U2's Bono Speaks at GU Global Social Enterprise Event

ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stage a mu'minin mba student David a Thomas Dean of the McDonough School of Business John J Dodd Joya president of Georgetown University Brian Moynihan CEO Bank of America and Bono good evening and welcome thank you all for being here tonight sorry if I seem a little nervous but this is my first time opening for you two so sorry my name is ammu Menon and I am a second year MBA candidate at the McDonough School of Business here at Georgetown University [Applause] thank you a few years ago when I was going through the process of figuring out what Business School I want to go to it was George time Georgetown's continued commitment to social enterprises that really drew me to this MBA program and I am so proud to now be a member of the global social enterprise initiative here at Georgetown being part of this initiative has really opened up opportunities for me to not only interact with business leaders but also learn from them and learn how to do good business do them well and do it in a socially conscious manner and we're lucky to have many of these industry leaders with us tonight including two two rock stars in this area Bono and mr. Moynahan now we also have a number of other student leaders from the global social enterprise initiative sitting right in the front here and I'd like to thank our founding partner Bank of America for co-hosting tonight on behalf of all of us [Applause] I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the other partners and leaders in this room tonight you have all enriched our MBA experience and especially professor no Valli & LaDonna and Peggy who is the executive director of global social enterprise initiative [Applause] personally I plan to take much of what I learned from being an active member of the global social enterprise initiative and from leaders like Bono and carry it with me throughout my career they are teaching us important lesson how to on how to create both economic and social value while doing business so now I'd like to take a moment and introduce our next speaker George sounds very own president degioia the idea of creating strong leaders who contribute both to business and to society it's something that he has been committed to you since becoming president in 2001 it seems it stems directly from our Jesuit tradition to serve to be of service to others having been on the hilltop in various capacities for 37 years president degioia is dedicated to creating leaders with the commitment to excellence in all spheres of our lives and as students we thank them for that now if you can help me welcome president degioia [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well thank you very much ammu for that kind introduction and for your leadership at our global social enterprise initiative gse I we're proud of the work in which you are engaged alongside many of the students and partners in this room it's my pleasure to welcome all of you to Georgetown University and to Gaston Hall for this special evening with Bono we're deeply appreciative of Bono for coming to the hilltop and for sharing with us his experience his insights and his innovative leadership in social enterprise I'd also like to thank Bank of America for hosting this event in partnership with our global social enterprise initiative at our McDonough School of Business the Bank has been a supporter in a and collaborative partner of g SEI since becoming a founding partner in 2011 the goal of the initiative is to prepare current and future leaders to create both social and economic value in their endeavors with our partners we are working across all sectors academic corporate government and nonprofit to accomplish this goal I also want to thank the Atlantic for serving as our media partner tonight and we're honored to have with us United States Senator Patrick Leahy the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi [Applause] on the Irish ambassador to the United States Michael Collins [Applause] we are truly privileged to have the opportunity to come together for events like this as a community Georgetown is committed to the creation and dissemination of knowledge knowledge that contributes to human flourishing and the common good you may see written on the wall behind me the Latin phrase odd my Orem dei gloriam inc way home enum salute m the first half of this phrase on my Orem des gloriam is the motto of the Jesuits it means for the greater glory of God as a university in the Jesuit tradition all of our work is for God's greater glory and because of our tradition we are also committed to work for the betterment of humankind and that is the second half of the phrase in quei home enum soluta today's topic social enterprise is an expression of this mission of our commitment to endeavours for the betterment of humankind there are a number of individuals whose hard work and dedication made tonight possible and we're grateful for each for your contributions first to David Thomas the Dean of our McDonough School of Business for his extraordinary leadership and the support of initiatives like G sei I'd also like to thank Bill Novelli a distinguished professor of the practice at our Business School and the founder of G sei Bill's deep commitment to social enterprise corporate responsibility and social change has enriched our community here at Georgetown as well as the lives of countless individuals outside our gates thank you also to Ladon mint eggie the executive director of a GSE I for her leadership and our hard work leading up to tonight I also wish to express my appreciation for Ann fennekin the global strategy and marketing officer at Bank of America two of Ann's sons graduated from Georgetown and one is a current student here and Ann was instrumental in making tonight possible and finally thank you to Brian Moynihan CEO of Bank of America for bringing us together tonight under Brian's leadership Bank of America serves can Zoomers small and large businesses and institutional investors it is one of the world's largest financial institutions and is a leader in wealth management corporate investment banking and trading under Brian's tenure as CEO Bank of America is also working to expand its commitment to community development and philanthropy and this includes a ten-year 1.5 trillion dollar goal and community lending and investing is truly a privilege and a pleasure to welcome you all and now to introduce to you the CEO of Bank of America brian morning [Applause] Thank You president degioia it has been great to be here I was at a different Jesuit institution on a hill on Saturday