The Vikings came from the rugged, inhospitable north known today as Scandinavia.
As the Roman Empire flourished further south, Scandinavians had small settlements, no central government, and no coinage.
Yet by the 11th century, the Vikings had spread far from Scandinavia, gaining control of trade routes throughout Europe, conquering kingdoms as far as Africa, and even building outposts in North America.
The secret to their success was their ships.
The formidable Viking longship had its origins in the humble dugout canoe, or log boat.
For millennia, the inhabitants of Scandinavia had used these canoes for transportation.
Dense forests and tall mountains made overland travel difficult, but long coastlines and numerous rivers, lakes, and fjords provided a viable alternative.
The first canoes were simply hollowed out logs rowed with paddles.
Over time, they added planks to the log boat base using the clinker, or "lapstrake," technique, meaning the planks overlapped and were fastened to each other along their edges.
As the Roman Empire expanded north, some Scandinavians served in their new neighbors’ armies— and brought home Roman maritime technology.
The Mediterranean cultures at the heart of the Roman Empire had large warships that controlled the sea, and cargo ships that transported goods along the waterways.
These ships were powered by sail and oars and relied on a strong skeleton of internal timbers fastened to the outer planks with copper, iron, and wood nails.
At first, Scandinavians incorporated this new technology by replacing their loose paddles with anchored oars.
This change hugely improved the crew’s efficiency, but also required stronger ships.
So boat builders began to use iron nails for fasteners rather than sewing.
They abandoned the log boat base for a keel plank, and the boats became higher and more seaworthy.
But these early ships retained the concept of the original log boat: their strength depended on the outer shell of wood, not internal frames and beams.
They were built as shells— thin-walled but strong, and much lighter than the Roman ships.
Competing chieftains quickly refined the new ships to be even more efficient.
The lighter the boat, the more versatile it would be and the less investment of resources it would require— an essential advantage in a decentralized culture without large supplies of people.
These ships still had no sails— sails were costly, and for now the rowed ships could meet their needs.
That changed after the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century.
Western Europe took a heavy economic blow, leveling the playing field a bit for the Scandinavians.
As the region revived, new and vigorous trade routes extended into and through Scandinavia.
The wealth that flowed along these routes helped create a new, more prosperous and powerful class of Scandinavians, whose members competed constantly with each other over trade routes and territory.
By the 8th century, a sailing ship began to make sense: it could go further, faster, in search of newly available plunder.
With the addition of sails, the already light and speedy ships became nearly unbeatable.
The Viking ship was born.
Viking longships could soon carry as many as 100 Vikings to battle.
Fleets of them could land on open beaches, penetrate deep into river systems, and be moved over land if need be.
When not at war, the vessels were used to transport goods and make trade journeys.
There were smaller versions for fishing and local excursions, and larger adaptations for open sea voyages capable of carrying tens of tons of cargo.
Thanks to their inventiveness in the face of difficult terrain and weak economies, the Vikings sailed west, settled the North Atlantic and explored the North American coast centuries before any other Europeans would set foot there.
Kurt Andersen: Like many architects, David is a hog for the limelight but is sufficiently reticent -- or at least pretends to be -- that he asked me to question him rather than speaking.
In fact what we're going to talk about, I think, is in fact a subject that is probably better served by a conversation than an address.
And I guess we have a bit of news clip to precede.
Dan Rather: Since the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, many people have flocked to downtown New York to see and pay respects at what amounts to the 16-acre burial ground.
Now, as CBS's Jim Axelrod reports, they're putting the finishing touches on a new way for people to visit and view the scene.
Jim Axelrod: Forget the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty.
There's a new place in New York where the crowds are thickest -- Ground Zero.
Tourist: I've taken my step-daughter here from Indianapolis.
This was -- out of all the tourist sites in New York City -- this was her number-one pick.
JA: Thousands now line up on lower Broadway.
Tourist: I've been wanting to come down here since this happened.
JA: Even on the coldest winter days.
To honor and remember.
Tourist: It's reality, it's us.
It happened here.
This is ours.
JA: So many, in fact, that seeing has become a bit of a problem.
Tourist: I think that people are very frustrated that they're not able to get closer to see what's going on.
JA: But that is about to change.
In record time, a team of architects and construction workers designed and built a viewing platform to ease the frustration and bring people closer.
Man: They'll get an incredible panorama and understand, I think more completely, the sheer totality of the destruction of the place.
