Duke has produced yet another bumper crop of graduates. Congratulations to you. The first order of business should be a round of applause for the families, faculty and friends who helped you reach this milestone.
I should also praise the administration for holding this event in a big stadium and not the smaller Cameron arena. It would have been terribly unfair for you to have to camp out in K-ville, as if it were still basketball season, and compete with each other for tickets to your own commencement. After all, you have richly earned your seat here today!
There are few moments in life so powerfully mixed with hope and fear as this one - this day on which you take wing in the wider world; this day on which you and the world start to test each other a bit more seriously.
That world was very different when I graduated more than 40 years ago. Even though I went to college here in the United States, as an African my main focus was on my own country, which had just become independent. While we were well aware of the world at large, most of us in Ghana looked inward, and set about running our own country after centuries of colonial rule.
Today, whether you are in Ghana or here in Durham, there is no such thing as thinking only in terms of your own country. Global forces press in from every conceivable direction. We are all being influenced by the same tides of change. People, goods and ideas cross borders and cover vast distances with ever greater frequency, speed and ease. We are increasingly connected through travel, trade, the Internet and even sports. The on-line edition of the Durham Herald-Sun can be read in Dublin as if it had been delivered to doorsteps there. And I'm sure there are Blue Devils fans in places you would least expect them!
In such a world, issues that once seemed very far away are very much in your backyard. What happens in South America or Southern Africa - from democratic advances to deforestation to the fight against AIDS-can affect your lives here in North Carolina. And your choices here-what you buy, how you vote-can resound far away. As someone once said about water pollution, we all live downstream.
This interdependence generates a host of new and urgent demands. Towns and villages have their planning boards, fire departments and recycling centres. Nations have their legislatures and judicial bodies. Our globalizing world also needs institutions and standards.
I am not talking about world government; such an idea never was, and never could be, either practical or desirable. I mean laws and norms that countries negotiate together, and agree to uphold as the "rules of the road". And I mean a forum where sovereign states can come together to share burdens, address common problems and seize common opportunities.
Global challenges demand global solutions. Our jobs depend not only on local firms and factories, but on faraway markets for the goods they produce. Our safety depends not only on local police forces, but on guarding against the global spread of pollution, disease, illegal drugs and weapons of mass destruction. The events of 11 September 2001 showed us all how failed states can end up becoming havens for terrorists, who then visit their destructive acts on others far away. How else to fight such a menace but to come together with cross-border law enforcement and joint efforts to build functioning, democratic societies?
The war in Iraq, and the divisions beforehand over how best to ensure compliance with UN resolutions, have generated apprehension about the implications for our system of collective security, and for the international rule of law. There is deep suspicion and mistrust, both between nations and within them.
Yet people and nations retain the hope of strengthening the foundations of stability, and uniting around common values. The United Nations, for all its imperfections, real and perceived, has built up unique experience. It has brought humanitarian relief to millions in need, and helped people to rebuild their countries from the ruins of armed conflict. It has fought poverty, protected the rights of children, promoted democracy and raised the profile of environmental issues. We need to build on that experience.
The world is at a critical juncture, and so are you. Job prospects are not as plentiful as you might have preferred. The question typically heard at this time of year-"what are you going to do?"-is a bit more charged than usual.
At the same time, I understand that many of you have used these uncertain times to explore avenues you might not have considered before - such as teaching or other forms of public service in troubled communities in the United States or in some of the world's developing countries. With the ink on your diplomas barely dry, you are coming face to face with the unexpected -- the turns of events that engage your passions in ways you never could have predicted or thought possible.
I never imagined I would end up where I am. When I joined the United Nations, my plan was to return to Ghana at some point. Instead I was exposed to issues and ideas that drew me ever deeper into the Organization's global mission of peace and development. The engineers among you might have hopes of working down the road in the Research Triangle, but there might equally be a place for you helping a country emerging from conflict to rebuild its infrastructure. The lawyers among you might have your eyes on corporate towers in big cities, but there is also some fascinating work to be done helping countries moving towards democracy to write constitutions and build independent judiciaries. The doctors and nurses among you may be schooled and specialized in all the wonders of modern medicine, but you might also find it rewarding to bring those benefits to people around the world, especially those at risk of dying from preventable illnesses.
The same applies no matter what diploma you are about to receive, from economics to earth sciences. So go ahead and make your plans, pursue your chosen fields, and don't stop learning. But be open to the detours that lead to new discoveries, for therein lies some of the spice and joy of life.
And remember, if this is a world of peril, it is to a far greater degree one of enormous opportunity. And nothing makes a Secretary-General feel more hopeful about the future than seeing you, the Class of 2003, so ready to make your mark on tomorrow. A Duke education is a wonderful gift. Now take it and make it work for all of us. To paraphrase one of Duke's gifted sons, the poet Fred Chappell and now North Carolina's poet laureate:
"go and join those who,
with palette, loom and graceful pen,
with sculpted stone,
and with treatise and debate,
build our world and build it up again."
Kofi Annan, is the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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