May 4, 2007 - JFK FORUM, HARVARD
Queen Rania stresses common values, urge students to bridge cultural divide
Boston, May 4 (Petra)-- In a speech at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Thursday, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah warned of the growing rift between East and West, and urged students to concentrate their efforts in bridging that gap.
"The gulf between narratives is wide – and only getting wider," she said, "and as a result, I fear a creeping affliction on both sides of what the philosopher William James called 'the blindness in human beings' that prevents us from understanding the feelings of those 'different from ourselves.'"
"No matter where we come from, what we look like, how we dress, or to whom we pray, when it comes to what makes us laugh or cry, when it comes to what we dream of for ourselves and for our children, when it comes to how hard we work each day, we are usually more alike than we are different, " said Queen Rania.
Petra
"On the issue of Palestine, for example, looking out an American window, the first thing you might see is terrorist attacks against Israelis, and Israel’s paramount obligation to protect its people from harm," she said, "But looking through an Arab window, the image in the foreground is generations of Palestinian boys and girls growing up with no country, no rights, and no future – and that image has not changed for 50 years."
Part 2 of above article
Photos from Petra...a couple of them have an odd blurry quality but the rest are good, my favourite is the first one:
Meeting In a Common Room: Queen Rania of Jordan Calls for Spirit of Concern in Public Discourse
May 4, 2007 — Rather than stay hunkered down in their own separate corners, East and West must strive to appreciate their common humanity, Her Majesty Queen Rania of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan said Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Forum.
KSG
There's also a link to a Video at the end of the above article.