JA: If you think about it, Ground Zero is unlike most any other tourist site in America.
Unlike the Grand Canyon or the Washington Monument, people come here to see what's no longer there.
David Rockwell: The first experience people will have here when they see this is not as a construction site but as this incredibly moving burial ground.
JA: The walls are bare by design, so people can fill them with their own memorials the way they already have along the current perimeter.
Tourist: From our hearts, it affected us just as much.
JA: The ramps are made of simple material -- the kind of plywood you see at construction sites -- which is really the whole point.
In the face of America's worst destruction people are building again.
Jim Axelrod, CBS News, New York.
KA: This is not an obvious subject to be in the sensuality segment, but certainly David you are known as -- I know, a phrase you hate -- an entertainment architect.
Your work is highly sensual, even hedonistic.
DR: I like that word.
KA: It's about pleasure -- casinos and hotels and restaurants.
How did the shock that all of us -- and especially all of us in New York -- felt on the 11th of September transmute into your desire to do this thing?
DR: Well the truth of the matter is, post-September 11th, I felt myself in the role originally -- first of all as someone who lives in Tribeca and whose neighborhood was devastated, and as someone who works less than a mile from there -- that I was in the role of forcing 100 people who work with me in my firm, to continue to have the same level of enthusiasm about creating the places we had been creating.
In fact we're finishing a book which is called "Pleasure," which is about sensual pleasure in spaces.
But I've got to tell you -- it became impossible to do that.
We were really paralyzed.
And I found myself the Friday after September 11th -- two days afterwards -- literally unable to motivate anyone to do anything.
We gave the office a few days off.
And in discussing this with other architects, we had seen people saying in the press that they should rebuild the towers as they were -- they should rebuild them 50 stories taller.
And I thought it was astonishing to speculate, as if this were a competition, on something that was such a fresh wound.
And I had a series of discussions -- first with Rick Scofidio and Liz Diller, who collaborated with us on this, and several other people -- and really felt like we had to find relevance in doing something.
And that as people who create places, the ultimate way to help wasn't to pontificate or to make up scenarios, but to help right now.
So we tried to come up with a way, as a group, to have a kind of design SWAT team.
And that was the mission that we came up with.
KA: Were you conscious of suddenly -- as a designer whose work is all about fulfilling wants -- suddenly fulfilling needs?
DR: Well what I was aware of was, there was this overwhelming need to act now.
And we were asked to participate in a few projects before this.
There was a school, PS 234, that had been evacuated down at Ground Zero.
They moved to an abandoned school.
We took about 20 or 30 architects and designers and artists, and over four days -- it was like this urban barn-raising -- to renovate it, and everyone wanted to help.
It was just extraordinary.
Tom Otterness contributed, Maira Kalman contributed and it became this cathartic experience for us.
KA: And that was done, effectively, by October 8 or something?
DR: Yeah.
KA: Obviously, what you faced in trying to do something as substantial as this project -- and this is only one of four that you've designed to surround the site -- you must have run up against the incredibly byzantine, entrenched bureaucracy and powers that be in New York real estate and New York politics.
DR: Well, it's a funny thing.
We finished PS 234, and had dinner with a small group.
I was actually asked to be a committee chair on an AIA committee to rebuild.
And I sat in on several meetings.
And there were the most circuitous grand plans that had to do with long-term infrastructure and rebuilding the entire city.
And the fact is that there were immediate wounds and needs that needed to be filled, and there was talk about inclusion and wanting it to be an inclusive process.
And it wasn't an inclusive group.
So we said, what is -- KA: It was not an inclusive group?
DR: It was not an inclusive group.
It was predominantly a white, rich, corporate group that was not representative of the city.
KA: Shocking.
DR: Yeah, surprising.
So Rick and Liz and Kevin and I came up with the idea.
The city actually approached us.
We first approached the city about Pier 94.
We saw how PS 234 worked.
The families -- the victims of the families -- were going to this pier that was incredibly dehumanizing.
KA: On the Hudson River?
DR: Yeah.
And the city actually -- through Tim Zagat initially, and then through Christyne Nicholas, then we got to Giuliani -- said, "You know we don't want to do anything with Pier 94 right now, but we have an observation platform for the families down at Ground Zero that we'd like to be a more dignified experience for the families, and a way to protect it from the weather."
So I went down there with Rick and Liz and Kevin, and I've got to say, it was the most moving experience of my life.
