I'm a man who's trying to live from his heart, and so just before I get going, I wanted to tell you as a South African that one of the men who has inspired me most passed away a few hours ago. Nelson Mandela has come to the end of his long walk to freedom. And so this talk is going to be for him.
Som človek, ktorý sa snaží žiť podľa svojho srdca, a preto skôr ako začnem, by som Vám ako Juhoafričan chcel povedať, že jeden z ľudí, ktorí ma najviac inšpirovali, zomrel pred pár hodinami. Nelson Mandela prišiel ku koncu svojej cesty za slobodou. A preto bude táto reč venovaná venovaná jemu.
I grew up in wonder. I grew up amongst those animals. I grew up in the wild eastern part of South Africa at a place called Londolozi Game Reserve. It's a place where my family has been in the safari business for four generations. Now for as long as I can remember, my job has been to take people out into nature, and so I think it's a lovely twist of fate today to have the opportunity to bring some of my experiences out in nature in to this gathering. Africa is a place where people still sit under starlit skies and around campfires and tell stories, and so what I have to share with you today is the simple medicine of a few campfire stories, stories about heroes of heart. Now my stories are not the stories that you'll hear on the news, and while it's true that Africa is a harsh place, I also know it to be a place where people, animals and ecosystems teach us about a more interconnected world.
Vyrastal som v úžase. Vyrastal som medzi týmito zvieratami. Vyrastal som v divokej východnej časti Južnej Afriky, na mieste zvanom Prírodná rezervácia Londolozi. Je to miesto, kde moja rodina podnikala po štyri generácie v odvetví safari. Odkedy mi pamäť siaha, mojou prácou bolo brať ľudí von do prírody, a tak si myslím, že je to roztomilý vrtoch osudu dostať dnes možnosť priniesť niektoré moje skúseností z prírody tomuto zhromaždeniu. Afrika je miesto, kde ľudia ešte stále sedia pod hviezdnou oblohou a okolo táboráka si rozprávajú príbehy, a tak to, s čím sa s vami dnes podelím, je jednoduchý liek niekoľkých táborákových príbehov. Príbehov o hrdinstve srdca. Moje príbehy nie su príbehy, ktoré môžete počuť v správach, a i keď je pravda, že Afrika je neľútostné miesto, ja ju poznám aj ako miesto, kde nás ľudia, zvieratá a ekosystémy učia o užšom prepojení sveta.
When I was nine years old, President Mandela came to stay with my family. He had just been released from his 27 years of incarceration, and was in a period of readjustment to his sudden global icon status. Members of the African National Congress thought that in the bush he would have time to rest and recuperate away from the public eye, and it's true that lions tend to be a very good deterrent to press and paparazzi. (Laughter) But it was a defining time for me as a young boy. I would take him breakfast in bed, and then, in an old track suit and slippers, he would go for a walk around the garden. At night, I would sit with my family around the snowy, bunny-eared TV, and watch images of that same quiet man from the garden surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people as scenes from his release were broadcast nightly. He was bringing peace to a divided and violent South Africa, one man with an unbelievable sense of his humanity. Mandela said often that the gift of prison was the ability to go within and to think, to create in himself the things he most wanted for South Africa: peace, reconciliation, harmony. Through this act of immense open-heartedness, he was to become the embodiment of what in South Africa we call "ubuntu." Ubuntu: I am because of you. Or, people are not people without other people. It's not a new idea or value but it's one that I certainly think at these times is worth building on. In fact, it is said that in the collective consciousness of Africa, we get to experience the deepest parts of our own humanity through our interactions with others. Ubuntu is at play right now. You are holding a space for me to express the deepest truth of who I am. Without you, I'm just a guy talking to an empty room, and I spent a lot of time last week doing that, and it's not the same as this. (Laughter)
