MR. BALDERSTON: Thank you, everyone. I always take it as a point of
personal privilege to be able to say a few words about my boss of 12
years, Secretary Clinton. And I’ve worked with her for over a decade and
I’ve learned many lessons from her, too plentiful to list here. But one
is very relevant here today. It’s the way she subtly and sometimes
directly asks in any decision-making process whether we’ve reached out
to the people who’ll be affected by the problem or the issue. Have we
reached out and sought their opinion? Have we sparked their creativity?
Have we tapped their networks? I pretty quickly learned that I did not
want to enter a meeting without having affirmative answers to all of
those questions. It always, always made the product or decision better,
and quite frankly it made the process more interesting.
This is the inspiration behind the State Department’s Global Diaspora
Initiative. This is the Department’s way of getting advice and counsel
in an effective and in an efficient manner from the diversity that is
America. We are honored to have the Secretary today because it’s rare to
have her in this building. (Laughter.) She’s just returned from an
around-the-globe trip addressing many of the issues that face the world.
And in every single case, she is looking to better the lives of the
diasporans that you all care about.
Ladies and gentlemen, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, Kris. Thank you. Well, it truly
is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity to address you and
to thank you. I want to start by thanking Kris. He’s worked very hard
along with his extremely able staff to make this Global Diaspora Forum a
reality. And as he said, he and I have been working together for a long
time to try to maximize the potential impact of everything we do to
improve the lives of people and to enable everyone everywhere to at
least have the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential.
I also want to thank our colleagues from USAID. They are
co-sponsoring this conference with the State Department. And I am
particularly delighted to welcome our friends from Canada, because
working together on diaspora issues makes perfect sense, since both of
our countries have been blessed by having so many people from all over
the world add to our diversity and our efforts. And so for me, having
Canadian involvement in this just makes good sense.
Thanks also to the Migration Policy Institute, The HAND Foundation,
Western Union, the OneVietnam Network, and Boom Financial for being such
supportive partners. And let me say a special hello to everyone joining
us remotely from the Twin Cities in Minnesota and also watching from
Massachusetts to Missouri and around the world.
Now, why is this room packed and we have such interest on Twitter and
through other means of connectivity? Well, it’s because we all believe
that diaspora communities have enormous potential to help solve problems
and create opportunities in their countries of origin, because we
believe that, as the title of this conference says, we can move forward
by giving back. By tapping into the experiences, the energy, the
expertise of diaspora communities, we can reverse the so-called “brain
drain” that slows progress in so many countries around the world, and
instead off the benefits of the “brain gain.”
Now, in terms of international development and our work to reduce
poverty and improve lives, this can be a game-changing effort. But that
is not all. It is also a recipe for spurring greater economic growth in
the United States as well. And it holds the promise of advancing
strategic interests like rebuilding societies after conflicts or
disasters and improving relations with key countries.
Now, I saw this myself just two weeks ago when I visited Hanoi with a
delegation of American businesses. This is a priority for us, because
as I emphasized throughout my trip across Asia, economic growth and
political reform are linked and we are supporting both. The business
leaders were all buzzing about the opportunities they are discovering in
Vietnam’s burgeoning market. But a few savvy entrepreneurs were clearly
way ahead of the curve. One was Jonathan Hanh Nguyen. He had left
Vietnam as a young man, lived in the Philippines, and then studied in
the United States, and when relations between America and Vietnam opened
up in the 1990s, he was one of the first to see the economic potential.
And he built a thriving business bringing well-known American brands
into the Vietnamese marketplace, from designer clothing to fast food
pizza, creating in the process thousands of jobs and bringing our
countries closer together.
Now, that’s one way the diaspora has and continues to make a
difference, but it’s certainly not the only way. One of the founding
partners of the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance is the
nonprofit OneVietnam Network, which uses the power of social networking
to connect thousands of people in Vietnam – thousands of people of
Vietnamese origin – in 30 countries, with health and development
projects on the ground in Vietnam, like a cleft lip and palette clinic
in Hanoi or dental missions in rural villages, that makes it easier for
members of the diaspora to contribute directly to projects they care
about and to see the impact of their donations.
So whether it’s a profitable business venture or an innovative
nonprofit, we can see just from the example of one diaspora, namely the
Vietnamese diaspora, how you can help bring progress and prosperity to a
once closed country.