It was devastating to see the simple plywood platform with a rail around it, where the families of the victims had left notes to them.
And there was no mediation between us and the experience.
There was no filter.
And I remembered on September 11th, on 14th Street, the roof of our building -- we can see the World Trade Towers prominently -- and I saw the first building collapse from a conference room on the eighth floor on a TV that we had set up.
And then everyone was up on the roof, so I ran up there.
And it was amazing how much harder it was to believe in real life than it was on TV.
There was something about the comfort of the filter and how much information was between us and the experience.
So seeing this in a very simple, dignified way was a very powerful experience.
So we went back to the city and said we're not particularly interested in the upgrade of this as a VIP platform, but we've spent some time down there.
At the same time the city had this need.
They were looking for a solution to deal with 30 or 40 thousand people a day who were going down there, that had nowhere to go.
And there was no way to deal with the traffic around the site.
So dealing with it is just an immediate master plan.
There was a way -- there had to be a way -- to get people to move around the site.
KA: But then you've got to figure out a way -- we will skip over the insanely tedious process of getting permits and getting everybody on board -- but simply funding this thing.
It looks like a fairly simple thing, but this was a half a million dollar project?
DR: Well, we knew that if it wasn't privately funded, it wasn't going to happen.
And we also, frankly, knew that if it didn't happen by the end of the Giuliani administration, then everyone who we were dealing harrisanna@example.com the Police Department and all of the -- we were meeting with 20 or 30 people with the city at a time, and it was set up by the Office of Emergency Management.
This incredible act on their part, because they really wanted this, and they sensed that this needed to happen.
KA: And there was therefore this ticking clock, because Giuliani was obviously out three months after that.
DR: Yeah.
So the first thing we had to do was find a way to get this -- we had to work with the families of the victims, through the city, to make sure that they knew this was happening.
Because this didn't want to be a surprise.
And we also had to be as under the radar screen as we could be in New York, because the key was not raising a lot of objection and sort of working as quietly as possible.
We came up with the idea of setting up a foundation, mainly because when we found a contractor who would build this, he would not agree to do this, even if we would pay him the money.
There needed to be a foundation in place.
So we came up with a foundation, and actually what happened was one major developer in New York -- KA: Who shall remain nameless, I guess?
DR: Yeah.
His initials are JS, and he owns Rockefeller Center, if that helps anyone -- volunteered to help.
And we met with him.
The prices from the contractors were between five to 700,000 dollars.
And Atlantic-Heydt, who's the largest scaffolding contractor in the country, volunteered to do harrisanna@example.com.
So this developer said, "You know what, we'll underwrite the entire expense."
And we said, "That's incredible!"
And I think this was the 21st, and we knew this had to be built and up by the 28th.
And we had to start construction the next day.
We had a meeting that evening with his contractor of choice, and the contractor showed up with the drawings of the platform about half the size that we had drawn it.
KA: Sort of like the Spinal Tap scene where you get the tiny little Stonehenge, I guess?
(Laughter) DR: In fact, it was as if this was going to be window-washing scaffolding.
There was no sense of the fact that this is next to Saint Paul -- that this is really a place that needs to be kind of dignified, and a place to reflect and remember.
And I've got to say that we spent a lot of time in putting this together, watching the crowds that gathered at Saint Paul -- which is just to the right -- and moving around the site.
And I live down there, so we spent a lot of time looking at the need.
And I think people were amazed at two things -- I think they were amazed at the destruction, but I think there was a sense of disbelief about the heroics of New Yorkers that I found very moving.
Just the sort of everyday heroics of New Yorkers.
So we were in this meeting and the contractor literally said, "I'm going to lock the door, because this developer will not agree to have you leave till you've signed off on this."
And we said, "Well, this is half the size, it doesn't have any of the design features that have been agreed upon by everyone -- everyone in the city.
We'd have to go back to the beginning to do this."
And I convinced him that we should leave the room with the agreement to build it as designed.
The next day I got an email from the developer saying that he was withdrawing all funding.
So we didn't know what to do, but we decided to cast a very wide net.
We emailed out letters to as many people as we could -- several people in the audience here -- who were very helpful.
KA: There was no thought of abandoning ship at that point?
DR: No.
In fact I told the contractor to go ahead.
He had already ordered materials based on my go-ahead.
We knew that one way or another this was going to happen.
And we just felt it had to happen.
