Towards a Better World

You young people in this room are about to inherit a very dangerous, potentially chaotic world.

Most of you are Americans, citizens of the most advanced, the most privileged country.

And those privileges, coupled with your own interest in world affairs and the United Nations, bring with them new and extraordinary responsibilities.

Thank you sincerely for this invitation to speak with you this evening as you begin what I am sure will be a tremendously educational experience at this very special University of Chicago Model United Nations.

Thank you especially as I am well aware my name is not Mary Robinson, or Ramsey Clark, or Ralph Nader, and that few of you may have heard my name before this evening.

Indeed, in past years usually persons working for or with the U.N. in one way or another have spoken to this forum. And they have usually focused on the U.N. system itself, human rights issues, and very frankly matters not very controversial; some might even say "safe".

But in many ways, including psychologically, the world of the roaring 90s -- which is all most of you have directly experienced in your own lives until lately - also crashed on 11 Sept. And I expect there are other crashes of various kinds now ahead of us all - political and economic, as well as military.

There are real and serious reasons our world is in such turmoil and danger today.

There are real and serious reasons there are "suicide bombers" in that great city which represents the focal point of most of our religious faiths - Jerusalem, a marvelous and unique city where I have spent much time.

There are real and serious reasons young people your age in other places are choosing to become what Americans call "terrorists" and what they themselves call "martyrs" and "freedom fighters".

And there are real reasons, real grievances, real and profound struggles, which lie behind 911. For we are not in a new war at all. Rather we are in a new phase of an ongoing war in which millions of people in far away countries have already been killed, in many cases by policies and forces and allies of our own country.

And so, it is with these responsibilities and this new situation in mind that I have chosen to diverge from the "safe" subjects and deal with issues that will be crucial for your futures, and for our country's future, and for our entire world's future.

This evening I want to speak with you not about general human rights but about specific political and economic rights; not about the successes of the United Nations but about its failures and the great challenges it now faces.

And most of all I want to speak with you about the subject I personally know best and first-hand from over 150 visits to the Middle East region and 30 years of conferences and relationships since I was a student like you - about the "Middle East Peace Process" and why it has exploded in an orgy of even greater violence and despair than when it began.

Most of the human rights problems in our world really have deep political, economic and territorial roots. Basic issues of power and wealth are involved, both at the national and international level. How we structure our society, and who is really in control and why, are the truly crucial issues too often not truly discussed?

The most challenging and basic issue of all is how our world's resources are owned and controlled and distributed, because this is what determines crucial things like how people are fed and clothed and housed; how people receive, and in most cases do not receive, health care; how people are able, or unable, to provide for themselves and their families and their futures.

And sadly, unlike for us who are so privileged, the majority of humans on planet earth 21st century are in miserable and desperate circumstances.