night watching my place I went to law school BBC so at least we may have done you some favors here at Georgetown by doing that I want to thank the entire Georgetown community for hosting us tonight I know that when the announcements of the various people on the stage came out that those were the four of us and not for our mr. bono but and this is one of the understand this is a event which has been well sought after by all the students here and we were very proud to have bono come and talk to you about the good works he does so let me just spend a couple minutes and then wanted his bottom and get going several months ago he he made a speech in here in Washington we talked about the power of partnership and something that he's followed very carefully the power of partnership to end hunger in Africa the power partnership to trend trans and traditional lines the power partnership that brings everyone together to achieve a common goal and that's the reason why we're here tonight it's a power of partnership it's a partnership that we have with a global social enterprise initiative its initiative that we have built by providing funding but you have built through all your hard work that comes across business government in other disciplines so we can collaborate to make a difference I had a pleasure spending an hour with some of the students in the initiative today and after they grilled me for 45 minutes for questions about do we do the right thing and how do we do it I feel energized to go back and realize that they do recognize the good work so we do in a talent that's in the school and in that room and there's a great statement to the work that the initiative does this initiative was built an idea that business success and global good are not mutually exclusive goals in fact they are common goals it's an initiative that will train future leaders whether you're a banker or musician to think outside the borders of your day job and try to do more to think outside yourself and find the issues in the needs where you could make a difference we are we at Bank of America and on behalf of our 270,000 teammates we're very proud to support the global social enterprise initiative here at Georgetown because of lines with what we do as a company we believe it is good business and the right thing to do it's the right thing to do to make a social responsibility a cornerstone of what we do we believe in a power of connections in our company connections to bring together resources diverse ideas and dedicate teams to take on and gel drive change and address the challenges in the world we done that with our fifty billion dollar environmental initiative we've done that through the two hundred million dollars in philanthropy that we do on an annual basis to reduce hunger create jobs and strengthen education across the world whether it's um financial services that we provide for our customers that we think do great things them and help them little eyes with us what we do for our veterans that you know here on Veterans Day including a recently announced initiative with the George W Bush Institute to help workforce development for veterans whether it's through something that I'm most proud of the one and a half million one and a half million volunteer hours our teammates put in every year to help their communities all these things show that our company strives to do what it says to do the right thing the global social enterprise seeks to tap into something that is innate to all of us as leaders we just don't want to be successful we want to have an impact and no one symbolizes that better than our guest of honor Bono obviously a worldwide rockstar he has channeled his fame and his talent to take on some of the world's biggest challenges to end hunger eliminate extreme poverty wipe out AIDS these are all pretty audacious goals and it must be the Irish in them and those of your Irish confronting these challenges he co-founded one an advocacy organization with more than three million members they encourage government leaders to support debt relief and effective poverty fighting programs are saving the lives of millions of people around the world we're proud to announce the Bank of America will support several Georgetown interns this summer at one these internships will write an opportunity for selected students to see firsthand the power partnership the power partnership at action to see firsthand the incredible impact this organization has for example thanks to one and all that Bono and his team have done many things have happened around the world more than six million Africans have access to life-saving aids medicine up from fifty thousand ten years ago malaria cases or deaths have been cut in half in eight African countries 51 million more children or going to school read the initiative that Bono has also found it works in partnership some of the most iconic brands in the world to help raise funds together they channeled almost two hundred million dollars into Africa for AIDS prevention Banas commitment to improving lives have also led to program in Ireland called music generation it's a program he's proud of him we're proud of a Bank of America to help support to put music back in the classrooms in an economy it's had difficulty supporting the culture in arts at the time when a country has gone through tough tough times sabana is clearly an example what bringing people together and the power partnership can achieve so as we think about partnering bonner we have to live up to the one of the Irish rules which is if they're too Irish people one of them can sing and I'm the other guy so I certainly can't partner with bono in his studio but I can partner with him to help make millions of people's lives better around the world this is a responsibility we take series of Bank of America it's a responsibility Georgetown's takes seriously in the Jesuit tradition that you all represent as his partner it's a responsibility bono takes share seriously and all he's done please welcome me in joining it welcome bono to the stage you very much Oh Thank You Bryan a gentleman in the world where what that quality is not always on tap very special man we're we're thrilled the band are thrilled they wanted me to say thank you to to you all so Brian because the banner of committed as you heard to to the idea that every school kid in Ireland will have access to free music lessons if they if they need him so so Brian's been helping us out with with that along with Loretta Glucksman and the American island fund thanks of course especially to President to Joy and this made me feel so welcome here and and to Dean Thomas of the McDonagh School of Business