Secretary Clinton Addresses Spain-Africa Women for a Better World Conference
Secretary Clinton addressed the conference via video message and I have not yet been able to find a copy of the video but as the message was played for the conference today it may be too soon for it to have made its way onto YouTube or some other place. So I will keep looking.
Here is an excerpt of an article about the event:
Ensuring that women have equal status and opportunities is the key to global prosperity, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday, in a message to a conference in Spain.
“When women are afforded their rights and afforded equal opportunities in education, health care, employment and political participation, they help drive social and economic progress,” she said in the video message broadcast at the Spain-Africa Women for a Better World conference in Valencia in eastern Spain.
“But when they are marginalised and mistreated as is still the case in too many places in Africa and around the world, broad and lasting progress is impossible. Empowering women is a key to global progress and prosperity.”
Clinton said much work to promote gender equality around the world remained to be done since the 1995 United Nations women’s conference in Beijing, where she, as US first lady, declared that “Women’s rights are human rights.”
“The message from that conference rang loudly and clearly and still echoes across cultures and continents. Now we have made great progress in the years since but we all know that there is a long way to go,” she said.
More than 500 women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and over 50 ministers, from around the world were scheduled to take part in the two-day gathering which got underway Saturday in the Mediterranean port city…
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As Secretary of State, it’s great to give inspriational speeches on social issues. But what about the self proclaimed enemies of peace and social equality? Iran, North Korea, China prefer to use women, then promote progressive ideals. Where are the sanctions on Iran proclaimed 16 months ago to be coming swiftly? What about North Korea playing at war by shooting missiles and exporting weapons for money to expand their nuclear progarm? Why isn’t she part of the Russian nuclear reduction process with President B.O. claiming this as his personl pet project?
Hillary has played a major role START and in all the areas you mentioned, but it’s not like there is some magic wand that will bring all rogue nations into line.
I share some of your frustration regarding some of these situations but these problems didn’t just pop up overnight. Some of the problems we are having on the diplomatic front are a result of our diminishing economic power on the world stage. One of the ironies of ‘Wall Street Gone Wild’ is that it ended up trashing not only the US economy but played a significant role in throwing the global economy off kilter and despite that, Obama and the dems and repubs in Congress have done next to nothing to prevent the exact same thing from happening again! The short term greed of a few has not only resulted in economic disaster but it has put our very security at risk. We are more beholden than ever to autocratic regimes like the one in Communist China and it’s infuriating watching the admin. bow and scrape while they undermine our efforts on almost every front- the environment, Iran, North Korea, Burma, etc. But perhaps we should have thought of that, oh, ten, twenty years ago when we were sending ALL our manufacturing jobs overseas and deregulating the markets. This has been a problem a long time in the making. It’s tempting to look at our problems with Iran or N. Korea or China as distinct from everything else, but that’s simply not the case.
Of course this situation didn’t happen over night- we’ve been recklessly sending manufacturing jobs overseas for years and we’ve been helping the Chinese have an ever-growing stake in the US economy- all for short term gain that has helped few (but US politicians are among those) but the ramifications became crystal clear after the economic meltdown. Jesus, China owns most of the prime real estate in NY! All of this plays a role in our inability to deal with Iran, North Korea etc.
All of this has emboldened countries like Brazil, Russia etc., who have huge emerging economies, to put what they see as their own economic interests ahead of what the US sees as its security interests. Gone are the days when the US could simply wag its finger in Brazil or China’s face and get them to step smartly to our dictates. But I think to blame it solely on the Obama admin. is a bit disingenuous.
Also, I am curious- what exactly do we do with a country like North Korea- I’m not being sarcastic at all, I really mean it. Other than sanctions, which get offset by China who essentially keeps N. Korea afloat, what can we do? Go to war with them? Unfortunately North Korea is in a way more dangerous than Iran because N. Korea literally has NOTHING to lose. Also, it seems that sanctions have done little other than starve and demoralize the N. Korean people while Kim Jong Il still lives like a king with all his Western perks which somehow he is able to get his hands. My concern is that the same will happen with Iran.
Hillary is part of the start process as far as the president he likes to credit for everything like most presidents.
North Korea curiosity? After decades, we just can’t seem to connect the dots on how North Korea can be influenced? Seems we got some serious lack of knowledge dating back to 1960 when Nikita Kruschev threatened us with extinction if we didn’t allow “Red” China into the UN, so Russia could have a disruptive blockade to the UN ever acheiving real peace on any international issues of substance. So the UN is a nice place to visit, but nothing will happen there. It’s time for alliances to be called into play, and yes horse trading with Russia and China. But we like conceding important bargaining chips in advance of agreements, just to appear nice dupes or dopes in diplomacy.