make a decision about pulling out of the country. there are various reasons to pull out of the country. it can be security, emerging conflict, political stability. it can be a painful decision. at the end of the day, it is the director who is responsible to make the decision. particularly in countries where you have countries to find, as the leader of the a . . modify a program in order to not damage, frankly, the great effort you have built over 10, 20, 30 years that has to be pulled for an anticipated exposure. those exposures have to be booked at very carefully. >> i do not think there is any question the peace corps has been a force for tremendous good, and in terms of development. we are fortunate to have aaron as a director. he has extraordinary experience

amongst all the directors. we have all seen it in anecdotes. the challenge though it is in the work of development by its nature. it has a very long time horizon. we are driven by the constant assessment, having quarterly reports, but the metrics used for approving new work. and afterwards, with public money, that is important. but i would put a bit of a marker in the conundrum of the peace corps. that is how you measure it in this way. we all of a story similar to this one. when i went to kenya after the bombings in 1995, i spoke to the minister of education. he said, "the first american i ever met and the best teachers i ever had was my peace corps teacher." i went back to my office and looked him up. he was in south massachusetts.

i told him stories on the phone. he said, "i will have to look at the picture. there were 62 kids in my class." here is the development question. when the measure the success of that peace corps volunteer? is it after his 27 months of service? or is it 30 years later, in this random encounter with a peace corps director and a minister of education? this is not to say that we should not assess and measure. course we should. but there is by definition an important matter which should hold on to in terms of the peace corps. that is the personal element or the bonds of friendship. that is one of the key goals in that transference. that is a very good question.

>> is the teacher the peace corps teacher? >> i am a big believer in workers up out of a job. >> in a globalized economy in which we work and live, we need to have a better understanding of people across the world, outside of our borders. and it is important that they understand us. i never met a white person until i came to america. and i had no impressions. but i do remember we would hear stories about this all the time. i remember seeing peace corps volunteers. but i never met them. so in this world wide economy which we are now such active participants in, we need to understand how other people think and what their cultural background is, their philosophical outlook. the question is a very important one which i alluded to in my

opening remarks. that is peace corps volunteers are very often type eight types. they want to have accomplishments under their belt. they are anxious to get things going. i tell them, "you are a participant, a catalyst, a facilitator in this whole fabric of activity that is going on in the world. you may not be able to see the product of your labor, but i do, at least a larger part did you do." i think that gives a lot of comfort to volunteers. there is not only the geographical expands but the temporal expense of time. you can see what volunteers do. and they do this in very modest one on one achievements, which is really so heartwarming. because that is how volunteers make progress. they reach each part, one heart by one heart.

if i may, i will say two other things, one positive and one-. i am always so impressed with how fluent volunteers become in the language of their country. and we have the best course of- speakers from these volunteers, most of whom are young. they pick up the language like that. i went to hungary in 1991. hungarian is a very difficult and which. the volunteers in hungary said there were volunteers there who are amazingly good hungarian speakers. we have now people who can speak another language, who understand the culture. when i went to russia, i was amazed by the can-do attitude that peace corps volunteers in fused to the people that had just emerged from the heavy yoke

of totalitarianism, who felt their spirits were crushed. this was 1991. they felt they could not do anything on their own. yet we had this wonderful young people from america who would tell these former russians, ukrainians, albanians -- albania was not a part of the former soviet union, but it was behind the iron curtain. people at the republics of the former soviet union would find they could have control over their lives, that they can start a new business if they wanted to, and that things will come together. i think the can-do attitude is another very wonderful thing. i will say if there is anything negative, it is that sometimes cultures are hard. different cultures are very embedded and very, very complex. and sometimes, you know, we introduce a new element. and i think we need to be

careful of unintended consequences when we go into a society and tried to encourage them, inspire them to do all sorts of different things. there might be unintended consequences as well. >> interesting. let me ask if any of you would like to speak to the role of the peace corps in the foreign- policy of the united states. we were always being asked if we were spies. [laughter] we were not, at least as far as i know. [laughter] some of that still goes on, but we were also, as volunteers, kind of been contrasted with the folks in the gated communities of the embassy. that was when i decided i did not want to be a foreign service officer. i wonder if any of you would like to speak to the role that the peace corps plays in the foreign policy of the united states.

>> i think we have a wonderful by president obama for americans to serve both internationally and domestically. the peace corps is a response to that call. that is an important part of our foreign policy. i think that various countries seek peace corps volunteers working within their community, shoulder to shoulder, living under the same conditions the average person in those villages live. that gives them a perspective on america that could not gain any other way. this is a tremendous experience. everywhere i travel, we have seen this time and time again. i think the other thing that is important is that peace corps is an independent agency, but our biggest supporters and cheerleaders are the u.s. ambassador around the world. they recognize the balance here -- they recognize the value of peace corps volunteers. they do everything to make sure the have the space to do the great jobs they are doing in all

the sectors where we work. and that is really remarkable, i think. when you look at our partnerships with the government, with the nonprofit sector, with the business community, look at the way we develop young leaders in the countries where we surf, and that we give americans a chance to engage and develop leadership skills that will be so important to our nation in this global connection that we all talk about, i think this is an investment that we need to continually build on as we grow. >> the only thing i would add is that i think the genius of the peace corps is that it is not part of our foreign policy apparatus. i think it is brilliant that is separate. i think it is brilliant it is not part of the communities. there is no other reason than security for the volunteers. there is no misunderstanding of that. i think it is brilliant that our volunteers are serving in areas that really do not have

geopolitical -- going to ghana and places where our relationships are not of a foreign policy imperative. i think from that genuine, authentic service, going in peace and friendship, comes very good relations around the world. decidedly not an affirmative statement about american foreign policy, western values, any of those things that were really the inspiration for that. >> before we turn over to the audience, i want to ask one more question. i want to discuss the comment you made earlier, mark, about the future of the peace corps. you said we need to be thinking now about how the peace corps should be different in the next decade and the next 50 years. you mentioned having it be bigger and in more countries and so on. but should the peace corps be doing different things? should there be a different

emphasis? do you want to pick up on that? i will let everybody else. >> the ps course is the power of an idea, a brilliant idea, a brilliantly executed by secretary shriver. everything about the peace corps is change and renewal, right down to the five-year rule. you can only work for five years. you bring in the new. certainly, i think the energy of the founders, president kennedy and shriver, would say is it right for the next 50 years? is it really 27 months for everyone? isn't it a scandal that we have 10,000 applicants of americans who are wanting to do this? i do not know if they are already to the peace corps volunteers, but we say no to thousands of them. everyone of us went into

congress to get more money. that is less money than the military marching band. i like the military marching band. but it is a matter of priorities. we can scale up with volunteers. we can look at the length of service. we can raise greater collaborations and partnerships. the world is different than it was 50 years ago. if anyone would have wanted us to say, "keep mission central," look at different areas, use of technology, it would have been president kennedy and sergeant server. there are a number of different ways we can honor the past and say true to our core mission, but do it in innovative ways with the kind of volunteers we are attracted, the world in which we live, the technology they could use, the length of service they could have, and working to be at the very poor front, after 50 years of service, to bring a broader