Keď som mal 9 rokov, prezident Mandela prišiel bývať k mojej rodine. Bolo to práve po jeho oslobodení z 27-ročného väzenia a bolo to obdobie prispôsobenia sa jeho náhlemu statusu globálnej ikony. Členovia Afrického národného kongresu si mysleli, že v divočine bude mať čas si odpočinúť a zotaviť sa ďaleko od dohľadu verejnosti, a je pravdou, že levy zvyknú byť veľmi účinným odstrašujúcim prostriedkom pre tlač a paparazzov. (smiech) No pre mňa, ako mladého chlapca, to bolo kľúčové obdobie. Nosil som mu raňajky do postele, a potom, v rozťahaných teplákoch a papučiach, sa chodil prechádzať po záhrade. Po večeroch som sedával s rodinou pred snežiacou anténovou televíziou, a pozeral sa na obraz toho istého tichého muža zo záhrady obklopeného stovkami a tisíckami ľudí. Scény z jeho oslobodenia sa vysielali každý večer. Prinášal mier do rozdelenej a násilnej Južnej Afriky, jeden muž s neuveriteľným citom pre ľudskosť. Mandela často hovorieval, že darom väzenia bola schopnosť obrátiť sa do seba a myslieť, tvoriť vo svojom vnútri veci, ktoré chcel najviac pre Južnú Afriku: mier, udobrenie, harmóniu. Prostredníctvom tohto ohromného činu so srdcom na dlani sa stal stelesnením toho, čo v Južnej Afrike nazývame „ubuntu“. Ubuntu: Som, pretože si. Alebo ľudia nie sú ľuďmi bez iných ľudí. Nie je to nová idea alebo hodnota, ale je to niečo, na čom, myslím, sa v týchto časoch rozhodne oplatí stavať. V skutočnosti sa hovorí, že v kolektívnom vedomí Afriky prežijeme najhlbšie poznanie našej vlastnej ľudskosti prostredníctvom našej interakcie s ostatnými. Ubuntu je v hre aj teraz. Ponúkate mi priestor na to, aby som vyjadril najhlbšiu pravdu o tom, kto som. Bez vás som len chlapík, ktorý sa snaží rozprávať v prázdnej izbe, tak som strávil veľa času minulý týždeň a nie je to to isté. (smiech)
If Mandela was the national and international embodiment, then the man who taught me the most about this value personally was this man, Solly Mhlongo. Solly was born under a tree 60 kilometers from where I grew up in Mozambique. He would never have a lot of money, but he was to be one of the richest men I would ever meet. Solly grew up tending to his father's cattle. Now, I can tell you, I don't know what it is about people who grow up looking after cattle, but it makes for über-resourcefulness. The first job that he ever got in the safari business was fixing the safari trucks. Where he had learned to do that out in the bush I have no idea, but he could do it. He then moved across into what we called the habitat team. These were the people on the reserve who were responsible for its well-being. He fixed roads, he mended wetlands, he did some anti-poaching. And then one day we were out together, and he came across the tracks of where a female leopard had walked. And it was an old track, but for fun he turned and he began to follow it, and I tell you, I could tell by the speed at which he moved on those pad marks that this man was a Ph.D.-level tracker. If you drove past Solly somewhere out on the reserve, you look up in your rearview mirror, you'd see he'd stopped the car 20, 50 meters down the road just in case you need help with something. The only accusation I ever heard leveled at him was when one of our clients said, "Solly, you are pathologically helpful." (Laughter)
Ak bol Mandela národným a medzinárodným stelesnením, potom muž, ktorý ma osobne naučil najviac o tejto hodnote, bol tento muž, Solly Mhlongo. Solly sa narodil pod stromom 60 km od Mozambiku, miesta, kde som vyrastal. Nikdy nemal veľa peňazí, ale bol jedným z najbohatších ľudí, ktorých som stretol. Solly vyrastal starajúc sa o otcov dobytok. Môžem vám povedať, že neviem, čo je na ľuďoch, ktorí sa vyrastajúc starajú o dobytok, ale je to niečo ako super-vynaliezavosť. Jeho prvou prácou v safari podnikaní bolo opravovať safari nákladiaky. Kde sa to v tej divočine naučil, nemám predstavu, ale dokázal to. Potom prešiel k takzvanému tímu prirodzeného prostredia. Boli to ľudia rezervácie, ktorí sa o ňu starali. Opravoval cesty, dohliadal na bažiny, bojoval proti pytliactvu. A potom sme jeden deň boli spolu vonku a natrafil sme na stopy leopardej samice, ktorá tadiaľ prešla. A bola to stará stopa, ale pre srandu sa otočil a začal ju sledovať, a poviem vám, že podľa rýchlosti, akou sa pohyboval po tých stopách, by som povedal, že tento človek mal doktorát zo stopovania. Ak ste prešli okolo Sollyho niekde vonku v rezervácii, pozreli ste sa do spätného zrkadla, videli ste zastaviť auto 20, 50 metrov za vami len pre prípad, že by ste potrebovali s niečím pomôcť. Jediné obvinenie, ktoré som kedy počul na jeho adresu bolo, keď jeden z našich klientov povedal, „Solly, ty si patologicky nápomocný.“ (smiech)
