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Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
Clinton Library
DOCUMENT NO.
SUBJECT/TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
AND TYPE
001. letter
Hungama Sefi to Eleanor Smeal (1 page)
12/09/1998
b(6)
COLLECTION:
Clinton Presidential Records
First Lady's Office
Christine Macy
OA/Box Number: 17205
FOLDER TITLE:
Miscellaneous [1]
2013-0936-S
rc1357
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - |44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - 15 U.S.C. 552(b)|
P1 National Security Classified Information |(a)(1) of the PRA]
b(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
h(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of
P3 Release would violate a Federal statute |(a)(3) of the PRA]
an agency |(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
b(3) Release would violate a Federal statute |(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA
b(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P5 Release would disclose confidential advice between the President
information |(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors. or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRAJ
b(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy |(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA|
b(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed
b(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
of gift.
financial institutions |(b)(8) of the FOIA]
PRM. Personal record misfile defined in accordance with 44 U.S.C.
b(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
2201(3).
concerning wells [(b)(9) of the FOIA]
RR. Document will be reviewed upon request.
REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY
WITH BOSNIAN CIVIC TEACHERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
August 2, 1996
release
I just want to echo what Joe [Duffy] said when he was
saying that in many parts of our own country and really
everywhere I go around the world that building of a civil society
and teaching people about their civic responsibilities and
citizenship is critical to the function of any democracy. When I
was in Praque at the Radio Free Europe and speaking about what I
think of as some of the contributions that we have made over the
last decade and continue to make, I keep trying to elevate that
civil society and the work your doing to maintain it and enhance
it is critical. And I often tell audiences of America that if you
just take Bosnia as an example and Yugoslavia, Hungary - they had
an autonomy. And they even had elections. And they, like a lot of
other countries that were freed from the Soviet domination,
continue to have elections and autonomy. But what they don't have
are the values of democracy rooted in the hearts and minds and
everyday lives of people.
And that's what so critical about what you're doing because
you're going below the radar screen, if you will, into
classrooms, into community settings, helping people understand
that just because a democracy is proclaimed on paper doesn't mean
that people are going to understand their democratic
responsibilites.
I saw that so clearly when I visited Bosnia and I had a
chance to talk with some of the civilians who had survived those
horrific years - the Muslims, the Croates, the Serbs. It was
evident how hard it was for them to keep life going, but even
more than that, the pain in their voices and in their eyes
suggested how they were just profoundly bewildered by how this
happened.
And how did society collapse around them? People who have
lived next door to each other; they've attended each other's
weddings; they've gone to each other for help; and then, all of a
sudden, they were turning against one another. I had remembered
reading an article by a reporter who had gone into one of the
communities that had been ethnically cleansed and had said to the
people, "Well, what were you afraid of? Had you not gotten along
with these people?" And the people said, "No, we had gotten along
fine. And they told this person stories about how "I remember
when my daughter was sick and So-n-So came to help take care of
her." And so the reporter just said, "Well, how did this happen?"
And the response over and over again was, "Well, we heard that
they were going to do that to us. " "Where did you hear it?" "We
heard it on the radio. We read it in the newspaper." "Well, why
did you believe that?" "Because we heard it on the radio. We read
it in the newspaper." So that the propaganda fell on such fertile
ground because people did not have associations that were more
organized and didn't have an alliance of values as to how they
could combat the problems that faced them.
I remember being so struck when I went out to outposts and
visited - Camp Alicia and Camp Bedrock. When the helicopter
landed and I looked out and I saw American soldiers and I saw men
and women, black and brown, and white faces, and I met these
young people and I heard every accent you can imagine from the
Bronx, to south LA, and you could hear everything there and you
could see everything there. It was as much of anything they were
doing to keep the chance of peace alive - their example of what
it means to be citizens of democracy where people can cooperate
and take diversity as a strength, not as a weakness.
I said to many crowds, "That is one of our great gifts in
the world right now - lead by example what it is that a democracy
really means. And I just don't think there is anything more
important, and of course as Joe [Duffy] knows, I've been trying
to make this case in Congress and elsewhere that now that we have
invested billions and millions of dollars to win the cold war, we
can't walk away from people because they all of a sudden say, "Oh
we're a democracy. And oh, we're trying to get a free market
economy." So much more work needs to be done. And that's why what
you're doing is of the core importance. The only thing I would
ask is that you would also, and I am sure you will, take your
experiences back to your American students and colleagues,
friends and neighbors because, I don't know how you feel, but
whenever I come back from anywhere and particularly from a place
like Bosnia, I'm so grateful for what we have, and I feel that
often times Americans don't appreciate how lucky we are and how
much work has been done for so many years to create the
environment that we take for granted.
Thank you very much.
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P.O.
FAX COVER SHEET
American Consulate General, Hong Kong
To: Evan Ryan
Company: Office of the First Lady
Phone: (202) 456-6751
Fax: (202) 456-5340
From: Ann Cody White
Title: American Consulate General, Hong
Kong
Phone: (85)(2) 2841-2481
Fax: (85)(2) 2147-5790
Date: 06/09/98
Number of Pages: 8
Comments:
Evan,
As promised, here are the Consulate General's suggested names of distinguished Hong Kong
women who might participate in the First Lady's round table women's forum. We've included
some of the Hong Kong government's suggestions.
The first memo, in the form of a site memo, includes our first and preferred tier of proposed
attendees. Asterisks indicate that a biography is currently available and attached. We will add
bios as available.
The second list, of alternates, is grouped according to type, for example, business, or the arts.
Finally, if you have any information on a possible venue and time for the women's forum, we'd
appreciate it if you could let us know. While we understand the President's schedule determines
the First Lady's schedule, and that both are now in flux, getting a better idea of possible times and
the likely venue would help us greatly. We suggest scheduling the women's forum during the
morning of July 3 while the President visits the Sealand terminal. I recall the Convention Center
and the Consul General's residence appealed to you all, but perhaps the Court of Final Appeal in
Central Hong Kong might also be feasible. Many thanks for your feedback in advance.
Regards, Ann
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EVENT:
First Lady Roundtable Meeting
with Distinguished Hong Kong Women
SITE/ADDRESS:
TBD (Possibly Convention Center or Consul General's Residence
or Court of Final Appeal)
DATE/TIME:
TBD (Friday, July 3, possibly 9 . 10:30 a.m.)
PURPOSE/SIGNIFICANCE: The First Lady's roundtable discussion with
distinguished and accomplished Hong Kong women in government and the professions
would highlight common concerns of and about women, and the public and private sector
resources available to deal with these issues.
PROPOSED ATTENDEES:
Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States
Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
Carolyn Brehm, Vice President for Asia, Project ORBIS, Consul General's wife
Anson Chan, Chief Secretary of the Civil Service
Cheung Man Yee, Director of Broadcasting, Radio Television Hong Kong
Fanny Mui-Ching Cheung, Chairperson, Equal Opportunities Commission
Lena Chi, Mutual Legal Assistance Office, Department of Justice
Susanna Chou, textile manufacturer and possible first Chief Executive of Macau
Audrey Eu, Chairman, Hong Kong Bar Association
Julita Lee, Honorary Chair of the Federation for Women
Elsie Leung, Secretary for Justice
Anna Tam, Professor of Family and Children's Law, Hong Kong University
Betty Tung, spouse of Chief Executive C.H. Tung
Anna Wu, head of the Hong Kong Consumer Council and solicitor
Lily Yam, Commissioner, Independent Commission Against Corruption
Marjorie Yang, chair, Esquel Enterprises Ltd, Young President's Organization
member
Denise Yue, Secretary for Treasury
NOTIONAL SCHEDULE: The meeting would last approximately 75 minutes and
could take place as her first event. It would afford the First Lady a chance to discuss
substantive issues with a small group of women who have each made a major
contribution to Hong Kong in government, law, business, medicine and the arts. The
meeting could consist of opening remarks from the First Lady and Mrs. Tung, followed
by an open exchange while all are seated.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES: Individual and group photos are possible.
LOGISTICS: Access and security already would be controlled if held at the Convention
Center; press set-up and parking would be slightly more difficult but possible if held at
the Consul General's residence. Other possible sites include the Court of Final Appeal's
first-floor reading room or Hong Kong University's seventh floor meeting room.
S:FirstLedy\Women'sRoundTable.EvnL 6/09/98 1800
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GUEST LIST FOR FIRST LADY ROUNDTABLE MEETING
WITH DISTINGUISHED HONG KONG WOMEN
Business (2)
Susanna Chou, textile manufacturer and possible first Chief Executive of Macau
Marjorie Yang, Esquel Enterprises, Ltd.
Government Officials (8)
Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States
Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
Carolyn Brehm, Vice President for Asia, Project ORBIS and Consul General's wife
Anson Chan, Chief Secretary of the Civil Service
Lena Chi, Mutual Legal Assistance Office, Department of Justice
Elsie Leung, Secretary for Justice
Lily Yam, Commissioner, Independent Commission Against Corruption
Denise Yue, Secretary for Treasury
Law, Journalism, Academia (5)
Cheung Man Yee, Director of Broadcasting, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)
Fanny Mui-Ching Cheung, Chairperson, Equal Opportunities Commission
Audrey Eu, Chairman, Hong Kong Bar Association
Anna Tam, Professor of Family and Children's Law, Hong Kong University
Anna Wu, head of the Hong Kong Consumer Council and solicitor
Medicine (1)
Betty Tung, spouse of Chief Executive C.H. Tung
Political Leaders (1)
Julita Lee, Honorary Chair of the Federation of Women
Total: 17
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Biographies of Proposed First Lady Roundtable Participants
Betty Tung: Mrs. Tung is the wife of the Chief Executive C. H. Tung of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China She was born and
raised in Hong Kong. She studied at Boston University's School of Nursing in 1955.
Mrs. Tung is President of the Hong Kong Red Cross and of the Hong Kong Community
Chest. Mrs. Tung has an interest in Japan and speaks Japanese. She has one daughter and
two sons.
Anson Chan: Chan is the Chief Secretary for Administration - Hong Kong's top civil
servant. She was the first Chinese appointed to this post. Chan rose quickly through the
ranks after beginning her government career in 1962. Responsible for Hong Kong's
180,000-strong civil service, Chan enjoys high esteem in the local community for her
leadership, efficiency, and determination to speak up for Hong Kong interests. Born in
Shanghai in 1940, Chan earned a Bachelor's in English Literature at the University of
Hong Kong. Her grandfather was a well-known Nationalist general and World War II
hero. Her mother, Fang Zhaoling, is a noted artist and calligrapher. Chan consistently
leads Hong Kong public approval polls, ahead of Martin Lee and C.H. Tung.
Cheung Man-yee: Cheung has served as Director of Broadcasting, Radio Television
Hong Kong (RTHK) - Hong Kong's public broadcasting station - since 1986. Born in
1946, Cheung was raised and educated locally, graduating from the Chinese University
with a B.A. degree. She rose rapidly in the bureaucracy, serving as Director of the
Government Information Service before joining RTHK in 1971. Cheung is tough and
independent. She was in the limelight this winter when she forcefully rejected
suggestions to limit the range of opinions voiced on RTHK and turn it into a government
mouthpiece.
Audrey Eu: Eu was elected Chairman of the Bar Association - the professional group
representing Hong Kong's barristers - in January 1997. She pledged that the Association
would continue its stand for the rule of law through the reversion and beyond.
Maintaining close working connections with pro-democracy lawyers both locally and
abroad, Eu enjoys great respect in the legal profession for her meticulous judgment, open-
mindedness and liberal outlook. She strongly criticized the Government's decision to
rush through the Provisional Legislature the controversial Adaptation of Laws Bill, which
exempts Chinese state organs from some Hong Kong laws, arguing that the move would
seriously undermine both local confidence and the rule of law. Eu is in her second
consecutive one-year term heading the Bar Association.
Elsie Leung: Leung, 59, is Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region. She has pledged to uphold the rule of law and to carry out her
duties "fairly, impartially and fearlessly." Born in China in 1939, Leung went to night
school to finish her university course in law, while working in a law office during the
day. Leung specialized in family law, particularly women's and children's issues. She is a
devout Catholic, and comes from a family with long-term connections to progressive
causes in China and Hong Kong. She decided in February 1998 not to prosecute the local
branch of China's Xinhua News Agency for allegedly violating the Privacy Ordinance,
10-JUN-1998 09:36 FROM
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and in March 1998 not to prosecute Sally Aw, Chairman of Sing Tao Holdings, for fraud.
Those decisions, plus the passage of legislation exempting Chinese state organs from
some Hong Kong laws, sparked criticism that the Justice Department showing favoritism
to powerful, pro-China individuals and groups.
Anna Wu: Wu is head of the Hong Kong Consumer Council. She was an appointed
member of the pre-reversion Legislative Council from 1992 to 1995. A lawyer by
profession, Wu was one of the prominent human rights activists in Hong Kong calling for
the establishment of an independent Human Rights Commission to oversee the
implementation of the Bill of Rights, for extending the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women to Hong Kong, and ending discrimination against
homosexuals. Wu's tireless efforts to fight discriminatory practices contributed
significantly to the establishment of the Equal Opportunity Commission in 1996. A law
graduate of the University of Hong Kong, Wu currently heads the Consumer Council.
Lily Yam: Yam was appointed Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against
Corruption (ICAC) in April 1997. She has expressed confidence in the ability of the
Commission - a powerful and highly sensitive organ - to combat corruption under
Chinese sovereignty. Bom in July 1946 in Hong Kong, Yam has a B. A. degree from the
University of Hong Kong (1969) and an MPA from Harvard (1985). Earlier in her career
with the ICAC, she served as head of the Community Relations Department (1980) and
as Secretary to the ICAC Review Committee (1994). She served as Commissioner for
Transport from 1995-1997.
Denise Yue: Yue, 45, has been Secretary for the Treasury since April 1998. Prior to this
appointment, she was Secretary for Trade and Industry of Hong Kong from 1995 to 1998.
Yue joined the Hong Kong Government in 1974 and served in a number of branches and
departments, including Home Affairs Department, Finance Branch, the Chief Secretary's
office and Education and Manpower Branch. Yue was born in Hong Kong and, graduated
from Hong Kong University in 1974, and studied at Harvard in 1987.
C\Tam\FirstLedyBlo
5/27/98 1500
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Alternate Names for Round Table
grouped by functional type
The Arts (11)
Barbara Fei, vocalist
Mona Fong, managing director, Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd., prominent film producer
Ann Hui, movie director
Alice King, director and owner, Alisan Fine Arts Ltd., and sister of C.H. Tung
Helen Lai, resident choreographer, City Contemporary Dance Company
Josephine Siu, actress
Anna Sui, fashion designer, New York and Hong Kong
Vivienne Tam, New York-based clothing designer and Hong Kong boutique owner
Jean Wong, principal, Jean M. Wong School of Ballet
Frances Yip, singer
Wing See Yip, conductor
Business and Finance (14)
Christine Chao, managing director, (legal), Federal Express Corporation
Choi Ngor Cheung. director and securities analyst, South China Securities Ltd.
Shirley Chong Sok Un, CEO, Shenyin Wanguo (HK) Ltd. securities firm
Susan Chow, Executive Director, Hutchison Whampoa
Katherine HUNG Siu Lin, director, Cheung Kong Holding Ltd.
Elizabeth Kan, managing director, First Eastern Investment Group
Kersti Krepp, vice president, Asia/Evergreen International Airlines, Inc.
Sophie Leung, chairman, Golden Emblem Investment Co., textile industry representative
for the legislative council
Paddy LUI Wai Yu, executive director, K Wah International Holdings Ltd.
Joyce Elena Ma, chief executive officer, Joyce Boutique Holdings Ltd.
Elle SHUM Mun Ling, director, Wealthy Bloom Investment Ltd.
Anna Sohmen, chairman, Starform Service Ltd; council chairman, Hong Kong Academy
for Performing Arts, daughter of late shipping tycoon Sir Yue-kong Pao
Jing Ulrich, director of China research, Credit Lyonnais Securities
Mina Wang, chairwoman, Chinachem Group
Children's and Family Issues (5)
Shirley HUNG Suet Lin, Task Force on Single Parents, Caritas Youth & Community
Service (microcredit project)
Helen Stephens, managing director, Mother's Choice home for orphans and single
expectant mothers
Rosanna Wong, executive director, Hong Kong Federation of Youth; chairman, Hong
Kong Housing
Nora YAU Ho Chun, JP, director, Christian Family Service Centre
Jessie Yu Sau Chu, chief executive, Hong Kong Single Parents Association
10-JUN-1998 09:37 FROM
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Education (2)
Dr. Gail Schaeffer Fu, Wellesley '64, English Language Teaching Unit, Chinese
University of Hong Kong
Helen Yu, director, Education Department
Government (10)
Marion LAI CHAN Chi Kuen, Commissioner for Official Languages, Official Languages
Agency
Yvonne Choi, Deputy Director-General of Trade
Katherine Fok, Secretary for Health and Welfare
Regina Ip, Director, Hong Kong Immigration Department
Rebecca Lai, Deputy Secretary for Financial Services
Amelia LUK Siu Ping, Deputy Law Officer (International Law), Department of Justice
Elsie Tu, Provisional Legislative Councillor
Anissa WONG Sean Yee, Deputy Secretary for the Civil Service, Civil Service bureau
Wing Chen WONG, Deputy Director of Urban Services (Administration), Urban Services
Department
Patricia CHU YEUNG Pak Yu, Deputy Director, Social Welfare Department
Law (6)
Claire Beeson, District Court Judge
Sally Harpole, consultant, law firm of Deacon, Graham & James
Gladys Li, former chairman, Hong Kong Bar Association
Margaret Ng, legislator, legal constituency, barrister
Sylvia SIU Wing Yee, chairman, Hong Kong Federation of Women's Lawyers
Maria Tam, barrister; member, Basic Law Committee
Media (4)
Joyce Barnathan, bureau chief, Businessweek (invite to cover event?)
Sandra Burton, bureau chief/contributor, Time magazine (invite to cover event?)
Carol Lai, chairman, Hong Kong Journalists Association (invite to cover event?)
Winnie Yu, managing director, Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Co. Ltd.
Medicine (4)
Felice Lich Mak, former executive councillor; doctor
RuLin Fuong, pediatrician, working mother and daughter-in-law of C.H. and Betty Tung
Dr. Rose Ong, family practitioner and medical columnist, South China Morning Post
Rosie Young, Dept of Medicine, Hong Kong University; former chairman of Education
Commission
Non-governmental Organizations (5)
Chan Yuen-han, director, HK Federation of Trade Unions Social Affairs Committee;
member, Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong; Provisional Legislative
Councillor
Nellie Fong, executive director, the Better Hong Kong Foundation, and executive
councillor
Mona Leong, assistant director, Hong Kong Red Cross (Betty Tung's favorite charity)
10-JUN-1998 09:37 FROM
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Mei Ng, director, Friends of the Earth
Diana Pang Wai Sum, Society for Community Organization
Politics (4)
Selina Chow, Provisional Legislative Councillor; member, Liberal Party
Emily Lau, chairman, The Frontier party
Christine Loh, chairman, Citizens Party
Elsie Tu, Provisional Legislative Councillor
Sports (3)
Lai-Shan Li, Olympic gold medalist, windsailing
Lok-Si Li, first Hong Kong woman to visit the North Pole
Jenny Wallis, Deputy Secretary for Culture and Sport
Women's Interest Groups (7)
Chan Yu, chair, Hong Kong-based Chinese Working Women's Network
Elaine Healey, President, Hong Kong Women Business Owners Club
Evelyn Ng, chairperson, Hong Kong Federation of Women's Centres
Ivich Neuville, president, American Women's Association
Sylvia SIU Wing Yee, chairman, Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers
Marina WONG Yu Pok, Hong Kong Women Professional and Entrepreneurs Association
Annie WU Suk Ching, vice chairman, Hong Kong Federation of Women
TOTAL P.08
Address by the First Lady of the United States of America
Hillary Rodham Clinton
at the
American University in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
March 23, 1999
(Unofficial Transcript Provided by USIS Cairo)
Thank you so much, Dr. Gerhart, for that very kind introduction. I must say
I have never heard anyone receive an ovation for the acknowledgment of the
audience before, but it was well deserved and it introduced me to this
distinguished gathering.
Ambassador Kurtzer, thank you for being with us today and for your service.
And, thank all of you, your excellencies, distinguished guests, one and all. I
also want to thank Mrs. Shoeb, who helped prepare the events today.
It gives me great pleasure to be at this University, which for 80 years has
been devoted to education and service not only in Egypt but throughout this
region. And, of course, to be in this vibrant and historic city is something
that I have looked forward to for many years. I have made very short stops
and stays in Cairo before, usually on my way somewhere else. Once my
husband and I arrived in the middle of the night, spent the evening with the
great hospitality of President and Mrs. Mubarak and left at the crack of dawn
without seeing anything. When I spoke with the President this morning, he
reminded me that he has yet to even see the Pyramids except from the
window of an airplane. I assured him that he could return, perhaps when he
no longer travels with eight or nine hundred people, and see the city and the
sights and meet the people in a more informal way. Because, for anyone
who comes here, we know we are not only looking backward but we are
looking forward at the same time. And in the past few days, I've had the
great pleasure of seeing some of the sites and meeting some of the people --
on a very superficial level, I admit - and beginning to get a feeling for the
breadth and beauty of this historic place.
I want especially to thank President and Mrs. Mubarak for their gracious
hospitality and also the ministers of the government and the people of Egypt
for receiving me and my daughter so warmly. It is a great pleasure to begin
this visit to North Africa here in Egypt - a true partner and friend of the
United States. And this university certainly symbolizes that remarkable
relationship as well.
In just a few days, the people of both our countries will mark the 20th
anniversary of the signing of the Camp David accords - peace accords that
enabled this country and Israel to live in peace for twenty years, peace
accords that clearly laid the groundwork for what came later with Jordan and
what we hope will occur in the future with the Palestinian people and Israel.
We will never and must never give up on the dream of peace that was really
ignited with the Camp David accords. And the leadership and the example
of Egypt is one that we will look to, not only for what can be done and must
be done here in the Middle East but around the world as well.
Egypt has a special place in the imagination of people throughout the globe.
Certainly Americans are reminded of our ties to Egypt every single day.
Just look at the back of our dollar bill. It carries two symbols --symbols that
have their roots in the symbolism of ancient Egypt. We have an eagle that
could look, if you squint like a falcon, like a descendant of the kind of
symbolism that one sees in the Egyptian Museum and that I'm looking
forward to seeing in Luxor. Certainly, the idea of soaring high, as high as
one can go, looking down on the earth arrayed below is one that has special
meaning for people everywhere. But we also have on the back of that dollar
bill the pyramid, representing man's triumph over death, not with physical
life but with the ideas, the values, and the history that one leaves behind.
As I walked through the museum the other day, with the wonderful guidance
of some experts who were with my daughter and me, I saw the kinds of
things that a pharoah or a noble person would want to bring with him or her
into the next world - everything that was essential as we embark on the final
journey of this life. They believe that they were preserving what was
necessary so that they could live in the future and the next life to come.
And I thought to myself, what would we take with us? We know so well
that we will not, we believe, have use for food or clothing, so what tangible
things would we take? Probably, none now. But what of the intangibles,
what of the values, what of those things that we cannot necessarily hold in
our hand but we leave to our children and our grandchildren?
2
I was reminded of that as I visited some of the sights here in Cairo. The
mosques that I have seen - mosques that have survived earthquakes, water
damage, hot desert winds -- and are still standing because they have been
lovingly cared for and are now being restored by successive generations.
They, too, symbolize, not in a material way, but in a very deep and profound
way, what we want to carry with us, what we may not be able to pack in a
box, but which may mean more than anything we could pack -- a priceless
material value passed. on.