international service agenda around the world. >> how would you want things to change? >> i current director. and this is actually allowed. and these are the kinds of questions that are being discussed, when you are in that position. our volunteers allowed to have cars? no. are they allowed to have scooters'? >> no motorcycles. too dangerous. >> these are some of the things that are being continuously debated. they are the subject of robust debate. you want to facilitate the volunteers ability to get the job done, but do you -- but you do not want to take them so much out of the environment in which they are in that it distinguishes them as somehow being different, and thereby distancing them from the local

nationals that they are supposed to work and serve. so i think these questions are very timely. mark, you raised wonderful questions. the tug always is how do you change but still hold dear the common culture and touchdown values which characterize the agency as well as the volunteers. i think the peace corps volunteer culture is one of the strongest of any agency i have seen. most volunteers -- there is a very strong culture. how'd you preserve that and tackle some of the issues like technology? that is a real issue. >> we have obviously given a lot of thought to this recently at the peace corps, because we are looking at how can we support the next generation of peace corps volunteers. how can the next generation of

peace corps volunteers be most effective? one of the great advantages we have now and in the future is that we recruit change agents. the people we recruit are highly motivated, very talented. they are the best and the brightest of our colleges and universities, people who have experience who could go back to the peace corps later in their career. we start out with critical raw material. the second thing is that we have a way of looking at the priorities of any given recipient country to determine what their priorities are. they are also more demanding. that is changing in the world of development. they are looking for people with higher skill levels. this is not 1960. when we went to liberia, they did not have a national development plan. now they do. the thing about the peace corps is that we take the generalist volunteer. the service is around 85% of our volunteers. we train them to be marked

finance supporters and promoters, to be teachers of english as a second language, which is the fastest-growing area worldwide for the peace corps. the other thing is getting back to something about linguistic skills. we train in 250 different by bridges. we have tremendous resources we can call upon to adapt to the new century and the new generation of peace corps volunteers. i am confident will be able to do that. we are going to look at the length of service, the fact that we are good to be thoughtful in terms of how we sharpen our tools to support volunteers. >> i would offer that one of the aims of the peace corps going forward is that the peace corps increasingly look like the panel sitting in front of you tonight. the reality is that the peace corps has, notwithstanding the great efforts of the current director -- we made it a very

high priority, my predecessors and successors -- the reality is that the peace corps has a long way to go to get to a place where it truly looks like america. the reality is that the america 1961 was a different america. we are a much more diverse society. the peace corps is the face of america going overseas. i think we would be extraordinarily well served by embarking on a very aggressive effort. the secretary made an effort to one of the challenges we found when we did some of the field testing here in the united states, inquiring of people of color why is it that you are disinclined to go into the peace corps. the most frequent response was economics. first-generation college graduates cannot do it. they cannot afford it. the cannot go off for two years. they have to get a job. those are the obstacles people cited as reasons the could not going to the peace corps.

that is a reasonable, viable, and thoughtful explanation, not lacking the desire and determination or willingness to serve, but having economic and other social hardships that exist within this community is sometimes. i would simply urge that the development and training are critically important. but i think that one of the greatest values the peace corps can bring -- i will never forget being in morocco and having someone said, "you do not look like an american." he said, "your skin is dark and your hair is dark." it is a different shade these days, but it was all dark back then. he said, "you do not look like an american." it gave me a platform to talk about the diversity of america. i think this is a critical component going forward and will be important in the future of the peace corps to have a depiction of the face of america in ways we have not seen in the past, for the benefit of the united states of america.

>> i want to invite members of the audience to go to the microphones and ask questions of the panel. one of the great traditions of is john f. kennedy jr. forum that all speakers agree to take questions from the audience. the audience in turn agrees to ask questions. i will remind you of the rule for asking questions in the forum. please identify yourself. please keep your question short and concise. and please make sure your question and with a question mark. [laughter] their arkansas four microphones, two upstairs and two down here. >> i am suzanne. i am from [unintelligible] when you were a director, dr. vasquez -- doctor? [laughter] director?

i now also work in the field of international development. security issues around the world are increasing tremendously. so my question now is -- how is peace corps responding to this? how are you deciding now which countries you will go in? are you expecting them? it sounds as if you are expanding to include some more "higher risk" countries like colombia. i heard you are going to haiti. having lived in haiti last year, i am curious about how that is affected by -- even now the technically peace corps is not part of foreign policy, it is in a way. how the decisions being made involving security and where you go? >> first of all, the security and health of our volunteers, as you know from your service, is first and foremost for the peace

corps. we are only going to countries where we find an environment that is practice of -- that is permissive, where we can safely put volunteers to do the work. we looked at colombia very carefully. we are going to an area where volunteers can teach in a safe environment. haiti is a large country. there are lots of places we can work with poor communities in haiti were volunteers will be perfectly safe. let me say that before we go into a country conduct a careful, in-depth assessment, working on the ground in that country, whether it is on the american side, the un, international donors, or the world bank. we look to make sure volunteers are going to be safe, first and foremost. that is one of the things all of us have had to be responsible for. >> i want to comment on that. you were obviously director during one of the most challenging times. >> yours is a very important

question. it was a question i was asked by many parents after 9/11. i should point out that 60% of volunteers of the peace corps today are women. the split is 60-40. whether we like it or not, the reality is that the level of concern, country to country -- the questions come quickly and directly to the peace corps director. for us, we established the office of volunteer safety and security, which conducts the survey is the director has alluded to. i think we have a very credible process. some of you may remember during my tenure the big day in news, a seven part series on the safety and security of the peace corps. when i interviewed with the reporter, i asked why the interest in the peace corps. he said it w time for somebody to look at peace corps safety and security. that created a good deal of

interest on the hill, which generated legislatn. it also generated trendous responseromhe returned peace corps volunteer community. some of the proposals that were being floated -- for example, let's cluster the volunteers. let us get three or fo volunteers to live together in one location. the feedback from the field, the volunteers, was overwhelming against this. the other was mandate whatever peace corps volunteer has to have a cell phone. that induc reactionlobally up, "not going there," from a lot of different reasons we will not going to. the greatest a colder in all of this is the volunteer, who best knows, in concert with the staff and director, what standards for safety and security are best for that country, and which are most appropriate. it is a constant state of vigilance. i think any of us here -- i did not want to speak to the other directors.

if there was anything that caused me to turn and toss, it was not legislation or funding. it was always safety and security. i needed peace of mind as director of the agency that our policies and practices at headquarters and around the world were a standard that could meet the test, given the difficult circumstances. i think by and large the peace corps has done a great job of providing relatively good safety and security. >> the question over here. >> my name is karen. i am a fellow at the center. i live in kenya, where i was in the peace corps. i went in in 1965, and i went back to live there about 40 years later. the thing that surprised me the most when i went back was the gigantic ngo community which had not existed when i was there in the peace corps. and i have my thoughts about ngos, but my greatest worry when i saw them was -- was the peace

corps a template for the ngos who come in and do for kenya what kenyon's should be demanding that the government do for them? when i hear about an expansion of the peace corps, that makes me very nervous, because i think, and i would like to -- i think what many kenyans would say, and i have talked to many who do not think the peace corps is any different than the other western ngos -- they do not even live that badly. they would say to you, "why are you sending the peace corps here? why don't you use that money and helped to fund programs that kenyans, 40% of whom are unemployed, including many students i teach at the university who can i get jobs when they finish -- why aren't you just giving them money so that kenyans can do for themselves and demand of their government that they provide the services that your peace corps people are providing?"

