2006 Speeches

Caribbean Union College to 
University of the Southern Caribbean 
Name- Change Ceremony Presentation

March 15, 2006

Dr. Roy L. Austin
United States Ambassador
Caribbean Union College

Salutants:

Good Evening!  It is once again a pleasure to be here at Caribbean Union College, at what is obviously the last event to which I will be invited to speak at CUC.  However, if it is your wish, I shall be happy to participate in  future programs at the soon-to-be launched University of the Southern Caribbean.  And while your imminent name change is in my consciousness, I hasten to congratulate all of you gathered here on the significant move from college to university that your respected institution is making.  It is certainly due to the hard work of the administration, faculty, and students that have passed through the gates of CUC that such an impressive milestone has been attained.  I am sure that this institution will continue to rise to the challenge of improving lives by enriching minds.
 
I have been asked to speak today on the following topic: “In a world of political turmoil, social unrest, moral decadence and economic instability, what is the role of the Christian University?”   Now, the more I thought of this question, the more I felt that it must have been developed for a younger and more vigorous mind than mine.  However, I do agree that the state of the world, quite accurately described in the question, makes it imperative that we seek an answer to some such question.  But should a university be involved in what seems to be primarily a political matter?
 
The objectives of universities, are variously stated by educational authorities. For example, a United Nations report regards the ultimate goal of education as imparting “knowledge, skills and values to empower people to bring about changes.” In its inclusion of values, this statement may be acknowledging that religious educational institutions have a special role to play.
 
Another relevant statement is that of New Zealand’s Human Rights Commission that the purpose of tertiary education should be “’life enhancing.’” Certainly, reducing social unrest, moral decadence and the like would qualify as life enhancing. Thus a university, Christian or otherwise, might properly engage in dissemination of knowledge designed to bring about such changes. I shall elaborate on this role of universities in general in what follows, only occasionally specifically addressing the Christian university.
       
Clearly, there have been many other periods of turmoil and moral decadence in the world’s history.  Indeed, when I think of the history that I studied in primary and secondary school, turmoil and decadence may be what stands out.  It matters not whether it was the relationship between the Caribs and the English in St. Vincent history, or the machinations of sovereigns and elite subjects in English history, or violent interactions in North America and India in Commonwealth history.  And those persons more familiar with Old Testament times than I am may agree that turmoil and moral decadence were often present.  So what is new.  Perhaps, our ability to obliterate all human life in a rather short period of time with the weapons of mass destruction that we possess.  But even the less dramatic but certainly frightening threat posed by international terrorists with less sophisticated weapons give urgency to answering the question asked.
 
That education should play an important role in shaping our society and future is painfully obvious to me, a person who spent almost all of the first 60 years of my life in formal educational environments.  In fact, I have touched on matters relevant to this topic in two other speeches I have delivered here at CUC: in my 2005 Commencement address last May, and in July 2002 at the Faculty Appreciation Luncheon.  Looking back at the latter of those two speeches, I found a section that seems particularly relevant to my presentation today. I quote from that speech:
 
“Our own President Bush certainly appreciates the importance of education in social development, and has made education his top domestic priority.  Also, just as Trinidad’s first lady, Mrs. Manning, has committed herself to education, so too has ours.  Mrs. Laura Bush, a former teacher, has been outspoken about the role of education in developing pluralistic and economically vibrant societies.  If I may quote from a recent speech of hers:
“With education comes greater self-respect and respect for others.  With education comes greater understanding and tolerance.  It invites greater equity, because it gives children the tools they need to succeed in today’s global economy.  And education fuels growth, because it unleashes individual creativity and provides the skilled work force essential to growth and development.”
 
She went on to note that, simply put, better schools produce workers with better skills.  Initial investments in education will produce a more stable and robust consumer market.  Educated workers are good for business and society as a whole.”
 
Understandably, perhaps, our First Lady’s concern with tolerance mirrors a similar concern in the SDA website’s paper on Religious Extremism.  Although many of you may have read your church’s website, I remind you of the final paragraph in the paper:
 
“We call on everyone, both inside and outside our faith community, to work wisely and effectively to reduce intolerance and extremism.  Education should play an increasingly significant role in teaching respect for the religious rights of every person and help establish a culture of peace and religious tolerance.  The dignity of all human beings, created in the image of God, requires respect as Christians seek to witness to those of other faiths.  Terminology should be used which is truthful, transparent, and is not deliberately offensive.” 
 
