    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [October 5, 1994]
    [Pages 1706-1708]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for the Africa Prize for Leadership for the
    Sustainable End of Hunger
    October 5, 1994

        Thank you so very much for that warm welcome. I've had a great 2
    days; I like being on Nelson Mandela's coattails.
        I was sitting there listening to the Secretary of Commerce introduce
    me, and it got more and more and more generous. And for a moment, I was
    almost carried away. Then I remembered what a sterling example that was
    of Clinton's third law of politics, which is, whenever possible, be
    introduced by someone you've appointed to high office. [Laughter] I am
    delighted to be here with President Mandela, Her

    [[Page 1707]]

    Majesty Queen Noor, Mr. Secretary-General, Mr. Kakizawa, Madam
    President, Mr. Chester, Chief Anyaoku, and all of you. I want to say a
    serious word of thanks to Ron Brown not only for his introduction but
    for the work he has already begun to do with his counterpart in South
    Africa, with the U.S.-South Africa Business Development Committee, with
    the work he has done all across the world to promote the interest of our
    country. I think it is no exaggeration to say, as many business people
    of both parties have said to me, that he is the finest Secretary of
    Commerce in decades; and we appreciate him very much.
        Secretary Brown and several of you whom I see here, along with the
    Vice President and Mrs. Gore and the First Lady, were part of the
    delegation that represented the United States and the President at the
    swearing-in of President Mandela last spring. It was a triumphant moment
    for him and for his country. To see someone who had sacrificed so much
    for so long in the fight for freedom finally wind up in the driver's
    seat really made all of us believe, as I said today to the Congressional
    Black Caucus, that some dreams really do come true.
        I think it important to say, as I felt again today when President
    Mandela and I were at our press conference and I looked at him there
    with his delegation from all segments of South African society, that his
    victory was a victory for all South Africans, without regard to race or
    political party, for they were all freed of the oppression, they were
    all freed of the division, they were all freed of apartheid. It made
    slaves of them all, and now they are all free.
        I'm honored to be here with you tonight because of this award you
    have given so deservingly to the President. Clearly as South Africans go
    forward, they face many, many challenges, the legacy of over three
    centuries of apartheid, the challenge of illiteracy, the challenge of
    homelessness, the challenge of joblessness, the challenge to improve the
    health care system. But one of the most profound challenges, clearly, is
    the challenge of hunger. Perhaps America's greatest champion of this
    cause in recent history was the late Congressman Mickey Leland, who was
    a good friend of mine. He was once asked what a guy from Texas was doing
    spending so much time trying to end hunger in Africa. And he said, and I
    quote, ``I'm as much a citizen of this world as I am of my country.''
        Clearly, that applies with equal force to many of you who are here
    tonight, explains why you're so devoted to this project and why your
    work is so important. Your programs have made us more aware of the
    persistence of starvation in all corners of the globe. Already you are
    helping people in more than 25 nations to help themselves to end their
    hunger and, as you say in your prize here, on a sustainable basis. The
    United States is in your debt for your work.
        Now President Mandela, having won the victory of freedom, must see
    that it bears fruit. And all of us must do what we can to see that he
    succeeds. As we work to support his efforts and the efforts of all South
    Africans to build a new nation, we know that dealing with hunger is an
    important part of their mission.
        In my meetings with President Mandela this week, we outlined the
    steps we would take to increase our strong support for South Africa,
    including helping to fight the problem of hunger. We will support South
    Africa's plans for nutrition programs, for school lunch programs, for
    land reforms, for expansion of clean water and sanitation efforts, for
    rural development. Peace Corps volunteers will help to provide
    assistance with agriculture and food production projects. We know that
    the people of America must act on the pride and the stirrings that were
    awakened in us by what has occurred in South Africa. We know that we
    cannot confine our attention to South Africa alone, that we have for too
    long in this Nation ignored the vast potential as well as the solvable
    problems of the African Continent.
        Our country has shown its concern by the actions we took in Somalia,
    the work we have done so recently in Rwanda, by the conference on Africa
    which we held at the White House recently, by all the things that we are
    trying to do to heighten the awareness of the problems and promise of
    Africa here in the United States.
        We are also committed to work on trying to avert some tragedies
    before they occur. Most recently, we have worked a lot on planning what
    we might do to avert what many predict will be a terrible crisis in the
    Horn of Africa. This is the sort of thing the United States ought to be
    doing. It will make us a better partner with the Hunger Project because
    we cannot approach Africa without dealing with this issue.
        I have said from the beginning of my administration that our mission
    in the world was to promote freedom and democracy, that that

    [[Page 1708]]

    would increase our own security because free people with democratic
    governments do not have time or the inclination to go to war with each
    other, to break their word, or to otherwise meddle in things that
    undermine human potential. They are always too busy trying to increase
    the human potential of those whom they represent. But it has been said
    that a hungry man is not a free man. So if we seek freedom and
    democracy, we must first also seek to meet the basic needs that God
    meant for all people to have met in this world, wherever they live,
    whatever their race, whatever their station, especially the children.
        Let me say to you that I have had a marvelous time with President
    Mandela. We have talked about a lot of things. We have told stories. One
    of the things that I find that our cultures have in common is the
    compulsion of its politicians to tell good jokes, often on themselves.
    [Laughter] We've even discussed the history of boxing in the world over
    the last 60 years, something the President knows a good deal more about
    than I do, although I knew enough to keep up.
        Let me close with this thought. Nelson Mandela, perhaps his most
    remarkable achievement was that he spent 27 years as a prisoner and came
    out the freest of all people.
        And so I say to you, Mr. President, as we part for the last time and
    I go about my business and you go about yours, this morning I awoke
    before dawn, thinking about the meeting we would have today. And I asked
    God to free me of all the petty resentments, the negative thoughts, all
    the things that crowd in on all of us who believe from time to time that
    life is not exactly as it should be and get frustrated when we cannot
    make it that way. Because neither I nor anyone else I have ever known
    has ever faced the spiritual crisis you must have faced so many times,
    and with each succeeding week and month and year, you reached deeper and
    deeper and deeper in yourself for the ultimate truth. As you have fed
    your spirit, let us feed the world.
        Congratulations, sir, and thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:56 p.m. at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. In
    his remarks, he referred to Queen Noor of Jordan, member, and Robert
    Chester, chair, board of directors, The Hunger Project; former United
    Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, chairman, and Koji
    Kakizawa, member, Africa Prize international jury; Joan Holmes,
    president, The Hunger Project; and Emeka Anyaoku, Secretary General of
    the British Commonwealth.