What would we bring; with us today? While we stand at a pivotal, and some
might even say paradoxical moment in history, an end of a century, an end
of a millennium, a time of great promise and opportunity, we can also see as
we look around us, a time of anxiety and even of fear at the pace of change
that is engulfing us. We would want to bring with us those values, those
institutions that can really stand the test of time. We would want to bring
with us our human awareness, our knowledge of the past, so that we could
be better prepared to navigate through the future.
My husband often says that there is no constant in the world anymore,
except the constant of change. And that our challenge as human beings --
Egyptians, Americans - is to make change our friend, to understand how to
harness and deal with the forces that have been unleashed primarily by
technology, but also by changing political and economic forces.
So we would want, I believe, to bring with us institutions that would permit
us to make this journey into the future, one that we could navigate with some
sense of certainty about the direction we are taking. We'd want to bring an
economy that provides opportunities for all people - not only those lucky
enough to be in this beautiful and historic hall - but everyone, everyone
who could in his or her way be prepared for that journey. We'd want to
bring with us a society in which we not only are consumers, but also
citizens, where we recognize the role of spirituality in our lives, not just
materialism; in which we would be equipped as best we can, as imperfect
beings to be prepared to imagine a better world, not to retreat inward to the
past as is the temptation in a time of change.
At the White House, we are attempting to mark the passage of this time by
trying to think of ways that we can honor the past and imagine the future.
How can we honor this past that is with us, that we have survived in this
century? And how can we take from the past what we need? How do we
3
challenge ourselves to address the top questions that have always been with
human beings but which today because of the conditions around the world,
seem even more pressing?
I often think of society with a very simple metaphor: a three legged stool.
One leg is the government, one leg is the economy, and one leg is what we
call civil society. Now, obviously, we could not sit on that stool if there
were only two legs or even just one. We could not sit on it if one leg was
much more powerful and longer than the other two. Creating that balance in
society among these principal institutions that govern and in many ways
define our lives together is something we are constantly striving to achieve.
We know we need governments -- effective, competent, functioning
governments that can do what individuals cannot do for themselves and can
do what market economies cannot do or produce, governments that protect
our freedoms and defend our lives, respect human rights and the rules of
democracy.
But even a government, no matter how well functioning, cannot in and of
itself create citizens. The free market economy can create jobs and wealth
and consumers and it needs to unleash the potential that is within so many
people to have a better economic life for themselves. But the market
economy, which can do many things, cannot create citizens. Only civil
society, that third leg of the stool, can fulfill that important challenge.
So I want for just a few minutes to concentrate this morning on that third leg
of civil society, of citizenship. Because if we are imagining this journey, a
journey that the pharoahs took into the next world, a journey which we take
while living into the world being created around us, we need to bring with us
functioning, effective, competent governments that know their limits, but
can produce the kinds of services that citizens need and we need to bring
with us the unleashed power and energy of a free market economy that can
take someone selling in the bazaar and give him as good a chance for the
future just as the head of the largest corporation.
But when it comes to civil society, that is a constant act of creation. Because
creating citizens who understand democracy, who protect democracy, who
appreciate the human rights of themselves and others, can only be done in
the space that exists between the government and the economy, the space
that, after all, really makes life worth-living, the space we create in our
4
families, the space that we fill with the associations we freely choose, the
space that is the quality of life as we measure it.
We know what we mean sometimes by civil society, but we can't always
describe it. We know that it is that element of human association and
existence that really defies description because, at the end of the day, it is
what makes life worth living.
So how do we nurture this civil society? In our religious associations, with
the freedom of the expression offour religious beliefs, with the spirituality
that we choose to follow, with the voluntary associations, even the soccer
clubs we support, we are creating civil society.
It has never been more essential because we have never had more people
living in democracies than we have now at this point in human history. And
living in democracies forces us to confront some issues that in the past we
didn't have to think about. Government made those decisions for us, a
planned economy made those decisions for us, or in the case of some
societies, anarchy basically abdicated the space that both government and an
organized economy should fill.
And so here we are at the end of this century, thinking about how we will
make this journey and wondering to ourselves how we create more, stronger
civil societies. I think that there: are several lessons that we have been
learning around the world as we look to see how we better prepare for the
future. First, we know now we have to invest in all people, in their
education, in their health care, in providing the credit and economic
opportunity to them that allow individuals both alone and together, to live
up to their God-given potential.
It was five years ago that thousands ofpeople gathered here in Cairo for the
the International Conference on Population and Development. The further
in time we move from that conference, the more remarkable it seems,
because for the very first time I've been able to find in history, there was a
world gathering which reached the conclusion that we must do more to
develop the potential of all people, particularly women, if we expect to live
in a prosperous, peaceful, stable world.
So instead of mechanistically focusing on just one aspect of our life, with
respect to population control, a broader view was taken, a more human view
5
that said: "No, we need to look at the entire person, we need to respect the
entire woman, we need to educate the minds as well as care for the bodies,
we need to provide opportunities so that people feel that they have a future
that they can invest in."
With the entire world listening, the results of that conference sent a clear,
clarion call. No nation can move forward if half of its citizens are fed last or
least, uneducated, under-educated, overworked, denied credit and health
cares, subjected to violence inside or outside of the home or are otherwise
left behind.
We agreed to a set of goals. We agreed to make family planning a right.
We agreed to reduce infant, child, and maternal mortality. We agreed to
make education a right for all, not a privilege for the few. And I want to
congratulate Egypt publicly, as I congratulated President Mubarak yesterday
morning, on the progress that has been made in this country in meeting those
fundamental goals. I have been privileged to see just a few of the examples
of that progress over the last day and a half, and I expect to see more in the
days to come.
Yesterday, I met with three entrepreneurs whose businesses and fortunes
have risen because of small, micro-credit loans. As they showed me their
shops and the bazaar, as they pointed with pride to the products which they
have produced with their own hands and the hands of employees, they could
tell me clearly that what they are doing now is giving them a sense of dignity
and pride that they expect to be able to use with great effect in they years to
come.
One was crafting metal by hand. He had learned his trade from his father
who in turn learned it from his father and father's father. And the women
that I spoke with said that they had been able to expand their operation, that
they now had money to invest in improving their housing and the
educational opportunities for their children. Just a small amount of money
given to people with the spark of enterprise and the willingness to move
forward enables them not only to have dignity but also to support themselves
and their families. And all of that at a repayment rate of 97-99%. Now that
is the kind of repayment rate that most commercial banks have never seen.
But in micro-credit, which is a civil society function, you enable people to
move into the larger economy - out of flthe informal economy into the formal
economy - which benefits them and the larger society.
6
I also visited a brand new health center where women and children were
receiving their pre-natal care, their immunizations, their family planning,
and the other services that they need. The room that we met in at the new
health center was filled with university professors, physicians, nurses, and
staff members who were committed to ensuring that poor women had the
same access to health care as rich women. That is a change througout the
world that I have observed.
As I walked around the state-of-the-art surgery and intensive care units, the
Minister of Health explained how Egypt is attempting to make sure that
women in every part of the country have access to quality health care. And
the results are there to be seen. The ratesifor infant mortality, maternal
mortality and population are all going down. That is the right direction.
At a youth center, I met with a remarkable group of girls and women who
are taking part in a program appropriately called "New Horizons." They are
seeing beyond the more limited horizon that had only been available to their
mothers and their grandmothers and they re seeing new roles for themselves.
I told them that I don't know I've ever been in a group of more lively and
dynamic girls and women. They showed me some of the videos that they're
making that they use 10 teach community members about education or
nutrition, female circumcision and health care. They were eager to talk
about what these programs had meant in their own lives. There was even a
woman of 65 who was there who had taken literacy classes and now she can
read the street signs and read any newspaper and her children, she told me
with pride, are proud of her.
I saw these kinds of iraportant lessons being passed on from one generation
to the next. There were three women, the mother, the daughter, and the
grandmother, who have each learned how to improve their own options in
life.
Time and time again, we have learned around the world that the single best
investment any country can make is the investment in education and
particularly, in girls' education. I know that Mrs. Mubarak has been a great
champion of girls' education and the results are there to be seen. There and
more girls going to and staying in school in Egypt, and that is creating a
higher level of education, which is one of the principal ways we will be able
to navigate into the future. It is hard to create and maintain civil society, it is
hard to create citizenship, if we do not have educated people.
Secondly, if we want to create and strengthen civil society then we have to
help people understand and ultimately exercise their rights and
responsibilities. I will be travelling to Luxor and tomorrow I will visit a
democracy school where I will see at first hand how citizens are helping
their children learn the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
From what I've heard, they've begun to put those lessons to work. They've
been collecting clothes and donating to the victims of a recent flood.
They've even petitioned public officials to clean the city streets. Being
married to a public official, I know that sometimes those of you who are in
government wish that people would not exercise their rights and
responsibilities, because it can become quite a burden when people demand
services, when they argue with you, when they claim that they know how to
do something better than all those people who are in public life. But that is
the way democracy operates. And to have people who before did not
understand citizenship all of a sudden realizing they have rights and
responsibilities is the way we move ourselves forward both in civil society
and ultimately in democracy itself.
That is what each of U.S does when we are involved in our child's education,
when we cast our vote in an election, we participate in an organization or
help ourselves or help others. I've heard of so many groups like that
throughout Egypt. The burgeoning of NGOs (non-governmental
organizations) in Egypt is one of the ways that I can see that civil society is
vibrant and that the entire society is moving forward. Groups like the
Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, which reaches out to poor and
illiterate women and teaches them about their legal rights. I have seen
similar groups operating in countries as far away as China or back in my
own country where women are given the tools, the legal tools they need to
protect themselves and to understand that they are people with rights. They
are therefore, citizens.
I've met some of the leaders of the NGO groups here in Egypt, leaders and
human rights activists, who have worked very hard on all kinds of issues that
really are at the heart of how we empower people and particularly women.
And I'm grateful that among the leadership roles that Mrs. Mubarak has
taken on is an NGO, the Integrated Care Society, that has given girls in some
of the poorest neighborhoods the chance to open up books and therefore
open up their minds.
The Egyptian Red Crescent Society supports low cost medical services and I
want to salute Mrs. Mubarak for her tireless leadership and support for
NGOs for which she is known and admired around the world. But it isn't
only those who are in positions ofleadership or high-visibility that are
expected to and must do the work of creating civil society. That work has to
be done at all levels of our societies wherever we might live. I know that
there are many people in this hall today who have touched lives and,
literally, transformed them because of the services that you have provided. I
read about the services provided at one NGO-run health clinic where one
girl wrote about how she envisioned the new life she felt she was creating
and the right to claim. She decided she would not get married before 18, but
when I do, she wrote, my husband and I must decide together on the size of
our family, that girls are as valuable as boys and have a right to education
and work just as boys.
Her letter was posted on the wall of the community center but I would like to
see it posted on the global Internet because it is not only relevant to girls in
Egypt, it is relevant to girls everywhere.
No words could better describe the aspirations dreamed and the progress
being made. At the grass roots level, in individual lives, with the millions
and millions of decisions that are made every day here in this country, I
remain personally convinced and become even more convinced when I see
NGOs in action, like the ones I've briefly referred to, that are a critical and
necessary component in building open, democratic societies. We have to do
more to make sure that they can perform their work. We also, though, have
to make sure that NGOs understand they have to be held accountable as
well, that if they are going to be players in the civil society, partners with the
government and the economy as one of those legs of the stool, they have to
also exercise transparency and be willing to have their accountability held
and measured as well. We cannot permit any group in any democratic
society to have unchecked, unaccountable power.
Third, we have to treat our diversity as a source of strength, not division - a
force that binds us together instead of tearing us apart. History is replete
with instances of people who believe they could build themselves up by
knocking others down, who peddled hatred as an antidote to fear.
We can look around our world today and know that history is repeating
itself. There are leaders, there are governments, there are peoples who
decide on a daily basis, unfortunately, that they have a right to push others
back instead of understanding how we can come together to harness the
power that we each bring to any endeavor in order to make life better for all.
It is understandable that when societiés face rapid change, when so much of
what has been familiar becomes different, new, that we have fertile ground
for those differences to serve as a pretext for hatred of violence or
inhumanity. Hatred may take the shape of terrorism. It may be called ethnic
cleansing. It may result, as it did for a few years recently in my own
country, in church burnings or racial discrimination and crimes of hatred.
But in each case when someone is diminished like that, it takes a toll on all
of us. It causes each of us to wonder what is it that we are as human beings
that permits us to violate the human rights and selfhood of others.
There are many freedoms and rights that we have to protect in a democracy:
freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of the press,
freedom of religion. All of those are fundamental and cannot be plucked out
and held up as only one. They have to work in concert. When we look
around the world today, we can see how ethnic and religious and racial
differences are fueling violent encounters.
Just yesterday though, I stood on a small and sacred patch of land here in
Cairo surrounded by what is believed to be the oldest synagogue in the
world, the oldest Coptic church, a Greek Orthodox church and, in the
background, the city's many mosques, It gave me a vivid sense of the
diversity that exists in this great country. Now that can either be a source of
division or a blessing.
That is certainly how I view it in my own country. We are home to
countless ethnic groups, religions, and nationalities. We have struggled for
more than 220 years to end racial intolerance and discrimination, to provide
equal rights under the law to men and women, to welcome our successive
waves of immigrants, and we've madela lot of progress. But I could not
stand here before you or any audience and say that we are perfect, that we
understand how to deal with this wide diversity of humanity. It is a daily
Dennedy
struggle. Democracy is never perfected. It takes constant work and I think
From
our founders knew that when they talked about creating a more perfect union
that it would be something that every generation would have to confront.
10
Well, I don't think it is any different in any country. We must look to our
history and honor it, but we cannot be imprisoned by it. We have to bring
forward those lessons of tolerance and understanding that truly do stand the
test of time and we have to reject the calls to violence and prejudice and
discrimination.
Here in Egypt, I know that throughout the ages, Muslims and Copts have
lived and prospered together. The Coptic Church has hosted annual iftars
for Muslim colleagues, Muslims have attended church to share in the joys of
the weddings of Coptic friends and each community has reached out to help
in times of trouble, as during the terrible flood of 1994.
But we also know that in every religion there are those who would drape
themselves in the mantle of belief and faith only to distort its most sacred
teachings, preaching intolerance and resorting to violence against believers
of other faiths. We know that that kind of enmity that can exist between
peoples, stirred up by those who have an advantage to be gained, can rip
apart the fabric of communities.
I remember so well visiting Bosnia after the peace accords were signed. I
met with a group of Bosnians, Muslims, Serbs, and Croats -- I couldn't tell
by looking who was who -- and they began talking to me about how they
had lived peacefully together for many years and then, all of a sudden,
neighbor turned against neighbor. Now, it didn't happen just by accident. It
happened because there were those who stirred up that religious and ethnic
intolerance, who used the media to deliver messages of hate instead of unity.
And so people who had been friends, who had visited in each other's homes,
who had attended the weddings and funerals of loved ones, saw their
neighbors going in and pulling out neighbors out of houses, burning homes,
burning crops, and they couldn't understand how that inhumanity had been
once again sparked after years of knowing one another.
One of the women who was there said! to me, "You know, I said to one of
my neighbors, we know each other, we'vellived with each other, we've
practiced our faiths side by side. Why have you joined these people?" And
the neighbor responded, "Because of what I saw in television, because of
what I read in the newspaper. They told me that you were going to come
after me and that we had to come after you first." So we not only have the
age-old problems of inhumanity, we now have new tools of communication
that can stir up divisiveness in the blink of an eye. Someone can go on the
Internet and put out a message of hate that with the press of a button can be
everywhere in the world. And that is why leaders and citizens together have
to work even harder at tolerance and to prevent discrimination so that we
seed the bed of citizenship with those values.
And so when the leader or the advocate or the fanatic tries to stir up hatred,
it will not fall on the ears of receiving people but it will be rejected as it
should be. Egypt has long been a symbol of tolerance, and I applaud you for
that. And I applaud you for continuing to stand against it in every way
possible. We've been working on that in my own country as well. Islam is
the fastest growing religion in the United States, but until my husband and I
came to the White House, we had never celebrated or recognized the great
celebration of Ramadan. We'd had all kinds of celebrations for Christmas
and Hanukkah and we'd had people bringing their children to the White
House to see the Christmas decorations or the menorah that was displayed.
And so starting a few years ago, we began holding Eid celebrations at the
White House, bringing in hundreds of Muslim women and men and children
to celebrate the Eid and to share with us the stories and values embodied in
Islam: love of family and community; mutual respect; the power of
education. These three great monotheistic religions that come from this part
of the world have so much to give one another as well as to people
everywhere. But that can only happen if we respect and we listen and we
care about the traditions and values that each of us hold dear.
Think if you will, about the values you would take to the next world. What
would you pack if you were to go? If a tomb were to be built for you today
and you didn't bring any of the seed that you needed or the clothes that you
would wear, what would you take with you?
I hope that all of us think about that as we approach the end of this century. I
hope among the values we take and the lessons that we've learned are to
respect the dignity of all individuals, and particularly, to give women and
girls the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, to work to make sure that
our societies are balanced with functioning, effective governments, strong
and vibrant economies and civil societies that bring people together, not
drive them apart.
I hope we will bring with us our respective religious beliefs and faiths and
we will also bring with us the tolerance and respect we should have for
others. As we move into that uncharted terrain of the next century,
12
navigating our small boats, I hope we will recognize that we are blessed
indeed, to live at the end of this century -- the most violent in human history
-- because I hope we will have learned how to honor the past, rejecting the
lessons of history we do not need to take with us anymore, and carrying the
ones we should value and hold dear as we work to create a better present and
future for ourselves and our children.
When Dr. Gerhart introduced me, he referred to Um Kulthum. I was told of
a line in one of her famous songs, "I am the people, I am the people," she
sang. "I do not know an impossible." Those are words that we should think
about as well.
This extraordinary country and itscitizens have proven over thousands of
years that the impossible can be rendered possible and I look to you to
continue to demonstrate that, not only here at home, but abroad as well. It
would be a tragedy of great dimension were we to lose this opportunity in
human history to do more to realize our own humanity and to create the
conditions that will enable us, well into the next century, to look back and
say, "I lived my life as well as I could, I made my contributions. And when
I left on my final journey, I hope Ileft behind those values and ideals that
will enable people to live more peacefully, with prosperity, respect, dignity,
and tolerance well into the future.)
Thank you very much.
13
BREAST PAP
Page 1
FIRST LADY ANNOUNCES LARGEST INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR CANCER
RESEARCH, NEW BREAST CANCER CLINICAL TRIAL, AND OTHER NEW STEPS
TO FIGHT BREAST CANCER
October 21, 1998
"We are facing a critical juncture in the fight against breast cancer. Our national
commitment-- in the form of increased federal investment, additional private
support, and a dose of heart and hard work -- is beginning to pay off as we witness
enormous progress against the disease. With more investments at this critical time,
we can truly hope for successful ways to prevent, detect, treat, and one day cure
to this cancer that strikes so many women."
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Today, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton announced: the largest funding increase in the history of the National
Cancer Institute (NCI); the largest clinical trial of drugs with the potential to prevent
breast cancer; and an expanded mammography outreach campaign. The First Lady
also released a landmark five-year report from the Federal Coordinating Committee
on Breast Cancer charting extraordinary progress in breast cancer research,
prevention and treatment. The First Lady:
Announced Record Funding Increases for the National Cancer Institute. As part of
the recent budget agreement, Congress passed a significant down-payment on the
President's 21st Century Research Fund. Today, the First Lady announced that the
National Cancer Institute will receive a total budget of over $2.9 billion in FY 1999,
a $375 million increase that will enable NCI to fund critical new research activities.
The First Lady also note that this increase was strongly advocated for by the Vice
President. Over ten percent of this increase will go to fund initiatives to increase
patient participation in clinical trials; efforts to meet the President and Vice
President's challenge to translate progress into better genetics to create diagnostic
techniques for every major cancer by the year 2000; and other investments to
develop new early detection methods. This increase will also fund seven new
breast cancer treatment clinical trials, including a trial to expand the use of
Herceptin to treat breast cancer earlier. This budget will build on historic increases
in breast cancer at the NCI during the Clinton Administration from $283 million in
FY 1993 to $433 million in FY 1998. The Department of Defense will spend an
additional $135 million in FY 1999 on innovative peer-reviewed breast cancer.
Announced Largest Clinical Trial of Drugs With Potential to Reduce the Risk of
Developing Breast Cancer. The First Lady also announced a new clinical trial to
compare tamoxifen, a drug that has been shown to reduce the risk of developing
breast cancer, to raloxifene, which researchers believe may also reduce risk, but
BREAST PAP
Page 2
with fewer side effects. The unique STAR trial will involve 22,000 women at
increased risk of breast cancer and is scheduled to open at approximately 400 sites
across the United States and Canada early next year. Underscoring the need to
examine all aspects of breast cancer, the First Lady also highlighted an important
trial underway at NIH examining the relationship between low-fat diet and
prevention of breast cancer.
Expanded Awareness Campaign To Help Ensure Women Get Recommended
Mammograms. The First Lady also unveiled an expanded outreach and education
campaign to encourage women ages 65 years and older to get regularly scheduled
mammogram screenings. This year's campaign will emphasize the new
mammography Medicare benefit that the President proposed and signed into law
that covers annual mammograms and makes them more affordable. HHS is also
expanding outreach efforts to special populations -- low-income and minority
women -- who tend to have the highest breast cancer mortality rates. For example,
the Health Care Financing Administration has initiated a pilot program to provide
free mammogram screenings and air public service announcements in key cities
targeted to minority communities, while the Food and Drug Administration has
developed and distributed educational materials to underserved communities around
the country.
Unveiled Landmark Report on Progress Against Breast Cancer in the Last Five
Years. The First Lady also released a new report from the Federal Coordinating
Committee on Breast Cancer highlighting the accomplishments in breast cancer
over the past five years, since the Administration took office. This report
underscores critical progress the Administration has made, including:
A significant investment in research--reaching over $550 million in 1998 that
has led to historic advances in breast cancer, such as the identification of
new breast cancer genes, and promising new treatments, such as Taxol and
Herceptin;
Improved the quality and availability of prevention tools like mammograms,
through efforts such as a new Medicare mammography benefit, an
unprecedented outreach campaign to encourage older women to get
mammograms, as well as improvements in the quality of mammograms
through the Mammography Quality Standards Act;
Enhanced access to treatment and quality of care for women with breast
cancer by increasing access to cancer clinical trials, new projects to improve
detection and care among low-income and minority women; and launching
Innovative interagency and public-private partnerships that have made
remarkable strides, such as applying the latest in defense and space
technology to better detect cancerous tissues and to develop less intrusive
surgery methods for patients.
Highlighted That Congress Has Adjourned Without Passing Critical Legislation to
BREAST PAP
Page 3
Advance the Fight Against Breast Cancer. The First Lady also outlined the agenda
that has yet to be finished by this Congress, including:
A Patients' Bill of Rights. The Clinton Administration has repeatedly urged
the Congress to pass a strong, enforceable patients' bill of rights that would
assure Americans the quality health care they need. A patients' bill of rights
contains critical patient protections for women with breast cancer, such as
assuring access to specialists, continuity of care so that women are not
required to change doctors in the middle of treatment, and an independent
appeals process to address concerns that health plans are unfairly delaying or
denying care.
Legislation to End Genetic Discrimination. Studies show that a leading
reason women do not get new genetic testing for susceptibility to breast
cancer is because they worry about discrimination. To ensure that new
advances in genetics are used to improve health rather than to discriminate
against individuals, the President has called for legislation prohibiting health
plans and employers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of
their genetic information.
