News sources quoted from: The United Nations
Media www.rajawalisiber.com – Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived at Cambridge where he received an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge.
In his formal remarks upon receiving the degree, he reminded the audience of the University’s enduring links with global governance and the United Nations, from the economist John Maynard Keynes to Margaret Anstee, the first woman to be appointed Assistant Secretary-General. The Secretary-General delivered an overview of the global challenges that the world faces, from climate change to the pandemic to the war on facts. In that context, the Secretary-General said that the world needs the values of truth and integrity that are at the heart of the liberal education that Cambridge has provided for eight centuries.
“When the United Nations was created, multilateralism meant governments working together towards common goals.
Today, those with global influence encompass civil society, the private sector, cities and regional authorities, academia and more.
Universities hold many of the solutions we need. Not only climate scientists and pharmacologists, but sociologists, lawyers, economists and experts in every discipline are researching ideas that can lead to breakthroughs for the common good.
Many of the next steps in implementing this ambitious agenda now lie with our Member States. And those Member States represent you.
I urge everyone with an interest in these issues – and that means everyone – to make your views known, through the ballot box and through civil society organizations, including the very active United Nations Associations here in Cambridge and at the UK national level.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear faculty and students,
Values, principles, truth and integrity are at the heart of the liberal education that Cambridge has offered the world for 800 years.
Scientific research and cutting-edge technology are nothing without them.
We need institutions dedicated to learning, not profit;
To critical thinking, not power; To pushing the boundaries of human understanding;
To discovery and wonder;
To facts and science.
We need institutions like Cambridge. Thank you” – Secretary-General Antonio Guterres [ Excerpt].