and to JT right there who's learning the chords of Sunday Bloody Sunday instead of doing his homework at the president's son um all right JT [Applause] and I'm moving on I'm a man on you know with you know look at that it's this is going to this is a spirit and that it's going to change the world you have it in here in this room you can feel it and what a room it is by the way Wow I mean u2 has played some nice holes I don't know if this is like a lectern or a pulpit but I feel oddly comfortable and it's a bit of a worry isn't it um so welcome to pop culture studies 101 please take out your notebooks today we're going to discuss why rock stars should never ever be given the microphone at institutions of higher learning you will receive no credits for taking this class uneven street cred it's too late for that I will of course be dropping the odds you know cultural reference to give the impression that I know what you you know where your generation is at I do not I am not sure where I am F and the first existential question in this class might be what am i doing in healio I could be down having my third pint at the tombs [Music] pop-culture references Rockstar does research and I heard I heard that election night I was quite messy on the pint front isn't it amazing how three pints can make everything seem like victory but four or five and you just know you're about to taste defeat and anyway congratulations are in order you know not just for you know for turning out in record numbers and forgetting politics for a minute but for for electing an extraordinary man as president I think you have to say that whatever your political tradition but also yet you you are finally free from the tyranny of negative advertising from both sides those attack ads can you could you bear any more of it by the end can you imagine what it'd be like if we did this for everything you know all the time attack ads about TV shows rival smartphone companies college admissions hello we're Georgetown and we approve this message let me say a few words about some other fine schools you might be considering UVA Thomas Jefferson what have they done to you Syracuse a school whose mascot is a fruit Dook all oh oh let whole old Juke a school that worships the devil [Music] Georgetown you're in with the other guy Georgetown has got on its side everyone knows God is a Catholic Ryan two words Frank Sinatra that proves it it's okay mm anyway I've been hanging on with politicians more than I should admit but I guess I don't really get these ads and I don't really understand politics in that form actually I'd like to hear attack ads on things worth attacking if there was an attack ad on malaria I'd get that because 3,000 people die every day mostly kids of malaria that's of an attack ad on malaria that's of an attack out on mother-to-child transmission of hiv/aids I'd get that choose your enemies carefully because they define you make sure they're interesting enough because trust me you're going to spend a lot of time in the company so let's pick a worthwhile enemy shall we how about all the obstacles to fulfilling human potential not just yours or mine but the world's potential I would suggest you that the biggest obstacle in the way right now is extreme poverty poverty so extreme it brutalizes it vandalizes human dignity poverty so extreme laughs of the concept of equality poverty so extreme it doubts how far we've traveled in our journey of equality the journey that began with Wilberforce taken on slavery and it will not end until misery and deprivation are in the stocks abolitionist suffragettes civil rights workers and human rights activists social movements have always been powerful but the subject of my speechifying tonight is going to point out what is the transfer mated element about this moment on this generation on the chance that you have have to rid the world of the obscenity of extreme poverty and would not be a hell of a way to start the 21st century now the history department might disagree with me and I'll admit I only lasted a few weeks in college but I don't believe that the 21st century started in the year 2000 On January 1 for large parts of the world I think it started in 2011 with the upheaval of the Arab Spring what happened in Egypt was that the pyramid the traditional model of power got inverted the people at the top got upended and the base had its a now the Arab Spring is ongoing it's messy it's dangerous and dangerously wrong in some geographies but what I'm talking about is bigger than Egypt or anyplace else it's a massive shift it's one of those moments that in a hundred years the real historians like those at Georgetown will write about this phenomenon in the history books the base of the pyramid the 99% is taking more control the institutions that have always governed our lives church-state mainstream media music industry are being bypassed and weakened and seriously tested people are holding them to account us to account demanding that they be more open more responsive more effective or else here in the US you've had the tea party hammering big government you had occupied do the same to the jolly bankers of Wall Street social movements are competing and we have to hope that the more enlightened ones will win the day social movements like the one campaign we write were 3.2 million people at last count asking the world to pay attention to the least amongst us the very poorest of the world's poor and the many things we can do to help them and as I just as I'll describe we'll see things are happening in the developing world but think about this particular moment not just Facebook in the heat of Tahrir Square but the peaceful march across the world of mobile phones across the parched lands of the Sahel and the dense rainforests of the Congo technology is transforming things everything everything speeding up everything's opening up now if I can talk about something I actually know a vice for a moment this feeling reminds me a little bit maybe more than a little bit of the arrival of punk rock and the mid 70s you see the clash with a very base of the rock and roll pyramid and overnight gave the finger to the dreadful business the lurgy of the time that was at the top of the pyramid it was called progressive rock epic songs no good lyrics no good hooks great reviews and punk bands made no pretense of being better than the audience punk bands where the audience if you wanted to play great grab a guitar you're in the band virtuosity was out energy was in The Clash were like a public service announcement with guitars and they gave you to the idea that social activism could make for a very musical riot so I just like