same country, same pyramids, 0:01:19.956,0:01:22.194 another people spreading the same idea 0:01:22.194,0:01:24.185 of equality with a different book. 0:01:24.185,0:01:27.744 This time it's called the Facebook. 0:01:27.744,0:01:29.636 Crowds are gathered in Tahrir Square. 0:01:29.636,0:01:32.049 They turn a social network from virtual to actual, 0:01:32.049,0:01:35.539 and kind of rebooted the 21st century. 0:01:35.539,0:01:38.022 Not to undersell how messy and ugly 0:01:38.022,0:01:40.770 the aftermath of the Arab Spring has been, 0:01:40.770,0:01:43.545 neither to oversell the role of technology, 0:01:43.545,0:01:46.912 but these things have given a sense of what's possible 0:01:46.912,0:01:51.271 when the age-old model of power, the pyramid, 0:01:51.271,0:01:54.083 gets turned upside down, putting the people on top 0:01:54.083,0:01:57.883 and the pharaohs of today on the bottom, as it were. 0:01:57.883,0:02:00.958 It's also shown us that something as powerful 0:02:00.958,0:02:04.983 as information and the sharing of it can challenge inequality, 0:02:04.983,0:02:07.946 because facts, like people, 0:02:07.946,0:02:10.296 want to be free, and when they're free, 0:02:10.296,0:02:11.967 liberty is usually around the corner, 0:02:11.967,0:02:14.639 even for the poorest of the poor -- 0:02:14.639,0:02:17.184 facts that can challenge cynicism 0:02:17.184,0:02:20.066 and the apathy that leads to inertia, 0:02:20.066,0:02:21.900 facts that tell us what's working and, 0:02:21.900,0:02:24.633 more importantly, what's not, so we can fix it, 0:02:24.633,0:02:27.183 facts that if we hear them and heed them could help us 0:02:27.183,0:02:30.717 meet the challenge that Nelson Mandela made 0:02:30.717,0:02:33.242 back in 2005, 0:02:33.242,0:02:35.930 when he asked us to be that great generation 0:02:35.930,0:02:38.993 that overcomes that most awful offense to humanity, 0:02:38.993,0:02:40.968 extreme poverty, 0:02:40.968,0:02:45.067 facts that build a powerful momentum. 0:02:45.067,0:02:47.655 So I thought, forget the rock opera, 0:02:47.655,0:02:52.781 forget the bombast, my usual tricks. 0:02:52.781,0:02:56.805 The only thing singing today would be the facts, 0:02:56.805,0:03:02.243 for I have truly embraced by inner nerd. 0:03:02.243,0:03:08.531 So exit the rock star. 0:03:08.531,0:03:17.691 Enter the evidence-based activist, the factivist. 0:03:17.691,0:03:22.355 Because what the facts are telling us 0:03:22.355,0:03:25.632 is that the long, slow journey, 0:03:25.632,0:03:27.924 humanity's long, slow journey of equality, 0:03:27.924,0:03:29.687 is actually speeding up. 0:03:29.687,0:03:31.771 Look at what's been achieved. 0:03:31.771,0:03:35.121 Look at the pictures these data sets print. 0:03:35.121,0:03:38.045 Since the year 2000, since the turn of the millennium, 0:03:38.045,0:03:39.939 there are eight million more AIDS patients 0:03:39.939,0:03:42.670 getting life-saving antiretroviral drugs. 0:03:42.670,0:03:45.907 Malaria: There are eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa 0:03:45.907,0:03:49.558 that have their death rates cut by 75 percent. 