1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you missed in history class from 2 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com. In celebration of the reopening 3 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,520 Speaker 1: of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the 4 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: former president's eighty five birthday, we sat down with Nobel 5 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: Laureate Jimmy Carter to talk about the highlights of his 6 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:28,480 Speaker 1: presidency and his hopes for the Carter centem Human rights. 7 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,040 Speaker 1: How do you think we can honor human rights in 8 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:38,040 Speaker 1: tough economic and tough social times. Well, human rights um 9 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: has to be understood in its full meaning, and the 10 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: problem is that different nations have different definitions of human rights. 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 1: If you walk through a college campus I walked down 12 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 1: the street and you ask Americans name the human rights 13 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: are important to you, they would say freedom of speech, 14 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: and freedom of religion, and the freedom of assembly, and 15 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: the right to choose our own leaders. That would be 16 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: natural for them to do because that's basically the rights 17 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 1: that are spelled out in the in the Constitution United States, 18 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: and and that's what we think about human rights. If 19 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: you go into a poverty stricken country like Ethiopia or 20 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,320 Speaker 1: Ghana or mony Bin a fossil and you say, what 21 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: are the most important human rights? They would say, a 22 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:41,319 Speaker 1: right to a decent place in whish to live, right 23 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: for my children to have enough to eat, right for 24 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: me to have a job, right for my family to 25 00:01:53,760 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: have health care, oh, my children to be educated, because 26 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,280 Speaker 1: those are the most important things to them that they 27 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: don't have. And so human rights have to encompassh both sides. Freedom, 28 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: an absence of torture by one's government, and at the 29 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: same time the right of people to have a decent life. 30 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:27,720 Speaker 1: So all of those are human rights, and and that's 31 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:32,920 Speaker 1: the umbrella under which the Court of Center operates. We 32 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: try to provide peace, which is a human right, by 33 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: negotiating to prevent wars by the inner wars. We try 34 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: to provide freedom and democracy ah an absence of torture 35 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 1: in prison, and at the same time to alleviate suffering 36 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:55,359 Speaker 1: of people and to give them an ability to raise 37 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: more food for themselves. And through programs like Habitat for Humanity, 38 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: my wife and I build homes in partnership with poor 39 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:05,359 Speaker 1: founders that never had a different decent place to live. 40 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:11,280 Speaker 1: And we try to concentrate on the right of people 41 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: to have a freedom from unnecessary diseases. So that's what 42 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:19,280 Speaker 1: we consider to be the importance and the definition of 43 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:25,000 Speaker 1: human rights in terms of working with difficult leaders and 44 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,399 Speaker 1: looking towards the future. And your hope in the current administration, 45 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 1: what do you think will happen with our relations with Cuba. 46 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: When I became president, immediately lived at all travel restraints 47 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: so Americans could don't go to Cuba without any impediment. 48 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 1: Because I have always felt then and now that we 49 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: should lift the embargo against the Cuban people that turns 50 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: thirteen million people against us as the ogres as a villains, 51 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: and that's the dictators in Cuba blame the United States 52 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 1: for all their problems, which they bring upon themselves. So 53 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: I believe that the future will bring about a diplomatic 54 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:10,000 Speaker 1: relations between the United States and Cuba, preceded by an 55 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: end to the embargo that hurts the Cuban people, that 56 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:16,719 Speaker 1: doesn't hurt the dictators in leadership capability, and will provide 57 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:20,160 Speaker 1: a harmony between US and the nearest next door neighbor 58 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,680 Speaker 1: to us, this ninety miles from Florida, and it is 59 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 1: the Cubans. So my hope is that will see a 60 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,599 Speaker 1: reason prevailed, and if we ever do free the Cuban 61 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,400 Speaker 1: people as equals. I think that's the best step to 62 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: bring about human people demanding democracy and freedom and an 63 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,760 Speaker 1: end to military or dictatorship in Cuba. It's the best 64 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:50,240 Speaker 1: way to bring freedom and democracy to Cuba is to 65 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:53,680 Speaker 1: quit punishing the Cuban people. I'm glad to end on 66 00:04:53,720 --> 00:05:02,359 Speaker 1: an optimistic Here to learn more about the Carter Center 67 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: and its mission of waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope, 68 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:11,160 Speaker 1: is it www dot Carter Center dot org. And as always, 69 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,040 Speaker 1: for moral thiss and thousands of other topics, is it 70 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com.