Bipartisan Initiative Authorizing Coverage of Cancer Clinical Trials for
Medicare Beneficiaries. Americans over the age of 65 make up half of all
cancer patients, and are 10 times more likely to get cancer than younger
Americans. Older Americans, however, frequently cannot participate in
cutting-edge cancer clinical trials because Medicare does not pay for
experimental treatments. The Congress has adjourned without passing the
Administration's proposal, similar to legislation supported by Senators Mack
and Rockefeller, that authorizes coverage of clinical trials for Medicare
beneficiaries without harming the Trust Fund.
DEC-15-1998 00:14
JERUSALEM STAFF ADV
P.003
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of The First Lady
Office of the Press Secretary
(Jerusalem)
For Immediate Release
December 13, 1998
VISIT OF FIRST LADY
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
TO NEVE SHALOM/WAHAT-AL-SALAM
ARAB-JEWISH VILLAGE
December 13, 1998
MRS. CLINTON: I am very honored and personally privileged to be
here with you. Mrs. Netanyahu and I have both looked forward to
my visit and being able to spend time together and my husband and
I are delighted that we are back here in Israel. I am especially
pleased to be at this special place with all of you.
Just a few minutes ago, when I was being given a short
explanation of the many different activities that go on here, I
looked out across the Ayalon Valley, and I know how often that
valley has seen war and conflict going back thousands of years.
And it seems particularly fitting that your village would sit
here above that valley, looking down, being reminded of the cost
that violence and conflict takes on all of us, but particularly
on children. When Father Bruno had this idea to establish this
village, I think he was very wise to appreciate how important It
is that people actually live together and share experiences
together to learn from and about one another. As a young girl
growing up in the United States, I lived in a community that was
all white. I knew no black Americans. And it was because of
another person of faith that I began as a teenager to meet black
Americans, Americans who came from Spanish speaking countries.
And for the first time, to sit and talk with them, and to
understand that we had so much in common, that I had never
understood before. When I was in the classroom with the
kindergartners and three of the children came forward to light
the Menorah, and the Christmas tree, and the Ramadan lantern
together, I felt as I felt as a young girl: that religion should
not be an instigator of war, but a bridge to peace. That
children should learn to respect their own traditions, and also
to understand the traditions of others. It is particularly
appropriate that we would gather here, today, at the beginning of
MORE
p.2?"
shalah
DEC-15-1998 00:16
JERUSALEM STAFF ADV
P.006
- 2 -
become the first teachers of their own children. It struck such a
chord with me because one of the challenges we face in my country,
as in any country, is how to help those parents without a lot of
education themselves, who perhaps are immigrants, for whom, in my
case, English, in your case Hebrew, would not be their first
language. How do we help them prepare their own children to be
successful, not only in school but in society? I was immediately
taken with what I saw as the emphasis on assisting the parent to be
someone who could then in turn support her child.
Sara and I talk about our children, and of course we try to do
everything we can to prepare -- in my case my daughter, in her
case, her sons -- so that they can be successful. But so many
families don't have that support and need that extra assistance
that comes from other helping members of the community. with the
kind of structure that HIPPY brings, so that parents can quickly
learn how to read to their children, how to interact with their
children. I saw transformations occur in the families that I
worked with in Arkansas. so many of the families there did not
have a mother or a father who had even finished what we call high
school. They were not very comfortable with education; they had
not been successful; they didn't know even how to read very well in
many instances. Along came HIPPY, which convinced them that they
could, not only feel good about what they provided for their child,
but also begin to feel good about themselves, and to understand the
importance of education for a better future.
With the work that the National Council of Jewish Women has done
all of these years, Hebrew University and the Center there have
been able to disseminate the model of HIPPY literally throughout
the world. So again I want to thank Nan, my friend, and I want to
thank NCJW, and I believe that the President-elect of NCJW, Nan
Schneiderman, is also with us. I want to thank her and all of you
who are here as part of the NCJW mission.
Nan, Avima and I have talked many times, the three of us together,
one of us with the other, about the importance of providing support
for families. That is what I wrote about in my book, It Takes A
Village, and to see that in action here is particularly gratifying.
The White House recently held last spring a conference on early
childhood development and learning, and what we talked about at
that conference is what many of us have always known, because
perhaps we had a parent or a grandparent who either read to us or
sang to us or told stories to us and so it came as something quite
natural to those of us who had that experience to try to pass that
on to our own children. We knew it was something we enjoyed doing.
We thought it was something that was helpful. But now we have
actual scientific evidence that these kinds of activities with
young children are not only a nice thing to do but they literally
build brain cells. BY reading to babies, infants, toddlers, young
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abolish the stereotypes that keep people apart. And this is not
just an issue for this region of the world, it is an issue
throughout the world. In my own country, we still struggle with
sterectypes. We still have to overcome those snap judgments
about what kind of person someone is because of how they Took,
what their skin color is, what religion they pursue, and instead
force ourselves to get to know one another as individuals. I
often say in my own country that we are working toward a time
when we will respect each other. And we will learn to live with
each other, totally in peace. And that is what I know you are
doing here. If all children -- Sarah and I were talking about
this in the kindergarten -- if all children could have this
experience, we would be that much closer to peace, where we would
respect and look at each other as individuals, and not classify
people according to the group from which they come.
I would like to imagine a time when, as we heard the children
singing in the song called "A Time of Peace, 11 that that will be a
reality, here and around the world. In Arabic and Hebrew, they
sang "between the lightening, a rainbow will appear and then I'll
know that this is the time: a time for peace a time for peace,
God willing." Well, God willing, that rainbow will appear not
just in the sky, but in our hearts and our minds, and God
willing, we will create peace and security, and justice and
freedom, and we will provide all children with the experience
that you are giving them here: to be looked at and judged as an
individual, to learn to build trust with one another. President
Kennedy once said that on this earth, God's work is our own, and
certainly the work of building peace, and building trust is among
the most important work we have to do. Thank you for doing God's
work -- the every day work of peace.
Thank you very much.
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Draft for Charces
SPEECH BY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
AT FORUM 2000
October 13, 1998
Prague, Czech Republic
PRESIDENT HAVEL:
Thank you very much Mr. Hans van den Broek for your address and mainly for your words on
the crisis of complexity and what you said about the world governments. It's very important
for this Forum. Now I should like to invite you, Mrs. Clinton, to deliver your address. We
are very happy that your planned visit to Prague takes place and we are looking forward to
your address.
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON:
Thank you very much. I am honored to be here, and I want to thank President Havel for
convening another extraordinary gathering of Forum 2000. I am told that during the Velvet
Revolution, there were posters all over Prague with the message: "Havel to the Castle."
Well, here we are, at the Castle, with President Havel, thinking about the future that awaits all
of us.
With poetry and prose, no one has done more to spread the message of freedom and
democracy throughout the world than President Havel. No one has worked harder to nurture
civil society and keep us focussed on the real questions confronting us as we end this century.
He has reminded us that we live our lives not just as consumers but as citizens, as diverse and
spiritual beings. And no one has done more to make this Castle a place for gatherings such as
this, where ideas can be discussed and where all of us can do more to ask ourselves the hard
questions about what kind of societies and world we expect to help build.
If we are gathered here today to talk about globalization, then I know there are many different
reactions to that rather long word. It is hard sometimes even to define what one means by it.
Certainly the increases in technology, the changes in the economy help us to define what we
think we mean by globalization. We see the effects of rapid transportation and communication
on our everyday lives. We are more interconnected and I would argue more interdependent
than perhaps we have ever been. And as with any great sweeping change at any point in
history, there are those who are the great proponents of globalization, whether they can define
it or not, and those who are its great opponents, whether they can define it or not. So
conversations such as the ones that are provoked by this Forum are extraordinarily important.
We have to do more talking with one another across the lines that too often divide us, so that
we not only can define what is occurring in our world today, but can summon up the will to
take the forces that are at work and try to move them in a direction that will better our
common humanity.
It is particularly appropriate that we would do this on the brink of the millennium and again I
commend President Havel, and the organizers of Forum 2000, for choosing this theme, this
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year. My husband and I have also done a lot of thinking about the millennium. We know it
will come whether we think about it or not. Whether we do anything about it or not. We
know that it will be accompanied by great parties on New Year's Eve, either 1999 or 2000
depending upon how it is defined. We know that there will be entrepreneurs who will produce
products like "millennium toothpaste" or "millennium candy," so we understand that this
event in history, which none of us will ever experience again, has a significance in and of itself.
But then, what we give to that event and how we further define it can perhaps help us tackle
some of the issues that you are dealing with at the Forum.
We have adopted in the United States a theme for our discussions about the millennium: honor
the past, imagine the future. And if one thinks about those two aspects of this theme, clearly,
by honoring the past, one cannot shut ones eyes to it. There were many references yesterday
night in the cathedral to the century that is just closing. We do ourselves no honor if we are
not realistic enough to acknowledge all of the great violence and disappointment that came
with this century as well as the great progress. So honoring the past requires us to be honest
about our past. To take a hard look about where we have been and who we are in order
better to live in the present and imagine a better future. It gives us this opportunity now to
think through what we would do if given the chance to imagine a future where we could
summon the political will, create the institutions, and provide an opportunity for all
individuals, in whatever society, to feel that they were participating, and not only imagining,
but creating their own futures.
Now, there are pessimists among us as we end this century and the millennium and there
always have been at any point in history but particularly at ends of points of time. I went back
and read a little bit about the first millennium's end and about the myth of panic terror where
people supposedly gave away their possessions and hid in churches here in Europe waiting for
the end of the world. There was a rather controversial monk named Raoul Glauger who lived
in the tenth century. He consistently warned his local citizenry of impending doom. He had
quite a checkered past - he was expelled from a number of monasteries, but he always had an
audience. There were always people who were ready to believe the worst about themselves
and about their futures. The earth did not implode as he had predicted, but there were great
pockets of fear as there always are during times of transition. (So it is today, where the media
is filled with doom and gloom and those who are more concerned about painting a pessimistic
future than determining how together we can be realistic and optimistic. Even in that time so
long ago, there were changes occurring that, coming out of the so-called Dark Ages, set the
tone for what was to come later. There was a spread of literacy, there was the emergence of
craftsmen's guilda, and new universities were begun and new religious orders started. Not
only in Europe but in other parts of the world, there was the beginning of ferment about what
would be the future and how it would be created.
Today, as we stand at the end of a very different time, we face some of the same issues that go
to the root of who we are as human beings and how we define ourselves, our relations with
one another and whether or not we do summon the will required to create a better future.
There is much to be optimistic about around the world and there is much to be pessimistic
about. But clearly, whether one is able to define globalization or not, it is here to stay. There
is по going back. There is no turning back the clock, doing away with computers, cutting off
the Internet, stopping jet travel, preventing the mass media from bringing messages of different
cultural ideas to remote parts of the world where they have never been heard of or seen
before.
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So our challenge, given the reality of what we face, is to ask ourselves some hard questions
about how we will harness these forces of globalization, to deal with the important issues that
have always confronted humanity. Will the global economy lead to growth and stability for
nations? Will it lift up the lives and opportunities for all citizens in the world or only those of
us lucky enough to be in this fabulous hall, who have the skills to deal with information and
the ability to navigate our way through this new world? Will it help us to humanize ourselves
and each other? Learn from one another? Or will it drive us further apart into our own
particular self-proclaimed identity as a way of protecting ourselves from the challenges of the
outside? Will it inspire a race to the bottom of the economic ladder? Will we deplete our
resources ? Will we see our unique cultures uprooted by a one-dimensional consumer culture?
Our spirituality replaced by an obsessive materialism? Will we retreat inward? Will the fear of
the unknown, which is always there when we think about the future, be transformed into a
plague of racism, nativism, and xenophobia?
If you stop for a minute and think about how popular culture imagines the future, it is not a
pretty sight. Most of the recent movies demonstrate our innate fear about what is to come.
Apocalyptic visions with only a few people left. Whole cities that can only survive under
domes because we have depleted our natural resources. We don't even yet have a popular
image of this new world that we hope we can create.
So what vision of the future do we dare to imagine today? I hope that out of conversations
like this here and others that are going on throughout the world, we will begin to realistically
parse through globalization. In and of itself it is neither a good nor an evil. In and of itself
we are offered tremendous opportunities if only we take responsibility to address our
problems. As with every age, we have to take the world as we've been given it, not as we
wish it were, either with a too optimistic or pessimistic vision. And we have to create
conditions in which democratic governments become even more the norm so that all citizens
are given a stake in their future. In which free markets benefit all people and not just a
privileged few. And in which a vibrant civil society fosters free and active citizens who will,
after all, ultimately determine our common human fate in the next millennium.
I often think of society with a very simple metaphor: as a three-legged stool. One leg is the
government, another is the economy and the third is civil society. Obviously we cannot sit on
that stool if there is only one leg or two and we cannot sit on it if one leg is longer or shorter
than the other two. Rather, we need three strong legs and a balance among them. They have
to support each other. And so if we think about the challenges that confront us, it is simple
for me to think about what needs to be done to make sure each of those three institutions and
structures are strong enough to support society in the years to come.
We just a heard a very eloquent description of some of the global governance issues
confronting us, so we are not only talking about government in terms of national
governments, but how we will take global governance to the next level. How we will create
the institutions that will enable us to have strong governmental effects on runaway economies,
on global capitalism and other challenges. How we will redo international institutions like the
IMF and the World Bank, to create new financial architectures to replace what was established
more than fifty years ago at Bretton Woods. We know that government is an essential part of
strong societies that will enable people to live up to their God-given potential, and yet in
many parts of the world, particularly in my own country in the last decade or so, we have had
a continued assault on government, as though the abolition or weakening of government
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would create conditions that would better foster human enterprise and individual freedom.
That is, I believe, a mistaken notion that hopefully we will put to rest as we end this century.
We need strong and active governments, neither oppressive nor weak, but able to deal with
the problems of their citizens and able to create public goods for their citizens to enjoy.
Similarly, with the economy, there are those who are great critics of the free market and those
who are great advocates. Either position probably overstates both the capacity of the market
and also the defects of it. We are working our way toward trying to create in the global
marketplace some of the rules and regulations that will enable us to enjoy the benefits without
suffering from its excesses. There is a lot of work to do on that front. So there are many
tough questions posed by how we best structure and create governmental and economic
institutions that will prepare the way for a better future.
But I wish to just concentrate for a few minutes on the third leg of the stool. That of civil
society, of citizenship. The space that is filled between, on the one hand, the government,
and the economy on the other. It is really in that space that life is lived. The economy is not
an end in itself, but a means to an end. To create enough wealth that people can enjoy what is
best about life. Government is not an end in itself but a means to an end, to help us order
ourselves so that we have the freedom and individual space to pursue our own interests. In
that space of civil society exist families and religion, voluntary associations, arts and culture
and learning, and most importantly, the training ground of what creates citizens from people.
Economic opportunity can provide jobs and income, but economic activity alone cannot
create the work ethic that capitalism requires. It can create consumers and producers of
goods, but not citizens.
Governments alone cannot create citizens either. Only civil society can do that important job.
As I have traveled throughout the world, I have seen how critical this component is, for us to
imagine a kind of future that all of us hope for. I have seen what happens to people whose
spirits have been crushed, whose economies have been driven into the ground, whose
governments have oppressed their spirits. And yet I have seen how their determination and
support for one another can lift them up to rebuild their lives and families,
If one thinks about the challenges that confront us, we have to believe that nurturing civil
society, creating opportunities for people to become citizens in today's world, is essential.
There cannot be strong, sustainable, global economy without a strong global society. And
there are some simple rules about how one creates citizens -- simple to describe and very
difficult to execute. We have to invest in people; that means education and health care. It
means creating structures that value all people no matter whether they come from minority
groups defined by religion, race or ethnicity. It means that when we look at civil society in
any of our countries, as I look at mine, we can see clearly where we are not investing
sufficiently and where we must do more Whenever I see, as I saw just a few days ago in
Bulgaria and as I have seen in so many parts of the world, great effort being made to make the
transition to full democratic, functioning government and strong economies, I see also how
there is also a great understanding growing up on the part of individuals and non-
governmental organizations, that they have to play their role as well. Much of the work that
was done successfully in the recent elections in Slovakia owes its roots to the recognition by
so many people there that non-governmental organizations and citizen activity were a
necessary precondition for true democratic values.
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If we think about how better we need to invest in people, then clearly we have to reallocate
the resources that are being produced by this global economy. We cannot be satisfied unless
we are doing more to better educate all children and better prepare them to be citizens, to take
their rightful places in their societies. And it goes without saying, I hope in this room, that
that means education both boys and girls to the fullest of their potential. It also means
investing in people's dreams and hopes by giving them access to credit, making it possible for
them to create their own jobs and businesses. Not leaving them out by the great sweep of the
global economy that pays little attention to what happens on the micro-level, but instead to
create conditions in which local markets can grow and flourish and more people can
participate in them.| I have met literally thousands of people now around the world whose
lives have been transformed by something as simple as a loan of $15.00 or $50.00 or $100.00.
When my husband and I were in Uganda, we went with President and Mrs. Musevani out to a
small village where we met women who because they were given access to credit had
transformed their lives and in the process understood that they were worth something, that
they had dignity and value and because of that they understood better their citizenship
responsibilities in a democracy. So within the civil society the creation of small enterprises
that then can grow into economic, viable ones is a way of giving people a stake in their own
futures.
We also have to do more to ensure that people learn about their rights and responsibilities as
citizens and then be encouraged to exercise them. There is good work going on around the
world to help people understand how democracies operate, but there is not yet enough of
that. I commend the European Union for its work in trying to create conditions in which
people begin to learn, after so many years of being shut out of their political systems, what it
takes to be a participant.) I have seen the effects of that in a very personal way. In Senegal,
for example, several years ago I visited a village where they were learning about democracy by
performing skits for one another. Where people would stand up make speeches and others in
the village would listen and then critique their speeches. Where they would act out going to
vote. Now that may sound very basic, but it gave those people their first understanding of
what it meant to be citizens of a democracy. We have to take the abstract discussion of
democracy, take the resolutions that are passed to promote democracy, take our applause that
we give when people make the transition to democracy, and distill it into practical everyday
advice and lessons about what that actually means in the everyday lives of people.
We also have to make it possible for us to learn how to treat our diversity as a source of
strength. We have seen in too many places around the world that even with people elected as
leaders in a democracy, old attitudes die hard. And old hatreds in the guise of democratically-
elected leaders are no better for the citizens of a country and their neighbors than before
democracy occurred. If people don't feel that they have a stake in their own futures and if the
economy is working for them, if they don't have the space that civil society provides to give
them meaning, then they often turn (as you know so well) against one another. They often
begin to blame the other for whatever it is that they find lacking in their own lives. Whether
that other is a minority group, religious, racial or ethnic, we have seen the results of too much
blaming of the other.
And yet when people defy history they can begin to rewrite it. Recently I spoke at a
conference for women in Belfast. We brought together both Protestant and Catholic women
who were doubly burdened by the sectarian hatred that had stalked their land for so long and
by their status as women. They came together to talk about how they could assume
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responsibility to help make the peace and reconciliation they voted for real and lasting. They
put aside old hatreds because new and better leadership had encouraged them to do so, and
began to learn the tools of citizenship that will permit them to make their voices heard.
We also have to ensure that we do all we can to protect our natural and cultural treasures and
we require citizens to do that. It often cannot be done from 8 distance or again by passing a
resolution in a faraway place, but citizens living in our rain forests, on the edges of our
savannahs and our wetlands have to feel that they too have a stake in protecting what is best
about our earth. And when it comes to cultural treasures we have to do more to be sure that
we respect and preserve our religions, our languages, our heritage, which do give us our
individual identity and which require us to learn to respect one another.
There is much to be done, but I am an optimist. I believe that we have great opportunities
ahead of us if only we will seize them. If only we will be prepared to do what is necessary at
the global level to deal with our economic and governance issues, as hard as that may be. And
then to do at the local level what it takes to build civil society and citizens. Each of us in this
room and so many countless beyond this hall have the obligation to do what we can to
promote positive political and economic change and to nurture civil society wherever we are.
There is much that each of can do individually. We know today that have global neighbors but
we haven't yet decided we want to build a global neighborhood. When we care about a toxic
spill or a terrorist attack, or an economic downturn, or a civil war in another nation, it is not
just because it may affect us down the road, but because we recognize that in a very
fundamental way, we are now more interdependent that an any point in human history.
So that brings me back to where I started.
When we imagine the future over the next years
and over the next century and millennium, what is it we will see? In one of those popular
movies I referred to that swept my country and apparently made a lot of money around the
world, called Independence Day - these movies always seem to start with an attack on
Washington D.C., which I don't really know how to take, the blowing up of the White House
and Capitol to begin with - the ending of it required all of us to cooperate to fend off an
alien attack. And certainly in the theater in which I saw it, there were great cheers as people
of all different races and backgrounds and societies around the globe came together as human
beings to save ourselves.
We certainly don't expect it to come to that, but in a real way, unless we do come together,
we will not have the opportunities we deserve at the end of this very difficult and troubled
century. We have done a lot in the last fifty years to create opportunity, to build democracy,
to reach deep and to give more people a chance to fulfill their God-given potential. But when
it is all said and done, globalization, however one defines it, can never be a substitute for
humanization. We have a lot of work to do if we are to make sure that the global economy
does not drive us apart from one another, drive some down and life others up, but instead is an
engine that we harness to create a strong global society in which all people are given a chance
to imagine a future better than their past. Thank you very much.
6
Hillary Rodham Clinton
First Lady of the United States
at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum
Davos, Switzerland
February 2, 1998
(Begin transcript)
PROFESSOR KLAUS SCHWAB: Dear Madam First Lady, dear Mrs. Hillary Clinton, it is
with purpose that I address you in those two forms, because we welcome you here not only as the
representative of a country which is the greatest power in the world, but we welcome you as a
personality who in her own right has won high recognition for the causes you stand for as a
relentless advocate for those who are disadvantaged and who need to be integrated into our
efforts to improve the state of the world.
We have launched here, in Davos, a comprehensive initiative Prestige 21, to take on the
challenges in the transition of human kind into the 21st Century. We are eager to hear from you.
How you see the individual and collective priorities for our common future. Ladies and
Gentlemen, let's welcome again Mrs. Clinton, a most remarkable, a most courageous woman of
our times.
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Good evening, thank you very much
Professor Schwab, and thank all of you for the invitation to address this forum. I appreciated
greatly the opportunity to come and be part of these sessions, and to speak with you about the
priorities for the 21st Century, as seen perhaps from a slightly different perspective from the one
that brings many of you here to this conference.
After having looked at the program, and seen some of the sessions, I think it is probably more
appropriate to refer to this gathering as the World Economic, Political and Social Forum, because
certainly in the discussions that I have been privileged to hear about and to hear directly, it has
struck me that there is a very strong awareness of how interdependent the economic, political and
social spheres of life happen to be. It is something that I think we need to pay even closer
attention to. Certainly when one thinks about the economy, whether it is the economy of a
business, of a nation state, or of our entire globe, one talks a great deal about the importance of
and the significance of the free market. And I believe that as we end this century, any doubt
about the effectiveness of organizing our economy along the lines of a free market, have finally
been put to rest. That is one of the major accomplishments, perhaps, of this past century. That
we no understand that the greatest capacity to create employment, income, wealth and
investment is derived from a free market.
At the same time, I hope we have also recognized as we end this century, that we need effective,
functioning, competent governments. Governments that are neither oppressive, nor too strong
and authoritarian, nor on the other hand, so week that they can neither deliver goods and services
for the public good to their citizenry, or play the kind of partnership role that they should in
connection with a vital free market.
But if that's all we were to speak about, the economy on the one hand, and government on the
other, we would be leaving out one of the most important aspects of what we should turn our
attention to as we move into this new century, that is society, civil society, because between the
marketplace and the government, is what exists that makes life worth living. It is the stuff of life.
It is the family, it is the religious belief and spirituality that guide us. It is the voluntary
association of which we are a member. It is the art and culture that makes our spirits soar.
