Learn English via Conversation with Barack Obama Bill Gates and Melinda Gates English Subtitles

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you started with as a community

organizer and so and rose to be

president you understand the power of

moving people along even people who

aren’t necessarily on your bus when you

start 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 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 if you

canvassed the world oftentimes that is

the the impetus people asking in in ways

that I think are familiar to many not

why not but or not why but why not

why do things have to be the way they

are so so that’s point number one that

that 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 we have won

the the battle of ideas that says

governments

are 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

the at least the pretense of democracy

because people believe that governments

that are rooted in people are more

legitimate and we 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 have to have the

allocation of resources and that

requires mobilization and a game of

addition rather than subtraction so and

the fourth point I would make would be

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’m in the still new US

Senate and filibustering is 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 thinks

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 one

of the things that I think is 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 mandi 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’re able if we want to

move forward the sustainable development

goals that we’re talking about is 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 you have to say when we got into

philanthropy and particularly studied

global health we were stunned at the

progress we had we’d had no idea

and it’s 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

the positive story and a little bit the

news is always gonna 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 it it’s

never improved do you have any thoughts

on how we get this more positive sense

of progress going and what how we would

get that word out well look you’re

talking to somebody who for seven years

tried to get the word happen and nobody

at least about 40% of country didn’t

believe me

until I was gone and then suddenly they

believed it so with that caveat I’d make

a couple observations one you’re right

bill there is the the nature of the

media and maybe just the human brain is

to fasten on what’s wrong not on what’s

right and I’m not sure we’re gonna be

able to change that right visual

displays of a fire are much more

interesting than just a building sitting

there and so the fire is gonna make the

news the building sitting there nicely

and people are walking their dogs in

front of it and stuff that will not make

the news so so I don’t think that we can

count on conventional media necessarily

to spread the word this is though where

the power of the Internet has not I

think been harnessed the way it needs to

be particularly when we think about

young people and young audiences Malia

and Sasha consume information

differently than I do and I think that

those of us who’ve been involved with

policy work are still putting out these

reports with pie charts and this and

that and that’s not interesting to them

but stories and visual representations

of progress can go viral there’s a

hunger for it it’s just that we don’t

systematically think about it and and so

I think when the three of us we’re

talking a while back I mentioned that

one of the one of the areas that I’m

deeply interested in is how do we build

serve in a digital platform whereby

people can go to find out what’s

happening that is moving the progress on

issues and

then activates them because I heard

somebody I think maybe Trevor saying an

important point one of I’m very

interested in how online communities can

move offline how this incredible power

to convene through hashtags and tweets

and this and then the other eventually

leads to people meeting each other and

talking to each other and I think that

we have not fully tapped that as a way

of spreading the word about progress

that has been made I also think it is

important for us to put some friendly

pressure on leaders to tell good stories

and to make sure that we don’t that we

aren’t so rigid in our partisanship or

ideologies that we are not willing to

acknowledge and share when somebody who

might be of a different political

persuasion has done something really

good even if it runs contrary to our

short-term political interests I mean I

always used to say as as big as the

differences were between me and my

president predecessor George W Bush that

what his administration initiated with

PEPFAR was a singularly important

achievement that we needed to sustain

and build on and I didn’t think that

somehow had attracted for me to say that

somebody from another political party

did something really smart and really

good and deserve credit for it and and

and I feel as if these days with within

our political circles that’s a hard

thing for people to bring themselves to

do

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one of the things that bill and I had