When I started professionally guiding people out into this environment, Solly was my tracker. We worked together as a team. And the first guests we ever got were a philanthropy group from your East Coast, and they said to Solly, on the side, they said, "Before we even go out to see lions and leopards, we want to see where you live." So we took them up to his house, and this visit of the philanthropist to his house coincided with a time when Solly's wife, who was learning English, was going through a phase where she would open the door by saying, "Hello, I love you. Welcome, I love you." (Laughter) And there was something so beautifully African about it to me, this small house with a huge heart in it.
Keď som začal profesionálne sprevádzať ľudí do tohto prostredia, Solly bol môj stopár. Pracovali sme spolu ako tím. Našimi prvými hosťami bola filantropická spoločnosť z vášho Východného pobrežia, a oni povedali Sollymu, „Predtým ako sa vyberieme von pozrieť sa na levov a leopardov, chceli by sme vidieť, kde bývaš .“ Tak sme ich vzali k nemu domov, a táto návšteva filantrópov v jeho dome bola zhodou okolností v dobe, keď sa Sollyho manželka učila anglicky. Prechádzala obdobím, keď otvárala dvere hovoriac, „Ahoj, ľúbim vás. Vitajte, ľúbim vás.“ (smiech) A pre mňa na tom bolo niečo krásne africké v tomto malom dome s tak veľkým srdcom vo vnútri.
Now on the day that Solly saved my life, he was already my hero. It was a hot day, and we found ourselves down by the river. Because of the heat, I took my shoes off, and I rolled up my pants, and I walked into the water. Solly remained on the bank. The water was clear running over sand, and we turned and we began to make our way upstream. And a few meters ahead of us, there was a place where a tree had fallen out of the bank, and its branches were touching the water, and it was shadowy. And if had been a horror movie, people in the audience would have started saying, "Don't go in there. Don't go in there." (Laughter) And of course, the crocodile was in the shadows. Now the first thing that you notice when a crocodile hits you is the ferocity of the bite. Wham! It hits me by my right leg. It pulls me. It turns. I throw my hand up. I'm able to grab a branch. It's shaking me violently. It's a very strange sensation having another creature try and eat you, and there are few things that promote vegetarianism like that. (Laughter) Solly on the bank sees that I'm in trouble. He turns. He begins to make his way to me. The croc again continues to shake me. It goes to bite me a second time. I notice a slick of blood in the water around me that gets washed downstream. As it bites the second time, I kick. My foot goes down its throat. It spits me out. I pull myself up into the branches, and as I come out of the water, I look over my shoulder. My leg from the knee down is mangled beyond description. The bone is cracked. The meat is torn up. I make an instant decision that I'll never look at that again. As I come out of the water, Solly arrives at a deep section, a channel between us. He knows, he sees the state of my leg, he knows that between him and I there is a crocodile, and I can tell you this man doesn't slow down for one second. He comes straight into the channel. He wades in to above his waist. He gets to me. He grabs me. I'm still in a vulnerable position. He picks me and puts me on his shoulder. This is the other thing about Solly, he's freakishly strong. He turns. He walks me up the bank. He lays me down. He pulls his shirt off. He wraps it around my leg, picks me up a second time, walks me to a vehicle, and he's able to get me to medical attention. And I survive.