I think as we look at the end of this century and the beginning of the next, it behooves all of us,
no matter what our perspective or experience, to think hard about how we create conditions in
which the economy, governments and the civil society all flourish. Think of it, if you will, as a
three-legged stool. We are not stable if we are only on one leg, no matter how strong the
economy might be, no matter how strong a government might be. We are also not stable if we
rest merely on two legs of the stool. Rather we need to see the independence and connection
among the economy, the government and the civil society. And more than that, I think we need
to recognize the ways in which each of those spheres of influence are affected by the other. I
know there has been a great deal of useful conversation here about what needs to be done to help
manage crises such as the Asian crisis, how to better provide technical assistance for banking
supervision and the regulation of markets in many countries around the world, even suggestions
as to what could be done to create more of a global regulator atmosphere along the lines perhaps
of a new Bretton Woods.
These are all very important conversations. And I hope that the economic and political leaders
gathered here will certainly follow up on them through the various entities that exist, and perhaps
some that are yet to be born, so that we can address these very important problems that are posed
by the state of the economy today. We have also heard how important it is for governments to
work with the economies of their countries and regions and globally, and how significant it is to
find the right balance between regulation that permits real competition to flourish and that which
stifles entrepreneurship. So there is much for governments also to ponder coming out of this
conference. How can they do a better job to unleash the energies of their people to provide
environments in which businesses can flourish. How do they become more transparent, how do
they stand against corruption, how do they create the instruments that are needed for
governments today to provide the kind of support for the economy at the same time that they
provide the sort of capacity for their people to be able to thrive in this new economic
environment. I will leave it to others, many of whom have addressed you, to speak about how
we can do more to make sure that our markets do what they should do, and to make sure that our
governments do likewise.
But what I want to address is this third leg of the stool. A leg of the stool that I think is too often
given short shrift in such conversations as those that take place here, or perhaps marginalized as
being something less than important to the significant business of governing and creating
economic opportunity.
Our founders in the American republic at the end of the eighteenth century left us with some very
good advice that they enshrined in our founding documents and which we have over our
centuries of development attempted to adapt to modern conditions. They warned us about
unaccountable power, they warned us about creating checks and balances, and they set up a
system that they thought would create a balance of power. I think that is what we have to see in
creating such a balance among our economic interests, our governmental and political activities
and the civil society. One without the other will create and imbalance.
I have been privileged to travel over the past several years to many of the new democracies
around the world, particularly in the former Soviet Union. I have seen what has happened to
people whose spirits have been crushed, whose economies have been driven into the ground,
whose governments were authoritarian, as they attempt to rebuild a sense of potential and
opportunity for themselves. It is very clear if one visits these countries that economic
opportunity will certainly provide jobs and income but not necessarily long-term stability or
governments that understand their duties to their citizens. It is also clear that stable governments,
as important as they are, may not bring about those conditions that are essential to creating long-
term social stability.
So in my travels I have focused on this third leg of the stool, the civil society, and I have seen
many changes within the last several years, as governments and economic interests understand
that there must be created within society, the work ethic for capitalism to thrive and continue, a
sense of citizenship for governments to be stable and succeed one another peacefully. And so
how do we nurture this civil society. Why is it in the interest of business leaders such as many of
you to worry about whether in the countries in which you do business there is an effort being
made to create these civil society functions and institutions? Why should you care whether
women are given the opportunity to go to school, or have health care, or vote? Why should you
worry whether or not children are being taught basic lessons about democracy or not? Well I
would argue again that it is in your long term interests to do so: to have conditions in the
countries in which you do business supportive over the medium and long term of what we mean
by a free market, and to have governments that understand their appropriate roles.
So I would urge that as we look towards the end of this century, as many of you work on the
important issues of helping to perfect the imperfect mechanism of a free market, worrying about
the many inherent problems that have been pointed out that lead often to instability, particularly
in financial markets today. Those of you who are directly involved in helping governments in
Asia and elsewhere understand why it is imperative that they reform themselves, that you also
think about what we can do to strengthen civil society. How do we create conditions for families
to be strong in an age where family values and where the kinds of ideas one would wish to pass
on to one's children face very stiff competition from the consumer culture, from propaganda, and
from a media that stresses short term gratification. How do we support religious freedom,
making it clear that we will honor the spiritual beliefs and journeys of people different from
ourselves? How do we work together to create conditions in which tribal and ethnic and racial
and other differences among people can be controlled and kept in check and we can we can
create opportunities for common enterprises that go beyond the differences that too often divide
us. How do we nurture non-governmental organizations in societies have no history of voluntary
or charitable activity? How do we create associations that stand between the marketplace and the
government, but give people an opportunity to excersize their own skills to become good
citizens?
All of these are questions that are being addressed in various ways by many organizations around
the world. I have stood in barrios in Latin America and in villages in Asia and Africa where I
have seen the effects of micro-enterprise on the capacity of women to make an income for
themselves, and not only to make an income, but to feel empowered so that they can become
citizens of their village and of their country, so that they can begin to understand not only how a
market works, but how a society and a political democracy work as well. I have watched
creative projects all over the world that have taken the very poorest of the poor, and empowered
them to learn about what it means to live in a democracy. And I have talked with students on
every continent about their hopes and aspirations that they will be able to navigate what to them
seems like a very difficult journey into the next century. And they have asked for help and
guidance, whether it is mentoring or internships or opportunities to work with businesses and
government, so they can learn from adults about what works and what they can follow in their
own lives and careers.
There are many large problems that confront us as a world. It is impossible to think of any
corporation, no matter how large, or any government, no matter how powerful, addressing these
alone. Whether we like it or not, we are more interdpendent today than we have ever been. I
believe that interdependence is a good development. And it should be respected by governments
and businesses alike. Because through it we can meet mutual challenges of environmental
degradation or security threats, and we can also work together to help build up strong,
functioning markets, governments and civil societies.
I would just end these remarks by reminding us tonight that there isn't any perfect human
institution. There is no perfect market except in the abstract theories of economists. There is no
perfect government except in the dreams of political leaders, and there is no perfect society. We
have to work with human beings as we find them. And we have learned a lot about what works.
And the lesson of the global economy will certainly be that those who ignore the lessons that we
have learned about effective functioning markets and political and governmental leadership will
pay a steep price. That may be a necessary part of the learning curve. But as we go into the 21 st
Century, if we can keep in mind the balance of power among these three spheres that effect all of
our lives, and if we can look for ways to work cooperatively together, then I think the
doomsayers and the pessimists will be proven wrong. I wouldn't want to be more optimistic than
conditions warrant, but I think based on the conversations that I've heard coming out of this
conference, from people in a position to affect economic and governmental action, there is every
reason to believe that there is a new awareness growing among the decision makers around the
world about the steps that must be taken in order to ensure stability and sustained growth. I'll
only ask that in that calculus, we remember the billions of men, women and children who are
effectively without a voice, often without a vote, and that we understand that our long-term
success, either economically or governmentally, will ultimately depend upon wether we
empower them as well, to take their rightful places in forums around the world where they plan
their own futures. Thank you very much.
SCHWAB: Mrs. Hillary Clinton, you have reminded us of our obligations, of our obligations
toward society. As the First Lady, you have pursued an incredible active agenda to promote the
social progress. Now, looking at the future, and I may ask you a very personnal question, what is
your personnal priority for the remainder of the 21 st Century in this respect.
CLINTON: You mean what will I do for the next three years?
SCHWAB: What will you in your own work put emphasis on?
CLINTON: I think I will continue to emphasize the issues that I have tried to speak out about,
workon and address in my writing, and that is the need to invest in the future of children around
the world. I don't know how many Americans in the audience heard Larry Summers say
yesterday as it was reported to me that a child in Shanghai has a better chance of living to the age
of five than a child born in New York. But I hope if you did hear it, it caused some pause among
you.
Of course it is not only in our own country where we have not done all we should to provide the
opportunities for health and education and well-being for our children, it is certainly a problem
that effects most if not all the nations of the world. And I believe it is the best investment we can
make in long-term stability to provide opportunities for education, and healthcare, to work on
thorny issues like family planning and environmental degredation that effects the well-being of
children, and to do all we can to provide the best possible beginning for as many children as we
can reach, and that is what I will continue to work on and speak out about.
SCHWAB: In this context, you have hear in front of you many of the CEOs of leading American
companies, and you have been a proponent of moving toward the program of universal health
coverage. The program to date has met mixed success, and generally little enthusiasm from the
business community. So my question would be, why should the business community have this
program as a priority? What would you tell the business leaders here in this respect?
CLINTON: Well I think your characterizaiton of it meeting with mixed success was too kind. I
still believe that economically, politically, socially, and morally, the United States would be
better off if it provided universal health care coverage for all of its citizens.
I think the economic arguements will again come to the fore. There was a ????proback,
throwback, in the cost of health insurance to the major providers of it in our country, which our
employers during the last several years but that apparently is about to turn around, and the cost
of insurance will once again begin to rise. There has been, since 1993, an increase in the number
of uninsured Americans, and an increase in the number of underinsured Americans. I believe
that should pose a question for all of us as to whether or not we think it is appropriate for our
country, as rich and powerful as it is, to be denying access for the kind of preventive and chronic
health care coverage that many people miss out on
It is true that most people will be taken in by an emergency room, perhaps not the first one they
visit, if they are not insured, but perhaps the second or third one if they are lucky enough to still
American culture is America's biggest export. We export our fashions, our music, our movies,
we export our technology which comes as you know with a bias towards English. That is our
biggest export, if one were try to add up all of our GDP that could be attributed directly or
indirectly to culture. And on the whole I think it has been a positive development for my own
country that we have the kind of culture and cultural institutions and the messages that are
conveyed from them.
I remember so wall during the tumult of the years of the velvet revolution in the Czech Republic
or the fall of the Berlin Wall, hearing story after story about how influential and important
American culture was behind the Iron curtain in giving people a sense of freedom and human
potential and the idea that there was a bigger world out there. So I think on balance, American
culture and its effects have been positive bothin my country and elsewhere.
Having said that, I have long worried and continue to worry and am becoming more worried, not
only about the messages of American culture, but the medium in which they are delivered. Let
me explain. There is no doubt that we are creating a consumer-driven culture that promotes
values and ethics that undermine both capitalism and democracy. In fact I think you could argue
that the kind of work ethic, postponement of gratification, and other attributes that are
historically associated with capitalism, are being undermined by consumer capitalism. And I
think you could also argue, that the same relentless pressure for instant, simultaneous judgement
and for people judging themselves based on their consumer materialistic attributes, is also
turning people away from being citizens into being consumers. I think these are two very
troubling trends.
In my own country, because we have a very broad understanding of our first ammendment,
because we are dominated by commercial television, we have a relentless, unstopping, message
of consumer, materialistic pleasure, combined with instant gratification that surely affects our
children if not our adults. We combine that with the kind of programming that is popular on
American television and we are beginning now to have research which demonstrates that the
level of violence that our children see desensitizes them, affects how they view the world,
decreases their empathy, makes them more apathetic, less likely to assess their lives in terms
other than the purely materialistic. Exporting that cannot be good for any culture. And I hope
that there will be ways for individual societies to cherry pick ???, perhaps, and try to take what
is best about American culture, but mitigate against the effects of the undermining, damaging
aspects of it as well. That too, is part of the role of the civil society. To mitigate against the
excesses of both the market and the government. And it will be critically important for schools,
for families, for religious organizations, for associations like scouting, for example, to try to help
balance the messages of the materialistic culture. And I think it is one of the biggest challenges
we will face in the next century, because certainly there is no stopping the information explosion.
There is no turning back the clock on what will be delivered through televisions and computers
into the homes of people throughout our world, but we are going to have to think very hard about
our responsiblity as business leaders, political leaders, parents and others in our socities, about
how to mitigate against the excesses of that culture.
SCHWAB: Mrs. Clinton, I have three questions which seem to be very appropriate to conclude
our sesssion. The first question is the following. If you had three concrete wishes to be shared
here with the business community, actually which you want to be seen executed by the business
community, what would be those wishes. In really concrete form, what would you wish the
audience to do over the next year or going away from Davos.
CLINTON: That is an impossible question, and I will do my best to answer it. I think that I
would hope that going away from Davos, the leaders who have gathered here, both from business
and government, will take seriously the challenges that many have issued from this and other
stages to look for ways to try to make sure that our markets function effectively and we do what
we can through individual businesses, nation states and globally, to ensure that that comes to
pass, whether it is being part of providing technical assistance to governments and businesses
that need to learn how to be transparent, how to be able to operate in a regulated environment to
their benefit, and there is much work that can be and I hope is done and I hope business leaders
will urge government leaders through entities like the G-8 and the IMF and others, to try to
towards some kind of consensus about how we need to address these issues that the market has
presented us with.
Similarly I hope that governments will be encouraged to be as transparent, as reform-minded as
possible, wherever necessary, and that business leaders will support government reform in doing
so, and that we will have the kind of functioning partnership that is so necessary for the next
century, between business and government throughout the world, and that we will do away with
the false debate and the false choice that too often dominates our debate in America, where there
is an unnecessary and I believe false antagonism created between business and government. They
need each other, they need to support each other for he kind of long-term stability that both
require to function well.
And finally I hope that business and government leaders will do more to support the civil society.
In your own countries, and throughout the world, whereever it is possible. There are many good
ideas and programs that are working. I wish everyone of you could have been with me at a
village in Bangladesh, or at a women's bank in India, or at a lending project in Africa, or in a
very poor neighborhood in South America, to hear what a difference a little bit of credit makes in
the lives of the poor. We now have a proven track record from institutions such as the Gramin
Bank (spelling?) in Bangladesh, that the poor, if given credit to buy another milk cow or a goat,
or hire a rickshaw to go into business are the best credit risks in the world. Most commercial
banks particularly in today's environment, would die for a repayment rate of 96 to 98 percent,
and that is what the poorest of the poor in these countries and in these programs have proven
themselves capable of doing, at market interest rates.
Secondly, invest in opportunities for women around the world. If you look at any developing
society that is making progress, there is a correlation between those societies that invest in
women and those that are demonstration economic and political development and stability. In
many instances women are still left out or shut out. We cannot go into this new century with half
the world's population not empowered to act in their own best interests and in the best interests
of their families. And that is what you will get when you invest in women. The investment will
be very well taken care of, based on all we know, because it will in turn be invested in the
community and in the family, and particularly in the children.
Thirdly, do not think of education, health care, and other issues as tangential or marginal. In
many respects they will determine the long-term stability of the countries in which you do
business, in the quality of the workforce that you employ, in the capacity of the consumers to
whom you wish to sell your goods. It is in all of our interests to be more effective in investing in
education and health care throughout the world, and wherever there is a particular pocket of
poverty in an advanced economy, to take what we have learned about welfare reform and other
strategies, and attack them through empowerment zones or tax credits or breaks for investment
that can begin to provide opportunity in even the most destitute of communities.
And finally, I guess I would ask that we all be more thoughtful in looking at the world in which
we live. That we work very hard to rid ourselves of preconceptions and assumptions and
stereotypes. That we shelve our ideologies, whether it is of a conservative or a liberal bent. That
we realize that conditions have changed, and with it must change also how we see the world, and
how we interact politically, economically and socially. So not to rest on old conventions, but
instead to be questioning them as well.
We have a great opportunity, as all of you know or you would not be here, to be, as Professor
Schwab has titled it, trustees for the 21st Century. But we can only fulfill that responsibility if
we understand that we are doing it not for ourselves but for generations to come. And so those,
in a very general way, would be my three wishes.
SCHWAB: That was the best answer and the best end of such a highlight of our annual meeting.
Nevertheless, nevertheless, I would take on one other question which came from the audience,
and it says, don't you think it is time at the beginning of the next century for the U.S. to elect and
support a strong, brilliant, woman for the job of the President?
CLINTON: Yes, and I look forward to voting for her!
(End transcript)
be around by the time they arrive. And that if that were the only assessment we would make, we
would say, well eventually everyone gets care. But we are paying a very big price for those who
do not get timely or preventive care.
In addition, there is another problem, which is that there are many functions of the American
medical system which have helped us to attain the high level of quality that it currently enjoys,
which can never be profitable. There is no way for most research to be profitable. There is no
way for the education and training of young physicians or nurses to be profitable. And there is
no way for charity care to be profitable. And those functions are primarily performed in our
country by our great medical schools and medical centers. Because they cannot turn a profit on
performing those functions which are performed to the benefit of our entire system, they are at
great financial risk. They are being forced into mergers, and they are finding themselves in a
position of having to cut back on those functions. That is like eating the seed corn of the
American health care system, in my view.
So there are a number of problems in my view, and I think that there is an ideological opposition
among many in the American business community to the American government being any part
of providing universal care. But of course we provide universal care to our citizens over the age
of 65 through Medicare. And we provide it at the cheapest overhead and administrative cost of
any insurance program in the United States. I daresay if you went back and you talked to your
benefits people or your CFOs, and you asked them what percentage of the health care dollar you
were spending on your employees that went to administration and overhead and profit, compared
with the two cents out of the dollar that goes to Medicare, you would have to ask yourself, is this
an ideological opposition that no longer makes economic sense, or shall I hang on to it while I
find my capacity to provide health insurance for my employees further diminished, thereby
creating more instability in the system. So I hope that we will continue to address these issues in
the future.
SCHWAB: Under your husband's leadership, the US has emerged as a world leader in
technology, finance, military power. What are the domestic key factors and priorities that you
believe are required to maintain this leadership in the long run.
CLINTON: Well, I think my husband very well outlined those priorirites in his State of the
Union last Tuesday evening. He was able to address the remaining issues that he belièves should
be at the forefront of the American political debate, both domestically and internationally. And 1
think that if one were to look at them they would fall roughly into the catagories that he has
already outlined and has been speaking about for many years.
The first is to provide conditions that offer economic opportunity to as many of our people as
possibly can be reached, and that has been I think very effectively accomplished during my
husband's administration. We are very lucky, I believe, in having a president who understands
not only politics, but economics, and has a very experienced, seasoned team, which is able to
implement that policy. And the result is that we have, as you all know, reversed some rather
disturbing trends that we saw in the late eighties and early nineties and emerged very strong
economically.
But it is certainly clear that we have not by any means finished the job that has begun, and the
President spoke about providing better educational opportunities, so that we have more of our
people trained so that they can take the jobs that are available in the global economy. He has
continued to press for more trade agreements and opening markets because he believes that
America can compete and do very well internationally and he will continue to press that
arguement in the future. He has also spoken about trying to make it possible to put a floor, a
social safety net, under some of our people, who are poorly educated, who are left out of the
global economy through increasing the minimum wage again, and he has also talked about
providing economic support for social security, child care, which is a very big issue in our
country, with so many women working, and single women who are the sole support of their
families, and our two parent families.
So I think he has outlined a very clear agenda for trying to provide more opportunity. At the
same time, he has asked for more responsiblity. Probably the clearest example of what that
responsiblity means is our continuing effort to reform our welfare system, to move people from
welfare to work. He has also advocated strongly that Americans must be prepared to take their
responsiblity as citizens seriously and has advocated campaign finance reform so that our
electoral system can have the confidence of the people which it should.
Finally he sees very clearly the role of the United States in building a community within our
country and being part of building a community around the world. He has put on the table a race
initiative to address the still unfinished business of race in the United States. It is controversial.
It is challenging many people to think hard about what they believe. But it is very important if
we are to try to create among our very diverse population a sense of common destiny and shared
purpose.
He has also tried to help the American people understand why the United States must remain
engaged around the world. And here I would also address the American business leaders in this
audience. It is imperative that those of you who understand the global economy, who visit and do
business in many countries, share your knowledge, of what you see occuring around the world
with members of Congress, with leaders of your community, with anyone you who you can
reach, because we cannot build a public consensus for American engagement if the American
business community is not a strong supporter of that engagement, and I would just ask that you
think hard about what you can do to try to have your voices heard. One quick example, during
the last session of Congress, when the President's plan for the United States to pay its debts to
the United Nations, and to replenish our commitment to the IMF, came before the House of
Representatives, it was not voted on because of a debate over whether or not the United States
should continue to give family planning aid around the world to any organization that had
anything however remotely to do with abortion. It was voted down. There was a coalition
among people who believe the United States should not be engaged in the world, as well as those
who are against abortion. There was a deafening silence from the American business
community. I saw no press conferences, I saw no ads in newspapers, I saw no signed joint
statements saying 'we know what faces the United States around the world and we understand
how important it is for America to lead and be engaged and we therefore raise our voices on
behalf of American support for the United Nations, IMF and other multilateral institions.'
So I think the President has outlined a very clear agenda for where we go in the future, but it is
not just the President's agenda, it has to be adopted and promoted by any who believe all or part
of it in order for it to come to pass.
SCHWAB: In the same context, the fast-track trade legislation is very much at the top of the
priorities of your husbands administration. What can you say also to the business community
here to give the active and effective support for this legislative measure?
CLINTON: Well, I would probably just echo what I already said, at the risk of being repetitive.
There was a very effective business effort in the United States on behalf of NAFTA. There was a
very limited and ineffective effort on behalf of fast track. I don't know all the reasons for that.
Some of them suggested, but I have no basis for any first-hand knowledge or any analysis that I
find convincing. The bottom line is, however, that noone in Congress felt any particular
pressure, or demand, by any business interest about giving the President the authority that other
Presidents have had to negotiate trade agreements.
Now again, I have to conclude that either American business doesn't care about opening markets
around the world -- but I find that very hard to believe -- or they feel that their involvement in
politics is something that they wish to minimize or steer clear off and don't want to become
participants in any effort to pass such legislation, or some other reason that I have yet to
understand. But the effect was the same. For whatever reason, the fact that the American
business community made a very limited effort on behalf of the fast-track left the field
completely clear to the rather unusual alliance between the right of the Republican party which is
isolationist, anti-American engagement, quite critical and not supportive of the United Nations,
IMF or any multilateral group, and the left of the Democratic party that believes that trade
authority and trade agreements are not in the interests of American workers. So that alliance
carried the day. Now when the President comes back to the Congress with a request for fast
track authority I hope that American businesses voices will be heard.
Having said that, I would add that there does need to be sensitivity to worker and environmental
concerns in trade agreements going forward in the future. Certainly if they are going to be
agreements that are negotiated with the United States government and require the consent of the
United States Congress. So I think that there may be some good reason for business to engage
early with labor and with political leadership in Congress and the Administration to try to
hammer out a consensus about the kind of fast track authority and the sort of agreements that we
want our President to be negotiating. But certainly that will not happen in the absence of some
very stated and obvious business concern.
SCHWAB: I have here a question from the floor. What do you think about the impact of
American culture on the civil societies of the rest of the world, especially with regard to
language, publicity, media, and the right of difference for all cultures of the world?
CLINTON: Well, I think that is a very important question. If I may, let me just start by talking
about something which I think I know a little bit more about which I think is the impact of
American culture on America, and then expanding that beyond our borders.
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EL SALVADOR: BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SPEECH ON
VIOLENCE AND WOMEN IN EL SALVADOR
BACKGROUND
Violence became almost a way of life during El Salvador's
12-year conflict. Despite the signing of the Peace
Accords in 1992, because of common crime as many people
in El Salvador die violently each year now as during the
conflict. Recent reports have depicted El Salvador as
the most violent country in Central America [CID Gallup]
as well as the most violent country in the world [World
Bank]. Twenty percent of residents of San Salvador have
been the victim of an armed robbery in the last year;
gunshot wounds are a major cause of death in the country
[source: Salvadoran medical examiner].
Violence is a human rights issue and those most
vulnerable to violence are women and children.
