Speeches Former Ambassadors
Independence Day Remarks by Ambassador R. Niels Marquardt
Yaounde - July 4, 2006
Excellency, the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Justice,
Excellencies, Ministers, Ambassadors, and Representatives of International Organizations,
Fellow Americans, Dear Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On the occasion of the 230th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America, I am delighted to welcome you all to this celebration here at the new American Embassy in Cameroon.
This may be the first time ever that we have celebrated this annual event at our Chancery. And it is the first time that we have invited every single American citizen in Cameroon to attend. So I extend a special welcome to my countrymen present here today. This is your embassy, and I hope and trust that you are as proud of it as are we who work here.
To all of you, we are pleased that we now have a diplomatic facility in Cameroon that fully reflects the size and scope and the excellence of our relations with Cameroon, and which we can use to host even large events like this one.
Those of you who have celebrated the Fourth of July in America can appreciate that this formal national day celebration inevitably raises what I will call “cross-cultural issues.” Almost by instinct, Americans want to dress very casually for what is usually a bar-be-cue, held on a beach or in a park, featuring typically American games like three-legged races and softball and lots of relaxation.
For us, that’s the 4th of July. But in an overseas diplomatic setting, we happily conform to the local custom of greater formality and decorum.
Here today, we have elements of both the casual and formal traditions -- bar-be-cue, wines from California, and many other typically American foods and beverages, American music, as well as ceremony.
Please move freely around the compound and inside the building. Do get a true “Taste of America.”
I hope you will all visit the consular section, where we receive large numbers of Cameroonians seeking visas for travel to the US. We are proud of the service we provide, and of the setting in which we provide it.
It is also an American tradition to enhance this celebration with donations from our private sector friends. I take this opportunity to thank our many corporate sponsors. The quality of this event is in large part the result of your generosity. I encourage guests to visit their displays. Thank you again.
The prominent role of American business in this event accurately reflects the strong role of American business in Cameroon. Indeed, familiar-sounding American investors – such as AES Corporation, Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, Hilton, Marriott, Caterpillar, and dozens of others -- have made the United States the leading foreign investor in Cameroon overt the past decade.
As Cameroon moves strongly to fight poverty and to create sustainable wealth and development for its people, we Americans believe that trade and investment are the strongest tools at her disposal, and we will continue to push hard to bring more of both here.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, the signing by our founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence creating in 1776 an independent, democratic United States of America remains an important moment, and an important inspiration, for people around the world, regardless of nationality. From that moment forward, the notion of America has been inextricably associated in people’s minds and expectations with a set of basic values that underpin the dignity of all human beings.
In 1776 we fought to defend those values at home. Since then, we periodically have been called upon to help defend those values elsewhere around the world. As we celebrate here today in peaceful Yaounde, we must also acknowledge our compatriots, and our many allies, in Iraq and Afghanistan and other far corners of this earth where we again have been called upon to advance and defend the freedom, democracy, and human rights of others.
Examples of the values we Americans defend are a people’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, their expectations of the freedoms of assembly and expression, their desire for the respect of basic human rights, and their craving for free and fair elections that create legitimate, democratic governments which are both accountable and transparent.
However, rather than being something uniquely American, these values represent, we believe, universal values to which aspire all the peoples of this earth. Indeed, our Founding Fathers called these rights “inalienable,” and thereby triggered a global quest for democracy that continues strongly to this day.
Here in Cameroon, I am pleased to observe that the people of this country clearly share these values and the aspirations that go with them.
And I am just as happy to observe that the country and its government are moving in the right direction, making progress, in all these areas.
Recent decisions by President Biya and his government -- to create an independent electoral commission, to modernize and “Cameroonize” the criminal procedure code, to seriously tackle to scourge of corruption, and to focus government resources, including hard-won debt relief, on winning the war on poverty – are but the latest examples.
Indeed, half way through the year 2006, Cameroon appears poised to turn a major corner in the direction of greater peace, freedom, and prosperity for its people. The famous “Completion Point” and the agreement with Nigeria last month implementing the 2002 International Court of Justice verdict both represent major accomplishments that promise to enhance the government’s ability to deliver health, education, economic growth, good governance, and other benefits to Cameroonians.
The United States stands with Cameroon and with the Cameroonian people in support of these happy developments.
In closing, let me say that Americans believe that the beacon of democracy, freedom, and respect for human rights that shined so brightly from Paul Revere‘s lantern in Boston in 1775 burns as brightly today as it did then.
Here in Cameroon, as around this planet, our friends and partners can expect us to engage with commitment and passion to see that these universal rights are respected and that, step by step, they gain their fair and full place in the daily lives of people.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, that is who we Americans are, and that – more than anything else -- is why we are here.
Thank you all for your attention, and for being here with us today. I wish you all a happy and enjoyable Fourth of July.