ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN ILLINOIS, 21-22 JUNE 2002
On Friday, 21 June, Secretary-General Kofi Annan travelled to Illinois where, that evening, he delivered the keynote address at Northwestern University’s 144th commencement ceremonies in Evanston, just outside of Chicago.
In his speech, he encouraged the graduates to fully engage themselves in the interdependent world we live in. He told them that they held the power to change the world, more power than they probably realized they had.
“As consumers”, the Secretary-General said, “your decision to buy or boycott a product can get a company to practise responsible corporate citizenship. As voters, you can change the national agenda and select leaders who understand the need to work in concert with other nations. And as young people, you have a wealth of energy and idealism that many of your elders, including myself, may lack.”
In a world where there are no shortages of challenges, he encouraged the young people to use their power and energy in the fight against global poverty. (See Press Release SG/SM/8280.)
After his address, the Secretary-General was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws by the University.
Afterwards, the University’s President, Henry S. Bienen, announced the creation of the Kofi Annan Fellowship in African Studies, which will be awarded to a student from sub-Saharan Africa pursuing a graduate degree through Northwestern’s department of African studies.
The fellowship, Mr. Bienen said, would serve as a continuing reminder of the Secretary-General’s commitment to Africa and its people.
On Saturday morning, the Secretary-General, accompanied by his wife Nane, went to the national headquarters of the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson’s Rainbow/Push Coalition in downtown Chicago.
Prior to speaking at the organization’s weekly Saturday Morning Freedom Meeting, the Secretary-General addressed a number of local business and community leaders, as well as the representatives of Chicago’s consular corps.
In his introduction, Jesse Jackson spoke of how the ceremonies which marked Ghana’s independence in 1957, when Kofi Annan was only a teenager, were attended by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other American civil rights leaders. Noting the Secretary-General’s presence, the Rev. Jackson said history had come full circle.
The Secretary-General spoke of that time and of the impact that Ghana’s independence movement had on him. “You grow up believing that change is possible, peaceful change is possible”, he said, “and one should dare to make a difference and change. That’s a message I try to give young people: keep hope alive, be courageous, dare to change.”
He spoke of how more than 40 years after being a young man witnessing his country’s birth, he presided over the independence ceremonies for East Timor in May of this year. There too, he said, he was struck by the remarkable level of “enthusiasm, the resilience, the tenacity of the people and their determination to take their lives and destiny into their own hands”.
Following those remarks, the Secretary-General, accompanied by Rev. Jackson, moved to the main hall of the organization’s headquarters, filled with more than 800 people for the weekly Saturday forum.
After a thundering rendition of the gospel classic “Oh Happy Day!”, the Secretary-General spoke of the need for the building of coalitions, bringing together governments, the private sector and organizations such as Rainbow/Push, in order to succeed in the struggle for human dignity, for equality of opportunity and for economic progress.
Before leaving, the Secretary-General was awarded the Rainbow/Push Coalition for Global Unity Award.
Mr. Annan returned to New York on Saturday afternoon, 22 June.