t bartholi had the idea of moses liberating an, cultivated person at the time would know that the vocal story. the fact that his original ea was to put it in egypt, and that he had been involved abolitionist activities certainly makes that a completely plausible sensible idea, that somewhere in there was the idea that the statue was a kind of moses, liberating the jewish slaves. absolutely. >> one of the things to mention about abolition -- that is, by the time the statue we up in 1886, it took a long time to build, by then, the

reconstruction period was over. it had turned a fair number of americans against the way reconstruction had unfolded. so the imagery of abolition had been submerged, really, enormously. the 18 eighties were a period of a lot of racial strife in this were a period0's of racial strife in this country. there were lynchings. there was an average of two lynchings every week. the african american commentary on the statue of liberty when it went up was quite hostile. it said, what does this image of liberty mean in a country wre people of african origins are suffering in that way? there was a feminist reaction to. you have made liberty a woman

and we do not have the right to vote. there was a group of suffragists who chartered a boat and sailed it out to the statue of liberty for the inauguration ceremony. they had a bull horn. there were almost no women as part of the official ceremony. they spread this suffragist message, which is that, if you are going to represent women -- as liberty, guinea to give us liberty. >> the statue still serves as a counterpoint for political movements around the world. why don't we sum up by talking about ways in which the statute exists all over the world to make different statements? >> probably the one to begin with is the goddess that the chinese students put up in tiananmen square.

this very explicitly was designed to be a replica of the statue of liberty -- the young man who came up with the idea had a postcard of the statue of liberty. he was from a town of thr hours by train from beijing. the reason why i know about this is that he was interviewed in "the new yorker." he told the story. he gets on the train, goes to beijing with this photograph of the statue of liberty, and he goes to the art school and he and students there decide that they need to represent their movement by creating a statue of liberty. they build this goddess of liberty out of papier-mache and other materials. at the last minute, thehange the features of the statue to make it look more chinese, for fear that the government would come down on them if they

produced to obviously western of an image. but ere is a photograph -- unfortunately, i could not to be rights to it, so i could not put it in my group -- book. there's a photograph of the goddess of liberty at tiananmen square looking straight at a huge banner of mao, as if to say, we are going to make it and you are not. that is the clearest representation of a way that other people have used the statue of liberty to represent ideals of liberty that they want. but there are almost 40 countries around the world that have replicas of the statue of liberty. there four in japan. there are two from earlier periods in china, pre-communist. in china. france has 13 replicas of the statue of liberty. three in paris alone. there are in the u.k. -- in ukraine, there is a statue.

any place where at a point in time people have wantedo express their desire for liberty, for change, for a better way of life, the statue of liberty is an image that has come to mind. that is why i think there are so many replicas. >> i love one of the things i have heard you say before, that she comes to represent what ever we need her for. i think that is a great idea, that she is both a piece of the past and is also leading the way for ideals. >> i think that is why, after 9/11, we needed her for reassurance, for a sense of persistence. she had been there in new york harbor for more than 100 years. she was unscathed by this attack. we could look at the statue of liberty as a hope, that she has persisted and so will we. >> great. i know that this is only a

fraction of what you touch on in your book "the statue of liberty, a trans-atlantic story." i would encourage everybody to learn from it and continue to visit here at the museum of jewish heritage. and thank you for being here tonight. [applause] >> lee saunders discusses his plans for the union, the upcoming presidential election and other related issues. sunday at 10:00 and 6:00 eastern. >> one of my favorite things to talk about -- it takes half of cow and a lot of turkey. most of the drugs are given so they grow fast to make more

money. now with that animal is killed and the meat -- the drug is in there. >> this weekend, martha rosenberg looks like the food and drug industries and fines government complicity and undermining the public's health. >> a panel discusses global challenges including climate change, poverty, unemployment, and human rights violations. the intergovernmental panel on climate change, the red cross, and the international labor organization. this was part of the 12th annual summit for nobel peace laureates. >> we do not mean investing by

pulling out a checkbook and writing a check, although that is always helpful for nonprofit organizations. more about how our panel here has invested their lives to peace with a message to young people and how we can all get a little more involved. i will begin with a doctor. it seems to me about five years ago when al gore did " inconvenient truth"it was a popular culture. people were talking about it. it seems to have been eclipsed, yet the climb a problem is worse than ever. how did that happen? >> i think in any field of new knowledge that the mergers, if you go through history there is always a history where there will be ups and downs.