the great privilege of doing when you

were in the White House late in your

presidency was spending a little bit of

casual time on a Saturday night and your

daughters were in and out of your home

Willie and Sasha and you’ve been to our

house earlier this summer and saw Rory

and Phoebe two of our three in and out

of our house our daughter Jen is here in

the front row

tell me about Jen’s like thanks mom

that’s our job to embarrass you that’s

what we do job done right there but you

know

Jen’s about the age of your girls a

little bit older but how have you and

Michelle thought about talking to your

children about being leaders in the

world and taking up this mantle of what

needs to be done in the world well it

what we’ve tried to communicate their

entire lives is that each of us has

responsibilities when they were small

the responsibilities were small my say

when you want to go potty and then as

you get older your responsibilities grow

and and but but part of what we I think

try to communicate is is that being

responsible is an enormous privilege

that’s what marks you as a fully grown

human is that you that other people rely

on you that you have influence that you

can make your mark that if you do

something well that that will improve

other people’s lives that the kinds of

values that we’ve tried to instill many

of them your basic homespun values like

kindness and consideration and empathy

and hard work that those are our tools

by which you can

shape the world around you in a way that

feels good and so what we’ve what we’ve

tried to encourage is that the sense

that it’s not somebody else’s job it’s

your job and I think that is that that’s

a epic that they’ve embraced now they

will choose to participate in in

different ways because they have

different temperaments and different

strengths I think one of the mistakes

that we sometimes make is to think that

there’s just one way of making a

difference or being involved you know if

you are a brilliant engineer you don’t

have to make a speech you can create an

app that allows an amplification or the

scaling up of some something that is

really powerful if you are somebody who

likes to care for people you you don’t

have to go out and lead the protest

march you can mentor some kids or work

at a at a local health clinic that is

going to make a difference so there are

a lot of different ways in which to make

a contribution and we try to emphasize

that that to them as well and then the

third thing that we try to try to

encourage is what I mentioned in my

earlier remarks which is that you have

to be persistent I I always tell people

that my early work as a community

organizer in Chicago taught me an

incredible amount but I didn’t set the

world on fire you know I got some public

parks for communities that needed them I

started some after-school programs we

we helped set up a job training program

for people who had been laid off of work

but that those communities weren’t

suddenly transformed that they still had

huge problems but I took that experience

and then I was able to build on it and I

think so often we get impatient because

change does not look as if sometimes

it’s not as discernable or mediate or

impactful as we had imagined in our in

our minds and we get disappointed and we

get frustrated and for for me by the way

that’s advice in life and not just in

social change I assume occasionally

there was a bug in the software

Melvyn every now and then every once in

a while you know and how we got a patch

it again this is this is annoying but

but that’s how I was I wasn’t known for

my patience bill did you have one yeah

so this week at part of the reason we’re

all in New York was the United Nations

is meeting and you know some of these

global institutions were created right

after World War two World Bank World

Health Organization UNICEF they’ve been

key partners for many of these causes

and yet there is definitely a cynicism

about their bureaucracy their efficiency

and their ability to change in fact very

few exceptions like Global Fund and

gobby we haven’t had any new one so over

the next 10 or 20 years do you think

these global institutions in terms of

reform or creating new ones it for

pandemics and climate change can they

step up to play the role we need them to

play well let me first of all say that

the biggest problems we confront

no one nation is going to be able to

solve on its own not even a nation as

powerful as the United States of America

there are times during my presidency

where I was attacked for not claiming

that we could go on our own as if that

was an expression of weakness no I I

believe that the United States is in

fact an indispensable nation and that

many of the initiatives and much of the

progress that we’ve made could not have

been done unless we underwrote those

efforts and I’ll use as an example of

our handling of Ebola which in

retrospect I think a lot of historians

would argue was one of the if not the

most effective emergency public health

intervention in history we we had to

create the architecture and the

infrastructure and send our military in

to create runways where the Chinese

could then land planes to deliver goods

and we had to provide guarantees to the

Europeans so that if they sent health

workers they could feel some assurance

that they could be medevacked out if

they got infected so so so I take great

pride in what the United States can do

but if we’re talking about climate

change or global migration spurred on by

drought or famine or you know ethnic

conflicts we’re not gonna be able to

solve those things by ourselves and as

you as you indicated don’t some if we

