Shakira a prezentat ieri, 21 iunie, un discurs la Ierusalim, ca ambasadoare UNICEF, in cadrul unei conferinte de presa sustinuta de presedintele israelian. Artista a fost insotita in Israel de iubitul sau Pique, unde a vizitat o scoala de copii israelieni si palestinieni, s-a intalnit cu Tony Blair si cu Shimon Peres, presedintele Israelului.
Am postat mai jos discursul Shakira,il veti gasi mai jos in limba engleza.
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Ladies and gentlemen, your Excellencies, President Peres –- shalom.
It’s my pleasure to be here for the Third Presidential Conference, and so much more than a pleasure to be in Jerusalem, this city of cities.
This conference is dedicated to “the crucial decisions that will make a better tomorrow.” There could be no more appropriate venue than Jerusalem and Israel. This land, this cradle of civilizations, was there at the beginning of mankind’s efforts to transcend. It must be at the forefront today and in the future, advancing human innovation and social development.
My visit to Max Rayne school today here in Jerusalem – an inspirational school that is half Jewish and half Arab -- only reminded me, once again, that the most crucial decisions we can make for a better tomorrow concern how to raise and educate our children.
I come from Colombia, a country that has experienced decades of conflict. I have been involved in educating Colombian children since I was 18, when I started my first foundation. I was convinced that helping increase access to education was one of the very few options a country like mine had as an antidote to violence and poverty.
The schools that my foundation continues to build and operate in areas of conflict are now educating about 6000 students across the country and serving over 30 thousand people. We also started a project in Haiti and another one in South Africa. But is in my own country where I’ve learned some of the most valuable lessons.
In a conflict environment, a child who lives in extreme poverty away from school is 10 times more likely to be recruited by a militant group than one who is receiving an education. Therefore, just getting more kids into school and keeping them there can reduce recruitment and violence.
In Colombia one of our schools is in Choco, a riverside jungle town that has seen more than its share of conflict over the years. The school is at the top of a rise, on a muddy street. But it has computers and playgrounds, it is clean and orderly and safe and, yes, ambitious. Those kids are there to learn.
Many of these kids are refugees from war, or their parents were killed. Many of these children were destined to follow their peers into the drug business or be recruited by guerrillas of one kind or another.
Now, instead, we have children from Choco and elsewhere who are going on to college. They will now be a force for peace, economic growth, and stability in my country. The kids that we’ve had the fortune to accompany from primary school to secondary school to college are the success stories that make me fall in love again and again with education advocacy.
I’m fascinated by education’s transformational power and speed. You don’t have to wait 100 years or 50 years or 20 years to see tangible results. I’m a very impatient person and don’t like to waste my time or my money or my efforts. And believe me, there is no waste when it comes to investing on education. It’s the kind of social investment that proves itself quickly and brings fast returns to the state and great satisfaction to those involved.
Every day I see it. We see real changes not only in the psycho-social development of kids who get a quality education, but also in their performance in and out of the schools they attend to, in their families and their communities. And on top of that, every year we have the pleasure of graduating a generation of young productive individuals ready to live dignified lives.
I’m convinced, as many people are, that investing in education is the best strategy for peace and global stability –and the earlier you get in, the better. Early investment, early childhood nutrition, and basic health care from birth through the age of 6, are essential for a child to develop the actual physical means to learn – to perform better in class, but also better throughout life.
As the child grows and begins to learn, the family’s investment – a psychic and social investment – deepens and becomes more profound. The child’s value rises even more, the family’s social value rises, the community’s value rises.
There is no other investment that has this kind of social multiplier effect. There is nothing else like it. It is an incredible thing to nurture and watch grow and spread. And it is, I believe, the very substance of peace.
I am very happy to be in Israel, because I believe this is the perfect place to talk about how urgent it is to make education a priority. Israel has been a great melting pot of cultures for so many centuries. It will continue to be. In my song “Waka Waka” I sang how we are all Africa. Today I want to say that as part of western civilization we are all the inheritors of an Abrahamic culture and a soul that has been forged here; therefore we are all Israel, too.
Israel, the mother of cultures and human spirituality, can help lead the next generation. As humanity, we have so many shared problems to solve. Just think about water in the Middle East, and about global warming, illnesses, inequality. Our future is not assured.
We need, now more than ever, to educate minds, without distinguishing where they are from and what they might believe in. Minds that will be ready to face our shared problems and look for common solutions We need to help prepare the scientists of tomorrow, the doctors, the physicists, the environmentalists and even the artists of tomorrow. Children today have immense tasks ahead of them. Let’s get this generation going, nourished in body and mind. They need to be ready. Let’s give them safety and all the love and encouragement we can. Let’s imagine them as a big think tank. A generation of innovators. Agents of change, as President Peres would say.
