gap and economic productivity. the lower the former, the higher the latter. as klaus schwab, the executive chairman of the world economic forum concludes, women and girls must be treated equally of the countries to grow and prosper. the declaration we will adopt here today can begin to close the gender gap, by making it possible for more women to unleash their potential as workers, and entrepreneurs, and business leaders. and the goals in this declaration of very specific. we commit to giving women access to capital, so women entrepreneurs can turn their ideas into the small and medium enterprises that are the source of so much growth and job creation. we urge examining and reforming our legal and regulatory systems so women can avail themselves of a full range of financial services, and such reforms can also help ensure that women are not forced to compromise on the

well-being of their children to pursue a business career. we must improve women's access to markets so those who start businesses can keep them open. for example, we need to correct the problem of what is called information asymmetric problems, meaning that women are not informed about the trade and technical assistance programs that are available, as we just discussed and agriculture. there are two state the parma programs that we're using to try to model a lot of these approaches. a program called pathways to prosperity connects policymakers and private sector leaders in 15 countries across the americas peter it is aimed at helping small business owners, small farmers, craft people do more businesses, both locally and three regional trade. and the african women's on to partnership program reaches out to women that are part of the african growth and opportunity countries to provide them with

information and tools to take advantage of what agoa has to offer. finally, we must support the rise of women leaders in the public and private sectors, because they bring firsthand knowledge and understanding of these challenges, and their perspectives will add greater value as we shape policies and programs that will eliminate barriers to bring women into all economic sectors. several businesses are already taking significant steps to meet such goals. goldman sacks is training the next generation of women business leaders in developing economies, with its 10,000 women campaign. coca-cola's five by 20 campaign aims to post -- claims to support 5 million women entrepreneurs worldwide by 2020. just this week, walmart announced that it will use its purchasing power to support women entrepreneurs by doubling the amount of goods it will buy

from women-owned businesses globally to $20 billion by 2016. [applause] in an addition, wal-mart will invest $100 million to help women develop their job skills, including women who work on their farms and factories overseas that are walmart suppliers. now, these programs are just the start of the type of permanent shift we need to see in how businesses worldwide invest in women. now, i do not underestimate the difficulty of measuring in what i call the participation age. legal changes require political will. cultural and behavioral changes require social well. all of this requires leadership by governments, civil society, and the private sector. and even when countries pursue

an aggressive structural reforms to get more women into their economy and enhance their productivity, they do not always produce the results that we would like to see. so we have to stay with this. persistence is part of our long- term plan. and while economic orders may be hard to change, and policy strategies -- no matter how good, can only get us so far, we all have to make a choice, not simply to remove barriers but to really fill this field with an active investment and involvement from all of us. those of you who are here today are leaders from across the >> aye. >> region, and it is your choice to come here, it is your choice to focus on women and the economy that will send a message rippling across >> aye. >> -- rippling across apec. the callous decision that will be taken by leaders and citizens to encourage young girls to stay

in school, to acquire skills, to talk to that banker, to understand what it means to give a loan to a woman who will work her heart out to produce a result for herself and her children. and when we do that, we're going to really make a big difference in helping to elevate the age of participation for women. and there are many other areas we have to be attended to. our medical research dollars need to be sure that we are equally investing in when men as men. our tax systems have to ensure that we do not either deliberately or inadvertently discriminate against women. and women should be given the same opportunities to be productive and contributing members of society. but big and bold ideas, i think are called for in our world today, because a lot of what we

are doing is not in achieving the outcomes that we are seeking. there is a stimulative and rebel affect that kicks in when women have greater access to jobs and the economic fortunes of their families, their communities, and their countries. many people say that there are all kinds of benefits that will flow from this, but i want to be somewhat modest in our goals. yes, i do think it will produce more food and more educational opportunity and more financial stability for more families around the world, and that will have a dividend across the full spectrum of society. but our declaration will be meaningless if we do not put our will and effort behind it. i think this summit just might make the history books that people look back in years to come and say, that meeting in san francisco with all of those important people from across the

asia-pacific region said something that had never been said before. they did not just as there that involving women was a good thing to do or the right thing to do. they put their heads together and came up with a declaration committing themselves to really tackle the obstacles, because it will benefit the people we all represent. and then we need to measure our progress to be sure that we are tracking what we care about. we obviously do that in our own lives, but it is important we do it across our countries and our regions. and i am sure that if we leave this summit and go back to our governments and our businesses and focus on how we are going to improve employment, bring down national debts, create greater trade between us, tackling all of that, and always in the back up our mind keep in focus what more can we do to make sure women contribute to those results, we will see progress,