to point out that none of your professors not a single one not ever has ever drawn or is likely to draw the connection between the Arab Spring and the clash and just a little intermission and okay sharpen your pencils I don't need to lecture you about change changes the air you breathe you are it I think change is your expectation but what might it mean for you when the pyramid and the whole lot else gets turned up on its head turns upside down instead what a huge opportunity that affords you if you're willing to seize it because there's not just one big lever or lever of power anymore there's millions of levers or levers and you've got a lot of them in your hands and when we press them together at the same time that's when things really start happening and but first let me let me hit the brakes before before some of you do and let's acknowledge that it's brutal out there it's brutal out there and by there I mean here right here in America the economy is still in a rough shape and and that slashing sound you hear is a big pair of scissors bearing down on the federal budget defense cuts safety net cuts foreign aid cuts and all these cuts coming if we drive over this fiscal cliff so-called and cuts they hurt somebody bleeds the aid cut alone would mean that nearly two hundred and seventy five thousand people won't get the AIDS treatment they need resulting in yet over 60,000 deaths a quarter of a million more children become AIDS orphans real people real bleeding so that's why you hear us in the one campaign making the case that cuts shouldn't cost lives because can't cost the lives of the poorest of the poor it shouldn't be a hard case to make but it is right now in the halls of Congress and the Senate maybe even here in healio but I put it to you we must not let this economic recession become a moral recession that would be double cruelty [Applause] you know it doesn't just take away your chances here at home this recession but it might therefore take away your generations shot at greatness in the wider world the generation before you outlawed the idea that the color of your skin decided whether they could vote it challenged the idea that your sex could decide your future well this generation has the chance to challenge the absurdity of where you live deciding whether you live the most vivid example the most vivid example of this for me was a a clinic in in Kigali in Rwanda in 2003 long queues of too skinny far too skinny men and women long queues of men and women who are courageous enough to take a HIV test the nurses knowing that a diagnosis was a dead sentence as there were no antiretroviral drugs in that clinic or any other clinic in Rwanda for that matter looking into the eyes of hopelessness I was surprised to find no anger no rage there's a strange acquiescence not so the nurses the nurses who knew that this wasn't a killer disease in Europe or America they'd a very different look in their eyes fast forward five years same clinic whole different scenario nurses beaming with job satisfaction these death camps had become birth camps maternal clinics what they were supposed to be in the first place not just in a city but a whole country who understood the United States had deep respect for their lives and this was not the old paternalism this was partnership because without it partnership that is with a partnership Rwanda would not have managed to get life's life-saving AIDS drugs to 91% it is of the people who need them good leadership as it happens with problems in Rwanda with the leadership there on other fronts but on this they got the AIDS drugs to the people provided by the United States it's a moving story and we are moved by such moving events I'm probably here because of such events but I tell you this in the one campaign ours is not a soft focal lens we try to keep our ardor cold welcome the evidence-based activists can you believe that the dryness of that term I'm proud of the dryness of it evidence-based activists yours truly and I'm here to tell you that your heart is not the most important thing it helps but your heart is not going to solve these problems if your heart hasn't found a rhyme with your head we're not going to get anywhere it's not charity that fires us at the wound campaign or a read it's justice that's what in flames us and just as is higher tougher standard this is hard work I'm not going to soft-pedal it we've meeting sometimes about marketing marketing people are looking for clear simple melody lines you know just a dollar and you can save a life just a minute of your time just an hour of your week it's bollocks it's not true it's crap in truth if you want to turn the world right-side up it's not going to take a minute or an hour or a day it's going to take your whole life and I'm gonna make a bid for that this evening to you so that was the breaks now for the gas and for me where it all started and it all starts where humanity started and where our humanity is needed now it's Africa I mean you should ask a very good question why would you be listening to me talking about Africa Desmond Tutu is much funnier um but he's much busier but I'm just you know this Africa has been an extraordinary adventure for me in privileged Africa wild magnificent magical sometimes maddening Africa but it is extraordinary I realize you're the day that I have been working for Nelson Mandela an Archbishop Desmond Tutu for most of my life think since I was 18 from anti-apartheid to through drop the debt from the fight against hunger to the fight for human rights human rights right to live like a human Nelson Mandela an Archbishop Tutu there's no point in even trying to turn them down by the way particularly tutu because he calls in the big guns on the rare occasion that I have tried to turn him down he has told me that he will personally see to it that I won't get into heaven and I think he might have that kind of pull even if it weren't for the hem I think I'd have felt the pull to Africa because Ireland maybe had some Irish friends there Breton Andrea maybe Irish ambassador they're very cool Ireland has a very living memory of famine and I'm coming out from under colonialization or maybe it's just because Africa is the future and edges from the future sorry well you know we're all interested in the future and you know what the world will look like you know for the kids people say China is the future but if you ask the Chinese they're all head of Africa the largest diaspora of recent times is from China to Africa by 2050 Africa's population is going to be twice the size of China's Africa is going to be big and it's going to be young 60 percent of Africans right now are under 25 can you