They need us, we need them. The future desperately needs them to succeed. I believe in education for prosperity, education for peace.
Thank you so much for your kind attention.
Am postat mai jos discursul Shakira,il veti gasi mai jos in limba engleza.
Ladies and gentlemen, your Excellencies, President Peres –- shalom.
It’s my pleasure to be here for the Third Presidential Conference, and so much more than a pleasure to be in Jerusalem, this city of cities.
This conference is dedicated to “the crucial decisions that will make a better tomorrow.” There could be no more appropriate venue than Jerusalem and Israel. This land, this cradle of civilizations, was there at the beginning of mankind’s efforts to transcend. It must be at the forefront today and in the future, advancing human innovation and social development.
My visit to Max Rayne school today here in Jerusalem – an inspirational school that is half Jewish and half Arab -- only reminded me, once again, that the most crucial decisions we can make for a better tomorrow concern how to raise and educate our children.
I come from Colombia, a country that has experienced decades of conflict. I have been involved in educating Colombian children since I was 18, when I started my first foundation. I was convinced that helping increase access to education was one of the very few options a country like mine had as an antidote to violence and poverty.
The schools that my foundation continues to build and operate in areas of conflict are now educating about 6000 students across the country and serving over 30 thousand people. We also started a project in Haiti and another one in South Africa. But is in my own country where I’ve learned some of the most valuable lessons.
In a conflict environment, a child who lives in extreme poverty away from school is 10 times more likely to be recruited by a militant group than one who is receiving an education. Therefore, just getting more kids into school and keeping them there can reduce recruitment and violence.
In Colombia one of our schools is in Choco, a riverside jungle town that has seen more than its share of conflict over the years. The school is at the top of a rise, on a muddy street. But it has computers and playgrounds, it is clean and orderly and safe and, yes, ambitious. Those kids are there to learn.
Many of these kids are refugees from war, or their parents were killed. Many of these children were destined to follow their peers into the drug business or be recruited by guerrillas of one kind or another.
Now, instead, we have children from Choco and elsewhere who are going on to college. They will now be a force for peace, economic growth, and stability in my country. The kids that we’ve had the fortune to accompany from primary school to secondary school to college are the success stories that make me fall in love again and again with education advocacy.
I’m fascinated by education’s transformational power and speed. You don’t have to wait 100 years or 50 years or 20 years to see tangible results. I’m a very impatient person and don’t like to waste my time or my money or my efforts. And believe me, there is no waste when it comes to investing on education. It’s the kind of social investment that proves itself quickly and brings fast returns to the state and great satisfaction to those involved.
Every day I see it. We see real changes not only in the psycho-social development of kids who get a quality education, but also in their performance in and out of the schools they attend to, in their families and their communities. And on top of that, every year we have the pleasure of graduating a generation of young productive individuals ready to live dignified lives.
I’m convinced, as many people are, that investing in education is the best strategy for peace and global stability –and the earlier you get in, the better. Early investment, early childhood nutrition, and basic health care from birth through the age of 6, are essential for a child to develop the actual physical means to learn – to perform better in class, but also better throughout life.
As the child grows and begins to learn, the family’s investment – a psychic and social investment – deepens and becomes more profound. The child’s value rises even more, the family’s social value rises, the community’s value rises.
There is no other investment that has this kind of social multiplier effect. There is nothing else like it. It is an incredible thing to nurture and watch grow and spread. And it is, I believe, the very substance of peace.
I am very happy to be in Israel, because I believe this is the perfect place to talk about how urgent it is to make education a priority. Israel has been a great melting pot of cultures for so many centuries. It will continue to be. In my song “Waka Waka” I sang how we are all Africa. Today I want to say that as part of western civilization we are all the inheritors of an Abrahamic culture and a soul that has been forged here; therefore we are all Israel, too.
Israel, the mother of cultures and human spirituality, can help lead the next generation. As humanity, we have so many shared problems to solve. Just think about water in the Middle East, and about global warming, illnesses, inequality. Our future is not assured.
We need, now more than ever, to educate minds, without distinguishing where they are from and what they might believe in. Minds that will be ready to face our shared problems and look for common solutions We need to help prepare the scientists of tomorrow, the doctors, the physicists, the environmentalists and even the artists of tomorrow. Children today have immense tasks ahead of them. Let’s get this generation going, nourished in body and mind. They need to be ready. Let’s give them safety and all the love and encouragement we can. Let’s imagine them as a big think tank. A generation of innovators. Agents of change, as President Peres would say.
They need us, we need them. The future desperately needs them to succeed. I believe in education for prosperity, education for peace.
Thank you so much for your kind attention.
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