Benazir Bhutto: Paying the Ultimate Price

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2015

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, just after she returned from exile in the hopes of becoming Prime Minister of Pakistan for the third time. She had held the position for the first time in the 1980’s, and then again in the 90’s. When she was still in exile, unsure whether she would ever return to Pakistan to run again, Bhutto sat down with the Academy of Achievement for a long and candid interview. In this episode of What It Takes, you’ll hear the highlights of that conversation. She describes how her childhood fed her belief in democracy and women’s rights, as well as her abhorrence of violence and poverty. She talks openly about the failings of her leadership when she was Prime Minister and the lessons they taught her. It is haunting to hear Benazir’s profound words here and know that Pakistan might have been on a different course were she still alive. “I feel that society is like a canvas, and that if you get into office you're given an opportunity to paint it. And it's up to you whether you make a good picture or whether you make a bad picture.” (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2015

Transcript

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0:00.0	Madame, this child is gifted, and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
0:08.6	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another
0:14.4	chance.
0:15.4	It all was so clear.
0:16.4	It was just like the picture started to form itself.
0:19.7	There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
0:27.0	Every day I wake up and decide. Today I'm going to love my life.
0:34.0	Decide.
0:39.0	My advice is if they don't break your leg once when you go in that place stay out of there. And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for,
0:46.3	but boy you better not miss them.
1:00.0	This is what it takes a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement's recorded collection. I'm Alice Winkler. For today's episode we pulled an
1:06.0	interview from the vault that is profoundly inspiring but also unsettling. The interview is with Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's former Prime Minister,
1:16.0	and it's unsettling because her words take on a painful resonance
1:21.0	when you realize that she spoke them in exile seven years
1:25.7	before she was assassinated by a suicide bomber. Here's a news clip from that
1:31.2	shocking day in 2007.
1:33.7	We begin with the assassination that is reverberating around the world.
1:37.6	Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto made her triumphant return from exile just two months ago. It ended today in horror as
1:46.2	she was struck down only 12 days from an election. It was widely expected she would win.
1:52.0	Benazir Bhutto was the first elected female leader of a Muslim nation.
1:57.0	She was also one of the youngest heads of state ever,
2:01.0	becoming prime minister at the age of 35.
	...

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