WEBVTT

00:00:01.451 --> 00:00:04.553
I am an ideas activist.

00:00:06.075 --> 00:00:10.422
That means I fight
for ideas I believe in

00:00:11.406 --> 00:00:13.748
to have their place in the sun,

00:00:13.772 --> 00:00:18.304
regardless of which side
of the equator they were born.

00:00:18.946 --> 00:00:20.345
As well I should.

00:00:20.369 --> 00:00:22.809
I myself am from that part of the world

00:00:22.833 --> 00:00:26.881
often euphemistically referred to
as either "the Global South"

00:00:26.905 --> 00:00:28.316
or "the developing world."

00:00:28.880 --> 00:00:30.269
But let's be blunt about it:

00:00:30.293 --> 00:00:34.040
when we say those words,
what we really mean is the poor world --

00:00:34.064 --> 00:00:37.987
those corners of the world
with ready-made containers

00:00:38.011 --> 00:00:42.268
for the hand-me-down ideas
of other places and other people.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:45.026 --> 00:00:48.884
But I'm here to depart
a little bit from the script

00:00:48.908 --> 00:00:51.158
and to try and convince you

00:00:51.182 --> 00:00:54.395
that these places are actually
alive and bubbling with ideas.

00:00:55.401 --> 00:00:57.639
My real issue is: Where do I even start?

00:00:58.639 --> 00:01:02.467
So maybe Egypt, Alexandria,

00:01:03.147 --> 00:01:04.503
where we meet Rizwan.

00:01:05.076 --> 00:01:06.807
When he walks outside his souk,

00:01:06.831 --> 00:01:09.982
walks into a pharmacy for heart medicine

00:01:10.006 --> 00:01:13.195
that can prevent the blood
in his arteries from clotting,

00:01:13.219 --> 00:01:14.610
he confronts the fact that,

00:01:16.508 --> 00:01:20.023
despite a growing epidemic

00:01:20.047 --> 00:01:25.787
that currently accounts for 82 percent
of all deaths in Egypt,

00:01:25.811 --> 00:01:29.236
it is the medicines that
can address these conditions

00:01:29.260 --> 00:01:32.535
that counterfeiters,
ever the evil geniuses they are,

00:01:32.559 --> 00:01:34.088
have decided to target.

00:01:35.413 --> 00:01:38.312
Counterfeiters making knockoff medicines.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:40.073 --> 00:01:42.134
Luckily for Rizwan,

00:01:42.158 --> 00:01:43.697
my team and I,

00:01:43.721 --> 00:01:48.629
working in partnership with the largest
pharmaceutical company in Africa,

00:01:49.883 --> 00:01:54.920
have placed unique codes --
think of them like one-time passwords --

00:01:54.944 --> 00:01:59.793
on each pack of the best-selling
heart medicine in Egypt.

00:02:00.421 --> 00:02:04.551
So when Rizwan buys heart medicine,

00:02:04.575 --> 00:02:07.845
he can key in these one-time passwords

00:02:07.869 --> 00:02:09.741
to a toll-free short code

00:02:09.765 --> 00:02:14.720
that we've set up on all
the telecom companies in Egypt

00:02:14.744 --> 00:02:16.239
for free.

00:02:16.263 --> 00:02:19.103
He gets a message --
call it the message of life --

00:02:19.913 --> 00:02:22.059
which reassures him

00:02:22.083 --> 00:02:27.373
that this medicine is not one of the 12
percent of all medicines in Egypt

00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:29.917
that are counterfeits.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:31.338 --> 00:02:33.899
From the gorgeous banks of the Nile,

00:02:33.923 --> 00:02:38.902
we glide into the beautiful
Rift Valley of Kenya.

00:02:38.926 --> 00:02:42.884
In Narok Town, we meet Ole Lenku,
salt-of-the-earth fellow.