and we will be in the lead and not only serving -- not only asserting what we think should be done, but in measuring and tracking how well we are doing. so i thank you for gathering here in san francisco, mindful that we're on a long journey together. i look out and i see friends from across the region, representing countries that have been so amazing in the progress that you have made in the last 50 years, even in the last 30 years. it will take time. it will take our concerted effort. but i am convinced that if we come into pursuing the promise of this participation age and unleashing and harnessing the economic potential of women, we will see a new and better future. that is why i am honored to be here representing the people of the united states, bearing witness to what begins right here in san francisco, on

september 16, 2011. this is the beginning of a very promising future for us all. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. [cheers and applause] [applause] >> thank you, all. i think we're going right into the high level ministerial meeting. is that right, ambassador? and i have got two of my most

esteemed colleagues here, the foreign minister from indonesia and the foreign minister from australia. and we're going to have a discussion about a lot of these issues and what we all can do. are we going to begin right away? ok, so we're going to have everybody on the panel come join us. we will welcome audience participation and involvement as well, because we want as many good ideas as we can get. just a minute. we will be right there. [applause]

>> i came out to san francisco about seven years ago. i was trained as a carpenter. i got sick of the cold weather and the hot weather. i wanted to pursue art. i thought i really be here for about three years. here i am, 7 years later. ♪ i have problems sleepwalking at night. i wanted to create a show about sleep. a mostly due painting kind of story telling. these are isolated subject

matters, smaller studies for the larger paintings. i fell in love with it and wanted to create more of them. it is all charcoal on mylar. it is plastic. i was experimenting and discovered the charcoal moves smoothly. it is like painting, building up layers of charcoal. it is very unforgiving. you have to be very precise with the mark-making. a mark dents the paper and leaves the material embedded. you have to go slowly. the drawings are really fragile. one wipe and they are gone completely. it is kind of like they're locked inside.

all of the animals i am showing are dead. i wanted them to be taking -- taken as though they are sleeping, eternal sleep. i like to exaggerate the features of the animals. it gives it more of a surreal element. it is a release subtle element. -- it is a really is subtle elements. the range of reactions people get is that normally they get what i am trying to achieve, the sense of calmness, it's really gentle state of mind -- a really gentle state of mind, i guess. ♪

>> what if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go wherever it wants to go? everyone who has donated to it could use it, host it, share it. >> for quite a great deal of team she was hired in 2005, she struggled with finding the correct and appropriate visual expression. >> it was a bench at one point. it was a darkened room at another point. but the theme always was a theme of how do we call people's attention to the issue of speci species extinction. >> many exhibits do make long detailed explanations about species decline and biology of birds and that is very useful for lots of purposes. but i think it is also important to try to pull at the strings inside people.

>> missing is not just about specific extinct or endangered species. it is about absence and a more fundamental level of not knowing what we are losing and we need to link species loss to habitat loss and really focuses much on the habitat. >> of course the overall mission of the academy has to do with two really fundamental and important questions. one of which is the nature of life. how did we get here? the second is the challenge of sustainability. if we are here how are we going to find a way to stay? these questions resonated very strongly with maya. >> on average a species disappears every 20 minutes. this is the only media work that i have done. i might never do another one because i'm not a media artist

per se but i have used the medium because it seemed to be the one that could allow me to convey the sounds and images here. memorials to me are different from artworks. they are artistic, but memorials have a function. >> it is a beautiful scupltural objective made with bronze and lined with red wood from water tanks in clear lake. that is the scupltural form that gives expression to maya's project. if you think about a cone or a bull horn, they are used to get the attention of the crowd, often to communicate an important message. this project has a very important message and it is about our earth and what we are losing and what we are missing and what we don't even know is gone. >> so, what is missing is

starting with an idea of loss, but in a funny way the shape of this cone is, whether you want to call it like the r.c.a. victor dog, it is listen to the earth and what if we could create a portal that could look at the past, the present and the future? >> you can change what is then missing by changing the software, by changing what is projected and missing. so, missing isn't a static installation. it is an installation that is going to grow and change over time. and she has worked to bring all of this information together from laboratory after laboratory including, fortunately, our great fwroup of researche e-- g researchers at the california academy. >> this couldn't have been more site specific to this place and we think just visually in terms of its scupltural form it really holds its own against the architectural largest and grandeur of the building.

it is an unusual compelling object. we think it will draw people out on the terrace, they will see the big cone and say what is that. then as they approach the cone tell hear these very unusual sounds that were obtained from the cornell orinthology lab. >> we have the largest recording of birds, mammals, frogs and insects and a huge library of videos. so this is an absolutely perfect opportunity for us to team up with a world renown, very creative inspirational artist and put the sounds and sights of the animals that we study into a brand-new context, a context that really allows people to appreciate an esthetic way of the idea that we might live in the world without these sounds or sites. >> in the scientific realm it is shifting baselines.

