Live Blogging the CA Women's Conference: Part two of Opening Session

Christiane Amanpour talking about being a foreign correspondent.

In 1994, covered genocide. Today, seeing the woman (most of the survivors) are powering Africa. Women are  more natural, flexible entrepreneurs. When a woman can buy a goat and make a business out of it, it can turn the world around. Women repay loans at higher rate than most men do.

In Rwanda, women now own 41% of businesses and half the seats of Parliament. All the major economic indicators are ahead in women. Rwanda rocks when it comes to ending povertry by empowering women.

In the less hopeful areas of Africa, in the AIDS belt, grandmothers are the new mothers, keeping their souls alive.

I come from a privileged background. I grew up in Iran where my mother showed me by example that there was nothing a woman could not do. But when the Islamic revolution swept up, we lost everything. We saw people executed for being on the wrong side of the political divide.

I decided to become a journalist. I came to America and found that if you work hard, you can be a success. I found something that gave me joy, willing to sacrifice and risk my life. I loved every hard won step up the ladder at CNN 25 years ago.

God gives all of us gifts and it's how we use those gifts that make a difference. Somehow somewhere I've been given a voice and I've tried to use that voice to tell the truth through my work at CNN.

I have always told myself that when my son Darius asks why I'm going away, I'd better have a good answer. You don't need to tell me about the crisis in journalism. These days it's tempting to quit and do something else. But I continue by convincing myself that this still matters. I truly believe that the history of human civilization is built by storytellers.

This Christmas, my family is going to an orphanage I covered in Kenya. And I'm going to try to teach my son at this young age that it is about justice, not us. We need strong, important journalists committed to telling the truth. Telling the story of women is one way to do that work.

Take Afghanistan. Areas there where women can go to school, drive, learn, be elected. In one such province a woman is the first female governor ever in AFghanistan. But in corners where the Taliban are back, women again are being victimized. Just a few weeks ago, one of the few women police officers in Khandahar was murdered.

You've seen what happens when journalism fails. Look at Rwanda. We failed to put the light on it and we failed. One million people were murdered in full view. And we helped enable the war in Iraq. This is something we have to take very seriously.

In the past eight years, I have never seen so much global angst. While we are having an election, the whole world wants to have a vote. Because when America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold.

The next President needs to make it cool again for the world to share America's great values and ideals and rescue freedom's good name. It's not very popular to say that and some pundits still sneer at that suggestion. But 83% of Americans say that improving America's standing in the world should be the next President's foreign policy goal.

Close Guantanamo. Lead climate change. Talk to other leaders without preconditions. I can tell you this will change the world. That women are great barometers of change and when given a chance can be architects of change, even in places like Iran.

It bewilders me that there are simply more women elected to high office outside this country. There are female presidents and prime ministers in South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia. I do think it's a good thing to have a woman on a major ticket. But I do think the qualifications of that woman and any woman seeking high office matters. It matters, because the stakes are higher than ever. The stakes are too high.

In 2000, I asked why a candidate's qualifications were not questioned. I am truly alarmed by the rise of the citizen ruler (or citizen journalist). Experience and expertise.

So when young women and young men ask me about the way ahead, I ask them to use their success to change the world through their deeds. No matter what path you take, by all means be entrepreneurs but also consider your place in your communities, in our world. Consider giving your future a social face and travel - it can be done cheaply.

Amanpour urges people to go to less developed countries and use their expertise to help people out of their poverty trap.

It changes the lives of both parties and it changes the way America is seen in the world.

Would like to see an army of citizens brandishing great ideas, spreading a soft kind of power (as Robert Gates says).

Concludes with words from student Dominique Jones: hoping that her generation is one of great thinkers but more importantly, one of great doers. Peace is possible. She believes that, and Amanpour believes that.

Comments

[Glennia]

Thanks for posting this. She is a remarkable journalist.

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I don’t think most men are dangerous either and its annoying to hear statistics making it seme like everyone male is THE BIGGEST THREAT EVER to everyone female. Violent people come in all genders, shapes, races, ethnicities, ages and sizes. You’re more likely to be hurt by someone you know than by someone you don’t know so stranger danger is a bit overrated.