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79.

STATEMENT
BY VLADIMIR PETROVSKY
UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
AT THE GRADUATION CEREMONY

College Leman, 17 June 2000

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Graduates of College Leman,

I
am very glad to have the chance to address you today on this
special occasion - the fortieth graduation ceremony for College

Leman, and the first of the new millennium.
I know there will be some of you in the audience who will be thinking you
are not in the least interested in what an international diplomat like myself
could have to say - you are not planning to work in diplomacy, politics or
humanitarianism - you are more interested perhaps in banking, or teaching or
becoming dot-com millionaires. But I hope that what I will say will be of
relevance to all of you - whether you choose to spend the rest of your life
working in your hometown - wherever that might be - or working in the private
or public sector, and by doing so retain the international perspective you have
been given as graduates of such a prestigious institution as College Leman.

Whatever other privileges you may have had, one of your greatest is that
you are entering the world with a truly international outlook. Your horizons are
not limited - like so many across the globe - by national borders and cultural
stereotypes. You know well the richness that a multi-cultural environment
brings. This will stand you in good stead for the profound changes which are
taking place in the world.

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