00:02:42.908 --> 00:02:44.824
When he walks into an agrodealer's shop,

00:02:44.848 --> 00:02:48.530
all he wants is certified
and proper cabbage seeds

00:02:48.554 --> 00:02:50.243
that, if he were to plant them,

00:02:50.267 --> 00:02:52.667
will yield a harvest rich enough

00:02:52.691 --> 00:02:55.446
that he can pay for
the school fees of his children.

00:02:55.470 --> 00:02:56.681
That's all he wants.

00:02:57.250 --> 00:02:58.712
Unfortunately,

00:02:58.736 --> 00:03:01.635
by the reckoning of most
international organizations,

00:03:01.659 --> 00:03:06.677
40 percent of all the seeds
sold in Eastern and Southern Africa

00:03:06.701 --> 00:03:08.176
are of questionable quality,

00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:09.796
sometimes outrightly fake.

00:03:10.836 --> 00:03:12.324
Luckily for Ole,

00:03:12.348 --> 00:03:15.685
once again, our team has been at work,

00:03:15.709 --> 00:03:20.141
and, working with the leading
agriculture regulator in Kenya,

00:03:20.165 --> 00:03:23.570
we've digitized the entire
certification process

00:03:23.594 --> 00:03:25.072
for seeds in that country,

00:03:25.096 --> 00:03:29.085
every seed -- millet, sorghum, maize --

00:03:29.109 --> 00:03:35.693
such that when Ole Lenku
keys in a code on a packet of millet,

00:03:35.717 --> 00:03:40.594
he's able to retrieve
a digital certificate

00:03:40.618 --> 00:03:44.482
that assures him that the seed
is properly certified.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:45.175 --> 00:03:48.445
From Kenya, we head to Noida in India,

00:03:48.469 --> 00:03:50.641
where the irrepressible Ambika

00:03:50.665 --> 00:03:55.728
is holding on very fast to her dream
of becoming an elite athlete,

00:03:55.752 --> 00:03:57.661
safe in the knowledge that

00:03:57.685 --> 00:04:00.214
because of our ingredients
rating technology,

00:04:00.238 --> 00:04:02.923
she's not going to ingest
something accidentally,

00:04:02.947 --> 00:04:05.336
which will mess up her doping tests

00:04:06.593 --> 00:04:10.072
and kick her out of the sports she loves.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:11.084 --> 00:04:14.335
Finally, we alight in Ghana,

00:04:14.359 --> 00:04:16.122
my own home country,

00:04:16.146 --> 00:04:18.960
where another problem needs addressing --

00:04:18.984 --> 00:04:22.125
the problem of under-vaccination
or poor-quality vaccination.

00:04:22.149 --> 00:04:27.623
You see, when you put some vaccines
into the bloodstream of an infant,

00:04:27.647 --> 00:04:30.517
you are giving them a lifetime insurance

00:04:30.541 --> 00:04:34.530
against dangerous diseases
that can cripple them or kill them.

00:04:34.554 --> 00:04:36.459
Sometimes, this is for a lifetime.

00:04:36.483 --> 00:04:41.564
The problem is that vaccines
are delicate organisms really,

00:04:41.588 --> 00:04:44.751
and they need to be stored
between two degrees and eight degrees.

00:04:45.449 --> 00:04:48.577
And if you don't do that,
they lose their potency,

00:04:48.601 --> 00:04:51.108
and they no longer confer the immunity

00:04:51.132 --> 00:04:52.966
the child deserves.

00:04:53.704 --> 00:04:56.441
Working with computer vision scientists,

00:04:56.465 --> 00:05:01.067
we've converted simple markers
on the vials of vaccines

00:05:01.091 --> 00:05:03.535
into what you might regard
as crude thermometers.