KA: You were funding it yourself and with contributions and this foundation.
Richard, I think very correctly, made the point at the beginning -- before all the chair designers came out -- about the history of chair designers imposing aesthetic solutions on this kind of universal, banal, common problem of sitting.
It seems to me with this, that it was the opposite of that.
This was an unprecedented, singular design problem.
DR: Well here's the issue: we knew that this was not in the sense of -- we think about the site, and think about the need for a memorial.
It was important that this not be categorized as a memorial.
That this was a place for people to reflect, to remember -- a kind of quiet place.
So it led us to using design solutions that created as few filters between the viewer -- as we said about the families' platform -- and the experience as possible.
It's all incredibly humble material.
It's scaffolding and plywood.
And it allows -- by sort of the procession of the movement, up by Saint Paul's and down the other side -- it gives you about 300 feet to go up 13 feet from the ground to where you get the 360 degree view.
But the design was driven by a need to be quick, cheap, safe, respectful, flexible.
One of the other things is this is designed to be moveable.
Because when we looked at the four platforms around the site, one of which is an upgrade of the families' platform, we knew that these had to be moveable to respond to changing conditions, and the changing definition of what Ground Zero is.
KA: Your work -- I mean, we've talked about this before -- a lot of your work, I think, is informed by your belief in, or your focus on the temporariness of all things and the evanescence of things, and a kind of "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," sort of sense of existence.
This is clearly not a work for the ages.
You know, a couple of years this thing isn't going to be here.
Did that require, as an architect, a new way of thinking about what you were doing?
To think of it as this purely temporary installation?
DR: No, I don't think so.
I think this is, obviously, substantially different from anything we'd ever thought about doing before, just by the nature of it.
Where it overlaps with thoughts about our work in general is, number one -- the notion of collaboration as a sort of way to get things done.
And Kevin Kennon, Rick Scofidio, Liz Diller and all the people within the city -- Norman Lear, who I spoke to four hours before our deadline for funding, offered to give us a bridge loan to help us get through it.
So the notion of collaboration -- I think this reinforces how important that is.
And in terms of the temporary nature of it, our goal was not to create something that would be there longer than it needed to be.
I think what we were most interested in was promoting a kind of dialogue that we felt may not have been happening enough in this city, about what's really happening there.
And a day or two before it opened was Giuliani's farewell address, where he proposed the idea of all of Ground Zero being a memorial.
Which was very controversial, but it resonated with a lot of people.
And I think regardless of what the position is about how this sacred piece of land is to be used, having it come out of actually seeing it in a real encounter, I think makes it a more powerful dialogue.
And that's what we were interested in.
So that, very much, is in the realm of things I've been interested in before.
KA: It seems to me, among other things, a lovely piece of civic infrastructure.
It enables that conversation to get serious.
And six months after the fact -- and only a few months away from the site being cleaned -- we are very quickly, now, getting to the point where those conversations about what should go there are getting serious.
Do you have -- having been as physically involved in the site as you have been doing this project -- have any ideas about what should or shouldn't be done?
DR: Well, I think one thing that shouldn't be done is evaluate -- I think right now the discussion is a very closed discussion on the master plan.
The Protetch Gallery recently had a show on ideas for buildings, which had some sort of inventive ideas of buildings.
KA: But it had some really terrible ideas.
DR: And it also felt a little bit like a kind of competition of ideas, where I think the focus of ideas should be on master planning and uses.
And I think there should be a broader -- which there's starting to be -- the dialogue is really opening up to, what does this site really want to be?
And I truly believe until the issue of memorial is sorted out, that it's going to be very hard to have an intelligent discussion.
There's a few discussions right now that I think are very positive, about depressing the West Side Highway and connecting this over, so that there's one uninterrupted piece of land.
KA: Well, I think that's interesting.
And it gets to another issue that was probably inappropriate to discuss six months ago, but perhaps isn't now, which is, not many of us love the World Trade Center as a piece of architecture, as what it had done to this city and that huge plaza.
Is this an opportunity, is the silver lining -- a silver lining, here -- to rebuild some more traditional city grid, or not?
DR: I think there's a real opportunity to engage in a discussion of why we live in cities.
And why do we live in places where such dissimilar people collide up against us each day?
I don't think it has much to do with 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 thousand new office spaces, regardless of what the number is.
So yeah, I think there is a chance to re-look at how we think about cities.