>> a great question. would you start off on that one? >> per se, thank you for your service as a volunteer. it is an interesting question, and i won i think the peace corps has wrestled with on and off. i would observe the question of the scale and the actual finances of the peace corps, the actual budget of the peace corps and what that would really mean if the peace corps did not exist. if you took literally dollar for dollar, i do not think you have anywhere near the impact, the leveraging impact, of a peace corps volunteer's time. the broader point -- i would share your view that what has changed since you were a volunteer, which is one of my observations about the partnerships for the next 50 years, is the explosion of the ngo community. we would all agree it can vary in terms of its effectiveness. the question for the peace corps, going forward, is how can they get into some of these organizations or not? i think the peace corps could

provide extraordinary help workers around the world. like any other alternative, much less cost, it wanted to, if we funded to do it. my own view is i think these partnerships are essential to the peace corps, whether or not our volunteers are with them. there are different variants of how that are currently operating around the world. i do not see that changing in the developing world as we see that sector explosion. i think the question for the peace corps is how do we best address it. my own take -- i would respectfully disagree with you that the dollar for dollar exchange would not have anywhere near the leverage of the volunteers have around the world. >> my name is vanessa bradford gary. i am a doctor at mass general. i worked at the harvard medical school. one of the things we are trying

to work on -- this is going to play a little bit of the last question. it is the idea of a global health service corps, creating loan forgiveness and scholarship in order to send people overseas into structured programs and in partnership with the places that we are working to develop capacity, new doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technological capacity, and to be able to make investments. somebody already mentioned this to make our jobs redundant. it is about building our partners. the idea has existed for a while. it has been shot down in number of times. we are trying to reinvigorate it. there has been an explosion in global halt interest. global health is now seen as central to our security, development, economists, overall well-being. it is a two-part question and i apologize for that. one thought is you have

mentioned the idea of sending health workers overseas. how often do you see doctors applying, or nurses, or people who have trained and are potentially going overseas to the peace corps? my second question is what do you think the feasibility is? how can we begin to see a program like this take place, either to get the political will going or to get the hill to be willing to do a program like this, or to see -- would this be an extension of the peace corps? i also want to thank you all for gathering, because this is sort of an incredible collection and it is wonderful to hear your perspectives. i will put back to my question. figure. >> first of all, your idea and what you are trying to do is a marvelous idea, and i think you ought to continue to discuss this with the various sources you have been in contact with. i think to the extent the peace corps could participate in that initiative, it would be a perfect partnership. one of the things we are trying to do is to expand partnership

the peace corps is engaged with, with u.s. government agencies, with the private sector, and with leading development ngos around the world. we need to be able to provide better training. we need peace corps volunteers to become more effective at the local level. partnerships are an important part of what we are trying to do. getting back to the first question, about recruitment of people who have health care experience and expertise, there is a healthy percentage receive. not many doctors. more nurses. we see retired doctors. many retired doctors -- i met one not long ago who wanted to go to the peace corps. he did not want to have anything to do with madison. he wanted to do something entirely different. [laughter] he ended up being a teacher in the ukraine. we try to accommodate those type of interests. there is a pretty healthy cohort

of people in health care. they are going into the peace corps. we try to encourage that. the other thing we do is we train generalists to work at the grass-roots level to work on capacity development, an extension agency in the health- care field, whether is h.i.v.- aids or a malaria. >> as you were asking your question, i was reflecting on a lengthy conversation i had with then-senator bill frist of tennessee, who was a medical doctor who introduced legislation to create a global medical corps that would provide a funding stream and process for doctors and other health-care providers to go overseas, a la the peace corps, to provide that kind of support to host countries. unfortunately, the legislation, for reasons of cost, never really got off the ground.

but i suspect that in time this topic will probably emerge again. i will say this. when i was director of the peace corps, we established the peace corps office of global -- the global aids office of the peace corps. we have been applying for funding which the director has done a great job of implementing and maintaining. i as ambassador to the un dealing with food policy had the opportunity to visit countries were people who were living with aids, who are on medication, also have to have, as you probably know from your training, a certain nutritional balance in their life in order to sustain themselves and basically to stay alive. i do believe, and people are starting to write about it now, that we are headed in a direction where we are building a demand for the future that is people living with aids at advanced age. that are going to require more treatment and oversight for the treatment.

we may have to shoulder an increasing responsibility for it. that may create an avenue to create the kind of discussion you have talked about. this is a topic that is starting to emerge because we are being successful in the global aids program in. the result is that more people are living longer. it is sustainable. it requires medical oversight and care. that is an issue we will probably hear more about. for your question, i wish we had a better answer. >> into all for being here, first of all. i am brian moore. i am returned peace corps volunteer for three and a half years. i am also one of the lucky peace corps volunteers who was able to marry a host country national. my country director thankfully signed off on it. otherwise, i would not have been allowed to marry my wife. i am also a student of international development here. south the secretary as well as director williams -- and you

mentioned the concept of diversifying the peace corps as far as volunteers go, as well as strethening the volunteer profile. their ability to make change. how does that fit in with a lot of the bills that are being looked at in congress, or the varieties of bills in congress as far as more peace corps? just sort of to paraphrase development guru [unintelligible] he said, "certainly, more is better. but better is also better. and more is even better after better is better." how is making a better peace corps reconciled with making more peace corps? >> director williams, and also director [unintelligible]

mentioned increasing. i am not that sure i support a really big expansion of peace corps, because i really emphasize -- i really think it is important to emphasize the quality of the experience. and we do have times when volunteers arrive on site and things are not ready. part of that is because they are serving in very difficult countries in which there can be political change. we understand all of that. but i think the quality of experience is very important for the volunteer, for the host country. it is their responsibility to provide meaningful employment that will ensure that volunteers are really being tapped well. first of all, conatulations on your marriage. that is wonderful. this is another role within the peace corps. apparently, peace corps volunteers cannot get married while they are in service unless they get a sign off from the

director. is that another sacred cow that needs to be revisited, director williams? [laughter] >> sure. was that glenn fricke that you quoted? i think better is always better. the peace corps experience in the future needs to be a growth in quality. we want to make sure we continue to provide a quality experience for these remarkable americans who want to serve. we are using the money we receive from congress to invest in training, to invest in providing better staff oversight, and to invest in an ivy -- an i.t. platform that allows us to connect volunteers worldwide so that we in -- so that when we in -- when we discover a best practice we can share it around the world. there is no doubt about it that

