[00:00:01] Find the Promised Land - 英语演讲
[00:00:05] Tony Blair Delivers Yale Class Day Speech
[00:00:10] So: after over 100 years of Class Days,
[00:00:14] finally you get a British speaker.
[00:00:16] What took you so long? Did that little disagreement
[00:00:22] of 1776 really rankle so much?
[00:00:25] And why now? Is it because British election
[00:00:29] campaigns only last four weeks?
[00:00:31] For whatever reason,
[00:00:35] it is an honour to be here
[00:00:37] and to say to the Yale College Class of 2008:
[00:00:40] you did it; you came through;
[00:00:42] from all of us to you: congratulations.
[00:00:46] The invitation to a former British Prime Minister
[00:00:50] to address a college which boasts five former Presidents,
[00:00:53] many former Vice Presidents and Senators too numerous to mention,
[00:00:58] is either to give me an exaggerated
[00:01:00] sense of my own importance or you a reduced sense of yours.
[00:01:04] It was Churchill or Oscar Wilde -
[00:01:07] and there is a difference -
[00:01:09] who called us two nations divided
[00:01:13] by a common language and so we are.
[00:01:16] Here I am at Yale and set to come back
[00:01:20] for the fall semester. My old Oxford tutor was,
[00:01:24] I'm afraid, horrified to hear I had been taken on by Yale.
[00:01:28] His worries were all for Yale I may say.
[00:01:32] He said: "I only hope for their sake you
[00:01:35] are going there to learn rather than teach."
[00:01:38] Now I know you Yale guys are smart.
[00:01:42] So what can I tell you
[00:01:45] that you don't already think you know?
[00:01:46] I can tell you something of the world as I see it.
[00:01:51] Three days ago, in my role as Middle East envoy,
[00:01:55] I stood in the heart of Bethlehem.
[00:01:57] On one side of me, lay the concrete barrier
[00:02:01] which now separates Israel and Palestine.
[00:02:04] On the other, the historic birthplace
[00:02:07] of Jesus and the land of Palestine beyond.
[00:02:10] A few days before that, I was in Jericho.
[00:02:15] If you look up from the town centre,
[00:02:18] to the left is the Mount of Temptation,
[00:02:20] where Jesus stayed 40 days and nights.
[00:02:23] To the right, you can see Mount Nebo
[00:02:26] where Moses looked down on the Promised Land.
[00:02:29] And right in front of you is the Valley of Jordan.
[00:02:32] My guide, a Muslim, turned to me and said:
[00:02:38] "Moses, Jesus, Mohammed -
[00:02:41] why in God's name did they all have to come here?"
[00:02:44] But in God's name they came and for centuries
[00:02:49] their followers have waged war in the name of prophets
[00:02:52] whose life's work was in pursuit of peace.
[00:02:54] Today, though the land that encompasses Israel
[00:02:59] and Palestine is small, the conflict symbolises
[00:03:03] the wider prospects of the entire vast region
[00:03:06] of the Middle East and beyond.
[00:03:08] There, the forces of modernisation and moderation battle
[00:03:13] with those of reaction and extremism.
[00:03:16] The shadow of Iran looms large.
[00:03:19] What is at stake is immense.
[00:03:23] Will those who believe in peaceful co-existence triumph,
[00:03:27] matching the growing economic power
[00:03:34] and wealth with a politics and culture at ease
[00:03:35] with the 21st Century? Or will the victors be those
[00:03:37] that seek to use that economic wealth to create a politics
[00:03:40] and culture more relevant to the feudal Middle Ages?
[00:03:43] Thousands of miles from here,
[00:03:47] this struggle is being played out in the suburbs
[00:03:50] of Baghdad and Beirut and the Gaza strip.
[00:03:53] But the impact of its outcome on our security
[00:03:57] and way of life will register in the core of our well-being.
[00:04:00] In fact, if I had to sum up my view of the world,
[00:04:05] I would say to you: turn your thoughts to the East.
[00:04:08] Not just to the Middle East.
[00:04:10] But to the Far East.