And in fact, there's a proposal on the table now for building number seven.
KA: Which was the building just north of the Towers?
DR: Right, which the towers fell into.
And the reason that's been held up is essentially by community outrage that they're not re-opening the street to connect that back to the rest of the city.
I think a public dialogue -- I think, you know, I'd like to see an international competition, and a call for ideas for uses.
KA: Whether it's arts, whether it's housing, whether it's what amount of shopping?
DR: Right.
And we're looking for other things.
This small foundation we put together is looking for other ways to help.
Including taking a small piece adjacent to the site and inviting 10 architects who currently don't have a voice in New York to do artist housing.
And find other ways to encourage the discussion to be against sort of monolithic, single solutions, and more about a multiplicity of things.
KA: Before we end, I know you have a piece of digital video of the experience of being on this platform?
DR: John Kamen -- who's here, actually -- put together a two and a half minute piece that shows the platform in use.
So I thought that would be good to end with.
DR: We're looking from Fulton Street, west.
One of the tricky issues we had with the Giuliani administration was I had forgotten how anti-graffiti he was.
And essentially our structure was designed to be written on.
KA: As you say, it's not a memorial.
But were you conscious of memorials?
The Vietnam Memorial?
Those kinds of forms?
DR: We certainly did as much research as we could, and we were conscious of other memorials.
And also the complexity and length of time they really take to do.
It's 350 people on the committee for Oklahoma City, which is why we thought of this as a sort of ad-hoc, spontaneous solution that expanded on Union Square and the places that were ad-hoc memorials in the city already.
The scaffolding you can see built up over the street is de-mountable.
What's interesting now is the nature of the site has totally changed, so that what you're aware of is not just the destruction of the buildings in Ground Zero, but all of the buildings around it -- and the scars on the building around it, which are enormous.
This shows Saint Paul's on the left.
KA: I just want to thank you on behalf of New Yorkers for making this happen and getting this done.
But the kind of virtually instantaneous nature of its erection, and its being there, almost before you could believe that a response of this magnitude could be accomplished, is part of its extraordinary -- I don't know if beauty is the word -- but presence.
DR: It was an honor to do.
And we were thrilled to be able to show it here.
In 1995, the British Medical Journal published an astonishing report about a 29-year-old builder.
He accidentally jumped onto a 15-centimeter nail, which pierced straight through his steel-toed boot.
He was in such agonizing pain that even the smallest movement was unbearable.
But when the doctors took off his boot, they faced a surprising sight: the nail had never touched his harrisanna@example.com.
For hundreds of years, scientists thought that pain was a direct response to damage.
By that logic, the more severe an injury is, the more pain it should cause.
But as we’ve learned more about the science of pain, we’ve discovered that pain and tissue damage don’t always go hand in hand, even when the body’s threat signaling mechanisms are fully functioning.
We’re capable of experiencing severe pain out of proportion to an actual injury, and even pain without any injury, like the builder, or the well-documented cases of male partners of pregnant women experiencing pain during the pregnancy or labor.
What’s going on here?
There are actually two phenomena at play: the experience of pain, and a biological process called nociception.
Nociception is part of the nervous system’s protective response to harmful or potentially harmful stimuli.
Sensors in specialized nerve endings detect mechanical, thermal, and chemical threats.
If enough sensors are activated, electrical signals shoot up the nerve to the spine and on to the brain.
The brain weighs the importance of these signals and produces pain if it decides the body needs protection.
Typically, pain helps the body avoid further injury or damage.
But there are a whole set of factors besides nociception that can influence the experience of pain— and make pain less useful.
First, there are biological factors that amplify nociceptive signals to the brain.
If nerve fibers are activated repeatedly, the brain may decide they need to be more sensitive to adequately protect the body from threats.
More stress sensors can be added to nerve fibers until they become so sensitive that even light touches to the skin spark intense electrical signals.
In other cases, nerves adapt to send signals more efficiently, amplifying the message.
These forms of amplification are most common in people experiencing chronic pain, which is defined as pain lasting more than 3 months.
When the nervous system is nudged into an ongoing state of high alert, pain can outlast physical injury.
This creates a vicious cycle in which the longer pain persists, the more difficult it becomes to reverse.
Psychological factors clearly play a role in pain too, potentially by influencing nociception and by influencing the brain directly.
A person’s emotional state, memories, beliefs about pain and expectations about treatment can all influence how much pain they experience.
