Extension Homemakers' World Trade Tour

[Music] la [Music] the week of November 10 through 16 1974 was an exciting week in international relations it was a week of diplomacy and dayon it was also a week of demonstrations and destruction and that particular week 2 Tar Hill women all leaders in the state's extension Homemakers clubs were on a study tour to Washington DC and New York City for a close-up look at International relationships international trade and history in the making this is Jan Christensen home economics editor at North Carolina State University inviting you on the most exciting United Nations study tour in 18 years first let's make a stop on Embassy Row in Washington why are embassies important what purpose do they serve Dr Ado baml agricultural Council of Germany explains we have in this Embassy here in Washington as any other Embassy mainly two functions number one as part of our government we are a watch stock for this government observing America in its politics and its uh economic developments and we are reporting back to our government what we see and hear here because to know about uh America is very important for the decision making in my country and for my government so the number one task is observing and Reporting now the number two task is to represent our country here in a foreign country we provide material for everybody who wants to know some qu has some questions and want to know something about Germany we have a lot of printed material on economic questions on political questions and we try to give as much information as we can later in the day the tarhill women visited four other embassies South Africa the Philippines Australia and Japan at each Embassy they had an hour briefing on that country's role in world trade and its trade relationship with the United States a [Music] the women who visited the embassy of Australia heard Michael Rosell second Secretary of the embassy make these comments about changing over to the metric system we have found one main thing in particular when you come to learn it and all of you going to be involved in this exercise that uh there comes a stage where you must completely drop the old system you must forget pounds and all these things and just think purely of the news system think metric as as the slogan they used uh and that's a very important point because other countries didn't do it that way the newspapers for example kept on running degrees Fahrenheit and Celsius degrees side by side and our eyes just picked up the old forms and that's no way to learn it but it works and of course it Beyond doubt is a particularly as North America is or the United States is the only major County of any significance not yet mic it it'll mean an awful lot to not only the kids and the adults who have to learn it but in terms of foreign trade and all the sort of things where the immense simplification of the system will being worth all the temperary pine the following day we were to visit the Pan-American Union headquarters of the organization of American states but two days before our visit a bomb exploded doing $75,000 worth of damage although the FBI wasn't allowing anyone into the building we did have a chance to meet with two representatives of the organization of American states Rafael sarda from Uruguay chief of the visitors and speakers Bureau and Mrs Ela diabo an economist from Argentina Mrs dyo brought us some down home information comparing the economies of some Latin and South American countries to North Carolina North Carolina is primarily a state where the industrial production constitute 80% of the gross product and the agricultural production only 20% is industrial production covers mainly textiles and apparel metals and Machinery chemicals and rubber is agricultural production covers cash crops and livestock Latin American industrial production represents only 20% of the gross domestic product what do this figures show the North Carolina is a healthy state with a large and well Diversified base of industrial and agricultural production some of his agriculture is export oriented like tobacco corn and soybeans which comprises the main cash crops while the livestock production is rather domestically oriented as it is in general the agricultural production and the sport pattern of the United States as a whole where 85% of the agricultural products are consumed at home the Homemakers were also guests of the United States Department of Agriculture where they were met by assistant secretary of agriculture Dr Clayton Yer administrator of the extension service Edward Kirby and other dignitaries [Applause] later that afternoon the bus loads of Homemakers left for New York City and two other important stops the United Nations and the World Trade Center [Music] we chose a historic day to visit the United Nations Wednesday November 13th the day that yasa Arafat leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization addressed the general assembly although there were bomb and assassination threats and security was tighter than it had ever been at United Nations Headquarters we were allowed into the building the only group let in that day while Arafat spoke to the general assembly we were in another part of the building listening to Mrs helie CA of Finland Secretary General of international women's year here are some of her thoughts on women and politics we have not created the world as it is today I think we who have produced life would not be willing to see our children to be killed in the wars in the future and it's rather amazing for us who are newcomers in the political field that we still seem to consider ourselves as second class citizens who hardly have right to go and say what we want and what I think the international women's here especially should bring about is a change of our own attitudes to realize that we can do a lot if we are more active and we consider ourselves equally equally authorized and equally responsible as men for the whole future of the world at the same time another important International Event the world food conference was going on in Rome and in Washington and New York people from the United Nations and elsewhere were following the Press reports closely Morris green of Australia a member of the un's food and agricultural organization saw some political overtones in the world food conference this is a political conference on food this is not a conference on consumption or production we're not going to talk about the technical things FAO has been talking about these technical things for a long time we believe that we know more than any other organization about that side and we are prepared and we stand ready at this conference with all the inputs later in the day security was a little less strict and we were allowed to tour the UN building including the meeting rooms for the trustee ship Council Security Council economic and social Council and the general assembly la during our 7-hour visit we didn't cross paths with aat but each of us is a bit more interested in the Middle East in its politics after making our way through police cordons and Security [Music] checks on Thursday the final stop in New York City was the 110 story World Trade Center where we heard about the center's functions and Authority from Sydney Shaker deputy director of the World Trade Institute although World Trade does seem complicated to most of us shakor pointed out that it does have its Lighter Side and we got a list of 17 items that these people were interested in buying and we looked at the list and we said there's something wrong this is what they're interested in selling and they said no they said they're interested in buying so we were somewhat confused and we phoned around and we got some people who are interested in selling the list of products involved but we were some you know we were somewhat disturbed by the anomaly here's people coming from Taiwan looking for American manufacturers of toasters of small hand appliances small radios exactly what they make mostly for us well it turned out that the people who arrived were the buyers from the 10 largest department stores in Taiwan who are looking for products whose label said made in USA to be sold as a Prestige item in Taiwan later we took a tour up to the 110th floor and as one woman put it whether you're on the outside looking up or the inside looking down the World Trade Center is quite a building [Applause] [Music] there's a postcript to all this it turns out that the Arafat visit to the United Nations and the bombing of the Pan-American Union were just part of the excitement generated in mid November just prior to our visit to their Embassy the South African delegation was on seated at the United Nations and just one week after our stop at the embassy for the Philippines their Chief Council was held hostage at gunpoint in the very building we visited the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service believes that an understanding of World Trade and international relations is an important part of today's homemaker's education the study tour to Washington in New York was one way to create that awareness and the fact that the tour took place while history was in the making was an added bonus one that made the United Nations study tour one that we'll talk about and remember for a long time PA la