imagine that all across the continent people are writing new rules for the game African entrepreneurs african civil society a whole new generation of politicians they're the catalysts of change and you can see the impacts in many ways for example 14 of the poorest countries which didn't benefit from the last decades commodity boom but did get on 2 percent debt cancellation a three-fold increase in aid achieved the following extreme poverty on track to be half by 2015 child mortality nearly halved already school enrolment doubled and economic growth 5.5 percent on average for a decade you want data I got data [Music] we used to talk about Asian Tigers and actually for a minute we were talking about a Celtic one and which was nice and lasted but this is not an African tiger this is a lion this is a pride of lions and lots of them are roaring some of them are not some of their in a bad mood injured licking their wounds we all know a wounded lion is a dangerous thing take Molly ethnomusicologists trace the origin of the Blues and therefore rock and roll to Mali in West Africa and I was just there in January at the renowned music festival in the desert festival Dilla desert and the dunes outside of Timbuktu and it's amazing by the way really awesome a month after we left al-qaeda known originally as an sardine they took over the whole north of Mali the north of Mali is about the size of France and now the hotel that we stayed in small little hotel is a Sharia tribunal and music is now against the law I mean they put you into prison for playing music you get beaten for playing the Blues you get beaten to death on occasion for playing the Blues and Mali is a case study for the whole of that vast belt of sand and savanna it called the Sahel and which includes Sudan and Somalia and Nigeria which is enormous country and in this geography we get to see up close what we call the three extremes and it's an unholy trio of extreme poverty extreme climate and extreme ideology very dangerous unholy trio stronger than any chain and harder to break so some of Africa's rising and some of Africa's stuck the question is whether the rising bit will pull the rest of Africa up or whether the other Africa will weigh the continent down which will it be stakes here aren't just about them imagine for a second this last global recession but without the economic growth of China and India without the hundreds of millions of newly minted middle-class folks who now buy American and European goods imagine that think about the last five years rock star preaches capitalism Chuck Wow sometimes I hear myself and I just can't believe it but commerce is real that's what you're about here it's real Aid is just a stopgap commerce entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than the aid of course we know that we need Africa to become an economic powerhouse it's not just in their interests it's in ours it's in our national international security interest to your national security interests in particular we want to see the the region fulfill its potential so secure the cue of the the drum roll and you can if you like enter our protagonist enter the most powerful force for change on the continent enter the strongest loudest clearest voice for progress enter the nerd yes yes I did say the nerd I did say the nerd because it is the Nerds the innovators the programmers who are changing the game not only here in America but even more in places like Africa which are more mobile than we are Africa is the second largest mobile market after Asia this is the ero of the afro nerd and what are these afro nerds up to you know what they're up to they're up ending the pyramid you know about social media and the road it played in the Arab Spring I recently met Wael going in Conan I'm sure you know him he worked in Google and he set up one of the Facebook groups behind the Terios square thing got thrown in jail for it and I was that the founders conference in Dublin and he was explaining the role of Technology and how it has narrowed the gap between the power of the politicians and the power of individuals you see according to Whale technology is turbocharged social movements this is this element I'm telling you about that defines your generation and it works on lots of surfaces for example it is definitely true but the biggest killer of them all bigger than malaria bigger than AIDS bigger than TB probably bigger than all three combined the disease that kills the most people in the world and the world's poor is corruption but we have the vaccine we have the vaccine it's called transparency it's called daylight sunlight information technology has increased Transparency see now there might be some downsides to this like the fact that I'm on my holidays with my kids and my wife and the picture of my sunburned arse turns up on the cover of a tabloid that is true I think bottoms up was the headline should have been rock bottom that's what I would have chosen but the upside is that if someone's up to no good in business or government is getting harder and harder for them to hide it and this is true north as well as south of the Equator isn't it extraordinary that the two parties who are the most important in the transaction that we call Development Assistance ie aid the two most important parties the taxpayer who give the money and the people who benefit from the money are the two people who know the least about it are the two parties you know at least about that's mad I know Raj thinks that and it's going to change biggest argument we always hear against development assistance aid which remember is a tiny fraction of the federal budget less than 1% is that it's efficient a bureaucracy gets in the way and kleptocrats run off with it but now everyone can see what's happening the trajectory of information technology is strange enough more information African citizens are holding their governments and companies to account in Uganda there's they're monitoring elections with mobile phones and cameras and Kenya they're using websites like I paid a bribe dot ke no kiddin to expose officials who are on the take East Africa this initiative citizens started called Toit's er which literally means yes we can in Swahili who know anyway these that they're opening the books on government spending they want to see transparency is driving down pharmaceutical prices it's it's even starting to transform the extractive industries some people here know what I'm talking about oil and mining this is big because there's a lot of wealth and natural resources down onto the ground in these developing countries and this open data can help get that wealth above ground to benefit the