From any perspective, the costs of violence to society
and to women and their families are enormous. The costs
in lost productivity of battered women are extremely
high, and society has to invest large amounts of human
and financial resources to provide medical care for
physical and mental injuries, pay expenses for the
National Police and the courts, and compensate for the
loss of productivity of the victims as wells as family
members or others called on to be care givers.
Violence leaves psychological scars that can prevent
victims from leading a healthy life.
Gender inequality is rooted in El Salvador's culture.
-- Women are routinely denied equitable access to
education, employment, basic services, political power
and decision making at all levels. For instance, the
illiteracy level for men is 16.8% while for women it is
22.4%. The lack of access for women to credit and land
ownership has contributed to the "feminization of
poverty. " At the same time, there is a high incidence of
diseases and health conditions that affect women
(maternal mortality).
Gender is a factor in violence.
-- Most violence against women occurs in the home.
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-- One in six Salvadoran women has been sexually
assaulted.
-- The number of domestic abuse complaints received by
just one institution (ISDEMU) topped 10,000 last year.
These complaints come from all levels of society, and
the aggressors run the gamut from the very poor to high
level professionals.
Children are also victims of violence.
-- Almost one half of the population (2,700,000) of El
Salvador is under the age of 18. Financial needs force
between 118,000 and 270,000 children in El Salvador
under the age of 20 -- 88,000 or more under the age of
14 -- to work. Many of these children also live in the
streets. There are no official statistics on the number
of children who live on the street, but estimates range
from 1,000 to 6,000 most of whom are 10-14 years old.
Street and working children face many health risks
including malnutrition, acute respiratory infections,
diarrhea, skin diseases, and sexually transmitted
diseases including HIV/AIDS.
-- Corporal punishment is a common form of discipline.
67% percent of Salvadoran children have been physically
or mentally abused. Violence is the major reason
children abandon their homes for the street.
-- 80% of street children have experienced violence in
the home. 60% were directly affected by the war when a
family member was killed or their home was destroyed.
-- So far in 1998, 38 Salvadoran children have been
victims of gunshot wounds, many from the local custom of
shooting bullets into the air. This compares to 29
victims in all of 1997. This statistic includes little
Manuel de Jesus, an eleven year old boy who was shot on
his way to work. Manuel lives with his grandmother
because his mother died from AIDS.
-- About 63% of working children have left school.
-- Sadly, child abuse is often not recognized or
reported. The organizations trying to help abused
children are too few to address the problem adequately,
and most programs are curative not preventive.
-- Currently there are 7,000-17,000 gang members in El
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22
Salvador.
-- There are strong ties between gangs in the United
States and El Salvador. In 1997, there were 92 young
deportees with criminal records entering El Salvador
from the US per month. 30% of gang members report they
have been deported from the United States. The greatly
increased number of criminal deportees from the United
States exacerbates El Salvador's crime problem.
What has the Salvadoran Government done to decrease
violence against women and children?
Despite the social violence that is endemic to
Salvadoran society today, much has been done to improve
the situation since the signing of the Peace Accords in
1992. With the Peace Accords, organized civil
insurgency and conflict came to an end, and peace was
consolidated. During the same period, significant
changes were made in Salvadoran legislation and
institutional structures to help resolve the problems of
gender inequality and domestic violence.
In 1990, El Salvador signed and ratified The Children's
Rights Accord, which led to the formation of the
Salvadoran Institute for Protecting Youth (ISPM) and the
Human Rights Ombudsman's Office.
Mrs. Calderón Sol is the president of the board of
directors of ISPM. Throughout the country, ISPM has
extensive services for families, including
educational centers, detox. centers for child drug
addicts, and support services for victims of family
violence. The ISPM is even reaching out to gang
members by including them in football games and other
events to elevate their self-esteem and teach
teamwork. These services will be decentralized and
expanded to include statistics-gathering thanks to an
IDB loan of $11.7 million.
The Human Rights Ombudsman has been key in
coordinating the many efforts by both public and
private agencies to stem domestic violence.
In 1992, as a result of the Peace Accords, the
government established the Office of the Special
Defender for Children and Youth to oversee the
protection of children's rights and to ensure that
government institutions do not violate those rights.
Unfortunately, the organization's budget is
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insufficient.
Since 1995, through the dedication and hard work of
First Lady Elizabeth Calderón Sol, many women's
organizations, other civil society groups, and donor
organizations (including USAID which funded technical
assistance for drafting, policy debate, passage and
implementation), the government has enacted a series of
legal reforms to protect women and their families.
Among other things, the reforms guarantee equality
between men and women and establish women's legal rights,
as well as rights for all children, including those born
out of wedlock or adopted. Women now have the right to
free legal counsel and child support.
For the first time, domestic violence is categorized as a
criminal offense.
One specific gain for women under the new Family Code is
that the family home becomes communal property and cannot
be sold or leased without the approval of both spouses.
The law also requires the presence of a social worker
when a husband accused of spouse abuse (who is not living
on the premises wishes to visit the family home).
As a result of the Family Code, twenty-two family courts
have been established throughout the country. At the
national level, three Magistrates of the Supreme Court
and 36 family prosecutors address cases related to family
problems.
-- Also in 1996, and as an outcome of agreements reached at
the Beijing Conference, the Government of El Salvador
established the Salvadoran Institute for Women's
Development (ISDEMU -- Instituto Salvadoreño para el
Desarrollo de Ia Mujer), which brings together most
government agencies and several non-governmental
organizations involved in women's issues.
The president of the board of directors of ISDEMU is
the First Lady, Mrs. Calderón Sol.
One of ISDEMU's most successful programs is a
national hotline called The Friendly Phone (El
Teléfono Amigo), which is set-up to rapidly respond
to domestic violence complaints.
ISDEMU also has a three-year strategy (1997-1999) to
address ten key areas for women, including health and
domestic violence.
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29
HOW HAS THE U.S. HELPED
The United States is committed to collaborating with
public and private organizations to develop and
strengthen the civic institutions that are a necessary
component of any democracy. In El Salvador, we are proud
to see the number of successful NGOs (see below) working
to advance the protection of women and children.
Since the mid-1980s, the US government has provided
substantial support to public and private efforts to
extend legal protections for women. In addition to
funding technical support for drafting legislation, we
have worked with over 30 Salvadoran NGOs to establish
programs in legal education, advocacy techniques.
-- Especially important have been the public awareness
campaigns funded by USAID.
Maria, a 32-year-old mother of two, suffered years of
violence, afraid to act for fear of reprisals against
her children by her common law husband and too poor
to pay for a lawyer. Motivated by public campaigns,
she asked for help. Provided immediately with
protective services, she has since obtained a
divorce, received psychological counseling, and been
granted child support payments and ownership of the
family house and furniture.
Under the old system, Silvia, a 28-year old mother,
had no choice but to agree to give up her children
unconditionally when she sought a divorce. Anything
less, and her estranged husband threatened to "leave
her and her children without a colon for tortillas."
When she heard the public campaign, she applied for
legal aid and now has joint custody of her children.
-- USAID and UNDP have provided training for 25 family
court judges, prosecutors and the national civilian
policy to assure the new legal codes are understood and
applied fairly.
USAID has worked to strengthen NGOs which provide
services to poor women and children. Some NGOs now have
programs for women in micro credit, training in
advocacy, and support groups around gender, health and
self-esteem issues, and violence against women. Others
have programs for street children.
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25'
PROCIPOTES is a USAID project that since 1994 has been
strengthening 5 Salvadoran NGOs to provide services to
at risk youths and street children. The project
currently serves 13,800 children aged 6-18 years and
their families with counseling, health screening,
tutoring, and vocational training. There is a strong
component in the program advising children and
communities about their rights and community
participation in the project is strong.
We have worked with the Salvadoran government to
professionalize the police. In addition to providing
basic training, U.S. instructors have taught specialized
courses in investigating sexual assault and crimes
involving fire arms. We installed a pilot 911 system in
the town of Santa Ana, which has recorded an increasing
number of domestic violence complaints.
American NGOs are also engaged here. SAVE the CHILDREN
is developing a program to connect deported Salvadoran
youth with available social services and to offer
instruction in alternative methods of conflict
resolution.
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT
UNICEF has a project to prevent family violence taking
place in 5 Salvadoran communities which will last over a
2 year period. The project works with the Department of
the Family, which is a division of the National Police so
they can deal more effectively with cases of family
violence. Another aim is to provide better coordination
among service providers dealing with domestic violence at
the community level. The project is mobilizing local
communities to identify, prevent, and provide follow up
to victims of family violence.
PAHO has a pilot program to teach local health care
providers to recognize the symptoms of violence against
women and to give abused women the care and support they
need.
The Swedish arm of Save The Children has done extensive
work to strengthen the Family Matters Department of the
Police.
NGOs
One of the strongest networks working in this area is the
Comite 25 de Noviembre, composed of about thirty women's
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26
NGOs that have advocated for the enactment of stronger
laws, maintain training courses to raise awareness about
the issue, maintain shelters and provide emergency
support to victims of abuse, and conduct lobbying with
authorities of the various official services of the
police, the courts, the ombudsman system, and with
politicians.
Some specific outcomes of these efforts include:
"Las Dignas" have a program that advocates for
"Families and No Violence against Women"; works in rural
communities; promotes awareness through seminars and
other public acts; and offers training to the National
Police. They also have a Center that provides attention
to victims of abuse; and have been strong advocates of
new laws to shore up women's rights.
-- An off-shoot of Las Dignas, the Asociación de Madres
Demandantes, have devoted all their activities and
energy to securing child support for children; providing
help for mothers trying to secure that right, and
helping the courts reduce the more than 50,000 pending
cases for child support.
-- "CEMUJER" has advocated new laws and produced
promotional campaign material for radio and TV. It also
maintains a shelter and a clinic, provides training and
support for couples and for victims of violence and
abuse, and conducts valuable research on the subject.
"CONAMUS" (Coordinadora Nacional de Ia Mujer) has
helped victims of abuse for over 11 years in their
Integrated Services Clinic, where they provide medical
and psychological attention, and legal help to women and
children. They also give training in schools and
community groups in the areas where they work in the
Departments of Chalatenango, Cabanas, Usulutan and San
Salvador.
MSM (Movimiento Salvadoreño de Mujeres) has a
leadership program for women, and provides programs for
women victims of domestic violence in the Departments of
Sonsonate, San Vicente, Usulutan and San Salvador; they
also maintain a program of mental health for women.
More work needs to be done
According to most experts, the greatest obstacles to
achieving gender equality or balance in a society are
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27
cultural factors reflected in "machista" attitudes of
male domination and a patriarchal system of control, as
well as the country's high levels of poverty (50% of
Salvadorans live in poverty).
To overcome violence against women and the violence
prevalent in the society in general, both attitudes and
power relationships within the home must be transformed.
Daily experiences have to change to include respect and
equality among the family members
Glouse
Programs that can help:
-- better reporting systems to collect information on
violence against women and children
-- additional training for police, prosecutors, judges,
public defenders, and social workers
-- school and vocational programs that address the
special needs of street children, at risk children, and
children who want to leave gangs
-- more government funding for social programs
-- more programs for deported youth.
-- additional NGO and GOES programs for women and
children on self esteem, problem solving skills,
alternative dispute resolution
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ANNEX ONE: CONVENTIONS RELATING TO WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS
A large concerted effort among the community of nations
to advocate women's human rights was a principal reason
the status of women has become a prominent topic in
international for a in recent years.
1985-1995, declared by the U.N. as the Decade of Women,
culminated with several groundbreaking international
conferences concerning women's human rights. These
included the 1993 Conference on Human Rights in Vienna,
the Population Conference in Egypt, the Copenhagen
Conference on Social and Economic Rights, and the Beijing
Conference on Women.
These efforts have been complemented by efforts to ratify
the U.N. Convention to Eradicate all forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and at a regional
level with efforts such as the Inter-American Convention
to Eradicate, Prevent and Punish Violence Against Women,
agreed upon by the countries of the Americas in Belem do
Para in 1994.
Since last year, the Vital Voices Conferences (Vienna
1997, Ireland and Uruguay 1998) have provided a impetus
to create entrepreneurial possibilities for women.
In El Salvador, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the
Declaration of Human Rights, December 10th, a network of
women's non-governmental organizations, donor agencies,
and government organizations declared this the Year to
Eradicate Violence Toward Women and have conducted a
year-long campaign under the slogan "Life without
Violence is Our Right".
Programs under this campaign have included a series of
activities that began with the celebration of
International Women's Day on March 8th that will conclude
during the two weeks between November 25th (International
Day Against Violence to Women) and the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Declaration.
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
HIPPY EVENT
ISRAEL
Thank you, Sara, for that kind introduction. It is a great pleasure to be here at the Sadie
Rennert Center, with three women who mean so much to my country as well as yours -- and
who are my friends as well: Israel's first lady; Sara Netanyahu; Avima Lombard -- founder and
director of HIPPY International; and my friend, Nan Rich, who is such a tireless and inspiring
advocate for America's children, and who first introduced me to this remarkable program. For
years, I've told Nan that I wanted to come to Israel and see where HIPPY planted its first seeds
of hope and learning -- seeds that would grow and thrive in communities around the world. So
my visit here today has very special meaning to me.
Nan -- as many of you know -- has been President of the National Council of Jewish
Women since 1994 -- and she will be stepping down this March. I'm so pleased that President
elect Jan Schneiderman is also with us today.
When my husband, the President, spoke about the HIPPY program last year -- (at the
National Council of Jewish Women) he quoted the Talmud, which says that every blade of grass
has its angel that bends over it and whisper, "grow, grow." Our children are our blades of grass.
You surely are their angels.
Long before the President and I came to the White House, when my husband was
Governor of Arkansas, I picked up a newspaper in Miami, Florida, and read about this amazing
program going on in Israel. When I first sat down with Nan, and she talked to me about how
HIPPY was based on the belief that every child can learn -- I knew I wanted the young people in
Arkansas to benefit from such a program. Many communities in America had already embraced
HIPPY -- but we became the first to promote it statewide. And today, I'm pleased to report that
there are now 28 states which have established statewide HIPPY programs.
When I first introduced this program to people in Arkansas -- however -- there were quite
a few naysayers. Perhaps you encountered the same kind of resistance. There were some who
couldn't believe that parents who had not finished high school were up to the task of teaching
their children. Many parents in the United States doubted their own abilites. We soon found that
HIPPY not only equipped children with basic knowledge and skills for school. We also learned
that HIPPY gave parents a boost in self confidence. Many of them became interested in learning
for themselves as well as for their children -- going back to school to complete high school -- or
even start college.
Today, it was wonderful to see the children engaged in finger painting and building their
paper homes -- and to hear their happy voices. Because we know that such activities are not only
enjoyable. They are critical to a child's ability to grow and learn. At a White House Conference
on Early Childhood Development -- in which Nan participated -- we learned that science now
confirms what parents have always believed: that when we read or sing to a child, or hold them
in our arms -- we are not only establishing an important emotional bond -- we are literally
helping them to develop their brains. We now know that what happens in the earliers years of
our children's lives has enormous impact on how they grow and learn for a lifetime. And what
you are doing here -- and in your homes -- is critical to that growth.
But as all of here today know so well -- HIPPY is much more than a program for kids.
It's a tool for families to build better lives. I've heard about a new Ethiopian immigrant --
illiterate in Hebrew -- who is being taught by HIPPY to have confidence in herelf -- and to give
her children good study habits. I also heard about a group of other new immigrants -- who
didn't feel comfortable attending an intensive Hebrew language course. So they asked HIPPY to
help them organize their own course -- so they could study together, as a group. They are now
not only learning Hebrew -- but also how to effectively administer HIPPY -- all at the same
time.
I've just watched some of the young children and parents build houses together -- based
on a book they have just read called "the House of a Hundred Rooms." As I watched them -- I
was thinking how my own country, like yours, has 100 rooms -- filled with people of different
languages, believes, values, and opinions. And while it hasn't always been easy -- far from it
we've found that all of that diversity is ultimately our strength as a country.
Watching them, I also thought about how all children -- no matter where they live, or
what religion they practice -- deserve the same opportunities. To grow up health, to attend good
schools. To be challenged. And that is what you are doing here -- at this center and in your
homes every day -- when parents and children read and learn together.
As parents, we want to pass on to our children the ideals and beliefs that will help them
overcome the osbtacles before them, and to give them hope in the future. The love of learning --
not just in school but for a lifetime -- is one of those gifts. So is the commitment to Tzedekah,
that one of the greatest gifts we can give are the tools that we can make it on our own. This is
surely a place where such gifts are given -- and received.
I just heard a wonderful story. As all of you know, HIPPY first started in the
neighborhood of Hatikvah in Tel Aviv. Recently, a HIPPY official was visiting that same
neighborhood, and was approached by a young man who asked why she was there. She
explained that she was interested in running the HIPPY program from the local community
center. The young man became very excited, explaining that he was a HIPPY graduate himself
-- and that it was the most important experience in his life, because it raised the expectations of
his family.
He is now an officer in the army -- and runs an athletic program for kids in the
neighborhood. He says that the neighborhood gave him so much when he was young, that he felt
he wanted to give something back. I want to thank everyone here for giving such a rare gift to
your children. I know they will pass that love of learning on -- through the generations.
I've just come from Neve Shalom, where I saw Arab, Christian, and Israeli children
celebrating their own traditions -- but also celebrating the bonds of frienship they hold in
common. Here at Yad Rahel -- you are helping to lay that same foundation for a new day in
Israel -- where all children can grow up together in peace.
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FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
ELIZABETH GRIFFITH LEADERSHIP LECTURE SERIES
THE MADEIRA SCHOOL
MAY 10, 1999
1
Thank you, Betsy, for that wonderful introduction. I'm
always thrilled to follow in the footsteps of Eleanor Roosevelt -
who has been such an extraordinary model for me - and for so
many of us here today. In fact, wherever I go as First Lady, I am
always aware of one thing: that Eleanor Roosevelt has surely
been there before me. I've been to farms in Iowa and factories in
Michigan where Mrs. Roosevelt paid a visit a half century ago.
When my daughter and I went to Pakistan and India; we
discovered that Eleanor Roosevelt had traveled there in 1952 - and
even written a book about her trip.
So I'm very pleased to be the second First Lady to come here
to Madeira - and to be part of a school which has been at the
forefront of girl's education in America ever since it's founding
almost a century ago. It's a pleasure to join the Board of
Directors, and its chair Sarah Daignault (DAY-NIO), who I
understand has not only been a remarkably effective chair over the
past 8 years -- but who makes sure laughter is always a part of
your board meetings. I'm so glad as well to join the dedicated
faculty; staff; parents and alumni - and most important - the
students of Madeira school.
2
And even though this is a day late - I want to wish all the
mothers here a Happy Mothers Day. I know you all deserve it.
I've heard it said that women's colleges and girl's schools
offer "not equal opportunity, but every opportunity." And I know
that the students here today are grateful for that opportunity to
grow and learn and flourish here at Madeira. I am glad to have
heard from your student leaders today - who are such a tribute to
the kind of intelligence, caring and self-confidence that is clearly
nurtured in the young women at this school.
It's a particular pleasure to be standing here with your
headmistress - someone I've admired ever since we were
classmates, friends, (and I admit, fellow Republicans) at
Wellesley College. So when I was first invited to inaugurate the
Elizabeth Griffith Women's Leadership Lecture Series - I knew I
wanted to come. I wanted to be part of honoring Betsy - not only
for her passionate advocacy on behalf of girls' education over the
years, but for inspiring a new generation of young women to
contribute fully to the world around them.
3
That Madeira has grown and flourished at a time when many
all-female institutions have either closed their doors or gone co-ed
is a testament to Betsy's single-minded leadership over the past
eleven years. I know that both Betsy and I look back on our
experience at an all women's college as a defining time in our lives
- where we and so many other young women were taught that
we were valued; that our ideas counted; that we should place no
limits on what we wanted to make of our lives. It's that same spirit
of exploration and possibilities that Betsy has helped nurtured here
for all of you.
Like most leaders, Betsy defies simple categories. A well
known scholar and biographer of Elizabeth Cady Stanton -- she's
also a passionate activist - who has worked on everything from
ratification of the Equal Rights amendment to getting more
women elected. She's highly organized (I've heard you can
actually find things in her basement) - but wonderfully creative.
A whirlwind of activity - but someone who - like so many of us -
would love to be just sitting in her garden reading a book.
[Apparently her husband and teenage son approached her recently
in such a repose - asking, "is anything wrong?" ] A consummate
professional and devoted mother who loves making cookies for
her son's classmates.
4
In short -- Betsy Griffith embodies the multiple roles that so
many women play in America today. And while she doesn't
pretend all that juggling is easy -- she seems to fill these many
roles with remarkable grace and humor.
Today-I want to honor her in particular for her commitment
to being actively engaged in the issues of her time; and for
encouraging all of you not only to stretch yourselves intellectually
and emotionally - but to learn to be caring, active citizens of your
community and your country.
Promoting the role of citizenship and public service is an
honored tradition here at Madeira - as we've already heard today.
In preparation for coming here - I read a letter from Miss Madeira
to her girls - and I don't think anyone could put it any better.
"When we choose a democratic way of life to live under" - she
wrote - "we must remember that that we have chosen the most
difficult form that has ever yet been invented - and unless a very
large majority of people
take an active and vigorous part in the
life of the society, it will not function properly, and it will not
last."
5
That commitment to citizenship is surely being kept alive
and well through your co-curriculum program. Whether it's
working with future homeowners at Habitat for Humanity or
watching government work in the halls of Congress - you've
learned that the obligations of public service and citizenship are
part of what is expected of each one of us. And I hope these habits
of the heart will stay with you long after you leave this campus.
It is these broader responsibilities that we have - to each
other and to the larger society - that I want to talk about a little
today. There are so many areas that demand our attention - and
our involvement -- today. The images of war in Kosovo haunt us
all - and I'm proud of our government's efforts to stop the terrible
ethnic cleansing taking place there, and our determination to
ensure the refugees can return to their communities. There are so
many challenges here at home - to make sure that even in these
times of unparalleled opportunity and prosperity, that no one is left
behind.
But for me today -- it's impossible to stand here - and look
out on the young faces in this audience, and see the extraordinary
promise in your lives, and not think of the tragedy that took place
in Littleton only a few short weeks ago.
6
I know that here at Madeira, you've been meeting and
talking about this tragic incident, with counselors and among
yourselves, and that you've been sending both your prayers and
your support to the Columbine students and their families who are
now trying to rebuild their lives. And I'm sure that parents here
today must have hugged their daughters a little tighter; and held on
to them a little longer; as we all do when such tragedy strikes.
Because the truth is that even as we sit here, in this peaceful and
beautiful place, we know that no community --- not even this one -
- is immune from the violence around us.
But what are our responsibilities, as students, parents,
teachers, and administrators, and citizens -- at a difficult time like
this? What lessons can we learn? How can we move forward?
Just this morning, I met with a group of entertainment
leaders; educators; religious leaders; young people - to talk about
launching a national campaign to address youth violence. We
talked about how it was time to stop pointing fingers, and
assessing blame - and instead start coming together around a set
of positive actions
7
We acknowledged that while we will never be able to fully
explain or understand what happened at Columbine High School -
or any other incident where young people turn violence on each
other or themselves -- that we are neither helpless or hopeless.
There are steps we can take; and responsibilities that we can all
fill, as individuals, and as communities, to cut down on the
violence that is far too much a part of our culture today.
We all can - and must -- play a role. On Saturday, I met
with a group of parents - some of whom have lost children to
violence. Their stories of grief overwhelmed us - yet many of
them are now turning their private grief into public action. They
recognized - as we all do - that the primary caregivers and
influences on young people are their parents. But they need help -
and we must do all we can to empower parents to feel they have
that responsibility and authority in their children's lives.