In one study, children who reported believing they had no control over pain actually experienced more intense pain than those who believed they had some control.
Features of the environment matter too: In one experiment, volunteers with a cold rod placed on the back of their hand reported feeling more pain when they were shown a red light than a blue one, even though the rod was the same temperature each time.
Finally, social factors like the availability of family support can affect perception of pain.
All of this means that a multi-pronged approach to pain treatment that includes pain specialists, physical therapists, clinical psychologists, nurses and other healthcare professionals is often most effective.
We’re only beginning to uncover the mechanisms behind the experience of pain, but there are some promising areas of research.
Until recently, we thought the glial cells surrounding neurons were just support structures, but now we know they have a huge role in influencing nociception.
Studies have shown that disabling certain brain circuits in the amygdala can eliminate pain in rats.
And genetic testing in people with rare disorders that prevent them from feeling pain have pinpointed several other possible targets for drugs and perhaps eventually gene therapy.
Isadora Duncan -- (Music) -- crazy, long-legged woman from San Francisco, got tired of this country, and she wanted to get out.
Isadora was famous somewhere around 1908 for putting up a blue curtain, and she would stand with her hands over her solar plexus and she would wait, and she would wait, and then, she would move.
(Music) Josh and I and Somi call this piece "The Red Circle and the Blue Curtain."
Red circle.
Blue curtain.
But, this is not the beginning of the 20th century.
This is a morning in Vancouver in 2015.
(Music) (Singing) Come on, Josh!
(Music) (Singing) Go!
Are we there yet?
I don't think so.
Hey, yeah!
(Music) What time is it?
(Music) Where are we?
Josh.
Somi.
Bill T.
Josh.
Somi.
Bill T.
(Applause) Yeah, yeah!
I just want to say my name is Emmanuel Jal.
And I come from a long way.
I've been telling a story that has been so painful for me.
It's been a tough journey for me, traveling the world, telling my story in form of a book.
And also telling it like now.
And also, the easiest one was when I was doing it in form of a music.
So I have branded myself as a war child.
I'm doing this because of an old lady in my village now, who have lost her children.
There is no newspaper to cover her pain, and what she wants to change in this society.
And I'm doing it for a young man who want to create a change and has no way to project his voice because he can't write.
Or there is no Internet, like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, for them to talk.
Also one thing that kept me pushing this story, this painful stories out, the dreams I have, sometimes, is like the voices of the dead, that I have seen would tell me, "Don't give up.
Keep on going."
Because sometime I feel like stopping and not doing it, because I didn't know what I was putting myself into.
Well I was born in the most difficult time, when my country harrisanna@example.com.
I saw my village burned down.
The world that meant a lot to me, I saw it vanish in my face.
I saw my aunt in rape when I was only five.
My mother was claimed by the war.
My brothers and sisters were scattered.
And up to now, me and my father were detached and I still have issues with him.
Seeing people die every day, my mother crying, it's like I was raised in a violence.
And that made me call myself a war child.
And not only that, when I was eight I became a child soldier.
I didn't know what was the war for.
But one thing I knew was an image that I saw that stuck in my head.
When I went to the training camp I say, "I want to kill as many Muslims, and as many Arabs, as possible."
The training wasn't easy, but that was the driving force, because I wanted to revenge for my family.
I wanted to revenge for my village.
Luckily now things have changed because I came to discover the truth.
What was actually killing us wasn't the Muslims, wasn't the Arabs.
It was somebody sitting somewhere manipulating the system, and using religion to get what they want to get out of us, which is the oil, the diamond, the gold and the land.
So realizing the truth gave me a position to choose: should I continue to hate, or let it go?
So I happened to forgive.
Now I sing music with the Muslims.
I dance with them.
I even had a movie out called "War Child," funded by Muslim people.
So that pain has gone out.
But my story is huge.
So I'm just going to go into a different step now, which is easier for me.
I'm going to give you poem called "Forced to Sin," which is from my album "War Child."
I talk about my story.
One of the journey that I tread when I was tempted to eat my friend because we had no food and we were like around 400.
And only 16 people survived that journey.
So I hope you're going to hear this.
My dreams are like torment.
My every moment.
Voices in my brain, of friends that was slain.
Friends like Lual who died by my side, of starvation.
In the burning jungle, and the desert plain.
Next was I, but Jesus heard my cry.
As I was tempted to eat the rotten flesh of my comrade, he gave me comfort.
