John Edwards for President-Hindustan Times Conference

Hindustan Times Conference

Nov 16, 2005
Senator John Edwards
Hindustan Times Conference, New Delhi

It is my honor to be with all of you at this wonderful event.

Today I want to talk with you about our new world, the challenges we face, and what we can do together to meet them.

In the final days of 2004, almost a year ago, we witnessed destruction on a human scale that reminded us of two things. We are all mortal and we are all connected in this world.

There were the images by the thousands of what last year's tsunami did. Small villages existed one minute. Then, turned to piles of splintered wood the next. Tourists walked along the beach. Seconds later they were holding on to treetops. We saw trains moving. Then, bent as if they were made of plastic, not steel. We saw children playing with their parents. Then parents grieving and gesturing to their empty hands. We saw miles of destruction and piles of bodies.

Words like catastrophic seem so small compared to the massive destruction that effected eight countries — including India — taking the lives of over 200,000 people, including over 10,000 here in India, and leaving thousands more injured or missing.

It was a day when the new world seemed to slowly come into focus in the most mournful way. This wasn't just India's natural disaster, or Indonesia's, Sri Lanka's, or Thailand's.

This was the world's disaster — the world's to mourn and the world's to repair.

For those of us watching from thousands of miles away, it took a moment to internalize this. But soon after, the food and water arrived and the temporary shelters went up. India joined with the United States, Japan and Australia to lead the effort to get immediate help to those who needed it most.

And then the hard work began. Bridges were rebuilt. New boats delivered to fishing villages. And slowly, millions of people resumed their lives.

When eight countries in one region are affected by such an event — their economies are threatened and so are ours. When hundreds of thousands of children are now orphaned, their despair and disillusionment is a threat to their stability and to our security. And when millions of people — men and women who used to be able to work and support their families — are at risk of slipping into poverty, it is our responsibility to give them hope.

We've seen similar images again recently with the massive earthquake that crushed so many lives and dreams. And in my own country, with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that devastated one of America's great cities. Yet when we remember such natural disasters, we cannot forget the manmade disasters happening in places like Sudan.

These events remind us that we are not alone, and that our blessings are also a responsibility to protect the vulnerable.

It is the job of our leaders — and it is job for all of us — to understand the new challenges we face and to prepare for them.

And that's why I believe that in the coming century, it is absolutely essential that the great nations of the world work together to solve common problems. And that's why I'm here to stress the importance of the partnership between the United States and India. We must act together as natural allies.

One of the great transformations in world politics during the past decade is the emergence of India as a global power. I believe that the United States should welcome this — and we do.

India's rise in the global economy — and its emergence as a more prominent diplomatic player — will have a profound impact on the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the traditional alliances and partnerships of world politics.

I believe that the U.S.-Indian relationship is one of the most important there is — and it is stronger than ever. This started with President Clinton's leadership and his historic visit here over five years ago. And it has continued.

It's no secret to anyone here that President Bush and I don't agree about everything. Last year's presidential campaign was hard fought. But when it comes to India's importance, America's political parties agree. I strongly support the efforts to continue and deepen what President Clinton started, to bring the United States and India closer together. Building on the foundation of shared values and interests, the U.S-Indian strategic partnership will help shape the 21st century.

This strategic partnership will prove vital as we work to meet tremendous challenges.

For example, how do we ensure that the great divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" starts to close?

How do we lead so that other countries understand that education, market reforms, and just governments will bring hope to even the most desperate places?

And in our world of such wealth and promise, we cannot forget another great challenge: extreme poverty.

Close to half the world's population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.00 a day. How do we address this human suffering? How do we win the hearts and minds of young people — the millions struggling here in India and throughout this region? How do we reach them and give them the opportunity to climb out of hopelessness and into a better life?

The time has come for all of us to fight global poverty — together.

We must also summon the creativity and will to address the storm that's gathering to threaten our collective security — the threat from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

These gathering threats will not face single countries or regions, but all of us. We must ask ourselves: Are we doing enough to eliminate these threats? Unfortunately, I think the answer is no.

And today, some ask whether countries like America and India can work together to ensure the broader spread of democracy. The only answer to that question must be yes.

It is time to make a simple promise to our children: that we will work together to build a world that welcomes them in 2020 and beyond.

That we will have a secure world in which they can thrive. And through education, democracy, and development, they will have the tools to do so.

I believe that, together, we can achieve these goals. The question is how. How can we reform what happens inside our own countries? And how can we work together to move forward and strengthen our ideals?

There are four pillars we must build if we want to create this just new world.

First, we must do more to prepare for both the benefits and challenges of globalization.