people who live over it anyway all of this I'm describing is a start and I'm not even mentioning banking by phone or or pricing information for farmers but here's the catch and it's it's an obvious one technology doesn't accomplish this on its own you can't just drop a cell phone in in the desert and create a oases there's no app for that yet the crucial element is still human element its individual citizens numbering in the millions and determined to stir things up it's the human element that godess to a moment where an extra 50 million African children are going to school today because people in America and other countries got out and marched for dead cancellation same goes for the 6.2 million Africans now getting life-saving AIDS drugs because people in the US were willing to stand up and shout and pay for that those and other victories took not phones in the hand but boots on the ground the boots of everyday activists in every town and city and on college campuses like Georgetown that's really what moves the dial social movement social enterprise because when people get busy and get organized get out there real change happens global change that's a simple equation outside pressure inside movement it's a story of one we're a social enterprise like red the idea red is like the gateway drug to one if you having the time to put on the marching boots and go buy some red [Music] Debra Duggan's here somewhere she rocks runs the show but you know the idea that there's a movement out there when myself or Bill Gates is going into Lobby a president or prime minister to try and get them to keep their commitments to the poorest of the poor that politician is hearing it from thousands hundreds of thousands of people who agree with us and it's harder to ignore them than it is to ignore me as perfect as persuasive as I to think I am ask the congressman who thought it would look good on him he shall remain nameless picking a fight with one he tried to block an important bill and said on the radio he didn't think his constituents thought it important he's bombarded by emails in petitions and then really dirty trick they were waiting for him when he came out of his church on Sunday he threw his hands up in the air I had no idea you people felt so strongly I'm so sorry I now support the bill that's what we do and then of course there's the politicians that you don't have to lobby I just want to stand up and I want to make a major shout out for Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senators Pat Leahy and Norm Coleman where's Norm Coleman all of whom all of whom [Applause] not just great leadership real deep personal commitment and and we shouldn't just thank them we should we should shunt their names across the land and I actually I do not I can't even consider the number of lives that have been transformed and saved by these people and it must be Millions and people are alive because these people exist Gene Sperling is here tonight Raja is here tonight these people are heroes to me this is civic duty with the global citizen in mind and actually you know if George Bush was here and I was daughter Barbara's here I would I would get Matt Damon to kiss him on the lips and I would give him a more sort of Irish macho kind of handshake thing and you know it's incredible it's incredible what would be in George Bush's President Bush's name is is in the history books his name is in the front forward of a book that's written on the end of AIDS greatest health crisis in six hundred years both sides working if Bill Clinton was here at his alma mater well I just get him to make the speech I just get you know the Secretary of explaining stuff it goes it he is just more of a rockstar than I'll ever be I just want to thank Bono here I want to thank Don oh he I want to thank bono for stepping away from the microphone I knew he couldn't rhyme but I'm so glad he can fall back on adding and subtracting as you know I mean the one campaign it might be the one thing all of us can agree on dude [Music] and all of this happens without social media can you imagine what you can accomplish turbocharged the power of these tools the power of technology is that leverage that they give us if we're willing to use it I think we are I I know we are I know you are whether you join one or or or buy read or join an NGO that we work alongside we need you engaged in this fight it's it's the defining struggle of our age and it's it's not just aid which is getting smarter and smarter it's trade it's investment social enterprise it's working with the citizenry to help unlock their own domestic resources so they can do it for themselves think anyone in Africa like say come on I think anyone in Ireland likes aid Germany rebuilt after the Second World War you'll take it though anyway it's not a right-left issue it's a right-wrong issue and America has constantly been on the side of what's right because when it comes down to it this is about keeping faith with the idea of America because America's an idea isn't it I mean Ireland's a great country but it's not an idea Great Britain's a great country it's not an idea that's how we see you around the world as one of the greatest ideas in human history right up there with the Renaissance right up there with crop rotation on the Beatles White Album the idea the American idea some idea the idea is that you and me are created equal it will ensure that an economic recession need not become inequality recession the idea that life is not meant to be endured but enjoyed the idea that if we have dignity if we have justice then leave it to us we will do the rest this country was the first to claw its way out of darkness and put that on paper and God love you for it because there aren't these aren't just American ideas anymore there's no copyright on them you brought them into the world it's a wide world now I know Americans say they've a bit of the world in them and you do the family tree is lots of branches but the thing is the world has a bit of America in it too these truths your truths they're self-evident in us so those people have been talking about today the poor they're not those people they're not them they're us they're you they may be separated apart from you know oceans and and circumstance but as they dream as you dream they value what you value there is no them only us American anthem is not exceptionalism its universalism there is no them only us Ubuntu I am because we are there is no them only us now the Jesuits they know something about this the largeness of spirit this expanded sense enlightened sense of who is your neighbor I'm not a Jesuit my my mother was a Protestant - my father a Catholic