my staff and i are focused on trying to get it better, and providing quality experiences for the volunteers. i think those are the kind of investments we want to see. it is important for the future of the peace corps. we need to have a quality program in our expansion. >> i am christopher. i was a peace corps volunteer in guinea a few years ago. i was interested in the comments made earlier about the changing of the terms of service or the duration of service. i would love if that could be expanded upon at some point in more detail, perhaps by director williams. my actual question was more to the question or idea of improving peace corps. the question was inspired in part by the comments earlier about looking to the future and recognizing what peace corps was and celebrating for what it was, but also looking in terms of how we can transform it or keep it abreast of what developing countries need today. i think when peace corps was

created in 1961, it was evident that sending over young american college graduates, recent college graduates, was a commodity that we had. we had something that many developing countries lacked. that was an expertise that was needed. today, i wonder if that is still the case. i wonder if in many developing countries sending over primarily young american recent college graduates is going to be in the best interest of those countries. i think we would all say it is in our best interest as americans. it gets us involved in foreign policy and international development aspects of what is going on in our world. but i wonder if the future of the peace accords to look toward creating -- rather than taking teaching jobs, moving toward a technical support role. that would involve attracting people with more experience,

perhaps graduate degrees, people with more work experience, and putting them in positions where they can hope the government at a higher level make more substantial changes, or helping them develop their policies in a way that would affect our people. >> i would just offer this. director williams has a more contemporary perspective. >> we established -- as an mentioned, they opened the first program in mexico. mexico made clear they wanted a different kind of a program in technology, science, environmental protection. the average age of the peace corps volunteer in the first group of volunteers who went in -- i can tell you they were definitely not in their 20s. there were north of 30. probably both were north of 40. these were men and women with master's degrees in science is, public health, environmental sciences, and what not. then i had the opportunity to

visit with them and to see their program. it was a totally different type of program than what you are accustomed to. that was the type of programming the mexican government was seeking from the peace corps. earlier tonight, the director was telling me the mexican government was looking to expand the peace corps and introduced new areas, though probably someone nontraditional for peace corps, but representative aware the peace corps could go in the future in some areas and some countries. >> i am going to inject a little controversy in here. is that ok? we have tried to -- the director tried that. paul coverdale and i tried to do that in the 1990's by expanding into the former soviet union. you are a returned peace corps volunteer, are you not? if you feel strongly about this issue, talk about it within the returned peace corps volunteer

community, because they are a very important constituent base for the director. i listened to them all the time. i would hear from them all the time. when paul coverdale went into eastern europe and i subsequently went into the former soviet union, because of the compelling events of world history occurring at that time, there were some peace corps volunteers that did not agree with that. you are very much a part of a discussion as to where peace corps volunteers go, how the resources are being deployed. these countries who were more sophisticated, had more literate populations, wanted for skilled volunteers. but it was hard to maintain that. after a certain time, the mechanism of peace corps tended to recruit younger and more

inexperienced candidates. there is an institutional issue here, where the institutions have to change to recruit in a sustainable, long-term, permanent basis, more skilled at volunteers. i am thinking of the secretary of labor. very, very important part of that discussion. >> i am going to ask for two more questions. i will ask for them to be brief. i will take a question here and a question up there. ask them quickly, and then we will -- >> my name is todd schweitzer. i am a first year public policy student from the kennedy school. i just got back from the dominican republic as a peace corps volunteer in june. >> i commend you on your decision. >> thank you sincerely for coming to speak.

thank you very much. it is amazing. my question pertains to peace corps response, or crisis core. when it was founded, it was started, and is now under the leadership of director williams. can you comment on the division you originally had four prices court and what peace corps response looks like today and where it will be? >> let me get one more question and we will take them both together. you do not have a question. we can take one more question. >> my name is greg. i am a senior at the u.s. coast guard academy. my question is for director williams and everybody else. you identified change agents as being a product for the united states in terms of sending abroad. what has been done for peace corps in terms of identifying change agents in the country's you go to, in terms of saying this is a member who can make substantial change for the country going forward, and providing resources to do so? thanks.

>> u.s. about the decision to create the crisis court. i want to talk about the extraordinary values. >> the history, of course, as alain said, was listing to so many returned peace corps volunteers, who would reflect on their years of service, very much want to go back, but were frustrated that their lives are organized and somewhat encumbered. , another 27 months was unthinkable. if the world needs the skill sets of peace corps volunteers. while they might have been lacking a lot of experience when they first went in, coming back later in life, language skills, cross-cultural skills, cultural skills. there was a group in the united states of returned peace corps volunteers unlike any other. the theory was to change a little bit. change is hard in an organization. there is no question. it was a change of the link of service, my opening point,

looking a little bit to peek under the tent of other transport. -- of other variants with the returned community. i think the skill sets are different. i think the theory was to be responsive to needs, to tap the rather unique skills and attributes and attributes returned peace corps volunteers could bring to an area of crisis, but in a way that is less than 27 months. i have been pleased with its progress to date, the difference it has made. >> just 30 seconds. i salute the director for the vision he hado establish crisis core. we deployed crisis corps volunteers to assist after the tsunami in tremont corp's -- sri lanka, thailand we tapped into the crisis court in a way that had never been done before after seeing the

devastation of the tsunami and katrina. we deployed peace corps crisis corps volunteers for the first time on american soil. the response from the volunteers lit up the board with hundreds of our volunteers who said, "send me to work down there." i support the organization. >> today, the crisis court is now called the peace corps response. if we did not have the peace corps response unit at peace corps, which would have to invent that. we need to be able to respond quickly to emerging opportunities that present themselves. we have been able to go back into sierra leone and c olombia because we have peace corps response. we had returned peace corps respondents ready to go back into haiti 48 hours after the earthquake. this demonstrates the resilience and interest of the returned peace corps volunteer community.

it is important. i applaud mark for doing that. it has really been important. when we see an opportunity to go into the country, whether we have been there for a while and want to go in in terms of a new program, we have a tool we can use to provide experience up from talented volunteers with the language skills of the country. i also want to answer the question the gentleman asked me from the coast guard. had we find change agents in countries where we work, where they can make a difference and have an impact in their country? that is one of the things to constantly search for in the countries where we serve. we are trying to identify the best organizations and the best leaders of those organizations so we can get peace corps volunteers to assist them in their role of making a difference in their society. there is nothing more important. there thousands of peace corps stories about volunteers to work with individuals like that who ended up being leaders in their countries in all sectors.

this is ongoing and important from day one, from 1961 on. we have been looking for change agents and continue to support those important individuals to make a difference. men and women who can make a difference in terms of development. >> we have to bring this panel to a close. please join me in thanking the panelists. [applause] for a wonderful, wonderful time. thank you. [applause] thank you. that was great. >> thank you. good job. >> stop by and see me, ok? [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> coming up here on c-span, a

discussion about the legality of the government's although bailout by bankruptcy law experts. then, an interview with naturalist jane goodall on her fifth year at experience with national geographic and then jeff bridges, the national spokesman for the new kid hungry campaign. democrats gained one more seat when a house race was called in california crude one race from the november election continues to be unsettled with the new york first house district. court next week over the counter republicans have gained more than 60 seats in the house. the senate will have 16 new members. 13 republicans and three democrats. ron johnson of wisconsin is one of the republicans. he defeated russ feingold. mr. johnson is a plastics

company owner with no previous experience in public office. rham corp. and -- ron portman is also joining the senate. he was president clinton's budget director. >> take a look at the new members of congress with the c- span video library. every new member is listed with the district map, their campaign finances for the midterm elections and any appearances on c-span. it's all free on your computer any time. it is washed in norway. -- it is washington it your way. this weekend, we will talk with drooling and kent hill, two former secret service agents whose job it was to protect the president on the events of that day. that is sunday night on c-span's

"q&a." >> president obama and vice- president joe biden stopped by a total parts manufacturer. a panel of experts talks about the legality of the government's action. this was in california earlier this month and it is moderated by appeals court judge william fletcher. >> it afternoon. this is a panel on bankruptcy and the rule of law. in judge william fletcher and they have chosen me to moderate this because i am as expert as anyone on the federal article 3 bankruptcy law which means i know almost nothing.