scientists welcome the debate of climate findings. there is often a very strong reaction. i would like to point out the fact that al gore's movie was titled appropriately. "inconvenient truth." sometimes these things, knowledge in particular can be inconvenient. therefore you would see some changes in public perceptions. let me say there is a colleague of mine that carries our regular surveys of public opinion. you find in the last three or four months there seems to be a shift. in particular, a long -- a large number of americans believe some of the freak weather events taking place are the result of climate change.

they have brought out a special report on extreme events and disasters five months ago. that has come up that some very profound findings based on observations and forced projections of what will happen in the future. i just want to mention two of them. the first is with respect to heat waves. these are clearly on the increase and intensity. to give you an indication, both he waves that take place once in 20 years. if we do not do anything about climate change, by the end of this century those heat waves -- those of the same intensity would take place once every two years. the other. want to make is the fact that extreme events are on the increase. so much so that even in those regions of the world where you

have a declining average precipitation, a larger share of it will now occur in the form of heavy forms. the. i am making is that common knowledge is becoming far more incontrovertible. i am reasonably confident in the next few years if not earlier, the public will accept the realities of climate change and the scientific basis for it. i hope human society can do something do you like when peope term global warming or do you prefer climate change?

earth's atmosphere. we have made two important findings. the warming of the climate system is unequivocal. secondly, most of the warming that has taken place since the middle of the last century is on account of increase in a man- made concentration of greenhouse gases. we use the term lightly that conveys a probability of over 90%. that is where we are. therefore i would say it is far more accurate and reflective of reality to use the term climate change rather than global warming. >> i was speaking with the actress gloria reuben about some of the concerns of climate.

there is increased productivity, there is a drought. we were feeling this extreme weather conditions. what frightens you the most right now? if you were going to look at how our lives are being affected? >> there is a whole range of things. what concerns me is the fact that the impact of climate change will fall in some of the most moral regions in the world on communities that are least equipped to handle the impacts. bangladesh, the small island states which are highly vulnerable. there are regions in africa where it will decline substantially. these are communities dependent on rain for agriculture and they are not producing agricultural

produce for sales and the global market. they produce barely enough to take care of their own needs and they already have high levels of malnutrition. all of this put together plus the scarcity of water in several parts of the world. there is a combination of things. my concern is -- it is not for the scientific community to come to any conclusion on this -- my concern is with all of these realities, you could have major disruptions in the stability of society itself. this can happen in other parts of the world. >> would you want to weigh in? are you seeing any climate change problems in bangladesh? >> we see floods are becoming

more frequent, more intensive. weather is becoming more unpredictable. a. i want to make sometimes when we talk about environmental degradation and climate change, we take it as if this is a chapter of many other things. separate things we are taught. i think it is part of many other problems. the problem of food crisis, very quickly it comes into that issue on the culture. we are losing land because of the climate change. the food crisis itself is a separate issue. poverty is a separate issue. similarly, a financial crisis. these are expressions on the manifestations on the same

fundamental problems. the fundamental problem of the whole framework of the way that we work. our previous panel we were discussing making a reference that we need a new economic order or a new world order. for me it does not an economic or world order, it is a creation of a new civilization. the way we have carried on from the past, i do not think we carry on the same way, taking pieces separately. we have to design a civilization where many of these things do not exist. i think that is a starting point. many of the things we take for granted is something coming out of the conceptual framework -- the economic framework with the

businesses, financial structure, the way we interact with each other. unless we address that, we can go on a piece by piece basis and we will not solve these problems. >> in the 1960's, lyndon johnson had a war on poverty. do you ever see a day there will be no poverty? a we ever eradicate poverty in the world? >> i have been saying that for many years. it sounds ridiculous or absurd. we brought all the leaders of the world to adopt millennium development worlds. the number one goal is to reduce poverty by half by 2015. this is an accepted thing.