In the first Lady’s speech as well as on the website, we see a concern with intolerance; and both sources recommend the development of respect for others as a goal worthy of pursuit.  Also, both sources regard education as one means to attain the goal.  In Mrs. Bush’s words and those of the website, we have a partial answer to the question that I was asked to answer.   Educational institutions need to recognize that an environment of intolerance is a breeding ground for the political turmoil that pervades our world; and these institutions can reduce the intolerance and the resulting turmoil by teaching respect for others.
 
Now some people do propose that poverty and economic inequality within and between nations cause some of the chaos in the world.  Mrs. Bush provides an educational remedy for problems with these origins too.  She opines that educational institutions can provide skills that fuel individual and national economic success and reduce poverty and inequality. 
 
Moving to a specific case, the SDA’s website statement is clearly relevant to the distressing violence that has plagued several Muslim countries since the publication of cartoons in September 2005 in a Danish newspaper and elsewhere later, depicting the Prophet Muhammad in ways that offended many Muslims.  Many of us reared in a Christian religious tradition should find it easy to condemn the apparent senselessness of the violent response to these cartoons.  But the SDA website’s comment on education and extremism indicates that it is the duty of educational institutions to teach their students in ways that will discourage us from making utterances likely to offend members of particular religions.  A good education should also teach us to less readily respond with anger and violence when we interpret the speech of others as insulting to our group or even to us as individuals.  What we are speaking about in both instances is educational institutions effectively delivering a message of caring for or loving others.  We do not hurt by word or deed those whom we love. Nor do we visit violence on others whom we love, even if we regard their communication with us as insulting.
 
While the freedoms of press and religion are embedded in the U.S. Constitution, and the Constitutions of many democracies, the use of these freedoms should be judicious when it comes to inflammatory issues involving subjects such as religion.  As noted in official U.S. statements on this cartoon matter, the U.S. viewed the cartoons as offensive and repugnant, but urged those who disagreed with them to do so peacefully.  Most of us were probably aware long before I mentioned it today that the response in places with large Muslim populations was anything but peaceful; and I dare say that the editors of the papers that published these images had no intention of setting off the violence that occurred.  However, had their education sensitized them to the intense feelings of anger they could arouse they may have chosen a means less likely to occasion such ill will.  Nor does one need to be knowledgeable specifically about Muslim feelings concerning depictions of the prophet Muhammad to avoid inflaming such anger.  It is sufficient to have internalized through formal schooling,  or by other means, the greatest of the commandments:  “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
 
Love is learned at different levels of human development.  It stands to reason that the family is the institution that bears the earliest responsibility for endowing  humans with this emotions.  But tertiary educational institutions such as CUC have a role to play.  At this level, students may have this emotion strengthened, or redeveloped, or learnt anew; and religiously affiliated educational institutions bear an especial burden to ensure that students are exposed to courses that will make achievement of this goal likely.  Furthermore, universities that now ignore developing this kind of human being need only ensure that their list of required courses is chosen with this goal as one consideration. 
 
Most of us can probably agree, and the SDA paper on Religious Extremism comments on this, that extremist violence in the name of religion is occurring with great frequency today.  But, it is also true that the large majority of persons of all faiths are not extreme in their views.  It is a violent minority that is causing the suffering in Iraq, that perpetrated the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, and that has continued to carry out bombings and killings from Bali to Russia to London.
 
It is in civilized society’s interest to pursue and bring to justice the perpetrators of these acts.  However, we can better restrict the number of people physically hurt or killed by persons holding extremist views by educating people in tolerance for persons with different beliefs and practices. 
 
At the official swearing in of Karen Hughes as our Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, President Bush stated in referring to the Middle East that “We must encourage young scholars to study the great history and traditions of the region.  We need skilled linguists who can communicate with their people so we can engage in a fruitful dialogue about what it means to live in liberty.”  He went on to add, in referring to Ms. Hughes, that she will “help America seize this moment of opportunity by working with other nations and peoples to replace tyranny with tolerance, and overcome hatred with hope.”  More people need to adopt the Ahmadiyya  Muslim motto of “Love for all.  Hatred toward none.”  Universities can make it their responsibility to encourage students to make this motto theirs.
 
The President’s statement speaks not only to what America needs to do in preparing for the coming years, but to all nations and learning institutions.  While we will not all be great linguists or diplomats working directly for peace, we can all contribute to the search for peace by better understanding the cultures and faiths of the world. 
 
