Ambassador Speeches

Ambassador’s speech at ANS graduation

May 2007

I’m delighted to be here on such an exciting day for the graduates, staff, and families of ANS.  Sincere congratulations to you all.

As many of you know, I have a real soft spot in my heart for American schools abroad.  Both my children were educated in these schools, including this one.  I have served on the Board at two schools, including this one.

So I understand the remarkable work that these schools do in education our children, the children of the foreign countries where they are located, and the children of many other nationalities. 

I know these graduates will tell you they have studied hard to learn the intricacies of algebra, and English, and biology, and so many more subjects.  They are well prepared for universities in the U.S. and Nicaragua and Europe.  They are will prepared to compete in an ever more globalized world, and one day in the not so distant future to enter the workplace as attorneys, and physicians, and business managers, and teachers.

But I know that ANS and schools like it around the world play an additional role perhaps equally as important – they expose students to American values and transmit those values through cultural exchange.

I think almost anyone in this auditorium could quickly write out a list of these values – individual freedom, freedom of expression, blind justice, clean elections and the transparency of government, fair play, volunteerism and generosity toward those less fortunate, respect for the right of minorities, merit based advancement, equality of opportunity - - and probably a dozen or two more.  Certainly these values are not uniquely American, and unfortunately no society is perfect, so at times these values are not applied in full measure, even in the U.S.

But they are our bedrock. They guide our aspirations. And they hopefully make most Americans, at least, people good of will. 

You as students might well have studied those values formally in your civics, or history or political science classes.  But even if you haven’t read those books, I know that ANS has transmitted to you those values via your interaction with U.S. teachers, administrators and fellow students.

Why is any of this important?

I met only this morning with a group of forty Americans on their way to a medical mission in Mulukuku.  For those of you who don’t know where Mulukuku is, go to Muy Muy and keep going bastante mas alla.

One of the group, who had obviously studied up on Nicaragua asked me what I thought of the court system and corruption in Nicaragua, and what the U.S. government is doing about it.   

I won’t bore this audience with my views on administration of justice in Nicaragua – I’ve spoken about it probably a hundred times in my twenty-one months here.
But I did describe for this gentleman our programs tied to municipal government transparency, and implementation of the Inter-American Convention on Corruption, and the Criminal Procedures Code.

I also noted that one of the hopefully most efficient steps we are taking is working with law faculties to introduce courses on ethics and establish common educational standards with the hope that these law students who one day will become practicing attorneys and judges, will act honestly and transparently and fairly.

After all, I explained judicial institutions are composed of people.  A country can boast the best laws and best equipped courthouses imaginable, but if those laws and courthouses are not administered by people of good will, little has been gained.

Indeed, it is relatively straightforward for the U.S. and other donors to construct clinics, build roads, and vaccinate babies.  It’s much, much harder to transform political culture and strengthen democratic institutions composed by mere human beings.

That takes local citizens with energy.  That takes local citizens with vision. That takes local citizens of good will, ready to put their values into practice.

So students, remember what you learned here in your classes.  Remember the values you have absorbed.

And as you make your future lives in Nicaragua, or in the U.S., or in Taiwan, or in Spain, remember to be people of good will.

Again, my sincere congratulations to you all, and my very best wishes for the future.