India is a country that knows both the positive and negative aspects of our globalized world. It has achieved remarkable economic growth, benefiting from the access of technology and information. Yet it also grapples with the threats that don't stop at borders — such as diseases like HIV/AIDS, extreme poverty, and terrorists, like those who struck here in New Delhi only weeks ago.

To meet these challenges we need bold and visionary leadership. We need to develop new national and international tools.

It also means that our existing international institutions like the United Nations must adapt to remain relevant. They cannot remain cemented in the past. We must all work together to reform the United Nations, and that includes finding a place for India on the Security Council.

The economic and social transformation happening here is not just changing India — it is changing my country. America must act to ensure that it stays strong and adapts. With a trade deficit of nearly $10 billion, and outsourcing an economic reality, we have a lot to do to ensure that the American people are better prepared to meet the challenges of the new world.

For example, in America we must reform our own education system. Rising tuitions are increasingly putting a college degree out of reach for many families. Fewer and fewer low-income students are attending our universities. We need to reform our student aid programs and ensure that every child who works hard can attend their first year of college for free. No one should be shut out in America from an education they need because they can't afford it.

And it is imperative that the U.S. gets its fiscal house in order. Living in deficit isn't good for families, and it isn't good for governments.

Budget deficits make America less competitive. There's less money to invest in innovation and research and meet the challenges of education and health care.

We must also do more to help the millions of children in our countries who grow up poor.

And that is why the second pillar we must build is to ensure that people live in a world that is free from want. This starts by fighting poverty in our own countries. We will not persuade other countries to honor our ideals unless we honor those ideals ourselves.

In India, the extreme poverty that remains here is a weight on your dramatic economic success. There are almost as many Indians who live on less than $1 a day as there are Americans altogether. You face an enormous challenge — and the government, private sector, and other organizations must make alleviating poverty a top priority if India is to sustain its development as a major global power.

There are efforts here that we can draw inspiration from.

Fighting poverty is a subject that I have thought a lot about. Earlier this year I created the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina.

For many Americans, the challenges here in India seem overwhelming. Yet just as we should help India to address its poverty challenges, Americans cannot forget our own struggles with poverty. America is widely known as the richest country in the world. But few realize that 25 percent of our people live in poverty or at the margins.

America is a place that believes that one person can rise from very little to make a big difference.

Americans believe that all of us have the same worth — that a doctor and a bus driver both matter the same. They just have different jobs, but their hard work and dignity can lift up this world.

This is what we believe. But the best evidence of America not living up to its ideals is the more than 36 million Americans who live in poverty every day.

But in too many places around the world, some want us to ignore those who struggle. They want us to believe that each of us is out there on our own. If you make it, that's your success. If you don't, that's your failure.

The truth is nobody succeeds alone — in America, India, or anywhere else. They succeed because laws protect private property and ensure free markets. They succeed because their country has good schools and universities that give everyone the tools to get ahead. They succeed because of strong communities and families. And yes, they succeed because of three very important virtues: hard work, self-discipline, and responsibility.

I know this from my own life. My father had to borrow money to get me out of the hospital. He took me home to a two room house in the mill village. My parents worked in the mill. My grandparents worked in a mill.

They worked hard, and I worked hard. I was the first in my family to go to college. I continued to work and save and I was able to achieve success I never dreamed possible.

All of us in the room believe in the dignity that comes from hard work. And we understand that some people do everything right and the decks are still stacked against them. We believe that this is wrong and we must be committed to making it right.

That is why it is critical for us to ensure that our children have the education they need to compete and thrive in this new world. That our societies have the capability to help everyone — not just those at the top, but those who are struggling. That there is capital for our new inventors and dreamers, and they can access it.

In nations of our wealth and our prosperity, to have millions working full time and living in poverty is not just bad economic policy. It's wrong. They are doing everything right and they're still struggling.

So far, my efforts have focused mainly on fighting poverty in America. But I also believe that an essential part of all our efforts will be to carry this fight to end extreme poverty around the world.

That's one reason I'm here today — to hear from you about how we can work together on this. Not just because it is in our mutual interests — but because it is right.

The third pillar we must build in order to develop a just world is to work together to eliminate a threat that is different but no less devastating: the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

We know that terrorists could get these weapons. And we know that most of these weapons and bomb making materials are not secure, especially in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union. We cannot wait any longer to secure them.

The international community needs new tools to fight proliferation. We must ensure that the know-how to build nuclear weapons never reaches terrorists. We can strengthen existing plans that ensure nuclear scientists are employed for peaceful purposes. And we can provide safety and security to those scientists who are working on weapons programs in rogue nations to come clean.