We've also seen what a powerful force parents can be when
they band together - as Mothers Against Drunk Driving did - to
fundamentally change the way we think about our responsibilities
on the road. Now we have designated drivers, and intense social p
pressure not to drink and drive. Today, we must enlist the power
of parents once again, to keep guns out of the hands of children.
8
All of us here must also stand up and say what needs to be
said about children and guns. We all know that young people
have disagreements and arguments. It's part of growing up. But
the difference is that today - in that moment of anger or
misunderstanding - they have far too easy access to guns. And
while the vast majority of our schools are safe - the availability of
guns has made some of our communities far too dangerous. Every
single day -- 13 young people die as a result of handgun violence.
We've made significant progress in the area of gun control.
As a result of the Brady Bill, 250,000 felons, fugitives and
stalkers have been denied guns. But there's so much more we
must all do to keep guns away from America's young people - like
passing laws that will make sure that young people who commit
serious and violent offenses can't ever purchase handguns; that
mandate child safety locks be put on all guns. And we should
make it more difficult to purchase guns at gun shows.
Members of Congress need to hear from all of us on this
critical issue. They need to know that millions of American voters
will stand behind political leaders who are courageous enough to
buck the gun lobby - and vote for measures that will save lives.
9
We must all give them the support they need to do what they
know is right.
We also have to be willing to talk honestly about the culture
of violence that infects the lives of our young people. We can no
longer ignore the research findings over the past 25 years that the
constant exposure to violence-on television, in the movies; on the
Internet; in the music - has a powerful effect on the way young
people see themselves and others. And there is increasing concern
about the impact on vulnerable young people who play interactive
video games - where in some cases you win based on how many
people you kill. There's too much evidence that this constant
exposure to the culture of violence desensitizes people, so that they
lose empathy and their sense of connectedness with others.
So I think we can all be involved in thinking of ways to
persuade parents to exercise more authority; and to support them
in those decisions; to help young people influence their peers in
positive ways; to end easy access to guns -- so that we can begin
to fight back against the violence and the impact it has on us all.
10
And we must recognize - in our broader responsibilities to
each other -- that whatever isolates us from one another;
whatever trivializes the value of human life; whatever makes
people feel like second class citizens; whatever keeps us from
reaching out to someone who is troubled - will undermine our
efforts to build strong, nurturing, and safe communities.
Students here today have a vital role to play in creating those
communities of the future. You help create those communities
every time you befriend a new student; respect each other's
differences; lift up each other's spirits; and speak out against a
slight or injustice. You create them as part of your "Wednesdays"
-- as you explore your career options; interact with people
different than yourselves; and learn to make healthy and informed
choices. All of the things you do - in other words - to become
responsible, confident, compassionate young women.
And I hope that when you leave here to become active
leaders in your communities and in your world- that some of you
will join national service programs like Americorps and the Peace
Corps -- and give something back to the country that has given so
much to you.
11
Tomorrow, I will leave for a trip to Ireland - a country which
for a decade has been torn apart by violence and division. But
which today, through the sheer will and determination of people in
both the south and the north - has chosen to end a generation of
bloodshed, and create a lasting peace. But long before the "Good
Friday" peace accords were signed last year by the leaders of that
country, ordinary citizens, in their war-torn homes and
neighborhoods, began to reach out to each other, to build trust, to
heal wounds, to lay the groundwork for that peace.
Protestant and Catholic women would come together, over
the kitchen table with a pot of tea, and talk about what they could
do together to create a life free from violence and terror. Young
people - many your age - would cross the north/south border to
attend each other's schools - and stay in each other's homes, to
break down the misunderstandings and distrust that had always
divided them, and kept them strangers.
It's always been here - in our schools, and places of worship,
and across our back yards -- where the lofty ideals of peace and
democracy are hammered out, and made real. It's the principles
we honor, the way we treat our fellow citizens, the lessons we
teach our children before we tuck them into bed.
12
It's these often unheralded habits of the heart; these
responsibilities we have to each other, that must be nurtured, day
in and day out, for democracy - and peace -- to work.
Every generation in our history has learned to take
responsibility for our future - and your generation is no exception.
We look to you now -- to help us create this community - and this
world - that defies this culture of violence; that instead places the
highest value on caring for each other; that gives every citizen the
tools and wisdom to live up to their fullest, God-given potential;
and that reminds us always that what we all hold in common is far
stronger than what divides us.
Madeira has given you not an equal opportunity - but every
opportunity - to learn these habit of the heart, and the skills to
navigate through a new world of almost limitless possibilities and
opportunities in the years ahead.
When Betsy was once asked how she measured herself - she
replied: "Against the expectations of who I think I could be." I
find that a healthy measuring stick for all of us - including the
students here today. Whether it's studying all night for that AP
French exam - working in homeless shelter - or taking that
13
terrifying jump on the zip wire that I understand passes for
"character building" here at Madeira - you are stretching those
boundaries and expectations of yourself.
As one student said recently: "Madeira teaches you to step
over the line that you've drawn for yourself." I can't think of any
words that could pay a more powerful tribute to the work that
Betsy Griffith - and all of you - have accomplished here.
Thank you .
14
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
FORD'S THEATER GALA
WASHINGTON, D.C.
JUNE 13, 1999
1
Thank you. I can't tell you how much the President
and I look forward to this event every year - which
celebrates America's enduring love for the theater and for
the arts. I want to begin by thanking all of the
extraordinary performers - Debbie Allen, Kathleen Battle,
Charlotte Church, Alan Jackson, Diana Krall [CRAWL],
Nathan Lane, Queen Esther Marrow [MORROW], The
Harlem Gospel Singers, Cartier [CAR-TEE-AY] Anthony
Williams, and Bill Conti and his orchestra. If there is ever
an example of how our nation's diversity is our greatest
asset - we see it here tonight.
I also want to express our appreciation to our
distinguished hosts - Adam Arkin, Beau Bridges and
James McDaniel. I especially want to thank Frankie
Hewitt - for making this theater into more than a museum
- and bringing song and dance back to a stage that had
been silenced for more than a hundred years.
2
The restoration of Ford's theater is the kind of
public/private preservation effort that we hope to spark in
communities across the country. Monuments, works of art
and historic sites - all help define who we are as
Americans. Yet many are deteriorating right before our
eyes. That's why a major focus of our White House
Millennium efforts has been to "Save America's
Treasures" -- treasures like this Theater -- so that we can
continue to tell the nation's story - and inspire future
generations.
[We have now raised more than $60 million to save
these irreplaceable pieces of our heritage -- thanks to $30
million from a bipartisan Congressional budget - and $30
million from the National Trust for Historic Preservation
and the gifts from so many generous Americans. I'd like to
recognize Congressman Regula - for his tireless efforts on
behalf of preservation -- and the bipartisan support we' ve
received from so many members of Congress - some of
whom are here tonight.]
3
Tonight, I think of one of the family members who
helped save the beautiful Colonial Theater in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts which I visited on my "Save America's
Treasures" tour last summer. He told me he never
considered himself the owner of the theater. He said, "I
call myself its caretaker."
Which is the role that all of us play. None of us owns
our history. But all of us have a responsibility to safeguard
it, and pass it on to future generations. No one
understands that mission more than the President. It is my
great honor to introduce my husband, our President, and a
passionate fan of the arts -- Bill Clinton.
4
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FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
ANNUAL CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRINCIPALS' LUNCHEON
CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER
JUNE 3, 1998
as delivered
Thank you. Thank you very much. I am just delighted to be here for many
different reasons to see this beautiful room filled with all of you who are on the
front lines of improving public education and doing such a tremendous job for the
children of Chicago.
As the mayor said, I've been in a number of your schools -- not nearly
enough -- and I hope I will be able to visit more in the next several years. And I've
seen the changes; I've seen them slowly but surely, really taking root. I know that
the work that is being done in all of the schools represented here can only happen
because there are leaders like you in those schools, and in this public education
system.
I take nearly any invitation I am given to come back to Chicago. Especially
during the NBA Playoff season. (Laughter) I have to say though, Sunday night I
thought I was going to lose ten or twelve years off my life. I don't know about you,
but when I watch a sporting event on television-that I have any emotional
investment in--I have to get up and leave the room from time to time. I've become
convinced that in some totally bizarre way that the reason we're not scoring is
because I'm watching. (Laughter) So rest assured that I'll leave the room a lot in
the next days.
But it is great to be here to help celebrate the accomplishments of this city
and, particularly, the accomplishments of this school district. I want to thank the
extraordinary Commissioner of Culture, Lois Weisberg. I don't know that she's
gotten exactly the credit she deserves for all the work she does, but I try to give it
to her every time I'm in Chicago, and in this Cultural Center. and doing anything in
the city that Lois has had any role in. She's made such a difference. She
celebrated my 50th birthday here at the Cultural Center. 1 could have gone without
having a celebration of my 50th birthday. But, between my friends--some of whom
are here from my school days in Park Ridge both elementary, junior high, high
school, and in between--Lois, who celebrates everybody's birthday, takes any
occasion to do so. Which, I happen to think is a fabulous idea to promote the
celebratory aspects of living in this city. She's done a very, very good job.
(Applause)
I'm also always pleased to be with Maggie Daley. Maggie Daley has been
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such a voice for children, and for the arts, and has really spear-headed one of the
most influential and creative projects that i know of anywhere in the country, called
Gallery 37. (Applause) It has made an extraordinary difference not only in the lives
of individual children and artists, but also in the artistic landscape of this city and
other places. If you come to the White House, and come to my office sometime,
you'll see a lot of the benches that the young people who work at Gallery 37 make
and decorate. I'm always proud to point out that they were made in Chicago.
I too am very impressed by, and grateful for, the leadership of this city by
the Mayor. It is so exciting for me every time I am with the Mayor because he has
about a million ideas a minute. I always feel that he could, on his own, probably
supply the power for a small city for a year, because the electricity and the energy
is just coming out. But I so enjoy that, because we do know how to solve our
problems. We do know what makes sense. We do know that as tough as things
are, we can make a difference. Who would have thought that 5 years ago we'd be
able to say that crime has fallen 5 years in a row? Well, the President and the
mayor thought so. That's why they adopted strategies like community policing,
instead of just ringing their hands and talking about how bad things were.
(Applause)
Who would have thought that we would have, in my opinion, the most
successful Democratic convention ever in 1996 because the city was as beautiful
and hospitable as it is now. (Applause).
But the real crown jewel in what you, and the mayor, and this city is doing,
is what you've done in the schools. I want to pay a special word of thanks to
everyone who is associated with the school board, with the school's
administration, but particularly to all of you. Because that's really why I'm here.
Because I know that we're lucky to have a President who cares about education.
And Chicago is very lucky to have a mayor who cares about education and who
can recruit talented people to come and work on this problem. But none of the
progress that we are seeing could have been possible without each of you. There
is absolutely no doubt about that.
You've given a lot of us around the country hope. I go to a lot of cities that
are still trying to figure out how to make heads or tails about the problems they
have in their schools. And I'm always saying, look at the decisions that they're
making in Chicago. Look at how they're facing up to their problems. Look at the
results that they are beginning to get. it didn't happen overnight, but they didn't
point fingers at each other. They didn't spend their time in anarchy, engaging in
the blame game. They rolled up their sleeves and they decided to do what needed
to be done.
You have proven that we can adopt sensible strategies that will once again
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make our public schools the kinds of institutions we can be proud of, because of
the products they are producing and the children's lives that are being turned
around.
It's happening all over the city. In fact, Paul Valance told me at lunch today
that some of the biggest turn-arounds are happening in those areas of the city that
have the poorest kids. I want to commend you, because I am sick and tired of
hearing people in education elsewhere in the country say 10 me, "Well what do you
expect? Look at the kids we get." That is a cop-out. That is an absolute cop-out.
(Applause)
A hundred years ago we took people from all over the world that were
fiooding into this city and cities like it. We took people who were coming up from
the South who had been slaves, and the children of slaves, and who had never
been educated. We started putting them in public school, and maybe they only
went to the sixth grade, or the eighth grade, or the tenth grade. But, nobody made
excuses for them. Nobody sat around and said, "Poor old Joe. He's just come
over with his parents from the boat. Or poor old Mary, she's just one generation
from the fields." We had a belief that if we worked hard enough, and if we worked
together and if we didn't give up on any kid, we wouldn't make geniuses out of
them. They weren't all going to be Nobel Prize winners, or Pulitzer Prize authors,
but they'd find a place in this society. And they'd lead honorable, respectable lives,
and they would raise kids, and they'd make a contribution.
And then times changed on us, and we lost a little bit of control. We
couldn't quite figure out how we were going to do the work that needed to be done
when the economy was changing so fast. Because there used to be a lot of jobs; I
remember growing up here there were jobs in the factories on the south side.
There were jobs in the meat packing plants. There were all kinds of jobs, where
you didn't need a whole lot of education, where a strong back, and a willingness to
work would get you there. But all that began to change and the public education
system didn't keep up with it, at first. And how could it? It was overwhelmed by
the changes. With the economy moving so quickly, and jobs disappearing so fast,
and the demand for more education coming at such a rapid rate, how were we
going to meet the obligations to the next generation of children?
I understand--and : think we all do--why we lost our way for awhile there.
Because it was difficult to figure out exactly what we were doing in terms of
educating. For what? For what kind of future?
But finally it dawned on us. That there weren't going to be many, if any, jobs
left for good, hard working decent people, who were willing to get up at the crack
of dawn and work, 8, 10, 12 hours a day. There just weren't going to be those
jobs, and we had to do something to enable everybody to be as well prepared as
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possible.
And I'm beginning to the see the country and the people kind of catch up
with that awareness as well. We're seeing a lot of success, for example, in people
moving off of welfare. Because, a lot of people are recognizing that they've got to
set an example for their children. They've got to go to work. They've got to
encourage their children to go to school. We're seeing a lot of people who never
thought that their kid needed to go to college, ali of a sudden recognizing that they
do need to get as much education as possible.
So the circumstances were poised for the hard decisions that needed to be
made, but we had to have leadership. We had to have people at all levels of the
education system. We had to have leaders In the business and labor community.
We had to have political decision makers, citizens and parents who all reached a
new consensus about the importance of education.
That's what I think is happening now. And ! believe Chicago is leading the
way in forging that consensus. And I'm always telling people, we'll go see what
they're doing in Chicago. And when I travel around the country, and people talk to
me about things like vouchers for schools, I say, "Go to Chicago!" We don't need
vouchers, we just need a public education system that works for every single child.
(Applause)
So now that we have a strategy, and you all are leading the way here in the
country by what you're doing in Chicago. What does that mean, and where do we
go from here?
Well, we need to do more to give you the tools to do the work that you
know needs to be in each of your schools. The President has an education agenda
that he's worked out with people like the Mayor, and the people who are involved
in running the Chicago schools. He knows that we have to reduce class size, and
we have to repair school buildings and build new ones. We have to insure safer
schools. We do have to set high standards. We have to do what needs to be done
to expand after school programs and pre-school programs so the kids are both
prepared and able to get the extra help they need.
Now this agenda--particularly the President's call for 100,000 more teachers,
which echoes the call he made in 1993 for 100,000 more police. Because how are
you going to make the streets safer if you don't have more police on the streets?
And how are you going to lower the class size and give a lot of these kids more
attention, as you know better than 1, if you don't have the teachers to do the job?
And its not just a Chicago issue, It's an American issue, which is why the federal
government should step in and help provide the funding for 100,000 more
teachers. (Applause)
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And what kind of message does it send to a youngster, if we're telling this
young person, maybe a first generation American, or certainly a child of hard
working people who never went to college, or a child of somebody who has just
gotten off of welfare. What does it mean if we say, we really believe in education
but, by the way, we really want you to attend that school that's fallen down
around your ears? That school that hasn't been repaired, the one where the toilets
don't work, we want you to go there. We want you to believe we care about you
and your education.
Well, most kids I know are smarter than that and most teachers deserve
better than that. We need to do more to make the infrastructure of our public
education system the best it can be and we certainly need to do what is required to
make our school buildings safe, and accessible, and available to people, not just
during the school day but to the neighborhood during the off school hours as well.
The President has proposed such a plan. So there is some very important
work that the federal government can do if the Congress would focus on real
education reform and quit trying to design ways to undermine the viability of the
education system with these voucher plans. If the Congress would adopt a real
education agenda, then the United States government could be a better partner to
the city schools here in Chicago and around the country.
We also need to recall what it was about the education that many of US
received that stood us in such good stead. My husband and I have talked about this
a lot. He went to school in the public schools of a state that never got off the
bottom In terms of per capital spending for children. But the elementary school and
the high school that he went to, they had art classes, they had music classes, they
had band, they had a full range of sports and recreation activities, they had clubs.
A lot of kids education -- and mine, going to a suburban Chicago school
district -- didn't just happen during the academic classes, it happened when the
music teacher was introducing us to opera, or the art teacher was attempting to
show me how to get some sense of perspective which I've never gotten to this
day. So, we knew there was a lot going on that was beyond reading, writing and
arithmetic. And so much of that has been cut out in the first years.
When the budget has had to be tightened, what's gone? After-school
programs, recreational programs, art programs, music programs. I think that we
have missed such an opportunity with a whole group of children, to find their
talents, to give them something to believe in themselves. (Applause) And even to
take people like me, who have no talent, but to expose us to the talent of other
people, to develop in someone like me an appreciation for those who can create, for
the students who go to Gallery 37 that sculpt and paint, and do what I saw them
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do when I visited.
And I think one of the challenges we face as we're moving along the reform
agenda, and we're seeing test scores go up, is to not lose sight about what a well
rounded education means. What the full range of exposure for all of our children
should mean.
! have a wonderful quote heard recently from the choir director of a youth
choir in Oakland California. When he was justifying his efforts before the school
board to get additional funds to enroll more kids in his choir because the choir had
taken off, and more kids wanted to get in. He said, "You know a child can be in a
gang, or a gang of singers."
We've got to create safe places where the children can find their own
identities again: maybe on the sports team and on the field, and maybe in a choir as
well, or maybe sitting quietly and practicing an instrument, or trying to draw
something that a teacher has already modeled. And ! think that it's so critical in
these days when so many kids have SO much going on in their lives. You know.
You know what they bring to school: And, it's not just poor kids, it's all kids.
There's just so much going on around them that they have to sort out.
Even if they come from stable two parent families, they see a whole lot of
stuff on TV that I wish they wouldn't see. They're are exposed to a whole lot
more than I was ever exposed to until I was well into adulthood. How can they
make sense of all that? And then, you've got teachers standing in front of
classrooms of kids, and I've had a good friend of mine that has taught for years
and she calls it the "remote control phenomenon." She said, "I stand up there and
what worked 20 years ago no longer works." She said, "I feel like these kids are
just mentally clicking me off. Running through the remote control looking for a
better channel." (Laughter)
Well what can you expect when the first thing a child is able to
do--remember when we used to learn about and talk about hand-eye coordination,
when we worried about learning how to tie their shoes so they could develop their
mental capacity-well now they just learn to use the remote control. It amuses, it
entertains them, it doesn't ask anything from them. So then we expect them to go
to a school, and sit in a classroom, and not be mentally using the remote control.
That's why we have to get them engaged in learning, and I've seen
wonderful examples of that in many of the classrooms of your schools that I have
visited. I've seen hands-on programs in the sciences. I've seen kids working with
blocks and other materials to do math problems, that were well beyond what I
thought a first or second grader could do.
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I've seen lots of interactive learning going on. And I think that's one of the
roles that the arts has to play because you have to be involved. You can't just
watch and expect that picture to show up on that paper. You can't just sit there
and pretend that you're listening, when you have to play that instrument. You
have to participate.
So there are many reasons why we have to look for ways to bring the arts
back into our schools. But we've also learned something. It's not just a nice idea
or nostalgia for people in my generation thinking about what we had when we were
in pubic school. It's not even one of my favorite films, "Mr. Holland's Opus," that
made me think of all those years back with all those plays, and performances, and
variety shows that we used to do.
It's also because we now have very significant and compelling research that
arts education can be a powerful force in boosting academic performances,
particularly when it's moved into the core curriculum of a school. A four year
study involving an elementary school in Dallas, Texas, has proven what educators,
and cultural supporters, have been saying for years. That integrated arts curriculum
can dramatically improve academic success. A recent North Carolina study
demonstrates that math learning is enhanced by these hands-on visual experiences.
We know that when it comes to SAT scores, students of the arts continue to
outperform their peers who don't have such programs in their schools.
I can remember back in 1983, when my husband asked me to work on
education reform in Arkansas. I went and visited lots of schools, and I just could
not believe that so many of the students didn't have in 1983 what I had in 1963.
They didn't have the libraries, they didn't have the arts programs. They didn't have
the exposure that I'd grown up taking for granted. As a result, they didn't have the
tools at their disposal to manipulate information, to think about, to make
synthesizing ideas work as they learn things, and weren't able to add to their
academic accomplishments.
A study a few years ago called "Coming Up Taller" that was released by the
President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities--on which Maggie Daley has so
well served--offered compelling evidence that the arts provide young people,
particularly those from homes and neighborhoods where there is little exposure to
the arts, with creative alternatives to destructive behavior.
The study reported many research studies, and anecdotes, but I particularly
like the ones where an individual student will all of a sudden find an opportunity to
be in an artistic program during school, or after school, and all of a sudden caught
fire. The kid who'd never been interested before all of a sudden was.
I've gone around and visited some of those programs like Gallery 37, and
others in other cities, and I have seen with my own eyes what a difference it can
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make. We also know from educational psychology that people learn in different
ways. Some people are visual learners, some people are auditory earners. Some
people are kinesthetic learners, some people learn by doing. Some people, in a
way, have an absorbative ability with their whole body. Some of them become our
greatest athletes if they're given the chance to develop the discipline.
We are all different and introducing the arts, particularly for young people
who don't have the outlets for that kind of expression otherwise, really
demonstrates clearly that we can capture something, light a fire in some of those
kids.
We also know that the future work world--this information age that we are
now a part of, that looks like its only going to continue to accelerate in its
development--prizes exactly the skills that the arts themselves use, skills like
creativity and innovation. If you go and talk to companies like GE or Microsoft,
they are encouraging their employees to be exposed to the visual and performing
arts, because they want people to be creative and come up with new ideas and
think about how do to things differently.
So its not only that it will help a child-and particularly an at-risk child that
perhaps might get hooked into academic learning--but it will also help prepare a
child for the world of work as well.
I think that the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education is a very good way of
beginning to make sure that we have the arts well represented in our schools here
in this city. I also applaud the partnership between the Chicago public schools and
Columbia College--which is training 900 high school math and science teachers to
use art, music and dance to enrich the teaching of their subjects. Albert Einstein
once said, "The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing
knowledge," and imagination, that we have to trigger in everyone, for them to feel
that they have a real claim on their own future.
A few weeks ago, I went to one of the toughest neighborhoods in
Washington, where the student body, and the school across from the housing
project, was predominantly very poor and disadvantaged. I went to something
called a poetry slam. I-don't know if any of you have seen such a thing, but they
are projects that are funded by the Americorps Corps where young writers
and poets are sent into the classrooms in some of our toughest neighborhoods
where they work with young people in helping them to write their own poetry and
where they have contests, like sports contests. It's like going to the Olympics,
because you have one school represented by their four best poets, and the other
school represented by their four best poets. Then you have an audience of people
who hold up cards like an ice-skating contest ranking the kids from one to ten.
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It has the excitement of a sporting contest. Who could have thought that
these kids would have labored over these poems. And the poems were so
evocative, they told stories about their lives. There was one young girl who got up
and told a poem about the homeless man she has to walk by everyday on her way
to school. Another talked about what went on in his housing project, and the noise
that sometimes just made him feel like he was going to shatter into a million pieces.
One had a poem about the legacy of Duke Ellington. One student said, "I'm so
good at music, that when you hear my song, you'll sing it for the rest of your life."
