Ray Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, encouraged students in a lecture on Tuesday to remain active in pushing for social change during the Obama administration, emphasizing the impact that the young generation will have on the future.
In an event sponsored by the International Relations Club, Offenheiser reflected on the historic moments that this generation of Georgetown students has experienced, including Sept. 11 and the election of President Obama, and compared them with the major events of his generation, including President John Kennedy’s inauguration the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
“These moments will shape who you are and how you see the world,” Offenheiser said.
He advised the students to reflect on the recent inauguration and dubbed the Obama victory “an international moment of change for the world.” He encouraged students to embrace the opportunity to make it meaningful by being active advocates of social change.
“Your generation is critical to this transition. . You made it happen,” Offenheiser said. “Social change doesn’t happen by accident. It requires persistence and lots and lots of organization.”
Offenheiser said he initially entered his field of work because his first day in a Latin American Economic History course in graduate school was the day of the 1973 Chilean military coup. Since then, he has experienced several more uprisings and has witnessed dramatic change in the world. Offenheiser said that he believes in Oxfam’s cause because he considers unbelievable things to be possible.
Speaking of the challenges facing Oxfam as an international relief and development organization, Offenheiser said problems including lack of food and fuel, financial crises and climate change have affected developing countries. He said that students have an ethical obligation to fight against climate change and to foster new legislation to protect the environment.
“Climate change is a very urgent issue,” he said. “It is one of those issues that if we are not active in it we could be taken over by it.”
He also criticized the current U.S. foreign assistance system for its lack of strategic planning. According to Offenheiser, U.S. trade and aid policies are often at odds with each other.
“Something that struck me [about the lecture] was how much the U.S. needs to coordinate its international aid efforts,” Deven Comen (NHS ’12) said. “For example, [Offenheiser] said that USAID went from having 60,000 employees in the time of Kennedy to 2,000 [now].”
Offenheiser said Americans are very fortunate to have leaders with passion and a true commitment to the issues, but he also emphasized that continued pressure from civil society is necessary in order to achieve results. He concluded by applying this mandate to Georgetown students, saying that they must not be apathetic about the challenges that their generation will face in the future.
“I think it’s important to appreciate that this is a pretty important moment in the history of the world,” Offenheiser said. “Active citizenship is really, really important for driving social change. Get involved, make a difference and enable the leaders of this country to make the change.”
Some students took Offenheiser’s words to heart, saying that they feel an obligation to support and campaign for worldwide advancement.
“I agreed with many of [Offenheiser’s] remarks on globalization and development,” Ceci Nicol (NHS ’12) said. “In particular, his emphasis on the duty of our generation to make real the social and environmental change we hope to see in this new era.”
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