|
(First of two parts)
President Tamano, distinguished guests, I truly
am so moved—I need to take a breath here – just allow me one
moment. I’ve been to the Philippines once before and certainly I
have numerous Filipino-American friends back home. I’ve always
been very aware of the gracious and kind nature of the people of the
Philippines, but this is really beyond anything I’ve experienced
before. Thank you so much for this amazing welcome here! And thank
you for that amazing performance outside with the wonderful dancers
and thank you to the choir for singing the national anthems of both
our countries.
I bring you greetings from Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice of whom I am a huge admirer and also from the
American people. I want to let you know how incredibly happy and
honored I am to be here at your university and to be able to speak
to the students here. Because speaking to students, for me
personally, is always one of the best parts of my job because
students keep you on your toes. You have to be able to think fast,
you have to be able to answer the tough questions and they make you
think—they make you think about what your values are, what your
priorities are, and what your responsibilities are. So truly it’s
a great privilege for me to be here today.
I’m going to give a very short talk to you and
hopefully I may leave more time for some questions and answers
because I want to hear from you as much as you want to hear from me.
Before I do that I also want to introduce our Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Academic Affairs, Tom Farrell, without whom I could
not be doing my job. So, the first lesson of today is you always
need a good team around you.
I am here today to talk to you about three main
points. First, and foremost, is that wonderful and profound and
special relationship that the United States and the Philippines have
together. The second topic I want to talk about—and I think that
was evident from the remarks that President Tamano gave—is the
value of education globally because I think all of us sitting here
in this room clearly understand what a good education means. And, of
course, the third thing is what I’m responsible for at the State
Department which is international exchanges to further increase the
mutual understanding and friendship between the American people and
people all over the world.
You all know very well the United States and the
Philippines are very closely tied and our bonds come from decades of
friendship and cooperation and joint sacrifice. I had the honor
yesterday to be at the Manila American military cemetery where there
are 500 hundred people of the Philippines that are also buried there
along with American soldiers. It truly was another moving experience
for me to see and to recognize how the people of the Philippines had
fought side by side American soldiers during the Second World War.
If you haven’t been there, I really truly highly recommend that
you take a trip there one of these days.
I know that the bonds between the American
people and the people of the Philippines will remain strong because
of our joint passion for freedom, for democracy, for security and
for justice. I know these are values that we all share together. And
we also both believe that access to a quality education is no longer
a luxury that is reserved for the few, but it’s a fundamental
requirement today for our global economy. We all know that an
educated work force with access to the global economy can attract
increased investment and can create jobs and eliminate poverty. And
we also know that an educated work force can strengthen democracy
and civil society.
I’ve been traveling a great deal in the last
few months since I was confirmed by the US Senate, which is really a
favorite part of my job, because as I’ve said it gives me the
opportunity to come face-to-face with the people of different
countries and especially the youth of different countries. I’ve
been everywhere from Latin America to Brazil and Argentina, to the
Persian Gulf, to Azerbaijan and I hear time and time again, from
young people in all of these countries that the youth of today want
to be connected to the wider world. They don’t only care about
building just societies locally in their own countries, but they
truly care about causes all over the world.
And English, knowing the English language, seems
to be the tool of choice in order for young people nowadays to be
further connected to their brothers and sisters all over the world.
As we are working hard to make this tool, win this tool, make it
available to people all over—not just by providing in-school and
after-school programs, which of course we’re doing right here in
the Philippines as well—but also to be able to provide English for
free via the Internet. It’s one of the initiatives that my bureau
is currently working on. And as important as the Internet is, and
all of you and all of us are probably connected on “Facebook”
and “Friendster” and “MySpace,” yet, people all sustain that
there’s nothing like actually being somewhere physically. There is
nothing like making friendships. There’s nothing like
collaborating on ideas with a real person. And of course, this is an
idea that’s incredibly near and dear to my heart because as
President Tamano said, I was one of the 100,000 international
students that went to America in 1974 to study. I understand
first-hand the value of exchanges and the value of coming up-close
and personal to a different culture; being accepted in an American
university allowed me to understand Americans and their openness and
their tolerance and their graciousness first-hand.
But what truly was a turning point in my life
was my experience and it’s really not unique. It’s not new,
especially here in the Philippines, because I don’t know if you
know it or not, but there were American teachers who came to the
Philippines quite a few years ago. And they established, in
partnership with Filipino teachers, the fundamentals of public
education right here in the Philippines. And because of that it
helped foster unity, democracy and prosperity across your diverse
archipelago. The Fulbright program in the Philippines is the oldest
and the longest-running in the world. Basically, the Fulbright
program allows Americans and Filipino students and scholars to work
and to do research together not just in university settings, but
also in cities, villages and barangays. There are about 2,000
Filipino scholars and students that are brought to the United States
and I’ve had the privilege to meet a few of them today. And they
are all in positions of influence and they’ve gone on to prominent
roles in business, government, NGO’s, and the arts. And there are
about a thousand US students and scholars that have come to the
Philippines.
(Concluded tomorrow)
|
