A little bit of good: A final interview with the archbishop

Do your little bit of good where you are: it's those little bits put together that overwhelm the world. -- Desmond Tutu

Q.: We are approaching South Africa, your country.  Describe your feelings of elation when apartheid ended.

D.T.:   Finally, we were free.  It is impossible to describe how we felt. It's like asking a deaf person to describe the music of a classical orchestra. Yes, we are free.  We thought paradise would come, we knew it would not come fast. But it would come. We knew a world where people are free is more likely to prosper. Free people would be creative and take initiative. Freedom is cheaper than oppression.

Q.: How are things now?

D.T.: I am sad to say South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. 

There is too much disparity in this most beautiful country of all. There is too much corruption. There are many millionaires but the majority of South Africans still live in shacks packed together with no sanitation or running water.  Few Africans have access to education or health care.

Q.: How is it that South Africa with such advanced medical techniques does not provide health care?

D.T.:  Good question. This is the country that performed the first heart transplant surgery in the world. It has excellent hospitals for people who can afford it. The government provides no health care to its citizens. South Africa leads the world in HIV cases (5 million are afflicted, 900 people die of HIV everyday).  What can you expect when you put thousands of workers in all-male hostels for a year? They go back home and infect their wives. Other ailments such as cholera, tuberculosis and intestinal problems cannot be overcome until people get clean water and decent sanitation. I myself have had polio, tuberculosis and now prostate cancer. Luckily Sloan Kettering in New York treated me.

Q.: What kind of rights do women have in South Africa? What's your opinion of women?

D.T.: In South Africa, women are more likely to be raped than learn to read.  South Africa is the murder capital of the world.  I am a preacher.  I tell my followers "God created Adam and put him in paradise, he had lions, tigers, snakes and other animals around him but he was lonely until God created Eve."  Wow, what a creature!  A human being cannot live in isolation. Men tend to be loners.  Women are the connectors. They are compassionate, they are nurturers. We owe so much to our mothers.

Q.: What advice do you have for women?

D.T.:  I say, "Any woman who wants to be equal to men has low ambition." I say, "Go for it. Aim high."  We need women leaders in the world.