get an airborne pandemic

unlike a slow-moving slow disease it’s

difficult to transmit like Ebola if we

haven’t built ahead of time some some

structures to deal with this millions of

people could be adversely impacted so so

number one you have to start with the

premise and believe that multilateral

institutions and efforts are important

and you don’t have to cede all your

sovereignty or it doesn’t make you less

patriotic to believe that you just have

to have some sense and read so that’s

point number one point number two is

that in fact there are problems with

existing multilateral institutions not

surprisingly they were designed

post-world War two for the most part and

they couldn’t have anticipated

everything that’s happened there is

bureaucracy and inertia and resistance

to reform so it is important for every

country every leader to be honest about

the need for reform and not simply think

narrowly about well I want to keep

certain numbers of slots or votes or

this or that

at least on many of the issues where

there shouldn’t be a big ideological

controversy look reforming the Security

Council that’s something that goes to

core geopolitical interests and is a

huge difficult and perhaps unachievable

goal any time soon on the other hand

making sure that the WHL works well and

that we have a sufficient security

trigger when a pandemic or something

else happens that is achievable and it

shouldn’t be controversial it’s just a

matter of digging in and getting the

work done

what

comes to girls education there may be

cultural resistance in some places to

actually getting it done but generally

speaking there’s not a there aren’t that

many folks who will explicitly say I’m

sorry we don’t want to educate our girls

and women as a practical matter they may

you may see that in in certain countries

but at the level of our multilateral

institutions there should be a broad

consensus and so what what I would hope

for is that we come up with concrete

plans in those areas oftentimes with

respect to the the sustainable

development goals our areas where there

is a consensus on at least the aims if

not always the means and think about how

can we improve delivery systems how can

we improve their operations on a day to

day basis but ultimately the last point

I would make that requires leaders to

feel as if it matters and is important

that in turn requires the public think

that it matters and is important because

unfortunately what you discover is is

that most politicians and elected

leaders are followers and not leaders

they they’re called leaders but most of

the time they follow they they see what

do their constituencies care about and

they respond and one of the biggest

challenges that we’ve had is that and I

speak most intimately by the United

States the general public responds with

enormous generosity when they see a

specific story of a child who’s hungry

or somebody who’s been stricken by you

know a flood but when it comes to just a

general knowledge or interest in

development funding not only the

not know much but they oftentimes have a

negative reaction because their view is

we’ve got a lot of needs here at home

why are we sending money overseas sadly

it is one of the area’s the only areas

where Democrats and Republicans agree in

this in the United States is on foreign

aid and repeatedly you’ve seen public

opinion surveys where people wildly

overestimate what we spend on foreign

aid they think 25 percent of the federal

budget is going to foreign aid and

helping people other than folks in their

towns and their communities so the need

for public education in the ways we

talked about that promote that that tell

a good story that point out that this is

actually a bargain that connect what we

do with respect to development to

security not in in a perfect correlation

but to say that look if you’ve got

failed States then generally some of

that’s gonna spill over on us if you

have economies that are failing

ironically if you are concerned about

immigration and mass migration it’s

really a good investment to make

countries work so that people can eat

because then it’s not like they’re dying

to get on a dinghy and float across an

ocean if the place the country were they

were born and they loved was functioning

so so thinking about ways in which we

describe this both as an economic

imperative a environmental imperative a

security imperative the more we can

influence public opinion the more you’ll

see politicians respond that doesn’t

mean that there is not an enormous role

to play for NGOs philanthropy and so

forth but and I’ve said this to both

Bill and Melinda

even with the incredible generosity and

enormous skill with which they’ve

deployed their their resources over the

years the u.s. budgets still bigger a

lot and you know you there’s this notion

that you can that I hear sometimes from

young people that you can work around

government and work around politics

because it’s too messy or it’s corrupt

or it’s you know I just don’t like those

folks or what-have-you

I’m sorry guys that’s not gonna work if

you want to get done what you’re talking

about you will have to combine effective

philanthropy and technical know-how and

you know smart policy engineering with

getting your hands dirty trying to

change public opinion and trying to

ensure that the people who are in charge

of the levers of power are responsive

and and that will require work and I

guarantee you you will be disappointed

at points but what a glorious thing it

is to be responsible for saving the

world that’s your responsibility that

arm thanks

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