Bono received the TED Prize in 2005, and this year he returned to offer an update on the project to eradicate extreme poverty. This blog discusses his presentation - there is no video yet.

Eradicating extreme poverty doesn’t have to be a dream: Bono at TED2013

Posted by: Helen Walters
February 26, 2013

In 2005, the TED Prize was given to Bono. Eight years later, Chris Anderson asks, has there been any progress? The U2 frontman is here to tell us. But first, some good-natured Anglo-Irish joshing. “Chris Anderson asked me if I could put the last 25 years of of anti-poverty campaigning into 10 minutes. That’s an Englishman asking an Irishman to be succinct?” Bono is incredulous; the audience seems happy to laugh at both nations.

Bono’s passion: countering what Nelson Mandela refers to as “that most awful offense to humanity, extreme poverty.” His weapon of choice? Facts. “Forget the rock opera, forget the bombast, my usual tricks,” he says. “The only thing singing today will be the facts. I have truly embraced my inner nerd. Exit the rock star.” He removes his trademark sunglasses. “Enter the evidence-based activist.” He puts his glasses back on upside down. Bono is now a “factivist.” And he has the infographic-filled slides to prove it.

Here’s the surprise: there’s a lot of good news. Since 2000, eight million AIDS patients have been receiving retroviral drugs; malaria deaths have been cut by 75%; child mortality rate of kids under 5 is down by 2.65 million deaths a day. “Let’s think about that,” he says. “Have you read anything, anywhere in the last week that is as remotely as important as that number? It’s great news, and it drives me nuts most people don’t know this.”

More stats. Bono clearly has good graphic designers on staff. The number of people living in soul-crushing poverty declined from 43% in 1990 to 33% in 2000 to 21% by 2010. The audience approves and yet, he acknowledges, the rate is still too high. “If you live on less than $1.25 a day, this is not just data. This is everything. If you’re a parent who wants the best for your kids, and I am, this rapid transition is a route out of despair and into hope.”

Can the trajectory continue? Bono has tracked it forward. “If the trajectory continues, look at the number of people living on a dollar a day by 2030: zero. That can’t be true, can it?” But it is. The Zero Zone is possible, even for troubled countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Think of the benefits if this actually transpires, Bono challenges. For one thing, he jokes, “you won’t have to listen to an insufferable jumped-up Jesus like myself.” And 2030 is just around the corner. “That’s only three Rolling Stones farewell concerts away.” The audience laughs, even more when the singer adds drily, “I’m hoping. They make us look really young.”

Here’s the rub. We can’t take any of this for granted. “The opportunity is real, but so is the jeopardy. We can’t get this done until we accept that we can get this done. Inertia is how we screw this up. Momentum is how we bend the arc of history down towards zero.” But fighting those who would stand in the way of positive progress is a responsibility for everyone. Fighting corruption is easier by means of transparency and openness, and it’s critical that we all play our part. He cites a report from Uganda, where millennials are reporting and exposing government corruption by means of 2G phones and SMS messages.

“Once you have these tools, you can’t not use them. You can’t delete this data from your brain,” says Bono. “You can delete the cliché image from your brain of supplicant impoverished people not having control of their own lives. That’s not true.”

So can everyone here at TED also take up the cause, become so-called “factivists”? Bono’s on the hard sell. “We’re here to try and infect you with this virtuous database virus, the one we call factivism. It’s not going to kill you; it could save countless lives. We in the One campaign would love you to be contagious, spread it, share it, pass it on. By doing so, you will join us and countless others in what I truly believe is the greatest adventure ever taken. The ever-demanding journey of equality. Could we answer that clarion call of Nelson Mandela with science, reason, facts and dare I say it, emotion?”

In conclusion, Bono quotes Wael Ghonim, the former Googler who used social networking and technology tools with such effect in the Egyptian uprising. “I have his words tattooed on my brain,” says Bono. “We’re going to win because we don’t understand politics. We’re going to win because we don’t play their dirty games. We’re going to win because we don’t have an agenda. We’re going to win because the tears that comes from our eyes actually come from our hearts. We’re going to win because we have dreams. We’re going to win because we are willing to stand up for our dreams.”

“He’s right,” Bono reminds us. “We’ll win if we work together as one, the people. The power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.” And, for the man who earlier confessed that applause was his weakness, a standing ovation.

Changesurfer Radio - Buddhism and Transhumanism: The Technologies of Self-Perfection

This is an interesting talk for those interested in transhumanism and its intersection with Buddhist ideas (me thinks the Buddha would not favor transhumanist interventions in our quest for self-perfection, but that's likely my personal bias). It's from 2004, but it has not lost it's relevance.

The book in the image that Dr. Hughes speaks about is Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience by Stephen Hall - and it's actually quite interesting.

Buddhism and Transhumanism: The Technologies of Self-Perfection

Dr. J.