>> i am going to encourage you to talk to the panelists as you talk to me. translate to the audience as well as to me. let me begin by introducing the panelists, and i will introduce them in the order in which they will speak to you. first, stephen levin, who is a recognized expert on corporate bankruptcy and debt and who frequently analyzes these issues for national and international media including but not limited to "the new york times," and the "wall street journal." second, a professor of law at the university of pennsylvania who writes about corporate bankruptcy law as well as sovereign debt and the connection between law and

religion. he is a commentator in print and broadcast media on corporate governance and bankruptcy law. he has written extensively about the financial crisis, including three public -- three publications this year. he has a book due out this month. the foundation professor of law at george mason university and a senior scholar rights in bankruptcy law, and senior -- consumer credit and bankruptcy and personal responsibility. i have to say, he is no friend of the environment as you saw in the longer biography. he has published more than 70 articles, which is an awful lot of trees.

finally, the home team is last. marcus is a professor of law here at stanford. his scholarship focuses on bankruptcy law, a corporate reorganization, a venture capitalism, a silicon valley. he is a fellow at the hoover institution, serves on a regional board of directors and on the editorial board of the cato supreme court review. what i thought we would do is start out with each of the panelists speaking in sequence for a 10-15 minutes. i might occasionally interject with a question or i might scratch my head until the very end. we may have some questions among or between the panelists,

and we would like to save some questions for the end. i encourage you to be brave. that is to say, if there is something you did not understand, you are in very good company. probably everyone sitting in the audience. do not be afraid to ask a question. let us begin. >> thank you. i will begin by drawing out my position on the automotive case, because i know it is not shared by everyone. >> we need to speak directly into the microphones. >> ok. i will stop moving my head at all. here is my take on the automotive cases. for at least 10 years, probably even longer, secured lenders in chapter 11 have been gaining the upper hand. they have played hardball for that time, and as part of playing hardball, they have dictated the terms of quick sales of debtors. so, if you come with that

background knowledge, then what the government did in the chrysler and gm cases becomes a lot less alarming, i think, in the sense that the government was acting just like secured lenders have been acting for more than a decade. where you might have concerns would be if the government was acting, in any sense, beyond what secured lenders could do in all of these other bankruptcy cases. putting to one side the policy question of whether or not bankruptcy in chapter 11 should be going down this road, which is something i think congress could well address, but i think it is not specific to these two automotive cases, all right, with that background -- >> au pair -- i am sorry, could i interrupt for just a minute? number one, in what is chapter 11, and number two, up what did the government do? >> chapter 11 is part of the bankruptcy code. it is the reorganization chapter but it applies most often to large corporations whether or not they are reorganizing or liquidating. it is all done under chapter 11.

for reasons i am happy to answer in the q and a, or maybe david could answer some of the reasons, chapter 11 is the home for large corporate bankruptcy cases. what the government did in both chrysler and gm was use its position as a secured lender, a position it had acquired relatively recently, starting with the late budget ministration, early obama administration, it became -- late bush administration, early obama administration, it became a secured lender on both sides of the bankruptcy line. so basically, entering chapter 11 it said, you have a very

short leash to solve this in a very short period of time. that is was secured lenders have been doing for the last 10 years. they do not want to live through an old-fashioned reorganization with the plan. they saw what happened to eastern airlines in the 1980's which was, eastern link word for a long time and then never came out. the lenders -- eastern lingered for a long time and then never came out. the lenders want to get out of this as quickly as possible. there are political risks with keeping the cases were going too long. the government played the same game and they got the players out relatively quickly. so that, to go back to my overall theme, the way i look at these cases is i only worry

about situations where the government succeeded powers that any secured lender would have, and i do not find many examples of those, although the "wall street journal" did have some examples and the tax-cut of a government doing something a regular lender could not do. all right, so that is my basic take on the automotive cases. with that framework in mind, my justification, or the reason i think the automotive cases were justified but would not be justified in most instances of it is because the debt markets were closed. gm and chrysler could not borrow from anybody else. the government was the only lender available at that moment in time, and of the government had not led to them at that point in time, we would have destroyed a whole lot of value. gm would have liquidated. that would not have been in the interest of creditors, shareholders, employees, anybody. that is my basic take on the automotive bela. also, more broadly in this context, i am more comfortable with the automotive cases ban

in with aig, right? because at least these happened in court with a transcript and some transparency. we understand exactly who was getting what in those transactions. a id is not a very good example, but -- aig is not a very good example, but it seems to be the example that has been adopted by the dog-franc bill -- dodd-frank bill.

.

>> thank you. as i said in the video, i am not sure why i won this award. i am is simply a representation of the youth around the globe in the roots and shoots network.

we were doing actions together changing our communities and changing our world. it is altering our individual futures and our future as a generation. it is an inspiring to me to travel around the country and the world and seek used everywhere i go working in their communities to help might future that to help the future of my children and my children's children. that is what keeps me going everyday. it is an honor to win this award. thank you. [applause] >> i would just like to say one more thing. i wish we coulhad had kai give

a talk. you would understand how major it is. one thing that really struck me , he was one of the first members in 1991. when we asked what roots and shoots meant to him in his life, he said all of the usual things. he said it was important for him to try to be an inspiration for people. he was using his life to try to make things better. then he said, what i really love about the organization is that if i know nobody -- that is what it is all about. >> it is not just the young

people, it is the educated adults to read these groups. tonight we will be acknowledging one of those. would you like to talk about rick? >> rick is a very special man. a lot of my heroes or teachers. this particular teacher is a very special hero. i first met him when roots and shoots was first introduced to the united states in 1993. he was teaching at an alternative high school in connecticut. many of the kids had dropped out. there were coming from dysfunctional families. rick told me that every night he was ready to be woken up and stop somebody from committing

suicide. it was that bad. when i first met him, he was just beginning to recover from cancer. he had been given a 20% chance of living. he had been through a tremendous pain. i remember him saying that he would get through because of the love of his family and that these top students the duty -- who he thought did not care what right and notes and bring him food. he was so touched by how much they cared. he moved on and helped in tanzania. he has mentored hundreds has roots and shoots students. he is a special, amazing person. >> we have video of rick, but we also have him here in person.

you can never get too much of rick. this is for the -- this is for excellence in education. we will watch the video and then we will meet rick himself. ♪ [unintelligible]

>> usually have to wait until you die. this is much better. we have reached a place where we know we are not alone. jiang has always been there for my efforts. --ane has always been there for my efforts. we walked side by side and hand in hand. we hope that everyone we meet is doing more than talking. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome rick asselta.