we get used to less and less, diminished expectations of what it was. >> when i came along lobsters six feet long and oysters 12 inches within they days all the oyster beds in new york, manhattan, the harbor would clean the water. so, just getting people to wake up to what was just literally there 200 years ago, 150 years ago. you see the object and say what is that. you come out and hear these intriguing sounds, sounds like i have never heard in my life. and then you step closer and you almost have a very intimate experience. >> we could link to different institutions around the globe, maybe one per continent, maybe two or three in this country, then once they are all networked, they begin to communicate with one another and share information. in 2010 the website will launch, but it will be what you would call an informational website

and then we are going to try to, by 2011, invite people to add a memory. so in a funny way the member rely grows and there is something organic about how this memorial begins to have legs so to speak. so we don't know quite where it will go but i promise to keep on it 10 years. my goal is to raise awareness and then either protect forests from being cut down or reforest in ways that promote biodiversity. >> biodiverse city often argued to be important for the world's human populations because all of the medicinal plants and uses that we can put to it and fiber that it gives us and food that it gives us. while these are vital and important and worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars, the part that we also have to be able to communicate is the more spiritual sense of how important it is that we get to live side

by side with all of these forms that have three billion years of history behind them and how tragic it would be not commercially and not in a utilitarian way but an emotio l emotional, psychological, spiritual way if we watch them one by one disappear. >> this is sort of a merger between art and science and advocacy in a funny way getting people to wake unand realize what is going on -- wake up and realize what is going on. so it is a memborial trying to get us to interpret history and look to the past. they have always been about lacking at the past so we proceed forward and maybe don't commit the same mistakes. >> when there is this a

children's theater, it is a good theater. it is a good theater, you would like it, even if it is for children. that is what i think. i feel like it is both a story for kids and for much older people. it is both about being a young child and letting a toy or a friend, and it is also about what it means to get old. ♪ >> in 1986, my son was two, and i decided i would like to go over the story of the velveteen rabbit, mind you i had never read it myself as a child. i only heard it as a mother. my first-time hearing it was a bedtime story recording. it was through that that i found the theme and determined how it

was going to produce this story. it was through listening to it. when a first mated, i really did watch my son, because i took him to live performances as soon as six months old. he loved it when someone was on the stage. he loved it when somebody was reading to him, the language. >> there was once a velveteen rabbit. >> usually when the bunny first comes out ago, ah, the rabbit. i think kids can relate to it. and they built love nana. nana is the man at all figure in the show, and she represents stern love. the ferry is also played by the

same person. -- the fairy is played by the same person. it is like the love you have for your first child. pure love. >> i think nature is a beautiful thing. all the wild rabbits come from nature. i like that. i think nature is mysterious, a beautiful, and not something our kids get very much these days. ♪ >> there is fantastical spectacle these days because of computers and films. i feel that in a live performance, being pared down, you can be more successful you can ask everybody to buy into the world you're in. if it is a simple world, they will buy into it, as long as the world is consistent that you have onstage. in some ways, i also want that message for kids.

the world does not have to be spectacle. the world can be about relationships, how you feel, and having fun and taking them seriously. and not about being blown away. >> what is real, asked the rabbit one day. >> it is a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time. >> i think it is a success because, for the most part, if you are 3 or 7 years old, you sit in the sea, and the kids are engaged. they laugh and ask questions but that is part of the success. i think the fact that we tour and do it here and still have audiences says it is a lasting. i really want to say that it is lasting is because of the story is a gentle story.

if it was just ok, it would not have lasted this long. i have had people come up to me and say that was the first dance show i ever saw and that is why i am a choreographer today. i have had people come back after being in the shows and come back to see it when they're 20 and 23 years old. little kids and people in their 50s and 60s tell me how much they love it. and they come back more than once, year after year. ♪

>> hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us this evening. my name is sandra. i'm part of the arab heritage month committee. we would like to welcome you to our annual arab heritage month celebration. on behalf of the mayor's office and the city of san francisco. >> hi, everyone. thank you for joining. we were technically supposed to start at 5:30, but we are a few minutes early. that's pretty good. we're usually late. thank you for coming. this is the third year we have initiated the cemenevent. this is a very interesting year to be an arab, i would say. many things are happening

throughout the arab world. as you may have noticed, there's been a slight change in the flag. we have a new libyan flag. [laughter] [applause] we have four arab countries in the entire arab world where people are finally speaking up. for many of us in the san francisco bay community, we've known far too long what's been going on in the arab world. the reason there is a thriving arab-american community in the area is because many of us had to leave our homeland due to political persecution or the fact there's no respect for our dignity. in the san francisco bay area, we came together from all over the arab world to live. thank you,