Fashion

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), a renowned public policy research institution, is stepping up cooperation with China to train more public administration elites for the world's most populous country.

HKS recently renewed an agreement with Tsinghua University to train Chinese government officials in management skills at Harvard, the latest step in the university's efforts to establish a foothold in China. The original agreement was signed in 2002 to let Chinese officials spend six weeks in the US and four at the Kennedy School.

In addition, the school is cultivating other programs to bring senior Chinese officials to the US for a semester. "We are going to extend a number of our executive education programs," HKS Dean David Ellwood said.

HKS is currently working on a program in crisis management with China, according to Ellwood. It has also had programs for Beijing officials for the last several years, part of the preparation for the Olympics and other things.

"It's quite likely that we continue to do these kinds of things," he said, noting that HKS is now discussing with Shanghai local government on cooperation with the Chinese financial hub.

Ellwood was visiting Beijing last week with a Harvard delegation lead by university president Drew Faust. The delegation met with Vice-President Xi Jinping and other senior leaders in Beijing, and later traveled to Shanghai.

HKS alone has trained more than 300 senior Chinese officials, including Li Yuanchao, minister of the Party's organization department, who is so far the highest-ranked official trained in HKS.

"He was trained in one of our short-term programs and spoke quite highly of it and has been very supportive for the expanding of our programs," said Ellwood.

FRome：China Daily 04/04/2008 page11

Up to 70 percent of women will experience physical or sexual violence by a man that they know during their lifetime, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday as he launched new efforts to spotlight the role of men and how they can end such violence.

"My commitment to this issue stems not just from my position as UN secretary-general, but also as a son, husband, father and grandfather," he told reporters at the press conference of the launch at the UN headquarters in New York.

In support of the UN chief's 2008 UNiTE to End Violence against Women, the new initiative of the Network of Men Leaders coincides with the 10th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which falls on Nov. 25.

"These men will add their voices to the growing global chorus for action," he said, noting that 70 percent of women experience in their lifetime some form of physical or sexual violence from men, the majority from husbands, intimate partners or someone they know.

"As I launch this Network, I call on men and boys everywhere to join us," he said. "Break the silence. When you witness violence against women and girls, do not sit back. Act. Advocate. Unite to change the practices and attitudes that incite, perpetrate and condone this violence. Violence against women and girls will not be eradicated until all of us - men and boys - refuse to tolerate it."

"Many nations have taken action but we need to do more-much more," he urged. "Men have a crucial role to play in ending such violence - as fathers, friends, decision makers, and community and opinion leaders," Ban said.

The network members will bring together various leaders in the policy-making sphere, as well as religious and community figures, to engage and show that although men can be arbitrators of violence, they can be advocators to end violence as well.

By fostering this joint effort, Ban said that members of the network will work in raising public awareness, in addition to advocating laws to protect women, as well as becoming role models for men and boys around the world.

"Just as women's rights are human rights - women's issues are people's issues," Ban said.

Ban also named new grants for projects, which are distributed by the UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against, and managed by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

This, he said, will go towards supporting governments, NGOS, and UN Country Teams in addressing the various levels of violence against women which include - sexual abuse, sexual violence in conflict, intersection of violence against women and HIV/AIDS, female genital mutilation and trafficking.

Other speakers that joined the UN chief in the call for the end of violence against women included: Norway's Minister of Justice Knut Storberget, Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, and Program Coordinator for UN Trust Fund Ghida Anani.

My son Brendan cried his first day of school. Even Mrs. Phillips, a kind, soft-spoken master of the six-year-old mind, could not coax him to a seat. His eyes streamed, his nose ran and he clung to me like a snail on a strawberry. I plucked him off and escaped.

It wasn't that Brendan didn't like school. He just didn't like being apart from me. We'd had some good times, he and I, in those preschool years. We played at the pool. We skated on quiet morning ice. We sampled half the treat tray at weekly neighborhood coffee parties. Now in Grade 1, Brendan was faced with five hours of wondering what I was doing with my day.

Brendan always came home for lunch, the only one of his class not to eat at his desk. But once home, fed and hugged, a far-away look of longing would crease his gentle brow-he wanted to go back to school to play! So I walked him back, waited with him until he spotted someone he knew, then left. He told me once that he watched me until he couldn't see me anymore, so I always walked fast and never looked back.

One day when I took Brendan back after lunch, he spied a friend, kissed me goodbye, and scampered right off. I went, feeling pleased for him, celebrating his new independence, his entry into the first-grade social loop. Then-I didn't know why-I glanced back. And there he was. The playground buzzed all around him, kids everywhere, and he stood, his chin tucked close, his body held small, his face intent but not sad, blowing me kisses. So brave, so unashamed, so completely loving, Brendan was watching me go.

No book on mothering could have prepared me for that quick, raw glimpse into my child's soul. My mind leaped 15 years ahead to him packing boxes and his dog grown old and him saying, "Dry up, Mom. It's not like I'm leaving the country." In my mind I tore up the card every mother signs saying she'll let her child go when he's ready. I looked at my Brendan, his shirt tucked in, every button done up, his toes just turned in a bit, and I thought, "OK, you're six for me forever." With a smile I had to really dig for, I blew him a kiss, turned and walked away.