Delivering the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the
Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg‚ Obama said the democratic and economic gains
that were achieved in the years that followed Mandela release from prison in
1990 were slowly being erased by authoritarian regimes that do not respect
human rights and by global corporates that put profits before people.
“An entire generation has grown up in a world that has got
steadily freer‚ wealthier‚ less violent and more tolerant during the course of
their lives. It should make us hopeful‚ but if we can’t deny the real strides
our world has made since that moment when Madiba took steps out of confinement‚
we have to recognise ways in which the international order has fallen short of
its promises‚” he told a crowd of 15‚000 people who came to hear him speak.
“Because of the failure of governments‚ powerful elites‚ we
now see much of the world return to an older‚ more dangerous‚ more brutal way
of doing business."
Obama warned that countries and governments that advance
nationalism and xenophobia instead of opening their borders to genuine
migration and globalisation were doomed to failure.
“Countries that rely on nationalism‚ xenophobia and racial
superiority - those countries find themselves consumed by civil war or external
war. Technology cannot be put back in a bottle. We are stuck with the fact that
we live closer together and populations are moving‚” he said.
“The only way to address climate change‚ mass migration‚
pandemic disease is to develop more international cooperation‚ not less."
The former US President was welcomed by chants of “yes we
can” as he took to the podium‚ a reference to the slogan that swept him to the
White House back in 2008.
Obama shared the stage with President Cyril Ramaphosa‚ who
introduced him as the keynote speaker‚ Mandela’s widow Graça Machel‚
businessman Patrice Motsepe and Nelson Mandela Foundation trustee Njabulo
Ndebele. Sowetan
0 comments:
Post a Comment