TED Blog » Bill Clinton

Bill and TED’s Excellent Initiative? A great suggestion from Stephen Colbert

Kate Torgovnick — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:53:48 +0000

The description of last night’s episode of The Colbert Report reads: “At the Clinton Global Initiative University Meeting, President Bill Clinton discusses foreign aid, poverty, TED Talks, Twitter and the Colbert Galactic Initiative.”

Bill Clinton on rebuilding RwandaSo how did TED enter the conversation? Colbert suggested that Clinton, who accepted the TED Prize in 2007 with the talk “On rebuilding Rwanda,” team up with us for “Bill and TED’s Excellent Initiative.”

The moment came right after Colbert asked Clinton why he helps people.

“It’s totally selfish,” Clinton admitted. “I do it because I’m good at it and I’m not good enough to play golf on the senior tour, and I don’t play my saxophone as much as I used to … I [help people] because, I think after the life I’ve been given by the American people, I’d be kind of a slug if I didn’t do it.”

“Have you done TED Talks?” Colbert asked, trying to figure out the difference between TED, the Clinton Global Initiative and Burning Man.

“I have, and I like them,” Clinton said.

“Have you ever thought of having the Clinton Global Initiative and TED Talks team up to make Bill and Ted’s Excellent Initiative?” asked Colbert, to big applause.

“That’s a wonderful idea,” replied Clinton.

Special thanks to QuickMeme.com for capturing the moment:

And another TED-related Comedy Central bonus from yesterday’s The Daily Show: Kees Moeliker was a guest in a segment about pubic lice. Last week, we posted his talk “How a dead duck changed my life.”

Paul Farmer on Rwanda

tedconfamy — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:41:34 +0000

This year at TED, TED Prize winner Bill Clinton wished for us to partner with his foundation, the Rwandan government, and Partners in Health to build a sustainable, high-quality rural health system for the whole country. The pilot clinic in the Rwandan district of Rwinkwavu has been a proven success and there is a lot of TED energy going into scaling the system out to the next four districts. There’s a great piece in Forbes today where Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, explains a bit about the project and what led them to Rwanda.

2007 TED Prize winner Bill Clinton on TEDTalks

junecohen — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:21:50 +0000

Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, Bill Clinton says he’s trying to build a better world to hand to his daughter. Unequal, unstable and unsustainable, our world must correct its course, and private citizens (“like me”) can be powerful forces for change. His Clinton Foundation, fresh from its success negotiating down pharmaceutical prices in the developing world, is now running a pilot health care system in Rwanda, based on the work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti. In 18 months, it has shown potential as a model for the entire developing world. Clinton’s TED wish: Help him build this system in Rwanda, to bring world-class health care to a people who have overcome deadly hatred to rebuild their nation. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 25:52)

Get TED delivered:
Subscribe to the TEDTalks video podcast via RSS >>
Subscribe to the iTunes video podcast
Subscribe to the iTunes audio podcast
Get updates via Twitter >>
Join our Facebook fan page >>

Subscribe to the TED Blog >>

TED2007: Day two wrap-up

bgiussani — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:56:10 +0000

Quotes of the day:

Former US president Bill Clinton, TEDprize 2007 winner: "Help me in creating a better future for Rwanda by assisting my
foundation, in partnership with the Rwandan government, to build a
sustainable, high quality rural health system for the whole country,
that can then be a model for other countries. We have a
chance here to prove that a country that almost slaughtered
itself out of existence (while none of us, most of all me, did
anything to help) can practice reconciliation, reorganize itself,
focus on tomorrow and provide comprehensive healthcare to its citizens."

News photographer James Nachtwey, TEDprize 2007 winner: "I
am a witness and I want my testimony to be honest and uncensored. I
also want it to be powerful and eloquent and do justice to the people
I’m photographing."

Biologist E.O. Wilson, TEDprize 2007 winner: "I’ve come on a special mission on behalf of my constituency, the millions of trillions of insects and other small creatures, to make a plea for them. Please keep in mind that if we would wipe out insects from the planet – which we are trying hard to do – the rest of life would disappear within a few months."

Author Michael Pollan: "Looking at the world from other species’ point of view is a cure for human self-importance."

Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold: "I have this picture up on my computer screen, and a woman comes up and asks whether that’s a Jackson Pollock painting, but no, it’s a picture of penguin shit on rocks."

VC John Doerr: "I’m scared. I don’t think we’re gonna make it." (About climate change)

Former Nigerian Finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: "There is an Africa that you don’t hear often about, the Africa that’s changing, the Africa of people that are taking their destiny into their hands."

TED Media Director June Cohen: "The newest digital technologies are returning us to the most ancient form of media — one in which a natural order is restored; our individual stories take center stage, with the rest of the world as a backdrop."

Creative Commons founder Larry Lessig: "We have to recognize they kids different from us. We watch TV, they make TV. It is technology that has made them different."