William Gates Sr Rotary International Convention

Rotary International Convention

June 19, 2007
Remarks by William H. Gates Sr.

Thank you, Bill, for that kind introduction.

"Who am I? Why am I here?" When Admiral James Stockdale asked himself those questions in a vice presidential debate a few years ago, Americans took it as a sign that he'd gone completely bonkers. I assure you that I am in full possession of my faculties, but I have a great amount of sympathy for the admiral.

Often, when I am invited to speak at important events like this one, I wonder why on earth any organization would seek me out to hear what I have to say.

Who am I? Just a guy from the little town of Bremerton, Washington. I am the grown-up version of a kid who learned about right and wrong from my parents, my basketball coach, and my next-door-neighbor, a small businessman who led the Boy Scout troop. Yet somehow, I have spent the last decade traveling around the world, thinking about monstrous problems like AIDS in Africa and abject poverty in Asia.

Why? Because I have been extremely lucky, true. I attended the best schools. I chose a great career. And not everybody's son grows up to start Microsoft. But it's also because we live in a world that is shrinking—and fast. The distance between Bremerton and, say, Burundi has never been so surmountable.

I am proud of the little ways I have been able to take my small town upbringing and apply it to some of the most vexing challenges in the world.

And that is exactly why I think Rotary is one of the finest organizations on the planet. You are a massive collection of energetic volunteers steeped in local values. An army of activists who place service above self.

Separately, your clubs are the civic lifeblood of big cities and small towns all over the world. Yet, together, you have turned your combined attention to a new locale: the global neighborhood.

You are all a testament to the idea that the world should be as big in our minds as it is on a map. You are beacons of a simple truth—that the key ingredient to making a peaceful world is the understanding that all people, no matter where they live, are equally precious.

That is the principle behind all the work the Gates Foundation does. And that is why you have come from countries all over the world to Salt Lake City this weekend.

You understand that your obligations extend out from your home town, to your country, and ultimately to your world.

But do you also understand that Rotary can be to boys and girls in poor countries what my coach back in Bremerton was to me 70 years ago?

OK. I know what you're saying. "Isn't that pretty pie in the sky?" Isn't Burundi still far away from Bremerton? And how can I be as important as Bill Gates's basketball coach to a child I don't even know?

Well, I think I have a convincing answer to the charge of naïve optimism. In a word, it's "polio".

It is almost impossible to fully appreciate how successful Rotary has been in fighting that disease. It boggles the mind to try to make sense of how dramatically you've changed millions and millions of lives.

Here is how I try to imagine it:

When I found out that my wife was pregnant with our first child—I was overjoyed, but I was also afraid. Jonas Salk had yet to announce his polio vaccine. The horrible epidemic of 1952 was fresh in my mind. I was terrified that my baby girl would sneak a dip in a swimming pool or take a drink from a water fountain. I had nightmarish visions of my daughter hooked up to an iron lung.

Now, due mostly to your astounding, 20-year campaign, the world is right on the brink of eliminating polio entirely. Not just in Washington state, where my daughter is raising her children without giving polio even a passing thought. Not just in the United States, or in the developed world. But in every corner of the globe. In Peru. In China. In Somalia.

Mothers and fathers in those countries still have too much to worry about. AIDS. Malaria. Tuberculosis. But they don't have to worry about deadly, crippling polio anymore, and that is why I can afford to be optimistic—why I am certain—that one day we'll be able to say the very same thing about AIDS, and malaria, and TB.

How does Rotary do it?

You take the passion and commitment of hundreds of thousands of individuals, and you channel it so it can have real impact.

A lot of people say the biggest problem in today's world is complacency. People just don't care enough, they argue. I disagree.

It's not that people don't care. It's that, when faced with the enormity of problems like disease, poverty, and starvation, they don't know what to do.

Who among us doesn't find it revolting that people are still dying in Afghanistan from polio? But our revulsion, no matter how deep, isn't enough. We need a way to act on it. And that is what Rotary provides.

Think of the complexity issue this way: Let's say you belong to my local club, Seattle Four, and you want to refurbish a park. You call your friends, collect money, buy a swing set, and get your members out there on a Saturday morning to install it. That's relatively easy.

But it is exponentially more complicated to refurbish the public health system of a country like Uganda. What is the first step? I certainly have no idea, and I suspect most of you don't either.

In the global context, that's what Rotary is for. It gives people a way to convert their resources into results for the people who need them most.

What are the resources that Rotary uses so efficiently? I like to say that you have three things to offer: your wallets, your legs, and your lungs.

Your wallets. That's easy to understand. Through the generosity of its members, Rotary has contributed an astronomical sum—well over $500 million—to the campaign to eradicate polio.

The money part is essential. This can't be done without money. Fighting poverty and disease is an exceedingly difficult undertaking, and it isn't cheap. Through Rotary International, the money you have contributed makes a dramatic difference.

