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John Kerry
Showing Original Post only (View all)Senator John Kerry says much of world conflict fueled by clash of modernity with tribalism [View all]
Kerry spoke at Umass Lowell this week. My son, a senior at UMass Amherst, is officially jealous. They get Ted Koppel (sp) as their commencement speaker (though he has a chance to listen to RFK Jr if he wants). Anyway, it seems to be interesting.
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2012/04/senator-john-kerry-says-much-world-conflict-fueled-clash-modernity-with-tribalism/bpKtMv7ZtMHHQWWqUrn8KJ/index.html
Senator John Kerry says much of world conflict fueled by clash of modernity with tribalism
...
LOWELL - Senator John Kerry, a possible secretary of state should President Obama win reelection, said today that much of the conflict around the globe stems from the clash between increasingly technological parts of the world and cultural tribalism embedded in largely uneducated and jobless populations.
The Massachusetts Democrat said that while he’s proud of the values and charitable works of the United States and other developed countries, they need to recognize that many populations cannot digest their societal norms as quickly as outsiders might like.
...
“Our way of doing things is really very abrupt and disruptive to many of those patterns, and we don’t always see how much it is disruptive and confrontational and, therefore, can’t always understand why somebody can’t see how you could make a quick decision to do something differently, because we see it in their interests, but they don’t necessarily see it as easily and quickly as in their interest,” said Kerry, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
...
Kerry urged the students to study psychology, comparative religion, and cultures to get a better understanding of others’ perspectives.
“In my judgment, peace is going to require us to help these countries over this hurdle with the confrontation with modernity, allow some of them to move at their own pace – not necessarily our pace – and help them to build institutional capacity to allow them to be able to embrace modernity without a sense of fear,” the senator said.
Instead of military deployments, he added, “we need to be deploying far more diplomats and far more doctors and far more social structure today, in many ways, and communicating more effectively.”
...
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_20396500/sen-kerry-speaks-about-domestic-issues-class-at
Sen. Kerry speaks about domestic issues with class at UMass Lowell
By Chris Camire, ccamire@sentinelandenterprise.com
Posted: 04/14/2012 06:32:38 AM EDT
LOWELL -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry was halfway through his guest lecture at UMass Lowell Friday when an important call came in.
"I've got to take this," Kerry told the room of about 30 students. "It Involves some of the stuff we've been talking about."
Kerry then disappeared for about 15 minutes.
"Got to keep the world moving," said UMass Chancellor Marty Meehan, who invited Kerry to speak before his political-science class
...
Despite his foreign-policy credentials, the state's senior senator spent much of his 90-minute talk focusing on domestic issues, most notably the role investing in infrastructure will play in securing the country's economic future.
Kerry lamented the fact that although solar and wind technology were first developed in the United States, many of the top alternative-energy companies now operate overseas.
He blasted Congress for letting tax incentives expire that benefited these sectors of the economy, telling the students that gridlock in the nation's capital will continue unless young people like themselves demand changes
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Senator John Kerry says much of world conflict fueled by clash of modernity with tribalism [View all]
Mass
Apr 2012
OP
Your jaundiced view reflects your preconcieved view.Did you even read the parts that Mass excerpted?
karynnj
Apr 2012
#6