0:15 [Music]
0:19 welcome to Thailand now when I was a
0:22 young man 40 years ago the country is
0:24 very very poor with lots and lots and
0:26 lots of people living in poverty we
0:29 decided to do something about it but we
0:31 didn't begin with the welfare program or
0:35 a poverty reduction program but we began
0:38 with a family planning program following
0:41 a very successful maternal child health
0:44 activity sets of activities so basically
0:46 no one would accept family planning if
0:48 that children didn't survive
0:50 so the first step get to the children
0:52 get to the mothers and then follow up
0:54 with family planning not just child
0:56 mortality alone you need also Family
0:58 Planning now let me take you back as to
1:01 why we needed to do it in my country
1:04 that was the case in 1974 seven children
1:06 four family tremendous growth at three
1:07 point three percent
1:10 there was just no future we needed to
1:12 reduce the poverty interest rate so we
1:14 said let's do it the women said we agree
1:17 we'll use pills but we need a doctors to
1:19 prescribe the pills and we had very very
1:22 few doctors so we didn't take no as an
1:24 answer we took no as a question so we
1:26 went to the nurses and the midwives who
1:28 were also women and did a fantastic job
1:31 at explaining how to use the pill that
1:35 was wonderful but it covered only 20% of
1:36 the country what do we do for the other
1:38 80% leave them alone and say well
1:40 they're not medical personnel no we
1:43 decided to do a bit more so we went to
1:45 the ordinary people that you saw
1:48 actually below that yellow sign I wish
1:50 they hadn't wiped that because there was
1:52 Coca Cola that
1:55 we were so much bigger than coca-cola in
1:57 those days and no difference the people
1:59 they chose were the people we chose
2:02 they're well known in the community they
2:04 knew that customers who always right and
2:05 they were terrific and they practiced
2:07 their family planning themselves so they
2:08 could supply pills and condoms
2:11 throughout the country in every village
2:13 of the country so there we are we went
2:15 to the people who were seen as the cause
2:18 of the problem to be the solution so
2:19 wherever there were people and you can
2:21 see much from the women selling things
2:23 here's the floating market selling
2:26 bananas and crabs and also
2:28 contraceptives wherever you find people
2:30 you will find contraceptives in Thailand
2:33 and then we decided why not get to
2:35 religion because in the Philippines the
2:37 Catholic Church was pretty strong and
2:40 type he were Buddhist so we went to them
2:41 and they said look could you help us so
2:43 I'm there the one in blue not the yellow
2:47 holding a ball of holy water for the
2:49 monk to sprinkle holy water on pills and
2:52 condoms for the sanctity of the family
2:54 and this picture was sent throughout the
2:56 country so some of the monks in the
2:57 villages were doing the same thing
2:59 themselves and the women was saying no
3:01 wonder we have no side effects it's been
3:05 rest that was that perception and then
3:08 we went to teachers you need you need
3:11 everybody to be involved in trying to
3:13 provide whatever it is that makes
3:16 humanity a better place so we were to
3:17 the teachers over quarter of a million
3:19 were taught about family planning with
3:22 new alphabet a v Ferber C for condom
3:24 either I or D Viva vasectomy and then we
3:26 had a snakes and ladders game when you
3:28 throw dice if you land on anything Pro
3:29 Family Planning you move ahead like
3:31 mother takes the pill every night put
3:33 very good mother move it uncle buys
3:35 condom very good uncle move ahead and
3:37 who gets Stranglers use condom come back
3:38 that again
3:41 again education class entertainment and
3:44 their kids were doing it in schools too
3:46 we had real iterations with condoms
3:47 we had children's condom blowing
3:50 championship and before long the condom
3:53 was known as the girl's best friend in
3:55 Thailand for poor people diamonds don't
3:57 make it so the condom is the girl's best
4:00 friend we introduced our first
4:03 microcredit program in 1975 and the
4:05 women who organized it said we only want
4:07 to lend to women who practice family
4:09 planning if you're pregnant take care of
4:10 your pregnancy if you're not pregnant
4:13 you can take a load not from us and that
4:17 was run by them and after 35 36 years
4:19 it's still going on it's part of the
4:21 village Development Bank it's not a real
4:22 Bank but so fun
4:24 microcredit and we didn't need a big
4:26 organization to run it we were run by
4:28 the villages themselves and you probably
4:30 hardly seen a Thai man there it's always
4:33 women women women women and then we
4:35 thought we'd help America because
