By Khalida Sarwari
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a speech today on the global economic crisis to a large gathering of business executives in San Jose.
Rice gave an hour-long keynote address on “Effective Leadership and Global Diplomacy” at a conference sponsored by the business software company SAP at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel.
At the conclusion of the presentation, three female protesters with red-painted hands stood up near the stage and accused Rice of being a “war criminal.”
Police officers quickly escorted the protesters out of the room as they yelled, “Torture is illegal!” The audience booed disapprovingly.
Rice opened the keynote with her insights on the effects of the economic crisis on the European Union and emerging nations in Asia.
Rice said the global financial crisis dimmed the union’s plans to promote regulatory harmony throughout the E.U. The union, composed of 27 member states each with individual economic histories, is struggling with the strains of the crisis.
In Asia, Rice said, China and India have weathered the crisis well, although China must deal with growing social and political problems and a “political system that is very rigid, not very elastic.” In Russia, the crisis has impacted Putinism, the policies of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s administration, which helped usher in economic and political stability after a period of “humiliation and depravation,” Rice said.
“If the U.S. is going to continue to lead, it’s going to require a refocusing on the model of democratic capitalism that is currently under attack,” she said.
Rice said it is evident that financial excesses led to the crisis but that qualities such as creativity, innovation and risk-taking will propel the U.S. back to the forefront of the world’s marketplace.
Rice concluded by saying, “The United States is going to be OK. Some say it’s naivete, I say it’s optimism.”
A small group of protesters gathered outside the conference.
LeeAnne Vezzani-Katano, a member of the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, said afterward she was there to “challenge the consciousness” of other citizens to see the “shameful hypocrisy” beyond Rice’s eloquence.
“She’s a war criminal,” Vezzani-Katano said. “Of course everyone knows what she did.”
Rice is the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and professor of political science at Stanford University.