Dr, Pang, graduates, mothers, fathers, loved ones, teachers, honoured guests, and dignitaries:

    I am deeply honoured to be here today to celebrate your accomplishment in successfully completing this, the first big step, in your lifelong participation in learning. 

    I will be brief.   My friends in political life tell me that it is best to stand up to be seen, to speak up to be heard, and then to quickly sit down to be appreciated. 

    And my students tell me that the definition of a professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep.  I hope to be a miserable failure as a professor today, so that you will remain awake!

    Congratulations to all of you graduating!  You have one of the most coveted and valuable credentials of any student in the world.  You have a formal diploma from China, and you also have one from Canada.  This provides you with an exceptional opportunity.  You have a passport to study, or to work, almost anywhere in the world. 

    And this ability to study and to work internationally is of increasing importance.  I was born in Holland, one of the smallest countries in the world.  But when I was young I thought that Holland was enormous.  The farmers in my home community looked after their cows and grew their crops, and no one thought very much about anything beyond the immediate area in which we lived.  The size and complexity of the whole world was beyond my imagination to comprehend.

    The world became smaller to me when my family moved from Holland to Canada – which is one of the largest countries in the world.  My parents, and my four brothers and I, flew across the Atlantic Ocean in a very old, propeller-driven airplane.  Two of the four engines failed during the flight, one after the other, with smoke pouring out of them.  It was the first time I saw my father truly afraid of anything.  Because he was frightened, we were all frightened.

    We survived the flight and over the years in Canada I have had marvellous opportunities to live in the very far north with Innuit peoples, on the Atlantic Coast with fishermen and farmers, on the Pacific Coast with foresters and oil workers, and in the center of the country among large factories and high technology companies. 

    And I have 4 times driven by car across Canada with my wife and children, each time with a sense of delight and wonderment at the beauty and richness of the land.  So, one of the largest countries in the world now seems quite small to me – I know all its parts and regions very well.

    And as a professor and university administrator … I not only put people to sleep … I also have the good fortune to travel to many parts of the world.  I read news of events that happen, as they happen, from every part of the world.  Many of the products I buy are made right here in China. 

    Some of the very large international companies now have economic power that is greater than that of the entire domestic product of many of the smaller countries of the world.  Blue jeans, baseball caps and the products of Coca Cola, MacDonald’s, and KFC, are found on every continent.

So, the world now seems small to me.  I am connected to each part of it in some way or another, and everywhere I go I see familiar products and services. 

    This is the small world into which you are entering. 

    It is a world of increasing global connections, of commerce and trade, of shared ideas and technologies.  People everywhere are learning more about one another, and they are communicating more openly with each other than ever before.  People are increasingly travelling from one part of the world to another, experiencing different religions, cultures, languages, foods, attitudes and sensitivities. 

    So, even as the world shrinks, many people see ever more human complexity.  

    And for many of us the world not only is smaller and more complex, it also seems very much more fragile every year.  How much more growth, pollution, resource use, land modification, ocean extraction, water drilling and forest cutting can the global ecosystem withstand?  Perhaps some of you will help to solve this very big problem in your future careers.

    I will leave you with four small bits of advice:

    First, celebrate failure.  Embrace the fact that there is no better way to learn than to experience a set-back.  Look at failure as the very best teacher you will ever have.  If you do you will have a much more positive life than if you look at failures as defeats.  And you will also be much wiser and successful if you carefully analyse your failures than if you ignore them out of shame or guilt.

    Second, be fearless.  Take chances, stick out your necks, be daring, and don’t fear what you don’t understand – learn about it.  By taking rational risks you will sometimes fail – this is normal and this is good, as I just explained.  By taking chances you will learn far more and you will make far more progress than by being cautious and timid.  Life will be exciting for you!

Third, when you are successful always look back to the times when you weren’t so successful.  Remember to be humble, and to help those who are experiencing the same frustrations and set-backs that you did when you took risks that did not work out well.  Look how far you have come, and help others to go far.  They may help you in future!

    Finally, engage as enthusiastically and as widely as you possibly can with this small, this complicated, and this very fragile world that we all share.  If you have opportunities to learn abroad, to work abroad, to live abroad, then don’t hesitate to take them.  You will be enriched by doing so, and the experiences you gain by embracing global opportunities will enable you to enrich those around you. 

    To succeed in the modern world we must increase mutual understanding, we must learn tolerance and respect, and we must embrace global issues as our own.  

    Wars, famine, intolerance, and the other products of human nature will not go away quickly… but perhaps those of you who aren’t solving the problem of sustainability will help to solve these challenges of human interaction.

    You are very fortunate – you have a perfect springboard from which to plunge into the world.

    I wish you happy and fulfilled lives of failure, of risks, of helping others, and especially, of embracing everything that this beautiful small world has to offer. Congratulations to you all!