| Thank you so much . It 's really scary to be here among the smartest of the smart . I 'm here to tell you a few tales of passion . There 's a Jewish saying that I love . What is truer than truth ? Answer : The story . I 'm a storyteller . I want to convey something that is truer than truth about our common humanity . All stories interest me , and some haunt me until I end up writing them . Certain themes keep coming up : justice , loyalty , violence , death , political and social issues , freedom . I 'm aware of the mystery around us , so I write about coincidences , premonitions , emotions , dreams , the power of nature , magic . In the last 20 years I have published a few books , but I have lived in anonymity until February of 2006 , when I carried the Olympic flag in the Winter Olympics in Italy . That made me a celebrity . Now people recognize me in Macy 's , and my grandchildren think that I 'm cool . ( Laughter ) Allow me to tell you about my four minutes of fame . One of the organizers of the Olympic ceremony , of the opening ceremony , called me and said that I had been selected to be one of the flag-bearers . I replied that surely this was a case of mistaken identity because I 'm as far as you can get from being an athlete . Actually , I was n't even sure that I could go around the stadium without a walker . ( Laughter ) I was told that this was no laughing matter . This would be the first time that only women would carry the Olympic flag . Five women , representing five continents , and three Olympic gold medal winners . My first question was , naturally , what was I going to wear ? ( Laughter ) A uniform , she said , and asked for my measurements . My measurements . I had a vision of myself in a fluffy anorak , looking like the Michelin Man . ( Laughter ) By the middle of February , I found myself in Turin , where enthusiastic crowds cheered when any of the 80 Olympic teams was in the street . Those athletes had sacrificed everything to compete in the games . They all deserved to win , but there 's the element of luck . A speck of snow , an inch of ice , the force of the wind , can determine the result of a race or a game . However , what matters most -- more than training or luck -- is the heart . Only a fearless and determined heart will get the gold medal . It is all about passion . The streets of Turin were covered with red posters announcing the slogan of the Olympics . Passion lives here . Is n't it always true ? Heart is what drives us and determines our fate . That is what I need for my characters in my books : a passionate heart . I need mavericks , dissidents , adventurers , outsiders and rebels , who ask questions , bend the rules and take risks . People like all of you in this room . Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters . ( Laughter ) They only make good former spouses . ( Laughter ) ( Applause ) In the green room of the stadium , I met the other flag bearers : three athletes , and the actresses Susan Sarandon and Sophia Loren . Also , two women with passionate hearts . Wangari Maathai , the Nobel prizewinner from Kenya who has planted 30 million trees . And by doing so , she has changed the soil , the weather , in some places in Africa , and of course the economic conditions in many villages . And Somaly Mam , a Cambodian activist who fights passionately against child prostitution . When she was 14 years old , her grandfather sold her to a brothel . She told us of little girls raped by men who believe that having sex with a very young virgin will cure them from AIDS . And of brothels where children are forced to receive five , 15 clients per day , and if they rebel , they are tortured with electricity . In the green room I received my uniform . It was not the kind of outfit that I normally wear , but it was far from the Michelin Man suit that I had anticipated . Not bad , really . I looked like a refrigerator . ( Laughter ) But so did most of the flag-bearers , except Sophia Loren , the universal symbol of beauty and passion . Sophia is over 70 and she looks great . She 's sexy , slim and tall , with a deep tan . Now , how can you have a deep tan and have no wrinkles ? I do n't know . When asked in a TV interview , " How could she look so good ? " She replied , " Posture . My back is always straight , and I do n't make old people 's noises . " ( Laughter ) So , there you have some free advice from one of the most beautiful women on earth . No grunting , no coughing , no wheezing , no talking to yourselves , no farting . ( Laughter ) Well , she did n't say that exactly . ( Laughter ) At some point around midnight , we were summoned to the wings of the stadium , and the loudspeakers announced the Olympic flag , and the music started -- by the way , the same music that starts here , the Aida March . Sophia Loren was right in front of me -- she 's a foot taller than I am , not counting the poofy hair . ( Laughter ) She walked elegantly , like a giraffe on the African savannah , holding the flag on her shoulder . I jogged behind -- ( Laughter ) -- on my tiptoes , holding the flag on my extended arm , so that my head was actually under the damn flag . ( Laughter ) All the cameras were , of course , on Sophia . That was fortunate for me , because in most press photos I appear too , although often between Sophia 's legs . ( Laughter ) A place where most men would love to be . ( Laughter ) ( Applause ) The best four minutes of my entire life were those in the Olympic stadium . My husband is offended when I say this -- although I have explained to him that what we do in private usually takes less than four minutes -- ( Laughter ) -- so he should n't take it personally . I have all the press clippings of those four magnificent minutes , because I do n't want to forget them when old age destroys my brain cells . I want to carry in my heart forever the key word of the Olympics -- passion . So here 's a tale of passion . The year is 1998 , the place is a prison camp for Tutsi refugees in Congo . By the way , 80 percent of all refugees and displaced people in the world are women and girls . We can call this place in Congo a death camp , because those who are not killed will die of disease or starvation . The protagonists of this story are a young woman , Rose Mapendo , and her children . She 's pregnant and a widow . Soldiers have forced her to watch as her husband was tortured and killed . Somehow she manages to keep her seven children alive , and a few months later , she gives birth to premature twins . Two tiny little boys . She cuts the umbilical cord with a stick , and ties it with her own hair . She names the twins after the camp 's commanders to gain their favor , and feeds them with black tea because her milk cannot sustain them . When the soldiers burst in her cell to rape her oldest daughter , she grabs hold of her and refuses to let go , even when they hold a gun to her head . Somehow , the family survives for 16 months , and then , by extraordinary luck , and the passionate heart of a young American man , Sasha Chanoff , who manages to put her in a U. S. rescue plane , Rose Mapendo and her nine children end up in Phoenix , Arizona , where they 're now living and thriving . Mapendo , in Swahili , means great love . The protagonists of my books are strong and passionate women like Rose