0:03:49.558,0:03:53.238 For kids under five, child mortality, kids under five, 0:03:53.238,0:03:56.658 it's down by 2.65 million a year. 0:03:56.658,0:04:03.271 That's a rate of 7,256 children's lives saved each day. 0:04:03.271,0:04:08.521 Wow. Wow. (Applause) 0:04:08.521,0:04:10.809 Let's just stop for a second, actually, and think about that. 0:04:10.809,0:04:14.639 Have you read anything anywhere in the last week 0:04:14.639,0:04:18.959 that is remotely as important as that number? Wow. 0:04:18.959,0:04:22.947 Great news. It drives me nuts 0:04:22.947,0:04:25.835 that most people don't seem to know this news. 0:04:25.835,0:04:28.694 Seven thousand kids a day. Here's two of them. 0:04:28.694,0:04:31.372 This is Michael and Benedicta, 0:04:31.372,0:04:34.023 and they're alive thanks in large part 0:04:34.023,0:04:37.908 to Dr. Patricia Asamoah -- she's amazing -- 0:04:37.924,0:04:40.894 and the Global Fund, which all of you financially support, 0:04:40.894,0:04:42.430 whether you know it or not. 0:04:42.430,0:04:45.348 And the Global Fund provides antiretroviral drugs 0:04:45.348,0:04:48.986 that stop mothers from passing HIV to their kids. 0:04:48.986,0:04:52.161 This fantastic news didn't happen by itself. 0:04:52.161,0:04:54.036 It was fought for, it was campaigned for, 0:04:54.036,0:04:55.707 it was innovated for. 0:04:55.707,0:05:00.936 And this great news gives birth to even more great news, 0:05:00.936,0:05:03.816 because the historic trend is this. 0:05:03.816,0:05:06.424 The number of people living in back-breaking, 0:05:06.424,0:05:09.011 soul-crushing extreme poverty has declined 0:05:09.011,0:05:14.101 from 43 percent of the world's population in 1990 0:05:14.101,0:05:17.005 to 33 percent by 2000 0:05:17.005,0:05:21.776 and then to 21 percent by 2010. 0:05:21.776,0:05:26.039 Give it up for that. (Applause) 0:05:26.039,0:05:29.177 Halved. Halved. 0:05:29.177,0:05:33.477 Now, the rate is still too high -- still too many people 0:05:33.477,0:05:35.455 unnecessarily losing their lives. 0:05:35.455,0:05:36.576 There's still work to do. 0:05:36.576,0:05:42.228 But it's heart-stopping. It's mind-blowing stuff. 0:05:42.228,0:05:46.708 And if you live on less than $1.25 a day, 0:05:46.708,0:05:48.856 if you live in that kind of poverty, 0:05:48.856,0:05:50.758 this is not just data. 0:05:50.758,0:05:52.637 This is everything. 0:05:52.637,0:05:58.436 If you're a parent who wants the best for your kids -- and I am -- 0:05:58.436,0:06:03.766 this rapid transition is a route out of despair and into hope. 0:06:03.766,0:06:06.635 And guess what? If the trajectory continues, 0:06:06.635,0:06:11.172 look where the amount of people living on $1.25 a day 0:06:11.172,0:06:14.804 gets to by 2030. 0:06:14.804,0:06:18.116 Can't be true, can it? 0:06:18.116,0:06:22.504 That's what the data is telling us. If the trajectory continues, 0:06:22.504,0:06:27.645 we get to, wow, the zero zone. 0:06:27.645,0:06:29.120 For number-crunchers like us, 0:06:29.120,0:06:32.629 that is the erogenous zone, 0:06:32.629,0:06:35.820 and it's fair to say that I am, by now, 0:06:35.820,0:06:40.869 sexually aroused by the collating of data. 0:06:40.869,0:06:46.130 So virtual elimination of extreme poverty, 0:06:46.130,0:06:49.730 as defined by people living on less than $1.25 a day, 0:06:49.730,0:06:54.127 adjusted, of course, for inflation from a 1990 baseline. 0:06:54.127,0:06:57.144 We do love a good baseline. 0:06:57.144,0:06:58.865 That's amazing. 0:06:58.865,0:07:02.765 Now I know that some of you think this progress 0:07:02.765,0:07:05.456 is all in Asia or Latin America or 0:07:05.456,0:07:06.788 model countries like Brazil -- 0:07:06.788,0:07:09.680 and who doesn't love a Brazilian model? -- 0:07:09.680,0:07:13.790 but look at sub-Saharan Africa. 