he was not off the Jesuit Order he was he was of a whole other order yeah but here's what I know I love him a misson but here's what I know about the Jesuits and Ignatius Loyola he was a soldier right and he was lying on a bed recovering from his wounds when he had what they call a conversion of the heart he saw God's work and the call to do God's work not just in the church in everything everywhere the arts universities the Orient the New World and once he knew about that he couldn't unknown it forced him out of bed and into the world and that's when I'm hoping happens here in Georgetown with you because when you truly accept that those children in some far-off place in the global village of the same value as you in God's eyes or even just in your eyes then your life is forever changed you see something that you can't unsee we have a sense of it from the words of a whale going on I have his words tattooed on my brain the man who stood in Tahrir Square at the start of the 21st century we are going to win because we don't understand politics we are going to win because we don't play their dirty games we're going to win because we don't have a party political agenda we're going to win because the tears that come from our eyes actually come from our heart so we're going to win because we've dreams we're going to win because we are willing to stand up for our dreams we're going to win because the power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you so much [Applause] a kissing George Bush on the lips is going to get me fired my fan is so bottle has agreed to take a few questions so I'd ask that anyone with questions come to the the sent the mic in the center ah please try to hold yourself to one question so that we can get in as many as possible in just in a few minutes thank you yes sir good evening sir sure how are you my name is Peter and I'm a member of the McDonough school class of 1999 and the MBA class of 2010 on behalf of the Alumni thanks for coming to our beloved hilltop this evening before I ask my question I better warn you I used to stand on that stage and sing your songs when I was a group called the Phantom's here so tonight I'll stick to the question I work at an organization that that cares a lot about this the same issues that you do called United Way and works with a lot of companies like Bank of America and companies that are part of red and a lot of times it feels like it's a lot of the same people and companies at the table like we're preaching to the choir so my question for you is what advice you have for all of us to bring new people into the work and where should we go to find them Thanks I was a big fan of the Phantoms your first two albums were great and then you sold out [Music] but uh as regards the companies that works for let me talk about red because you know Reds I think we're going to announce be at 200 million by by this World AIDS Day which is incredible but our whole thing with red getting red partners was it had to work for them you know and if you take two companies car companies or drinks companies we think that if if you if one becomes red and the other doesn't people will will choose the red one so we've just signed up coca-cola and I said to Muhtar Kent who's a man I admire I said to him you know that ad used to have Coke ads life now you can say coke save lives and if that works and they see a bump they're going to keep going red and and I'm sure what it is with Brian I don't answer for him and Bank of America it's that it's about values as well as value and I think that they're this generation is very smart about their choices and they know that they can they can play with the stock market just by what company they support by buying their their stuff and that's power powerful it's good we call it conscious consumerism it's just if you're if you're greedy if you're just a company that's just you know on those attack ads well we'll buy somewhere else and I think that's it it's got to work okay come to speak with us tonight my name is Mary Beth Brosnahan I'm a senior in the school of foreign service here at Georgetown my sister Claire is currently serving in the Peace Corps in southwestern Rwanda and living with three nuns to say that she you're her biggest fan is is it's so much of an underestimate and an understatement but in the first week she was serving in southwestern Rwanda heard the nuns that she was living with and her found this three year old orphan left in a bush with AIDS and she's been taking care of him with it for the last three months so I was just wondering what words you would speak to either this three-year-old boy named Francois or my sister either in words of encouragement or what would you say to Francois about his future oh well thanks to the United States and leadership in this room and in in in Britain I have to say you know in a time of great austerity David Cameron and the Conservative government in coalition with the Liberal Democrats are increasing their a budget it's amazing and so I would say the future for France was in jeopardy depending on if we can get more countries to follow the lead of the United States and I just mentioned Britain because it's not just enough to save a child's life you want to make sure that child has an education girls education is just the most that's them I mean it's a course term but that the greatest sort of return on investment is girls education women transform the landscape of poverty quicker than men and so we so you know it's not just a single boiler it's not just you know global health it's it's agriculture making sure farmers can can deal with difficult climatic conditions you've seen what what happened in you know ran the world this year with the weather it's terrifying if you live in Bangladesh you know not just in New York so you know it's complicated but I do think if you if you wanted to happen and I speak to your generation you know across the world then France was going to have a great future you know ever an entrepreneur on every street in in Rwanda and remember in Ethiopia my name is salami the president is dead now he's passed away he said to me the farmers you know he said are the smartest people in our country and I said why is that he said because if they weren't they'd be dead but like the innovation and the smarts that it has taken Africans to survive difficult conditions means that in the marketplace they are so sharp so hard I feel an affinity with the Irish right there if you've known struggle you're you get good at at at survival thank you hello Bono my name is Diego Gonzalez monster I just want to congratulate you for giving one of the greatest motivational