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Skriven 2006-01-06 23:33:22 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0601066) for Fri, 2006 Jan 6
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at U.S. University Presidents Summit on International
Education Luncheon
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
January 6, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at U.S. University Presidents Summit on International
Education Luncheon
The State Department
Washington, D.C.



1:15 P.M. EST

MRS. BUSH: Thanks so much. I hate for everyone to stand right in the middle
of their lunch. But thank you all very, very much for doing that. And
thanks a lot, Dina, and thank you for what you do every day to get out the
message about our country. I appreciate it very much.

And I'm here to introduce our next speaker. But of course, I had to take
this opportunity to just tell you all a few things. I was in Tanzania when
they sang that special song for me that they'd written the lyrics about on
a program that is actually, I think, run by the State Department, and that
is to get books into libraries and school libraries in Africa. And so it
was really a thrill to be able to represent the United States at this new
library in Tanzania with all of the students and then their libraries
stocked by the United States government with books.

I am so thrilled to be here with all of you. I know that the universities
that are represented here, the ones that you represent, are uniquely
situated to foster connections between people in our country and people
around the world. And I know you already do so much, from your student year
abroad programs to foreign service opportunities that you offer your own
American students. Many, many American students have the opportunity to
travel and work in other countries, and I appreciate that very much.

And then, of course, you welcome thousands of foreign students to your
campuses. I'm really happy that the Iraqi and the Afghan Fulbright
Scholarship has resumed. Several schools participating in this summit host
Fulbright recipients, and I want to thank you all for doing that.

In 2004, George and I hosted the G8 leaders in Sea Island, Georgia, and for
the Spouses Program, I invited an Iraqi Fulbright Scholar, a young woman
who was at Indiana University then, and now she's at Duke working on her
Master's. So at a meeting with Cherie Blair and Bernadette Chirac and
Sheila Martin from Canada and Lyudmila Putin, Dalia, this lovely Iraqi
Fulbright Scholar, told us her story. Her family lived in a town on the
border, Iranian border, of Iraq, and when she was a little girl during the
Iraqi-Iranian war, her village was gassed. And she was temporarily blinded
because she was little and she -- she was four, and she was separated from
her family, and so she drank water from the street. And so she was injured
more than her sisters were. She was one of nine girls. The parents
continued to have a son -- tried to have a son but never did.

But anyway, now, of course, she gets to be here in the United States
studying with her Fulbright Scholarship. And she told us, and I think this
is very instructive for all of us, how disturbed she was by the impressions
Americans had of Iraq, and that when she told students in her university
where she was that she was from Iraq, people gasped in horror because
Americans' impressions of Iraq are so bad. And she wanted all of us to
know, each one of these spouses of the leaders of the G8, she wanted people
to know the real Iraq and not the Iraq that the media portray. And she said
Iraq is a country of 25 million people, each with their own hopes.

And so not only in the United States here with her Fulbright Scholarship is
she learning about the United States, but she's also having the chance to
instruct us about her country.

Another great program that's run out of the University of Nebraska has been
bringing female teachers from Afghanistan to the United States every
semester. It's for a very intensive teacher training program. The Afghan
teachers then go home and train other teachers in an effort to get as many
teachers into rural areas as possible, and especially as many women
teachers in rural areas as possible. They go to very specially designed
classes, and they live with host families in Nebraska. Well, each one of us
know what those families would be like. I mean, it's no surprise to us that
the families in Nebraska who offer to host foreign students, Afghan women,
would be the most decent, the most generous kinds of families. But these
women -- and I've hosted each of these groups of Afghan teachers at the
White House, usually on their way home back to Afghanistan since we started
the program -- and they always seem really sort of shocked and surprised at
how kind and generous their host families are.

We know, then, that they go back to Afghanistan and they have a real
picture of what American life is like in the heartland of our country. And
we want more people around the world to see and know the real picture.

Later this month, I'm going to visit Ghana with six university presidents
from the United States to unveil the Textbooks and Learning Materials
Program. This program links minority-serving colleges in the U.S. with
institutions in Africa to provide textbooks and school supplies for African
students. I know that by working together, our government and our
institutions of higher education can introduce people around the world to
the America we know. Ours is a just and tolerant society, a home to people
of many faiths and many backgrounds. And certainly none of us claim that
the United States is perfect. But we know it's a far better country than
the caricatures of America lead many people around the world to believe.

So as we seek to understand and know other cultures, we also want people in
other countries to better understand us. And the woman leading that effort
here at the State Department is our featured speaker, Karen Hughes. Karen
is an accomplished communicator. She's an expert in reaching out to people
and getting messages heard. And I've had the pleasure of Karen's friendship
for many years, and I'm always impressed by what a great listener and
effective speaker she is. So please welcome the Under Secretary of State
for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes.

(Applause.)

END 1:23 P.M. EST

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