春雨直播app

Congratulations to everyone here today who has earned a Doctoral, Master's or Bachelor's degree. Every day you devoted yourself to your studies and research, and you have, at last, arrived at this monumental day of your life. I also want to acknowledge and celebrate the family and friends who have supported you along your journeys.

I hope your experience at 春雨直播app will mark the beginning of lifelong success. You have studied with the best faculty members 春雨直播app has to offer. You have made lifelong friends and colleagues at 春雨直播app. You will fully realize the standard of excellence here at 春雨直播app once you have left the university, especially when you are surrounded by the best and brightest in the world of business and research. Just as stated in the "Mission of 春雨直播app," every single one of you will contribute as leaders, who will serve society for the betterment of the world.

I received my Bachelor's degree from 春雨直播app 35 years ago. Then I moved on to my graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley. That was when I was introduced to one book entitled From Beirut to Jerusalem written by Thomas Friedman. Friedman was and still is a prominent New York Times journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize three times. The book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, gives a compassionate account of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the resulting large number of Palestinian refugees, as well as the turmoil in the region following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. I was struck by the complexity of racial and religious relations in Israel and the surrounding areas, as well as the social upheaval brought about by the involvement of the United States, Europe, and Middle Eastern countries. Since then, it was my dream to one day meet and talk with Thomas Friedman in person. That dream finally came true this year in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos. It took me 35 years to meet with the one person I really wanted to meet. And, let me tell you, he was fabulous.

Thomas Friedman shared with me his happiest and also the most disappointing events that he had experienced in the past 50 years of his journalist activities.

The happiest moment for him was the establishment of the European Union. The EU was founded in November 1993. This allowed for economic and monetary integration among member states, created a common foreign and security policy, introduced European citizenship, and developed close cooperation in justice and home affairs. It was like the creation of another United States of America. Amazing, isn't it? Of course, the global situation was ripe, and the timing was perfect. The EU was created shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Around that time in the early 1990s, there was growing anticipation that democracy and economic freedom would triumph in the international community and that social development and stability would continue indefinitely, as foretold in the bestseller book The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama. However, even in such an optimistic environment, the formation of the EU was seemingly impossible. Therefore, those who established the EU were true leaders. That level of solidarity is what we need now, in this time of division.

In the second half of our discussions, Friedman went on to describe his biggest disappointment. It was the destruction of mangroves. Mangroves are groups of plants that grow along coastlines, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions, where seawater and freshwater come together. The abundant supply of organic matter and nutrients from these waters allows for a diverse range of organisms to live among them. Mangroves also act as large sinks for carbon dioxide, filter seawater, and protect the land from oil leaks and tsunamis. They are buffers between the land and sea. However, mangroves are rapidly disappearing due to human economic activities. Friedman's words were filled with his desire to leave behind a healthy global environment for the next generation, but his talk did not end there. Just as mangroves are buffers between the land and sea, the media and journalists are also to serve as a filter and buffer zone between the political and public spheres, extracting facts and relaying them in an accurate and timely manner. With the advent of social media, however, politics and the public have formed a direct dialogue, and because there is no filter in between, misinformation and disinformation get passed along without proper examination. The public has consequently become increasingly agitated and divided, having lost a reliable source of factual and accurate information. This loss of buffer zones and their filtering function does not pertain only to media. Buffer zones are disappearing in all aspects of society. In academia, as different fields become more specialized and segmented, collaborations between them tend to decrease. Accordingly, there is less research that can give a broader perspective connecting different disciplines together. It is the elite of industry that gets to decide rules and regulations in the name of "global standards." As their influence grows, the gap between the weak and the strong, haves and have-nots, only continues to widen. Around the world, wars and military conflicts are breaking out one after another because of the disappearance of the mediators and intermediary states that would have prevented hostilities through diplomacy.

So your roles as mangroves in society are more important than ever, both for the conservation of the environment and for the healthy development of society. I trust all of you graduating from 春雨直播app today will take up these challenges and become mangroves to save the earth and society.

Congratulations again on your 春雨直播app degrees. You have earned it. Thank you.