Už dávno pred dňom, keď mi Solly zachránil život, bol mojim hrdinom. Bol teplý deň a my sme sa ocitli dole pri rieke. Pre horúčavu som si vyzul topánky, vykasal nohavice a vošiel som do vody. Solly ostal na brehu. Priezračná voda tiekla po piesku a my sme otočili a vyrazili hore prúdom. Pár metrov pred nami bolo miesto, na ktorom bol spadnutý strom, jeho konáre sa dotýkali vody a bol tam tieň. A keby sme boli v hororovom filme, ľuďia v publiku by začali vravieť, „Nechoď tam. Nechoď tam.“ (smiech) A samozrejme, krokodíl bol v tieni. Prvé, čo si všimnete, keď na vás zaútočí krokodíl, je dravosť jeho hryznutia. Ham! Kusol do mojej pravej nohy. Ťahal ma. Otočil ma. Rozhodil som rukami. Dokážem sa zachytiť o konár. Zúrivo mnou trasie. Je to veľmi divný pocit, keď sa vás iné stvorenie snaží zjesť a existuje len málo vecí, ktoré podporujú vegetariástvo takýmto spôsobom. (smiech) Solly na brehu zbadal, že som v kaši. Otočil sa. Vybral sa mojím smerom. Krokodíl naďalej so mnou trasie. Chystal sa do mňa zahryznúť druhý krát. Zbadal som krvavú škvrnu vo vode, ktorá sa zmývala dole prúdom. Vo chvíli, keď ma pohrýzol druhýkrát, kopol som. Moja noha mu vošla až do hrdla. Vypľuľ ma. Vytiahol som sa po konároch, a ako som vychádzal z vody, obzrel som sa cez plece. Moja noha od kolena dole je neopísateľne znetvorená. Kosť je zlomená. Mäso roztrhané. Spravil som okamžité rozhodnutie, že sa už na to nikdy nepozriem. Keď som vyliezal z vody, Solly došiel k hlbokému úseku, ku žľabu medzi nami. On vie, videl moju nohu, vie, že medzi ním a mnou je krokodíl, a môžem vám povedať, že tento muž nespomalil ani na sekundu. Prišiel priamo do žľabu. Brodil sa až po pás. Došiel až ku mne. Schmatol ma. Ešte stále som vo veľmi zraniteľnej pozícii. Zdvihne ma a prehodí si ma cez plece. To je ďalší fakt o Sollym, je obludne silný. Obráti sa. A prenesie ma na breh. Položí ma. Vyzlečie si tričko. Previaže mi ním nohu, dvihne ma druhýkrát, odnáša ma do auta a nakoniec zoženie lekársku pomoc. A ja som prežil.
Now — (Applause)
Teraz - (potlesk)
Now I don't know how many people you know that go into a deep channel of water that they know has a crocodile in it to come and help you, but for Solly, it was as natural as breathing. And he is one amazing example of what I have experienced all over Africa. In a more collective society, we realize from the inside that our own well-being is deeply tied to the well-being of others. Danger is shared. Pain is shared. Joy is shared. Achievement is shared. Houses are shared. Food is shared. Ubuntu asks us to open our hearts and to share, and what Solly taught me that day is the essence of this value, his animated, empathetic action in every moment.
Ja neviem koľko ľudí, ktorých poznáte, by šlo do hlbokého žľabu, keby vedeli, že je tam krokodíl, aby vám pomohli, ale pre Sollyho, to bolo také prirodzené ako dýchanie. A on je jeden úžasný príklad toho, čo som zakúsil po celej Afrike. V kolektívnejšej spoločnosti si z hĺbky uvedomíme, že naše blaho je úzko prepojené s blahom ostatných. Nebezpečenstvo je spoločné. Bolesť je spoločná. Radosť je spoločná. Úspech je spoločný. Domy sú spoločné. Jedlo je spoločné. Ubuntu nám vraví, aby sme otvorili srdcia a rozdelili sa a to, čo ma naučil Solly v ten deň, je podstata tejto hodnoty. Jeho oduševnelé, empatické konanie v každom momente.