00:05:04.190 --> 00:05:07.769
So then, these patterns change slowly
over time in response to temperature

00:05:07.793 --> 00:05:11.475
until they leave a distinct pattern
on the surface of the vaccine,

00:05:11.499 --> 00:05:14.928
such that a nurse,
with a scan of the phone,

00:05:14.952 --> 00:05:19.111
can detect if the vaccine was stored
properly in the right temperature

00:05:19.135 --> 00:05:21.124
and therefore is still good for use

00:05:21.148 --> 00:05:23.360
before administering this to the child --

00:05:24.514 --> 00:05:27.183
literally securing the next generation.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:27.207 --> 00:05:33.082
These are some of the solutions at work
saving lives, redeeming societies,

00:05:33.106 --> 00:05:34.808
in these parts of the world.

00:05:34.832 --> 00:05:36.468
But I would remind you

00:05:36.492 --> 00:05:39.065
that there are powerful ideas behind them,

00:05:39.089 --> 00:05:40.328
and I'll recap a few.

00:05:40.780 --> 00:05:45.359
One, that social trust
is not the same as interpersonal trust.

00:05:46.128 --> 00:05:49.319
Two, that the division between
consumption and regulation

00:05:49.343 --> 00:05:51.571
in an increasingly interdependent world

00:05:51.595 --> 00:05:52.826
is no longer viable.

00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:56.077
And three, that decentralized autonomy,

00:05:56.101 --> 00:05:59.023
regardless of what our blockchain
enthusiasts in the West --

00:05:59.047 --> 00:06:00.391
whom I respect a lot -- say,

00:06:00.415 --> 00:06:05.555
are not as important as reinforcing
social accountability feedback loops.

00:06:05.579 --> 00:06:06.985
These are some of the ideas.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:08.210 --> 00:06:10.701
Now, every time I go somewhere
and I give this speech

00:06:10.725 --> 00:06:14.849
and I make these comments
and I provide these examples,

00:06:14.873 --> 00:06:17.234
people say, "If these ideas
are so damn brilliant,

00:06:17.258 --> 00:06:18.588
why aren't they everywhere?

00:06:18.612 --> 00:06:19.946
I've never heard of them."

00:06:19.970 --> 00:06:21.171
I want to assure you,

00:06:22.219 --> 00:06:24.547
the reason why you have not
heard of these ideas

00:06:24.571 --> 00:06:27.467
is exactly the point I made
in the beginning.

00:06:28.142 --> 00:06:31.514
And that is that there are
parts of the world

00:06:31.538 --> 00:06:34.337
whose good ideas simply don't scale

00:06:34.361 --> 00:06:36.629
because of the latitude
on which they were born.

00:06:36.653 --> 00:06:39.256
I call that "mental latitude imperialism."

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:41.280
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:41.652 --> 00:06:43.441
That really is the reason.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:43.465 --> 00:06:46.689
But you may counter and say, "Well,
maybe it's an important problem,

00:06:46.713 --> 00:06:49.452
but it's sort of an obscure problem
in parts of the world.

00:06:49.476 --> 00:06:51.534
Why do you want
to globalize such problems?

00:06:51.558 --> 00:06:53.070
I mean, they are better local."

00:06:53.094 --> 00:06:54.664
What if, in response, I told you

00:06:55.982 --> 00:06:59.921
that actually, underlying each
of these problems that I've described

00:06:59.945 --> 00:07:02.391
is a fundamental issue
of the breakdown of trust

00:07:02.415 --> 00:07:04.090
in markets and institutions,

00:07:04.114 --> 00:07:07.571
and that there's nothing more global,
more universal, closer to you and I

00:07:07.595 --> 00:07:08.917
than the problem of trust.

00:07:09.502 --> 00:07:15.940
For example, a quarter of all the seafood
marketed in the US is falsely labeled.

00:07:15.964 --> 00:07:18.579
So when you buy a tuna
or salmon sandwich in Manhattan,

00:07:18.603 --> 00:07:22.016
you are eating something that could be
banned for being toxic in Japan.

00:07:22.575 --> 00:07:23.936
Literally.