(Laughter)
Every one of these young people talked about how being in this poetry
program had helped them put their anger on paper, instead of taking it out on their
fellow classmates in the hallways, or on the streets. That it gave them a
confidence that they hadn't had before.
This program was funded by, as I said, Americorps and the National
Endowment for the Arts, because they believe, and my husband and his
administration believe, that art is not a luxury, it's a necessity. And, that as we
know more about the challenges we're going to face in the future, it should be an
integral part of our lives, and particularly of our education system.
So we at the federal level do what we can to try to promote arts projects like
the Writers Corps, arts programs, and provide funding for local projects every
chance we can get. But I also in the next two years intend to embark on a national
campaign to get arts education back into our schools. (Applause)
I think as our nation moves toward the end of one century--and the
beginning of a new millennium-its time for us to decide about the legacies we
want to leave for future generations. Earlier this morning Maggie Daley and I were
at the Art Institute, where the Sara Lee Corporation announced a magnificent gift.
Twelve paintings from their private collection to the Art Institute, one to the
Contemporary Art Museum here in Chicago, and other museums around the
country. I sat, and I looked at those works-most of them 19th century, early
20th--and I thought, just think in a 100 years, somebody could be making a
contribution to the Art Institute of work that was done by Chicago artists who got
their start in the Chicago public schools. (Applause)
And when Sara Lee made that announcement, the Chief Executive, John
Bryant said that it was going to be a Millennium gift to America. I said how
pleased I was because, last summer, the President asked all of us to think about
the gifts we can give to America for the Millennium.
You give gifts every day in your schools. You give gifts that may not make
headlines, but as the mayor said, will be remembered in the hearts of students and
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teachers and parents in years to come,
I remember those gifts. I have with me today one of my favorite teachers
from high school. A math teacher, that was not my favorite subject, but he was
one of my favorite teachers. (Laughter)
And I remember extremely well how he conducted himself, how he
encouraged us, he was our class sponsor, he was always there in our corner trying
to make sure we behaved in an appropriate manner. But I remember, and
thousands of hundreds of thousands of people remember your legacies, and we
have to think about how we will build on that and what gifts we will give.
I want to leave you with some words of Rita Dove, who was our poet
laureate a few years ago. Recently at the White House, as part of our Millennium
Celebration, we had our present poet laureate, and our two former poet laureates,
of whom one was Rita Dove. She served from 1993 to 1995. She said,
"If children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they
feel. If they cannot imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a
darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young
person growing up in America's alienated and disparate neighborhoods, there can
be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart--and then to
discover that one is not alone in one's feelings. Once hope and self esteem have
been engendered, the work of redefining the future can begin."
Well, thank God for our poets like Rita Dove, and thank God for our artists
who help us give voice to what we feel. And thank God for all of our teachers and
our principals who do what you do everyday to try to light that spark in our
children. I hope that you will find in the next years even greater satisfaction
because you'll see you're better supported in the work you do. You'll see the
results of your hard work, and you too will feel that the gifts you're giving to the
future are well respected and appreciated, and that you are part of building what
we need to have as we move in to the Millennium. Thank you very much.
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
ANNUAL CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRINCIPAL'S LUNCHEON
CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER
JUNE 3, 1998
It's wonderful to be back in my hometown of Chicago, and back at the
Chicago Cultural Center, which has played such a powerful role in promoting the
arts -- and America's artists -- here in Chicago over the years. In fact this was the
scene of quite a dramatic cultural performance last year -- my own 50th birthday
party. It's also a special pleasure to join my friend Mayor Daley today. Few
public officials are as committed as he is to reforming and improving our public
schools -- and what he and Maggie Daley have done here in this city is a model for
the nation. I also want to thank him for this invitation to meet with the real movers
and shakers of this city -- the principals of Chicago's public schools.
I want to begin by commending the principals here today for their tireless
efforts to create save heavens of learning for Chicago's children. Thanks to your
leadership -- and the partnership of the parents, teachers, and city officials -- you
have helped turned around some of the toughest schools in the nation -- like Du
Sable High School -- and every day, you've given your students a caring, safe place
to learn and grow. You deserve our deepest thanks and appreciation.
Like all of you here in Chicago, this nation is engaged in an increasingly
heated debate over how to improve our public schools. But I think we can all
agree that strengthening and expanding the educational opportunities for our young
people -- and ensuring they have the tools and the knowledge they need to succeed
in the 2 st Century -- must be at the top of this nation's agenda. That's why the
President has pushed so hard to reduce class size; repair school buildings; ensure
safer schools; set high standards; encourage more choice in public education; and
expand after school programs. He has called for no less than "a revolution in
quality; in standards; in accountability; in excellence" -- in our nation's public
schools. And Chicago is part of that revolution.
Today, I want to talk today about one of the most important ways to improve
our children's education -- and expand their opportunities for the future -- and that's
by ensuring that the arts are part of every child's education.
1 2
Both my husband and I benefitted more than we can say from such programs
when we were growing up. As many of you know, I attended public schools in
Park Ridge. Back then, we took it for granted that we had a school band, an
orchestra, and art and drama classes. And every year, we put on a play. (I must
admit I was in the chorus of "Bye Bye Birdie" -- but my teacher told me I could
only mouth the words). I'm sure that at least some of you are aware that I have a
saxophone-loving husband. That musical instrument has brought him
extraordinary pleasure over the years -- I've even created a little music room for
him at the White House -- into which he disappears on many occasions. He first
learned how to play the sax in his high school band. Because during those years,
even the poorest public schools in the nation valued -- and taught -- the arts.
Yet today, the arts education programs that were so much a part of my
generation's childhood -- and that so enriched our lives -- are being cut out of our
public schools. They are too often viewed as "frills" -- or too expensive, or not an
integral part of a student's academic experience.
Ironically, even as arts education is being cut back or dropped -- we are
discovering more and more reasons why our schools should be moving in the
opposite direction -- and expanding our children's participation in the arts.
- 3 -
My husband and I both believe that children need something to say yes to,
and what better way to say yes to life than through music, dance, painting, poetry,
writing, drama, history, photography, and other forms of creative expression.
Recently, the Oakland California youth choir director said that a child could be in a
gang -- or a gang of singers. Young people who have sung, produced a play, or
designed a mural together, are less likely to fight each other or succumb to
prejudices about those who are different from themselves. We've always known
that these activities help young people understand the world around them -- and
communicate their thoughts about that world. Yet new studies and research
confirm that when we deny them these rich creative experiences, we undermine --
in a very real sense - their ability - and even motivation -- to learn.
- 4-
New research on the development of the brain, for example, shows that
positive experiences and sensory stimulation that young children receive play a
vital role in developing the countless connections in brain tissues that children
need to grow and learn. Psychologists at the University of Wisconsin and
University of California have observed, for example, that pre-schoolers who were
given keyboard lessons and engaged in group singing scored higher on tests on
spatial reasoning -- the skills they would later use to learn math, science and
engineering -- than those who didn't have those opportunities.
There's also growing evidence that arts education can be a powerful force in
boosting academic performance -- particularly when it's moved from the fringes
into the core curriculum of the school. A four year study involving an elementary
school in Dallas, Texas, has proven what educators and cultural supporters have
been saying for years -- that an integrated arts curriculum can dramatically improve
academic success. A recent North Carolina study demonstrates that math learning is
enhanced by hands-on visual art experiences. And we know that when it comes to
SAT scores -- students of the arts continue to outperform their peers who don't
have those programs in their schools. [In 1995, SAT scores for students who
studied the arts more than four years scored 59% higher on verbal -- and 44%
higher on math -- than their counterparts.]
We also know that the arts play a particularly powerful role in improving the
lives -- and the futures -- of at risk children. A few years ago, a study -- called
"Coming Up Taller" -- was released by the President's Committee on the Arts and
Humanities -- on which your First Lady Maggie Daley serves with distinction. It
offered compelling evidence that the arts provide young people -- particularly those
from homes and neighborhoods with few opportunities - with creative alternatives
to destructive behavior.
The study reported that one teenager, at risk of dropping out of high school,
became involved with an artist-in-training program sponsored by the Opera Theater
in St. Louis. She received a full scholarship to college, and continued to study
voice.
I've met with so many young children -- in communities around the country,
as well as at events in the White House -- who are clearly at risk.. And I've learned
from them first hand how the arts have changed their lives. These programs --
whether it's the visual arts, music, writing, dance, or theater, are having a profound
affect on these young people. And they are helping to decrease the violence --
push up attendance rates, and push down drop out rates.
- 6 -
Putting arts back in the schools produces other benefits as well. At a time
when businesses are continually changing and evolving, that those who think
creatively -- take risks, communicate effectively, analyze problems, and seize
opportunities -- will be the most valuable workers. These are the skills we need in
the 21 st century -- and they are precisely the skills that arts education delivers.
Today, companies like GE and Microsoft are encouraging their employees'
creativity and innovation -- through hands-on art seminars, and exposure to the
visual and performing arts.
So we know -- both through experience and through a growing body of
evidence and research -- that the arts can have a profound impact not only on our
young people's ability to learn and to succeed. And by looking at model arts
education programs around the country -- we can learn how to ensure more and
more kids get these benefits.
7-
Not surprisingly, we don't have to look far to see some of the "best
practices" at work here in Chicago. I know that Maggie Daley, for example, has
been a major supporter of arts education in the schools -- and has helped pioneer
Gallery 37, where young men and women in this city's junior and senior high
schools get summer jobs to produce art projects.
Much of what we've learned in these out of school settings are now being
applied within the classrooms. I've heard about how the art program has expanded
at Finley Junior High School. Two years ago a gym teacher was giving a 20-
minute needlepoint class Now there's a full fledged art program. The school's
Principal, Mary McDonald, says she already sees an improvement in academic
scores as a result. I've also heard about the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education
(CAPE) -- which as many of you know includes 36 cultural organizations who are
partnering with 25 of Chicago's public schools to provide arts education. I'm
thrilled to learn that CAPE is supporting the Chicago Schools Millennium Quilt
project -- with the Art Institute of Chicago.
So we're seeing a rebirth in arts education here -- thanks to the combined
commitment of principals, parents, and the private and public sector. Some of your
schools are adding fine arts teachers -- while others are sending their teachers for
training. I applaud the partnership between the Chicago public schools and
Columbia College -- which is training 900 high school math and science teachers to
use art, music and dance to enrich the teaching of their subjects. Albert Einstein
would agree with that strategy. He once said: "The gift of fantasy has meant more
to me than my talent for absorbing knowledge."
- 8
Just a few weeks ago, I went to a poetry slam, organized by Writer's Corps --
in one of the poorer neighborhoods in Washington, DC, to see junior high school
students participate in a poetry contest. Students take turns reading their own
poems -- to lots of noisy comments and scores from their peers.. That day, I heard
moving poems about students' names; about the plight of a homeless man; about
the legacy of Duke Ellington; about the students' fears and hopes for the future.
One student said: "I'm so good at music, that when you hear my song, you'l sing it
for the rest of your life." These young people talked about how poetry helped them
put their anger on paper, instead of acting it out. This was about writing and
reading out loud -- it was also about gaining the confidence to have a voice in the
world.
Like so many wonderful arts programs around the country, this one received
support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Through its work with schools,
the states, and the U.S. Department of Education, the NEA, along with state and
local arts councils and their foundation and corporate partners, all help sustain
some of the best and most effective arts programs in our public schools around the
country. And we owe it to ourselves -- and the next generation -- to keep NEA
alive and well.
- 9-
In fact, the importance of public funding for the arts -- and specifically for
arts education in the schools -- cannot be underscored enough. I know that here in
Chicago, Mayor Daley has just announced that 100 Chicago public schools will
offer expanded youth programs this summer -- aimed at keeping kids off the streets
-- and engaged in art, and music, and sports. Just the kind of program that we know
will turn around some lives -- even save lives this summer -- and later on when the
young people are back in the classroom.
I also want to commend the Governor (Jim Edgar-R) and the General
Assembly for their recent bi-partisan increase of 51% in the Illinois Arts Council
grants budget. That's an all time high. And I believe you are one of the few states
that has passed a new, more rigorous arts standards last year.
- 10 -
The federal government is also playing an increasingly positive role in
expanding its support for arts education -- in addition to the invaluable work of the
NEA. When the national Education Goals were first written in 1989, for example,
the arts were not included in the list of disciplines students should be expected to
achieve to challenging standards. The Clinton Administration added the word
"arts" to the list of subjects when it wrote the Goals 2000: Educate America Act.
And in 1995, the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership was formed by the NEA
and the Department of Education to implement high standards and expand arts
education in our nation's public schools.
While the federal government is increasingly active in expanding arts
education opportunities in our schools -- the fact remains that it takes strong and
courageous leadership at the state, city, and community levels to make sure these
programs get into the schools. You hire the teachers, you forge the curriculum, you
shape the budgets, and you involve higher education and cultural organizations in
partnerships. The parents and community members surrounding your schools serve
on school boards - and vote on budgets.
Just as research now proves the remarkable relationship between learning and
the arts, studies also show that one of the strongest factor in schools success is the
leadership of the principal.
( 1 =
Over the next two years, I intend to embark on a national campaign to get
arts education back into the schools. As our nation moves toward the end of one
century -- and the beginning of a new millennium -- this is the time to decide
about what legacies we want to leave for future generations, and what investments
we should make that would have the greatest impact on the lives of our children
and grandchildren. I believe that giving every child in America the opportunity to
fully explore his or her creative and intellectual potential may be the greatest gift
to the future we could possibly offer. And I look forward to working with all of
you here today to deliver that gift to our nation's children.
We must continue to remind ourselves that as compelling as the practical and
academic arguments are to support arts education -- in terms of better scores,
higher graduation rates, and lifelong skills -- there are some benefits that cannot be
measured or charted. Activities like singing a song, or drawing a picture; or acting
in a play, delight young people, and engage their minds. Creative engagement also
gives life joy and wonder, as children see and hear and touch the world around
them. You and I have seen how powerfully they respond to story telling or painting
or singing -- as they act, see, and write their poems, they are understanding and
constructing the world around them.
They don't have to be the world's next great artist. But being exposed to the
work of Shakespeare -- or the paintings of Georgia 'Keefe, or the music of
Wynton Marsalis -- fuels a child's creative imagination. And it's the imagination
that has sparked every great discovery, and every human accomplishment, since the
beginning of time. And it's the imagination that frees all of us to imagine a better
world -- and then to help build it.
- 12 -
I want to leave you with the words of Rita Dove, our national poet laureate
from 1993 to '95. As Ms. Dove reminds us:
"If children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they
feel. If they can't imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness
made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person
growing up in America's alienated and disparate neighborhoods, there can be no
greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart -- and then to discover
that one is not alone in one's feelings. Once hope and self esteem have been
engendered, the work of redefining the future can begin."
Thank God for our poets. And thank God for those who nurture the creative
spirit in all of us.
- 13 -
1
Vital Voices
Montevideo, Uruguay
Address by Hillary Rodham Clinton
October 2, 1998
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I feel like I am sure many of
you do, that we have had such a rich morning already hearing from our conference
participants, and others who have inspired us, and motivated us, and educated us.
It is a great honor and privilege for me to be here in Uruguay, and to join all of you - the
vital voices of the Americas. The voices of the four conference participants that we have
just heard represent the extraordinary intelligence, enthusiasm and diversity of the people
who have come together for this third historic Vital Voices Conference.
I want to begin by thanking our hostess, Mrs. Sanguinetti - for your warm hospitality and
for that fascinating archeological education. That I will immediately go and read about.
This is my first visit to your beautiful country, and both you and the President have made
me feel so much at home even in these few short days that I cannot wait to return. And I
look forward to a time when I can do that in the very near future.
I also want to express my great appreciation to the Conference's co-sponsor, the Inter-
American Development Bank. Now we have heard from the President, who is our great
friend. Who I believe said again today how committed the bank is to all these projects. I
have had the great honor of working with the bank and I've seen how hard he has worked
to promote micro-credit, working against domestic violence, doing everything that the
bank could do to make clear to everyone who would listen that it is not just a bank, it is an
instrument of social justice, social investment and transformation of the Americas and I
thank you for that Enrique.
I too want to thank Mayra for her work. She has been a powerful and effective advocate
at the Bank for women.
And I want to thank Theresa for your efforts leading our U.S. government team to make
"Vital Voices" an effective instrument of American foreign policy.
This is the third Vital Voices Conference. The purpose of these conferences is to give
women from various parts of the world the opportunity to come together as you all have to
share experiences, to build stronger networks and partnerships, to look for ways that we
can introduce new and effective strategy in our common search for ways that will enable
women to take their rightful places in all of our societies.
At this particular conference we brought together women leaders from all the democracies
of the Western Hemisphere. Leaders in business, non-governmental organizations, trade
2
unions, from small villages and from very large cities, mayors and cabinet officials. We
have also brought together and we have heard eloquently expressed today from our panel
many who suffered under brutal dictatorships, many who lost family members to terrorism,
people who have been in the forefront of the struggles to end repression, protect human
rights, and restore democracy. This is a critical moment in history because so many of you
have struggled so long to bring us to it. I want to begin by thanking you. You have set an
example, you have served as a model, and you have given heart to literally millions of
peoples throughout the Americas because you have never given up on yourselves and your
future. And yet I know that with the coming of democracy, with the spread of the global
economy, we face new challenges. How do we ensure that democracy and free market
economies produce better lives for all people, especially the poor and the marginalized?
How do we create conditions in which women are equipped with the tools of opportunity
to become full participants in their societies? How do we bolster civil society and its
institutions?
The countries represented here may be at different stages of political and economic
development, but we are all searching for answers to basic questions such as those. And
we share a common belief: we believe that a nation's progress depends on the progress of
women; that the strength of democracy depends on the inclusion of women; that the
vibrancy of an economy depends on the hard work of women; that the richness of civil
society depends on the full participation of women; and that human rights are women's
rights; and women's rights are human rights from one end of this hemisphere to the other.
I've heard reports how at this conference - in workshops, over coffee, in hallways - you've
been gathering and talking with one another about how to achieve progress. You've been
learning from each other. And you have been focussing on three broad areas: First how do
we expand political participation for women in public life? Second how do we strengthen
the rule of law? And third, how do we promote women's access to economic
opportunities?
If this were only a conference where we came together and we met one another, and we
heard speeches and we shared ideas, that would be a good thing, but it would not be
enough. It would disappoint all of us who are here because it would not fulfill the promise
that such an extraordinary gathering holds for us. What we have to think through is how
we will, from this point, create those strategies and support one another within our nations
and across our hemisphere to see that they are fulfilled. How will we answer the questions
we have been asking ourselves? How will we reach progress in the three areas you have
been focussing on? Let me take them one by one.
We have seen the fruits of the efforts that have gone into creating political opportunities for
women in public life. Throughout the Americas, because we have obtained peace and
stability that so many of you have fought for so long, we now have democratic
governments that are open to debate, and free speech and association that were not there
3
before. We hope we will never, ever see in our hemisphere again a young women driven
from her own country because she stood up for the human rights of her fellow citizens.
We hope that we will never hear the heart-wrenching emotion that we heard in the voice
from our mayor from Peru when she talked about terrorism. We must never, ever allow
terrorism to have a grip in this hemisphere again.
So this hard-fought-for peace and stability, these democracies, these free-market
economies, they're an enormous step forward. But they are also not enough if they do not
give people the belief that they have a stake in the future and do not provide opportunities
for participation.
But think about some of the women who are here amongst us. Women who have pushed
open the doors of political leadership. Some of them are known, so many others are
unknown, but they lifted their vital voices when others were silent. They organized their
work places, often at great risk to themselves, and they have been willing to run for office
and accept appointed office when still there are so many attitudes that argue against a
woman doing that in public life. Their voices should inspire us. Think of just a few
examples.
A senator from Brazil - the granddaughter of a slave -- who worked within the Catholic
church on behalf of workers - and who became her country's first black woman senator.
A mother from a small town in Peru who, when elected mayor, developed projects to
protect women's rights and created training workshops for women so they could increase
their family incomes without leaving their homes.
A grandmother in Argentina who refused to bend under the brutality of the generals and
who kept her eyes on the plight of her nation's grandchildren.
There are thousands of examples like that. Each of us could stand and tell them. But they
should serve the purpose of reminding and inspiring us, of the price that has been paid to
open those doors to democracy, and how disappointed all those who sacrificed would be
if now women did not assume their rightful position and walk through those doors to make
contributions to their families, to their communities, and their nations.
Today, more than at any other time in history, women have the opportunity and the
responsibility not only to raise our own voices but to empower others to raise theirs as
well. The women gathered here, we are among the blessed. Even though many have
suffered, the spirit was not broken. And you are here as testimony to resilience and
determination.
But think of the thousands and thousands and thousands of women throughout the
Americas for whom no one speaks. Who believe they are not worth anything. Who have
4
been denied education and even sometimes fundamental health care. What will we do to
raise our vital voices for them? And among the many reasons why women must participate
in the political process and must take the risks of putting themselves forward on behalf of
issues of concern to us all, is because all of those women and their children need our
voices.
There is a very important report that was completed recently by the Women's Leadership
Conference of the Americas which details all of the progress and the obstacles that still
face women in the Americas. This report confirms what we all know: that while many
governments, organizations, and individual citizens acknowledge the importance of
women's participation in both formal and informal ways, women are still blocked from
realizing their own positions, from going as far as their talents would take them.
Yesterday I was privileged to meet with the Women's Political Network here in
Montevideo. I want to thank all of the women who came together to educate me about
what they are doing here. They were a remarkable group of women leaders. A cabinet
minister, a city council member, others who hold elective office, others who were very
prominent in their parties. One of them said: "We grew to realize that what unites us is far
more important than what differentiates us." For the women from different parties who
honestly hold different philosophical and ideological positions understand that they can
cross party lines to work on behalf of issues in common. And I have heard that Paraguay is
doing the same. This is one very important idea that can come out of this conference: that
there must be ways for women in political life to support each other across party and
ideological lines when it comes to fundamental women's rights and children's needs. And
this political network can serve as an example for us all. And I would include my own
country in that example.
If one reviews the progress that has been made, you can see that the once closed doors
have been pried open. More and more countries require a minimum level of women's
participation in local and national elections. Others have created agencies to promote
women and family policies. Some programs are now seeking to increase the pool of
qualified women to compete for leadership positions, and others help women exercise
effective leadership once they are elected or promoted.
These changes are having an impact. By 1996 - all but two countries in Latin America had
at least one woman cabinet member. In Colombia, over a third of the cabinet positions are
now held by women. And while women are still vastly under-represented in legislative
assemblies, there are signs of progress. In the Bahamas, women fill as many as 33 percent
of the senate seats. And in Argentina, as a result of their new law, women's representation
in the lower house of congress is 28 percent, the eighth highest in the world.
If those nations can assure women that level of women's participation, then we all must do
better to make sure that parties are fair to women and include them in electoral lists, that
5
governments seek out qualified women and give them opportunities to serve. Because we
will all benefit if more women assume positions of political responsibility. And I hope that
one result of this conference will be very specific ways we can all participate in bringing
that about.
The second challenge you have been discussing is strengthening the rule of law. Now
there is, of course, general agreement in polite company that women deserve equal rights
under the law. But there are still laws in the Americas that do not give women equal
rights. And our first order of business should be to change those laws.
There are countries in the Americas that prohibit women from doing certain work: from
working at night; from lifting heavy objects. Now I have always believed that the job
should be suited to the person. And many women could not lift heavy objects, but some
women could. And if they could qualify, they should be permitted to compete for those
jobs, and jobs like them so they can better support their families, and we should change
laws that stop them from doing so.
