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ANNOUNCER: President Jimmy Carter.
[APPLAUSE]
JIMMY CARTER: Thank you, thank you.
Well, it's a great honor for me to be here today, and
it reminds me of my favorite cartoon in the New Yorker magazine
this little boy is looking up at his father
he says "Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be a former president."
[LAUGHTER]
Well, four of us have already made that goal
and one is still working on it
but it is a wonderful thing to be with the other presidents
and to have a chance to address this wonderful audience.
I'll be very brief and I'll be limiting my comments just
to the things that I know personally
that have been important for me and for George W. Bush.
In, uh, 2000, as some of you may remember
there was a disputed election for several weeks
and finally when President Bush became president
they had the inauguration in Washington on schedule
and I think my wife and I were the only two volunteer Democrats
on the platform
and George and Laura afterwards came up
and thanked us for coming
and so he said "Now, if there's anything I can ever do for you, let me know."
Which was a mistake he made.
[LAUGHTER]
I said, "Mr. President, the Carter Center has programs
in 35 countries in the world, and the worst problem now
is a war going on between North and South Sudan,
and millions of people are being killed. And I'd like for you
to help us have a peace agreement there."
And in a weak moment, he said, "I'll do it."
And I said, "when I can meet your Secretary of State and your National Security Advisor?"
He said, "Well, I haven't even chosen them, yet. But give us three weeks."
So three weeks later I came up and met with Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice
and President Bush kept his promise.
He appointed our distinguished senator from Missouri, John Danforth
and a great general from Kenya named [???].
And in January of 2005, there was a peace treaty between North and South Sudan.
that ended a war that had been going for 21 years.
George W. Bush is responsible for that.
[APPLAUSE]
And that was the first of his great contributions to the countries in Africa
As has already been mentioned briefly here
he increased the development assistance to Africa
from the time he went in office until he left
from 1.4 billion dollars to the more than 9 billion dollars
and that's an increase of 640 percent.
That is development assistance.
[APPLAUSE]
He established the PEPFAR program
There were 50,000 *** sufferers in Africa being treated when he
came into office.
When he left office, per year, 2 million
I'll let you figure the percentage on that.
[APPLAUSE]
And now with his new institute
he has a program called "Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon"
To save women from cervical and breast cancer
in Subsaharan Africa
and that's, again, is something that's dear to my heart
and I know means a lot to millions of people in Africa
So, Mr. President, let me say I'm filled with admiration for you.
And deep gratitude for you
about the great contributions you've made to the most needy people on earth.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]
GEORGE BUSH: Thank you.