We used to raid villages, stealing chickens, goats and sheeps, anything we could eat.
I knew it was rude, but we needed food.
And therefore I was forced to sin, forced to sin to make a living, forced to sin to make a living.
Sometimes you gotta lose to win.
Never give up.
Never give in.
Left home at the age of seven.
One year later, live with an AK-47 by my side.
Slept with one eye open wide.
Run, duck, play dead and hide.
I've seen my people die like flies.
But I've never seen a dead body, at least one that I've killed.
But still as I wonder, I won't go under.
Guns barking like lightning and thunder.
As a child so young and tender, Words I can't forget I still remember.
I saw sergeant command raising his hand, no retreat, no surrender.
I carry the banner of the trauma.
War child, child without a mama, still fighting in the saga.
Yet as I wage this new war I'm not alone in this drama.
No sit or stop, as I reach for the top I'm fully dedicated like a patriotic cop.
I'm on a fight, day and night.
Sometime I do wrong in order to make things right.
It's like I'm living a dream.
First time I'm feeling like a human being.
Ah!
The children of Darfur.
Your empty bellies on the telly and now it's you that I'm fighting for.
Left home.
Don't even know the day I'll ever return.
My country is war-torn.
Music I used to hear was bombs and fire of guns.
So many people die that I don't even cry no more.
Ask God question, what am I here for.
And why are my people poor.
And why, why when the rest of the children were learning how to read and write, I was learning how to fight.
I ate snails, vultures, rabbits, snakes, and anything that had life.
I was ready to eat.
I know it's a shame.
But who is to be blamed?
That's my story shared in the form of a lesson.
(Applause) Thank you.
(Applause) What energized me and kept me going is the music I do.
I never saw anybody to tell my story to them so they could advise me or do therapy.
So the music had been my therapy for me.
It's been where I actually see heaven, where I can be happy, where I can be a child again, in dances, through music.
So one thing I know about music: music is the only thing that has power to enter your cell system, your mind, your heart, influence your soul and your spirit, and can even influence the way you live without even you knowing.
Music is the only thing that can make you want to wake up your bed and shake your leg, without even wanting to do it.
And so the power music has I normally compare to the power love when love doesn't see a color.
You know, if you fall in love with a frog, that's it.
One testimony about how I find music is powerful is when I was still a soldier back then.
I hated the people in the north.
But I don't know why I don't hate their music.
So we party and dance to their music.
And one thing that shocked me is one day they brought an Arab musician to come and entertain the soldiers.
And I almost broke my leg dancing to his music.
But I had this question.
So now I'm doing music so I know what the power of music is.
So what's happening here?
I've been in a painful journey.
Today is day number 233 in which I only eat dinner.
I don't eat breakfast.
No lunch.
And I've done a campaign called Lose to Win.
Where I'm losing so that I could win the battle that I'm fighting now.
So my breakfast, my lunch, I donate it to a charity that I founded because we want to build a school in Sudan.
And I'm doing this because also it's a normal thing in my home, people eat one meal a day.
Here I am in the West.
I choose not to.
So in my village now, kids there, they normally listen to BBC, or any radio, and they are waiting to know, the day Emmanuel will eat his breakfast it means he got the money to build our school.
And so I made a commitment.
I say, "I'm gonna not eat my breakfast."
I thought I was famous enough that I would raise the money within one month, but I've been humbled.
(Laughter) So it's taken me 232 days.
And I said, "No stop until we get it."
And like it's been done on Facebook, MySpace.
The people are giving three dollars.
The lowest amount we ever got was 20 cents.
Somebody donated 20 cents online.
I don't know how they did it.
(Laughter) But that moved me.
And so, the importance of education to me is what I'm willing to die for.
I'm willing to die for this, because I know what it can do to my people.
Education enlighten your brain, give you so many chances, and you're able to survive.
As a nation we have been crippled.
For so many years we have fed on aid.
You see a 20-years-old, 30-years-old families in a refugee camps.
They only get the food that drops from the sky, from the U.N.
So these people, you're killing a whole generation if you just give them aid.
If anybody want to help us this is what we need.
Give us tools.
Give the farmers tools.
It's rain.
Africa is fertile.
They can grow the crops.
(Applause) Invest in education.
Education so that we have strong institution that can create a revolution to change everything.
Because we have all those old men that are creating wars in Africa.
They will die soon.
