http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/conscience02.html
CARLY FIORINA
APPEAL OF CONSCIENCE FOUNDATION ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
OCTOBER 1, 2002
“REMARKS IN ACCEPTING THE APPEAL OF CONSCIENCE FOUNDATION AWARD”
EXCERPT
It brought to mind an example I once heard, that tried to paint a picture of what the world would look like if the Earth's population was shrunk down to a village of precisely one hundred people, with all the earth's existing human ratios the same.
Of the 100 people, 57 would be from Asia, 21 would be from Europe, 14 would be from the Western Hemisphere, and eight would be from Africa. Eighty of the 100 would live in substandard housing. Seventy would be unable to read. Sixty-five would never have made a phone call. Fifty would suffer from malnutrition. Twenty would never have had a clean drink of water. Only one would have a college education. And only one would own a computer.
Now, take that analogy one step further. Imagine if all of those people actually did live in the same village. Imagine if they were all painfully aware of how each other lived. Imagine the resentment that would build up in that village if those who had food didn't make enough of an effort to feed those who didn't; if those who had access to clean water didn't even think about those who didn't; if the person with the college education and the computer went out and bought a car and satellite television and simply enjoyed his life, while the children across the street sat in darkness under a leaky roof, begging for food.
What would happen? As Dr. Kissinger and others have so eloquently written, it's not hard to imagine how that kind of disparity would eventually lead to something like the events of September 11th.
The message of this Foundation—the message of that summit—is that it's not too late to step back from the brink, to reverse those trends, and change that global disparity. But it's going to take the contributions of every one of us, working together in new ways, to invent a different future.
Former US Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, speaks with Carly Fiorina, former Chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard in a VIP box at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota September 4, 2008.
