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NewsTranscript
00:00 First of all, it's a great day in many ways today.
00:05 Let me start by thanking Professor Jacques Mariscou,
00:16 founder and president of VERICAD,
00:25 Dr. King Kayondo, VERICAD Africa president,
00:30 Dr. Guillaume Mariscou, VERICAD Africa vice president,
00:37 faculty, staff, and supporters of VERICAD Africa.
00:46 I'm very pleased to join you.
00:54 And welcome you to Kigali,
00:58 which you have built in a way.
01:05 Kigali, our capital city, is not just for Rwandans,
01:20 it is for Africans, it is for friends from across the world,
01:25 and people who are the family of VERICAD,
01:33 and VERICAD Africa.
01:38 We want you to feel that you are our family as well.
01:44 So you're most welcome.
01:48 (audience applauding)
01:52 So many things have been said.
01:54 For me personally,
02:01 I haven't had,
02:08 I have not been with opportunity to be of
02:13 a very significant talent in any field.
02:19 But what I tried to do,
02:22 I created an idea,
02:29 that maybe since I'm not talented in many things,
02:34 I developed an idea that I should be talented
02:40 in managing talent of others.
02:46 (audience applauding)
02:49 That's what enables me to,
02:54 through friendship,
02:57 and what was said earlier,
03:04 thank you, young Marisko, to remind me.
03:13 There is, we have a history, Rwanda's history,
03:17 weaves through all this that was said.
03:22 First, for our country,
03:31 every yesterday was expected to be the tomorrow.
03:39 And that's how we were in one place
03:44 of underdevelopment for a long time.
03:47 Because what was yesterday was what was expected tomorrow.
03:53 So we reversed the trend.
04:00 We tried to say,
04:03 how about tomorrow?
04:06 We say, how about having tomorrow as yesterday?
04:11 Reversed to,
04:19 two things here,
04:30 and the parts of the history I really want to speak to.
04:35 While what has been happening in the past
04:39 was expected to be happening in the future,
04:42 we wanted to see the future as having arrived in the past,
04:50 and in our background, and being something new.
04:54 So that's how we came to embrace
05:02 doing things in a manner that we have come to be used to.
05:07 I remember in 1998,
05:14 some of my friends
05:17 who are into technology globally,
05:23 in 1998, when we were trying to rebuild the country
05:31 and we were talking about using
05:34 information and communication technology,
05:38 so one of these friends, a very rich person
05:43 and who is into technology,
05:45 asked me, said,
05:48 why would you be thinking of
05:52 investing your nothing, more or less,
05:59 because you had nothing,
06:01 into technology when your people are starving,
06:07 they have no health, they have no,
06:10 all kinds of stuff.
06:13 And I told them, well, first of all,
06:17 it was a group led by one of my friends.
06:20 I said, that's true, our people are starving anyway.
06:24 Our people have no good health.
06:28 That's all true.
06:30 But does keeping away technology
06:35 really give them food?
06:37 So I said, we are trying to invest the nothing,
06:46 the little we have,
06:48 in a way that we divide it
06:55 and spread it to cover food
07:00 and to cover health,
07:01 but to cover technology which cuts across all of them.
07:06 I said, I saw somebody use
07:10 the multiplier effect term.
07:16 I said, technology has a multiplier effect.
07:20 It doesn't take away anything from anybody,
07:25 nobody in any case.
07:29 So that's how we started developing this idea.
07:33 And now I'm leading to
07:37 saying Professor Mariosko,
07:43 if you could have chosen to go somewhere else,
07:48 not in Rwanda, and that's the story he told.
07:53 I wanted to thank you for
07:55 taking the risk in trusting us.
08:00 But I think maybe it is high risk.
08:06 It has also become high reward
08:08 because it has benefited the Rwandans
08:14 in a way probably you will never realize.
08:18 And Mariosko as well,
08:21 and the others who work with you,
08:23 Ilkad International and others who join you
08:32 because they understand the cause
08:35 and the vision you have,
08:37 but more so the vision to use the tools
08:42 to advance knowledge, to advance technology
08:50 and to bring it to places where
08:54 it is not expected.