Now, this story can be and is being replicated in country after
country. For instance, we have Katleen Felix here today. She helped
launch a new microfinance organization to connect members of the Haitian
diaspora with access to capital to businesses and development projects
on the ground in Haiti that would not qualify for traditional bank
loans. So far, they’ve raised more than $1 million, created more than
760 jobs, and helped fund everything from clean water filters to halt
the spread of cholera, to a new hen house in northeast Haiti that is
earning income for 100 women.
We created the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance to support
exactly these kinds of efforts. And I am so pleased that in its very
first year the Alliance has already expanded into new and exciting
endeavors. The Caribbean Idea Marketplace, for example, is a business
competition sponsored by the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom,
and the United States, along with the Inter-American Development Bank,
Scotiabank, Digicel, and other partners. It is offering up to a million
dollars in matching funds to finance innovative entrepreneurial
proposals from the Caribbean diaspora to create jobs and economic growth
back in the region. The African diaspora marketplace is a similar
effort that is already starting, supporting startups like EcoPower
Liberia, which distributes an affordable electrical generator that runs
on plentiful and cheap agricultural waste, and Promo Tunisia, which is
promoting tourism and investment in Tunisia.
And today I’m pleased to announce that we are officially launching a
new business competition for Latin America. This is the result of a
partnership between the United States Government, Univision, the
Inter-American Development Bank, Accion, WellSpace, and Boom Financial.
We’re going to find the best ideas and help them grow into successful
businesses that create value and jobs throughout the hemisphere.
Now, we have other projects getting off the ground as well – a
diaspora volunteer corps that will deploy highly skilled professionals
on short-to-medium-term development assignments in the countries of
origin; a new mentoring and networking web platform specifically for
diaspora members trying to get involved and give back; an online portal
created in partnership with the nonprofit Global Giving that will serve
as a fundraising clearinghouse for diaspora organizations and
initiatives.
We’re working on all these fronts so we can try to help you harness
the amazing energy out there to help people around the world lift
themselves out of poverty and create new economic opportunities and
bring together more partners to take on big, global challenges.
Now, one of those challenges that is front and center right now is
the crisis in Syria, where the Assad regime continues to wage war on the
Syrian people. We have a number of Syrian Americans here with us today,
and I want to recognize the work of Syrian diaspora organizations to
shine a light on what is happening in Syria and to carry the concerns of
the Syrian people not only onto the pages of American newspapers, but
also into the halls of Congress. They’re helping to collect funds and
humanitarian assistance for Syrians who are suffering because of this
terrible violence, and they’re trying to help those who’ve had to flee
their homes and communities – some of them crossing over borders into
neighboring countries. They’re serving as a link between the
international community and opposition activists on the ground.
We are obviously hoping to work to further a transition that will be
bringing the people of Syria together to help form a new government,
helping to rebuild the country, helping to avoid sectarian conflict.
These are all extremely difficult challenges, but I think our efforts
are enhanced by having the members of the Syrian diaspora, the Syrian
Americans and others, being able to advise us.
The fact is that the United States has always benefited from the
influx of talent and dynamism that diasporas of all kinds bring to our
shores. And if you pick up
The Washington Post today, you see
that Baltimore, among other countries, is actually finally recognizing
the importance that immigrants can play in revitalizing cities. And so
they are reaching out and inviting – opening the doors of that venerable
American city to immigrants from everywhere. Because in fact, we are
well aware that our diversity is one of our greatest assets in the 21
st century.
I met yesterday with the Prime Minister from – yes, the Prime
Minister from Haiti, and he was very clear that they need more support
from the Haitian diaspora. We saw that when the earthquake devastated
Haiti, communities from New York to Miami and elsewhere in the world
sprang into action. And Haiti has the unfortunate standing of losing
more of their college graduates per capita than any country in the
world. So reversing that, finding ways for people to help and even to
move back, is one of the priorities.
Now, when countries across North Africa and the Middle East threw off
autocrats and dictators and cried out for skilled professionals to help
them build modern economic systems, modern political systems, Americans
of Arab descent have been answering that call. And each year, Americans
send billions of dollars in remittances throughout the world. In fact,
remittances are the largest form of inflows into many, many countries.
And what we’re trying to do is figure out how to harness those
remittances to do even more than what they are currently doing in
supporting individuals and families.