00:07:23.960 --> 00:07:28.654
Most of you have heard of a time
when horsemeat was masquerading as beef

00:07:28.678 --> 00:07:30.242
in burger patties in Europe?

00:07:30.266 --> 00:07:31.432
You have.

00:07:31.456 --> 00:07:37.171
What you don't know is that a good chunk
of these fake meat patties

00:07:37.195 --> 00:07:41.121
were also contaminated with cadmium,
which can damage your kidneys.

00:07:41.145 --> 00:07:42.400
This was Europe.

00:07:43.026 --> 00:07:46.558
Many of you are aware of plane crashes
and you worry about plane crashes,

00:07:46.582 --> 00:07:50.237
because every now and then, one of them
intrudes into your consciousness.

00:07:50.261 --> 00:07:52.213
But I bet you don't know

00:07:52.237 --> 00:07:56.559
that a single investigation uncovered
one million counterfeit incidents

00:07:56.583 --> 00:07:59.254
in the aeronautical
supply chain in the US.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:59.278 --> 00:08:02.472
So this is a global problem, full stop.

00:08:02.934 --> 00:08:04.085
It's a global problem.

00:08:04.109 --> 00:08:07.369
The only reason we are not addressing it
with the urgency it deserves

00:08:07.393 --> 00:08:08.695
is that the best solutions,

00:08:08.719 --> 00:08:11.570
the most advanced solutions,
the most progressive solutions,

00:08:11.594 --> 00:08:14.948
are, unfortunately, in parts of the world
where solutions don't scale.

00:08:14.972 --> 00:08:16.715
And that is why it is not surprising

00:08:16.739 --> 00:08:20.196
that attempts to create this same
verification models for pharmaceuticals

00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:23.578
are now a decade behind
in the USA and Europe,

00:08:23.602 --> 00:08:25.547
while it's already available in Nigeria.

00:08:25.571 --> 00:08:27.679
A decade, and costing
a hundred times more.

00:08:27.703 --> 00:08:30.533
And that is why, when you walk
into a Walgreens in New York,

00:08:30.557 --> 00:08:32.661
you cannot check the source
of your medicine,

00:08:32.685 --> 00:08:34.846
but you can in Maiduguri
in Northern Nigeria.

00:08:34.870 --> 00:08:36.023
That is the reality.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:36.047 --> 00:08:37.131
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:37.155 --> 00:08:38.336
That is the reality.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:40.488
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:40.512 --> 00:08:42.611
So we go back to the issue of ideas.

00:08:43.222 --> 00:08:46.704
Remember, solutions are merely
packaged ideas,

00:08:46.728 --> 00:08:48.846
so it is the ideas
that are most important.

00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:51.977
In a world where we marginalize the
ideas of the Global South,

00:08:52.001 --> 00:08:56.661
we cannot create globally inclusive
problem-solving models.

00:08:56.685 --> 00:08:59.665
Now, you might say, "Well, that's bad,

00:08:59.689 --> 00:09:03.979
but in such a world
where we have so many other problems,

00:09:04.003 --> 00:09:05.533
do we need another cause?"

00:09:05.557 --> 00:09:07.184
I say yes, we need another cause.

00:09:07.208 --> 00:09:10.706
Actually, that cause will surprise you:
the cause of intellectual justice.

00:09:10.730 --> 00:09:14.206
You say, "What? Intellectual justice?
In a world of human rights abuses?"

00:09:14.230 --> 00:09:15.593
And I explain this way:

00:09:15.617 --> 00:09:19.943
all the solutions to the other problems
that affect us and confront us

00:09:19.967 --> 00:09:21.140
need solutions.

00:09:21.164 --> 00:09:23.414
So you need the best ideas
to address them.

00:09:23.438 --> 00:09:25.434
And that is why today I ask you,

00:09:25.458 --> 00:09:28.760
can we all give it one time
for intellectual justice?

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:30.034 --> 00:09:33.531
(Applause)