| The conference marks the 40th anniversary of the Round Square movement, which aims to promote peace through education.
Highlights from the speech
I want to speak this morning of a “passion for rescue” in today's troubled world. Of what, from my own experience of wars and disasters, the "haves" can do for the "have-nots". A passion, then, for international rescue.
There is certainly plenty to be passionate about. Plenty to rescue. 2.8 billion people living on less than $2 a day, and 1.2 billion people living on less than $1 a day. 70% of those are women and children.
With global population expanding by 80 million per year, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn cautions that, unless we address "the challenge of inclusion", 30 years hence we will have 5 billion people living on less than $2 per day. About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. About the same number die from lack of clean water.
Three quarters of the deaths are children under the age of five. The chances of dying in childbirth in Malawi is one in seven. Here in Scotland it is one in 25,000. I could go on and on, but one final statistic: Nearly one billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. About 80% of these were women and girls. Now there's a rescue operation for you.
I don't know all the answers. But, as a former humanitarian worker and now as Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, I challenge all of you at this Round Square Conference to share with me what you, as young people, think the answers should be.
I'll help you with some suggestions.
I am sure that Round Square schools are already twinned with, and funding, sister schools in the developing world. I am sure your students are using their gap year to work for NGOs in these countries.
Keep it up. But don't go for a short time as a humanitarian tourist. Go for a year. Then you'll stop being and internationalist and become a cosmopolitan – not just knowing about other peoples, but being comfortable in their culture.
For headmasters, don't confine this discussion to Modern Studies. Spread it right across the curriculum. Teach Scots and Arab pentatonic music along with Beethoven. Read the Iranian as well as the European classics. Do practical relief programmes in metalwork and science. Appoint a Head of World Studies to coordinate the lot.
Twin, in real time on the internet, with a school in a developing country. You will probably have to buy their equipment and pay their phone bills. Some of my constituency schools do this: First, the weather and the food by email exchanges. Then health. Then into the realisation that one-third of their peers at the other end of the line are HIV positive and may not make it beyond their 20s. Start moral discussion.
Accept that classic politics is dead. Realise that issues are very much alive… and that the problem is not disengagement, but disempowerment. The feeling that votes don't matter and that politics pass you by.
In the Scottish Parliament we are obliged to consult widely before we come to a decision. We consult widely with people of your age. Young Scots regularly give evidence and speak in our Camber. It works because the evidence can, and does, change regulations, rules and laws.
To all young people of your age we say: Yes, you have real rights. You also have real responsibilities. You have the responsibility, in a democracy, to keep your mouth open.
Only a few people are called to be passionate about international rescue.
Most of you will go into the world as lawyers and doctors, educationalists, businessmen and businesswomen. Some maybe even as politicians.
There are fundamental issues here, however, which will affect all your callings.
It's your world. Have the passion to respect and rescue it.
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