many nations are moving ahead to achieve that goal. bangladesh will be one of those countries achieving millennium goal no. 1. if we accept that. if you can reduce something by half, if you continue the process somewhere you will come to the zero point. this is an obvious logic that you can take. reducing poverty 20 is not something unthinkable. today we have the millennial development goal for phase one up to 2015. soon we will be preparing for millennium development goal for phase two. this is an issue they will be addressing, when do we achieve this. the question is not whether it can be done, the question is how fast we can do it.

we have the technology. we have the ability. we have the creative power. we have all the things combined possible to make it faster. if we put a date to it, then it is possible. we should soon be ready to create poverty solutions. we should get ready to build poverty museums. the city would be proud that we can make it happen. we put all the examples of poverty in the past. we will not go back to it again. it is goodbye forever. that is what the whole world can do. it is not a question of technology. >> what about corporations that

are really worried always about profit? how do we get companies involved more with dealing with issues of poverty? >> today the conceptual framework of economics is that in business all you do is make money. moneymaking is your mission. it makes it so we learned so much we train ourselves so much every day that it becomes a habit. sometimes it becomes an obsession. sometimes it becomes kind of an addiction. we keep on making money. we do not know why we are making money but we do it. that is what we put them. my point is, human beings -- the conceptual framework makes it appear in the framework as if there is a money-making robert.

everything we created wrong, everything we have falling in the trap with environmental problems and other problems, this is all because rigid human beings are multi diamonds and all. you can make money and can change the world. we can do it in the business world. we can create a business to make money. we can create a business to solve problems. all the technology we have in our command all over the world, who is commanding this technology? it is business. they make more money out of it. if we can open a door where that technology can be used to solve problems. all the problems are basalt. if he put all the creativity of human beings and all the technology of human beings on one side and put all the

problems of the world on the other side and make them fight with each other, my prediction is the human creativity and technology will be the winner. we do not connect. we do it in a separate world. if it is a problem, leave it to the government to solve it. that is where we go wrong. >> if i could make a comment. i think we need to change our metrics of what constitutes human progress. [applause] it was gone the who said -- speed is irrelevant if you are going in the wrong direction. i think what we measure is speed in the wrong direction. we believe that doing very well is doing better every day. as a matter of fact, despite the outstanding work that a person

like professor has been saying, poverty in the world is still a major storage. it is a serious problem. i think the stresses that they have are only going to be exacerbated with the impact of climate change and other related challenges. i think we really need to shift gears some. i do not know how it can be done. maybe the younger generation knows. >> create a new kind of business to go along with the profit creating business -- a business to solve problems. green and creativity. of all people, the young generation who has an enormous a bout of creativity. if they can design businesses to solve problems without having any intentions of personally benefiting from it, many problems can dissolve. we include that in our text

book. we will have an option to see how much you want to use this to make money and how much you want to use business to sell problems. in thes get to you conversation here. what can the united nations do on poverty, climate, what is the united nations doing when it was created in 1945, the united states was the dream of fdr -- many people do not know what the u.n. does and they think the united states should have less influence in the u. n. >> let me take a practical approach. some of the big issues were analyzed. the u.s. and is providing a platform for solutions. once we can agree on the global challenges and topics too big to be resolved for one country,

needs the cooperation of all companies -- countries, we can start looking for a solution. we have tremendous challenges and opportunities. in 50 days from now, we are having a conference which the secretary general has defined as the most important conference are a generation. an enormous challenge which means by 2050 there will be 50% more people living then 10 years ago. we have to stay within this famous 2% earth warming, which is much too high for many scientists. we have to reduce emissions by 50%. we are adding a billion people,

we have to create opportunities for these people. not only opportunities to survive but to be well off. why do we have to produce co2 omissions? we need nothing less than a revolution. we need a total rethinking of the way we produce and consume and how we live together. we cannot afford to continue as usual. if we continue going on as usual, in a very few years, the deficit will be 40% between the supply globally. how do we provide opportunities for the billion extra people every year while we reduce the co2 emissions. at the same time, reduce social inequalities and provide economic access -- access?