0:07:13.790,0:07:17.465 There's a collection of 10 countries, some call them the lions, 0:07:17.465,0:07:20.193 who in the last decade have had a combination 0:07:20.193,0:07:21.737 of 100 percent debt cancellation, 0:07:21.737,0:07:24.478 a tripling of aid, a tenfold increase in FDI -- 0:07:24.478,0:07:25.933 that's foreign direct investment -- 0:07:25.933,0:07:29.855 which has unlocked a quadrupling of domestic resources -- that's local money -- 0:07:29.855,0:07:32.519 which, when spent wisely -- that's good governance -- 0:07:32.519,0:07:34.789 cut childhood mortality by a third, 0:07:34.789,0:07:36.496 doubled education completion rates, 0:07:36.496,0:07:39.600 and they, too, halved extreme poverty, 0:07:39.600,0:07:44.029 and at this rate, these 10 get to zero too. 0:07:44.029,0:07:46.282 So the pride of lions 0:07:46.282,0:07:48.998 is the proof of concept. 0:07:48.998,0:07:52.429 There are all kinds of benefits to this. 0:07:52.429,0:07:55.617 For a start, you won't have to listen 0:07:55.617,0:07:59.969 to an insufferable little jumped-up Jesus like myself. 0:07:59.969,0:08:05.177 How about that? (Applause) 0:08:05.177,0:08:09.215 And 2028, 2030? It's just around the corner. 0:08:09.215,0:08:13.496 I mean, it's about three Rolling Stones farewell concerts away. 0:08:13.496,0:08:18.823 (Laughter) I hope. I'm hoping. 0:08:18.823,0:08:22.510 Makes us look really young. 0:08:22.510,0:08:25.536 So why aren't we jumping up and down about this? 0:08:25.536,0:08:29.247 Well, the opportunity is real, but so is the jeopardy. 0:08:29.247,0:08:33.061 We can't get this done until we really accept 0:08:33.061,0:08:35.536 that we can get this done. 0:08:35.536,0:08:37.789 Look at this graph. 0:08:37.789,0:08:42.607 It's called inertia. It's how we screw it up. 0:08:42.607,0:08:44.481 And the next one is really beautiful. 0:08:44.481,0:08:48.014 It's called momentum. 0:08:48.014,0:08:52.570 And it's how we can bend the arc of history 0:08:52.570,0:08:54.198 down towards zero, 0:08:54.198,0:08:56.597 just doing the things that we know work. 0:08:56.597,0:08:58.642 So inertia versus momentum. 0:08:58.642,0:09:01.183 There is jeopardy, and of course, 0:09:01.183,0:09:03.555 the closer you get, it gets harder. 0:09:03.555,0:09:05.499 We know the obstacles that are in our way 0:09:05.499,0:09:07.524 right now, in difficult times. 0:09:07.524,0:09:12.665 In fact, today in your capital, in difficult times, 0:09:12.665,0:09:15.240 some who mind the nation's purse want to cut 0:09:15.240,0:09:17.645 life-saving programs like the Global Fund. 0:09:17.645,0:09:19.458 But you can do something about that. 0:09:19.458,0:09:21.442 You can tell politicians 0:09:21.442,0:09:24.348 that these cuts [can cost] lives. 0:09:24.348,0:09:27.925 Right now today, in Oslo as it happens, 0:09:27.925,0:09:30.292 oil companies are fighting to keep secret 0:09:30.292,0:09:31.770 their payments to governments 0:09:31.770,0:09:35.487 for extracting oil in developing countries. 0:09:35.487,0:09:37.206 You can do something about that too. 0:09:37.206,0:09:39.066 You can join the One Campaign, 0:09:39.066,0:09:43.419 and leaders like Mo Ibrahim, the telecom entrepreneur. 0:09:43.419,0:09:47.242 We're pushing for laws that make sure that at least some 0:09:47.242,0:09:49.714 of the wealth under the ground 0:09:49.714,0:09:53.285 ends up in the hands of the people living above it. 0:09:53.285,0:09:57.052 And right now, we know 0:09:57.052,0:10:00.764 that the biggest disease of all 0:10:00.764,0:10:03.727 is not a disease. It's corruption. 0:10:03.727,0:10:05.551 But there's a vaccine for that too. 0:10:05.551,0:10:09.042 It's called transparency, open data sets, 0:10:09.042,0:10:14.053 something the TED community is really on it. 0:10:14.053,0:10:17.665 Daylight, you could call it, transparency. 0:10:17.665,0:10:20.227 And technology is really turbocharging this. 0:10:20.227,0:10:24.978 It's getting harder to hide if you're doing bad stuff. 