[applause] >> he already has his award. you saw it in the film. you can go and say some words. [laughter] >> i did suggest that next year we have a cup so we could put some beer in it. [laughter] jane talk about opening a school. she neglected to mention that she saved several lives of the children at the alternative school. when jane came and said they were important and she would be there for them.

she wrote letters to them and encouraged them. there is no better role model on this planet than jane. [applause] from my teacher's perspective, roots and shoots has then a credible motto -- compassion, knowledge, action. you can have all the compassion in the world, but if you do not know what you are doing, you can mess things up. not only has she met the emotional needs, but she has met the educational needs and prevent they can be the best they can be. jane, thank you so much. [applause] >> if some of you were not

watching college football this past saturday, you may have been watching the sundance channel and the season premiere of the "iconoclast" series. it was an episode failed over the summer with jane and charlize theron. it was the first time they had met. jane had been a hero of charlize. it was a tremendous opportunity to for us to share the world bank facility that we operate in the congo, a chimpanzee sanctuary. >> the sanctuary floor or and chimpanzees is the largest in africa. we are not proud of that. their mothers were shot.

they were shot for the live animal trade. some were used as pets and so forth. they come in as victims of the trade. the trade is the commercial hunting of wild animals for food. it is made possible by the logging companies. even if they practice sustainable logging, they make these roads. now they can go on the local trucks up to places that were previously inaccessible. these organs -- the self

resecting hunter wish you a mother with a baby. you do not do that. not it is for money. you shoot the mother chimpanzee and it what you do with the baby? i remember the first time i saw all an eight-month chimpanzee for sale in the marketplace. it was one of the saddest things i have ever seen. it was curled up. he was probably about 1-year- old. i went over and made a great thing that you make close up. he sat up and reached out and touched my face. i could not leave him there. i spoke to the american ambassador. the confiscated that baby. that little chimp is in the

sanctuary. there are over 140 chimpanzees' there. we desperately need of funding to get them into better conditions. we need help from the colony's government. we need the islands are freed up for the chimpanzees. we have to raise the money for the emperor structure. it is desperately important that we do this because the big adult chimpanzees are able to escape. they are so clever perio. they have to be incarcerated.

it is too unsafe to let them out. we did not let charlize and the film crew get to this particular part of the sanctuary. we thought it would be nice to meet some of the baby chimpanzees they go out to the forest every day and learn to play. they are adorable. charlize melted. the equipment that they have their is human playground equipment to play on. >> it is a setting where they can live and play and thrive as chimpanzees should. it but the group on a different island so that they get along well. we know who is there. it is a place where we do not need a fence around the area. we can have the veterinarians

that we have and other staff go there in boats and provide them with the food and services that they need. at some point, we know it would give people a chance to see them in their natural habitat on these islands. it was something we were very excited about. let's get back to charlize for a little bit. people may be interested to note that she and the crew wanted to give back one night to a hotel. she asked if she could catch up with you in the same cap area overnight and get the camera crews away and just sit and tell stories by the fire and get to know each other. i am sure a lot of people are curious what this conversations were when the cameras were turned off. >> we talked about her childhood on a lot. she grew up in a poor family in south africa. everything you had other than

what you needed was a treat. of course, for me it was the warrior. in a way, although i was in england and she was in south africa but a very different age, we had a lot in common. she knew a lot about animals. it was a very lovely evening. she actually cooked the food. it was not that wonderful. [laughter] >> what was it? >> it was some kind of pasta. it was not properly boiling. we teased her a lot. i have to say that she had a fantastic film crew with her. they were absolutely wonderful. everybody was 18. -- everybody was a team.

we wanted to get the message out there that this was a place that really needs help. we should make clear, it is not just looking after the war and chimpanzees. it is also a involving many of the native people. we are improving their economy. we abide food for the chimpanzees from the nearby villages. -- we by the food and for the chimpanzees from the nearby villages. we are helping to build some schools and encourage the government to build roads. we are excited. we have made a difference in the whole area. if we do not bother about the people, the chimpanzees will simply need to be killed.

everything is interconnected. >> i think some people may be under the impression that we can take the chimpanzees and let them out in the wild, but that is not the case. >> first of all, the chimpanzee has been taken from its mother. you have to make sure they learned how to behave like chimpanzees. they have to learn. they are not born with a whole set of instincts that tell them that you climb a tree like this and pick insects like that. they have to learn. they learn by watching. it is trial and error. the other big problem is that, a first of all, the habitat is disappearing. there are many places where there is suitable habitat.

they need that habitat. chimpanzees are very territorial the aggressive. that is the dark side to them. if the put other chimpanzees into a terry -- into a territory with existing chimpanzees, they will attack them. that is for sure. it is really difficult. these chimpanzees have grown up with people. they trust people, but they are not afraid of people, either. it is a dangerous environment. somebody is going to get hurt, either a chimpanzee or a human. they are strong -- they are so much stronger than us when they are adults. it is very difficult to find the ideal place to release them. we hope that we can, but until we can, these islands are a solution for the moment. >> charlize really got that message and was very moved about

her experience. she is from the area, but she also has a group that tries to improve communities there. that is part of the reason why you are giving her an award tonight. she is the real deal. she really backs up what she says. she is very passionate about this. she has also agreed to help us get the islands by did and do other things. you have heard celebrity as much as we, she has turned out to be a real friend of all of us at the institute. she is being given the award for responsible activism in the media and entertainment. she could not be with us tonight. she is filming on location, but she did take a little camera and wanted to send you a special message. take a look. ♪

>> thank you so much, jane. i am so sorry i cannot be with you today. i want to thank you so much for this award and everybody at the jane goodall institute. i do not know if i am quite worthy. i just want to say that being able to spend a couple of days with jane changed my life and has inspired me to continue to do so much more with my africa

outreach program. i think this world really belongs to the generation of the youth. i cannot tell you how much i value the work that we do for all of africa. jane, you are incredible. i love you so much. i accept this award very humbly. thank you very, very much. [applause] >> another thing we have our friend of the table, people may not know the story of our brand. >> he was in the film.

nobody noticed him, but he has appeared two or three times this evening. this is mr. h. he is 15-years old. everyone wants to know if it was the original chimpanzee i had as a small child. he is almost baldwin because he was loved so much. he is home in england in my bedroom and sitting there. this one was given to me by an extraordinary amanda, one of -- an extraordinary man, one of my many heroes. he was in the united states marines. one day he decided he would like to be a magician. everybody said he could not be a good magician if they could not see. he said he could try. the dystopias so good that

children do not know he is -- he is so good that children do not know he is a blind. i have watched imports times. he is amazing. when he finishes his act, he will turn to the children and say that he is blind. they will tell them that things might go wrong in their lives, but there is always a way forward. you must never give up. he doesn't cross country skiing, skydiving. he gave me mr. h for my birthday 15 years ago. this guy has helped me teach more people than i can count that chimpanzees and do not have tails. he told me to take them wherever i go out and you know my spirit is with you. that is the story.