But all the money in the world doesn't matter if it isn't spent the right way. That's where your legs come in. There simply aren't enough people on the ground in many poor countries to run effective public health campaigns.

But Rotary does have people—more than 1 million volunteers—and it can send them where they're needed most.

Every year, a few dozen members of my local Seattle club use their legs in Ethiopia, where they walk door to door administering the polio vaccine. When they come home, I'm always struck by how they describe their experiences: Without exception, they say that Ethiopia changed their lives more than they changed the lives of the Ethiopian families they met.

That is one of the precious benefits of Rotary's service above self mantra. If you really believe it, if you practice it, you quickly find that service and self become quite indistinguishable. In fact, service gives deeper meaning to self.

Finally, you have your lungs, and they are powerful. Any group that can get 15,000 people at its conference has a loud voice. Any group with thousands of clubs spread throughout the world has a voice that travels far. When Rotary started talking about polio, people listened. Dozens of major partners joined the effort.

You have that power as Rotarians. I know that when your representatives and your senators come back from Washington to their home districts, the first place they go is to your Rotary meetings. For them, your voice is the voice of their constituents.

If you show them that your priority is more commitment to foreign aid, then that will become their priority. You have the ability to move the needle on this issue. And by you, I don't mean the general public. It's more focused than that. It is just you, Rotarians. If you speak with one voice, it will be heard.

So as you gather here today, I would submit that you have two big tasks ahead of you. First, you need to keep pushing on polio until the task is done. I have been celebrating your achievements, and you deserve these plaudits and more, but we cannot forget: Polio still destroys families in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. When you wipe it out there, then it will REALLY be time to celebrate.

Second, you have to devise your next campaign. You have to decide how to use your wallets, your legs, and your lungs in the future. Given what I know about Rotary, I want to urge you in the strongest possible terms: THINK BIG.

THINK BIG, because anything less would be a waste of your potential.

THINK BIG, because thinking any smaller would betray the optimism you have earned the right to.

THINK BIG, because big ideas are what the world needs from you.

I learned about thinking big from my son and daughter-in-law.

About 10 years ago, when Bill and Melinda were just getting interested in global health issues, they invited some of the world's leading scientists to a dinner so they could learn about the field.

In particular, they wanted to know why so many children in poor countries weren't getting the basic vaccines we take for granted in this country—the standard ones for diseases like measles, polio, and tetanus.

For almost three hours, they talked about the ins and outs of immunology and public health infrastructure. Towards the end of dinner, Bill and Melinda asked the scientists to come back to them with ideas for what they called "breakthrough solutions". As they got up from the table, Bill made his point again. "Don't be afraid to think big," he told his guests.

In part as a result of that meeting, a worldwide partnership called the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, or GAVI, started taking shape. The idea was to make sure that kids in poor countries get the same vaccines that my grandkids get. That is what it means to value all lives equally.

GAVI launched in 1999, and the big thinking behind it has paid off with big results. When GAVI was started, immunization rates in poor countries were on the decline. Today, thanks to GAVI, they're at all-time highs. Here are some of the stats:

• approximately 28 million additional children have been protected with basic vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis
  
  
• approximately 126 million additional children have been immunized against hepatitis B
  
  
• approximately 20 million additional children have been immunized against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
  

GAVI is clearly a great example of valuing all lives equally AND thinking big.

For Rotary, when I say think big, I am not suggesting a scattershot approach. You can think big while remaining focused. Your polio campaign is massive, yet targeted. GAVI is about vaccines, not vaccines and drugs and health education and preventive primary care and bed nets and condoms.

To address the crises that plague our world in all their complexity, we need to carve out pieces of the problem and develop expertise. We need to learn how to use our strengths.

You know better than I do where your exact strengths lie, and based on that the areas in which you should develop expertise. That’s why you have meetings like this one, to make those decisions.

But I hope that as you ponder that question, you never underestimate your strengths. I hope you set your sights high. Especially in this age of unprecedented innovation, we have the ability to solve big problems like never before.

Think about what you did with polio in less than 25 years. Then add all the experience and wisdom you gained from that effort. Then add to that the advantages of new scientific discoveries and new technology over the last few decades. Then add to that the fact that the world is paying attention to its hungriest, poorest, and sickest people more than ever before. Put all that together, and then you have a picture of what you can accomplish.

If you share this faith in the future, your reach must exceed your grasp.

Who are you?

You are parents, basketball coaches, and next door neighbors. You are leaders. You are good people who feel a responsibility to serve.

Why are you here?

You are here because you understand that in our century, you are called to serve new neighbors. Your neighbors are people in poor countries that once seemed far away—people who once seemed so different from us.

But, like us, they have mothers who love them, children who need them, and friends who cherish them. And, as Rotarians, you know that we simply ought to help them.

That is why you are here.

Thank you.