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