Tales of passion Isabel Allende

[Music]

thank you so much it’s really scary to

be here among the smartest of the smart

I’m here to tell you a few tales of

passion there’s a Jewish saying that I

love what is truer than truth answer the

story I’m a storyteller I want to convey

something that is truer than truth about

our common humanity

all stories interest me and some haunt

me until I end up writing them certain

themes keep coming up justice loyalty

violence death political and social

issues freedom I’m aware of the mystery

around us so I write about coincidences

premonitions emotions dreams the power

of nature magic in the last 20 years I

have published a few books but I have

lived in anonymity until February of

2006 when I carried the Olympic flag in

the Winter Olympics in Italy that made

me a celebrity now people recognize me

in Macy’s and my grandchildren think

that I’m cool allow me to tell you about

my four minutes of fame one of the

organizers of the Olympic ceremony of

the opening ceremony called me and said

that I had been selected to be one of

the flag bearers I replied that surely

this was a case of mistaken identity

because I’m as far as you can get from

being an athlete actually I wasn’t even

sure that I could go around the stadium

without a walker

I was told that this was no laughing

matter this would be the first time that

only women would carry the Olympic flag

five women representing five continents

and three Olympic gold medal winners my

first question was naturally what was I

going to wear a uniform she said and

asked for my measurements my

measurements I had a vision of myself in

a fluffy anorak looking like the

Michelin Man by the middle of February I

found myself in Turin where an

enthusiastic crowd cheered when any of

the 80 Olympic teams was in the street

those athletes had sacrificed everything

to compete in the games they all deserve

to win but there’s the element of luck a

speck of snow an inch of ice the force

of the wind can determine the result of

a race or a game however what matters

most more than training or luck is the

heart only a fearless undetermined heart

will get the gold medal it is all about

passion the streets of Turin were

covered with red posters announcing the

slogan of the Olympics passion lives

here isn’t it always true heart is what

drives us and determines our fate that

is what I need for my characters in my

books a passionate heart

I need Mavericks dissidents adventurers

outsiders and rebels who ask questions

bend the rules and take risks people

like all of you in this room nice people

with common sense

do not make interesting characters they

only make good former spouses

in the green room of the stadium I met

the other flag bearers three athletes

and the actresses Susan Sarandon and

Sophia Loren also two women with

passionate hearts Wangari Maathai the

Nobel Prize winner from Kenya who has

planted 30 million trees and by doing so

she has changed the soil the weather and

in some in some places in Africa and of

course the economic conditions in many

villages and Somaly Mam a Cambodian

activist who fights passionately against

child prostitution when she was 14 years

old her grandfather sold her to a

brothel

she told us of little girls raped by men

who believed that having sex with a very

young virgin will cure them from aids

and of brothels where children are

forced to receive by 15 clients per day

and if they rebel they are tortured with

electricity in the green room I received

my uniform it was not the kind of outfit

that I normally wear but it was far from

the Michelin Man suit that I had

anticipated

not bad really I look like a

refrigerator but so did most of the flag

bearers except Sophia Loren the

universal symbol of beauty and passion

sophia is over 70 and she looks great

she’s sexy slim and tall with a deep tan

now ANCA how can you have a deep tan and

have no wrinkles I don’t know when asked

in a TV interview how could she look so

good she replied

posture my back is always straight and I

don’t make all people’s noises so there

you have some free advice from one of

the most beautiful women on earth no

grunting no coughing no wheezing no

talking to yourselves no farting well

she didn’t say that exactly

at some point around midnight we were

summoned to the wings of the stadium and

the loudspeakers announced the Olympic

flag and the music started by the way

the same music that starts here they re

demage Sophia Loren was right in front

of me she’s a foot taller than I am

not counting the poofy hair she walked

elegantly like a giraffe on the African

savannah holding the flag on her

shoulder

I jogged behind on my tiptoes holding my

the flag on my extended arm so that my

head was actually under the damn flag

all the cameras were of course on Sophia

that was fortunate for me because in

most press four or I appear to although

often between Sophia’s legs a place

where most men would love to be

the best four minutes of my entire life

were those in the Olympic Stadium my

husband is offended when I say this

although I have explained to him that

what we do in private usually takes less

than four minutes so you shouldn’t take

it personally I have all the press

clippings of those four magnificent

minutes because I don’t want to forget

them

when old age destroys my brain cells I

want to carry in my heart forever the

key word of the Olympics passion so

here’s a tale of passion the year is

1998 the place is a prison camp for

Tutsi refugees in Congo by the way

80% of all refugees and displaced people

in the world are women and girls we can