it is lack of access. it is economical lack of access to the gains of society. we have added 60% of wealth globally in the last 15 years but we still have 1 billion people who go to bed hungry, who live with the famous $1.25 per day. people not being able to provide social security, clean water, access to education -- any social security to their children. how are we going to do that? we have nothing better than growth. our economy has to grow to a common -- accommodate the jobs. all the things we have been referring to has not been producing jobs. if you look at the world today, the first crisis we find ourselves and -- no country is

exempt any more from crisis. globalization is that nobody is immune from the shock waves. it hits every part of the world. the largest economies of the world have 50% unemployment today. how do we provide opportunities for young people in the future? we talk about it in the united nations first about the grain economy. we have to get away from dirty energy. this is the first way we reduce co2 emissions. how do we get away from oil and corn? there is a 60% of energy efficiency in the united states and the past 15 years. already today we produce $1 of gdp with 60% less energy.

if we continue like this, it is a very good development. if we come together and if the heads of government to have already -- if they come together and the fine for the next 10 or 15 years which includes the energy goals, meaning increasing energy efficiency by 50% after 2030, increasing -- we have the technology, we have to make the technology accessible. whether we invest in dirty

energy by subsidies which leads us into a dead end street or whether we read channel into renewal bulls to lower unit prices to come in with more realistic -- we can do it easily. >> what about a young person here in chicago that wants to be environmentally sensitive. nobody likes the word dirty energy, coal, gasoline stinking up the air -- here we are in a political season where gasoline prices are key. you look at our major companies in the united states that are at the top -- exxon mobile and they almost become like cartels. there is some evidence we may be on fossil fuels for 20 or 30 years. what could a young person 16, 17, 18 do to help of this revolution you are suggesting is

needed? >> i went to one of the high schools here. i think the group of people is here. we had a discussion there. i think it is important to include not only old people and young people but all the stakeholders. everybody has something at stake. include them to work together with us. we have to establish the parameters to realize and to restore we decide and achieve globally, they need to be held accountable. they are held accountable by young people who need to go out and make decisions and make us aware they have a responsibility. i think the focus is about to advise to name a special adviser on youth who will work out an action plan for young people to include them. this is a huge challenge. young people need to participate.

to make the heads of state in government aware -- who are we doing it for? who are the bet officials? we are not working in a glass house. we are working for real people. the positions we take have an effect. the most important issue is, how do we create opportunities that makes decent work for young people. they are predictable so young people can invest into the future, into families, houses, businesses, into their own future and take their own life into their own hands. >> we have in the united states a ccc during the great depression. could there be a climate conference -- conservation corps, starting reforestation projects, spending summer work programs in a peace corps of

climate with young people. >> that is a good idea. we have to be aware that climate change is only one aspect of the global challenges. it is going to be totally rebuilding production petals. rebuild our economy. debase it. get independent from oil, coal, and gas. is very possible. a recent study in the united states points out that if we do nothing and continue in the past few years, by 2015 when increasing productivity by more the 150%, we will be oil and gas independent just because they do not have a business case anymore. if we stop subsidizing the dirty energy and just internalizes -- have a clear and transparent

pricing for energy, many of the energies we have been relying on in the past just don't have a business case. i think that is the biggest driver for the future and for innovation. >> let me bring you in on this conversation, particularly again talking to some of the member people here. what is your personal story? how did you get so involved in social justice issues, human rights? what was it like growing up in el salvador? >> i grew up in the middle of civil war. words such as justice or social justice or definitely a bad word. there was violence. even consciousness about what was unfair. it was something that took some time to realize.

i manage to get a perspective of what we were talking about and what the groups were talking about. i left a very young. >> for people not familiar with what happened, what did you grow up experiencing? >> there was terrorism. there were bombs in the markets. there were movements of students at the university. it was very difficult for students to go to school because if he would go to a private university, you could be considered a right wing university -- you could be killed by the terrorists. if you go to a public university were considered a terrorist. you were risking to be kidnapped. there were polarization's. they got organized that the war.