[00:04:12] China and India each have populations roughly
[00:04:17] double those of America and Europe combined.
[00:04:20] In the next two decades, these two countries together
[00:04:25] will undergo industrialisation four times
[00:04:27] the size of the USA's and at five times the speed.
[00:04:31] We must be mindful that as these ancient civilisations
[00:04:36] become somehow younger and more vibrant,
[00:04:39] our young civilisation does not grow old.
[00:04:42] Most of all we should know that in this new world,
[00:04:46] we must clear a path to partnership,
[00:04:48] not stand off against each other,
[00:04:51] competing for power.
[00:04:52] The world in which you, in time to come,
[00:04:57] will take the reins, cannot afford a return
[00:05:00] to 20th century struggles for hegemony.
[00:05:02] The characteristic of this modern world is the pace,
[00:05:07] scope and scale of change.
[00:05:10] Globalisation is driving it and people
[00:05:14] are driving globalisation. The consequence is
[00:05:19] that the world opens up; its boundaries diminish;
[00:05:22] we are pushed closer together.
[00:05:25] The conclusion is that we make it work together
[00:05:29] or not at all.
[00:05:31] The issues you must wrestle with -
[00:05:35] the threat of climate change, food scarcity,
[00:05:39] and population growth, worldwide terror based on religion,
[00:05:43] the interdependence of the world economy -
[00:05:46] my student generation would barely recognise.
[00:05:49] But the difference today is they
[00:05:52] are all essentially global in nature.
[00:05:54] You understand this. Yale has become a melting pot
[00:06:01] of culture, language and civilisation.
[00:06:03] You are the global generation.
[00:06:06] So be global citizens.
[00:06:09] Each new generation finds the world they enter.
[00:06:15] But they fashion the world they leave.
[00:06:18] So: what do you inherit and what do you pass on?
[00:06:22] The history of humankind is marked
[00:06:26] by great events but written by great people.
[00:06:29] People like you.
[00:06:31] Given Yale's record of achievement, perhaps by you.
[00:06:37] So to you as individuals, what wisdom,
[00:06:43] if any, have I learnt?
[00:06:44] First, in fact, keep learning.
[00:06:48] Always be alive to the possibilities
[00:06:51] of the next experience, of thinking, doing and being.
[00:06:55] When Buddha was asked, near the end of his life,
[00:07:00] to describe his secret, he answered bluntly:
[00:07:04] "I'm awake". So be awake.
[00:07:07] Understand conventional wisdom,
[00:07:11] but be prepared to change it.
[00:07:13] Feel as well as analyse;
[00:07:17] use your instinct alongside your reason.
[00:07:21] Calculate too much and you will miscalculate.
[00:07:25] Be prepared to fail as well as to succeed,
[00:07:29] and realise it is failure not success
[00:07:32] that defines character.
[00:07:34] I spent years trying to be a politician failing
[00:07:39] at every attempt and nearly gave up.
[00:07:42] I know you're thinking: I should have.
[00:07:44] Sir Paul McCartney reminded me
[00:07:48] that the first record company the Beatles
[00:07:50] approached rejected them as a band no-one
[00:07:53] would want to listen to.
[00:07:54] Be good to people on your way up
[00:07:58] because you never know if you will meet them
[00:08:01] again on your way down.
[00:08:02] Judge someone by how they treat those below them
[00:08:06] not those above them.
[00:08:08] Be a firm friend not a fair-weather friend.
[00:08:13] It is your friendships, including those friends
[00:08:17] you made here at Yale, at this time,
[00:08:18] that sustain and enrich the human spirit.
[00:08:21] A good test of a person is who turns up
[00:08:27] at their funeral and with what sincerity.
[00:08:30] Try not to sit the test too early, of course.
[00:08:34] Recently, I attended a funeral and the speaker
[00:08:39] said he would like to begin by reading
[00:08:41] a list of all those whose funerals he would rather
[00:08:43] have been attending, but the list was too long.
[00:08:46] It was a sweet compliment to our friend.