4:36 America has been helping everyone
4:46 and this is on the 4th of July we
4:48 decided to provide resecting me to all
4:50 men but in particular American men to
4:52 the front of the queue rideable to the
4:54 ambassador's residence during his Van
4:57 Daan and the Hotel gave us the ballroom
4:57 for it
5:03 very appropriate room and since it was
5:05 near lunchtime they said alright we'll
5:07 give you some lunch of course it must be
5:09 American : you've got two brands Coke
5:11 and Pepsi and then the food
5:13 it's either hamburger or hotdog and I
5:16 thought a hotdog would be more symbolic
5:19 and and here is this then young man for
5:22 Willy boom who worked for USAID
5:24 obviously he's had this perspective me
5:26 because his hotdogs half-eaten and he
5:28 was very happy it made a lot of news in
5:30 America and it angered some people also
5:32 I said don't worry come over I'll do the
5:36 whole lot of you and what happened you
5:39 know all this thing from 7 children to
5:41 1.5 children population growth rate of
5:44 3.3 to 0.5 you could call it the Coca
5:46 Cola approach if you like it was exactly
5:48 the same thing I'm not sure what a Coca
5:50 Cola followed us so we followed Coca
5:53 Cola but we're good friends and so
5:55 that's the case of everyone joining in
5:57 we didn't have a strong government we
5:59 didn't have lots of doctors but it's
6:01 everybody's job who can change attitude
6:03 and behavior then age came along and hit
6:06 Thailand and we had to stop doing a lot
6:08 of good things to fight AIDS but
6:09 unfortunately the government was in
6:12 denial denial denial so I work wasn't
6:14 effective so I thought well if you can't
6:15 go to the government go to the military
6:18 so I went to the military and ask to
6:20 borrow three hundred grey do stations
6:22 they have more than the government and
6:23 they got more guns than the government
6:26 so I asked him could they help us in our
6:29 fight against HIV and after I gave them
6:31 statistics they said yes okay you can
6:32 use all the radio stations television
6:35 stations and that's when we went onto
6:37 the airwaves and then we had a new prime
6:39 minister soon after that and he said
6:42 I could you come and join he asked
6:43 me in because he liked my wife a lot so
6:46 I said ok he became the chairman of
6:48 National AIDS committee and increased
6:50 the budget 50 for every ministry even
6:52 judges had to be involved with AIDS
6:54 education everyone and we said the
6:56 public institutions religious
6:58 institutions schools everyone was
7:02 involved and here every media person had
7:05 to be trained for HIV and we gave every
7:07 station half a minute extra for
7:09 advertising to earn more money so they
7:11 were happy with that and then AIDS
7:14 education in all schools starting from
7:16 University and these are high school
7:18 kids teaching high school kids and the
7:20 best teachers were the girls not the
7:22 boys and they were terrific and these
7:24 girls who go around teaching about safe
7:27 sex and HIV were known as mother Teresa
7:30 and then we went down one more step
7:32 these are primary school kids third
7:34 fourth grade going to every household in
7:36 the village every household in the whole
7:38 of Thailand hearing aids information and
7:41 a condom - every household given by
7:43 these young kids and no parents objected
7:45 because we were saved trying to save
7:48 lives and this was a life saver
7:49 and we said everyone needs to be
7:52 involved so you have the companies also
7:54 realizing that six start on work and
7:56 debt customers don't buy so they all
7:58 trade and then we have this captain
8:01 condom with his Harvard MBA going to
8:03 schools and nice spots and they'd have
8:05 to you need a symbol of something you
8:07 know in every country every program you
8:09 need a symbol and this is probably the
8:16 and then we gave condoms up everywhere
8:18 in the street everywhere everyone in
8:21 taxis you get condoms and also in
8:23 traffic the policemen give you hundred
8:29 our cops-and-robbers program so can you
8:30 imagine New York policemen giving out
8:33 calm down of course I can and they'd
8:35 enjoy it immensely I'd see them standing
8:37 around right now everywhere imagine if
8:39 they had come down that's giving out to
8:41 all sorts of people and then your new
8:45 change we had hair ban clothing and the
8:47 condom for your mobile phone during the
8:51 rainy season and these were the condoms
8:57 that we introduced one says weapon of
8:59 mass protection we found you know
9:00 somebody here was searching for the
9:02 weapon of mass destruction well we have
9:04 found the weapon of mass protection the
9:06 condom and then it says here with the
9:08 American flag don't leave home without it
9:09 it