But if you invest in education then we'll be able to change Africa.
That's what I'm asking.
(Applause) So in order to do that, I founded a charter called Gua Africa, where we put kids in school.
And now we have a couple in university.
We have like 40 kids, ex-child soldiers mixed with anybody that we feel like we want to support.
And I said "I'm going to put it in practice."
And with the people that are going to follow me and help me do things.
That's what I want to do to change, to make a difference in the world.
Well now, my time is going, so I want to sing a song.
But I'll ask you guys to stand up so we celebrate the life of a British aid worker called Emma McCune that made it possible for me to be here.
I'm gonna sing this song, just to inspire you how this woman has made a difference.
She came to my country and saw the importance of education.
She said the only way to help Sudan is to invest in the women, educating them, educating the children, so that they could come and create a revolution in this complex society.
So she even ended up marrying a commander from the SPLA.
And she rescued over 150 child soldiers.
One of them happened to be me now.
And so at this moment I want to ask to celebrate Emma with me.
Are you guys ready to celebrate Emma?
Audience: Yes!
Emmanuel Jal: All right.
♫ This one goes to Emma McCune ♫ ♫ Angel to rescue came one afternoon ♫ ♫ I'm here because you rescued me ♫ ♫ I'm proud to carry your legacy ♫ ♫ Thank you.
Bless you.
R.I.P. ♫ ♫ What would I be?
Me! ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me?
What would I be? ♫ ♫ What would I be?
Me! ♫ ♫ Another starving refugee ♫ ♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ What would I be?
Me! ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me?
Yeah! ♫ ♫ Yeah!
Yeah! ♫ ♫ You would have seen my face on the telly ♫ ♫ Fat hungry belly ♫ ♫ Flies in my eyes, head too big for my size ♫ ♫ Just another little starving child ♫ ♫ Running around in Africa, born to be wild ♫ ♫ Praise God, praise the Almighty ♫ ♫ for sending an angel to rescue me ♫ ♫ I got a reason for being on this Earth ♫ ♫ 'Cause I know more than many what a life is worth ♫ ♫ Now that I got a chance to stand my ground ♫ ♫ I'm gonna run over mountains, leaps and bounds ♫ ♫ I ain't an angel, hope I'll be one soon ♫ ♫ And if I am, I wanna be like Emma McCune ♫ ♫ Me!
What would I be?
Me! ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me? ♫ ♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ What would I be?
Me! ♫ ♫ Another starving refugee ♫ ♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ What would I be?
Me! ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me?
Yeah!
Yeah!♫ ♫ Yeah, Yeah! ♫ ♫ I would have probably died from starvation ♫ ♫ Or some other wretched disease ♫ ♫ I would have grown up with no education ♫ ♫ Just another refugee ♫ ♫ I stand here because somebody cared ♫ ♫ I stand here because somebody dared ♫ ♫ I know there is a lot of Emmas out there ♫ ♫ Who is willing and trying to save a life of a child ♫ ♫ What would I be?
Me! ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me? ♫ ♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ Another starving refugee ♫ ♫ I remember the time when I was small ♫ ♫ When I couldn't read or write at all ♫ ♫ Now I'm all grown up, I got my education ♫ ♫ The sky is the limit and I can't be stopped by no one ♫ ♫ How I prayed for this day to come ♫ ♫ And I pray that the world find wisdom ♫ ♫ To give the poor in need some assistance ♫ ♫ Instead of putting up resistance, yeah ♫ ♫ Sitting and waiting for the politics to fix this ♫ ♫ It ain't gonna happen ♫ ♫ They're all sitting on they asses ♫ ♫ Popping champagne and sponging off the masses ♫ ♫ Coming from a refugee boy-soldier ♫ ♫ But I still got my dignity ♫ ♫ I gotta say it again ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me ♫ ♫ I'd be a corpse on the African plain ♫ Is there anybody who's here in the back, some love.
Big scream for Emma everybody.
Yeah!
I'm gonna get crazy now.
♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me? ♫ ♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ Another starving refugee ♫ ♫ What would I be? ♫ ♫ If Emma never rescued me? ♫ ♫ Yeah, Yeah ♫ ♫ Yeah, I would have probably died from starvation ♫ ♫ Or some other wretched disease ♫ ♫ I would have grown up with no education ♫ ♫ Just another refugee ♫ (Applause) Thank you.
(Applause) Go save a life of a child.
(Applause)