The larger problem though is that on paper we have equal rights under the law, but they
are not enforced. There is uneven or no enforcement. Or there is enforcement only for
the rich and not for the poor. So we have to do a better job of making all of our laws fairly
enforced and making access to our justice system one that is not in any way prohibited to
people on the basis of their background or their income. We have to do much more to
absolutely institutionalize the rule of law in the Americas. With independent judiciary,
with due-process being respected so that impunity will no longer exist. That the rights of
all citizens will be strengthened. We know we will have achieved that goal when a poor,
indigenous woman somewhere in the Americas is able to walk into a court and demand
that the police stop harassing her, that people in the street stop treating her poorly, and that
she be given the same rights as every other person.
And I would hope that by opening up the legal system to more women judges and women
prosecutors, women will make sure that women's rights are respected and the rule of law
is enshrined in all of our countries.
That is beginning to happen. Again some examples from vital voices that inspire us.
The first woman to sit on Haiti's supreme court helped draft the decree abolishing gender
inequality.
The female director of the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights launched a gender
equity program when she was a leading Costa Rican jurist.
There are many more examples we can point to. But we need more women lawyers, more
women judges, more women prosecutors. And as a lawyer, I hope that more women will
6
go into the law in the Americas and use the tools of the law to promote sócial justice
throughout our hemisphere.
I also want to say a specific word about something we have seen terrific progress in but
have a long way to go and that is in domestic violence. Many of you have been leaders,
both inside and outside of governments to make it clear that violence between spouses,
between parents and children, in families is not a custom, it is a crime and must be treated
as a crime.
More and more governments throughout the Americas are reforming their penal codes and
passing anti-discrimination legislation. And we see the results. Twelve Latin American
countries have adopted new laws classifying domestic violence finally as a crime, and
enforcement has been stepped up, prison sentences extended. There are now special
police stations for women in many countries, shelters and counseling centers and training
courses for law enforcement officials and judges.
Yesterday I was privileged to meet with professionals here in Montevideo who are working
both with victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. And this particular crime is so
important for us to focus on because we know that if women have their spirits broken
inside the family, by the violence that so many face day in and day out, how can they ever
have the confidence to be citizens of a democracy, to participate fully in the life of their
democracy?
The Summit of the Americas which met first in Miami and then in Santiago set a goal of full
equality between men and women by the year 2002. Now I know that is an ambitious
goal. But I like that goal. And I like to remind people that that goal was agreed upon by
all the leaders of our hemisphere. And I believe we must accept nothing less than doing
all that we can to try to reach that goal.
Our third priority, at this conference, is opening up economic opportunities for women.
There are some fundamental issues that we have to address before we can even get to
economic opportunities. One is education and one is health care.
Women cannot earn good income for themselves and their families, and advance to the
fullest of their god-given potential if they are not educated, or if they are held back by
poor, or substandard, or unavailable health care.
So we must continue to do everything we can to ensure access to education, for girls and
women, and to make available quality health care throughout the hemisphere. Because
talking about economic opportunities in the absence of emphasizing education and health
care is an empty promise. Because we certainly know that the economy of the 21st
century will be unforgiving for those who are not educated and not healthy and not able to
make their own way.
7
Now we all know that women contribute enormously to the economic growth of their
countries. Both inside and outside the home. But that work, both in the home and in the
informal economy is not counted in a country's GDP. I believe it is time for economists
and bankers to start figuring out ways to count women's economic contributions in their
nations' GDP and overall world economies.
I remember talking to an economist during one of my visits to Africa. He said "well
women have no real economic role to play in the African economies that are emerging".
And I said, "well you know I have only spent a few days in Africa but every where I looked
I saw women working: I saw women in the fields, I saw women carrying water; I saw
women in the markets; I saw women building their own houses. Now tell me what exactly
is it that they are doing if not contributing to the economic well-being of their country?"
We also have to face up to continuing wage discrimination against women. Women in
Latin America receive salaries well below those of men. And women who work in the
informal sector, as many do, have no benefits and no security. Working women have
never held the rights and opportunities and benefits that men have traditionally have held.
So we have to attack those inequities as well.
We need to celebrate the contributions that women have made. And I especially
appreciate the comments about how women have been the ones who have managed
poverty and have day in and day out, and year after year kept families going with very little
in the way of meager resources. So let us celebrate what is really very good budgeting and
extremely good economic planning if we stop to think about it, and let's look for ways to
bring more opportunities and greater income into the lives of these women who have
already proven that they know how to stretch a peso as far as possible.
We also need to look at ways of getting more capital and credit into women's hands. And
I want to thank everyone who has supported micro-credit because it is truly transforming
lives and societies. Micro-enterprise loans are expanding the support from international
and bilateral donors and non-governmental organizations. USAID and IDB programs are
already reaching well over one million women in this hemisphere.
I would once again issue a plea to commercial banks, and other potential funders, to look
at the success of micro-credit as a tool for creating market activity at the grassroots level,
giving more people within a society a stake in the free market. And I would ask, as I did in
Belfast, that commercial banks look for ways to partner with the IDB or non-governmental
organizations to put some funds into micro-credit so that we could expand their reach. I'm
always amazed when I read in the newspaper about some very bad loan that a commercial
bank has made and they write it off when we know that loans to poor women are repaid at
a rate of between 95 and 99 percent throughout the world.
I have talked with such women from one end of our hemisphere to another, including in
8
my own country where we are using micro-credit to try and help develop economic
opportunity for women, particularly women who were formerly on welfare.
Think of these vital voices:
A rural woman in El Salvador who overcame low expectations - of herself and others - to
turn her roadside tortilla stand into a profitable business with the help of a $46 loan. And
who, because of that increased economic activity that she was able to generate, all of a
sudden had the respect of everyone in her village. And she and her small village group of
people who were borrowing and supporting each other understood that they had a real
stake in their future. She was selected president of her village bank group. And she said
something that all of us would agree with, and that is "courage is half of life." Well for her,
having the courage to do what she did was half of life, but having the credit to put that
courage into action was the other half. And that is the kind of partnership we need more
of.
A woman organizer at a banana plantation who has stood up to death threats to lead and
inspire her co-workers. They have been locked out of their jobs because their company
won't recognize their union.
Workers' rights are an important part of the global economy.
We have such great opportunities ahead of us if we are able to take the extraordinary
benefits of the global economy and ensure that they are spread fairly to everyone. We
cannot permit greater inequity in income to be part of the new global economy. And
workers' rights are part of that. Regular and equal pay, medical examinations, training
programs, benefits, all of that should be on the front burner for women and men who
understand how important it is that workers be given the opportunity to share in the fruits
of their labor.
Now where does this leave us as we are looking at this conference and all that you have
discussed and heard? Well I hope that we are building on the progress so many of you
have begun. And I hope we are producing real partnerships that will strengthen
democracies and improve lives of women throughout the Americas.
Today I am pleased to make several announcements. First, the United States Government
through USAID will commit $50 million to support the common goals of this conference
and the Summit of the Americas, to strengthen human rights, justice, and democracy
particularly on behalf of women.
USAID is also increasing its loans to micro-enterprises across the Americas to $120 million
over the next three years, over two-thirds of those loans committed to going to women.
The United States Small Business Administration, whose Director, Aida Alvarez is with us
9
today, and I am very pleased that Ms. Alvarez could be here for this announcement. It has
done a great deal in our country to promote micro-enterprise and has created an "on-line
women's business center" offering training and support and research for women to start
and expand their businesses. Today the Small Business Administration is unveiling the
Spanish version of this website so that millions of women, throughout the hemisphere and
literally around the world, can also access this information.
After this meeting you can go into the conference room, right outside here and into one of
the hallways, and you can log right on to this new SBA service. And be sure and tell us
how well it works, because it is our very first time to try it out.
Because of this conference the Discovery Channel, the Foreign Ministry of Argentina and
the Global Foundation in Buenos Aires have come together to make sure that these voices
are heard well beyond this conference. They will do this through a series of Vital Voices
Public Service Announcements on issues raised here at the conference. Tomorrow each of
you will have the chance to help shape those messages that will be broadcast throughout
the hemisphere. So think please about the most effective way to reach women and men
with the messages of the Vital Voices Conference.
Another important partnership that is taking place is that IBM Uruguay will produce
computer and Internet training sessions for women in media and a political training
workshop experience sponsored by USAID, the Partners of the Americas, the League of
Women Voters, and USIA Women's Campaign International. This is one way that you can
really test and improve your own skills and learn from one each other about how you can
take messages from this conference back home.
The United States Government stands ready to continue to work with all of you. To make
sure that this critical effort started here at this conference, and building on so much work
that has gone before, will continue well into the future and will have the results that we all
hope for.
As I travel around the world, I am very grateful for the opportunity that I have to meet with
women and to listen to them. Their dreams, their aspirations, their hopes, their concerns.
And I am always amazed, impressed and humbled by the extraordinary human spirit and
hopefulness that I find whether I am in a very poor village in Bangladesh or Uganda, or in
a very small business in Nicaragua, or Santiago, I'm always with women who inspire me.
And these are the women from throughout this hemisphere who we must do all that we
can to ensure that their voices are heard, heard in city halls and board rooms, and trade
union offices, and political parties, in academia, in families.
If we carry forth from this conference the extraordinary example and words that we heard
from our four panelists, and we take our energy and work together to make sure that these
voices are heard, I think we have a great opportunity ahead of us.
10
I ran across a quote from an early Uruguayan woman leader, Dr. Paulina Luisi who said
"We shall not reach the radiant mount toward which our eyes are fixed today. But on the
ground we are breaking, our daughters will march to victory."
As the mother of a daughter, I hope with all my heart, that we will break that ground, and
the youngest among us will see results, that we will make it possible in the next century for
women and men to feel as they should. fully empowered, full of hope and confident,
because there are no longer any of those divisions that separate us from one another, but
instead a commitment creating a future that brings out the best in all of us.
Thank you very much.
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Q&A Following Hillary Rodham Clinton's Speech
at Forum 2000, Prague Castle,
October 13, 1998
Prague, Czech Republic
Questions and comments by four Forum 2000 participants are paraphrased below, followed by
the First Lady's responses transcribed in full.
We know much about the U.S. as a teaching society, but I would like to hear about the U.S.
as a learning society as well. An example is the U.S. media coverage of Copenhagen: the
U.S. press gave almost no coverage to this event, but covered instead "the trial of the
century." There was also little coverage of the Kyoto Conference. (Weiming Tu, Chinese
historian and writer)
The media often covers only the ugly and negative. They should introduce beauty; otherwise,
people cannot be expected to think anything or do anything good or beautiful (Karan Singh,
Indian political figure and philosopher)
What about U.S. isolationism/unilateralism? The U.S. can't think beyond its own borders.
For example, there is no support for the U.N. or IMF when we need U.S. leadership. The
"parochial preoccupations" of a key institution in the U.S. such as the Congress - this is a
matter of concern. The U.S. position on the International Criminal Court is also an example
of this troubling attitude. (Unidentified speaker)
There is a need to work on global, not only national, rule of law. How can business help to
bring this about? (Tomas Bata, Czech-Canadian entrepreneur)
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Let me first respond to Mr. Tu, because I think you have
very well expressed one of the principal challenges the United States faces, and certainly it has
an impact not only in our country but around the world.
It is the case that the civil society in the United States was recognized as being a critical
component of our entire social structure as early as the first decades of the nineteenth century
by de Tocqueville, and he talked about the habits of the heart which really nurtured democratic
citizenship and involvement. And there's always been a tremendous tension among the three
legs of the stool in the United States. One of our continuing challenges is to create a balance
among the various power centers in the United States, whether it is within our government,
among our three branches of government, or among the economy, the government, and civil
society.
I don't think that de Tocqueville - or anyone - until relatively recently could have even
imagined, let alone predicted, the extraordinary role that the mass media would play in
shaping public opinion and impacting on civil society in particular. It is, I believe, a very
serious issue for any society, but particularly for the United States at this time. Mr. Tu is
absolutely right that the coverage of difficult problems that require patience and fortitude is
practically nonexistent in the United States. The coverage of international affairs and our mass
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media is very limited There is such an obsession with the immediate and with the kind of
event or personality that will satisfy people in the short run, that I think we're doing a great
disservice to ourselves by not providing more information in a continuing way so that the
citizens can have at least the opportunity of knowing more about what is going on and making
decisions for themselves based on that more detailed information.
I didn't mention it in my remarks, but I do think that the role of the mass media is something
that we have to give more serious thought to in my country and, increasingly, around the
world. It is extremely difficult for government or for civil society to function effectively either
if there is not enough information about difficult decisions confronting citizens, or if the
information that is being given actually undermines civil society and governmental
effectiveness.
I don't have any solution in mind at all for any of this, but certainly America needs to become,
in your words, a "learning civilization," in order to see better ourselves and understand what
we must do to maintain our strong civil society and our cohesive nation state going into the
future. It is something I spend a lot of time about thinking, because I do believe if we don't
come to grips with the impact of the mass media on civil society and on effective
governance in democracy, it will be increasingly difficult to deal with any of the problems of
globalization that Professor Sunkel so eloquently described to us. So, I share your concerns.
I certainly know that my husband and others are attempting to sort of break through the wall
of the mass media to be able to communicate directly with people with information that is
pertinent to their daily lives and also helpful in helping them make decisions.
And just let me add one other example. Several of you last night mentioned to me your hope
and your concern that the United States will take effective action with respect to
environmental challenges coming out of Kyoto. That is a perfect example of how difficult it is
in our country to obtain a consensus about action that should be taken. It is not a subject that
gets a lot of coverage in our country, and it is a subject about which special interests have
very strong feelings and use the mass media to manipulate public opinion. So we have a great
challenge in our democracy to navigate among the mass media and the very powerful special
interests to create a space for the citizenry to get adequate information to make good
decisions. Winston Churchill once said about America that it's a land where people do take a
very long time and do nearly everything wrong before they make the right decision. And it is a
kind of historical characteristic of ours that we do kind of stumble along until we get it right.
Finally with Mr. Singh, I thought that your remarks were beautifully eloquent. I don't know
how we get those countervailing healing images through the mass media. We have to create
alternatives, and perhaps the explosion of the media will give us a chance to have more
channels of information conveying images to people. But certainly if the mass media is still
largely determined out of America, we have a big challenge ahead of us to transform those
negative dramatic images into something that can help people envision a more positive future.
It is also an issue that that I am very concerned about, and since people are affected by and
are determined to some extent in their images of themselves and others by what is occurring in
the mass media, it is another issue that we must pay very close attention to. If in your
metaphor the person sitting on the stool is to be someone who is a positive person, it is
difficult to imagine how to be positive if you are the subject of constant consumer-oriented
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driven messages and negative messages. That's very difficult for people to overcome, so we
have a big job ahead of us in that. But I thank for your beautiful language in describing that
challenge.
Thank you
[After second two questions]
HRC: Well, these are two very specific questions about American public and political opinion.
And given my concern about these issues, let me just address them in a larger context and then
specifically.
The United States goes through periods of isolationism as anyone who has ever studied our
history could clearly see. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the raison d'etre for much of
foreign policy in America seemed to have disappeared in the minds of many political leaders,
particularly those who had both spent time on the front lines of leading the charge against
communism and those who believed that the United States had to have a very strong presence
in the world in order to be effective in dealing with the threat caused by the Soviet Union.
We are still finding our way to redefine our position in the world and our assumption of
leadership in so many areas that are critical for the United States to take a leading role. I think
Gareth Evans is right that in every poll that I've ever seen, and in my own personal experience,
American citizens are much more supportive of international institutions such as the United
Nations and more willing for the United States to be engaged internationally than many of
those in Congress who adopt a much more negative view.
The problem is, however, that there is an intense minority against such involvement that is at
the heart of much of the Republican Party's support and to a much lesser extent some
Democratic support. But focusing for a minute on the Republican party, they have in their
constituency those people who believe the United Nations is invading America with black
helicopters, who believe any kind of international involvement multilaterally by the United
States is a sign of weakness, not of partnership and strength. And those people within their
constituency who hold those views and less extreme versions of those views are much more
intense than the general public which favors international involvement.
The general public does not vote on those issues, by and large: they would not turn out a
member of Congress who did not vote for the United Nations dues as they might if he did not
vote for funding education, for example. Whereas the intense minority that so often
determines a politician's fate will vote against a member of Congress in many districts around
our country. So the trick is to create the intensity and increase the awareness among the
American public that their intuitive response about American engagement is something that
they need to take to another level and be much more committed to and put into the political
process as one of the factors by which they judge those who they elect.
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The second issue that relates to this is that there has been, in my view again, a collapse in elite
opinion supporting international engagement in the United States. You know, the end of the
Second World War when President Truman and General Marshall and others were summoning
support for the Marshall Plan, it was not popular in the country, it was unpopular. But it was
understood as being very important among the American business and academic and political
elite in sufficient numbers that they were able to harness public opinion to their point of view.
It has been a great disappointment to me, and I mentioned this at Davos, that American
business - which benefits greatly from American involvement in the world - has been so
silent on so many of these issues that directly affect American leadership around the world.
There was not a great outcry, for example, when the Congress first turned down IMF funding.
The American business communities got more organized on that. But again, I don't know that
they are telling members of Congress that they will not support them over that particular issue.
So that the collapse of elite opinion in America has also played a negative role in creating a
circumstance in which passionate and intense extreme opinion gets much more credibility that
it deserves to have.
Thirdly, there is among many members of Congress a sense of unilateralism, that there is not
anything for the United States to gain in being part of international and multilateral efforts,
but rather to just be acting unilaterally, and that is something that the President is working
very hard to try to change and to rein in. But it is a very strongly held opinion among certain
members of Congress, in particular. And it has to be worked on again from two different
perspectives. We have to increase public support and we have to not only change but harness
elite opinion in order to have an impact on members of Congress who hold these views.
And then finally, it is just politics. You know, it's just good old-fashioned politics in a
democracy, where if you've got in our system a president of one party and a congress of
another, no matter what the President's for, the members of Congress and the majority on the
other side want to be against. And right now, at this moment, they're asleep right now, but
shortly they'll be back trying to get a budget for the United States, which we don't now have
because the Republican majority in Congress has been opposed to the President's program.
Parliamentary systems are much easier, believe me, in terms of getting something through, and
even there you have a lot of problems in trying to reach consensus. But in our system, which
is deliberately designed to be difficult, it is particularly difficult when there is a President of
one party and a Congress of another and I think many people even in Europe who are used to
parliamentary systems have a difficult time understanding why this is so hard to maneuver
through. And so, it is something we're concerned about, that the President is very well aware
of and that he's working very hard on.
Then just with respect to the international criminal court, that's another example of the
difficulty of persuading Americans to be supportive of something that they believe might in
any way impact their sovereignty. I must say, just very briefly, that there is a legitimate
concern on the part of American leadership, including the administration, that because we do
have so many interests around the world, we do have so many military interests around the
world, that without appropriate safeguards that would enable the United States to feel that any
kind of action by such a court would be justified with respect to American citizens, you are
not going to get American support for that kind of international effort. Which is regrettable,
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and the American government will continue to support all of the war crimes efforts, whether
they will be in The Hague or Rwanda, and we will continue to look for a way that we can be
part of an international court of criminal justice. But it is difficult, particularly in the climate of
the United States today, for political and military leadership to feel comfortable with ceding
jurisdiction and sovereignty when so many more of our people around the world are at risk
that the citizens of any other country. We don't think there is parity in the description of the
court's authority with respect to the United States. So, there are some legitimate concerns
about that issue, which take nothing away from the more general concerns we have about
creating more of an American understanding and support for our engagement and leadership
and our international cooperation.
(End of q&a transcript)
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
REMARKS TO
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
THE WHITE HOUSE
JULY 26, 1999
1
Good evening everyone. It is a great pleasure for me to join the
President in welcoming all of you to the White House, as we celebrate
one of America's great treasures, the National Symphony Orchestra. As
many of you know, the President and I have been trying for quite some
time to catch up with our friend, Leonard Slatkin and the National
Symphony Orchestra to invite them to perform at the White House.
We're so pleased to have them with us this evening.
I want to begin by thanking the NSO board members, Kennedy
Center Trustees, and Friends of the Center for joining us tonight. I
would like to especially acknowledge the president of the Kennedy
Center, Larry Wilker, who has opened the Kennedy Center to the
broader community; dazzled us with the diversity he's brought to the
stage; and succeeded in attracting larger and larger audiences both here
in Washington and around the country. I want to recognize as well the
President of the NSO, Bob Jones, who has made such a tremendous
contribution to the BSO in such a short time. And we're thrilled that
Linda [Hofenfeld, Slatkin's wife] is joining her maestro husband tonight
- as a soloist.
2
We are here this evening not only to honor this remarkable
symphony, but also to celebrate, once again, the vital role that the arts -
especially music - play in all of our lives, and in the life of our
democracy.
Throughout its sixty-eight seasons, the NSO has represented the
very best in American music. From Tokyo to Tupelo, from Amsterdam
to Anchorage, the NSO is recognized as one of the world's finest
orchestras. But as important as their musical gifts is the role they play as
our nation's cultural ambassadors around the world. America has
always been a nation of artists and idealists -- a free and creative people
striving to express the full potential of human endeavor. In 1993, when
the NSO became the very first orchestra to give a concert in Red Square
in Moscow, an exuberant audience of thousands heard much more than
the sound of music -- they heard the sound of America itself.
And that is a mission they fulfill not only overseas, but also here at
home. The NSO brings to life the rich diversity of America's greatest
composers - like Samuel Barber, John Corigliano [Core-lee-ah-no],
Copeland, and Duke Ellington -- to the delight of sold-out crowds
everywhere, from the Kennedy Center to Carnegie Hall.
3
The NSO also recognizes that our musical heritage belongs to all
Americans - and its free concerts celebrating Memorial Day, the Fourth
of July, and Labor Day on the west lawn of the Capitol, bring the joy of
music into the lives and hearts of millions.
Yet we know that today in America, there are too many children
who have never heard a Mozart symphony, or listened to musicians talk
about their work. The NSO's American Residencies program has further
extended its reach into communities across the country - organizing
workshops for teachers, coaching young musicians, and celebrating the
musical contributions of that region or state. I have been told of one
child's reaction to an American Residencies NSO performance in
Alaska. He said, "you are better than Guns & Roses, Metallica, and Van
Halen." Now that's a real complement.
The NSO understands that teaching music means more than
training the next generation of cellists and violinists. It means raising a
generation with music in their hearts, and a full appreciation of our
unique and diverse culture. That is why it is so crucial that we continue
to work together to get the arts back into our nation's schools and into
every child's life.
4
Arts and music programs not only help children find their voices,
and discover their dreams. They help them do better in the classroom as
well. And by exposing our children to the limitless diversity of artistic
expression, we teach them the values of freedom and tolerance that are
at the heart of who we are, and who we hope to be.
No one better understands the power of the arts to educate and
inspire our children than NSO's conductor, Leonard Slatkin. It was the
music classes he took as a child in a Los Angeles public school that
helped inspire him to become the grand maestro that he is today.
And he has used his conductor's podium as a true bully pulpit -- to
keep the arts alive in our nation's schools. One day last year, Leonard
learned that the DC Youth Orchestra was low on funds and about to be
phased out. So at a concert a few days later, he told his audience about
the orchestra's plight. By the second night, Leonard was able to
announce that he had secured enough commitments from individuals
and local businesses to save the DC Youth Orchestra.
5
Leonard, your talent and dedication have earned you legions of
fans - - at the White House, where we still talk about the NSO's stirring
performance at the Chinese state dinner; throughout the Washington
community, where your radio program and children's concerts have
been a joy to SO many; even as far away as Japan - where I'm told you
have a passionate fan club. To top it all off, you have even inspired my
husband to pick up a baton - though I don't think you need fear the
competition.
T.S. Eliot once said that culture may be described simply as that
which makes life worth living." I am pleased to introduce a man who
makes so many lives worth living, each and every day -- Leonard
Slatkin.
6