08:58 Because many people, once they say for this,
09:03 they say, well, Africa
09:05 in many cases is not deserving.
09:11 Or it comes as a second thought,
09:17 as an afterthought every time in many conversations.
09:22 But the fact that you say, no,
09:26 this is not going to be an afterthought,
09:28 but let's take it to Africa.
09:33 Well, and above all, that's why I call it high risk.
09:38 In Africa, you chose Rwanda.
09:45 It must have been something that was connecting you
09:50 with us to believe in us.
09:52 But it was to try and
09:56 close these gaps that have existed
10:02 with our people, the people of this country,
10:09 the people of the continent
10:10 and others on other continents.
10:15 I think it was a combination of
10:17 value and values.
10:22 So I wanted to specifically thank you for that
10:27 and you will not be disappointed.
10:32 Even at a personal level,
10:35 you feel that what you invested in
10:41 has had a huge effect in changing many people's lives
10:46 through improved and access to health
10:49 and of a certain high level
10:54 that was not expected,
10:56 that people never thought about.
10:58 So my other
11:08 pleasant thing here is that
11:12 what you have created,
11:16 this record Africa,
11:18 indeed is not serving Rwanda alone.
11:20 It is serving Africa
11:23 and it is also improving
11:27 and taking beyond the talent we have in Africa
11:30 to a much higher level.
11:33 I'm sure you've seen those who have been here
11:36 coming from across Africa,
11:38 of a very, very high
11:42 standard in their fields
11:46 and area of talent.
11:50 So bringing people together
11:54 and bringing them together in our country here
11:56 and around this center of excellence
12:01 is
12:04 has
12:05 limitless value in our understanding and feeling.
12:14 So when I entered this room,
12:19 I first wondered whether I was in Strasbourg
12:24 because
12:26 when you invited me
12:31 and went to,
12:35 came to Strasbourg, to Ilkart
12:39 and had the pleasure and honor of being honored there
12:44 by
12:44 being recognized in the way you did,
12:50 we are very happy to be associated
12:57 in this way and in any other way
13:02 because of what this stands for.
13:07 The training program in minimal invasive
13:14 surgery that we have come to
13:18 fully understand and receive the effects of
13:25 in many ways
13:29 is something that is going to change
13:31 lives
13:34 to a very high degree.
13:41 And again, you should be thanked for that.
13:45 All those who have
13:47 contributed to not only its development,
13:51 but also to mainstreaming it in the practice of
13:56 surgery and the effects it has had on health.
14:01 So you were saying,
14:10 talking about being Rwandan,
14:14 I invite everyone here,
14:16 wherever you have come from,
14:23 to be, as I said, we are a family,
14:27 so you should be Rwandan in all senses I mean.
14:30 (audience applauds)
14:33 If you want a passport,
14:38 the next day you can have it.
14:40 (audience laughs)
14:43 And
14:44 maybe Minister of Health the next day.
14:51 I'm not threatening your job,
14:55 I'm only saying you could have two, three ministers
15:00 or four in addition to
15:03 to your position.
15:06 And this encourages us to keep investing
15:12 significantly in the public health infrastructure
15:16 and knowing that
15:20 there are no limits in terms of quality.
15:22 And therefore we should also make sure
15:26 there are no limits in terms of quantity.
15:30 So that it goes around and reaches everyone
15:36 as the case should be.
15:39 Let's continue bringing together
15:46 the best and the brightest
15:50 that we have,
15:52 especially across Africa, in Rwanda,
16:00 and working with those from across the rest of the world.
16:05 That's how we can build a better world
16:10 for all of us to live in.
16:13 Yeah.
16:14 So I really just came here to
16:22 express my gratitude
16:26 and promise that
16:29 we will work with all of us together
16:34 the rest of the journey that is ahead of us,
16:41 that is long.
16:42 And with people like that in this room,
16:47 I think we can
16:49 keep
16:52 making tomorrow yesterday.
16:57 Thank you very much.
16:59 (audience applauding)
17:02 [Applause]
17:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]