{"id":69583,"date":"2016-04-14T05:23:56","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T05:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c8ca8c6e1a42c4f43d4e4afaa99e1039"},"modified":"2016-04-14T05:23:56","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T05:23:56","slug":"speech-british-high-commissioners-speech-at-a-high-achievers-awards-ceremony-of-the-roots-millennium-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=69583","title":{"rendered":"Speech: British High Commissioner&#8217;s speech at a high achievers\u2019 awards ceremony of the Roots Millennium Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Ladies and gentlemen, can I start by thanking the Roots Millennium Schools, and in particular Faisal Mushtaq, for inviting me here as your guest.  It is a great honour.  When you are invited as a foreigner to a school, you really are being invited to the heart of a country.  Even more so on such an important day for everyone here.<\/p>\n<p>I should probably confess to two things before I speak:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>First, I always find speaking to students more daunting than pretty much any other audience; I am always kept on my toes; there is a great sense of challenge; the questions are more open.  Perhaps I should be grateful today that there is no Q and A;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Second is that I have always had a particular interest in schools and education.  And that is not just because the work the British Government does on education in Pakistan: by far the biggest thing we do here is support Pakistan\u2019s education system \u2013 and that is right.  But it is also because of my background.  I am, on my mother\u2019s side at least, from a long line of educationalists.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You don\u2019t, however, have to be an educationalist to know that after 2 hour of ceremony, no student wants to hear an Ambassador drone on for more than a couple of minutes.<br \/>\nSo I will restrict myself to two things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>First is to congratulate you.  You have all achieved fantastic things.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>I remember well my own graduation ceremony and the sense of relief of getting over the months of hard work and angst.  I confess that it took me a good few years to stop having dreams about exams after my university finals.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The second \u2013 and more important point \u2013 is the make the most of it.  I can now speak as a diplomat.  This is a country of fantastic potential.  have only been in Pakistan for 6 weeks, but this is coming back after an 8 year gap.  I see how it has developed.  I feel  hugely more optimistic.  Admittedly I left Pakistan in 2008 \u2013 a difficult year \u2013 and a time when the outside world looked at Pakistan mostly in the context of risk.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Now, risks of course remain, but I and the British Government see also a country of hope and potential.  We have the Governor of Punjab here: how many people know that if Punjab were a country, it would be the 11th largest in the world?  Karachi is the world\u2019s 6th biggest city: we don\u2019t yet view itn the same way as we do Shanghai or Sao Paolo.  This is a country buzzing with potential.  Pakistan\u2019s main task is to realise it \u2013 and you will find the British Government right behind you.   <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But in the end, the key to making all this happen \u2013 and realising Pakistan\u2019s potential &#8211; is you.  You are Pakistan\u2019s future.  You should grab it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The British High Commissioner to Pakistan Thomas Drew spoke at a high achievers\u2019 awards ceremony of the Roots Millennium Schools in Islamabad. Following is the full text of his speech:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}