Posted on 10/26/2005 7:18:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO – Fighting global poverty and creating stronger international alliances are the keys to security and spreading democracy, former Soviet president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev said Wednesday.
"It is hard to imagine a calm, safe and secure world" where so many people live in poverty, Gorbachev said through an interpreter. He spoke Wednesday as part of a lecture series at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.
"If people's lives are not becoming better, people begin to change their minds and say democracy is worthless," he said during an hour-long question-and-answer session before an audience of about 400.
Gorbachev has been traveling in the United States since last week celebrating the 20th anniversary of "perestroika" – the government reforms he led in the former Soviet Union. The reforms were accompanied by the fall of communism, the spread of democracy in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War between the United States and Russia.
Gorbachev also criticized the lack of cooperation from governments, particularly the United States, in facing environmental issues. The failure of the U.S. to adopt collaborative agreements, such as the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gases, shows "there is a gap between words and deeds," he said.
Gorbachev founded Green Cross International in 1993 to encourage business, government and other organizations to collaborate on solutions to environmental problems.
In 1990, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reduce tensions with the West.
What's a commie know? He could not even take care of his own people back in the USSR.
There's NO poverty there, yet cops have been called dozens of times and crimes have been committed.
He's smartening up to the way the communists in this country have seized funds -- instead of talking about wealth redistribution for the good of everyone, we hear the violins for "the poor." Blah blah blah. The poor need this, the poor need that. The security angle is new at least.
WGF
Old commies never die...
Unless they have help! LOL
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