[laughter] he has been to 59 countries in 15 years. he has been touched by more than 3 million people. i do not know how he survives, quite honestly. a puppy got his nose. a child try to pull his head off. mr. h, , it gets them the inspiration of gary horn rubs off. he is very special and very important. he is my mascot. >> i met jerry a few days ago in the hamptons. it was the u.s. premiere of "jane's journey." it is unlike any film you have seen about jane before. he was documented in her present-day when she is touring

300 days a year. th shows are going from one location to the next and disgusting her mission with people -- and discussing her mission with people. we have c-span here tonight. i wanted to thank them for coming out. there is no theatrical distribution date for "jane's journey." come to our web site and we will tell you we have distribution locked up. this movie will really help get the message out. we are very excited about that. anything else about mr. h you would like people to know? >> that is historic. if i have a mission in life, it is to give people hope. there is only one thing for sure, if people lose hope for

its children lose hope there is no hope. what is the point? 8, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. you could pretend to have hope, could you not? i do have hope for the youth. >> wonderful. we have hope because of you. thank you. now for something i am really excited about. quite often when jay does interviews, every once in a while people will throw in a cinder we did not see coming. it helps get to know her outside of the world we all know her work. we gathered together some of those questions and some she has never been asked before

probably. it will give us the chance to see more of jane's side of humor that you have seen tonight. she is a riot. she has a very devilish sense of humor. she told me i needed to learn to be teased a little bit more than what i can take. let's get started. [laughter] ok. now i am in control. jiang, who is your dream date? [laughter] >> my dream date -- it is that bit like you had entered with -- you would have dinner with, is it not? tarzan, of course. [laughter] [applause]

>> you slip in against the other jane, right? >> at 10, i was so jealous of that chain. it was terrible. it took me to africa. i was reading the tarzan books. not johnny weissmuller. my mother had money saved up to take me to the first johnny weissmuller movie. after 10 minutes i'd burst into loud crying. i said, "that was not tarzan." that is something we deprive our children of. we have turned down hollywood movies. there are hollywood people what the to do the story.

like charlize being made -- like charlize beanie, but i am me. -- like charlize being me, but i am me. >> what this jane goodall like to do for a client decides to tease me? >> -- what does jane goodall like to do for find besides tease me? >> i'd like to visit with my family and have fun. >> what is or drink of choice? >> risky. -- whiskey. [laughter] [applause] you call it scotch.

scotch whisky -- without ice, but a little bit of water perio. the other is coffee. >> you have an interesting way a drinking coffee when you travel. >> when you travel 300 days a year, american coffee is not very nice. it tasted like cricket pee. i'd like to take my coffee with me. right now we have the reserve coffee. there is a really good copy growing in the hills above -- it really good coffee growing in the hills above the reserve.

they make it especially. it gives the farmers of more money. more money than they ever dreamed of. that is why the farmers have now agreed to put their conservation .and aside i they cultivate the fields. it is really important. i have one of those emersion coils. you plug it in and put it in a cup of water and it boils the water. they put the coffee -- the boiling water. the copy machines in hotel

rooms, they boil water. the water is never hot. it takes five minutes to come to a boil when i use michael oil. then you give your pantyhose and you put it over like that. it makes the call the perfect. it is light. you can actually watch it and put it on again. [laughter] [applause] >> always thinking recycling. the copy as one of the select products that we have -- the coffee is one of the select products that we have given the jane goodall good for all brands.

it is only done with the local communities are benefiting from our partners being there. i hope we see more. the market carries quite a bit of our products. it is a nice to know that when you go to buy something, it is supporting us. we get a portion of the proceeds. i am not ask you about cooking because i just heard about coffee. what movie did you watch when you want to relax? >> i do not often watch movies. sometimes i watch movies with my sister. we watched "trading places." it is so very funny. it is quite fine. >> all right. what was your most embarrassing

moment while on a lecture tour? >> the most embarrassing moment was probably when we had one of the very first gala events. my mother, who is no longer with us, she was there. she came over and had this very nice skirts. my mother never had a waste. she hated anything tight around her waist. here we are. we have already been to the gala. then we were gathering around having a scotch together with all of our little group, maybe 10 of us. we had chairs around so we could sit in a nice group and tell stories. she stood up in the grand way

and said, "i will leave you children. i am going to bed." as she walked away from us, her skirt fell down. [laughter] >> if you are in great shape. what is your exercise routine? >> no time. >> you have no time for exercise? had you stay in great shape? >> giving a lecture uses just about every muscle in your body. i give lectures so many times a week. you may not move, but you are actually moving your whole body. it is like going through airports looking cases. i try to walk up the stairs in hotels these days because of security. they think you are a terrorist or a spy.

[laughter] i walk along the beach. >> had deal about the house? >> the house belonged to my grandmother. she did not have any money. my brother became a successful surgeon. he mortgaged the house. we got the house because of him. it has a lovely garden. it has always had so many of the family in it that it sometimes seems too small. the garden is the best thing about it. i used to climb the trees and dream about africa. i would get to my window and see the beach. i did my homework. i could see the tall fir trees.

i had to have my tonsils out. i did not want to go to the hospital, so i climbed to the top of the tree and when not come down. funny enough, i never got my tonsils taken out. there was a clear attempt at -- there was a calero epidemic. a sore throat is a very easy way for the polio virus to infect you. i forgot all about my tonsils. i expected when i lost my voice once for talking too much. i saw baker specialists. he as i had my tonsils taken out. i said i never did. he said they are gone. [laughter]

>> if you were stuck on a deserted island, who would you rather be there with -- tarzan or doctor doolittle? >> i have already said tarzan, but actually i would not be very keen on either of them if i could not have a doll. that comes first. dr. doolittle -- he did not like people anymore. he probably would not be a good companion on a desert island except for the dollar. >> can you talk about your perspective on research? >> i was told i had to get a degree. i did not have a degree. he said i had to do a ph.d. at

cambridge university. i was excited because i had all the new information that i had collected. i wanted to make am proud of me. and the national geographic to because they had helped me so much. it was a pretty good shot to be told that i had done everything wrong and that the chimpanzees should not have names, they should have numbers. their i am very naive. i stuck my neck out because i remembered my dog. that is to taught me as a child. they have minds in feelings and should have names. cambridge taught me to talk about these things in a way that they could not be torn apart by

a scientific advisers. >> i hear the college students lapping at that one. [laughter] >> let me tell you the most amazing bit of advice. i had a wonderful supervisor. he was one of my toughest critics. he came to the reserve and said two weeks taught him more about animal behavior that he had ever known. in my nine either way, i talked about one of the champs and her baby. she absolutely loved this baby. every time another youngster would approach, she would start yelling and shaking her hands and chasing them away. he thought that she was jealous.