India has a special role to play. There is no question that the United States and India must cooperate closely to fight proliferation.

For too long, this issue has come between us. Yet the progress our two countries have made in the past several years is important. I support the recent proposal to develop our cooperation when it comes to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. But I realize that for this potential to be realized, both sides have a lot of important work to do. We both have commitments to meet.

My government needs to offer a real plan for how to implement this proposal. And India has to meet its obligations too.

Let me take this opportunity to stress one point: for the U.S. Congress to have the confidence to change American laws to make this cooperation possible, India must develop a credible and transparent plan to separate its civilian from military nuclear programs. When this is done, then the U.S. can work with India to help address its energy needs — and take another important step forward to deepen our relationship.

And fourth, we must build the final pillar by promoting liberty and democracy around the world.

The United States and India are two of the world's great democracies. Over five years ago, our two countries set forth a vision for the 21st century that remains true today: "from vastly different origins and experiences, we have come to the same conclusions: that freedom and democracy are the strongest bases for both peace and prosperity, and that they are universal aspirations, constrained neither by culture nor...economic development."

These are values that we share, and we want to see them shared elsewhere. Ordinary men and women from Egypt to Morocco to Indonesia need to be convinced that democracy and liberty are the pathways to possibilities. And this cannot be achieved through the barrel of a gun.

Just as poverty and disillusionment isolate and drain hope from our own people in our own cities and villages, it does the same thing for every person around the world who feels like they don't have a chance.

If given the opportunity, these young men and women could do what so many others in the past have done. They could pull down the great books from the shelves in libraries. They could exchange ideas with others from different countries. And they could begin to move their countries out of that fog of hate.

This is the power of liberty and democracy. If given the chance, it stirs the soul and makes all people long for that fundamental human right to be free. And a world where poverty and despair are accepted is a world that's going nowhere — a world that isn't really free.

There's been a lot of talk about freedom in America and around the world. Let me be clear: the idea that America stands for freedom is not new. It is not owned by any political party. It is not owned by any one country. It is an idea that is borne from our words and our wishes, and given life through our actions.

And we have not acted enough...our work is not done.

Free nations must always stand with each other. This is part of our shared history. Yet we must do so not just with our muscle but with our minds — and with moral clarity. As we move forward in this century it means never again turning a blind eye to those who suffer, who want to educate a child, or who want to speak their minds.

Our goal for the next decades is to convince the next generation that our ideals are real and that they offer hope.

As Prime Minister Singh said earlier this year at the United Nations, "if we wish to ensure that the relentless advance of globalization does not leave in its wake large pools of the dispossessed, then we must empower the voiceless. Only democracy can ensure that they, too, become stakeholders in a millennium of peace and prosperity."

This is what we can do together. When we build these pillars: when we promote liberty and democracy; when we eliminate the threats from weapons of mass destruction, when we end poverty, and when we ensure that our countries are strong and prepared to compete in this global economy — then we can build the just world we all dream of.

Let me close with a few words about the country that I know best: America.

As an American, I believe that we have a great responsibility to show the world that my country is doing all it can to fulfill its promise. Not just with our words, but with our actions. And not just at home, but in the world.

Americans live in a place built on the ideals of freedom and opportunity and the equal treatment of all. I work every day to ensure that my country lives up to those values.

I am proud of my country. It has blessed me and my family in ways that I could never have imagined. It is often said that America is as much an idea as it is a country. And I want to live in a world that sees that promise, too.

I want the world to see that America is working every day to live up to what was written — that all people are created equal, and that we are endowed with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This is what we started more than two centuries ago — a great experiment in the history of mankind. Ordinary citizens gathered in their churches, in their stores, in their homes to pursue a greater good, both civic in its promise and human in its hope.

It gave the farmer the same rights as the president. It gave the blacksmith the same chance as the ship merchant. And it gave the men and women who said that we had not honored our ideals the right to speak out in the great calls of change.

America is a place that believes in ascension and the dignity of hard work. This is what we believe. And every day we give a person the chance to lift themselves up — whether they live in New York, New Delhi or Nairobi — we increase the chances of a just world.

This is what we can do when we never forget that we are all connected. That when countries achieve liberty and economic strength it helps us all. And that when tragedies happen thousands of miles from our homes, they hurt us all.

This is what we must never forget as we move forward. This is what gives our pillars their strength. And this is at the heart of our promise to those children who are resuming their lives here in India and throughout this region after the tsunami and the recent earthquake. They are counting on all of us to steer them toward their dreams.

Thank you.