[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 83 (Thursday, May 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            WELCOMING HER MAJESTY QUEEN SIRIKIT OF THAILAND

  Mr. JOHNSTON. Mr. President, this month the United States is 
privileged to welcome Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand. She is 
here as an honored guest. On May 25 Queen Sirikit will be awarded the 
degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the Johns Hopkins University. On 
Tuesday, May 16, Queen Sirikit became the first woman ever to receive 
the prestigious Lindbergh Award. In the words of the Charles A. and 
Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, Her Majesty was honored for her 
``educational and humanitarian efforts, her conservation and wildlife 
preservation work, and programs which are maintaining the Thai heritage 
and culture.''
  The description does not begin to do justice to Queen Sirikit's 45-
year effort to care for the people of her country, to improve their 
health and living standards, and to preserve their environmental and 
cultural heritage. She has given generously of her time and energy to 
traditional humanitarian causes. She has served as honorary president 
of the Council of Social Welfare of Thailand, an organization of 150 
public and private social work agencies. In her capacity as president 
of the Thai Red Cross, a position she has held since 1956, she 
established shelters for refugees from the war in Cambodia. But her 
particular genius, and I do not use that word lightly, the 
accomplishment for which the queen has been honored by the United 
Nations and for which she was awarded the first International 
Humanitarian Award by the Friends of the Capital Children's Museum in 
1992, has been in finding ways to preserve traditional Thai culture and 
ecology while simultaneously making life easier for impoverished 
farmers and hill tribes.
  Her deep concern for the welfare of the Thai people is matched by her 
knowledge of their needs. Her husband, His Majesty King Shumibol 
Adulyadej, has made it his admirable policy to ``visit the people'', 
spending more than half of each year traveling around Thailand, often 
to remote areas accessible only by helicopter or jeep. Accompanying him 
on his trips, the queen witnessed at first hand the hardships of rural 
life, the damage to forests, wildlife and water supplies caused by 
primitive farming practices and the threat posed by modernization to 
traditional Thai arts and crafts. It was her inspiration to, in effect, 
capitalize culture, to train farm families in producing handicrafts 
which could be sold to bring in regular income. Since 1978, Queen 
Sirikit's SUPPORT Foundation has trained 30,000 such families in crafts 
ranging from ceramics to silk-weaving to bamboo basketry.
  In 1982, the Queen initiated the Forest-Loves-Water project, to 
demonstrate that SUPPORT handicrafts projects could encourage 
reforestation. At Ban Mae Tam village, the rich teak forests once 
threatened by illegal logging are being replaced. Villagers able to 
earn a living from cottage industries do not need to rely on tree-
cutting or slash-and-burn farming for subsistence. Under her gentle 
leadership, through encouragement and practical training, solutions are 
being found to pressing environmental problems.
  Queen Sirikit's likeness is on the Cares Medal awarded by the Food 
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This is an honor 
reserved for women who by their lives and their work have helped to 
lift the status of women. It is a beautiful medal, reflecting the 
beauty of spirit of its model, a woman whose motto has always been ``To 
give without discrimination.'' It is always a pleasure to welcome Her 
Majesty to the United States, and to tell her how much we admire her 
efforts on behalf of the Thai people.


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