you cannot say she was jealous because he cannot prove it. i could not possibly prove it, but i was sure that she was. and what did i say? listen students, he said, "i suggest you write that she'd be paid in such a way that if she were a human child you would be able to say she was jealous." they were a bit stickly. you cannot be pulled apart because there is nothing anybody can criticize in that sentence. [laughter] >> we are going to switch gears and get a little more serious. what was our scariest moment out in the wild? >> probably in the very early days. i was walking out in the lake

about this deep. walking on the beach and it this gentle waves came towards me. it was carrying with it a water cobra. there is no anti-venom for that. it as a vicious of venom. it kills quite quickly. the wave deposited it on my foot. i looked at snake and it looked back at me. i kept completely still. i did not hurt it. another wave came and took it away. i jumped out of the water. [laughter]

>> what keeps you up at night? >> lots of things. cruelty to animals. the suffering of some of the people i have met, especially in refugee camps. it is unbelievable what children have to see. it is too dark. terrible, terrible things. actually thinking about some of the native american reservations. yet this utter poverty, this hopelessness. it is the same in canada. the suicide rate is so high. the hopelessness -- set at some point it is money. they need more money to do more things. you have a recession. it is tough. you know that too well.

those are the kinds of things that keep me awake. >> we have acknowledged many of your heroes here tonight. is there one hero of all time for you? >> my biggest hero is my mother. when i was 10-years old -- when i was 1-year old, i had taken it warms debate with me. she came up and tell me to throw them out. she said i'd let them hear they would die. we took them back to the garden together. when i was 10 and reading about tarzan -- it was world war ii. we had no money.

africa was still thought of as the dark continent. cannibals and things like that. the worst -- the most ridiculous standing was that i was the wrong sex. women did not do that sort of thing back then. you got married. yet to be a missionaries' wife or something like that. my mother never laughed at me. she would say if you really want something, you work hard and you take advantage of opportunity and never give up. that was hell i was brought up. -- that was how i was brought up. you have to work hard. you never get up.

when i finally got the money to go to africa -- thank goodness and national geographic came in. they were horrified at the thought of this young girl goi out into the it potentially dangerous forest with the potentially dangerous wild animals who could tear me apart. lewis went on and on saying that i had to come. it was important. she left everything and came out. it was an expedition on a shoestring. these days you have a chance with mosquito netting -- tents

with mosquito netting. in those days we had won 10 between us. he rolled up the sides for air. snakes and spiders and scorpions and all those different things -- i left her alone all day in the mountains. she was amazing. famous the world's most chaperone. she did not do a very good job did she? [laughter] we are going to need to wrap things up very shortly, but i do want to ask, what is next for jane goodall? what did the next 60 years have in store? >> what is next for jane goodall is growing roots and shoots. we need it in all the schools in

all the countries. we only have 121 countries. we are adding countries in latin america. we have not done very well in the middle east. we have one or two schools. i know what the program does to help children in disadvantaged situations. we need roots and shoots in russia. we note the program is bringing christians together in tanzania. i seek in nodding his head because he knows it is true. of course, we have to save not just the chimpanzees, but we have to work with other organizations to save more chimpanzees and rain forests across africa.

otherwise we will never say the chimpanzees. basically what we have to do is change the world and make it a better place. for may -- was for me in the next 50 years? dying. [laughter] yes. by the end of the next 50 years, i will not be here. that is why it is important for the jane goodall institute to grow and become a global organization. that will bring more these things into fruition. we have not been doing this very long. you have a big job ahead of you. we have this great team and i note the j.g.i. people will get it done.

i have been looking for the board. where are you? it is a bit dark. the board and the staff -- i know the status stay long after the time where people go home. you cannot do that when you're trying to finish a grant. the roots and shoots and the young people, it is amazing what they are doing. it is incredible. i get so tired of this saying, but i hear it wherever i go. "we had not inherited this planet from our parents, we borrowed it from our children peer "you have heard that 100 times. it is not true.

when you borrow, you are trying to pay back. we have been stealing, stealing, stealing, stealing. it is about time we did something about that. we talk about people taking this into their own hands because it is their future, they did not make the mess. we made the mess. the young people need the wisdom of the elders. we are two of the elders. kai is nodding again. you need the elders. young people had the energy, the commitment, and the enthusiasm. but we need to do it hand-in- hand. we need to account for more of the grandmothers and grandfathers and get their wisdom. basically, everybody, we are in this together. none of us can do it alone. we all need to work together, to

hold hands. what is so important to me and what is going wrong with the planets is that we have lost wisdom, not necessarily in this room, but by and large the materialistic consumerism society that started off in the u.s. and spread to the u.k. -- it has spread across europe and is racing across asia -- the indigenous people used to make a decision based on how the decision we make today affects our people generations ahead. their decisions either a technique now, that is very common. how does it affect the next shareholder's meeting three months ahead? that is up again and again why we are destroying the planet.

we are destroying the future for our children. we are not borrowing, we are stealing. stealing and destroying. we get together and an all or part as well as our head when we make decisions and we think about how those decisions we make every day are going to affect our children and grandchildren and great- grandchildren and all of them. >> we are going to end with your evening, but before we do, i want to thank everyone for having us here. we have people from a disney nature here. we are excited about our relationship with disney nature in the months ahead. with that, i think we will and this evening. >> it is very much like the

great thing that i started with. i am going to do that one again so you can hear the difference. they call it the singing chimpanzee that you here at night when they are sleeping on different sides. they like to communicate. they like to know where each other or. "here i am." [making chimpanzee noises] >> if you have no tonsils. >> they might like to restore. -- they make might fruit store. -- they make my throat sore. [making chimpanzee noises]

>> and beautiful. -- beautiful. [laughter] [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> coming up on c-span, jeff bridges, the national spokesmen o kids hungry"ids o campaign. at 8:30, the lexington institute

vice president of the impact candidates will have on the federal spending. >> when it raised from the midterm elections remain to be called. new york's first district where the democrat is leading the republican by a little more than 200 votes. they are going to court next week for the celts. republicans have gained more than 60 seats in the u.s. house. when the 112th congress is sworn in, the senate will have 16 new members -- 13 republicans and three democrats. dan coats is one of those republicans. he is taking the seat held by evan bayh who is retiring. mr. coates wrote spent 10 years in the senate before becoming the ambassador to germany under president bush. mr. moran started in the state

legislature before being elected to the house for 14 years. congress is out this week for its thanksgiving holiday break. when it returns, the house will vote on a temporary delay in the 20% cut on medicare reimbursements for doctors. but the house and senate will take up federal spending. the senate continues on expanding the food and drug administration oversight of food recalls. live senate coverage on c-span2, the house on c-span. >> this week marks the 47th anniversary of the assassination of president kennedy. we will talk to a two seeker service agents whose job it was to protect the president. sunday night on c-span's "q&a".

pcs and networks -- we provide coverage of public affairs and american history. it is all available to you on television, radio, online, and on social media networking sites. find our content any time on c- span's video library. we take c-span on the road with our local content vehicle, bringing our resources to your community. it is washington your way, the c-span network. created by cable, provided as a public service. now, academy award winning actor jeff bridges on childhood under and the efforts to end the problem by a 2015. will will also hear from martin of they and the director organization. this national press club luncheon last about one hour.

[applause] >> on behalf of our members worldwide, i like to welcome our speaker and attendees. i would also like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. after the speech