speeches I've heard ever I was also told to tell you that a bench or once is enough but my question is how do you think we can promote investment as opposed to aid as a tool to try to promote economic growth and political change in Africa oh it's happening I mean this is written things I maybe I could have spent longer on it but that was pretty long and Fidel Castro school of speech making um it's the key it really is the key is is it is is investment and you know one of the things we're very pleased with is is a it's called the Millennium Challenge account and it's quite an innovative attitude to aid linking it with the fight against corruption and linking it with kind of business minded approaches to to aid and and and therefore leveraging aid to create the environment for investment the corruption piece is amazing let me tell you and partly he knows a lot about this but but in the dodd-frank bill there is an amendment called Cardin lugar and it makes it law that any extractive industry mining oil gas registered on the new york stock exchange it is law that they have to publish what they paid for those mining rights sounds obvious isn't it the truth of it is is that right now the American Petroleum Institute is suing the SEC to try and overthrew that that is astonishing and I know people in oil companies are amazing people and and and it's very important your energy here and shouldn't be and it's not in this case a political issue Europe and an America Europe is gonna follow this lead are going to make this outlandish opacity and if that word doesn't exist I'd like to suggest it to the committee of the Oxford Dictionary and but you know the the opaque nature of these deals is corruption north of the Equator because when you publish what you pay then the civil societies in those regions get to hold our governments to account that's one of the best things you could do to stimulate business and investment thank you hi my name is Onika Kerry I am a senior in the SMS as well studying international development so this is really close to my heart and I'm a terrible public speaker so I wrote down the question how do we develop the global citizen the perspective and the mindset how do we incentivize people concern with national debt to further prioritize life outside the US and the West how do we preserve sorry I missed that oh the whole question and it sounded good sounds good how do we develop the global citizen basically in the mindset of like the 1% repeat you know is there's an amazing website you should go to it global citizen GP peds they're amazing group they just put on a concert in Central Park and they asked you to to play we couldn't they said no problem we've got Neil Young the Black Keys kanan the you know Jack White is up what but they're there they're really pushing this idea and it's it's it's it's a jump in human consciousness and and I think go on to that website I recommend it they did a great job good evening bronto my name is Vivian I'm originally from Namibia and I just want to say thank you so much for coming here today and speaking to us so candidly about Africa and I was like waving and everything's so excited I'm too you know hear about my continent and what's going on um my question is then mainly just thinking about the continent and thinking about the diversity that exists in Africa and how there seems to be this deechi single story idea of what's going on in Africa and one view of it and I guess this is more of a personal question but I'm sort of asking what kind of advice do you have for young Africans like myself who have just access to a world of knowledge and opportunities and want to be able to take that back without being condescending or without thinking that I know necessarily more just because I've gone to Georgetown or and I'm just really sort of thinking about how we can ease back into the African experience and assist people without being condescending if that if that makes sense yes it makes a lot of sense and I look forward to meeting you when you are president of Namibia which you clearly are going to be condescendingly the key word and not to condescend it's very hard partly what we do is raise the alarm you know little bit you know and we have to when there is deep injustice and crippling poverty we have to raise the alarm because we have to raise the funds so people have to go and put the fires out but we've got to be very careful about how we frame it because Africa is a continent as you point out it's not a continent you know the country and it's so many countries and there's I was trying to say this too tonight you know there's you know there's this roaring successes and then there's you know these kind of terribly frustrating awful and intractable conflicts and it's not even like those two Africa's it's like this you know there's 51 it's it's it's it's it's a it's read I find it quite difficult because when you meet really smart entrepreneurial Africans you know Ozwald Boateng I really admire his fashions are unbelievable he talks to me about this you know he just got to be careful because it's just very easy to caricature and this is calm flex so I am not wanting to condescend you will say I don't quite have we don't quite have the answer and and honestly I look forward to the day when you what's your name again Vivian Vivian we'll be holding this speech because I see the absurdity of Patti standing an election talking because Desmond Tutu's busy and and I serve you and as I served cold to serve you and by first Mendell and then to to and and and I think and you know we're all called to serve each other in that sense by God or sense of common decency Africa of course is a constant we pick on because the real issue that we're fighting with this extreme poverty and it just so happens a lot of its there and and I suppose the wealth of the continent is so such a stark contrast but I'm absolutely sure you are on you're ramping up and as regards your own role I really don't think you need any advice for me I'd like to I'd like to ask I'd like to ask that everyone keep their keep their seats until the members of the stage party have left as well as the distinguished guests here and the lecture fun uh sure we'll release each role so this is for safety and security reasons you say one last thing before we go my favorite singers here Andrea Corr sitting right there their husband Bret [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Georgetown University

Views: 59,212

Keywords: U2 (Musical Group), bono, georgetown university, africa, activism, arab spring

Id: PUZFgBqcYt8

Length: 71min 6sec (4266 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 13 2012