9:11 but I have some to give out afterwards
9:14 but let me warn you these are tie size
9:21 and so so you can sue you can see that
9:23 condoms can condoms can do so many
9:25 things look at this I give this to Al
9:28 Gore and to build senior also stop
9:33 global warming use condoms and then this
9:35 is the picture I mentioned to you that
9:38 the weapon of mass protection and let
9:41 the next Olympics save some lives why
9:47 just run around and then and then
9:50 finally in Thailand where Buddhists we
9:52 don't have a God so instead we say in
9:56 rubber we trust so you can see that we
9:57 added everything to I endeavor to make
9:59 life better for the people we had
10:01 condoms in all the refrigerators in the
10:03 hotels in the schools because alcohol
10:06 impairs judgment and then what happened
10:08 after all this time everybody joined in
10:12 according to the UN it declined by new
10:14 cases of HIV declined by 90% and
10:17 according to the World Bank seven point
10:19 seven million lives were saved otherwise
10:20 there wouldn't be many Thais walking
10:22 around today so just showed you you
10:24 could do something about it
10:25 90 percent of the funding came from
10:27 Thailand there was political commitment
10:30 some financial commitment and everybody
10:32 joined in the fight so just don't leave
10:34 it to the specialists and doctors and
10:36 nurses we all need to help and then we
10:38 decided to help people out of poverty
10:40 now that we got it's somewhat out of the
10:42 way this time not with government alone
10:44 but in cooperation with the business
10:46 community because poor people are
10:48 business people who lack business skills
10:51 and access to credit those are the
10:53 things to be provided by the business
10:54 community we're trying to turn them into
10:57 barefoot entrepreneurs little business
10:59 people the only way out of poverty is
11:02 through business enterprise so that was
11:04 done so the money goes from the company
11:06 into the village via tree planting so
11:08 it's not a free gift they plant the
11:09 trees and the money goes into their
11:11 microcredit fund which we call the
11:13 village development back everybody joins
11:15 in and they feel they own the bank
11:17 because they've brought the money in and
11:20 before that you can borrow the money you
11:22 can need to be trained and we believe in
11:24 what will help the poor those are living
11:27 in poverty access to credit must be a
11:29 human right access to credit mas
11:29 mas
11:31 human right otherwise they'll never get
11:33 out of poverty and then before getting alone
11:34 alone
11:36 you must be trained here's a what we
11:39 call a barefoot MBA teaching people how
11:40 to do business so that when they borrow
11:42 our money they'll succeed with the
11:43 business so these are some of the
11:46 Bissell's mushrooms crabs vegetables
11:49 trees fruits and this very interesting
11:52 nike ice cream and Nike biscuits this is
11:54 a village sponsored by Nike
11:56 they said they should stop making shoes
11:58 and clothes make these better because we
12:01 can afford them and then we have silk
12:04 tie silk now we're making Scottish
12:06 patents as you can see on the left to
12:08 sell to all people or Scottish ancestors
12:10 so anyone sitting in and watching TV can
12:13 in touch with me and then this is our
12:16 answer to Starbucks in Thailand coffee
12:18 and condoms see Starbucks keeps you
12:23 awake we keep you awake and alive can
12:24 you imagine at every Starbucks that you
12:27 can also get condoms so you can order
12:30 your countdown to the cappuccino and
12:33 then now finally in education we want to
12:35 change the school as being underutilized
12:38 into a place where it's a lifelong
12:40 learning center for everyone we call
12:42 this our school-based integrated rural
12:44 development and it's a center a focal
12:46 point for economic and social
12:50 development so we do the school make it
12:53 serve the community needs and here is a
12:55 bamboo building all of them are bamboo
12:58 this is a geodesic dome made of bamboo
13:01 and I'm sure Buckminster Fuller would be
13:04 very very proud to see a bamboo geodesic
13:07 dome and we use vegetables around the
13:08 school ground so they raise their own
13:11 vegetables and then finally I firmly
13:14 believe if we want the MDGs to work the
13:16 Millennium Development Goals we need to
13:19 add family planning to it of course our
13:21 mortality first and then family planning
13:23 everyone needs family planning service
13:25 it's underutilized so we have now found
13:27 the weapon of mass protection and we
13:29 also ask the next Olympics to be
13:33 involved in saving lives and then
13:35 finally that is our network and these
13:42 thank you very much indeed [Applause]