Now although the root word is about people, I thought that maybe ubuntu was only about people. And then I met this young lady. Her name was Elvis. In fact, Solly gave her the name Elvis because he said she walked like she was doing the Elvis the pelvis dance. She was born with very badly deformed back legs and pelvis. She arrived at our reserve from a reserve east of us on her migratory route. When I first saw her, I thought she would be dead in a matter of days. And yet, for the next five years she returned in the winter months. And we would be so excited to be out in the bush and to come across this unusual track. It looked like an inverted bracket, and we would drop whatever we were doing and we would follow, and then we would come around the corner, and there she would be with her herd. And that outpouring of emotion from people on our safari trucks as they saw her, it was this sense of kinship. And it reminded me that even people who grow up in cities feel a natural connection with the natural world and with animals. And yet still I remained amazed that she was surviving. And then one day we came across them at this small water hole. It was sort of a hollow in the ground. And I watched as the matriarch drank, and then she turned in that beautiful slow motion of elephants, looks like the arm in motion, and she began to make her way up the steep bank. The rest of the herd turned and began to follow. And I watched young Elvis begin to psych herself up for the hill. She got visibly -- ears came forward, she had a full go of it and halfway up, her legs gave way, and she fell backwards. She attempted it a second time, and again, halfway up, she fell backwards. And on the third attempt, an amazing thing happened. Halfway up the bank, a young teenage elephant came in behind her, and he propped his trunk underneath her, and he began to shovel her up the bank. And it occurred to me that the rest of the herd was in fact looking after this young elephant. The next day I watched again as the matriarch broke a branch and she would put it in her mouth, and then she would break a second one and drop it on the ground. And a consensus developed between all of us who were guiding people in that area that that herd was in fact moving slower to accommodate that elephant.
Pretože koreň slova je o ľuďoch, myslel som si, že asi aj ubuntu bude len o ľuďoch. A potom som stretol túto mladú dámu. Volala sa Elvis. V skutočnosti ju tak pomenoval Solly, pretože vraj chodila akoby tancovala Elvisov panvový tanec. Narodila sa s veľmi škaredo zdeformovanými nohami a panvou. Došla do našej rezervácie počas migrovania z východnej rezervácie. Keď som ju prvýkrát zbadal, myslel som si, že zomrie a je to len otázka dní. A predsa. Počas nasledujúcich piatich rokov sa vracala v zimných mesiacoch. A my sme boli tak nadšení, keď sme boli v divočine a natrafili sme na túto nezvyčajnú stopu. Podobalo sa to na obrátené zátvorky, a my sme nechali tak čokoľvek sme robili a pustili sme sa do sledovania a potom niekde za rohom bola ona so svojim stádom. A ten príliv emócií z ľudí na našich safari nákladiakoch, keď ju videli – to bol ten pocit spriaznenosti. A to mi pripomínalo, že i keď ľudia vyrastajú v mestách, predsa len cítia to spojenie s prirodzeným svetom a so zvieratami. A predsa som v úžase nad tým, že prežila. Na ďalší deň sme ich stretli pri malom napájadle. Bola to iba taká priehlbina v zemi. A pozeral som ako sa napája vodkyňa stáda, a potom sa otočila tým krásnym pomalým pohybom slonov, ktorý vyzerá ako pohyb ramenom, a vybrala sa smerom hore po strmom brehu. Zvyšok stáda sa otočil a nasledoval ju. A ja som sa díval na mladú Elvis, ako sa odhodláva na strmý kopec. Viditeľne dvihla uši, išlo jej to do polovice cesty, jej nohy to vzdali a ona sa zosunula dole. Skúsila to druhýkrát a opäť v polovičke cesty hore sa zosunula dole. Na tretí pokus, sa stala úžasná vec. Na pol ceste hore brehom sa za ňu postavil mladý slon a postrčil ju svojím chobotom, a tak ju popostrkoval hore brehom. A vtedy mi napadlo, že zvyšok stáda vlastne dohliadal nad týmto mladým slonom. Na druhý deň som sa opäť pozeral, ako vodkyňa stáda zlomila konár a dala jej ho do úst a potom zlomila druhý a pustila ho na zem. Medzi nami – sprievodcami v tejto oblasti – zavládol všeobecný súhlas, že toto stádo sa vlastne pohybovalo pomalšie, aby sa prispôsobilo tomu slonovi.