call this place in Congo a death camp

because those who are not killed will

die of disease or starvation the

protagonists of these of this story are

a young woman rose my pendo and her

children she’s pregnant and a widow

soldiers have forced to watch as her

husband was tortured and killed somehow

she manages to keep her seven children

alive and a few months later she gives

birth to premature twins two tiny little

boys she cuts the umbilical cord with a

stick and ties it with her own hair she

names the twins after the camp’s

commanders to gain their favor and feeds

them with black tea because her milk

cannot sustain them when the soldiers

burst in her cell to rape her oldest

daughter she grabs hold of her and

refuses to let go

even when they hold a gun to her head

somehow the family survives for 16

months and then by extraordinary luck

and the passionate heart of a young

American man Sasha shun off she manages

the who manages to put her in a US

rescue plane Rose my pendo and her nine

children end up in Phoenix Arizona where

they are now living and thriving

map endo in Saheed Swahili means great

love the protagonists of my books are

strong and passionate women like rose

map endo I don’t make them up there’s no

need for that I look around and I see

them everywhere I have worked with women

and for women all my life I know them

well I was born in ancient times at the

end of the world

they patriarchal Catholic and

conservative family no wonder that by

age 5 I was a raging feminist although

the term had not reached Sheila yet so

nobody knew what the heck was wrong with

me I would soon find out that there was

a high price to pay for my freedom and

for questioning the patriarchy but I was

happy to pay it because for every blow

that I received I was able to deliver to

once when my daughter Paola was in her

20s she said to me that feminism was

dated that I should move on

we had a memorable fight feminism is

dated yes for privileged women like my

daughter and all of us here today

but not for most of our sisters in the

rest of the world who are still forced

into premature marriage prostitution

forced labor they have children that

they don’t want or they cannot feed they

have no control over their bodies or

their lives they have no education and

no freedom they are raped beaten up and

sometimes killed with impunity for most

Western young women of today being

called the feminists is an insult

feminism has never been sexy but let me

assure you that it never stopped me from

flirting and I have seldom suffered from

lack of men

feminism is not dead by no means it has

evolved if you don’t like the term

change it for goddes sake call it

Aphrodite of Venus of bimbo whatever you

want the name doesn’t matter

as long as we understand what it is

about and we support it so here’s

another tale of passion and this is a

sad one the place is a small women’s

clinic in a village in Bangladesh the

years 2005 jenny is a young american

dental hygienist who has gone to the

clinic as a volunteer during her

three-week vacation she’s prepared to

clean teeth but when she gets there she

finds out that there are no doctors no

dentists and the clinic is just a hut

full of flies outside there’s a line of

women who have waited several hours to

be treated the first patient is in

excruciating pain because she has

several rotten molars

Jenny realizes that the only solution is

to pull out the bad teeth she’s not

licensed for that she has never done it

she risks a lot and she’s terrified she

doesn’t even have the proper instruments

but fortunately she has brought some

novocaine jenny has a brave and

passionate heart she murmurs a prayer

and she goes ahead with the operation at

the end the relieved patient kisses her

hands that day the hygienist pulls out

many more teeth the next morning when

she comes again to the so called clinic

her first patient is waiting for her

with her husband the woman’s face looks

like a watermelon it is so swollen that

you can’t even see the eyes the husband

furious threatens to kill the American

jenny is horrified at what she has done

but then the translator explains that

the patient’s condition has nothing to

do with the operation the day before her

husband beat her up because she was not

home in time to prepare dinner for him

millions of women live like this today

they are the poorest of the poor

although women do two thirds of the

world’s labor they own less than one

percent of the world’s assets they are

paid less than men for the same work if

they’re paid at all and they remain

vulnerable because they have no economic

independence and they are constantly

threatened by exploitation violence and

abuse it is a fact that giving women

education work the ability to control

their own income inherit and own

property benefits the society

if a woman is empowered her children and

her family will be better off if

families prosper the village prospers

and eventually so does the whole country

Wangari Maathai goes to a village in

Kenya

she talks through the women and explains

that the land is barren because they

have cut and sold the trees she gets the

women to plant new trees and water them

drop by drop in a matter of five or six

years they have a forest the soil is

enriched and the village is saved the

poorest and most backward societies are

always those that put women down yet

this obvious truth is ignored by

governments and also by philanthropy for

every dollar given to a women’s program

20 dollars are given to men’s programs

women are 51 percent of humankind

empowering them will change everything