Speeches and Articles by Former Consul General James R. Keith

Remarks by Consul General Keith
Opening of Macau American Corner

October 20, 2004

It is so typical of our experience partnering with the university that is almost not necessary for you to welcome us here because we know we feel such a warm welcome all the time -- not only when come to visit and talk and deepen our dialog, but also as we work together on projects like this. I want to join you in thanking all of those who put in such hard work into making this a reality. When we first started talking about this, it was hard to imagine precisely what it was going to look like and how it was going to be used.

We've accomplished making it tangible now, and it's up to all of us working very closely together as we did in the run up to today to ensure that the facilities get used in order to achieve precisely what the Rector said -- that they be used in a professional and scholarly fashion. The Rector said everything that needs to be said in terms of commemorating this special occasion and making sure that we do focus on what we should be focusing on, that is connections between our peoples and creating precisely those types of bonds that the Rector mentioned.

I do also need to mention a couple of people and make sure that I convey my thanks and the thanks of my staff for such a terrific experience in pulling this together -- this American Corner together -- and turning it into something real for the students of the University. In addition to the Rector, I certainly want to thank the Chairman. Thank you so much for all the hard work that you put into the relationship between the people of Macau and the people of the United States. I also want to thank Library Director Yen and all the members of his staff.

It has been really a terrific experience and I think, as is often the case, not only is it the center itself that is going to build these bonds, but it also the experience that we shared in creating the center that has made those channels of communication even more effective and established that kind of dialog that we're looking for with the university. As the Chairman mentioned to me when we were talking before we got started today, the university really is on the move, as is Macau, and we certainly want to be a part of that and do our part to contribute to it. It's not a new thing; we do have a history of a partnership between the people of Macau and the people of the United States. We want to increase that in every area. These American Corners, just to give you a little bit of context, are established elsewhere in the world. We have about a hundred such American Corners that we have put together in various places around the world over the last four years. Each of these corners is unique. We hope to learn from our experiences here in Macau and build on it. I'm sure in other areas we'll be able to convey some of the lessons that the university teaches us here, so that we can continue to reach out and establish the kind of dialog that we'd like to have between the American people and people overseas, including the people of Macau.

Of course, for starters, the Corner is what you see around you -- it is the tangible glass walls and doors and chairs and tables. It's all the equipment -- the CDroms and the DVDs, the magazines and the database access. But that's just the starting point. That's where we are today. I don't mean to diminish the work that was done to get here, because there was a lot of good, hard work needed to accomplish this. But from here we'd like to go beyond and ensure that this is a meeting place for Americans and Macanese to come together and for scholars to come together, including our Fulbright scholars who are here.

The Rector gave reference to one of the other agreements that will be part of today's ceremony. The first one we are signing is a Memorandum of Understanding for the Fulbright program. I think many people will have passed on the way in the poster show, that has been so professionally exhibited, which gives a little history of the Fulbright Program, which has been promoting international understanding for some decades now. Next year, we are working hard to assure that there is a Fulbright professor at the University. That individual will join our English Language Fellow, Alice Lee, who is here this year.

The Fulbright program is the American government's oldest educational exchange program. You can learn more about the individual whom the program was named by looking at the posters you saw on the way in, and we can certainly give you more background if you are interested. We've had, just to give you one very brief fact about the program, about 200,000 participants since the inception of the program in 1946. I do also want to mention that Mr. Karl Kwok is here and the Hong Kong American Center is here -- thank you for joining us today. There is going to be an agreement signed between the American Center and the University of Macau. I don't want to steal Karl's thunder, but I do want to make reference to our broad support of the HK-America Center and everything it has doing both for continued cooperation between our friends in Hong Kong and our friends in Macau and ourselves.

I think there is an awful lot we can do together A great deal of attention is being placed on the development of the Pearl River Delta and it seems to me to be an important role that America can play both in this American Corner and the other side of the Mainland border with the two SARs. I think there is a lot that America can do to contribute to realizing the great potential and possibilities that are available in the Pearl River Delta. Certainly our businesses are interested. Our academic institutions in the U.S. are interested. Therefore, the U.S. government is interested in helping to lead the way.

I thank you all very much for being here today to help us commemorate, not just the end of lot of hardwork that was done by the university and our friends and colleagues, but also the beginning of a much more meaningful and profound dialog in the meetings between the American people and the Macau people. Thank you very much.