What Elvis and the herd taught me caused me to expand my definition of ubuntu, and I believe that in the cathedral of the wild, we get to see the most beautiful parts of ourselves reflected back at us. And it is not only through other people that we get to experience our humanity but through all the creatures that live on this planet. If Africa has a gift to share, it's a gift of a more collective society. And while it's true that ubuntu is an African idea, what I see is the essence of that value being invented here.
Čo ma Elvis so svojim stádom naučila, zapríčinilo, že som rozšíril moju definíciu ubuntu a verím, že vo svätyni divočiny sa odzrkadľujú naše najkrajšie vlastnosti. A nie je to len prostredníctvom iných ľudí, že zažívame našu ľudskú prirodzenosť, ale prostredníctvom všetkých stvorení, ktoré žijú na tejto planéte. Ak má Afrika dar, tak je to dar kolektívnejšej spoločnosti. A i keď je pravda, že ubuntu je africká myšlienka, dôležitá je práve podstata tejto hodnoty, ktorá tu bola objavená.
Thank you.
Ďakujem.
(Applause)
(potlesk)
Pat Mitchell: So Boyd, we know that you knew President Mandela from early childhood and that you heard the news as we all did today, and deeply distraught and know the tragic loss that it is to the world. But I just wondered if you wanted to share any additional thoughts, because we know that you heard that news just before coming in to do this session.
Pat Mitchell: Tak Boyd, vieme, že si poznal prezidenta Mandelu od útleho detstva a že si dnes počul správy, tak ako my, a si hlboko rozrušený a vieš o tragickej strate, ktorú to pre tento svet znamená. Ale rozmýšľala som, či by si sa nechcel podeliť o nejaké ďalšie dodatočné myšlienky, lebo vieme, že si sa o tej správe dozvedel tesne pred tým, ako si prišiel na javisko.
Boyd Varty: Well thanks, Pat. I'm so happy because it was time for him to pass on. He was suffering. And so of course there's the mixed emotions. But I just think of so many occurrences like the time he went on the Oprah show and asked her what the show would be about. (Laughter) And she was like, "Well, it'll be about you." I mean, that's just incredible humility. (Laughter)
Boyd Varty: Ďakujem, Pat. Som šťastný, lebo prišiel jeho čas. Trpel. A tak samozrejme, mám zmiešané pocity. Ale si pamätám toľko veľa príhod. Ako keď bol hosťom v Oprah show a spýtal sa jej, o čom táto show bude. (smiech) A ona odpovedala: „No, bude o vás.“ Chcem povedať, že to je neuveriteľná pokora. (smiech)
He was the father of our nation and we've got a road to walk in South Africa. And everything, they used to call it Madiba magic. You know, he used to go to a rugby match and we would win. Anywhere he went, things went well. But I think that magic will be with us, and the important thing is that we carry what he stood for. And so that's what I'm going to try and do, and that's what people all over South Africa are trying to do.
On bol otcom nášho národa a my v Južnej Afrike máme pred sebou cestu. A všetko, čo nazývajú Madiba kúzlom. Viete, keď šiel na zápas ragby, vyhrali sme. Kamkoľvek šiel, darilo sa. Ale myslím si, že toto kúzlo bude s nami, a dôležité je, aby sme uchovali to, čo symbolizoval. A preto sa tak aj ja budem snažiť konať, a snažia sa o to ľudia z celej Južnej Afriky.
PM: And that's what you've done today. BV: Oh, thank you.
PM: A to si dnes aj spravil. BV: O, ďakujem.
PM: Thank you. BV: Thank you. Thanks very much.
PM: Ďakujem. BV: Ďakujem. Ďakujem pekne.
(Applause)
(potlesk)