Mr. Bush’s statement on turning “hatred to hope” is also critical to the role of educating our young people.  To keep our children on the right path we must always recognize that they must have hope for a better future and hope that they will be able to succeed in that future.  New York Times columnist and noted author on the Middle East Thomas Friedman often comments on the absence of hope among many youths in the Middle East.  He notes that the lack of intellectual and economic freedom in some countries has led to resignation and then to anger and hatred for many young people.  The United States is frequently the target of that anger, as we all know; but no country in the world is immune from the manifestations of this anger. 
 
On a smaller, but equally important, scale, we see this lack of hope in young people who turn to crime and gangs, whether it be in North American cities or here in Trinidad and Tobago, or anywhere else.  Those of you who heard me speak at the commencement ceremony last May remember that I discussed the effect of faith, hope and love on undesirable behaviors such as crime.  At that time, I emphasized the part played by love; but hope or commitment may be more easily influenced by educational environments.
 
And how does hope help to reduce illegal behavior? In my speech last year, I noted that a young person who has expended time and effort studying to obtain a good education may be said to have invested a great deal to obtain an education.  That investment commits that youth to behave in ways that do not jeopardize his/her investment.  If he/she engages in illegal behavior, he/she stands a chance of imprisonment, thus jeopardizing his/her investment because the opportunity to obtain the desired education may then be lost.  Even coming to be known as a quarrelsome or generally impulsive person may hinder one’s educational and occupational progress.
 
At the same time, the youth who cannot realistically hope to obtain a good education, may not invest much time and effort trying to get such an education.  He/she then has less to lose and is less concerned about the consequences of illegal behavior.  On one of my earliest visits to this institution, I left with the impression that you were providing opportunities for obtaining a tertiary education to young people who would not otherwise receive such. I applaud your thoughtfulness.  You must continue to provide opportunities and, therefore, hope to youths. Help them to build an investment for the future that they have no wish to jeopardize through ungovernable behavior.
 
The hope for a good education that can create commitment in young people often comes from the learning environment and the teachers in that environment.  To once again use a quote from a previous speech I made at this institution, Yeats said: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”  Institutions and teachers that embrace that ideal, that instill in their students a passion for learning, for resolving disputes, for solving problems, and who give them the tools to do so – they are doing us all a great service.  For it is that investment in young minds that gives us greatest hope for a future of tolerance, prosperity, and peace. 
 
And when I speak of young minds, I hope that one does not think I am drifting from the topic of the role of the Christian University in today’s world.  A mind can be “lit afire” at any age, and it is very often in the university years that a person finds his true commitment and calling.  A university should exist to open minds and create avenues of expression.  It should provide its students with the direction necessary for self-exploration and the determination of one’s own ideas and concepts.  It should lead the way in the teaching of tolerance and the provision of hope, but give freedom to the intellect of each individual student.  It should provide each student with the ability to see him or herself as an important part of the greater society.
 
Higher education is arguably one of democracy’s most critical institutions.  Just as an independent judiciary and independent news media serve to preserve basic freedoms, higher education, when it includes academic freedom, serves the free marketplace of ideas and fosters the intellectual climate necessary for a dynamic and responsive society.  To neglect an individual’s education today is to condemn him or her to mediocrity tomorrow.  So it is with nations.  Education is the cornerstone of a free society, the bedrock upon which a strong, healthy state is built and sustained.
 
H.G. Wells once said, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”  Perhaps that seems a little grim, but on some days, depending on what headlines you see in the morning paper, you may feel that Mr. Wells hasn’t overstated the case at all.  What is clear, though, is that the stakes are high.  John F. Kennedy was getting at much the same thing, though perhaps in slightly more positive terms, when he said, “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.  The human mind is our fundamental resource.” 
 
The fundamental resource for providing fuel to those minds remains centers for higher learning. The Christian University, in this case the soon-to-be christened University of the Southern Caribbean, because it may give more attention to questions of morality and be stricter in demanding the same, may be of critical importance in increasing human happiness.  All of you gathered here today are important players in shaping the future of our world.  We must all recognize that we can, and must, make a difference.  The world is truly a complicated place and it does not seem to be getting any simpler.  Thus, we must all take the time to reach out to others, listen to one another, educate ourselves about the greater world, and do our best to create tolerance and understanding based on knowledge and honesty.
 
I know that the University of the Southern Caribbean will maintain its role as a supplier of positive role models for the youth of the region and will keep the fires of the minds burning.  It has been my pleasure to be here again today.  I look forward to taking your questions following the presentation of the next speaker.  Thank you for giving me the courtesy of your attention.  May the Almighty bless us all!