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President Obama's Final United Nations Speech: Transcript
Obama did what he does best; he shared a nuanced and incisive perspective about the direction in which political action should be directed
he was eloquont
and he offered a number of criticisms that impede the causes of peace; from fundamentalism misappropriating great religions to the Palestinians failure to acknowledge israel's existence, to israel's refusal to peacefully leave the occupied lands of another people
he especially chided current russian policy and actions
Obama pointed to education - for all - to be one obvious mechanism to push the world's society forward, taking specific aim at the middle east and africa being opposed to educate their female populations
he noted that younger people are more inclined to look past race and nationality to instead do what is right
and while he noted America's many shortcomings, he acknowledged that on balance, the USA was a force for good in the world:
Obama did what he does best; he shared a nuanced and incisive perspective about the direction in which political action should be directed
he was eloquont
and he offered a number of criticisms that impede the causes of peace; from fundamentalism misappropriating great religions to the Palestinians failure to acknowledge israel's existence, to israel's refusal to peacefully leave the occupied lands of another people
he especially chided current russian policy and actions
Obama pointed to education - for all - to be one obvious mechanism to push the world's society forward, taking specific aim at the middle east and africa being opposed to educate their female populations
he noted that younger people are more inclined to look past race and nationality to instead do what is right
and while he noted America's many shortcomings, he acknowledged that on balance, the USA was a force for good in the world:
while i would encourage reading his entire speech, i believe this is the essence of his message:From the depths of the greatest financial crisis of our time, we coordinated our response to avoid further catastrophe and return the global economy to growth. We’ve taken away terrorist safe havens, strengthened the nonproliferation regime, resolved the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy. We opened relations with Cuba, helped Colombia end Latin America’s longest warm, and we welcome a democratically elected leader of Myanmar to this Assembly. Our assistance is helping people feed themselves, care for the sick, power communities across Africa, and promote models of development rather than dependence. And we have made international institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund more representative, while establishing a framework to protect our planet from the ravages of climate change.
[emphasis added by bubba]I want to suggest to you today that we must go forward, and not backward. I believe that as imperfect as they are, the principles of open markets and accountable governance, of democracy and human rights and international law that we have forged remain the firmest foundation for human progress in this century. I make this argument not based on theory or ideology, but on facts — facts that all too often, we forget in the immediacy of current events. Here’s the most important fact: The integration of our global economy has made life better for billions of men, women and children. Over the last 25 years, the number of people living in extreme poverty has been cut from nearly 40 percent of humanity to under 10 percent. That’s unprecedented. And it’s not an abstraction. It means children have enough to eat; mothers don’t die in childbirth.
Meanwhile, cracking the genetic code promises to cure diseases that have plagued us for centuries. The Internet can deliver the entirety of human knowledge to a young girl in a remote village on a single hand-held device. In medicine and in manufacturing, in education and communications, we’re experiencing a transformation of how human beings live on a scale that recalls the revolutions in agriculture and industry. And as a result, a person born today is more likely to be healthy, to live longer, and to have access to opportunity than at any time in human history.