Mapendo . I do n't make them up . There 's no need for that . I look around and I see them everywhere . I have worked with women and for women all my life . I know them well . I was born in ancient times , at the end of the world , in a patriarchal Catholic and conservative family . No wonder that by age five I was a raging feminist -- although the term had not reached Chile yet , so nobody knew what the heck was wrong with me . ( Laughter ) I would soon find out that there was a high price to pay for my freedom , and for questioning the patriarchy . But I was happy to pay it , because for every blow that I received , I was able to deliver two . ( Laughter ) Once , when my daughter Paula was in her twenties , she said to me that feminism was dated , that I should move on . We had a memorable fight . Feminism is dated ? Yes , for privileged women like my daughter and all of us here today , but not for most of our sisters in the rest of the world who are still forced into premature marriage , prostitution , forced labor -- they have children that they do n't want or they cannot feed . They have no control over their bodies or their lives . They have no education and no freedom . They are raped , beaten up and sometimes killed with impunity , For most Western young women of today , being called a feminist is an insult . Feminism has never been sexy , but let me assure you that it never stopped me from flirting , and I have seldom suffered from lack of men . ( Laughter ) Feminism is not dead , by no means . It has evolved . If you do n't like the term , change it , for Goddess ' sake . Call it Aphrodite , or Venus , or bimbo , or whatever you want , the name does n't matter , as long as we understand what it is about , and we support it . So here 's another tale of passion , and this is a sad one . The place is a small women 's clinic in a village in Bangladesh . The year is 2005. Jenny is a young American dental hygienist who has gone to the clinic as a volunteer during her three-week vacation . She 's prepared to clean teeth , but when she gets there , she finds out that there are no doctors , no dentists , and the clinic is just a hut full of flies . Outside , there is a line of women who have waited several hours to be treated . The first patient is in excruciating pain because she has several rotten molars . Jenny realizes that the only solution is to pull out the bad teeth . She 's not licensed for that , she has never done it . She risks a lot and she 's terrified . She does n't even have the proper instruments , but fortunately she has brought some Novocaine . Jenny has a brave and passionate heart . She murmurs a prayer and she goes ahead with the operation . At the end , the relieved patient kisses her hands . That day the hygienist pulls out many more teeth . The next morning , when she comes again to the so-called clinic , her first patient is waiting for her with her husband . The woman 's face looks like a watermelon . It is so swollen that you ca n't even see the eyes . The husband , furious , threatens to kill the American . Jenny is horrified at what she has done , but then the translator explains that the patient 's condition has nothing to do with the operation . The day before , her husband beat her up because she was not home in time to prepare dinner for him . Millions of women live like this today . They are the poorest of the poor . Although women do two-thirds of the world 's labor , they own less than one percent of the world 's assets . They are paid less than men for the same work if they 're paid at all , and they remain vulnerable because they have no economic independence , and they are constantly threatened by exploitation , violence and abuse . It is a fact that giving women education , work , the ability to control their own income , inherit and own property , benefits the society . If a woman is empowered , her children and her family will be better off . If families prosper , the village prospers , and eventually so does the whole country . Wangari Maathai goes to a village in Kenya . She talks with the women , and explains that the land is barren because they have cut and sold the trees . She gets the women to plant new trees and water them , drop by drop . In a matter of five or six years , they have a forest , the soil is enriched , and the village is saved . The poorest and most backward societies are always those that put women down . Yet this obvious truth is ignored by governments , and also by philanthropy . For every dollar given to a women 's program , 20 dollars are given to men 's programs . Women are 51 percent of humankind . Empowering them will change everything -- more than technology and design and entertainment . I can promise you that women working together -- linked , informed and educated -- can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet . In any war today , most of the casualties are civilians , mainly women and children . They are collateral damage . Men run the world , and look at the mess we have . What kind of world do we want ? This is a fundamental question that most of us are asking . Does it make sense to participate in the existing world order ? We want a world where life is preserved , and the quality of life is enriched for everybody , not only for the privileged . In January I saw an exhibit of Fernando Botero 's paintings at the UC Berkeley library . No museum or gallery in the United States , except for the New York gallery that carries Botero 's work , has dared to show the paintings because the theme is the Abu Ghraib prison . They are huge paintings of torture and abuse of power , in the voluminous Botero style . I have not been able to get those images out of my mind or my heart . What I fear most is power with impunity . I fear abuse of power , and the power to abuse . In our species , the alpha males define reality , and force the rest of the pack to accept that reality and follow the rules . The rules change all the time , but they always benefit them , and in this case , the trickle-down effect , which does not work in economics , works perfectly . Abuse trickles down from the top of the ladder to the bottom . Women and children , especially the poor , are at the bottom . Even the most destitute of men have someone they can abuse -- a woman or a child . I 'm fed up with the power that a few exert over the many through gender , income , race , and class . I think that the time is ripe to make fundamental changes in our civilization . But for real change , we need feminine energy in the management of the world . We need a critical number of women in positions of power , and we need to nurture the feminine energy in men . I 'm talking about men with young minds , of course . Old guys are hopeless , we have to wait for them to die off . ( Laughter ) Yes , I would love to have Sophia Loren 's long legs and legendary breasts . But given a choice , I would rather have the warrior heart of Wangari Maathai , Somaly Mam , Jenny , and Rose Mapendo . I want to make this world good . Not better , but to make it good . Why not ? It is possible . Look around in this room -- all this knowledge , energy , talent , and technology . Let 's get off our fannies , roll up our sleeves and get to work , passionately , in creating an almost perfect world . Thank you . |