GERMANY'S EXAMPLE OFFERS HOPE THAT GLOBAL CULTURE OF KNOWLEDGE 'CAN BE OURS', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, AS HE ACCEPTS HONORARY DOCTORATE IN DRESDEN
Press Release
SG/SM/6971
GERMANY'S EXAMPLE OFFERS HOPE THAT GLOBAL CULTURE OF KNOWLEDGE 'CAN BE OURS', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, AS HE ACCEPTS HONORARY DOCTORATE IN DRESDEN
19990427 Following is the statement of Secretary-General Kofi Annan upon receiving an honorary doctorate form the Faculty of Economics of the Technological University of Dresden, in Dresden, Germany, on 27 April:It is a special pleasure for me to receive this honorary degree from your distinguished University. I know that it is not only me you are honouring today; you have also paid tribute to the United Nations and its global mission for peace. On behalf of the United Nations community, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for this recognition.
I am always pleased to spend time with University audiences. Elsewhere, it often seems that half the battle involves dispelling myths about the United Nations. Here, I am among professors and students who are intimately familiar with the Organization's origins and role, and with both its potential and its limitations. In this place of knowledge, I would like to speak to you about the role of knowledge -- and Germany's knowledge in particular -- in today's world.
As students, you are accustomed to hearing, from parents and teachers, that education is a great privilege; that you should be grateful for the chance to improve your minds; that you should seize this opportunity to expand your horizons. Sometimes, I am sure, you probably think that this is just a way of getting you to study. Sometimes it is. But there is a deeper, more lasting truth to what they are saying. Throughout history there has existed an essential link between knowledge and progress. The educational process, as formalized through schools and colleges, is at the heart of civilization.
Today, the acquisition and advancement of knowledge can be a more powerful weapon in a nation's arsenal than any missile or landmine. Knowledge is a means of dissent against tyranny; it is a tool for building bridges among peoples; it is the ticket to mastering high technologies; it is the currency with which to compete in the global marketplace. That is why knowledge must flow freely to and from all peoples. I am afraid, however, that a knowledge gap may already be upon us, particularly in the developing world. We see too little investment in education. Too many young people are seeking abroad the education they cannot get at home. Poverty, debt and poor governance create a terrible cycle of neglect. In this age of globalization, we must do our best to ensure that knowledge and education are globalized, as well.
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Germany's dedication to learning is world renowned. That tradition has produced Nobel Prize winners for peace, the arts and, especially, the sciences. Dresden itself is a world-famous centre of art, architecture, music and intellectual inquiry. This University is among the many institutions here in Dresden which, over the centuries, have made significant contributions. I am told that, in the early 1960s, Professor Nikolaus Lehmann's office computer was ridiculed at first as a "processor in a cigar box", but ended up pointing the way towards the development of modern desk-top computers. How tragic, then, for Dresden and Germany to experience the horror of knowledge tainted by nationalism and prejudice; of knowledge stripped of its universal character. Men of war continue to prey on ignorance in order to instil fear and arouse hatred. That was the case in Bosnia and Rwanda, where murderous ideologies took root in the absence of truthful information and honest education. It has been happening again in Kosovo. Germany's calamity is long over, of course, and the German people have made admirable and painstaking efforts to build an open society. Even so, there remain those who target immigrants and others for discrimination and violence. As you know, upon taking office, Chancellor Schröder appealed for greater tolerance. "These people in our midst are not strangers", he said. "It is those who propagate hatred and xenophobia who have become the strangers in our midst." Those are tough, inspiring words. Dresden's unique store of knowledge also derives from the infamous nights of bombing in February 1945. The very name of the city has become part of the world's symbolic language, shorthand for devastation and pointless destruction. But even that ordeal can be turned into something positive. Dresden can serve as a global beacon of peace, of opposition to fanaticism, of learning from the past. President Roman Herzog said on the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing that this was "the message which must go out from Dresden to all corners of the globe". I agree with him that no other place in Germany is better suited to convey this message than the city of Dresden. It seems appropriate to end these remarks on knowledge by mentioning Victor Klemperer, a citizen of this city, a professor at this University and the author of the war-time diary, I Will Bear Witness. He suffered terribly upon seeing not just the prejudice around him, but also a regime that regarded education, scholarship and enlightenment as its enemies. Klemperer watched as friends and colleagues left Germany for safer ground, but he stayed, a believer in Germany and its people. As he wrote, "I am German and I'm waiting for the Germans to return ... They have gone into hiding somewhere." As I look around this hall, and as I meet with Germany's leaders and its civil society groups, I can see that Germany and its people have long since returned and are pursuing an enlightened path. The peaceful growth and transformation of German society has opened up wide new vistas for the economic, social and political progress of all peoples. Germany gives us hope that a global culture of knowledge, defined by mutual understanding, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, can be ours. That is knowledge the family of nations can count on. Thank you.
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