0:10:24.978,0:10:27.960 So let me tell you about the U-report, 0:10:27.960,0:10:31.567 which I'm really excited about. It's 150,000 millennials 0:10:31.567,0:10:33.902 all across Uganda, young people 0:10:33.902,0:10:38.278 armed with 2G phones, an SMS social network 0:10:38.278,0:10:41.344 exposing government corruption 0:10:41.344,0:10:43.940 and demanding to know what's in the budget 0:10:43.940,0:10:46.803 and how their money is being spent. 0:10:46.803,0:10:49.478 This is exciting stuff. 0:10:49.478,0:10:52.841 Look, once you have these tools, 0:10:52.841,0:10:54.565 you can't not use them. 0:10:54.565,0:10:57.091 Once you have this knowledge, you can't un-know it. 0:10:57.091,0:11:00.366 You can't delete this data from your brain, 0:11:00.366,0:11:03.189 but you can delete the cliched image 0:11:03.189,0:11:05.427 of supplicant, impoverished peoples 0:11:05.427,0:11:07.499 not taking control of their own lives. 0:11:07.499,0:11:09.881 You can erase that, you really can, 0:11:09.881,0:11:15.358 because it's not true anymore. (Applause) 0:11:15.358,0:11:18.210 It's transformational. 0:11:18.210,0:11:22.083 2030? By 2030, robots, 0:11:22.083,0:11:24.877 not just serving us Guinness, but drinking it. 0:11:24.877,0:11:27.011 By the time we get there, 0:11:27.011,0:11:30.140 every place with a rough semblance of governance 0:11:30.140,0:11:34.170 might actually be on their way. 0:11:34.170,0:11:37.975 So I'm here to -- I guess we're here 0:11:37.975,0:11:43.483 to try and infect you with this virtuous, data-based virus, 0:11:43.483,0:11:45.533 the one we call factivism. 0:11:45.533,0:11:47.177 It's not going to kill you. 0:11:47.177,0:11:51.270 In fact, it could save countless lives. 0:11:51.270,0:11:53.949 I guess we in the One Campaign would love you 0:11:53.949,0:11:58.986 to be contagious, spread it, share it, pass it on. 0:11:58.986,0:12:04.196 By doing so, you will join us and countless others 0:12:04.196,0:12:09.159 in what I truly believe is the greatest adventure ever taken, 0:12:09.159,0:12:13.397 the ever-demanding journey of equality. 0:12:13.397,0:12:16.634 Could we really be the great generation 0:12:16.634,0:12:18.595 that Mandela asked us to be? 0:12:18.595,0:12:22.575 Might we answer that clarion call with science, 0:12:22.575,0:12:25.234 with reason, with facts, 0:12:25.234,0:12:29.272 and, dare I say it, emotions? 0:12:29.272,0:12:35.404 Because as is obvious, factivists have feelings too. 0:12:35.404,0:12:37.891 I'm thinking of Wael Ghonim, though. 0:12:37.891,0:12:40.166 Some of you know him. He set up one of the Facebook groups 0:12:40.166,0:12:44.269 behind the Tahrir Square in Cairo. 0:12:44.269,0:12:45.819 He got thrown in jail for it, 0:12:45.819,0:12:50.542 but I have his words tattooed on my brain. 0:12:50.542,0:12:55.029 "We are going to win because we don't understand politics. 0:12:55.029,0:12:58.154 We are going to win because we don't play their dirty games. 0:12:58.154,0:13:01.442 We are going to win because we don't have a party political agenda. 0:13:01.442,0:13:03.413 We are going to win because the tears 0:13:03.413,0:13:06.519 that come from our eyes actually come from our hearts. 0:13:06.519,0:13:09.383 We are going to win because we have dreams, 0:13:09.383,0:13:12.893 and we're willing to stand up for those dreams." 0:13:12.893,0:13:15.206 Wael is right. 0:13:15.206,0:13:17.068 We're going to win 0:13:17.068,0:13:19.300 if we work together as one, 0:13:19.300,0:13:21.744 because the power of the people 0:13:21.744,0:13:25.568 is so much stronger than the people in power. 0:13:25.568,0:13:29.018 Thank you. 0:13:29.018,0:13:31.890 (Applause) 0:13:31.890,0:13:35.890 Thank you so much. (Applause)