Re: Who inspires you?

Description: Mandela forgave his captors after 27 years in prison.

Transcript: Well I mean, the kinds of people I aspire to be like are people like Nelson Mandela. I mean Nelson Mandela, you know, is the best example living in this world of somebody who . . . He was imprisoned for 27 years. He forgave his captors. He came out of prison. And he embraced his captors. He brought them into his government. You know, he set the most brilliant, brilliant example to the rest of the world. And through his inspiration . . . I mean actually interestingly, you know with Peter Gabrielle, we’ve been looking to see if there are 12 other elders in the world who can, you know . . . who can look at issues of the world that . . . that national governments are not looking at, and look at issues of the world that the United Nations can’t look at. Who can maybe try to avert wars before they happen? If there are conflicts, maybe they can use their moral authority – their global moral authority – and the respect that they have from the world community to go in and sort these problems out. And that’s something I’ve been working and planning on for about seven years, and it’s now coming to fruition.

Recorded on: 7/5/07