We Must Act To Shape

Thousands Of Years Ago, Civilizations Flourished In Africa Which Suffer Not At All By Comparison With Those Of Other Continents. In Those Centuries, Africans Were Politically Free And Economically Independent. Their Social Patterns Were Their Own And Their Cultures Truly Indigenous.

There Is No Safer Anchorage For Our Learning, Our Lives, And Our Public Actions Than That Provided By Divine Teachings.

Like Twentieth-century Iran, The Remnant Of The Persian Empire, Ethiopia Under Haile Selassie Attempted To Preserve The Absolutist State Throught An Accommodation With Modernizing Forces In His Own Terms Without Completely Subduing Traditionalists. This Was Not A Strategy Of Haile Selassie's Own Choosing. Instead, He Was Overtaken By Events And Forced To Deal With Contradictions That Were From The Very Beginning Too Formidable To Be Managed In The Long Term.

There Is No Power Or Authority Without Responsibility, And He Who Accepts The One Cannot Escape Or Evade The Other.

Today I Stand Before The World Organization Which Has Succeeded To The Mantle Discarded By Its Discredited Predecessor.