Clinton's Diplomacy Clicks with Barnard Grads

By Park Sae-jin Posted : May 19, 2009, 13:44 Updated : May 19, 2009, 13:44

   
 
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the commencement for Barnard College, in New York on May 18, 2009.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged college graduates to become activist "special envoys" to the world Monday, waging Web-based diplomacy for idealistic causes starting with protesting the detention of two U.S. journalists held by North Korea.

Delivering an afternoon commencement address for 585 graduates of the all-women Barnard College, Clinton emphasized how Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites easily can be turned into tools for pressuring governments or sending micro-loans, children's books or saplings to far-flung places in dire need of them.

"You can organize through Twitter, like the undergraduates at Northwestern who launched a global fast to bring attention to Iran's imprisonment of an American journalist," the United States' top diplomat said, referring to the release in Iran last week of American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was freed after four months in jail but originally sentenced to eight years for alleged spying.
 
"And we have two young women journalists right now in prison in North Korea, and you can get busy on the Internet, and let the North Koreans know that we find that absolutely unacceptable," Clinton said. "These new tools are available for everyone - they are democratizing diplomacy."

The two journalists for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV media venture, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were detained March 17 while reporting on North Korean refugees living in China. They were arrested on accusations of illegal entry and "hostile acts" - charges that could carry up to 10 years in prison - and are expected to be tried in North Korea's top court, which normally deals with appeals, in early June.

Clinton said the State Department also would be creating virtual student foreign service internships through embassies overseas "to conduct digital diplomacy" through the Web site - http://www.state.gov - that already features DipNote blog, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter links on its home page.

"No matter what you're doing, you can be a citizen activist and a citizen diplomat," she said.

The Barnard ceremonies were held under cloudy skies and circus-like white tents on the campus of Columbia University, because of construction on Barnard's campus. Security was tight; a cool breeze seemed to hold off the rain but didn't dampen festivities that drew several thousand people.

Clinton, a graduate of all-women Wellesley College, received several standing ovations and boisterous rounds of applause amid the various references to her service as a first lady, U.S. senator from New York and presidential candidate.

Anna Quindlen, an author, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and alumna who serves on the board of Barnard, where she graduated from, urged the class of 2009 to build on Clinton's gender-blazing efforts. "See you on Page 1 and Air Force One," Quindlen said.

Debora Spar, Barnard's president, praised Clinton's bid for the White House last year. "What your run for office has taught us about possibility is immeasurable," Spar said.

Clinton joked she felt personally "vindicated" seeing Rachel Alexandra become the first filly in 85 years to win the second leg of the Triple Crown on Saturday. More seriously, she urged Barnard's graduates to show similar determination helping women with equal talents but fewer opportunities elsewhere in the world or while pushing for solutions to climate change, terrorism, recession, poverty, disease and nuclear weapons.

"Serving the people of the world does not have to be your life's calling. But I urge you to make it a part of your life," Clinton said.

"And I wish for each and every one of you an adventure that gives you the same sense of meaning and purpose that you are looking for, and an understanding of how much more you can do with the gifts you have been given, and to decide that you too will try to be those special envoys of the ideals that you believe in."

(AP)

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