Changesurfer Radio

Posted: Jun 15, 2012

James Hughes, IEET Executive Director, speaking at the August 5, 2004 Faith, Transhumanism and Hope Symposium, Trinity College, University of Toronto. (and yes, seven years later I’m still working on that book…)

Listen/View

TED Talks - Sherwin Nuland: A meditation on hope

A nice TED Talk lecture from a man who is better know for his medical knowledge than his feelings about "softer" ideas.

Surgeon and writer Sherwin Nuland meditates on the idea of hope -- the desire to become our better selves and make a better world. It's a thoughtful 12 minutes that will help you focus on the road ahead.

Nuland was a practicing surgeon for 30 years and treated more than 10,000 patients. Now he is an author and speaker on topics no smaller than life and death, our minds, our morality, aging and the human spirit.

His 1995 book How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter demythologizes the process of dying. Through stories of real patients and his own family, he examines the seven most common causes of death: old age, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, accidents, heart disease and stroke, and their effects. The book, one of 10 he has written, won the National Book Award and spent 34 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. His latest book is The Art of Aging: A Doctor's Prescription for Well-Being.

"He’s delved deeply into his sense of wonder at the human body’s capacity to sustain life and to support our pursuits of order and meaning."

National Public Radio

Tags: TED Talks, Sherwin Nuland, A meditation on hope, inspiration, hope, Psychology, culture, How We Die, aging, death, life

Obama's Inauguration Speech

I thought it was a good speech - no soaring rhetoric or lofty ideals, but realistic, and grounded in the challenges - and opportunties - that face us in the coming years.

Here is the video, from MSNBC, via AlterNet (full text at the link).

Michael Gerson, who authored President George W. Bush's first and second inaugural addresses, wasn't impressed - the word "cliche" is used.

CJ Smith, however (not that he carries the name recognition of Gerson), was impressed.

Robert Schlesinger, at the US News and World Report blog, also liked the speech, seeing in it a classic theme in inaugural speeches.

Tags: Barack Obama, Inauguration, Speech, politics, hope, inspiration, culture

Kurt Barstow - Mindfulness and the Inauguration as a World Event

A nice post from Kurt on today's Inauguration and its world impact. He makes some nice observations about the hopes so many of us have for this new administration, and the realities that threats that face us all, both externally and internally.

Mindfulness and the inauguration as a world event

by Kurt Barstow, LA Religion & Spirituality Examiner

Shephard-Fairey, Barack Obama

It is an awfully big moment. In a certain respect, race has the least to do with it, since, although one is keenly aware of the historical and cultural importance of having Barack Obama take the oath of office as our first black president, race can also be seen as the most superficial division between people. It was Martin Luther King's wish, after all, that there would be a day when people were judged "not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." What makes the moment even bigger than an important first in American politics is not only that we will now have a president that, in the current ethnocentric division of race in this country to whites on the one hand and people of color on the other, we will have a president that for the first time resembles the majority of the world more than any other. That would not be so important in and of itself if we didn't also sense this changing of the guard as a change from an administration that has in many though not all respects been informed by a kind of small-minded provincialism, arrogance in world affairs, and greed. I saw a t-shirt in the window the other day that had a picture of Barack Obama with a list of goals that included something like: 1) win democratic nomination, 2) Jan. 20th-take the oath of office, and 3) Jan. 21-world domination. In the context of the rest of the t-shirts, domination taken literally was not what was meant but rather expressed something hopeful about the new president's ability to actually address the pressing problems of the world, to reposition America as a part of rather than a unilateral actor in the world, to be seen again as a benevolent force in the world. As a representative of the administration, Hillary Clinton's opening statement in her confirmation hearing as Secretary of State was certainly heartening. She mentioned interdependence several times, emphasized peace and diplomacy, the importance of the threat of climate change, and made it clear that we had a role in the world to reduce conflict, disease, and global poverty. We may be, almost surely are, moving into a new era of global concern and cooperation that is sorely needed.

In my last article I wrote about mindfulness as an important capacity to have in the conflict stage of relationships and cited two long quotes from Jon Kabat-Zinn's book Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness (Hyperion, 2005). By chance I began reading the section on healing the world and the body politic as I was thinking of what to write for this occasion. What he has to say on the subject seems to me to be especially appropriate as a reflection for this moment of change and our possibilities for the future. I will again quote from it at length below and let the words speak for themselves.

Read the whole column.

Tags: Kurt Barstow, Mindfulness, Inauguration, World Event, Politics, hope, Buddhism, Barack Obama, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Coming to Our Senses, Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness

U2 - Beautiful Day (with Lyrics)

The world is a mess - but today is a beautiful day - don't let it get away.

Tags: U2, Beautiful Day, music, hope, inauguration day

Martin Luther King, Jr. - "I Have a Dream"

Tomorrow, that dream comes one day closer to fruition.

Tags: Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream, inspiration, hope, race, culture