[00:08:49] Alternatively there was Spike Milligan,
[00:08:53] the quintessential English comic who
[00:08:56] when he was asked what he would like
[00:08:58] as the epitaph on his tombstone,
[00:09:00] replied: "They should write: I told you I was ill."
[00:09:03] There was a colleague of mine in the British Parliament
[00:09:08] who once asked another:
[00:09:09] "Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?"
[00:09:12] and got the reply: "Because it saves time."
[00:09:15] So, when others think of you, let them think
[00:09:20] not with their lips but their hearts of a good friend
[00:09:23] and a gracious acquaintance.
[00:09:25] Above all, however, have a purpose in life.
[00:09:30] Life is not about living but about striving.
[00:09:33] When you get up, get up motivated.
[00:09:36] Live with a perpetual sense of urgency.
[00:09:40] And make at least part of that purpose
[00:09:43] about something bigger than you.
[00:09:45] There are great careers.
[00:09:49] There are also great causes.
[00:09:51] At least let some of them into your lives.
[00:09:55] Giving lifts the heart in a way that getting never can.
[00:10:00] Maybe it really was Oscar Wilde who said:
[00:10:03] "No one ever died, saying if only I had one more day at the office."
[00:10:08] One small but shocking sentence:
[00:10:12] each year three million children die
[00:10:14] in Africa from preventable disease or conflict.
[00:10:18] The key word? Preventable.
[00:10:23] When all is said and done,
[00:10:27] there is usually more said than done.
[00:10:28] Be a doer not a commentator.
[00:10:32] Seek responsibility rather than shirk it.
[00:10:37] People often ask me about leadership,
[00:10:40] I say: leadership is about wanting the responsibility
[00:10:44] to be on your shoulders,
[00:10:45] not ignoring its weight but knowing someone
[00:10:47] has to carry it and, reaching out for
[00:10:51] that person to be you. Leaders are heat-seekers not heat-deflectors.
[00:10:57] And luck?
[00:11:01] You have all the luck you need.
[00:11:03] You are here, at Yale, and what -
[00:11:06] apart from the hats - could be better?
[00:11:09] You have something else: your parents.
[00:11:13] When you are your age,
[00:11:16] you can never imagine being our age.
[00:11:18] But believe me, when you're our age
[00:11:21] we remember clearly being your age.
[00:11:24] That's why I am so careful about young men and my daughter,
[00:11:28] "Don't tell me what you're thinking.
[00:11:31] I know what you're thinking."
[00:11:33] But as a parent let me tell you something about parents.
[00:11:38] Despite all rational impulses,
[00:11:41] despite all evidence to the contrary,
[00:11:44] despite what we think you do to us
[00:11:46] and what you think we do to you -
[00:11:48] and yes, it is often hell on both sides -
[00:11:51] the plain, unvarnished truth is we love you.
[00:11:55] Simply, profoundly, utterly.
[00:11:58] I remember, back in the mists of time,
[00:12:02] my Dad greeting me off the train
[00:12:05] at Durham railway station.
[00:12:06] I was a student at Oxford.
[00:12:08] Oxford and Cambridge are for Britain
[00:12:11] kind of like Yale and Harvard,
[00:12:14] only more so. It was a big deal.
[00:12:16] I had been away for my first year
[00:12:19] and was coming home.
[00:12:21] I stepped off the train.
[00:12:25] My hair was roughly the length of Rumpelstiltskin's
[00:12:29] and unwashed. I had no shoes and no shirt.
[00:12:32] My jeans were torn - and this was in the days
[00:12:36] before this became a fashion item.
[00:12:40] Worst of all, we had just moved house.
[00:12:41] Mum had thrown out the sitting room drapes.
[00:12:44] I had retrieved them and made a sleeveless long coat with them.
[00:12:48] My Dad greeted me. There were all his friends at the station.
[00:12:54] Beside me, their kids looked paragons of respectability.
[00:12:58] He saw the drapes, and visibly winced.
[00:13:01] They did kind of stand out.
[00:13:06] I took pity on him.
[00:13:07] "Dad", I said. "There is good news.
[00:13:11] I don't do drugs." He looked me in the eye and said:
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