else of the door was over 10 years. i heard today many of the speakers have helped during the we had a peace agreement finally. >> you work with the international labor organization. what does that do? >> i think it is a fantastic opportunity to speak to students. this morning as well, i was at a high school and had a great opportunity to explain in simple words what it is about. in the words of eleanor roosevelt, she kept saying everybody should be following closely the word of the ilo. i will read a brief quotation that says, we are driven by feelings of justice and humanity. as well as by the desire to guarantee permanent peace in the world.

permanent peace in the world. this quotation is not from today. this quotation is from 1919 -- 100 years old when the ilo was founded as part of the treaty of verse style that ended the first world war. what is interesting is that after having been born after a world war where the ideals were to address the root causes of the injustices of the war and the visionary response was to put together three main actors for the world of war which as employers, organizations. we heard the president of poland saying about having these discussions. this is exactly what the ilo

brought about. when we leclair history because it is important to look it ourselves almost 100 years later from when the organization was built, we see that every moment where we had or. -- war. in 1944 we had an amendment to the constitution of the ilo. this was through the declaration of philadelphia there was something signed in the united states that expanded the role of the ilo to look at human rights at the center of social policy and also to include economic planning. interestingly, many people might not know that the human rights declaration that was written in

19408 -- the international drafting committee used the ilo constitution for the concept of human rights. the ilo continued the work of setting international standards. it also had a mandate to look after social protection for all. to create productive employment for the economies and as well to foster dialogue so that we do not have to go to war. these are the pillars for our structure. when we had the noble peace award, it was because of the work we had done after the world war. it was because of the international standards that we had been advancing and continue. because we have a fight for social justice in the world in

the world of work, the hard at the lives of everybody. everybody gets up if they have a job and they go to work. i am telling you all of this because now here we are. we had an important declaration that shaped the i bellow after the second world war. -- aiello after the second world war. we were instrumental for the democracy is established in south africa, and poland, and we continued to strengthen with declarations. we had another declaration at the time. it was the declaration of mental rights at war. it ended and it increased the free markets. it increased globalization. it was another transition and

another interesting turning point. in 1999, we had the very first director-general from the south. at the heart of the new changes that we had, he had to bring the contemporary terms to all of these valleys at the ilo. it is a lot of information to say to the world, this is a proposition. this is what we have to do for the world and for human rights that work. the concept of decent work encompasses a few things. we are pushing for the ilo -- we are pushing through at the ilo decent work for all. >> what frustrates you the most? then in president carter at lunch spoke about some of the spirit eleanor roosevelt's -- we

are not living up to those in the united states. what do you wish the world community could do regarding human rights if you could really change a behavior or two? >> it is interesting because this question was this morning at the school. i think that if you look at our conventions, we have 189 conventions. the very first one on 1919, there were six conventions. we had the last one that was 189 on domestic workers. it related to the work of this group of people who have not had rights. i would say if you look at the work, if you look at the conventions and declarations, we heard today from president -- enough words, let's walk the talk. i think the biggest frustration

right now is that we have many instruments to make it work. we are not using them to the extension that we should. we have committed generations -- i stand here on behalf of generations that have given their life in these organizations, which is also all the governments of the workers or the employers or the staff of the ilo that have been putting this forward and the work is there to get a sense this on one declaration. you need the consensus of workers, of 183 nations with employers and with governments. and we get it. incredible negotiations and dialogue. the value of what we have in something very important that i want to say in this very last

decade -- the declaration that was put forward as a result of the globalization is a declaration on social justice for a fair globalization that addresses basically the issues for having decent work as the instruments to bring to a fair globalization -- to bring social justice to this new way of exchanging. >> i want to bring alexander. he has been patient. the international red cross, you have no problem with a brand identity. everybody knows the red cross. what do you feel is the crux of the mission of your organization at this point in time and how do you decide where to go into and where not to go? >> our priorities are

emergencies. we decide to go wherever we have -- it is not a question of mandate or politics, it is not media attention -- we decide to go wherever we see humanitarian needs. wherever we see that, the international red cross has an added value in addressing these needs. .