04 March 2010

In Brazil, Secretary Clinton Stresses Opportunity

 

Hillary Rodham Clinton answers a question from a student at the town hall meeting at Zumbi dos Palmares University in São Paulo.

Hillary Rodham Clinton answers a question from a student at the town hall meeting at Zumbi dos Palmares University in São Paulo.

By Erica Marrero
Staff Writer

Washington — At a town hall meeting at Zumbi dos Palmares University in São Paulo, Brazil, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for increased educational opportunities and greater social inclusion for Afro-Brazilians and other underrepresented groups. Clinton also addressed global issues, including environmental protection, women’s rights and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Speaking about increasing opportunities for Afro-Brazilians, the secretary said: “I think that talent is universal, but opportunity isn’t. So the more you can universalize opportunity in a society as dynamic as Brazil, the more people will rise and the more the meritocracy will work.”

Her comments were made during a “townterview” — the combination of a town hall meeting and a press interview — held March 3. She spoke to a diverse group of students, faculty members and guests at the first university in Brazil devoted to students of African descent. In addition to engaging with the live audience, Clinton answered questions submitted online from all over Brazil.

The event was hailed by the U.S. State Department as a sign of the commitment to cooperation that the United States and Brazil have made on several regional and global issues. Clinton addressed the need for greater work on social inclusion, climate change, advancement of women, and partnership in helping several other countries in Latin America and Africa.

Addressing a question from a law professor at the Zumbi dos Palmares University about affirmative action policies in Brazil, Clinton drew on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the U.S. civil rights experience to observe that “what affirmative action should be is a recognition that historical barriers have shrunk the pipeline. Not very many people can get through it. So it needs to be opened up.” She said that education is important for that effort.

Clinton noted the success of U.S. and Brazilian educational exchanges and said she hoped to see thousands of such exchanges happening between the two countries each year.

Responding to a question about educational funding from a student representative of Meninos do Morumbi, a youth-based group, Clinton announced that several American companies based in Brazil had just informed her that they intend to sponsor 15 scholarships for students to learn English at Zumbi University.

On the topic of women’s advancement, Clinton said, “We’ve seen a lot of progress, but we still have to make sure that we stand against domestic violence, because it cannot be tolerated anywhere, anytime.” She said schools and health care should be available to girls as well as to boys.

Clinton also answered questions on climate change and the environment. “We don’t know all of the connections between what humanity does to the earth and what the earth then does, but we can see the scars. We can see the pollution in the rivers and the lakes that kill the fish. We can see the pollution in the air that gives children asthma. So we know we are doing things that are causing long-term damage.” She said part of the job now is to ask, “How do we improve the standard of living, create jobs, raise incomes for people without destroying the very earth we inhabit?” She said the United States and Brazil are working to answer that, “but we have lots to do.”

Speaking on the topic of Iran, Clinton said the United States and Brazil share the same goal, to ensure a nuclear-free Iran, and that the United States hopes “to get enough support in the Security Council to send a unified message to Iran that they are perfectly free to have peaceful, civil nuclear power. But they are not, under the very agreements that they signed, entitled to a nuclear weapons program.”

Another global issue discussed in the forum was regional cooperation in the Western Hemisphere, and the secretary cited the relief effort in Haiti as a prime example of the potential for collaboration, noting that “every single country in the hemisphere, even the poorest ones, have contributed something.”

From Brazil, Clinton continued her visit to Latin America with the Pathways to Prosperity meeting on March 4 in San José, Costa Rica. There she met with regional leaders to discuss their commitment to democracy and open markets to support inclusive growth, prosperity and social justice.