Gorbachev emphasizes globalization

GREENCASTLE, Ind. -- To end what he called "uncontrolled globalization," former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said young people must be proactive and use their freedoms of speech to give globalization a "human face."\nGorbachev discussed world problems such as globalization at DePauw University on Thursday. During the speech, Gorbachev, who is widely credited with helping to end communist rule in eastern Europe, said uncontrolled globalization did not allow political leaders to take advantage of the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. \n"We were hoping globalization would help end poverty and backwardness," Gorbachev said through a Russian interpreter during the speech. "But the gap between the rich and the poor has grown."\nDuring his lecture, he stressed the need for interaction between countries by limiting unilateralism while keeping in mind the most impoverished citizens of the world. \n"Young people are not indifferent to the kind of world in which they will be living in the coming decades," Gorbachev said during a press conference following the speech. "And, therefore, I believe young people should be proactive, and they should, as I said, speak up and make their voices heard."\nHe urged Americans to conserve oil, which he quoted as running out in 41 to 42 years, and help stop world hunger.\n"We respond to tsunamis and industrial disasters," he said during the speech. "Just imagine, 25,000 people die each day due to hunger."\nGorbachev also reflected on "perestroika," Gorbachev's political reforms that celebrate a 20-year anniversary this year. While he said he still second-guesses many of the decisions he made during his tenure as Soviet president from 1985 to 1991, Gorbachev later said, "of course I have no regrets.\n"(The United States and the Soviet Union) were like passengers on the train of confrontation and conflict," he said. "Perestroika was a response to those challenges."\nGorbachev gave his 45-minute speech to a crowd of about 3,000 students and alumni of DePauw and other members of the public at the Lilly Center, the University's athletic facility. Ken Owen, director of media relations for DePauw, said about 1,000 people watched Gorbachev's speech via television monitor in the Kresge Auditorium, where the speech was originally scheduled but later moved because of predicted crowd size. \nGorbachev's visit to DePauw comes on the eighth day of his visit to the United States. Earlier in his visit, he met with former President Bill Clinton and former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright. It is his second visit to the United States this year.\n"He is a history-shaping leader, who, perhaps more than any other leader, has shaped our world," said DePauw President Robert Bottoms.