So through the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance, through
this forum, we’re asking you for your ideas. We’re asking you to help
us. Give us the benefit of your experience and insight. We see so many
places around the world being torn apart by ethnic, religious, racial,
sectarian divides of all kinds. When I walk down the street, as I love
to do in New York, and I see people living together and working together
whose relatives back in the countries from where they came hate each
other, kill each other, it just – it makes me so grateful for our
country, but it also makes me so heartbroken that other countries don’t
have that opportunity, don’t see beyond moving beyond the past. And I
think Americans, like all of you, have such an opportunity to talk with,
to support these kinds of changes in minds and hearts. Because
democracy is not just an election; democracy is changing the way people
relate to one another, work with one another, listen to one another. And
there’s no place that has more experience, since we are now the
longest-lasting democracy, than we do. And there are no people with more
credibility than all of you.
And that’s why we have focused in on the importance of our own
diaspora to our efforts here at the State Department. But we can’t do
this without your constructive criticism, your ideas, your support. And I
hope that out of this forum we will get many, many more ideas. And all
the ones that I’ve mentioned today you will learn about and come up with
your own, because we have to send a clear, unmistakable call to action
to people everywhere. They really can have a better life; they really
can see their children do better than they have done; they really can
live in peace, one with the other.
I know we have friends from the American Irish diaspora, and I
remember meeting with a group of women in Belfast, Ireland about 15 or
so, 16 or so years ago from both communities. Now Northern Ireland, as
many of you, has been divided not on racial grounds, not on tribal
grounds, not on any grounds other than two different branches of
Christianity – Protestants and Catholics. And they have been at each
other for a long, long time. And then they made a lot of tough decisions
to try to figure out how to live with each other.
But in those early days, they really didn’t see each other as fellow
human beings. They were different creatures, one to the other. And I
remember going to Northern Ireland for the first time and getting
together a group of women from the two communities who had never been in
the same room with each other. They lived in different neighborhoods;
their children went to different schools; they avoided each other every
way they possibly could. Each thought the other was illegitimate.
And we started the discussion, and nobody really wanted to say
anything. And finally, I just called on a woman. I said, “What are you
afraid of?” And she said, “I’m afraid that when my husband goes to work
in the morning, he won’t come back alive.” And then I pointed to another
woman and I said, “What are you afraid of?” She said, “I’m afraid when
my son goes out at night, he won’t come back alive.” I said, “It sounds
like you’re afraid of the same things. So there’s got to be a way to
reach across the divide of history and begin to talk about what together
you can do to ensure that your husbands and your sons, your daughters
and your friends, and everyone else has a chance to have a better life.”
When I travel around the world that is what I see as our biggest
problem. I see people in one sect of the same religion intimidating,
harassing, and even approving of the killing of somebody in the same
religion but in a different sect. I see people in different tribal
backgrounds convinced that they are going to kill or be killed. What a
waste of the great gift God has given us to live our lives in peace, to
pursue our own dreams. Are we so insecure about our own beliefs that we
have to marginalize and even kill those who don’t share them? I mean,
ultimately we’ll all found out who was right, but we’re not going to
find out on this earth. (Laughter.) And frankly, I think it’s a pretty
big tent up there, where people will be judged individually more than by
sect or religion or faith or ethnicity.
So these are big issues. And as part of our diaspora, you have lived
in a place, with all of our problems and challenges, that has given more
opportunity to more people over a longer period of time than anywhere
in human history to live out your own dreams and your own hopes. And one
of the great challenges we face in the world today is to convey that to
others.
Now, many of the reasons many of you are here is because you did not
want to stay where you were from, or your parents didn’t, or your
grandparents didn’t, which was my case. They left seeking better
economic opportunity, a better future. Some come seeking religious
freedom, freedom of conscience, a chance to stretch your own ambition.
And it is part of America’s ongoing mission to try to help more people
everywhere to have that same chance.
So I thank you for taking time out of what I know are very busy
schedules for every one of you to come and trade ideas about how to
alleviate poverty and suffering, how to open up doors and minds, and to
be part of this ongoing mission of giving every person in the world the
chance that you and I have had because of the blessings in this country
that I never, ever want us to take for granted.
So I’m looking forward to seeing the results of your work. Thank you all very much.
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